I finally answered Anna's questions! And a few pictures and stuff
Okay, so hamsterwoman gave me five questions to answer like a month ago or something but I'd been putting it off for srs mod biz comes first reasons and also not knowing if my facts are correct about my heritage. I decided to just ask my mom and go with what she says. deeplyunhip , this is how I would have answered your heritage question in your journal if I did :)
1) I think you mentioned in passing not that long ago (maybe even in one of these meme answers) that you have some Russian heritage somewhere along the line -- which I hadn't realized. What's your family history, on as many sides and as far back as you want to cover?
Well, on my father's side I think it's pretty much completely Ukrainian though his mother's family lived in France for like a generation. There's some story about his father's side...that my great, great (I think) grandfather was in the Ukrainian or maybe another country's army and his commanding officer was so anti-semitic and hateful so my ancestor thought it was an awesome idea to kill him, flee the country and change his name. Apparently I could have been Jasmine Shetzovelavich or something like that. XD I don't know if this story was true, my grandfather was prone to tall tales and he's gone now. He was a paratrooper (I believe?) in WWII and I think told my dad once he was the first Jew to land in Japan in that war. IDK. That could be true. But he also told him that he had to eat bloody rice in the army. That side of the family btw, every generator for several back had at least one nurse or one actor. GO FIGURE.
My mother's side I know a bunch more about. My mother's mother was part Ukrainian and part Belarus. Most of them came to america but my great, great aunt and her husband came back to be part of the 1917 Russian revolution. Later, when Stalin came to power, he was imprisoned, put in front of a firing squad and shot. My Uncle wrote like, a PHD dissertation on this so I guess there is more to the story.Through my mother's father side there is a line that has actually been in America since the 1600's. Through him I have German, Scottish, English and a wee bit of Native American blood (a 64th, woo!). Also, one of my ancestors fought in the American revolution so my mom is occasionally apt to point out that I could join the daughter's of the revolution if I wanted to.
2) How/when did you start writing plays? Is there something about plays (as opposed to other forms of writing) that make it an especially interesting/fitting/fulfilling medium for you?
I think the first time I wrote a play was in a drama camp in VA I went to in the summers as a child. When I was either thirteen or fourteen I got to write one of the skits we performed which involved me giving the group of us girls silly personalities on dueling good and evil soccer teams and something to do with an anthrax attack that had to be rewritten as "silly gas" (or something like that). The skit was really nothing but I got humongous laughs from both my fellow campers and the audience. Secret egotist that I am, I was pretty much hooked for life.
Actually, I have been writing since I was a child, making up stories in my head as I walked around, with my dolls, friends and generally getting weird stares because I talk to myself. I also come from a dramatic family. (And by this I mean, not only do we yell a lot, but music, theatre and writing are part of how I was brought up ;)). Acting was something I was exposed to from a young age with my dad even giving me coaching about the method if you can believe it. So I knew for a long time that I liked writing and acting, the choice to pursue playwriting seemed only natural.
After that summer camp experience I thought I would be naturally good at it. This was not exactly the case. I wrote a cringe-worthy send up of my friends for a playwriting class and vowed that somehow I would get better at this. And I'd like to think that after another high school playwriting class, a summer playwriting workshop and four years of college conservatory classes (not to mention dozens of beta readers with lots of advice) I have. But perhaps it was those two simple things, that I enjoyed being good at this once and that I realized I wanted to be better that really drove me.
There's also the fit with just how I think about storytelling, it's very dramatic (whether that's a nature or nuture thing, I don't know). I definitely have some cinematic and prose styled creativity and I think insecurity is part of why I haven't pursued that as much as I could... but theatre is so dialog and character driven, I love that. No need to dress theatre up in fantastic locales (thought you can) to make it magically. In theatre, everything is magic because the whole theatrical artifice is magic. Theatre is live, it's electric and anything can happen. If a woman breaks down into tears on stage, however she got to that emotion IT IS REALLY happening. It is not effects or lots of takes or descriptive phrases about sadness or anger or love or joy that you (should) see on stage. It is actually happening. Because of that, the medium tends to hit a little harder imo, despite the happy cheery musical stereotype.
I don't know, maybe I'm just pretentious. But I write pretty good dialog and fairly sparse descriptions, so dramatic writing fits my needs.
3) Inspired by your Harry Potter question: IIRC, you, Kim, and other friends of yours had this whole Marauders thing. Which one were you, and why, and how did it all start?
