(slightly loony about Luna)

[reenka]

It just occurred to me as a sort of struck-by-lightning thing, that I -can-, in fact, see why/how someone would dislike Luna on principle. It's that whole loopy-but-with-no-real-substance thing. Like, those people who prance about spouting nonsense and acting oh-so-silly-and-odd with those over-the-top outfits and multi-colored beads and ten necklaces and five Zulu charms and three rabbit's-feet and eleven little mice strung on a string around their waists or whatever. I myself would probably avoid that sort of person if I saw them on the street. This reminds me of BtVS, y'know, with that vision of Andrew and Warren prancing around in 'heaven' singing 'we are as GODS', etcetc.

I think it's degrading and a silly stereotype of what 'wild' or weird girls are like, really. Of course they're crazy, moon-mad, completely out there swinging from clouds and eating daisies. Oddness, weirdness, intuitive brilliance-- that's one thing. Acting like you're on crack and happy about it is another thing altogether. I don't nod and smile if people eat daisies and sing silly songs in make-believe languages, I wish they'd get some sort of help.

Insanity is a touchy subject with me, of course.


On the one hand, I'm deeply fascinated with madness and particularly its connections to genius and 'truth', as well as truth-seeking. For instance, you could see a character like Fox Mulder as being 'mad' by societal standards, but he's not, really. The point of Luna, to me, and why I identify with her, is that she's not mad, not that she is. Sure, people think (perhaps even the author thinks) that she's loopy and 'out there' and so on, but she just sees things in a different way-- she doesn't sing at shadows and prance about with some wild light in her eyes.

It just bothers me because I keep seeing Luna portrayed with an emphasis on her 'madness', her complete goofy untetheredness, and it sort of hurts because I was a lot like Luna (as I imagine her) when I was a child. The funny thing is how little that sort of behavior-- distant gazes, non-sequiturs, idiosyncratic beliefs, a sort of otherworldly calm-- has to do with madness, really. It's a dreaminess, instead, really. A real Luna type isn't that loud, mad, raving hippie-- she's more of a quiet childlike fey creature, paying attention to invisible things and not quite touching the world and drawing her own conclusions. In the quiet of a childhood spent in isolation-- especially without one's mother (or father, in my case)-- the whole world silently blossoms into strangeness. Things acquire layers of make-believe 'secret' aspects where flowers talk and the moon shows you the path into faery and the dark is full of unnameable, glorious monsters.

Honestly, I don't know anything about these bright, falsely happy empty-eyed people that pass for Luna for so many people. Do they really exist? They probably do. I have had no traffic with them, and want none. Quiet doesn't mean dull; alone doesn't mean insane; different doesn't mean one's mind is scattered to the winds but rather often that one's mind is overly focused on the things others don't bother paying attention to, instead.

I don't care about Luna's earrings or her odd eyes, but it seems that's all most people notice. People are so distrustful of belief, even when the person is on a search for their own truth, while most of them simply accept a whole array of stranger and more frightening dictums as Truth, completely wholesale. I myself spent a childhood lost in a sort of twilight forest of fleeting beliefs and daydreams, picking things up and abandoning them. I know what it's like to see things and want to see more, no matter how strange. Luna is not mad. It's more like Luna is saner than the rest of her peers, maybe.
~~

EDIT - Er. I am interested in what other people think of Luna, positive and negative, btw....

Comments

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

I think we're getting into fanon/canon again. *Canon* Luna is seen as being a dippy little girl who can't really connect with reality because that's how the Trio see her. They're so very into being *connected* with things (Hermione has knowledge; Ron has his family; Harry has, well, the two of them) that they can't understand someone who doesn't have external coping mechanisms. We never really get to see into Luna's head, so we tend to just agree with the Trio's assessment of her.

*Fanon* Luna has a much greater scope to express why she is the way she is, and how the insides of her head works. I think that one of the big things that people relate to in written characters is how they *cope* with things, and since we only get that for Luna in fic, only fanon Luna can be comprehensible.

