now with added tedium, pretension! also recs.
Oh, unutterable fucking tedium, how I have missed thee. I am editing the World's Most Boring Paper so that it is now the World's Most Boring Paper, with added indentation and exclusion of paragraph-long clauses. I feel that this is a Very Good Thing, and I promise, I will stop weirdly capitalizing words.
I am aware that not everyone is currently interested in my stultifyingly boring revisions, so I'll try something new.
Let Him Be Righteous Still
Supernatural by trollprincess
Amazing. Elegant and creepy, and faintly powerful. The Winchesters are a story told to evil. I imagine I would be able to understand and describe this rather better if I had, say, kept up with the canon beyond the first season, but it's still very good. I am currently vaguely waving my hands about spoilers.
Out of Bedlam
Harry Potter by busaikko
Trembling and arching. Victorian AU, with madness, regret and light. Very good, and haunting, in its own quiet way. I am a huge fan of that particular plotline of hapless folks making that last poor decision and upending into the nearest body of water: perhaps I have read too many Thomas Hardy novels, but I am deeply fond of it, in that I end up crying like a small child every single time I read that. This is no exception, and it truly is a perfect snowflake of a story; I am not sure where it came from, and when I re-read it, I always feel like I am smudging it, and beveling the appealingly sharp edges.
More Than A Tailor
The Man From UNCLE by wiccaficca
Elegant and slightly mournful. War is no place for man, even these men. I like that there's so much to this; even as it is an extension of what we see on-screen, it doesn't reveal everything. This rewards rather careful reading; it has several iconic moments that will be familiar to anyone who's ever read any modern history, but that does not mean that they don't work very well. Sweeping and good; UNCLE headquarters started from somewhere.
Centripetal Force
Star Wars by babel
Ben Kenobi, as rambly, weird desert wizard. Appealing, right before "A New Hope." What was Obi-Wan like, during all those years out on Tatooine? I like how the innocuous questions here are indicative of so much more, although it's difficult to have dramatic irony with Jedi mind tricks floating about.
After the Last War is Won
Star Wars by Tenshi
So good. The Jedi Temple has fallen into disrepair, and Han and Leia notice. But it's more than that, with the Temple's restoration, and the return of more than one old treasure. Luke comes off well here, and there are so many paths and traditions just beautifully explicated. Melancholic and beautiful ghost story. I probably should have recommended this last week, when everyone was in the mood for ghost stories, but this one actually works remarkably well, regardless of season.
One Plus One
Starsky and Hutch by moondroplette
This has a really interesting premise. Leotis, who was a sort of throw-away character, sees things in numbers, and nothing about Starsky and Hutch is logical or quantifiable. Which we all knew, and I imagine it's even more clear if you've seen more than twelve minutes of the show, but enough is clear that we can tell that the bottom is murky. Good perspective, and deeply charming.
Justin nodded seriously, agreeing, because he got it. You knew you could; then you didn't have to. That was cool.
Patience
RPF: NSync, with help from The Backstreet Boys, The Neptunes by lesasoja
Oh, Justin. This is slow and unsure, and really very good. I like that nothing's clear, it's all subtle, and slightly disturbing. I promise that I did not mean to make this rec set another one of my unending muses on communication and the thought-speech disconnect, it just happened that way. Justin makes some bad decisions, and Chris is always there, although it's more of a Justin character piece than anything else. Justin also makes some good decisions, which is nice, because even as he's a confused, and confusing boy, he's trying, and he sort of knows what he wants.
What does this prove? That I should perhaps stop reading Faulkner right before writing recs. Or, okay, if I were to quit reading interviews with Steven Pinker, I could probably manage to think and talk about the way we think and talk a little less. (Oh, I love circular forms!)
I may perhaps be dramaturging (not a real word, not a real word, I don't care) Ubu Roi or King Lear, next semester. Or doing design for The Importance of Being Earnest. While I would not actually kill anyone if at least two of these things did not come to pass, it would be quite close. I mean, it would also spell a lose for anyone who talked to me, because it's not like I need to talk about surrealism or Shakespeare more, but...I have no rebuttal, actually. It would be fun for me, and since the world is centered around my wants and needs, those productions should come through post-haste. Really.
