[small enough to matter]

[reenka]

I'm starting to truly think that in fact, talking to tech-support people is pure torture, designed to test the mind and break the spirit. Yes.

You know why? WHY?? YES, OH YES, I CAN TELL YOU WHY.


THEY ARE TOO POLITE. They are so polite, and non-offensive, and non-information-volunteering that I want to wring their scrawny little necks, oh yes I do. Talking to a person who treats you as if you're a (vaguely mentally disabled) 5 year-old is... well, it's bad enough if you don't feel you should keep your temper too. And of course I don't push too hard because that would make me feel ungrateful and silly, and also a bitch ('what's going on?' 'oh, some settings got changed.') ARGH.

My problem, really, is that overly polite professional people somehow come off as inhuman. Except a machine would offer to give you information more; come to think of it, I like computers themselves like, tons more than chippery tech-support girls. Die, tech-support girls, die!!1
    They're really like... the human incarnations of AOL. -.-
    And then people say 'if you haven't got anything nice to say, say nothing at all'. Riiiight. Because that doesn't lead to 'if you don't think it'll be useful, say nothing' and 'if you don't think The Little People can understand, say nothing' and 'if you think it'll make people listen to The Authority That Is You, keep on saying nothing'. Of course.
~~

I've been reading fantasy novels recently, both set partly in Scotland. Mmmm, Scotland... I'm not sure if I'm more enamoured with the faerie lore or the actual history (the Picts! Eee!), but-- well, that's normal for me.
    Back when I first went to the fantasy section of Barnes & Noble several days back, I had some major headdesk...ing regarding everything being part of some crappy serial (trilogy being getting off lightly), but my real problem is actually things being crappy. It's just somehow worse when it's also 'part three of five'. (And then they say it's hard to break into the writing business-- I mean, can't be that hard when 90% of what I see is awwwwful.)

But Lisa Tuttle's stuff is really promising and Juliet Marillier is one of the very few people who do historical fantasy to my tastes these days. In epic fantasy especially, my tastes seem to be more exacting than with other types (well, than with urban fantasy), because people seem more likely to write in a dry, ponderous manner and use lots of flowery cliches-- I mean, even the best (Marillier or the other recent Australian, Alison Croggon) have this thing with the flowery descriptions and over-elaborate pretty much everything, and that sense of pompousness which I hate-- but it's more bearable somehow. Probably an actual talent for writing helps.

Though yeah, my issue is generally that when people focus on far-reaching plot and 'environment' or 'social issues' in their writing, the immediacy level goes way way down. Everything, even how things are -described- starts to feel predictable and boring when the focus becomes on the story to the point where the actual writing part is irrelevant. Like, I really don't know how people stand to read it-- not that some cliches aren't comfortingly familiar, but a constant barrage of them with no random sparkle feels like a recitation of a memorized play, doesn't it?

This is why I don't tend to read all the more famous fantasy epics that mark everyone else as a fantasy fan, man. It really takes way more talent than most writers have to make a big story still seem small enough to matter.

Actually, what I really like is some self-consciousness on the part of the narrative-- especially when things become cliche, it really amuses me when the characters are aware they're in a story (not literally, but more in a 'this is like this sort of story' sense). In stories which are based on fairy-tales but set in modern times especially, that works well for me. In a historical fantasy, characters being aware of myths or telling folktales for some reason frames things nicely as well-- or there being other (positive) characters who 'talk sense' or think in a skeptical fashion allows me to identify more with the main heroes. Though too much self-awareness makes for tell-not-show, methinks.
    When the nay-saying character is merely there to be the enemy (and no real attempt at winning anyone over exists), I just get tired of being proselytized at.

Actually, it seems a lot of the fantasy books I've read lately off the top of my head, the main 'sympathetic' character is a 'true believer' or becomes one by necessity or revelation. Generally, I identify with that sort quite well, but when the skeptic or heretic is portrayed sympathetically as being intelligent and discerning and grows as a person without becoming a 'convert', that's even more appealing somehow. Maybe I'm just doomed to liking anti-heroes, I dunno.

