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Talking animals, bit of a paper office, and splashes of incest.
narnia // My Peter/Susan fic is mired in bathos :(. Now is the time to distract myself from it so I can come back with a clear head. The distraction should include napping, but I'm hopped up on caffeine, so I'll just chill here and wait for it to wear off.
his dark materials // The reason I am sleep-deprived and hopped up on caffeine:
+ LEE SCORESBY! NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I loved you best. How will I get my fill of cain'ts and gits now?!? Serafina, since you are pretty much the shit, you should do something about this in The Amber Spyglass. You probably will.
+ I wanna hang out with Mary Malone.
+ Those kids at Citagazza remind anyone else of Lord of the Flies?
+ This book is more compelling than The Golden Compass, I say because of the appearance of Will. He makes Lyra more likable because he reins her in from being too obnoxious. Comparing Will and Lyra also makes it easier to think about the daemon issue. I think it's kind of an inspiring and reassuring message that, in our world, we aren't really alone either -- our daemons are inside. Don't despair, children! You don't need no stinkin' talking beast! Though it would be nice.
+ But, still, I reckon Lyra being obnoxious could be caused by the daemons. I can see how never having to really be alone would give you the energy and confidence to be larger than life and a borderline Mary Sue.
+ Wow, people would be able to write the weirdest and least explicit pornfic ever just by describing how daemons interact.
+ Propaganda EVERYWHERE. This book's even more anti-religion than the first one. Because I'm vulnerable to my biases like everyone else, I was thrilled at the prospect of killing the Authority and suddenly this was one of those stories (like Good Omens) that I wish were real because the propaganda spoke to my gut. Then I realized God was already dead, so that's alright then. (...Maybe? Dunno. I am actually a ballsless agnostic.)
+ Wow, unpleasant injuries/deaths (among other things) abounds. And so much of them crammed into a series marketed to children, which I've never seen before, at least not explicitly. Crushing kids beneath a metal staircase. Kids shooting kids with guns. Kids hitting other kids as hard as they can with metal rods. Stealing and lying being good things. Being a murderer being a good thing. (The word 'murder' is key. Harry Potter and Peter Pevensie didn't 'murder', for example.) And hey, I'm all about the moral gray area, but I've never seen it dealt with so explicitly in a fantasy series with prepubescent protagonists. Usually those are all like, "We will not stoop to the level of our enemies," all sanctimonious, but Will and Lyra are all lizard hindbrain like, "Oh, we'll stoop, alright." I respect Pullman for adamantly writing for no age group, but it's still a little jarring.
And now for those recs.
Recognition by Lizzen. Spirited Away. Chihiro/Haku, PG. Post-movie. And also champions environmental studies! Officially the first anime fandom I recced. No quote, it's short and the lines all flow together.
Disco Night by Sloane. The Office. Jim/Pam, PG13. No talking animals? What?
Then Dwight shows up in a shiny short-sleeve turtleneck with little holograms on it, and it’s hard to be upset when something so wordlessly awesome exists in the world.
OKAY GUESS WHAT FANDOMS THESE NEXT ONES ARE.
Sea Legs by st_aurafina. Eustace, Edmund, Lucy. G. Loads of fic deal with the Pevensies returning from Narnia, but I haven't ever seen one that deals with Eustace coming back until I found this one. Kickass.
Still, in his letters, Edmund has been very enthusiastic about the visit - wartime has decimated the holiday trade and the beach is nearly empty, but there is a little boat for hire that will be perfect for the three of them to sail.
Many and Beautiful Things by loki1013. Permutations of Caspian, Susan, and Peter, PG13. References The Last Battle. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUYS if you only read one fic from this post read THIS ONE. It BROKE ME. No quote, it's all good, trust me.
The Logistics of Victory by Dee. Peter/Caspian, PG... say, 15? Whatev. Post-Beruna. Made of yay!
He looked over his shoulder at the river, distracted by an idea, and already tugging at the buckle of his swordbelt as he turned back to Caspian. "Fancy swimming it again?"
Cold Beauty by Angel. Jadis/Susan, PG13. What if Susan had gone in instead of Edmund? Warning: creepy pedo shit.
No one comes to Susan's bed after curfew, nor does she slip out for the taste of girlish kisses. Instead, she remembers.
These Last Golden Days of Summer by bedlamsbard. Golden Age fic, PG. The Pevensies in the eyes of their subjects. Impressive subtleties!
Faun wine isn’t brewed, and Tilse’s is hardly new – his father put it away before he went off to war – but no one corrects a queen of Narnia.
Further Up and Further In by Kyra Cullinan. Tirian, Jewel, and the development of theirTwoo Wuv friendship. PG. If Jewel were human, Tirian and him would be slashed nigh unto heaven. Actually, I wouldn't put Tirian/Jewel past fandom. There's gotta be at least one, right? Let you show me it! Come on, Narnia fandom, don't let yourself be outperved by Harry Potter's.
