I want to post and talk about things, but I have nothing to talk about. Ask me things, please. Fandom-y things, not fandom-y things, whatever. And I will talk about them.
I haven't read nearly as much of him as I'd like, but I have "Hymn to God My God in My Sickness" memorized because I love the language and the sentiments expressed.
"Omelas" is pretty much the reason I read Le Guin - it was in our lit book in college, and it blew me away. So I read everything by her now. (Finally made it through A Wizard of Earthsea, and will probably pick up the second in the series soon.)
I love her so much. The Earthsea books are so beautiful--they're slow, but I love the atmosphere they create. And I love how much I dislike Ged at the beginning of the first book and how I come to love him.
Have you read The Left Hand of Darkness? I've started it, but haven't really gotten into it yet.
Ha ha - Left Hand is one of those books that, ten years ago, I decided I wasn't old enough for yet. I believe fandom has since cured me, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. It's on the list, though!
Actually, I love certain of her short stories more than I love any of her novels (although I always at least enjoy the novels).
It occurs to me that you might be interested in Lavinia, about the woman Aeneus married in The Aenid? It's partly one of those "the woman's perspective" stories, but it also involves a fascinating dream-relationship between Lavinia and Virgil himself. I think the combination of female-centric story and meta-story might intrigue you.
Talk to me about your favorite expressions of love in fiction -- familial, platonic, and romantic; and then tell me about your love of Death figures in fiction, too.
Ooooooooh! These are just the ones that are coming to mind. I'm sure there are loads more.
In the Black Donnellys pilot when Tommy gets on an elevator to go hunt down some mobsters, Kevin gets on, too, without knowing where Tommy's going, and Tommy says, "Where're you going?" and Kevin says, "Wherever you're going." I DIED. Still not over it.
Every single time the Salvatore brothers save each other.
Fiona Gallagher's every waking moment is an expression of love for her family.
Alexandria basically saving Roy's soul in The Fall when she makes him give her a happy ending to his story.
Ron standing up on his broken leg in PoA to tell Sirius Black, known murder, that he'll have to go through him and Hermione to get to Harry. ♥
Hyun Soo keeping on playing while his hand bleeds in Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, all because he loves his friends so much. And then Ji Hyuk stopping him with a giant bear hug. BOYS. ♥♥♥
The look on Buffy's face when she saves Spike from the First. HER FAAAAAAACE. AND AND AND when she feeds him from the blood bag in "Never Leave Me." I CANNOT.
Both halves of my OTP in City Hunter put themselves in severe physical pain for each other--one of them literally takes a bullet for the other. Probably because I'm a giant whimp, that makes me swoony.
Attolia freaking out over Gen nearly getting killed in King of Attolia. But pretty much any Gen/Attolia moment could be on here. PERFECT PEOPLE WHO ARE TOTALLY IN LOVE.
This is a little (and in kdramas, cliched) moment, but I love it madly.
DEATH FIGURES. It all goes back to the little Italian girl in The Sound and the Fury. Quentin is in love with death, which I would argue is why he's so drawn to Caddy, but that's another issue. And since loving Caddy = death and she's his younger sister, we have this little girl showing up randomly and spending Quentin's last day with him, and he calls her little sister. St. Francis of Assisi called his sufferings "sisters" and when he was told he was going to die, he welcomed Sister Death. LITTLE SISTER DEATH BEST THING. Seriously, one day I will write a novel with a Little Sister Death figure.
I'm having this issue too. I want to post but it's all bzzz, bzzz bzzz bzz when I try to latch onto something.
bzzz bzz bzzzzz, rec me some books/other media that you think capture American Southern identities and experiences particularly well. I'm always intrigued when you talk about it.
I feel like I'm letting everyone down when I don't post things that are at least trying to be quality! I want to make following my blog be worth it! Which is kind of ridiculous since I don't demand those standards from anyone else. *sigh*
Well, Faulkner first and always. The embodiment of the fact that Southern fiction doesn't need to be realistic--that, in fact, it's better when it's hyperbolic and turns itself into mythology. One of the things I love most of him is that when I'm reading his books, it feels hot, the way a summer day down here feels. I can't explain it, but when I'm reading Faulkner, it's always a Southern summer.
His works are also an embodiment of the fact that exaggeration really works only when we're doing it about ourselves (Erskine Caldwell aside, who should have been ashamed of himself). When someone from outside the region does it, it comes across as either patronizing or mocking or contemptuous in my opinion.
David Gordon Green's early movies (Undertow is my favorite) really feel right to me. He's since gone all Hollywood and is making some trashy stuff, but he started out solid.
