Review of Drop Dead Gorgeous
Feb. 21st, 2007 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flyingskullAs promised, though tardily, here it is, my review of Drop Dead Gorgeous.
"… Commodified fantasy takes no risks: it invents nothing, but imitates and trivialises. It proceeds by depriving the old stories of their intellectual and ethical complexity, turning their action to violence, their actors to dolls, and their truth-telling to sentimental platitude. Heroes brandish their swords, lasers, wands, as mechanically as combine harvesters, reaping profits.
Profoundly disturbing moral choices are sanitized, made cute, made safe. The passionately conceived ideas of the great story-tellers are copied, stereotyped, reduced to toys, moulded in bright-coloured plastic, advertised, sold, broken, junked, replaceable, interchangeable. What the commodifiers of fantasy count on and exploit is the insuperable imagination of the reader, child or adult, which gives even these dead things life - of a sort, for a while. "
(Ursula K. LeGuin – intro to "Tales from Earthsea")
Why do I start with a good healthy dose of bad-fantasy-writers bashing a critique of Maya's latest – and funniest – adventure in fanfic writing? Because, once again, a decent author who thinks about the meaning and function of what she writes has hit the nail on the head: when fiction is bad in the way she describes, good writers will feel the urge to correct the superficialities and give life to the dead things, even if only for awhile.
I realise this is a very general statement to make and it's more a defence of fanfiction than a comment on Drop Dead Gorgeous, but it always starts here for me: giving life to dead things. Which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mistful does… in abundance.
So Harry and Draco as the Odd Couple of Aurorland works perfectly well. It's so SO delightful that it transcends crack and becomes fic becausemistful is incapable of writing true crack. Humanity keeps intruding. Which is as it should be, really. It's not witty or humorous or laughworthy if there's no humanity in it; even parody – or crack!fic, if you prefer – has to have real people in it to work.
Of course, what makes it parody is the constant intrusion of meta that underlines the sheer idiocy of canon: the monster in Harry's chest, the Harry Had Changed Over The Summer Into a Sex God cliché, the What Heroes Do Is Always Good By Definition amorality. She also parodies the ever-popular fanon idea that If You Are Dead Sexy You Have It Made, Mate, as exemplified in all the Happy!Veela!Sub!anyone stories.
It's not all meta, of course, as I said, humanity keeps intruding. Being on the verge of being constantly raped because you're irresistible is not funny; being a borderline sociopath who has no idea of how to function in a society is even less funny: there are the makings of tragedy here. Yet Maya writes it funny because the other face of tragedy is farce, as she knows very well, and laughter will make the Dousing With Ice Cold Water of personal tragedy all the starker.
It'smistful's compressed and lucid style that makes it work so well. Consider this:
Malfoy turned towards him, his left eyebrow and the left side of his mouth both flying upwards in that lopsided quizzical look he got sometimes. Harry ran his fingers through his hair twice, and only twice. (emphasis mine)
See how many things are expressed in two sentences: Harry's inability to read Draco's expression, to understand what emotion lied behind it; Harry's yearning to touch and his refusal to yield to it, Harry's rigid control of his reactions and the way his very control expresses his affection. I'm probably over-psychoanalysing the character here, but, at the same time it's all there, in two ironically lucid sentences.
Maya quotes constantly, not direct quotes – alright, there's a DW Watch direct quote in chapter 3 – but allusions, implications, refenceres to anything from old TV shows to fairy tales. One reversal of fairy tale cliché I particularly loved to pieces. This:
Malfoy had worked flat out for two and then fallen asleep abruptly by his desk. He’d started to coo, and Katie, with circles under her eyes, had knelt down and kissed him into silent sleep.
She’d looked up and seen Harry watching, and given him a rueful smile.
“It’s the only thing that keeps him quiet,” she said, and then laid down beside Malfoy. Even sleeping, he’d slid his arm around her.
Princess Charming kisses her Snow White Auror to silent sleep. And ain't it lovely that he coos like a dove?
And talking about old TV shows… It was true of Starsky and Hutch and it's true of Drop Dead Gorgeous – a truth universally acknowledged, I might add if I was feeling Austenish – that, no matter how many beards one throws at the protagonists, the only relationship that's central (I had typoed 'ventral', shades of Freud?) to their emotional and social life is the one they have with each other. It's so central and basic that, even if they never kiss or even hug, they are to all effects and purposes a couple, spouses, soul-bonded and double-tied in mutual dependence.
This is acknowledged here:
They were just - odd together, that was all. When Malfoy was with her he was gentle and considerate, and it seemed incongruous, as if he was a lynx trying very hard to pass for a housecat.
