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So, Team Canon posted a very unusual fic today at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
hd_worldcup: S. Morgenstern's 'Through the Looking Glass' (abridged).
I am not sure what to make of it. I have the impression that it's essentially an AU version of DH, told through a distorted mirror (hence the title) by a minor HP character (Eloise Midgen). I looked up "S. Morgenstern," and found this information from Wikipedia:
S. Morgenstern is both a pseudonym and a narrative device invented by Goldman to add another layer to his novel The Princess Bride. He presents his novel as being an abridged version of a work by the fictional Morgenstern, an author from the equally fictional country of Florin.
Apparently at least one reader understood this, as there is a comment mentioning ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size - another Princess Bride reference).
But what is this fic really about, at its heart? Keep in mind that the author has been linked to this post: I will not censor anyone's opinion, but it's my intention to start a constructive discussion about this fic, not to invite gratuitous negative comments.
Unrelated to the above, at Starbucks this morning there was a distracted-looking woman ahead of me in line, talking business on her cell phone. I may have misheard, but I swear she ordered "a tall iced coffee in a Venti cup, shaken, not stirred." I guess Bond must have been waiting for her in the limo.
Also, Google cracked me up with this advertisement for a Goth dating service, complete with smiling model!pseudo-Goth.
hd_worldcup: S. Morgenstern's 'Through the Looking Glass' (abridged). I am not sure what to make of it. I have the impression that it's essentially an AU version of DH, told through a distorted mirror (hence the title) by a minor HP character (Eloise Midgen). I looked up "S. Morgenstern," and found this information from Wikipedia:
S. Morgenstern is both a pseudonym and a narrative device invented by Goldman to add another layer to his novel The Princess Bride. He presents his novel as being an abridged version of a work by the fictional Morgenstern, an author from the equally fictional country of Florin.
Apparently at least one reader understood this, as there is a comment mentioning ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size - another Princess Bride reference).
But what is this fic really about, at its heart? Keep in mind that the author has been linked to this post: I will not censor anyone's opinion, but it's my intention to start a constructive discussion about this fic, not to invite gratuitous negative comments.
Unrelated to the above, at Starbucks this morning there was a distracted-looking woman ahead of me in line, talking business on her cell phone. I may have misheard, but I swear she ordered "a tall iced coffee in a Venti cup, shaken, not stirred." I guess Bond must have been waiting for her in the limo.
Also, Google cracked me up with this advertisement for a Goth dating service, complete with smiling model!pseudo-Goth.
I would highly recommend it. Except that I couldn't read all of it because the entire book Goldman kept complaining about "S. Morgenstern" (who 'wrote' the original Princess Bride - except that he didn't because he doesn't exist!) and talking about all the legal trouble with the Morgenstern family and how Morgenstern went on for pages about shit no one cares about... And Goldman 'saves' us the reader from all this while giving us the glory that is Princess Bride.
The concept is funny and wierd and kinda great. I, on the other hand, felt really put-upon after having figured out that Morgenstern doesn't exist. Wtf? with the legal battles??? and long backstory of Goldman's dear father reading this book to him?? I don't like being strong along quite as much as Goldman did.
i like the narrator adding bits to the story, but the extent that Goldman built up Morganstern was v. annoying to me.
ANYWAY... That's my 2 cents on Goldman. I'll type up more on the actual fic in a second.
Edited at 2008-04-29 06:15 pm (UTC)
But I have to admit that I got a little lost with the actual story of it. Dream world vs. Real world was getting mixed up with Narrator vs. original text all vs. actual canon. So yeah... That might have been entirely intentional. The fact that this 'clever' editor take a 'favourite story' and kinda pretty much ruins it by chopping it to hell and adding irrelevant commentary - well that's pretty funny.
Hmm... the more I'm typing the more I'm liking the fic. heh. I still wish that the main story part could have be more clear or longer or something just to let the reader get more out of this fic than just the funny that comes from laughing at the narrator.
however, i just don't understand how the fic falls under canon. i also think that there was too much of the "author" editing him/herself in regards to keeping the fic 'abridged' and in the spirit of of S. Morgenstern.
plus, i just can't figure out what's going on. is harry dead and living in the dream world? or is he still alive and living through the dream world?
or am i still just WAY off? :D
i also think that there was too much of the "author" editing him/herself in regards to keeping the fic 'abridged' and in the spirit of of S. Morgenstern.
Maybe that was part of the joke?
I really hope the author posts an essay on this after the reveal.
So, there's two different confusing devices in one fic, which arguably is one too many. The "what is story and what is the narrator goofing off?" -- where I must say the fic author got Goldman's style down pat -- and the "which real is real?"
Since I'm quite familiar with both of those twists, I really found combining the two of them a lovely thing, but as I say, perhaps it's a bit much for most readers.
I've seen people asking both here and in the comm, "how is this canon?" Well, Team Canon gets to be canon up to the point of their choice. They have to keep to canon-esque characterizations, but can set the story just after HBP or whatever. It's a bit unusual to have the point of divergence be smack in the middle of the horcrux hunt, but hey, why not? So, I would say the question of whether this is canon depends on whether you think the characterizations in the Harry/Draco segments are canon-esque, and not on the different storyline.
The dream vs. reality confusion fits the Moon prompt, and reader confusion as to which is real fits even more so. So... yeah, I like it a lot. ;-)
I'm also really glad this author chose to write something other that the usual same old, same old. I like to see things shaken up a bit, and as this wasn't a gift exchange, the author didn't need to worry about pleasing a recipient.
I kinda get that Harry is falling into this dream world with Draco and thinks that's his real world because his brain can't accept reality (as JKR tells it).