Comments

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

Perhaps people's mouth should be sewn shut when they come out of the womb. That would solve the problem, I'm sure.

I disengage when the author goes into too much detail about hierarchy. No one's gonna come up with something wildly new about, I dno, the way monarchies are set up or kingdoms ruled, so why invent all these stupid titles and make the whole story about them? Plus the fact that most people writing fantasy (most) have no clue about politics makes it seem so pointless.

Mills and Boon all the way.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahahah, then the people would strange each other while making inarticulate grunts -.- Which... might be amusing :>

It's not just hierarchy-- any overload of detail just gets to me, like... argh, structurestructurestructure, it feels like an essay or something. I can see how some people's brains are wired that way, I guess, and it's not that I don't want the info, necessarily, but does it have to be flowery as well? Heh. Maybe all the epic fantasies can be saved by a sense of humor. Hmm. I was sort of facepalming a lot when it was repeatedly stated that this main character basically had no sense of humor (mind, he's a sympathetic guy-- I like him, sure-- but man, it was also frequently stated how everyone liked him and he was a popular leader-- a popular, earnest, enthusiastic, moral, HUMORLESS leader who barely ever smiled). Ah well-- I really did like this book :>

I actually don't care if they know anything about politics-- when there's too much of it I sort of start hearing a droning sound in my head, like someone's using a drill :)) I get really into it when it's presented in a sense that connects it to the character's emotions and when it -means- something, but just the power-struggles themselves could all go to hell and call themselves something other than 'epic fantasy' while they're at it. I mean, I don't think you can escape it entirely with historical stuff, but. It's more that it's written like it's by one of the actual people at court or something :> Ack.

...I've actually always read the smuttier historical romance stuff (when I was 15), so it didn't have too much plot. Then again, I skimmed through that anyway :>

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

It would be like the sex panels of manga, over and over and over.

Oh, telling not showing? I think Raymond E Feist, Anne McCaffrey and Robert Jordan could band together to make that a hanging offence. It's like what you said before, or to paraphrase that, shoving your own morals into your characters' mouths. There must be a reason why this guy can't have a sense of humour, but showing him long-faced when everyone else is pissing themselves laughing would surely showcase the point quite effectively. OH WELL. WILL THEY EVER LEARN?

I love it when politics screw up people's lives -- case in point, Fitz in the Assassin books. Especially when the author has enough talent to make it seem like the future is unavoidable, like there WON'T be a last-minute Arnie moment and the world goes back to happy bunny rabbit land again.

Or I'm just a sucker for unhappy endings ...

GOTCHA. I was always disappointed in the lack of smut in those things. A sign of things to come, I fear.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I think it's sort of sad that I can immediately call to mind several different types of manga!sex, what with sounds, grunts, the rare dirty talk, the ones where you just get facial expressions, the ones with the cock close-up (tm), the ones with the invisi!cock and girl positions, the ones with absolutely no sex-appeal value whatsoever (like when they're sort of... hugging naked and there are lots of sparkles) etcetc. And then there's the ones where there's a big close-up of the mouse tail-fucking a cat's um, penis..... *___*

Where was I...

Yes! It's all the telling-not-showing, that's exactly what turns me off so much 'epic' stuff-- funny, since the overload of description should theoretically mean 'showing' (describing??) but it really doesn't. With Juliet Marillier, it's not so bad because the characters all have different povs (and they often debate them... and while it's clear what the 'right' thing is, the people who're wrong make sense too, so it's not so bad). But in some ways the debating is too 'neat' a lot of times-- like of course all the obvious points get raised, everyone's strictly 'in character' as per type, etc. It seems to be a pitfall of these sorts of stories that people get 'sorted' per type and then just keep on keeping on fiddling their... er, fiddle. Yes.

