If your problem is with me writing that, then you should probably find a different fandom.
Can I just how much I love that this fandom totally fucking owns the fact the source canon is so rife with issues like this? The way people explore and talk about and include in fic these problems and transform them into riveting reading is great.
1) Butcher is really, really good at writing three-dimensional, flawed characters with issues and problems, including an unreliable narrator who not everyone is going to like.
2) Butcher is actually misogynistic/ablist/other and doesn't even realize he's tainting at least his narrator with his views.
I tend to lean towards 1 for my sanity and so I can keep reading without kind of hating Butcher for building this intricate world and polluting it with author prejudices. Intentional or not, I always find flawed characters interesting to read. Of course, my definition of a flawed character is pretty precise: not "single negative character trait and very few traits in general," those are stereotypes. I don't think Dresden fits perfectly into any stereotype, though I'd probably call him a medieval romance knight if you made me pick one, with a dash of film noir detective if I was allowed secondary traits. He actually is a lot more than that, though...
And I'm getting into meta/discussion. So I'll just leave it at: yes, there are lots of problems in DF, and I'm aware of many of them, as is much of fandom. But I'd argue that it improves the realism of the world without making it hateful.
I would argue one and two are not mutually exclusive and Butcher portrays his characters as flawed and complicated but also has issues in his own writing. But that's me.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Fic: Whatever You Want [1/?]
Date: 2011-02-19 02:10 am (UTC)Can I just how much I love that this fandom totally fucking owns the fact the source canon is so rife with issues like this? The way people explore and talk about and include in fic these problems and transform them into riveting reading is great.
:chinhands at everyone:
Re: Fic: Whatever You Want [1/?]
Date: 2011-02-19 07:10 am (UTC)You know, I look at it as one of two things:
1) Butcher is really, really good at writing three-dimensional, flawed characters with issues and problems, including an unreliable narrator who not everyone is going to like.
2) Butcher is actually misogynistic/ablist/other and doesn't even realize he's tainting at least his narrator with his views.
I tend to lean towards 1 for my sanity and so I can keep reading without kind of hating Butcher for building this intricate world and polluting it with author prejudices. Intentional or not, I always find flawed characters interesting to read. Of course, my definition of a flawed character is pretty precise: not "single negative character trait and very few traits in general," those are stereotypes. I don't think Dresden fits perfectly into any stereotype, though I'd probably call him a medieval romance knight if you made me pick one, with a dash of film noir detective if I was allowed secondary traits. He actually is a lot more than that, though...
And I'm getting into meta/discussion. So I'll just leave it at: yes, there are lots of problems in DF, and I'm aware of many of them, as is much of fandom. But I'd argue that it improves the realism of the world without making it hateful.
Re: Fic: Whatever You Want [1/?]
Date: 2011-02-19 07:12 am (UTC)Re: Fic: Whatever You Want [1/?]
Date: 2011-02-19 07:22 am (UTC)