Fandom random

[pauraque_bk]

I have never posted one of these color-bar meme thingies before. Until now, none has so moved me with its message.


Love is knitted

*tear*

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I'm happy to announce that ellensmithee has created grab_n_coil, a community for fic, art, and discussion about Crabbe and/or Goyle. Slash, het, and gen are allowed, all ratings. Now, I know some of you out there are sekrit Crabbe & Goyle lovers -- *gives the flist a Look* -- so come on, out with it!

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The Peter discussion has sprawled out all over and pulled in various other characters and concepts, as such things are wont to do. A couple of my favorite posts:

arwencordelia talks about redemptive patterns in Peter and Snape...

...and donnaimmaculata discusses the group dynamics of MWPP. Since it's way down in the comments, I have to repeat a fascinating point she made:

"I do believe that Peter truly admired James and that he has been trying to make James like him by making this admiration obvious. I'm sure James' treatment of him lead to pent-up aggressions. But at first, I imagine, Peter began doubting his own abilities. In a way, Peter behaves like a woman married to an abusive husband, thinking that if she's nice he will stop beating her one day. And then, one day it she who snaps."

Comments

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

Apologies if I sound a little naive here, but I cannot see the James-and-Peter relationship as that of abusive-husband-and-abused-wife simply because it's a rare man who will propose to a woman he loathes for the sole purpose of abusing her. If this is a relationship based on Peter's devotion to James, a devotion James neither asked for nor is entirely comfortable with, then is James to be blamed as an "abusive husband" for refusing to reciprocate completely? Or should Peter be seen, not as the abused wife (for that term implies a once-healthy relationship which has since gone sour), but as the unwanted stalker who keeps himself going by indulging in imagined ecstasies of martyrdom for the loved one's sake?

Look at it from James's point of view. Picture yourself with an unwanted admirer whom you don't want to hurt, but who demands of you a greater devotion than you can honestly give. The result is limbo, an unpleasant existence between two unwanted extremes. If James tells Peter to get lost, he's made himself into a monster. If James silently accepts Peter's devotion and does his best to acquiesce, he's living a lie. Either way, James suffers and is blamed for something which is not his fault.

(Not that I see Peter as a devoted stalker, snapping when the object of his devotion refuses to reciprocate. At the moment I'm rather keen on the situation described by Atalanta Pendragonne in her fic "The Butterfly Road", where MPP are presented as the class bullies and Peter shown joining with them grudgingly for the sole purpose of self-preservation.)

[pauraque]

I absolutely disagree with you that James is uncomfortable with the attention!

James was still playing with the Snitch, letting it zoom further and further away, almost escaping but always grabbed at the last second. Wormtail was watching him with his mouth open. Every time James made a particularly difficult catch, Wormtail gasped and applauded. After five minutes of this, Harry wondered why James didn't tell Wormtail to get a grip on himself, but James seemed to be enjoying the attention. (OotP 568 UK)

In the absence of any contradictory evidence, I take this passage at face value: James enjoyed Peter's attention.

By the way, I'm not the one who proposed the analogy you're responding to; that was donnaimmaculata.

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

In the absence of any contradictory evidence, I take this passage at face value: James enjoyed Peter's attention.

Yes, you're right, James isn't uncomfortable with it. He's reserving his right to despise Peter - "How thick are you, Wormtail?" - whilst still soaking up Peter's adulation like a sponge. Not much integrity there, let us hope James improves with age. That said, I'd still say Peter's unrequited love bears more resemblance to that of a stalker than that of an abused wife. The wife experienced love from the husband once upon a time and wants that again; the stalker reads far too much into the slightest gesture from the beloved and imagines him/herself in a strong relationship where little or no actual affection exists.

I should be saying this to donnaimmaculata, shouldn't I? Thanks, I will.