Odd fannish ramblings
I suspect a mental health post of sorts is long overdue as things have been bad for the last couple of months and I could really do with venting and advice, but that shall wait for now. Instead have some odd fannish musings.
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Writing wise, things are going pretty good, I signed up to write 200,000 words in a year again and am actually ahead. Big shock and horror. Most of it is original fic, which feels great - so, yes, my life has been eaten by gay space pirates and their complicated relationships. And explosions.
Have just planned an epically long modern Merlin AU series, sort of a follow up to Merlin 2010. So far it's been lots of fun, though I've hit a bit of a block right now. I think Arthur is being too much of a prat. Plus am a little worried it's looking at being 90,000+ words *headdesk* - I sometimes think my brain hates me.
Secretly, I'm trying to use it to distract said brain from the weird, twisty Garth Marenghi/Man to Man/Nathan Barley/IT Crowd/Spaced/Asylum/Mighty Boosh/Snuff Box cross-over fic it wants to write. Given that I would be the only person who would want to read said fic, I suspect it shall just stay one of those things I occasionally fiddle with. Though this is not a bad thing, as it turns out that writing Garth Marenghi is irresistably fun. Oh my god, silly, overly dramatic, first person for the win!
"We stood facing each other on the rooftop. The sky above us was dark, drowning in twisting grey clouds, it threatened violence, though not as much as the gun in Reed’s hand. No, not Reed…"
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I've been having weird fannish dreams recently too - weird in the sense that they're not about thingsI'm actually fannish about. For example, my incredibly detailed interview/behind the scenes clips for Brothers and Sisters based purely on seeing a trailer (don't think I've ever watched an episode). At least the vivid RSC dreams sort of make sense, given that they are still my dealer of choice for my theatre addiction.
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Speaking of theatre - I went to see Little Dog Laughed, which is about a gay actor and his relationship with a rent boy, his agent and the rent boys pregnant girlfriend. It was mostly funny, Tamsin Grieg was superb, and Harry Lloyd (Brother of Mine in Dr Who) was great and charming someone I'll definitely be watching for again. The gay characters were mostly handled well but overall I was left feeling incredibly sad. Once again there is no happy ending for a gay relationship - as the actor decides to keep up the front that he is straight and marries the pregnant girlfriend, intending to keep the rent boy for his PA - I might have sort of digged it, if it ended in a threesome - though still the keeping yourself secret for Hollywood thing is wearing thin. But in the end the rent boy (by far my fav character) couldn't take it and legged it (he took a massive cheque with him to, to start an exciting new life - good boy) and the other two got married and became a star couple and... and I really don't know what I was supposed to take from that. Because it was sort of posited as a happy ending, with sad undertones. So is it supposed to be better for the status quo to remain? Though maybe the production just played it wrong. I guess I should just be happy none of them were dead from being gay at the end.
****
Unexpectedly, I am rather loving Glee. Well maybe not that unexpectedly - given my love for musicals and the fact that an almost (but not actually) embarrasing number of teen tv/films completely win me over - Mean Girls is awesome, yo! And I have ended up loving all the characters - though personal favourites are Quinn, Artie, Tina, Britney and Kurt. I love that it subverts a lot of things - the cheerleaders aren't all that shallow, the kids are pretty much more responsible and together than the adults, and that you know minorities get to be featured and have personalities and stories and be more than just stereotypes (though there is still fail, alas).
Plus it has Jayma Mays in it, who I have loved in everything I have ever seen her in. For example, I still get upset when I think about what happened to Charlie in Heroes. She's like Freema Agyeman (oh, my, I have just discovered Alesha Dixon!), Jessica Hynes and Lenora Crichlow (I muchly enjoyed Material Girl, much to my genuine surprise), in that way - just love all their stuff. Am sure there are more too.
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Speaking of Lenora Crichlow, I've really got to mention Being Human - which I liked much better this series than last. I'm still a little in mourning for the silly, quirky show the pilot promised to me, but that doesn't mean I can't like the much darker show we got instead. In fact, I'm not really sure which I prefer anymore.
