La Belle Kara Sans Merci: A BSG Crack-Ballad

[dionusia]

Not content with appalling the ghost of Sappho with my crackpoery, I must now make my apologies to Keats. What happens when you combine Keats' verse with "Unfinished Business"? A ballad about pilots that's become a bit more R rated than the original, that's what. This one is dedicated to my lovely f'list for digging lit geekouts -- I love you

Comments

[bop_radar]

Hello crackily loitering one! *giggles* I'm so happy you've posted--I've been itching to rec this since the first draft. :-)

'Ah, frak betide!' has become one of most favouritest parts of this poem. I could have it on an icon.

And you worked out the accent issue! Awesome!

[dionusia]

Whee! Yes, it took me long enough, huh? I stayed up late last night and got the last of the dithering out of my system, and now a drowsy numbness pains my sense, but that's okay! I'm inexpressably grateful for your beta with this, it's so much improved.

(Oh, and we definitely need to get people to make that "frak betide!" icon. *giggle* And I wish I could find a Keats one! I guess there must be one somewhere, right?)

I was reading a handy study guide online last night too, and it posed some interesting questions, I'd love to hear your thoughts on these:

Is this poem a tale of the CAG rejecting the real world for the sake of a hopeless ideal? Is the lady an evil seductress, a classic femme fatale, illustrating the destructive power of love? Or is the CAG self-deluded? Lee ignores several warning signs (her "wild eyes" and "giggles strange") and he continues to desire her, despite the wasteland he finds himself in and despite the warning of his dream. Is the pilot self-deluded? What's your interpretation of this haunting

[bop_radar]

Yeah, there's got to be Keats icons out there somewhere... I don't have any lit or text quote icon comms friended, but I know they exist.

The study guide questions are awesome!

Is this poem a tale of the CAG rejecting the real world for the sake of a hopeless ideal?
Yes.

Is the lady an evil seductress, a classic femme fatale, illustrating the destructive power of love?
Yes.

Or is the CAG self-deluded? Lee ignores several warning signs (her "wild eyes" and "giggles strange") and he continues to desire her, despite the wasteland he finds himself in and despite the warning of his dream. Is the pilot self-deluded?
YES.

What's your interpretation of this haunting ballad?
Um. Sexin' Kara Thrace comes with a high price? :-p

[dionusia]

Hee. My answer is roughly "All of the above" plus "Pilots just make me sad. Then happy. Then sad again."

How's that for sophisticated lit geek analysis, huh?

The Keats study guide I got those questions from was a fun read. "Does the knight enthrall himself?" Yup!

[grapefruitzzz]

O what can ail thee, CAG-at-arms!
So emo and so woe-begone?

Touching and profound. How could I not see that only Keats could capture the true beauty of the cabinside frak?

That was great, and makes me surmise, silent upone a peak in keyboard, that other works from similar fingers arise.

[dionusia]

Oh! Sniff. Thanks for the friending. You're wonderful. 'Round many fairer LJs have I been, which fans in fealty to Apollo hold. Perhaps then some new verse shall swim into our ken, with crackpoems spoken out loud, and bold.

[grapefruitzzz]

The many pilots beautiful
And all around did die
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on, and so did Gai
us.

[dionusia]

BWAH! A spring of love gushed from my heart. I must have more.

[hazyshade]

YAY!! I'm going to print this out when i get home from work and put it in my poetry-is-love folder :D

[dionusia]

Poetry-is-love folder! Eeee! Thanks so much! *hugs*

[dionusia]

Hee, yes, a weird concept indeed. But once the title "La Belle Kara" popped into my head, I just couldn't let it go. Thanks so much for the kind words!

[marenfic]

This is truly beautiful crack. Hahahahaha! I adore stanza II.

[dionusia]

Thanks! I used this icon of syliasyliasylia's for inspiration. (Poor Leemo! I almost can't bear to look!)

[bop_radar]

*giggles* Oh, the palely loitering one! Jamie does that face so well and so straight!