Hee, since I was part of the team translating Aspen's fic into French, I only recognized that line because I beta read that chappie:"S'il y avait une chose que Harry Potter aimait plus que les chocogrenouilles ou les plumes en sucre, c'était de recevoir du courrier de ses amis." I don't think I'd have recognized it otherwise.
As for the most memorable fiction one for me, it's also in French, roughly translates;
Today my mother died. Or maybe it was yesterday. I no longer recall. What a shame that this first line from Albert Camus' "The Stranger" is indelibly etched in my memory, because I truly despise the book.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... Of course, from Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities."
Call me Ishmael. Melville's "Moby Dick."
As for fanfic, my all time fav is If you are prepared... by Cybele. Even typing it makes me shiver.
I'll also add two opening lines by Lychee--I've a definite French bent, but the lines are striking in both languages, especially the one from "Sixty-three Days."
The first day after the victory of Voldemort, Harry Potter defied. from "Sixty-three Days." (Le premier jour suivant la victoire de Voldemort, Harry Potter défia.)
Harry purred when Severus Snape began to caress his back. from "Everybody Wants to be a Cat." (Harry ronronna quand Severus Snape entreprit de lui caresser le dos.)
Severus Snape was seducing Harry Potter with red. from dementordelta's "Seeing Red, one of the most stunningly erotic Snarrys I've ever red (hmmm.)
My fav line from my own fics is, surprisingly, not from a Snarry, but from "Final Fugue."
Your eyes open slowly, taking time to adjust to the light streaming in through the window. This was my one and only flirtation with 2nd person POV (good riddance).
I'm amazed how well my French stood up to this post! I took French before I realized that while I was hopeless at *speaking* languages other than English, I could learn to read them very quickly. I should go back to it.
Odd, I almost added the quote from Camus, but I decided that translations were unfair, because they differ so much. (Otherwise Kafka and Anna Karenina would probably also have made it onto the list.) Although I can't imagine that The Stranger's first line is ever translated that differently; it is simple, direct, and much too well known. I didn't love The Stranger, but I think my reading of it is overshadowed by reading Sartre's Nausea directly afterwords, which made me feel physically ill while I read it. (And yes, it was a class, why do you ask? We followed with Duras' The Lover, and that pretty much wiped out the 16 yo me.)
I agree with you about "Seeing Red" - the visual imagery in that fic is stunning. The whole fic is incredibly sensual, and it definitely ranks up there with one of the more erotic Snarrys.
I'll have to reread "Final Fugue" now, thinking of the first line. Interesting that you chose this line as your favorite first, since it is so different from your other stories. Any insight as to why? (I'm having a nosy week.)
Have all of Lychee's fics been translated, or at least the ones mentioned above? Because now I really want to read about Severus and cat-Harry. *g*
Héhé--puisque tu m'as avoué que tu as bien compris mon dernier, je vais donc te harceler un peu plus. Mouais, La Nausée (foutu livre) m'as fortement donné envie de vomir moi aussi; je déteste l'existentionalisme de tout mon coeur, et je te jure que dés ces temps là, je n'en ai jamais lu un seul mot...un point c'est tout.
Hmm, Final Fugue, I actually cried when I was writing it...it is sad, but my beta kept sending it back because I kept screwing up the 2nd person POV. I wanted to celebrate with a bottle of the bubbly after sending it off to Sycophant Hex as my Spring Faire entry (you said you wanted a story, so you're getting one). After the winners were announced, it took them weeks to post all the entries, and guess what? Mine was missing. Seems they 'misplaced' it. So after all that, Metamuse had me send it to her and she posted it right away. It had some kind of mojo on it, I'm convinced. From that very first line with the word 'you' in it, to its sorry, ignominous posting, it was the child from hell. But it stretched me as a writer (ever notice how those are always painful experiences? My other was a Percy fic--snort.).
All of Lychee's Snarrys have been translated, as well as a Harry/Ron and a Twins/Severus. You can find all of them on hpfandom.net. Most of the Snarrys are on WTP as well. And I now have in my grubby little hands the long awaited sequel to "Cat." If you haven't read it yet, you're in for a treat. It's the fic for which she's famous in French fandom. I've already started to translate. Miam.
