Musings on the whole Harry/Snape thing...
Aug. 29th, 2003 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanuensis1I've been examining why I don't write more Harry/Snape, as a result of discussion with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fabularasa as to some of the difficulties that pairing has to surmount to be credible. I talk a lot about how a consensual, mutual Harry/Lucius should never be an easy pairing, but I'm starting to realize I have the same standards for Harry/Snape. The sheer volume of consensual Harry/Snape shouldn't be some kind of compensation. There's the teacher/student problem, the fact that canonically they hate each other, the age difference, the fact that neither is going to find the other devastatingly attractive. And Adult!Harry can be a problem for me, because my fanfiction preference is to use the characters as you find them, not needing a huge amount of background to explain who they are or what has shaped them. Once you start needing to do that, I think you've exited the need to make it fanfiction.
So I've realized that the version of that pairing that I like best is Contrivance Harry/Snape.
Some might say that all fanfiction involves contrivance by its very nature, or that every single F-Q-F plotchallenge is a contrivance. But contrivance is more than situation; it's scheme, it's artifice. A great number of plotchallenges (or just plots) make the assumption that there is at least attraction on one side and the conflict is in making the other character become attracted, or that both have an interest and it just needs to be made plain. That, I would say, is not contrivance so much as it is design, just to explain how I'm using the word.
Contrivance does not require an attraction; it merely asks that you force the characters together. It bypasses all other arguments as to why the characters couldn't fall for each other. And they can be as hackneyed as the dawn; the goal is to see how well you can write them so the initial response of "Oh, not that old thing," becomes "Hey, this one's good!"
My favorites include contrived weddings (one of my very first Potterverse fics was written because I couldn't wait any longer to write a "We have to get MARRIED?" story!), and contrived MPREGs. (There, there's another reason I write MPREGs.) And I especially like whatfabularasa calls, and for which I will have to make a freaking icon, it made me laugh so hard, the "Oh no, I have to rape you now!" stories. I eat those up like Cheez-Its. rushlight75's Through a Shattered Mirror got me SO hard that way. (And BTW, if nimori doesn't finish the one she started, I'm sending house-elves to her house armed with feather dusters and she's getting tickled until she finishes the thing. I mean it, Nim!)
This is also why humorous or parody Snarry works for me, because the focus is more on the humor than the logic of the relationship (see those written by Seeker orgmth; you're too busy laughing your tuchis off to ask yourself, "But do they respect each other as people?") and why I have such deep respect for cybele_san who really, really works at making romantic Snarry work. And note that she's not afraid to work with contrivance either, "If You Are Prepared" starts with one of the oldest: two characters forced to be in close proximity who do not particularly like each other. But it's so deftly done you'd think it had nothing whatsoever in common with all those "we're snowbound and must share body heat to survive" stories. (Okay, you got me--maybe some contrivances ARE too overdone for me! ^_^)
fabularasa as to some of the difficulties that pairing has to surmount to be credible. I talk a lot about how a consensual, mutual Harry/Lucius should never be an easy pairing, but I'm starting to realize I have the same standards for Harry/Snape. The sheer volume of consensual Harry/Snape shouldn't be some kind of compensation. There's the teacher/student problem, the fact that canonically they hate each other, the age difference, the fact that neither is going to find the other devastatingly attractive. And Adult!Harry can be a problem for me, because my fanfiction preference is to use the characters as you find them, not needing a huge amount of background to explain who they are or what has shaped them. Once you start needing to do that, I think you've exited the need to make it fanfiction.So I've realized that the version of that pairing that I like best is Contrivance Harry/Snape.
Some might say that all fanfiction involves contrivance by its very nature, or that every single F-Q-F plotchallenge is a contrivance. But contrivance is more than situation; it's scheme, it's artifice. A great number of plotchallenges (or just plots) make the assumption that there is at least attraction on one side and the conflict is in making the other character become attracted, or that both have an interest and it just needs to be made plain. That, I would say, is not contrivance so much as it is design, just to explain how I'm using the word.
