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Posting too often and being generally spammy? Why, yes, I am. Sorry about that. It's deadline week and I'm all twitchy. It'll settle down soon, promise.
So! There was this meme at
falena's journal. She asked me five questions. Leave me a comment if you want me to ask you five questions - and then pass it on, you know how memes work, I'm sure, this being the interblag and all.
1. In what ways would you say you are stereotypically Finnish and in what ways are you not?
It's embarrassing how excited I got about this question, seriously. My excitement was such that I very nearly sabotaged last night's meeting with my rpg group, because I wouldn't let up on the topic of "what constitutes a stereotypical finn". (Incidentally, if anyone has any preconceptions, good or bad, I would so totally love to hear them. I'm sort of assuming that there aren't too many out there, seeing as how we're a pretty remote corner of the world.)
So I don't know if there are any world wide stereotypes, but there are certainly some in a nordic context. (And, because I think it's funny, here's a link to prove it! ). Finns are generally considered to be severe alcoholics, prone to bursts of brutal violence (usually involving someone getting stabbed with a puukko), and extremely unwilling to engage in conversation (especially with strangers). A Finnish conversation is considered to be approx 5 words, spread out over 1 hour and several bottles of beer. We are also depressed and often suicidal. We think silence is fun.
But on the upside we're honest, extremely efficient, punctual, often highly educated, very good at languages (though hopelessly bad at small-talk), and have an almost manic regard for rules. And we're obsessed with sauna. The general attitude is that if you haven't excelled at a task, it's equal to having failed it. (We also apparently have a dark, twisted sense of humour, and listen to a lot of heavy metal. I didn't know this myself, but that's what the exchange students keep saying.)
Some of this applies to me, some of it doesn't. I don't drink unless it's appropriate, but when I do, I tend to knock back shots like it's an Olympic sport. The results are often less than dignified. Not violent though - I'm not that. I am more talkative than your average finn, provided the occasion is right, or I'm on the internet. (Like most finns, I will react with deep suspicion to anyone attempting to talk to me for no apparent reason, e.g to pass time at the bus stop.) I'm not efficient, nor punctual (by Finnish standards, mind, by French I'm perfect, and any further south, and I'm early), but I am a metal fan, prone to depression, well-educated, and I'm always willing to trust authorities. Oh, and I love dead baby jokes. So... yeah. Pretty damned Finnish, at the end of the day. I love my disturbed, highly functioning, neurotic little country.
2. What is your dream job/profession?
Can not having a job and just magically getting by while travelling the world be a profession? No? Ok. Then I would like to translate works of fiction for a living. But I also know that the chances of that happening are very slim. So at the end of the day, I'd settle for anything that isn't very stressful, and that doesn't suck me dry. The way I see it, being highly paid is less important than having the time to live my life. Money can be saved up, I just don't want to spend the majority of my time doing something pointless.
Sometimes I think that after I graduate, I could just go home and take over the B&B. But I don't know if that's something I really want, or if I just think that I would fail at anything else I try. It can just be a case of my depression having sucked me dry of ambition and confidence. A part of me thinks that would be running away, and I cringe at the thought of being judged by my friends for choosing to live outside the city. But if I did run the B&B, it would be part of my job to meet and talk to people, which are two favourite things of mine, and because I'd be a lot less stressed I'd have time to read and write because I enjoy it, and not because there's a deadline breathing down my neck. I could be an odd hippie lady with lots of friends and lots of dogs and cats. Right now that feels pretty damned appealing.
3. Wincest - yay or nay? Elaborate. :P
Oh, yay. Definitely.
Elaborate? What, like explain why? Eep. Uhm. Because they're so very pretty? Originally I thought I just went with it because it was already fandom convention, and because - after having watched TV with my slasher-goggles on for almost 10 years - I automatically paired them together, since there weren't really other characters to choose from. Then the show did add another character that would allow me to by-pass le wincest, but... It doesn't do it for me. So, it has to be for the pure prettiness of it all. And the co-dependent angst. And because they are very close on the show, so it isn't that big of a stretch in canon (from a slasher pov, of course). And because fanfic adds an element to their lives that they seem to be missing on the show. The Winchesters I see on my TV are very lonely, very broken people. Fanfic can fix that! Or make it worse, but the show manages that pretty well on its own.
