Hebrew menstrual customs and Bible killings: Like burning chairs that menstruating women have sat upon? With regards to killing, I'm not thinking of anything right there. I'm thinking of the Tamora story, and the one about the dismembered concubine, oddly. But neither of those involved accidental death.
Pr0n queries: You cannot believe how many people are looking for CSS smut. You p3rverts, why don't you look for X smut instead, because I actually talk about that? logged at Friday, December 28, 2001 coordinates?
People already want Hellsing hentai. For this sort of thing, you gotta go to the Japanese sites, boys and girls. I'm waiting for the Hellsing yaoi queries (who wants to be that they'll be slashing the blond and the fish symbol guy, or maybe Arucard and Vatican rep?)
Dragonlance slash seekers (I once lurked on alt-fan dlance, and I wonder how they deal with slash/yaoi...)
Noir doujinshi. Like I said, look for Japanese fanart sites.
dakki taiboukou. I saw one doujinshi like that on a site somewhere. (Where's all the nonyaoi HE doujinshi, I wonder? Dakki and sisters in sapphic orgy?)
CCS queries....There is no CCS content on this blog.
Ed and Movabltype are in mortal kombat. I guess that means I better get looking at Greymatter. logged at Friday, December 28, 2001 coordinates? PRETENSION ALERT:
Boring fanfiction theory bits: At MIT, there's a class partially on fanfiction, which IIRC is taught by the guy that wrote "Textual Poachers," an essay on the phenomenon. Apparently the thesis of this article (which I must read sometime), compares fanfiction to an the oral tradition of altering, and adding onto epics and folktales (precopyright forms. Copyright, as we all know, wasn't there in Shakespeare's time, and was only very rudimentary in the early days of the (Western) novel, in the 1700s. Plagiarism, unauthorized reproduction, etc., was rampant in the pamphlet press and serialized novel.). He also adds some parts about it being a rebellion against the corporate controlled entertainment of our time. Also, fanfiction is also a rebellion against the artist as unapproachable auteur/creator/god figure, because it implies that all readers may approach this status and "appropriate" the work.
Of course, from the oral tradition, "fanficcing" continues. We all know of how Shakespeare's plots were always inspired by other plots. But even as the era of copyright protection began, derivative works continued to be produced. Take Pamela, the Harry Potter of its day. (For those of you who have forgotten this 300+ page epistolary work, the plot is as follows. Pamela, the incredibly virtuous maidservant, is molested and sexually harassed by Mr. B, locked in a country house, but eventually converts him to the path of virtue, marries him, and rises to the status of a lady.) It inspired much talk, controversy, and countless essays, denunciations, defenses, parodies, and continuations. One of them, Fielding's Shamela, has made it into the canon. This is more of a parody/satire than actual FANfiction (as Shamela features a rather AU Shamela who sleeps with the reverend and has already had a child out of wedlock. It's an attack on original work; as Shamela says, while she could have made a small fortune by her body, she makes a large one by her "vartue," which is the most damning criticism of the idea of Pamela).
Another widely cited case is Jean Rhys's "prequel" telling the story of Bertha Rochester (the madwoman in the attic of Jean Eyre), which like many modern "derivative" works, can't be considered a "fan" fiction in that it implicitly criticizes the original. It seems that the works most like fanfiction are actually non-fanfiction, works that have strength because they write against the original. Interesting, given that canonists like myself criticize fanfic writers for adding onto the original, for inserting too many personal elements in the story. Of course, hard core canonists don't read fanfiction. The guy who does the Harry Potter Lexicon (meaning he is Lord of the HP Canon Fans) refuses to read HP fic. (FTR, he has completely sound reasons for doing so, and in fact cited his dislike of Wide Sargasso Sea as a reason. I completely respect the choice of hard core canonists not to read fic, and am hard core with some fandoms and don't.)
Of course, there is one part of the mainstream literary scene that does embrace something like the ideal of FANfiction, and rejects the iconoclasm of most derivative works, estate-authorized literary continuations. These occur when the author dies, sometimes in the middle of a work, and someone else continues. The John Bellairs series have been continued by another author, and the Dorothy Sayers estate hired Jill Paton Walsh to finish Sayers's last novel (pretty good work, but I'm a little irritated that they took out some things from the original manuscript (according to accounts that I've read). I wish they'd just publish the unfinished parts.)
Case in point: Gone with the Wind. This work has given rise to two (or more) derivative works. Scarlett follows the further adventures of the heroine. It's a continuation fanfic, reverent and authorized. The other one, the Wind Done Gone, was nearly stopped by a lawsuit for the estate. Basically it tells the story from the black perspective, in an iconoclastic way mocking nostalgia for the antebellum period.
Most people who like fanfiction want continuation fic, or fic written as much as possible as a replacement for the author. And most bad fic aspires to be this, but fails because the author doesn't see that his/her ideas or talent aren't of the same level or type as that of the original author. But this also opens up the door to good "non-fanfic," and good parody, which is what I think the good fanons are. They undermine the dumb parts of the original, and mine it for the good elements. And in the end, they create something which obviously could not be mistaken for canon, yet is good in and of itself, or interesting seen in relation to the original. Maybe some enterprising author could think of setting out to do iconoclast fic.... logged at Thursday, December 27, 2001 coordinates?
BTW, speaking of CS types, Ed, I'll try to do something about the font problem. I'm using the size tag, but once I get back to the html editor, I'll try seeing if switching to style sheets does something about it.
Hmmm. On Greymatter and Movabletype. I found this article in which the people who created movabletype explain why they started it. logged at Wednesday, December 26, 2001 coordinates? The person who complained about it now is saying that she was just inveighing against bad fanfiction, which is much less interesting, as everyone in this corner of blogland does that every other week or so. ^_^ I'm guessing that the original complaint was actually a variant of "proprietary fan" syndrome (example: "this thing I love is becoming popular, and now all the moron fangirls are going to muck it up"), though that doesn't explain the Tolkien religion part, which sure sounds like an argument against the idea of slash, rather than the popularity of slash.
There's also a claim that slash/yaoi is the fanfiction fad as of "lately." Isn't a decade or two and a half a bit long for lately? I think it's longer, in truth, but someone more up to date than me on slash or yaoi history can weigh in. As for "talent," (although the definition of talent in the original entry sounds to me a lot more like "passion" or "effort") I don't think anyone disputes that talent is refined through experience, or that people must practice to improve. Obviously, no one disputes that bad fanfic writers must be considered by definition untalented (lacking in ability), or that they probably need to practice more. Of course, application of this idea would lead to more bad fanfiction, as we'd be telling all the bad ficcers that they need to practice and submit to extensive review and C&C.
Hmmm. I'm guessing that Harpy read the same AS Christmas fic that I did (Lucifer, pre-Fall, gets invited to the office Christmas party. XD.) Milton as AS fic inspiration is interesting, though I'm actually curious about the Fall of Lucifer from a Gnostic perspective. Of course, usually the Fall in literature pertains to the Fall of Adam and Eve, but forgive me (well, if I were a Christian, I guess I'd need to be forgiven) for finding Lucifer's so much more fascinating. IIRC, it's not even well explained in the Old Testament.
As for the Book of Enoch, which is apocryphal (which in fangirl terms, means it's noncanonical, and thus doesn't have to be explained according to continuity), the only experience I have with that is that Madeline L'Engle book. Lure of the fallen seraphim, indeed... logged at Wednesday, December 26, 2001 coordinates?
The most interesting one is Corporate Bandwagon. Many of the other ones reiterate writing manual information (how to use a colon correctly, don't use passive voice, etc.). One is an in depth character profile of Remus Lupin. Another one instructs writers on how to do songfic (frankly, shouldn't it be called lyric-fic instead? The writer assumes that readers should still read even if they don't know the song.). logged at Tuesday, December 25, 2001 coordinates?
Don't worry, Suze. I omitted you and Squid for writing fics over 2000 words for the first survey (note that I omitted others, because I was doing shortfic after awhile. Most AS fics were under the category). [And actually, I am ashamed that Squid summarized all AS fic on ff.net better than me.] Your turn shall come.
