blamebrampton: 15th century woodcut of a hound (Default)
blamebrampton ([personal profile] blamebrampton) wrote2008-09-17 08:33 pm

Pilgrims gave me flu!

No, seriously! Months after their orange backpacks left the Emerald City, Sydney is still feeling the impact of the WYD pilgrims' sharing natures. THEY LEFT US THIS FLU! Bastards! And look, even the Catholic News says it's true! Well, likely at any rate.  Apparently the three-week-plus flu that turns to bronchitis is knocking people out across the city, and has been since July, so I am not alone in my feebleness.

Honestly, it was bad enough when it was just nuns trying to plough me to the ground.
 
Bryoney opined that I have been talking too much sport and not enough fandom lately, so three links to make her feel loved. The first is to a very interesting question posed by [livejournal.com profile] bewarethesmirk  in her post here. She asks what it is about some styles of writing that immediately succeeds in drawing the reader in. I've blathered on at length in a comment, as have several others, and I think that we're edging towards the total picture, but I am sure that more brains, particularly brains as big as you lot have, will get to the actual answer. Alas, it's flocked, but if you're not on her flist, feel free to chat here.

My dear [livejournal.com profile] jadzialove  wrote a story recently in which Weasley brothers engaged in activities of an adult nature only suitable for readers over 18. With each other. We both squealed in a frightened fashion, she even while writing. However, that was nothing compared to this story from The Times. To quote their head and standfirst:

I had sex with my brother but I don't feel guilty

A woman slept with her sibling for years and has good memories. Not many people understand their relationship, she says

I can't say I'm surprised to hear that.

For maximum bemusement, you have to read the comments.

Thirdly, Maya has posted the last chapter of Quality of Mercy, and 

there have been many posts along the lines of OMG, it's not H/D! To which I have to say, der! There was never any pairing specified, Harry and Ginny's relationship has been written as genuine and developing the whole way through, Harry has been protective and fraternal in his relationship with Draco and Draco has been someone desperately trying to forge actual relationships in his world, rather than just getting what he wants. Why would a writer ditch all of that worldbuilding for a ship in which she has only written some of her fics? 

I sometimes wonder if people actually read fics as actual creative works or just go through them ticking off their internal preference list. "Yay, there's a cool one-liner, there's an insight into canon, there's a good spot of fanon, excellent UST, and ... and ... THAT'S IT? NO SMEX? YOU SUCK!" On bad days, I suspect the latter.

Oh well. A happy fandom aside: 2500 words of Darkfest written, 1700 of them even consecutive!

And, my final Paralympics moment, Australia lost to the US in the rugby, but Kurt Fearnley won the marathon! YAY!
 


[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Unless it's vampires. Because we'd all have to go in after you and drag you back out!
fourth_rose: (Default)

[personal profile] fourth_rose 2008-09-17 02:55 pm (UTC)(link)
*giggles*

Hey, I read all of the "Twilight" books plus leaked extras and lived to tell the tale! (And to write crackish parody because I had to cleanse my brain somehow... ;)

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
The minute I see an entry from you that takes the SMeyer opus seriously is the minute I start organising a HP Unites Rescue Effort ;-)

[identity profile] coffeejunkii.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
oh, LOLOL about quality of mercy! omg, i would have been so mad. time to cross that one off the to-read list. not that i ever really intended to read it, but hey. now i know for sure.

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Read the comments to The Times story, even if you skip the actual story. There is humanity in all its rough and ready madness!
fourth_rose: (Twilight kidding)

[personal profile] fourth_rose 2008-09-17 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
*points to icon*

That's good to know, but I don't think it will ever become necessary ;))

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I used to think there were certainties in this world, but Stephenie has a publishing contract, Bush won a second term and Adam Sandler is considered a comedian. Aliens could replace you, too!
fourth_rose: (Default)

[personal profile] fourth_rose 2008-09-17 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
True, but it would take some alien interference for me to turn into a fan of SMeyer's ;))

[identity profile] coffeejunkii.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
uhh, huh? i'm confused.

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Giant headline in post above, follow link, avoid story unless in need of a good O.O, but the comments are something that all people with a keen sense of the absurd will appreciate

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:24 pm (UTC)(link)
You're right, I'll concentrate my worry on the upcoming US elections and the inexplicable continued success of the Olsen twins.

[identity profile] coffeejunkii.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
i saw the link to the article, but i guess i was confused about how that related to my comment about quality of mercy. i can be a little slow sometimes :P

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)
No, it's me, I should have begun with 'As you're a fellow keen observer of the absurd, I recommend ...' Pilgrim flu has made me a bit thick ...

[identity profile] coffeejunkii.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
oh, okay :D *shakes fist at the flu*

[identity profile] spacefragments.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
IA, IA.

i admit i wasn't that into the story myself, i just kept on reading out of curiosity to see how the h/d would happen (yes, that's pretty much the one reason why i was reading it, oooohhh shallow). and when she posted the final chapter i scrolled to the bottom to see who ended with harry and when i saw that it was ginny i didn't bother with the rest of the chapter.

i know that the pairings were unspecified and i kept on reading regardless despite usually avoiding such fics, but i agree that it felt a little "bait and switch" (except that i kept calling it cock-teasing. *g* now i know a better term for it) re: the h/d tension. so i'm not disappointed or anything, just a little annoyed at myself for falling for it? idk. i suppose it's my fault for assuming stuff.
the ending felt a little like the DH epilogue all over again, soo... yeah,there's that too.

