(no subject)
pts asked me some questions for the 5 Questions meme, and I answered them! If you would like some questions of your own, you should comment and I will give them to you.
• So... Korra sure is a thing that is happening! Do you have any specific things you're looking forward to or hoping for? Aspects of the world or the characters you'd like to see explored?
IT SURE IS. A few things I am looking forward to and hoping for in Korra:
- Korra coming to understand her role as the Avatar on a deeper level, just as Aang did. I want to see her go to the Spirit World and hate it, I want to see her discover how important it is to connect to others in order to better serve them, I want her to see her slow maturation and growth and understanding of what she means beyond being someone who is really, really good at bending.
- Republic City worldbuilding! They have set up a lot of things I hope they follow through with. Bender vs. non-bender privilege is something I want to see explored in an everyday issues kind of way, how does that effect people's lives in the city? Conflict between tradition and technology! The Roaring 20's! Just how drastically have things changed from how Aang and Zuko originally envisioned them?
- I don't actually ship anything yet, I just want to see Korra and Bolin and Mako become a wonderful makeshift family and fight and hug and SAVE EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME
- I ALSO WANT TO SEE KORRA AND ASAMI BEING FRIENDS, lady relationships!!! I am so happy Chief Bei Fong and Katara are around as forces in Korra's life, one of the few problems I had with the original show was the lack of rad older ladies. Also, Korra being a cool surrogate older sis to Ikki and Jinora.
- Tenzin's family is pretty much my favorite part of the show already, I want to know everything about them and their lives and what it was like for Tenzin with this enormous burden of basically being the keeper of airbending culture, and how that effects everyone.
• What are your thoughts on adapting the Snow Queen? Do you think it would work with a different setting? What would you do with the Christian elements of the original text? Is there a way to give the Queen herself a little more narrative due?
It's hard to talk about adapting the Snow Queen without mentioning the Disney adaptation that's coming up in a couple years. Just like Ariel is the Little Mermaid (also an Andersen story, which I always forget) for most people, whatever Frozen does is going to end up the cultural touchstone for that particular fairy tale for this generation of kids, and the image that pops into people's heads when they think about it.
The beauty and challenge of fairy tales adaptations is that they're templetes and myths, but templetes people imprint on at a really young age and oftentimes in a really formative way, so even though you can't claim any of the characters have complex personalities, they do have personalities that have been imagined for them by readers for their entire lives. I think that's important to consider, when you're trying to write your own version.
I do think that a change of setting would not just work but is necessary - I know I'm not alone in being exhausted of generic European fantasy world, not just for this story, but for...everything. I'm planning to use a contemporary setting in my own retelling, mostly because I think there are a lot of metaphors and things going on which would be even more interesting in the current world, and also because I love urban fantasy the mooooost.
The Christian elements of the original text are super present in all of Andersen's stories, and mostly gone in new versions of them, so I don't think that would be a problem at all! The picture book version of SQ I grew up on which I think was fairly popular mostly sidestepped them.
As for the Queen, yes, definitely. Especially when you think about her as not evil, just a little messed up from being so isolated. It kind of sucks being the Snow Queen! You live in an ice palace in the middle of nowhere with just your guards and servants, it's pretty understandable you would want a friend to hang out but maybe go about trying to get one in kind of the wrong way. Like, you know...kidnapping...
• I am led to understand that you have FEELINGS ABOUT TREES. What kind of feelings? Do you know a lot about trees, or spend a lot of time in the outdoors as a kid?
I wasn't particularly outdoorsy at all, unless you count being a Girl Scout, but I spent a good 99% of my childhood reading outside in my enormous back yard full of big oak and maple and pine trees. Being surrounded by greenery makes me feel centered and protected and at home. I can spend hours in forests and parks (I don't think I could live anywhere very far away from a park, just like I don't think I could live anywhere very far away from a large body of water), I guess the closest I've come to feeling truly religious is looking up at something so much older and smarter and steadier than me, that existed before me and will keep existing long after I'm gone, and just feeling a kind of comforting awe. You know those moments when you feel indescribably glad to just be alive, even as the tiniest part of the universe? I mostly get those when I'm around trees.
• You have a job on ISPV-7 or the Moon. What is the job, and who are your friends?
I would work on the Moon as a space librarian. I figure they need definitely need a reference librarian or something at Technora, right? Or maybe just at a regular moon library. There is no way I could go back to school in order to learn all the technical things to do a more prestigious job (not that being a librarian isn't a prestigious job) or actually be an astronaut, but I could totally go to space library school and do something that would really help people out. And I'd get to constantly learn new things about space, while...actually being there!
Of course if I lived on the Moon I would be friends with Nono because everyone is friends with Nono (she could be my guide through important Lunar social connections), and hopefully by extension, Ai and Kyutaro, although I am not sure Kyutaro would like me. I am also friends with whoever the equivalent of Edel is in the weird AU Control Section, because I think Edel and I would get along well, for some reason?
• How are your adventures into the exciting world of David Foster Wallace writing going? Any favorite pieces/passages so far?
They are going pretty slowly! I am still working on finishing A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (the book, not the essay), but everything I have read so far I have really enjoyed. Haha, I get super nervous talking about ~literary~ writing for reasons, so this answer will be shorter than the others, but my favorite thing about his writing is that he is obviously very intelligent and could be smug in the way that some writers like that are smug, but he always makes the choice not to be. I find him very charming and perceptive and accessible so far, even if the footnotes took some getting used to. My favorite pieces are the ones about the Midwest.