Which can well be Harry's jealousy talking – in a sense it is just that – but it's also a comment on how the only 'natural' relationship, the only one not fraught with trying very hard to pass for something one's not, is the one the joined-at-the-hips partners have with each other. True, Harry doesn't declare his undying passion to Draco, but he wouldn't anyway and besides he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to understanding his own jumble of violently self-centred emotions.
Right, Maya gives Harry a more-than-canon honesty about that which is why the fact that he can recognise the problem and correct his behaviour because of it doesn't jar.
To end this long and unbrilliant critique, there's a thing that… no I tell a lie, two things that intrigue me a LOT in DDD.
One is the conundrum of Draco's perceptive capability. Apparently he can read subtle signals that Harry is not aware of transmitting – alright, they could be huge anvil-like flashing neon signs as Harry is fairly oblivious of his own facial expressions – and can react accordingly, BUT is he aware of Harry's all-consuming passion? One is tempted to say that yes, he is and he's not reacting to it because he's trying not to complicate matters and would do nothing to jeopardise this 'beautiful' friendship he has with Harry now, a thing that, according to Pansy – and canon – he's wanted since he was eleven. But it's not a given. Not at all, o subtle and wise Maya. I just love to see how that will resolve, I love puzzles and this particular puzzle gives suspense and thrills in the whodunnit of the boys' ultimate personal fate.
The other is one of THE most hilarious mistake by absent-mindedness in the history of fanfics:
Malfoy had righted Dixon’s chair and was lounging in it. When he caught Dixon’s eye he smiled in a truly horrible way he’d perfected, rolled down his sleeve and showed him the Dark Mark.
Rolled DOWN? rolled DOWN?? MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Sorry, sorry but the image is totally absurdly funny. I can see Malfoy, Draco, Auror and ex Death Eater, ripping his sleeve from his shoulder to make a cloth ring around his wrist to show the Dark Mark (TM) to right bastard Dixon.
All the other characters are either extremely IC with amistful slant or delightful OCs, all – and this is extremely important – are real, fully flashed out people, even if they are kind of extras. I feel immensely for poor Chrysanthemum; I could cheerfully strangle Cuthbert (who's a very Pratchettian kind of character); I could, and in fact did, cheer Harry for punching Theophilus (who's a very Austenian character) and so on.
The one I love best, though, is Pansy. Maya is the only fanfic author I've read that can write a Pansy I can believe in, a Pansy who won't admit in public she loves unicorns, but can wear in public a PINK frilly dress, a Pansy who's intelligent and earthy and who can move on from things, a Pansy Ron deserves because in Mayaverse he's got the nous to finally move on from hero-worship and star-junkie to become his own man.
Oh, and because I'm a Draco-loving woman – no surprises here – I absolutely love Maya!Draco, the White Dove Unicorn of Sarcasm and Hiding Behind Words. And you know what? Harking back to the one real quote in the series – so far - I can actually see Draco in the Watch drawing Carrot absolutely crazy, flirting with Angua, doing impressions of Nobby and Detritus and things.
So, leaving you with this cheerful image, I conclude by saying: Your Original Works have absolute precedence, Maya dear, but please don't stop writing fics, don't stop writing DDD and, to me MOST important, don't stop writing QOM, your fanfic masterpiece. We need you to give life to that dead thing: canon.
"… Commodified fantasy takes no risks: it invents nothing, but imitates and trivialises. It proceeds by depriving the old stories of their intellectual and ethical complexity, turning their action to violence, their actors to dolls, and their truth-telling to sentimental platitude. Heroes brandish their swords, lasers, wands, as mechanically as combine harvesters, reaping profits.
Profoundly disturbing moral choices are sanitized, made cute, made safe. The passionately conceived ideas of the great story-tellers are copied, stereotyped, reduced to toys, moulded in bright-coloured plastic, advertised, sold, broken, junked, replaceable, interchangeable. What the commodifiers of fantasy count on and exploit is the insuperable imagination of the reader, child or adult, which gives even these dead things life - of a sort, for a while. "
(Ursula K. LeGuin – intro to "Tales from Earthsea")
Why do I start with a good healthy dose of bad-fantasy-writers bashing a critique of Maya's latest – and funniest – adventure in fanfic writing? Because, once again, a decent author who thinks about the meaning and function of what she writes has hit the nail on the head: when fiction is bad in the way she describes, good writers will feel the urge to correct the superficialities and give life to the dead things, even if only for awhile.
I realise this is a very general statement to make and it's more a defence of fanfiction than a comment on Drop Dead Gorgeous, but it always starts here for me: giving life to dead things. Which
mistful does… in abundance.So Harry and Draco as the Odd Couple of Aurorland works perfectly well. It's so SO delightful that it transcends crack and becomes fic because
mistful is incapable of writing true crack. Humanity keeps intruding. Which is as it should be, really. It's not witty or humorous or laughworthy if there's no humanity in it; even parody – or crack!fic, if you prefer – has to have real people in it to work.Of course, what makes it parody is the constant intrusion of meta that underlines the sheer idiocy of canon: the monster in Harry's chest, the Harry Had Changed Over The Summer Into a Sex God cliché, the What Heroes Do Is Always Good By Definition amorality. She also parodies the ever-popular fanon idea that If You Are Dead Sexy You Have It Made, Mate, as exemplified in all the Happy!Veela!Sub!anyone stories.
