Let's get meta

[author_by_night]

I miss meta/discussion, so I'm calling for it here.

Any fandom, any pairing, any whatever: Go. Confess your unpopular fandom opinions. Talk crack theories. Talk general theories. Discuss the worst fic you ever wrote. Talk about the fic you wrote that was on Geocities and you can't access anymore because, well, Geocities.. Talk about whether or not your "closed fandom" should have a sequel/prequel series. Anything goes.

I'm making this public and allowing anonymous comments - with the understanding that this isn't to be a hate meme or anything like that. Also, talk ships if you'd like, but no ship wars in the comments. Please. Being in the Harry Potter fandom made me a bit intolerant of them.

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I find myself irrationally annoyed with people who criticise elements of my fics when those elements come directly from the book canon. It took me ages to realise that there are people in Potter fandom who have only ever seen the movies, and sometimes not even all of them.

I don't judge people who have never read the books, and I don't judge people who prefer the films, but when people comment on an element of a fic and call it unlikely when it comes directly out of a canonical scene, I judge them like a dodgy Karl Urban character and wish only for his firepower.

Not really meta, just a whinge, because it is the middle of the night and stinky hot here. I'll try to come back refreshed and meta-ey tomorrow!

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Wait, people do that? That surprised me for a moment, then I realized there are a lot of people who read fic now that haven't read all of the books. But then they may not want to assume something isn't canon, and they should realize that the movies are very different from the books.

[bitchet.livejournal.com]

Community and Happy Endings are shadows of their former selves as all the characters have been Flanderized and things like character development and story have gone out the window for one scene jokes. They both do have some good gags but one five minute skit doesn't not a good 25 minute show make.

[mollywheezy.livejournal.com]

Love your icon! Firefly totally should have lasted more than one season. ;)

OK, meta on several fronts . . .


Outlander
I don't know if you have read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series . . . I only read the first book last year although it was published in 1992. They are sort of historical fiction/sci-fi-fantasy/action-adventure/romance all rolled into one. I ADORE her characters and her writing style. What's fun is I don't agree wiht her characters or their ways of doing things, and I would do them differently, but I can still relate to them and love them. All of her books are around 800 or 900 pages long. And I have read all of the series (8 books, I think) in 6 months. Plus two of her books that are straight historical fiction and delve into the life of one of her minor characters. Anyway, most of her books end leaving the reader wanting more because of caring about the characters, but without loose ends . . . until the last book. An Echo in the Bone ended with the CLIFFHANGER OF ALL CLIFFHANGERS, and the new book won't be released until fall 2013! :P I wouldn't even have read the book if I had known how bad the cliffhanger would be and I'm warning friends who are reading the series. I won't go into spoilery details in case folks aren't reading the series, but GAH! When I finished reading I was so OMG-what's-going-to-happen that I gave my husband the five minute summary of the entire series so I could explain why I was freaking out.

ASOIAF
I am listening to the audio book for The Game of Thrones. So far, it's entertaining, although not in a class with HP, Diana Gabaldon, or Jan Karon. Even though I have a number of friends in love with this series, it wasn't on the top of my must read list because I heard an interview where George R.R. Martin completed lambasted people who write fanfiction. He's entitled to his opinion, but so am I. GRRM said that people who write fanfiction are too lazy to come up with anything original. I completely disagree as I have published original writing, am working on an original novel, and also write fanfic. I have found fanfic to be very good practice for honing certain writing skills, plus it's fun! :)

Castle
I was late to the party with Castle, as I only started watching shortly before Season 4, but we bought all the seasons, so caught up quickly. Most folks said that when Castle and Beckett got together, the show wouldn't last or be as much fun, but I disagree. I think it's still very fun, and I couldn't believe it took them so long to get together. Most of my single friends have the attitude "life's too short to waste that much time". Still my favorite TV show though. ;)

I don't watch any of the shows you talked about in your separate meta post. Maybe I'll need to start . . . ;)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I'm single and I agree with you on Castle! Some single people are a little... bitter, which makes all of us seem bitter. Gah.

[almostsophie.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter: I'm basically over HP except for a lot of glee when I discovered TWO people in my office were big fans. They now come to my apartment for Doctor Who nights. I don't feel like I need to play around in the world much anymore except to poke fun at the fandom now and then.

Doctor Who: I've been madly in love with the Doctor for my entire adult life, since 1998, no matter who is playing him. So currently I'm in a Matt Smith phase. But with the quality of writing we had last year I've pretty much turned my brain off for it. A friend who was new to Who last month complained about the sexual tension between Rose and 9 at the beginning of his season, because that sort of thing is everywhere in our pop culture and how hard would it be to write something different for once? I agree, so in a couple of months when she's available I'm making her watch The Aztecs because it has a completely different dynamic between the Doctor and companions.

LJ: a ghost town. Two of my besties from LJ are now facebook friends and I'm pushing at work to do some training near where one of them lives so we can meet this year. I have a couple more LJ/Dreamwidth friends who I really wish were on facebook, and if they were I'd probably abandon LJ completely. I got through several really horrible periods in my life with the help of my friends on LJ and I would really really miss a few people. But I'm working on being openly fannish in my real life and not living what increasingly felt like a double life to me. What lands on my LJ page now is not much different than what I'd email my bff or post on facebook. But I was never one for writing fic. All of my output was for the Pseuicide Game. In 2005-2007 I did some really crappy art for lols. My fandom output was 100% comedy.

[almostsophie.livejournal.com]

And Minecraft: if you ever want to try your hand at multiplayer Minecraft I have a really nice private server with a slight Doctor Who theme. (Basically, if you ever get bored just chat at me and I'll swing by with the TARDIS and we'll go to a random location and get into trouble. I'm working on uploading some adventure maps to play as well.) I have a strict no homophobia/racism/misogyny rule because I want to feel comfortable on my own damn server.

So, you know, if you ever feel like you have lots of extra time you really need sucked from your life...