| One fic rec! |
[10/15/07] |
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Ben Folds - Gracie |
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I was thinking I'd put all my recs in the same post, but I can't wait with this one.
Ok. I don't usually read het.
I don't usually read WIPs.
But here I am, stuck with this. The language is beautiful and real, the happenings real (not really beautiful).
Creep (part 1/3) by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) maraudersaffair, Lily/Severus, Remus/Severus, R. Summary: Follow Snape from the age of fifteen to his death. As he struggles with his feelings for Lily, he is unaware of another boy who feels just as intensely about him. Prompt: Snape's First and Last Kiss
(and talking about my rec list, gah, it has fics and arts for 4 months' worth, and yet it isn't ready to be published. I'm just too lazy...)
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| Harry Potter meme and other things |
[07/31/07] |
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Hello Timebomb: Brian Kinney Fanmix |
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1. I love every single of these icons!
2. ( A Harry Potter meme )
3. I know most of you have already read the transliteration of the Rowling chat, but in case you haven't, here it is.
I was the most surprised by this:
Was Snape the only Death Eater who could produce a full Patronus?
-Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses
Not any meaningful information, but that was something that had never ever crossed my mind!
..and of course, this is hilarious:
What ever happened to Aberforth?
-He is still there, at the Hog's Head, playing with his goats.
Btw, this music is from here. Awesome.
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| Fanfic IC/OOC (mostly HP examples) |
[07/17/07] |
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In my other LJ's f-list one post turned into a discussion of RPF (real person fiction). I won't say say much about it - I consider it rather odd and don't read such stories and especially don't write them.
But there was this link to FanFic Symposium, a RPF column by Kristina, and there was this quote: "I kind of like the idea of calling it "casting"... "casting fiction", "casting slash"..
Ah, that's exactly my thoughts about fanfics!
When I read or write a fic, it's not ..how should I say this.. an extension to JKR's work. It's not JKR canon Harry who finds himself with Draco in a broom closet. It's not "what happened in HBP while this and that". It's a story of it's own, based on a world someone else has created.
A whole new world created ready for you! What a relief to a writer!
If you want to write something, you must create the world first. The places, characters, history, present, future... That's one hell of a job. If someone else has done it before, then why bother to crumple up papers in the waste basked while trying to come up with something own.
So, you have the base ready. You can do whatever you want with it.
Now, here's the point. I love reading IC fics. I do not even bother to look at OOC fics - the exception is humour fics.
How can you make IC fics when Remus shagging Sirius is not and is not ever going to be IC? (no matter of the filthy 5th movie)
For me, IC is not the happenings.
IC is how the happenings happen. It's the things the characters say, the way they act.
Does (s)he use long sentences, or short? Does he use endearments or just rough language? Literary language or spoken language? Speak a lot or not?
Does (s)he walk, traipse, run, jump? Be reserved or open? Shut eyes or cry?
I wrote a little piece of the clihés in SS/SB fics, and there was this short description of both of them - what I think is pretty much Sirius' and Snape's IC.
Sirius is angsty. He is emoing over dead people and his life manqué. He is lost and doesn't know what he wants and is totally surprised and confused over his suddenly found interest in Snape. Sirius is also rascal. Talkative, persuasive. Doing what he think he wants to do and not stopping to ponder.
I so think emo is a perfect verb
Snape is black, silent, calm and dark. He doesn't show any emotion, just tells to fuck off or closes his eyes or fells in silence. His eyes blacken in every situation not depending what he excactly feels. He talks a little, but opens up in some point. He wants to deny everything he doesn't want to cope with, that includes pretty much everything with any personal touch.
You can't make Snape babble or use words like "kind" or "love". You can't make Sirius chilly. But you still can create the greatest love story never told totally IC.
What comes to QaF: I truly stop reading the fic for good if I see Brian saying "love" or it's derivative in a sentence that isn't snide.
A ready world is an enormous relief to a writer. But it also is an enormous responsibility. You can make the characters do almost whatever you want, but if you want it to be credible, if you want to keep the readers consentrated and wanting more, you must be very careful how do you do the "whatever".
Maybe that's one of the reasons I eschew the boring pairings - the ones that already exist (like Lily/James, Lupin/Tonks, Bill/Fleur). There is no challenge, there is no difficulties. Everything is there ready - the world AND the happenings.
