Tue, May. 5th, 2009, 08:41 pm
Okay then

Edit: This entry was once a rebuttal to a Harry Potter fan essay that I wrote just for the sake of venting and not really for the purpose of public reading beyond the community where I linked it. However, apparently due to a troll's drive-by-argument (see latest comment) it is getting linked a lot of places. So, I've decided to delete the content. Sorry! I mean, not that I feel you're really missing out, anyway :P

Double edit: The rebuttal has been reposted here for those who still want to see it.
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 02:52 am (UTC)
[info]esclaramonde

All of her personal anecdotes ... how would they hold up if they happened in fiction and the equivalent of Snapefen went at them? I'm sure Snape and Sirius had very certain ideas of themselves, but would any two fans agree on them? Sources say no.

"Terrorizing" ... "torture" - seriously, how can people type these with a straight face? Have they never heard of sliding scales?
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 04:55 am (UTC)
[info]lakme

Exactly. I can't stand when people use personal anecdotes as support in arguments.

Yeah, I love how we don't even see what James does to people ("hex them" is all we see) but it's automatically torture. Meanwhile, Snape friggin' invented these spells and he gets off scott-free.
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 01:39 pm (UTC)
[info]esclaramonde

Yeah, there are times and places. It's okay to say, "[This] is why I look at [that] the way I do," but you have to go on to add that you're trying to overcome it because you realize that you're a anomaly. Re: her father, she grew up in that community and people knew her - the adults who meet Harry a) haven't even known where he was for years, and b) see him as a hero, and not a kid. Maybe they felt he didn't need to hear it; maybe they thought they weren't close enough to James, Lily, or Harry to say anything. It's such a radically different situation. And then with her mother - a drunk person might, say, hit you or call you worthless and then say they didn't mean it the next morning, but that's just fundamentally different than what she's comparing it to, which is someone making a stupid decision from a good motive that turns out badly. What good motive is there in slapping a child? None. What good motive is there in letting a werewolf out to run around in the woods? Making him feel less like a monster the next morning, keeping him from tearing himself apart, etc.

I think I'm going to have to write my own rebuttal of the essay as well. :D
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 03:54 pm (UTC)
[info]lakme

Great points! If you do, I would love to read it, so please link me or something. I slapped this together in like an hour so I'm sure yours will be better. ;)
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 04:24 pm (UTC)
[info]esclaramonde

I had to take a break because I think I was getting repetitive. :D But I'll go back later and post it for real by this evening.
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Thu, May. 7th, 2009 01:17 am (UTC)
[info]esclaramonde

http://www.journalfen.net/users/esclaramonde/115403.html

Easily one of the longest fandom-related whatsits I've ever written. D:
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 04:46 am (UTC)
[info]nam_jai

Lots of good points here!

It's still funny to me to remember how, back in 2003, shortly after OotP came out, when I was newly addicted to HP, I ventured into online fandom to discover that apparently I was a fannish reak of nature, because my two favorite characters were Sirius and Snape. I hadn't realized I was supposed to pick a side and declare one saintly and above reproach, and the other irredeemably evil. "But, but..." I thought, "the whole reason I like those characters is because they're so screwed up, with such fascinating shades of grey! Why would I want to trade that for black-and-white caricatures?"

I still don't get it.
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 04:49 am (UTC)
[info]nam_jai

Sorry I had to split this into two comments -- I'm having some really annoying, inexplicable computer issues.

Anyway, I just had one extra note: If I recall correctly, JKR did say in an interview that McGonagall is "a sprightly seventy." But regardless, you are right in that calling Tom Riddle a troublemaker at Hogwarts misses the mark by a mile. If she was there at the same time as him, as far as she knew he would have been the model student.
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 04:52 am (UTC)
[info]lakme

Whoops! Thanks for the head's up. If I get un-lazy enough I'll edit that. ;)
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 04:56 am (UTC)
[info]lakme

Haha, how dare you like characters for their complexity ;)

It's sad because I remember how many Lily/James fans there were until it came out that woobie Snape loved Lily and then most of them switched over. Because I guess Snape's angst over Lily was sparklier than James's angst over Lily.
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 04:56 am (UTC)
[info]lakme

O_o That was weird, I meant to reply to your first comment with that bit. Oh well, sorry about that.
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 10:13 am (UTC)
[info]mariem_1

Snape and Sirius are my favorite characters too and for the same reasons. And it always annoyed me that I was supposed to like one of them and hate the other.
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Thu, May. 7th, 2009 02:59 am (UTC)
[info]quantumreality

I think I heart you. A little. :D

I think the people who write Sirius Black/Severus Snape slash must have the patience of a million saints for all the buckets of slop that probablt get (metaphorically) dropped over their heads by zealous fannits.

