Thymed Recs

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:26:27 GMT

Matching-Muff Matrimony, by eloiselovelace. HP, Ginny/Pansy. Ginny's the Quidditch coach, Pansy's the Arithmancy prof, and they get into a marriage of convenience for base lucre.

Upside: A delightful four-part femmeslash story that, while a bit silly in the beginning, earns the sterling praise of being really, well, slashy. Much of the femmeslash I come across (though, admittedly, I haven't dipped my toes into Xena fandom) is a bit... wishy-washy. Dreamy women, symbolic moons, perhaps a reference to ocean tides. Bah. This fic is sexy and, perhaps more importantly, damned cheery. I want to read novel-lengths of this sort of thing.

After the incident in the office, Ginny just couldn't look at Pansy the same way anymore. She supposed she'd always considered Pansy rather asexual. Yes, Pansy had professed her gayness, but Ginny had considered the knowledge to be as theoretical as Pansy's Arithmancy research.

But now that she knew exactly what Pansy sounded like when she came, and what she looked like, Ginny found herself rather hard pressed not to think of the practical implications.

It was incredibly unfair, not to mention just plain improbable that anyone should look attractive at the moment of climax. The last bloke Ginny had shagged more than once in a well-lit room had made the most ridiculous grimaces, the recollection of which was more prone to inducing fits of laughter than fits of furtive wanking.

Besides, furtive wanking was harder than it appeared, because pretty well every suitable spot was already taken by teenagers who had the same idea, sometimes more than one of them.

Downside: The title. The first part feels like an incredibly rushed infodump (eight years! zoom!). The humorous style throughout can be a bit overly ornate. The illustrations in the fic were originally hotlinked, and are now just blank boxes sitting in the middle of the text -- unnecessary to the story, but I found myself just having to look up the source code and find the original links (perhaps not a problem for everyone, but certainly for me). And there are additional silly things that are unnecessary but were added for Humorous Effect, which goes down just about as well as you would think. But! Watch me recommend this anyway. Ha.

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:54:48 GMT

On the subject of Star Trek: Voyager:

Let me start this by saying that I keep a collection of good lines from bad fanfiction. I don't mean that I collect really awful lines and laugh gleefully over them -- I mean that I find really good lines from the middle of absolute garbage, and then I keep them for posterity. I suppose it comes down to the fact that I really believe that every story, no matter how bad, was somebody's baby, and that every story, no matter how horrible, has something to redeem it.

Now, that being said, this evening I was caught up in the memory of a line:

They'll realize that beneath your unfeeling exterior is a heart that's breaking. Silently--and in more pain than any of us can possibly understand, because that's what it is to be Vulcan.

And I remembered that it was from an episode of Voyager, and from that alone managed to remember the title of the ep out of some seven seasons worth of episodes and at least six years' time away from the material. (For those curious, it was from "Muse.")

It's weird. Nobody (but nobody) liked Voyager. Me? I loved it. The writing of DS9 was, I grant you, decidedly brilliant. The original series was groundbreaking. TNG... had Patrick Stewart. (I readily admit that my love for TNG? it is somewhat lacking.) I do not discuss Enterprise where small children with sensitive ears can hear me. But Voyager... man, Voyager. I gave my heart away to that ship of misfits.

Looking back on it, I suspect my love came from the same place my love of fanfiction comes from: the shining moments of glory amidst absolute trash. Garbage like the Doctor playing Beowulf for an entire episode ("Heroes and Demons") is interspersed with the Doctor creating for himself a family and then dealing with consequences when he tries to use holography in the same slapdash fantasy way us "meat" people do ("Real Life").

Voyager was like a giant fanfic of the Star Trek universe. Filled with improbable and ill-timed (but dirtily addictive) romance, vainglorious generalizations concerning the human spirit, weird and twisted ideas that held no pat solutions, and attempts at different styles and methods of story (some of which succeeded, most of which did not) within the very narrow confines of the Star Trek universe.

I realize it was the commercial creation of Paramount and quite a few really annoying producers -- my rather romantic notions concerning amateurs trying their best to chip at the face of Truth are, basically, just romantic notions. But what I loved about Voyager is that it seemed that way -- I could forget that it was some slick production company's seasonal work and actually think, "People like me made this. People with stories to tell, and the desire to tell them, and the heartbreaking inability, most of the time, to accomplish that telling."

I guess for me, feeling like someone's really trying is better than any amount of technical (and soulless) brilliance.

Fanfiction, to me, is often more satisfying than pro fiction because there is an extra dimension of pure flaming need to tell a story, even a bad one, that just does not exist for me with most professionally published works.

--

Since Voyager is fanfic, I used to find the fanfic of it to be peculiarly excellent. It was my first major fandom, and I still have favorites -- though, to be fair, I had a hell of a time finding anything good that I hadn't already read when I was trawling the internets for this post. If you want a good source for (very thorough) reviews/summaries of the episodes, I'd suggest Jim Wright's site, Delta Blues. For some excellent fanfiction, I'd suggest:

Ghost in the Machine, by Killishandra. A Voyager/TOS crossover, of a sort. Also, weirdly, Kirk/Spock, Kirk/Tom Paris, Tom Paris/Harry Kim, and, um, Tom Paris/His Own Creativity.

Upside: Not just slashtastic -- it can also be thought of as a fairly nuanced discussion of the ethics of holography, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Downside: Can get goopily over-emotional in its wording/feeling. Does not bear up to immediate rereading (see: goopy emotions).

The Secret Logs of Mistress Janeway, by NovaD. Ahahahaha. A classic of our time: the fabulous D/s adventures of Janeway and the gang.

Upside: Sheer sexy fun. Has that level of ridiculousness that just fills me with delighted giggles.

Downside: Well, there's the ridiculousness, and also that my favorite log entry, Objective/Subjective, is actually written by a guest author, Jared. (That being said, fabulous entry. Voyager frame story of a TOS-era "lesson" for Starfleet operatives to help demonstrate the necessity of remaining objective, regardless of, ah, provocation).

First Contact, by Ruth Devero. Tom Paris/Chakotay, stuck on a slave-planet, and, naturally, one of them ends up having to be the slave.

Upside: Great realization of the culture, funny, and hot.

Downside: Strangely, thins over multiple readings. (Granted, it took me ten years or something of rereads for that "thinning.")

Absumption, by The Emu. An alternate version of the episode Timeless (wherein an attempt to go home goes wrong, and while Harry Kim and Chakotay, travelling ahead, make it to Earth, Voyager smashes into an ice planet and all hands die) -- the summary here is: 'Timeless' could have been worse. Someone might have survived.

Upside: It's a fantastic survival!fic. How rare is that? So rare.

Downside: You need to have either seen the episode or read the summary. (Totally worth it either way, by the by.) And there's a Tom/Janeway thing that crops up, which, while adding nicely to the story, is not precisely my thing.

B'Elanna and the Doctor, a series of four stories by E. Cristy Ruteshouser (Radical Therapy, Contraindication, Intensive Care, and Second Opinion). B'Elanna/EMH, obviously, though long taken down from the internet -- those are Wayback Machine links.

Upside: Honestly, I love these. Fun, funny, romantic, and makes me a believer in this very rare (read: nonexistent) pairing. Incredibly well-written Doctor. Brings up a lot of the ethics of holography, but from a slightly different tack than Ghost in the Machine. I could just reread these over and over again.