I liked the snarky editor bits.
I do think the author did very well with the prompt and I haven't read the Princess Bride, but I have seen the movie (lots).
Basically, I don't feel it fits in well with what Team Canon is supposed to be doing, but it's a very creative fic. I think many of the perceived problems have to do with people (including me) not being familiar with the Princess Bride book.
Have fun storming the Manor!
My understanding is that Team Canon intends to follow canon as far as characterization only. (If they had to follow plot, too, there'd be no H/D,lol). So if the character's personalities are canonical, then it is canon for the purpose of the fest regardless of what happens in the fic.
I am on Team Fanon, and sometimes I wondered if I was being "fanon" enough when I was writing my story.
I talked to Brammers a bit about the fic this afternoon (bearing in mind she hadn't read it), and she told me about the references to the Princess whatever it is. I'm still a bit flummoxed as to why such a heavily referenced theme wasn't A/N'd, because I would imagine that the author would have expected that a large part of the audience wouldn't know the story (I don't - never heard of it).
Truth is I didn't find it engaging enough to want to know the answers. I've read it once and that's enough. As I said to you earlier this is the kind of fic that a small portion of pople will say is the cleverest thing ever, but I think it's only clever if it gets all the votes.
Worldcup rules required a strict word limit on author's notes, and that may be why this author left out the reference.
Cleverness is subjective, IMHO. I would have had a greater understanding of this, though, if I had been familiar with the book.
Also, I've written so many fics/RPed too many situations where post-war characters are stuck in nightmares about what happened that it made more sense to me that way. And this part: It was then that Harry rejected this world's reality and woke up from his dream sounded like maybe he'd finally gotten his brain straightened out?
IDK. After I saw this post I read it through again, and it's entirely possible I'm wrong. But that's my take on it. XP
I love that you pinpoint Harry's unreliability as a narrator, because I think that is what this fic has at its heart. And using the allusions to Alice (another very unreliable narrator, because she is dreaming the entire time) and to S. Morgenstern/Bill Goldman (who is unreliable because hey, both the narrator AND the author in this one are made up!) really digs into the heart of what we, as readers, are willing to swallow as "reality." I'm tempted to pull a Morpheus here, but I think adding The Matrix to the mix would just make my brain explode.
In essence, what this author has done, is to take the idea of ambiguous dream/reality from "Through the Looking Glass," the idea of a fake narrator/editor and fake author from "The Princess Bride," and give us Canon through the eyes of a Harry who can't accept that his life is actually good for once, and so creates this other option, this "reality" in his head. All the while poking fun at unreliable authors and extraneous narration.
Hope that makes sense at all. Whew!
And that is the smilingest 'goth' I've ever seen!
That is no goth, if you ask me!
I only read it because I saw your post, and only read to the end because it was short.
Originality is important, but IMHO, a story should provoke some emotion, to make the reader care for the characters or/and the plot. But I didn't feel anything. Maybe it's very clever and sophisticated and all that, but it was more like a math exercise...
I'm sorry if I'm harsh, that's just how I felt. I admit I never read Princess Bride (cute movie, though!), so maybe that's the reason... from other's comments, seems it was a big influence. I did read Through the Looking Glass, but couldn't see much of a connection to the fic, besides both telling of realistic dreams. It reminded me more of various TV shows that used that too, like Smallville and Buffy.
What I understood from the story: Harry has survivors guilt (the mention of Fred's death and Harry's happiness), so he pretends it's a dream and makes up the world where he's kept in Draco's bathroom. Then in the real (canon) world he owls Draco and kisses him.
Now I feel bad about writing it here... I'm going to post it on the fic's page.
I didn't realize it was based on The Princess Bride before Googling the names.
You could be right about that interpretation: I'm still not sure.
ETA: also, i have read neither the looking glass nor the princess bride [i haven't even seen the movie] so all the cleverness of the incorporating elements from those two books would be completely lost on me and i might end up being very confused.
Edited at 2008-04-29 11:24 pm (UTC)
For readers that read fic mainly for a strong H/D relationship, this story isn't going to work, as it's more meta-commentary than romance.
They are mixing a pastiche of The Princess Bride and Lewis Carroll -- double pastiche? WOAH NELLY. IMO, that is one pastiche too many. Though, that said, I do like what the author was trying to do.
The meta was clever. I thought the jabs at JKR and also at fandom (I saw the "dream world" where Harry is with Draco as the fanficcers version of DH and the other "canon" part of DH taking the mickey out of JKR) were clever. If it wasn't double-meta and I read too much into it? Oh well. But I like to think it's saying something both about JKR, about naysaying readers AND about us a fanficcers. I LOL'ed. For the meta aspect, the Princess Bride style narration was perfect.
The thing is, I don't see how this helps team CANON. It's arguably in no way canon. The world with Ginny that Harry is convinced is a dream and people keep telling him is real is canon as we know it - DH and JKR's happy-go-lucky ending. But when the majority of the action in the story (which is more in the "dream world" with Harry and Draco) is Harry being delusional (I read it as DH canon Harry having a break from reality, wrapped up in a double pastiche confusing storytelling device), how can we hold up the characterizations there to canon standards? Meaning, any way that Harry or Draco acts that is "not like canon" can be chalked up to "canon" Harry having a psychotic break. Feels like a cheat to me, and as such I think it was a big risk fic that is very interesting to read and interesting to discuss, but might hurt the team it is for.
So, yes. On the one hand, intellectually, I like it. But if I were voting, I would give it low marks for the team, you know? But the author gets kudos from me, hardcore, if they are reading this. It was very, very well written and thought-provoking. I also strongly suspect I know who you are :P