Well, I can't remember how it all started but Kim, Irena and I were good friends doing wacky things whenever we were free after school in high school (which wasn't often). Everyone liked Harry Potter in high school, but the three of us were sort of fanatical about the series (and lotr, which will be covered in the last question). So we always talked about what characters we "were" in everything (Kim and I called this "the character game") and somehow the marauders just fit.
Kim, the athletic, romantic, leader was James. Irena, who was more sexual and more...prone to say she had died that day (don't ask)...than any of us at that time was the obvious choice for Sirius. And me, the sometimes mediator with the surprisingly explosive temper turned out to be Remus. And if you're wondering why three relatively internet savy people would cast themselves as three of the most slashed characters...Well...people thought we were lesbians too, okay? ;)
We did(do) have a Peter. Ellie was always a bit jealous of the time we three spent together and actually straight up asked to be a marauder (like this was a serious thing). Before that we had been like "there is no Wormtail" but we figured it did kind of fit and she wanted the distinction, although I always felt guilty saying it and I think she grew to resent it a bit.
Here is a picture of us from about six years ago in appropriate order. (Kim, I'm sorry if this picture is embarrassing!) From left to right, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs :)
4) I'll ask you the same question I asked Katie: How did you feel upon first being sorted into Tyrell?
I was a little disappointed, actually. I felt that Tyrell was a cheap option since there are no Tyrell POVs. I also wished I hadn't written about wanting a yard filled with wildflowers in my ideal home since I'd never actually lived in a home like that and was just picturing a home I'd visited once that I thought was very beautiful. I wondered if this combined with the fact that I'm involved in theatre sorted me there and those two things seemed like shallow factors. I also secretly wanted to be a Targaryen or a Lannister (OMG EDGY) and sort of thought I was going to get Tully or Stark (OMG TEH GOOD GAIZ).
Yet I had definitely really liked the Tyrells in the books and good sport that I am (XD) decided to firmly go with it. It didn't take much time for me to realize that a)I was actually waaaay more Tyrell than I realized after I analyzed the house more and b) I didn't just like the Tyrells from the books, I loved them.
Now I honestly couldn't imagine myself in any other house except the Night's Watch, aka all of them at once. Pretty much every Tyrell quality applies to me, I think: sneakiness within a general code of fair play, niceness, friendliness, wit, ambition, curly brown hair, love of beauty, mysteriousness under a guise of openess, passion, knowledge of when to stay in the background and a flair for the dramatic. Plus, I was born in the spring. ;)
5) What is/was your experience/relationship with/towards LotR fandom and canon? (There must've been some, I'm guessing, given your username :)
Well, my grandmother read part of the Hobbit to me when I was younger but I forgot all about it until junior high when my friend Vera was describing it to me. I decided then and there I needed to read these books but didn't really get on it until they started having half hour promotional specials for Fellowship of the Ring on TV about a year or two later.
I didn't get the books until after the first movie (I asked for them for holiday presents) but it really wouldn't have mattered. I was already in love. (And good thing too. I wasn't a practiced reader of fantasy at the time and I'm not sure if I could have gotten through Elrond's council of exposition if I didn't know action was coming later.
I think high school was the perfect time to read the Lord of the Rings because they carried these themes of unrepressable hope and indescribable sadness and I think those are pretty common emotions for teenagers to have.
The whole story is beautiful and epic and amazing to me, but I'm an especial fan of the hobbits (particularly Bilbo, Frodo and Sam though I really like Merry and Pippin, though they got regulated to comic relief for most of the movies). Not only do I totally relate to hobbits (I'm a pretty fearful person when it comes down to it and often feel like stepping outside or going to do anything I haven't done before is a huge accomplishment...besides the fact that I love to eat, drink and sit in cosy areas) but you know...those stories are really touching ones. I still hold Frodo and Sam as my model for the purest, truest love (though I acknowledge the inherent English class prejudices going on there now) and even though I'll giggle and make the gay jokes along with everyone, I believe that it was not sexual (though it could still have been Sam's love for Frodo's soul that made him save him even if he was sexually attracted to him. )
I also was pretty big fan of Eowyn, though I admit that was even more teenage girl of me. She was touched by darkness yet she was essentially good, she pined after a guy who wouldn't look her way yet ended happy with another and...oh yeah...she's the only girl in the entire series who physically aids in the fight. What a rebel, I know. ;) (I was also a big fan of Galadriel. As a former/current/interested Wiccan I loved the goddess/priestess vibe she gave off.)