Downside: I'll admit it: The B'Elanna in here is not, ah, precisely in character (author-replacement much?). Also, the prose suffers terribly from the tragic inability to use the word "said." I didn't notice it the first time I read the series (Lo These Many Years Ago), but... I sort of have to turn that bit of my brain off now if I want to reread the story as I did when I was younger. Whoops.

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:48:54 GMT

Over a year since I posted, you say? Bah. And humbug.

The Loving Dead, by Witling. BtVS. Xander, two years after the show ended. A ghost story. Of a sort.

Upside: This is a mood piece. It's the feeling of winter, and loneliness, and getting by. It's about love, and cold. It is the single most effective mood piece I can remember reading in fanfic, and maybe it's a ghost story, or maybe it's just a story about... God, about the way living a life affects us. It breaks me every time I read it. I know I sound like a dope about this, but I can't stress how much this story just runs along my nerves and makes me shake every time.

"Ghosts aren't demons, Xander. There's no database."

"Yeah, okay. But they exist?"

She's quiet, and he glances over at her. She's staring out the window at the snowy streets, one fingertip resting on the glass. "Sometimes I think," she says, "it's just a matter of how far things can follow you."

He turns back to the road, watches the snow fly off the chains on the car ahead.

"And how much they want to find you," she says.

Downside: The title. I love it, but not for this story. I can see it as a variant of "Is my love afraid of the quiet dead?", and in that respect, awesome, totally fits, but the sound of it just isn't right for this. And maybe I would've liked to know what was really going on (but maybe I wouldn't -- "what's going on" isn't the point of this fic, and I'm not sure I'd like the story so much if it was).

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 14:42:10 GMT

I mock this "monthly" plan of mine.

Sacrificial Lambs, by hackthis. Brokeback Mountain RPS (*shame*). On set, trying to get the kiss right.

Upside: It's not really about slash, actually. Jake and Heath -- it's not about that. It's about acting, and belief, and the need in fantastic acting for believing, for just a moment, that a lie is truth.

Downside: Is this Ang Lee? I'm not so sure. The story's not really about him, but I worry that Ang Lee's the author coming in for a secret cameo. On the other hand, the story's short enough that this doesn't distress me terribly much.

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 20:10:38 GMT

Dear God, I'm early. As I (mostly) said last year: "The following is both an abbreviated and extended rec: a portion of the While We Tell of Yuletide Treasure Secret Santa "obscure fandom" fanfic project. I skipped all previous years, and any fandom I didn't recognize -- and I haven't read anyone else's rec list yet either. We'll see what I end up reccing after some further investigatons."

And now, onwards:

One Life From Many Deaths. This takes the recent film Batman Begins and follows a mental journey -- and little deaths, both figurative and innuendo -- to the final figure of Bruce Wayne.

Upside: Good language and settled darkness. Nice.

Downside: Not much of one, really. Perhaps that it's a bit too close to the movie. When I look for fanfic, I don't expect to find novelizations.

Passions of a Man. Batman Begins again, this time with a little love story taking place in some indeterminate time after the movie. Wayne is a passing character -- the whole thing's more like the secret lives of servants than anything else.

Upside: I like the music motif. I like that people other than Batman get to have sex lives. I like the fic's Upstairs/Downstairs shine.

Downside: I do wish I could hear some more motivation about why these fellows haven't gotten back together during the intervening years. "It was a bad idea" covers a lot of bases, but I just didn't feel it.

Cardinal Virtues. A fic taking place in the afterward of the original Bedazzled.

Upside: Fabulous language, brilliant thinking, and over all, terribly fun. It really feels right, and this is a fandom where the writing can become mediocre fairly quickly -- as oppposed to: And of course, George hadn't actually given Stanley any reason to be so expansive. He hadn't made him prime minister. He hadn't given him wealth, or fame, or an endowment that would shame an elephant seal. He hadn't even given him an amiable doe-eyed waitress. All he'd given Stanley was a few pints of beer and stories about Job and the time the principalities hid the ichthyosaur in Michael's bed.

Downside: Can't think of one, really, except for a very dim wish that this fic had been life-changing. Hm.

Slave Bear Of Care-A-Lot. Why yes, yes this is NC-17 BDSM Care Bear slash.

Upside: It's hilarious. Also, more than a little weird. And the author really, really knows her Care Bears. Thus making this even better. This right here is Special Hell material, and I'm pleased as hell to rec it to the masses.

Downside: "Rape rack".

Twenty Random Facts About Steve and Susan. A Coupling fic (the excellent UK version) that is rather reassuringly like the show.

Upside: It is what it is and I like it.

Downside: It is what it is and I wish it was more.

Competitive Sport. Cruel Intentions, slash between Valmont and the gay side-character who helps with the blackmail.

Upside: Hot hot hot.

Downside: Where's the rest of it? I want the afterward, where Blaine's head is after he gets his way. And was it ever really his way?

Travel Documents. I Capture the Castle fic, just little snippets from the afterward.

Upside and Downside: Sadly realistic, while at the same time, sadly incomplete.

The Priest That Tastes The Word. Dogma, Metatron/God -- in as much as it can be.

Upside: This isn't 'melt your mind and make you like it' Dogma fic -- but it does have some memorable moments. The summary is the best: Being the Voice of God could be a confusing experience. He was never quite sure which thoughts were his own and which were the speech of God. Usually the distinction was clear, but still—whenever he found himself waxing poetic on the graces of the Almighty, he always found it a bit suspect.

Downside: The ending falls a bit. And I feel there's a point that could have been made -- and that the author was dancing around -- that was never given the final push.

A Donne Deal. A Lord Peter Wimsey story featuring Harriet, the Arbuthnots, and a great deal of quoting.

Upside: Very nice, very well-voiced, and very worth a few minutes' reading.

Downside: Perhaps a mystery not entirely worthy of our characters, but not a bad one.

Whither Thou Goest. Another Wimsey piece, this one taking place the first Christmas following Harriet and Peter's wedding.

Upside: It's so utterly lovely that I suspect it of being written by Jill Paton Walsh (or a very computer-savvy ghost of Dorothy Sayers).

Downside: Not really a downside, but the author seems to have accidentally stuck their name on in the beginning, thus utterly disproving my Walsh/ghost theory.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Yet another Wimsey piece, this one a missing scene between Inspector Parker and Lady Mary in Strong Poison.

Upside: A sweet tidbit.

Downside: Only a tidbit.

The mysterious vanishing Mr Bore. A re-vamp of the fairy tale Jack the the Beanstalk.

Upside: I like this one mostly for the consistency and the style.

Downside: Eh. It's a revamped fairy tale. These things can get overdone.

Witch. A twisted fairy tale made of many fairy tales, and whamming a message into the genre and the Disneyfication of it all as well.

Upside: Good words, and a story that bears thinking on.

Downside: I wish it was either longer or shorter -- it either accomplishes not enough or wanted to include too much, but the current size doesn't quite work.

The Tale of the Laughing Forest. Another fairy tale. Two fellows go out into a forest and save a prince from a pack of ghosts. Then there's slash.

Upside: This does a damn good job of being a complete and entertaining story in its own right, which means that, on one level at least, the author did a bang-up job.

Downside: I feel like a bit of an idiot, but I can't for the life of me figure out which fairy tale this is supposed to be a riff on.

Thirteen Steps To Understanding Something You Can't. Fight Club, and understanding Marla.

