better late than--
Can you still do this meme if you haven't posted anything in...[meep] six months?!
Pick any passage of 500 words or less from any fanfic I’ve written, and stick that selection in my ask/fan mail. I will then give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what’s ( Read more... )
Pick any passage of 500 words or less from any fanfic I’ve written, and stick that selection in my ask/fan mail. I will then give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what’s ( Read more... )
Comprehension dawns on the Reporter’s face. “You were mis-informed!”
That’s not exactly how Brad would put it, but he’s already tired of the conversation. “Sure, okay.”
I’m not sure where the idea for this story came from. Doesn’t fit with the rest of my GK stories, or really with the rest of the fandom, really. It is a story about miscommunications and misinformation: everyone is talking, and no one succeeds in actually explaining or understanding anything. Brad has climbed under his vehicle just to get away from the damn noise…
“No! It’s like…Have you ever seen Casablanca? Somebody asks Rick-that’s Humphrey Bogart’s character-how he ended up in Casablanca. And Rick says, My health. I came for the waters. And then the other character says…” the Reporter is now excitedly sketching the whole scene with his hands, “What waters? We’re in the desert! And then Rick says-totally deadpan, Bogart is great- I was mis-informed.”
Here’s the link for that scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2inLcR_1jc). The Reporter is here looking for a story, which means he’s trying to match this new experience up with stories he already knows. At first, I was really just looking for a desert story. T.E. Lawrence seemed too academic, the Crusades seemed too distant, the First Gulf War seemed too obvious…but the idea that the Reporter would find something pop-culture-y as a movie is perfect. Especially if it is not really a cool movie, and particularly if watching the movie wouldn’t actually help you understand a damn thing about fighting a desert war. Isn’t there a scene in the mini-series where he gets some ridiculous deflective maneuvers from a movie or a TV show or something? There is also the idea that Rick, like the Marines, have been lured to the desert under false pretenses (when maybe they should have known better). And Casablanca is, of course, also a movie about people giving up their personal romance in order to further their cause in wartime, so that could mean something if you want to put a slashy cast on this story.
Rolling Stone looks delighted by this punchline and Brad wonders if the guy thinks in terms of storylines and good dialogue all the time, if that’s what it means to be a writer. (yes, it is.)
He wonders what movie the Reporter has mentally cast them all in. Probably something suitable for John Wayne.
Brad rates the Reporter a step above the chaplain, here. He thinks the Reporter is too easily fooled by the romance of war. But he’s also a little curious about how the Reporter is going to make any narrative sense out of the chaos around them. Ultimately, though, he dismisses the Reporter, as he does all of his conversational partners Nate shows up and-uniquely-asks him for information. And then, of course, it’s Brad’s turn to mis-understand the question.
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/At first, I was really just looking for a desert story./ - Oh, interesting!
/Isn’t there a scene in the mini-series where he gets some ridiculous deflective maneuvers from a movie or a TV show or something?/ - OMG, there totally is, I forgot. So cool!
/There is also the idea that Rick, like the Marines, have been lured to the desert under false pretenses (when maybe they should have known better). And Casablanca is, of course, also a movie about people giving up their personal romance in order to further their cause in wartime, so that could mean something if you want to put a slashy cast on this story./ - Wow, yes, so many parallels, I didn't realize! Yes, so perfect! *nods*
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