I think I was also influenced to be so into it for two other reasons. One of was simply the movies coming out once a year. I saw them in theatres over and over and despite poor choices in what was left out/left in at some points sill consider them cinematic masterpieces. The feel of those movies....and I know compliments the set is usually an indication that there was no substance but trust me, that's not what I mean...was perfect. Middle Earth came alive on screen. No matter what else you say, it was there and beautiful. The actors, the makeup, the music the freaking effects...you just can't discount that it was done so well.
The second reason is that the books (much moreso than the movies) are fairly anti-war and when I was at that a few months before my obsession, 911 happened and our city and country became a paranoid, scary, and war driven place. Reading that Frodo chose to never pick up a sword again (and I freaking wish the movies would have had him say that instead of leaving him to look incapable of combat) really captures my feelings about the world I was living in.
The series is kind of tied up into high school with me though I've read and watched it a bit since. I want to do watch through again sometime with friends buttttt I kind of am afraid of bursting out crying.
Also, it's really long.
Edit to add my favorite LOTR quote.
"...the thought pierced him that in end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was a light and high beauty forever beyond its reach " Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King.
Some other stuff I meant to say.
ASOIAF friends may know I wished with all my crackish heart for Ed Westwick to play Theon in the HBO show. I read an interview with him in some magazine and besides hearing the hilarious news that he'll be playing Heathcliff he said that he plays some game where he jabs a knife really quickly back and forth between his outstretched fingers. No joke. I was like..."HOLY SHIT CAN YOU BE ANYMORE OF A GREYJOY?" Like, it was described just like the fingerdance. What.
Also, my dad's been crazy scanning on facebook and holy shit I was a cute kid. No , really
Also, two very different book recs. The Supergirls by Mike Madrid covers the history of superheriones in comics through the gaze of the history of women in America. I really enjoyed it, it was easy to read and really fascinated me though...it was kind of also my thing, sooo...
The other is Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. It's an awesome science fiction tale which raises a lot questions about where our society is heading while making you (or at least me) want to hop on plane to Florida and ride the Haunted Mansion again. Also, you can read it for free online, the author requested this.
Whoa I wrote "also" a bunch of times.
1) I think you mentioned in passing not that long ago (maybe even in one of these meme answers) that you have some Russian heritage somewhere along the line -- which I hadn't realized. What's your family history, on as many sides and as far back as you want to cover?
Well, on my father's side I think it's pretty much completely Ukrainian though his mother's family lived in France for like a generation. There's some story about his father's side...that my great, great (I think) grandfather was in the Ukrainian or maybe another country's army and his commanding officer was so anti-semitic and hateful so my ancestor thought it was an awesome idea to kill him, flee the country and change his name. Apparently I could have been Jasmine Shetzovelavich or something like that. XD I don't know if this story was true, my grandfather was prone to tall tales and he's gone now. He was a paratrooper (I believe?) in WWII and I think told my dad once he was the first Jew to land in Japan in that war. IDK. That could be true. But he also told him that he had to eat bloody rice in the army. That side of the family btw, every generator for several back had at least one nurse or one actor. GO FIGURE.
My mother's side I know a bunch more about. My mother's mother was part Ukrainian and part Belarus. Most of them came to america but my great, great aunt and her husband came back to be part of the 1917 Russian revolution. Later, when Stalin came to power, he was imprisoned, put in front of a firing squad and shot. My Uncle wrote like, a PHD dissertation on this so I guess there is more to the story.Through my mother's father side there is a line that has actually been in America since the 1600's. Through him I have German, Scottish, English and a wee bit of Native American blood (a 64th, woo!). Also, one of my ancestors fought in the American revolution so my mom is occasionally apt to point out that I could join the daughter's of the revolution if I wanted to.
2) How/when did you start writing plays? Is there something about plays (as opposed to other forms of writing) that make it an especially interesting/fitting/fulfilling medium for you?
I think the first time I wrote a play was in a drama camp in VA I went to in the summers as a child. When I was either thirteen or fourteen I got to write one of the skits we performed which involved me giving the group of us girls silly personalities on dueling good and evil soccer teams and something to do with an anthrax attack that had to be rewritten as "silly gas" (or something like that). The skit was really nothing but I got humongous laughs from both my fellow campers and the audience. Secret egotist that I am, I was pretty much hooked for life.
