(no subject)

[reenka]

If you'd asked maybe a year ago, I'd have said my favorite H/D fic was `Brief Interval before the Resumption of Play' by Audrey. It is lyrical, focused, and... really hot. It also broke my heart into a million tiny pieces by the end when I first read it; and besides, it wasn't a WIP.

H/D was always about the raw, unleashed passion for me. I suppose I really don't care about the "plot" or even the characterization, as long as the intensity is there, and the angst (etc) is well-written. And most people... don't deliver. To me, the pairing doesn't quite work if it's not... somewhat insane, all-consuming, ragged and always on the verge of collapse. I don't care what clever rationalization the fic comes up with for -why- Draco is now "worthy" of Harry (or vice versa!) It turns me off, if anything. Everyone wants to -explain- somehow, and that's just so fruitless. You can never explain these insane sorts of things. You can't show how Draco's "better" now, thus Harry would want him. Doesn't work that way.

I think I read mostly for emotion. Nothing feels -real- to me unless the emotional index is high, and the sense of emotional urgency is there. I think I'm like some sort of emotional high junkie or something, but with H/D it doesn't -work- any other way. Draco doesn't -work- for me if he's not burning alive inside, if it's not a humorfic.

I'm trying to read `A Thousand Beautiful Things', and honestly... eh. I could take it or leave it, and I haven't even finished the first chapter. Everyone goes on about the nice mature style & plottiness of the recent finished H/D novels, but who cares about mature style? I can always read published authors if I wanted to. I read fanfic because of my emotional investment, I guess, and it doesn't get fulfilled by reasonable characterizations and plausible conclusions.

Audrey's fic is great 'cause it celebrates the implausible. It's like a lovepoem, the whole way through, except... not. I want that burning bittersweet ephemeral thing. That kick. That sense of hopeless yearning. What's a love story if it doesn't rip you open?

So what should I read? I haven't read `Tissue of Silver' or `Transfigurations' or `Invisible to See'. I'm painfully tired of seeing Draco described as "noble" or having it be Post-Hogwarts so we don't have to deal with messy nastiness or underage wizards or whatever. I want messy nastiness, dammit. Wah.

Comments

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

Don't read Transfigurations -- not because I didn't like it personally whereas a lot of other folks did, but because I think it will bother you for the same reasons it bothered me. Basically, Draco changes his entire personality before the story begins. He is friends with Hermione and Ron, teaches Muggle Studies, calls McGonagall "Kitty," etc. Harry has also come out of the closet and has a former Native American boyfriend named Sunday Conesky.

All this is justified by it being a future-fic, which I guess makes sense, but this is why I like Hogwarts-era fics.

Invisible to See -- you might like. Hogwarts-era. Features out-of-the-closet!Draco, though. Mostly UST.

Tissue of Silver -- another post-Hogwarts fic. It features a very self-contained Draco and I think Harry has a big crush on him (it's been a while since I read it, so I may be wrong about the last bit). It's more of a detective story than a romance, if I remember correctly. Mostly UST.

The hookups in the last two don't happen until near the end, but the sex is hotter in Invisible to See.

Hmmm ... none of these are my favorites (unfortunately), but that is probably the one you would enjoy most. I will be curious to see what you think, anyway.

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

I will keep thinking because I've read lots of H/D lately. Mostly at FA.

I am assuming you are looking for

longer fics
plotty but messy-relationship-focused (is UST for much of the fic ok?)
Hogwarts-era
?

Have you read Corvette Claire? I think I was probably the last person in fandom to discover Thicker than Blood. I really liked that story (and the WIP sequel even better).

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Thicker than Blood is my favourite guilty pleasure. Seconding this rec!

[malafede.livejournal.com]

There's a bit of the fanon bottom Draco thing you were saying, though...? But he is very unreasonable, at times.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Invisible to See, too. Draco's not noble, exactly. He's mostly... teenaged and traumatized? Also very clumsy at unexpected times.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Oh definitely, Thicker than Blood & Seekers Play Rough are the two non-BNF WIPs I follow these days :> Even when I read nothing else-- not my flist, not UL, nothing-- I read those :> heh. I dunno what it is!! I think they're just emotional, see. The Harry is so... intense, in his semi-romance-novel sort of way :D

Yes. I don't mind UST. I don't even mind if they never get together, if the emotions run high.

I feel vaguely guilty for not having read the hot-to-trot H/D novels everyone keeps linking to, heheh. Although it feels slightly like watching reality shows just because everyone else does ^^;

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

I love Thicker Than Blood. Corvette Claire is an armchair author this month.