That notwithstanding, this is a wonderful and eloquent defense of "different" children, and I'm glad you wrote it.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It's odd stepping outside and going, "all right, so my Luna isn't really canon Luna", ahahahah. On some level I realize that's true, but on another level I just can't accept Ron/Hermione/Harry's initial take on Luna, so I just disregard it as irrelevant and focus on what characteristics/behaviors she exhibits in some objective sense~:) I suppose this is how people get about canon!Draco, too-- like, oh, he can't be like this-and-this 'cause that's just not how 'this sort' of boy would behave and they would know because they're like that, heh~:)

Like I sort of implied/said, I realize I have issues in that I over-identify with Luna (and other 'odd' girls like Witch Baby in the Francesca Lia Block books, for instance). The thing that kind of upsets me much more than people not understanding where that sort of girl is coming from is people -identifying- with her and liking her because she's dippy silly and crazy. That really... seems like a bigger insult somehow, in a strange way.

But I love what you said about how only fanon Luna being comprehensible. I feel that way about Draco, I think, though I like my fanon to exist not apart from but rather as an expansion of canon, so that one can actually kind of -see- it instead of only accepting. Heheh I totally got carried away with this mini-rant though, didn't I~:))

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of floored by this idea...why would anyone think Luna was crazy? To me she seems perfectly sane and intelligent. She's got her "thing," the way she acts, but it never seems to me that she's really disconnected to reality at all. It seems more like the way she is, the way she communicates, the things she loves and likes to talk about, are just things she needs right now to deal with life, you know? Like for whatever reason she likes being this way right now, and since people don't treat her that well anyway there's no reason for her to conform to please them. The way she acts isn't mainstream but it's never occurred to me she was crazy.

Man, people have the narrowest views of "okay." If any kid in Harry's class has ever struck me in any danger of going mad, it would probably be Draco--and even then I just mean the way he's been set up it's a way you could go with the character, not that he's ever done anything insane up until now. And other characters I could see crossing the line into insane behavior, which is different than being insane yourself--like the people at the Salem Witch trials weren't insane but their behavior was. Plenty of characters could go that way. But Luna seems actually more in touch with reality, maybe because she knows herself. I remember hearing a quote about Oscar Schindler once where somebody said something about how in bad times it's often the oddballs that prove surprisingly able to resist evil. That sounds like Luna to me.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I think I might be overreacting, but this has been building for a while. I don't think I have direct and clear evidence that people think she's crazy, per se, 'cause there's no Luna-bashing post I can point to or anything-- it's like, some people dislike her (like Maya, say) and then I see other people (like in RPGs and such) write her in a particular way and just seeing how people ship her... And then there was this (http://www.livejournal.com/users/maevy/) banner, which may not mean much to you, but to me it's just that sort of ooh-la-la attitude that I see in regards to Luna from people who don't think they're saying anything negative about her at all.

Partly it's that whenever people talk about 'really liking' Luna, I want to look at them suspiciously and say 'why'. If they like her 'cause she's a harmless odd little duckling with silly earrings, that sort of condescension would really piss me off. I'm pretty sensitive, I know, but it's like, even the people who want to pair her off with Neville and Harry and Ron and so on ('cause it's cute or something, and Luna is so unoffensive, not bossy like Hermione or overly clingy/spunky/loud/whatever people think is 'too much' about Ginny). I'm like, she's a very solitary character. People don't seem to get that or have any... I dunno, acceptance of it. Sure, you can pair her with someone, but I feel like people pair her -off-, which is different. It's like, she's okay as she is, except she'd be 'better' if she was more normal & part of a couple. See what I mean about issues? :>

I just feel like this nice cozy wacky-girl image of Luna implies a sort of... comfy madness to me. Not Draco-style 'serious' madness, but a 'cute' madness, if that makes any sense.

That's exactly it-- no reason to conform. She's plenty connected, just to -her- reality rather than whoever else's. Heheh, the 'surprisingly able to resist evil' thing... yeah-- that seems related. Unless she's given a reason to follow the evil leader or whatever, one that works on her terms, she would ignore them just as she would ignore the normal brainwashing that goes on every day and no one's the wiser. It's like, most people don't believe there's no blue cheese on the moon because they've looked or thought about it, really-- it's just that one is not supposed to believe in it, so they don't. And of course you're mad if you just say, 'well, of course there is'. But Luna seems to want to -know-, to -see-.

I just want to know what people think of Luna without it always being 'awww she's so cool' or 'bleh, how boring/pathetic' or whatever. I totally forgot to ask for people's opinions in this post, didn't I ^^;;;;

[allectofromlj]

Personally, (a) I love your interpretation of Luna and (b) I *think* JKR is trying to go for the trope of the blind/seemingly crazy person actually having greater insight into life than other people, as in Teiresias in Greek mythology or Mercutio in Shakespeare. Because they don't see things as we see things, they see more/better.

