Oh, and Nath? Things got out of hand. Truer words have rarely been spoken... I found this vid after your recent post - funny where you end up.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_FanFic
Her spiel is:
As a newbie to the world of HP fanfiction writing, I find myself often looking for canon answers to things. Much like LOTR there are just some things that are hard to find whether they were discussed in the books or not. Thank God JK Rowling didn't have her own version of something like HoME! (at least not yet) But still, there are seven large books full of information and 5 movies - alot of the time, its hard to remember if its movie verse or book verse.
At any rate, I've created a yahoo group for this purpose. Whether you write HP now or are just a reader/fan and like to discuss it, please join so we can help each other out! And feel free to pass on the link to any other HP fans.
I thought some of you might find this useful. I don't know much about the group and so can't personally recommend it (or warn against it - I just don't know one way or the other), but to my knowledge it's mostly being promoted on Yahoo. So I thought I'd spread the announcement on to LJ. :-)
Britain's Naked Public Square by Peter C. Glover (First Things
It's worth reading and thinking about, even if you don't read my reaction to it. As for said reaction...
This blog post looks at several court cases in the U.K. of where Christians were being "persecuted" for trying to live as Christians (as they saw it) in the public square. There's a foster mother who was decommissioned because a Muslim foster-child wanted to convert to Anglicanism. And a nun who ran into trouble for asking a patient if she could pray with her, and a wedding registrar who wanted to not have to officiate same-sex marriages. This post is from back in May but it's at least as pertinent today as it was then; in many ways more pertinent to my American mind because of our recent national holiday which at least in some quarters takes on a quasi-religious tone.
I find calling things like this persecution.... chancy, at best. Even if your job is lost because you hold a religion, this doesn't make for persecution, especially if other jobs are readily available. It doesn't help that I've just finished reading The Handmaid's Tale, a distopian novel where there is extreme persecution of women. In that novel women deemed morally unfit (including the narrator, whose husband had been a divorcee) are forced to either move to the Colonies (nearly always lethal) or become Handmaids. Handmaids are essentially breeders for the wealthy class, whose one function is to reproduce with the patriarch. If they manage to reproduce the children are taken away with them. Women can't have jobs or own property, and they can't be single. This is all based on a perversion of judeo-christian philosophy.
So I have some pretty extreme situations on my mind when I think persecution. That kind of thing is persecution. The Holocaust is real persecution. Early Christians thrown to the lions or Chinese Christians thrown in barbaric jails, that's persecution. Not losing your job because you emphasize your religion where it's maybe not proper to do that. (Whether it's right for these people to be fired is another issue, but it's hard for me to think of it as persecution.)
(Aside: Handmaid's Tale is fabulous. Upsetting and disconcerting, but fabulous. I recommend it.)
Back to the blog post. There's one line in particular, though, that interested me. It's this:
the cardinal [O'Connor of Westminster] claimed religious belief is today treated as a “private eccentricity” rather than as “the central and formative element in British society that it is.”
That got me thinking, because to me religion should be a private thing. Maybe I'd disagree with eccentricity, but that's a bit relative from age to age. But I don't think religion should be imposed on society at large. As I understand it the problem in situations like this (and they're far from unique to the U.K.) is that an adherant of some religion thinks that he or she should be able to act from that group's teachings in a way that impacts people not necessarily a member of that religion.
Take the instance of the wedding registrar. She clearly has some objection to same-sex marriages (I'm assuming a religious objection), and based on this objection she wants to not have to participate in ceremonies she objects to. This objection comes not from some morality that everyone accepts, or from the laws of the land, but from her interpretation of her religion. I don't think someone should be compelled to do something s/he thinks is sinful, but in this case the registrar agreed to take a job and now wants to be excused from that job in certain circumstances (presumably without totally giving up the job).
My understanding of Christianity and religion in general is, it is a choice we make, we have a choice to believe the Christian creed or the Jewish or Buddhist or whatever creed, or to believe no particular creed at all. As a Christian I may believe that people should choose to be Christians rather than some other religion or nothing at all. But I still think it's a choice they should make, not something that should be decided for them. (Sidenote- notice the "may" in there. I happen to think many non-Christian ideologies come closer to the mark than some ideologies claiming to be Christianity. But that's a point for another day, I guess.) Anyway, the point is it should be everyone's choice. Once a person chooses to be a Christian or whatever we can talk about the implications of correct Christian theology on different areas of your life. But I, as a Christian, should not be keeping non-Christians from acting in a certain way because it's against Christian theology. I may object to it for reasons that apply universally to all people, and that's a whole other issue. But if I'm against something because it's against Christian theology, what right do I have to impose that on people who don't accept said theology?