You may harass me in French all you want; fortunately for you, my own skills are not up to the job of responding. Although I could give it a whack in Latin if I got less lazy. *g*
Existentialist literature made me want to hit my head against a brick wall repeatedly. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out of the credit hours; fortunately, it was only one class one semester. But ow! I actually didn't mind Camus' The Plague, but you couldn't get me to touch Sartre again. No one should ever start with Nausea if they are expected to read more Sartre. Eeecch. (Insert cat vomiting noise here.)
I'm so impressed you attempted 2nd person POV. I have massive POV problems (it wanders around with no permission from me), so I am woefully underprepared to experiment with POV at the moment. It sounds like your beta is a good close reader, even if having a fic sent back over and over does make you want to throw your e-mail out the window. (Metaphorically speaking, or something). And then the story didn't get posted when promised? Yeeesh. Maybe that was a lesson. In what, I'm not sure. Signing up for fic fests? Growing as a writer? Hmmmm....
Any exercise that stretches one as a writer is much better in hindsight. The process of being stretched is usually painful and often personal. Beats stagnating, however, even if one must stretch all the way to Percy fics. *wonders how that came about*
Oh, yay, new stories to read. I try not to read fics while I am writing, but then I find myself breaking that rule left and right in the name of procrastination. It's good to have a recommendation to go with my procrastination!
Hé salut, mon petit canard en sucre (ha! tu connais celle-là? Evidemment que non.)
You know, the whole thing with making people read all those nauseating books has always flummoxed me, because there are soooo many other good books that get ignored because some academic is having mal du siècle or somesuch. They're even doing it in high schools now. My daughter once had her wrist slapped, when as a high school Eng lit teacher, she had her students read "Cry, The Beloved Country." Of course, there was all this other weird ass shit on the curriculum. I guess it's what's PC at the moment, but I stll think "A Separate Peace" is enough to depress any teenager. Hey...I'm ranting..
Said daughter was actually my beta reader when I did Final Fugue, and she talked me into it, because she'd done a little one rather successfully. She was my beta for about six months, then we parted ways...but I learned a great deal from her, and still do. She was fondly dubbed the BFH (beta from hell); let's just say that the old adage of familiarity breeding contempt was our dynamic, at least in that relationship.
Hee, the Percy was another of those, "I think I'll so something different." It was for Sycophant Hex's Deathday Festival (long before I became an admin there), and one of the challenge categories was 'the redemption of Percy.' So I thought, "Why the hell not?" Over the next two months my beta and I fondly came to call it the Pervy fic. I reread all six books, marking every single Percy scene or reference with a post it. And by the end of all that, I thought I had Percy nailed...what might've driven him. I wrote it in diary form, from Percy's POV from age nine up to the present, interspersed with Arhtur's POV (as he's the one reading the diary). It won the festival, but I think it cured my 'stretching' inclinations for a while. And as always, the fic was 2000 words over the limit, so I really had to cry cut.
What exactly are you aiming to do once you're finished with school? Do you know for certain? What kind of work is your coursework--is it a lot of writing? Are you working on a thesis? And you're taking Greek--I still can't get over that one. And you find time to do all this, et en même temps faire la teuf avec moi en bavardant de toutes façons, mon chère copine. Je devrais me faire faire attention au boulot maintenant. Bonsoir et bisous.
OK, you definitely lose me at the colloquialisms, 'cause I'm pretty sure that the "duck and sugar" bit has a less literal translation/connotation. I can get by on vocabulary (either remembered or cribbed from Latin/English) and hazy recollections of grammar.
I am constantly puzzled by high school English curricula. There is so much wonderful literature out there - why do they keep filling them with godawful crap? Of course the way English curricula are going.... but I will not treat you to my "why I can't teach in public schools again" rant. It's long. And ranty. And did I mention long?
