Potter Meme Day 17

[therealsnape]

Day 1 How did you get into Harry Potter
Day 2 Favourite book
Day 3 Least favorite book
Day 4 Favorite female character
Day 5 Favorite male character.
Day 6 Least favorite female character
Day 7 Least favorite male character
Day 8 Thoughts on fanfic
Day 9 Favorite Hogwarts Professor
Day 10 Dead character you want to bring back most
Day 11 House that you would be in
Day 12 Hogwarts subject you would most like to take
Day 13 Spell you wish you could work without a wand
Day 14 Thoughts on fanart (+ A favorite fanart)
Day 15 Favorite movie
Day 16 Least favorite movie


Day 17 Books vs. films.

Actually, I love both. Much is better in writing. The depth, recurring themes ("I'm with you - you're with me," and then the movie cuts it), the density in the books that the movies lack. Harry in Olivander's, and Olivander explaining that his father's wand was excellent for Transfiguration. And then in PoA we learn that his father was an Animagus while still at Hogwarts ... Things like that.

But the films can do things visually that the books can't. Occasionally they cut them in the final process, but that's what extra dvd's are for.

All in all, I think both books and movies are very well made, and both have been an inspiration for my own fics. The (cut) scene where Sybill puts icecream in her own wine, then starts on Irma's wine, ended up in one of my fics. In a very different way.
The scene where Dame Maggie comments on the dancing scene with Rupert ended up in a fic, too.

There's one recent case of influence, which I wouldn't have noticed without this brilliant meme and all of your answers to it. In reply to "What would you like to change in canon," featherxquill wrote: the adverbs.
I read that, and I realised I'd somehow completely missed the adverb issue. No idea what she was talking about.

I'm currently working on a fic that has to fit in exactly with a canon scene. So I got the English edition from the library, reread the scene several times, and finally wrote my version with the book open in front of me. When I handed the thing to my beta, she said twice (and she has never needed to point that out to me):"Cut the adverb. The tone is clear from the phrase itself."

So, "while both books and movies deserve some stern criticism," she said acerbically, "they are, to me, equally enjoyable."


Day 18 A part of the books/movies that makes you cry.
Day 19 Favorite 'ship(s).
Day 20 Your favorite villain.
Day 21 Favorite location.
Day 22 Thoughts on wizard rock.
Day 23 Character you think you are most like.
Day 24 Horcruxes vs. Hallows?
Day 25 Something you wish JKR had written about more.
Day 26 Marauders vs. Snape.
Day 27 The Invisibility Cloak, The Resurrection Stone or The Elder Wand.
Day 28 The Next Generation.
Day 29 How have you participated in the fandom over the years?
Day 30 In general, the effects of Harry Potter on your life.

Comments

[miss-morland.livejournal.com]

Heh, I don't think I've ever seen any of the cut scenes, but they sound like fun! I'm with you about the adverbs, though (she agreed willingly).

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen all, but as they tend to cut out teacher scenes, I'm rather fond of a few.

[minervas-eule.livejournal.com]

Yes, the admirable thing about the books are all those interspersed remarks or things that will resurface or have a meaning later.... no film can ever capture that.

I never realized any out of the ordinary about adverbs either - if there really are so unusually many, I find them charming, I like them to be thrown at me... very educational *LOL*.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Even as I was rereading the chapter, I didn't notice. But then they crept into my own writing. And my beta was right; they were quite unnecessary. Not that I'm JKR, so they're probably a lot better in canon.

[kellychambliss.livejournal.com]

"Of course," she said musingly, "one could argue that adverbs in fanfic are essential if one is trying to echo JKR's style."

Ruminatively, she continued, "At first reading of the books, I only vaguely noticed the adverbs; it's only on rereading that they seemed glaring to me. I like them more than some people, but I agree that JKR needed a little blue-pencilling in that area." (Elmore Leonard, for instance, says that they should never be used at all, but you don't have to listen to him. Personally, I'm not all that fond of Elmore Leonard's neo-Hemingway terseness.)

When one of the books came out (HBP, I think, or OoP), Stephen King wrote an article about how much he liked the series. He did note writing some flaws, though, particularly the adverbs, which he said were "always the mark of the amateur." As soon as I finished reading the essay, I went back to my own writing and was surprised to see how many unnecessary ones I had. I killed probably a hundred of them. But I won't do away with them entirely. It's all a matter of balance, purpose, need.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

"You've put it in a nutshell again," she replied admiringly. And I wouldn't do away with them completely, but my beta was quite right.

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

Ah, it was Irma besides Sybil in that scene? I always took the woman to be Septima... I love that ice-cream scene, too, it's just awesome *giggle*.

The scene where Dame Maggie comments on the dancing scene with Rupert ended up in a fic, too. Oh yes, indeed! One of my most favourite lines of Minerva is this one: "On Christmas Night, we and our guests gather in the great hall for a night of well-mannered frivolity." I want to write EPICS about that well-mannered frivolity...

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Great idea, let's have epic, well-mannered frivolity.

[tetleythesecond]

"Ah, but your take on the wine and Irma scene is ever so much more alluring!" she cried out lustily.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

"Thank you for the lovely compliment," she smiled coyly. And I can never read 'lustily', however innocently used, without thinking of The Coven.