It did make me uncomfortable at first, I'll admit, but not so much that I stopped reading. They really are just made up people, and it really is just a tv-show, so, really, what's the harm? I don't think the readers or writers within the fandom are actually confusing real life with slash fiction. Or if they are, well, that would probably be due to some pre-existing personal issues of theirs rather than adult content fanfic.
I do prefer the fics where it is acknowledged in some way that the relationship the boys have is not healthy or normal, and they don't expect the rest of the world to just go along with it. A little bit of plausibility is always nice.
4. What fictional character would you like to be able to meet in RL?
I honestly don't know. Is it weird that I've never really thought about it? I suppose I wouldn't mind being able to visit the Shire and have dinner with some hobbits.
5. What are your favourite books and why?
These past years I've read a lot less books than I would like to. I feel like I must have missed out on countless good books, because so much of my time gets spent online or doing study related things. My inspiration to read for pleasure has sort of diminished. It peaks during Christmas and summer, for which I'm grateful, but I can never manage to keep it up all year.
Anyway, off the top of my head, I have three works that pop us as some of my favourites.
- Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett.
It's funny and light, and it holds together and reads easily and it can be a little bit scary sometimes, and it has some thought tucked away in there and it just never, ever fails me.
- M Is for Magic, by Neil Gaiman.
It's actually a collection of short stories, but that counts, right? Each story is essentially a fairy tale, re-told in Gaimanesque fashion.
- A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway.
I have an odd relationship to this book. I was originally meant to read it for a class on literature of the First World War, but I only skimmed the book, and generally did my very best to get away with as little involvement as possible. Still, I'd borrowed it from the library, and it was lying around in my room, so I ended up reading it after the course had ended. I'm not fond of the main character, yet this book is what sparked my long-running fascination for Hemingway.
This entry was originally posted at http://unikorento.dreamwidth.org/17215.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
So! There was this meme at
falena's journal. She asked me five questions. Leave me a comment if you want me to ask you five questions - and then pass it on, you know how memes work, I'm sure, this being the interblag and all.
1. In what ways would you say you are stereotypically Finnish and in what ways are you not?
It's embarrassing how excited I got about this question, seriously. My excitement was such that I very nearly sabotaged last night's meeting with my rpg group, because I wouldn't let up on the topic of "what constitutes a stereotypical finn". (Incidentally, if anyone has any preconceptions, good or bad, I would so totally love to hear them. I'm sort of assuming that there aren't too many out there, seeing as how we're a pretty remote corner of the world.)
So I don't know if there are any world wide stereotypes, but there are certainly some in a nordic context. (And, because I think it's funny, here's a link to prove it! ). Finns are generally considered to be severe alcoholics, prone to bursts of brutal violence (usually involving someone getting stabbed with a puukko), and extremely unwilling to engage in conversation (especially with strangers). A Finnish conversation is considered to be approx 5 words, spread out over 1 hour and several bottles of beer. We are also depressed and often suicidal. We think silence is fun.
But on the upside we're honest, extremely efficient, punctual, often highly educated, very good at languages (though hopelessly bad at small-talk), and have an almost manic regard for rules. And we're obsessed with sauna. The general attitude is that if you haven't excelled at a task, it's equal to having failed it. (We also apparently have a dark, twisted sense of humour, and listen to a lot of heavy metal. I didn't know this myself, but that's what the exchange students keep saying.)
Some of this applies to me, some of it doesn't. I don't drink unless it's appropriate, but when I do, I tend to knock back shots like it's an Olympic sport. The results are often less than dignified. Not violent though - I'm not that. I am more talkative than your average finn, provided the occasion is right, or I'm on the internet. (Like most finns, I will react with deep suspicion to anyone attempting to talk to me for no apparent reason, e.g to pass time at the bus stop.) I'm not efficient, nor punctual (by Finnish standards, mind, by French I'm perfect, and any further south, and I'm early), but I am a metal fan, prone to depression, well-educated, and I'm always willing to trust authorities. Oh, and I love dead baby jokes. So... yeah. Pretty damned Finnish, at the end of the day. I love my disturbed, highly functioning, neurotic little country.
