Comment on An Hysterical Situation

  1. justonemoreartist on Chapter 4 Thu 19 Feb 2015 02:50PM UTC

    Ah, but see she's not actually disgusted. Anna, whose perspective we are seeing this story through and whose views, biases, and history with Elsa colors her reaction and reading of events, thinks that Elsa is disgusted.

    What's important to remember is that this is an Anna set just after the loss of her parents. Remember that short scene during "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" when 15 year old Anna comes racing past Elsa's door, pauses, and then walks on? Remember her singing to Elsa through the door about being there for her while still wrapped in mourning? This is an Anna with enough history in expecting Elsa to reject her time and again but without the nearness of the promise that the coronation party brings in finding a smidgen of happiness. This is an Anna who wants to be with her sister, who in intrigued by her, and yet is still dominated by her own personal feelings of failure and inability to understand or interact with her sister on a meaningful basis ("If it had been my sister...yeesh! But lucky for you, it's just me" - "just me"). This is also an Anna who is around 16-17 and so is even more of a teenager, with their exaggerated responses to things, than we saw in the movie. That's why she freaks out at the thought of Elsa finding out...and then she discovers that Elsa's not really mad. The point is that we see this fic from Anna's perspective, and that perspective is wrong in many ways, some more or less subtle. If you read this fic while understanding that its narrator is interpreting things in ways that might not be right, then you can start to see those places where Anna presumes something when the evidence is too ambiguous, or points in another direction. This becomes especially clear when you get to the part where Elsa correctly claims that hysteria isn't real.

    Does that help you out some? I don't want to give away too much because I think it's far more fun to uncover things yourself. But I'm glad you're asking these questions because it's important for me to understand the reader's reaction in order to broaden my own perspective. While I do think I have some justification for ending things the way they are, your interpretation isn't necessarily wrong and I'm glad you took the time to think about the things you didn't understand. I'm still learning and growing as a writer, and that means stumbling around a lot, so thank you for giving me your perspective on this.

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    1. Pyt (Guest) on Chapter 4 Thu 19 Feb 2015 07:37PM UTC

      Okay, that helps heaps. I wasn't sure if it was the whole biased narrator thing. But now that clears some things up.

      Also disgust wasn't the exact word I was looking for, and now that the narrative is biased in my mind it's disgust towards herself kinda thing, like she needed to remove herself from the situation as opposed to Anna.

      And don't give my poor understanding too much weight. I'm one of those people that get things like maths easy, but when it comes to some philosophical concept or subtle technique in writing I'm downright retarded (also, some words elude my mind. Like I know the word I'm thinking of exists but I can't remember it, hence using 'disgust' when I was going for something else. Gah.)

      It ends up like a double whammy, because I won't understand something (or even realise it's there) and then I won't be able to properly/fully ask about it.

      Thanks for taking the time to respond :)

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