It's not all meta, of course, as I said, humanity keeps intruding. Being on the verge of being constantly raped because you're irresistible is not funny; being a borderline sociopath who has no idea of how to function in a society is even less funny: there are the makings of tragedy here. Yet Maya writes it funny because the other face of tragedy is farce, as she knows very well, and laughter will make the Dousing With Ice Cold Water of personal tragedy all the starker.
It's
mistful's compressed and lucid style that makes it work so well. Consider this:Malfoy turned towards him, his left eyebrow and the left side of his mouth both flying upwards in that lopsided quizzical look he got sometimes. Harry ran his fingers through his hair twice, and only twice. (emphasis mine)
See how many things are expressed in two sentences: Harry's inability to read Draco's expression, to understand what emotion lied behind it; Harry's yearning to touch and his refusal to yield to it, Harry's rigid control of his reactions and the way his very control expresses his affection. I'm probably over-psychoanalysing the character here, but, at the same time it's all there, in two ironically lucid sentences.
Maya quotes constantly, not direct quotes – alright, there's a DW Watch direct quote in chapter 3 – but allusions, implications, refenceres to anything from old TV shows to fairy tales. One reversal of fairy tale cliché I particularly loved to pieces. This:
Malfoy had worked flat out for two and then fallen asleep abruptly by his desk. He’d started to coo, and Katie, with circles under her eyes, had knelt down and kissed him into silent sleep.
She’d looked up and seen Harry watching, and given him a rueful smile.
“It’s the only thing that keeps him quiet,” she said, and then laid down beside Malfoy. Even sleeping, he’d slid his arm around her.
Princess Charming kisses her Snow White Auror to silent sleep. And ain't it lovely that he coos like a dove?
And talking about old TV shows… It was true of Starsky and Hutch and it's true of Drop Dead Gorgeous – a truth universally acknowledged, I might add if I was feeling Austenish – that, no matter how many beards one throws at the protagonists, the only relationship that's central (I had typoed 'ventral', shades of Freud?) to their emotional and social life is the one they have with each other. It's so central and basic that, even if they never kiss or even hug, they are to all effects and purposes a couple, spouses, soul-bonded and double-tied in mutual dependence.
This is acknowledged here:
They were just - odd together, that was all. When Malfoy was with her he was gentle and considerate, and it seemed incongruous, as if he was a lynx trying very hard to pass for a housecat.
Which can well be Harry's jealousy talking – in a sense it is just that – but it's also a comment on how the only 'natural' relationship, the only one not fraught with trying very hard to pass for something one's not, is the one the joined-at-the-hips partners have with each other. True, Harry doesn't declare his undying passion to Draco, but he wouldn't anyway and besides he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to understanding his own jumble of violently self-centred emotions.
Right, Maya gives Harry a more-than-canon honesty about that which is why the fact that he can recognise the problem and correct his behaviour because of it doesn't jar.
To end this long and unbrilliant critique, there's a thing that… no I tell a lie, two things that intrigue me a LOT in DDD.
One is the conundrum of Draco's perceptive capability. Apparently he can read subtle signals that Harry is not aware of transmitting – alright, they could be huge anvil-like flashing neon signs as Harry is fairly oblivious of his own facial expressions – and can react accordingly, BUT is he aware of Harry's all-consuming passion? One is tempted to say that yes, he is and he's not reacting to it because he's trying not to complicate matters and would do nothing to jeopardise this 'beautiful' friendship he has with Harry now, a thing that, according to Pansy – and canon – he's wanted since he was eleven. But it's not a given. Not at all, o subtle and wise Maya. I just love to see how that will resolve, I love puzzles and this particular puzzle gives suspense and thrills in the whodunnit of the boys' ultimate personal fate.
The other is one of THE most hilarious mistake by absent-mindedness in the history of fanfics:
Malfoy had righted Dixon’s chair and was lounging in it. When he caught Dixon’s eye he smiled in a truly horrible way he’d perfected, rolled down his sleeve and showed him the Dark Mark.
Rolled DOWN? rolled DOWN?? MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Sorry, sorry but the image is totally absurdly funny. I can see Malfoy, Draco, Auror and ex Death Eater, ripping his sleeve from his shoulder to make a cloth ring around his wrist to show the Dark Mark (TM) to right bastard Dixon.
