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May. 27th, 2004 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaIf 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-27 03:05 pm (UTC)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 ^^;
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Date: 2004-05-28 07:42 am (UTC)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
no subject
Date: 2004-05-28 10:15 am (UTC)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?
no subject
Date: 2004-05-28 10:32 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-29 01:53 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2004-05-29 03:06 am (UTC)