[identity profile] beatnikspinster.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a good system. ;)
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)

[personal profile] azurelunatic 2008-09-17 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
She ended it at a place where my happy little slasherbrain will cheerfully add "And they all went off and had threesomes and foursomes and the world was Just Great!" So I'm not going to argue. :D

[identity profile] bewarethesmirk.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I know it's a nuisance that my journal is f-locked. :( People are willing to friend me, though. Thanks for linking to it.

And I must say I enjoyed QoM very much. While I don't think Harry's feelings for Draco are all the fraternal, the fact that H/D was not clearly resolved is not a huge hang-up for me. :)

[identity profile] abusing-sarcasm.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not mad about the ending of QoM. Maybe it has to do with being a writer myself, but I have a bit of a hang-up about people demanding things from writers. Like, "Oh, you HAVE to make this H/D!" or "You CAN'T write Harry/Ginny!" Well, pshaw on that. Anyone can write whatever they want.

Also, I'm not a heterophobe like some slash readers (not accusing anyone, just saying...), and I read H/G from time to time - willingly, mind you - so I'm not upset that it ended up as H/G.

I just felt sort of... Let down. The story felt like it was building to something, and then sort of deflated for me. That was my problem with it. I wanted there to be some sort of revelation or explosion beyond The Battle of Hogwarts (which I DID already read about in the book... Ooh, bitchy! *gasp*).

Anyway, I predict the wank will be great with this one and I plan to stand over to the side being relieved that I'm a complete H/D noob who didn't even read the fic until 36 hours ago and wasn't really invested anyway.

And I've been enjoying your sporty posts! It's nice to read about something different every once in a while. :D

[identity profile] shoeboxer4life.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Icon love!

[identity profile] shoeboxer4life.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I should have asked you first. I mentioned this post of yours and comments in my post to ddg_and_sundry:
http://community.livejournal.com/ddg_and_sundry/13803.html#cutid1

Sorry I didn't ask in advance. Thanks as usual for your thoughts! You can read mine in that post if you want

Love, Anna

[identity profile] frantic-mice.livejournal.com 2008-09-17 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Erm, I'm just gonna copy&paste the comment I left Maya:

I COULD TOTES SING THE MOULIN ROUGE soundtrack TO THIS STORY!!OMG!! At first it was OMGILOVEYOU and then it was WHATYOUBETRAYME?!?! and then it was OMGCOMEWHATMAYILUFOREVERBABY!111!!!!

I LOVAGED the ending. LOVAGED EET!! And I did not think I would, moving as it was toward the newandimprovedninja!Ginny/Harry relationship. BUT!!!!!!!!!!OMG!!!!!!!! I read it today in a waiting room, and BOYOHBOY was it everything I could hope for and moar. SURE I didn't get my H/D loving but, you knoe what? It was BETTER than certainty, better than having things neatly folded and put away in a drawer (?which). IMO and maybe I'm totes wrong but I dun think it ended HP/GW. I think it ended up with all the cards in the air and all my BEAUTIFUL young things looking UP with hopeful faces at the cards to see where they'd fall. I'm so so happy with this ending I can't even explain it to meself. It gave me exactly what the Epilogue took a way, a Harry-lief full of possibilities. I FEEL THE HOPE. ♥ ♥ ♥ :)))))))))))))

I'm with you on this

[identity profile] kestrelsparhawk.livejournal.com 2008-09-18 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
I've read all the comments on this and feel really guilty, but I was disappointed and emailed a friend who only reads completed works to warn her. Some of us actually want to know how it ends, whether or not it puts us off the story, so we can read it for the construction, not just the result.

Which is a fancy defensive way of saying, I can get all the arguments and it's in many ways a fine story, but not set up for anything BUT H/D in closure. I was admiring all the way through how Sarah, using no more words than JKR did, pinpointed her characters so much better. Ginny didn't have any more "on screen" time than in the books, but she was so much more real and well-rounded. same with the others. Especially Harry -- the guilt he has about Nagini, for example. And Ron and Zachariah's friendship -- amazing. Mostly offstage, and completely believable.

BUT I agree that UST was carrying almost all the tension -- the beating Voldemort really took second place.The ending really felt as though she'd gotten rather tired with the story and had to finish it quickly. I dreaded her doing that to DDG -- scrambling at an end can ruin the whole work retroactively, and I don't plan to read QOM again except as a study -- even more than I dread the lack of resolution. A general rule of thumb (I just made up) for stories is that what gets covered at the closure needs to be roughly equal to the attention it got paid in the rest of the story. so if 95% of the story is about H and D, I expect the climax to reflect that -- and NOT have to pick among the ashes looking for an ending.

Thanks for the discussion

[identity profile] kestrelsparhawk.livejournal.com 2008-09-18 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
I posted the biggest part of my opinion in reply to Heathen, and then realized I need to thank you for having a place to vent. I figure you won't hate me for saying I do feel ripped off by QOM, and it's because of the way the story was written, not simply because I think all fanfic should be H/D. (Though had I known it wasn't, I certainly wouldn't have read it WIP. I guess I've learned what I always say and never do: no more WIPs except for beta-ing. I'm going to look at DDG comments before I read anymore of it.)

Re: I'm with you on this

[identity profile] beatnikspinster.livejournal.com 2008-09-18 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
Good rule.

I agree with you about the efficiency and nuance of her characterization. That's something I was taking for granted, and shouldn't have. Her humor and dialog are also amazing.

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