All the other characters are either extremely IC with a
mistful slant or delightful OCs, all – and this is extremely important – are real, fully flashed out people, even if they are kind of extras. I feel immensely for poor Chrysanthemum; I could cheerfully strangle Cuthbert (who's a very Pratchettian kind of character); I could, and in fact did, cheer Harry for punching Theophilus (who's a very Austenian character) and so on.The one I love best, though, is Pansy. Maya is the only fanfic author I've read that can write a Pansy I can believe in, a Pansy who won't admit in public she loves unicorns, but can wear in public a PINK frilly dress, a Pansy who's intelligent and earthy and who can move on from things, a Pansy Ron deserves because in Mayaverse he's got the nous to finally move on from hero-worship and star-junkie to become his own man.
Oh, and because I'm a Draco-loving woman – no surprises here – I absolutely love Maya!Draco, the White Dove Unicorn of Sarcasm and Hiding Behind Words. And you know what? Harking back to the one real quote in the series – so far - I can actually see Draco in the Watch drawing Carrot absolutely crazy, flirting with Angua, doing impressions of Nobby and Detritus and things.
So, leaving you with this cheerful image, I conclude by saying: Your Original Works have absolute precedence, Maya dear, but please don't stop writing fics, don't stop writing DDD and, to me MOST important, don't stop writing QOM, your fanfic masterpiece. We need you to give life to that dead thing: canon.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
O/T sorta kinda not really
Date: 2007-02-21 05:57 pm (UTC)You know? I too thought of Calcifer instantly! GMTA!
Calcifer is love :-) I like Calcifer better than Michael.
BTW, have you seen the film?
Yes, of course. I was disappointed too. IMO that movie is Hayao Miyazaki's worst work.
What I hate most about it is that they changed her sisters into one X_x;;
When the crucial starting point of the book is that she's the oldest sister of THREE.
Why change the story so much? Why, oh why, do Howl's Moving Castle if you don't like the story?
I think he does like the story, but the Japanese never does expect an adaptation to be "faithful." That's why anime (Japanese cartoon) always diverges from manga (Japanese graphic novel/comic).
It might be also that he was taking the elements that make sense to him and discarding the elements that don't X_x;;
The number three means differently to the Japanese than to Westerners. There aren't fairy tales about three sisters or three brothers. The Asian Cinderella stories (the ones that I know, at least) have one instead of two stepsisters.
But yeah. The whole love of Howl's is all the contradiction and surprises and things falling into place. That's what I love about DWJ really :-)
Re: O/T sorta kinda not really
Date: 2007-02-21 06:34 pm (UTC)Told youse! GMTA! Me too. But then, I never supposed we readers were supposed to like Michael more than Calcifer, y'know? Michael is sort of like the 'normal' one in the general madness, methinks and works very well as a foil.
I think he does like the story, but the Japanese never does expect an adaptation to be "faithful."
There should be some limit to "unfaithful" though, like some vague resemblance to the original plot and characters. The film is like bad fanfiction.
Also:
It might be also that he was taking the elements that make sense to him and discarding the elements that don't...
Then NOTHING made sense to him except that the castle moves, Sophie is cursed into old age and Howl dies his hair.
What I really HATED about the film - and yes, I love to death Princess Mononoke, the only other Miyazaki film I've ever seen - is not that he didn't get the 'three sisters' fairy tale thing right, though that galled a lot, but that he had to go and make a war, make Howl become a sort of wolf-birdy-thingy thing which makes NO sense, that Wizard Suliman, instead of being a perfectly reasonable Welshman is a woman and a bad'un, that there was NO Wales anywhere around, that the scarecrow was all light and love and never scary no siree, that Sophie didn't have the power of giving life to things... Alright, I'll stop.
The only thing I liked, actually, were the Japanese voices which were excellent and MUCH MUCH better than the American ones. That goes for Princess Mononoke as well. I hate dubbing, even if it is for a cartoon which is, of course, dubbed from the start. Yes! I am irrational.
Sorry about the rant, luv. It's a pity because I think I like Myiazaki as a film-maker and I agree that poor Howl must be his very worst thing. I still mantain that the judges at the Venice Film Festival were prolly high on some bad shit and also that they had NEVER read the book and didn't want to. UGH.
Sooooo... what think of Maya-rant? :-D
Oh, and BTW your first 200 words just about made my millennium. It could stand as it is, after correcting a few tenses and things, BUT I want more more more MORE! I wanna hear tiny Malfoy make life HELL for Cameron, yes I do. ;) Thanks muchly, luv.
Re: O/T sorta kinda not really
Date: 2007-02-21 06:55 pm (UTC)Yeah, that makes sense.
The film is like bad fanfiction.
No arguments from me on that, lol.
Then NOTHING made sense to him except that the castle moves, Sophie is cursed into old age and Howl dies his hair.
X-D Yeah.
