it's also a sensibility, something that often gets me to read stories I might not read by subject
Exactly -- I want to read a story that has an interesting take on people, an intelligent style, that sends me off pleasantly spinning with meta or daydreaming. . .
Just thinking this through in opposition to standard fandom usages . . . pairings, for instance, are a weird category because they really shouldn't necessarily matter, but given the reliance of fandom on so many fixed tropes they are often (but not perfectly) a stand-in for the writer's sensibility in the deeper sense. I mean, H/D had a fun set of issues very specifically associated with it so it attracted writers with certain specific sensibilities, which is what I was after more than H/D per se. At the same time, I can be bored silly as effectively by bad!H/D as bad!anything else. On the other hand, I had a general prejudice aginst Snape/Harry stories because certain uncongenial assumptions seemed necessary to make that even thinkable, but give me snake!Snape or fry-cook!Snape any day and I'm more than happy. So I guess I tended to use pairings as a clue to sensibility in a clue-poor environment. Still, it amuses me (in a complacent, self-regarding way) that my two probably favorite fics end up Draco/Ginny (Trilogy) and Harry/Ginny (Quality of Mercy). Yay for perversity and exploring dark and twisted recesses of the psyche!
I have indeed read (and loved!) Demon's Lexicon -- have you? I was checking back for a while to see if you had commented on SRB's comment thread. I made a comment after reading the first quarter of the book, and owe another now that I'm finished. I won't spoil you here though if you haven't read it yet, except to say it raises some really interesting issues about foreshadowing and surprises (among many, many other virtues).
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Date: 2009-06-24 09:21 pm (UTC)Exactly -- I want to read a story that has an interesting take on people, an intelligent style, that sends me off pleasantly spinning with meta or daydreaming. . .
Just thinking this through in opposition to standard fandom usages . . . pairings, for instance, are a weird category because they really shouldn't necessarily matter, but given the reliance of fandom on so many fixed tropes they are often (but not perfectly) a stand-in for the writer's sensibility in the deeper sense. I mean, H/D had a fun set of issues very specifically associated with it so it attracted writers with certain specific sensibilities, which is what I was after more than H/D per se. At the same time, I can be bored silly as effectively by bad!H/D as bad!anything else. On the other hand, I had a general prejudice aginst Snape/Harry stories because certain uncongenial assumptions seemed necessary to make that even thinkable, but give me snake!Snape or fry-cook!Snape any day and I'm more than happy. So I guess I tended to use pairings as a clue to sensibility in a clue-poor environment. Still, it amuses me (in a complacent, self-regarding way) that my two probably favorite fics end up Draco/Ginny (Trilogy) and Harry/Ginny (Quality of Mercy). Yay for perversity and exploring dark and twisted recesses of the psyche!
I have indeed read (and loved!) Demon's Lexicon -- have you? I was checking back for a while to see if you had commented on SRB's comment thread. I made a comment after reading the first quarter of the book, and owe another now that I'm finished. I won't spoil you here though if you haven't read it yet, except to say it raises some really interesting issues about foreshadowing and surprises (among many, many other virtues).