reenka: (weasley's rule)
[personal profile] reenka
I wrote this... thing about myself, trying to give people background on me. I hate being the sum of my ramblings on HP meta. If anything, the things that attract me about stories and the questions I gravitate to in lit-crit have much more to do with -me- than they do with lit-crit, really. And I really do need to reach out more. I was thinking about the "reality" of internet identities and how I'm always sincere but I do edit myself. Most parts of my life outside of my theoretical or creative thinking kind of annoy, fluster or make me very anxious. So of course, I avoid a lot, and that makes any picture someone could have of me through lj rather... skewed, I suppose.

The problem is, I don't know what to say. What would anyone want to know? Even more confusingly, what would someone -need- to know to "get" me?

I wanted people to understand how I think, and I realized that talking about my life doesn't necessarily accomplish that. I really hate being misunderstood-- it bugs me to the point of maddening me-- and I would honestly say -anything-, explain anything, just so that my motivations and mental habits become a part of the equation. I know that who I am is part of the sum total of what I say. If you just take what I say without knowing who's saying it (outside of fiction), I don't think you can really understand.

Some things I say flippantly, right, and some things are really central to my way of thinking, and some things I can easily change my mind about 'cause they're one of my (myriad) logic errors. People keep trying to apply logic to whatever I write, and it just confuses me, because it always involves a process of translation. Something gets lost. Usually, what gets lost is -why- I say whatever it is, and to me, that's utterly -central-. Context is everything, basically, when you're not someone who's very linear or logical in their writings.

So what about the facts of my life made me into the person I am right now? What's important, not to me, but to someone else to know so that they can see what makes me tick? Is there, in fact, a short-cut to understanding/knowing someone without spending lots of time with them and having an understanding coalesce out of longtime acquiantance?

Somewhat accidentally, I've come across several people mentioning that whole "online persona" thing and how people are "less real" online, and I've been thinking about it on and off for years, anyway. My knee-jerk reaction is that I don't -have- a "persona" and I'm "just me", but thinking about that a bit more, it becomes kind of a joke.


How could anyone think online people are "less real"-- do -they- feel "less real" themselves? And then I realize it's not a question of feeling "real" or whatever, it's just a question of control of information, even unconciously. Without -seeing- the other person, we really assume so much about them merely from their style of writing, using word-choice & vocabulary in place of mannerisms. My own vocabulary in monologue-type writing is pretty different than in conversation, rather different than it is in comments, different again than it is in chat, and seriously different from my fiction. I'm not a -different person- during any of those times, but it's hard to know, isn't it? Well, unless you're good at figuring people out.

It makes me sad, I guess, since I'm almost always sincere, but that doesn't matter because I'm almost always responding to others' input more than generating self-identifying output . I'm almost always confusing the issue, whatever it is. If I can say something in a roundabout way, I'm never going to be blunt.

So the problem
- a) would be that most people online know next to nothing about my "real life" or any actual facts about me whatsoever;
- b) would be that I assume most people don't -want- to know, and would be much less interested in me if they knew (whatever it is that I don't think is actually worth knowing);
- c) I don't actually chat with people in messaging programs much, though I excuse that by saying it ate my brain once and can easily do it again. Regardless, this also doesn't improve anyone's chances of having a clue about me. Funnily enough, I feel like I "know" the people whose lj's I follow closely on a pretty high level compared to most acquaintances I have in real life.
~~


My name is Irina, but I hate my last name, and people -have- called me Reena in real life. However, it's not hard to figure out, since I used it at Nimbus & was on a panel. Um. I'm going to be 26 this June 24th, and I feel really old. I'm still in college (kinda), but I have no direction. I'm sort of a default English major (double with Studio Art) but that means nothing; it's an accident. I may not be in college this coming fall-- it's all up in the air. I'm sort of a directionless bum, but that's neither here nor there.

I want to be a writer, but that's obvious. Um. What might be less obvious is that I'm pretty scared of all the work & effort & commitment I'd have to put into it to really do it. I'm probably somewhat scared of really going out there and trying, and of -succeeding- (or failing). Reality is not my friend.