So in the case of the marriage registrar, I think she's definitely over-stepping her bounds by asking only to officiate heterosexual marriages. If she wants to act as a public official she needs to not interfere with segments of the population doing things she doesn't approve of. I would feel much the same if the person was (say) a Jew who didn't want to officiate an interfaith marriage. Or a white supremacist who didn't want to officiate an interrace marriage. People are allowed their private beliefs, but when they choose to act as a public servant they have to put their public duties above their private beliefs, if the two ever come into conflict. That, or stop being a public servant and deal with the fall-out from that.
The case of the nurse is harder. Even if I thought same-sex marriages were un-Christian, I'd still think it would be wrong for a Christian to impose her beliefs on what other people can or can't do. But that approach cuts both ways. People who don't belong to a religion have a right not to expect that religion to be crammed down their throat. But someone who does belong to a religion, I think we need to make some space to allow people their customs and private beliefs as well, if they can be accommodated without imposing too much on other people.
A nurse is employed to offer comfort to sick people, and that can mean more than just handling the physical end of things. And for a Christian, offering to pray for someone can be a very effective way of offering comfort, of affirming that you care about the person and are concerned about them. I understand why a spiritual person might want to offer spiritual comfort, and offering to pray is one way to do that. Of course, this can be done well or not-so-well and I don't know the details of this case. But in principle, I think a nurse should be able to ask her patients if they'd like to pray. Especially long-term patients. I know when my godson was in the hospital, we received some very bad news more than once, and even though at the time I didn't want anything to do with God, it would have been a real comfort to know that a nurse wanted to offer that comfort. I don't think it's imposing too much on patients/families to have them say: thanks but no thanks.
Of course, where to draw this line is a tough one. But democracies and multi-cultural societies are full of these balancing acts. Where one individuals' rights begin and anothers' ends, that's always a hard question.
I love the whole world...
I love the fact that this song has spawned a whole sub-culture! Some truly creative takes on it, but in case you've missed it: Boom-de-ya-da goes Middle-earth, XKCD, Legos, and Pixar-ific. I particularly recommend that last one if you haven't seen it yet.
Three cheerz for creativity. Or procrastination, which often works out to about the same thing.
*realizes there doesn't seem to be a DS9 vid, and is suddenly glad she doesn't know how to do those.*
So, I'm back stateside and I must say it's *hot* outside. It's funny how quickly you get used to weather, because I'm sure a few days ago I would have been begging for this. But since leaving my apartment at about 2:30 I have downed a gelato and a big Yoohoo and I'm still feeling flushed. And that's including some productive inside time (haircut + printing out articles). Maybe it's being in a city again? Not that Trier is small compared to the Bronx...
I'm feeling pretty melancholy and depressed today. Nothing horribly specific; I expect it's a combination of jetlag and just being drained by the trip, and am hoping it will ease up as I get used to being back.
I re-read some of Half-blood prince on the plane, getting ready for the movie. The one thing that I had impressed on me by that attempt was: damn, but Rowlings *stinks* at handling grief. I gritted my teeth at the whole opening sequence of the book the first time through, but I think I'd forgotten how frustratingly off it is.
So I moved on to working on my Akallabeth-in-August piece, which is turning out as a series of rather short "bites" about a certain character's domestic life. Emphasis on short - I have two scenes, about 500 words total, and having been working on it since at least my post on LJ a little while ago.
It's not writer's block or anything. It's just that I don't normally write Numenor directly, and so for each scene I have to work out what I want to say about these totally new characters, and then figure out how to interlace it with canon that I'm significantly less familiar with than Ring War stuff. The interesting thing is, it's substantively the same work I'd be doing for a piece at least 10x the length. It's a bit like building a miniature of a house, but complete with everything the actual house would have. There may be some difference in the substantive work of laying pipes, etc., but there's a lot more involved in building a miniature than a similar sized portion of the full-scale house. This experience of writing vignettes in a corner of canon where I don't have my old fanons to work with, it's made me more convinced than ever that ficlets can require much the same creative work as longer fiction, at least if they're done right.
