Dear Yuletide Writer Letter 2011
Dear Yuletide Writer:
I'm sorry this is the longest letter in the history of Yuletide letters, but I really hope you'll forgive me! The good news is I'm more excited for this year's Yuletide than any previous year, because this year all of my fandoms are pretty much equally rare and equally dear to my heart. That means that any fic you write for me in any of these fandoms, I will shower with affection. The bad news is that I've written you a ridiculous amount about each one and why I love them, but more good news: this is all optional! So if this wall of text makes you want to head for the hills, worry not; any fic about any of these characters and/or fandoms will absolutely make my Christmas.
A few general preferences:
The thing that really gets me going, more than anything else, is nuanced relationships. I love to see characters interacting in realistic, layered ways. My favorite fics are character- and relationship-based, and most of my prompts (with the exception of Alegría) are based on two or more characters that I just want to see interact. That doesn't necessarily mean romance, but it does mean that if you prefer to write gen, I'd like character interaction to be a major element in the story.
The second thing that gets me going is worldbuilding. (This is where my Alegría request comes in.) I'm interested in culture, social norms, social organization, how a given world works and how the characters function within it... and what happens when that social order begins to fall apart or seismically shift. (I'm a sociologist at heart, if that means anything to you.)
Those are the two things I love most, but honestly, honestly, honestly, I'm happy with just about anything. There is a list of things I dislike below, but it's relatively specific. I can get down with just about any genre. The only genre I'd prefer to avoid for these particular fandoms is crack, but if crack is what you do best, then you do you and I'm sure I'll love it.
Beyond that, I tend to like: lots of historical detail, characters who make flawed but very human decisions, and the mundane details of life that illuminate the bigger things. I like moments of honesty; I like the moment when walls that characters have built, or have come to believe exist, start to dissipate.
I like character studies, vignettes that capture a singular mood or emotion, and long plotty fics that give me a situation to sink my teeth into and watch my characters dance (to mix metaphors). I also adore apocalypse, dystopia, social critique, political intrigue. I like happy endings and bittersweet endings. I like when not everything is explained or tied up neatly, just like in real life.
I stand in awe of comedic writing and snappy dialogue because I cannot write it for the life of me. If you want to write fluff, or a slice-of-life piece where nothing much happens, or even a zombie AU, I'm down with all that shiz. (It's important to note that I prefer virus-zombies to voodoo-zombies and dystopic angst to crack. And yes, I'm serious about this. ZOMBIES IN MEDIEVAL SPAIN! ZOMBIES DURING THE DEPRESSION! ZOMBIES AND GREEK GODS! You can't tell me that wouldn't be awesome. Just no Alegría zombies, please, unless you can somehow make it make sense in the context of the show and consistent with its tone. If you can do that, then shine on, you crazy diamond. Anyway, Alegría already is essentially about the destruction of the social order, so.)
Explicit sex is something I looove, but I like for it to make an emotional point, and it's definitely not a requirement. I like freely-given sexual consent, but I'm also interested in power dynamics between couples and in historically-accurate characters, so if you're going for a dark theme or historically accurate violence/coercion, that's okay. Just please do not portray that coercion as completely cool and without consequences. (It's a fine line. Basically I love stories about fucked-up relationships where people hurt the ones they love, but I do not love when, in an otherwise romantic sex scene, one character pushes the other's head down, or comes on the other without their permission, and it's portrayed as totally unproblematic. Not cool.)
Finally, not that I think it would come up, but I am also totally and completely cool with incest.
Really, I'm easy to please. I love almost all kinds of fic. I do, however, ask that you avoid the following if possible:
I do not tend to like: non-canonical rape, mpreg, genderswap, or completely off-the-wall AUs (no LA CELESTINA IN SPAAAACE or "Alegría: the High School Years," please). Please no heavy bondage, sadism, masochism, etc.; it's just not my cup of tea. A little shoving against walls and pinning down of hands is about as far as I can go. I also don't generally like fic that revolves around mourning a death, unless you think you have a really fresh take on it. On the other hand, deaths that happen as consequences of a dangerous scenario like a war (or zombies) are a-okay.
I don't like homophobia/racism/misogyny/any other -ism unless it's canonical. In essence, don't skirt around portraying the time period of the canon as it truly was, if relevant to the story. Don't gloss over the racism of the 30's, for instance, or the misogyny portrayed so vividly in Celestina. But please don't portray those things as unproblematic, or include them if not integral to the storyline.
Now on to the fandom-specific stuff!
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Paper Airplane (Alison Krauss & Union Station music video)
What it is: A music video. Alison Krauss & Union Station are a bluegrass band that's not really a bluegrass band, and the song is really more folk/acoustic pop/alt-country than bluegrass. The song is based on Alison Krauss' real-life broken engagement, but that has little bearing on the music video (except to explain why the singer takes off an engagement ring at one point). The video involves five apparently unrelated characters living together during the Depression era.
How to get it: Watch it on YouTube.
Original prompt: Not much happens in this video, but the whole atmosphere of it intrigues me. It's vaguely set during the Depression, and the band - the singer and the four guys - apparently live on a desolate farm together. The guys go off during the day and the singer waits for them to return, and then they all play music together... and the whole time, no one looks at anybody else. There's an air of depression and of things left unsaid. I wanna know what her relationship to these men is, where they go and why she waits for them every day, why no one can look at each other and whose engagement ring she took off and who tied flowers to the dobro player's instrument. (Feel free to use the band members' real first names for convenience's sake, but please please PLEASE don't use their full names anywhere.)
Extra details: There's so much potential here and virtually nothing set in stone. Maybe the characters are all members of the same family just trying to eke out a living. Maybe the guys are drifters and the woman is a widow who took them in. Maybe they're all moonshiners hiding from the law. Heck, maybe it's not really the 30's at all. Maybe it's modern times and they're in the middle of the apocalypse, holed up in a farmhouse that was once a photography studio (hence the period clothing), and the woman's not waiting passively for the boys to come home so much as standing lookout for zombie interlopers/looters/Extremely Deadly Virus carriers. Take liberties! Be as detailed or as vague as you want. I don't need a fully explained backstory; in fact, sometimes the best stories leave almost everything unexplained. I'm really not looking for anything in particular here. I want your take!
I am a complete nut about this band, but please don't feel like you have to know anything about the band; the video stands on its own. I really just want a fic that captures the world of the video and tells me a story about those characters, based on how it speaks to someone else's muse.
On the other hand, if you're a big AKUS fan or interested in researching them, I would also adore a story that drew on the real personalities of the band members to illuminate the world of the video. In fact, if you were inclined to ship the Singer and the Mandolin Player based on how adorable they are IRL*... well, I certainly wouldn't be opposed. (Just don't click those links if you don't want to ruin the somber mood of the music video with excessive cuteness. And if for some reason you want to go aaaall the way down that RPF rabbit hole, ask the Yuletide mods for the link to my other blog. I don't like to link to it publicly on LJ.)
Again, feel free to use the band members' real first names, whether you choose to draw on their personalities or not. (For the record: the singer is Alison Krauss, the mandolin player is Dan Tyminski, the bass player is Barry Bales, the guitar player is Ron Block, and the dobro player is Jerry Douglas.) But please, please, PLEASE don't include their full names anywhere. Not because I'm opposed to RPF (I loooooove RPF), but just because the band vaguely knows who I am, and I wouldn't want AKUS RPF linked to me. (Also, RPF published on AO3 sometimes pings Google Alerts, and Alison's parents read those Google Alerts. Eep.)
* Watch 'til the 6:00 mark.
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Cirque du Soleil: Alegría
What it is: Cirque du Soleil shows basically take traditional circus acts and give them a plot, an elaborate theme, tons of symbolism and metaphors, acts who are also characters, and original music (often in a made-up language designed to accentuate the human voice's properties as a musical instrument). Alegría is a show about social upheaval. You have the old guard, the decadent aristocracy, obsessed with luxury and power and nostalgic for youth. You have the forces of change - the Angels, men all in white who carry a revolutionary spirit. There are characters who observe and record and explain events as they happen - Tamir, the clowns, the White Singer and her dark counterpart, the Black Singer - whose functions may be merely metaphorical, or who may be orchestrating events behind the scenes. Then there are the general inhabitants of Alegría - most of the show's acts - each of whom interacts differently with the other characters. You can read the backstory and a description of each character's role in the show here and a little more here (check the sidebar links as well), although neither of those links includes all the characters, and the majority of what happens/what role each character plays is subject to interpretation.
How to get it: You can watch the live DVD filmed in 2003 at the Sydney Opera House, which is available on YouTube or as a torrent if you're of the piratey persuasion.
Original prompt: I love the ambiguity of Alegría, how the characters can be taken as concrete characters or as metaphors for social change. I think there are a lot of opportunities to play with those two interpretations. I'd love anything that attempts to explain the world of Alegría - how it works, what roles the characters play, what exactly we're witnessing in the show. I'd also love to see Alegría though the eyes of any of the characters - Fleur and the Old Birds in particular - or a story that explores the relationship between any of the characters (whether they're metaphors or living beings or both). The White Singer is my favorite character and absolutely anything that centers around her, I'll love; bonus points for exploring her relationship with the Black Singer.
Extra details: My favorite thing about Alegría is that it's a window into a whole vivid, cohesive world. Almost nothing is explained outright, but you nevertheless come away with such a feel for that world and what it represents - and it's different for each person who watches it. Depending on what your attention is focused on at any given moment, your interpretation of each character and what role they play will change.
I don't even want to give too many suggestions on this because I don't want to taint anyone else's interpretation of the show. I would adore anything that tries to explain or describe the world of Alegría to me - how it functions, its history, its politics, its future. I want to see your own perception of Alegría coalesced in writing, if that makes sense.
