That is a really *heavy* week. Hope things turn out well for everyone.
You know, the only fandoms I've read fic from regularly were General Hospital, Buffy, and now P&P. In those television ones, people pretty much stick to the actors' physical characteristics, and the only differences are in the exact type of blue, e.g.
I'd even go further and suggest that if a show recasts a character, the fic writer would write based on the actor they prefer in the role (like we are too familiar with in P&P**)...and then, maybe, the description could change if the writer began to envision the new actor in the role.
But, man, I gotta say, such variety in a show where the actor is consistent? I vote for strange.
**one of my tiny peeves is when a writer starts off a story with what always reads to me like a demand that the reader envision only one actor: "This story is based on the 1932 version of Shaft with John Wayne...blah blah..." Sheesh! Just let me use my own imagination, please. Don't plant seeds!
I completely agree re: actor preferences - I mean, okay, if you don't want to work off your imagination, fine, but that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't! But then, I'm always annoyed by those avatars/signatures/whatever that say "the only true [Character X] is [Actor Y]." Um, no: the only true version is the original. (I'm still giggling over the people in Ali's thread at AHA going on about her blonde Elizabeth - they seem divided between 'Elizabeth must be dark!' and 'Elizabeth can be blonde, but Darcy must be dark!')
I'm glad to see that it's not just me thinking it's odd. Especially since James Roday and Maggie Lawson definitely have grey and blue eyes, respectively, just with the ring around the iris that -um - most of humanity does.
You know, I had a tiny theory-type idea about Lizzy's hair color. In an C18 novel class I took a couple of years ago, we read P&P, and I had a chat with a girl about how Austen doesn't really describe her characters. This girl (who was blond) hadn't seen any of the filmed versions, but said that she'd always assumed her to be blond, and I said I always thought she was brunette (my own hair color
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I've wondered about that - I mean, the identification thing. I think part of it is that we tend to extrapolate colouring from one feature (eg blonde --> blue eyes, dark eyes --> dark hair). Though I think it's also cliches - blondes are sweet and mild, redheads are fiery, brunettes intelligent and complex. The stereotypes abound, esp in this fandom. Jane is the sweet gentle one, Elizabeth is witty and deep, therefore Jane is blonde and Elizabeth dark. Bingley is easy-going and pleasant, Darcy is clever and complicated - the same thing goes there. I've seen any number of people talking about it just in passing, in random discussions - like in the Tea Room, 'oh, the yellow road could be for Jane and Bingley, since they're blond.'
I know that personally, I don't tend to have a default setting for Elizabeth, except dark brown/hazel eyes (though theoretically they could be dark blue, dark green, whatever) - but for Darcy, I instinctively picture blue-grey eyes and have serious trouble wrapping my brain around brown eyes (mine are
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Uh, reading in the X-Files fandom, the oldest fics had inconsistencies. The new ones didn't, I think. It's like at some point the fandom reached an agreement.
Like--well, with Duchovny you can have doubts because he sort of has that type of color that's difficult to define (in older fics I saw green, blue, grey and hazel) but I once saw an old fic where Scully (Gillian Anderson) had green eyes, and yeah, no.
In later fics Mulder has always green eyes and Scully blue.
I could be mistaken, of course, in identifying the ones with weird eye color as old fics, but I don't think so. Perhaps tree will comment, she must know more about the fandom.
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You know, the only fandoms I've read fic from regularly were General Hospital, Buffy, and now P&P. In those television ones, people pretty much stick to the actors' physical characteristics, and the only differences are in the exact type of blue, e.g.
I'd even go further and suggest that if a show recasts a character, the fic writer would write based on the actor they prefer in the role (like we are too familiar with in P&P**)...and then, maybe, the description could change if the writer began to envision the new actor in the role.
But, man, I gotta say, such variety in a show where the actor is consistent? I vote for strange.
**one of my tiny peeves is when a writer starts off a story with what always reads to me like a demand that the reader envision only one actor: "This story is based on the 1932 version of Shaft with John Wayne...blah blah..." Sheesh! Just let me use my own imagination, please. Don't plant seeds!
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I completely agree re: actor preferences - I mean, okay, if you don't want to work off your imagination, fine, but that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't! But then, I'm always annoyed by those avatars/signatures/whatever that say "the only true [Character X] is [Actor Y]." Um, no: the only true version is the original. (I'm still giggling over the people in Ali's thread at AHA going on about her blonde Elizabeth - they seem divided between 'Elizabeth must be dark!' and 'Elizabeth can be blonde, but Darcy must be dark!')
I'm glad to see that it's not just me thinking it's odd. Especially since James Roday and Maggie Lawson definitely have grey and blue eyes, respectively, just with the ring around the iris that -um - most of humanity does.
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I know that personally, I don't tend to have a default setting for Elizabeth, except dark brown/hazel eyes (though theoretically they could be dark blue, dark green, whatever) - but for Darcy, I instinctively picture blue-grey eyes and have serious trouble wrapping my brain around brown eyes (mine are ( ... )
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Like--well, with Duchovny you can have doubts because he sort of has that type of color that's difficult to define (in older fics I saw green, blue, grey and hazel) but I once saw an old fic where Scully (Gillian Anderson) had green eyes, and yeah, no.
In later fics Mulder has always green eyes and Scully blue.
I could be mistaken, of course, in identifying the ones with weird eye color as old fics, but I don't think so. Perhaps tree will comment, she must know more about the fandom.
Reply
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