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stunt_muppet at 01:03pm on 04/02/2009 under books, college, doctor who, homework-fleeing ten-minute lj break, life, things i want to write, writing
stunt_muppet at 01:03pm on 04/02/2009 under books, college, doctor who, homework-fleeing ten-minute lj break, life, things i want to write, writing...well,I'd like to be warned for it in other people's posts*, seeing as how even seeing a link causes hours to disappear from my day.
*I am not being serious.
---
It snowed last night. Real, legitimate, fat-flaked, clumpy, sticky snow - one to two inches, probably, the most I've ever seen here in Collegeland. On those few occasions when we get snow, it's generally no more than a dusting, if that, but no - clean, picturesque snow this time. It's started to melt by now, but it was pretty while it lasted.
I do feel quite sorry for the Wednesday lab people, though.
Also, it turns out that the presentation I had to make wasn't until Thursday, which gives me a little more time to prepare. Plus, it seemed that even the teacher can't take Udolfo entirely seriously all of the time. However, the book does become much more interesting if, as she proposed in the last class, you read it as part-genre exercise, part-savvy commercialism, and part-sendup of Gothic tropes and sensibility in general. Perhaps Emily and Valancourt are meant to be that annoying, as a way of both ridiculing and warning against the excessive sensitivity popularized in literature at the time, and perhaps the long descriptive passages are Radcliffe's way of saying "That's what you want? Really? Here, then, have 600 pages of it."
The professor also put forth an interesting theory about the popularity of the loco-descriptive poem at the time, and the scenery porn in Udolfo is Radcliffe's way of engaging with that trend and possibly gaining a little poetic/literary cred for the novel, since most novels weren't considered art in their time.
I'm feeling much better about this book, anyway.
---
So. So. So you know how I mentioned a couple of times that fic where the Doctor and Jo go to 1912 and watch Houdini's Underwater Box escape? I ended up spending way too long Tuesday night thinking about it (as one does when one's avoiding one's schoolwork) and now I think it kind of has a plot. Except it wasn't supposed to have all that much of a plot - it was meant as a mostly-fluffy-but-still-subtextual historical. Now the first two or three "episodes" of it are still a historical, but the rest of it has ALIENS and OTHER DIMENSIONS and CLONES and stuff. And Houdini becomes a temporary companion. And Jo gets to escape from the Water Torture Cell (what? That's its name).
Trouble is, I don't actually know how said plot would conclude. I've got the beginning of a story and a few set pieces and random in-between elements, but every time I try to tack them together to form a story the best I end up with is the bastard lovechild of The Celestial Toymaker and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, with a little bit of The Time Meddler thrown in for flavor. This is why I don't do genfic more often, guys - I'm good at ideas. I crap out when it comes to an actual for srs plot.
Also, I, er, maaaaybe sort of wrote a Sleight of Tongue incident or two in there. I'm sorry! They just snuck up on me! And once they were there I couldn't figure out how to write them out! I fail at genfic. :( In my defense, only one of them is between the Doctor and Jo; the other's between Jo and Houdini, because if nobody's off having subtext with a secondary character it's not a real Doctor Who story.
Figuring out Houdini's "voice" is going to be a bit interesting, though.
On an unrelated note, I think there should be Four 'n' Sarah fic where Sarah Rescues A Princess and is made Queen of somewhere as a reward. No particular reason; I just want to write a pastiche of the rescue-the-princess genre of epic fantasy, except so many way better authors than me have already done that that I don't really know why I want to. Perhaps I could play instead on the parody rescue-the-princess tropes? There are certainly enough narrative tropes devoted to subverting the archetypal princess-rescue story, although how I would go on to subvert them is beyond my knowledge.
Also, I could write Sarah/OFC and nobody would hit me.
*sigh* I do wish, on occasion, that I could finish something other than shippy one-shots. I have all these ideas; they're just all incomplete, half-formed, and never get made into full stories. I end up thinking about them all the time and never doing anything with them, whereas ship!fic comes to me over the course of a day, is comparatively easier, and I don't have to figure out a plot for it.
Should get back to work now, so I actually am ready for that presentation tomorrow. Ta.
*I am not being serious.
---
It snowed last night. Real, legitimate, fat-flaked, clumpy, sticky snow - one to two inches, probably, the most I've ever seen here in Collegeland. On those few occasions when we get snow, it's generally no more than a dusting, if that, but no - clean, picturesque snow this time. It's started to melt by now, but it was pretty while it lasted.
I do feel quite sorry for the Wednesday lab people, though.