I do love the scene where Howl runs and catches Calcifer though. At least it's consistent with the book in that Howl didn't want Calcifer to die :-( *wibbles*
he had to go and make a war, make Howl become a sort of wolf-birdy-thingy thing which makes NO sense,
I think war is a Miyazaki fixation. He probably grew up during WWII or something. Soo many of his movies have war themes in them, even the lighthearted ones.
The Howl hybrid-monster-thingy...is a common theme in Japanese manga/anime. It's basically a physical manifestation of the overwhelming power that threatens to take over your soul, so to speak. But yeah, not in the book.
that Wizard Suliman, instead of being a perfectly reasonable Welshman is a woman and a bad'un,
I find her attendants creepy O_o
It's like lolita complex or smth. Well, the attendants look like dolls (they might be dolls, who knows)
that there was NO Wales anywhere around,
Yep I love that Howl is actually Howell. Maybe Miyazaki thinks that will disrupt the fantasy feel of the movie or smth. *shrugs*
that Sophie didn't have the power of giving life to things
That doesn't make sense, yes X_x;;
Because it takes away the whole reason of why Sophie is cursed.
The only thing I liked, actually, were the Japanese voices which were excellent and MUCH MUCH better than the American ones.
I actually saw the pirated version, which doesn't even have subtitles so haha I am clueless to the finer details of the plot. But of course, what plot? :-P
I think I like Myiazaki as a film-maker and I agree that poor Howl must be his very worst thing.
I think you'll like Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro) better than Princess Mononoke. It's like a Japanese Alice in Wonderland--complete with all sorts of Japanese folklores etc. Go watch it! It's awesome!
I have to thank Howl the movie for introducing me to DWJ, lol. The only reason I pick up the book was because I was psyched about the movie--and I always read the book before I watch the movie adaptation :-)
Oh, and BTW your first 200 words just about made my millennium.
lol thanks
It could stand as it is, after correcting a few tenses and things, BUT I want more more more MORE! I wanna hear tiny Malfoy make life HELL for Cameron, yes I do. ;) Thanks muchly, luv.
*g* I've written the middle scenes, but I need to write the beginning and the end. I'll have it beta-ed before posting the whole thing.
And yes, Draco's going to crush Cameron X-D
Cameron: "But--but--I don't understand why he doesn't love me?"
Foreman: *shrugs*
Chase: *mutters* "He was unimpressed by my winning personality too."
House: *opens door with cane* "Watch and learn, ducklings."
Re: O/T sorta kinda not really
Date: 2007-02-21 07:26 pm (UTC)Foreman: *shrugs*
Chase: *mutters* "He was unimpressed by my winning personality too."
House: *opens door with cane* "Watch and learn, ducklings."
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! God, I love you! See? We're even! :P
Okay, will get Spirited Away.
Re: O/T sorta kinda not really
Date: 2007-02-23 08:42 pm (UTC)I used to hate her with a fiery passion, myself, but she got more bearable after season one, when she got over her redeem-House trip and her damn martyr complex. These days, she's a bit of an evil bitch. And evil bitches are fun. :D
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Date: 2007-02-23 08:39 pm (UTC)My biggest gripe about the movie was... I don't know, the flow of it, I guess. Japanese movies seem to be in the habit of having endings that seem either unlikely or anticlimactic, and the plot always seems kind of nonlinear. (in this case, what I'm mostly thinking about is Howl forcing Sophie away from the city, Sophie turning the castle into rubble, Sophie then nevertheless making the castle walk again, the Witch of the Waste turning the castle into even more rubble, Sophie dropping into the past - and wasn't that gate destroyed, wasn't that the whole point? Anyway, it feels random to me, like the writer just made it all up as he went along)
Calcifer is indeed awesome. That breakfast scene with "Everyone's so mean to me!" made me laugh. =]
I second the recommendation of Spirited Away, incidentally. I loved that one, and there's no canon for it to be unfaithful to. ;)
Howl
Date: 2007-02-23 09:23 pm (UTC)Nonlinear yes. I don't really watch Japanese movies except for animation, haha.
The whole scene change thing...it's not confusing if you're used to anime. I guess the same reason why DDG's flashbacks make perfect effortless sense to me.
Calcifer is asfgjkgjl cute in the movie :-D
Not really true to the book, but I forgive it for the cuteness factor.
Re: O/T sorta kinda not really
From:DDG
Date: 2007-02-21 06:38 pm (UTC)Will most definitely rec this on my LJ.
*memories*
Also, you make me want to read Pratchett's watchguard series--which book is the first one?
And gawd! I didn't realize the reverse fairy tale going on there. SnowWhite!Draco bwahahahaha.
I personally think Draco's oblivious to Harry's attraction to him. I think this Harry has grown up and become more observant--and consequently, more in control of the signals he broadcast.
