I am curious how you are able to make crazy indepth reads of HxH characters (I am a huge fan aswell and I continually look for analyzations like yours to understand Togashi’s writing better). Do you have any tips or guides, suggestions? I am similar age and study english, but nothing this in-depth in my classes (in my opinion). Thank you
I Aw, shucks! I appreciate that, anon. As far as suggestions go, I’d say that the most helpful things for me with regards to analysis and meta and stuff have been doing a lot of reading, both fandom and professional, and seeking out other people who do analysis and review. I’ve always been a big reader, so certain plot points and character archetypes become recognizable over time, and that helps a lot with forming analysis about character foils, parallels, plot twists, etc. As well as deeper analysis about the story as a whole. One of my creative writing professors made a point that, by and large, stories can be reduced (as one might reduce a lovely sauce) to a single, central question. Will the One Ring be destroyed? Yes. Will Voldemort be defeated? Yes. Will Elizabeth and Darcy get together? Yes. And the more complex layers of storytelling are laid upon that foundation.
Oops I Wrote A Lot Here’s A Read More
Now, I don’t think that holds true 100%, but I do think that it can be useful to look at a storyline or character and pare it down to the basics. “Why is this in the story?” is a good question to ask. In good writing, everything has a purpose that serves the story as a whole. For all the problems in Harry Potter, for example, the story structure is very tight and the characters have clear arcs with satisfying, meaningful payoffs. Generally. Anyway, it’s a good one to learn about plot threads with.
Fandom-wise, I think that the most eye-opening analytical stuff I’ve seen has been either in that same vein (eg. meta about Harry’s coping with trauma in book 5) or been about media representation. Questioning why characters are written the way they are, what agendas are hidden or betrayed by the narrative, etc. Abandon ‘Death of the Author’ for a bit and delve into how an author’s mindset is revealed by their writing.
For me, the best thing, though, was getting into Lit classes where we focused on one book. For the whole time. That was great, because having a discussion on ~one chapter each week gives far more time to dig into writing techniques, syntax, word choice, and story beats than if you had to read the whole book in a rush. I adored being in a class on Nabokov’s Lolita, and it’s still among my favorite reads. That book is great to pick apart, because the question at its heart isn’t “Will Humbert Humbert abuse Lolita?”, the question is “Will Humbert Humbert’s narration sway you, the reader, to sympathize with him?”. There are so many tiny details to pick up... Nabokov really Did That. Another good read is his Pale Fire, and that one has less... confronting subject matter. So if you can get into discussions like that, I highly recommend it.
Also, for fun, YouTube reviews of bad stuff babyyyy I really like the channel Folding Ideas (though he does more movie-focused stuff), hbomberguy’s Sherlock is Garbage, And Here’s Why is both hilarious and really detailed as to why certain parts (read: all of it) fall flat and I’ll swallow my pride and admit to watching Digibro’s anime analysis stuff (Sword Art Online, Asterisk War) for kicks, he makes some good points.
Um... that’s all I can think of right now. I hope that was at least somewhat helpful? My last point is that when doing analysis for fun, I just don’t bother writing about stuff that’s not interesting to me personally. For more educational or professional contexts there’s merit in finding a way to work with material that’s dull, but like, if I’m writing about HxH in my free time I’m not gonna write about Chrollo. I just don’t like him and I wouldn’t enjoy it. So when stretching your meta-writing muscles, just don’t strain yourself, the pain could well do more harm than good. There, a nice metaphor to cap off this long ass post.
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