I'm being asocial

[anamuan]

jadedfrenzy: Look! It's Nakamaru! ;^)

there was a moment wednesday when rocksizedheart looked at me, after we'd suggested to the bartender that we might like another drink and he asked if we didn't want to kick it up a notch (I shrugged and smiled and said sure!), and said, "You really are an enabler, you know!"

btw, READ THE UEDA/YAMAPI. Read it. reaaaad it. I dreamt

Comments

[ginzarhapsody]

why don't you call it by its real name?

[anamuan]

why don't i call what by its real name?

[ginzarhapsody]

pida.

[anamuan]

me: because it makes me think of pitas~
and then i get hungry
:Dv
peyton: lol
baka
me: :beams:
peyton: sore wa kotae ni naranai
me: yoku ganbatta kara sa

[pixisticks]

I can definitely tell the difference between a writer attempting to write them "American-style", and a writer who treats them more Japanese. I'm kind of a mix of both--I try to make them somewhat Japanese, but I also think that if I made them TOTALLY Japanese, there wouldn't be any hot sex scenes or angry banter. So mostly I tend to go with the fandom-accepted version of their personalities, only tweaked a bit to how I think they are.

:3

[anamuan]

in that case, is the fandom-accepted version of their personalities affected by the fact that they're Japanese? If so, how so? If not, why not?

[pixisticks]

For that, you'd have to do a comm-wide meta, because their fandom personalities are basically one or two canon actions or aspects, and a whoooole lot of influence from other things. The way mainstream writers handle them, extreme spin-offs of a bit of their personality, mostly how they act on-screen, as opposed to the way they probably act off-stage. Japanese entertainers aren't quite the same as the average Japanese person, so people tend to make them a little less "Japanese", but I don't think they even think about that part of it because JE is all--besides anime and manga--a lot of people know about Japan anyway.

[anamuan]

comm-wide meta sounds like i'd have to post it in a comm or something. Do we even have a comm central enough to do it justice?

How do you feel about the on-stage/off-stage dichotomy as potentially a way to 'characterize' real people (that is to say, a way to make them into fictional characters)?
Or, conversely, the fact that you can't 'know' the way people act off-stage the way you can 'know' them on-stage, so making up or extrapolating offstage behavior as a less accurate form of characterization?

nihongofrancais responds in chat:

[anamuan]

when the boys are completely american it makes me feel weird. or the fic is completely westernizzed. unless it's like an AU.
but when i write, i like the surroundings to be japanese but the boys to be "western"
or english fandom characterized.

i think my bias toward them being japanese is because i have my background in japan.
it's where i first really met them. it's how i best understand them. so when i see people take them out of context and don't do it well, it jars me greatly. when it's done right (i.e. Cyn's "Going Live"), it can be REALLY WELL DONE.
in that, Cyn essentially puts them into a western frame (summer jobs, college, etc)
but it works so well because at the core, the characters are still there. even if they aren't japanese anymore

Re: nihongofrancais responds in chat:

[ginzarhapsody]

the two "z"s in westernized kind of drive me batty lol.

Re: nihongofrancais responds in chat:

[anamuan]

unfortunately, i have no commentedit capabilities. and also, you responded to this even if i had. i wasn't proofreading, obviously XD

[acchikocchi]

It does, very much. I try and gauge what I do with what would throw me out of the story if I were reading it. I never, ever use puns because puns always throw me out of a fic where the source material is Japanese. Dialogue is always hard, because I really don't want to sound too American and slang-y since they're... not American (except Jin ahahaha)... but I'm definitely not going to use actual Japanese or anything. Basically, I do my best to imagine what the characters would sound like in Japanese and how that would come across to a Japanese-speaking reader, and then how to phrase things so it has the same effect on an English speaker. This sounds a lot more complicated than it really is, ahahaha, it's pretty instinctive

[ginzarhapsody]

I totally relate to you on dialogue. When I started RPS in JE, I wanted to write them entire in Japanese because I could not get their Japanee voices and tones out of my head. Now, it's better and I tend to write their dialogue the way I think they would sound in English IF they spoke English. ;)

How do you feel about words native to Japanese that you can't translate? I know, for one, I have so much trouble translating ofuro and Japanese foods. I just can't bring myself to do it. It feels wrong to me. ;_;

[acchikocchi]

Hm. I've never actually had to deal with ofuro but the one that throws me every single time? GENKAN. I ALWAYS HAVE TO USE "ENTRY" (or entryway, or whatever) AND IT ALWAYS SOUNDS WRONG. *breathes* As for food, I have no problem leaving that untranslated. Or translated, depending on what's most common? Like. Miso soup instead of miso shiru is fine with me. *g* Um, I'm trying to think of any other examples -- I know I've butted up against that before but I can't remember the outcome.

[anamuan]

genkan, JL;KAFLJKFA AMEN! it's the worst thing because it's so ubiquitous. i get so upset when i read fic with people wandering around apartments/houses with their shoes on. i'm ridiculous ;jkfajkl like BOYS WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS OMG. D

[cynicalism]

do you feel bad about putting in puns because they wouldn't be the same in japanese?
i've written at least 3 drabbles on the whole pie/(mathsymbol)pi/(yama)pi so. yes, i feel bad because i am so lame but i also have no shame anymore.

i try to remember that they are in fact japanese but i don't know if i always keep that in mind or not, especially since i write a lot of random comment!fic that doesn't get more than five minutes of thought before i write, usually. XD i always keep in mind the suffixes though, (-san, -kun, -chan) with names because it's not so much fangirl japanese as how we're use to them calling each other. because i can't stand fangirl japanese unless it's limited to kinds of speech (like "ano" and "ne" because, while there is a sort of english equivalent--ie "uhm" or "eh"--the nuances are a little different.) also if they're lines in a song that everyone knows the translation to, or if they have a more powerful meaning in japanese than in english ("okaeri" and "tadaima" come to mind because they just are so much

[anamuan]

so your attitude towards puns is less linguistic and more along the lines of 'oh god how can i be this lame oh well :D'

what kind of difference does remembering (or not remembering) they're japanese make? if you try to keep it in mind, it must mean there's some kind of difference, right?
I put a lot of thought into terms of address, actually, because they're Japanese. first names, last names, nicknames, -san/-kun/-chan(etc) because it says so much about a relationship.

it was short. thank you for your input!

[cynicalism]

basically. as long as it amuses me and (hopefully) others. usually if something is for crack or for laughs, it's less annoying to me than someone writing "baka" or "itai" or something in fic when "stupid/idiot" or "ouch/ow" would suffice?

well, in terms of mannerisms and how they would speak. like, okay this is kind of a bad example but it's all i can think of, but like in addressing adults. asian countries in general are much more respectful than, say, americans, who sometimes refer to adults by their first names, and lots of times might even mouth off to them, and just details like that? klasda i always end up getting confused about what i'm trying to say when i meta on your journal. XD

wel yeah, it does have a lot to do with their relationship, but i mean, most of the time it's from how they already address each other that we get used to/understand the feel of their relationship for ourselves. unless it's for a purpose or something, i would never, let's say, have idk massu call yamapi "yamapi"--cause it's just...weird.

[anamuan]

...you know. that's true for me too. crack gets more leniency.
one thing i think is interesting personally is that i use japanese in speech (and encourage polyglotism), but not in fic if i can help it.

i'm sorry. is there something wrong with my journal that does it?
though i think i know what you mean about the 'how they would speak.' different culturally specific/appropriate reactions to situations.

but doesn't how they address each other play into relationship?