Upside and Downside: Filled with the sort of short, sharp social commentaries that make you really hope there are no Philosophy 101 college freshman taking notes, because believing these sorts of things -- as a frosh really hearing Socrates for the first time always does -- will fuck you for life.

In the Depth of Winter. The Secret Garden, Colin/Dickon/Mary, all grown up.

Upside: I'm always a sucker for The Secret Garden, and this is another threesome fic that just... hits the right kind of note. I suspect I'll be rereading this one again come spring.

Downside: Hm. Not a one. Except possibly that it isn't a book.

Foolproof. Vorkosigan saga. Ivan brings Byerly back home from the spaceport.

Upside: A very Ivan solution.

Downside: I have a fondness for Ivan/Byerly. Sue me.

The Talent of Imose. Vorkosigan again. Elli Quinn's gone missing and Miles sends Ivan to look for her.

Upside: Heh. Everyone always writes about Ivan-- and I don't mind a bit. Also, it has the sort of scope that could have been a fantastic Vorkosigan book...

Downside: ...if Bujold had written it. The action's confusing at times, as well as the cast of characters. However, it's all rather worth it to have Ivan show up on Athos.

The Beggar's Wish. Tipping the Velvet, after the end of the book, with domestic bliss.

Upside: Yummy and sweet and Christmas-y. Yay.

Downside: Not a one. Still yay.

To Bear Well, and To Bloom Well. Twelfth Night, and playing around with the sexualities of everyone to present a picture of what might have been the epilogue.

Upside: It feels right. That's about the best praise I can give for a Shakespeare fic.

Downside: On the other hand, the dialogue hurts a bit and the style takes some getting used to. Also, only two acts? Be a man! (So to speak.) Give us five acts and we'll call it a proper homage.

The Ballad of Lenny and Carl. Simpsons slash. Actually, reminds me a lot of that South Park fic I recced a while back.

Upside: The voice is great. The way the author went about writing Simpsons fic is great. I am in love with this author.

Downside: The timing was confusing. Did or didn't things happen? And when? Hm. Actually, I don't care.

Innocent as a Rose. The Sound of Music, and Liesl reflecting on kisses. Sexuality and maturity and deaths you can't see.

Upside: Good stuff. Growing up is tough when the first guy you ever kissed decided to become a Nazi instead of loving you.

Downside: The Countess angle was... intriguing, but I want to understand it. Perhaps rereading will make things clearer.

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 03:03:16 GMT

To Carthage Then I Came, by annakovsky. A shortish X-Files fic set long after the show ends. Mulder, looking for the missing clones before they get killed, and suffering for it.

Upside: Fabulous and creepy. The plot circles around nicely, bringing to the fore the only answers that could have been given. On the other hand, it's also fairly straightforward, and leaves plenty of room for the reader to ask questions of the text and the canon. Craig Benson pushes his daughters on the swings and helps with homework, waters the lawn, wears pink polo shirts. Fox Mulder, on the other hand, drives to Savannah to get pictures of his son playing with John Doggett, and comes home to a house full of Samanthas.

Downside: Ha. Not a one. Not Great Literature or anything, but certainly a bit of a brain tease to get you going before you go to sleep.

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 02:05:37 GMT

Via recs:

Like Describing The Alphabet, by Mosca. Firefly fic, Jayne/Mal. "In which Mal unbuilds some walls; Jayne learns to kiss on the mouth; and nobody gets left behind." The long and slow romance of two middle-aged space cowboys.

Upside: So there are some Firefly fics that can manage to make the characters sound right. And there are some fics that can manage to make the universe feel right. But there are damned few that can do both. The joy of this fic comes from the feeling that this is how Joss wishes everyone could hear Firefly -- this author's got a dab hand at making space cowboys sound normal. On top of that, we have good character sketches of both Mal and Jayne, and their (constantly developing) relationship just reads right. Did I mention the voice of the fic?

"What'd you think it was?" Mal said.

"Dunno," Jayne said.

"Let me tell you," Mal said. "It was one very manly hand job on one very strange night, and that's all it will ever be."

Downside: I've got a powerful fondness for long, dragged-out stories. If I'm loving the voice, I'm loving the voice, and I never want it to end. If you didn't like yahtzee's Buffy-fic Phoenix Burning, you probably won't like this. This isn't plotty. This is character-y, with a lot of sex. So there's that. Wash, occasionally, is so painfully wrong-voiced as to throw the entire works out of alignment and make me screech in pain. Inara can come off as way bitchy. The first scene starts off confusing and hard to light -- some detective work suggests that it may be the remains of a previous, much shorter story. And sadly, I just don't think the scene for which the story is named really gels or, for that matter, makes much sense. But if you ignore all that... I've re-read this thing a couple of times now, and I'm keeping it close to hand for the future.

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 20:04:10 GMT

Via Making Light:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Poet, by ladysisyphus and rahaeli. Long poem, set in the HP universe, modelled on... T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. No shit.

Upside: Aside from being fairly funny at times, this poem stands out as 1) an excellent pastiche of Eliot, and 2) a pretty decent piece of poetry in and of itself. I mean, check it:

What are the plot-threads that clutch, what subplots grow
Out of this pulpy rubbish? Son of James,         20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
Your third-person limited perspective, where your adverbs breed,
And the caps lock gives no shelter, the chapter no relief,
And the seventh book no sign of surcease. Only
There is a horcrux inside this dark cave,         25
(Come into the waters of this dark cave),
And I will show you something different from either
Your battles fought previous where someone did help you
Or your battles to come which you must face alone;
I will show you fear in a cupful of juice.         30
                Frisch weht der Plot
                Der Bookshelves zu.
                Mein Chosen Kind,
                Wo whinest du?
"You gave me the prophecy first a year ago;         35
They called me the Chosen One."
—Yet when we came back, late, from the TriWizard Tournament,
Your wand out, and your eyes wild, I could not
Speak, and my spells failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,         40
Looking into the champion of Light, the silence.
Oed' und leer das Seer.

Downside: Based on the number of comments this baby has gathered, you've already seen this. Blast.

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 22:36:07 GMT

Via The Cortex:

Tetchy, by debchan. A Firefly Simon/Jayne fic, featuring an escalating prank war and vertical sex. What better way to end the day? "You shouldn't have drugged him," Kaylee told him through her welder's mask two hours later.

Upside: I've always had a fondness for debchan's style. This has good lines, a cute resolution, and is a fast read. A nice bit of candy if you're in a hurry.

Downside: I'm never entirely happy with Firefly fic. I haven't found one with any good meat on it yet. This one at least makes me smile.

Thu, 19 May 2005 05:51:24 GMT

Via recs:

Jacking Gehenna, by Mirabella. Voldemort's not entirely gone. Harry needs help. A Harry Potter/Constantine crossover.

Upside: In all honesty, this is one of those fics that make me go "This is why we have crossovers." I mean, damn. The lines are good, and the concept is fucked up. How can you do better than that? Sometimes John wonders what Hell was like before the Industrial Revolution.

Downside: Well, to start, I'm certain a great heaping number of you have read this already. Not really a downside so much as a "Shucks." As for actual commentary: I'm not sure how I feel about the section headers -- I mean, a good idea, but not pulled off as well as, for instance, the headers in Four Moments of Mourning. Also, like much Constantine fic, it doesn't go quite as far as I'd like. As far as what? Well... let's say that voice is great, but if you don't have a real handle on the universe, a real understanding of why the universe exists, then all you're doing is writing pretty lines. Insert here my rant on nearly all Good Omens fiction, interspersed with my mutterings about Monstrous Regiment fic.

