One for Sorrow

Refusing the Call

2013-01-02T19:40:27Z

The concept, I mean. According to Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth there are these stages the hero passes through as part of that big uber-story where the hero has a thousand faces (and one of them is Luke Skywalker).

I was thinking about this concept this week because I finally saw The Hobbit and really enjoyed it. I've been resenting the fact that they took this small book and blew it up to be possibly even longer than LOTR. I just hate the whole "we're splitting this one book into more than one movie" trend and have since DH. So I wasn't in a rush to see this, but I went with a group of fellow pervy hobbit fanciers, and it turned out to actually draw me in more than I expected. Some of the ways PJ found to add more weight--both in terms of the plot and the emotions--I thought worked pretty well. One moment I really liked was Bilbo's refusal/acceptance of the call.

( More on that within... )

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Yuletide Reveals are upon us!

2013-01-02T18:51:31Z

Happy new year! I am even going to make two posts today, which has sadly become really unusual. Yuletide was great fun this year again. I've managed to do a treat as well as a story in the past, but this year I only did my story. It was really fun to write, mostly because the fandom was Quiz Show. That gave me an excuse to rewatch it over and over. If you've never seen the movie, which is about the Quiz Show scandals of the 1950s, was directed by Robert Redford and stars John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes and Rob Morrow, you might check it out. It's got a crackling good script with dialogue that's just music to the ears.

If you have seen it and care to, check out my story as well, written for linaerys. Ten years after the events of the movie (so 1968) Dick and Charlie meet up again.

Chance Meeting at the Jefferson Hotel (3999 words) by sistermagpie
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Quiz Show (1994)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Richard Goodwin/Charles Van Doren
Characters: Richard Goodwin, Charles Van Doren
Summary:

How fitting to run into Charlie Van Doren tonight when futility was so much on Dick’s mind.

Also, if you didn't see it before and like Singin' in the Rain check out my gift story:

Top Billing (3568 words) by romanticalgirl
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Don Lockwood, Cosmo Brown, Lina Lamont, Kathy Selden
Summary:

Singin' in the Rain was the end of the beginning for Don and Kathy, but what was it for Cosmo and Lina?

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Yuletide Treasure 2012

2012-12-26T23:27:39Z

Happy Yuletide!

This year I got a fantastic present:

Top Billing (3568 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Don Lockwood, Cosmo Brown, Lina Lamont, Kathy Selden
Summary:

Singin' in the Rain was the end of the beginning for Don and Kathy, but what was it for Cosmo and Lina?

Most Singin' in the Rain fic in Yuletide tends to deal with Don, Kathy and Cosmo, but I've always been most interested in Cosmo and Lina. This fic hits all my favorite bittersweet Hollywood emotions and stars my two favorite show biz survivors.

I'm still reading through the rest of the collection and have already found a lot of fantastic fics. Check it out!

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The Ships We Sail

2012-11-27T19:51:16Z

Hey! So the amazing pts had an idea a while back. The idea was:

It occurred to us one bourbon-seasoned afternoon in March that Kissing and Adventure make really excellent partners—you know, in stories. And we thought to ourselves how grand it would be to assemble an anthology of fiction dedicated to making that case.

And lo, this idea became a reality--in e-book form! Seven tales of ships (as in vessels), and ships (as in kissing), all for under $3.00.

You can check out more details right here. There's story excerpts and links to get a copy of your own in multiple formats. So much kissing in a convenient format and a really low price!

Also, I'm in it. That is, I wrote one of the stories. As did other terrific people like aliwildgoose and jlh. I'm pretty excited about that part, actually. So I'm shamelessly plugging it. Proudly plugging it, in fact.

The Ships We Sail. Get your copy today! If you would like! No pressure!

