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sabinelagrandeI always have this feeling that my journal should have some posts in it.
All I've really done today is read posts at Bad Penny. I have a special taste for fandom batshit, the really good stuff like msscribe and Cassie Claire, and it doesn't get much batshittier than that comm.
Ahh, The Draco Trilogy. The fic has a special place in my heart for being the first HP fic that was ever recced to me. I hadn't written much at the time- I think Triptych (ctrl+f "startlingly pretentious") and my completely fucking boring self-insert were the only things that I had finished (not that Miranda Silver ever was finished, but still). This was back in the early fall of 2003;![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
diagonally had juuuust started, and I was playing Draco for the first time. I'm pretty sure either Vi/Xan or Jo linked me to it, because it was OMG TEH FANNON DRACO. I'm pretty sure at that point Draco Veritas was about four or five chapters in, and it would have been long after she got banned from ff.net.
It's also significant to me because, through a combination of Bad Things That Happened, I've lost or repressed a lot of my memory of that time period. The earlydiagonally chats are among the precious few things I actually can remember. I can't remember meeting ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gunstreet_girl, or anything I learned in music theory, but I can remember reading the last chapter of Draco Dormiens. It's a funny old world.
I read Draco Dormiens with a quickness, but I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters of Draco Sinister. Two things stand out in my mind about reading it:
1. How impossibly fucking lame the whole "Magids" thing was. I think it was made even lamer by the author's note that was on the fic at the time, which said something to the effect of "lol, my friend and I made a typo, and then we thought it was cool, so we gave it a meaning". I have since learned that the term was actually plagiarised from another author, and all I can think is, why would anyone plagiarise something that sounded that fucking stupid? It's like... plagiarising Wally Lamb.
2. How much the ending of Draco Dormiens pissed me off. I've never pretended to be above shipping. While I'm not the type to get wanky about it (in public), I think it's pretty clear that there are some pairings I just don't entertain. I've gotten a lot better about it, but then I was but a young fanpoodle. I must say that this was before OotP came out and Harry/Hermione got a bad rap in fandom. But, children, I was a Draco/Hermione shipper. I was willing to extend it as far as Draco/Ginny and Hermione/Snape (which ended up being my OTP for the longest time), but no further. And I remember clearly how very disappointed I was with the ending, because it was like it was arbitrarily decided that Hermione would end up with Harry. It's a story about Draco, and there are two hundred pages creating him into this really great guy... and then at the drop of a hat she decided Harry was the better bet. Maybe I was blocking out the H/Hr development (and it has been four and a half years since I read it), but I was so disappointed that this story, which I had really loved, turned out like (how I perceived) every other H/Hr story.
Sigh. Oh, Harry Potter fandom, how I fail to miss you.
In other news, I can't decide whether or not I want to see The Golden Compass. I read the book with the stated intention of having read it before seeing the movie, but...
It's not that The Golden Compass is a bad book- I had an enjoyable time reading it, for the most part. It's just that it exemplifies the reasons that I don't like high fantasy. Pullman simply does not know when to quit. This is, quite simply, my biggest problem with fantasy. Yes, it's great that you've created this great alternate world, and isn't it interesting how there are so many changes from our own, and isn't this a cool thing that the people in this verse can do, and look at this, and look at that, and OH MY GOD MAN SHUT THE FUCK UP. STOP SHOWING ME YOUR FUCKING WORLDBUILDING NOTES AND WRITE A GODDAMNED STORY. I can't even bring myself to read The Subtle Knife, even though I have it, because all I remember is how exhausted I was when I finished The Golden Compass. I don't want to go over the bridge. Lyra can go, but I'm done, man. I haven't even figured out this world yet.
It isn't helped by the fact that I really wanted to punch Lyra in the face. My god, she won't shut the fuck up, and everybody but Lord Asriel and Coulter does whatever she says, even after they've known her for five minutes. Maybe I'm just at the wrong age to appreciate stories where the main characters are wunderkind, but I certainly didn't have the same problems with Deathly Hallows.
Also, was I supposed to be surprised by the fact that Lyra was Coulter's kid? Because it was impossibly goddamned obvious, and I hate figuring out the plot twist before it happens.
At least it didn't have any fucking dragons in it, but that is a rant for another day.
The thing that strikes me about both The Draco Trilogy and The Golden Compass is that I didn't realize how much I disliked them until I was done, and I dislike them upon reflection, when that usually doesn't happen to me.