Hmmm. I know zero about the Tolkien slash situation, which Joy also remarks upon. But from a fic reader's perspective, and fandom perspective, I think reducing bad fanfiction to "selfish desires" or "desire for adulation," is going a bit far. Most bad art is perfectly sincere and pure hearted. Many bad fanfic writers don't have any such selfish twisting desires. They have bad taste and poor interpreting skills. And sometime they interpret correctly, but write poorly, and don't know how poorly they write (so the "look deep into yourself and ask yourself if you are writing quality stuff" criterion fails there. I don't think you can paint all of them as cynics who put crap out and expect others to snap (though with ff.net, they can....I'm shocked that others think a work nearly impossible to read is "just great" or "so touching").). Firstly, with regards to anime, manga plotlines are frequently controlled by fan desires. Secondly, why should some desires be labelled as bad and good arbitrarily? I think issues of esthetics come first, rather than morality, when judging fanfic, and that this should apply to Tolkien slash, just like anything else. If we said that all works whose authors were Catholic/other religion disapproving of homosexuality (or could be judged somehow to be disapproving of homosexuality, or even as opposed to an interpretation of a given character as non-straight) should not be slashed... IMHO, "talent" is ability. Sometimes innate, but capable of being honed by practice. The sad thing is, sometimes innate talent trumps hard work. It's the heart of the "grade by effort" dilemma. Take a person with good genes for running (innate talent), and trains moderately, and a person whose physique isn't suited to it, but who trains really hard, pushing his/her body to the limit. They race, and guess who comes in first? The person with the innate talent wins. Who deserves the real praise? Probably the striver. But s/he still lost. In the end, the winner enters the records, goes on to run more. This metaphor probably can't be applied to writing, as I'm not sure that the writing field produces the same sort of virtuosos that, say, one finds in the music or math worlds. I suppose I might be one of the "fragile souls" harmed by bad fanfic. But it was sheerly by my own choice. Three quarters of the fic I read in the ff.net section I'd have skipped based on the little blurb written below the title (when the author intros her work with a sentence betraying her lack of prowess with the English language, that's a bad sign), or previous experience of the author's fics. Personally, bad fanfiction has never convinced me that a series isn't worth watching (because holey canon sometimes makes great fanon). It may have convinced me that the Western fandom is smoking crack, but generally won't affect my idea of the show. logged at Tuesday, December 25, 2001 coordinates?
21. "Count Cain X-Mas Song"
Reading through ff.net is dispiriting. Normally, I'd have skipped half these on blurb or plot alone. But now that I have read through these, my standards have been lowered. I am now impressed when I shouldn't be. I am ready to hail you as at least the fourth coming if you:
1. Use the English language properly, and in a way which does not make me cringe.
I hope my standards get back to normal soon. Already I'm sure I was a bit nicer than I should have been to people whose spelling was 95% correct. BTW, AS has enormous potential for prequel fics. And if you must POV rewrite, do the minor characters instead. logged at Monday, December 24, 2001 coordinates? logged at Monday, December 24, 2001 coordinates?
#52. "The Lover's Festival"
I'm going to try to write my own ff.net fic already
Charmian's (bad) AS fic.
Katan was depressed. He was very depressed. His owner-creator-lover-mentor-guardian Rosiel had gone bonkers. That was it, bonkers.
Indeed, as he wafted diaphanously through the heavens, his aetherial, celestial strands of silverish, argentine hair nearly evaporating into the passing clouds, as if he were the heroine of a gothic romance wearing a frilly nightgown, watching him, Katan felt the indescribable, ineffable, ineluctable feeling that only one who was created by someone who had now fallen from his position of ineffable majesty and was now a decaying mental case could feel.
But Rosiel couldn't hear him.
"Argh. Aiee!" screamed and chittered Rosiel. "I am insane, obsessed with my sister Alexial who's now a horny and annoying teenage boy named Setsuna. Oh, the agony."
"Rosiel-sama," said Katan, "I wish to heal you, with my lips, and love, and my healing [censored]."
And with that he placed his coral lips upon Lord Rosiel's. Their kiss lasted aeons, as they cavorted upon a leopardskin rug.
"I remember when you were but a small child," said Rosiel. "How you've changed, grown, matured."
"I have always adored you from afar and near, Lord Rosiel," said Katan.
Then they got out the dog collars and nipple clamps and had wild orgiastic sex only seen in the most prized of doujinshi.
~Owari~(the end)
So how was it? Give me feedback, plz. logged at Monday, December 24, 2001 coordinates?
Also, is anyone amused by ff.net columns? I remember reading more than a few and remarking to myself that I'd actually rather not read any fanfic by the author. There's actually a group of people opposed to ff.net (the flf), but I'm not really into them because I don't bear a grudge towards the management, and I've gotten rather jaded towards self-declared free speech martyrs (despite having been one myself). [My boredom towards freespeech martyrs is that too many of them never consider the other side of the argument. Many of them are start as outspoken types, begin to self-congratulate for their outspokenness, and from there commence on the road to trolldom. I speak mainly of myself here. It's why I lurk mostly these days. Honestly, I feel that some groups are overmoderated, but I'd never go to the extreme of saying that no post should ever be deleted, ever, and that no poster should ever be banned, ever. I may not see eye to eye with people on when this should happen, but I admit that in some cases, it may be necessary. ] Basically, the flf is against ff.net because they're upset that they were banned from fora (when ff still had fora), that they were deleted, etc. Unfortunately somewhere down the road it turned into a merry-pranksterish contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism deal, more of a social club than a group dedicated to anything "substantial." (They make allegations towards some sort of financial misconduct on the part of the ff.net management. If they feel that strongly about it, why don't they take action? In general, their whole enterprise seems to be more of a "for fun" one rather than one dedicated to any cause.) [Other note: another one of their grievances seems to be over the Cassandra Claire plagiarism case. Regardless what one might think of the actual charges, I believe ff.net was justified in booting, especially since Pamela Dean was alerted, for the same reason that ff.net shouldn't be blamed for deleting the Interview with the Vampire section. Legal CYA makes it quite understandable, as pure pragmatism when one knows something won't stand up in a court of law. On the other hand, ff.net forum mods did behave stupidly in shutting down discussions, as that seems to have merely increased rancor rather than stifling it. ]
Another note: ff.net may actually be strengthened by the fact that it *isn't* a community. Lack of communication means that all of the nasty stuff associated with actual extended contact between fen just doesn't have to happen. Another strength is that it's centralized, without any need to go through clunky free servers, confusing overpshopped layouts, or egroups subscription to read fic. Another is that it provides ready exposure, especially in very small fandoms, to fiction. Reviewing is also easy and made expected by the review button. Also, it's easy to publish, without involving human error; it's an automated self-archive, just like the automated link submission parts on some webpages. On the other hand, the weaknesses of ff.net are the same as its strengths. You can't have discussions through the review blurbs. And the ease of use creates a lowest common denominator environment. logged at Monday, December 24, 2001 coordinates?
Hmmm. Yes, not naming names in interblogland disputes is annoying, because if you say something in a blog, the person in question will eventually find it. Not a question of if, a question of when. So you had might as well have it out with them, if you think it's worth it. [Besides, I get this image of the ethic of the duellist somehow. You know, all that impractical slapping with the white glove, swords or pistols at dawn, insane personal risk going against common sense for the sake of honor.] Also rather agree that at the deepest heart of most fanon/fandom disputes is the good old fashioned personality clash. I've found that I'm usually able to predict internet clashes by age, general worldview, experience on MLs, and spelling ability. Usually the last is most important.
Origami Omnibus ISBN number is 0-87040-699-x. It's probably the best origami book I've seen. Some of the folds are a bit challengin, like the dragon and the squirrel, but there are also many accessible to all levels.
Also, Sandalphon has fangirls. This is interesting. I predict that we shall next see the formation of the Sandalphon Estrogen Brigade, and many fanart pictures showing out favorite Cthuluesque horror in bondage or chibified.
logged at Sunday, December 23, 2001 coordinates?
Also, the thing about criticizing people for being ranty (someone flamed Suze over this? Weird. I wouldn't flame Suze, I'd be scared for my own self esteem) is that it leads into the Vortex. If you criticize people for being over critical while doing the same thing yourself (indeed, the fact that one finds their criticism tiresome is a sign of refined critical sensibilities), then on what grounds do you get to criticize them?
Apparently, according to these folks, the most funny joke to Britons involves something about Holmes and Watson in a tent. The sad thing is that I have been corrupted so much that the first thing that came to mind was that "the slashers will be much amused." The joke itself was mildly funny, but I completely lacked understanding of the Canadian one. And I didn't think the French one was very funny at all. logged at Saturday, December 22, 2001 coordinates?
Looking at this page on a different computer, it seems that the contrast is not that great. I guess on the next layout change I'll have to go lighter.
And that was a looong canned entry last time. o_0. logged at Friday, December 21, 2001 coordinates?
Whoa, a lot has been happening in blogland.
And some notes on my MLs. Recently I had a large ML purge for Christmas. (I dropped AMLA because I'm not currently following any yaoi series, and because the volume got a bit much for me. I dropped Yami no Matsuei because Theria's site provides better updates, anyway, and because considering the content of the group, I had might as well be on the fic ML. I dropped gaara because it's dead. I dropped the Saiyuki groups because I'm so far behind in the manga that it doesn't matter. I dropped the supplementary Fruits basket groups because the regular one improved. Fruitygroups now has a much better signal to noise ratio. I'm also subscribed to Earlcain out of general principle, to Grandline (OP) because I'm getting updates out of it (not much discussion, though, but I'm so far behind on the manga I probably couldn't participate), htyml, because HtY is where it's at, man, and shioul.) It's so easy to join yahoogroups MLs that I join and unjoin all the time from unrestricted groups. Sometimes I join a group solely because someone mentions in another group.
And I have a LONG bit of psycho canned entryness.
I now have MPD Psycho 1, for 2.88. And it is very nice. And there *is* hair there. I thought that was illegal in Japan. And I have more of the HE volumes I was missing.