It seems like nobody has a clue whatsoever that Harry's yearning for Draco with his whole being--so I think it makes perfect sense for Draco to be oblivious. Add to that Draco's fundamental fear that he's never good enough for Harry, even as a partner (at least until Harry "crawls back" to him).
Also, although I identify most with IYaRM!Draco, DDG!Draco is slowly but surely inching to the position of my most favoritest Draco ever.
P.S. Have you read any
HP/DM, LM/SS (in the future), AU 6th year, WIP
At the start of seventh year, the Malfoys perform a dramatic double-cross and Draco educates Harry about what exactly dark magic is.
This is what's missing from Rowling's world: meaningful demarcation between "Light" and "Dark" magic. As opposed to 15 y.o. kids defeating the big bad Death Eaters (who have the Unforgivables in their arsenal) with jelly-legs jinx.
I think you'd also like her "Paper Dragons"
Draco-centric one-shot, pre-slash, where Draco works on catching something rather precious to him.
This is the fic that made me stop and take notice of her.
Re: DDG
Date: 2007-02-21 07:08 pm (UTC)*blushes like mad* Yeh, well, I love you too, dear.
Am not so sure Draco is quite that oblivious to Harry's - and Horace's - undying passion, not when he can read every Harry nuance like a book, but, as I said, I don't mind however it is resolved, I just love that I have something of a puzzle. You might very well be right.
I absolutely LOVE Paper Dragons I left her a sizzling delirious rave of a review. For some reasons, prolly because of Wings Eclipsing Night, or prolly not as I seem to remember I started to read something of her I didn't like as much as PD, I haven't read the Oath Breaker. Will proceed to do so immediately, firstly because if you recommend it, it's good and secondly because you're so bloody right about the the 'easy cliché' thing about Light and Dark magic. Personally I think JKR hasn't got the slightest idea what she's blathering about and makes it up - badly and getting worse with every book - as she goes along.
Thanks for kind words, luv. MUCH appreciated.
Re: DDG
Date: 2007-02-21 07:17 pm (UTC)I totally love Pterry so I can't really say I love the Watch as if I implied I don't love the Witches and so on, but Vimes is one of my personal favourites - actually Vimes and Granny Weatherwax make my life worth living - and the ever-growing cast of the Watchmen is a terrible joy to contemplate. Maya!Draco would fit right in.
Light v. Dark
Date: 2007-02-21 07:23 pm (UTC)Wings Eclipsing Night is her Veela!Draco series. It's my least favorite fic of hers, but things are looking up because Snape and Lucius showed up in the last chapter.
I never realize how much I love her Lucius until I literally squeed when he showed up in the end of the latest OB chapter. Haha, spoilers :-P *is evil* Well, not a spoiler unless you love Lucius.
Will proceed to do so immediately, firstly because if you recommend it, it's good
:-) *preens*
I'm v. particular about my fanfic recs, that much is true.
you're so bloody right about the the 'easy cliché' thing about Light and Dark magic. Personally I think JKR hasn't got the slightest idea what she's blathering about and makes it up - badly and getting worse with every book - as she goes along.
Yeah, Book Seven is probably her worst >_>
Oh well as long Draco doesn't die please. And if possible, Snape too.
It's such a shame about that not more fanfic writers explore the Light v. Dark tension that's so glaringly absent from canon. The only other writer I can think of that explores this tension is Mira with her SoHW. Oh! And Illuferret also--sort of.
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From:Re: Light v. Dark
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From:no subject
Date: 2007-02-21 07:59 pm (UTC)I will say something actually useful eventually, but not until this fever stops turning my brain into mush. You see, I am a man stricken with a fearsome malady, an illness most horrendous.
Well. Or maybe it's just a mild cold. It's still a pain in the rear. ^_^;
(*huggles and staggers off to bed*)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-21 08:23 pm (UTC)*laves fevered brow with cool cloth*
HUGZ and mind you take care of thyself.
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Date: 2007-02-22 07:18 pm (UTC)Now, on to your most insightful essay. :D
Malfoy turned towards him, his left eyebrow and the left side of his mouth both flying upwards in that lopsided quizzical look he got sometimes. Harry ran his fingers through his hair twice, and only twice.
I bow before your supreme literary insight. All I got out of that passage was "wow, Maya has made a fine art of making the slashers squeel, hasn't she?" =]
Which can well be Harry's jealousy talking – in a sense it is just that – but it's also a comment on how the only 'natural' relationship, the only one not fraught with trying very hard to pass for something one's not, is the one the joined-at-the-hips partners have with each other.
My take on it is that with Katie, Draco acts like the person he'd want to be. Which is why, alas, they're going to go down in flames. He thinks she's making him a better person, but he's just dreaming. He really isn't that kind, solid guy, after all - he's a sarcastic, hyper-active bastard, and sooner or later, he's not going to be able to play that role anymore.