What else have I been doing? Assembling inapt pick-up lines regarding contemporary philosophers, pretty much. For example: it's a Kantian categorical imperative that we sleep together. How else would the world be peopled, unless everyone followed this precept? The second sentence is only to be used if the response "not if you were the last person on Earth." It is, in fact, especially suited to that occasion.
I am aware that not everyone is currently interested in my stultifyingly boring revisions, so I'll try something new.
Let Him Be Righteous Still
Supernatural by trollprincess
Amazing. Elegant and creepy, and faintly powerful. The Winchesters are a story told to evil. I imagine I would be able to understand and describe this rather better if I had, say, kept up with the canon beyond the first season, but it's still very good. I am currently vaguely waving my hands about spoilers.
Out of Bedlam
Harry Potter by busaikko
Trembling and arching. Victorian AU, with madness, regret and light. Very good, and haunting, in its own quiet way. I am a huge fan of that particular plotline of hapless folks making that last poor decision and upending into the nearest body of water: perhaps I have read too many Thomas Hardy novels, but I am deeply fond of it, in that I end up crying like a small child every single time I read that. This is no exception, and it truly is a perfect snowflake of a story; I am not sure where it came from, and when I re-read it, I always feel like I am smudging it, and beveling the appealingly sharp edges.
More Than A Tailor
The Man From UNCLE by wiccaficca
Elegant and slightly mournful. War is no place for man, even these men. I like that there's so much to this; even as it is an extension of what we see on-screen, it doesn't reveal everything. This rewards rather careful reading; it has several iconic moments that will be familiar to anyone who's ever read any modern history, but that does not mean that they don't work very well. Sweeping and good; UNCLE headquarters started from somewhere.
Centripetal Force
Star Wars by babel
Ben Kenobi, as rambly, weird desert wizard. Appealing, right before "A New Hope." What was Obi-Wan like, during all those years out on Tatooine? I like how the innocuous questions here are indicative of so much more, although it's difficult to have dramatic irony with Jedi mind tricks floating about.
After the Last War is Won
Star Wars by Tenshi
So good. The Jedi Temple has fallen into disrepair, and Han and Leia notice. But it's more than that, with the Temple's restoration, and the return of more than one old treasure. Luke comes off well here, and there are so many paths and traditions just beautifully explicated. Melancholic and beautiful ghost story. I probably should have recommended this last week, when everyone was in the mood for ghost stories, but this one actually works remarkably well, regardless of season.
One Plus One
Starsky and Hutch by moondroplette
This has a really interesting premise. Leotis, who was a sort of throw-away character, sees things in numbers, and nothing about Starsky and Hutch is logical or quantifiable. Which we all knew, and I imagine it's even more clear if you've seen more than twelve minutes of the show, but enough is clear that we can tell that the bottom is murky. Good perspective, and deeply charming.
Justin nodded seriously, agreeing, because he got it. You knew you could; then you didn't have to. That was cool.
Patience
RPF: NSync, with help from The Backstreet Boys, The Neptunes by lesasoja
Oh, Justin. This is slow and unsure, and really very good. I like that nothing's clear, it's all subtle, and slightly disturbing. I promise that I did not mean to make this rec set another one of my unending muses on communication and the thought-speech disconnect, it just happened that way. Justin makes some bad decisions, and Chris is always there, although it's more of a Justin character piece than anything else. Justin also makes some good decisions, which is nice, because even as he's a confused, and confusing boy, he's trying, and he sort of knows what he wants.
What does this prove? That I should perhaps stop reading Faulkner right before writing recs. Or, okay, if I were to quit reading interviews with Steven Pinker, I could probably manage to think and talk about the way we think and talk a little less. (Oh, I love circular forms!)
I may perhaps be dramaturging (not a real word, not a real word, I don't care) Ubu Roi or King Lear, next semester. Or doing design for The Importance of Being Earnest. While I would not actually kill anyone if at least two of these things did not come to pass, it would be quite close. I mean, it would also spell a lose for anyone who talked to me, because it's not like I need to talk about surrealism or Shakespeare more, but...I have no rebuttal, actually. It would be fun for me, and since the world is centered around my wants and needs, those productions should come through post-haste. Really.
What else have I been doing? Assembling inapt pick-up lines regarding contemporary philosophers, pretty much. For example: it's a Kantian categorical imperative that we sleep together. How else would the world be peopled, unless everyone followed this precept? The second sentence is only to be used if the response "not if you were the last person on Earth." It is, in fact, especially suited to that occasion.