![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The first fanfic I read was Star Trek: Next Gen. All Picard/Crusher, all the time. There was also a bit of Mulder/Scully in there. It was the only "media" fic I ever read and was mostly PWP which was fine with me at the time. I had little interest in an extensive subplot about Romulans and Cardassians in the middle of my Picard/Crusher soap opera.
Once I found popslash (JoeC!), I didn't look back. No more het and no more media fic. It was now all RPS, all the time, and I was exclusive to popslash for a few years until my recent discovery of LotRips. (Viggo/Orlando! Viggo/Elijah! Orlando/Elijah!)
All along, I was a HP fan. I've been reading the books since just before Chamber of Secrets was published and my love for this universe is boundless. JK Rowling is brilliant, imaginative, and a hell of a lot of fun. Still, I was completely resistant to HP fic of any kind. In no way did I object to HP fan fic. I just had no use for it. My Harry Potter universe was the one that JK Rowling created and that was it. These were books, not a TV show or a movie or RPS. Everything I knew of the Potterverse was from the words that JK Rowling had written and I felt like reading the fic would somehow taint that.
Recently, through the enthusiasm of some of you, I decided to read one HP fic, just one, and I was in no way prepared for what I came across. The fic I read was intelligent, detailed, entertaining, and added immeasurably to my appreciation of everything Harry Potter. Through continued reading (of carefully selected recs), I'm amazed at the detail and thought that HP authors put into their fic. The great stories stay quite true to the books (or at least the "laws" of the universe) and weave amazing plots together that happen to also focus on the relationships between the characters. I've found myself reading full length novels with all of the characteristics that make Rowling's books so fantastic.
There's also the Harry/Snape dynamic. It's the only HP pairing I've read and, for the time being, the only pairing I'm interested in. All of the pairings I've read in the past from other fandoms were characters/people who started off with great respect and/or fondness for each other. Mulder/Scully came the closest to any kind of tension and that's a far cry from the animosity between Harry and Snape. There is something incredibly compelling about an author who can take the relationship between Harry and Shape and, without destroying the characterizations and history between the two, write a gripping and believable story. And, as with Viggo/Elijah, I seem drawn to pairing where there is an obvious power differential but something about one of them makes that difference somewhat negligible. (Be it Elijah's years of acting experience or Harry being, well, Harry.) I'm completely taken by Harry/Snape.
Now, the only thing I wonder about is how reading HP fic will change my approach to the books. Does it matter what happens in books six and seven when a strong author takes on the downfall of Voldemort his/herself? Will they be as satisfying if Harry and Snape don't shag at least once? These aren't quite the gripping questions of my life but I do question whether or not I'll view the books differently the deeper I fall into the the fanfic. And I will fall deeper. :)
Once I found popslash (JoeC!), I didn't look back. No more het and no more media fic. It was now all RPS, all the time, and I was exclusive to popslash for a few years until my recent discovery of LotRips. (Viggo/Orlando! Viggo/Elijah! Orlando/Elijah!)
All along, I was a HP fan. I've been reading the books since just before Chamber of Secrets was published and my love for this universe is boundless. JK Rowling is brilliant, imaginative, and a hell of a lot of fun. Still, I was completely resistant to HP fic of any kind. In no way did I object to HP fan fic. I just had no use for it. My Harry Potter universe was the one that JK Rowling created and that was it. These were books, not a TV show or a movie or RPS. Everything I knew of the Potterverse was from the words that JK Rowling had written and I felt like reading the fic would somehow taint that.
Recently, through the enthusiasm of some of you, I decided to read one HP fic, just one, and I was in no way prepared for what I came across. The fic I read was intelligent, detailed, entertaining, and added immeasurably to my appreciation of everything Harry Potter. Through continued reading (of carefully selected recs), I'm amazed at the detail and thought that HP authors put into their fic. The great stories stay quite true to the books (or at least the "laws" of the universe) and weave amazing plots together that happen to also focus on the relationships between the characters. I've found myself reading full length novels with all of the characteristics that make Rowling's books so fantastic.
There's also the Harry/Snape dynamic. It's the only HP pairing I've read and, for the time being, the only pairing I'm interested in. All of the pairings I've read in the past from other fandoms were characters/people who started off with great respect and/or fondness for each other. Mulder/Scully came the closest to any kind of tension and that's a far cry from the animosity between Harry and Snape. There is something incredibly compelling about an author who can take the relationship between Harry and Shape and, without destroying the characterizations and history between the two, write a gripping and believable story. And, as with Viggo/Elijah, I seem drawn to pairing where there is an obvious power differential but something about one of them makes that difference somewhat negligible. (Be it Elijah's years of acting experience or Harry being, well, Harry.) I'm completely taken by Harry/Snape.
Now, the only thing I wonder about is how reading HP fic will change my approach to the books. Does it matter what happens in books six and seven when a strong author takes on the downfall of Voldemort his/herself? Will they be as satisfying if Harry and Snape don't shag at least once? These aren't quite the gripping questions of my life but I do question whether or not I'll view the books differently the deeper I fall into the the fanfic. And I will fall deeper. :)