For her part, I've got a sad feeling that she doesn't really love him (as evidenced by her being vulnerable to Veela charms), she just loves all the attention he's showering over her, and she's confused that for the real thing. It's all very sad and... Mistful-like. They're both trying so hard, but the real thing just isn't there. ;_;
The one I love best, though, is Pansy.
I love Pansy too, but as far as that relationship goes, I think I love Ron even more. He's such a guy - which is a nice change of pace in a story that centers on Harry the gay-straight-man and Draco the straight-gay-man (or is it the other way around? I forget ^_^;). He likes boobs and sports and he's completely clueless about emotional intricacies, so while he would like some true love and a long-lasting relationship, he'd rather have that just develop on its own, without him having to figure out how to make it. Which is why he needs to be with a woman like Pansy, who wears her heart on her sleeve. He'll know when she's mad at him, because she'll yell at him. And she'll yell at him about the exact thing that she's mad about, so that he'll know what it is. =]
I can actually see Draco in the Watch drawing Carrot absolutely crazy, flirting with Angua, doing impressions of Nobby and Detritus and things.
You really don't like Carrot, do you? Not that I'm all that fond of him myself, I suppose. There's nothing really wrong with him, but he's sort of limited - a one-trait character, as an unfriendly reviewer once (quite correctly, I fear) called some characters of mine... =]
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From:true love
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Date: 2007-02-21 10:49 pm (UTC)I never spotted the rolled down sleeve thing just because - well, damn it, the saying is wrong! If you're holding your arm to roll your sleeve down (down, damn it!) the direction your sleeve is going is down. Stupid inaccurate world, I defy its conventions. (Now that I've had them pointed out, that is.)
In further proof of my sheer stupidity, what on earth was the DW quote? Now I'm terrified - I'm a plagiarist! That was totally unintentional. I swear! Not that I wouldn't quote, but I signpost like a madwoman - like Draco's songs. (Oh God, I must instantly re-read my originals and check them for plagiarism!)
In re Mira above (haven't read the other author) I agree she's fabulous. Actually, Shadow, while brilliant, has the fundamental problem for me that I haven't seen Harry and Draco's relationship develop so I don't believe in it, but that's my own awkward psychology getting in the way. (I had to terminally confuse several people with allllll my flashbacks in DDG because I cannot leave Relationship Building alone. I have a problem.) But I love many of her shorts - Kailash, When It Rises is one of my top ten fics. A woman of great talent!
Conversely, I was appalled by Howl's Moving Castle. My favourite DWJ book! (Though Howl is not my best-loved DWJ character - that's Christopher Chant.)
I was really pleased to see Le Guin quoted about my humble fanfiction - I just re-read The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, and wept because it's so good. And also wept because it's so unholy depressing.
Giving life to dead things both makes me pleased and makes me laugh as I picture myself as the Voodoo Mistress of a Zombie Army. (I completely want to infuse life into cliches! And to be the voodoo mistress of a... But I've said too much.)
I was totally thinking of Starsky and Hutch while I wrote DDG (the remake, because I'm a philistine) - I do think the buddy cop dynamic is fascinating, though of course my regular complaint is that people need to be more screwed up.
I use my Ron and Pansy icon because they really are my OTP, you know, and of course I do not have any spoilerish comments to make on Draco. Except that anyone who thinks he's playing with Katie to win Harry's affections is not right.
Thank you for a really thoughtful review! While the Chief Original sits with agents, I can probably do something about QoM or DDG. ;)
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Date: 2007-02-21 11:46 pm (UTC)The DW quote was: Malfoy drank the drink. Okay it's not Malfoy, obviously, in the DW, but there was a long sequence in Men at Arms or maybe another one when all the watch is in the pub and they stare at the drink and then they drink the drink that's repeated a lot so it stayed in my sieve-like mind. No sooner read than remembered the Watch. I know it was not intentional, I DO know, but the subconscious is a fiery beast and also it bites. Sorry about upsetting you.
You're right about the H/D being sort of plopped in without a shade of how in hell it happened - my take is that Myra has it firmly in her otherwise intelligent head that Draco has done nothing with his life but pine unceasingly for Harry since the day he was born and that's why he took Sex Magick in decadent France, yes well, she's American, Draco learned Sex Magick to finally have his wicked bottom way with Harry, TEH Manly One.
Okay, I'm not kind to my fave authors, but that's me: unkind is my Subtly Disguised As A Renowed Author's Surname second name.
Ah yes, Christopher Chant love! *sigh* Alright, I do dote on Howell, but Christopher has my intelligent heart. Glad you too were appalled by 'orrible film, though.
As you prolly suspect, I love LeGuin fiercely and forever and also I kind of like unholy depressing books. I mean, I'd rather be unholily depressed by a spiffy good book than bored to death by a bad one.