This entry was originally posted at http://aquamirage.dreamwidth.org/5576.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
• So... Korra sure is a thing that is happening! Do you have any specific things you're looking forward to or hoping for? Aspects of the world or the characters you'd like to see explored?
IT SURE IS. A few things I am looking forward to and hoping for in Korra:
- Korra coming to understand her role as the Avatar on a deeper level, just as Aang did. I want to see her go to the Spirit World and hate it, I want to see her discover how important it is to connect to others in order to better serve them, I want her to see her slow maturation and growth and understanding of what she means beyond being someone who is really, really good at bending.
- Republic City worldbuilding! They have set up a lot of things I hope they follow through with. Bender vs. non-bender privilege is something I want to see explored in an everyday issues kind of way, how does that effect people's lives in the city? Conflict between tradition and technology! The Roaring 20's! Just how drastically have things changed from how Aang and Zuko originally envisioned them?
- I don't actually ship anything yet, I just want to see Korra and Bolin and Mako become a wonderful makeshift family and fight and hug and SAVE EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME
- I ALSO WANT TO SEE KORRA AND ASAMI BEING FRIENDS, lady relationships!!! I am so happy Chief Bei Fong and Katara are around as forces in Korra's life, one of the few problems I had with the original show was the lack of rad older ladies. Also, Korra being a cool surrogate older sis to Ikki and Jinora.
- Tenzin's family is pretty much my favorite part of the show already, I want to know everything about them and their lives and what it was like for Tenzin with this enormous burden of basically being the keeper of airbending culture, and how that effects everyone.
• What are your thoughts on adapting the Snow Queen? Do you think it would work with a different setting? What would you do with the Christian elements of the original text? Is there a way to give the Queen herself a little more narrative due?
It's hard to talk about adapting the Snow Queen without mentioning the Disney adaptation that's coming up in a couple years. Just like Ariel is the Little Mermaid (also an Andersen story, which I always forget) for most people, whatever Frozen does is going to end up the cultural touchstone for that particular fairy tale for this generation of kids, and the image that pops into people's heads when they think about it.
The beauty and challenge of fairy tales adaptations is that they're templetes and myths, but templetes people imprint on at a really young age and oftentimes in a really formative way, so even though you can't claim any of the characters have complex personalities, they do have personalities that have been imagined for them by readers for their entire lives. I think that's important to consider, when you're trying to write your own version.
I do think that a change of setting would not just work but is necessary - I know I'm not alone in being exhausted of generic European fantasy world, not just for this story, but for...everything. I'm planning to use a contemporary setting in my own retelling, mostly because I think there are a lot of metaphors and things going on which would be even more interesting in the current world, and also because I love urban fantasy the mooooost.
The Christian elements of the original text are super present in all of Andersen's stories, and mostly gone in new versions of them, so I don't think that would be a problem at all! The picture book version of SQ I grew up on which I think was fairly popular mostly sidestepped them.
As for the Queen, yes, definitely. Especially when you think about her as not evil, just a little messed up from being so isolated. It kind of sucks being the Snow Queen! You live in an ice palace in the middle of nowhere with just your guards and servants, it's pretty understandable you would want a friend to hang out but maybe go about trying to get one in kind of the wrong way. Like, you know...kidnapping...
• I am led to understand that you have FEELINGS ABOUT TREES. What kind of feelings? Do you know a lot about trees, or spend a lot of time in the outdoors as a kid?
I wasn't particularly outdoorsy at all, unless you count being a Girl Scout, but I spent a good 99% of my childhood reading outside in my enormous back yard full of big oak and maple and pine trees. Being surrounded by greenery makes me feel centered and protected and at home. I can spend hours in forests and parks (I don't think I could live anywhere very far away from a park, just like I don't think I could live anywhere very far away from a large body of water), I guess the closest I've come to feeling truly religious is looking up at something so much older and smarter and steadier than me, that existed before me and will keep existing long after I'm gone, and just feeling a kind of comforting awe. You know those moments when you feel indescribably glad to just be alive, even as the tiniest part of the universe? I mostly get those when I'm around trees.
• You have a job on ISPV-7 or the Moon. What is the job, and who are your friends?
I would work on the Moon as a space librarian. I figure they need definitely need a reference librarian or something at Technora, right? Or maybe just at a regular moon library. There is no way I could go back to school in order to learn all the technical things to do a more prestigious job (not that being a librarian isn't a prestigious job) or actually be an astronaut, but I could totally go to space library school and do something that would really help people out. And I'd get to constantly learn new things about space, while...actually being there!
Of course if I lived on the Moon I would be friends with Nono because everyone is friends with Nono (she could be my guide through important Lunar social connections), and hopefully by extension, Ai and Kyutaro, although I am not sure Kyutaro would like me. I am also friends with whoever the equivalent of Edel is in the weird AU Control Section, because I think Edel and I would get along well, for some reason?
• How are your adventures into the exciting world of David Foster Wallace writing going? Any favorite pieces/passages so far?
They are going pretty slowly! I am still working on finishing A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (the book, not the essay), but everything I have read so far I have really enjoyed. Haha, I get super nervous talking about ~literary~ writing for reasons, so this answer will be shorter than the others, but my favorite thing about his writing is that he is obviously very intelligent and could be smug in the way that some writers like that are smug, but he always makes the choice not to be. I find him very charming and perceptive and accessible so far, even if the footnotes took some getting used to. My favorite pieces are the ones about the Midwest.
This entry was originally posted at http://aquamirage.dreamwidth.org/5576.html. Please comment there using OpenID.