2. What is your dream job/profession?
Can not having a job and just magically getting by while travelling the world be a profession? No? Ok. Then I would like to translate works of fiction for a living. But I also know that the chances of that happening are very slim. So at the end of the day, I'd settle for anything that isn't very stressful, and that doesn't suck me dry. The way I see it, being highly paid is less important than having the time to live my life. Money can be saved up, I just don't want to spend the majority of my time doing something pointless.
Sometimes I think that after I graduate, I could just go home and take over the B&B. But I don't know if that's something I really want, or if I just think that I would fail at anything else I try. It can just be a case of my depression having sucked me dry of ambition and confidence. A part of me thinks that would be running away, and I cringe at the thought of being judged by my friends for choosing to live outside the city. But if I did run the B&B, it would be part of my job to meet and talk to people, which are two favourite things of mine, and because I'd be a lot less stressed I'd have time to read and write because I enjoy it, and not because there's a deadline breathing down my neck. I could be an odd hippie lady with lots of friends and lots of dogs and cats. Right now that feels pretty damned appealing.
3. Wincest - yay or nay? Elaborate. :P
Oh, yay. Definitely.
Elaborate? What, like explain why? Eep. Uhm. Because they're so very pretty? Originally I thought I just went with it because it was already fandom convention, and because - after having watched TV with my slasher-goggles on for almost 10 years - I automatically paired them together, since there weren't really other characters to choose from. Then the show did add another character that would allow me to by-pass le wincest, but... It doesn't do it for me. So, it has to be for the pure prettiness of it all. And the co-dependent angst. And because they are very close on the show, so it isn't that big of a stretch in canon (from a slasher pov, of course). And because fanfic adds an element to their lives that they seem to be missing on the show. The Winchesters I see on my TV are very lonely, very broken people. Fanfic can fix that! Or make it worse, but the show manages that pretty well on its own.
It did make me uncomfortable at first, I'll admit, but not so much that I stopped reading. They really are just made up people, and it really is just a tv-show, so, really, what's the harm? I don't think the readers or writers within the fandom are actually confusing real life with slash fiction. Or if they are, well, that would probably be due to some pre-existing personal issues of theirs rather than adult content fanfic.
I do prefer the fics where it is acknowledged in some way that the relationship the boys have is not healthy or normal, and they don't expect the rest of the world to just go along with it. A little bit of plausibility is always nice.
4. What fictional character would you like to be able to meet in RL?
I honestly don't know. Is it weird that I've never really thought about it? I suppose I wouldn't mind being able to visit the Shire and have dinner with some hobbits.
5. What are your favourite books and why?
These past years I've read a lot less books than I would like to. I feel like I must have missed out on countless good books, because so much of my time gets spent online or doing study related things. My inspiration to read for pleasure has sort of diminished. It peaks during Christmas and summer, for which I'm grateful, but I can never manage to keep it up all year.
Anyway, off the top of my head, I have three works that pop us as some of my favourites.
- Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett.
It's funny and light, and it holds together and reads easily and it can be a little bit scary sometimes, and it has some thought tucked away in there and it just never, ever fails me.
- M Is for Magic, by Neil Gaiman.
It's actually a collection of short stories, but that counts, right? Each story is essentially a fairy tale, re-told in Gaimanesque fashion.
- A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway.
I have an odd relationship to this book. I was originally meant to read it for a class on literature of the First World War, but I only skimmed the book, and generally did my very best to get away with as little involvement as possible. Still, I'd borrowed it from the library, and it was lying around in my room, so I ended up reading it after the course had ended. I'm not fond of the main character, yet this book is what sparked my long-running fascination for Hemingway.
This entry was originally posted at http://unikorento.dreamwidth.org/17215.html. Please comment there using OpenID.