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Apr. 4th, 2005 06:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI know it's a truism & a cliche & all that, but it still startles me that the more I find out about a subject (saay, the range of shounen-ai art/manga out there in this case), the more I realize I've barely scratched the surface of what there is to know. I mean, there are (four plus!) -eras- in shounen-ai tradition, and tons and tons of mangakas I've never even -vaguely- heard of let alone seen translated, and genre history I have no clue about, and context I can only guess at and approximate right now....
I feel sort of chagrined & pleased at the same time. Somehow, this sense of wide vistas, this glimpse of a barely-discovered country-- it's probably, in the end, my favorite feeling in the world. Conversely, my least favorite feeling in terms of halfway intellectual pursuits is constantly retreading old ground... and I'm not saying that -has- to be the case with fanfic and isn't the case with 'original' stuff, because everything can get pretty cliched pretty fast.... I think it's just easier to get proprietary with fanfic, for me, and believe I know how it's 'supposed' to be like instead of just... knowing what I like. I mean, it gets to the point where I'm confused between just really liking a fanfic and thinking it's really an example of how things "should" be written, which is just ridiculous. For some reason, this doesn't really happen with even with the most cliched and boring 'original' mangas, at least so far.
I think I'm just feeling a bit love-stricken, reading this review of an old shounen-ai manga which starts, "the Japanese have a love affair with style for its own sake"-- and I'm like, *siiiiiiigh*. See, that's where the traditionalist in me comes through-- while I'm always in pursuit of the new and shiny, I love tradition as well as innovation when it comes to style. A high aesthetic, even when taken to a silly extreme, never really bores me... which is probably why I can stand to read the same kind of story over and over again. Leaving aside the porn, it's all about the aesthetic-- the pretty, pretty boys drawn with pretty, pretty lines, with pretty pretty hands and pretty pretty angst and so on. And if the story is surprising & funny & dramatic-- oh my god, I am its slave. And probably also its sequel's slave :>
What it really comes down to is that I find the Japanese aesthetic probably the sexiest in the world. I mean... yes. I would so have mad passionate sex with it, if concepts had... y'know, corporeal form. Ahhh. Another quote from the review: "It's like one of those Japanese meals that consists of a dozen tiny little dishes, with everything cut and folded and arranged just so. It looks exquisite, and it leaves you starving."
Well-- it's just that this sort of stylistic extravagance coupled with stoic minimalism (leave you unsatisfied, starving, still hungry)-- that's part of the appeal, for me. It's the cultural equivalent of that gorgeous boy who's really emotionally cold and distant-- it's really like crack to me. Eye-candy that makes you addicted while always leaving you incomplete-- isn't it the perfect drug?
Though I'm aware this isn't necessarily selling it, to most people, ahahah.
I feel sort of chagrined & pleased at the same time. Somehow, this sense of wide vistas, this glimpse of a barely-discovered country-- it's probably, in the end, my favorite feeling in the world. Conversely, my least favorite feeling in terms of halfway intellectual pursuits is constantly retreading old ground... and I'm not saying that -has- to be the case with fanfic and isn't the case with 'original' stuff, because everything can get pretty cliched pretty fast.... I think it's just easier to get proprietary with fanfic, for me, and believe I know how it's 'supposed' to be like instead of just... knowing what I like. I mean, it gets to the point where I'm confused between just really liking a fanfic and thinking it's really an example of how things "should" be written, which is just ridiculous. For some reason, this doesn't really happen with even with the most cliched and boring 'original' mangas, at least so far.
I think I'm just feeling a bit love-stricken, reading this review of an old shounen-ai manga which starts, "the Japanese have a love affair with style for its own sake"-- and I'm like, *siiiiiiigh*. See, that's where the traditionalist in me comes through-- while I'm always in pursuit of the new and shiny, I love tradition as well as innovation when it comes to style. A high aesthetic, even when taken to a silly extreme, never really bores me... which is probably why I can stand to read the same kind of story over and over again. Leaving aside the porn, it's all about the aesthetic-- the pretty, pretty boys drawn with pretty, pretty lines, with pretty pretty hands and pretty pretty angst and so on. And if the story is surprising & funny & dramatic-- oh my god, I am its slave. And probably also its sequel's slave :>
What it really comes down to is that I find the Japanese aesthetic probably the sexiest in the world. I mean... yes. I would so have mad passionate sex with it, if concepts had... y'know, corporeal form. Ahhh. Another quote from the review: "It's like one of those Japanese meals that consists of a dozen tiny little dishes, with everything cut and folded and arranged just so. It looks exquisite, and it leaves you starving."
Well-- it's just that this sort of stylistic extravagance coupled with stoic minimalism (leave you unsatisfied, starving, still hungry)-- that's part of the appeal, for me. It's the cultural equivalent of that gorgeous boy who's really emotionally cold and distant-- it's really like crack to me. Eye-candy that makes you addicted while always leaving you incomplete-- isn't it the perfect drug?
Though I'm aware this isn't necessarily selling it, to most people, ahahah.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 04:37 am (UTC)I would so have mad passionate sex with it, if concepts had... y'know, corporeal form.
Two words: Visual Kei. Sometimes it's a bit extreme, but damn, some of those boys are fiiinnneeee.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 05:01 am (UTC)And you saying 'Visual Kei' had me looking it up (http://www.answers.com/topic/visual-kei), which led to... other (http://www.answers.com/topic/Gothic-lolita) things (http://www.answers.com/topic/Kogal) I knew very little about o_0 heh
Heh. I think most people liked that fic 'cause of the kink... whereas I liked it because of the stylistic pure writing elements and because I have a close relationship with Aspen's Draco (in my head, ahahahah) <3<3 Basically, if all other Dracos pale for me, I will always love Maya's, Silvia's and Aspen's and want to see them totally owned by Harry. It's like a law the universe :D But... I actually dunno if it's 'objectively' appealing as an H/D fic, I guess...? I just know it's really well-written ^^;
no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 05:11 am (UTC)I have the dubios pleasure of investigating J-rock/Vis-kei/etc for a Music Subcultures suject I'm taking this semester. It's my attempt to improve an incredibly boring subject. If I have to sit through another lecture about Mods or Punk I'm going to kick puppies.
The fic is weird for me, because it's not the sex or the dirty talk or the dom!Harry/sub!Draco that does it for me, but right at the end, that last little bit where everything gets flipped for a second - THAT'S what turns me on. I mean, she could have just written...
and Malfoy snorted, his naked thigh rubbing against Harry's in an annoyed but luxuriant slide. Harry used his own chin to push Malfoy's down, pressing their mouths together in the process. "You're mine, y'know," he grunted, slipping his tongue past Malfoy's parted lips briefly.
"I know, I know," Malfoy mumbled against his mouth, "I'm your slut and all that."
Harry shivered and pulled back, and discovered that Malfoy, pinched and pink and pale though he was, looked frightfully gratified by that fact.
And I would have been perfectly satisfied. Or maybe I'm just reading into Harry's shivvering too much. :D
no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 07:13 am (UTC)Ahhh. I love how secretly it's Harry that's Draco's bitch <3<3<3<3 TWUE WUV. Heheh I love that fic for the little adjectives and adverbs she'd throw in sometimes that just seem to change the meaning of a whole paragraph. *sigh* And I didn't even notice that one :D Though I mean, I know it's porn but the appeal to me is halfway stylistic & halfway emotional-- then again, I don't really read for kink, precisely. But yes, I love both how Harry needs to be reassured and how responsive they are to each other in both directions. I think I get this special sense of quiet intimacy anytime I read a fic by someone who RPs :D Ahhhh <33333