Tirian was a little daunted by everything he knew about unicorns, how wise and pure and noble they were, but he pressed on. "Do you like apples?"
his dark materials // The reason I am sleep-deprived and hopped up on caffeine:
+ LEE SCORESBY! NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I loved you best. How will I get my fill of cain'ts and gits now?!? Serafina, since you are pretty much the shit, you should do something about this in The Amber Spyglass. You probably will.
+ I wanna hang out with Mary Malone.
+ Those kids at Citagazza remind anyone else of Lord of the Flies?
+ This book is more compelling than The Golden Compass, I say because of the appearance of Will. He makes Lyra more likable because he reins her in from being too obnoxious. Comparing Will and Lyra also makes it easier to think about the daemon issue. I think it's kind of an inspiring and reassuring message that, in our world, we aren't really alone either -- our daemons are inside. Don't despair, children! You don't need no stinkin' talking beast! Though it would be nice.
+ But, still, I reckon Lyra being obnoxious could be caused by the daemons. I can see how never having to really be alone would give you the energy and confidence to be larger than life and a borderline Mary Sue.
+ Wow, people would be able to write the weirdest and least explicit pornfic ever just by describing how daemons interact.
+ Propaganda EVERYWHERE. This book's even more anti-religion than the first one. Because I'm vulnerable to my biases like everyone else, I was thrilled at the prospect of killing the Authority and suddenly this was one of those stories (like Good Omens) that I wish were real because the propaganda spoke to my gut. Then I realized God was already dead, so that's alright then. (...Maybe? Dunno. I am actually a ballsless agnostic.)
+ Wow, unpleasant injuries/deaths (among other things) abounds. And so much of them crammed into a series marketed to children, which I've never seen before, at least not explicitly. Crushing kids beneath a metal staircase. Kids shooting kids with guns. Kids hitting other kids as hard as they can with metal rods. Stealing and lying being good things. Being a murderer being a good thing. (The word 'murder' is key. Harry Potter and Peter Pevensie didn't 'murder', for example.) And hey, I'm all about the moral gray area, but I've never seen it dealt with so explicitly in a fantasy series with prepubescent protagonists. Usually those are all like, "We will not stoop to the level of our enemies," all sanctimonious, but Will and Lyra are all lizard hindbrain like, "Oh, we'll stoop, alright." I respect Pullman for adamantly writing for no age group, but it's still a little jarring.
And now for those recs.
Recognition by Lizzen. Spirited Away. Chihiro/Haku, PG. Post-movie. And also champions environmental studies! Officially the first anime fandom I recced. No quote, it's short and the lines all flow together.
Disco Night by Sloane. The Office. Jim/Pam, PG13. No talking animals? What?
Then Dwight shows up in a shiny short-sleeve turtleneck with little holograms on it, and it’s hard to be upset when something so wordlessly awesome exists in the world.
OKAY GUESS WHAT FANDOMS THESE NEXT ONES ARE.
Sea Legs by st_aurafina. Eustace, Edmund, Lucy. G. Loads of fic deal with the Pevensies returning from Narnia, but I haven't ever seen one that deals with Eustace coming back until I found this one. Kickass.
Still, in his letters, Edmund has been very enthusiastic about the visit - wartime has decimated the holiday trade and the beach is nearly empty, but there is a little boat for hire that will be perfect for the three of them to sail.
Many and Beautiful Things by loki1013. Permutations of Caspian, Susan, and Peter, PG13. References The Last Battle. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUYS if you only read one fic from this post read THIS ONE. It BROKE ME. No quote, it's all good, trust me.
The Logistics of Victory by Dee. Peter/Caspian, PG... say, 15? Whatev. Post-Beruna. Made of yay!
He looked over his shoulder at the river, distracted by an idea, and already tugging at the buckle of his swordbelt as he turned back to Caspian. "Fancy swimming it again?"
Cold Beauty by Angel. Jadis/Susan, PG13. What if Susan had gone in instead of Edmund? Warning: creepy pedo shit.
No one comes to Susan's bed after curfew, nor does she slip out for the taste of girlish kisses. Instead, she remembers.
These Last Golden Days of Summer by bedlamsbard. Golden Age fic, PG. The Pevensies in the eyes of their subjects. Impressive subtleties!
Faun wine isn’t brewed, and Tilse’s is hardly new – his father put it away before he went off to war – but no one corrects a queen of Narnia.
Further Up and Further In by Kyra Cullinan. Tirian, Jewel, and the development of their
Tirian was a little daunted by everything he knew about unicorns, how wise and pure and noble they were, but he pressed on. "Do you like apples?"
no subject
I didn't think Lee's death was going to affect me that badly, once I realized he was going to die, but it did. Oh, it did.
I was getting SO many Lord of the Flies moments, too. First with the kids and then with the burning forest, and just the whole feel of the savagery overall.