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 06:18:37 GMT

Via recs:

Mortified, by Dee. Constantine fic, labelled as "Gabriel (/John)," which is a damn good way of putting it. The summary: "Hell is the absence of God. Life is marking time. It never gets better, you just get used to it. Usually."

Upside: It's like this. There are some things that are beautiful because they're well-written and add a little something to your life after you read them, like an image that lingers or a line that bears remembering --But then there are always those things that are beautiful because they've taken a bat to your head and your spine and that spot right between your ribs and your gut that hits both at once until you're coughing on dirt and blood staring at the black glowing world that remains of your vision and your life and maybe you're going to die and maybe you're dead and the sparks of light that flash where your eyes used to be might be all there ever will be again and that's the kind of beautiful thing this is.

It took Gabriel two days to realise he was seeing in colour.

Full colour. Clear colour. Not gilded with the glory of the Lord, not nimbused with a halo of potential and never-was, not opalescent and waxed and lifted and embossed. Just flat fucking colour.

When it finally hit him, he cried. Couldn't help it, couldn't keep this inside of him, had to let it all pour out, salt tears as though he could wash it away, wash this from his eyes and please, please God, please almighty benevolent fucking God.

Downside: I have a religion fetish. This could affect my opinion. Also, the author mentions that some of the angel theory comes from her own ideas and some from a novel by Elizabeth Knox -- but she doesn't say what comes from Knox, which makes me slightly suspicious of how much was taken, in what way, and just how much I can praise this author for reducing me to tears.

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 08:25:06 GMT

Trouble at Hogwarts, animated by Neil Cicierega. The sequel to the previously recced Bothering Snape. The kids deal with Voldemort once and for all.

Upside: Still damn cute. Also, more plotty than the first cartoon, a fine idea for the ending of the canon series, and there's a lovely easter egg to boot. You'll notice that there's a small square with arrow keys to either side in the bottom left-hand corner of the animation. As Voldemort zaps Snape, click on the square. This will pause the animation. You can navigate the cartoon cell by cell with the arrow keys -- at some point during the zap sequence, the green lines will form a pentagram. Click on that pentagram and then enjoy the (very short) show.

Downside: Huh. No downside here. Actually, there's less of a downside here than there was for the previous cartoon. This is just fun.

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 08:17:07 GMT

Some housekeeping has been done at Chez Recs, with a different layout, a link list, and a soon-to-be-updated user profile.

I want to write another "On the subject of," but the topic is in the air. Do I want to:

1) Write about copyright and fanfic. (Oh, that old chestnut.)

2) Write about why cat stories exist. (Unmined depths, I'm certain.)

3) Blindly make up something. (As if I don't already.)

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 20:01:08 GMT

And Write That Symphony, by cimorene. A Singin' in the Rain threesome novella, taking place largely after the movie ends but travelling narratively all over the place. This story attempts to fix the problem of two best friends and one girl. Kathy's first kiss had been absolutely a mess. [...] She could tell you the color of her shirt and his and how many seconds she'd held her breath. --She bet Cosmo could tell you those things about Don's first kiss, whether he'd been anywhere nearby or not.

Upside: It's one of those things. I never realized I had a problem with the ending of Singin' in the Rain until I read this. By the time I realized it was a problem, ta da, the story solved it for me: Clearly they should form a little triad and live happily ever after. The lines are great, and the author successfully weaves in the musical/dancing element of the movie into the prose format. Also, she lays an interesting background for Kathy Seldon, and uses Kathy to very intelligently talk about the characters of Cosmo Brown and Don Lockwood. There's also the highly satisfying need to watch the movie after reading this story, and go, "Yeah, totally like that."

Downside: There are some weird capitalization issues after non-comma dialogue endings. But leaving aside formatting questions, I feel weird about the fact that this is NC-17. I'm just not sure it was necessary -- in fact, it's sort of jarring considering the source material. There's also something about the seduction of Cosmo right near the end that makes me slightly uncomfortable -- as if the author hasn't quite made it "okay" with either the reader or the characters. I'd be interested to hear other people's assessments -- I'm just not sure what's pinging me on this.

Sun, 06 Feb 2005 07:17:22 GMT

The Fire and the Rose, by Abby and Domina. A fairly long Snape/Hermione fic, taking place 7th year and employing the ever-favorite "Good Lord, via some magical means we've exchanged bodies!" plot to explore the private lives of Snape, Hermione, and the both of them together. "Did you have something to add, Miss Granger?" enquired Snape silkily. Except that he hadn't quite got the knack of doing that with her voice yet. Hermione's lighter, mid-soprano simply didn't do silky. It sounded closer to sulky, she thought. Snape clearly also thought the same, as he grimaced.

Upside: Well, lemme see. It's a fascinating take on personas, frankly, though more Snape's than Hermione's. Let us say that we get to learn the character of Hermione, and the outer shell of Snape. And it's not for any insignificant length of time, either -- six months is a goodly while to explore the nuances of a person's (gendered) life. The ending's oddly appropriate, which I appreciate in the face of some of the other liberties taken by the authors. And to call a rose a rose, the sex scene is a really hot marvel of gender, pronouns, masturbatory queerness, and het sex that reads like the best sort of slash. I'd like to talk a bit more about that, however, in a discussion.

Downside: There's the slips of spelling/punctuation which occur just infrequently enough to thoroughly startle a gentle reader when they do appear. And then there's the problem of characterization, which is that... well... phooey, let's just head on down to a discussion, hm?

Discussion: As ever, probably incredibly spoilericious.

The Ins and Outs of the Sex-Switch Plot

The delight and the potential downfall of this story is its basic plot. As recent readers of pornish_pixies know, the idea of putting a gendered mind into an opposite-sexed body is not only intriguing as a kind of social experiment, but it also has a great deal of potential for... well, lots of hot sex. In such pornography challenges as appeared on pornish_pixies last month, that potentiality mostly shows up as Harry saying, "Well, Ron, we seem to have been turned into women -- gosh, our breasts certainly are bouncy, aren't they," with occasional dips into: "Yes, our breasts certainly are bouncy, but perhaps we should be considering the fact that while this could arguably be a heterosexual experience, or even a lesbian experience, we must really buckle down to the fact that we're utter poufs for one another."

In longer (and ostensibly less porn-oriented) fiction, those bits of dialogue form up the two bookends of a triad of revelations/experiences that make up the sex-switch device. The missing element, the center of it all, can be reduced to... well, basically, sadistic authors laughing evilly over their steepled fingers and claiming they've wreaked vengeance at last. Breaking it down:

1) The character(s) realize that they are Different from what they were.

This is where Harry realizes that not only does he have breasts, but also that they are bouncy.

2) The character(s) are introduced to the myriad of problems -- or, alternatively, "bonuses" -- of being this new sex.

This is the moment, possibly lasting chapters and beyond, where Harry realizes that bouncing breasts are, if not uncomfortable, certainly embarrassing in contexts outside of the bedroom. ("And did we mention," the female writers all scream with glee, "that this silly boy will now have to endure the hideous reality of menstruation, which men have mocked in us and yet, and yet! now we have the means for a revenge they cannot escape!") On the other hand, you also get men discovering what it's like to be an orgasming female, and women discovering what it's like to have Really Very Obvious Genitalia at useful moments. ("Whatever," say the authors, "let's talk about cramps some more.")

