Of course, "I hate horses" is short-hand for "pony girls were cunts to me at school".

[apiphile]

Day 15: Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality

Last time I did this I explained how my western astrological sign is bollocks, because you basically build up a pattern of self-contradictory vagueness and ignore the stuff that doesn't apply. Also that astrology used to be quite a big deal for me until I was about 19, 20, and

Comments

[prologi]

Oh man, I've plotted out so many of those box-ticking kinds of fantasy novels. Dwarves, check! Elves being ethereal, check! (I never actually wrote any of them beyond, like, one chapter, because I'm flaky.) I didn't even read that many, it just seemed The Done Thing. I've pretty much given up on fantasy, especially the medieval-eque stuff. The only non-urban ones I've read in years were Discworld.

I have a friend who sort of believes in astrology, in that she checks her horoscope and it might give her some idea of how the day's going to turn out. She also once pointed that her and one of our mutual friends have the same star sign and similar personalities, but couldn't quite explain why me and another friend are polar opposites even though our birthdays are four days apart. :P

[apiphile]

Likewise, Chris, Holly, Rose & I are all born in the same week but have some fairly divergent tendencies, personality traits, etc; how come I'm a shouty confrontational dick and they're not? Etc. Astrology is very much cherry-picking ... also very much enjoyed Sagan's "this is total bollocks" reporting on the history of astrology in Cosmos.

Yeah, I gave up long ago on non-urban fantasy - I think in part just because I hate the goddamn countryside and don't want to read about it. :D Also if I can imagine it as being animated by Weta I tend to get annoyed. ;)

[apiphile]

Pratchett did that with Elves and Lo! It was very good. although I think that's more down to his very firm grip on the possibilities of the mundane.

I kind of ... the movies were okay. The book was TERRIBLE. Much prefer Gormenghast. Apart from anything else, even though in Gormenghast people's entire lives were given over to serving the dynasty, they felt like they had ... meaning? Purpose? Something to do other than be slaughtered/rescued by the Big Shiny Fucking Hero like they tended to be in LotR.

Well I guess the world does need saving occasionally.

[sour_idealist]

Funnily enough, magic with invariable horrible consequences always feels very similar to science-is-bad morals: anything that allows people to be more than splodges without claws should go away, apparently. I hate it too (also, elves).

I think my biggest pet peeve is DESTINY DESTINY DESTINY, though. Okay, yes, your hero is The Chosen One and Destined to do all this, how about making him the protagonist on his own merits?

[apiphile]

I feel like magic and science should be handled similarly? Things shouldn't always go the way they're wanted to, and if you follow the known rules you get similar results, whereas if you fuck about anything can happen, but quite often nothing happens; that if you piss about with the dangerous stuff shit goes horribly awry, but if you piss about with the safe stuff it's quite useful. Simples!

I think my biggest pet peeve is DESTINY DESTINY DESTINY, though.

LOUDLY CO-SIGNED. I loathe this. Lazy, lazy plotting, lazy tension-building, lazy idea. Hate it. HATE IT.

[strangecreature]

This makes me want to read or, hell, write an explicitly self-aware high fantasy novel that starts off with the observation that horses POOP and the countryside is BORING and runs with it from there. And this is coming from someone who spent a large chunk of her yoof happily reading actual D&D novels. *g*

[apiphile]

which I will still not read, because it will still be fantasy. :P

[strangecreature]

Hee! And that, my lovely, is entirely allowed.

[ruthi]

Remind you to lend you 'the Tough Guide to Fantasyland'. It goes Mock mock mockity mock.

[apiphile]

I think you guys misunderstand me. I am not interested in even pisstaking of the fantasy tropes.

[swear_jar]

OH LOOK WE AGREE ENTIRELY ON ALL THINGS RELATED TO FANTASY EVER.