Friday Night Lights is about Texas, which is its own cultural thing distinct from the South, but there's enough overlap there that I can really connect to it.
Designing Women is just about flawless. It takes a premise--four women working in an interior design firm and their lives--that could be set in any place, but sets it instead in Atlanta, and it becomes Southern to its core without being "about" the South. I don't know how to explain it, really, but it's the best.
All of Rick Bragg's books. I usually don't like memoir, but I love him, and his The Most They Ever Had owns my soul to an extent that's just ridiculous. He writes about working class people in Northeast Alabama, and he is flawless. I can't recommend him enough. He gives a voice to those who don't usually have one. And while he's become more liberal and educated and stuff than most people from that area, he did it without either A) turning his back on his heritage or B) twisting it into something more suitable. He tells the truth.
I haven't read any Ron Rash yet, but by all accounts he's awesome, and he's on my list.
One of the things I love most of him is that when I'm reading his books, it feels hot, the way a summer day down here feels.
TRUTH.
Which makes me think of the most recent Faulkner thing I read, "Old Man," which makes me think of O Brother Where Art Thou, which clearly drew inspiration from it. (Vernon T. Waldrip, indeed.) How do you feel about that movie? I'm ridiculously fond of it, although I think 50% of that is probably the soundtrack and another 45% is the acting.
You've been mentioning OT3s a lot lately. Tell me about them! When you say OT3, what do you mean, exactly? Are we talking only about relationships with frolicking threesome sexytimes, or also three-way relationships that involve one (or more) platonic leg? Which OT3 have been inspiring you? (Feel free to talk Mary/Matthew/Lavinia all you like. *g*)
Oh, you know me: sex is never the point. So that's not really a consideration for me. And my affection for this dynamic is about fiction, not real life.
I guess I've just really been into relationships lately that are three-sided that aren't love triangles (a lot of this has to do with me being TOTALLY OVER the love triangle thing). Like, taking the competative element out of them completely and just letting three people love each other. It doesn't have to be romantic, really, but just everybody loving everybody else? And it feeling equal with insecurities at a minimum and competativeness being cut out entirely.
Some that appeal to me? Mary-Matthew-Lavinia, as you mention. The idea of Mary moving in with the two of them and being part of their family like in your fic is just my favorite thing ever. The Salvatore brothers with either Elena or Katherine, at least in theory. I don't know that it would work on the show, but it does in my head! Harry-Ron-Hermione. I like the idea of Harry moving in with Ron and Hermione more than I do him going off and marrying Ginny or anyone else (no offense to Ginny). I just don't think anyone can understand him the way they do. The three main characters in Mawang (see icon), as I've mentioned. All entangled in each other, equally hung up on each other, defining each other in all the ways that matter. Michelle-Tony-Sid from Skins because they love each other so fiercely. Michelle and Sid both define themselves by Tony a little too much, and he's hurt them more than he means to, but they all love each other so much. The three kids in 19 which I just watched. They didn't know each other but they all are suspects for the same murder and end up on the run, and when they do, they really bond. They're different but there's relatively little clash: they sort of bond immediately. Enough so that one point they consider jumping off a building to get away from the police, and the overly earnest boy says, "At least we'll still be together in heaven." Which in a romantic context would probably make me roll my eyes, but here, with this lovely bond they formed, I was genuinely touched.
I don't even know if I actually told you anything in this comment, but there were a lot of words!
Well, I didn't figure your OT3 had anything to do with sex, but I was having trouble figuring out how else to read it. So thank you! I totally agree with being so over the love triangle thing. UGH.
This question is going to be super selfishly motivated, just because it's been ages since I've read a book that I absolutely could not put down, but gimme your recs for addictive books! I don't necessarily mean favourites, though there could be some overlap, but just books that you would willingly forgo food and sleep to continue reading. I am not picky about subject or genre!
Are there any fandoms you participate in neutrally? In other words, is there any TV show you watch that does, in fact, not give you All of the Feelings but you still enjoy it?
Can you think of any character/pairing that you normally wouldn't be drawn to but somehow they overcame that to weasel their way into your heart (e.g. a character that fits a trope your normally don't care for but you love them anyway)?
Oooh! Book recs! Gonna be lots of YA on this list....
I could. not. put. down Kindred by Octavia Butler. Genuine masterpiece and so very underrated.
Every time I pick up The Blue Castle I end up staying up all night to finish it. Same with Mara: Daughter of the Nile.
Ella Enchanted is compulsively readable AND THE BEST. Chime by Franny Billingsley.
Those are the ones that come to mind at the moment. If I think of others, I'll get back to you!