3) The character(s) come to the realization that gender/sexuality is not a factor when it comes to love -- or, alternatively, they come to whatever realization the author wants them to.

And now we're back with Harry and Ron discovering their true feelings for one another, lasting beyond the sex-switch into a happily ever after.

There are some obvious upsides to this plot -- namely, there's a part of us (females) that wishes we could have a man experience our lives -- every gory little bit of it. It's sort of satisfying to read it. (Okay, a lot satisfying.) On the other hand, if you see it often enough, you can get really, really tired of seeing Harry, or Draco, or Snape (or Kirk or Ray or Hercules or Skinner) go through the experience of Becoming a Woman. I feel like this is an outgrowth of the mostly-fought-against slash tendency on the part of female writers to make male characters loving, understanding, bearers of communication skills... perfect boyfriends, or, more appropriately, women. The Sex-Switch plot just skips the hand-waving that usually goes on with this type of slash characterization.

In shorter (sometimes more porn-tastic) fiction, the Sex-Switch plot can actually help stifle the effemitization of male slash. By virtue of the form, authors will make males seem more heterosexually masculine through the simple presence of the traditional heterosexual body parts. In other words, because the male mind of Harry is confronted with breasts, the author will write Harry as a heterosexual boy. It won't be until the denouement that he'll come to realize that the breasts are really just a feature of Ron -- which may mean that the ending will revert to the slash type... but maybe not.

Is the opposite true of female characters in slash? I'm not sure. Examples of femmeslash are so few and far between that I find it difficult to do much more than make educated guesses -- those being that 1) I suspect that women, in male bodies, do not become more female. The desire to be in control, to be dominant, to have the societal imperative toward dominance... it's a heady thing, and not one I think authors are going to miss out on, and 2) I suspect, actually, that sex-switching female characters would lead to the feeling of "femmeslash with toys" rather than, I dunno, Hermione saying, "Well, Ginny, we seem to have been turned into men -- gosh, our penises certainly are dangly, aren't they." More like, "You'll never guess what I can do to you now, Ginny m'dear."

And then there's the case of opposite sexes switching sexes. The Fire and the Rose is, I think, one of the best examples of this one, and also mixes in nicely with the similar Body-Switching Plot (which is when two characters who don't know one another/actively dislike one another switch bodies and then Learn an Important Lesson From the Experience). By switching bodies and sexes, Snape and Hermione are able to get the joys of gender discovery and learn a set of oh-so-special lessons about themselves and one another, leading it to be a really very nice exploration of these plot forms.

Slim - probably too slim, he thought critically, too many missed meals studying in the library - but with definite promise for the woman she was becoming. He was becoming - and would become, if they couldn't find a way out of this. Snape turned away from the window and the unforgiving light, fleeing both the encroaching depression and his study of his body.

Gender and Sexuality and Identity (Oh My)

So you're a man in a woman's body -- or a woman in a man's body. Common enough in the real world, whether biologically(ish) or gender-wise, but in the Harry Potter universe we can magic a mind into someone else's body. Slippery issues such as "was I meant to be this way?" can, if the author wishes, be nicely avoided. On the other hand, you can play with such questions as "I know I'm naturally a girl, but why am I really enjoying being a boy?" and variants thereof.

Was she getting turned on by looking at Professor Snape? Or herself? It was distinctly not normal either way.

Then, of course, you're wondering just how much of You has been transferred into this new body. How much of the body is controlled by the mind, and how much of the mind is just brain stem stuff? And do the reactions of the body affect thoughts?

Snape froze, then surprised himself - and Hermione - by following her earlier example and simply laughing; he set the tea carefully down on the trunk and sat in the other chair, catching his breath at the unexpectedness of his own response. Matter over mind, it seemed; how many more of his reactions would be coloured by the response of a body not his own?

Which is more important: switching sexes, or switching genders? Do either of those really happen?

But now, now that they were well past the point of no return, she was uncertain as to how to make the next move without misstepping; for the first time in her life not knowing how to ask a question, or even if she should. She swallowed nervously, wondering if there was something she should say or do, wondering if there was some kind of unwritten rule that the man should make the first move.

And hey, what about this whole sexuality issue, huh? If you're a girl in a boy's body, making love to a boy in a girl's body, and everyone's enjoying everything, does that mean that the girl's a lesbian for enjoying sex with someone anatomically female? Does that make the boy gay? And my God, what does it mean if the body the girl is having sex with is her own? Is that weird? More importantly, is that too weird?

She bent her head and kissed the soft flesh of Snape's breast, tasting the skin, sensation filtered through taste buds that were not part of the same body. Trailing small kisses she moved to the nipple and took it in her mouth, swirling her tongue experimentally over the bud, hard in the middle of so much softness. She had never realised how soft her body was, she thought, as she ran her hands over the exposed skin; nor how stark a contrast the small points of hardness were.

I don't have the answers to any of these questions, aside from "No, it's probably not too weird." This article talks a lot on this particular subject, however, so if you've been driven to a mad academic curiosity by my rambling, it might help. Or you could read The Fire and the Rose, and see what you think after that. *hinthint*

Our Theme Today is Self-Discovery

Okay, so the character vs shell thing I mentioned? The basis of the authors' characterization of Snape and Hermione is that both of them have a persona they hide behind. This is not something unheard of -- I think most of us are well aware that Snape's got a whole 'nother world going on in his head, and it's reasonable to assume Hermione does as well (though perhaps not quite to the same extent). What we discover during the course of this story is that Hermione's true self (the one she usually hides behind books and so forth) is disturbingly close to Snape's shell (gruff, easily annoyed, not terribly patient with fools). Hermione understands herself, and understands why Snape might have this persona.

On the other hand, Snape discovers that the life he lives in Hermione's body is one that reflects how he might have turned out had he not been 1) a young idiot, 2) miserable, 3) bullied to within an inch of his life. Instead of living within the confines of Hermione's persona -- as Hermione is forced to live within the confines of his -- Snape ends up taking this opportunity to, in an obscure way, relive his youth and start over. That he's doing this in a woman's body is not left unremarked upon by either of the main characters.

Now, this all sounds like a rather interesting approach to these characters in this position. But the problem that manifests itself is that... we get everything about Hermione, yeah? We get Hermione from the inside, realizing that she's actually very Snape-ish (but seeing very much their differences), and we get Hermione from the outside, as we watch people interact with Snape-as-Hermione. What do we get of Snape? We get the outside -- quite a lot of it, actually, as we watch Hermione-as-Snape navigate the waters of teaching, administrative work, and Death Eater/spy activities. What do we get of the inside? Snape-as-Hermione spends most of his time trying to act like Hermione, and discovering the little things about Hermione he'd never expected, and living the life as someone who, while often as socially quiet as himself, is not the same sort of pariah. We see Snape enjoying this change of events instead of understanding it, and this is the problem I think I'm worried about here. There is a marked lack of self-understanding and self-improvement -- rather, it feels as if Snape is busily improving himself-as-Hermione, as opposed to simply himself.

Further, both during the experience and after the bodies are switched again, we get the man that Snape might have become, not the man he is. There is the suggestion that Snape has gone so far into his persona that it's emptied him of every other feeling, but I find that a tough pill to swallow without some real gut-pulling emotional revelations somewhere.

