Thinky thoughts about POV and Crossovers, regarding fragrantwoods's New in Town
This is probably going to be pretty raw but something I'd like to talk about for a bit. When my thoughts are less of a jumbled mess I may like to revisit it (I say that a lot, don't I?).
Anyway, about a year ago, I discovered LJ and fragrantwoods's wonderful Deadwood/BSG X-Over, New in Town, which you need to read right frakking now, if you haven't, or reread it. :D Then you can come back for my squee.
The wonderful thing about NiT is you can totally read it even if you've never seen an episode of DW. That was the case with me. fragrantwoodsdoes such a great job writing the Deadwood characters that I felt like I knew exactly what they were like.
This morning, at bsg_checkin, we had a wonderful discussion about POV, which lead to a sidebar conversation about NiT and how well it captures A/R through the lenses of DW characters. I just reread the first chapter, and she characterizes Bill and Laura through Al Swearengen's and Dan's POVs in 300 words. Amazing. This works because we understand that Bill is kind of a stiff, and Laura's much more accepting/flexible. Also, we see how Dan and Al think about people, labeling women according to their dichotomy of schoolteacher or whore, and Laura doesn't quite fit in either of those categories. Plus, Al and Dan already recognize Laura has the potential to make life difficult for them. (That's my Laura. :D) And that's just in the first installment.
Now that I'm watching DW, I understand just how perfectly characterized Al and Dan--and the other DW folks--are.
Anyway, this is a wonderful 'verse, and I'm so happy to have spent the last year reading it. :D