Contrivance does not require an attraction; it merely asks that you force the characters together. It bypasses all other arguments as to why the characters couldn't fall for each other. And they can be as hackneyed as the dawn; the goal is to see how well you can write them so the initial response of "Oh, not that old thing," becomes "Hey, this one's good!"
My favorites include contrived weddings (one of my very first Potterverse fics was written because I couldn't wait any longer to write a "We have to get MARRIED?" story!), and contrived MPREGs. (There, there's another reason I write MPREGs.) And I especially like what
fabularasa calls, and for which I will have to make a freaking icon, it made me laugh so hard, the "Oh no, I have to rape you now!" stories. I eat those up like Cheez-Its. rushlight75's Through a Shattered Mirror got me SO hard that way. (And BTW, if nimori doesn't finish the one she started, I'm sending house-elves to her house armed with feather dusters and she's getting tickled until she finishes the thing. I mean it, Nim!)This is also why humorous or parody Snarry works for me, because the focus is more on the humor than the logic of the relationship (see those written by Seeker or
gmth; you're too busy laughing your tuchis off to ask yourself, "But do they respect each other as people?") and why I have such deep respect for cybele_san who really, really works at making romantic Snarry work. And note that she's not afraid to work with contrivance either, "If You Are Prepared" starts with one of the oldest: two characters forced to be in close proximity who do not particularly like each other. But it's so deftly done you'd think it had nothing whatsoever in common with all those "we're snowbound and must share body heat to survive" stories. (Okay, you got me--maybe some contrivances ARE too overdone for me! ^_^)![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 09:32 am (UTC)I completely agree.
I think that there are numerous reasons why HP/SS has gained a bit of popularity.
For one thing, lots of people kink on student/teacher and age-difference stories. You simply can't get that with HP/DM. I suspect that these kinks motivate quite a few of the the Snape/Hermione stories out there, too. You can get it in Lupin/Harry or McGonnagal/Hermione or Dumbledore/Snape stories but all of those are pretty darned rare and/or squicky to some people.
Then, there is the undeniable chemistry between Harry and Snape. However you want to interpret those feelings (hatred, unrequited twisted lust, whatever) it's difficult to imagine the two characters *ever* being indifferent to one another. (Same thing holds true between Sirirus and Snape.) In constrast, Canon!Harry spends very little time thinking about or interacting with Draco--if Draco weren't constantly making some effort to antagonize Harry and his friends, I suspect that Harry wouldn't given him a second though.
To bring things back around to amanuensis' point, while I don't find it impossible to imagine Canon!Harry and Canon!Snape resolving their differences and getting together consensually, I do agree that writing it in a plausible way is *hard.* And will likely involve many thousands of words worth of careful character development and evolution, and let's face it, how many of us have the time/energy/inclination to slam out 250,000 words worth of fanfiction that will convince the "non-believers" that such a relationship is actually possible? ;-) Snape/Sirius fiction suffers from the same plausibility barrier.
Hence, the prevalence of contrivance fic in HP/SS (in the HP/DM and SS/SB parts of the world too!) and the prevalence of "Oh, for godsake just follow along with me here and believe that it's true" sorts of HP/SS stories out there, where the character transformation is implied rather than made explicit.
Of course, YMMV!
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 10:48 am (UTC)That sums up something I hadn't really put together; I like pairs of characters who take up a great deal of room in one another's heads. All that effort concentrated on one another is slashy, IMO. SS/SB and SS/HP both fit that bill. *digs out the contrivance toybox from under the bed*
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 05:15 pm (UTC)A good writer can convince me of almost anything, and I don't believe s/he needs that many words to do it in. For example, I never envisaged Snape/Hagrid until "Care of Magical Creatures", and Bernice convinced me deft, beautiful language, and far fewer than 250k words.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 07:31 pm (UTC)Yes, but...Snape and Hagrid have (virtually?) zero interaction in canon and a *whole* lot less emotional and textual baggage than Harry/Snape or Snape/Black, for instance.