Some people have gone in for discussing the recent wave of fandom critique. Even more amusingly, there is critique of the critics as well. And fandom as gang warfare? That reminds me of the little character twist at the end of Idoru. (Idoru, by William Gibson, is a nice read for people who are enmeshed in online fandoms and are Japonophiles. Indeed, extremely useful. I heartily recommend it for all of you people who enjoy the postmodern aspects of modern Japanese culture and the internet, the idoru (idols who don't actually exist), otaku, love hotels, online worlds, insane fans, etc. They're all in this book.) Oh, and the CCS thread on raam was funny as heck. I mean, I enjoy pointing out how 90% of the cast of CCS desires to commit illegal sexual practices, but I can't take allegations that CCS is propaganda for these seriously. One of the fun things about anime is enjoying the different freak thresholds of American and Japanese society, but there are so many people unable to take this with the metaphorical grain of salt. The literalists should calm down and rethink their immediate equation of CCS with Lolita (I refer to Rika and the sensei. Also, a friend of mine thought that (after seeing only ten or so episodes), that something was brewing between Yukito and the heroine. He was not reassured to hear that it was Tooya instead. XD). It sounded then as if everyone had channeled Gaza (infamous usenet troll) with his whacked out insistance that Sailor Moon was made for dirty minded middle age men. I'm not really sure about the CCS as earth magic/paganism thing. Vaguely, perhaps, inspired by such magics, but it seems to more fit the CLAMP moneymaking system. (Ooooh, we can buy several new H-games with the sales of Clow Cards and Kero-chan dolls! XD).
Was reading some comment on how the newer wave of fans are "gimme" types who always expect something in return for what they give. I suppose I must be featured as one of those new types. I don't contribute much to any fandoms I could be classified as being in. In descending order of useful fandom activity, I don't translate, I don't scan in stuff from the latest Hana to Yume or Jump issues, I don't create good general websites which get new fans, I don't encode episodes, I don't host MP3s, I don't host huge image galleries, I don't host other sites better than mine, I don't make skins, I don't make wallpaper, I don't write fanfiction, I don't participate usefully on general MLs, etc. And I make the web a worse place by using envy.nu and pitas. I have one deteriorating character shrine, two other sites of no interest to anyone but myself and three or four other people, and one blog where I subject innocent seekers of dragonlance slash to rants about Earl Cain, and I have a bit of fanart stashed somewhere, but that is solely for my personal amusement (I can't join the community, because I'm actually just doing illustration and sketching rather than Art. BTW, isn't it odd how people disable the right click button? As if web thieves lacked the technical mojo to get around such a stratagem. I don't enjoy being accused of conspiracy to commit theft when all I want to do is open a new window from a page.) On the plus side, I don't think I've forced people to give me stuff because I gave them stuff, but this is probably because I have little to give so that I may blackmail them in return. I would like to give things in return, but for most of the people who give, I can't give anything that they would want back. Most of these people are translators or webmaster types, and there's just nothing that I can do in return for them except to say thank you. : Bad excuse, but there it is.
Hari Pota fandom declaration: I hereby declare myself on HP fandom semi-leave until book five comes out. I do not care very strongly about the love lives of Harry, Hermione, Ron, or any permutation thereof, pending developments by JKR. Lord almighty, death threats over shipping (see Tin's blog). I suspect that JKR may do things to upset the shippers, so we'll see what happens when that happens. Heck, whatever JKR does, even it it's absolutely nothing, she'll upset the shippers. I also dropped HP for Grownups because I'm all canon-discussioned out. I'll rejoin when book five arrives.
You know, I [heart] Chou Koumei from Houshin Engi. He's so sparkly!!! The most glamourous fight ever! Why is Houshin so underexposed? ;_; (huge spoiler note: I don't have that volume yet, but don't you think that Dakki got off too easy? She basically gets exactly what she wanted. It bothers me, despite being a villain worshipper. On the other hand, when I build a page to her, I can include her as a model villainess. <3 <3)
Have to agree that X is going too slowly....Three volumes more until CLAMP finishes? Disappointed fans of overlooked characters have perfect excuse to go construct their own New Model Fandom. At least the anime series is doing stuff. I, as most readers of this blog know, am majorly disillusioned with CLAMP's journey into shounenland. The problem is not that they went there, but how they did it (yes, I am a shounen fan). Why couldn't they do something more like, say, MPD Psycho or Blade of the Immortal in genre?
Yami no Matsuei: It is back in HtY. Yipee. Go to theria.net for more info. GenSouKai arc continuing, as ever. Hisoka, of course, must get his shikigami, we must learn more about the rebellion and the funky masked guy. It seems like they're going to pull a "question authority" plot twist on us: Kurakira was actually doing the right thing, the Celestial Emperor has no clothes, etc. And apparently this issue has a colorspread of Oriya asking, "Muraki, where'd ya go?" My sentiments exactly. He isn't dead, so where is he?
Top ten, er, six things Muraki could be doing
1. Secret career as doujinshi artist
More on the "fanon" wars: One definition of fanon: fan-created additions to canon, usually developed through fanfiction. These usually take the form of "facts" added on and repeated in fanfiction, or characterizations developed through a chain of fanfics. These vaguely branch out to extend to themes, ideas, and interpretations of the series implied through the aforementioned fanfics. (Sorry if reading about fanon bores people, or if fanfic writers feel unnecessarily hectored because they read this blog. You may not wish to read my blog in the future, because I tend to repeat myself. This whole rant is basically a repetition of what I said long ago on my slayers site)There are primary two things that annoy canon fans (otherwise referred to as weenies) about fanon. The first is the phenomenon of fanon bleed. The uninformed fans read fanfic, and then they mistake the fanon for canon. This occurs usually because some fans don't or can't finish the original product (due to lack of translation), or because the original product is not finished. This annoys canon fans because they must clear up misunderstandings, and because pointless conversations sometimes ensue because of such confusion. It also annoys canonists because they don't like it when people pull in fandom characterizations or ideas to back up arguments about the canon. [It should be noted that usually the better the fanfic writer, the more likely fanon bleed is. Also, the fanfic writer should not be blamed for the misinterpretations of others, unless s/he actively encourages it. The other scenario in which fandom bleed occurs is when the fans messily slot the characters into the archetypes they already have in their heads, or extrapolate from similar shows.] The second way fanon annoys canon fans is that it shapes the fandom and discourages other avenues of discussion. It tends to encourage appreciation only of one or a few aspects of the work. Usually this results in the formation of a "resistance" of likeminded fans who adjourn to another zone so as to benefit both groups of fans.
Another note: sometimes the fanon trumps canon. Sometimes the fanon is equal in cleverness to canon. Sometimes the fanon creates something entirely different from the canon but quite interesting in its own right. Sometimes what the fanon forgets about isn't that interesting anyway. This is true for series which themselves are not *that* great, or somewhat superficial and formulaic, yet still manage to have active fandoms. The quality of fanon is in some cases inversely proportional to the merit of the show itself. Show is silly, difficult to take seriously, and has tons of plotholes, unexplored but interesting minor characters, and lots of unexplained parts. Show might not hold up so well in and of itself, but the fanon may be quite interesting. Fanon isn't evil in and of itself, it's just that sometimes (some might say often) it's bad, and often it drowns out the other fun parts of fandom.
Another note: I classify most of GW fandom as fanon oriented. WK fandom is fanon oriented, and I don't blame them. I am not so sure that any of CLAMP's fandoms are. The obsessions of CLAMP fen are too close to canon to count, really, as fanon. Some parts of HP fandom are fanon oriented, others are half and half, some are wholly canon. For what it's worth, fanon is much less annoying when it knows it's not canon.
It should also be noted that the problem of annoying fandoms doesn't necessarily have to do with fanon (which assumes the existence of fanficcing and a fandom). A fandom can be quite like a monkey house without anyone ficcing.
logged at Friday, December 21, 2001 coordinates?
Oh, and Delta tells me now that I really leave around 8:00. They're properly apologetic, as it was some kind of technical problem, but still. Well, I am the master of the two hour nap.
Oh, and Kristi graduated! Congratulations! And sorry to hear about your hosting problems.
I'm not really in the X fandom. Count me as a kind of fellow traveler, and one with an interest in the infamous S/S relationship. But this rant, by someone actually within the fandom, complains about fanon being a turn off to the actual series. I think part of it is that the fangirls referred to hear aren't really X fangirls as much as they are Tokyo Babylon fangirls, who started out with that rather than X. A lot of X fans are following along mostly because it's a semi continuation of that. So you can't really blame them for obsessing over S/S, if you take that into account.
Does any cohesive X fandom exist outside of S/S? Well, there's S/K fandom, but I completely agree with Ragabash's codependency argument. I once read an interesting argument on a blog somewhere about how all the S/S shippers were completely wrong to be so sentimental about the S/S relationship (although this was written pre X16, which does partially vindicate the S/S romantics). Ragabash's experience shows one of the negative sides of shipping, that it tends to alienate other fans, not only those who dislike the pairing, but even those mildly interested in it. Now I really must write that essay... This didn't happen with CLAMP for me, but with some other fandoms. I was majorly soured on Slayers fandom because of shippers, and that experience, however, makes me think of the S/S situation as a walk in the park. The S/S and S/K people are so nice and friendly to each other, comparatively.