And about QaF again: in QaF my OTP already very strongly exists. But why do I love the fics even so? Brian/Justin is never out of problems. Ever. And the way Cowlip ended the series... you just must come up with your own ending. Your own happenings. That really didn't took place.
..like, Severus and Sirius fucking each other brains out ;)
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| HP & OotP |
[07/14/07] |
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Scissor Sisters - I Can't Decide |
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Ok seen the movie...
( I LOVED IT! )
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| How it all begun and ended up - Harry Potter |
[07/04/07] |
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Scissor Sisters - I Can't Decide |
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It was summer holidays in 2000 and I was bored to death in our summer cottage. My mom gave me Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (in Finnish, of course). I was suspicious. One of my friends was really into Harry Potter and kept on saying that I should read them too, but I thought that's something that doesn't interest me.
I WAS SO WRONG!
that must've been the first and the last time...
I read the first book... and directly went to ask my mom if there were more. Yup, Chamber of Secrets. A little later I got my hands on Prisoner of Azkaban.
I was thrilled.
It took a half a year before Goblet of Fire was translated in Finnish, it was published in Valentine's day in 2001.
Then there was this huge hiatus! 3 years! By then I had grown up a little bit and there was no way I was going to wait the translation. I bought the book immediately in English and read it right away. I remember it was pretty not-so-fun, because I didn't have a clue what were the characters' names or what the spells were called in English.
That bafflement was nothing compared to the one I got into while reading Half-Blood Prince two years later. I was totally wtf with the horcrux-stuff and everything. Damn the made up words!
Ok, I of course bought both of the books in Finnish too when they were published and got some better insight of the happenings.
So now it's July 2007 and everyone knows what will happen in the 21st...
I have read all the books several times. My ultimate favourite is Prisoner of Azkaban. Then the order is 6, 5, 4, 1 and last AND definately least is Chamber of Secrets.
Now I have my little project going on, called "I shall read all the books all over again before the last one comes out". I'm in the middle of Chamber of Secrets.. in fact I've been in the middle of it about two weeks. It's just so boring! I don't like it! As I said, I have books 5 and 6 both in English and in Finnish - I must read them in English. Otherwise it may be I'm totally lost with the last book.
The good thing is that I wasn't ever spoiled at all (with one exception). The only thing I knew beforehand was the death of Sirius. All other events in the books came as a surprise. I kinda intend to keep it that way. It means no TV, no newspapers, no magazines, especially NO Internet in around 21st and 22nd while I read the last book... Here in Finland few bookstores will open at 00:00 EST (02:00 Finnish time), but most of them not till at 07:00 in the morning (Finnish time). Here where I live they open in the morning. Ok call me crazy and paranoid, but I don't want to go there to get the book by myself. I'm slightly afraid that some idiot is there screaming The Ending out aloud.. so I'll send my boyfriend to get the book for me. Haha.
A short notice on movies: I don't find them good, but ok. Every movie is better than the previous one. I kinda eagerly wait for this fifth one, the pics I've seen are marvellous. At least, if not good, the movies are very nicely done! Thus far there haven't been any major disappointments regarding "oh wtf that really so doesn't look like that!". Of course in the course of time my own and the movies' picture how things are are blended together and I can't surely say what I in the first place thought everything looked like. Natch, my Sirius and Severus looks perfect ;) I've tickets in the movies in July the 14th, I'll go with my little brother and a friend of his (he lives in the USA but is now visiting Finland). So maybe more movie talk after that.
About fandom. My two favourite characters are.. *drumming* *no one can guess* ..Sirius Black and Severus Snape. And oh how those two belongs together! ;) In fact I don't have a clue when I got into this. I though it was January this year, but then I found some interesting posts in my LJ about reading some SS/SB-fics in the middle of the summer 2006. I also had wrote something about having some wicked dreams of those two - what a shame I hadn't written them down in more details!
Yeehee.
Unlike my preference to I-POV in QaF fics, in Harry Potter fics I like it to be impersonal. In addition, pretty much all the fics I've read are still in the point of view of Sirius (you know what I mean - impersonal narrator but in Sirius's viewpoint). That's maybe the reason why I-POV is unliked AND rare - it is so freaking difficult to get into Snape's mind so no one even bothers to try.