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My Dear Yulegoat

2012-10-29T01:40:02Z

It's been way too long since I updated this lj! I have been reading and commenting. This is my favorite time of year when all the great things happen: Fall, Sirens, Halloween and now Yuletide. This letter is for you, my assigned author. ( Here are my requests! )

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Mad Men: Pete and Beth Dawes

2012-07-09T01:23:55Z

So Season 5 of Mad Men is over which means I have a little bit of my life back where I'm not constantly obsessing, but there's still a lot to chew over. Especially with my boy, Campbell. Because I've read so many reviews that either ignored his story as concluded in the finale or dismissed it as confusing and meaningless. Which I do not get. Maybe the story could have been done better, given that any story with this character has to break through a wall of resistance with viewers. Far from breaking through that wall with those viewers, this story just made it thicker because unhappy!Pete is unlikeable Pete. This year Pete lost a lot of people who'd grown to tolerate him because he'd been faithful to his wife. But I think Pete's story would actually have been considered a lot more interesting if given to another character. ( But too bad, it was Pete! )

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Legend of Korra

2012-06-25T02:40:43Z

Can't believe how long it's been since I updated. I've been distracted by a lot of non-fandom things still going on, and spending a lot of time babbling about Mad Men on TWOP—no, not bashing Megan or JP’s teeth! There were times I was overdosing on her a bit and I don't think JP is that strong of an actress, especially relative to the rest of the cast, but in general, had a lot of fun analyzing Megan the character in many words! I may do a post on my thoughts about Megan--and one more on Pete because as annoying as it is for Megan-fans to read her bashing man I hate reviews that dismiss Pete's story with "I hate Pete and don't care what happens to him so his story made no sense and was dumb."

I've also been watching The Legend of Korra. I didn't have the same obsessed reaction to Korra as I didn’t to ATLA. Having seen the finale now, I just had to get thoughts out on how the storyline fell flat for me. So fair warning for criticism within--if you love the show I don't want to harsh your squee at all so please don't click! ( Korra spoilers within. )

So yeah, it just seemed like an odd series to me.

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A History of Hobos

2012-05-09T19:21:39Z

Mad Men this week saw the return of my favorite recurrent symbol: The hobo! Guest character Beth (aka Rory Gilmore) told Pete she didn't like NYC because of "all the hobos." She always made the mistake of making eye contact and giving them money, then they wouldn't leave her alone and she couldn't stop thinking about them. Her dad counseled her to ignore them since you can't help everyone.

( A brief history of hobos on Mad Men )

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Ferret, Meet Weasel

2012-04-16T19:01:46Z

I was kind of blown away by Mad Men last night. It was a night of Pete Campbell at his worst, and yet it made me realize that he's probably my favorite character. I've always perked up whenever he was in a scene and last night he just made my heart hurt. Going to bed I was like...how can you be so taken with such a nasty, sad little character nobody likes for good reason? Because he's so damn unhappy and inadequate and is cursed to try too hard and get exactly the opposite results because he just can't relax or be himself if he even knows who that self is and he's...

OMG, he's Draco Malfoy.

( Oh no. I've found another one. )

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That Boy with the Bread

2012-04-10T03:32:22Z

So! My thoughts on Peeta in Hunger Games. because he can be a controversial character. There's no getting around the inequality of the situation: the Games give Peeta the opportunity to not only be alone with Katniss, but play out a romance. While Katniss is forced into playing that role with him. The difference being that she never wanted it.

Yes, it’s a girl’s worst nightmare: forced to play out the fantasy of some guy who’s been silently pining for her for years. Yipes. So I can get why people can just never deal with Peeta, but personally I don't have a problem with him, myself. ( If you remember he’s 17 and dying. )

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Hunger Games

2012-04-07T16:07:15Z

I saw The Hunger Games last night and thought it was...okay. In general I thought the beginning part was stronger, before they got to the games. After that there were a number of things that didn't seem to translate so well on screen. Sticking in my thoughts under the cut, both on the books and the movies. Spoilers for the movie, and possibly for all three books. ( I did enjoy them all. )

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Dinosuars on Mad Men

2012-03-22T20:42:31Z

I can't believe Mad Men is back this weekend. I was not happy at the end of last season, though I loved the season itself. Waiting for the premiere, I found myself thinking about a discussion I seemed to have constantly on message boards about that show during Season 4 that made me really sad, but people felt very strongly about it.

Basically, it dealt, for me, with how you deal with multi-generational characters in fiction, especially in a historical show. No spoilers, I don't think. ( There is no right age to act. )

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It's my favorite show. I hope they cancel it.

2012-03-09T01:20:50Z

"I wish the show would just be cancelled."

I was reading a discussion about this attitude today--I happened to agree with the sentiment in this case. I would have liked if the show in question was cancelled years ago before it retconned characters and stories that made the show for me (it's a soap opera, so it's always a danger of the genre). Several people objected to the idea really strongly--on a moral level. ( Which seemed really strange to me. )

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Meta for Month-of-Meta: Disability and Breaking Bad

2012-03-02T03:01:53Z

I'm not signed up with this topic or anything, but it's meta so I'm cross-posting it here hoping it might be of interest. I've been thinking about Breaking Bad and the way it handles disability. There's probably discussions of this somewhere that I just haven't seen, I've read so many things about how Glee handles its disabled characters (in the usual Glee way, which means it's a mess), but the character of Walter Jr. is never brought up. I've kept spoilers vague and to a minimum, and I'm hoping it might make sense even if you don't watch the show. ( So here are my many thoughts on this subject... )

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What This Show Is About

2012-02-21T20:27:16Z

I had one of those click through journeys this morning, you know, where you look at something that links to something else, that links to something else and eventually you can't quite remember how you got there?

In my case it was to a Huffington Post review of the SPN episode The Man Who Would Be King. I enjoyed the review in itself since I liked that ep. I've never really been too deep in the SPN fandom but the few things I remember reading after the ep were mostly just using it as grist for the mill of ongoing fandom arguments about Castiel and whether or not Dean and Sam should kick him to the curb etc. The reviewer felt like the story of Castiel's fall is great because of how it reflects the main themes of the show about faith and doubt. It is therefore, he her view, a Hall of Fame ep. An ep that encapsulates "what this show is about." An ep that was "richly rewarding on its own terms and that also provided a road map of the themes that have made 'Supernatural' worthy of six seasons of attention"

I'm not going to argue about whether "The Man Who Would Be King" actually deserves that title (since I don't know if it's as well-loved as most eps like that usually are)... ( but the concept really is interesting--the eps that do that. )

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Chosen vs. Unchosen

2012-01-21T21:54:50Z

I've been reading a lot (or at least a few) fantasy books lately for girls and now I have feelings about Girls Who Are Special. I’m not dismissing them all with a "Mary Sue" label because they're not always written badly or as overly perfect. But there is a related wish fulfillment idea there. But I just never really related to that particular wish-fulfillment fantasy. I think, in fact, that I'm probably sometimes more forgiving about this with male characters, perhaps because I relate to them a little differently. There's a slight remove that isn't there with a female character. But regardless of the gender, ( I've always preferred non-Chosen Ones. )

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That 2012 Book Meme

2012-01-13T17:03:53Z

So everybody is doing this meme, and I got mine from donnaimmaculata:

Pick up the nearest book to you. Turn to page 45. The first sentence describes your sex life in 2012.

My nearest books are all on my Nook. I was reading two this morning. Page 45 for one is unfortunately an endnote. Surely that doesn't count? But if it did the one included phrase would be: "personal communication."

Not bad, I guess. Though if I skipped the endnotes and went to the beginning of the next chapter the first sentence would be: "Is a pen a metaphorical penis?" which offers a lot of possibilities, especially on livejournal!

Page 45 on the other book starts with: "Oui, oui, disait Grand en descendant les escaliers derriere le docteur."

The opening "Yes, yes" could bode well. Unfortunately the guy saying it is following another man down a flight of stairs, so I can't help but feeling like they're leaving me in my room while the two of them go off together. Coupled with the metaphorical penis line it's beginning to seem like my entire sex life for 2012 will be slashfic.

Just for one more I'll grab the book I finished yesterday. They're all right next to each other on the screen after all! That would be: "But it won't work if you don't believe it will, you know that."