Actually, I have been writing since I was a child, making up stories in my head as I walked around, with my dolls, friends and generally getting weird stares because I talk to myself. I also come from a dramatic family. (And by this I mean, not only do we yell a lot, but music, theatre and writing are part of how I was brought up ;)). Acting was something I was exposed to from a young age with my dad even giving me coaching about the method if you can believe it. So I knew for a long time that I liked writing and acting, the choice to pursue playwriting seemed only natural.
After that summer camp experience I thought I would be naturally good at it. This was not exactly the case. I wrote a cringe-worthy send up of my friends for a playwriting class and vowed that somehow I would get better at this. And I'd like to think that after another high school playwriting class, a summer playwriting workshop and four years of college conservatory classes (not to mention dozens of beta readers with lots of advice) I have. But perhaps it was those two simple things, that I enjoyed being good at this once and that I realized I wanted to be better that really drove me.
There's also the fit with just how I think about storytelling, it's very dramatic (whether that's a nature or nuture thing, I don't know). I definitely have some cinematic and prose styled creativity and I think insecurity is part of why I haven't pursued that as much as I could... but theatre is so dialog and character driven, I love that. No need to dress theatre up in fantastic locales (thought you can) to make it magically. In theatre, everything is magic because the whole theatrical artifice is magic. Theatre is live, it's electric and anything can happen. If a woman breaks down into tears on stage, however she got to that emotion IT IS REALLY happening. It is not effects or lots of takes or descriptive phrases about sadness or anger or love or joy that you (should) see on stage. It is actually happening. Because of that, the medium tends to hit a little harder imo, despite the happy cheery musical stereotype.
I don't know, maybe I'm just pretentious. But I write pretty good dialog and fairly sparse descriptions, so dramatic writing fits my needs.
3) Inspired by your Harry Potter question: IIRC, you, Kim, and other friends of yours had this whole Marauders thing. Which one were you, and why, and how did it all start?
Well, I can't remember how it all started but Kim, Irena and I were good friends doing wacky things whenever we were free after school in high school (which wasn't often). Everyone liked Harry Potter in high school, but the three of us were sort of fanatical about the series (and lotr, which will be covered in the last question). So we always talked about what characters we "were" in everything (Kim and I called this "the character game") and somehow the marauders just fit.
Kim, the athletic, romantic, leader was James. Irena, who was more sexual and more...prone to say she had died that day (don't ask)...than any of us at that time was the obvious choice for Sirius. And me, the sometimes mediator with the surprisingly explosive temper turned out to be Remus. And if you're wondering why three relatively internet savy people would cast themselves as three of the most slashed characters...Well...people thought we were lesbians too, okay? ;)
We did(do) have a Peter. Ellie was always a bit jealous of the time we three spent together and actually straight up asked to be a marauder (like this was a serious thing). Before that we had been like "there is no Wormtail" but we figured it did kind of fit and she wanted the distinction, although I always felt guilty saying it and I think she grew to resent it a bit.
Here is a picture of us from about six years ago in appropriate order. (Kim, I'm sorry if this picture is embarrassing!) From left to right, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs :)
4) I'll ask you the same question I asked Katie: How did you feel upon first being sorted into Tyrell?
I was a little disappointed, actually. I felt that Tyrell was a cheap option since there are no Tyrell POVs. I also wished I hadn't written about wanting a yard filled with wildflowers in my ideal home since I'd never actually lived in a home like that and was just picturing a home I'd visited once that I thought was very beautiful. I wondered if this combined with the fact that I'm involved in theatre sorted me there and those two things seemed like shallow factors. I also secretly wanted to be a Targaryen or a Lannister (OMG EDGY) and sort of thought I was going to get Tully or Stark (OMG TEH GOOD GAIZ).
Yet I had definitely really liked the Tyrells in the books and good sport that I am (XD) decided to firmly go with it. It didn't take much time for me to realize that a)I was actually waaaay more Tyrell than I realized after I analyzed the house more and b) I didn't just like the Tyrells from the books, I loved them.