I would equally - and I mean equally - love something focused on a specific character or set of characters. Alegría through the eyes of Tamir or the hula hoop girl or the clowns - any of it would fill me with glee. I'd be particularly interested in the perspective of Fleur or the Old Birds, and the issue of power in Alegría: who holds it, who wants it, and how does that struggle take place? For this, it would be ideal to watch the entire show while focusing solely on that character, eg. throughout the show, Fleur struts around as if whatever is taking place onstage is his own doing, unaware when he's being made a fool of, while the Old Birds exhibit an intriguing mix of naive curiosity about the goings-on, and jealousy that they cannot emulate them. They sometimes get in the way, and sometimes actively try to sabotage the other characters. They're often intimidated away by the other characters, notably Tamir, but at other times the characters integrate them into their acts, eg. the Strongman. The White Singer seems to alternately have contempt for them and treat them like harmless children.
Speaking of the White Singer: she is my absolute favorite character, and I would tremble with happiness over anything centered on her - her role, her thoughts and wishes and desires, her dislikes, her relationships. Her relationship with the Black Singer is my favorite thing of all the things, so if you'd rather take a relationship-based approach, that might be the way to go. I'm so fascinated by them - what roles do they actually play? Do they influence events, or are they really just storytellers with two alternate interpretations of the world? Are they in conflict or do they complement each other? Is it a bit of both? You can be as abstract or as concrete with this as you like; treat them as metaphors, as concepts, or make them concrete characters who are sisters or frenemies or lovers.
Note: If you have seen the live show and would prefer to write based on that experience instead of the DVD - so have I, and that's what made me want to request this! There's a lot of tiny interactions in the live show that aren't captured on the DVD, so feel free to write based on those, as well as any acts that you may have seen that aren't included on the live DVD.
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Valentine
What it is: Valentine is a woefully short-lived TV show that aired on the CW in 2008. Unabashedly cheesy and cheery and fun, it told the story of the Valentine family, aka the gods of ancient Greece living in Los Angeles in modern times, going by modern names. There's Grace (Aphrodite), her son Danny (Eros), his best friend Leo (Hercules), Grace's lover Ray (Hephaestus), and the Titan Phoebe. Other gods also make appearances, including Grace's estranged husband Ari (Ares), Circe, and the Egyptian goddess Bast. The Valentines' job is to bring soulmates together, which they do with the help of mortal romance novelist Kate Providence. Each episode features a different couple of soulmates that must be brought together, and there's a central mystery throughout that involves a sinister plot to kill the Olympian gods. It's heartbreaking that this show was canceled; the dialogue is zingy, the storylines are sappy-sweet, and the characters are so lovable you want to eat them up - and if that's not enough, episodes often end in song-and-dance numbers. The final episode even features a couple of lesbian soulmates!
How to get it: There are only eight episodes, all of which are available as a torrent or individual downloads (change .amk to .avi).
Original prompt: Basically, I just want something about Danny and Kate. It would have been fascinating to see how the show resolved that relationship, so that's where fanfic comes in! I would love missing scene fic where they're just being adorable, or post-series fic dealing with the fallout from the last episode, or fake-wedding night fic that ignores the ending of that episode entirely. I'd especially adore anything that dealt with the mortality question. Het preferred but would also be fucking jazzed about UST or gen hijinks with Danny and Kate.
Extra details: Oh, Danny and Kate, oh. They had the potential to be such a classic TV couple. They're a myriad of archetypes all rolled into one. God and mortal, the man-child and the woman who tames him, the incorrigible ladies' man and the woman who finally captures his heart. I love their dynamic - they're always sniping at each other, but somewhere along the short course of the show, they become a team. They're the only ones who stick up for each other when one of them screws up. It kills me that we won't get to see their relationship develop - especially after that epic kiss in the last episode!
I would love something that picks up after that kiss. They had to keep pretending to be married, so there must have been toasts and slow dances, the works - it could have turned into quite a cozy night for them had Bast not ruined everything. I'd be totally up for wedding night AU that ignores Bast, or if you wanted to write the fallout from the canon ending, that'd be awesome too. Do they figure out that Jezebel was really Bast? Do they blame Kate, and if so, does Danny stand up for her, or does he blame himself for inviting her into the house in the first place? It's somewhat hard to imagine anything simple and fluffy taking place after the canon ending, because you'd almost have to deal with the fact that Bast is running around trying to kill everybody. But if you'd like to set the fic sometime in the future and just assume that Ari lived and Bast was caught and everything was good, that's fine too.
I'm totally down with angst too, though. I'd especially like angsty fic that deals with the mortality question. Kate's a mortal and Danny's a god. Could they ever be together? In mythology, Cupid actually does marry a mortal girl, Psyche, which may provide some alternate inspiration for you to go on. Finally, if they do get together, how does it happen? Does it take a long time for Danny to give up his womanizing ways and for Kate to reconcile the fact that she's dating a god? What do the others think? Do Ari and Grace approve (assuming Ari's still alive)? And does Danny ever find out that Ari threatened to kill Kate and punch his dad in the jaw?