Hee. In this case, politics both screw some people over and are used (by the hero) to um, achieve the 'larger goal' (which is realistic). I think the point is really more about finding balance and finding your own happiness and stuff like that, but then the main character is a King so he gets to make up rules a lot :> Sturm-und-drang is really as unrealistic as happy bunny land, though it depends whose pov you use. As long as things aren't too predictable, I'm okay-- but like, if death and despair are obviously always on the menu, the story becomes about something else. Like, um, with Elric (Michael Moorcock's books), he always knew he'd be destroyed by his sword, but his death isn't really the point.

You just have to look harder, and find authors who write sex well. They sneak in, somehow. There was even one with a public handjob under the table (KINKY!!)

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, you're not alone in that. I think the worst ones just have the half-sketched cock. Or all those wavy conductor fingers. SOMEONE DRAW IN SOME PANELS, PLZ.

It's sad that, with some books, it's so obvious that the whole plot is a set-up to achieve the required ending. I mean sure, of course that's what it's all about, but ... subtlety, misdirection, twist, surprises -- these things rule me in fiction.

Well, you've given me some titles to check out, that's for sure! I'm kind of scared of Moorcock's stuff (and not just because of the name -- the context Gaiman mentions him in, in Smoke and Mirrors, doesn't really look like my type of thing). Still, I'll screw my courage to the sticking place and whatnot.

Heh, sounds like Fiona Walker. In a trek through the chicklit wilderness, she shines like a big ... a big pile of cactus, or something. Sparkly cactus.

I only hope that, in future, there'll be more mainstream boygay stories. Because I'm sick of subtext.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA 'wavy conductor fingers'-- not sure what you mean, BUT I LOVE IT ALREADY :D Now I'm pondering if I'd rather half!cock or no!cock. Hard to say. I really hate it when they use those dots or circles or whatever. But a really good mangaka can be really hot without cock, just with positioning & sounds & contest. Of course, a basic knowledge of anatomy really helps... just sayin'....

I know! The set-up thing-- it's nearly constant-- and irritating-- and gets to me (isn't that what people mean by 'plot'???!). Thinking back, I can't really guarantee that Marillier's latest has that many twists/etc-- if you wanna taste, try her Sevenwaters trilogy, which is of the good. I was just thinking earlier that I wish the main character wasn't -always- right (in the Ways That Count), wasn't always the True Believer, wasn't The Chosen One for once. Is that the fanficcer's way of thinking or what? :>

Of course even the 'Chosen One' must face trials and make the best of their chances & opportunities and such, and it's not that I want them to fail, but I think-- it means more to me when the story is about the person first & the grand destiny second, whatever that grand destiny is. And if the person is lost or confused and relies on their wits & skills more than destiny and providence-- that's even more sympathetic, right? I mean, as a reader, you just -know- that if there's a character who has a Destiny, they will fulfill it, and if they're born to be King, they will be, otherwise the story would be stillborn and annoying (a bit like Brokeback Mountain, I guess). At the same time, no one forced you to give that character a Destiny in the first place, did they.....

Actually, this latest one by Marillier is interesting 'cause there's no destiny (like with Harry), and -only- the manipulations of an old man-- like, if it was obvious Dumbledore really -was- behind everything, and he was Harry's foster father to boot :> Eventually the poor guy (obedient as he is) does snap, haha. But even so, the gods bless him, the faerie watch over him, so it's obvious it's a destiny even if no one calls it that straight out. So I'm more and more interested in the side characters, the outsiders, kind of in spite of myself. Maybe it just wouldn't be 'epic' enough without destiny?? But in real history, epic things happen by a series of accidents and coincidences of sorts, that's what these writers don't understand...

Moorcock is... to taste. He writes really good short stories, and has humongous universes he sets novel after novel in. As far as I know, though, Neil likes him--? His stuff -is- pretty dark and grim, though, so no worries about happy anything. Elric is like the ultimate goth boy angst-maven Eternal Champion from hell. Sort of literally :>

I want boygay stories too :( Without the um, AIDS and jadedness and sleeping around for everyone, etcetc. Oh, well, without the doom in general. That would be a change of pace in queerlit :>

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

You know -- when there's that five second split between the first kiss and going for gold? "I'm going to put it inside you now, hehehe." Still, points for having lubrication (mostly), I guess.

