avrelia

Sometimes fandom discourse reminds me of alchemy. There is a beautiful unifying theory, an idea of a perfect story existing in a perfect world, where characters come together in a perfect union and live in perfection, if we only uncover the symbolism and unlock the sacred mystery.
And there are a lot of deep and interesting meta, and commentaries and essays explaining in beautiful details the inevitability of that perfect story.
And there are lot of amazing discoveries and invention and work made along the way, the work that will help the humanity to progress… New elements and laws of nature are discovered, the distillation processes are perfected, new alloys are invented…
But led still doesn’t turn into gold, and philosopher's stone doesn’t grant eternal life to anyone. And the root of mandrake is only useful to scare away the onlookers...

I am having all kinds of thoughts about shipping and writing fanfiction. Since I do both currently and very unexpectedly – for myself.
I tried to think about my shipping choices – and it’s mostly canon. There must be something beside subtext or wishful thinking for me to feel strongly about two characters together. The most uncanonical ship I love is Buffy/Faith, and honestly, subtext is so think, it’s text. I mean, I read and enjoyed all kinds of ships back in the day, even wrote some silly stuff, but I never cared about them as passionately as I did about Buffy and Spike.
Later on, I liked some ships and disliked some without any strong passion. I never felt the need to “improve the canon” or change it. If I hated the direction the show turned, I dropped it (hello, Sleepy Hollow). If I grew bored, I slowly drifted away (hello Once Upon a Time – I loved most of main relationships, but was tired of them running in circles).
But yeah, as much as I love smart AU, digging up in canon is the most fun for me.
Now, having found myself in Avatar (the last airbender and the Legend of Korra) fandom I ship all the canon ships, and realize that that is highly unpopular fannish opinion.
I didn’t care very strongly at first – I was happy with how everything turned out, the characters were kids, I am not very much into kids’ romances.
But after getting it and realizing that shipping wars to end all wars are still raging, I felt like dusting off my old “defence of spuffy” medals and going in to defend my beloved characters from abuse. I didn’t, of course. But it was one of the reasons I started to write. And yes, I have all kinds of feels about Zuko and Mai, but I also have a ton on gen fanfics in my head.
I used to write a lot of meta instead of fanfiction. Now, it seems I write fanfiction as a kind of meta. Trying to get into a character’s head and see the world from their point of view. It’s amazing. Right now, writing POV of Ty Lee (secondary character, mostly chipper and full of cheer on screen), as fully canon compliant as I can, I discovered an abyss of anger and bitterness and trauma she hides from most of the world. The series and the comics do touch a bit on that, but they never give her enough to do and say.
And there are so many things to write about that follow the canon – pre-stories, and post-stories, and in-between stories, and character studies… I am very grateful for the return of the feeling joy at the writing process (there is a lot of frustration, too, but joy! It’s so welcomed)

Alan Rickman reading Shkespeare's Sonnet 130 is the gift I want to share with friends. He needs to read more. Maybe, War and Peace? Odyssey? Divine Comedy? I'd buy them all.

I am here, reading and watching with no patience to write myself.

But it's time to write up my thoughts on fannish stuff.

1) I've been reading occasionally recaps of BtVS on tor.com. Comments where people are wrong still have the power to make me angry and sad... I have a good fandom corner over here, where people have the right kinds of opinion (even when they differ with mine) and much more interesting thoughts.

2) in newer shows. I am still enjoying "Once Upon a Time" - both the show and the discussions here.

3) in very new shows.

Sleepy Hollow is the magical crack, absolutely insane and impossibly delightful. I am very glad they used more the cultural image of Sleepy Hollow, and not the original story itself. Because, honestly? Original Icabode Crane is the most boring character ever, and if he woke up after 250 years, he would have dropped dead from all the new things to absorb. Making new Icabode the Oxford professor and a spy was a stroke of genius.

I am very happy it is given two seasons already. No one cares about Washington Bible and stuff, but I can watch for years Icabode being handsome and snarky, Abbie Mills being altogether awesome, and Jenny being all Sarah Connor.

They already went through evil Greek gypsies and Germans, mystical Indians, and I am fully expecting Rasputin to show up mid-season. He'd fit right in.

3) S.H.I.E.L.D. kind of meh, but still I am going to watch it. At least through sweeps.

and I keep telling myself to write, with various success.

I was away for some time - I finally had an opportunity to go to Russia with D. So, so happy! and so sad, as the next opportunity won't come soon enough. I do feel that my home is here now, but to hug all my family at once is priceless.

more later, I hope.

in the fannish news: Much Ado about Nothing has opened, but the closest is in NY, and I won't go there to watch it. Will have to wait for DVD - I assume they realize how many people would want to pre-order it.