I was born in Moscow (not the one in Idaho), and came to New York City when I was 11. That was right before the fall of the Soviet Union-- thank the god I don't believe in! Heh. My father had the most curable of cancers since I was little, but since we were behind the Iron Curtain, he died half a year after we got here. I didn't even know how many issues I had about it till much later. Then again, I have so many other issues, it was a bit distracting.

Whatever else is true, I had a pretty happy childhood. My mom spent a lot of time with me, though I mostly just... wandered around, playing by myself. I've always liked wandering and looking at things; sometimes I'd draw & I loved dancing (a lot). I went through about 4-5 years of choreography/figure-skating school, and about a year of pre-art-school classes. Sort of. Oh, and I spent the year from ages 12 to 13 trying Judo, which showed that I like martial arts (a lot) but falling a lot isn't my thing (should've figured that out in figure skating).

I'm such a stationary bookworm, generally, but when I was little I used to love walking & bicycling & swimming. I took swimming classes, but mostly I just have tons of fun in seawater. I have this obsession with the ocean; have since I first came to it around age 6 or 8 or whatever it was. I'm just magnetically drawn to it, even though I'm a city-girl by breeding. I've always loved nature an obscene amount, and had a lot of fun going to summer-camp even though I hate group activity things.

I used to have very close girlfriends when I was little-- before we left, and I've never had friends that close since (that I saw every day). I did lots of "fun activities" in and after school, most of which my mom forced me into. My favorite personal "fun activity" since age 8 (before then, I dunno what I did) has been spending all my afterschool time in the library, after I got my ice-cream. Mmm, ice-cream.

I've always been a little hedonist. Give me good food or pretty things and I'm your slave. As long as you also leave me alone a lot and maybe talk to me sometimes when I feel like it.

I've always been more into reading than anything else-- like say, schoolwork or social interaction. Once a dork, always a dork. Back then, around age 10, was my golden time, though. I had a nice balance of work and play, my friendships were expanding for some insane reason, and I was becoming more sociable. I was doing social stuff in school, like getting involved with clubs and such, and I was really improving fast with my extracurricular art class and such. I had swimming club several times a week and I -still- managed to read like a maniac. I had a boy friend (not a boyfriend!!) who was 2 years older that I hung out with sometimes (we did stuff like feed the pigeons in the attic), which is like a height of sociability I've never had before or since. I think I was happy.

Around ages 9-10, I already wanted to write novels when I grew up (I immediately wanted to, as soon as I realized I could write stuff! for fun! whoa!), but that was always going to be on the side. Mostly, I was going to go off and explore the Amazon and be an adventurer like in 19th century novels, y'know. I've always gotten my life goals from novels, ahahah. Well, after I got over wanting to be a librarian like my mommy or a doctor like my gramma, ehehe. But I did seriously always want to be an adventurer, too. I'm cut out for it, I tell you! I am!

I mostly read fairy-tales. A lot of fairy-tales. I was a worldwide fairy-tale scholar at age 9. I seriously read every single one I could get my hands on-- and well, my mom was a bibliographer at the Soviet equivalent of the Library of Congress, so I could get my hands on a -lot-. My other thing was English 18-19th century adventure novels like Maine Reade and Walter Scott and Jules Verne and stuff. Aahahah and Mark Twain. Plus 19th century children's fantasy novels & Sherlock Holmes (crush!), I guess. Mostly I just read anything fantasy-like (and almost anything else besides) I could get my hot little hands on, but there wasn't actual mass produced fantasy lit in Russia the way there is here. Boy, was I overwhelmed with all the sci-fi/fantasy riches this side of the pond. Oh boy.

