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

i apologise for this absurdly long comment ;(

[aldehyde.livejournal.com]

i, personally, was happy with the ending and the epilogue because i felt that it stayed true to all the characters. all the non-canon ships in the story were ambiguous to begin with, and stayed that way, and the way maya included a line about "this summer and more summers to come" or harry's declaration that he was "just getting started" leaves the future open for interpretation. so he COULD end up with draco, or maybe he'll stay with ginny forever, and so on. the conclusion didn't feel forced to me, given that harry's always been very appreciative of ginny throughout the fic and has never really completely defined his feelings for draco. so yea, i was happy with the ending.

some of the folks on my flist who were unhappy felt that way b/c they simply like defined pairings. if h/g had been defined from the beginning and it ended that way, they would've been satisfied. i guess this situation feels like dangling a carrot before the donkey and all that, only to be presented with an unappetising stick ;)

that being said, i know i'd be quite upset if DDG didn't end as h/d. if one of the characters DIES and that's the reason for harry not ending up with draco [or something along those lines], then i'll be understanding. but otherwise i'll be more than disappointed b/c the entire fic has revolved around harry's obsession/love for draco.

i haven't read the times article you linked, but i don't understand how siblings can sleep with each other either. i may be able to read about in fic [although it squicks me out like no tomorrow] but my aversion to in RL is even greater *shudders*

Re: i apologise for this absurdly long comment ;(

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh that's not absurdly long at all!

I have to quote myself in another answer:
DDG, of course, needs to end up H/D or with Draco neatly wiping you-know-who's blood from his lily white hands.

There is no other way!

But yeah, I can see why people who came into QoM through DDG would have the reading they're mostly having. I do think that SRB gave a load of hints to defuse that reading, and they were fairly anvilicious in the last chapter, but fandom trains us to be strange readers sometimes. Like the defined pairings thing ... why do we only read stories in our ships? As soon as I have time I shall read more gen and het! (So, 2012)

The article is frankly odd, though I am happy that neither of them seem to be damaged by the experience. But the responses are hilarious. My favourite was a person who essentially said: "You are going to hell and your actions are a sign that we are in the end of days when Satan walks the Earth and siblings go for a quick shag when mum and dad are out, that's just sick! Having said that, this was a very well-written article."

Re: i apologise for this absurdly long comment ;(

[aldehyde.livejournal.com]

yes, there is no other way at all in ddg!

i've been wondering why i'm so focused on reading fics within the ships that i like. when it comes to actual books, i'm never focused on that kind of thing - i'm more concerned with the ways characters interact with each other, how the plot develops, etc. i read mostly detective fiction [and all its sub-genres] and romance/shipping is quite often a secondary thing in those books AND I'M TOTALLY FINE WITH IT.

whereas in fandom, i'm all "oh noessssss i don't like reading snarry" and "wtf! i'm not going to read harry/hermione", etc. i haven't read many gen fics except for those by furiosity [and i loved them OH SO MUCH] but it's still a weird contrast between fandom/actual books.

i dunno if i'm making sense, i will stop blabbing now.

ps:- the comment to the article is hilarious. oh people.

Re: i apologise for this absurdly long comment ;(

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA! I hear you on the Snarry! That does make sense, and when I think about it, I am very unlikely to read some stories due to their pairings. Now I'm wondering why! Though I will say that I make exceptions for authors whose work I have always enjoyed. Pushdragon even made me read Harry/Lucius. Never thought that would happen!