whynot: etc: oh deer (another country)
Las ([personal profile] whynot) wrote2010-02-17 10:02 pm

things Sgrio makes me do

IT'S ALMOST REMIX REDUX TIME, GUYS. SO EXCITED. Click here to vote for this year's qualifying fandoms. Click here or here to get an AO3 invitation because that's where it's going down this year. Reeeeemiiiiix! \o/

This next thing is the fault of [livejournal.com profile] sgrio and her Biblical Studies homework.

Basically it poses the interpretation that angels are not messengers, but messages. Obedience to God is a moot point, because an email or a letter can't be obedient to you. They don't have the faculties to BE obedient, they just ARE. My knee-jerk reaction is of course to ask, "What if Castiel was just a message?" So I wrote


"Castiel did WHAT?" Michael rages. Then he sulks. "He's never been the most legible letter in the mailbag."

"He is but spam," Zachariah agrees.

"Always offering to enlarge my penis," Michael mutters. "I don't even have a penis on this plane!"


and then I wrote this next thing.

I'm not sure what this next thing is. It's Castiel meta, but also maybe sort of a fic, maybe. It is... an experiment? 'Cos someone, SGRIO, was like, "Hey, why don't you fap about religion and language in context of Supernatural?" and I can't say no to that. What is it with you, SPN, making me write 1st person POV, past tense, and now whatever this is idek. I kind of wanted to reference more episodes, but 500 words of this is probably more than enough for now.

So yeah, what if Castiel were words? Spoilers through 4x22, and maybe 5x02. Happy start of Lent, folks. ETA: And now there is a sequel -- unnamed.


untitled
Castiel, Dean, & God


i.

Castiel: just a message. it was God's words that wrote him out, God who punctuated him. Castiel was synecdoche, part of a whole, and he was metonymy, a shadow, but he spirits Dean out of Heaven's green room and becomes caesura, from the Latin caedere meaning 'to cut'.

so what does that mean to be JUST a message, because maybe messages aren't JUST messages, words aren't JUST words, because Castiel is God's words, in spite and because of them. people the world over insist that words can change the world, that stories can foment revolution, and maybe Castiel is beginning to understand why, can see beyond his own pentameter to recognize the irregular cadences of his Father's beloveds.

Dean says, Now shake them around a little.

Shake what?

Songs are what happens when you make words move, says Dean. So move.

far from Heaven, you need new hymns.


ii.

it would change everything, but perhaps it wouldn't be so different. it would become:

this is a story about words, about how they can save you but sometimes they, too, need saving, because if words would walk alongside demons to find you in the fire, you can sit on a park bench on some crisp november morning and listen to a message starting to wear thin. a tidy script, evenly-spaced -- that's what you saw at first -- and when you tried to tear it, it wouldn't tear. when you tried to burn it, it wouldn't burn. that was then, but this is now: you see the creases where the paper had been folded into three parts, reopened to be reread, refolded to be placed back inside the pocket.

do you believe, it asks, that something written is always meant to be read?

but you know that sometimes words are most useful when they are hidden, and you don't know how to explain this to those who need to ask. if words exist without paper and ink, then promises can exist without words, which in the end are only vessels after all.

are you a message or are you its meaning?

and then the familiar sound of rustling parchment and it is gone, leaving you breathless as only a loss of words can.


iii.

if in the beginning was the word and the word was with God, then the word was with you too, and it is with us all still. the word was God, seeping into the world like spilled ink across blank pages so get a load of this divine rorschach, friends: what do you see and what does that tell you about yourself? you are the graffiti smudged by last month's rains; you are initials carved into wet cement; you are a love letter that has been reread a hundred times.

i think every creator must dream that one day their creations will walk off the page and comfort them. God will recognize Castiel by his run-on sentences cut through with ellipses, such unwieldy paragraphs, and when Castiel says, "I have found you," God will bow His head and weep with relief.

[identity profile] 22by7.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
if in the beginning was the word and the word was with God, then the word was with you too, and it is with us all still. the word was God, seeping into the world like spilled ink across blank pages
I believe this, to whatever extent I can believe.

Songs are what happens when you make words move, says Dean. So move.
They should let him say things like that. And then they should slow-dance. Mhm.

Well there is just no point quoting bits of this back. I love it utterly. It made me smile, that last sentence, because that's exactly how I see that encounter working out, if it had to happen.