My mother's kind of a benevolent Nazi dictator, so she made me do stuff & I did all right in school, though I dropped out in 8th grade and didn't really go back all the way until halfway through 10th. My adolescence was a special, intricate kind of (hormonal, no-one-understands-my-ANGEST&PANE) hell. I read a lot of Star Trek books, mass-market fantasy & smutty romance novels back then, and fantasized about running away with Spock. I also wrote oodles of fantasy-type stuff I never finished, but it -was- a massive amount (comparatively). I could always write on the drop of a hat, and I've written (het) porn since about the time I started reading it-- age 13. I was a quick study :>
    Yeah, my H/D porn-writing kick isn't really startling if you know me, ahahah. Though I never wanted to be doing that when I grew up or anything (writing porn, I mean). It was just sort of something I couldn't stop doing. They don't call it "masturbatory" for nothing, do they~:)

I was rather messed up by the whole coming-to-America-and-my-father-dying-and-losing-all-my-friends-and-personal-habits thing. I still read a lot, but I started reading large-print Agatha Christie novels about a half a year after I came here. Well, mostly this is because I went to a specialized English-language school while in grades 2-4. So I guess I had a decent writing/reading/speaking grasp of English by age 11. I liked reading in English a little -too- much, and soon stopped both reading and writing in Russian-- I never went back, though my mom speaks to me in Russian & I answer in English.

I kind of hate the Russian immigrants around me in Brooklyn, and it probably is part of that whole "no one's like me, I'm an outcast and a weirdo" thing I had going on during adolescence. I reeeally didn't even -want- to fit in with the Russians or the inner-city "cool" people. There were no geeky cool people anywhere I went to public school to, that I know of.

I ran away from 6th grade (and my severe culture-shock) to a girl's yeshiva, which is Jewish school. I learned Hebrew badly, 'cause basically I didn't -want- to learn Hebrew. I now know all kinds of things I don't need to about Judaism and the Torah, though. It would all have been alright if they didn't try to put me into a serious Jewish High School at first. The trial of actually having to learn new subjects -in- Hebrew -and- catch up with science & math after my really easy Junior High... as well as the stress of a new school... let's just say it wasn't pretty.

Well, mostly I just snapped and refused to go back (like I did with my public school in 6th grade), and things were okay for the remainder of that semester, but then the public school I went to was too much also. It's hard to explain how much I thought everything -sucked-, back then. Nothing I did in school seemed really worthwhile, and I didn't -like- the world I saw, so I wanted no part in it. I had these fantasies about being cryogenically frozen (and I thought about this rather seriously), so that I could wake up 250 years later. When Star Trek was supposed to happen.

There are no starships now??! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THERE ARE NO STARSHIPS NOW?! heh.

I was in the thick of my Star Trek reading around 9th grade, and I wanted to be a astrophysicist and save the world, or possibly just help invent warp drive so I could get the hell off this planet. I was not happy with the way "you people" were running it. Most people want to blow their stupid backwater town, but, y'know, I was already in NYC, so I wanted to blow this stupid backwater planet. I'm still not quite over that, actually, but I've grown a whole lot more affectionate towards the world as it is now. Sort of.

I never went back to the incomprehensible, alien world (...ironically) that was 9th & 10th grade in a Brooklyn High School. It was so freaky, 'cause nothing really -mattered- to me anymore, but I wasn't doing the usual drugs: I mean, y'know, the illegal ones. I read like it was crack & I watched tons of anime, though (using my mother's credit). Eventually, the counselor they made me go to recommended this small alternative school for misfits & drop-outs on Brooklyn College campus, where they paid you a lot of personal attention (very important!) and didn't give you too many rules.

So I tried it. And I latched on to an English teacher. And I had a killer Creative Writing class right that first semester. *siiigh* I still didn't bond with any of the kids (they were the wrong sort of misfits, generally), but I -loved- my English teacher, and that was enough. At first, I couldn't get myself to go every day, but eventually it felt... normal. I graduated valedictorian. Of the misfit school :>

I define myself by my addictions: comics, anime, fantasy novels & art, movies, music, fanfic. I like knowing everything I -can- know about any subject that interests me. I am very messy and obsessive and unreasonable in my desires for "that thing". I'm also painfully lazy whenever I'm not frenziedly focused on "that thing" I'm doing. I psychoanalyze myself and everyone else to extremes, and often thought I should just give up & "do" psychology somehow, except dealing with people all my life scares me. I'm obsessed with teenage years, in a theoretical sense, though. In a way, I think I never "left", so to speak. Heh.

Most people irritate me. I wouldn't say I -hate- people, because I generally quite like people, and they amuse the hell out of me, when they don't drive me insane. I guess you could say it's a love/hate relationship.