"A Separate Peace" is wonderful. I had a book club for 8th grade girls for the past three years (and it was hard to move and leave that behind), and that was one of the books on the list. Eighth graders respond wonderfully to angst; it's one of those ages when angst is romantic, and you get so much more out of them when you cater to that. Books like "Jacob Have I Loved" and "Summer of My German Soldier" are perfect for that age. Now I miss my book club. :-(
You are so brave to have your daughter beta for you. My mother sends me things to read over occasionally (and unfortunately, we do not share the joys of slash, or really even fanfic for that matter), and it was so tempting to just say, "um, Mom, just let me write this!" I refrained, but our editing relationship has more or less come to an end. Betas from hell can be great, but probably much better when you are not actually related to them.
Pervy fic - hee! That's all I have to say. I can't imagine combing through the books for that much Percy information. Wow. That's one of the reasons I picked a scene from book five for the AU from canon for the FQF. I could not IMAGINE digging through more than two books to find all the "would this have changed?" scenes. And to do it for Percy? You must have been stretched. And on top of that, there had to be cutting? Ouch. *pets in retrospect*
Wait, I have to finish school? But, but... *g* I was teaching (elementary) before I went back to school myself. I'm in the middle of Masters #2 in a highly unpractical program, which will ultimately lead me to something along the lines of Masters in Liberal Arts. Fortunately my coursework is heavy on the reading/discussion and *not* on the writing, or I don't think I would make it through the fall. My final fic deadline is Nov. 10, because the end of term paper (which isn't terribly long, but long enough) is due around mid-December, so I figure six weeks with no fics is in order. I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing when I graduate, because I still have to decide if I'm going to graduate this August or next May. The latter option involves the writing of an optional Masters thesis, which was a fascinating experience in undergrad (involving French prostitutes), but not one I'm sure I'm up to repeating for this particular degree. However, finishing in August means that I have to look for jobs this spring, and that's not fun either. Presently, I'm planning on returning to teaching, although hopefully torturing adolescents rather than seven year olds.
And how do I have time? Lots and lots of procrastination.... and lack of a job until October. *g*
So, you've already taught, then. I gather it didn't put stars in your eyes. My daugher taught high school English, and it wasn't a sterling experience either.
But geez, I don't see how you find the time to write, even if your coursework is heavy on reading/discussion--I can only imagine how much reading you have to do on a post-graduate level. Well, best of luck with it--deciding which option you'll choose. I hate making decisions like those. If you'd like, I'll pick a number between 1 and 10, and see how close you come-that'll work!
Ho, I'm impressed you got 'duck' and sugar'. A 'canard en sucre' is actually a sugar lump placed on a spoon, then dipped in café au lait, then you suck it. It's a term of fond endearment. My French beta strung me along with that one for weeks. We have a little 'guerre des mots' that we have going on...tortuing each other.
As for the most memorable fiction one for me, it's also in French, roughly translates;
Today my mother died. Or maybe it was yesterday. I no longer recall. What a shame that this first line from Albert Camus' "The Stranger" is indelibly etched in my memory, because I truly despise the book.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... Of course, from Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities."
Call me Ishmael. Melville's "Moby Dick."
As for fanfic, my all time fav is If you are prepared... by Cybele. Even typing it makes me shiver.
I'll also add two opening lines by Lychee--I've a definite French bent, but the lines are striking in both languages, especially the one from "Sixty-three Days."
The first day after the victory of Voldemort, Harry Potter defied. from "Sixty-three Days." (Le premier jour suivant la victoire de Voldemort, Harry Potter défia.)
Harry purred when Severus Snape began to caress his back. from "Everybody Wants to be a Cat." (Harry ronronna quand Severus Snape entreprit de lui caresser le dos.)
Severus Snape was seducing Harry Potter with red. from dementordelta's "Seeing Red,
one of the most stunningly erotic Snarrys I've ever red (hmmm.)
My fav line from my own fics is, surprisingly, not from a Snarry, but from "Final Fugue."
Your eyes open slowly, taking time to adjust to the light streaming in through the window. This was my one and only flirtation with 2nd person POV (good riddance).