BTW, Kristi, was it just the fanon/fandom that made you turn away from the way of CLAMP? Or just your inherent shounen fan-ness reasserting itself? ~_^ Like I said before, I can't bring myself to be too hard on the X/TB fangirl crowd because they're not that uncanonical (contra the spirit of CLAMP). I think CLAMP caters to this, which is in a way admirable. Hmmm. That wasn't so clear. Okay, what I think I mean is that I have a major suspicion, not entirely quantifiable, that in this case the canon (and what's behind the canon) is not entirely innocent of the fanon. So it's not the same as complaining about the fans who turn, say, Houshin Engi into a soap opera shounen ai epic (no offense to HE shounen ai fans. Just using this to differentiate between shounen and shoujo fangirl fandoms. The distance between fanon and canon HE is greater than the difference between fanon and canon TB/X). CLAMP seems to encourage the fangirl mentality, sometimes providing the shoujo equivalent of fanservice.
In general, I do prefer the puristic canon speculative obsessive fandom as dominant in the larger fandom, with the proudly insane shipping fandom as subordinate. (semeXuke roles? weird.). The only way to deal with this, though, is to start talking about something else, in hopes that someone bites. As someone recently pointed out to me, the ML is not the same as the fandom. In every ML, there is a group of people too different from the mainstream posters to speak up. This just is a fact. But these people can "influence," if they wish to, the "community" (gads, is that word misapplied in describing a group of people who like a series. Liking a series is a very weak bond for compelling good manners, as many list members have found out to their profound discontent. The concept of a "community," however, is a very good way of promoting group-think.) by creating shrines promoting their view, writing angry rants in their blogs (writing a rant in a blog is more powerful than one would think), and other methods.
Recently I've been on the edges of fandoms with little fanon, with few fics and mostly speculative fans. Personally, I think the fanon gets best when a series finally ends. logged at Friday, December 14, 2001 coordinates?
BTW, my bot is getting more intelligent. I've entered in some more interesting things for it to say... I like saying random things to it, and seeing how it responds. Eventually it will have a whole bunch of things to say on a variety of topics. Already it has opinions on fanfiction and square. But strangely, it insists it is a fanfic author... logged at Thursday, December 13, 2001 coordinates? logged at Thursday, December 13, 2001 coordinates?
BTW, this really is a teaching bot, but hopefully it will soon be sounding quite realistic. Don't teach it anything ungrammatical. You can get one at ultrahal. logged at Thursday, December 13, 2001 coordinates?
BTW, I was surfing Fruits Baskets sites on the net while taking a break from doing other pressing stuff, and came upon some nice ones. But before that, here is something rather interesting. This site has some very interesting (and nicely CG'd fanart) featuring what appeals to be female Lufy and male Nami. Male Nami looks rather cool.
A rare Angel Sanctuary site.
Also, a page which interestingly has Basara fanart. (I know there are Basara fans out there). It also has some Furuba fanart.
And an Angel Sanctuary webring.
An interesting One Piece fanart site.
Another OP fanart site with a LOT of art. It's mostly a Zoro and Sanji yaoi site, so if you like that, you know what to do.
Another OP fanart site. Nice oekakis. Also worth it to see MPD Psycho style Sanji.
Oh, and just because I couldn't resist. Kabuto from Naruto has a fanclub. Well, *I* like him, even if no one else in the Naruto fandom does.
Okay, sorry non OP and Naruto loving readers, now onto the Fruits Basket. But seriously, OP and Naruto have more fanart, of enormously good quality.
Here's a site with some nice pics. (Look under requests in the gallery).
This site has some interesting pictures of the Juunshi in their New Year's costumes. (click on the kanji in the little box to enter). On index page, FB gallery is third from top.
This site is a joint Naruto/Fruits Basket one.
This site has some good pictures. Check out the Haru pic on the splash.
This FB site has lots of pictures in a cute style.
YukiXTohru site.. Don't worry, nothing explicit. (I haven't come across any hentai/yaoi yet. Not that I was looking).
This site has a whole bunch of things, but if you look under some of the nonspecific parts of the CG section of the gallery, you'll find some cool FB pics. This site also has a large amount of OP oekakis.
Neh, can someone explain further to me the protocol of Japanese site linking? Beyond the parts which are just common sense. What about the CGI register of links? I found a site which used this, and I decided to play it safe by not posting it. Too bad, as it had lots of good Hatori fanart. So, happy holidays! logged at Thursday, December 13, 2001 coordinates?
But before I go, something rather "special." But in the euphemistic sense. Fearsome Fanfiction Ideas. But do not click if you are of sensitive mind. Let's just say that I'm not posting it here because I fear the search engine queries that shall result. [contains corruption of beloved series] logged at Sunday, December 9, 2001 coordinates?
Currently Following: Fruits Basket and Earl Cain. logged at Sunday, December 9, 2001 coordinates? logged at Sunday, December 9, 2001 coordinates?
Disclaimer: This is not to say that I do not believe that DWJ is not a superior writer to Rowling. She is better. I'm just saying that if you must make a straight comparison argument between the two, having read the whole work of one and one chapter of the other will not allow one to craft an argument convincing to those who have read all of the latter's work. [If you must make a straight comparison, you could say that Rowling in general, and not in only the first chapter, relies on stock characters far too much, that Jones's usage of myth is far more creative, deep, and varied (used often as germ of thematic structure of book, vs. being used in Rowling as tiny reference or name of spell or object. The annotated DWJ would be longer than the annotated Rowling, because of the explanation required, as the references are used more deeply. Moral complexity: yes, DWJ has more of what I will shorthand as "grey," which I have always advocated. Rowling has some in book four, with the Crouch subplot and the ongoing Snape subplot.]
P.S. The sidebar of this blog explaining the layout is also interesting, because it has Shigure and Akito. Gads, I wish I had the manga (not that that would matter as much because not all of it is translated, and because the TV series doesn't miss much). The hypothesis that it's innocuous Shigure who might have more to do with the dark, sinister side of the Sohma clan than one would think. (oh, alright, so he's only seems so innocent because Tohru is the sort who believes the best of everyone. She doesn't consider such disturbing questions such as why Shigure seems to want her around so much. Certainly it seems obvious that Shigure is using her in a very benign way, at least, as a live in therapist for Kyou and Yuki, but it seems, according to what manga translations (well, I can never resist reading them, even if I don't have the manga yet) I could find, that there's definitely something worse going on (read the second half).) logged at Sunday, December 9, 2001 coordinates?
Re: HP Fic practices. I would suppose one of the differences between HP fic and anime/manga fic is that HP is pure prose, whereas anime/manga is images + dialogue. So the mimetic task is far more difficult, if you think that fanfic should mimic the original work as much as possible. It's much harder to mimic style than content, IMHO. Actually, I'm not really hip to the HP fic scene, because I suffer from canon weenie-itis. (In general, canon weenies want straight "continuations," as much like original series as possible, in their fics. They distrust new major characters. They hate deviations from established world building. They hate un-canon, defined broadly, as not only the material facts, but deviations from characterization, and anything which would not happen in the original. ) HP just isn't complete enough for me to be ficced so as to produce the fic I crave. Nothing against HP fic writers, nor do I hold up my taste as a gold standard. I just mean that I'm too busy waiting for Rowling. The same goes for Yami no Matsuei, though I suspect that it will turn out to be a good ficcing universe, once [repeated YamiEi rant deleted for space]. When there's too much open canon (issues hanging), fic either has to fill it in or avoid. Since the avoiding fics usually are not the genre which interest me, that leaves the filling ones. And canon weenies don't like fic with stuff that will be contradicted next week by the latest Japanese broadcast or latest magazine. Basically, it is impossible for fic writers to please canon weenies (and real canon weenies don't read fanfic), so fic writers, don't take them too seriously. I'm not a total canon weenie, as I indulge in fanon frequently (I am an unfan of Weiss Kreuz. I have read fanfiction before finishing the series, and I thought the fanon was better. I would like to see the fanon animated), but I am more canon weenie than most. It's probably because all fans want to see their favorite characters elucidated in fic. And I have, along with a villain complex, a big Mysterious Character complex. The Mysterious Character is the character who has a big secret which won't be revealed until the end, or much later in the series. Obviously, if you want to do a fic about this character, you can't ignore this big hole without making something up (argh, screams the canon weenie-within), or by simply reiterating what is already in the original. logged at Saturday, December 8, 2001 coordinates? logged at Friday, December 7, 2001 coordinates?
BIG SPOILER ALERT.
Yes, spoilers.
Spoilers!
Well, it's a blog, so I'm not going to get too rigorous about spoiler space. It's about New Year's preparations. Traditionally, at New Year's, which is the big holiday celebration, one always cleans house the day before, because if one cleans the house on the first day of the year, the new luck accumulated will be swept out. So everyone is cleaning house the day before. Tohru and Yuki go shopping, but Yuki notes that they always go back to the main house (implying that Tohru won't be spending the actual day with them after all). In cleaning the house, the shoji screens are wrecked several times, and the toilet is gothified by Hanachan. Meanwhile, Shigure's editor is bothering him about the manuscript. Apparently 500 pages are due.... Everyone eats soba (traditional for New Year's). Then we find out that Shigure was just being sadistic, and he had the manuscript finished after all. Hana has nice hair when it's down. Damn, and she is Gothy, in her long black cloak.