OMG I KNOW. I really do think that I'd love to read a story where the person is just an ordinary Joe Soap, with acne, and spindly legs, who just gets caught up in the tide of things. Much like, oh, REAL LIFE is. Two of my favourite fantasy books get that -- Morningstar, by David Gemmell. 'The' Morningstar is the most amazing hero. He's not a hero, and he's without conscience, he doesn't get redeemed -- overall it's a good story, unlike, eg, anything else I've read by Gemmell. And the Ordinary Princess, by MM Kaye. Now that was one of the stories that shaped my childhood. Perhaps I would be all "PERFECTION IS GOD" if I hadn't loved that story so very, very much.

That's just it, ain't it? There ISN'T someone sitting behind the scenes, pulling levers and saying 'WELL NOW WE SHALL HAVE A GENOCIDE, I THINK.' I think Pterry coined this one, but history is like a blooper reel, the same mistakes over and over. Often the politico writers are trying to get across the message for eternal peace and goodwill among men and shit, which is frankly impossible. Humans go to war. That's it.

Not to mention the opposing side HAS to be evil, with horns or some other disfigurement, and the evil leader's megalomaniac tendencies just come out of nowhere. PAH. PAH, I SAY.

Oh, Neil does like him. But Neil is ... how do I put this ... a little too enchanted with the dark for the way he writes. Or something. I can never really get a handle on him. I sometimes just think he's a pretenious ass.

I swear, if I ever did write 'a book' -- and of course that's part of The Plan -- it'd be about gay books. QUEERLIT. LOVE IT. So totally would like to write a simple little story about, say, a rugby player and a geek, or summat.

Maybe by the time I get around to it publishing houses wouldn't totally wig at the thought. ♥

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

And of course I meant "pretentious" and "gay BOYS." Although a book about gay books would certainly be unique. I imagine fatally so, career-wise.

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

Would it apply to fandom, though? Most people here aren't that unique. /HO-BAG BITCHINESS

Love the icon, babes. djinniyah again, isn't it?

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

'Fatally unique'-- that should really be a bumper sticker. Or possibly a way of life :D :D

argh.

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

Shh, I thought you were purposely punning!

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Noooo, I would like, never purposefully pun! Puns are like a SCOURGE and a PLAGUE upon my SOUL!!1 >:O!!1
(In other words, my mom likes 'em a lil too much, and I've known a few too many geeks in my day. Boy-geeks are really punning machines, it's SCARY.)

That's her Koi ga Bokura fanart, which is like one of my favorite yaoi mangas EVAR!!1 It's just... reeeeeally good, and pretty, and romantic, and not too predictable and SMART andandand. Yes. *___*

As for fandom bumper-stickers, I imagine something like 'honk if you're a fan-geek with no life' would do :>

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

Don't talk to me. I seem to have fallen in with one in my close band of mates. IT'S TERRIBLE. HE TRIES SO HARD. AND SUCKS SO HARD, TOO. (Obviously the worst part is that he is not remotely pretty.)

Oh gosh, I must try find that, now. Do you happen to know if it's recently been up on yaoi_daily? (I'm being over-polite because I can't do torrents on this connection, so basically any other link would not work. Woe is me.) REALLY I THINK I LOVE YAOI MORE THAN IS HEALTHY. I mean, I've told two boys I know that I download it. They didn't believe me, but still.

I know you don't get Waterstones in Amery-K, but it's like Barnes and Noble, and I got a hundred euro voucher for it for Christmas, and this is what it said:

They say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Now I just need those charming pom-pom things to emphasise my point ...

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha I actually have only dated geeks -.- But I must be the pure one, you see, so I, er, avoid punning. That way, the dorkiness cannot touch me. yes. (Though really, I think geek boys are superior in all ways that don't involve a really pathetic sense of humore & an utter lack of either social skillz or emotional intelligence. BUT OTHER THAN THAT...)

