SGA Author: Tira Nog
I remember I was new to SGA fandom, and was reading Seperis's rec list. At the top of the list was a story called "An Affair to Remember." Since I was reading everything at the time, I went and took a look at the story and was dismayed to find that it was a) AU, and b) based on an old movie that I'd never seen. I was sorely disappointed, and besides while the art was pretty, it showed Rodney in a wheelchair! (If you'd seen the movie, you'd know why.)
In the first place, I didn't want to read a story where Rodney was in a wheelchair and in the second place, I was completely squicked by a story that basically retold an old movie. I like old movies, don't get me wrong, but as we were already using someone else's characters, using someone else's PLOT in addition seemed to be really doing it like it was paint by numbers. All you had to do was fill in the blanks, and how fun was that? So I wasn't going to read it, nope, nope, nope.
So, later, I stumbled across another fic of hers called Resilience, and started reading it....and backed off from the story because it had a pet peeve of mine, where John says to Rodney, in effect, you have a fat tummy but I love you anyway. I never like it when that becomes a hurdle that John has to get over, I never like that to be the issue.
But, still later, I found myself thinking of the story, and how the author had written John as cocky and cool, but at the same time completely aware of wonderful Rodney is, how giving and loving he is, once you get inside his prickly barriers on the outside. I kept thinking about it, till I gave in and went back and read it. And boy did I get sucked in....the writing is slow and careful and old-fashioned. It sets up the characters to meet, and then kiss, and then fight a little bit, and then a LOT - over issues that aren't imaginary, and aren't rushed, no, the author takes her time, having John and/or Rodney realize that they've messed up and then the characters talk about it. And then the characters have makeup sex, and it's all a beautiful courtship that goes on and on and on in the most perfect way.
And then I realized this author was the same who had done An Affair to Remember. Also, in this fandom, there was the tendency to to what's called a harlequin style, and in fact they have a community for it. http://harlequin-sga.livejournal.com/. I began to realize that this fandom has plenty of dark stories but also plenty of romantic ones, which, given my recent stint in Supernatural, I wasn't used to. It seemed kind of schmoopy to me, and maybe a little lame, I mean, how hard could it be. But....I really like Reliance, I like the feel of it, the honest love and the desire of the characters to get it right, to not fuck the other person over, while at the same time remaining true to who they are.
Like when John is blaming Rodney for blowing up most of a solar system (which is a very fun trope), and Rodney's been saying "sorry" for ages now, and finally, he says, firmly, to John, "I grew up in a house without forgiveness, I'm not going to live my adult like that way, so if you can't forgive me, then we have to move on." Rodney's a strong enough character here that John knows he means it; and John also knows that Rodney gives him something that no one else does...which is a complex gift of acceptance, joy, and respect, which, really, when you get down to it, is what makes love such a powerful gift.
Naturally, I read everything she wrote, at that point, and found that she'd written a Starsky and Hutch story I read when I first got into that fandom, from a zine called "Who You Know, What You Know, and How You Know It," which is one of the few S/H zines I kept when I culled my collection. It's called "The Last Charade," The story is about Starsky saving Hutch's life and about Hutch being honest about being gay, and it's been a while, but I remember loving every single story in that zine, enough to keep it, so it was probably very good. She's written other S/H stories as well, all in zines I recognize, so I began to realize that this writer had been with me for a long, long time, enough to go back with me to the beginning of my entry into fandom.
I felt like I owed it to her, so then I went back and read an Affair to Remember, reminding myself to just go with it, and allow myself to enjoy a different way of telling a story. I've never seen the movie, which probably helped with this initial hurdle, since if I had seen it, I would have been going, "that's not what happened!" at a few places. Plus, given that there's that "Vegas" episode, AU is a part of SGA in canon, so it would behoove me to accept this AU. Au's aren't my favorite, but since SGA, they've become an acquired taste.
The story was a treat. Rodney's in a bad position, having a lover who you quickly realize (though Rodney doesn't) is using him. Rodney's smart, and is doing his lover's work for him, and the lover's Dad pays a lot of money to his kid, and Rodney is basically a kept man. Kept down, also, because the lover has instilled a lack of self worth in Rodney, to keep him from leaving. Rodney doesn't really have a college degree (he dropped out to take care of his sister after his parent's died), but he's smart, just the same. They were set to go on a cruise, and the lover backs out at the last minute. Rodney, being independent, underneath it all, goes on the cruise anyway, and there he meets Johny the Playboy. (I almost backed out again at that point, because, you know, Johnny?) Turns out Johnny would rather be called John, and as for the playboy title, it might have been accurate at one point, but he's tired of it and his grandmother despairs of him, and he longs for something he can't even name.
The two of them meet on the cruise, and Rodney sticks up for John, and John takes care of Rodney, and they fall in love. Just like in the movie. And then they must part, a la the 50's trope of lovers being parted, and then Rodney gets run over by a car and can't meet John for the rendezvous on the top of the Empire State Building. Except John figures out where Rodney is, and finds him, curled up on a couch, under a blanket on Christmas Eve, and the music swells, and they are together again. There's the whole backstory about the grandmother and the painting, and I even went so far as to watch some clips of the original movie, but put it off because I didn't want the movie to RUIN this fabulous story. (Not that a Cary Grant movie can ruin anything, but you see what I mean - I am so in LOVE with this story!)
Why is it fabulous? Because the author takes great pains to follow the movie, but not so exactly that it gets static and dragged down. Like I said, I've never seen the movie, but I saw clips of it, and read the plot on Wiki...and I found out, amazingly enough that the female character that Rodney plays (Debra Kerr's character) is a character called "Terry McKay." I always have wondered whether THAT was the reason Tira Nog determined that she would write this story, in spite of how different it was from the SGA universe.
Anyway, I adore this story because the characters are strong and independent, Rodney sticks up for himself, and John lets himself be seen, lets Rodney inside of his barriers. With Rodney, John can visit the museums rather than just the casinos, and his casual acceptance of Rodney's geek-ness, makes Rodney blossom under his attention. It's old fashioned and slow and romantic and dreamy. The conversations the characters have are real, the concerns they have are true to life. John still loves Rodney in spite of his tummy, but that's my personal issue, and not a fault of the writer; I've seen other writers bring up the issue of Rodney's less than perfect physique and deal with it less well, so, I'm not about to quibble. Not when the writing is so right on target.
Wanting more I went to her LJ, which hasn't been updated since 2010. I commented there, but never heard back, and am concerned that something has happened to her, or that she's moved on from fandom. I scrolled through her lj, and came across a few gems, because it turns out that she's made some vids as well!
One is for Due South, called Avalanche, and I've seen it before, but never knew it was hers. It's a completely amusing vid about how Ray compares Fraser to an avalanche, and there're plenty of clips of Ray in the snow as the lyrics say: "Sometimes you only have to move one rock, for an avalanche to start, sometimes it only takes one smile to get inside and mess around your heart...You're about as good for me as I 'm good for you...and that's about as much as an avalanche is fun...." Maybe the vid is about both of them thinking the other one is an avalanche, but it's still fabulous!
Then the other one just made me cry, it was so beautiful. It's a song called Ready for the Storm. She said she worked on it for a year and a half and I can believe it. The timing and clip choice is perfect, but of course what I like is the story it tells, and the theme of John being the "lonely sailor" and the "storm" being all the crap John comes up against while trying to protect Atlantis from...well, from Everything. He has a dream, though, about not being lonely, and that's where Rodney comes into the picture. The vid is saturated with blues and cool colors, except when Rodney's on the screen, then it seems to warm up, from which I lovingly infer that Rodney is what warms John's soul. There's also closeups of John's eyes as he does mercy killings (Sumner) and is tortured by the wraith and people die and life is miserable, which affects John more than he lets anyone know.
