harry potter and the inconvenient character traits

[cimorene]

For someone who loves Harry Potter fanfiction as much as I do, it's strange to admit that I dislike several characters.

In many ways Harry, in canon, is a blank slate, because the point of view is so thoroughly focused on him, and his main character traits are bravery and thickness. He's not as completely thick as Ron, but he's thick enough to get on well with him - he occasionally figures things out on his own, just never quickly. I don't exactly hate him in canon, but I hate to read his point of view. The books, while told almost entirely in his point of view, have some saving graces - like the fantastic world-building - but are still, in my view, somewhat of a trial to read (boring, long-winded, requiring frequent breaks to breathe deeply and think of calm blue oceans and rant about the stupidity of the characters). Fanfiction doesn't have those saving graces, usually, at least not in the same degree. Fortunately, most fanfiction isn't too accurately characterised.

I find that my favourite fictional takes on the world keep the thickness, stubbornness, recklessness, and loyalty (and not infrequently, some or all of the prejudice) of Harry and Ron but make them bearable to read. (If they don't, I back-button. I'm not going to put up with an accurate characterisation of Harry or Ron for anyone but Rowling.) I suppose it's not too hard to achieve these things - although I've never seriously written in the fandom myself (parodies, very short pieces, and somewhat purple now-jossed Marauderfic don't count) - because many writers manage it admirably, even when there are other flaws in the stories.

But it's a funny thing when edging closer to canon characterisation becomes a flaw in my point of view.

Comments

[miriam-heddy.livejournal.com]

One of the strangest things about seeing Daniel Radcliffe talk is that it serves as a reminder of just how bad a reader of the world Harry is.

I think that it's one of the reasons I'm drawn to older Harry stories--because I tell myself that, after he gets done resisting him, prolonged exposure to Snape has got to mature him and make Harry a bit more self-aware, not to mention aware of others.

If it weren't for Snape as a way into the stories, I don't think I could've put up with reading Potter canon, as Harry's absolutely not the type of character to appeal to me.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Snape's appearances in the first four books are actually really brief. But after that Snape's appearances were more frequent and there were also more secondary characters making appearances. I doubt I'll ever be able to re-read the whole thing, though, given that dislike.

But of course, even though there's every possibility for Harry to mature, many good stories stretch his character's resemblance... not past recognition, but definitely so that it has a different centre (although I've occasionally read enjoyable pieces where that wasn't the case - very rarely, and usually where self-deprecating humour is added). I do
think that Harry has an earnestness and empathy that make consciousness-raising possible, even though his dimness no doubt slows them down some. He has a tendency to fairness underneath the prejudice and snap judgements, too.