Oh man, that's been on my streamload hosting account (http://www.streamload.com/elfee) for ages now, ever since I got djinn into it :D :D :D I LOVE IT SO, of course it must SPREAD :D! I'd also host Junjou Romantica and UGH and what else... Sex Pistols (EEEEEEEeeeee) because I love them all to pieces. Though the more I'm exposed to Misara Minase and Asami Tohjoh, the less I'm attached to their style... woe. :(

Ahahaha, they probably didn't believe you out of self-protection, right. So as to protect themselves from the horror and/or cooties--?? :)) I always wind up telling everyone, but then I like to see people freak out :>

Man, that should be my motto. With sparkly text and porn in small letters at the end :D

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

In the sense that geeks are people who manage to live one area of their lives with wholehearted passion, they're great! (I'm one.) As far as emotional intelligence goes, the closest boys I know come is deciding they've all got 'paternalistic ethics' when it comes to giving their future patients treatments and whatnot. SERIOUSLY AM CONSIDERING STICKING TO THE CATS-ONLY PLAN.

I. love. you! Thatisall. Eee, am sitting here downloading when I should be having breakfast. WHO NEEDS IT ANYWAY. And saving it to My Music. Think that is some kind of subliminal message.

Yup. Or the 'but GIRLS don't look at porn!! OMG OMG!!" mindset. I'm unsure as to whether I should define what kind of porn it is; I feel telling them I'm looking at two boys would only freak them out more. So I settle for 'yaoi.' They don't know what I mean. (Except for that one geek boy, who said 'manga porn.' I was like, 'No, tool, not ALL manga is porn. A lot. NOT ALL.')

I like the way you think.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Omgomg just earlier I read the latest one-shot from forever-more by Honjou Rie... well, here (http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0YVHIXR9CQO9T0DMVW9V23012C)-- anyway, yeah! It was a bit scary, what with the sudden... uh... appearance of the drippy fingers and polite request (THEY ALWAYS SAY THAT WHYWHYWHY). I think it was just more obvious because the rest of the manga was rather PG and waffy, and then-- time for the sex-scene! Drippy fingers of... POINTY DRIPPY LURVE. etc. *tries to scrub brain*

...You know something's wrong with the universe when even the Porn has a predictable Plot. Le sigh.

Spindly legs and acne, huh-- well, you can find that quite literally in a lot of the more comedic fantasy novels (Piers Anthony likes acne, though he sucks in general), but of course I know what you mean. Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series is sorta like that, I guess, in that the protagonist isn't really either likable or all that special (being a regular Joe, but also a bastard), but he has specialness thrust upon him 'cause he possesses a ring (well, I think that's where the Tolkien resemblance ends). A lot of times, I think the 'ordinary guy on his own' stories are pessimistic because that guy either makes tons of mistakes or just generally Can't Win against all the epic stuff the story inevitably throws at him, y'know. Or if he can win, there's always the Terrible Price that is also unrealistic and scarring, and in the end he's more like some scarred warrior than the geek next door... alas. Well, some people like that sort of thing :>

I think the problem with Thomas Covenant and books like it is that they take an ordinary but he still becomes Important 'cause they have to be at the center of things and then, through facing the extraordinary, they basically... change (for the better or worse). There's that quote, right, about 'having greatness thrust upon them'. It takes a special sort of person, a special sort of talent, probably, to remain sane & 'normal', just yourself, even if the whole world around you goes insane. My favorite sort of story is like that, though-- like, um, well, the comic, Books of Magic as written by John Ney Reiber-- sure, Tim Hunter's the Opener, but really he always remains a dorkish, loserish teenage boy. With comics, perhaps it's easier because of the episodic nature and that might give more opportunity for smaller, episodic stories, I'm not sure. I also like Hellblazer for that same reason.

