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Tuesday, January 4, 2011
In Another Life
Influences this week: Christmas Tree snack cakes, Cavo's song “Nameless” and Makoto and Nephrite fanfiction. *hangs head in fangirl shame*
I don't believe in happily ever afters.
But I do enjoy a good love story.
I've spent years in the fandoms of several of my favorite series. I'm a reader by trade. My eyes consume, almost slave away over the written word of authors who hide behind fictitious names and silly idealistic worlds created for us to play in without permission. The fact I don't have permission to write something only makes the rebellious imp in me want to do it more. The fact that you can take characters of someone else's imagination and make them do something else interest me. I'm also interested to see what others think about when they read these characters. So in some terms fan fiction and fandoms are a chance for me to study the human nature as a collective creative group.
I've often mused if you gave the same sentence to each of the pirates and asked us to write something revolving around that sentence, each of us would come up with our own unique story. Creativity is like that. Someone will always find a way to make something in someone else's possession better. It's how progression works. The same formula is used, but twisted to our personality.
I never put much thought into release dates when I was younger. I wasn't the type of person to wait patiently (alright, impatiently) for the next book to be released. I mostly waited for the library to finally get a new book on the shelf and I eagerly whipped it off the shelf and into my backpack. I didn't think past the words on the page. I didn't think of the characters in any other context other than how the author decided to write them. If I didn't like how the author wrote a particular book, I didn't read it. In fact, I probably didn't bother to read the author again. My attention span is short, as is most of the reading population. Like baby birds awaiting their next feeding, readers chirp and fidget and obsess about their next fiction dosage. And when you know it's not coming in the form of how you want it, you have to release that obsession somehow or let it fester into something ugly and detrimental to your creative person. Fandoms give this outlet. This obsession with characters, with a world and a lifestyle that feeds your brain into almost a comatose state of creativity is allowed to come out and play in the most fantastical way. As a collective whole, fandoms feed of each other. Allow characters to wander down the road not taken. It's most as if you can see your life changing direction when you breathe life into a character that lies dormant in another's mind.
I love romance. I love the thought of others falling in love, sharing a life, building a world to live into together. It reads so romantic. To watch it unfold is timeless. I love even more when the author takes it away. Gives you a glimpse of what could've been and crushes it. Shows you a different lifetime, gives you the love you've been missing and then show's you how it was destroyed. My first real fandom love was just like this. Naoko Takeuchi wrote one of the most famous (and to this day, almost two decades later) Shojo manga's called Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is a manga about a moon princess born again into a regular Japanese teenager (who is still the moon princess) and doomed to repeat history all over again. The manga work is absolute beautiful. Heartwretching. Entrancing. I fell in love with Makoto's story (Jupiter) and her doomed Prince Nephrite, general to the great Earth Prince. To kill your lover by your own hand. To fall into a pool of his blood, crying out his name only to have your own life taken from you in hopes when history repeats itself the battle will go differently a second time around. The story of love and how it's lost. I think of how their story could be different the second time around. The third time around. Even a tenth time around into Crystal Tokyo. But they would still die in the end by my hand because I don't believe in Happily Ever After just the road that takes us there.
I totally went off on a tangent. Again. *sigh* Did you ever daydream of how things would end up with characters after you finished reading with “THE END”? Imagine where the character's life might have gone, where it could go? Did you do anything about it? Know anyone who did something about it? Did it inspire you to write your own love story (or mystery, suspense, urban fantasy, historical, contemporary.. seriously, the list can go on and on.)?
I don't believe in happily ever afters.
But I do enjoy a good love story.
I've spent years in the fandoms of several of my favorite series. I'm a reader by trade. My eyes consume, almost slave away over the written word of authors who hide behind fictitious names and silly idealistic worlds created for us to play in without permission. The fact I don't have permission to write something only makes the rebellious imp in me want to do it more. The fact that you can take characters of someone else's imagination and make them do something else interest me. I'm also interested to see what others think about when they read these characters. So in some terms fan fiction and fandoms are a chance for me to study the human nature as a collective creative group.
