~~the precious things. precioussssss....
Feb. 14th, 2003 02:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkathe art submitted for the armchair valentine's day challenge makes me kind of glad i didn't try to (well, i guess i still could send in what i have, but...), since... there are gods among us. also, some mere mortals. i am definitely one of the latter. the ones that kill me are by the people whose art -always- kills me, so i guess it's not that weird, huh. (meaning, basically, alice, who is pretty much godlike, i agree (i mean, this might be my favorite h/d picture EVEReverevereverever, and that's saying a lot), and ndi of course, mawaridi, ali & ryo0ki).
but when i said "favorite" that didn't mean "most fuzzy/happy/delightful" because i think my delight kind of flitters and lands on whatever catches my fancy.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nefeleo's h/d valentine presently has my fancy. hee. am so fickle ><;;
~~
penelope_z said something in a comment in olympia's journal that i had in the back of my mind but not articulated before quite clearly enough.
I have to say I enjoy reading an everyday scene, something usual and mundane in an emotional and intense way, and reading about BIG events, like death in an understated and colder way. The combination of big situations and big feelings annoys me, the lack of restraint.
the reason i adore stories is as much because of the things they leave unsaid as the things they say, and i think it all depends on the careful application of knowledge, scattered in certain grooves and corners. so that reading feels like a process of discovery, of uncovering, and the world is filled with wonder, with new possibility. both the modes she mentioned involve the use of the reader's imagination, which is what i think the secret is, if there was a secret.
i mean, certainly not giving enough detail makes the made-up world seem flat and dull, whereas too much detail and exposition clutters it and separates you from what you're reading about. this is, i think, something often mentioned in writing classes and so on. like, i think in almost any character-building how-to book you'd have, "and don't catalogue a characters physical appearance to the point where the reader -knows- that it's say, `george benson' and not -them-, and all hope of identification is lost".
that's probably part of the problem with mary sues.
but yes. it's just, this explains why i have such affection for the kinds of stories where you have both sensualism and restraint. in that way it approaches poetry, where you have economy and balance of form and function.
also: it is painful, to me anyway, to read "deep angst" when it's not my otp, unless it's really, really brilliant. simply because i think it kind of demands you -care-. and i suppose if you care about a character, you'd care no matter who they were with, but that's not quite true. it's strange, i guess, that while in one pairing i would obsess over say, harry's fate, but in another, he could die and i would be like... next?
so, reason number 329873 i don't like deathfic: it feels rather disconcerting realizing you just don't care. this would probably have to do with the quality of the writing (as usual) and i shouldn't blame the type of fic. but some things don't require as much skill as others. ok, so what are those things... er. well, i don't know. sandwiches. anyone could write about sandwiches. there you go. also, balloons, gorillas and evil teddybears. anyone can write about severus snape holding a teddybear and wishing to kill. or not.
i think an interesting parallel to people who have "issues" clinging to a certain image of their own private fanon are people who don't like fanfiction in the first place, and "sullying of canon". i wonder if most people who read/write fanfic in the first place are more naturally challenging and interactive with the things they read. like, there's a desire to ask "what if" and to play with possibilities and to wish that something for something other than what happened. a certain openness and flexibility that makes you likely to seek out alternatives. i mean, people say, "but i needed something to do till the next book came out".... and okay. i myself have never felt that-- i just wait for years and years for the next book, if i have to. i may not be as excited and run to get it when it comes out, but it just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't-- well, the same.
and again, i'm wondering if my wibbling should really be blamed on the writing quality. if it's really good it's hard to pretend i don't like it. if it's -really bad- i'm just pretending if i say it was satisfying to read it, otp or not. i've read snape/harry without balking before. (hell, i've read ron/draco without balking before, eheheh). maybe i'm just annoyed when someone makes into a sort of snarky rivalry, except it's icky because this is his professor and standing up to him is one thing, flirting with him is quite another. or maybe i'm just cranky ><
~~
intellislasher or not, i care not,serious_black now has her fics archived and i was so happy i think i could've shed a tear. `6 ways of unpinning a butterfly' is now archived. as well as several of slytherlynx's fics. the world is a better place.
