What's Wrong With HP Fans?

[penfold_x]

Read furiosity's post regarding the number of Harry Potter fans who not only don't read gen fic, but claim to hate it. Lots of comments remarking on the scarcity of HP gen fic, something I've noticed in my own (mostly fruitless) search for readable, enjoyable HP gen fic. Which leads me to ask:

What the hell is wrong with you people?
No, really, what's wrong with HP fans? I've been in quite a few fandoms, and I've never had this much difficulty finding gen fic. While I am, as one person described, a "militant genner," I have quite a few slasher and shipper friends in my various fandoms, and I've spent time exploring sites and communities outside of my reading interests, so I think I have a pretty good picture of what's out there. In every case, be it Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Real Ghostbusters, The Sentinel, Magnificent 7, Man from Uncle -- virtually any current fandom -- there is a large, active gen fiction community. I cracked open the program from last year's Media*West Con to check my perception against the list of last year's premiering zines: of about 100 new zines, approximately half were gen. Even Lord of the Rings, home of crazed RPS ficcers, had at least two gen zines last year.

One factor might be the lack of "old time" fans in HP fandom (this would neatly explain the lack of print zines as well). I can't say that I've examined this in any scientific way, but I get the impression from LJ the and few HP lists I've subscribed to that HP has a higher percentage of youger fans and people for whom this is their first fandom (compared to fandoms like Stargate or The Sentinel). I don't recognize a lot of the pen names I've encountered. Of course, this is a hard thing to gauge in a fandom that seems to be much more diffuse than other fandoms (a result of so much of the fandom being located in LJ?).

Others might argue that HP has an inordinatly large number of canon characters, several of whom are in canon relationships, or for whom JKR is dropping anvils, which leads to the relationship-heavy nature of HP fic. However, none of these canon relationships take up a great portion of canon; JKR doesn't spend pages delving into the Malfoys' marital angst or the Weasleys' after-hours action. Even the Ron/Hermione relationship takes up relatively little space, considering they're the two principle supporting characters. One can argue that some canon or near canon shipping is to be expected, but canon pairings don't account for the vast majority of ship and slash. What of the reams of fic written about "Draco turn[ing] into a godlike were-leopard by way of buttsex with Mrs. Norris" and other similarly remote, bizarre ship and slash fic? HP fans seem to delight in pairing characters that have never appeared in the same chapter, let alone exchanged three words. Most of the pairings in other fandoms seem to arise out of fans' perception of UST. Almost all of the HP pairings have no canon UST. Not a shadow. Not a shred. Not a scintilla. And few fans even bother to argue that they perceive any. So I don't think that can be it.

All I want is sharks with laser beams a little decent gen. Character studies, missing scenes, alternate endings, meta commentaries, a little hurt/comfort. Throw me a frickin' bone, people.

Comments

[luthien.livejournal.com]

Well, part of what's up with HP fandom is that there isn't really any such thing as HP fandom as a whole. It's so big that you can easily exist for years in one corner of it without ever even hearing of the BNFs in another corner of it. Yes, certain characters and pairings have a high percentage of younger fans - others not so much. The 'Cult of Snape' corner of the fandom, for example, tends to include a lot more older fans than the Harry/Ginny OTPers.

In my experience, the people who write the good HP gen mostly tend to write slash or het, or both, as well, rather than being specifically or even primarily gen fans. I've recced about half a dozen excellent gen stories on my recs page (http://luthien.ebonyx.org/docs/recs/recs.html), but kaiz has a much more extensive recs page (http://www.squidge.org/~kali/hprecs.html) than mine that includes an entire gen section.

As for current gen, A Year Like None Other (http://aalno.tauri.org/viewstory.php?sid=33) is the story I keep hearing about, though I haven't read any of it yet.

There are more out there, too. Really. It's just a case of digging in the right places.

Sorry for spamming...

[dim54.livejournal.com]

The 'Cult of Snape' corner of the fandom, for example, tends to include a lot more older fans than the Harry/Ginny OTPers.

That's odd, in my experience most H/G'ers are in their 30's, a good amount of them are in their 40's or nearly forty, and I know one who's in their 60's. I think these people are the quiet majority who tend to focus on analysis rather than fanfic. I guess it all depends on where you frequent online. I do wonder where the "The majority of H/G shippers are immature" thing came from.

Re: Sorry for spamming...

[luthien.livejournal.com]

I think this just goes to prove my point that most people in HP fandom don't know a lot about the fandom outside the corner of it they generally hang out in. *g* The only Harry/Ginny stories I've seen have featured outrageous Mary-Sues and were clearly written by people who were very young - but of course it's not exactly a pairing that I seek out, so I don't know whether or not what I've seen is a representative sample.

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs!

I am reading AYLNO, and I'd definitely recommend it to you.