I'm so happy you're in this fandom writing Castiel fic.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 07:35 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I'm so chuffed you like it because truth be told, your Castiel poems were at the back of my head when I was writing this. It was like you were all, "Poetry as fanwork? Why not!" and I nodded my head contemplatively, yanno.

Ahahaha they should totally slow-dance. Castiel would be the awkward middle-schooler holding Dean at arm's length as they sway stiffly to Selena's "Dreaming of You".

PS: Is Psapp's "Eating Spiders" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63A3jBtSkk) a Cas/Dean song or what. Also Thom Yorke's "Harrowdown Hill" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-UXk42ZY4o), goddamn.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
thx bb! POST MOAR WEIRD BIBLE RANDOMNESS! <334

[identity profile] devilsduplicity.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 09:27 am (UTC)(link)
are you a message or are you its meaning?

Definite food for thought.

God will recognize Castiel by his run-on sentences cut through with ellipses, such unwieldy paragraphs, and when Castiel says, "I have found you," God will bow His head and weep with relief.

This. Just... this. How you describe Castiel in terms of words and build upon his character by way of grammar... lovely. Utterly beautiful. ♥

[identity profile] roaringmay.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 10:40 am (UTC)(link)
:o <- Face Of Amazement

Wow. The whole idea is ingenious, I love when people add a... let's say biblical level.

That said, what a beautiful piece of fic/meta/poetry. IA with commenters above, picking out single lines is nearly impossible but for me, the third part stands out a bit from the rest because that is exactly how I want to envision the world in the context of God's creation. (And also I hope Castiel's encounter goes right this way.)

(I need to add that I read the first snippet after the second one and now I'km all lulzy. Castiel is spam and offers to enlarge Michael's penis that is pure gold.)
eta: Oh yeah I mem this. ♥
Edited 2010-02-18 10:40 (UTC)

[identity profile] lexhibition.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 11:11 am (UTC)(link)
Songs are what happens when you make words move, says Dean. So move.

That is just gorgeous. Actually, it all is, but I like this line in the way that I kind of want to write it on a tshirt and tell people I came up with it. Which I wont do, obviously, but. It's lovely!

It makes me think about literary theory, readers response criticism and how authorial intent is unknowable and therefore irrelevant and it's actually all about how the person receiving the message (Dean) interprets the writing that makes it what it is. The text becomes its own source of meaning. Mm.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 12:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! When my friend suggested the idea, I knew I wouldn't be able to resist.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 12:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! Aww, I am glad you like. :)

Hee, Michael should've used the spam filter. Zachariah told him as much! Also, Zachariah will never give Castiel his credit card information ever again.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks so much!

...OH MAN, don't get me started on literary criticism because that's just adding fuel to the fire here. The world does not need a full-length Castiel-is-words AU! About how he makes for dense reading sometimes, but maybe it's just a matter of practice, or familiarity, like the way the faithful read their holy books over and over, the same passages, the same stories, until understanding becomes less important than connection. (Dean reads him like this.) And what if the text reads you back?

I reckon Castiel-is-words and God is almost like the Winchesters and Chuck. What happens when God loses His fourth wall?

[identity profile] hrymfaxe.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
This is such a fascinating idea, and I'm blown away by the way you have executed it. Truly beautiful.

[identity profile] littlehollyleaf.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
This is fascinating. I particularly love part iii, esp. this bit:

i think every creator must dream that one day their creations will walk off the page and comfort them. God will recognize Castiel by his run-on sentences cut through with ellipses, such unwieldy paragraphs, and when Castiel says, "I have found you," God will bow His head and weep with relief.

The idea of god being relieved when/if Cas finds him is adorable, as is Cas being a run-on sentance :) Plus, as a writer myself, the thought of characters comforting their creator is one I can relate to :p

Really interesting stuff in general, but nicely connected to the SPN version of theology. Thanks!

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! :) I'm glad my friend brought up the angels-are-words idea in the first place.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-18 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! Glad you liked it. I confess, I'm sort of new to this fandom so I'm still in the honeymoon phase where EVERYTHING relates back to SPN somehow. XD

[identity profile] gabby-silang.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, my heart.

i think every creator must dream that one day their creations will walk off the page and comfort them. God will recognize Castiel by his run-on sentences cut through with ellipses, such unwieldy paragraphs, and when Castiel says, "I have found you," God will bow His head and weep with relief.