The long and the short of it: Hermione's a character that the authors have fleshed out, using the rather sparse canon information and extrapolating in a reasonable way, but they didn't seem to get a grip on the true nature of Snape. They write great, fabulous Snape-wit, but they never get into the meat of the man. They try valiantly to hide that (from themselves, from the audience...), but it permeates the work. In the end, Hermione is well-represented and intriguing, and Snape is very subtly disappointing.

Finally, the Gah Moments

I just have to put these here, because I'm not sure where else they fit. But I can't not say them. I just can't.

1) The title. Generic bleh.

2) Yes, Snape does have to go through his period. I would be able to stand this, except

3) For reasons that develop throughout the story, Snape ends up starting a small-time make-up manufacturing business while being Hermione. He also becomes something of a clothes designer. This pisses me off for a lot of reasons, one of which is probably that

4) The plot of the sequel revolves entirely around this damned make-up line.

5) Did I mention that both Hermione and Snape are virgins? I appreciate the imagery or whatever, but for heaven's sake, can we at least deal with why this is the case? "The opportunity never presented itself" is just not a reasonable excuse here. People, this is what we miss by not seeing the Snape-that-is as opposed to the Snape-that-is-Hermione. Gah.

Sun, 09 Jan 2005 06:01:09 GMT

Only a couple of days later than last year's post. The following is both an abbreviated and extended rec: a portion of the While We Tell of Yuletide Treasure Secret Santa "obscure fandom" fanfic project. I skipped anything that was either labelled 2003 or I didn't recognize the fandom of (with some spectacular exceptions) -- and I haven't read anyone else's rec list yet either. We'll see what I end up reccing after some further investigatons. For the time being, though:

Just Between Us, by Doyle. Absolutely Fabulous, with Patsy and Saffron finally reaching what may be a tentative... well, not friendship. Amnesty? Yeah.

Upside: Great voices all the way around, and very true to the show. Also, friend-fic as opposed to rambunctious sexcapades, which, after looking through a great deal of the archive, is no easy feat to find.

Downside: Patsy maybe a bit too... soft? Hell with it, I don't care. Read the damn thing.

Little Dreamings, by Isilya. Little Women universe, perhaps more like Little Men, and strange dreams.

Upside: The beginning sounds just like Machen's The White People. For that alone, I rec this.

Downside: Everything after the beginning, ie., when the "dream" portions start. Then all my fond imaginings of literary crossover genius are smashed.

Extract From the Carrollian Catalog of J. Phildrop, by Ellen Fremedon. An Alice in Wonderland "extract," which builds off very briefly from the end of AiW, starring one of Alice's sisters.

Upside: Very in style, and several portions are very funny. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I'd read this in one of those annotated Alice collections.

Downside: Honestly, it needs more. It's a cute conceit, but cute don't make good.

So Few Come Back, by tiffany rawlins. All About Eve. So I clicked on this one because I mistook it for a New Zealand young adult show that had a pretty red-head instead of Hilary Duff. Anyway. This is femme fatale lesbianism in the film industry in the forties.

Upside: So I don't know this fandom. I want to now. Good golly.

Downside: As with anything I don't know the source material for, I can't guarantee this is good fanfic. Eh.

Watching, by Alexandra Lynch. Arthurian femmeslash. Guinevere and Morgan, Morgan and Arthur.

Upside: Pretty, pretty thing, and femmeslash that I don't hate. Whoohoo!

Downside: A bit short -- or rather, the right length, but a bit shallow. There were some depths that could have been reached by this, and I'm not sure the author saw that.

The French Book, by Martha. Arthurian AU, with Arthur and everybody and slash.

Upside: Clever and fulfilling and just the right amount of everything possible.

Downside: Actually, I wish I knew the Arthur stories much, much better, because I feel like I'm missing some stuff I'd really prefer not to miss. Also: I may be leading you all astray again.

The Supper Club, by Kaneko. The Breakfast Club, Andrew/Bender. Years later, they meet again and really, it hasn't gotten that much better for Andrew.

Upside: Very cute, and I can... if not precisely see it, I can certainly understand how the author saw it.

Downside: I'm not sure the voices are aged right -- I mean, this is supposed to be twenty years later.

Nativity, by Milkshake Butterfly. Dogma/Brimstone, crossover. Bethany gives birth to the Lord our God. In a Wal-Mart.

Upside: Whatever Brimstone is, I like what I see of it in this fic. Cute story.

Downside: Uh... so this Brimstone thing... is it supposed to be really serious or anything? Because I'm just saying, I'm hoping it's not supposed to be.

Nom de Coeur, by Dorinda. Casablanca, post movie. Are you thinking "beautiful friendship"? I know I was.

Upside: It's brilliant. Very descriptive, with a fucking fantastic voice.

Downside: The first scene is awkward and slow, and the last scene... feels like it's missing something, maybe one extra push of something. It's riding into the light, but maybe that should have been made really obvious.

Whose Names Are Death, by afrai. Discworld/something else, Sandman maybe? Deaths talk to one another. More Discworld than the mysterious other, but probably a nice cameo for whatever fandom the other Death comes from.

Upside: So I'm reccing this because it nailed on the head what I've been trying to grasp about Susan Sto Helit for years now. There was something comforting about the thought that somewhere in the universe, at that very moment, Susan was getting really angry. It made you feel that despite everything, in some small way, the world was going on as usual.

Downside: Eh. So Death wasn't worried about what I thought he might be worried about. Not to mention, I'm not sure the chips would fall this way either. And I still have no idea where mysterioDeath comes from. ~~Maybe Mary Sue Land, where they teach you psychology through a mail-order course.~~

Three Scenes That Could Be a Beginning, by Yasmin M. Monstrous Regiment Discworld fic, Polly/Maladicta. After it's all over.

Upside, and Downside: I feel like the majority of Monstrous Regiment fic around should be read in one go like a giant post-Structuralist experiment, because everyone is, eventually, writing about the same thing, the same feeling, the same "this is why Polly did it, and why any of the women did it, and it's not just patriotism or sexuality or power, but taking any of those out of the equation messes it all up as well"... and nobody quite pins it. Maybe it'll become clear if we read everything.

skip, by jamjar. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Cameron POV, working out life.

Upside: Love love love the style. And the voices are pretty damn good as well.

Downside: Maybe it was reaching for something it didn't quite nail, but, eh, nice ride.

Spirit, by wooden-fish. Galaxy Quest, exploring the origins of Quellek's hero-worship for Dr. Lazarus.

Upside: Brilliant and pathetic. There's an image in this that sticks in my mind as the saddest thing I've ever seen -- and in every possible sense.

Downside: It's a bit rough -- not in voice or style, but in concept -- but it's worth the price of admission.

Artificial Devotion, by Katie. M. Also Galaxy Quest. A brief look at the "history" of Tawny -- or rather, why Tawny is the only one who can talk to the computer -- from the GQ show. Think of it as fake fanfic. I'd call it meta, except, well, no.

Upside: I like finding out why only Tawny can talk to the computer. Also, I like ~~meta~~ the idea of fanfics of fake things.

Downside: Eh. More? It had an odd, confusing beginning, but I think I liked it for that aspect in the end.

The Probability of Ducks, by graycastle. Good Omens fic, discussing, well, ducks.

Upside: Just as thought-provoking as the book. I feel as if there are layers to this that I'm not getting, but with that delicious feeling of knowing that someday, I will. Also, and I have to make this very clear, most GO fic ends up reading just like one another. Which is never quite right, just clever words without getting to the meat of the story. This story is different.