I don't think Luna's crazy at all. I *can* see some kind of interpretation where she has forced herself to believe in certain things the outside world finds crazy so that she can win approval/attention from her father, as he's her only care-caregiver from a very early age, but I don't like it as much as the interpretation you gave her.

The real problem is that we just don't know enough about her, because it's clear Hermione thinks she's loony and Ron thinks she's annoying and Harry thinks she's odd *except* there's that bit at the end when Sirius has died and he asks her (or maybe she volunteers, I forget) and she tells him her theory about the veil and an afterlife, and he clings to it. But since the whole narrative of HP is from Harry's POV and since Harry has a very narrow scope of interest and is not the most reliable of narrators, bless his little heart, it's hard to know what she's "really" like. But I do think/hope JKR is going for the trope I mentioned above, because it's a nifty trope and also Luna deserves better than just being some crazy kid all the Ravenclaws laugh at.

(Off topic, but I find it interesting that the people who lingered by/heard voices from the veil were Harry, Luna, and Ginny, the former two who lost people and the latter who was touched by death and evil in CoS...)

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahahah the funny thing is, I don't think in JKR's 'reality', crumple horned snorkacks actually exist, but I tend to ignore that bit because it's like, Luna wants to prove it (catch one!) instead of insisting it's true like a 'true believer' of a certain sort would. It's like, in X-Files, Mulder believed in aliens and he wanted proof and he got it-- and one can assume that Luna will never get proof, but the approach is the same. I'm just saying that I don't know if she does have greater insight into -facts-, but I think her approach is more 'right' than some other people's :>

Well, it's like... Luna is so obvious to me... I've probably projected all sorts of things onto her, but it's just that there's no such thing as 'some crazy kid', 'cause everyone's crazy in a different way~:)) Like, I feel like I know what's going on in her head, but I think most people don't 'cause there aren't a lot of girls like that out there. Though Luna's all right with that :>

Also, I think once one becomes connected with death, it doesn't let go~:)

[allectofromlj]

Dude. DUDE. So totally not related to the actual conversation, BUT. IS YOUR SMILEY EMOTICON HARRY? Because! Lightning Bolt! Best thing ever! And now I am wanting to come up with stylized emoticons for all of them!

Like, I dunno. um. okay 8-) for James, because he wears glasses. and &:-) for Hermione and her bushy hair, and >:>| for Snape, to make him look angry (the drawn eyebrows) and give him a big nose. And the twins would just be, I duno (: :) because they always have their heads together planning something (only frankly, I'm kind of freaked out by the fact that Fred (or George) is upside down on top of George's (or Fred's) head...)

Anyway, Luna. I agree that crumple horned snorkacks probably don't exist in the reality of the HPverse. But I still think she is using Luna as the crazy/blind person trope, based on her use so far.

Though I keep waiting for someone to write that really hilarious story where it turns out the veil actually transports people through time and Sirius has been living the life of an aging rock star...

[allectofromlj]

psst!

Draco would be :-@ because he's busy giving Harry a blowjob.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha no it's not Harry, though people have asked me that before :D Er. I think I'm addicted to the "~" character, like the true teenie that I am~;)~~~ :D :D~

I love :-@ I really do. Man, that's where Malfoy belongs. Harry: "ON YOUR KNEES, BITCH. AND STAY THERE >:O" ahahah<3

God, do I love aging rockstar!Sirius (eye-liner!!). It's even more cool to imagine a whole AU where he's in love with this quiet professor type with the patchy clothes who's-- hey, why not-- secretly also a werewolf. They meet at a coffeeshop where Sirius goes after a party to sober up in the morning 'cause he has a dayjob, like... as a cop. <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3 Oh it makes me melt :D

[allectofromlj]

Of course he is! He fights crime by day and rocks the stage by night, a totally fabulouser than fabulous Jewel! And Remus is sort of shlumpy and wears tweed and uses reading glasses and is totally the opposite of Sirius and Sirius can't get enough of him.

(Sirius and James split the lyrics, I'm thinking, with one of them on guitar and the other on bass. Kingsley can be their drummer, who doesn't talk.)

