ext_70951 ([identity profile] catherinecookmn.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] foudebassan 2007-07-31 12:29 am (UTC)

Know who Snape's always reminded me of? Sherlock Holmes.

Let's do the rundown, shall we?

Tall, thin, smart, waspish men, good with chemicals, aquiline noses, and far more admired by readers than their creator.

In fact (and I'll dispense with the white font since there are visible spoilers already), both were killed off by their creators -- but both have been resurrected by their fans. In fact, the fans of Holmes forced Conan Doyle to revive him by the simple expedient of refusing to buy anything he wrote that wasn't Holmes-related. Doyle was forced to do "past remininscences" of Dr. Watson's, predating the fall at Reichenbach, in order to get the fans to start buying his stuff again -- he was already a very rich man, but it just frosted him to think that by snuffing Holmes he'd snuffed his own career as a writer -- and finally gave up and brought back Holmes, alive, from Reichenbach.

One of the things that got him to revive Holmes was the competition from that era's fanfictioneers, who wrote what were called "pastiches" in which Holmes not only survived, but thrived. So don't be surprised if Rowling winds up being forced, after a few years, into a similar reappraisal of the hero whose merits were seen best by his readers.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting