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Thursday, January 2nd, 2020
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10:18 pm - Collected Fanfiction Post
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| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
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5:01 pm - Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis
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The local supermarket had the last two TNG movies, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis as a special cheap offer, and thus I saw them again for the first time since the cinematic release. (Because they were not exactly good, and I say that as a devoted later series of ST fan, I never made any attempt to rewatch before.)
So, how do they feel several years hence? For starters, there are worse ST movies. (Step forwards, Slow Motion Picture and Final Frontier.) However, the basic problems remained the same. Let's start with Insurrection.
( Star Trek: Insurrection )
On to the last TNG movie, object of much fannish ire.
( Star Trek: Nemesis )
current mood:  mellow
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10:47 am - Vid recs and good news
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| Monday, November 23rd, 2009
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10:35 am - Dexter 4.09. Hungry Man
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| Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
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9:08 am - Bitter and joyful things
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Transferring Heroes stories to the AO3 was upsetting. I did some choosing and picking, as I didn't want to transfer all, but this meant rereading, which meant remembering, which meant me going "Damn it, Heroes, damn it!".
You know, I've been wondering retrospectively what could have saved the show because it did have such a lot of potential. Realistically saved, which means wishing a completely different mindset on Tim Kring & Co. or completely different writers is out. And my conclusion is that the only plausible option I can see would have been if Kring had stuck to his original idea of introducing a new ensemble cast each season. This would have meant his weaknesses - good long term character development, plausible long term arcs - would not have been exposed, his strengths - origin stories, setting up interesting relationships - would have been played to, and while one season long arcs still could have included problematic choices re: storylines for pocs and/or women, the odds of this being balanced by successful storylines for same would have been higher.
On to more joyful fannish nostalgia, this one concerning Star Trek: yesterday I had tea with an actor who does a lot of dubbing work and was friends with the late G.G. Hoffman, who used to dub both Sean Connery and William Shatner. Hoffmann also supervised a lot of the dubbing for TOS back in the day. And my new accquaintance (who dubbed the occasional Klingon and other guest characters) had an anecdote about visiting Hoffmann once in the studio, finding several female visitors who were ST fangirls (well, -women, that was what struck him, as he had the usual preconceptions about who likes Sci-Fi) who while being intrigued and impressed by the whole dubbing process immediately switched to stern and merciless once the work started whenever Hoffmann made a continuity mistake. They were his continuity advisors, and the actors were all amazed by all the details the fan women knew by their hearts. And took every suggestion...
current mood:  indescribable
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| Saturday, November 21st, 2009
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10:53 am - The Sarah Jane Adventures 3.11 + 3.12 The Gift
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You know, I wasn't that crazy about The Claws of Axos the first time around, when it came without farting jokes and with Delgado!Master. This finale didn't live up to the two previous SJA finales; it was okay but not splendid, especially compared with Enemy of the Bane last season. (Same goes for s3 in general - it was pleasant enough but there was just one outstanding story, The Wedding of Sarah Jane, whereas season 2 had several great stories, notably Mark of the Beserker and Enemy of the Bane.) This being said, there was enough in The Gift to make me feel fuzzy about the entire gang to keep me a generally happy viewer, with only the slight disappointment this didn't live up to previous show efforts.
( Who wants to know about the life cycle of a plant? )
current mood:  good
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| Friday, November 20th, 2009
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5:59 pm - <a href='http://www.dreamwidth.
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4:26 pm - Doctor Who Audios: The Doll of Death and Home Truths
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The Companion Chronicles is a series by Big Finish in which various of the former companions get to narrate an adventure from their time with their respective Doctors, centered on them. I've previously reviewed Old Soldiers, in which the narrator is the Brigadier. This time, the Companions are Jo Grant and Sara Kingdom, from the Third and First Doctor's era respectively.
( Marc Platt: The Doll of Death )
( Simon Courier: Home Truths )
current mood: calm
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| Thursday, November 19th, 2009
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4:13 pm - Those were the days
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Lessons learned from transferring my Alias stories to AO3: I must persuade ![[info]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) nomadicwriter to post there as well, otherwise I'm pretty much the only one using an Arvin Sloane character tag (so far, with just one exception).
Also: Alias is a fandom where I get a headache nearly each time I have to decide whether or not to use the pairing handle. Because while most of my stories have Arvin/Jack subtext, there is no actual sex (or even as much as a kiss) going on, so indicating a pairing would probably mean raise wrong expectations.
Lessons learned from transferring my Highlander stories: first of all, Seventh Dimension had changed its URL again. Never mind, I tracked the new one down. Secondly: awwwww, first internet fandom. I feel ever so nostalgic. First ever fanfiction written in English! The one that made honorh write to me! The one that made kathyh write to me! First ever agenda story! (The agenda being: I'm ticked off at parts of fandom for their character bashing, have a point to make, and am also literary ambitious.)
Oh, nineties. You know, I think Highlander the Series (never mind the movies) holds up pretty well, all in all. The other month I was talking with kathyh about how HL handled the whole "immortal falls in love with mortal" concept way better than certain younger products, not to mention much of fanfiction in many a fandom. For starters, the show doesn't do the "one true love" concept, but rather sensibly makes the point that people who live for centuries, even millennia, will fall in love more than once. (Unless they're psychopaths.) Which doesn't devalue the relationships; of course they're not all presented with the same intensity, but they are all presented as important to the immortal in question. As for immortal/immortal relationships, one example from a comedy episode aside the general impression you're left with is that living together or centuries is not a good idea, whereas periods together and periods apart and willingness to switch between friendship and more according to the situation is.
Back then, that wasn't actually the thing I thought about first when being fond of the show. I liked the moral dilemmas, I liked the friendships, I liked some of the romance, sure, and the slashy subtext, and I definitely found the whole universe inspiring. And the online fannish interaction was fun. However, it also introduced me to the less fun and more infuriating side of fandom: the double standards for male and female characters, the way female characters can get demonized and bashed to no end if they're a) perceived in any way to stand beween a slash pairing, or b) hostile towards a fandom woobie, the way a morally ambiguous character promptly gets whitewashed in much fanfiction so that nothing ever is his (and mostly it's "his", see above re: double standards) fault, characters who don't forgive him immediately are judgmental assholes (if male) or deserving to die (if female)... like I said, it was the first time I encountered all of this. But by no means the last. The above mentioned very first agenda fic came into existence by one Misunderstood!Woobie!Methos story too many. (The example that pushed me over the brink into writing it went somewhat like this: Duncan and Joe found out that not only was Methos the perfect gentleman with Cassandra in his Horseman days - that rape talk was evil exaggaration by that bad woman - but he sent his personal physician from Egypt after her when she run away in the desert, and then the poor guy - Methos, not the Egyptian physician - was raped by Caspian on a regular basis so clearly he was the victim of victims; mean old Duncan - "that's what Mac gets for listening to the bitch, thought Joe" - can't even begin to apologize for his harsh, harsh words.)
Mind you: I thought reconciliation between Methos and Cassandra was possible, but not by her being told she should forgive him because he's such a charming guy these days (and certainly not by her turned into a villain and killed off). It had to earned through careful build-up and without belittling what he did to her, which is what I tried to do via the Covenants trilogy. Incubus was the first lengthy fanfiction - in any language - that I wrote, with a genuine plot instead of just dialogue and inner monologue which was and is my default option. Same with Transferences, which was also great fun to write because I got to flesh out Joe's daughter Amy and explore just what it means to be a Watcher in the HLverse, and Once out of Nature, which brings the whole thing to a conclusion. (And, I realized, is dated in one particular way - one gag depends on Methos being able to use a Lord of the Rings derived pseudonym; as soon as Peter Jackson's film versions were released, the general awareness of those names would have been far too high for him to use one, of course. Also, I had just discovered Yeats and let it show a bit too much.)
current mood:  nostalgic
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| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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3:23 pm - Oh, for....!
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Because apparantly the "death panel/public health care" comparisons weren't offensive enough for some members of the American Right, Glenn Beck decided he needed he should get more topical, and came up with this incredibly tasteful comparison instead:
America has spoken clearly, consistently—we don't want [government-paid healthcare]. And for the first time in history, we don't think it's the government's place to give it to us. We're kind of reading this [holds up unidentified piece of paper] from time to time now. We are—excuse this analogy, but I feel like it's true—we're the young girl saying [puts on scared voice and crying face] "No, no—help me!" [back to regular voice] and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end, I think we're all gonna be cowering in France.
(Quote from this article, which also links the clip in question..)
You know, I think that actually manages to be more offensive than anything said previously ever since Polanski got arrested, which is quite an effort. (It also manages to mangle its own tasteless comparison by confusing just who went to France, but that's beside the point.)
Then there's the article Neil Gaiman linked to in his blog this morning, which compares the film based on his Coraline with Frau Holle - which he calls Mother Hulda - (not that either of the Brothers Grimm would recognize their tale from the bowlderized description he gives - more about that later), with the author coming to the conclusion that:
Those who made "Coraline" are also likely to endorse the evils of abortion and homosexual marriage, and given a chance, could easily change America into a Soviet-style hell on earth. That is - if you will - Mother Hulda shows the soul of the Right, and Coraline, the tormented soul of the Left.
A side-by-side comparison of the two stories reveals that ours is much more than a political struggle. Ours is truly "a battle against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.".
Jacob Grimm, who was a linguist, scientist and who loved to trace fairy tale characters back to ancient gods, would have been disgusted by this diatribe, and, being the more agressive of the two brothers who thrived on spectacular academic flame wars, would have written an incredibly acerbic reply. You know what else he and Wilhelm G. were, besides academics and intellectuals? Liberals. Progressives. Jacob took place in the doomed revolutionary parliament in Frankfurt 1848, as one of the representatives. In short, he and his brother were everything the American Right ridicules and hates.
This claiming of the Grimms' fairy tales - who are in their undisneyfied version scary as hell sometimes, which contributes to their power, and certainly more gory than anything Neil Gaiman comes up with in Coraline - reminds me of that other display of ignorance a few months ago, when the very British Stephen Hawking suddenly found himself Americanized by Republicans and used as an example of someone whom evil British health care would have murdered. (Resulting in an immediate statement by him that he owes National Health Care his life, thank you very much.)
But you know, the truly frightening thing here is that people like this article writer or Glenn Beck can't dismissed as fringe nutjobs anymore. They have an audience. They actually get listened to and believed by millions. I think it was artaxastra who a while back said that the Republicans used to play to the fundamentalist crazies in order to get their votes but by now have been completely overtaken by them. Honestly, I used to roll my eyes and dismiss types like Beck from my thoughts, but that was before eight years of Bush did incredible damage. Now conservative America freaks me out because I'm afraid of what the next Republican goverment will do to both the US and the world.
current mood:  infuriated
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10:32 am - Dexter 4.08 Road Kill
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| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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3:58 pm - S.W.O.R.D. #1
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10:02 am - Meanwhile, at the ranch
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Icon courtesy of embarassing spoiled fannish frustration, as in: new Doctor Who, that's great (and a good special it is, too), new Dexter, nice (review will follow), but why oh why does fate continue to deny me S.W.O.R.D. #1?
*feels like the only person on the planet interested in the main characters who still hasn't been able to get hold of it, which means no ability to squee, discuss, share, ANYTHING*
In other news, I've an account at Archive of Our Own, here. Transferring my fanfiction from FFN isn't that difficult - the interface works really well, and the aesthetics are far more pleasing, plus I can already see the character tags are going to be extremely handy. I started with my Doctor Who, Torchwood, Marvel and Jossverse stuff, will go on with B5. Currently I'm shying away from my Heroes stories; it's so depressing to think of the fannish joy I felt when writing them, and of what became of the show. But I'm still proud of some of them, so I probably will transfer them as well in the end.
Going through my old Buffy and Angel stories, on the other hand, just produces a nostalgic glow. Probably because I was mostly happy with how both shows ended, and the occasional frustrations didn't outweigh the fondness. A month back there was another "which was darker, BtVS or AtS?" discussion which I rergarded with some distant interest, concluding that what people really replied to were in most cases "which do you like better?". As to the former question, I don't think you can answer them for the shows in their entirety, because it did vary from season to season (or even within season, when one thinks of AtS' abrupt tone shift in s2 post Epiphany). As to the later, I loved both shows - still do, for that matter, though I haven't been able to rewatch episodes for quite some time - but looking at my fannish output, I clearly found Angel more inspiring for fanfiction, and Buffy for meta. Which doesn't necessarily mean a preference - by now, it's a tried and true cliché that flawed canon generally inspires more fanfic than canon you're absolutely and completely happy with - but there it is.
Another conclusion from transfering old fanfic to a new archive: death warnings are a fannish etiquette I deeply resent and consider really annoying and stupid, but follow nonetheless.
current mood:  frustrated
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| Monday, November 16th, 2009
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9:44 am - Doctor Who The Waters of Mars
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| Sunday, November 15th, 2009
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9:25 am - Yuletide
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...and I got my assignment. I find it amusing that I was matched on the fandom I threw in as an afterthought, in a "oh, and this I could do as well!" manner, as opposed to the fandoms I expected, but that's all for the good. It means a new challenge as I haven't written something this particular area before, and I already have several possible ideas. Mmmmmmm.
current mood:  pleased
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| Saturday, November 14th, 2009
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10:15 am - The Sarah Jane Adventures 3.09 + 3.10 Mona Lisa's Revenge
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How on earth this story is supposed to be compatible with the Fourth Doctor classic City of Death - wherein among other things we find out the Mona Lisa currently residing in the Louvre is ( spoilers for City of Death ) - is anyone's guess, but I'm looking forward to fanfic explaining it.
( Also, Phil Ford likes to quote Billy Wilder )
In other news, waiting for a certain comic is still torture.
current mood: contemplative
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| Friday, November 13th, 2009
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3:26 pm - While I wait for a certain comic....
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| Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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10:38 pm - Briefly
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These last two days were really exhausting, real-life wise (in a good way), hence not much online presence on my part. Also, I keep meaning to ask: is anyone watching The Good Wife? Because I am, and if the show keeps its quality up, I'm going to make a very enthusiastic first season post once said season concludes. A good ensemble, a lot of interesting characters both female and male, lots of shades of grey, the mixture of cases of the week and an overall narrative arc which reminds me of the first season of Life except I like this show better (possibly because I could never share the general enthusiasm for Charlie Crews, and I do love that here we've got a female main character and her female sidekick solving cases instead).
The only mystery to me is that this Josh Charles person generates so much enthusiasm in what few reviews I've been able to find. I mean, he's okay, but not nearly the most interesting actor or character on this show. In fact, I'm more emotionally involved with Alicia's children than with his character.
current mood:  exanimate
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| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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8:17 am - Dexter 4.07
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| Monday, November 9th, 2009
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2:11 pm - Freiheit schöner Götterfunken...
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I already wrote my post about November 9th as the jinxed date of German 20th century history - when both terrible and good things happened over the decades - last year, so this year, I'll limit myself to our 20th anniversary.
The first time I saw the Wall, I was 14 and it was on a trip with American exchange students. My hometown, Bamberg, isn't that far from the former border, and just about three hours from Berlin if you drive without traffic jams. When the Americans were here as part of a student exchange program, one of the things on the schedule was a trip to Berlin. So there were were, on a bus, German and American students, driving the transit road to Berlin. First passing the border to East Germany with its towers and zone which was referred to as "der Todesstreifen" - the death zone - because the guards had orders to shoot if someone tried to cross it without permission. I think both German and American students felt a bit like visiting a prison, with that kind of guilty awkwardness you sense if you're free and entering an area where no one else is; we were all silent while our pass ports were controlled. But the difference was that we Germans accepted it as normal. This was how things were. Germany was divided all through our lives; we took it for granted that it always would be, never mind the lip service our politicians paid on occasion. The GDR: source of bizarre alternate reality style news (seriously, those news programs were fantastically Orwellian to watch), great literature and the occasional moving "family makes it across the border" story. Also, tv wise, of all those great Czech fantasy series and fairy tale movies. As such a part of our every day lives and there to stay.
During that one week in Berlin, we went to East Berlin for a day, which you could, provided you were back within 24 hours, and that felt like time travel, because a few representative buildings aside, East Berlin looked like photos of West Germany looked - 50, 60 years ago. (Additional flinch of guilt: not only were the East Germans locked up, but they still seemed to bear the results of the war. They never had a Marshall Plan, after all, or a Wirtschaftswunder.) If one wanted to enter a book store, which I did, one had to queue in front, got a green plastic bag and waited, because only a limited number of customers was allowed inside. Our teachers had advised us not to get into discussions with the locals too much, because one could never be sure who was working for the Stasi, and we might end up getting them into trouble.
As I said, my hometown was not that far away. I remember thinking: if the occupation zones had been drawn a bit differently in 45, this could have been my life.
The Wall itself, painted on one side and grey on the other, seemed to sum it up, including the surreality of the entire situation, as it was just there, through the entire city. There were photos showing Berlin before the Wall, and I thought that I would never see it like that, because, well, it was there, and it would stay.
And then came perestroika, and in its wake, 1989, the run to Hungary, to Czecheslovakia, the overcrowed embassies, the demonstrations, and finally, that night.
Some particular highlights, with English subtitles:
The opening of the Wall at Berlin's Bornholmer Strasse, the first border to be crossed.
The opening of the Brandenburg Gate:
The newsreel of November 10th, summing up the night:
And finally, an excerpt from later that year, when Leonard Bernstein directed Beethoven's 9th in Berlin, honour of what happened. The Ode to Joy, except that the word "joy" - Freude - has been replaced with "freedom" - Freiheit. Which, as it happens, was Schiller's original wording, later changed as the French Revolution which inspired it took on some darker colours. The French Revolution, whose 200th anniversary also was in 1989. I always thought it fitting that the Ode to Joy became our European anthem.
So: The Ode to Freedom:
current mood:  thankful
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exhausted
bouncy
shocked
anxious
curious