Now that's intriguing. Intriguing and probably good advice.

Though not so much as the last possible sentence, coming from the book I finished right before that one: "His grin and his confident manner cowed everybody at the table but me and they stopped talking and made a to-do about passing him things, like he was somebody."

So I might keep a lookout for that guy!

Bonus meme: Can anybody guess any of the books?

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Hello 2012--Yuletide Reveal

2012-01-02T22:58:24Z

So Yuletide really is fun, I find. :-) I read a lot of stories I really liked. Once again I'll pimp my Nero Wolfe story, Furlough, which I now know was written by Re_White.

I wrote two stories, one as a treat. My treat was in the English and Scottish Popular Ballads fandom. measured_words talked about a fic based on the song Lamkin/Long Lankin that made sense of some of the plotholes. If you don't know the song, someone put up a video to the Steeleye Span version, the one I know, here. Lots of blood! Anyway, this is the solution I came up with:

December 8, 1957 (1966 words) by sistermagpie
Fandom: English and Scottish Popular Ballads - Francis James Child
Rating: Not Rated
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Lamkin
Summary:

Fred told Gloria to beware.

There's canon level violence (which means some character deaths) in that one. Also misogyny.

My main assignment was really exciting because it was for one of my favorite books and movies, The Haunting of Hill House. I was watching this movie nonstop around Halloween so I was in the right headspace for the assignment and a nice reread. I love Shirley Jackson! And ava_jamison and jlh for showing me what didn't work.

Fear and Guilt Are Sisters (4345 words) by sistermagpie
Fandom: Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Rating: Not Rated
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Eleanor, Theodora
Summary:

Theo thought she got away from Hill House just in time.

It takes place post-canon so there's mentions of character death and suicide as a subject.

I love bringing a little Halloween to Yuletide!

I hope everybody had a happy new year! I've started the new year off in the traditional way, housecleaning while watching a Hoarders marathon. I'm not sure how I ever cleaned before Hoarders.

Hopefully I'll get it together enough to do a list of some of the stories I loved this year, though I'm still making my way through the collection!

I hope everybody had a great

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One last stupid act of 2011

2011-12-31T15:56:08Z

OMG, I am so stupid and upset. I just broke my e-reader. I put it on the floor, put a stool on top of it and sat on the stool and cracked it. No, not on purpose. But it might as well have been for how well I destroyed it.

When I was a kid I got a flute--my first actual flute that was mine and not rented? And a few hours later I flung myself on the bed and landed on it and bent it into a V shape.

My ass is a destructive menace.

Called B&N since I only upgraded to this one a few weeks ago (*sob*) and there's something wrong with their system so I have to call back in TWO DAYS for them to send me a new one! I feel completely at a loss until then. I have library books on there! And what will I read on the train to work? And I'll have to load everything onto it again!

And why am I so stupid? And how can B&N have a problem that I have to wait TWO DAYS to call them again?

Kurt's Vonnegut's single eye glares at me in accusation out of the cracked face. Despair.

ETA: JOY! On the phone they told me I could not go into a store and have it replaced but I tried anyway. I went right to the nice guy who sold it to me exactly 2 weeks ago, and because I'd destroyed it so fast and because they were really cool and sympathetic, they replaced it for me! I have a Nook again! I AM SO HAPPY!

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Happy Yuletide 2011!

2011-12-27T02:59:37Z

I hope everyone is having a wonderful December, whatever you celebrate! I bring a lovely Yuletide gift to share!

Furlough (1391 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Archie Goodwin/Nero Wolfe
Characters: Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe
Summary:

Archie knows that this is Wolfe being polite. This is Wolfe bowing to circumstance.

Nero Wolfe--so psyched! One of the things that's so cool about Ner Wolfe is that, like comics, the series goes on for decades without the characters changing. So you have your choice of what time period to set a story. This year, interestingly, there were 3 Nero Wolfe fics that took place during WWII. I admit, mine was my favorite.:) But it was great reading this fic in context. In Black Market Blues a restless Archie goes undercover to catch some black market thugs. He's restless because Nero has pulled strings to make sure he never goes to the front.

