Friday Recs (Yes, it's still Thursday)

[hackthis]

Yes, these are Friday recommendations. Yes, it's still Thursday. Yes, I am sure because I'm sober. Why am I doing them today? a) Because I fucking can b) Because it's been that kind of week and c) See a & b.

Before we get to the Inception Recs, however, there are three other things that I'd very much like to draw your attention to:

a. Flowers for

Comments

[atomicskull]

Ok -

1) ♥! Thank you so much for the rec. :D

2) That Eames + Mal art - it's giving me ideas. Seriously, I should just start assuming that every Friday you'll have some new crazy inspiration for me.

3) YES TO EVERYTHING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ENTRY. Yes, Arthur is human. I think it was strzyga who said that Arthur isn't Vulcan, and there is no higher truth in the world. He's a real person with real emotions, and more than that he understand people. Also, from time to time he rolls up his sleeves and his tie is askew and he's ok with that, because he cares about his work at the people around him.

Also I think half the reason I wrote that fashion week story is because I wanted Eames to have at least one fic where he wasn't lambasted for his sartorial choices, haha. (The other half would be a desire to see Eames in a Spurr sweater with scuba divers on it. I never said I wasn't shallow/easily amused.)

Also, holy shit is that the most adorable otter EVER. <3!

[hackthis]

1) Story of my heart, bb. No lie.

2) IDEAS! I win! \o/ I like giving other people inspiration. It makes me v happy. Especially when I can't write anything at all.

3) You know how you have one thing that starts to bother you, but it's only one thing, so you let it go. And then something else starts to bother you, so suddenly now the first thing and the second thing are bothering you. Well, let's consider this set of recs, between the Mal characterization dissertion, the Eames characterization dissertation and the Arthur character dissertation, the one where I had some stuff on my mind. Both of my longer stories No One Gets Out Alive and j'veux ton amour, et je m'en fous d'après were about me getting a chance to step into the respective characters and see, as the saying goes, what's really hood.

The more I write them, the more I revise who I think they are. It helps me get to know the character. :)

[atomicskull]

I totally get this. I think it was somewhat of a challenge coming out of the movie with concrete characterizations for anyone, just because the movie was so plot driven. So people latched onto the Arthur: snappy dresser thing and... I can't actually justify where the Eames characterization of being a bad dresser came from. Americans who don't have as much access to European fashion? But I'm still not sure how Arthur: snappy dresser = Arthur: robot. I always saw Arthur who flirted with Ariadne and ribbed back at Eames and, in some way, cared about Mal.

But yeah, the more I write, the more I settle into them. I think you don't really know a character until you've churned out several thousand words of them and finally something just clicks.

[hackthis]

I know plenty of snappy dressers who are also perfectly happy to wear ripped shirts and jeans with stains. I just... there is always so much more to people than whatever's on the surface. So Arthur's a snappy dresser, and what else? What side of the bed does he sleep on? What's his favorite book? Color? Does he cry at movies? Does he even like movies? What about TV? Does he cook? What's his favorite food? His favorite place? I can only speak for myself, but what I love about writing is a chance to expand, to create. I don't ever want just one thing, I want to see everything, to discover. People are nebulous, ephemeral and inconsistent. Maybe he loves tomatoes today and hates them tomorrow, that's how I write. But that's just me

[atomicskull]

I still maintain that Arthur secretly loves movies where shit blows up, or there is a badass car chase. I bet he loves anything with Jason Stathum, haha. My mental picture of Arthur is that he has an incredible love of art and literature, but he watches trashy TV and movies because sometimes you just have to sit on your ass on the couch and not worry about a goddamn thing except what Michael Bay is going to blow up next.

(ps - your Arthur is so gorgeously, gorgeously done. I've always been in awe of what you can get him to do. He's incredibly real.)

And, oh my god, preaching to the choir on that American men have no style point. I'm lucky enough to live in Manhattan, so I do see guys who you can tell really care about their appearance and looking put together, and it is such a breath of fresh air. But chances are I'm still sitting on the subway between a bro with a popped collar and A&F flip flops (dude, it was 50 today, it's time to put them away) and the guy in ripped jeans and almost the same shade of blue t-shirt.

And ugh,

[dremiel]

You know, the more I think about it the more I LOVE what you did with Eames in j'veux ton amour, et je m'en fous d'après. I was so happy to read him as smart and creative and with a great relationship with his parents. Beyond that, though, the insecurities you gave him - the added weight of a forger needing to be loved for who he really is, his near-crippling inability to risk the things he loves most getting messed up...it's not something I would have thought of but it works so well.

Arthur's simple "We fix it" is so very HIM. I imagine that as Arthur settles into the flat the Basquiat and Severini and the sculpture slowly get moved out of the art room and into the "real world" because Eames doesn't have to hide the important stuff away to protect it anymore.

Thanks so much for sharing your character dissertations and your stories!

[fiendish_scruff]

Delurking just to give you massive props on finally saying what's been frustrating me to no end regarding Arthur and Eames' characters. I joined the fandom late and thus don't know where fanon tropes evolved from, but while most Inception fic is very well-written, certain aspects of the characters rang false after actually watching them interact on film. Fanon tropes are convenient, yes, but the characters and the actors are too complex and interesting to be reduced to that.

So yes, thanks for pointing this out, and before I re-lurk, may I say that those two fics of yours are my favourites, precisely because you write them as human. Lovely 3-D human.

/soapbox