Alternately, you could forget the heavy stuff and just write some Danny/Kate shenanigans set earlier in the season. I love the two of them teaming up to get a job done, bickering through a cloud of UST all the way. The show left us with plenty of blank space to fill and pretty much anything is possible in the Valentine universe, so go wild! If you absolutely don't do het, feel free to explore some of these questions anyway, or to send the two of them off on crazy adventures, or have them save the Olympian Gods together. Or fight zombies.
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La Celestina - Fernando de Rojas
What it is: Often considered the first novel of the Spanish Renaissance, La Celestina is a novel written mostly in dialogue. It tells the story of two aristocratic lovers, Calisto and Melibea, who enlist the help of a wise old witch named Celestina to consummate their love. It also follows Celestina's and Calisto's servants as they variously carry out their masters' orders or scheme against them - sometimes simultaneously. It turns into something of a class warfare story, and as befits any good Renaissance tale, almost everyone dies in the end. Written in 1499, it's available nowadays in both the original period Spanish and an English translation.
How to get it: Read it online (Google Books: original Spanish // Google Books: English translation), download it (use the previous links, or Project Gutenburg in the original Spanish), or buy it (original Spanish // English).
Original prompt: I would love some Sempronio/Calisto slash. I think there's soooo much subtext between them to be mined from the novel, especially on Sempronio's end. (Best friend got girl problems? Go on a rant about how women are disgusting and only love between men is worth anything! For extra credit, say that loving a woman is "a worse sin than that of Sodom!") On the other hand, I'd also love femslash about Celestina and Claudina, Pármeno's mother. Again, there's subtext that they were more than just best friends (enhanced by the later lesbian subtext between Celestina and Areusa). Feel free to include as much Spanish (period or modern) as you wish, or even write entirely in that language (as long as it's okay with the Yuletide mods).
Extra details: When I first started reading La Celestina for my Spanish lit class, the whole time I was thinking, "Yuuuuuuletiiiiiiide!" I ended up writing a term paper (in Spanish, natch) arguing that Sempronio's main motivation throughout the novel isn't greed, but his secret, shameful love for Calisto. The fact is, Sempronio hates women - he helps Calisto obtain Melibea because he believes Calisto will tire of her once he wins her - and he remains faultlessly loyal to Calisto. Even in the end, he's reluctant to leave Calisto to his fate at Melibea's house, unlike Pármeno, who can't wait to get the hell out of there. Throughout, Calisto and Sempronio are close friends and they depend on each other. I'd like to see their relationship explored in this light. Any time period and setting is fine; mutual or unrequited, either way works.
Alternately, the lesbian subtext to the relationship between Celestina and Claudina also interests me (and has more academic support than my interpretation of Sempronio & Calisto). It's hard to know how much of what Celestina says about Claudina is true and how much is simply meant to manipulate Pármeno, but it seems that Celestina and Claudina were very close and very fond of each other. The lesbian subtext is enhanced by the subtext between Celestina and Areusa when Celestina offers Areusa a "special remedy" for her menstrual pains. I'm intrigued by all this social-taboo-breaking of Celestina's, how she doesn't seem to think twice about it. I'm intrigued by Claudina; was she another Celestina when she was alive, or was she different? I'm intrigued by their relationship; how has Claudina's death changed Celestina? How does Celestina really feel about Pármeno, Claudina's son? I'd love a story about Celestina and Claudina's younger days together, or even Celestina reminiscing about Claudina after her death.
If you absolutely are only interesting in writing gen, Celestina backstory would be great as well. I love her as a character - so flawed, so strong, so fearless, so complex, so dark. She's so much more complicated than just "the old witch who ruins tender innocent lives;" she's a victim too, a fighter. She uses people because she's learned how to survive in a world stacked against her, and she's lost things in the process. She's a badass female character and I love that she was written so long ago (and by a man, no less), and I hate that she isn't more well-known than that idiot who tilts at windmills.
Historical detail is important to me, but don't feel beholden to my interpretations of the characters or to Rojas' tone/writing style. Also feel free to rewrite history and just have Celestina, Areusa and Elicia fight zombies - in a historically accurate way, of course. (Not kidding. Maybe have Calisto and Sempronio have angst-riddled, life-affirming sex in the background.
This is actually the one fandom that I feel like I would probably be okay with some crack for, if only because the idea of 1400's crack is just too hilarious, as long as the characters didn't lose the biting, sarcastic wit of the text.)
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That's all, dear Yuletide Writer! I hope I haven't completely broken your brain. Just know that
1. I will be happy with whatever you write;
2. I love you for writing for me in the first place; and
3. I really do not prefer any of these fandoms over the others - this is the first year I can honestly say that - so don't worry that I won't be ecstatic to get your story.
I'm sorry this is the longest letter in the history of Yuletide letters, but I really hope you'll forgive me! The good news is I'm more excited for this year's Yuletide than any previous year, because this year all of my fandoms are pretty much equally rare and equally dear to my heart. That means that any fic you write for me in any of these fandoms, I will shower with affection. The bad news is that I've written you a ridiculous amount about each one and why I love them, but more good news: this is all optional! So if this wall of text makes you want to head for the hills, worry not; any fic about any of these characters and/or fandoms will absolutely make my Christmas.
A few general preferences:
The thing that really gets me going, more than anything else, is nuanced relationships. I love to see characters interacting in realistic, layered ways. My favorite fics are character- and relationship-based, and most of my prompts (with the exception of Alegría) are based on two or more characters that I just want to see interact. That doesn't necessarily mean romance, but it does mean that if you prefer to write gen, I'd like character interaction to be a major element in the story.
The second thing that gets me going is worldbuilding. (This is where my Alegría request comes in.) I'm interested in culture, social norms, social organization, how a given world works and how the characters function within it... and what happens when that social order begins to fall apart or seismically shift. (I'm a sociologist at heart, if that means anything to you.)
Those are the two things I love most, but honestly, honestly, honestly, I'm happy with just about anything. There is a list of things I dislike below, but it's relatively specific. I can get down with just about any genre. The only genre I'd prefer to avoid for these particular fandoms is crack, but if crack is what you do best, then you do you and I'm sure I'll love it.
Beyond that, I tend to like: lots of historical detail, characters who make flawed but very human decisions, and the mundane details of life that illuminate the bigger things. I like moments of honesty; I like the moment when walls that characters have built, or have come to believe exist, start to dissipate.
I like character studies, vignettes that capture a singular mood or emotion, and long plotty fics that give me a situation to sink my teeth into and watch my characters dance (to mix metaphors). I also adore apocalypse, dystopia, social critique, political intrigue. I like happy endings and bittersweet endings. I like when not everything is explained or tied up neatly, just like in real life.
I stand in awe of comedic writing and snappy dialogue because I cannot write it for the life of me. If you want to write fluff, or a slice-of-life piece where nothing much happens, or even a zombie AU, I'm down with all that shiz. (It's important to note that I prefer virus-zombies to voodoo-zombies and dystopic angst to crack. And yes, I'm serious about this. ZOMBIES IN MEDIEVAL SPAIN! ZOMBIES DURING THE DEPRESSION! ZOMBIES AND GREEK GODS! You can't tell me that wouldn't be awesome. Just no Alegría zombies, please, unless you can somehow make it make sense in the context of the show and consistent with its tone. If you can do that, then shine on, you crazy diamond. Anyway, Alegría already is essentially about the destruction of the social order, so.)
Explicit sex is something I looove, but I like for it to make an emotional point, and it's definitely not a requirement. I like freely-given sexual consent, but I'm also interested in power dynamics between couples and in historically-accurate characters, so if you're going for a dark theme or historically accurate violence/coercion, that's okay. Just please do not portray that coercion as completely cool and without consequences. (It's a fine line. Basically I love stories about fucked-up relationships where people hurt the ones they love, but I do not love when, in an otherwise romantic sex scene, one character pushes the other's head down, or comes on the other without their permission, and it's portrayed as totally unproblematic. Not cool.)
Finally, not that I think it would come up, but I am also totally and completely cool with incest.
Really, I'm easy to please. I love almost all kinds of fic. I do, however, ask that you avoid the following if possible:
I do not tend to like: non-canonical rape, mpreg, genderswap, or completely off-the-wall AUs (no LA CELESTINA IN SPAAAACE or "Alegría: the High School Years," please). Please no heavy bondage, sadism, masochism, etc.; it's just not my cup of tea. A little shoving against walls and pinning down of hands is about as far as I can go. I also don't generally like fic that revolves around mourning a death, unless you think you have a really fresh take on it. On the other hand, deaths that happen as consequences of a dangerous scenario like a war (or zombies) are a-okay.
I don't like homophobia/racism/misogyny/any other -ism unless it's canonical. In essence, don't skirt around portraying the time period of the canon as it truly was, if relevant to the story. Don't gloss over the racism of the 30's, for instance, or the misogyny portrayed so vividly in Celestina. But please don't portray those things as unproblematic, or include them if not integral to the storyline.
Now on to the fandom-specific stuff!
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Paper Airplane (Alison Krauss & Union Station music video)
What it is: A music video. Alison Krauss & Union Station are a bluegrass band that's not really a bluegrass band, and the song is really more folk/acoustic pop/alt-country than bluegrass. The song is based on Alison Krauss' real-life broken engagement, but that has little bearing on the music video (except to explain why the singer takes off an engagement ring at one point). The video involves five apparently unrelated characters living together during the Depression era.
How to get it: Watch it on YouTube.
Original prompt: Not much happens in this video, but the whole atmosphere of it intrigues me. It's vaguely set during the Depression, and the band - the singer and the four guys - apparently live on a desolate farm together. The guys go off during the day and the singer waits for them to return, and then they all play music together... and the whole time, no one looks at anybody else. There's an air of depression and of things left unsaid. I wanna know what her relationship to these men is, where they go and why she waits for them every day, why no one can look at each other and whose engagement ring she took off and who tied flowers to the dobro player's instrument. (Feel free to use the band members' real first names for convenience's sake, but please please PLEASE don't use their full names anywhere.)
Extra details: There's so much potential here and virtually nothing set in stone. Maybe the characters are all members of the same family just trying to eke out a living. Maybe the guys are drifters and the woman is a widow who took them in. Maybe they're all moonshiners hiding from the law. Heck, maybe it's not really the 30's at all. Maybe it's modern times and they're in the middle of the apocalypse, holed up in a farmhouse that was once a photography studio (hence the period clothing), and the woman's not waiting passively for the boys to come home so much as standing lookout for zombie interlopers/looters/Extremely Deadly Virus carriers. Take liberties! Be as detailed or as vague as you want. I don't need a fully explained backstory; in fact, sometimes the best stories leave almost everything unexplained. I'm really not looking for anything in particular here. I want your take!
I am a complete nut about this band, but please don't feel like you have to know anything about the band; the video stands on its own. I really just want a fic that captures the world of the video and tells me a story about those characters, based on how it speaks to someone else's muse.
On the other hand, if you're a big AKUS fan or interested in researching them, I would also adore a story that drew on the real personalities of the band members to illuminate the world of the video. In fact, if you were inclined to ship the Singer and the Mandolin Player based on how adorable they are IRL*... well, I certainly wouldn't be opposed. (Just don't click those links if you don't want to ruin the somber mood of the music video with excessive cuteness. And if for some reason you want to go aaaall the way down that RPF rabbit hole, ask the Yuletide mods for the link to my other blog. I don't like to link to it publicly on LJ.)
Again, feel free to use the band members' real first names, whether you choose to draw on their personalities or not. (For the record: the singer is Alison Krauss, the mandolin player is Dan Tyminski, the bass player is Barry Bales, the guitar player is Ron Block, and the dobro player is Jerry Douglas.) But please, please, PLEASE don't include their full names anywhere. Not because I'm opposed to RPF (I loooooove RPF), but just because the band vaguely knows who I am, and I wouldn't want AKUS RPF linked to me. (Also, RPF published on AO3 sometimes pings Google Alerts, and Alison's parents read those Google Alerts. Eep.)
* Watch 'til the 6:00 mark.
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Cirque du Soleil: Alegría
What it is: Cirque du Soleil shows basically take traditional circus acts and give them a plot, an elaborate theme, tons of symbolism and metaphors, acts who are also characters, and original music (often in a made-up language designed to accentuate the human voice's properties as a musical instrument). Alegría is a show about social upheaval. You have the old guard, the decadent aristocracy, obsessed with luxury and power and nostalgic for youth. You have the forces of change - the Angels, men all in white who carry a revolutionary spirit. There are characters who observe and record and explain events as they happen - Tamir, the clowns, the White Singer and her dark counterpart, the Black Singer - whose functions may be merely metaphorical, or who may be orchestrating events behind the scenes. Then there are the general inhabitants of Alegría - most of the show's acts - each of whom interacts differently with the other characters. You can read the backstory and a description of each character's role in the show here and a little more here (check the sidebar links as well), although neither of those links includes all the characters, and the majority of what happens/what role each character plays is subject to interpretation.
How to get it: You can watch the live DVD filmed in 2003 at the Sydney Opera House, which is available on YouTube or as a torrent if you're of the piratey persuasion.
Original prompt: I love the ambiguity of Alegría, how the characters can be taken as concrete characters or as metaphors for social change. I think there are a lot of opportunities to play with those two interpretations. I'd love anything that attempts to explain the world of Alegría - how it works, what roles the characters play, what exactly we're witnessing in the show. I'd also love to see Alegría though the eyes of any of the characters - Fleur and the Old Birds in particular - or a story that explores the relationship between any of the characters (whether they're metaphors or living beings or both). The White Singer is my favorite character and absolutely anything that centers around her, I'll love; bonus points for exploring her relationship with the Black Singer.
Extra details: My favorite thing about Alegría is that it's a window into a whole vivid, cohesive world. Almost nothing is explained outright, but you nevertheless come away with such a feel for that world and what it represents - and it's different for each person who watches it. Depending on what your attention is focused on at any given moment, your interpretation of each character and what role they play will change.
I don't even want to give too many suggestions on this because I don't want to taint anyone else's interpretation of the show. I would adore anything that tries to explain or describe the world of Alegría to me - how it functions, its history, its politics, its future. I want to see your own perception of Alegría coalesced in writing, if that makes sense.