Anyway, our main three seemed a lot more cohesive and closer to me this year, genuinely caringfor each other - which was a problem I had with the start of the first series. I like the vampires a lot better too and far better than the pilot, though they're probably still my least favourite things (it's a losing battle really, I'm not a vampire fan). I thought George's story was a bit up and down, though I still generally find him ridiculous and funny and sweet enough to make up for that. Really though it's the ghost stories I adore, so much win, again and again. Plus what really makes the show for me is the sheer number of awesome women - I love Annie a ridiculous amount and think that Nina and Josie and Lucy are all similarly fantastic. Love them, love them, love them.
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Speaking of love, I have somewhat fallen in love with the tale of Galehaut, one of the forgotten knights of the round table, who was totally, deeply, tragically in love with Lancelot and still (to my mind) totally awesome while he was at it. I want fic and art and celebrations and, you know, ideally for other people to have heard of him. Especially as I stumbled across him whilst looking through the vast range of queer themes you find throughout world mythology and feeling distressed that we really seem to lack these stories in British mythology - though this is partly because we generally lack mythology and what we have is highly filtered. Galehaut is pretty much it and though certainly a later addition himself, I shall cling to him.
Anyhow - he as a wikipedia page (who doesn't these days) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galehaut
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And finally one more fannish thing of supreme awesome - the Torchwood Virtual Series 3 has gone live. It is a thing made of pure love. All the episodes are fantastic and even better they've got ephemera like pages from Ianto's diaries, Chats and Captain's Blogs, all of which make me squeeful. It is awesome, awesome, awesome! And everyone should go and read it now.
The first ep made me think thinky thoughts too. It's beautifully written with lots of clever ideas and centres partly around stories from the Mabinogion, and it's that which I've mostly been thinking of.
For those who haven't heard about it before, the Mabinogion is a collection of Celtic stories or fairy tales or myths (pretty much depending on your outlook) from before the Roman occupation, that survived in Medieval Welsh manuscripts. Among other things it contains some of the earliest Arthur stories. It's been part of my life since I was little.
I was brought up in England and my mothers family is English, but my father's family is Welsh and I've always been incredibly proud of both sides of my heritage. And to me both sides are incredibly different, I know a lot of people think there's little difference anymore, but to me they just... taste different. And my reaction to the story, sort of reminds me of that.
In the story the characters from the Mabinogion as gods and though I can see why, that's not how I feel about them - or at least not in the way I associate 'gods' within my English upbringing - instead they feel more like ancestors, someone I'm connected to on a more visceral level. And I think in some sense, for me, that's a reflection of how I see my Welsh side.
For example, unlike in England where the first born son inherits, in Wales, gavelkind was the system of inheritance - the family land and property was inherited by every eligible son (or brother in case of someone who had no children) - proving and maintaining your connection to your family was very important and families frequently stayed close together, to maintain power despite the separation of land. Similarly if you could prove occupation of land through several generations (I can't remember how many right now) then you gained ownership, so ancestors very important. That's a long time ago now, but it still informs in some ways the character of many Welsh people I know, including my family. So I know that nearly every time when I meet someone Welsh, they'll ask me first where I'm from or about my parents, what I do comes further down the list.
I love all the weird little things like this, the things that inform you in some small away about the differences between people and places. It's one of the reasons I loved studying agriculture, there was so much I could tell about the culture just from the form of farming they undertook. There might be a post about that in me somewhere. Though it'd have to wait until I write the ones about the portrayal of LGBT relationships in new-Who and Torchwood; or the one about how it really bugs me when people discuss historical inaccuracies in Merlin without defining when they're talking about; or the one about how one of those historical inaccuracies is not that black people are present, because guess what just because history has been whitewashed, doesn't mean that's how it was...
But so little time.
Anyway, this is not a criticism of the episode - that's just my relationship with the mabinogion, which is entirely non-mainstream Welsh - another person's would be entirely different and as I said it was a great story - I've just been musing about it since I read it. I'd love to do a post about the Mabinogion properly sometime too... damn, another one I have no time to write.