If you like stories where the character doesn't get redeemed and really, that's beside the point (and that Morningstar reference helped), you should check out the recent run of Lucifer (the comic). Man. After you love Lucifer Morningstar, nothing else measures up, you know :D :D :D Not that he's particularly normal, but issues of free will and choosing your destiny are the stuff that comic's made of <3<3<3 OH I LOVE IT SO. I'd even host it for ya if you want and/or if you're willing to read scanned comics :D

Well, on the other hand, I think change in human nature is possible if ridiculously slow & uber-hard to come by (through changes in environment, technological advancement level, economic stability). There would less war if everyone had loads of land, say. Settle the galaxy and you've fixed some problems and of course acquired others. But then, I'm a bit of a futurist -.- People will always retain their most basic characteristics, of course. Even so, like, Japan and the Viking countries used to be quite militant and now they're... not (especially if we start talkin' Canada). So it's really like... people are more pissed off if they're unhappy and such... well, obviously :>

Hahaha, you're walking a fine line, there, with wanting unhappy endings -and- not wanting the fics too dark :> He really -is- a pretentious ass (but aren't they all? Or something like that.) Moorcock is even more blatantly dark, so it's more straightforward, at least?? Trying to think of a vaguely balanced realistic epic fantasy writer.... I draw a blank. Damn. :/

Though RUGBY PLAYERS + GEEKS = YES.
it's like Remus/Sirius in a way :>

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

Isn't that the one where it's a relationship between a schoolboy and a rich kid's bodyguard? If not, I don't mind, but that one just struck me as even more WTF?y than usual. I suppose because I was expecting it to be rich kid/schoolboy. AND HOW DO THEY DEFINE THE UKE. HOW. Is he always the one with darker hair or something. Because it takes me by surprise A LOT.

(Speaking of manga, you know when it says "Support the mangaka, buy this if you like it" -- well, I like a lot of things, but if I buy them will they be in Japanese? As essentially that would be useless to me. You seem to Know Things, that is why I ask.)

I ask for a lot, don't I? I guess, when the writer is skilled, that transition from 'ordinary' to 'capable of greatness' seems natural. It could be argued that everyone has the capacity for greatness and that it take adversity to bring it out. It is the basis for every alternate dimension story, after all, where the protagonist gets shoved into another reality after being, like, a clerk their whole lives, and ends up saving the country.

Maybe it's the saving thing. I'm just trying to imagine if you wrote it the other way around, with people coming to our world from another. What would they do, band with George Bush to crush people like Saddam Hussein? I mean, here, all the leaders are as bad as each other, whether it's in killing people they don't like or in plain incompetence. (Am thinking of Ireland's PM, here.) Not to turn this into some kind of political debate, but you know. It'd be great if people could actually write fantasy without the definition it seems to require. As in people are stupid bastards no matter where you go ... ahem.

Ooh, am taking note. Comics have just started to appear in bookshops around here (which is why I'm buying Chobits avidly -- it's just about the only decent manga on sale. I think they pulled Gravitation and Ghost because someone actually looked inside). Still, one day my father will give me his credit card and let me run amok on Amazon, and then all will be right with the world. Until that day, I stockpile names.

I was just thinking about how uninterested Japan does seem in blowing other countries to bits and stuff. Then again, they got pretty smashed in WWII. It's hard to equate the Vikings with the Swedes, though. OMG, like, Scandinavians are so polite and cultured these days ... perhaps they're eventually going to come to the end of their tether and just SNAP.

And, there was a yaoi story about that, too ...

I always would have said Robin Hobb and George RR Martin are 'balanced' in that sense, until I read their latest offerings. FOR SHAME, GUYS.

Noooo, it's all about the James/Sirius!!