There are several shows I love but that I don't do anything fannish about excep reblogging pretty pictures on tumblr: The Good Wife, Happy Endings, Game of Thrones. I don't really forsee myself doing anything fannishly with them, but I like them lots!
Can you think of any character/pairing that you normally wouldn't be drawn to but somehow they overcame that to weasel their way into your heart (e.g. a character that fits a trope your normally don't care for but you love them anyway)?
Victor and Sierra on Dollhouse. A soulmates ship? Usually I hatehatehate that, but I love it with them. Troy on Community. I don't know what archtype to fit him into, but whatever it is, I feel like he exceeds it.
I usually don't care for soulmates either but Victor(Tony)/Sierra(Priya) really worked for me too. I think it's because it was wrapped up in identity narratives (which I'm always, always into), and it was more about the fact that they just always loved each other no matter what, not necessarily that they were ~destined no matter what.
I think it will be far less thinky-thoughts than pictures of pretty people with some captions, but whatever it turns out to be, I intend to work on it this weekend! I haven't really been able to this week.
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1. Absalom, Absalom!
2. Kindred by Octavia Butler
3. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin
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I haven't read nearly as much of him as I'd like, but I have "Hymn to God My God in My Sickness" memorized because I love the language and the sentiments expressed.
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Also, for sheer sassiness: The Flea.
And I still think Elegy XX: To His Mistress Going to Bed is one of the sexiest things ever written.
I loooove "Hymn to God My God in My Sickness."
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Have you read The Left Hand of Darkness? I've started it, but haven't really gotten into it yet.
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Actually, I love certain of her short stories more than I love any of her novels (although I always at least enjoy the novels).
It occurs to me that you might be interested in Lavinia, about the woman Aeneus married in The Aenid? It's partly one of those "the woman's perspective" stories, but it also involves a fascinating dream-relationship between Lavinia and Virgil himself. I think the combination of female-centric story and meta-story might intrigue you.
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Yeah, I don't tend to be a short story fan, but I love hers. She's on the shortlist of writers whose short stories I always love.
That sounds interesting! I haven't read that one yet, but I'll add it to my list!
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In the Black Donnellys pilot when Tommy gets on an elevator to go hunt down some mobsters, Kevin gets on, too, without knowing where Tommy's going, and Tommy says, "Where're you going?" and Kevin says, "Wherever you're going." I DIED. Still not over it.
Every single time the Salvatore brothers save each other.
Fiona Gallagher's every waking moment is an expression of love for her family.
Alexandria basically saving Roy's soul in The Fall when she makes him give her a happy ending to his story.
Ron standing up on his broken leg in PoA to tell Sirius Black, known murder, that he'll have to go through him and Hermione to get to Harry. ♥
Hyun Soo keeping on playing while his hand bleeds in Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, all because he loves his friends so much. And then Ji Hyuk stopping him with a giant bear hug. BOYS. ♥♥♥
The look on Buffy's face when she saves Spike from the First. HER FAAAAAAACE. AND AND AND when she feeds him from the blood bag in "Never Leave Me." I CANNOT.
Both halves of my OTP in City Hunter put themselves in severe physical pain for each other--one of them literally takes a bullet for the other. Probably because I'm a giant whimp, that makes me swoony.
Attolia freaking out over Gen nearly getting killed in King of Attolia. But pretty much any Gen/Attolia moment could be on here. PERFECT PEOPLE WHO ARE TOTALLY IN LOVE.
This is a little (and in kdramas, cliched) moment, but I love it madly.
DEATH FIGURES. It all goes back to the little Italian girl in The Sound and the Fury. Quentin is in love with death, which I would argue is why he's so drawn to Caddy, but that's another issue. And since loving Caddy = death and she's his younger sister, we have this little girl showing up randomly and spending Quentin's last day with him, and he calls her little sister. St. Francis of Assisi called his sufferings "sisters" and when he was told he was going to die, he welcomed Sister Death. LITTLE SISTER DEATH BEST THING. Seriously, one day I will write a novel with a Little Sister Death figure.
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bzzz bzz bzzzzz, rec me some books/other media that you think capture American Southern identities and experiences particularly well. I'm always intrigued when you talk about it.
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Well, Faulkner first and always. The embodiment of the fact that Southern fiction doesn't need to be realistic--that, in fact, it's better when it's hyperbolic and turns itself into mythology. One of the things I love most of him is that when I'm reading his books, it feels hot, the way a summer day down here feels. I can't explain it, but when I'm reading Faulkner, it's always a Southern summer.