This entry was originally posted at http://lorannah.dreamwidth.org/3238.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
****
Writing wise, things are going pretty good, I signed up to write 200,000 words in a year again and am actually ahead. Big shock and horror. Most of it is original fic, which feels great - so, yes, my life has been eaten by gay space pirates and their complicated relationships. And explosions.
Have just planned an epically long modern Merlin AU series, sort of a follow up to Merlin 2010. So far it's been lots of fun, though I've hit a bit of a block right now. I think Arthur is being too much of a prat. Plus am a little worried it's looking at being 90,000+ words *headdesk* - I sometimes think my brain hates me.
Secretly, I'm trying to use it to distract said brain from the weird, twisty Garth Marenghi/Man to Man/Nathan Barley/IT Crowd/Spaced/Asylum/Mighty Boosh/Snuff Box cross-over fic it wants to write. Given that I would be the only person who would want to read said fic, I suspect it shall just stay one of those things I occasionally fiddle with. Though this is not a bad thing, as it turns out that writing Garth Marenghi is irresistably fun. Oh my god, silly, overly dramatic, first person for the win!
"We stood facing each other on the rooftop. The sky above us was dark, drowning in twisting grey clouds, it threatened violence, though not as much as the gun in Reed’s hand. No, not Reed…"
****
I've been having weird fannish dreams recently too - weird in the sense that they're not about thingsI'm actually fannish about. For example, my incredibly detailed interview/behind the scenes clips for Brothers and Sisters based purely on seeing a trailer (don't think I've ever watched an episode). At least the vivid RSC dreams sort of make sense, given that they are still my dealer of choice for my theatre addiction.
****
Speaking of theatre - I went to see Little Dog Laughed, which is about a gay actor and his relationship with a rent boy, his agent and the rent boys pregnant girlfriend. It was mostly funny, Tamsin Grieg was superb, and Harry Lloyd (Brother of Mine in Dr Who) was great and charming someone I'll definitely be watching for again. The gay characters were mostly handled well but overall I was left feeling incredibly sad. Once again there is no happy ending for a gay relationship - as the actor decides to keep up the front that he is straight and marries the pregnant girlfriend, intending to keep the rent boy for his PA - I might have sort of digged it, if it ended in a threesome - though still the keeping yourself secret for Hollywood thing is wearing thin. But in the end the rent boy (by far my fav character) couldn't take it and legged it (he took a massive cheque with him to, to start an exciting new life - good boy) and the other two got married and became a star couple and... and I really don't know what I was supposed to take from that. Because it was sort of posited as a happy ending, with sad undertones. So is it supposed to be better for the status quo to remain? Though maybe the production just played it wrong. I guess I should just be happy none of them were dead from being gay at the end.
****
Unexpectedly, I am rather loving Glee. Well maybe not that unexpectedly - given my love for musicals and the fact that an almost (but not actually) embarrasing number of teen tv/films completely win me over - Mean Girls is awesome, yo! And I have ended up loving all the characters - though personal favourites are Quinn, Artie, Tina, Britney and Kurt. I love that it subverts a lot of things - the cheerleaders aren't all that shallow, the kids are pretty much more responsible and together than the adults, and that you know minorities get to be featured and have personalities and stories and be more than just stereotypes (though there is still fail, alas).
Plus it has Jayma Mays in it, who I have loved in everything I have ever seen her in. For example, I still get upset when I think about what happened to Charlie in Heroes. She's like Freema Agyeman (oh, my, I have just discovered Alesha Dixon!), Jessica Hynes and Lenora Crichlow (I muchly enjoyed Material Girl, much to my genuine surprise), in that way - just love all their stuff. Am sure there are more too.
****
Speaking of Lenora Crichlow, I've really got to mention Being Human - which I liked much better this series than last. I'm still a little in mourning for the silly, quirky show the pilot promised to me, but that doesn't mean I can't like the much darker show we got instead. In fact, I'm not really sure which I prefer anymore.