I like angst and hurt and others and some bdsm and everything (and of course I LOVE drugged SS/SB ;D) but just like QaF, I still want it to end up all happy.. at least in some way.. you know, those two can't really ever be happy, fluffy and cute.
Also, (again, unlike QaF) my mind isn't so constricted in what comes to pairings. I can and like to read about several others as well, just as long as the main pair is SS/SB. I like good fanart, too. Especially I like Tom Riddle -art, because you know, he's supposed to be drop-dead gorgeous!
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| How it all ended up - Queer as Folk |
[07/02/07] |
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Sneaker Pimps - Loretta Young Silks |
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So, now we have come to the present... I'm slighty totally kinda addicted in fan fiction, being it fics, graphics or whatever. As I said, I'm though kinda restricted. I only like to read and see B/J-stuff, and to read only happy-ending fics. I prefer I-POV to an impersonal describer - in fact I have really hard time reading QaF-fics that aren't in a first person view. Also, I crave it to be strickly IC. I love Brian's character so much in all it's incompletence, that making him a fluffy foolish cutie just angers me.
But if we're not talking about fanfics but QaF in general...
My favourite character just is Brian (no one just couldn't guess that!). He is honest. Selfish. A label queen. He is incredible, in hotness and in coldness. He does what he wants to do. He knows how to Success in Business - and he knows how to Success in fucking up his Personal Life.
Justin is ok, Justin comes along, Justin can stay.
omg UK pun!111. I don't think there is any need to say any more of two of them. You just know, don't you?
The other character I really like is Ted. I think in some Xof's recaps(??) is stated that The trick with him is that you want to see him happy, but take some pleasure in seeing him fail. and The Book describes him He also provided a loveable loser for the audience to cheer for, knowing that thay never really wanted to see him succeed, because it's always nice to see someone who is worse off than you. I don't quite agree. I don't get any pleasure to see Ted going DOWN - but then again, I don't weep and sob either. Ted's story is fashinating, from an accountant to a porn site manager to a drug whore to.. a singer-waiter and to - an accountant. Like, however incredible it is, it's just believable. Ted's character makes it believable. And btw, Ted&Blake is my second favourite pairing in the show
the third is -- oh, there is no third! Uhm, does Brian&Leda count? ;)
Yep, there is no third. I'm pretty bored with Michael and stupid-David and body-Ben-Zen. Mel&Lindz - boring, boring.. and btw, have you noticed, that couple has even more problems than B+J! They fight throughout the most of the seasons.. Debbie and Emmett are all cute and such but that's it (oh you just didn't think I meant those two as a pair, did you!). Other smaller characters just goes by.
But Leda. It must've been in some recap again, but someone once described him as a female Brian. Ok, if we look closely it's just not quite right, but good enough. I love the chemistry between Leda and Brian in 207! They so understand each other.
I don't know. QaF just has been there a one third of my whole life, and nothing can be along such a long time without any impact. Despite the fact I've preferred to watch episodes to reading to examinations, reading fics to go out and socialize.. I think that Brian's character has had some, if not a lot influence on me and how I turned up from a teenager to a young adult. Of course it's in my basic nature - to like to lead, be in control, to not show feelings, already to be similar to Brian. But I really think that I would be different without this show.
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| How it all begun - Queer as Folk |
[07/02/07] |
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Kent - Rosor och Palmblad |
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It must have been year 2000 when they started to air Queer as Folk UK in Finland. I was so young my parents didn't allow me to watch the show (though it didn't stop me to see some episodes still). But what I fell in love with immediately, was the ads. There was a huge wooden closet. Yep right. A closet, fishing, in a night club, in a restaurant, in bed... A series of closet's life. That was nothing we had seen before, and me being a very fancy 14-year-old with a heck of an interest in everything even slightly to do with homosexuality.. you can quess.
I think the US version started in TV in 2001. Nothing couldn't have stopped me from watching it. Nothing. I remember me, my mother and little brother all together watching the first episode - which you could describe as soft porn and drug-abuse (dammit, they really lack the sex in the later seasons compared to 1). I took a small and very old TV from our storage into my room and tuned it in the right channel in every friday night - come to think of it, hey, what on earth time is that to air that show when most of the possible viewers are clubbing somewhere.. The picture was crackly and everything but good, but oh it still got colours! I missed a few episodes despite my devotion.. for example the episode when Michael and David went on a cottage and naked picnic.
