The question is moot. I get the car.

[jlh]

Let's review. Predicting something that happened in canon doesn't make you:
--A better writer
--A better reader
--A better fan
--A better person

If you were right about canon, you don't win a car; if you're wrong about canon, you are not summarily ejected from fandom. Predicting canon can be fun, but it certainly isn't profitable. I continue to not understand the whole "whee I was right therefore I am infinitely cooler than you" thing. I also don't understand the "alas, for it did not happen in canon and therefore I'm done with this stinking canon" thing. It's canon. It stands unchanging. It doesn't care what you thought would happen; it simply is.

How you choose to interact with canon is entirely up to you. Fanfiction exists entirely outside of canon. It is not predictive, nor a direct reader response, nor a form of literary criticism. It can be these things, but presuming that what someone chooses to write—be it a ship, or an event, or what have you—is them putting a stake in the ground about canon is a really big leap. Someone else saying that your story don't agree with their interpretation of canon doesn't get to force you to take your story down. Being condescending about someone else's interpretation of canon? That's just obnoxious, and while being "wrong" certainly doesn't give you the right to act like a spoiled toddler, being "right" doesn't give you the right to be an ass.

Comments

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

This is one of the reasons I always look forward to reading your opinion on things: no matter how reasonable or level-headed anyone involved in an debate/argument on LJ thinks they are, your posts appear on the sidelines like enormous, tastefully designed billboards showing everyone what reasonable and level-headed REALLY look like.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You are too sweet. Actually, you are, as earlier this week I lost my head a bit and got a little emotional, and I'm still trying to work out my response to some things that have been flying around except I can't put it all into the right words quite yet--it's fanon stuff about reviewers and shipping and character hate.

However I will say that it seems to me that there is this sticky bit that people have between their reaction to the books and their understanding of what JKR wants us to think/feel. I'm generally in the camp of, JKR gets one chance to tell us how to think and feel, and that's when she's writing the book. I'm not sure that feeling about the books exactly the way JKR does means you're a better fan. But this is all still in the early thoughts stage.