Then, Yuki and Kyou refuse to attend the party, much to Shigure's surprise. The party is a really big event, a sort of yearly family reunion (yeah, they're teenage boys...shouldn't be surprising they don't want to spend a day with all of their relatives). We hear something about a mysterious party that only the Juunishi are allowed to attend. Of course Kyou is excluded. Tooru tells them not to worry about her, so they decide to go after all. So they leave, and Shigure teases Kyou and Yuki about their concern for Tohru. Then they bump into (not literally) Hana, who gets all grim on them about how Tohru, after the death of her mom, is all home alone. So they of course rush off back. Anyway, Tohru actually is depressed, after listening to enka music and looking at her mother's portrait.
Meanwhile, Shigure arrives at the House. (Did he walk all the way? Take public transport?) He enters Akito's room and tells him the news. (Remember that Akito doesn't care about Kyou, but is interested in Yuki). Akito doesn't seem to like it. Shigure is rather enigmatic about it all. Meanwhile, Tohru and Kyou and Yuki watch the sunrise. logged at Friday, December 7, 2001 coordinates?
Reading over the actual entries, I must confess musespeak makes a journal very boring, especially since I don't know who many of these characters are. Personally, my bias is against the script form in general. I find the script form achieves its pinnacle frequently in the fanfic genre of the Jerry Springer parody. I mean that seriously. The insanity/cuteness of the RPG script form (regarding the RPGs: I have never RPG'd in general, file it mentally into the bucket of things called "stuff I don't get, but don't dislike," am entirely non interested by RPG blogs, many of which are completely "uncanon" in the sense that the events are not thingw which would happen in the regular series.)
Regarding the private/public paradox. A private journal. is. passworded. You can learn to do this on the net somewhere. Anyway, I thought the whole point of livejournals is that they were interactive. This person discusses the "netiquette rule" of if you don't like it, don't read it. I think there is another "rule." If it's really private, don't post it. If seeing the reactions to something you post pains you that much, don't post it. Plus, the "masochism" (note that masochism is more of a sexual fetish than a mental illness) is actually a widespread phenom on the net. It's a staple of the "F/P" sites,(fun poking), such as somethingawful and portal of evil. Plus whenever you invoke the "rule," a spiral sets up. How dare she notice me! Well I'll notice her back, and tell her that she has no right to notice me! (If they have no right to judge, how dare you pass judgement on their judgements! XD The only real way out is to completely ignore all criticism, which is actually extremely effective.) It's sort of like the "censorship" thing. On naming names. I notice that lj'ers don't link people whom they're talking about, while bloggers often do. When one should name names is a difficult issue, but here is something to always keep in mind: when you don't name names, people often are paranoid and think it is they who are being accused (oh, and sometimes they are right that they are being so), get all defensive and angry, and wham! Big flamewar ensues. Also, when one names names, one should bloglink. logged at Friday, December 7, 2001 coordinates? logged at Friday, December 7, 2001 coordinates?
Well, I won't be around for awhile, on a bit of a hiatus because I have stuff to do. Look for me later in Dec. Before I go, though, here's something which may aid me in leaving pitas. Yeah, I don't want to do blogger, not really. And I don't have a server which can take greymatter. (f2s is unreliable) And I'm not going to buy a domain just for a blog. logged at Tuesday, December 4, 2001 coordinates? logged at Tuesday, December 4, 2001 coordinates?
Yes, Crazy Rabbit Man. I think Earl Cain fanfic would be fun to write, because it is, after all, an episodic series, which makes lots of things just easier. Re: feedback woes: maybe you could start out doing parody for practice, or something. logged at Tuesday, December 4, 2001 coordinates?
BTW, I'm not sure if FB is going to ever feature yaoi canonically. Too early to tell. logged at Tuesday, December 4, 2001 coordinates?
Anyway: ficbitches.pitas.com has a review, two in fact, in which they discuss the problems of free incorporation of Japanese and, in some cases, German. logged at Monday, December 3, 2001 coordinates? logged at Monday, December 3, 2001 coordinates?
Hmmm. I am aware that there are actually fangirls who don't like CLAMP....I'm guessing some of the things that can be extrapolated from the worldview (CLAMP's that is) implied by X and TB and RG Veda have something to do with this. Or, more likely, maybe they died of sugar OD on CLAMP's other type of series.
More on the proprietary fans issue: I'm missing that meme. Just don't have it. So that's why I sl0re non stop on my blog. (And I'm so bad at it too. ;_;) I think it's a result of some ML discussions I've had. When I know that manga/anime are massive pop cultural phenoms, (where, incidentally, editors may derail the mangka's intended ending, and character polls influence storyline), I have a difficult time feeling as if I am the only one who understands something. Obviously the Japanese fans understand more than I do.
Earl Cain (I can't decide whether to go for Count or Earl. Count has the advantage of being alliterative. On the other hand, I've seen "hakushaku" translated more frequently as "Earl." And "Earl" shows up on the Cain merchandise. But Count sounds so much better. Have to check out the nobility files: the wife of an Earl is titled a Countess, so there must be an equivalence or relation between the two. Also, "earl" is an germanic word, whereas "count" is a romance one, IIRC. ): The art definitely is a major draw, as are the cracked out references to the nursery rhymes. And on some of them I just am doing it for the art alone: no one has summarized, even in a few sentences, the plot of Mark of the Red Ram. Who are all new characters (however, in E/C Cain, you don't really have to know, as they will all die, most likely.)? What are they doing? Who is that guy who's playing *very* unsafely with the scissors? I dunno. (Also, not quite clear on the relation between Cain and Jezebel. I think they were childhood friends, but I'm not sure if they lived in the manor together. Nor am I quite clear about when and how Cain's father "died.") And I'm not saying people have to do it, summarize. Would be nice if they did, but I'm not going to write them mail whining about it, how I'm "owed" summaries. Just using this as an example of how I personally have bought for the art alone, mostly. I'm hoping they collect the current arc, Butterfly Bone, into tank form soon. That one's referencing the Mme Butterfly story. Interesting to see a pop culture Japanese take on the story. I'm thinking the leopard collar spiritualist guy might turn out to be a regular. He seems to be associated with Alexial, making him possibly a Delilah member, and apparently isn't an entire fraud. Also, in the atogaki, we see that Riff's name really is romanized as Riff. Disappointingly, we see Cain's little sister only referred to as "Mary."
logged at Monday, December 3, 2001 coordinates?
I must also say that I had higher expectations for the Lemony Snicket books. They have a novelty appeal, but they fail to satisfy because of seriesitis. logged at Sunday, December 2, 2001 coordinates?
YnM list is number three in the yahoo manga catagory? Shioul is number ten? Wow. logged at Sunday, December 2, 2001 coordinates?
Interesting tempest in a teapot. As some of you may know, this person, Isa, out of the kindness of her heart, makes some multimedia available on her server. One day, one of her friends found an (official?) TB music video online, and Isa decided to put it up so that everyone could see it. Oh, and you still can download it from her server.
People get angry about this and strongly criticize Isa. Now, this video is very rare, and can no longer be bought in stores, so it's not the standard piracy complaint situation. Nor were the people in question the creators of the video. I would concur with their sense of outrage if they had made it and Isa was redistroing it without permission.
No, the complaint is that this is some kind of Tokyo Babylon secret, belonging to the Tokyo Babylon fan cabal, and that thus Isa was committing an act of "betrayal" of this group by posting it. Actually, I think it is wonderful when people share with strangers stuff that they think is neat, and that the people who own Tokyo Babylon are CLAMP, the studio that animated it, and various related commercial entities. Can someone please beat me with a stick, hard, if I ever start flaming people for revealing the sacred secrets of Angel Sanctuary, or Bebop, or Trigun? I hate it when someone's feeling of how precious and beautiful something is causes him/her to behave unpleasantly to those who didn't even seek to insult or offend. Even though I enjoy the depicting of this truth in literature, how the higher aspects are tied to the lower ones, how good intentions lead to bad ends, encountering it in real life makes me feel ill. The harshness of criticism should, IMHO, as much as possible, be calibrated to the rudeness or offensiveness of the actions criticized.
Many people don't like it when their fandom suddenly grows, due to licensing or something. Personally, I have never had this feeling, as it's just not one of my hot buttons. Maybe it's because I don't speak Japanese, so I can never be the first person to "discover" something. Whenever I get into something, there are a whole group of people, or even just one, into it. There's always someone who's a bigger fan of it (usually the translator) than me, so I can't say "I am one of the special people who understand series Y, and the others are just shallow fangirls." If, say, Count Cain suddenly hit it big on the web, and people started using it in their layouts, etc., I'd cheer, because wouldn't translations be inevitable? Dern it, Anime Elite, it's time for a Yuki Kaori revival! logged at Sunday, December 2, 2001 coordinates? [blogged about this before, before I archived]
Re: desktop themes. I suspect, though I don't actually, of course know, that that was a reference to the phenomena of being able to find graphics for a series, but little in the way of discussion web sites or good chara shrines. Personally, I don't believe wallpaper has much to do with the degeneration of a fandom. On the false fan issue in general: I think some of it is partially the closeness of new fandoms to Japanese fandom. Fans of new series behave more like the Japanese fans, like doujinshi producers and consumers. It's not necessarily that being a fanon fan is a bad thing, just that it's rather dull for anyone who doesn't like that aspect of fanon, or who really wants to discuss the series. A fandom is a social group. There will inevitably develop on any ML a dino crowd/old guard. On some boards, this group is nearly invisible, in some extremely present, on some oppressive (actually, I think that the whole dino/oppression thing is extremely overdone by most newbies. Or maybe that's because my practice has always been to read the archives, so that I know the crowd before posting.), on some friendly.
