fuck me sideways

[labellementeuse]

OK now. Of all the characters in fiction everywhere, Hermione Granger is the least likely in practically the entire WORLD to change her name upon marriage. She is career-motivated, widely-read, self-sufficient, politically aware and ACTIVE, and for fuck's sake, if that wasn't enough, she's marrying someone with FIVE LIVING MALE SIBLINGS.

Why is my fiction reading life so difficult, people.

Second question: do I get to count novel-length fics as 'books read'? I just read an epic Draco/Neville fic that I'm seriously considering counting even though I've never done that before. Thoughts? It was solidly novel-length, though I'm not sure how many words (averaging out a few chapters I would say it's about 150k, which is nearly four nebula novels; HP&tDH is apparently just under 200k and HP&tPS apparently 80k.) So it's the same amount of words as a novel. And they were pretty decent words, I guess. So... well, I don't know, you tell me.

PS I really mean it about Hermione.

Comments

[labellementeuse]

And to clarify that so it's a bit less offensive. When I read a fic where a character like Hermione is changing her name, I tend to think two things:

1. The person writing this fic is a person who would choose to change her name, and for whatever reason has not bothered to apply whatever they know about Hermione herself to this decision, and so it has been written in a throwaway line. Apart from anything else, this perpetuates a mindset I dislike, and will generally ruin a fic for me, because it reinforces the idea that changing the name is automatic, rather than a decision that is made (this is true even in fic where Hermione is not a significant character.)

2. When I speak to women my age, or about a decade older than myself, and especially women like Hermione, about changing their names, they will typically justify their decision to change their name - that is to say, they are aware of it as a decision they have made, not something they did automatically. When Hermione in a fic in which she is a main character chooses to change her name with no explanation of that, I find it annoying for all of the reasons above. On the other hand, some people do offer reasons, and they tend to be the same reasons that women who I speak to offer: they don't see a distinction between their husband's name and their father's name (a rationale that, I think Hermione would agree with me, could just as easily recommend the idea of changing her name to Parker Bowles); their husband is traditional and it was a deal-breaker for them, or even more mildly their husband preferred it; their husband has no male siblings to carry on the name (although I don't find this especially convincing since children tend to take the father's name, as unnatural as I find this); they particularly disliked their last name or particularly liked their partner's; they are lesbian and wanted to make a statement. There are one or two others but they generally are similar to these. And most of these just aren't applicable to Hermione - she's never had a problem with her name which is in any case a lot prettier than Weasley; he has tonnes of male siblings; she's generally heterosexual (at least in the stuff I'm complaining about). etc. The only ones that really apply are 'pressure from the partner', which is the point at which I start getting extremely upset, because we actually don't have an opinion from Ron (or anyone in the books) on that and there is absolutely no need for him to want Hermione to have his name. It's just not a matter that I think is intrinsic. So I read it as forcing the issue and get mad.

I hope you read this one before the other one because it was written in haste!

[jeeps]

lol, i did read the other one first and was like, "RAR!" but i find the second comment to be a satisfactory explanation. i agree that most western women will actively make that choice at some time in their lives, and hermione especially would give it significant thought. though i would argue that ron is often not the most progressive person in the books. he's the one most annoyed with hermione re: s.p.e.w., he acts the most scandalized when he finds out certain characters aren't fully human (adhering to wizarding society's prejudices), such as with lupin and hagrid, and then there's this little gem —

‘I told you!’ Ron hissed at Hermione, as she stared down at the article. ‘I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She’s made you out to be some sort of — of scarlet woman!’

Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter.

‘Scarlet woman?’ she repeated, shaking with suppressed giggles as she looked round at Ron.

‘It’s what my mum calls them,’ Ron muttered, his ears going red again.

— which is hysterical, but also telling: his first inclination is to blame hermione for someone else essentially calling her a slut, and he clearly hasn't thought much about that beyond his mother's old-fashioned views. so i can easily imagine ron taking issue with the name thing. and maybe wondering if it's because hermione would be ashamed to be a weasley or something equally ridiculous. BUT, i think that's also an argument hermione would win. if she did take her husband's name, i don't think it would ever be because of pressure from his side, because i don't think that would be a good enough reason for her.