- love for the elegantly homicidal -

[reenka]

It's funny to read two Harry-- er, and-- Draco fics dealing with the theme of spying and intrigue in the same night-- one angst, one fluff. One of them worked for me like a 4th of July firework, and that's cupiscent's `Firebrand', which is inventive, fast-paced, gritty and gripping. The thing is, it doesn't matter how far-fetched the scenario is if one develops one's core idea to the max, and Dee really does that with gorgeous rigor in a tight, effective short story.

I really love it when I read something different in H/D which avoids sacrificing characterization for ease of realization of the scenario and realistic character dynamics for romance, as well as having a fascinating plot. I can't help but love a story which features strong characters, less than nice characters-- and not ones who're 'nice' or 'not nice' divided along their roles in the story (i.e., the 'good guys' are nice while the 'bad guys' suck). It's just so tempting to make your favorite character into a beautiful misunderstood martyr, I know, but if you buck that impulse and write people as they honestly are, the result is often a thing of true beauty.

Dee's fic is vivid, unapologetic, fierce and meaty. It makes me happy to be a shipper-- someone who wants to see these two make it together because they need each other, against all odds, rather than is willing to believe in some easy fix-- much more than any shmoopy lovey-dovey romance with remorseful Draco and charitable Harry (who make sweet & passionate boylurve at first opportunity) ever could. Because while this scenario isn't necessarily any more likely than the one where Draco 'repents', one -could- project our boys as they are into it, without much need for a lobotomy. Always a good thing.

...Let's just say that the idea of Draco Malfoy in Vladivostok, wearing a grey sweater and holding an AK-47 isn't one I'll want to forget anytime soon. There's just something oddly fitting about renegade!Draco in Siberia. There is!! Also, this greeting by said sweater-wearing person--

"Hello, Potter," Draco Malfoy says. "Fancy meeting you here."

-- made me clap my hands in glee, which is a first. I just really love Draco sometimes. I just do. But especially when he's going for elegantly homicidal. <333 And I love them together, not even in a romantic sense, but in terms of bringing them into contact because they -matter- to each other-- whatever happens, whether they'd admit it or not, whether they realize it or not, they matter. This whole story is a vodka shot-- smooth and harsh and it burns all the way to your heart with seemingly effortless precision.

I do want to see 'what happens' later on, but I don't need to. The fic is more of an image-- a feeling-- a taste at the back of my tongue. Bitter, smooth, gleaming hard like steel and glitter-dry like dust in the sun.

EDIT - Incidentally, cupiscent's post on writing angstfic was rather helpful and inspiring, but I especially loved the bit about the writer not intending angst to make the reader cry but rather to strand them in helplessness or render them incapable of expressing an excess of seething emotion. That is rather what I've noticed about great tragedy, as well. Ahahaha, resolution is for wimps!! ;D

Comments

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Whoo! Thanks for the rec. I really liked Dee's fic, but got like *no* HD or HDish vibes off it at all. I'd almost say that Ginny loomed the largest.

It's just so tempting to make your favorite character into a beautiful misunderstood martyr,

Hm, this actually made me rethink the fic's portrayals a bit. Draco wasn't *quite* this in Firebrand, it was more... all his prejudices' solid bases were justified and all the nastier aspects were ignored (it would have been nice to see a parallel drawn in the wizarding and muggle prejudices, I think, just a sentence or adjective or look or something. I think she did do well in showing the stifling bureaucracy running through both. And how natural it was to intertwine)

I could also make weenie arguments about the likelihood of Harry and Hermione doing what they did, but really, I feel like good counter-arguments could also be brought to bear. And the *story* was so powerful in and of itself that it swept away almost all my resistance as I read.

[sympathetic-ink.livejournal.com]

[starts laughing]

so that's the coincidence! [dies]

[malafede.livejournal.com]

You don't know how much I loved to find this post after what you forced (I am so oppressed) me to read, though admittedly the whole experience was more funny than anything else.

...it makes me want to not have Harry and Draco fuck like, ever. And then Moody (their spymaster) would be like, CONSTANT ERECTION whenever they dare eyeing each other less than professionally. /lame joke

Off to read good spyfic!

[shaggirl.livejournal.com]

Haha, I know the other spy fic you read, and as much as the author's version/vision of Draco is not my version/vision, I cannot help but love such unapologetic cliche. :P

[stellabelle.livejournal.com]

Haha, you've been listening to a lot of cover songs lately, seems like...'Blackbird' and then 'Paint it Black'. You should so listen to Ryan Adams' cover of 'Wonderwall'. It's so beautiful and minimalistic, and just...*sigh*.

Yay, I'm totally going to read your rec next, cause it sounds good and also cause I'm a Total Procrastinator today, OMG. So sad. (It's like, I was totally being good and writing and then it started running away on me and turning porny and now I'm scared of it and aughhh whyyy does everything turn into porn whyyy?! Not that it's a bad thing that I'm a ho, but... *ahem* I meant. Um. I'll be okay. Eventually. Hehe.)

the bit about the writer not intending angst to make the reader cry but rather to strand them in helplessness or render them incapable of expressing an excess of seething emotion.

Dude, I just had this convo with a friend of mine the other day. Totally. And we were also wondering how can someone say, for example: 'I'm going to write angst!' You know? I mean, obviously I do have a vision for whatever I'm writing, but I just don't like to label it that directly. (I don't really like labels for most things, I suppose...) But I feel as though it's sort of a cop-out to the writing to say 'this is [whatever].' Hm. I dunno. Probably that's just me. :)

[newmint.livejournal.com]

Ahh, that's jsut what I've been trying to vocalise for such a long time about angst... the horrible, heart-in-throat, choking-on emotions feeling at the end of a really fulfilling angstfic, the way you want to wail and wail and wail and can't find any way of exorcising the huge, horrible mass of helpless, raging, despair. And yes, that post does pain angst as (greek) sort of tragedy, with the protagonist creating their own downfall.

[notrafficlights.livejournal.com]

..Let's just say that the idea of Draco Malfoy in Vladivostok, wearing a grey sweater and holding an AK-47 isn't one I'll want to forget anytime soon. There's just something oddly fitting about renegade!Draco in Siberia.

Holy shiznit. I must read this fic. I love fics that are really removed from Hogwarts like this. Not in the "Harry and co go to Disneyland" kind of fic, but in the "So-and-so's become a drug-lord in Thailand" kind of crazy scenario. Has to be plausible, of course (I really don't like the "Daddy kicked me out cos I'm gay" thing that seems to happen with Draco all the time) but yeah.

Oh, and have you read Acts Infernal? I just finished reading it and am still going "omg omg omg" in my head. I think I like it most because it's so IC it's kinda H/D kinda not... which is good! *cough* Anyway I will stop stalking you now and go over here... *does so*