(no subject)

[brigdh]

New computer! New computer! New computer!

Feel my glee, y'all. ^_^ It's a Dell Latitude, and I'm so very happy with it. It still needs a name, though...

While I was in the computer store, which also does repairs, someone came in to drop off their laptop. It was the exact same brand and make as my last one, and it had the same problem that I'd had. Hah. I knew it wasn't my fault.

Okay, now a bunch of links:
gushoushinfiles. For all your Yami fandom needs. It's like fandom_bb, but for YnM instead of Smallville. It'll keep track of new fic, icons, challenges, whatever. Such a cool resource. Much love for animadri. She does way too much stuff for this fandom. ^^

rinoared wrote an excellent Tatsumi/Tsuzuki/Hisoka essay for ship_manifesto. So cool.

And speaking of ship_manifesto, do you realize that no one is signed up to do Muraki/Tsuzuki? That is just wrong. Someone should sign up! Don't make me do it, my essay would be far too strongly influenced by the fact that I really dislike Muraki. But we can't let the pairing just languish.

Meanwhile, yasminm has collected 20 themes for Yami no Matsuei, plus a few bonus ones. And she's working on a list for Weiss Kreuz. Go suggest some! See, the idea is that you take these themes, and write a fic for each of them. Major, major cool points for anyone who actually manages to write all 20. But it's a very neat idea for a challenge.

And now I swear to stop pimping things out for a moment. I wouldn't have to keep making link-posts if so much stuff didn't happen. :p But I have a question that I'd like people's opinions on. At what point does fanfic become too self-indulgent? I mean, on some level, obviously all fanfic- all writing, even- is self-indulgent. It's telling stories that you expect people to listen to, writing down your daydreams- though hopefully with a bit more characterization and tighter plot- in the hope that it will make other people happy as well. But where's the point that it becomes too much? How do you know if you've gotten in to a project that's nothing but your kinks and ideas, with no interest to anyone else?

Is there a point at which some stuff just shouldn't be written? Or shouldn't be published, at least. How far can you reasonably expect readers to follow you? And how do you know when you've crossed the line?

Comments

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I adore A Christmas Carol with a mad passion, but it only makes his other works all the more awful in comparison. Especially Great Expectations, which I hate and had to read three friggin' times in school, thanks to being a military kid and changing schools a lot. Pip's wimpy, self-involved angst worked my last nerve in ways any veteran of skirmishes with badfic writers would recognize.

I suppose one good thing came out of the experience. My own teen queen tendency toward purple prose and melodrama was severely curtailed by my run-ins with Mr. Dickens. Though my taste for minimalism didn't make Steinbeck or Hemingway any more palatable. But then, I'm not really impressed with Man Pain, no matter how it's dressed.

Oh, man, you're making me itch to dump books on you now. *G* Mom read mythology to us like it was fairy tales, and certainly the two aren't unrelated. I'd say check out the Folklore section of your local bookstore, they should have at least one book each of Nordic mythology and Celtic (probably a lot of Celtic, given it's an "in" mythology right now). I think someone just pubbed a translated compilation of Icelandic sagas, but I haven't read it yet to say how much good it would do you in terms of the basics. If you're in college (can't remember if you are), you might also see if there are any folklore classes offered and track down the professor to see what books s/he recommends for getting started.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

If you're in college (can't remember if you are), you might also see if there are any folklore classes offered and track down the professor to see what books s/he recommends for getting started.

I did, actually! I took an Intro to Folklore that was incredibly disappointing. We didn't talk about mythology at all; rather the whole class was about ways to collect folklore, theories on why folklore such as jokes or urban legends became popular and how they spread and what they said about the populations telling them.

But I did get to write my term paper on the 'my hed iz pastde on yay' wank, since I made the argument that fandom_wank was obviously a folk culture, in terms of people who spend time together, share obscure termonology and create art, stories and other items as part of a shared community. That was fun.

Hemingway isn't too bad, and I haven't read Steinbeck, but I've rarely been very enthusatic for any books I read in school. Shakespeare's an exception, and I'm sure there's a few others I'm forgetting, but in general I've much preferred by own choices, even when it comes to "classic" type things.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I did, actually! I took an Intro to Folklore that was incredibly disappointing. We didn't talk about mythology at all; rather the whole class was about ways to collect folklore, theories on why folklore such as jokes or urban legends became popular and how they spread and what they said about the populations telling them.

Oh, feh. I hate those classes. I don't want interpretation of folklore, or discussion of theories, or analysis of its usefulness in the current age. Just give me the stories, damn it. *G* As many as possible, as fast as possible, from as many cultures as possible. I'll draw my own conclusions about their usefulness, parallels, and application to the human condition/psyche.

But I did get to write my term paper on the 'my hed iz pastde on yay' wank, since I made the argument that fandom_wank was obviously a folk culture, in terms of people who spend time together, share obscure termonology and create art, stories and other items as part of a shared community. That was fun.

Fandom as a whole is a folk culture, with a lot of subcultures, of which I definitely agree fandom_wank is one. And a lot of the jokes and terminology have leaked out into the larger fandom community, which is interesting to watch (probably more interesting if you're more familiar with f_w than I am, but oh well).

Hemingway isn't too bad, and I haven't read Steinbeck, but I've rarely been very enthusatic for any books I read in school. Shakespeare's an exception, and I'm sure there's a few others I'm forgetting, but in general I've much preferred by own choices, even when it comes to "classic" type things.

I loathe Hemingway, though he's not so long-winded as Dickens. Try to avoid Steinbeck if at all possible. I was lucky enough to get some very good English teachers a time or two, and some of them were able to manipulate the curriculum somewhat to give us the good stuff. I first read Farenheit 451 for school, and spent one delirious Christmas vacation devouring our reading assignments: Lord of the Flies, Heart of Darkness, Slaughterhouse Five, and...drat, I forget the other two. I had them all finished before Christmas hit, though, and got my parents to buy me my own copies as Christmas presents. *G*

Shakespeare I knew because Dad used to read it to us when we were little (he did theatre in college), but my first encounter with Chaucer was in school, as well as Cry, the Beloved Country!. Even thinking about that book still moves me to tears. It had some of the most amazing passages.