I have a very bitter personal grudge against Seekers Play Rough because the author plagiarized entire sections, phrase for phrase, from chapters 5, 7, and 9 of Love Under Will around chapters 5 or 6 or so of her own story. She apologized but never changed the story when I asked her to. I haven't read it since. But I'm twistedly delighted that everyone seems to love the story so much. >:D

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

is Corvette Claire supposed to be some "guilty pleasure" author?

Because I am not really remembering the writing style right now (it was a couple of months ago and, well, I read a LOT), but I remember thinking Adamant and Starlight was well-done.

is the writing purple? because a lot of fics are sort of overwritten in fandom. i mean, most people are writing genre fiction, not literary fiction here.

that pensieve scene at stonehenge (btw, i can never say "stoneHenge," but only "stone'enge," as in Spinal Tap") where the stars seems so enormous and low and pulsing because that's how Draco perceived them ... that was a really powerful and scary image that stuck with me (obviously).

i need to go to armchair slash and check out the discussion.

am so disgusted about seekers play rough ripping you off that i don't really know what to say. why haven't people made a bigger deal out of this?

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Because at the time I did not consider it enough of a big deal to warrant more than an angry letter to the author. I really fully expected her to take it down and rewrite it with a full note of apology because she seemed really upset about the whole thing; when she didn't, I just was sort of boggled, and let it drop because I didn't want to make a big stink and be seen as the BNF attacking the small-name writer.

She let me into some insight about the way she was writing the chapters at the time, though, that completely ruined whatever respect I had for her writing process anyway. I haven't continued to read the story--I had been following it up til I recognized all the plagiarized parts.

Corvette Claire is writing in what I would call the genre style, and I think it gets a bit on the purple side at times, particularly in the romance scenes which is the biggest problem I have with the fic stylistically--but on the whole it's nowhere near as involved or elaborate a style as, say, IP. And I really like her imagery and her characterizations.

But, er, don't go there now because I haven't actually introduced the authors yet, haha. We're having a WIP month so I am selfishly sticking Corvette Claire in with a group that includes other writers of various sorts and styles and ability levels--including Dahlia, which I'm excited about. :) But, um, I still have to write the introduction. Am going to make it for the month of June, so we'll have plenty of time to squee.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

is Corvette Claire supposed to be some "guilty pleasure" author?

Oh,I think I chose the wrong expression. It's like... reading something where you know you should notice minor... jarring detaiils? But not noticing them because you are being sucked right in. I don't know, I always feel guilty when I swoon at descriptions of Draco as an "archangel"! But I love them! :( I'm just too self-conscious, I think.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I totally get that feeling of weirdness, like I should be disliking this more than I am, with the "archangel" stuff. In fact, I get that feeling with most of the fic & its sequel. The Draco is... *coughs*, and the Harry is... yeah, but. It's just so romantical & I'm a sap & I have no excuse, so I just snicker a little. I like fragile pretty angsty Draco too much. I blame Riddle & Antenora & half the fandom, really, ahahah.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Basically, Draco changes his entire personality before the story begins. He is friends with Hermione and Ron, teaches Muggle Studies, calls McGonagall "Kitty," etc. Harry has also come out of the closet and has a former Native American boyfriend named Sunday Conesky.

*opens mouth*

*closes mouth again*

*walks away confused.*

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Why? Have you not read Transfigurations? That's exactly what happens in it.

>:D<

I love Resonant's writing generally, and stylistically and plotwise, it's hard to find a flaw in Transfigurations, but I honestly remain dumbfounded at the liberties she took with characterization, and the way people seem to just adore a story that seems so uncanonical to me. Gah. Don't get me started.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I never have read it! But just seeing those things laid out was like...whaaaa?

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that this is the story that many people call the best H/D in fandom, and a lot of Snapeslashers in particular say, "I don't like H/D as a rule, but Resonant does it so brilliantly!"

This is why some days I wonder why I bother writing fanfic because I just feel so out of step with what people like. Especially because in addition to the characterization issues I have with the story, I have what I guess could be called moral/philosophical ones as well, since every person who has died before the story begins is still present in the story as a ghost or a statue and thus still interacts with the characters, gives them advice, etc. So there is no attempt to come to grips with actual loss at all.