All I've really done today is read posts at Bad Penny. I have a special taste for fandom batshit, the really good stuff like msscribe and Cassie Claire, and it doesn't get much batshittier than that comm.
Ahh, The Draco Trilogy. The fic has a special place in my heart for being the first HP fic that was ever recced to me. I hadn't written much at the time- I think Triptych (ctrl+f "startlingly pretentious") and my completely fucking boring self-insert were the only things that I had finished (not that Miranda Silver ever was finished, but still). This was back in the early fall of 2003;
diagonally had juuuust started, and I was playing Draco for the first time. I'm pretty sure either Vi/Xan or Jo linked me to it, because it was OMG TEH FANNON DRACO. I'm pretty sure at that point Draco Veritas was about four or five chapters in, and it would have been long after she got banned from ff.net.It's also significant to me because, through a combination of Bad Things That Happened, I've lost or repressed a lot of my memory of that time period. The early
diagonally chats are among the precious few things I actually can remember. I can't remember meeting gunstreet_girl, or anything I learned in music theory, but I can remember reading the last chapter of Draco Dormiens. It's a funny old world.I read Draco Dormiens with a quickness, but I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters of Draco Sinister. Two things stand out in my mind about reading it:
1. How impossibly fucking lame the whole "Magids" thing was. I think it was made even lamer by the author's note that was on the fic at the time, which said something to the effect of "lol, my friend and I made a typo, and then we thought it was cool, so we gave it a meaning". I have since learned that the term was actually plagiarised from another author, and all I can think is, why would anyone plagiarise something that sounded that fucking stupid? It's like... plagiarising Wally Lamb.
2. How much the ending of Draco Dormiens pissed me off. I've never pretended to be above shipping. While I'm not the type to get wanky about it (in public), I think it's pretty clear that there are some pairings I just don't entertain. I've gotten a lot better about it, but then I was but a young fanpoodle. I must say that this was before OotP came out and Harry/Hermione got a bad rap in fandom. But, children, I was a Draco/Hermione shipper. I was willing to extend it as far as Draco/Ginny and Hermione/Snape (which ended up being my OTP for the longest time), but no further. And I remember clearly how very disappointed I was with the ending, because it was like it was arbitrarily decided that Hermione would end up with Harry. It's a story about Draco, and there are two hundred pages creating him into this really great guy... and then at the drop of a hat she decided Harry was the better bet. Maybe I was blocking out the H/Hr development (and it has been four and a half years since I read it), but I was so disappointed that this story, which I had really loved, turned out like (how I perceived) every other H/Hr story.
Sigh. Oh, Harry Potter fandom, how I fail to miss you.
In other news, I can't decide whether or not I want to see The Golden Compass. I read the book with the stated intention of having read it before seeing the movie, but...
It's not that The Golden Compass is a bad book- I had an enjoyable time reading it, for the most part. It's just that it exemplifies the reasons that I don't like high fantasy. Pullman simply does not know when to quit. This is, quite simply, my biggest problem with fantasy. Yes, it's great that you've created this great alternate world, and isn't it interesting how there are so many changes from our own, and isn't this a cool thing that the people in this verse can do, and look at this, and look at that, and OH MY GOD MAN SHUT THE FUCK UP. STOP SHOWING ME YOUR FUCKING WORLDBUILDING NOTES AND WRITE A GODDAMNED STORY. I can't even bring myself to read The Subtle Knife, even though I have it, because all I remember is how exhausted I was when I finished The Golden Compass. I don't want to go over the bridge. Lyra can go, but I'm done, man. I haven't even figured out this world yet.
It isn't helped by the fact that I really wanted to punch Lyra in the face. My god, she won't shut the fuck up, and everybody but Lord Asriel and Coulter does whatever she says, even after they've known her for five minutes. Maybe I'm just at the wrong age to appreciate stories where the main characters are wunderkind, but I certainly didn't have the same problems with Deathly Hallows.
Also, was I supposed to be surprised by the fact that Lyra was Coulter's kid? Because it was impossibly goddamned obvious, and I hate figuring out the plot twist before it happens.
At least it didn't have any fucking dragons in it, but that is a rant for another day.
The thing that strikes me about both The Draco Trilogy and The Golden Compass is that I didn't realize how much I disliked them until I was done, and I dislike them upon reflection, when that usually doesn't happen to me.