Draco would totally be into glamrock, don't you think? And Harry would be in, like. A boyband! with Ron and Neville and Dean and Seamus, they could be the Gryffindors. And Draco would loll around their dressing room in skimpy sparkling clothing and black leather pants and get glitter on their furniture and pout a lot and Harry would lean over to kiss him and tug on his lower lip and Draco would press a hand to Harry's back and later, when he was on stage, Draco's handprint would shine in the spotlight and all the girls would scream and Harry would smile and sing and dance in formation, and feel Draco there, in the small of his back.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Omg the S/R thing is seriously the most adorable thing EVAR OMG. And they so would split the lyrics and be all ambiguously homosexual (singing at the same mic and throwing sweaty bare arms around each other) to drive the fangirls wild and make Remus mad and you know how rough he gets when he's a bit ...off-center ;))!! :D :D :D :D :D

ARG NOT THE BOYBAND, nooooooooo. *hiiiiides*
See, I totally think about this sort of thing way way more than I 'should' (to my non-existent shame), and actually I've truly contemplated continuing my `Gravity' Harry-fic and turning it into this adventure longfic where I start off looking in on Draco, who's a punk-rock bassist (or drummer!) in Liverpool (OH I KILL MYSELF, I REALLY DO). I totally think canonish!Draco is more punk rock than glam rock-- it's fanon!Draco who's more glam (not that I don't want to see Draco in girly slinky shiny things because OBVIOUSLY I DO). But anyway, punk!Draco amuses me more, 'cause it utilizes his rage against The Man (i.e., HARRY AHAHAHAH omg I just semi-squealed in the public lab) and also kind of plays on his obsessive addictive tendencies-- so he'd do drugs and drink himself stupid and be all skinny-strung-out-white-wizardboy-stranded-in-Muggle-Liverpool or maybe he could be in Scotland somewhere, omg the <333333!!

...And then, y'know (in my unwritten fic) a demon from the nth dimension finds Draco and makes him an offer he cannot refuse-- power, of course. And Harry coincidentally is after these demons (on behalf of the Ministry) so he tracks them down to where else, Liverpool-- and so he finds our ickle strung-out-and-angry-as-fuck!Malfoy playing bass guitar in a dim dingy Muggle club :D :D Ripped jeans and black t-shirt and THE WORKS, man. *dreamy sigh* "I'm here to arrest you... Malfoy?" AHAHAH oh thelove.

...Though 'The Gryffindors' is a totally rockin' name. Mmmm I'm totally there with the handprints and everything, however. *drifts off* THE LIP NEEDS TO BE TUGGED, IT SO DOES!!! I'm glad you recognize this deep and essential facet of how the universe WORKS, man.
Still, boyband/glam makes my eyes cross a bit ;))

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

I didn't really warm to Luna.
I think it's some kind of dignity issue (which is odd coming from a Draco/current Slytherins fan, I know!) - I didn't really 'get' why she would want to associate with people who didn't seem to care about her.

But I haven't given her much thought I'm afraid. I'm not particularly interested in characters that are too 'obvious', if that makes any sense, and Luna is kind of like Neville, in that I'm very aware as a reader that I shouldn't misjudge them because There's More Than Meets the Eye, and that they'll play a Larger Role in things and maybe Help Harry's Understanding.
Which is great, but there's no big shocks or huge character development is store, which is perhaps more interesting to me.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Heh. I guess I don't care about authorial intent when it comes to whether I 'get' or even like a character-- I only apply it to extrapolating the likely direction of future events, especially in terms of what's more or less plausible in fanfic. So... it seems irrelevant to me to link a character's larger function in context of others and their nature in the context of themselves alone.

The thing is, I don't care how others see Luna, how Luna interacts with those others, whether she's well-socialized or badly done by as far as her peers are concerned. That is largely antisocial of me, but this, after all, why I identify with Luna in the first place.

If I 'explained' Luna's behavior to you, of course, it'd be me projecting myself onto her as much as or more than me 'knowing' what's 'really' going on, but for what it's worth: Luna doesn't care how others see her or whether others care about her, because -she- doesn't really care about -them-. It's so funny to me that socialness is taken as this given that of course everyone must worry about one way or the other, and be concerned about their relationships and their place in the strata of their little society. That's simply not what's important to her; so what, people are idiots and they pick on her and steal her things and laugh at what she says. Everyone does that, really. So? They're unimportant. Magical creatures are important.