Anyway, our main three seemed a lot more cohesive and closer to me this year, genuinely caringfor each other - which was a problem I had with the start of the first series. I like the vampires a lot better too and far better than the pilot, though they're probably still my least favourite things (it's a losing battle really, I'm not a vampire fan). I thought George's story was a bit up and down, though I still generally find him ridiculous and funny and sweet enough to make up for that. Really though it's the ghost stories I adore, so much win, again and again. Plus what really makes the show for me is the sheer number of awesome women - I love Annie a ridiculous amount and think that Nina and Josie and Lucy are all similarly fantastic. Love them, love them, love them.
****
Speaking of love, I have somewhat fallen in love with the tale of Galehaut, one of the forgotten knights of the round table, who was totally, deeply, tragically in love with Lancelot and still (to my mind) totally awesome while he was at it. I want fic and art and celebrations and, you know, ideally for other people to have heard of him. Especially as I stumbled across him whilst looking through the vast range of queer themes you find throughout world mythology and feeling distressed that we really seem to lack these stories in British mythology - though this is partly because we generally lack mythology and what we have is highly filtered. Galehaut is pretty much it and though certainly a later addition himself, I shall cling to him.
Anyhow - he as a wikipedia page (who doesn't these days) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galehaut
****
And finally one more fannish thing of supreme awesome - the Torchwood Virtual Series 3 has gone live. It is a thing made of pure love. All the episodes are fantastic and even better they've got ephemera like pages from Ianto's diaries, Chats and Captain's Blogs, all of which make me squeeful. It is awesome, awesome, awesome! And everyone should go and read it now.
The first ep made me think thinky thoughts too. It's beautifully written with lots of clever ideas and centres partly around stories from the Mabinogion, and it's that which I've mostly been thinking of.
For those who haven't heard about it before, the Mabinogion is a collection of Celtic stories or fairy tales or myths (pretty much depending on your outlook) from before the Roman occupation, that survived in Medieval Welsh manuscripts. Among other things it contains some of the earliest Arthur stories. It's been part of my life since I was little.
I was brought up in England and my mothers family is English, but my father's family is Welsh and I've always been incredibly proud of both sides of my heritage. And to me both sides are incredibly different, I know a lot of people think there's little difference anymore, but to me they just... taste different. And my reaction to the story, sort of reminds me of that.
In the story the characters from the Mabinogion as gods and though I can see why, that's not how I feel about them - or at least not in the way I associate 'gods' within my English upbringing - instead they feel more like ancestors, someone I'm connected to on a more visceral level. And I think in some sense, for me, that's a reflection of how I see my Welsh side.
For example, unlike in England where the first born son inherits, in Wales, gavelkind was the system of inheritance - the family land and property was inherited by every eligible son (or brother in case of someone who had no children) - proving and maintaining your connection to your family was very important and families frequently stayed close together, to maintain power despite the separation of land. Similarly if you could prove occupation of land through several generations (I can't remember how many right now) then you gained ownership, so ancestors very important. That's a long time ago now, but it still informs in some ways the character of many Welsh people I know, including my family. So I know that nearly every time when I meet someone Welsh, they'll ask me first where I'm from or about my parents, what I do comes further down the list.
I love all the weird little things like this, the things that inform you in some small away about the differences between people and places. It's one of the reasons I loved studying agriculture, there was so much I could tell about the culture just from the form of farming they undertook. There might be a post about that in me somewhere. Though it'd have to wait until I write the ones about the portrayal of LGBT relationships in new-Who and Torchwood; or the one about how it really bugs me when people discuss historical inaccuracies in Merlin without defining when they're talking about; or the one about how one of those historical inaccuracies is not that black people are present, because guess what just because history has been whitewashed, doesn't mean that's how it was...
But so little time.
Anyway, this is not a criticism of the episode - that's just my relationship with the mabinogion, which is entirely non-mainstream Welsh - another person's would be entirely different and as I said it was a great story - I've just been musing about it since I read it. I'd love to do a post about the Mabinogion properly sometime too... damn, another one I have no time to write.
This entry was originally posted at http://lorannah.dreamwidth.org/3238.html. Please comment there using OpenID.