Twisted Tuesdays, The Weekly Zym Options

[zymurgy]

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

The Importance of Being G.

J.K Rowling has long since abandoned the idea that her books are for kids. Ron Weasley has ceased merely saying things “he wouldn’t if his mother were there,” and gets his French into solid print. Draco is no longer content with a mere sneer, but gets some rather brutish action in this last book. And of course, Voldemort is no longer a vague and shadowy presence.

However, Project Ferret retains its policy of child-friendly stories and posts. We may not be by kids, but we are definitely proud of being for kids. Kids with a capital K.

Now, you might ask why this is so. “JK said that in her story! Why can’t I say it?”

Because, as much as Harry Potter may have spiraled into dark times and despair, we should hope that the kids who read it have not. The point of FanFiction, as I see it, is to expand, elaborate, and sometimes straight out change what was given to us by the author.

Canon, in other words, is seen as “raw material.” Even as it is worshiped, like a lump of gold, it simply isn’t pretty enough for a smith. We’ve got to play with it, twist it around, and make something new.

And boy does JK give us a wealth to work with! We have characters, a setting, a premise, and even a time period worked out for us in advance. Simply put, the only thing a Fanfic author has to do is mix and match, adding originals as he sees fit.

That being so, why choose to use what we have, which can be put to a million uses, to write a story inappropriate for children? JK has already done that; hundreds of Fanfic authors have already done that. Why not have a bit of fun in the other direction?

None of this, of course, is to say that we should present only the happiness of Harry’s world. Clean fic is not necessarily happy, simplistic, or easy. All of Half-Blood Prince, for instance, could have been rewritten, portraying the same events, but in a way more accessible to the young – it would still be HBP, just from a different angle.

There is a place for serious fic here, for sad fic, and even for certain situations that aren’t to be avoided as canon stands. However, I don’t think there’s a place for so-called “adult” fic.

Why, after all, do we write and read fanfiction? Simply because we don’t want the story to be over – we don’t accept ‘that’s all she wrote,’ for an answer. As much as we understand that Sirius flew backwards through a veil and died, we still want to know more, to see more, to have another view.

And why have that view be one where he swears like a sailor, drowns his sorrows in fire whiskey, or commits a bloody and brutal murder of Peter Pettigrew?

Of all the angles available, the least chosen seems to be that of the first floor window we started from. And it simply isn’t fair to those of us (loosely termed ‘kids,’) who are still there, to have all the fic over our heads and beyond our reach. The stories, dangled just out of our reach, with teasing summaries or teasers, make us understandably upset.

Why couldn’t that author write the really cool story, (where Ron gets kidnapped by Death Eaters and has to escape on his own, without magic, but turns out he’s really Remus in Pollyjuice, while Harry believes he’s actually Draco because he misunderstood something he overheard in a dark corridor while he was hiding from Filch, and there’s a Basilisk who wears sunglasses so that it won’t petrify people, and Neville turns out to be a member of Arborists Anonymous… ) so that we could read it? Honestly!

Finally, the importance of being K is a question of numbers. It is better to have something that everybody can read, rather than something a few, however few they may be, cannot.





.

[zymurgy]

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

The Game has drawn to a close, the winners are taking their bows, and all participants are beginning to look about for other diversions. Those of you who have been with Project Ferret for long will know just where to look – here, where there are plenty of current projects running, and plenty of room to start more.

Project Ferret has recently gone through a few rough patches. We endured a hacking, followed by a complete site upgrade (which did eliminate that problem, followed the decision of the two top administrators to move on.

However, Project Ferret has survived, and it has endured. It survives, and will continue to survive, not because of technical sophistication, or because of any one administrator, but because of you.

Yes, you. This site has been set up, built, maintained, and grown because of its members. Project Ferret could not survive without the brilliant population of Ferrets and Stoats that populate it.

This is because Project Ferret’s main focus has always been user contributions. It is the users who participate in discussions and write (so brilliantly!) for the stories here. The users have, indeed, started a great deal of these projects for themselves because Ferrets have always been bold with their creativity and willing to take initiative.

Project Ferret, we’ve long said, is the best collaborative Harry Potter fanfiction site. Indeed, searching indicates that it may possibly be the only site in the HP universe to focus on collaborative work.

Collaborative work is indicative of community. A community is a group of people who work together for a common goal, linked by common interests. We here at Project Ferret desire great and wonderful fanfiction, both to read and to write, intelligent interesting discussion, and underlying all of that, a place to interact with fellow fans in a friendly environment.

Collaborations only function with honorable people. People who respect rules, who are willing to discuss and to compromise, and who have a love of seeing things through. Project Ferret has such people, and prides itself on preserving honesty, friendliness, and harmony in all of its aspects.

In a community, members help one another. Project Ferret has always been, not only about writing or reading good fiction, but about being the sort of place which helps writers create, and readers find, such works.

I should like to take this opportunity to say that every one of those of us, who work behind the scenes to make Project Ferret function on its most basic level, do the work we do out of a desire to see the site and its members grow.

We want to see Ferrets creating and discussing their own projects, helping each other to be the best writers they can possibly be. We want to see more Stoats, and we want to see them scurrying about the boards, discussing their theories about canon and their favorite good reads in fanon.

We hope that you have enjoyed The Game and will continue to remain here to fulfill Project Ferret’s dream, and have the best of fun in the process.