Thank you, Tira Nog wherever you are, for being in fandom and giving me these wonderful stories and vids!
This entry was originally posted at http://lovesrain44.dreamwidth.org/53576.html.
In the first place, I didn't want to read a story where Rodney was in a wheelchair and in the second place, I was completely squicked by a story that basically retold an old movie. I like old movies, don't get me wrong, but as we were already using someone else's characters, using someone else's PLOT in addition seemed to be really doing it like it was paint by numbers. All you had to do was fill in the blanks, and how fun was that? So I wasn't going to read it, nope, nope, nope.
So, later, I stumbled across another fic of hers called Resilience, and started reading it....and backed off from the story because it had a pet peeve of mine, where John says to Rodney, in effect, you have a fat tummy but I love you anyway. I never like it when that becomes a hurdle that John has to get over, I never like that to be the issue.
But, still later, I found myself thinking of the story, and how the author had written John as cocky and cool, but at the same time completely aware of wonderful Rodney is, how giving and loving he is, once you get inside his prickly barriers on the outside. I kept thinking about it, till I gave in and went back and read it. And boy did I get sucked in....the writing is slow and careful and old-fashioned. It sets up the characters to meet, and then kiss, and then fight a little bit, and then a LOT - over issues that aren't imaginary, and aren't rushed, no, the author takes her time, having John and/or Rodney realize that they've messed up and then the characters talk about it. And then the characters have makeup sex, and it's all a beautiful courtship that goes on and on and on in the most perfect way.
And then I realized this author was the same who had done An Affair to Remember. Also, in this fandom, there was the tendency to to what's called a harlequin style, and in fact they have a community for it. http://harlequin-sga.livejournal.com/. I began to realize that this fandom has plenty of dark stories but also plenty of romantic ones, which, given my recent stint in Supernatural, I wasn't used to. It seemed kind of schmoopy to me, and maybe a little lame, I mean, how hard could it be. But....I really like Reliance, I like the feel of it, the honest love and the desire of the characters to get it right, to not fuck the other person over, while at the same time remaining true to who they are.
Like when John is blaming Rodney for blowing up most of a solar system (which is a very fun trope), and Rodney's been saying "sorry" for ages now, and finally, he says, firmly, to John, "I grew up in a house without forgiveness, I'm not going to live my adult like that way, so if you can't forgive me, then we have to move on." Rodney's a strong enough character here that John knows he means it; and John also knows that Rodney gives him something that no one else does...which is a complex gift of acceptance, joy, and respect, which, really, when you get down to it, is what makes love such a powerful gift.
Naturally, I read everything she wrote, at that point, and found that she'd written a Starsky and Hutch story I read when I first got into that fandom, from a zine called "Who You Know, What You Know, and How You Know It," which is one of the few S/H zines I kept when I culled my collection. It's called "The Last Charade," The story is about Starsky saving Hutch's life and about Hutch being honest about being gay, and it's been a while, but I remember loving every single story in that zine, enough to keep it, so it was probably very good. She's written other S/H stories as well, all in zines I recognize, so I began to realize that this writer had been with me for a long, long time, enough to go back with me to the beginning of my entry into fandom.
I felt like I owed it to her, so then I went back and read an Affair to Remember, reminding myself to just go with it, and allow myself to enjoy a different way of telling a story. I've never seen the movie, which probably helped with this initial hurdle, since if I had seen it, I would have been going, "that's not what happened!" at a few places. Plus, given that there's that "Vegas" episode, AU is a part of SGA in canon, so it would behoove me to accept this AU. Au's aren't my favorite, but since SGA, they've become an acquired taste.
