party like it's 1899
Note to self:
You know you've been reading too much about Victorian gay men when you misread "Iranian" as "Uranian" in a recent newspaper headline.
In other news about current events in the 19th century, I'm thinking of claiming a queer_fest prompt for War and Peace, centering on the relationship between Dolokhov and Anatole. Leaving aside the fact that I haven't completed a fic in over two years, is this a crazy idea? Writing a story about the most dislikable characters in a 2000-page epic that most people vaguely think of as an unread classic (though everyone should read it, because it's actually totally fun). And I foresee lots of period-accurate misogyny, Orientalism, internalized homophobia, and other bigotry as expressed by the main characters: a pretty unpleasant story all around. But it's hard to resist, because I'm already thinking of some historical ideas about 19th-c Russia, and some possible narrative motifs about gambling as an erotic symbol (in canon, Dolokhov is a high society card sharper, like Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair but without the warm fuzzy side).
(How awesome is it that lgbt_fest is still alive as queer_fest? I love fests that encourage people to look at social issues in fic. Yay!)
Okay, now back to commenting on senior theses. Hey, it's only 2:40 am! And I'm probably going to regret posting this in the morning. (Late-night ramblings about the 19th century are my equivalent of drunktexting.)
You know you've been reading too much about Victorian gay men when you misread "Iranian" as "Uranian" in a recent newspaper headline.
In other news about current events in the 19th century, I'm thinking of claiming a queer_fest prompt for War and Peace, centering on the relationship between Dolokhov and Anatole. Leaving aside the fact that I haven't completed a fic in over two years, is this a crazy idea? Writing a story about the most dislikable characters in a 2000-page epic that most people vaguely think of as an unread classic (though everyone should read it, because it's actually totally fun). And I foresee lots of period-accurate misogyny, Orientalism, internalized homophobia, and other bigotry as expressed by the main characters: a pretty unpleasant story all around. But it's hard to resist, because I'm already thinking of some historical ideas about 19th-c Russia, and some possible narrative motifs about gambling as an erotic symbol (in canon, Dolokhov is a high society card sharper, like Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair but without the warm fuzzy side).
(How awesome is it that lgbt_fest is still alive as queer_fest? I love fests that encourage people to look at social issues in fic. Yay!)
Okay, now back to commenting on senior theses. Hey, it's only 2:40 am! And I'm probably going to regret posting this in the morning. (Late-night ramblings about the 19th century are my equivalent of drunktexting.)