More on Godchild: I suppose I'm getting used to third stage Yuki Kaori art: I liked it in this volume (no translations in full, yet, but I got summaries. (Argh. But I can't find any for Mark of the Red Ram) Yuki Kaori is an underexposed mangka. Anyway, this was another heartwarming volume of the Cain series, set in a charming Victorian world, not steampunk, but full of whimsy and weird Victorian things. Cain is the Earl of Hargreaves, a bishounen vaguely detectivesque character who lives with his handsome valet, Riff, and his kawaii little half-sister, Merryweather. The series is about their episodic adventures, each themed around a nursery rhyme.
Except, these tend to be the more dubious rhymes. And the Victorian London of Cain is most emphatically the one of Jack the Ripper. The manga could best be classified as horror: but less that of the supernatural, and more the horror of insanity, cruelty, depravity, and deeply damaged creatures creating their own destructions. logged at Friday, November 30, 2001 coordinates? logged at Friday, November 30, 2001 coordinates?
Sarah: Oooh, an AS shrine. Makes me want to get to work on my neglected web stuff.
BTW, I really don't like all those new ads on yahoogroups. I also must say that a fandom has never made me hate the canon. I always feel I should watch the show before reading the fic. Not that I always follow this, but it is the Way of the Canon (although Canonists (unkindly called canon weenies by those fanon heretics) are really more like Calvinists than Daoists).
Whoa, blogger is down. Apparently some cracker bastards hacked into it. This thread on a discussion forum, for any CS types out there (I don't really understand most of it), discusses some technical security issues involved, and raises the specter of increased hacker attacks because Blogger has stored ftp passwords in its files. This convinces me that I shall indeed, once I get around to choosing a good domain name, and hooking up with a reputable host, go greymatter or movabletype.
Hmmm. Actually, no one seems to be interested in discussing Tolkien slash in and of itself.
a href="http://teaparty.mad-hatter.org">Sarah, I hope that I shall recover and that my standards do too.
On with the short entries. The longer ones will be in a later edition.
What: Twelve days of Christmas done Earl Cain style
Verdict: I refuse to review any more filks.
20. "Suddenly Setsuna"
What: Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors, only with Setsuna and Sara.
Verdict: It's kind of funny, though I can't really remember how Suddenly Seymour goes. Or that might be residual amusment at LSoH. But if you can't, this is pointless.
19. "Angel Sanctuary X-Mas Song"
What: The same as 21, only with AS.
Verdict: ....Remember what I said in 21?
16. "Untitled Song"
What: Oh boy, poemfic!
Verdict: Okay, the author tells us it could be potentially about anyone, or any couple in the series. Or any couple in the whole wide world. This kind of defeats the purpose of fanfic.
15. "Looking Away"
What: Rosiel/Katan poemfic + mush
Verdict: the poem is what you'd expect. The prose is PRKF (Perfunctory Rosiel/Katan Fluff)
14. "Here In Lies Truth" [sic]
What: Poem that could be about anything. Seems to be writer's response to September 11.
Verdict: See comment for 16.
13. "Between"
What: Poem, said to be about Alexiel
Verdict: See comment for fourteen. I wonder if the author has read Biting the Sun, by Tanith Lee (because that's what one of the lines is).
12. "We Three Kings"
What: OOC Paro/Songfic.
Verdict: Didn't you read what I said before? I'm on strike regarding this stuff. Not that amusing either.
10. "Cry"
What: Stream of consciousness tribute to Kurai, apparently. And it's also a Forever Love songfic. In Japanese.
Verdict: Okay, now, I have actually listened to Forever Love. But what's the point if the lyrics are not translated!!? Then the author might as well tell us to turn WinAmp on in the background instead. The actual story is rather hackneyed stuff about Kurai mourning Setsuna.
9. "Life Ebbs Away"
What: Katan deathfic
Verdict: Not as bad as you'd think it would be. At least we are spared psychobabble about the Katan-Rosiel relationship (He loved Lord Rosiel with all of his heart but he was only a surrogate for Alexiel as a line in the fic, not a summary of it, etc.)
8. "Respite"
What: Very short Katan fic snippet
Verdict: Wow, a Katan semi-pov type of fic that didn't make me feel ill! And it actually shows Katan doing something else besides mooning over Rosiel/having sex with Rosiel/angsting over Rosiel! Intriguing.
7. "Tears of Flame"
What: Mika fic.
Verdict: Have to give this author points for having more than one chapter. [On the other hand, the description of Mika as 5'3'' calls up bad memories of pr0n (she was a 5'4'' cheerleader with 40-33-35 measurements and a D cup, 25 yrs.)] But on another hand, at least we have something actually happening in the fic! Cool, but more proofreading would be nice. The author really should write this instead of the poems.
6. "Tears"
What: Sara songfic
Verdict: I haven't listened to the song, but I must say this fic is a prime example of manga scene rewriting and ellipsis abuse. I usually exclude honorifics from Fangirl Japanese condemnation, but "Nii-san" appears to be half of this fic. Does she really refer to Setsuna as that that often?
5. "Prelude to a Tea Party"
What: Mad Hatter shortfic
Verdict: Not that bad for a shortfic. Needs editing, however. Escapes, by having some action, from being little more than a stylish character profile, although there is that element in some of the more dubious little asides. [Raphael and Belial had great potential once? I didn't really think that there was that there, but as that part hasn't been fully translated yet, maybe.]
1. "Echoes of Angels"
What: Christmas story
Verdict: This fic starts with Lucifiel getting a Christmas party invitation and mooning over Alexiel. Yes. (prefall fic). I wish for more Lucifer/Alexiel fic, but not exactly in this way.
It doesn't seem to be a parody, either. [Plus, as AS derives from Gnostic and Jewish mysticism, there shouldn't be Christmas, especially before the Fall, which probably was waaaay before 1 A.D. Er, and since Setsuna is the Messiah, he kind of *is* Christ. Or something like that. Whatever. Or if you want to write fic that justifies the blasphemy label, write Alexiel into being literally the historical Christ. (Crikey, now the outcry that would cause. >_< Angel Sanctuary fic becomes Bible slash. Don't want to think of what they'd make of the temptation in the desert.) How can the Messiah not attend her own birthday party?]
2. Write about something other than cliched POV rewrites (rewrite the story, only from Kurai's perpsective, or something like that) or Rosiel and Katan. In other words, have a story once in awhile.
3. Have more than one chapter
4. Do not do poems "inspired by"
5. Write in paragraphs, and actually use description.
6. Do not describe the character's entire emotional state and motivation in one sentence which could potentially stand for the entire fic.
#45. "Release"
What: Katou fic. This fic is about Katou getting beaten by his father, OD'ing a bit, and getting rescued by Kira. Shounen-ai hints at Katou's attraction to Kira.
Verdict: Technically best of all that I've read so far, in that there are actual paragraphs, real description, mostly correct English usage (commas missing in some parts), and lack of glaring, immediately horrifying stylistic tics. Also, the story does not rewrite an OVA scene, and there actually is one. The plot is not breathtaking, but fans of Katou style angst may like reading it, because it is better than the other Katou one I read.
44. "Love Crime"
What: Poemfic. Sara laments her sad fate.
Verdict: Sorry to offend all poemficcers out there, but 80% of poemfic is unreadably putrid. 15% more is just bad. This poem is what you think it is. On the other hand, the grammar and spelling is mostly correct, even if it is mostly free verse obviousness.
43. "Revenge!"
What: Parofic based on OVA.
Verdict: It's usually a waste of time to review parofic. This one is somewhat amusing.
42. "I Feel Pretty"
What: Filk
Verdict: Having not listened to the song, I can't comment usefully on this. Besides, filk comments are usually also wastes of time.
In fact, let's just go through all the poem fics and shortfics and comment on them, because they're short.
37. "Save you"
What: Katan poemfic POV about guess what.
Verdict: Well, at least this one rhymes. Does "Katan" really rhyme with "con?" (No, I'm not making a snide French joke here. That's really the rhyme used.)
36. "The Game"
What: Some sort of intro on probably what would have turned out to be survivor meets AS.
Verdict: Contrived depraved-games tropes in fiction in general are annoying me. Also, this is not spellchecked, nor is it complete.
35. "Ascend"
What: Kira POV following Katou's death.
Verdict: Too many cliches used in describing Kira's emotions. Sounds a bit overwrought for Kira/Lucifer, though, IMHO.
33. "Illusions of Water"
What: Jibrielle POV
Verdict: Short, poor characterization. Poor grammar and spelling and usage.