I would equally - and I mean equally - love something focused on a specific character or set of characters. Alegría through the eyes of Tamir or the hula hoop girl or the clowns - any of it would fill me with glee. I'd be particularly interested in the perspective of Fleur or the Old Birds, and the issue of power in Alegría: who holds it, who wants it, and how does that struggle take place? For this, it would be ideal to watch the entire show while focusing solely on that character, eg. throughout the show, Fleur struts around as if whatever is taking place onstage is his own doing, unaware when he's being made a fool of, while the Old Birds exhibit an intriguing mix of naive curiosity about the goings-on, and jealousy that they cannot emulate them. They sometimes get in the way, and sometimes actively try to sabotage the other characters. They're often intimidated away by the other characters, notably Tamir, but at other times the characters integrate them into their acts, eg. the Strongman. The White Singer seems to alternately have contempt for them and treat them like harmless children.
Speaking of the White Singer: she is my absolute favorite character, and I would tremble with happiness over anything centered on her - her role, her thoughts and wishes and desires, her dislikes, her relationships. Her relationship with the Black Singer is my favorite thing of all the things, so if you'd rather take a relationship-based approach, that might be the way to go. I'm so fascinated by them - what roles do they actually play? Do they influence events, or are they really just storytellers with two alternate interpretations of the world? Are they in conflict or do they complement each other? Is it a bit of both? You can be as abstract or as concrete with this as you like; treat them as metaphors, as concepts, or make them concrete characters who are sisters or frenemies or lovers.
Note: If you have seen the live show and would prefer to write based on that experience instead of the DVD - so have I, and that's what made me want to request this! There's a lot of tiny interactions in the live show that aren't captured on the DVD, so feel free to write based on those, as well as any acts that you may have seen that aren't included on the live DVD.
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Valentine
What it is: Valentine is a woefully short-lived TV show that aired on the CW in 2008. Unabashedly cheesy and cheery and fun, it told the story of the Valentine family, aka the gods of ancient Greece living in Los Angeles in modern times, going by modern names. There's Grace (Aphrodite), her son Danny (Eros), his best friend Leo (Hercules), Grace's lover Ray (Hephaestus), and the Titan Phoebe. Other gods also make appearances, including Grace's estranged husband Ari (Ares), Circe, and the Egyptian goddess Bast. The Valentines' job is to bring soulmates together, which they do with the help of mortal romance novelist Kate Providence. Each episode features a different couple of soulmates that must be brought together, and there's a central mystery throughout that involves a sinister plot to kill the Olympian gods. It's heartbreaking that this show was canceled; the dialogue is zingy, the storylines are sappy-sweet, and the characters are so lovable you want to eat them up - and if that's not enough, episodes often end in song-and-dance numbers. The final episode even features a couple of lesbian soulmates!
How to get it: There are only eight episodes, all of which are available as a torrent or individual downloads (change .amk to .avi).
Original prompt: Basically, I just want something about Danny and Kate. It would have been fascinating to see how the show resolved that relationship, so that's where fanfic comes in! I would love missing scene fic where they're just being adorable, or post-series fic dealing with the fallout from the last episode, or fake-wedding night fic that ignores the ending of that episode entirely. I'd especially adore anything that dealt with the mortality question. Het preferred but would also be fucking jazzed about UST or gen hijinks with Danny and Kate.
Extra details: Oh, Danny and Kate, oh. They had the potential to be such a classic TV couple. They're a myriad of archetypes all rolled into one. God and mortal, the man-child and the woman who tames him, the incorrigible ladies' man and the woman who finally captures his heart. I love their dynamic - they're always sniping at each other, but somewhere along the short course of the show, they become a team. They're the only ones who stick up for each other when one of them screws up. It kills me that we won't get to see their relationship develop - especially after that epic kiss in the last episode!
I would love something that picks up after that kiss. They had to keep pretending to be married, so there must have been toasts and slow dances, the works - it could have turned into quite a cozy night for them had Bast not ruined everything. I'd be totally up for wedding night AU that ignores Bast, or if you wanted to write the fallout from the canon ending, that'd be awesome too. Do they figure out that Jezebel was really Bast? Do they blame Kate, and if so, does Danny stand up for her, or does he blame himself for inviting her into the house in the first place? It's somewhat hard to imagine anything simple and fluffy taking place after the canon ending, because you'd almost have to deal with the fact that Bast is running around trying to kill everybody. But if you'd like to set the fic sometime in the future and just assume that Ari lived and Bast was caught and everything was good, that's fine too.
I'm totally down with angst too, though. I'd especially like angsty fic that deals with the mortality question. Kate's a mortal and Danny's a god. Could they ever be together? In mythology, Cupid actually does marry a mortal girl, Psyche, which may provide some alternate inspiration for you to go on. Finally, if they do get together, how does it happen? Does it take a long time for Danny to give up his womanizing ways and for Kate to reconcile the fact that she's dating a god? What do the others think? Do Ari and Grace approve (assuming Ari's still alive)? And does Danny ever find out that Ari threatened to kill Kate and punch his dad in the jaw?