Years later I found the piece of newspaper where is a little introduction to the show (of course recovered it). My heart stopped for a while when I realised the picture used in the article was in fact from the scene where Justin's dad bashes Brian. So cute picture, such a hell of a scene. In fact in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) qaf_coffeeclub is a little topic about icons which seems oh-so-pretty but in fact are taken in disasterous scenes - it's here (you can only read it if you are member oh the community).
At that time I decided, that whenever that show is published in dvd, I'll buy it. In Finland they showed only two seasons in TV. I was very active conversationist in one forum at that time, and we had our own active QaF-group there. I still have most of those threads saved in my Mac. I remember how happy we were when they aired the both seasons in a row. We didn't have to wait the awful months waiting and considering what would happen, was Justin alive. We had only a week to worry.
In 2003 I bought the UK-version dvd-box. The funny point being, we didn't even have a dvd-player until some time later. I kinda wore the dvd away by watching it a million times. I loved it. And still do.
At some point during 2002-2005 I also bought the US books. All the 3 novels and The Book. And ok I must admit: I still haven't finished the last of the novels. *shame* It's not that they're bad, because they're not. They are very interesting and IC and everything, but something else just came up. I'm really going to read all of them again, but just now I don't have any time.
So, when the two first US seasons was over in TV, our show in the forum wasn't. We always managed to get the new episodes from somewhere. In the end I had Seasons 3 and 4 in (very poor quality) cd, and episodes 1,2,3, 120 and 122 from Season 1. We also read a lot of fics then. I mostly consentrated on Ethan's gapfillers and some fics and Xof's recaps. I still was pretty young, and while my English was ok, the quality of the sound and picture in those cd's was at times kinda terrible. For example it took me about 20 times windind the cd back and forth in that "I hope you get what you want"-scene until I understood what Brian said.
There of course were a few hiatus in the way between the seasons - I wasn't such a freak all the time! Finally, in summer 2005 I got The Season 5. Yes, it was still some crappy cd's, but the quality was better. And they were my friend's, I just borrowed them. It didn't took so many days to watch the whole season. I wrote some my reactions down in my LJ then.
( Reactions to S5 )
So, I really hadn't a clue how shitty it all ended up in the last place. Somehow I managed not to even found any recent recap about it! Ok, I was pretty thrilled just that It Was Over, so I didn't really care.
And btw the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was published just right after, and then my time passed with it ;)
Ok, so it was late 2005 and all the dvd's had come out - but I didn't have a credit card. In fact, I had to wait still a year and a half until I placed my order in Amazon in April this year. Something good about it: Dollar is so weak comparing to Euro, so I got them really cheap.
It took about 3 weeks to marathon through the show. The first season is a little boring. Pretty much all the scenes was straight from UK, and it felt just like lame copying. Season 2 is ok, but omg how I hate Ethan. Season 3 is my favourite - you know, despite all the angst and shitty things, it all ends up well. Only seasons 3 and 4 in fact ends happily.. Season 4 is ok too, but to be honest, I don't remember much of it. I watched about 5 or 6 episodes a day, and it was too much for my brains to handle (yes I've watched season 4 like 3 or 4 times before this, but I still don't remember almost anything). Season 5 is the most eventful, but I just can't stand the most of it. All the happy-joy-love-OOC-Brian and the most fucked up 3 last episodes.
I know something Huge had to be done, something Really Big had to happen to get the show to the end. But the way CL did that, is just totally OOC and whatever crap. Ok there was bombing and someone got in shock and had to think of his life, but that just wasn't done right. First of all, it all went way too fast so we didn't have any time to adjust, and second of all - IT WAS SO FUCKING OOC!
But for me, Queer as Folk didn't end there. In short version it ended 10 seconds after the black screen, where in my imagination Justin shows up. In longer version, it ends all the time differently with each post-513 fanfic. I read only the ones which ends up happy fluffy 'n' everything - but don't get this wrong, I hate OOC-fics with love. One of the best fics is the one I read first, Ethan's 513 gapfiller/post-513-fic. That is so IC and still it has the happy ending I wanted this series to had.
My canon is 10 secs longer than CowLip's.
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