The most important things to me vacillate between being art, love & magic. I'm not always sure magic exists, but even when I'm not sure, I'm still obsessed. (Being unsure never stops me).

Oh right, my life. Oh... well, I've spent a disgusting amount of time online since I discovered it around 1996 (when I started college for the first time). Yah, I'm an old-timer (sort of). I know how to use UNIX, man. (ooooh.) In fact, I like UNIX better than most things. I dutifully hate Windows, etcetc. Um, okay, off track again. Anyway, I got way -too- into it. It would've been a lot better if I never touched a computer in many ways, I'm sure, but I was painfully lonely in my freshman year (though I did have friends, I wasn't close enough to them yet). So I had my first internet romance. Baaaaad Reena. Bad.

I think ever since I was 18 (and met my first boyfriend), one could pretty much ask me what crack was I on, except, you know, I was always on some sort of crack. Just a different, more reclusive crack.

I just emailed back and forth & then (after meeting a few times), I moved in with him & his parents for the summer (supposedly as part of a comics-store internship with him). Yeah. I've had brighter ideas.

So... -that- messed up the next year while I angsted and wrote whiny poetry (that whole love-angst whining thing is GREAT for poetry). Just when I thought I was getting over that, I discovered IRC. It just keeps getting better and better. After this, I hate even telling this story, because the sheer daunting pathos breaks me. I mean, honestly, I'm like Teddy (from QAF), except -worse-. Yeah, worse than Ted. I'm like... Teddy's junkie boyfriend, except without the drugs & the glowing recovery.

Anyway, I fell head-over-heels in love with this poet dude on IRC, who was actually kind of a psycho (AGAIN). He broke my heart into like a zillion trillion tiny pieces when he just went away, and he fuels my-- or Draco's-- rage even now. Without him, I could not write love angst. Seriously. So maybe I should thank him for that. And of course there goes me dropping out of school (again) and writing loads of dark lovelorn poetry (again). And then... making the same mistake with Guy #3 (again!)

It... I wish I could say it gets better. What with the ill-fated "why don't I Go West to California on $250" idea & the "why don't I move in with a guy I barely know-- and his -parents-, again-- idea. And all the others. God, it sickens me to even write it in glancing reference, and this was like, 3-4 years of my life. It's like adolescence, except with -people- involved, which is a lot worse, I'm telling you! I miss the days when all my angst was squarely in my head. Sort of.

Anyway, I went back to college, and started living alone, but that only helped for a bit. Then I discovered fanfic. And.

Here I am.

A (porn-writing, fic-reading, babbling, ranting, uber-dorky) basketcase if there ever was one. And somehow, I still suspect that told most people next to nothing about the "real" me, ahahah. Not to mention I think one would more -more- confused, reading this, not less. *sigh* Oh well.

Date: 2004-05-28 08:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eleveninches.livejournal.com
Why'd you drop out of high school? :-?

Date: 2004-05-28 08:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
Well, I did edit a little, but mostly it's the usual: my poor delicate soul (heh) couldn't take the stress of NYC inner-city-style reality. It was dingy, loud, stupid, pointless, full of morons who I felt I had nothing in common with, and I got no personal attention. Y'know, when one's 15, how everything sucks, right. Well... I just had no alternative venue-- no "cool dorks" to hang out with to make it bearable, no extracurricular stuff to do except read more fantasy novels & watch anime (alone). Can't do that at school, y'know. *sigh* It's so common. "The world sucks, and I demand a revolution" :>

Never really went back, either. I don't think special-school-for-misfit-drop-outs couns as "going back" :>

Ahahah I'm a regular little delinquent :D
...Still am -.-

Date: 2004-05-28 10:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellia.livejournal.com
I read a lot of Star Trek books, mass-market fantasy & smutty romance novels back then, and fantasized about running away with Spock

you=cool

Having lived pretty conventionally, I always kinda admire and envy people who don't.