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahah, I have a bunch of rules about who the uke's gonna be, but I compulsively pattern-match. It's not that one, though, it's the one with, uh, two college guys and they wanna get married. Uh. Ukes are a) shorter (except in the second story in 'I'm Falling In Love With Your Magic' by the mangaka of Sex Pistols-- FIRST EVAR). They're also um, the ones with more 'neat' hair, whereas the seme has more cool/spiky hair, and a bigger jaw and such. Ukes also drool when they kiss. They tend to have emotional issues (like being uptight/repressed or needy/over-emotional/clingy), whereas the seme would be more likely to be controlled rather than repressed, if that makes sense. The uke's eyes are also usually larger. Um. -.-

(Yeah, about the 'buy' thing, it annoys me but I suspect that's to cover their ass. And also, uh, if you know what's going on, I -guess- you can enjoy the pretty art and um, follow along from memory. Or something. I myself would never waste my money, but-- um, it's that whole 'we're not REALLY pirates, we SUPPORT THE INDUSTRY thing.)

Yeah, the character development being natural = major skill, ahahah. It should be noted what I read isn't epic fantasy or sci-fi but rather urban fantasy or dark fantasy one-offs. I've -heard- of a lot of it, but usually put off reading even the popular/recced stuff like George RR Martin and such 'cause, um, y'know, bored by wars/politics/etc. I like saying etc a lot :> But I mean, I -wanted- to read Martin's stuff, read & loved the novella that got the whole cycle started, but. Just. All that politics stuff. Grargh. I dunno, I just. I don't have that desire for... uh... um... pompousness? Social issues exploration? I like v. few 'socially-minded' writers, usually sci-fi, quirky, character-focused anyway, and somehow Really Strange. I can't quite even get up to reading much LeGuin. -.-

There's lots of 'weird' or off-kilter fantasy, just not in the alternate-world epic genre where you have all the trilogies and the stuffy prose and such. With the whole rational exploration of possibilities thing, I go more with the aliens than the, um, 'other' people. Or whatever. If I go rationalist, I go -really- rationalist, what can I say :)) I really like the sci-fi of Nancy Kress & Joan D. Vinge & Vernor Vinge, say, and all write pretty socially-aware stuff that's still... character focused. There's possibly even more crap in sci-fi than fantasy, though, so I dunno.

I like the Japanese tendency to make comics/anime about future!Japan snapping (oooh, repression! sexy!), but. What I meant was, people aren't... *totally* predictable, that's what's so maddening.

Admittedly, most S/R as written is fluffy crap, but same goes for H/D, heh. It's just that James/Sirius = HOT RUGBY PLAYER LURVE EXPERIMENTATION, no geeks :( :(

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

That gets a lot of stick from people in the peripheries of yaoi/those who've read yaoi and disliked it. But you know what? I love the fact that everything is so clear-cut. You're an uke, you're XYandZ and you bottom. Always. Seme = vice versa. It's like that desire I have to live back in genteel society in Jane Austen times. The whole idea of there being set rules by which the world actually works is a terribly attractive one.

Yet I still suck, because I probably would spend my time finding ways to passively thwart the rules. But still. It's like that phrase from The God Of Small Things, about the Great Stories. (God, google is wonderful. I don't have a copy on me, but here it is:)
“It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen.. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.

That's how I excuse writing cliches or, at the very least, stories that are extremely simple and don't address any great Issues or encompass any social debate, difficult characterisation etc etc ad infinitum. Hey, it works for me ...

So it's in Japanese? Eh, screw that. The only reason I would buy is to free up some harddrive, and also the constant fear that my laptop will explode and take my life with it.

The novella! I read that when I was eleven, and found the actual books two years later. Initially I was charmed by the, you know, hardcore sex. Naturally. I can't say much against him except that his latest was a disappointment, because I think he's pretty fabulous otherwise. Westeros is one of the few fantasy lands I can fully believe in. That, and the Seven Duchies, and Narnia -- I still check any new wardrobes, which is why the end of the movie made me burst into tears. OMG I KNOW -- SAP.

Is true. I can't really explain my penchant for S/J, no more than I can my one for H/D. It works for me. Because it was it, because it was I ...? Arglebarf.

[likethemodel.livejournal.com]

Here's something (http://www.minortweaks.com/archives/2006/01/actual_conversa.html) I think you'll appreciate.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahahahah, that's so spot-on. But I'm actually more of a dork than a loser, except the tech-support people don't know that I actually do have a clue and I'm too flustered to tell them :))