Alternately, you could forget the heavy stuff and just write some Danny/Kate shenanigans set earlier in the season. I love the two of them teaming up to get a job done, bickering through a cloud of UST all the way. The show left us with plenty of blank space to fill and pretty much anything is possible in the Valentine universe, so go wild! If you absolutely don't do het, feel free to explore some of these questions anyway, or to send the two of them off on crazy adventures, or have them save the Olympian Gods together. Or fight zombies.
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La Celestina - Fernando de Rojas
What it is: Often considered the first novel of the Spanish Renaissance, La Celestina is a novel written mostly in dialogue. It tells the story of two aristocratic lovers, Calisto and Melibea, who enlist the help of a wise old witch named Celestina to consummate their love. It also follows Celestina's and Calisto's servants as they variously carry out their masters' orders or scheme against them - sometimes simultaneously. It turns into something of a class warfare story, and as befits any good Renaissance tale, almost everyone dies in the end. Written in 1499, it's available nowadays in both the original period Spanish and an English translation.
How to get it: Read it online (Google Books: original Spanish // Google Books: English translation), download it (use the previous links, or Project Gutenburg in the original Spanish), or buy it (original Spanish // English).
Original prompt: I would love some Sempronio/Calisto slash. I think there's soooo much subtext between them to be mined from the novel, especially on Sempronio's end. (Best friend got girl problems? Go on a rant about how women are disgusting and only love between men is worth anything! For extra credit, say that loving a woman is "a worse sin than that of Sodom!") On the other hand, I'd also love femslash about Celestina and Claudina, Pármeno's mother. Again, there's subtext that they were more than just best friends (enhanced by the later lesbian subtext between Celestina and Areusa). Feel free to include as much Spanish (period or modern) as you wish, or even write entirely in that language (as long as it's okay with the Yuletide mods).
Extra details: When I first started reading La Celestina for my Spanish lit class, the whole time I was thinking, "Yuuuuuuletiiiiiiide!" I ended up writing a term paper (in Spanish, natch) arguing that Sempronio's main motivation throughout the novel isn't greed, but his secret, shameful love for Calisto. The fact is, Sempronio hates women - he helps Calisto obtain Melibea because he believes Calisto will tire of her once he wins her - and he remains faultlessly loyal to Calisto. Even in the end, he's reluctant to leave Calisto to his fate at Melibea's house, unlike Pármeno, who can't wait to get the hell out of there. Throughout, Calisto and Sempronio are close friends and they depend on each other. I'd like to see their relationship explored in this light. Any time period and setting is fine; mutual or unrequited, either way works.
Alternately, the lesbian subtext to the relationship between Celestina and Claudina also interests me (and has more academic support than my interpretation of Sempronio & Calisto). It's hard to know how much of what Celestina says about Claudina is true and how much is simply meant to manipulate Pármeno, but it seems that Celestina and Claudina were very close and very fond of each other. The lesbian subtext is enhanced by the subtext between Celestina and Areusa when Celestina offers Areusa a "special remedy" for her menstrual pains. I'm intrigued by all this social-taboo-breaking of Celestina's, how she doesn't seem to think twice about it. I'm intrigued by Claudina; was she another Celestina when she was alive, or was she different? I'm intrigued by their relationship; how has Claudina's death changed Celestina? How does Celestina really feel about Pármeno, Claudina's son? I'd love a story about Celestina and Claudina's younger days together, or even Celestina reminiscing about Claudina after her death.
If you absolutely are only interesting in writing gen, Celestina backstory would be great as well. I love her as a character - so flawed, so strong, so fearless, so complex, so dark. She's so much more complicated than just "the old witch who ruins tender innocent lives;" she's a victim too, a fighter. She uses people because she's learned how to survive in a world stacked against her, and she's lost things in the process. She's a badass female character and I love that she was written so long ago (and by a man, no less), and I hate that she isn't more well-known than that idiot who tilts at windmills.
Historical detail is important to me, but don't feel beholden to my interpretations of the characters or to Rojas' tone/writing style. Also feel free to rewrite history and just have Celestina, Areusa and Elicia fight zombies - in a historically accurate way, of course. (Not kidding. Maybe have Calisto and Sempronio have angst-riddled, life-affirming sex in the background.
This is actually the one fandom that I feel like I would probably be okay with some crack for, if only because the idea of 1400's crack is just too hilarious, as long as the characters didn't lose the biting, sarcastic wit of the text.)
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That's all, dear Yuletide Writer! I hope I haven't completely broken your brain. Just know that
1. I will be happy with whatever you write;
2. I love you for writing for me in the first place; and
3. I really do not prefer any of these fandoms over the others - this is the first year I can honestly say that - so don't worry that I won't be ecstatic to get your story.