Date: 2004-05-29 03:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
Dude, I am one of the horde of geekoids hidden everywhere except in the public high schools in Brooklyn, apparently :D Didn't -everyone- read lots of bad fantasy & avoid social contact? I just messed up more. *laughs*
No, no, I'm dangerously unconventional & wild, yah, that's it.
;))
Living it up with my imaginary friends :D Drinking Coke late into the night. Watching enough anime to have permanently damaged my eyesight, heheh. And of course, writing enough porn to disturb hordes of relatives for a long time to come :D

Date: 2004-05-29 03:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] luciusmalfoy.livejournal.com
wwheee, personaness!

Date: 2004-05-29 03:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
Heheh, I was thinking of you :D :D!
(Though, I was trying to depersona myself, or something; don't think it worked. Then again, doubt most people read this. ^^;)

Date: 2004-05-29 07:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] go-back-chief.livejournal.com
I was thinking about the "reality" of internet identities and how I'm always sincere but I do edit myself. Most parts of my life outside of my theoretical or creative thinking kind of annoy, fluster or make me very anxious. So of course, I avoid a lot, and that makes any picture someone could have of me through lj rather... skewed, I suppose.

That's completely inevitable, IMO. Even if you didn't avoid cetain things purposefully, you'd still end up doing it subconsciously, because there's just not enough room or time to include every tiny detail in a Live-journal, and frankly, even if it were possible, I think a pretty boring LJ would be the result.

Personally I like the fact that Internet communities give me a chance to present myself by my hobbies, fics, opinions, analysis, interpretations and reflections, rather than by my name, age, looks, occupation and place of living. I have to present myself by those things all the time in real life, and I tend to think of them as cold hard facts that actually say less about me than my thoughts on different subjects.

? Even more confusingly, what would someone -need- to know to "get" me?

Following your reasonings from the beginning to the end, perhaps? As you say yourself, I don't think talking very general about your life accomplishes people "getting" you. It was interesting to read, sure, but if you want your background to help people understanding you better, I think it probably works better if you put selected pieces of info into context with whatever it is you want people to get. But I can only speak for myself, of course. It would definitely have worked better for me.:-)

I really hate being misunderstood-- it bugs me to the point of maddening me-- and I would honestly say -anything-, explain anything, just so that my motivations and mental habits become a part of the equation.

I understand and can definitely relate to not wanting to be misunderstood, and in my experience, you can generally go a long way if you're just prepared to provide explanations, but there also comes a point where you just have to accept the fact that you can't controll how other people percieve you, and you have to let go. Everyone gets misunderstood sometimes, after all, and there are always people who make up their minds too quickly and won't listen to explanations, or reasoning. In the end it boils down to the question why it is so important that other people "percieve you correctly".

I don't really think it's possible to "define" oneself. You can try to, of course, and that can be interesting, but sometimes it's a little dangerous, as well, because any definition is, by nature, limiting. I also think it's in human nature to try to define other people, so we all end up getting defined by others. The trick, I think, is not letting said definition get in the way of your own development...

Anyway, it was an interesting post. Sorry for going off-topic, but it made me think about related things.:-)

Date: 2004-05-31 02:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
I actually do agree that my thoughts & hobbies mean more and reveal more about who I 'really am' than cold facts... the thing is presenting context is often necessary when one isn't using logic to guide one's thought, I guess, and I'm sloppy & generally forget about context a lot of times. Like, when I'm saying something, I assume all these foregone details and other opinions and kinks & predilections I have, and it takes reminders from myself or others to even remember where the holes in between the words are.

But yes, I definitely identify with my mental more than my physical life, heh. Maybe a little -too- much ^^; I should just be more careful and present the necessary context at the appropriate time, yes I know, but... wah. It's a constant process of not knowing what exactly people are missing so I keep shooting in the dark & generally shooting myself in the foot a lot. Being more logical & distancing myself from myself would prolly help. If I could figure out how to do it more often, anyway :>

It's not everyone I care about the perceptions of, I guess. Just people whose opinions I respect. If they don't understand, I get all upset & feel insecure as to having said anything of value in the first place and then it snowballs 'cause I overreact, I think :>

Heheh Yeah, I'm prolly way too easily influenced by people. Funny because I seem to have this reputation for being set in my ways & heavily opinionated... which I suppose I am, but. I think my confidence in saying things in certain ways at all is my Achille's heel which brings down everything else. How can I be sure I'm not spouting nonsese? How could I make some people see what I see?

