Commentary on Fanfiction: Shades

Dec 13, 2006 16:50

tkp? Remember when you asked me to do this? Well, I have.

Commentary on Shades
i made this! )

fanfiction meta, phantom of the opera

Leave a comment

Comments 4

lettered December 14 2006, 04:36:04 UTC
Wow. Wow, this is so cool. Your explanation is very lyrical; it almost feels like reading another fic itself. And it's very different than what my interpretation of the fic was; it brings a whole new level to it I don't think I quite got.

When I read POTO, by the end I was more curious about that goddamn shade than anything else. Probably because Leroux said he was never gonna tell us what it was and I hate it when people do that!

He's the every-shadow. [...] At some point, however, it occurred to me that if Erik, the Persian, and the Ratcatcher were all "shades" in some manner, so could everyone else be.

I think that's just such an awesome idea, and again, something I didn't quite get on a conscious level with the piece. It made the piece as great as it really was, but you don't have to get that aspect of it to enjoy the piece. Themes should be really subtle like that, anyway; it makes pieces that are like Rubicks cubes and every time, you have to go solve it again and get a different color on another face.

As to the voice ( ... )

Reply

my_daroga December 14 2006, 04:42:19 UTC
I'm really glad you enjoyed reading it!

Probably because Leroux said he was never gonna tell us what it was and I hate it when people do that!

Yes, it's so much of a tease, and really not that cool of him.

I wasn't quite sure what you were trying to do with it. Now I have different ways of looking at it...

This raises a really important question: If what I intended required so much explanation, did I achieve what I wanted to? If I didn't, and you still liked it, what exactly did I achieve? Now I am worried that I needed to be clearer--I'm really glad you like it anyway, and that makes me happy and not totally bummed out. But it does seem like it might be a problem.

Reply

lettered December 14 2006, 04:55:03 UTC
I could wax philosophical on this topic for hours, and I will sometime if you want, but the short version of my take on it is: when you create a piece of art and share it, it's not longer about you. It's about both of us. It's about what you gave me and what I took from you, which are sometimes two entirely different things. You might want to guide my hand, but you don't want to do it too much or else there will be nothing of myself in what I have recieved. You don't want to do it too little or there will be nothing of you in what I have recieved. The happy medium is the true trick. And I find that when I've created something that touches other people . . . that was my intention all along, and that to try to force more on them is folly, really.

Whoa, didn't mean to get all, like, schmaltzy about it.

Reply

my_daroga December 14 2006, 17:07:02 UTC
I believe that as well, but there is a point of course where you're guiding too little and become more or less impotent to get across what you mean to. Like I said, I don't regret what I wrote, because it *feels* like what I wanted to say. And I'm glad it said something to you at all. But it makes one curious.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up