31. "In My Dream of Death
What: Vignette, Katan POV.
Verdict: I really don't like most vignettes. They seem to be mostly character summaries in narrative form.
30. "Just a Place to Call My Own"
What: Same thing with Kurai before taking up Belial's offer.
Verdict: Another rather pointless vignette. It would be better in third person than first.
29. "ASB Presidential Speeches"
What: Parofic
Verdict: Not very amusing at all.
28. "Devotion"
What: Katan POV Rosiel/Katan smutfluff
Verdict: Perfunctory smutfluff, with minimal prose. More "mail it in" characterization, with Katan describing their relationship in the terms the author probably would.
27. "The TRUE Angel Sanctuary"
What: Sarah-hating, unapologetic yaoi fangirls let us know how the OVA should have gone.
Verdict: Pretty amusing, and their honesty about their creation of contrived Rosiel/Katan scenes is refreshing.
25. "Drive You Home"
What: Rosiel/Katan songfic.
Verdict: Poor formatting. Also, I've never heard the song, so words should be taken with grain of salt. Perfunctory and skimpy yaoi/shounen ai fluff.
23. "The Clock that Struck Thirteen Times"
What: Prologue to Count Cain fic.
Verdict: Just a prologue. Interesting things could be done by mentioning Holmes, but the confusion of tenses here doesn't bode well.
Hmm. Alright, I'll dive into the pit that is ff.net and read each and every one of the AS fics there. These comments should not be construed as anything but my personal opinion. Nor should they be construed as C&C, or fair in any way.
What it is: rather pointless Sets/Sara WAFF. Includes stuff about Japanese festivals. Minus points for fangirl Japanese and lack of proofreading.
Verdict: I'm not fond of S/S WAFF, and the prose is scarcely exciting. Also minus points for unimaginative plot including segments already dramatized by anime/manga.
#51. "Welcome to Wonderland"
What it is: Kurai snuff-fic? Minus points for confusion of it's and its, as well as claiming that Kurai has black hair.
Verdict: Tries to be some vaguely metaphorical fic about Kurai's descent into Hell, but too short to have any point.
#50. "Barbed Revelation"
What it is: Setsuna/Sarah romance novel. Grammar mostly correct.
Verdict: I really mean romance novel. Bad romance novel. Painful ultra-cliched descriptions and what strives at eroticism.
#49. "Sister, How I Desire Thee"
What it is: rewrite of a couple of OVA scenes, throwing in sex.
Verdict: Prose too spare, plot unimaginative. Basically an obvious fic.
#48. "End of Chapter"
What it is: Katou decides to off himself. The author herself admits that her fic isn't that good and that she isn't that great at English.
Verdict: This is basically a very brief narrative summary of Katou's role in AS. I see no reason to contest the author's own remarks, only to say that she speaks it better than some natives do. (Sorry, that was a bit cruel).
#47. "Autocrat"
What it is: OVA scene rewrite.
Verdict: The formatting is really screwed up, and this fic is rather short, but the idea of putting in a bit of Rosiel/Setsuna/Alexiel kissing is somewhat interesting. Prose could be somewhat better though. "hot recess" for mouth? Um.
Disclaimer: I can't write fiction, so what business do I have murdering the characters of others, or for that matter, the English language. I don't know, but who cares. You're here and reading. Not spellchecked, not grammar checked, not beta read. I guess you can be the beta.
"Oh," said Katan, "Oh, I mourn for the passing glory of Lord Rosiel."
Question: life expectancy of ff.net? How long before ff.net a) runs out of $, b) is sued by an angry author, c) is sued by an angry fanfic author, d) is bought out by an internet conglomerate, e) is shut down by the government for containing shoutacon or its Western equivalent, f) collapses under sheer server overload, g) goes pay/ultrapopup?, h) dies from management infighting?
Argh. Pitas, you ate my last entry.
Hmmm. Suze lays out her blogging philosophy, and it's rather like mine. That's why I rant on occasion as well. I don't regard myself as having the literary talent to make the minutiae of daily life fascinating. Do you really want to hear every detail of my plane trip and my diablo II game? (BTW, my favorite origami book is Origami Omnibus by Kunihiko Kasahara. It's a well structured book with color photos in the front (I love color photos in practical books), that teaches you a nice mix of origami: geometrical figures, masks, animals (some v. difficult), and a whole bunch of miscellaney, including naked people. Also for the record, my favorite pastry books by Rose Levy Beranbaum. And they also have marvelous color photographs in the front. Also, you can learn how to make foolproof piecrust.)
Dern ye, Pitas. It was very difficult to update the bloglinks list at right. And I'm sure I forgot some links as well....
2. Vacationing in Bermuda
3. Crossing over with other HtY series (YnM/FB/Cain crossover/fusion, anyone?
4. Trying to attach Saki's head to a chicken
5. Locked up by Ukyou for his misdeeds
6. Postgraduate studies at Anime Villain school
....I hate early morning air travel. My flight leaves at seven. This means that I must be at the airport by five. So I reserve the 4:10 shuttle. Okay. So I need to be up by around 3:30 to drag stuff downstairs (living on 6th floor walkup.) Now it is 1:30. Do I really want to sleep?
One more thing about my bot (see below). The more you talk to it, the smarter these things get. At times they can almost sound like a real person. So teach my bot lots of cool stuff.
I figured while I was gone you might have need of me. Well, there's my email, but some of you might need a blog substitute. Well, look no farther....Virtual Encircled!
Just a short "I'm here" before taking an even longer hiatus... [Poor connection, and then other issues keeping me offline]. Maybe I'll draw fanart on the plane and eventually scan it in.
Um, yeah, that was the er....fake hiatus. The real hiatus begins now!
If you have a geocities page, it just isn't a good idea to put up an image gallery because of the bandwidth constraints.
But there is a connection! They both run in Hana to Yume! They both have bish overload (that should follow from the first statement)! Um, and they both feature dysfunctional families!
The unthinkable has happened.
Yes, it is an
Sort of a cheateresque one, however. All I did was upload a very inadequate Jezebel Disraeli profile to the Random Acts site, which badly needs revamping. But I did start writing one for Excel and one for Reiha....
Hmmm. An interesting opinion on the Rowling and DWJ comparison. (FTR, lower down on the page you'll find my opinion on this.) I agree with the basic point she makes about the realism of Rowling's vs. the realism of DWJ's characters. However, several points. I still don't think one chapter is enough, especially because the Dursley's are minor characters in the whole scheme of the HP world. (Personally, I like to take at least one book of a series and at least five episodes of a twenty six ep series before deciding I don't like it.) Durselys: Because the Durselys are comic relief characters unimportant in the larger scheme as characters, it isn't as large of a flaw that they are not well rounded or well developed. I would argue they belong to the tradition of caricature, something which DWJ eschews, but other good authors, such as Roald Dahl, use frequently. On the Destiny issue. I don't think it's a criterion of children's fantasy lit that it must start out with normal life, just one pattern. Since HP explicitly rejects this pattern in favor of the a "Star Wars" hero theme, HP cannot be judged as setting out to conform to this theme and failing.
Things that torque me off: I am informed that Japanese WinMX users feel you need to ask permission and say thank you to download from them. >_< Cultural sensitivity aside, this irritates me. The whole point of WinMX is that you get to download from strangers, in return for the same. It is not nice to boot people from your queue just because they don't talk to you. And personally, I like the idea of spreading my country's media to people of other countries.
Quick note before the return to hiatus land. Aestheticism redesigned. They also put their December webzine up, as well as their October one.
Taking another short break from the "hiatus." I am still considering my options as to moving away from pitas. But I must say that there is another option which is much worse, which is livejournal. My curiosity piqued by Mooncalf's post on the "muse" issue, I decided to visit some of the ljs that Ed linked. Unfortunately, I could not on the first try, as livejournal obstinately refused to display them. Has the livejournal deathwatch begun? How long will the free servers last in this economic environment? Visiting geocities sites has become nearly unbearable. Everyone, for all of our sanity, use tripod or something instead. Even a pop up banner is preferable to the bandwidth exceeded notice. I know I am a leech using envy.nu, which surely does not have much of a lifespan, but scheduled offtime is a bit much. Did you know that f2s just went out of the freewebspace biz? (FTR, pitas runs well for a free service, and is very user friendly, and I take my hat off to the guy who created and runs it, for spending time and money on what is essentially charitable. I don't pay for it, I don't have the same right to complain that I could if I were paying.)
Hopping off my hiatus just for a second: Would any of the Gentle Readers out there advise me? I want to move away from pitas for various reasons. So far, three options.
1. Use blogger plus free webservice provider. Problem is, most free web spaces don't allow the ftp which blogger requires. f2s is too unreliable.
2. Use Greymatter plus paid host. Don't know if this is such a good idea.
3. Figure out how to use we::blog, put it on webspace, and then use redirection to give me a short URL.
Other question: is doing one of those "free web service for registering your domain through us" deals a ripoff?
Answers to above queries may be emailed, left in guestbooks, communicated through smoke signals...
I have decided that if we are going to overload poor yahoogroups, here would be some groups to create.