I've often mused if you gave the same sentence to each of the pirates and asked us to write something revolving around that sentence, each of us would come up with our own unique story. Creativity is like that. Someone will always find a way to make something in someone else's possession better. It's how progression works. The same formula is used, but twisted to our personality.
I never put much thought into release dates when I was younger. I wasn't the type of person to wait patiently (alright, impatiently) for the next book to be released. I mostly waited for the library to finally get a new book on the shelf and I eagerly whipped it off the shelf and into my backpack. I didn't think past the words on the page. I didn't think of the characters in any other context other than how the author decided to write them. If I didn't like how the author wrote a particular book, I didn't read it. In fact, I probably didn't bother to read the author again. My attention span is short, as is most of the reading population. Like baby birds awaiting their next feeding, readers chirp and fidget and obsess about their next fiction dosage. And when you know it's not coming in the form of how you want it, you have to release that obsession somehow or let it fester into something ugly and detrimental to your creative person. Fandoms give this outlet. This obsession with characters, with a world and a lifestyle that feeds your brain into almost a comatose state of creativity is allowed to come out and play in the most fantastical way. As a collective whole, fandoms feed of each other. Allow characters to wander down the road not taken. It's most as if you can see your life changing direction when you breathe life into a character that lies dormant in another's mind.
I love romance. I love the thought of others falling in love, sharing a life, building a world to live into together. It reads so romantic. To watch it unfold is timeless. I love even more when the author takes it away. Gives you a glimpse of what could've been and crushes it. Shows you a different lifetime, gives you the love you've been missing and then show's you how it was destroyed. My first real fandom love was just like this. Naoko Takeuchi wrote one of the most famous (and to this day, almost two decades later) Shojo manga's called Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is a manga about a moon princess born again into a regular Japanese teenager (who is still the moon princess) and doomed to repeat history all over again. The manga work is absolute beautiful. Heartwretching. Entrancing. I fell in love with Makoto's story (Jupiter) and her doomed Prince Nephrite, general to the great Earth Prince. To kill your lover by your own hand. To fall into a pool of his blood, crying out his name only to have your own life taken from you in hopes when history repeats itself the battle will go differently a second time around. The story of love and how it's lost. I think of how their story could be different the second time around. The third time around. Even a tenth time around into Crystal Tokyo. But they would still die in the end by my hand because I don't believe in Happily Ever After just the road that takes us there.
I totally went off on a tangent. Again. *sigh* Did you ever daydream of how things would end up with characters after you finished reading with “THE END”? Imagine where the character's life might have gone, where it could go? Did you do anything about it? Know anyone who did something about it? Did it inspire you to write your own love story (or mystery, suspense, urban fantasy, historical, contemporary.. seriously, the list can go on and on.)?
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39 comments:
Oh, geez! All the time! Especially with television. Though I'm more likely to tell myself stories involving the characters, interacting with... ME!
It's really how I began to first see myself as a writer, by not so much rewriting the ending, but moving onward to what happens next.
I don't so much not believe in HEA, but I don't believe in the end. HEA is an ongoing thing!
Good way of putting it Chanceroo. It never really ends until the death and sometimes in fiction, that doesn't really even kill it off. lol
Sin, your mind is a fascinating terrain--slightly frightening, I will admit, but most definitely fascinating. :)
When I was younger I enjoyed stories of star-crossed lovers, and I would cry for them as if their story was real, and as if my tears could change the outcome.
Now that I'm older and have experienced a variety of heartaches and heartbreaks, I prefer stories that have a more hopeful ending (even though I don't see many of them in real life. LOL)
I think I started writing, not because of any particular characters, but so I could inhabit a certain venue--the Regency world. I read a LOT of books in that place and time, and decided I wanted to stay there a little longer. So that's what I did. :)
Yes, I have thought of characters beyond their HFN or HEA endings. Many times authors will put an epilogue that's many years later--and I want to know what happened in between, in the years not mentioned.
I like the dilemma of Fate vs Free Will, which is what it sounds like Sailor Moon tends to touch on. Fate--or history repeating itself--vs the Free Will to try to make the outcome different. I find reincarnation stories fascinating.
Hells, I really like Sailor Moon simply because of all the mythology behind it and how it all ties into your fate and free will to choose. It's very interesting. Especially when you start reading about it in depth online. The manga stills of Sailor Moon are beautiful too. I just like to look at all the pretty pictures.
Dear DRD,
Please call and book your once in a lifetime trip into the depths of my mind. I will give you a nice ice pick discount and your very own Undead Monkey just for calling.
Sincerely,
Evil Twin
I have to admit I've never read any sailor moon stuff, but now feel like I should totally check it out.
I've often wondered about characters after the end of the story, but I've never really done anything about it.
I can admit that I have daydreamed of myself as a character before while sitting in rush hour traffic and how I would have written a reaction to certain events, or how I would react as that character if say "a madman gets out of his car and starts beating on the car in front of me - quick what would I do as xxx character?"
Ok - so know you know I'm slightly insane. :)
Dear Evil Twin,
How could I possibly turn down such a generous offer? I fear I must, however, as I am quite certain this would be a one-way trip.
Thank you once more for your largesse. It grieves me to lose out on the ice pick discount, but I will not shed any tears over the loss of my personal Undead Monkey.
Very truly yours,
DRD
I can admit that I have daydreamed of myself as a character and how I would have written a reaction to certain events
I've done this. Especially if the events in the story don't feel like they fit the character as he/she has been presented. It's like you can tell which authors twist characters to fit the plot they have in mind rather than the other way around. It's irksome. *LOL* It jerks me out of the story, because not only are the characters being manipulated to fit the purposes of the author, but so is the reader.
I think Sailor Moon is dangerous. My youngest nephew is obsessed with anime and manga. He goes to conferences, listens to soundtracks in Japanese, and spends large sums of money on posters, figurines, and plushies to add to his collection. And it all started with Sailor Moon.
I found interesting Mary Balogh's use of reincarnation in her novella, based on Jane Austen's Persuasion, in the Bespelling Jane antholgy, and the gender reversal in Nora Roberts's Midnight Bayou (the book, not the movie) was fascinating. I do believe in HEAs in RL and in fiction, although I think they require a lot more sustained effort in RL than in fiction.
Scapey, you might be able to find the translated manga online somewhere. I don't think it's on this one, but you can look at the artbooks here.
http://soul-hunter.com/sailormoon/manga.php
The manga sells anywhere from $100-$1000 on Amazon now since it's been out of print for some time. (The series was over *I think* in 1997 after a 5 year run.)
You're not insane. You're a daydreamer and a creative being. Imagination will do that to a person.
Janga, the obsession that goes with Sailormoon mania is insane. I know they still cosplay it in Japan and even have a live action series based around Sailormoon (the original story line). But I can't imagine going to conferences. Collecting things- yes. I happen to have an original Death Note from the series (Death Note, 2010) simply because I bought my sister one and I can't let my sister have something like that and not have one of my own. But cosplay stuff is high priced and in steep demand.
I only watched subbed anime. Dubbed anime is ridiculous and hard to listen to and is just plain wrong. Besides, submersion is the best way to learn another language. I know quite a few words in Japanese. My sister only knows the swear words (go figure).
Dear DRD,
You will live to regret the day you missed out on the special ice pick discount. The Undead Monkey is displeased and has left you a present in your hammock.
I hear it's quite the trip through my brain. Most people don't make it back, but it's fun to listen to them inside my head screaming and crying and generally whining about the wonderful accommodations I've secured for them.
Sincerely,
Evil Twin
not only are the characters being manipulated to fit the purposes of the author, but so is the reader.
This irks me as well. Manipulating your characters is one things (within the bounds you've created for the character, mind you) but to try to manipulate me into thinking that's canon for the character. Nuh-uh, not going to happen and it's only going to make my brain think about the ways the rest of the book could be better.
My brain is so far removed from yours, I'm not even sure what to type here. LOL!
The Undead Monkey is displeased and has left you a present in your hammock.
ROTFLMAO
My brain is so far removed from yours, I’m not even sure what to type here. LOL!
Yes, my brain often leaves people speechless.
*hahaha*
Hells, you know how the Undead Monkey rolls.
I've never considered venturing into fanfiction. There have been characters I've hated to leave behind once I close the book, but I never felt an urge to write more story for them. This usually happens with Nora's classic trilogies. The ones set in Ireland or the Three Sisters Island ones. I hated to say goodbye to those characters.
I play out scenes in my head of how I would act/react in certain situations, but I don't think I've ever done it as if I were a character.
The thing Hellie mentioned about manipulating characters is my biggest pet peeve these days. Don't introduce me to a character and establish them to be one thing, only to have them act totally opposite five pages down the line. Moving characters like puppets because you want to hit certain plot points doesn't work for me at all.
And wouldn't that undead monkey present fall through the hammock?
Sorry, I've been busy and had to get all my wayward thoughts out quickly in that comment. Guess I meandered a bit. LOL!
LMFAO It's okay Ter.
And it wouldn't fall through if it soaked into the fabric.
Oh, see, I'm picturing one of those netted hammocks, like these.
http://www.nagsheadhammocks.com/hammocks.asp
I dream of having one of these some day.
On the beach with a cabana boy to bring me drinks. Such a nice thought.
Or the cabana boy entertains me!
You can get a cupholder for them too. To hold that drink while you entertain the cabana boy. LOL!
I *loved* those hammocks. *sighs* I still want a hammock to put on my "back porch", such as it is.
Maybe I should motivate myself to write for that and not the Kindle. *LOL*
The Kindle is pretty nice though. I'll let you play with mine.
*giggling* Now I sound like a perverted boy.
You could always write for both. Think how wonderful it would be to read the Kindle in the hammock!
I was just thinking about reading my Kindle in my hammock. *LOL* Ah, what a dream.
You know, I have the perfect little patch of grass in my back yard that would fit one of these hammocks. I'd need some kind of umbrella for shade, but it could be done. Hmmmmm.....
See? I think I must be cracked...I used to imagine myself as one of the companions on Dr. Who and create adventures for us to go on. Have us collide with the Enterprise and interact with the Star Trek characters... Am I the only one who wonders about standing in Abby's lab on NCIS and joking with her about music or teasing Tim about looking at her ass?
Wandering the streets of London with Sherlock, sailing with Cp. Jack...
In my head, I've done all of this!
And keep the undead monkey from my head, or hammock! I'll slip him into the blender then toss him to the Kraken!
You're definitely special, Chance. I'm sure there are other fans of cross-polination out there. At a convention somewhere. Wearing weird costumes...
:)
2nd, if you're going to reference that stuff--I did used to imagine scenarios with Bo and Luke Duke. We had broken cars in our bottom land (Jeff Foxworthy made most of his jokes about us) and there was this beautiful 1968 Impala I adored and I'd pretend to drive it and I'd slide in and out of the windows and go on a bunch of adventures. The car could fly. *LOL*
I didn't cross-polinate shows though. I would fly off to get Bo Duke and stop on the way to pick up the boy I had a crush on at school.
Oh, I still do it! Wonder how Gibbs would react to Bones? I have...so I 'imagine' it.
Yes, I inhabit an interesting world... Buffy meets Sherlock...
Why not? ;-)
Hel, I love that you played at Dukes of Hazzards!
Bo'sun - Yup, strange costumes...that's the main attraction! ;-)
And the weaponry. You know you're in it for the weaponry.
This is where my total lack of imagination comes through. LOL! I know I imagined living in a different time, but not in specific characters.
I'm not sure it's lack of imagination. My guess is more you weren't really encouraged to let your mind soar and play with stuff that isn't really yours. Which, like Sin pointed at in her blog, is really what fanfic is all about...stealing into a world that you didn't invent and making it our own.
It may take a bit of dishonesty to feel comfortable doing that. Or a level of innocence that doesn't see or recognize the idea of ownership.
In my younger years, all I dreamed about was music and history. I wanted to work in the music industry while at the same time longing to live in the 19th century. A real contradiction, I was.
Hmmmm. You'd bring Garth Brooks to the 1800s? ;-) Imagine how that might be!
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