and btw, amalin wrote beautiful percy/draco (yep, percy/draco). i am simultaneously tingly and disturbed. then again, this is the girl who turned me onto tom/hagrid, so basically i'll read anything she writes ^^
but when i said "favorite" that didn't mean "most fuzzy/happy/delightful" because i think my delight kind of flitters and lands on whatever catches my fancy.
nefeleo's h/d valentine presently has my fancy. hee. am so fickle ><;;~~
penelope_z said something in a comment in olympia's journal that i had in the back of my mind but not articulated before quite clearly enough. I have to say I enjoy reading an everyday scene, something usual and mundane in an emotional and intense way, and reading about BIG events, like death in an understated and colder way. The combination of big situations and big feelings annoys me, the lack of restraint.
the reason i adore stories is as much because of the things they leave unsaid as the things they say, and i think it all depends on the careful application of knowledge, scattered in certain grooves and corners. so that reading feels like a process of discovery, of uncovering, and the world is filled with wonder, with new possibility. both the modes she mentioned involve the use of the reader's imagination, which is what i think the secret is, if there was a secret.
i mean, certainly not giving enough detail makes the made-up world seem flat and dull, whereas too much detail and exposition clutters it and separates you from what you're reading about. this is, i think, something often mentioned in writing classes and so on. like, i think in almost any character-building how-to book you'd have, "and don't catalogue a characters physical appearance to the point where the reader -knows- that it's say, `george benson' and not -them-, and all hope of identification is lost".
that's probably part of the problem with mary sues.
but yes. it's just, this explains why i have such affection for the kinds of stories where you have both sensualism and restraint. in that way it approaches poetry, where you have economy and balance of form and function.
also: it is painful, to me anyway, to read "deep angst" when it's not my otp, unless it's really, really brilliant. simply because i think it kind of demands you -care-. and i suppose if you care about a character, you'd care no matter who they were with, but that's not quite true. it's strange, i guess, that while in one pairing i would obsess over say, harry's fate, but in another, he could die and i would be like... next?
so, reason number 329873 i don't like deathfic: it feels rather disconcerting realizing you just don't care. this would probably have to do with the quality of the writing (as usual) and i shouldn't blame the type of fic. but some things don't require as much skill as others. ok, so what are those things... er. well, i don't know. sandwiches. anyone could write about sandwiches. there you go. also, balloons, gorillas and evil teddybears. anyone can write about severus snape holding a teddybear and wishing to kill. or not.
i think an interesting parallel to people who have "issues" clinging to a certain image of their own private fanon are people who don't like fanfiction in the first place, and "sullying of canon". i wonder if most people who read/write fanfic in the first place are more naturally challenging and interactive with the things they read. like, there's a desire to ask "what if" and to play with possibilities and to wish that something for something other than what happened. a certain openness and flexibility that makes you likely to seek out alternatives. i mean, people say, "but i needed something to do till the next book came out".... and okay. i myself have never felt that-- i just wait for years and years for the next book, if i have to. i may not be as excited and run to get it when it comes out, but it just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't-- well, the same.
and again, i'm wondering if my wibbling should really be blamed on the writing quality. if it's really good it's hard to pretend i don't like it. if it's -really bad- i'm just pretending if i say it was satisfying to read it, otp or not. i've read snape/harry without balking before. (hell, i've read ron/draco without balking before, eheheh). maybe i'm just annoyed when someone makes into a sort of snarky rivalry, except it's icky because this is his professor and standing up to him is one thing, flirting with him is quite another. or maybe i'm just cranky ><
~~
intellislasher or not, i care not,
serious_black now has her fics archived and i was so happy i think i could've shed a tear. `6 ways of unpinning a butterfly' is now archived. as well as several of slytherlynx's fics. the world is a better place. and btw, amalin wrote beautiful percy/draco (yep, percy/draco). i am simultaneously tingly and disturbed. then again, this is the girl who turned me onto tom/hagrid, so basically i'll read anything she writes ^^
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 12:33 am (UTC)Haha, that's so true. I don't even care when Harry or Draco die. I'm just like, "That's pathetic," and I go read something else. The main reason I don't like deathfic though is because I've never read one that isn't just...