Sorry for the totally OT comment. And *waves hello* to [info]lakme
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Thu, May. 7th, 2009 04:17 pm (UTC)
[info]mariem_1

See this discussion in the LJ of [info]white_serpent, one of the founders of SS/SB.
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 10:02 pm (UTC)
[info]ikabod

Also, psychology bitch moment: I hate when people throw around the word psychopath.

Can I get in on this psychology bitch please? As a criminologist, it is a big pet peeve of mine when people call any bad person a psychopath or any bad act psychopathic. Calling someone a psychopath is a big deal and it's referring to a very specific behavior pattern. It's like calling any crazy person a schizophrenic (or worse, using schizophrenia as synonomous with multiple personalities). That drives me crazy!!
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Wed, May. 6th, 2009 11:24 pm (UTC)
[info]lakme

No problem! Those things annoy me, too. I also hate when people refer to actions as mental illnesses, like "Oh, I'm so schizophrenic on that subject" or "I am so bipolar today." Aghhh!
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Thu, May. 7th, 2009 12:56 am (UTC)
[info]ikabod

OK, how 'bout when people equate negative reinforcement with punishment? Arrrgh.
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Thu, May. 7th, 2009 01:11 am (UTC)
[info]lakme

That's definitely another good one.
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Wed, May. 20th, 2009 05:28 pm (UTC)
(Anonymous)

A) His theory assumes that rape is about fulfilling sexual urges. Rape is not about sex, it is about control.

No twatmuffin, that isn't what his theory assumes at all. And in fact, you're an idiot.

Rape isn't about fulfilling sexual urges, it's about control? Control of what? CONTROL OF SEX. Yes, rape is about power: power in SEXUAL DYNAMICS. Seriously, how fucking ignorant do you have to be to convince yourself that rape has nothing to do with sex at all? It has everything to do with sex.

Saying rape isn't about sex is fucking idiotic. Of course it's about sex. It's also sometimes about power and control. But sometimes it's about confusion and lack of communication.

The one thing rape always has in common is sexual desire. Often times very messed up sexual desire shaped by forces we don't fully understand, but if you think sexual desire has nothing to do with rape, you're stupid beyond words. You're seriously living in a FANTASY WORLD.

B) Evolutionary Psych is very unscientific and pretty much scorned by the rest of the psych research community.

No, PSYCHOLOGY is very unscientific (notice the lack of repeatable experimentation!) and pretty much scorned by the rest of the biological science community. Denying evolutionary psychology makes you a fucking CREATIONIST.

You seriously believe that the brain is somehow the only organ in the body not affected by the forces of evolution? Because when you deny evolutionary psychology, that's the claim your stupid ass is making. That the brain is MAGICALLY IMMUNE to evolution. So what caused the human brain to come into creation? Was it GOD? Was it ALIENS?

You've got no answers, because you're a fucking idiot.

- lovecrafty
Thread - Frozen

Tue, Jun. 23rd, 2009 07:15 am (UTC)
[info]quantumreality

Hi,

I clicked on a link to this when I was digging through some old JF entries on the STFU and I was sad to see it was removed. Would there be a way to temporarily-ish reinstate it, let the STFUians know so we can save copies to our local hard drives, and then return it to the void?
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Tue, Jun. 23rd, 2009 07:02 pm (UTC)
[info]lakme

What I'll do is post it as a new entry. That should work!
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Tue, Jun. 23rd, 2009 07:05 pm (UTC)
[info]lakme

Okay, here is the new one. I'll edit this entry to link to it:

http://www.journalfen.net/users/lakme/912.html
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