Her hanging out with people who don't get her is only confusing if you think there's -anyone- who -does- get her or like her for who she is. I mean, there might be, but usually one doesn't meet kindred spirits like that for a long time, in my experience. I hadn't had anyone get me until well past the age of 18. Even now, I think there are very few people, really.

So... there are the important things-- the world, and magic, and mysteries, and interesting new discoveries, and secrets only she knows and things only she sees. And then there are people. Who're nice enough. Kind of annoying when they pick on her. Some of them seem to like her somewhat, which is-- interesting, I'm sure.

It's like, most likely Luna wouldn't 'warm' to anyone either. She's just not very warm, and doesn't seem to need to be, especially, at this stage of her life. I get that 'cause I -was- that, and a part of me always will be that girl that needs no one except the magic she alone sees.

For me, it's not a question of the author telling me there's more to her than meets the eye. I -know-. I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt and I think I still wear it most days, actually. Asocial and proud, that's me.

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

It's like, most likely Luna wouldn't 'warm' to anyone either. She's just not very warm, and doesn't seem to need to be, especially, at this stage of her life.

That interpretation makes a lot of sense, actually, and ironically, kind of makes me warm to her more than before, perhaps ;)

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

As for reasons for why someone would dislike Luna on principle, it makes me think of something I read once on the site "Television without Pity". The recapper said that she didn't like characters like Willow (BtVS) or Phoebe (Friends), because their respective "ditziness" were "pasted on", in order to make them "cute" and "endearing" to the viewers. Instead, the recapper liked Drusilla, whose paceyness "had a real reason", aka, she WAS insane. Now, I don't necessarily share the views of this recapper, but I could most definitely see where she was coming from. And I imagine she'd have the same reaction to Luna, thinking that JKR has made her "dreamy" to make her cute and endearing. This is not how I see Luna, but I can understand that other people may see her like that, and if they do, I can definitely see why they'd dislike her.

I guess, the reason why I don't see her like that, is because to me, she
-like many of JKR's characters- seems real. That is, I can agree with Luna-critiques that there are stereotypical things in her characterisation, but I think she exceeds the stereotype. (I fully understand that she might not do so for everyone, though).

I remember when we read OotP, my sister said Luna reminded her very much of me. I could understand what she meant, but it annoyed me to a certain extent, because of the stereotypal aspects of the character. Also, it annoyed me, because though I can understand that there are similarities between the two of us, there are also great differences (I don't have the faith Luna has for instance, and I think I'm much more logical and skeptic, read cynical;-)). Likewise, I remember when we started watching "Friends", my sister said Phoebe reminded her of me. This annoyed me even more, because I percieve Phoebe as more of a stereotype and comic relief, but yeah, I could see where she was coming from even then.

What I think my sister referred to, in both these cases, was something these two characters seem to have in common; they're both absentminded, live a bit in their own world and they think in a way that's different to others. Like, from other people's POV, Luna may say something that seems to be completely out of the left field, but it makes perfect sense to her, and the point is, it would make sense to most people, if we only could follow her thought-process. We can't, therefore she doesn't make sense. But if we could, she would, and I think that's extremely important to remember when you write fics that's from Luna's own POV; no one sees themselves as weird, and thus, Luna shouldn't either.

My personal pet-peeve about Luna, is when people think she's stupid. I've seen threads questioning why she is in Ravenclaw, and that completely drives me up the wall. She's NOT stupid!!!! (Here is, of course, where I start project my own issues.;-)) She thinks in a way that's different from others, but she's very much capable of thinking, in fact, she probably uses her brain more than many people. But I think she uses all of her brain, or at least more of it than is common. It's hard to explain, but I think she often thinks one step ahead of others, as well as from the sides, and looking back, and thus it may take a little longer until she draws a conclusion. Reversely, I think it also happens that she draws her conclusion far too quickly for others to follow, because she doesn't work herself through details first, but she begins, rather than ends, with the broad perspective, and thus she might throw out the conclusion at a time when other people, who haven't been following her line of thinking, aren't ready to recieve it. I think the forrest-scene, where she suggests they'll fly to MoM, is an excellent example of that, in fact.