All this is beautiful. And there in the ending somewhere is the sadness in all the death of the author talk. The fear that once you let a message go, whatever you put into it of yourself is just gone, and you'll never get it back. It's why the word/message, father/son analogy works so well, that same letting go of a child who no longer needs you, and the prayer that they'll choose to find you again.

Also, it's been said, but holy crap, yes:

Songs are what happens when you make words move, says Dean. So move.

[identity profile] lexhibition.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 06:40 am (UTC)(link)
OH MAN THIS IS LIKE A BLACK HOLE OF POTENTIAL PSEUDO ACADEMIA. TOO MANY QUESTIONS.

And what about the fact that Castiel had been remade/rewritten? Is it just a rewrite, has he been edited, or has he been completely translated by someone else?

[identity profile] orvaen-queen.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
I think I love you.

...because Castiel is God's words, in spite and because of them. people the world over insist that words can change the world, that stories can foment revolution, and maybe Castiel is beginning to understand why...

This whole piece, but those lines in particular, just make my pull a Cas!tilt and go "Huh..."

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 07:00 am (UTC)(link)
IKR. PSEUDOACADEMIA FTW. TRANSLATION OH MAN. If we are going to expand into linguistics, not just grammar. It's easy being God's email, but now that Castiel's cut off from the Host, words are hard. ("Exactly!" Chuck says.) When you're learning another language, sometimes you have to forget the one you already know. He stands solid beside the Winchesters and thinks Sometimes you have no choice but to forget.

At some point, Castiel finds his own pen. He's like that Escher picture of the two hands that draw themselves.

Can God make a fourth wall so impenetrable that even He Himself can't break it?!
ext_13391: (SPN: angel of the lord)

[identity profile] smilla02.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 10:00 am (UTC)(link)
WOW! This is the definition of gorgeous.
Songs are what happens when you make words move, says Dean. So move.

far from Heaven, you need new hymns.

a tidy script, evenly-spaced -- that's what you saw at first -- and when you tried to tear it, it wouldn't tear. when you tried to burn it, it wouldn't burn.

if words exist without paper and ink, then promises can exist without words

i think every creator must dream that one day their creations will walk off the page and comfort them.

And finally this:
God will recognize Castiel by his run-on sentences cut through with ellipses, such unwieldy paragraphs, and when Castiel says, "I have found you," God will bow His head and weep with relief.

which has so many levels of reading (God is Word [Writer], Creator] and all the awesome things that Words can do, new creation, indipendent, free. I'm totally amazed.
Please keep fapping about religion and language in the context of SPN. :)
Edited 2010-02-19 10:01 (UTC)

[identity profile] ratherastory.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow.

Came here through [livejournal.com profile] smilla02, and you win whatever prize there is to win for this.

Castiel was synecdoche, part of a whole, and he was metonymy, a shadow, but he spirits Dean out of Heaven's green room and becomes caesura, from the Latin caedere meaning 'to cut'.

The English major in me wriggled in GLEE when I read this.

It's simply beautiful. A finely-crafted metaphor from beginning to end.

[identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
here via smilla. I love how one sentence spun out the whole concept meta fic thingy. Very nicely done, nice rhythm, for some reason the progression reminds me of cummings.

[identity profile] tripoli8.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Here via [livejournal.com profile] smilla02. What a cool idea, and great execution. I would love to see you talk more about this, if you ever felt inclined.
ext_11786: (spn:castiel:walkalone)

[identity profile] dotfic.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
This is gorgeous. I don't think I'm going to see Castiel the same way again.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks so much. :D

The fear that once you let a message go, whatever you put into it of yourself is just gone, and you'll never get it back. It's why the word/message, father/son analogy works so well
This! I think you articulated what I didn't even know I was trying to express, but totally. Can God make a fourth wall so impenetrable that even He Himself cannot break it? ;)

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Aww, thank you so much! I was kind of nervous that this piece might be too weird or something. Glad you liked.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-19 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much! And thank you also for reccing it apparently :D I am so flattered. I was actually kind of nervous that it might be too weird, but now maybe I might write more, especially since [livejournal.com profile] haruslex is putting literary criticism and reader response on the table. How do people read Castiel? Man, my inner geek can only resist temptation for so long.

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