Anyway, but yes, I realize I should prolly just be more comprehensive~:)

Date: 2004-05-30 02:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ashjay.livejournal.com
Hmm. I don't know... I suspect that you don't have a lot to worry about in terms of being defined as what you say rather than as the person saying it. For one thing, what you say is nearly always so comprehensive that it comes across less as an academic dissertation and more as an impassioned in-person speech - you know, the kind you come away from smiling and happily discuss with other people over coffee later, where half or more of the message is presentation.

For another, and this actually amuses me to no end, with almost everything you said up there I kept thinking, "Of course... but hasn't she already told us that?" And about halfway through I realized that that's just because it just seems right. Like, of course that's who you are. How could you be otherwise?

So, I suppose that says something about your tremendously deceitful online facade - specifically, that you may be too darn genuine for your own good. *grins*

Date: 2004-05-30 05:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
Heheh, but you've always had this uncanny knack of taking me the right way, though :D Whereas like... some people... like, when they argue with me (which I like), they say things that imply they -radically- misunderstand where I'm coming from to the point that if they knew me at -all-, how could they think I'd think that?? Or something like that.

Like with that post about disliking `A Thousand Beautiful Things' & liking `Brief Interval'-- I really wasn't talking about realism in the first place, but I'd -certainly- never say I value realism to the point of disregarding fantasy! Fantasy! Is like... my thing! Y'know? I just think... -because- I'm not rigorous and/or academic enough, like maybe you'd have to have a feel for -me- to really know where I'm coming from...? Because I don't logically fill in all the logical gaps?

I mean, I have two choices-- be more logical (hard) or provide more context.... apparently irrelevant if I'm already understood and not very helpful if I'm not ^^; ahahahah.

I always intend people to have a certain sort of... I dunno, view of the things I -don't- say as well as the things I say, so I'm often flabbergasted by the sort of questions/objections I get, y'know. My most common response is not "I disagree with you!" but "I rather didn't mean that at all!!", or it just seems like we're speaking different languages entirely. Like, you could say "but blah-blah plot" and I could say, I wasn't even -considering- that aspect. Or something :>

But wheeee, it makes me warm-fuzzy to know I'm not alone on my brain frequency or whatever it is :D
<3!
It also makes me laugh 'cause you say I'm comprehensive whereas my paranoia is definitely coming from feeling like I'm not comprehensive -enough-, otherwise WOULDN'T EVERYONE UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING I SAY THE WAY I MEAN THEM TO??! heheh. Oh man, the solipcist's lament :D

Date: 2004-05-30 07:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shatterglass.livejournal.com
It's nice to know you more. I wish people weren't afraid of this -- and then, if I enjoyed it so much, maybe I should do it.
Dunno.
But you definitely have much more of a story than I do.

Date: 2004-05-31 01:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
I was rather afraid of it, that's for sure, heheh. It's so unreasonable, too, 'cause I used to tell everyone my name online (if they asked) and now that I haven't by some sort of habit, it's become scary. That's what bothered me the most, anyway. The name part. And it's not even that I'm afraid of stalkage; it's more like, well, I don't wanna be real-life!Reena here 'cause that causes a bit of a brain-freeze. I dunno why.

But I would wanna seeeee if you wrote it anyway, 'cause it's as much as telling as the story.
Having an "interesting life" isn't all it's cracked up to be, y'know. Like that Chinese curse, eheheh. Toooo interesting ^^;

Date: 2004-06-01 07:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shatterglass.livejournal.com
Right, interesting times. Well, I'd probably do it over at [livejournal.com profile] theworldcanhold, so Watch That Space or something. Heee. I'm much more uncareful than I should be online, telling people my name and talking about school and my town and giving my address to some. Bah. The stalkers are mostly in chat rooms, anyway. :D

Date: 2004-06-01 07:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
*nodnod* You can tell the stalkers 'cause they -ask- you for asl, rather than waiting for you to tell them ;))

oh god. *wishes she could scrub out own brain*

Date: 2004-05-31 12:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malafede.livejournal.com
I forgive you for associating the word sex with the word Snape in your subsequent post because this bio of your was v. nifty.