In my story, Nero has tried and failed to pull the same strings. Archie is sent to the front, but carries Wolfe with him.

So yeah, I'm pretty pleased with my Yuletide!

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So Dexter...

2011-12-19T03:09:57Z

( Major spoilers for season finale )

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The Real Songs From the Big Chair

2011-11-23T03:47:15Z

At some point I need to do a post round up of the three plays I saw in something like a week and a half—and all really good!

Before I get to that, I had one of those things this week when a couple of things seemed to happen that commented on something I was reading and thinking myself. And it's very much related to fandom things.

I'll start with last week's Community, which as you've probably heard (hopefully not entirely from Community fans that annoy you!) is being put on hiatus. There were a bunch of comments about last week's episode, in which the Dean tried to make a commercial for Greendale college, with Abed also making a documentary about the process because, as Abed and Luis Guzman both agree Hearts of Darkness (the documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now) is much better than Apocalypse Now. The ep has naturally spawned really interesting meta about the process of having stories and how the stories create reality, because they are a way for people to explain their experience of something via emotion.

I was particularly eager to think about that because of a book I've been reading, Sybil Exposed by Debbie Nathan. Perhaps you already know Sybil, because she was a huge cultural phenomenon in the 1970s. She was the subject of the "nonfiction novel" Sybil by Flora Schreiber, which told the story of Sybil Dorsett, a woman with 16 personalities who was cured via therapy with her brilliant, caring psychiatrist, Cornelia "Connie" Wilbur. The book was huge and later was made into an awesome TV movie with Joanne Woodward (who once herself starred as multiple personality Eve in The Three Faces of Eve) and Sally Field, who until then was known for her goofy sitcoms.

I hadn't realized, since when I read/saw Sybil in high school it was years after either came out, was that Sybil essentially created the modern understanding of multiple personality/dissociative identity disorder, and the idea of repressed memories brought out through therapy. That, of course, eventually peaked in the 90s with thousands of people diagnosed with the disorder (before Sybil it wasn't even in the DSM) without half the symptoms described in the book, and many therapists sued when the memories they recovered turned out to be completely false. ( Memory, it turns out, doesn't work like a Pensieve. )

I don't if this is interesting at all if you haven't heard of Sybil, but I do recommend the classic TV movie. Apparently it was remade with Jessica Lange at some point and I didn't even know, but it's just not the same if it's not the classic tale of multiple personalities and endlessly weird, torturous child abuse.

The pajamas in this clip got them sued on homophobic grounds!

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Not For The First Time

2011-11-09T20:29:18Z

Glee is one of the weirdest shows on TV, I swear. On one hand I can’t follow it like a real show because it’s so inconsistent, but otoh it’s fascinating watching what stuff they throw at the wall every week to see if it sticks, seeing what strange ways people will behave this week and how it contradicts the strange ways they behaved three weeks earlier. Sometimes an episode will seem even weirder than usual. ( I thought last night’s show was one of those. )

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Wasn't this movie over months ago?

2011-10-14T17:43:46Z

Why is she still writing about it?

So I had an awesome weekend in Vail at Sirens, which was even better than I expected. I came back all excited about women in fantasy and with a long reading list that should keep me happily busy for weeks or months. (Just finished The Thief.) So don't ask me why I suddenly have something more to say about X-Men: First Class, which I saw months ago. If there's anyone up for meta about it, though, apparently I'm your lj! Though to link it to Sirens, it does touch on that general fantasy topic of a person's powers and personality working together.

What happened was I happened to come across an exchange about the scene on the beach that raised the possibility of Charles actually pushing Raven mentally to leave him, and that then led to ( many other thoughts )

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Starfire and the Outsiders

2011-09-22T23:46:53Z

I had stuck a couple of things up on Tumblr that can be a little grouped together here, plus there's a link to a good article, so ( Poor, poor Starfire... )

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