Downside: There is no downside. Instead, I'll use this space for a quote, though not my favorite one, which would rather ruin things. "What I mean to say," Aziraphale continued, "is that ducks don't need to have always existed in order to give the impression that they have always existed. That is the genius of ducks."

I, Jehudah, by Jay Tryfanstone. Jesus Christ Superstar. Telling the story through the filming of the story, but it's not a film that's ever been made, and no production that's ever been done, and maybe I should just reclaim the term "meta" for the length of this post because this thing is meta, and not how fanfic writers mean it.

Upside: Good shit, yo. The actor doesn't understand because Judas didn't understand, and if there's one thing Farewell My Concubine taught me, it's that becoming your role maybe isn't really a good thing.

Downside: The end felt a bit rushed, but not in the way where you know the author was doing it on purpose. And the crashing feeling didn't make as grand a sound as I felt it should.

Burn-Out, by Sandrine. Without a Trace. Samantha POV. Just a little character piece.

Upside: I liked it. Occasionally I'm easy.

Downside: I wished for more mystery, but then again, I think that might've been the point.

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 06:07:48 GMT

Bookends, via ari_recs and dylant, respectively:

Transfigurations, by Resonant, and Night-blooming Heartsease, by Julad. Two war stories in the Harry Potter universe. Julad wrote Night-blooming as a prequel to Transfigurations, but they can be read in any order. Sad and beautiful and... fitting.

Upside: To be honest, Transfigurations is sheer fucking beauty when it comes to construction and innovation. Marvelous twisty magic, in and amongst the post-war life of the Wizarding world. It may also be the place where the popular quote of HP fanon began: "A Gryffindor will jump off a cliff," Penelope said. Her tone suggested that it was a well-worn proverb. "A Slytherin will push someone else off. A Hufflepuff will call in five hundred other Hufflepuffs, and they'll carve a stairway. And a Ravenclaw -- " She winked at Madeleine Aerie, who joined in with her: "A Ravenclaw will get hold of a flying carpet." It's a beautiful piece of writing. Night-blooming is a lovely -- for some values of "lovely" -- view of what it was like in the war's R&D section. While there are plenty enough people to write good post-war fic, I find this to be one of the few to accomplish good and believable straight-up war fic. A sort of quiet, removed sort of story, different from the flash and sudden bangs of Transfigurations. Living because you have to, paired with living because you want to. Astonishing and lovely and oddly wringing to read the both of them in one go.

Downside: Hm. In my heart of hearts, I believe that three is the perfect number. I feel like there needs to be a third story to this set, finishing things up. I'm not quite sure where it would go -- I'm afraid I lack the sort of long-range vision to accomplish that sort of brilliance off the top of my head. Ah well. We takes as we gets. Other downsides may include some sad gooeyness at a particular point in Transfigurations that, depending on your personality, you'll either find slightly uncomfortable and like you're one step in the wrong direction... or you'll cry. There's some slight continuity problems with the two stories, but that's not entirely surprising considering the two different authors -- and really, it's nothing to be too terribly worried about. And finally... the slash. It's ever thus with me. I want it to work, but I feel like the authors of both of these might have just missed the last step to making me really believe the characters would come together this way and that way. In Night-blooming's case, the impetus is not quite covered enough; in Transfigurations's, the impetus is there, but some of the character stuff is not as nicely plotted out as the rest of it. One might almost wish the authors had collaborated together on this point at least, so as to solve each other's problems. (And the answer is, no, I'm not going to say who's doing what with whom where. Tsk. That's not the point of this recommendation, you romance-addled creatures.)

Edit: Well, I feel a bit silly. Having done a more thorough search of the Transfigurations website, and having ~~inhaled madly~~ read through the DVD commentary edition, I discover that Julad was a very thorough beta-reader for Resonant. Which makes, "One might almost wish the authors had collaborated together" a rather tricky thing.

Sun, 07 Nov 2004 06:26:51 GMT

When I said "sometime this evening," I clearly meant "at least a week from now."

Time Shall Not Mend, by A.J. Hall. Harry Potter crossed over with, I kid you not, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga. Ekaterin's transported back through time to help Draco and Neville (and help herself get over the grief of a lost child) -- then after everyone's back in their proper time, Draco gets shunted to the future to help put down a Barrayaran Wizarding plot against the Emperor (and meanwhile relieve himself of a little life debt he owes Ekaterin).

Upside: Damn. Too many to count. Frankly, almost every problem I have with A.J. Hall goes flying out the window once s/he starts the second chapter, with Draco running around Barrayar, political intrigue, fucking spot on Ivan, spot on everyone, and more mad romping than you can shake a stick at. Not to mention such fabulous lines as: "Well, what else do you expect? After all, in my experience, one wizard's lonely, two's an argument, and three adds up to two bitterly opposed alliances and a splinter group rapidly gaining in popular support."

Downside: Ah. Well. First off, there's chapter one. It sticks Ekaterin into the Lust Over Pendle universe, which has flaws I've mentioned previously. Frankly, you can probably get away with not reading most of the first chapter and it won't really effect the story as a whole -- just read the first scene and the last scene of chapter one, and you're golden. Then, of course, there's the slight problem of some vital things that need to be made clear -- First off, when Ekaterin sees a pair of curly black heads talking together in Chapter One, she's not seeing Miles and her son having a chat. In fact, Elli Quinn appeared on the scene shortly after the death of a Miles and Ekaterin's (first?) daughter, who died from what was presumably a birth defect. Ekaterin, at the beginning of the story, feels as if she's being blamed for the birth defect, secretly blames Miles for the birth defect, and worries madly that Miles is going to leave her for Elli Quinn to escape the whole birth-defectiveness of it all. Secondly, Pym is a wizard. So when, for some reason, he does something to help Draco in the security shed, you now actually have some idea of what the hell is going on. Finally, and this isn't strictly necessary: This story is set before Lust Over Pendle, so basically Draco and Neville are Figuring Out Their Emotions, etcetera and so forth. No relationship as yet, but heading there. All right. Off you go.

One final note: I despise with a fiery passion the formatting that this story has been given. I've attempted to find a more congenial posting of it somewhere, and the closest I've gotten is Snoogle's copy which is, unfortunately, riddled with missing lines and other strangenesses. If you're desperate, use Snoogle's and whenever something doesn't make sense (which doesn't really come up until the end of the last chapter), cross-reference with the official copy.

Sat, 30 Oct 2004 19:58:56 GMT

On the subject of A.J. Hall:

I feel I need to discuss something before I recommend any of this author's fiction.

Some of you may recall when A.J. Hall's Lust Over Pendle arrived on the Harry Potter scene. Draco/Neville? Scandalous! But believably done, everyone said, and deliciously well-written to boot. Oh, the characters! Oh, the plot! And then everyone, to this day, hands around their smelling salts and proceeds to wax glorious over the fic some more.

I have wanted (oh Lord, how I've wanted!) to enjoy Hall's Harry Potter stuff. Because the writing is astonishing -- I mean, purely on a "putting words together to form coherent sentiments" angle, Hall's got it made. Lovely, professional quality prose. And s/he's obviously got a mind for big stories. By all accounts, this is great fanfic.

That, perhaps, is its downfall. Because the reason I really don't like Hall's HP fiction is its complete lack of editing.

Now, by editing, I don't mean to say that 1) the grammar is horrifying, or 2) no betareader was wounded in the reading of this fic. I'm talking an actual pro editor, who can sit down and see where the reader lost focus, or where Hall made something a bit too vague, or where the style and the story didn't gel enough... and then wheedle Hall into creating the amazing stuff s/he's capable of.