You are the Voodoo Mistress of a Zombie Army! You write Harry Potter fanfic! :P
Since reading Flame and Shadow I've been firmly convinced that Pansy/Ron is the only true OTP that can reasonably emerge from canon. He needs her more than she needs him, true, after all she's got the White Dove Unicorn and he's got the heartlessl murderous controlling bitch; but at the same time I do believe Ron would be a very good thing for Pansy.
The very idea that Draco could be using Katie to win Harry had never begun to percolate in my brain! Utterly unthinkable! NO really, it doesn't work if ... alright you would never write anything so lame and it wouldn't work anyway except in a very Fangurl On The Sugar High Of A Lifetime way. Blegh, the very idea repels.
You deserve thoughtful because you write thoughtful, dear.
P.S. I don't know if you can, but if you can you really should see the original Starsky and Hutch series. It was full of gay innuendo poorly disguised as cop duo in-jokes. Was also full of Katies. The film remake was really poor and flat in comparison. Also it tried too hard. I don't like it when authors of all kinds try too hard. I don't know how hard you try, but, like an etoile dancing, I can't see it and that's all I ask: apparently effortless grace.
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Date: 2007-02-22 12:40 am (UTC)I think it's sort of implied in SoHW that Draco was involved in a Dark Wizarding cult. The sex magick is just part and parcel of the whole thing it seems.
I wonder if one day anyone will say, "Oh, she's Chinese, that's why she wrote it this way." :-P
So far most people seem to be clueless re: my non-native origin though, hah. Except if they're on my friends list, of course.
Christopher has my intelligent heart.
I know exactly what you mean :-)
He's so...*sighs dreamily*
I'd rather be unholily depressed by a spiffy good book than bored to death by a bad one.
I purposefully avoid depressing books :-P
Because when I get ticked off by a book, I carry the grudge for _years_. I'm still rather upset at Gone with the Wind.
It was full of gay innuendo poorly disguised as cop duo in-jokes.
Okay, now you make me want to watch it. Also, pop culture references that I'm clueless about because I grew up in S.E. Asia :-P
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From:China, France
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From:Italy, Shakespeare
From:French, erotism and Shakespeare
From:percolate
Date: 2007-02-22 12:43 am (UTC)It's nice to have erudite friends *g*
Re: percolate
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Date: 2007-02-22 12:34 pm (UTC)I saw some of Starsky and Hutch, and it was good and gay, but David Soul isn't as pretty as Owen Wilson - I mean, I have a less shallow reason I am not currently willing to disclose.
I don't think Draco is all that capable of emotional artifice - in canon even when he tries it it's pretty clear he's feeling, so a loving years-long relationship in the name of a master plan wouldn't work for me. Plus, it would mean Draco was psycho, and thus to be avoided as boyfriend material - in the same way that User!Ginny should be avoided as girlfriend material. Pretending to care about people in order to use them as stepping stones to the Boy Who Lived? It was a revolting thing for Ginny to do, and I was boggled by it, so I was pretty boggled when it was suggested Draco might do the same thing.
I don't think of Hermione as a murderous controlling bitch - I like Hermione, and ship R/Hr, but only as a short-term thing - but I do like the idea of Ron/Pansy very much. I remember telling a newspaper it was my OTP, and they were like 'who? what? what about the gay?'... I am a disappointment to slashers everywhere.
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Date: 2007-02-22 12:30 am (UTC)(I had to terminally confuse several people with allllll my flashbacks in DDG because I cannot leave Relationship Building alone. I have a problem.)
It was not confusing at all! You clearly set those segments apart with markers. And the feel of Harry/Draco dynamic in the present segment and the flashback segment is totally totally different.
So not confused at all! Give us more flashbacks! Yay!
And Maya, on the event of you leaving HP fandom *wibbles*, will you please oh please write a DWJ fanfic? I don't understand why there isn't a bigger DWJ fandom because so many of her books are brilliant and have lots of fanfic possibilities.
*scampers away*
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Date: 2007-02-22 12:21 pm (UTC)I doubt I'll ever write any fanfic but HP (I really prefer originals where the characters are my own and no chest monsters ever arrive) but you never know. I don't think DWJ really needs fanfic, since her books don't have HP's gappiness (and I'm not saying JKR is a bad writer, I don't think she is, I like her writing, but chest monsters and the morality of HP certainly twig me as 'gaps'). If I did, it would probably be What Happened to Malcolm from the Ogre Downstairs.
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From:Can't wait to get involved
Date: 2011-04-13 10:27 pm (UTC)Re: Can't wait to get involved
Date: 2011-04-15 08:26 am (UTC)organic acai berry
Date: 2011-04-14 06:11 pm (UTC)Re: organic acai berry
Date: 2011-04-15 08:27 am (UTC)