Irina is a beautiful name.

And I really admire you for following your heart. That’s what I got from your story, at least. That you didn’t unquestioningly accept the mores offered to you, and searched for your own truth. Weee I like you!

Now I am all curious if your default icon is a self-portrait? I don’t know why it feels so, but it does.

Date: 2004-05-31 12:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malafede.livejournal.com
No, wait, you're the redhead??? Woah, hotness. *lusts*

Date: 2004-05-31 01:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
....

AHAHAHAHAHH!! :D :D :D!!
...
no :D But. *is flattered* >:D!
The redhead's supposed to be Ginny, ya know. From this (http://www.livejournal.com/users/reenka/167964.html) Ginny/Pansy fic of mine. I love it so much I made an icon to remind me of it :D Has Draco/Pansy and H/D in the background, and is Pansy-centric, if you're curious >:D

Date: 2004-05-31 02:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malafede.livejournal.com
Hot Ginny! You know, I don’t care for Ginny as a rule, but I am shallow enough to appreciate the pretty. Also, you’ve got Pansy, and Pansy rules .*reads*

Date: 2004-05-31 01:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
Y'know, I suppose it is, kind of a self-portrait though I didn't draw it; it does remind me of me. I have the hair, anyway. Though the above icon's prolly more like me in expression? Maybe :D

Y'know, I so think Snape is unsexy, I really do. When I read H/S porn I'm like, WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?! and yet... sometimes it works anyway. Just goes to show you don't have to lust after the characters to like them together :> Mayb. SOmething like that. But I can't read Draco with anyone else. Harry, I've read with Snape & Ron & written with Cho & Hermione & Ginny & ROn & Remus, ahahah.

...He's a slut, what can I say. hee.

Yeah, I suppose I do follow my heart to extremes. Sort of like a plague of some sort, but at least it's... honest :D
I like you too :D I sort of wish more people wrote these things, even if I kind of think this was a bit of a useless exercise in so far as achieving my stated goal of being understood better :>

Date: 2004-05-31 02:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malafede.livejournal.com
I totally need a Hufflepuff pride icon.

I don’t know if Snape is unsexy, per se. I think he blocks out sex from his mental processes because he thinks it’s undignified, and he’s obsessed with pride.
I used to dislike H/S, though not H/S on its own merits, actually. I disliked the constant mocking of H/ people I heard coming from H/Sers. I also didn’t take well being screamed CANON! CANON! at. Not just because it’s subjective, but because in this very case… you see it if you want to see it. I mean, I get what they mean with the claim of canonicity because I tried putting myself in their shoes, but… honestly I think it’s silly. Being alone with a teacher means you’re fucking them? Jesus, please, no. Can’t bear to think about.

I think the whole “I can only read Harry with other people, not Draco” vs “I can only read Draco with other people, not Harry” comes from preference. It’s not very rational, eh. If you think about it, there’s enough reason to have them both fuck with the entire Hogwarts, if one is so inclined. It’s just that I love Draco more. Eh. I also feel protective to a scary extent (I mean, he’s not real, is he? IS HE?), so if Harry is fucking someone else it doesn’t matter it’s a completely unrelated universe, all I know is that he’s CHEATING ON DRACO! Callous cunt. Aahah, I also have my lit crit official excuse, though. You know, he’s a messiah type figure, he doesn’t lower himself to trivial stuff like sex. :DDD

I don’t think I can write an open letter to fandom about myself, not now. It’s too early! I don’t trust people much, though I want too. I have people issues. Like, I am afraid of them.

