I'm *not* being defensive, really!

[emmagrant01]

I've seen several people remark lately that the H/D side of the HP fandom is on the downslide, that no good fic is being written anymore, and that the 'ship lost its sails after OOTP came out.

As a writer who came into this fandom after OOTP and fell in love with H/D anyway, this continues to baffle me! I see wonderful H/D fic being written all the time by many, many talented people. It could be because I wasn't around during the halcyon days of the 'ship and just don't know any better. It could be that I have a different perspective on the role of canon in fandom, coming from a fandom in which one member of the OTP was dead before the fandom even started (which forced people to be loose and creative with canon from the start). Yes, I've read all the "classic" fics. I don't actually think they're fundamentally better than the fic being written today, though that could be because of my post-OOTP mindset and my preference for post-Hogwarts fic (in which the writer has a lot more leeway and creative freedom, IMHO). There were many more novel-length fics a few years ago than there are now, but I'm not sure that's what people mean when they bemoan the decline of "good" H/D.

I can't be the only one who doesn't understand the source of this claim. Is it a case of "shiny new toy getting old" for the older fandom folks, or is it really true that something fundamentally changed about H/D after OOTP, something that will never be recovered?

*wonders why she always misses the "golden days" of every fandom by arriving two years too late*

Comments

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I find all that sociology fascinating too! :-D

And yeah, I wonder if there is an element here of resisting change, or grieving what used to be. Maybe the folks who were attracted to H/D pre-OOTP and the folks who came in after like different kinds of fic. I like the fact that I have to work very hard to get Harry and Draco in the sack. But I've heard other folks say that OOTP pretty much sank the 'ship for them, because now the canon is such that the two are bitter enemies in a way they weren't before. Maybe for some folks, it just doesn;t work anymore.

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

I have read other longtime fandomers say, too, that the wait between GoF and OotP set up a lot of expectations and allowed fandom to spin so many different plausible continuations for the storyline that by the time OotP came out, they were like, "um, is THAT all?" I can see pretty clearly how that would happen, and so it'll be interesting to see if we've learned anything when HBP comes out, or if there'll be another big shake-up.

The best thing about loving the way people work so much, is that you ALWAYS have some kind of entertainment available to you. :))