The story was a treat. Rodney's in a bad position, having a lover who you quickly realize (though Rodney doesn't) is using him. Rodney's smart, and is doing his lover's work for him, and the lover's Dad pays a lot of money to his kid, and Rodney is basically a kept man. Kept down, also, because the lover has instilled a lack of self worth in Rodney, to keep him from leaving. Rodney doesn't really have a college degree (he dropped out to take care of his sister after his parent's died), but he's smart, just the same. They were set to go on a cruise, and the lover backs out at the last minute. Rodney, being independent, underneath it all, goes on the cruise anyway, and there he meets Johny the Playboy. (I almost backed out again at that point, because, you know, Johnny?) Turns out Johnny would rather be called John, and as for the playboy title, it might have been accurate at one point, but he's tired of it and his grandmother despairs of him, and he longs for something he can't even name.
The two of them meet on the cruise, and Rodney sticks up for John, and John takes care of Rodney, and they fall in love. Just like in the movie. And then they must part, a la the 50's trope of lovers being parted, and then Rodney gets run over by a car and can't meet John for the rendezvous on the top of the Empire State Building. Except John figures out where Rodney is, and finds him, curled up on a couch, under a blanket on Christmas Eve, and the music swells, and they are together again. There's the whole backstory about the grandmother and the painting, and I even went so far as to watch some clips of the original movie, but put it off because I didn't want the movie to RUIN this fabulous story. (Not that a Cary Grant movie can ruin anything, but you see what I mean - I am so in LOVE with this story!)
Why is it fabulous? Because the author takes great pains to follow the movie, but not so exactly that it gets static and dragged down. Like I said, I've never seen the movie, but I saw clips of it, and read the plot on Wiki...and I found out, amazingly enough that the female character that Rodney plays (Debra Kerr's character) is a character called "Terry McKay." I always have wondered whether THAT was the reason Tira Nog determined that she would write this story, in spite of how different it was from the SGA universe.
Anyway, I adore this story because the characters are strong and independent, Rodney sticks up for himself, and John lets himself be seen, lets Rodney inside of his barriers. With Rodney, John can visit the museums rather than just the casinos, and his casual acceptance of Rodney's geek-ness, makes Rodney blossom under his attention. It's old fashioned and slow and romantic and dreamy. The conversations the characters have are real, the concerns they have are true to life. John still loves Rodney in spite of his tummy, but that's my personal issue, and not a fault of the writer; I've seen other writers bring up the issue of Rodney's less than perfect physique and deal with it less well, so, I'm not about to quibble. Not when the writing is so right on target.
Wanting more I went to her LJ, which hasn't been updated since 2010. I commented there, but never heard back, and am concerned that something has happened to her, or that she's moved on from fandom. I scrolled through her lj, and came across a few gems, because it turns out that she's made some vids as well!
One is for Due South, called Avalanche, and I've seen it before, but never knew it was hers. It's a completely amusing vid about how Ray compares Fraser to an avalanche, and there're plenty of clips of Ray in the snow as the lyrics say: "Sometimes you only have to move one rock, for an avalanche to start, sometimes it only takes one smile to get inside and mess around your heart...You're about as good for me as I 'm good for you...and that's about as much as an avalanche is fun...." Maybe the vid is about both of them thinking the other one is an avalanche, but it's still fabulous!
Then the other one just made me cry, it was so beautiful. It's a song called Ready for the Storm. She said she worked on it for a year and a half and I can believe it. The timing and clip choice is perfect, but of course what I like is the story it tells, and the theme of John being the "lonely sailor" and the "storm" being all the crap John comes up against while trying to protect Atlantis from...well, from Everything. He has a dream, though, about not being lonely, and that's where Rodney comes into the picture. The vid is saturated with blues and cool colors, except when Rodney's on the screen, then it seems to warm up, from which I lovingly infer that Rodney is what warms John's soul. There's also closeups of John's eyes as he does mercy killings (Sumner) and is tortured by the wraith and people die and life is miserable, which affects John more than he lets anyone know.
Thank you, Tira Nog wherever you are, for being in fandom and giving me these wonderful stories and vids!
This entry was originally posted at http://lovesrain44.dreamwidth.org/53576.html.