Also, it turns out that the presentation I had to make wasn't until Thursday, which gives me a little more time to prepare. Plus, it seemed that even the teacher can't take Udolfo entirely seriously all of the time. However, the book does become much more interesting if, as she proposed in the last class, you read it as part-genre exercise, part-savvy commercialism, and part-sendup of Gothic tropes and sensibility in general. Perhaps Emily and Valancourt are meant to be that annoying, as a way of both ridiculing and warning against the excessive sensitivity popularized in literature at the time, and perhaps the long descriptive passages are Radcliffe's way of saying "That's what you want? Really? Here, then, have 600 pages of it."
The professor also put forth an interesting theory about the popularity of the loco-descriptive poem at the time, and the scenery porn in Udolfo is Radcliffe's way of engaging with that trend and possibly gaining a little poetic/literary cred for the novel, since most novels weren't considered art in their time.
I'm feeling much better about this book, anyway.
---
So. So. So you know how I mentioned a couple of times that fic where the Doctor and Jo go to 1912 and watch Houdini's Underwater Box escape? I ended up spending way too long Tuesday night thinking about it (as one does when one's avoiding one's schoolwork) and now I think it kind of has a plot. Except it wasn't supposed to have all that much of a plot - it was meant as a mostly-fluffy-but-still-subtextual historical. Now the first two or three "episodes" of it are still a historical, but the rest of it has ALIENS and OTHER DIMENSIONS and CLONES and stuff. And Houdini becomes a temporary companion. And Jo gets to escape from the Water Torture Cell (what? That's its name).
Trouble is, I don't actually know how said plot would conclude. I've got the beginning of a story and a few set pieces and random in-between elements, but every time I try to tack them together to form a story the best I end up with is the bastard lovechild of The Celestial Toymaker and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, with a little bit of The Time Meddler thrown in for flavor. This is why I don't do genfic more often, guys - I'm good at ideas. I crap out when it comes to an actual for srs plot.
Also, I, er, maaaaybe sort of wrote a Sleight of Tongue incident or two in there. I'm sorry! They just snuck up on me! And once they were there I couldn't figure out how to write them out! I fail at genfic. :( In my defense, only one of them is between the Doctor and Jo; the other's between Jo and Houdini, because if nobody's off having subtext with a secondary character it's not a real Doctor Who story.
Figuring out Houdini's "voice" is going to be a bit interesting, though.
On an unrelated note, I think there should be Four 'n' Sarah fic where Sarah Rescues A Princess and is made Queen of somewhere as a reward. No particular reason; I just want to write a pastiche of the rescue-the-princess genre of epic fantasy, except so many way better authors than me have already done that that I don't really know why I want to. Perhaps I could play instead on the parody rescue-the-princess tropes? There are certainly enough narrative tropes devoted to subverting the archetypal princess-rescue story, although how I would go on to subvert them is beyond my knowledge.
Also, I could write Sarah/OFC and nobody would hit me.
*sigh* I do wish, on occasion, that I could finish something other than shippy one-shots. I have all these ideas; they're just all incomplete, half-formed, and never get made into full stories. I end up thinking about them all the time and never doing anything with them, whereas ship!fic comes to me over the course of a day, is comparatively easier, and I don't have to figure out a plot for it.
Should get back to work now, so I actually am ready for that presentation tomorrow. Ta.
apathetic
(no subject)
I thinking kissing someone takes it beyond subtext, man. XD
Sarah should totally be someone's knight in shining armor. =D
(no subject)
But but but it's not really kissing! It's an entirely chaste and honorable act of necessity in which there is simply no other way to transfer a concealed lockpick to someone who might need it. Their intentions are quite pure and under any other circumstances they wouldn't dream of being so untoward. ;)
She'd make such a good knight in shining armor, too. Spirited and heroic as anything.
(no subject)
Ooh, er, I've always sort of wanted to collaborate with someone writing fic that I could illustrate. This brief description is so very Relevant to My Interests; I would love to do accompanying art. Are you interested?
(no subject)
And I'm terribly glad to see I'm not the only one with a dark secret weakness for plot device kisses.Ooooh, that'd be so exciting! I'm very interested, and thank you so much for offering! I mean, this does mean that I actually have to hash out the plot and things so I won't just give up halfway because I don't know what I'm doing (though if you wanted to chat about it...). But I'm so, so flattered that you'd like to do accompanying art! :D
(no subject)
Hey, I'd read it! :D
(no subject)
And if there was ever a fandom for non-Sue-ish romances and/or subtext with original characters, Doctor Who is so IT, what with all the secondary-character flirtation and occasional canonical marriage.