And here is a bit of unpopular fannish opinion: I hate the Kenneth Branagh's version, because I hate Kenneth Branagh in all the roles except for Gilderoy Lockhart. there. I said it.

today meta lover can have fun here:

FREE-FOR-ALL META COMMENT-A-THON!
(click on the picture)

I posted one question: http://upupa-epops.livejournal.com/247203.html?thread=5292707#t5292707
and one answer: http://upupa-epops.livejournal.com/247203.html?thread=5280419#t5280419

and I'll try to do more.

You know, I need to re-learn to talk to people. Or learn it finally for real. Because I suck at starting conversations with people I don't know. I always has been, and maybe it is as a good time to stop sucking.

Yesterday I went to a Sony Reader Meetup, co-hosted by Sarah Wendell, of the http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php. It was pretty awesome. I've got to see actual people, talk about books and finger shiny red Sony Readers. Now I kind of want one. But they don't support Russian, and cost money, and I don't really need one. Besides, I'd rather have blue one. Still, they are nifty.
D behaved himself, but was bored. I had to use non-pedagogical means of keeping him quiet, because I just that didn't want to leave.
After that I took him upstairs to see Sony Wonder Technology Lab. It is fantastic, but D is too small to get it all. He liked all the touch-screens, we played with robots and such, but most of all he enjoyed chasing the colourful circles on the floor.

And in a subway I saw a mutant rat. Nothing to write home about. Subway mutant rats in Moscow are RED! (not)

At home D invented a game of tennis that is played with a wooden spoon and a beach ball. Wooden spoons are his favourite toys these days. They go with everything.

Re: latest LJ kerfuffle. I think they are stupid, not evil, as usual, and didn't think what they were doing. It doesn't excuse them, of course, but I hope they will clean up the mess eventually. The possibility of joining of one's virtual life in different places isn't bad by itself, for those who want it, but those who want to keep their virtual lives virtual, and separate also shouldn't depend on good will of their reading list to do it.

I keep my LJ separate from anything else, even though I am happy to connect with the same people here and there. I obviously won't be having my comments on LJ showing up anywhere else, and trust you won't as well.

I don't see myself permanently migrating anywhere, though. The community here is too important to me, but I start to ponder cross-posting with Dreamwidth more. I know many of you love it there, but it feels still kind of alien to me. BTW, if someone needs DW codes, I have some.

Re-watching season 7, I noticed that Willow does much more work around the house, than in the previous season (when she did none). She bought the microwave, she did laundry – okay, I don’t remember much more, but it is still more than none.

Trying to explain this mistery to myself, I remembered the timeless lines from Something Blue:

Well, baking lifts about 30% of my guilt, but only 7% of my inner turmoil. Guess that'll just take awhile.

And it has kind of falls together, doesn’t it? The housework – visible and useful activity as Willow’s coping mechanism.

And, apparently, when she feels right, she doesn’t need it. ;)

As seen at elisi and automatedalice_

If there is at least one person in your life who you consider a close friend, and who you would not have met without being part of an online fandom, post this sentence in your journal.

Because it is so true.

I am writing the story for my Tales of the Slayer ficathon assignment. And it’s killing me! It exists nicely in my head, I walk the street with perfect dialogues going on in my brains, cool phrases and so on. Then I am sitting here, fingers on the keyboard – and the words don’t want to come outside.
I also feel that I will write a post with historical and geographical footnotes and illustrations afterwards. Or should I add the illustrations in the text?

I probably should put all that energy into something useful.

Half of the yesterday we spent cycling and sitting in the park, reading books and looking at geese. Then, of course was the cycling back home, after which I felt not so dead as two weeks ago. Still, cannot go uphill if it is long and/or steep.

I continue reading The Woman in White, and find the evilness of sir Persival Glyde and Count Fosco very boring.

Recently we watched an X-files episode “Arcadia.” It’s season 6, and even though I usually have no idea about names of the episodes and their placement in seasons in X-files, we have s6 DVDs (a present from a friend). Anyway, to the episode: it has a very Jossverse feeling. With the first scene of a nice clean suburban neighbourhood, and I am thinking immediately: “Hell” – after the last season on AtS, and of course I am write, and the episode brings out the demonizing of real life experiences just like it, and Olaf the troll appears (Abraham Benrubi) and I am all Yay! And Mulder and Scully are playing the married couple, and Mulder is horrible at it, and I am Yay! again.

Unrelated to this: I found this article recently, and it was fun to read, but I cannot comment if it is true or not – both the overview of Russian LifeJournal (Russian in the sense of the language it is written in), and the reasons behind suggested common traits. May be one – saying that most of the other lj users have a dozen or two of friends tells me that he’s never seen fandom (any fandom) LJs.

http://www.zhurnal.ru/staff/gorny/english/rlj_aoir5_abstract.html