reading, writing, and reviews …
So. This week I am finishing up the Harry Potter series of books, because estora would not rest until I had tried them, and then I immediately became addicted, and now I have to get them done before I go back to school, which means I have to read the final two in, like, the next four days, one of which I will be spending at my parents' house and therefore not reading. Oh, my eyes … but they're so good. Fic will probably ensue, because it always does, but I want to read the entire series first. I am also reserving any thinky thoughts until later. That's just as well, since my brain isn't really firing on all thrusters at the moment anyway.
In other news … I like getting reviews. Really. I do. (We've talked about this.) But occasionally I have to wonder what the reviewer is thinking. Yesterday, I got a review on this story (a quick one-shot between Vader and "Areth") that said:
Is Areth an OC or an actual character just disguised? Cause if shes
an OC, you got to be careful...
Well, no. Apparently I don't. Or if I do, I must have already been careful enough. Because if you have to ask me whether she's an OC because you can't tell, then the joke is on you. I'm guessing that the reviewer (it's an unsigned review on FFN, so I can't follow up and ask) means I have to be "careful," lest I create a Mary Sue,* which I suppose is good advice, or would be if we had evidence that I was in danger of creating an abominably written female character who would send readers running for the safety of canon. But the thing is, if readers have to ask whether the character is an OC in order to determine whether there is a Danger of Sue, then I'd say that we have successfully navigated those murky fandom waters and arrived in a place where the character is just another character in the story - which is where we wanted to get, so yay! My only question is: why the cryptic warning? This feels like the TSA approach to reading: undress all characters, check their papers, and occasionally invade their personal space just because you can.
Oh, and also? There are no "actual" characters. That would be because this is fiction. I run across this a lot with people who assure me, in tones of great conviction, that the Prequel Trilogy or the EU books are "not real." Well, you're bang on the mark there, because - are you ready for this? - none of them are real! I love a good discussion about plausible interpretations of canon as much as the next person, but I can't help feeling that classifiers like "real" and "actual" are a little out of place here. I'd rather say, "consistent with the films," or "not present in some versions of the story."
And, hey, in this context that actually works well. Because Areth is kind of like Elaine: a latecomer to the narrative tradition who doesn't always fit well and yet strikes a chord strongly enough that somebody (okay, that'd be me) saw fit to tell her story anyway.
This makes me need to write another section from "Legends of a Fall." Pseudoacademic hijinks ftw! And I may have to take the morning off from Harry Potter …
*Because that's the only context in which I've seen "careful" and "OC" paired in discussion. But she could have been suggesting that I be careful about using curling irons; we may never know.
In other news … I like getting reviews. Really. I do. (We've talked about this.) But occasionally I have to wonder what the reviewer is thinking. Yesterday, I got a review on this story (a quick one-shot between Vader and "Areth") that said:
Is Areth an OC or an actual character just disguised? Cause if shes
an OC, you got to be careful...
Well, no. Apparently I don't. Or if I do, I must have already been careful enough. Because if you have to ask me whether she's an OC because you can't tell, then the joke is on you. I'm guessing that the reviewer (it's an unsigned review on FFN, so I can't follow up and ask) means I have to be "careful," lest I create a Mary Sue,* which I suppose is good advice, or would be if we had evidence that I was in danger of creating an abominably written female character who would send readers running for the safety of canon. But the thing is, if readers have to ask whether the character is an OC in order to determine whether there is a Danger of Sue, then I'd say that we have successfully navigated those murky fandom waters and arrived in a place where the character is just another character in the story - which is where we wanted to get, so yay! My only question is: why the cryptic warning? This feels like the TSA approach to reading: undress all characters, check their papers, and occasionally invade their personal space just because you can.
Oh, and also? There are no "actual" characters. That would be because this is fiction. I run across this a lot with people who assure me, in tones of great conviction, that the Prequel Trilogy or the EU books are "not real." Well, you're bang on the mark there, because - are you ready for this? - none of them are real! I love a good discussion about plausible interpretations of canon as much as the next person, but I can't help feeling that classifiers like "real" and "actual" are a little out of place here. I'd rather say, "consistent with the films," or "not present in some versions of the story."
And, hey, in this context that actually works well. Because Areth is kind of like Elaine: a latecomer to the narrative tradition who doesn't always fit well and yet strikes a chord strongly enough that somebody (okay, that'd be me) saw fit to tell her story anyway.
This makes me need to write another section from "Legends of a Fall." Pseudoacademic hijinks ftw! And I may have to take the morning off from Harry Potter …
*Because that's the only context in which I've seen "careful" and "OC" paired in discussion. But she could have been suggesting that I be careful about using curling irons; we may never know.