Consent by omission (HP)

[thistlechaser]

While driving home to lunch, a thought struck me. I've spent the morning wandering JK Rowling's peachy keen, new, official site, reading all of it that I could get my hands on. There's a lot of interesting stuff there, but what's more interesting is what isn't.

She knows of, approves of, and has read fanfic (eee, how cool!). In the 'rumors' section of the site she says fans are wrong about some things:

Lily Potter still alive. (Buh? Who thought she was?)
Neville is Peter's son. (WTF?)
Lily was once a Death Eater. (What the hell are people smoking?)

In the 'news' section, she mentions that fans call Lord Voldemort 'Voldie' and she doesn't like that.

So what's missing? All those tiny little things, and one giant one (perhaps the biggest thing in the whole fandom) isn't mentioned:

Slash.

When I first got to thinking about this, I was considering her lack of comment on Harry/Snape, but then I realized it was bigger than that. She's looked at fanart and fanfic, she's wandered fansites (heck, she links to some!), how could she have not encountered slash?

Yes, kids could go there, and so she probably wouldn't want to be graphic about it, but her writing on the site is mature enough that if she wanted to, she could get such disapproval out indirectly... Heck, she must know how much we fans read into every word, she could just drop some "no wizards in the HP world are gay" hint and we'd find it.

I wish there would come a time when she'd comment on slashy things, but I suppose she never will -- it'd probably be too much of a risk to certain parts of her readership. Alas!

Comments

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's a good point, but to be honest, I'm afraid about what she'll say. I'd rather stick to speculation rather than fight against all those people who would have steadfast proof that their pairing was more 'canon' than mine.

It's a big headache waiting to happen and I'd rather be in denial right now.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know... but I can dream, right? :) She probably would either be totally against it, or if for it then for only one pairing... But since she's said nothing, we can pretend she approves of it!

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly. Silence is approval, right?

And of course you can dream. That's what we're all doing at this point. :D

re: Neville is Peter's son

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

Read this. (http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=109359)

yes, I know where it's posted. Read it anyway :D

"Oh, he’s no more a wizard than I am a mythical monster," said Remus casually

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Heehee! Oh, I see! Thanks for the link, it was a muchly amusing story! (Too bad it's posted on ff.net instead of any other place. Silly writer!)

Re: "Oh, he’s no more a wizard than I am a mythical monster," said Remus casually

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

: badgers Connie to get Moon to move everything over to FA, too.

Re: "Oh, he’s no more a wizard than I am a mythical monster," said Remus casually

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Exactly! If something's on FF.net, chances are that even with someone else's recommendation, I won't read it. Why would anyone post stuff there? It's like taking a painting you worked hard on and tossing it into the kitty litterbox!