Fannish end of the year meme

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Gacked from musesfool:

Your main fandom of the year?

I'll go with X-Files because I actually wrote/finished fic from that fandom this year. And watched the movie multiple times. A scary number of times, actually, considering the quality, but eh. When you're on a trans Atlantic flight of 16 hours in duration, on-demand video is your friend

Your favorite

Comments

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Would you be willing to talk more about how "Slumdog Millionaire" struck home for you?

Sure. It's hard to explain, but I just got back from India and a week after my return, we went to the see the movie and there were some things that I had seen in India that had disturbed me greatly while I was over there and then the movie just made it that much harder to accept. And y'know, I expected to be hardened to it, just because it's not unexpected and it's something I've always known and seen in India. The movie made it that much worse.

To give an example. I was walking back from the store, and I climbed the pedestrian bridge to cross the road. At the very top of the stairs, a woman -- maybe in her mid-20s? -- was sitting wearing a pink sari. Her face was beautiful, just lovely angular features, big black eyes, and just a wonderful dusky shade to her skin -- really arresting against the pink sari. She was staring straight ahead, and when I looked down, I first saw the coins in front of her, and then her legs; they were bent at right angles to her knees. I left some money for her, and there was no reaction. She didn't blink, she didn't move, nothing. I've never seen an expression like that from someone who is alive.

I walked away thinking that someone must have carried her up those stairs and left her there. And even at that time, I knew that the money I left (probably the equivalent of $2) and that other people left wouldn't benefit her, but probably someone else. At the time, I supposed it was her family. I imagined with an expression like that in her face, she might be abused -- physically and sexually. I thought in the US, someone with a handicap like that might have a chance at a better life. It was terrible to walk away from a scene like that, from so many scenes like that. It was almost like you look around and you wonder, where do you even start? *How* do you even start?

And then we watched "Slumdog Millionaire" and my heart broke all over again because it occurred to me that maybe this woman's handicap wasn't a birth defect, that maybe someone had done this to her. And it was just that much more terrible and just so much more guilt.

Does that make sense?

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I'm so glad you got to meet rocky_t. Isn't she awesome? I heard you guys had a great lunch. Made me wish I had been able to join y'all :-). Next time :-)

[yahtzee63]

Thanks -- I definitely understand what you're saying. It had never occurred to me that children might be deliberately hurt/crippled/blinded by those wanting to take advantage of them; that was by far the most horrifying part of a movie that had its share of horrifying moments. I know it has to be a thousand times more disturbing in person.

Rocky and I wished you were there. If you're ever in NYC at the same time -- or if you ever wing through on your own -- let me know.

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If you're ever in NYC at the same time -- or if you ever wing through on your own -- let me know.

Will do. The Fiance still works for Very Big Publishing Company and they're transferring him to a new project that might require monthly trips to NYC; I may tag along on one of those trips as I have lots of family in NJ and it's been about 5 years since I've been to NYC. We'll set something up :-)