The Five Fandoms Redux.
Was reading crankygrrl following the innumerable links of the BSG fandom chain, and felt I'd like to sort of copy / sort of not copy the five fandoms / five couples / etc. I don't have the same fandoms for a start but I'm also a sucker for detail. Anyway, picking five fandoms that ARE mine and what drags me into them (or lets me loose):
1) Comics: From the Marvel Universe, I can't leave Rogue alone. Not her chickeny movie counterpart (well played, bad part) but the real Rogue. You know: no name. No past (except Cody and Mystique). No touchie. While the X-Men comics have steadily gotten more plastic in the last few years, there's been a few exceptions to the storyline, occasionally grabbing me. But if I never read a comic again, I'm still going to be indelibly interested in Rogue and what happens to her enough to read fanfic about it.
I've always kinda identified with Rogue. I guess being a strong person with the ultimate in insecurities touches a few chords. And, Gods help me, though I try not to like Rogue/Gambit, I do. I think personally I may be a sucker for tortured, twisted and doomed. Psychoanalysists help yerselves!
2) Books: Okay, I read a lot. I could name probably fifty series here, and talk about all of them. I could start with Tolkien, wander on to Heinlein, pitstop at Feist and foray into Eco, Harris and King, but in the last five years I've read only two (new) writers who stand out and both are Fantasy novelists. George R.R. Martin (and so say all of us) and Anne Bishop. Everyone knows Martin, so I'll talk about Bishop.
Sexual, sensual, dark, beautifully written without being too heavy. Damn, if you haven't read the Black Jewels Trilogy, girls, pick it up right away. Turn mythos on its head. Appreciate why you can really REALLY fall hard for the bad guy. My only problem with the whole setup so far is, I have found no (read zero, goose-eggs, zilch) good fanfic. I can understand the desire to mary-sue oneself into the story, but I'm not interested in reading that. And I can't even appease myself with the idea of more story, because it's done.
Bishop's Tirr Alainn trilogy is pretty good. Not at all on the same order, but still better than a lot of 'fantasy'. Female-centric, with very few strong male characters this time around. It's the reverse of Dark Jewels almost. Whacked out ending. I think the best things about the series are the ways she shows absolute irreverence for accepted myths, turns them inside out, and presents them somehow new - and it's still cooperative with the myths she uses.
But, dearth of fanfic in that quarter requires that if I am going to read book-based fanfic, it's probably going to be Harry Potter. Gods, how does a series of books written for teenagers get so much adult attention? Are we all Peter Pan sydrome victims? I hope so. It would be nice to know I'm not the only one.
3. Movies: It's hard not to be a fan of the LOTR movies. I am, because I see a world I've been imagining since I was eleven appear on screen, with people looking almost exactly as I imagined. It kind of spooks me out, and since its incredibly visual, I fall into it and wake up in reality when the movie's over. But I don't like reading fanfic on LOTR (book or movie based, not that the differences are too glaring in the basic tale) and I don't really know another movie or series of movies for which I have the same admiration. There's a lot I like, but fan-love? Lemme think about this one.
4. TV: A week ago, I would have answered this differently. I used to love ST:TNG (geek factor 10) and X Files with equal devotion. I watched the one from beginning to end and the other till the heart went out of it. I can still read fic on both. This week, I have to answer BSG. Damn, I'm a sucker for hopeless causes (and no, I don't mean the show is a hopeless cause. I mean the plight of the protagonist fleet, and the plight of the protagonist characters) because I always want to patch up the boo-boos and see them all snuggled up and happy. Kara and Lee looked at each other through the bars of the brig, and I was addicted.
SOMEONE WRITE MORE FIC ON THIS SHOW. Gods help you if I start it myself, because the fic may run longer than the series.
5: the world of crossovers.
Okay, lots of crossovers are literally beyond dumb. Some are tolerable, but I've seen enough HP/LOTR to drive me mad, and I really enjoyed the Highlander/XFiles/ST:TNG series (look at the Gossamer
archive, if you want to know) and nothing since has really grabbed me. If anyone can suggest a new x-over of interest - and I want well written fic with structure and coherency, here - please do.
