Pilgrims gave me flu!

[blamebrampton]

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 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 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!
 

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

As it was in the Middle Ages, so it is in the Current Times!

Look, I think that's a valid reading and I can see how you come to it. For me I read the story where Draco is a rat immediately before I started QoM, so I was always reading it as a more Gen story, and saw Draco's UST for Harry as another aspect of his experimentation with his relationships and sexuality, like Charlie and Pansy and even Smith and Nott.

I think if I had begun to read it now, having been immersed in H/D for a whole year, I might have had a slightly different mindset, but I would still have suspected it was going to end up H/G given the previous chapters.

DDG, of course, needs to end up H/D or with Draco neatly wiping you-know-who's blood from his lily white hands.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

and saw Draco's UST for Harry as another aspect of his experimentation with his relationships and sexuality,

I'm curious, since the story was in Harry's POV, did you see Harry obsession with Draco as UST? Or did you read it as one sided?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I think I answer this a bit in reply to your comment below, but I saw it as a part of his need to save everyone, and to make sure that he was Draco's family, albeit in a screwed-up fashion.

[beatnikspinster.livejournal.com]

I can see how it can be read that way. I think I could accept that reading if it had been even partially in Draco's POV. There was too much Harry moping in Draco's bed for my brain to wire into a gen reading.

I read DDG first, and didn't read any of her other stories until a few months ago, so that may have effected my interpretation. I also didn't really understand her significance as a fandom figure until a few months ago, after I'd already read the bulk of DDG and QoM wips.

I certainly don't think stories need to have a stated purpose/intent that they fulfill. If things change as a part of the organic process of storytelling, then I have no issue with that. Not at all. It makes things interesting. My issue with QoM is that the body of the text and ending was a mismatch.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. For my part I spent my young adult years as a chronic sleeper in other people's beds but often just so that I wasn't sleeping alone, with no shagging involved, so that seemed perfectly natural to me. But I was raised partially hippie, so things that seem normal to me often aren't! (Though if I think someone is odd, they're probably writing for The Times about shagging their brother, and are therefore quite odd indeed!)

But I do think that Ginny's role in the second half of the story was very much trying to become worthy of Harry. It was easy to lose track of that, though, because it was so much off camera. I think we can agree that the characterisation and dialogue were both very fine all the way through!

[beatnikspinster.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that we can agree on easily. :)

RE: touching, senual and non
Now see, I was raised hillbilly. That means no one touches, ever, unless they're fucking their sibling. ;D But seriously, it's not that far from the truth. I still have a hard time with anything outside a brief handshake.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

There were times when, surrounded by massaging hippies and patchouli oil, I'd have traded places with you in an instant!