Reply
Odd, I almost added the quote from Camus, but I decided that translations were unfair, because they differ so much. (Otherwise Kafka and Anna Karenina would probably also have made it onto the list.) Although I can't imagine that The Stranger's first line is ever translated that differently; it is simple, direct, and much too well known. I didn't love The Stranger, but I think my reading of it is overshadowed by reading Sartre's Nausea directly afterwords, which made me feel physically ill while I read it. (And yes, it was a class, why do you ask? We followed with Duras' The Lover, and that pretty much wiped out the 16 yo me.)
I agree with you about "Seeing Red" - the visual imagery in that fic is stunning. The whole fic is incredibly sensual, and it definitely ranks up there with one of the more erotic Snarrys.
I'll have to reread "Final Fugue" now, thinking of the first line. Interesting that you chose this line as your favorite first, since it is so different from your other stories. Any insight as to why? (I'm having a nosy week.)
Have all of Lychee's fics been translated, or at least the ones mentioned above? Because now I really want to read about Severus and cat-Harry. *g*
Reply
Hmm, Final Fugue, I actually cried when I was writing it...it is sad, but my beta kept sending it back because I kept screwing up the 2nd person POV. I wanted to celebrate with a bottle of the bubbly after sending it off to Sycophant Hex as my Spring Faire entry (you said you wanted a story, so you're getting one). After the winners were announced, it took them weeks to post all the entries, and guess what? Mine was missing. Seems they 'misplaced' it. So after all that, Metamuse had me send it to her and she posted it right away. It had some kind of mojo on it, I'm convinced. From that very first line with the word 'you' in it, to its sorry, ignominous posting, it was the child from hell. But it stretched me as a writer (ever notice how those are always painful experiences? My other was a Percy fic--snort.).
All of Lychee's Snarrys have been translated, as well as a Harry/Ron and a Twins/Severus. You can find all of them on hpfandom.net. Most of the Snarrys are on WTP as well. And I now have in my grubby little hands the long awaited sequel to "Cat." If you haven't read it yet, you're in for a treat. It's the fic for which she's famous in French fandom. I've already started to translate. Miam.
Reply
Existentialist literature made me want to hit my head against a brick wall repeatedly. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out of the credit hours; fortunately, it was only one class one semester. But ow! I actually didn't mind Camus' The Plague, but you couldn't get me to touch Sartre again. No one should ever start with Nausea if they are expected to read more Sartre. Eeecch. (Insert cat vomiting noise here.)
I'm so impressed you attempted 2nd person POV. I have massive POV problems (it wanders around with no permission from me), so I am woefully underprepared to experiment with POV at the moment. It sounds like your beta is a good close reader, even if having a fic sent back over and over does make you want to throw your e-mail out the window. (Metaphorically speaking, or something). And then the story didn't get posted when promised? Yeeesh. Maybe that was a lesson. In what, I'm not sure. Signing up for fic fests? Growing as a writer? Hmmmm....
Any exercise that stretches one as a writer is much better in hindsight. The process of being stretched is usually painful and often personal. Beats stagnating, however, even if one must stretch all the way to Percy fics. *wonders how that came about*
Oh, yay, new stories to read. I try not to read fics while I am writing, but then I find myself breaking that rule left and right in the name of procrastination. It's good to have a recommendation to go with my procrastination!
Reply
You know, the whole thing with making people read all those nauseating books has always flummoxed me, because there are soooo many other good books that get ignored because some academic is having mal du siècle or somesuch. They're even doing it in high schools now. My daughter once had her wrist slapped, when as a high school Eng lit teacher, she had her students read "Cry, The Beloved Country." Of course, there was all this other weird ass shit on the curriculum. I guess it's what's PC at the moment, but I stll think "A Separate Peace" is enough to depress any teenager. Hey...I'm ranting..
Said daughter was actually my beta reader when I did Final Fugue, and she talked me into it, because she'd done a little one rather successfully. She was my beta for about six months, then we parted ways...but I learned a great deal from her, and still do. She was fondly dubbed the BFH (beta from hell); let's just say that the old adage of familiarity breeding contempt was our dynamic, at least in that relationship.