And, I'm not truly saying that it *can't* be done in only a few thousand words--yes, color me exaggerating for effect here! ::g:: I"m just saying that it's really really *difficult* to do in a short amount of space. No doubt there a few authors who have pulled off a Harry/Snape that could convince "non-believers" in 500 words or less, but I'm betting that the majority of fanfic writers out there probably would have a very hard time pulling it off and would need a whole lot more space to do it in.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-29 08:22 pm (UTC)Yes, yes and more yes. I can't help but think of the way Rowling describes what happens after the Order's first (to the reader, anyway) meeting in OotP ...it's as if the time/space continuum stops for a second in Harry's world as he hones in on Snape from above. The little guy certainly shows an interest!
warning: silly and pretentious canon evidence stuff ahead
Date: 2003-08-30 12:16 am (UTC)Actually, I don't think this is necessarily true. Draco actually features quite heavily on Harry's mind, whether he admits it to himself or not. In Book Five, he wonders if thinking he should be prefect "made him as arrogant as Draco Malfoy?" I think Draco what Harry fears becoming. And he is also the person Harry *hates* to look bad in front of. I don't think he's really indifferent to Draco's opinion of him.
(just some lines from the book)
'Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Draco Malfoy.' --Ch 9, PS/SS
"What does he need?" said Professor McGonagall crisply. "Bed rest?
Should he perhaps spend tonight in the hospital wing?"
"I'm fine!" said Harry, jumping up. The thought of what Draco Malfoy
would say if he had to go to the hospital wing was torture. --Ch 4, PoA
The last person in the world he wanted to see when he was lost, covered in soot and had broken glasses: Draco Malfoy -- Ch 3, CoS
Okay, I won't bombard you with quotes but instances such as this-- and the fact that Harry was so obsessed with Malfoy's "I'd want revenge" re: Sirius, or the fact that in GoF there's a place where he walks into the halls and notices two people at the tables, namely Cho and Draco -- make me think that Harry's not indifferent. He's quite obsessed with not looking bad in front of Malfoy. Which really does say a little something.
Sorry, I'm not trying to be an H/D fangirl and be all defensive! I was just thinking recently that many people have started thinking that Harry/Draco shippers were purely about the pretty aesthetics and not substantial canonical dynamics, which isn't the case at all-- well, not for all of us. And so I just wanted to say this, it's not even to you in particular, I'm just throwing it out there for discussion. :)
Then, there is the undeniable chemistry between Harry and Snape. However you want to interpret those feelings (hatred, unrequited twisted lust, whatever) it's difficult to imagine the two characters *ever* being indifferent to one another.
You know, for someone who doesn't ship Harry/Snape at all really, I read a helluva lot of it. The dynamics do do something for me. But lately I've become quite bored of it, and I think it's because of book five. I truly realised how much Snape really doesn't hate Harry. His hatred is really so focussed on James, Snape is *blind* to what Harry is. It's always clouded by his incensed hatred of James: I think every time he looks at Harry, he can never separate him from James. I feel like he hates Harry almost by default, and that doesn't sit too well in the form of dynamics with me, I think. I do think Harry/Snape could still be interesting in getting Snape to be rid of his shrouded vision, though.
Also, I think another reason Harry/Snape has become popular? Is that people have become desensitised to the idea of student/teacher relationships. There was once a day in this fandom when Harry/Draco was deemed "Ew! What! Harry hates Malfoy!", whereas now it's rather painfully mainstream. Harry/Snape was once hugely taboo in the mainstream fandom, but it's definitely, I think, much more prevalent now.
Er, I think I went off-topic a million times there! Haha. And yay for contrivance fics. I'll read contrivance fics even if they're not the best written, because there is some sort of glee that comes from reading about the characters put in such situations.
Re: warning: silly and pretentious canon evidence stuff ahead
Date: 2003-08-31 02:14 pm (UTC)Yes, there's a lot of canonical meat there. I hope that's where we start to see some of that backing off, next book. Not that I'm cheering for romance, but it would be nice to see the resolution starting to build.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-31 02:10 pm (UTC)Well, at least Snape and Sirius are contemporaries. You don't have to worry about what they're going to talk about after the sex.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-31 09:43 pm (UTC)Seriously though, you bring up the problem inherent in all age-difference fic, I think. The AD/MM and AD/SS fans have an even *harder* time with relevant post-coital chit chat I suspect. :-)