birthday ficlets: The Knifethrower/The Safehouse/Shreds and Tatters

[subterrain]

opprobrium has the dubious honour of being the most entertaining, motivating, c-bomb-dropping degenerate I've ever met. She constantly questions, shocks and titillates, and without her I have no doubt I'd be spending my spare time playing the Sims 2 and reading canadian litmags like an asshat. She has a fearsome ability to motivate others to produce - and

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

What an interesting trio of pieces! Fascinating outside look at a possible S3, but I think the first intrigued me the most. I was thinking how not unlike their canon lives a life like that might have been for them.

[subterrain]

Thanks for reading! I have to admit that it's also my favourite - I like the idea of an alternative life on the road, kind of an exacerbation of whatever dullness, absence of familiarity or normalcy appears in the show. Except without all the heroics and purpose.

[yourlibrarian]

I think I said something to this effect in a meta I did about fic reading, but it seems to me the great advantage of the written form (and fanfic in particular) is the exploration of the mundane. Because in most stories (filmed or otherwise) to focus on the mundane is to lose your audience. Yet nothing is so relatable as the mundane (except perhaps, when tinged with cultural differences, in which case it can be intriguing). And it seems to me fanfic, especially shorter forms, do just that -- bring us closer to characters that fascinate us by focusing on those common experiences instead of the usual drama.

[subterrain]

You know what? That is just so absolutely apt - I sometimes mourn how literature can't explore beauty the way painting does, or emotional depth the way music does (at least, not without wallowing in angst a la The Sorrows of Young Werther) - but you're right on the money with what writing CAN do. Wonderful.

[yourlibrarian]

Glad that struck a chord! I mean I do think a story needs a point, and I probably don't want to read 20 ficlets about Sam brushing his teeth. But one could do a lot with someone's morning routine and make it a memorable character moment.