Unfanfiction: dedicated to the phenomenon of writing anti-fanfiction. Generally composed of painful lampooning and crossovers which should never happen. Hate a series, but can't rant properly? Do it in narrative form.
The Outside: So, you and your nemesis are having netbattle 7865 upon a group, when the admin tells you to take it outside. You've got to obey the admin, so take it Outside! You'll still have an audience, and you can be guaranteed to be with the most querulous, bitchy conflict junkies, who feel no qualms about joining in on your struggle, either for or against you.
EndlessGenderWar: A subset of the Outside.
Death to Fangurls: Self Explanatory.
JCulture: a group dedicated to discussing in a thoughtful way Japanese culture as revealed through anime, manga, and snack food. (Hey, where did this come from? The rest are jokes, BTW. )
AnimeWebDesign: Discuss the issues involved in anime web design. Has running conduit to the Outside.
I can't help but be amused....first we have a yaoi group, then all of a sudden we need a straight couple group (because there is "tension" between fans. Heh, [rest of parenthesis deleted because of toxic bitterness]). Past bitterness aside (based on past experiences, not the one at hand, though I see warning signs), I think all of this self-segregation by fans is extremely destructive. Firstly, while "persecuted" fans may feel they need a "safe place" (as if they were victims of some horrible crime, in need of therapy) to discuss their predilictions, often this safe place turns into a staging ground for unpleasant backbiting. Example: main list is deemed too yaoi friendly, so straight fans create list where they snipe at yaoi fans. Less rancorous but still annoying is the fact that often these secondary lists just end up causing inefficiency. The Saiyuki yaoi list often has discussions which could completely be held on the Saiyuki regular list. Adding to this, there is also a Saiyuki 18+ list created by the Saiyuki ML owner as an adjunct. I don't blame the Saiyuki ML owners for doing this, because apparently they got parental complaints (WTF is a 12 year old doing watching Saiyuki? )
Oh, loverly. Now some guy who appears to be that famous misogynist yaoi-liking troll shows upon the FB ML. You know, that one who doesn't understand that yaoi is a subset of shoujo. (why do so many people on the web have problems understanding Venn diagrams? I feel like drawing a picture. Big circle="shoujo." Inside the big circle: a smaller circle, labeled "yaoi." Outside the shoujo, a circle labeled="pr0n manga for gay Japanese men") And he's like a really bad yaoi fangirl, of the sort who hates female characters because they "get in the way" of m/m relationships. What is it with these people who don't understand the demographics of manga/anime? Shoujo and shounen are demographic terms. Yaoi was not created with gay males in mind. Nothing against gay males enjoying yaoi. I've run into a few other gay male fans with this attitude, but the vast majority of male shoujo fans, gay or not, are rational on this issue. I am not saying that only straight females may enjoy yaoi. I'm just saying that people need to approach things with cultural understanding of distinctions, and accept that yaoi is a Japanese expression of female fantasy, not an accurate depiction of gay life, nor intended to be, nor created with males in mind. Anyway, hopefully that individual has learnt restraint, or that ML's going to erupt into one nasty unhappy flamewar. (Not the sort where people are going: up yours, bastard, and verbally pantsing each other. The sort where people say things like: you have bruised my soul and I must see my therapist.)
Goshdarn it, with all these pitas outages, leaving it has never looked so tempting. I found a redirection service that will take care of the short URL issue, but I need to find a free web host that can interface with blogger, and that doesn't have ads.
A long time ago,when I was in Slayers fandom, a couple of people set up a review site for fic. There were two problems with this project. Firstly, the people involved were manifestly unqualified to review, because they were incapable of writing intelligibly, in the technical sense. Secondly, they only did solicited reviews. The first problem was insurmountable, and finished them. Look: why do people need permission to do reviews? If you put it out there, I don't see why people should feel unable to comment. Don't most fic writers kill for C&C? Anyway, here's one site which doesn't work by that principle, via Kristi's blog. I recommend that you read the fic before you read the review, if only because it makes more sense this way. I now fear Wish lemons.
Interesting reflection here on CLAMP fandom. Yeah, I was wondering why no one ever (or rarely did) had any opinions on the actual plot of TB. I mean, what did they make of Subaru's decision to lie to the mother about what her little daughter's ghost was saying, or whether Subaru's self sacrificial attitude was admirable or a flaw? Also, isn't seeing Seishirou as the incarnation of heartless Tokyo problematic when the Sakurazukamori are as ancient as the Sumeragi clan?
DWJ vs. J.K. Rowling? Okay, I will have to agree that one should definitely read both in their entirety before making judgements, and I believe I've read nearly all of DWJ, including Everard's Ride and Witch's Business, but not the latest release of hers. Plus I have read all of Potter. Basically, I agree with what Jae says in general about them as writers, but of course HP has plot holes, because it isn't done yet. Also, regarding archetype reliance, one of the authors who vaguely reminded me of Rowling was Dahl. For example, compare the Dursley domestic situation that Harry lives in to the situation of the main character in Dogsbody. Both live with relatives after the deaths of their parents, and both are miserable, but the realism of DWJ's portrayal is what separates her from Rowling, even if it is technically fantasy because she has a dog that is really the avatar of a celestial being. Hype aside, however, I must also say that it really isn't fair to compare the two authors, because Rowling's published four books while DWJ has been publishing since the seventies and has written over twenty or so books, I believe. So DWJ automatically gets respect for her sheer range of genre. Also, what about Phillip Pullman, when we're talking about Brit kid lit? Still have to read Amber Spyglass, but he's a writer who can turn a mystery well, and he does as much epic as anyone could wish. (the Sally Lockheart series, and the His Dark Materials trilogy). Again, not to come down too hard on Rowling, who after all has many books ahead of her, DWJ and Pullman get props for not only writing well, but writing interestingly. Their themes are far more complex than anything Rowling has done, so far. I find it difficult to describe why DWJ's characters aren't, despite there being some similarities between characters in her works, "archetypal" in the way Rowling's are. Her characterization is better than Rowling's, indisputably, and I think her worldbuilding is as well. She doesn't need a series to develop a fictional world; for her, one book suffices. As for Pullman, a lot of people criticize him for his stances, his conviction really lends his work power. [I'm not referring to his dislike of C.S. Lewis. I'm talking about the Tiger in the Well, the climax of the Shadow in the North, and the historical themes of the Tin Princess. (The Tin Princess is a sequel to the Sally Lockheart series. The force behind the antagonists is none other than von Bismarck.)] I may not have agreed with some of the views implied by his fiction, but the Tin Princess and other parts prove that these ideas are not allied, as they so often are in children's lit, with a mushy simplicity. I like him because he has the sort of ruthlessness in an author not found in many. I guess you could compare it to how cruel some of CLAMP's stories are. Anyone have some good examples of authorial sadism?
Nother thing: Was just reading a fanfic and thought: why is there all this unneccessary Japanese? I prefer that Otakuese be limited to nouns (that is, things that don't exist in English, like foods, honorifics, household items, "tatami," "natto": yes, natto is horrible (fermented soybeans that look gross and smell worse. Some relations of mine like it, but I dislike it.)) and onomatopoeia (yare yare, that sort of thing). And whatever has basically become established in net fandom. Basically, if there is no reason why the concept cannot be imagined in English fairly correctly, it is better in English. Glosses for verbs and phrases are often a bad idea. ex: Ii kagen ni shiro! (directly quoting) when you could say: behave yourself!, because, if I don't know Japanese, how could I understand the nuance communicated by that, if there even is one? This fic wasn't a bad fic, but I thought this decision didn't contribute to the final result.
Hmmm. I'm posting this link again. I like this essay.
Hmmm. I wonder how much Photoshop you actually have to know to make layouts....I'm discovering paths right now. At this rate I'll be making masks soon. Currently, I'm working on this. (Yeah, envy.nu is sometimes down, so I'm using my brinkster account: I have an f2s one as well, but that's even worse) It has nothing on it but a layout, so far. I have yet to write the character profiles and put up the screencap image page. I tried to buy FB manga today, but couldn't find any. So I got Godchild instead. Durendal's doing summaries, so I'm not going to bother with those. I'm thinking of the Japanese sites I visited: no, I shall not do the animated gif overkill thing, but I shall do something like the WJ Thought.
Hmm, found this blog filled with many exciting entries on Diana Wynne Jones. Go and read it. Also, I don't know if I need to plug her: why? Neil Gaiman's already doing it. ^_^ (remember that she dedicated Hexwood to him, IIRC).
who
name: Charmian
name of blog: encircled
favorites: Angel Sanctuary, Utena, Giant Robo, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Yami no Matsuei, and so many more.
currently working on: updating website, personal enrichment, search for the perfect dessert, finding local manga storeswhat?
World Serpentcorrespondents
PETRONIA
in the tradition of lunatics
sisyphus descending
carnival of bargain madness
chiaroscuro
angry babble
a land of sugar water
honed
saint monday
lime rain
acidspit
crippled with desire
apocrypha of st. heero
revolutionary
you know you want toreferrers/admired
basic black
echoes from the void
narcissistic anima
random characters making words
freetalk
who's that?
This guy is Shanks. He usually appears more less scary, though. For more information, see this great page at Destination: Paradise
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