I find that really disturbing. I don't think that fits with JKR's universe, and ... well ... it certainly doesn't fit with mine. I find that as freakish and upsetting as other people find chan, actually. (I had a similar reaction to Tiranog's "A Nick In Time," and that author is someone who constantly preaches to other people about morality and "senseless dark torture wallow fests," so there you go.)

Also, the magic works as -- as I think idlerat put it -- "computerfic." But I realize this is the sort of elaboration that a lot of folks actually enjoy in fanfic ... whereas Geoviki's version seemed more in line with canon to me.

I actually had a different set of issues with Geoviki's fic, but I think a lot of them came down to likes/dislikes. I mean, it's easy for me to make fun of a story that has Draco working as a male model. But then I realized that as somebody whose biggest kink is prostitute!Draco, I really wasn't one to talk. :D

diving off topic.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

I actually had a different set of issues with Geoviki's fic, but I think a lot of them came down to likes/dislikes. I mean, it's easy for me to make fun of a story that has Draco working as a male model. But then I realized that as somebody whose biggest kink is prostitute!Draco, I really wasn't one to talk. :D

You've hit the nail on the head for me here, S, which is that I think different fics call for acceptance on different terms. If I think a fic is worthy of respect because it's written well and has an imaginative plot and well-thought-out characterization, then I can accept it on its own terms, whether that fic is Viki's alternate-view of male model Draco, or whether it's the surreality of a fic like A Brief Interval or Rach's Contrition.

For me Transfiguration didn't work because it set up terms I couldn't accept: it worked as a fic stylistically, and plot-wise it was fine; but it was asking me to accept it as a post-canon depiction of canon characters; and I just couldn't do that. It was too much of a stretch.

Also, for the same reasons that I can't accept the terms of Frances' Resolution as it has developed, I don't feel that I can criticize Frances' story as it has developed; because I feel like she's simply and unapologetically writing a different story than the one I want to read. I could view it as a certain kind of fic that is very very flawed--or as a certain other kind of fic that is quite good. I think that Resolution is the latter kind of fic, but I refuse to accept the terms of that particular kind of fic; so obviously I'm not about to criticize something whose terms I haven't accepted.

A fic like Transfigurations, however, asks more of me in many respects than a fic like Resolution does; and when I've done the work on my end as a reader and met the author halfway, but it still can't convince me that its universe is real, then I view it as a flawed fic.

It seems to me that Reena has chosen not to accept the terms of Viki's fic as you did and as I did as we were reading it. That's fine; but I honestly don't think that if she only got through a chapter of it that she has gained the position or perspective to critique it, or to decide what kind of fic it is. Failure to accept a fic on its terms means you have exerted a very subjective preliminary judgment on the fic as a whole without bothering to delve into it fully to see how much merit your judgments have. And I know that whenever I, personally, do that, I stand in no position to critique the author of the fic or the fic itself. And I don't try.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

...I was just about to defend prostititution!Draco and say he's much more likely than model!Draco but then I just started laughing at myself, ahahahah.
I think it's that rentboy!Draco is more of a characterization thing (like, he's a desperate, slutty bottom-boy or whatever), whereas all the modeling implies is that he's vain (but not necessarily desperate or bottomy). So it's like, not as convincing. Anything that involves desperate-bottom!Draco is well... convincing :D

[malafede.livejournal.com]

...I was just about to defend prostititution!Draco and say he's much more likely than model!Draco but then I just started laughing at myself, ahahahah.

Nothing laughable there, man. You are very correct.

*is slave of own kinks*

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Wow--yeah, I mean, I realize that there are certain things that I like so I'm going to go for even if I couldn't support it canonically. Like, as you say, Prostitute!Draco--though to me that just so naturally flows from canon! Not that it has to *happen* but it seems like one of those subtext-made-text things to me. Far moreso than calling anybody Kitty. I don't think that's explained by it being futurefic. At the same time, of course, I've read fics that take a bit too much liberty with the, "When Draco Malfoy came back sixth year, he seemed really different. He was quiet and didn't bug anybody as much..." That sort of thing I can fill in with things from my head. I can't fill this in from my head.

So it's not that it's SO BAD this is out there, but that's strange having it be so famous and considered, like, standard.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Nice Draco! Noooo! Vade retro, Satana! KIll him, Neville! Why is he usurping your role?

Ahahah, I think I'm still high from yesterday. Yes, I know, TMI.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

But then I realized that as somebody whose biggest kink is prostitute!Draco, I really wasn't one to talk. :D

Right there with you! Actually, rentboy Draco is very canonical! >:O Nothing to apologize for.