Fandoms of choice. Is it any wonder I spend most of my day reading something?
1) Comics: From the Marvel Universe, I can't leave Rogue alone. Not her chickeny movie counterpart (well played, bad part) but the real Rogue. You know: no name. No past (except Cody and Mystique). No touchie. While the X-Men comics have steadily gotten more plastic in the last few years, there's been a few exceptions to the storyline, occasionally grabbing me. But if I never read a comic again, I'm still going to be indelibly interested in Rogue and what happens to her enough to read fanfic about it.
I've always kinda identified with Rogue. I guess being a strong person with the ultimate in insecurities touches a few chords. And, Gods help me, though I try not to like Rogue/Gambit, I do. I think personally I may be a sucker for tortured, twisted and doomed. Psychoanalysists help yerselves!
2) Books: Okay, I read a lot. I could name probably fifty series here, and talk about all of them. I could start with Tolkien, wander on to Heinlein, pitstop at Feist and foray into Eco, Harris and King, but in the last five years I've read only two (new) writers who stand out and both are Fantasy novelists. George R.R. Martin (and so say all of us) and Anne Bishop. Everyone knows Martin, so I'll talk about Bishop.
Sexual, sensual, dark, beautifully written without being too heavy. Damn, if you haven't read the Black Jewels Trilogy, girls, pick it up right away. Turn mythos on its head. Appreciate why you can really REALLY fall hard for the bad guy. My only problem with the whole setup so far is, I have found no (read zero, goose-eggs, zilch) good fanfic. I can understand the desire to mary-sue oneself into the story, but I'm not interested in reading that. And I can't even appease myself with the idea of more story, because it's done.
Bishop's Tirr Alainn trilogy is pretty good. Not at all on the same order, but still better than a lot of 'fantasy'. Female-centric, with very few strong male characters this time around. It's the reverse of Dark Jewels almost. Whacked out ending. I think the best things about the series are the ways she shows absolute irreverence for accepted myths, turns them inside out, and presents them somehow new - and it's still cooperative with the myths she uses.
But, dearth of fanfic in that quarter requires that if I am going to read book-based fanfic, it's probably going to be Harry Potter. Gods, how does a series of books written for teenagers get so much adult attention? Are we all Peter Pan sydrome victims? I hope so. It would be nice to know I'm not the only one.
3. Movies: It's hard not to be a fan of the LOTR movies. I am, because I see a world I've been imagining since I was eleven appear on screen, with people looking almost exactly as I imagined. It kind of spooks me out, and since its incredibly visual, I fall into it and wake up in reality when the movie's over. But I don't like reading fanfic on LOTR (book or movie based, not that the differences are too glaring in the basic tale) and I don't really know another movie or series of movies for which I have the same admiration. There's a lot I like, but fan-love? Lemme think about this one.
4. TV: A week ago, I would have answered this differently. I used to love ST:TNG (geek factor 10) and X Files with equal devotion. I watched the one from beginning to end and the other till the heart went out of it. I can still read fic on both. This week, I have to answer BSG. Damn, I'm a sucker for hopeless causes (and no, I don't mean the show is a hopeless cause. I mean the plight of the protagonist fleet, and the plight of the protagonist characters) because I always want to patch up the boo-boos and see them all snuggled up and happy. Kara and Lee looked at each other through the bars of the brig, and I was addicted.
SOMEONE WRITE MORE FIC ON THIS SHOW. Gods help you if I start it myself, because the fic may run longer than the series.
5: the world of crossovers.
Okay, lots of crossovers are literally beyond dumb. Some are tolerable, but I've seen enough HP/LOTR to drive me mad, and I really enjoyed the Highlander/XFiles/ST:TNG series (look at the Gossamer
archive, if you want to know) and nothing since has really grabbed me. If anyone can suggest a new x-over of interest - and I want well written fic with structure and coherency, here - please do.
Fandoms of choice. Is it any wonder I spend most of my day reading something?