I loved Will the second Pullman introduced him, but I admit that at first I didn't like how he portrayed Lyra next to him (but again, I liked Lyra from the start, so I'm sure that affected it). I thought Will made her seem stupid, and that she submitted too fast to him. But the more I saw them interact the more I saw how well they worked together, and yeah, how much he keeps her from getting out of hand. I don't even notice it, now. The daemon-confidence thing is also a good explanation as to why she's like that, whereas Will isn't. It makes sense.
And yes, porn-through-daemons, if done correctly, could be the most interesting shit EVER. Like, Mrs. Coulter's monkey freaks me out enough (stroking Sir Charles' snake, and all of that? CREEPY) so I don't even want to imagine some of the crap you could do with daemons.
I love the propoganda. I love that Pullman makes it explicit and really obvious where his wants his loyalties. I guess it goes along with the blatant violence and the really questionable morality (because yeah, especially when Lyra and Will were fighting the kids, I was like, "Is this really happening in a children's book? No wonder it got so much shit").
I didn't really question it at first, since Pullman makes it such an inherent part of Lyra's nature (the whole, 'she relaxed once she saw that Will was a murderer' and her casual-but-serious desire to kill people, or have Will kill people who wrong her) and he really does make it a good thing for them, but once I realized how odd it was to see, I kept noticing it even more, and was really surprised by it.
But I'm still glad he went there, and it's a nice change to see, if it takes a bit of getting used to.
OH, I also didn't really like where he took the witches. Their nature and pride and wisdom/age aside and irrelevant to me, by the end of the book I was wishing that they had never found Will and Lyra, and that only Serafina (who remains the only witch I actually like) was around. So when all of them got Specter'd, I couldn't really care less. (I also glance ahead a couple of paragraphs when I read, and when Will's father died I thought that Will had stabbed the witch who killed him, and I was kind of disappointed when I realized he didn't. But I mean, that's how much I just DIDN'T LIKE THEM at all).
no subject
Man, that monkey is all sorts of creepy. Uh, I've looked up HDM fic and we're not the only ones thinking of it! Switching from from human sex to geese nuzzling hares can be jarring though. Hmm. Goose/monkey is also weird. That's as far as I've read for HDM sex. The potential for subtle exposition through daemons is laaaaaaarge. Love it.
Oh oh oh! I also found a community called withdaemons or something like that, where the premise is you write fic in a non-HDM fandom but the characters have daemons. Ahahahaha. Not necessarily a crossover, just that everyone has daemons. The idea tickles me so. I feel like I maybe want to try my hand at it but I have no idea where to start, also 'cos I can't tell if my giddiness for it is legit or just silliness. Oh my!
Was Pullman really writing for children? I wonder now. ("Young Adults", I guess?) I wonder if he was like, "Screw it, I'll do what I like. After all, Lord of the Flies is a classic!" What did William Golding mean to do with LOTF, anyway? I dunno, but it's awesome. I mean, I'm thrilled Pullman pulls no punches. But yes, it does make me go a bit o_O at first. Have you watched the TV series called 'The Odyssey' or 'The Tribe'? The former's Canadian, and the latter's either Australian or Kiwi, I forget, and they're both like, set in a world of kids, so somewhat LOTF. I haven't watched either in ages though, so I can't remember details... wish I could! Wish I could watch them again.
Oooooh the witches are cool shit! So ethereal and beautiful and detached. It is true that they have great capabilities to be bitches. Why do you not like the witches?
no subject
Anyway. There was a line before Lee's battle started that was someting about gazing upon the last landscape they'd ever see, or something like that, and that was when I was all, "WTF WHAT?" and trying to deny that it was going to happen until it did. And yes, omg, he should have called her sooner, but in his defense, I'd forgotten about the flower at that point too, so I wasn't too 'you-could-have-lived-if-you-just-remembered' about it.
I haven't looked at that community yet, only because I don't think I'd ever leave it. And yeah, I see where you're coming from about legit/silliness thing, because once I start thinking about it I get these really cracked out ideas that are probably just me going o_O about the whole thing.
I would imagine (just based on his material) that he was writing for everybody, but in mindset of children's fantasy, which, awesome. Yay for him. I actually have watched a bit of 'The Tribe.' It was on a more obscure delux cable channel, probably a year or so ago.
The witches thing for me is more than Pullman writes them to be such wise, aged creatures, and he pushes their wisdom and whatnot, and then makes them do things that I see going against that description, like when the witch goes into the camp with Mrs. Coulter, or when the crazy Mrs. Parry one shoots John (and yes, I realize that the pride and unforgiveness is also their nature, but if they can't respect that being faithful to another woman is the reason they got turned down, then I almost immediately don't like them. Unless there's some other reason for John to turn her down, in which case my feelings might change). I guess it's more Pullman writing them making too many mistakes too suddenly than a more explicit dislike of them (because yeah, they definitely have their awesome bits). Serafina's still the only one I like, though, regardless.
no subject
Wasn't expecting the bald!
I can see what you mean about the witches. It's frustrating when an author's tell and show don't add up. Like how an author goes "This villain is powerful and cunning!" but then instead of writing someone who is actually powerful and cunning we get, uh, VOLDEMORT, who just loves himself.