(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

[penelope-z.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I think it's over a year ago or possibly two, when I was explaining to S. what I really need in fanfiction and it was: BIG FEELINGS.

Intense emotions are the basic reason I read I fic. I want bigger then life love and hate and desire and so on, though it really doesn't need to be presented in a bigger than life way. I appreciate moderation and understatement in writing, I like style, I like a healthy dose of dry wit and irony and characters being aware and self-depracating about their predicament, I love adventures, or scary and creepy atmosphere and of course, good smut.

But at the same time, underneath it all, and not necessarily obvious at first glance, I want emotional purity and intensity. Everything has to be a matter of life or death. That's why I got so attracted to HP in the first place, it's all a matter of life or death when you're fifteen years old. I need to care for the characters, and what makes you care more than the revelation of their vulnerability? I'm reading X-files slash these days for the first time, and I having such a great time with all that unleashing of suppresed aggresions and desires.

If I'd have a bullterpoof kink it would probably be: And the villain is bleeding love all over the good boy's floor.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Wah! Am now feeling all sentimental after the "bleeding love" bit. Muchly seconded, though I'm not picky about who's the one bleeding the love, though it is more dramatic when it's the less likely suspect. In H/D, of course, one would be hard-pressed to say who's the less likely suspect.

Yeah, big feelings...! Though I think that's considered embarrassing by most fic reviewers 'cause it lends itself to purple prose and teenage boys crying and cutting themselves. I suppose that's where the actual writing skill steps in :D

I think that's always been what I really liked about your work, The Untold Want included. There's all this atmosphere & a sort of veiling effect by the style and the darkness, but at the center there's this raw openness Draco has that always drew me in like a moth to a flame. There's something voyeuristic about reading, especially romance-type things, and the biggest payoff, yes, is when they're falling apart, losing control, all pretty thinly disguised as something else. Without that, it's just sort of a story about some boy (usually badly-characterized) and his hormones (and sometimes his daddy issues). heh.

I would totally go for Mulder/Krycek if I wasn't a M/S shipper and didn't remember distinctly disliking Krycek when I watched the show. I think I still resent him for that initial way he was introduced as Mulder's partner. I was like, YOU FIENDS!!1 BRING BACK SCULLY!! heh~:)

I meant bulletproof!!!!

[penelope-z.livejournal.com]

A bullterpoof kink? Gah, I should learn not to type anything at 4.30 at night.

Re: I meant bulletproof!!!!

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

*giggles* these days I pretend the only "bad" typo is a typo which is impossible to decipher the way you meant it >:D
(This could be because the amount of typos I make has gone radically up. As is the time I actually go to bed ^^;)