[Meme] Eleven questions chain letter thingy
(Cross-posted from Tumblr, questions via othercat2.)
Rule 1: Always post the rules
Rule 2: Answer the questions of the person who tagged you before writing eleven new ones.
Rule 3: Tag eleven people and link them.
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1. What is your favorite obscure fantasy or science fiction novel?
Eva, by Peter Dickinson, which I guess is technically YA but basically is a beautiful, meditative story about a girl who, in an experimental procedure, gets her brain patterns copied into a chimpanzee's brain when her own body is destroyed, and about what it means to be human, and about social dissolution, and just... it will break your heart in the best way. An awful lot of Peter Dickinson's writing will do that, whether it's strictly speculative fiction or not.
Also, Jewels of the Dragon, by Allen L. Wold. Because it is ridiculous and implausible and dumb and weird and just plain FUN. (I have only ever found one of the sequels, but it seems to be the third of the series and I really want to find the second book before getting into it, since I only recognize one of the characters and Wold is relying on me already knowing and liking all of them in his opening sequence.)
What else, what else... The Thief of Always, by Clive Barker. Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees. All of Andre Norton's work, though I suppose the ones that best combine 'obscure' and 'my favorite' are Wraiths of Time and Knave of Dreams. Hmm. Can anything by L. Frank Baum actually count as obscure? Because I am very fond of The Sea Fairies, which is one of the adventures Trot had before Baum wove her into the Oz series. And also all of Meredith Ann Pierce's work, most particularly the Darkangel trilogy but also The Woman Who Loved Reindeer and the Firebringer trilogy. (Anyone who can make "vampires on the moon!" into awesome literature deserves mad resepct.)
2. What is the worst movie you’ve ever seen (that you watched anyway)?
One of the Highlander sequels, I think -- the one where Duncan kills Connor. Or maybe the two Mortal Kombat movies. I watched these on purpose BECAUSE they were bad, though. You see, in high school my friends and I had a tradition we called Bad Action Movie night, where we went to a local movie rental place, deliberately picked out the worst action films we could find, and laughed at them all the way through.
3. If you could go anywhere for an all expense paid vacation, where would you go?
You know, I might resort to throwing darts at a wall map for this. It's too hard to decide.
4. What is your favorite “guilty pleasure” reading?
Right now, Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling paranormal romance series. Damn her for having an overarching plot whose resolution I need to know!
5. What is the most unlikely pairing you can think of, and how would you make it work?
Uh. I am not the right person to answer this question. If you give me a list of, say, ten or twelve characters from any canons I know, I could answer for that particular set, but the parameters as given are too broad, particularly since shipping is really, really not my default way of interacting with fiction.
As to how I'd make it work, well, first you need an excuse for the characters to meet (if they haven't already), or some reason for them to be in the same place without immediately leaving or fighting (if they already know and hate each other). Then you just... try to get them to see each other as people -- as subjects of their own lives, not just objects in each other's stories -- who are worthy of respect and hopefully that will move on to more solid friendship and maybe kissing later on. Or I guess you could start from raw physical attraction and run the pattern in reverse, but I don't think I could write that worth a damn. (Pitfalls of asexuality, #37. *wry*)
6. Have you ever read The Witches of Karres?
No.
7. Do you read crossover fanfic? If so, what is your favorite?
Yes I do! I also write it. As for my favorite, well, favorite in what sense? The question is too broad. I will give you three favorite writers, though, who specialize in crossovers: Vathara, JediButtercup, and Speaker-to-Customers.
8. What is the strangest dream you’ve ever had?
I don't know. Go read some of these and you tell me. :-)
9. Who are your favorite writers?
Too broad a question, sorry!
10. Have you ever been visited by Eridan Hate Anon? (Or hate anons in general?)
No. I don't think I have enough of a Tumblr presence for that... or enough of an internet presence in general, really. Also my fanfiction tends not to be of the sort that rouses passions in readers one way or the other, probably because a lot of it is gen and even the shippier stuff is still pretty resolutely based on friendship rather than sex and/or genre romance tropes. I have also somehow avoided riling the really strident "Narnia is a Christian fandom, all Narnia fic must be Christian fic, and only my narrow and intolerant version of Christianity is REAL Christianity" sect of Narnia fandom, though I think that is more dumb luck than anything else.
[ETA: No, wait, there was the time I was bothered by various ff.net deletionist contingents over a disagreement about how to define 'interactive' -- I maintained then and still maintain now that second person is NOT inherently interactive, any more than first or third person are, but ff.net has not seen fit to take five minutes to clarify their terribly written rule so I suspect the deletionists are still happily harrassing others. As part of that, I did get a rabidly misogynist anonymous 'review' on one of my fics, and some pissy anonymous comments on the journal posts I made about the issue. It never spread to the rest of my life, though, and has not reoccurred with subsequent second-person stories I've posted over on ff.net.]
11. Have you ever read anything by Shirley Jackson?
"The Lottery," for high school English, because everybody reads "The Lottery" for high school English. I think it's a law. *wry* Nothing other than that story, though.
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I am no good at these games, but what the heck. Here are some questions:
1. How, when, and why did you choose your internet name?
2. What are your feelings about thunderstorms?
3. Do you have any siblings? If so, how close are you?
4. Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?
5. Who was your favorite teacher in elementary school? Why?
6. Who was your favorite teacher in high school? Why?
7. What was the last book you read?
8. What is the next book you plan to read?
9. Do you have a driver's license? Why or why not?
10. What was your first fandom?
11. If you won $10,000 with no strings attached, what would you do with it?
I will tag, um... anyone who wants to play and happens to read this, I guess. (I told you I was no good at these games. Ah well. Such is life.)
