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lightofdayeOkay so I've seen this a few places. Most recently reading some of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
writcraft's meta, though the actual point of that article is far grander than the bit I'm going to nitpick (asa nerd arguing over minutia is pretty much my stock in trade) as part of a larger point she wrote:
When I write Harry without his glasses, slim down Millicent, place queer characters in a world free from oppression, write Blaise as Draco’s side-kick or erase Ginny because it’s bothersome backstory the fic could do without, then am I guilty of precisely the same kind of marginalisation I vehemently oppose in original fiction?
So here and elsewhere, a few sign-up exchange forms come to mind, there's the idea that canonically Millicent was fat and thus slimming her down would be bad thing.
Firstly, I think I missed that bit. I remember Millicent being described as like a troll, which to me mean big and strong. In a tall, broad shouldered muscular way not fat. Not as overweight or fat. But I could be wrong... (too lazy to get out Chamber of secrets. but not to post this, go figure)
Second, lots of characters, and Slytherins in particular have unflattering descriptions, yet because I'm writing smut, that gets pretty much ignored. I mean if I were inclined to justify it I could say that in canon hary doesn't like these people and its from his point of view, hence the descriptions. In fics I write he probably wants to bang them and thus is more charitable.
When I started writing this it was mostly 'is milicent really canonically fat?' but I seemed to have wandered into the larger question of 'how much am i allowed to change their descriptions for smut fic?'
writcraft's meta, though the actual point of that article is far grander than the bit I'm going to nitpick (asa nerd arguing over minutia is pretty much my stock in trade) as part of a larger point she wrote: When I write Harry without his glasses, slim down Millicent, place queer characters in a world free from oppression, write Blaise as Draco’s side-kick or erase Ginny because it’s bothersome backstory the fic could do without, then am I guilty of precisely the same kind of marginalisation I vehemently oppose in original fiction?
So here and elsewhere, a few sign-up exchange forms come to mind, there's the idea that canonically Millicent was fat and thus slimming her down would be bad thing.
Firstly, I think I missed that bit. I remember Millicent being described as like a troll, which to me mean big and strong. In a tall, broad shouldered muscular way not fat. Not as overweight or fat. But I could be wrong... (too lazy to get out Chamber of secrets. but not to post this, go figure)
Second, lots of characters, and Slytherins in particular have unflattering descriptions, yet because I'm writing smut, that gets pretty much ignored. I mean if I were inclined to justify it I could say that in canon hary doesn't like these people and its from his point of view, hence the descriptions. In fics I write he probably wants to bang them and thus is more charitable.
When I started writing this it was mostly 'is milicent really canonically fat?' but I seemed to have wandered into the larger question of 'how much am i allowed to change their descriptions for smut fic?'
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Date: 2015-03-24 09:01 am (UTC)I definitely get what you're saying regarding Snarry and it#s all points of view right? Though I do recall in my first fanfic I went to great lengths to reinterpret 'face like a pug' to be a good thing. lol. And of course there's always the option of saying they grew into features that didn't suit them as a child.
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Date: 2015-03-24 10:02 am (UTC)One last thing though. If JKR had wanted to say Millicent was overweight, how do you think she'd have described her? There's no way Ron was going to say she was a 'fat cow'. The bit with her being "not a pixie" was that she, Crabbe, and Goyle wouldn't fit in a bathroom stall together. Then again, I think of those guys as being pretty big so it would be curious to look at their actual canon descriptions as well.
Mentally I'm OK with having her be the single overweight girl at Hogwarts, rather like Dumbledore is the one gay character in the series. :P But I do think there's a bit more room for interpretation--unlike Blaise's skin color.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-24 01:28 pm (UTC)Well I don't know. JKR hardly shied away from saying people were overweight if she wanted to. options range from as Mrs Weasley was described (dumpy, plump etc) to Fudge (portly) all the way up to Dudley. (wider than he was taller, weight of a killer whale etc).
as an aside I'm a bit dubious you can fit three people of any size in a bathroom stall with a cauldron tbh.
Oh, I'm okay with her being written as overweight. I'm okay with her being written as overweight. (Mentally, I always think of Hannah Abbot being on the heavier side with no evidence at all) and I'm okay with people requesting that she be written that way. I'm just eyebrow raising slightly when people say 'because that's canon.'
I'm just really nit-picking the definition of 'definitely unarguably canon' that I would mean when I say Canon. As opposed to fanon or head!canon that's reasonable and has a real basis in canon.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-24 07:54 pm (UTC)