That's it from me, at least for now.:^P
- Music:the trumpet guy playing jazz in Central Park
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One last thing, on an unrelated note. I meant to post a link to a YouTube vid in my eucatastrophe post, but forgot. This isn't (I don't think) a eucatastrophe in Tolkien's sense, but it gives me a pleasure-out-of-pain sensation like I think the Philebus was talking about. Because there is so much suffering in the world - it's nice to see so many people still dancing.
Where the Hell is Matt?
It also reminds me of an AU!JRRT!nuzgul that I had years ago and never did anything with - what would have happened to the writing of LOTR if Chris had been killed in action, not just practically but emotionally - how losing his "amanuensis and critic" and the one he talked about sharing stories with when they were "sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief" would affect his resolve to tell the story he was writing. I don't find myself eager to tell a story of catastrophe above and beyond what JRRT's life gave him, but it's not unimaginable that Christopher might have died then. I find these kinds of questions interesting, if macabre.
But on to the real issue that caught my attention. Tolkien talks about coining a new term:
For [an essay on fairy-stories] I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it
produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back.
This concept of eucatastrophe is something that is hard to miss in Tolkien's great battles. The Rohirrim are about to be overrun at Helm's Deep, when Gandalf arrives with the Westfold men. (And he says he will come when least expected, IIRC). Then again in Gondor, the Rohirrim turn up when they could no longer be hoped for. And the Battle before the Great Gate is a bet that a eucatastrophe will happen, when those who wage the battle have no reasonable hope at all that Frodo is still alive. (If hope can ever be reasonable.)
I am reminded of a discussion on my Plato course last spring. (Mind you, I was neck-high in a bad combination of grief and paper-revisions so I was not as on top of this course as I should be...) We were reading the _Philebus_ and talking about a passage where Plato discusses he joy we get where some minor bad thing happens to a friend. Someone trips down the stairs and we lap at him; or the football in the groin jokes on America's Funniest Home Videos, for instance. Not Plato's examples, obviously! Anyway our class was discussing why it was not a character flaw to get pleasure out of the suffering of a friend. The interpretation I most remember was that this laughter was from relief. We see a friend fall down the stairs and we hold our breath thinking he might be seriously hurt and only laugh when we see him moving and everything. I'm not sure I 100% buy that interpretation as explaining the phenomenon adequately, but it's probably the best one I think you can advance on Plato's behalf here.
Anyway, Plato's discussion of pleasure-pain seems similar to that. We get a peculiar joy at seeing something bad *not* happen and a good thing happening instead, more than we would if the good thing had happened instead. And this works on an individual scale. I can see my friends fall and be glad he only sprains an ankle rather than a broken neck. My hypothetical friend probably wouldn't feel hurt that I laughed over a bad thing happening to him. But with Tolkien's eucatastrophe we're talking *cultural* (or societal) eucatastrophe - and the lesser hurt is often born quite heavily by the individual.
Let's say that a Gondorian very minor character --Ingold, the guard who tells Gandalf that Gondor's outwalls aren't repaired yet-- dies at the Black Gates. In canon we don't have a clue what happens to him; he is a beat and then is quickly forgotten. He dies along with probably several hundred if not thousand Gondorians; but in the end the Ring is destroyed and Gondor as a whole is saved. The saving of Gondor at this point is a eucatastrophe, and I think it also fits the Philebus pleasure.
I think for Tolkien the entity of Gondor becomes a major character on the same level as Legolas or Merry, whereas the many individual Gondor*ians* who must die (and many other folk besides) are individually minor characters. And maybe in Tolkien's world of heroic legends this is the correct stance. We care about Beowulf, and perhaps also about the Danes collectively, but few of us worry too much over Hathlaf. But for those of us who write fanfic and work with these minor characters, those minor characters become individually important, too. I suspect that someone familiar with Isabeau's work would cry if Erchirion was killed at the Black Gate (we don't know he didn't!), and even if that death alone was what bought Frodo the time he needed, I doubt many people who have come to love Erchirion through those stories would consider it something worth celebrating.
