The "end" of Timestamp
I consider this the last chronological fic to happen in Subaru's story as I've been telling/augmenting it. There will be others in the timeline--I know two that I have to wait until July to post, damn you Kinkfest--and there will be a timeline-archiving post as well (and should fix the one I did for Schwanengesang too, ffxii people), and I know I'm
( Read more... )
I keep coming back to 'the color of devastation'. The use of color in general, actually. (Okay, I can't entirely avoid the litcrit, mostly because I suspect litcrit is the only way I'm going to be at all coherent; some of this wrecked me.) Because you use so much of it, and so vividly, especially in the first section, which is sickeningly rich with color -- there's something amazing about the fact that after the apocalypse there is color, and before there is the black-and-white-and-blood only. This is especially clear in the part that used to be 'Creases', which is all the blurring of those colors, and -- well. I still can't talk about this adequately, damnit.
Okay. Identity and blur; this is the story about Subaru-as-Seishirou, the end of emulation; the place where emulation becomes reality. In some sense this is about the law of the mirror, about nemesis, about becoming your opposite. It's especially effective in 'Creases' and in the paired reflections of Tokyo and the tree (-- god, I loved those descriptions, incidentally.) But what you've done is display how tragic, and I mean in the classical sense, tragic, that conflation truly ends up being. You made Subaru immortal and you ended the world. MITH. WOMAN. OH GOD.
-- uh. Okay. There is so much I love here.
If I have any objections to this -- and this objection is small, truly -- the strength of the second Sandman referent is a little much; if only because for a moment I was thinking about Sandman-verse and not about Subaru. Which is not to say that the scene isn't effective, as I think it is, extremely so. Just that I kept thinking 'huh. Destiny. huh.' and after the experience of the rest of the fic, having any rational thought at all was unusual.
Brain still exploded. Have another Greek word: eskedassa. "I have destroyed, brought to desolation."
Reply
In a way, the color-augmentation is my way of breaking out of the words-as-manga format and shoving it into something else, perhaps something more real? I'm so glad that seems to have come across...
And yes. YES. I think why Creases wasn't sufficient on its own was that it needed to be contextualized as the Becoming it is. (Now I want to read this piece listening to The Downward Spiral and see if it works--I suspect it might.) It's as much a ritual as the lamplighting at the start, the only difference being that Subaru's only aware of the significance, not the repercussions, and even then only the personal significance as opposed to the tragic significance.
And as for the tragados...irony cudgel, anyone? :grin:
I do look forward to any analysis you still plan on doing. ::hugs so much::
Reply
-- oh! Yes, yes, the explosion of color (the seizure of color) does change the format quite significantly. It comes across brilliantly. (I could, honestly, see this filmed; it wouldn't be as powerful, as your internal/literary/linguistic descriptions really carry the work, but still. The qualia of the imagery is almost Fellini-esque, in places. First section, Sadame section, especially.)
The way you've contextualized Creases will be a major part of the analysis, which I really do want to do -- heh.
When you post the whole Timestamp sequence, as a serial work, would you mind -- would you like -- essay-length meta/analysis? Because I would enjoy doing that. With your permission.
Reply
It's odd--the three pieces that I think would actually translated to film or visual media best? This, Aneurysm, and Gathering Water. And what they all have in common? The color brown.
Reply
-- ehe. That is a really weird and true thing. I have absolutely no idea why brown would be so visually grounding.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment