Honestly, I think a lot of it is because I could care less about the living celebrities that get written about... I liked Lord of the Rings like most geeks who didn't hate it, but the actors are not the Fellowship and thus are not one tenth as cool.
That's pretty close to my opinions on the subject, as is your comment about people being fair game for fiction so long as they've been dead long enough that nobody who knew them personally is around to get offended on their behalf. I feel... creepy.. when I ponder writing about current or near current people (which is why that Walk the Line plotbunny never got written). Even reading autobiographies of still-living people creeps me out a bit, since, while I'm reading, I project myself into the POV character. Hawkeye can bang BJ and Trapper seven ways from Sunday while I read along gleefully, but reading Alan Alda's autobiography for my mom's book club felt... wierd. And it didn't even have any sex in it ^_^.
"Lawrence of Arabia," the Peter O'toole version, is not only RPF but RPS (if that is not a nonsexual romance, my subtextometer is broken).
Scarily, I know people who've watched this film and not seen any subtext between Lawrence and Ali. Or realised that there was a sexual component to the torture scene (and that part is canon, as is, I suspect, Lawrence/Ali, given that Ali's initials are S.A., which makes me think he's intended to be the one Lawrence dedicates Seven Pillars of Wisdom to). Truly, there are people out skilled enough at ignoring any and all non-het subtext that they could compete with the collective population of Sunnydale in the Denial Olympics.
One of my friends has been making serious attempts to pimp me into that series (she's sending me some issues right now), and she's suceeded in getting me to read the wikipedia rundown and squee in anticipation. There are cyborgs! There are people with glowing red eyes! There's canon Manly!Love! (with Interesting Scars and a guy whose superpowers seem to involve glowing with heroic golden light). There's a naked girl who appears to be made entirely of silver metal! There's a truly excessive amount of violence! It's as if the entire thing was written with my subconscious in mind. There also appears to be more crack than you can shake a giant spaceship at, and occasional political commentary, but I'm good at ignoring political commentary.
The comics are on their way, and if all goes well, you ought to have them by the end of this week. ^^
I'd have gotten them sent sooner, but I was looking for a couple of the issues I knew I had lying around, that contained some truly glorious examples of the fact the while Midnighter may be the psychotic one, Apollo can damn well be a violent bastard when he pleases. Also, there are aliens on horses. I figured it would be worth the wait.
Pimping people into things is one of my great goals in life, Of course, I also owe elspethdixon for introducing me to Barbara Hambly, Sharpe, and Tombstone, amongst other things.
Also *fangirls right back*. I thought I recognized your name- you've been writing the Authority fic for http://community.livejournal.com/fanfic100, haven't you? I have to say- your take on Jenny Q is just utterly adorable.
And that's supposed to be *http://community.livejournal.com/fanfic100/*. Cause I really ought to be able to remember how to link to the damn place, as often as I've ended up visiting it.
Doesn't that happen to everyone? My usual ratio is 10 plotbunnies/WIPs to every one completed, and at that I do pretty well compared to some people on the flist.
I want to point out that while "S.A." does invite slashy speculation (and rightly so), I've read much to suggest that this does not refer to our dear Ali, who was a composite character devised for the movie (sure there were plenty of Sherif Ali's out there, but this one shares a lot of Feisal's role, later given back to Feisel in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia). The most convincing argument I've heard is for a friend (named Salim Ahmed) from an archeological dig TEL was on before the war.
Just wanted to provide that tidbit--hope it doesn't spoil anything for you! Doesn't stop me from my wild speculations about the characters played to such perfect tension in the film!
I actually know that Ali was a character created for the movie rather than a real historical figure (I went and looked everybody up after I saw the movie for the first time), but the fact that they assigned him a name with those particular initials struck me as either significant, or a pretty big coincidence, so my pet interpretation is that the writers intended there to be some level of subtext there.
If all of that romantic subtext in the film is unintentional, then I'd really start to wonder about the writers and actors ^_^.
Forgive me, you're aboslutely right; the authors were aware of what they were doing in that instance. Lawrence gets difficult to talk about because of all the layers--I'm afraid I took you to mean "real life" as opposed to "filmic reality." Sorry!
It's just another curious layer to this discussion, though: that there can exist for us a separate world of Lawrence that isn't strictly "real" but that does not offend us in its fictionalization of real people.
That's pretty close to my opinions on the subject, as is your comment about people being fair game for fiction so long as they've been dead long enough that nobody who knew them personally is around to get offended on their behalf. I feel... creepy.. when I ponder writing about current or near current people (which is why that Walk the Line plotbunny never got written). Even reading autobiographies of still-living people creeps me out a bit, since, while I'm reading, I project myself into the POV character. Hawkeye can bang BJ and Trapper seven ways from Sunday while I read along gleefully, but reading Alan Alda's autobiography for my mom's book club felt... wierd. And it didn't even have any sex in it ^_^.
"Lawrence of Arabia," the Peter O'toole version, is not only RPF but RPS (if that is not a nonsexual romance, my subtextometer is broken).
Scarily, I know people who've watched this film and not seen any subtext between Lawrence and Ali. Or realised that there was a sexual component to the torture scene (and that part is canon, as is, I suspect, Lawrence/Ali, given that Ali's initials are S.A., which makes me think he's intended to be the one Lawrence dedicates Seven Pillars of Wisdom to). Truly, there are people out skilled enough at ignoring any and all non-het subtext that they could compete with the collective population of Sunnydale in the Denial Olympics.
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I'd have gotten them sent sooner, but I was looking for a couple of the issues I knew I had lying around, that contained some truly glorious examples of the fact the while Midnighter may be the psychotic one, Apollo can damn well be a violent bastard when he pleases. Also, there are aliens on horses. I figured it would be worth the wait.
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Also *fangirls right back*. I thought I recognized your name- you've been writing the Authority fic for http://community.livejournal.com/fanfic100, haven't you? I have to say- your take on Jenny Q is just utterly adorable.
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Just wanted to provide that tidbit--hope it doesn't spoil anything for you! Doesn't stop me from my wild speculations about the characters played to such perfect tension in the film!
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If all of that romantic subtext in the film is unintentional, then I'd really start to wonder about the writers and actors ^_^.
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It's just another curious layer to this discussion, though: that there can exist for us a separate world of Lawrence that isn't strictly "real" but that does not offend us in its fictionalization of real people.
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