His works are also an embodiment of the fact that exaggeration really works only when we're doing it about ourselves (Erskine Caldwell aside, who should have been ashamed of himself). When someone from outside the region does it, it comes across as either patronizing or mocking or contemptuous in my opinion.
David Gordon Green's early movies (Undertow is my favorite) really feel right to me. He's since gone all Hollywood and is making some trashy stuff, but he started out solid.
Friday Night Lights is about Texas, which is its own cultural thing distinct from the South, but there's enough overlap there that I can really connect to it.
Designing Women is just about flawless. It takes a premise--four women working in an interior design firm and their lives--that could be set in any place, but sets it instead in Atlanta, and it becomes Southern to its core without being "about" the South. I don't know how to explain it, really, but it's the best.
All of Rick Bragg's books. I usually don't like memoir, but I love him, and his The Most They Ever Had owns my soul to an extent that's just ridiculous. He writes about working class people in Northeast Alabama, and he is flawless. I can't recommend him enough. He gives a voice to those who don't usually have one. And while he's become more liberal and educated and stuff than most people from that area, he did it without either A) turning his back on his heritage or B) twisting it into something more suitable. He tells the truth.
I haven't read any Ron Rash yet, but by all accounts he's awesome, and he's on my list.
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TRUTH.
Which makes me think of the most recent Faulkner thing I read, "Old Man," which makes me think of O Brother Where Art Thou, which clearly drew inspiration from it. (Vernon T. Waldrip, indeed.) How do you feel about that movie? I'm ridiculously fond of it, although I think 50% of that is probably the soundtrack and another 45% is the acting.
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Confession: I haven't actually seen it? Love the soundtrack, though! I just haven't ever gotten around to watching it. I should!
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I guess I've just really been into relationships lately that are three-sided that aren't love triangles (a lot of this has to do with me being TOTALLY OVER the love triangle thing). Like, taking the competative element out of them completely and just letting three people love each other. It doesn't have to be romantic, really, but just everybody loving everybody else? And it feeling equal with insecurities at a minimum and competativeness being cut out entirely.
Some that appeal to me? Mary-Matthew-Lavinia, as you mention. The idea of Mary moving in with the two of them and being part of their family like in your fic is just my favorite thing ever. The Salvatore brothers with either Elena or Katherine, at least in theory. I don't know that it would work on the show, but it does in my head! Harry-Ron-Hermione. I like the idea of Harry moving in with Ron and Hermione more than I do him going off and marrying Ginny or anyone else (no offense to Ginny). I just don't think anyone can understand him the way they do. The three main characters in Mawang (see icon), as I've mentioned. All entangled in each other, equally hung up on each other, defining each other in all the ways that matter. Michelle-Tony-Sid from Skins because they love each other so fiercely. Michelle and Sid both define themselves by Tony a little too much, and he's hurt them more than he means to, but they all love each other so much. The three kids in 19 which I just watched. They didn't know each other but they all are suspects for the same murder and end up on the run, and when they do, they really bond. They're different but there's relatively little clash: they sort of bond immediately. Enough so that one point they consider jumping off a building to get away from the police, and the overly earnest boy says, "At least we'll still be together in heaven." Which in a romantic context would probably make me roll my eyes, but here, with this lovely bond they formed, I was genuinely touched.
I don't even know if I actually told you anything in this comment, but there were a lot of words!
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Are there any fandoms you participate in neutrally? In other words, is there any TV show you watch that does, in fact, not give you All of the Feelings but you still enjoy it?
Can you think of any character/pairing that you normally wouldn't be drawn to but somehow they overcame that to weasel their way into your heart (e.g. a character that fits a trope your normally don't care for but you love them anyway)?
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I could. not. put. down Kindred by Octavia Butler. Genuine masterpiece and so very underrated.
Every time I pick up The Blue Castle I end up staying up all night to finish it. Same with Mara: Daughter of the Nile.
Ella Enchanted is compulsively readable AND THE BEST. Chime by Franny Billingsley.
Those are the ones that come to mind at the moment. If I think of others, I'll get back to you!
There are several shows I love but that I don't do anything fannish about excep reblogging pretty pictures on tumblr: The Good Wife, Happy Endings, Game of Thrones. I don't really forsee myself doing anything fannishly with them, but I like them lots!
Can you think of any character/pairing that you normally wouldn't be drawn to but somehow they overcame that to weasel their way into your heart (e.g. a character that fits a trope your normally don't care for but you love them anyway)?
Victor and Sierra on Dollhouse. A soulmates ship? Usually I hatehatehate that, but I love it with them. Troy on Community. I don't know what archtype to fit him into, but whatever it is, I feel like he exceeds it.
Great questions!
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