Hee, the Percy was another of those, "I think I'll so something different." It was for Sycophant Hex's Deathday Festival (long before I became an admin there), and one of the challenge categories was 'the redemption of Percy.' So I thought, "Why the hell not?" Over the next two months my beta and I fondly came to call it the Pervy fic. I reread all six books, marking every single Percy scene or reference with a post it. And by the end of all that, I thought I had Percy nailed...what might've driven him. I wrote it in diary form, from Percy's POV from age nine up to the present, interspersed with Arhtur's POV (as he's the one reading the diary). It won the festival, but I think it cured my 'stretching' inclinations for a while. And as always, the fic was 2000 words over the limit, so I really had to cry cut.
What exactly are you aiming to do once you're finished with school? Do you know for certain? What kind of work is your coursework--is it a lot of writing? Are you working on a thesis? And you're taking Greek--I still can't get over that one. And you find time to do all this, et en même temps faire la teuf avec moi en bavardant de toutes façons, mon chère copine. Je devrais me faire faire attention au boulot maintenant. Bonsoir et bisous.
Reply
I am constantly puzzled by high school English curricula. There is so much wonderful literature out there - why do they keep filling them with godawful crap? Of course the way English curricula are going.... but I will not treat you to my "why I can't teach in public schools again" rant. It's long. And ranty. And did I mention long?
"A Separate Peace" is wonderful. I had a book club for 8th grade girls for the past three years (and it was hard to move and leave that behind), and that was one of the books on the list. Eighth graders respond wonderfully to angst; it's one of those ages when angst is romantic, and you get so much more out of them when you cater to that. Books like "Jacob Have I Loved" and "Summer of My German Soldier" are perfect for that age. Now I miss my book club. :-(
You are so brave to have your daughter beta for you. My mother sends me things to read over occasionally (and unfortunately, we do not share the joys of slash, or really even fanfic for that matter), and it was so tempting to just say, "um, Mom, just let me write this!" I refrained, but our editing relationship has more or less come to an end. Betas from hell can be great, but probably much better when you are not actually related to them.
Pervy fic - hee! That's all I have to say. I can't imagine combing through the books for that much Percy information. Wow. That's one of the reasons I picked a scene from book five for the AU from canon for the FQF. I could not IMAGINE digging through more than two books to find all the "would this have changed?" scenes. And to do it for Percy? You must have been stretched. And on top of that, there had to be cutting? Ouch. *pets in retrospect*
Wait, I have to finish school? But, but... *g* I was teaching (elementary) before I went back to school myself. I'm in the middle of Masters #2 in a highly unpractical program, which will ultimately lead me to something along the lines of Masters in Liberal Arts. Fortunately my coursework is heavy on the reading/discussion and *not* on the writing, or I don't think I would make it through the fall. My final fic deadline is Nov. 10, because the end of term paper (which isn't terribly long, but long enough) is due around mid-December, so I figure six weeks with no fics is in order. I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing when I graduate, because I still have to decide if I'm going to graduate this August or next May. The latter option involves the writing of an optional Masters thesis, which was a fascinating experience in undergrad (involving French prostitutes), but not one I'm sure I'm up to repeating for this particular degree. However, finishing in August means that I have to look for jobs this spring, and that's not fun either. Presently, I'm planning on returning to teaching, although hopefully torturing adolescents rather than seven year olds.
And how do I have time? Lots and lots of procrastination.... and lack of a job until October. *g*
Reply
But geez, I don't see how you find the time to write, even if your coursework is heavy on reading/discussion--I can only imagine how much reading you have to do on a post-graduate level. Well, best of luck with it--deciding which option you'll choose. I hate making decisions like those. If you'd like, I'll pick a number between 1 and 10, and see how close you come-that'll work!
Ho, I'm impressed you got 'duck' and sugar'. A 'canard en sucre' is actually a sugar lump placed on a spoon, then dipped in café au lait, then you suck it. It's a term of fond endearment. My French beta strung me along with that one for weeks. We have a little 'guerre des mots' that we have going on...tortuing each other.
Reply
Leave a comment