I think this is why I sometimes struggle to reconcile myself to the idea that history glorifies Iluvatar, that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, etc. In Middle-earth the pain in the pleasure-pain of the Philebus isn't inconsequential - and it's difficult as seeing that as part of what was intended by the "powers for good". It's not like everyone at the battle sprained an ankle where they thought they were die. Rather, it's that a portion of them died when all were expected to die or be captured. It's hard for me to see that as a cause for joy.
Of course Tolkien does acknowledge these deaths and even goes so far to say "so victory is shorn of gladness" (I'm paraphrasing). I will have to continue thinking about all this, I think. Certainly Tolkien's comments about what he means by eucatastrophe makes the issue more definite for me.
I don't really go in for favorite characters, though I will drop a few names: Denethor. Gollum. Pharazon. Bilbo. Celeborn. Balin. Odds are you can't go wrong with them (assuming you don't make them out to be monsters. But really, i am more interested in themes and motifs than individual characters. So:
1. Theodicy by any other name.... I've been a bit preoccupied lately with the Akallabeth and what it means for the Dunedain. How to make sense of tragedy in a world where there's at least a basic belief that there is an order to history. I'm sure you could do something similar for other dark spots of history, whether they're societal or personal.
2. Belief in moral absolutes. I'm preparing to teach a course in ethics next semester, and my interests being what they are, I'm mostly interested in the reasons we hold certain ethical positions. And Middle-earth is full of moral absolutes (there seems to be absolute good and evil, even if precious few characters are absolutely good or evil). Like: don't catch an orc with a falsehood, or I'm sure you could think of others. But how are the Middle-earthians so sure what is right and wrong? Does anyone ever wonder whether it just might be better to catch an orc with a lie than to let him go about his business?
3. With the talk about the Hobbit movie, I am increasingly interested in what our favorite characters thought about the Quest for Erebor (and associated attacks on Necromancers, et al.) I would love to see how your favorite character was affected by it all. Were Elladan and Elrohir perhaps part of one attack or the other? Where were Legolas and/or Gimli in it all? Who from Gondor was sent to establish diplomatic relations with Dale? (Because you know Ecthelion wouldn't want there to be a new major mannish kingdom with no ties to Gondor...) Events looking at the aftermath of The Hobbit (just hinted at in canon) would be nice too.
4. If you can't tell from my recent posts I've been thinking a lot about Tolkien's conceit that Lord of the Rings is a translation and The Hobbit a retelling of historic documnts. Anything at all to do with this idea is very likely to go amiss. How did Sam feel editing books written by his "masters" Bilbo and Frodo. Did Faramir's comments about "men of the twilight" ever get back to him? Was Gimli or Legolas satisfied with the hobbits' version, or did they want to write their own versions of events? And what about the next generation - how did they relate to those records of events - did they ever wonder whether gramps was the same guy described in songs adn history books?
(And for the record, I'm not against similar themes being explored in other fandoms I know.)
That was more than I meant to say! As I said I really do not expect gifts, and will not be disappointed by a ficlet about pretty much anything. But it was fun to think about what kinds of things I would find most interesting, and so I thought I would share it on the chance anyone else was asking Dwim's question.
Last year I let you give me prompts. This year I'd like to try something a bit different. I want you to give me your favorite quote and I will use it as inspiration. The quote doesn't have to be Tolkien (though it can be); but I probably won't write a simple gapfiller. More likely, I will take the sentiment of the quote and run with it. (A good example of this type of fic is my ficlet The Road Goes Ever On, which was inspired by the Russel quote in the footnotes.
I will write mostly Tolkien fiction. Probably mostly Ring War-era stuff, though I wouldn't write off Numenor-centric by any stretch of the imagination and a Feanorian or two may even find their way into the mix. Tolkien himself might even grab my ear, if the quote is appropriate. So if there's any particular character set you want (or don't want) me to write, please specify that. I also have written all ratings in the past so if there's anything along those lines that you would prefer or want me to avoid, let me know that, too.
I'm most driven toward Tolkien these days but am willing to consider other characters if I know the fandom well. Certainly the quotes can come from other places. I've thought of three Deep Space Nine quotes that might make interesting starting points. :-)
So: if you have a request, please let me know and I will see what the muse gives me. I most likely will not write all, but all will be considered.
I also encourage you, if you're interested in the MEFAs, to go find a story you haven't read yet and review it. Just one story. :-) Heck, if you don't participate in the MEFAs, you can still see what stories are nominated and leave a story a review at its archive. (To see the nominations: Log in here or click "log in as guest," then click the "Stories" link at the top of the page.
Thank you to everyone who nominated me, and congratulations to all the other nominated authors as well.
My point is, I've never read the Letters much past #42, the infamous one where Tolkien sounds off on various gender issues. I have always bought into the idea that Tolkien's writings are largely translations of historical sources, either of a mythology or an actual history. It is this secondary world that I am in love with and that I want to contribute to. Tolkien's writing is beautiful, but I have my own voice and would likely feel constricted if I felt like I had to sound like him; and as for his views, I find I don't agree with them more often than not. Which is why I like writing stories in Tolkien's world whether that stories that I think Tolkien would necessarily approve of.
Which probably explains why I am less driven than some to read everything I can find by him. There are untold stories and perspectives that I find fascinating, like the stories of Isildur's last stand (in U.T.) or the all those hints about the civil line between Tar-Palantir and Ar-Pharazon's dad. Those I can't get enough of. But when it comes to Tolkien's writing process, I'm much less interested; and his views on non-Middle Earth stuff is a real turn off. It makes me feel that by writing Arda-verse I'm a misogynist and whatever else. (Plus he comes across as more than a bit whiny and snobbish to me, especially in the Letters I've read.)
But: I keep getting drawn back to the idea of writing an essay about how I view canon (that is: Tolkien's created world rather than his views not embedded in the legendarium), and it seems the definition of chutzpah to write that essay without knowing more about what Tolkien actually thought. So I've been reading the Letters again - if I can grit my teeth through his comments about women, it actually has some kind of interesting descriptions and factoids, and it's where Tolkien talks about his views on his secondary world most clearly. (Most of the letters are to his publishers, after all.)
To the point, I wanted to share some interesting passages I've stumbled across. Might be good food for thought for those of you who wat to think more about what canon means in Tolkien fandom:
What I meant, and thought Chris meant, and am almost sure you meant, was that the TCBS had been granted some spark of fire – certainly as a body if not singly – that was destined to kindle a new light, or, what is the same thing, rekindle an old light in the world; that the TCBS was destined to testify for God and Truth in a more direct way even than by laying down its several lives in this war. (Lr. 5, to friend Geoffrey Smith)
In redrawing the whole thing could re reduced – if you think the runes are attractive. Though magical in appearance they merely run: The Hobbit or There and Back Again, being the record of a year's journey made by Bilbo Baggins; compiled from his memoirs by J. R. R. Tolkien and published by George Allen & Unwin. (Lr. 12, to Allen & Unwin about a proposed cover of The Hobbit; emphasis added)
No reviewer (that I have seen), although all have carefully used the correct dwarfs themselves, has commented on the fact (which I only became conscious of through reviews) that I use throughout the 'incorrect' plural dwarves. I am afraid it is just a piece of private bad grammar, rather shocking in a philologist; but I shall have to go on with it. Perhaps my dwarf – since he and the Gnome are only translations into approximate equivalents of creatures with different names and rather different functions in their own world – may be allowed a peculiar plural. (Lr. 17, to Stanley Unwin; emphasis added)
I have received several queries, on behalf of children and adults, concerning the runes and whether they are real and can be read. Some children have tried to puzzle them out. Would it be a good thing to provide a runic alphabet? I have had to write one out for several people. (Lr. 19 P.S., to Stanley Unwin)
As for the rest of the tale it is, as the Habit suggests, derived from (previously digested) epic, mythology, and fairy-story – not, however, Victorian in authorship, as a rule to which George Macdonald is the chief exception. Beowulf is among my most valued sources; though it was not consciously present to the mind in the process of writing. [...] My tale is not consciously based on any other book – save one, and that is unpublished: the 'Silmarillion', a history of the Elves, to which frequent allusion is made. (Lr. 25, a reply to a letter published in the 'Observer')