(Harry or Draco): ANGST.
(Draco or Harry): Oh no (Harry or Draco)!
(Harry or Draco): ANGST.
(Draco or Harry): Oh no (Harry or Draco)!
(Harry or Draco): *falls out of a tower*
(Draco or Harry): MOURN.
Which seems, to me, to be like a sort of an easy-way-out for the writer so that you don't have to come up with an actual ending. Besides which, it's also a cheap way to treat a subject which really deserves more depth than Angst, Oh-no, Angst, Oh-no, Suicide, Mourn.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-15 12:37 pm (UTC)there -is- deathfic where it works and is part of the plot.
ie... er... hamlet, eheheh. or romeo and juliet. or whatever.
but usually, bleh, it's all playing with the reader's emotions and i HATE THAT. if you're going to play with my emotions, at least don't make it so bloody obvious, eheheh.
there simply has to be a good reason for someone to die in a fic if they're a main character. something that the story is -saying- by having that person die. not just, "ok, excuse for ANGST, muwahahahah".
although, it'd be fun to write a story that's All About the Angst.
like, i'd do everything possible to be the Saddest Story Ever.
people would be crying continuously. by the end snot would be runnng down their chin and they wouldn't even notice.
though...
that could be going too far in the name of science, i dunno ><;;
no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 01:04 am (UTC)but yes, alice/batz of the mad inking skillz.
wah. if i built altars, lemme tell you.... ^^;
no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 03:21 am (UTC)Hm. The only three canons that I have any interest in fanfiction - two I heard about the fanon before I ever heard about the canon (Smallville and Highlander) and one the canon's not particularly good and very much a bare canvas (partly because of JKR'S style and partly because her kids are too young to have had relationships or any kind of fixed sexualities yet). One of the reasons, I think, why I am not at all interested in BtVS fanfiction is because the relationships on the show have always satisfied me, whatever they happened to be at the time. So for me, anyway, it's not about "I love it so much, I need more"; it's about "This was vaguely unsatisfying. But it has potential." Or I hear about the fanon first and I approach it with "GIVE ME CLEX!" or "GIVE ME DUNCAN/METHOS!" Of course, with SV I ended up not liking CLex much when I did see the show, but you've already heard that story.
(If that happens with HL, with the amount of money I've spent on it, I'm just going to die. But it won't. I've read transcripts and seen vids and watched one episode and read some fanfiction and they are my OTP beyond all other OTPs and dammit the scratch on my neck is about to bleed
Okay, I need to go home now. Sorry. Am in state.)
no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 09:08 am (UTC)wish there was anything i could do. *wibbles*
it's perfectly understandable, though, because i'm pretty unemotional too, most of the time (comparatively to what people probably think, i'm virtually mr spock), but shock is something it's impossible to have a defense against. it's okay if you can't go back to normal right away, you know. it's probably okay to not even go online and just be somewhere safe with tea and blankets in it ^^
gah. i hope being online is somewhat relaxing, even though it usually isn't for me. and i'm sending warm & safe vibes your way, if it helps anything -.-
eep.
*hugs*
oh, and yah, i'm like that too (re: the fandom thing). i was just wondering what the overall "trend" was~:)
no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 04:27 pm (UTC)posted it on top of the first part ><;; hee
but i can er... here (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=reenka&itemid=78190#cutid2). *bounces*
at least this means that you didn't hate it so much you couldn't say anything for fear of mortally offending me >:D
no subject
Date: 2003-02-14 04:28 pm (UTC)wah. i was going to say.... er... i can use some ideas. as to where you think it should/could go. you know. er. as far as ... plot (*laughs*)