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
Rule 1: Always post the rules
Rule 2: Answer the questions of the person who tagged you before writing eleven new ones.
Rule 3: Tag eleven people and link them.
-----
1. What is your favorite obscure fantasy or science fiction novel?
Eva, by Peter Dickinson, which I guess is technically YA but basically is a beautiful, meditative story about a girl who, in an experimental procedure, gets her brain patterns copied into a chimpanzee's brain when her own body is destroyed, and about what it means to be human, and about social dissolution, and just... it will break your heart in the best way. An awful lot of Peter Dickinson's writing will do that, whether it's strictly speculative fiction or not.
Also, Jewels of the Dragon, by Allen L. Wold. Because it is ridiculous and implausible and dumb and weird and just plain FUN. (I have only ever found one of the sequels, but it seems to be the third of the series and I really want to find the second book before getting into it, since I only recognize one of the characters and Wold is relying on me already knowing and liking all of them in his opening sequence.)
What else, what else... The Thief of Always, by Clive Barker. Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees. All of Andre Norton's work, though I suppose the ones that best combine 'obscure' and 'my favorite' are Wraiths of Time and Knave of Dreams. Hmm. Can anything by L. Frank Baum actually count as obscure? Because I am very fond of The Sea Fairies, which is one of the adventures Trot had before Baum wove her into the Oz series. And also all of Meredith Ann Pierce's work, most particularly the Darkangel trilogy but also The Woman Who Loved Reindeer and the Firebringer trilogy. (Anyone who can make "vampires on the moon!" into awesome literature deserves mad resepct.)
2. What is the worst movie you’ve ever seen (that you watched anyway)?
One of the Highlander sequels, I think -- the one where Duncan kills Connor. Or maybe the two Mortal Kombat movies. I watched these on purpose BECAUSE they were bad, though. You see, in high school my friends and I had a tradition we called Bad Action Movie night, where we went to a local movie rental place, deliberately picked out the worst action films we could find, and laughed at them all the way through.
3. If you could go anywhere for an all expense paid vacation, where would you go?
You know, I might resort to throwing darts at a wall map for this. It's too hard to decide.
4. What is your favorite “guilty pleasure” reading?
Right now, Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling paranormal romance series. Damn her for having an overarching plot whose resolution I need to know!
5. What is the most unlikely pairing you can think of, and how would you make it work?
Uh. I am not the right person to answer this question. If you give me a list of, say, ten or twelve characters from any canons I know, I could answer for that particular set, but the parameters as given are too broad, particularly since shipping is really, really not my default way of interacting with fiction.
As to how I'd make it work, well, first you need an excuse for the characters to meet (if they haven't already), or some reason for them to be in the same place without immediately leaving or fighting (if they already know and hate each other). Then you just... try to get them to see each other as people -- as subjects of their own lives, not just objects in each other's stories -- who are worthy of respect and hopefully that will move on to more solid friendship and maybe kissing later on. Or I guess you could start from raw physical attraction and run the pattern in reverse, but I don't think I could write that worth a damn. (Pitfalls of asexuality, #37. *wry*)
6. Have you ever read The Witches of Karres?
No.
7. Do you read crossover fanfic? If so, what is your favorite?
Yes I do! I also write it. As for my favorite, well, favorite in what sense? The question is too broad. I will give you three favorite writers, though, who specialize in crossovers: Vathara, JediButtercup, and Speaker-to-Customers.
8. What is the strangest dream you’ve ever had?
I don't know. Go read some of these and you tell me. :-)
9. Who are your favorite writers?
Too broad a question, sorry!
10. Have you ever been visited by Eridan Hate Anon? (Or hate anons in general?)
No. I don't think I have enough of a Tumblr presence for that... or enough of an internet presence in general, really. Also my fanfiction tends not to be of the sort that rouses passions in readers one way or the other, probably because a lot of it is gen and even the shippier stuff is still pretty resolutely based on friendship rather than sex and/or genre romance tropes. I have also somehow avoided riling the really strident "Narnia is a Christian fandom, all Narnia fic must be Christian fic, and only my narrow and intolerant version of Christianity is REAL Christianity" sect of Narnia fandom, though I think that is more dumb luck than anything else.
[ETA: No, wait, there was the time I was bothered by various ff.net deletionist contingents over a disagreement about how to define 'interactive' -- I maintained then and still maintain now that second person is NOT inherently interactive, any more than first or third person are, but ff.net has not seen fit to take five minutes to clarify their terribly written rule so I suspect the deletionists are still happily harrassing others. As part of that, I did get a rabidly misogynist anonymous 'review' on one of my fics, and some pissy anonymous comments on the journal posts I made about the issue. It never spread to the rest of my life, though, and has not reoccurred with subsequent second-person stories I've posted over on ff.net.]
11. Have you ever read anything by Shirley Jackson?
"The Lottery," for high school English, because everybody reads "The Lottery" for high school English. I think it's a law. *wry* Nothing other than that story, though.
-----
I am no good at these games, but what the heck. Here are some questions:
1. How, when, and why did you choose your internet name?
2. What are your feelings about thunderstorms?
3. Do you have any siblings? If so, how close are you?
4. Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?
5. Who was your favorite teacher in elementary school? Why?
6. Who was your favorite teacher in high school? Why?
7. What was the last book you read?
8. What is the next book you plan to read?
9. Do you have a driver's license? Why or why not?
10. What was your first fandom?
11. If you won $10,000 with no strings attached, what would you do with it?
I will tag, um... anyone who wants to play and happens to read this, I guess. (I told you I was no good at these games. Ah well. Such is life.)
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)