These dwarves are not quite the dwarfs of better known lore. They have been given Scandinavian names, it is true; but that is an editorial concession. Too many names in the tongues proper to the period might have been alarming. Dwarvish was both complicated and cacophonous. Even early elvish philologists avoided it, and the dwarves were obliged to use other languages, except for entirely private conversations. (also Lr. 25)
I hope you will have some more leave in genuine Africa, ere too long. Away from the "lesser servants of Mordor". Yes, I think the orcs as real a creation as anything in "realistic" fiction: your vigorous words well describe the tribe; only in real life they are on both sides, of course. (Lr. 71, to Christopher Tolkien)
He has sent me some illustrations (of the Trolls and Gollum) which despite certain merits, such as one would expect of a German, are I fear too 'Disnified' for my taste: Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of. .... (Lr. 107, to Stanley Unwin)
[It should be noted] that I have not a pleasure in praise, with as little vanity as fallen man can manage (he has not much more share in his writings than in his children of the body, but it is something to have a function). (Lr 109, to Stanley Unwin)
What you really require is The Silmarillion, which is virtually a history of the Eldalië (or Elves, by a not very accurate translation) from their rise to the Last Alliance, and the first temporary overthrow of Sauron (the Necromancer): that would bring you nearly down to the period of The Hobbit'. (Lr 114, to Hugh Brogan a child reader of The Hobbit)
[about The Silmarillion] You may, perhaps, remember about that work, a long legendary of imaginary times in a 'high style', and full of Elves (of a sort). (Lr 124, to Stanley Unwin)
[about a second edition of "Riddles in the Dark"] I have now on my hands two printed versions of a crucial incident. Either the first must be regarded as washed out, a mere miswriting that ought never to have seen the light; or the story as a whole must take into account the existence of two versions and use it. The former was my original simpleminded intention, though it is a bit awkward (since the Hobbit is fairly widely known in its older form) if the literary pretence of historicity and dependence on record is to be maintained. The second can be done convincingly (I think), but not briefly explained in a note. (Lr 129, to Stanley Unwin)
[It should be noted that Lr. 25 was intended as a bit of a joke, as he thinks the 'Observer] writer is treating him too seriously; but clearly he takes the joke in the direction of scholarly research as sociology and linguistics rather than literary criticism.]
I hope these prove food for thought for those interested in this subject.
P.S. - I may edit this post as I find more quotes. It seems as good a place as any to collect quotes.
Is it really any surprise that I've been thinking about Ar-Pharazon a lot, with all that in mind? I've been thinking about him this morning, for a variety of reasons.
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If you've read this far, you deserve a treat. Here is a song that I listened to a lot as a teenager. "Fade to Grey," by the Christian alternative band Jars of Clay. It's kind of become the anthem to my Pharazon thoughts.
On the one hand this is a bit refreshing, just because it is a return to what I think of as traditional Republicanism (which I find much more palatable than neoconservatism): freedom, lessening government intrusion, states' rights, etc. I disagree with parts of the position, but the statement itself was remarkably nuanced for this issue.
On the other hand, there's such a logical divide here. "Freedom means freedom for everyone," but I guess not if you live in a red state? If there is a universal right to be married to the person you love and want to build a life with, why should individual states have a right to deny you that right? Freedom means freedom for everyone, unless your freedom is frowned upon by the majority in your corner of the country?
Still, it's an interesting development and while I disagree with the states-rights portion of the statement, it was much more accepting than I would have expected.
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celandineb's blog and decided to do it. As much to say I'm still surviving (sort of) as anything, but the question was good distraction.a. Name your 10 absolutely favourite fandom ships (try to pick different fandoms).
b. Ask people to see what trends and similarities they notice about your ships.
1. Boromir/Theodred (Lord of the Rings)
2. Denethor/Aragorn (Lord of the Rings)
3. Maedhros/Fingon (Silmarillion)
4. Celeborn/Galadriel (Silmarillion)
5. Snape/(Regulus) Black (Harry Potter)
6. Hermione/Luna (Harry Potter)
7. Jake Sisko/Marta (Star Trek: DS9)
--- no, not me. Marta the Dabo girl, from one of the early seasons. I so wish they had let that one play out.
8. Garak/Bashir (Star Trek: DS9)
9. Jadzia/Quark (Star Trek: DS9)
10. Chakotay/B'Elanna (Star Trek: Voyager)
I don't always buy these characters as "canon" and am not interested in that debate. But they have all struck me as having a nice chemistry and have worked well in fanfic I've read or written.
