I really like personal Effects, and I'm trying to figure out why, so I can write an intelligent comment.
I mean part of it is the small bits. Since you're drawing on pool of 'shared experience' you don't actually need to paint the gross motivations, so it's the details we're interested in. And that this painted in spades.
You know - and I can't remember if I've chatted with you about this before or not - but that's one of the reasons why I love fanfiction as a written form, exclusive of original fiction. Because there's that "shared experience", I can write something like "Personal Effects", which tells you no backstory and relies entirely on the reader's understanding of the characters, and have it be meaningful and, as you say, detailed in the small ways without having to "clunk it up" with background.
Ah, well, that's the essence of it. It's basically my argument for fanfic as a genre in it's own, and why it isn't (necessarily) derivate and lesser original fiction.
Maybe not a genre per se... but it's certainly a very traditional form of storytelling.
I'm talking about some of the great myths and epics. Stories set in a fantastical reality, where the rules are different from normal, but well known to the audience so that the storyteller doesn't have to set the scene and back ground so much as and more focus on the details of the individual at the time. So myths of the old Greek and Roman gods, even stories of bre're rabbit probably fall into that category. If you want more recent examples, any author that sets more than 1 book in the same 'universe' is indulging in it. There are edited anthologies set in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar, or the soon to be published 'Folklore of Disc World'. Every single Arthurian legend varient, including "Le Morte D'arthur" by Mallory is a form of 'fanfiction'
So, while anyone may produced crap. And LJ isn't actually peer reviewed or edited, we are definitely traditional.
It's a good one! And you're correct, I've heard that said in the past but haven't thought of it recently.
For me, it's really apparent in shorts. Sure, I'm relying on a lot of backstory in AMoT, but some of the really technically creative pieces, like... The Normal Heart or The Natural Order of Things, where anything like it in original fiction would be completely impossible, and yet they're clearly brilliant.
OK, I've read both now. And I'm going to disagree with you. Not that they're brilliant, because they clearly are, but that they are both examples of things that would be impossible in original fiction.
The Natural Order of Things does need to reference Torchwood. It has to because there are so many references to actions that we only know about through the episodes, because it's really more poetry than anything else, and it calls on stories that we all know to evoke emotion without retelling anything of the story itself.
I don't think "The Normal Heart" does that. I think that with a word or two tweaked it could stand on it's own, and still be brilliant. (I can't actually test) Some of the implications might be slightly different, but I think "The Normal Heart" tells a "boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back" type of story (without the mush of a chick flick) that rings pretty true even without the backdrop of Torchwood.
I see what you mean for The Normal Heart - it is a little more complete in it's own. I don't think it would have the same emotional resonance without the background, but you're probably right in that it could still be read to make sense.
I mean part of it is the small bits. Since you're drawing on pool of 'shared experience' you don't actually need to paint the gross motivations, so it's the details we're interested in. And that this painted in spades.
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You know - and I can't remember if I've chatted with you about this before or not - but that's one of the reasons why I love fanfiction as a written form, exclusive of original fiction. Because there's that "shared experience", I can write something like "Personal Effects", which tells you no backstory and relies entirely on the reader's understanding of the characters, and have it be meaningful and, as you say, detailed in the small ways without having to "clunk it up" with background.
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(Doth she protest too much? ;))
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I'm talking about some of the great myths and epics. Stories set in a fantastical reality, where the rules are different from normal, but well known to the audience so that the storyteller doesn't have to set the scene and back ground so much as and more focus on the details of the individual at the time. So myths of the old Greek and Roman gods, even stories of bre're rabbit probably fall into that category.
If you want more recent examples, any author that sets more than 1 book in the same 'universe' is indulging in it. There are edited anthologies set in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar, or the soon to be published 'Folklore of Disc World'. Every single Arthurian legend varient, including "Le Morte D'arthur" by Mallory is a form of 'fanfiction'
So, while anyone may produced crap. And LJ isn't actually peer reviewed or edited, we are definitely traditional.
How's that for a rant?
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For me, it's really apparent in shorts. Sure, I'm relying on a lot of backstory in AMoT, but some of the really technically creative pieces, like... The Normal Heart or The Natural Order of Things, where anything like it in original fiction would be completely impossible, and yet they're clearly brilliant.
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The Natural Order of Things does need to reference Torchwood. It has to because there are so many references to actions that we only know about through the episodes, because it's really more poetry than anything else, and it calls on stories that we all know to evoke emotion without retelling anything of the story itself.
I don't think "The Normal Heart" does that. I think that with a word or two tweaked it could stand on it's own, and still be brilliant. (I can't actually test) Some of the implications might be slightly different, but I think "The Normal Heart" tells a "boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back" type of story (without the mush of a chick flick) that rings pretty true even without the backdrop of Torchwood.
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Welcome. They're both fabulous pieces.
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