But wait, cry the masses, isn't that what betareaders do? Well... frankly, when I beta, I'm doing something different than when I'm editing. There are different goals, different standards, and different ways of communicating both. That's the paradox here: as I said, for fanfic, it's great stuff. But the level of Hall's writing is such that, to my bedazzled mind, clearly it's original and published fiction -- which desperately needs an editor. The disappointment comes not in the form of the actual story, but rather in the falling short of the lofty reaches I, the reader, assumed the story would fly to.

Long story short: Does this mean everyone will have my reaction to Hall's fiction? Maybe not. As such, go read Lust Over Pendle if you haven't already, and then read the recommendation I'm going to make sometime this evening.

Edit: Somehow, during the course of this, I managed to argue myself into the position of claiming that professional fiction is of a higher stander/quality than fanfic, which is a stance I adamantly disagree with. The joy of fanfic for me is that it can utilize the "fiction" medium in ways I don't really see as being good or successful or frequently done at all in pro fic. What Hall does, for me, is take the professional style and use it to tell stories about Harry Potter. Which is fascinating fascinating fascinating to read. It's like, if J.K. Rowling hadn't written HP, but someone else had...

And then that other person who wrote HP got shafted by the publisher when it came to editors.

That is why I want to like Hall's stuff, and why I feel very mucky about the fact that I largely don't.

Sat, 30 Oct 2004 04:44:47 GMT

Sweetly and steadily, by torch. Yes, by God, this is Sir Gawain/Green Knight slash. torch fills in the blanks to the old Arthurian tale, and makes me want her story to be the real one. Check out the accompanying illustration as well.

Upside: I've loved this one for years. Lovely, historical, enough in style to make me happy but not so obsessed with accuracy as to suck the fun out of it. Mostly, it's just what its title suggests: sweet and steady.

Downside: Eh. Mostly that everyone's read this already. But by heavens, if it's good, I rec it, and it's my own damn fault for not doing so sooner.

Fri, 22 Oct 2004 21:01:02 GMT

Continuing the discussion from below:

Interestingly enough, naominovik just today posted a discussion of fanfic that I think can be, in part, applied to what I was talking about yesterday.

I would argue that on the contrary -- though this may be even more threatening, in a way -- fanfic undermines the very notion of canon.

Fri, 22 Oct 2004 01:44:21 GMT

On the Subject of Evil Plans and the Overtaking of the World, by Alejandra. Post-Voldemort's death, this is a fun-but-real Hermione/Draco romance. Not too long, not too short. Just about perfect.

Upside: Beside the fact that it's almost sinfully hot? Actually... see the discussion below.

Downside: Hm. Do I want more? Do I not want more? This is one of those cusp pieces. Which isn't really a downside so much as it makes me annoyed at my own indecisiveness.

So despite the fact that fanfic is theoretically supposed to allow an unbridled exploration of everything forbidden, hidden, and unimagined in legitimately copywritten creative works... well, fandom likes its babies: character-readings that have, for one reason or another, become so popular that they've become characters in and of themselves. For instance, there's:

-Blackadder!Draco. He's intelligent, snarky, a better wit than Oscar Wilde and not so much evil as Evil!, which is much more fun and allows for snappier dialogue.

-Angst!Harry. Can you say rebellious youth? When a writer wants Harry to be messed up and miserable, by God, they can make the audience want Harry to slit his wrists while blowing up Hogwarts without breaking three-hundred words.

-SexualBeing!Hermione. There's got to be something under that fusty persona. Come to think of it, I bet that's where this particular darling of fandom comes from; we she may be a school-oriented, somewhat dorky ~~fanwriter~~ student, but beneath that bookish-exterior beats the heart of a sexual siren, who holds the keys to some lucky bastard's paradise in her nimble and highly-skilled fingers, if only s/he looks closer.

Don't get me wrong. I love these characters. They're just as much my babies as anyone else's. But if I were to be honest with myself, I'd have to admit that while they're fun, they're not actually canonically correct. Draco, as of book 5, is not much more than a whiny side-character, Harry may be a bit nuts but he's certainly not about to pull a Buffalo Bill, and Hermione is... well, she's mother-ish. And while that may translate to "sexual siren" to you, dear reader, it doesn't to me.

The point of this discussion, though, is to talk about the "upside" to Alejandra's fic. Here it is: She utilizes the fandom babies, but she makes them new again.

This is rare, folks. In this fic, Draco is snarky, but it's a realistic expansion of what he does in the books. He's also got a pile of other issues that I don't see shown this particular way a lot. Harry's messed up, in a way I definitely haven't seen before, but even better, he's not the fucking point of the story. We don't get his POV, or the writer trying to explain his Deep Soulful Problems and why they're expressed the way they are, or even the usual run-of-the-mill obvious craziness. Nice.

And then there's Hermione. She isn't Teh Hot in and of herself. She isn't Sex embodied. What she is, is a girl, and Draco's a boy. You don't need pyrotechnics to make two young people beautiful together. Alejandra does a fabulous job of showing us this, and more importantly, of making Hermione a sexual being without having to use capital letters and fantasy terminology.

So basically, this story gives me characters I can enjoy on both a fictional and a meta-fictional level. And a good story, good plot, good writing...

Thu, 21 Oct 2004 03:30:45 GMT

Via skadi:

Darque Dungeon, by Bogart Shwadchuck. Remember Jack Chick's classic nutjob biblical track, Dark Dungeons, about the power of D&D over our weak and sinful youth? This is the goth rewrite.

Upside: For those well-familiar with Jack Chick, this is just sorta sweet. Hilarious, but sweet in that, "God, I hate Jack Chick" sort of way.

Downside: So there can be the argument that this isn't really fanfic. What is fanfic, really? Taking an established created universe and messing about with it, right? I think playing around with Jack Chick's version of reality fully qualifies. Jesus said "What the hell is Wumpscut? And they LIKE this shit? You gotta be fucking with me!"</a>

Sun, 25 Jul 2004 15:22:01 GMT

Open Doors, by ZS. Harry Potter fic, post-War, slash, Harry/Draco. Um. And Draco thinks his new cat is Harry come back to life.

Upside: Sometimes in this world, there needs to be cuteness mixed in with sweetness mixed in with a touch of crazy. That's the way it is. Am I ashamed for reccing a cat story? So very much. But on the other hand, there's something to be said for a very simple story that reveals a very complex character. And it is rather sweet, dammit. "You’re supposed to be my cat."

Downside: As it was written in a hurry, the style is a bit short in the beginning, making it sound a bit overly simplistic. Also, there's the highly annoying centering of the text. And finally, there's the whole issue about it being a cat story. Dammit.

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 19:27:00 GMT

Via addicted_to_gay:

She, or The Slave Girl, by Silvia. Highlander fic, but you don't have to be terribly familiar with the series to understand it (though a working knowledge of the basic universe would be nice). In the 1920s or 1930s, Methos purchases a slave girl in Shanghai. A coming-of-age tale, with a Claudia-the-vampire feel to it.

Upside: Fantastic research. Utterly glorious. Drool-worthy. And the character isn't a Mary Sue, either. Nice nice nice.

Downside: The beginning doesn't catch as it should, and I feel like a bit more could have been done with the story in general. It's damn good as is, but it lacks something...