Days 29 & 30 (...OMG)
Wow, this may actually be the longest I've ever stuck with anything, except First Impressions. A whole month! I think this is a record.
Conclusion: 30-day memes are actually the crucial step on the road to self-actualisation. This is the great secret the self-help industry has been hiding from us ALL THIS TIME. Now that I have achieved fannish enlightenment, I can go on to greater things: more elaborate headcanon, the occasional finished story (not Subsequent Connections at present, just in case anyone was going to ask), and maybe even meta that isn't related to SW. There's a post on heteronormative assumptions in Austen slash that I've really wanted to make. Also an alternate pairing drabblefest, though I'm not sure December is the best month for it. I shall consult with my sinister cohorts.
(I want post-apocalyptic Darcy/Emma with WORLD DOMINATION like now.)
Day 29: How would you introduce a newcomer to Star Wars?
Welllll ... aside from fandom and fandom friends, everybody I know is American, and I'm not sure it's possible to be both an American and a newcomer to Star Wars. I mean, you might not have seen it -- I didn't until I was in high school -- but it's ... in a weird way, it's almost like what Henry Crawford says about the English and Shakespeare: you hear random quotes and see snippets and parodies and references everywhere, so it's familiar even if you can't remember where you heard the first 'I find your lack of X disturbing' joke or the five millionth variation on 'I am your father' or why you know that vaguely dustbin-shaped robot is called a droid and its name is R2-D2.
At least that's the way it was when I was growing up. Maybe it's a generational thing -- the prequels did come out in my teenage years -- I don't know. But these days, I'd be hard-pressed to find someone who honestly didn't know the spoilers and best lines and things.
However, in that unlikely eventuality, I would give them A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. If that person complains that they're too talky and OMG, why does nothing happen for like ten minutes at a time and why are there hardly any lightsabres and the new ones are so much better, I would never speak to her again not bring it up again. If she liked them (or better still, loved them with my undying passion), I would pass on ROTJ with the warning that it varies between mind-bogglingly awesome and really, really bad and leave it to her to determine which was which.
After that, I'll leave her to her own devices. Unless she decides to start reading Karen Traviss, in which case I think another warning would be called for.
Day 30: What would you like to see regarding the future of Star Wars?
Um.
Revised prequels without massive continuity gaps, no I don't know how it would work either but I'd REALLY LIKE IT
Any scene that was ever filmed to be available on the new Special Editions for the next generation of fans. I know a lot of people have issues with the various versions, but ... I don't. Star Wars is essentially a fairy tale IN SPACE, so getting a new variation with each generation seems appropriate to me. I just wish there were more powerful editors to help in the process, like back in the Good Old Days -- much as the entire fandom, myself included, rails at Lucas, the man has really great ideas. He just needs people to weed the great ones out from the horrible ones, and polish them and maybe rewrite his dialogue a little lot. In my happy fannish lalaland, one of these people is Harrison Ford.
Okay, and mostly I wish copyright didn't exist was different, so that the entire transformative process could happen in Ye Olde Tradition of:
Hey guys! Guys! I've had this great idea! You know that old story about King Leir? Wouldn't it be AWESOME if Cordelia didn't survive after all? No, let me explain. She comes back and everything, and then she just dies in his arms. OMG IT WOULD BE SO TRAGIC.
But in canon, doesn't she rule for ages, and then one of her nephews --
SHUT UP, MY BRILLIANT AU IS BETTER THAN CANON. Seriously, guys, am I a genius, or am I a genius?
Conclusion: 30-day memes are actually the crucial step on the road to self-actualisation. This is the great secret the self-help industry has been hiding from us ALL THIS TIME. Now that I have achieved fannish enlightenment, I can go on to greater things: more elaborate headcanon, the occasional finished story (not Subsequent Connections at present, just in case anyone was going to ask), and maybe even meta that isn't related to SW. There's a post on heteronormative assumptions in Austen slash that I've really wanted to make. Also an alternate pairing drabblefest, though I'm not sure December is the best month for it. I shall consult with my sinister cohorts.
(I want post-apocalyptic Darcy/Emma with WORLD DOMINATION like now.)
Day 29: How would you introduce a newcomer to Star Wars?
Welllll ... aside from fandom and fandom friends, everybody I know is American, and I'm not sure it's possible to be both an American and a newcomer to Star Wars. I mean, you might not have seen it -- I didn't until I was in high school -- but it's ... in a weird way, it's almost like what Henry Crawford says about the English and Shakespeare: you hear random quotes and see snippets and parodies and references everywhere, so it's familiar even if you can't remember where you heard the first 'I find your lack of X disturbing' joke or the five millionth variation on 'I am your father' or why you know that vaguely dustbin-shaped robot is called a droid and its name is R2-D2.
At least that's the way it was when I was growing up. Maybe it's a generational thing -- the prequels did come out in my teenage years -- I don't know. But these days, I'd be hard-pressed to find someone who honestly didn't know the spoilers and best lines and things.
However, in that unlikely eventuality, I would give them A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. If that person complains that they're too talky and OMG, why does nothing happen for like ten minutes at a time and why are there hardly any lightsabres and the new ones are so much better, I would never speak to her again not bring it up again. If she liked them (or better still, loved them with my undying passion), I would pass on ROTJ with the warning that it varies between mind-bogglingly awesome and really, really bad and leave it to her to determine which was which.
After that, I'll leave her to her own devices. Unless she decides to start reading Karen Traviss, in which case I think another warning would be called for.
Day 30: What would you like to see regarding the future of Star Wars?
Um.
Revised prequels without massive continuity gaps, no I don't know how it would work either but I'd REALLY LIKE IT
Any scene that was ever filmed to be available on the new Special Editions for the next generation of fans. I know a lot of people have issues with the various versions, but ... I don't. Star Wars is essentially a fairy tale IN SPACE, so getting a new variation with each generation seems appropriate to me. I just wish there were more powerful editors to help in the process, like back in the Good Old Days -- much as the entire fandom, myself included, rails at Lucas, the man has really great ideas. He just needs people to weed the great ones out from the horrible ones, and polish them and maybe rewrite his dialogue a little lot. In my happy fannish lalaland, one of these people is Harrison Ford.
Okay, and mostly I wish copyright didn't exist was different, so that the entire transformative process could happen in Ye Olde Tradition of:
Hey guys! Guys! I've had this great idea! You know that old story about King Leir? Wouldn't it be AWESOME if Cordelia didn't survive after all? No, let me explain. She comes back and everything, and then she just dies in his arms. OMG IT WOULD BE SO TRAGIC.
But in canon, doesn't she rule for ages, and then one of her nephews --
SHUT UP, MY BRILLIANT AU IS BETTER THAN CANON. Seriously, guys, am I a genius, or am I a genius?