what mood is that, sir?
My first tattoo, whenever I'm in a financial position to feel comfortable blowing money on one, will be the word "subjunctive" in Courier New on my inner wrist. There's a reason for the inner wrist, and there's a reason for the Courier New, but it's the reason for the word I want to talk about. (Well, part of the reason. There's also a girl I once loved, and a car accident, and a lot of wondering what might have been; but that all slots in with the rest if you think about it, which I don't particularly want to.)
There are two major sources of inspiration I draw from when it comes to fic: wondering what happened, and wondering what could have happened instead. The first one tends to apply more to fictional canons--filling in the gaps, showing the parts I wanted to see but didn't. This is where my Killjoys fic comes from, my Harry Potter fic, most of my Hikaru no Go fic, and most of the small fandoms I've only written in once. This is the fic I write for canons I love, when I want more. People who don't write fanfic generally think of this as the reason fanfic is written, and it is one reason.
But the other reason is there too, and it's a little harder to explain. It's about playing with stories, and with readers' expectations. Often it's about criticizing the canon, which is why I tend strongly toward AUs in Teen Wolf. It's about commentary on reality, I think; even in fictional canons, every AU I write tries to say something about real life or about how we tell stories. And that makes it sound like I think this is somehow better or more valuable than the filling-in-the-gaps type of story, but that's not what I mean. It's different. It's a very different motivation, and it produces a different kind of story.
The subjunctive is the mood of possibility, as Dakin says in The History Boys. (The title of this post, and of my journal, is from that quote.) You use the subjunctive when you talk about what-ifs. This tattoo is about fandom, to be sure, and fandom has been omnipresent enough in my life that I'm willing to wear it on my wrist, but it's not just that. I think like this all the time--when I'm generating hypotheses, when I'm solving puzzles, when I'm teaching, when I'm writing, and all the moments in between when I consider paths I might have taken, or might take. It's how I process things: by looking at what they aren't, what they could have been, and especially what they could become.
And that's the core of my love for transformative creation. Nothing just is what it is. We take it and we change it and we pass it along, and the first step of that process is if.
This entry was originally posted at http://jedusaur.dreamwidth.org/94401.html.
There are two major sources of inspiration I draw from when it comes to fic: wondering what happened, and wondering what could have happened instead. The first one tends to apply more to fictional canons--filling in the gaps, showing the parts I wanted to see but didn't. This is where my Killjoys fic comes from, my Harry Potter fic, most of my Hikaru no Go fic, and most of the small fandoms I've only written in once. This is the fic I write for canons I love, when I want more. People who don't write fanfic generally think of this as the reason fanfic is written, and it is one reason.
But the other reason is there too, and it's a little harder to explain. It's about playing with stories, and with readers' expectations. Often it's about criticizing the canon, which is why I tend strongly toward AUs in Teen Wolf. It's about commentary on reality, I think; even in fictional canons, every AU I write tries to say something about real life or about how we tell stories. And that makes it sound like I think this is somehow better or more valuable than the filling-in-the-gaps type of story, but that's not what I mean. It's different. It's a very different motivation, and it produces a different kind of story.
The subjunctive is the mood of possibility, as Dakin says in The History Boys. (The title of this post, and of my journal, is from that quote.) You use the subjunctive when you talk about what-ifs. This tattoo is about fandom, to be sure, and fandom has been omnipresent enough in my life that I'm willing to wear it on my wrist, but it's not just that. I think like this all the time--when I'm generating hypotheses, when I'm solving puzzles, when I'm teaching, when I'm writing, and all the moments in between when I consider paths I might have taken, or might take. It's how I process things: by looking at what they aren't, what they could have been, and especially what they could become.
And that's the core of my love for transformative creation. Nothing just is what it is. We take it and we change it and we pass it along, and the first step of that process is if.
This entry was originally posted at http://jedusaur.dreamwidth.org/94401.html.