I have two new shinies. First is the icon for this post. This is an edited version of the button I used beside all of my official MEFA LJ posts last year, but
elea24 kindly removed the year stamp. Because, you know, I'm not going anywhere. :-) Something about poring over a book like the icon shows is very amusing, because it seems that the character trait I've used most over the last few days is loremaster. Not dragon-lore or even elvish lore, but perhaps mefa-lore? It puts me in fine company, and it's a mental image I quite like.
*imagines herself curled up by the fire in Faramir's library, going over the ancient manuscripts and, perhaps more importantly, the floorplan of Emyn Arnen*
*imagines Faramir in Faramir's library, looking delightfully bookish*
*ahem*
As for shiny the second, I have to thank
nierielraina for that one. This is my shiny for being nominated. I have been truly blessed in the nomination department. Kindest thanks to
rakshathedemon, Dwim, rhapsody11, just_ann_now, and heartofoshun. I have also marked off the already-nominated ones at my list of fics I would be willing to accept nominations for.And I won't blather on more about nominations, (a) because I'm as busy as a Brandybuck at a mushroom festival, and (b) because I really don't want to make it seem like I'm begging for nominations. I'm not. Of course I would like to be nominated, but I will be almost as pleased if you nominate a truly stellar piece by another author. Because, you know, then I get to read it.
I know many of you are involved in the Tolkien fandom, and more than a few of you have participated in the MEFAs in the past. I just sent out an announcement to our award promoters announcing that nominations will open in a few days. But in case you miss it at those sites and want to participate, I thought I'd post this announcement here as well. (I don't usually post MEFA announcements here, but I'm excited so thought I'd do that, just this once.)
If you are or ever were a participant in the Tolkien fandom, consider this my personal invitation for you to participate in the MEFAs. If you ever thought about getting involved in Tolkien fandom, no time like the present!
And if you were already planning on doing that, or if you've spent a fair amount of your fandom time over the last few months getting ready for the awards or even starting your volunteer work in the set-up phase - consider this my thanks. You know who you are. I have on my flist dedicated volunteers getting the site ready, banner artists who are already hard at work, liaisons who have been working hard to refresh their MEFA knowledge, and eager fandom readers who have been making their lists of stories to nominate and checking it twice. And that doesn't mention the many MEFA volunteers who plod on year-round. All of you guys rock.
( Read more... )
First, there's Thundera tiger. I'm wavering between her two fics Of Rowan and Ruin and Beyond the Mountain Passes. OR&R is episodic but brilliant in the way it spans the years without making the reader feel like she isn't getting the whole story. I would love to have a coherent focus on certain characters that led to that sort of writing. BTMP, on the other hand, is an extended conversation of the sort that this author does so well. Anyone remember "A Fool's Hope" from back during the day? This is in a similar vein, just as brilliant but perhaps even more notworthy because the conversation seels just as natural as that, with two characters who are just becoming friends.
Earmire is an author iI haven't read in ages, but she's blown me away this year two. Her piece Two is just brilliant for the way it absolutely nails some characterization, particularly Melkor and Feanor. It is insightful and gives us these two characters in a new light. Whoever said there was nothing new under the sun obviously hasn't read this piece. Dwim's piece She Who Weeps is in a similar vein: brilliant for its insight into a certain character who is often overlooked.
I've also been thinking about Violin Ghost's gapfiller Sable Dawn by Violins Ghost, which is just so darned creative in its premise and so well executed. I'm jealous. And I'm jealous of
just_ann_now's mad drabble skills in The Toymaster of Buckland, where she just creates such a word icture that the scene jumps right off the pageLast but not least there's the one I can't nominate because it's too adult. Like Fighting by dragonlady7. It contains pretty explicit het, and on a purely technical level it works great. Bt this piece lso does exactly what I think Lord of the Rings erotica should do: advance the characters and look at issues of gender and identity that are wrapped up in how characters view themselves through sex. DL7 definitely does all that, and with significantly fewer big words than I've used just now.
All of these stories are so awesome. It gives me a serious case of the wibbles.They each represent what I am trying to do (and feel like I'm failing at ladely. TT's especially - I try to write long involved conversations like that, and wish I could do it with half the grace this author shows.
That said, just because I have the wibbles doesn't make them less emarkable stories. Consider this my official recommendation, if you haven' read these already.