Now I honestly couldn't imagine myself in any other house except the Night's Watch, aka all of them at once. Pretty much every Tyrell quality applies to me, I think: sneakiness within a general code of fair play, niceness, friendliness, wit, ambition, curly brown hair, love of beauty, mysteriousness under a guise of openess, passion, knowledge of when to stay in the background and a flair for the dramatic. Plus, I was born in the spring. ;)
5) What is/was your experience/relationship with/towards LotR fandom and canon? (There must've been some, I'm guessing, given your username :)
Well, my grandmother read part of the Hobbit to me when I was younger but I forgot all about it until junior high when my friend Vera was describing it to me. I decided then and there I needed to read these books but didn't really get on it until they started having half hour promotional specials for Fellowship of the Ring on TV about a year or two later.
I didn't get the books until after the first movie (I asked for them for holiday presents) but it really wouldn't have mattered. I was already in love. (And good thing too. I wasn't a practiced reader of fantasy at the time and I'm not sure if I could have gotten through Elrond's council of exposition if I didn't know action was coming later.
I think high school was the perfect time to read the Lord of the Rings because they carried these themes of unrepressable hope and indescribable sadness and I think those are pretty common emotions for teenagers to have.
The whole story is beautiful and epic and amazing to me, but I'm an especial fan of the hobbits (particularly Bilbo, Frodo and Sam though I really like Merry and Pippin, though they got regulated to comic relief for most of the movies). Not only do I totally relate to hobbits (I'm a pretty fearful person when it comes down to it and often feel like stepping outside or going to do anything I haven't done before is a huge accomplishment...besides the fact that I love to eat, drink and sit in cosy areas) but you know...those stories are really touching ones. I still hold Frodo and Sam as my model for the purest, truest love (though I acknowledge the inherent English class prejudices going on there now) and even though I'll giggle and make the gay jokes along with everyone, I believe that it was not sexual (though it could still have been Sam's love for Frodo's soul that made him save him even if he was sexually attracted to him. )
I also was pretty big fan of Eowyn, though I admit that was even more teenage girl of me. She was touched by darkness yet she was essentially good, she pined after a guy who wouldn't look her way yet ended happy with another and...oh yeah...she's the only girl in the entire series who physically aids in the fight. What a rebel, I know. ;) (I was also a big fan of Galadriel. As a former/current/interested Wiccan I loved the goddess/priestess vibe she gave off.)
I think I was also influenced to be so into it for two other reasons. One of was simply the movies coming out once a year. I saw them in theatres over and over and despite poor choices in what was left out/left in at some points sill consider them cinematic masterpieces. The feel of those movies....and I know compliments the set is usually an indication that there was no substance but trust me, that's not what I mean...was perfect. Middle Earth came alive on screen. No matter what else you say, it was there and beautiful. The actors, the makeup, the music the freaking effects...you just can't discount that it was done so well.
The second reason is that the books (much moreso than the movies) are fairly anti-war and when I was at that a few months before my obsession, 911 happened and our city and country became a paranoid, scary, and war driven place. Reading that Frodo chose to never pick up a sword again (and I freaking wish the movies would have had him say that instead of leaving him to look incapable of combat) really captures my feelings about the world I was living in.
The series is kind of tied up into high school with me though I've read and watched it a bit since. I want to do watch through again sometime with friends buttttt I kind of am afraid of bursting out crying.
Also, it's really long.
Edit to add my favorite LOTR quote.
"...the thought pierced him that in end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was a light and high beauty forever beyond its reach " Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King.
Some other stuff I meant to say.
ASOIAF friends may know I wished with all my crackish heart for Ed Westwick to play Theon in the HBO show. I read an interview with him in some magazine and besides hearing the hilarious news that he'll be playing Heathcliff he said that he plays some game where he jabs a knife really quickly back and forth between his outstretched fingers. No joke. I was like..."HOLY SHIT CAN YOU BE ANYMORE OF A GREYJOY?" Like, it was described just like the fingerdance. What.
Also, my dad's been crazy scanning on facebook and holy shit I was a cute kid. No , really
Also, two very different book recs. The Supergirls by Mike Madrid covers the history of superheriones in comics through the gaze of the history of women in America. I really enjoyed it, it was easy to read and really fascinated me though...it was kind of also my thing, sooo...
The other is Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. It's an awesome science fiction tale which raises a lot questions about where our society is heading while making you (or at least me) want to hop on plane to Florida and ride the Haunted Mansion again. Also, you can read it for free online, the author requested this.
Whoa I wrote "also" a bunch of times.