JKR on Today
Jul. 26th, 2007 07:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmagrant01I just watched the first bit of the JKR interview on Today, and she was asked what Harry, Ron, and Hermione were going to do for a living. She replied that Harry and Ron were going to revolutionize the Auror Department, and the Hermione would be very influential in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
There's a part of me that doesn't want to know what she thinks the characters will do in the future, because I want that future to be wide open for fanfic, dammit! I want to be able to imagine Harry doing anything. And of course, I can, because I am perfectly happy to ignore bits of canon that don't work for me (EWE?), but I guess I can't help but feel a little apprehensive that the more information she gives us about the future, the more fanfic writers will feel compelled to put an AU label on their fic. And though it might be in the process of changing, there's always been a stigma against AU in this fandom, and I have to admit that makes me worry for the future. The more information we have, the narrower the possibilities will appear to be for some people.
It's weird, isn't it? Most casual readers of the HP books would clamor for any additional details about the future lives of the characters, but as a fanfic writer, I want her to say as little as possible. I want to feel free to take those characters wherever I want, without having future points to hit.
This is my biggest problem with the Epilogue, actually. It's not that she has them married to their school sweethearts and gave their children silly names, or that it's not very well written -- it's that it's pretty damn limiting. I don't have 19 years to play with these characters; I actually only have 4 or 5 before they get married and start families. I don't want to restrict myself to early-20s Harry/Draco fic that acknowledges that they'll break up and marry women in a few short years. I want to write stories in which there is the possibility of a happily ever with each other that doesn't necessarily involve infidelity or divorce (though I'm sure I'll write that as well). Where Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco are concerned, I feel like the canon-compliant options for future fic are very limited because of that epilogue.
But hey, I don't have a problem writing around canon or ignoring the epilogue. And I also don't have a problem ignoring JKR's oral predictions for her characters, which I'm not sure are considered canon. (Are they?) If Draco had died in the book, I'd be merrily writing AU anyway, so in a sense it doesn't matter what JKR says about the characters.
But still, there's a sense in which every new detail closes some doors. I want a clean ending to canon, I suppose, not this trickling-to-a-stop thing. :-P
ETA: I really agree with what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethbethbeth has to say about this issue.
In case you're curious about what JKR thinks the future holds for more characters, read about it here.
There's a part of me that doesn't want to know what she thinks the characters will do in the future, because I want that future to be wide open for fanfic, dammit! I want to be able to imagine Harry doing anything. And of course, I can, because I am perfectly happy to ignore bits of canon that don't work for me (EWE?), but I guess I can't help but feel a little apprehensive that the more information she gives us about the future, the more fanfic writers will feel compelled to put an AU label on their fic. And though it might be in the process of changing, there's always been a stigma against AU in this fandom, and I have to admit that makes me worry for the future. The more information we have, the narrower the possibilities will appear to be for some people.
It's weird, isn't it? Most casual readers of the HP books would clamor for any additional details about the future lives of the characters, but as a fanfic writer, I want her to say as little as possible. I want to feel free to take those characters wherever I want, without having future points to hit.
This is my biggest problem with the Epilogue, actually. It's not that she has them married to their school sweethearts and gave their children silly names, or that it's not very well written -- it's that it's pretty damn limiting. I don't have 19 years to play with these characters; I actually only have 4 or 5 before they get married and start families. I don't want to restrict myself to early-20s Harry/Draco fic that acknowledges that they'll break up and marry women in a few short years. I want to write stories in which there is the possibility of a happily ever with each other that doesn't necessarily involve infidelity or divorce (though I'm sure I'll write that as well). Where Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco are concerned, I feel like the canon-compliant options for future fic are very limited because of that epilogue.
But hey, I don't have a problem writing around canon or ignoring the epilogue. And I also don't have a problem ignoring JKR's oral predictions for her characters, which I'm not sure are considered canon. (Are they?) If Draco had died in the book, I'd be merrily writing AU anyway, so in a sense it doesn't matter what JKR says about the characters.
But still, there's a sense in which every new detail closes some doors. I want a clean ending to canon, I suppose, not this trickling-to-a-stop thing. :-P
ETA: I really agree with what
bethbethbeth has to say about this issue.In case you're curious about what JKR thinks the future holds for more characters, read about it here.