Date: 2004-05-31 03:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yourpoison.livejournal.com
You know what? I think I'm a cross between Gryffindor & Ravenclaw, leaning to Gryffindor by choice rather than disposition, but no one would believe me. *wails* I would -make- the hat put my in Gryffindor, though, eheheh. Hufflepuff is the boring house, man. Heh. I want to get up to silly misadventures & be more sociable & boisterous & stick it to Voldemort loud & proud!! ahahah. I'm like some mutant cross between Luna & Neville, y'know, that way :> The poor misplaced lil 'Puff, eh :>

Yeah, he prolly does think it's undignified, at that :> But I do think he represses all that, and anything one represses comes back to bite you in the arse :D Plus, anytime someone rejects something, I have the perverse urge to rub their nose in it :D It's funner to read about someone who'd -never- be -caught dead- doing something, y'know :D
And of course I don't think H/S is anymore canon than whatever other slash pairing (heh), but then, I don't hang around the H/S circles-- like, at all. I just read my smut & leave :D Some good writers for that pairing, which is initially why I read H/D, y'know :>

I actually don't like either of them fucking around, though I'd "give" them girls easier than boys, heheh. If anything, y'know, threesome potential.

I totally was afraid of people, both before & after posting this, heheh. I just get -really- annoyed (and desperate), being misunderstood a lot. It's like, I'm definitely afraid of people--it's just that I can't shut up :>

Date: 2004-05-31 05:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malafede.livejournal.com
I want to stick it to Dumbledore! Actually, I want to encourage the Slytherins while they stick it to Dumbledore under my caring eyes. Ah. I need to write Susan Bones mary sue fic.

I am not squicked by H/S because I can't picture H/S. It's like... it contradicts the fundations of my reality? Or something. Though you're right on the Snape. Let's pair him with Millicent.

Threesome is only good with a girl, yes. Boy/boy/boy is so... redundant, man. And self-indulgent, though porn usually is.

Hufflepuff is not boring! You're a victim of Gryffindor propaganda, mon! Neville is the boring one. I refuse to think you're Neville.

Hufflepuff is the House of the nice and accepting people. Acceptance, it doesn't get better than that. Also, Zacharias Smith sure sounds like a total dimwith, but he's not boring. He's fun in that idiotic way. He's got spice!

Date: 2004-05-31 05:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malafede.livejournal.com
Oh, and I know Ravenclaw is supposed to be the smart House, but so far if you don't count Luna (who's probably on acids 90% of the time) it looks more like the House of the Pretty Girlfriends.

Date: 2004-05-31 09:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] go-back-chief.livejournal.com
::Outraged cry:: Protection instinct alore here!

Zacharias Smith sure sounds like a total dimwith

Zacharias does not sound like a total dimwith to me! On the contrary. He is the only student character in the books so far, who isn't gulligable enough to think that just because Dumbledore/his father/Harry Potter/The Daily Prophet say XY, automatically means XY is true. He knows that in order to come to reasonable conclusions, you need to ask question and examine whatever it is from every possible angle. Harry-I-make-up-my-mind-within-the-first-two-seconds-and-stick-to-said-conclusions-for-five-years-Potter could learn from him. So could Draco/Luna-my-father-says-it-therefore-it-must-be-right. I think even Hermione could, even though she might not trust her teachers as much as she once did.

Date: 2004-05-31 11:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malafede.livejournal.com
Oh, I agree that he's not completely stupid. He's the sceptic, and I admire him for it. I also agree people could learn from him. Just not Harry, please. I like Zacharias by himself, or interacting with his Hufflepuff peers, but whenever he's around Harry, I resent the hell out of him. He's so Draco-lite, man.

It's just that he keeps getting stunned into silence by the twins threatening to stick something pointy uo his ass. Not in so many words, but. Eh. I just like to imagine his gaping little face.

Keep in mind that for me it's difficult to like someone and don't find them stupid in some way. Most of their charm comes from it. :)

Date: 2004-05-31 02:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] go-back-chief.livejournal.com
Keep in mind that for me it's difficult to like someone and don't find them stupid in some way.

Ah! OK. ::Drops sword of protection/defence::

Yeah, I agree he's probably gaping and quite worried.:D

I don't agree that Zacharias is Draco-lite, but I can see why this idea is so popular in fandom. After all, we don't know very much about him, and what we do know is that he's a Hufflepuff with an attitude, which sort of makes it easy to write him off as a typical Slytherin.;-) But he and Draco are probably quite different. Draco is not particulary sceptic when it comes to certain things, and I don't see Zacharias as obsessive at all.
Page generated Dec. 31st, 2025 05:14 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios