~~subjective perfection. golden-standard hp recs.

[reenka]

so. i will spend today doing my duty to man, god, and betaness.
i pledge allegiance to my chair, and to the desk it is next to, and promise complete attention to my screen, undivided, with liberty and full ability to possibly get a cup of tea meanwhile. ahem.

i've been being sort of full of myself, i think. especially with the whole reccing thing. i get so excited about stories. i gush and i crave and i act like we're all geniuses or something. whereas some of my favorite published writers, i can nitpick to death and say, yeah, the style is great, but she really doesn't deliver on the clear plot and characterization sometimes. i -adore- patricia mckillip, but really, she has her strong points and her weak points. i can't say she's any kind of gold standard except in terms of lyricism. and even then, she's not alone. there are other writers equally lyrical, but not as unique overall. so maybe i don't even know what i'm looking for, always.

even neil gaiman, my fiction god. he's only a god with `sandman'. with `stardust' and his short stories and other things, he's only really really good. so maybe it was just the fortuitous combination of theme, visuals, and overall execution, combined with his particular genius for the particular tihngs explored in the sandman-- dialogue, mythic structure, quirky characterization, humor.

i worship and adore amalin's writing, for example. but she has her weak points. i'm just a -really- big sucker for emotion and lyricism. were i to be objective, i'd take off points for things like narrative/plot & characterization.

i am writing a list of recs, based on all the stuff i've recced here so far. i'm including pretty much anything that i find "good". and thinking back on it-- i wonder if any of it is -really- good. a gold standard. something i have no reservations about. something complete and shining and-- well-- perfect.

at the time, i'd gushed and bounced about almost -all- of them. and now i find-- looking soberly-- are most of them worth my true seal of approval? my saying, "this is so good, so good, this is better than most things published". not perfect, but close enough. something blindingly complete and strong on all counts. ok fine, i'm inevitably subjective. but even so, i can't think of much of anything that would truly stand up to my toughest scrutiny.

well, that's not true. this vaccilates. actually, audrey's `brief interval' popped to mind immediately. i dunno why. i think it's the memory of crying, having finished it. it was so good i couldn't even believe it. it was just-- perfect. i'm afraid of looking over it again, testing this theory. if it's not like i remember it, i don't think i want to know. the other things that jump out at me are amalin's ghost!draco, aja's 9-11 fic, and penguin's `falling'. and then the rest come rushing in. so of course, i made a link-list.

i've noticed that most of the things i have no reservations about are written in short form, snippets, short stories, non-narrative-based pieces, and so on. anything novel-like, it's easier to spot inconsistencies and flaws. i mean, i can name a number of amazing works, but they're all under 20 pages. i dunno what this says, really. maybe nothing is that good, and if it's really short, it's more condensed and not as glaring? you rush past it? or maybe the length makes one write tighter, like a poet. hmm.
    anyway. as close to perfect as it gets:



audrey's `a brief period before the resumption of play'*

penelope's `cocaine music', `his belongings', `carnivorous house'.

lc's `theme and variation'

kick flaw's `a gash of colour'

bec's `H(x)/D(x) = x^3 sec (x)' & `scratch'

trin's flies!draco & `adventures in ice-o'.

seri's ``6 ways of unpinning a butterfly" -- and it's gooooone...!! aaaaargh. if anyone knows where this story is now archived, tell me. please. in fact, `feast of apples' is the only thing of hers i could find, online. sigh. other than the brilliant poems on her lj, ie `secret agent potions man', which i should actually include here, heh.um. except i'd feel weird. ><

sky's tom/hagrid & hagrid/tom. probably all of `artful facade', but it's not as good as sky can do, at this point, if you can believe it. with sky, it's mostly-- oh my gahd, this -could- be better than anything, just give it time. she'll get there :D

wax jism's `second of our reign'

holographis' `gone'. maybe also `roses'.

silvia's `legend'. it's hard to pick with silvia. i'd worship her completely if she wrote more complete stuff, heh. i mean. guh. she's always on a whole 'nother level.

amalin's `ice', `absence', `losing again' & moonlit'.

penguin's `warm spell on a cold night' & `falling'. falling just-- i -have- no reservations about it. i just don't. guh. go. read. gasp. try and tell me what's missing.
    possibly all of `dragonweed'.

missi's `porcelain'

maya's `hatred' and `chains'.

ivy and libertine - `in dialogia'.

ivy's `fall on your knees'. huh. weird. possibly `origins'. possibly perfect. possibly without reservation. sounds weird. but it's true. i can't -think- of exactly why it's `not good enough'. i mean. it's not the be-all-and-end-all of all h/d fics, but nothing is. sadly. i can't even rec `irresistible poison' because like-- well-- life is sad. i have my reservations, having been spoiled by evil ip-hating people. sigh.

ishuca's `he says'

shinigamiforever - `his sleepless nights' & `sanctuary'

aja's `every second' and `twelvth night' - waaaahhhh, aja, don't destroy perfection like that...! *cries*

lizbee's `the language that god speaks'
---
EDIT - also:

tradescant's `hook and eye'

miss breed's `beware the fury of a patient man'. yum.

antenora's `rites of passage'

riddle's `stealing sweaters', heheheh. ok i'm getting silly now. must stop ><
---
my own - the AU i wrote for cassie claire. didn't include the Trilogy because, i haven't read it all. naturally, also didn't include various things i haven't read (yet).
~~


and now, to play catch-up.....

Comments

[penelope-z.livejournal.com]

You have good taste my dear. Of course the fact that I'm there twice, does not have anything to do with this, I'm oh so objective as you all know...

Anyway big cheers on the recs of: Audrey, because she is the queen. Her characters are so alive they seem about to burst out from the pages.
Theme and Variation because it's just it. My absolute H/D and a great source of inspiration.
With Trin I'd go for Penny Dreadful, Venus across the country and that Percy fic she posted in her diaryland journal.
Good girl, you like wax_jism too.
I feel kinda responsible for the IP thingy.

And now I feel I need to do my fave list one day. Hook and Eye! Petronius series! Chasing the Dragon! And some r i d d l e ...

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Origins, yes, the best long work I've ever read. But AF makes it there? Ye gods, it's so badly written - the dialogue like essays, the description so overblown it contradicts itself.

H/D and maths. *shiver* I love KB.

And I don't know why, but I simply can't make it through A Brief Interval. Though I love Speak, Desire.

[ishuca.livejournal.com]

you rise a lot of good points, love, but i take issue with directly comparing chaptered fanfiction with bound books for the following reason:

books are realeased all at once, so when people read them they read them straight through, as an entire work. 'weaker' chapters can be and are masked by their surrounding chapters. the emphasis is on the whole as compared to the chapter. my god. take, for example, the council of elrond in fellowship. if that'd been released in a chapter by chapter format almost everyone i know would've given up on it. however, LotR is, in my opinion, a work of genius.

it's different, i feel, with chaptered fanfiction- and this regardless of the intent of the writer. i know that i, for one, write my WIP as an entire work. this means that the chapters build on each other, and it is, in fact, intended to be read entirely through. however, that is not the real case. with fanfic WIPs (and chapterized pieces in magazines as well) each chapter is read and scrutinized both as its own work *and* as part of the work-as-a-whole.

hence, weaker chapters stand out more clearly than they would were our works presented in bound format. and sometimes the problem of what constitutes a 'weaker' chapter can be an issue as well. there is such a thing as sensory overload in writing, and sometimes chapters are *made* weaker to compensate for that.

anyway, this is why i agree with penelope z on the whole WIP thing. and it's also why i stick with WIPs that i'm a bit unsure of. because who knows how they'll end? they are a large work, and should be taken as such. which brings me to series.

ivy's origins is a brilliant book. however, it is part of an overarcing universe that i have many issues with. her trilogy is lovely, but havens *needs* its rewrite, and belong only finds its stride chapters into the fic. however, it is all one work. i find it difficult to even *think* of seperating origins draco from haven draco from belong draco. and i wouldn't want to. it is one story, one work. and as a work, it has issues. though i love it.

anyway, that's why i think it's *easier* to rec ficlets, and even write them. but in terms of emotional satisfaction and impact, i tend to derive more from WIPs. and, now that i am experiencing what a bitch writing one is like, have extraordinary respect for those who (imo) do it well.

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

*looks intrigued* Fancy. Nobody's ever said they liked my ficlets better than UL before.
I see where you're coming from, though. With everything.
It is much easier to make a shorter thing *perfect.* The focus is tiny. The characterisation touches only have to be tiny. Most people make a better job out of painting a greeting card picture than a portrait.
Nevertheless, I much prefer longer stories even if they don't give me that sense of perfection. Because without being engaged for longer, given the little details even though it's almost impossible to get them all right... I don't get emotionally engaged. And that's what matters to me.
Of course, I am an overly emotional t00b...