(no subject)

[camwyn]

Am working on next part of Hellblazer: Hogwarts. Have just realised that I am about to hit a very touchy subject.

Please be aware, when the segment gets posted, that I do not take acts of terrorism lightly. But we are talking about a post-OotP Potterverse here, and that means the war with Voldemort is on, and Voldie achieved most of his gains by killing people who stood in his way- and by doing so in a fashion that froze everyone else's veins with fear.

I've seen the X-ray poster of that little kid in London (I think) who was hit by a nail bomb last year or the year before. I was at Ground Zero on September 11th and 12th. I'm not using this kind of thing casually... it's just that, given Voldemort's track record of prior tactics, this is the kind of thing I believe he'd do.

It'll make more sense when I get this segment written, but I wanted the air cleared beforehand.

Comments

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound odd, but good for you for including it. Many people think "Oh, no, can't include that, it's a sensitive subject..." Well, sorry to disappoint such people, but nasty things happen in real life and fiction should reflect that. I know you're not going to treat a serious topic in a frivolous manner and that's *my* yardstick, so you measure up just fine.

[northstar83.livejournal.com]

write what you need too hun.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Write what you need to write, for the integrity of the story.

[camwyn]

That's the trouble with writing about John Constantine. When he's around, innocent people die. Usually horribly.

A good friend who works at my local comic book store told me, when I first mentioned H:H to him, that I really only had to remember two things to write John successfully:

1. The events of the "Dangerous Habits" story arc, because that said just about everything that needed saying about his personality; and

2. Everyone who has ever called him friend, with the possible exception of Chas, dies. Or has already died.

Given that he's in a universe where a magical war is on, and that nothing dreadful's happened beyond his cigarettes getting eaten, he's long overdue for something horrid. It wouldn't be a proper Hellblazer story if that didn't happen, you know?

[camwyn]

I don't believe in using such things lightly, and as far as possible I try to avoid using them in fiction- but only as far as possible. If a terrorist act of some kind is the most logical and thematically appropriate thing to have happen in a given situation, then it would distort the story to do otherwise.

I was about to say that if this were a pure Harry Potter fanfic instead of a crossover with Hellblazer it might not be necessary, that a simple murder or supernatural atrocity might do better- and then I remembered that Peter Pettigrew was essentially a suicide bomber who lived.

[camwyn]

Thank you, m'dear. Much appreciated.

(BTW, got out the Canadian Animagus Board story I was working on some time back and did a little more with it. Need to reread the bit in PoA where Pettigrew changes from rat to human before I go any further.)

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

I agree that one should avoid them if they are not needed. You only need to look at any MarySue rape story to see why. *cringe*

[camwyn]

Yeah... or that bint reported at deleterius whose character 'wanted attention', so she set off a bunch of bombs in Diagon Alley on September 11th. John's had people break into his apartment and attempt purely mundane murder on anyone who happens to be there as an attempt to intimidate him, though. Bad things follow him around. So... I hope this comes out as not gratuitous.

We'll see when it's finished.

[batyatoon]

(*icon-love!*)

[batyatoon]

Tim Hunter hasn't died yet, unless I'm very badly out of the loop.

O'course, John has done young Tim the good turn of staying mostly out of his life.

[camwyn]

Hm, you're right, to my knowledge he hasn't died. Although he did put in a distressing appearance in the Hellblazer five issue arc that just ended. Dunno what his condition was after the problem ended...

But no, Tim hasn't died. I guess my friend at the shop forgot about that.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

...Oh. I never really considered that people would object to Voldemort doing things like that (I'd figured random acts of terror were incredibly canon, what with the blowing up of people and the muggle-killings often referenced to in the books). I'm writing a few yeard post MWPP and included a random act of terror on the part of the Death Eaters without much of a thought. Especially since the Lexicon pegged the series as set in the nineties, so 9/11 and such wouldn't have any significance (and since terrorism has been around much longer and is much more prevalent in Europe).

Is there any reason in particular you think that this subject/portrayal could be especially touchy?

[camwyn]

Mostly because, in the real world, people in England occasionally feel that the way to get their point across is by blowing stuff up in a way that harms completely uninvolved people. I don't want to come off sounding like I'm making light of real-world terrorism. The most powerful print ad I think I've ever seen was a British poster from some years back (either last year or the year before, I think). Some bastard had been planting nail bombs in public places, and one of the victims was a kid. The poster consisted of an X-ray of the child's head - with the nail still in place, above the eye - under the words, "WHO DID THIS?".

There were other words on the poster, smaller ones, down towards the bottom where they explained the situation. But that poster's always stayed with me.

It's one thing for JKR to write about people getting blown up or killed for getting in Voldemort's way. She lives over there, and she probably knows people who've faced such terrible things. My only encounter with such scenes, as I said, was Ground Zero the first two days. I do not want to reduce the magnitude of other people's tragedy by saying 'hmm, this would make a dandy subject for a piece of fiction'. I guess what I'm trying to say is: I may be invoking terrorism in a form closer to the real world than JKR normally does, but I am still taking it seriously.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

Oh! you mean rather than "Oooh! Hey! Plot device! Lookie here!"

[camwyn]

Yep, exactly.

[kemayo.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely. I lived in England until a bit over a year ago. Until fairly recently IRA bombs were a reasonably common thing. Granted, they were often fairly good about calling in a threat long enough beforehand that people could get out....

But yes. England has been in an unofficial low-level war with Southern Ireland for around ninety-five years, now. Voldermort attacks were probably being explained away as IRA bombs quite a bit, in the Potterverse.

(On a random note, I wish we'd see some Muggle character who isn't totally one-dimensional in the coming books....)

[northstar83.livejournal.com]

lemme know i loved that story!

[genarti]

a) Uh-oh.

b) I'm glad you're aware of the issues of using such heavy stuff in the story. But I'm also glad you're going ahead and doing it, because if that's what the story demands then it's cheating yourself, the reader, and your own creative integrity to whitewash it to avoid offending anyone.

[quintus.livejournal.com]

To be fair, in the case of the Warrington nailbombing (a nasty business that some people I knew missed by one bus) it's more of a case of people from a part of Britain that would rather not be part of Britain hopping on a ferry and coming over to England to spread their little message of joy to a populace that would probably be just as happy if said portion of the United Kingdom sank into the Atlantic and improved the surfing on the Welsh coast as a happy side effect.
The English don't tend to go in for bombs in bins, something the population of Dublin are probably grateful for.

re: Tim Hunter being not dead

[hohaiyee.livejournal.com]

I think he was kinda like John's second chance of not screwing up like he did with the New Castle crew, specifically, Benjamin Cox (http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/characters/foy/newcrew.html), who sounded like he had a lot of potential " the young arcane genius and walking magical dictionary", before being DEAD, also, the near crippling stutter after the New Castle incident.

After reading "New Castle: A Taste of Things To Come", well, John's reaction in Books of Magic just has that much more depth, when, after they realised that Mister E won't be coming back with Tim, John angrily announced that there won't be a next time because he won't be getting involved again.