The thing is, if someone tends to say things that seem (but really aren't, once you've given it some thought) completely out of the blue, and if you're not always focusing on the "here and now", and if you sometimes answer questions when the person who asked them has already forgot they posed them, many people can mistake that for stupidity.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Heee! Yes :D I totally nodded throughout your take on the Luna Issue, hehe, probably because it's mostly (only?) the people who're something like that who-- er-- 'get' that sort of person. *bonds*~:))
That's what I was getting at with the crazy-bead-lady imagery in the beginning-- I suppose Phoebe strikes me as as the crazy-bead-lady type much more so than either Luna or Willow ('cause she doesn't have that all-important component of actual-- er-- rigorous thought to accompany the wackiness), so yeah, if you compared me to Phoebe I'd be offended too, but all right, I could see where you're coming from :D I mean, when I think 'Phoebe', I think 'cat song', which is... all right, something I might do, BUT STILL :D :D I always identified with Ross more ^^;;;; (*is so lame, omg*)

I think the thing about using all of her brain is right on-- it's very much in the tradition of INFP-type thinking-- intuitive rather than linear. Linear (rationalist) people just kind of blink and go 'uh... right' because they don't even -recognize- it as -thought- 'cause basically they don't think that way. Recently it hit me that like, 'normal' people actually think like 'a-then-b-then-c-then-d-then...' which... hurts my head. I never think like that, and it's kind of like, well, I know that sort of thing is normal but it still boggles the mind. The difference is that, erm, 'our kind' has always had to understand the majority whereas the majority has never felt any obligation to understand -us-.

I totally agree about Luna making sense after more thought... er, mostly 'cause that's my experience with how people react to -me-. Like... it's a question of context. People seem to understand what I mean quite perfectly if they know exactly where I'm coming from, and be utterly confused if they don't. And... I often forget to say where I'm coming from; it like -hurts- me to explain myself the 'normal' way a lot of times. Heh. Though I can do it! It's just like porting Windows to a Mac, ahahahahah. It can be done! I can isolate the logical part of my brain and off I go! Er, so yes, people often confuse 'linear logic' with 'intelligence', which makes me all 'grrr' and so on :>

Well... this is funny, about people not seeing themselves as weird. I think a lot of people claim to be weird (I do, for fun), but anytime I say I'm weird (since I realize most people would think I am) I feel like I'm lying. I feel like it's not true, I'm -not- weird (enough) 'cause I make perfect sense to -me- :D Yesyesyes re: beginning with the broad perspective. That's what -I- always do, anyway. Hahahah man, projection issues ^^;;;

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

('cause she doesn't have that all-important component of actual-- er-- rigorous thought to accompany the wackiness)

Thank you, I think you highlighted the issues I've always had with this character there. It's not like I didn't like her as a character -in fact I could often find her funny- but I was never really able to identify with her. Can't really say who I identified with most on that show, I only know Phoebe and Joey were the ones I identified least with, probably because the two of them were the ones who came across most as "types" rather than real persons.

I mean, when I think 'Phoebe', I think 'cat song', which is... all right, something I might do, BUT STILL :D :D

Hee! Not just "Cat song", but a badly written and sung one!:D

Recently it hit me that like, 'normal' people actually think like 'a-then-b-then-c-then-d-then...'

Exactly. Whereas if I'd describe my thought-process, it'd be more like I get all these undefined, shapeless things, that are initially more like feelings, until they start to take shape, and they take a fuzzy shape at first, and then a slightly less fuzzy shape, and then they're almost formed, and then, finally, I can begin to dress them in words, and I might try to dress them all at once, or I'll begin with whichever come first, which might as well be "C" as "A", etc. But some people seem to need to fully dress one thought in words, before the other one can even begin to form. Yeah, I can express my thoughts linearly as well, especially in writing, but it took some time to develop that. (Heh, it was sort of funny, but on a thread by sistermagpie, quite a long while ago, she asked which characters we related to, and I answered Luna and Zacharias, and it was kind of funny how I got some surprised reactions by people who could only see the Zacharias-part. The funny thing is, many people I know in real life, would, if they'd read the books, have the complete opposite reaction. Sometimes "writingselves" can be quite a bit different from "talkingselves", I think!:D)

I think a lot of people claim to be weird (I do, for fun), but anytime I say I'm weird (since I realize most people would think I am) I feel like I'm lying.

Oh, I know what you mean, I've done that too. That is, I say "I'm weird", either as tongue-in-cheek, or with self-irony, because I know there are people who perceive me that way. But I never really agree with it. To me, it's always other people who are "weird", not me!:D