hm

[lobelia321]

I never seem to write in my LJ these days.

Well, 'never' is possibly a slight exaggeration.

I think I'm disappointed with the void my narratological analysis fell into. Alas, 'twas the same with my Bollywood mania so perhaps I must now hoof it around LJ-land and find me a new community. Except I fear I'm a member of one. Waah.

Fic ideas swirl in head but I never seem to write them down in my notebook anymore or type them up. Wrote 7 pages of Christopher Lee the other day but then got bored and just left it sitting round in a file.

I am, however, completely and totally in love with David Mitchell whose babies I will surely have one of these days. He wrote Ghostwritten (*falls over with love*) and Number 9 Dream and his most recent one Cloud Atlas which is just mindblowingly, mesmerisingly good. At one point I was so immersed I forgot that I had ever read another novel ever. I am just stunned by his breadth, daringness, madness, brilliant plot intricacy, compassion, ability to crawl into characters' heads and create them so that I loved them within paragraphs, create whole worlds along with them and most astoundingly and impressively, create such believably, compelling voices for them. It's making me rethink the whole 'voice' thing. And it's a twist on Italo Calvino's When on a winter's night a traveller, too (and that latter is one of my top five novels 'of all time'). *worships at David Mitchell's feet*

T'h asked me what was so great about Cloud Atlas. I said, 'It's because he writes about the soul.' And that is what I ultimately believe it all boils down to. For me, that's the difference between a fantastic and a very good book and a truly great book: the very good have style and plot and character and voice but the truly great speak to and about the soul, about life, death and love. Because what else matters, in the end? And only literature can deliver that, and that's why I love reading.

Well, no, *backpedals*, because I also love reading a whole lot of other books that aren't about the soul necessarily but I love the potential of literature to be about the soul.

*takes deep breath*

Comments

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

dear lobelia,

my website stats show quite clearly that *lots* of people read your analysis - about thirty of 'em jumped to my story from your lj. so even if they didn't comment, they were definitely reading.

*must* read some david mitchell then!

n.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Eeep! How do you get such stats on LJ? I didn't think that was poss. Enlighten me, o techie wonder!

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

these are the stats from my website on dombillijah.com, not lj - i can see the referring pages that viewers came from. lots of 'em were jumping to "border town" from your analysis page.

n.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Aha! Hm, I must get a move on and upload this analysis to *my* webpage then, I, too can monitor the flow!

Thanks for reminding me of that! And also, it's made me feel much better to know that people have at least read the beginning! :-)

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Psst, Nova! How do I look at the stats for my dbl.com site? I am quite thick.

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

hey shel-like.

you don't appear to have a counter on your site.

you need one o'these things:

http://www.sitemeter.com/

n.x :)

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you. :)

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I is still reading it. I have a backlog, you know! :) But I'm off work now.

Fic ideas swirl in head

Me too. I really need to make some kind of list. For instance, I want to do an artist AU. By which I mean real artists, rather than the usual lotrips Viggo-cliche. In my story, they'll all be artists except for Viggo. He will be something very dull, although I haven't decided what yet.

But I have a terrible feeling this one's just going to disappear into the ether like most of the rest of my fabulous ideas.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

"Pablo, I really like your cubic angles."

"Oh, thanks, Raph. Imagine coming back from the dead just to tell me that."

"And who's this? Your apprentice?"

"Oh, him? Viggo? Go and mix us some more aquamarine, Vig, and put those brushed in turp while you're about it."

"And could you refill my pipe...?"

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

*snigger* Poor Viggo...

Ah but my version, you see, will be a lotrips AU, where Dom and Orli and Elijah and everyone are contemporary artists with trendy East London studios, and they're all bitchy and pretentious and stuff, and Viggo ... I dunno, works in the corner shop or something.

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

you *must* write this.

n.x :)

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

orli, lij and dom could be horrible cooler-than-thou RCA graduates and mebbe viggo could be some sinister saatchi-type collector. and you must include the pure evil that is a Big Private View With Rather Too Much Free Alcohol....!!

sorry. will not write your fic for you. *g*

n.x :D

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Eeks! I didn't see this comment!

The Big Private View was of course the jumping-off point for the whole idea. This will be the, ahem, climax of the fic.

And funnily enough I was envisioning Viggo along Saatchi lines, but now I want him to work in the corner shop. Maybe Sean B could be Saatchi. That might be fun.

sorry. will not write your fic for you.

Oh don't apologise. By the time I get round to it the fandom will probably be a distant memory...

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*bursts out cackling*

"Will that be Wednesday or Saturday lottery, then, Mrs Shnebabble?"

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Ha! Perfect!

:)

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

It didn't fall into a void, darling! Well, except possibly for the void that is my head these days. But I'm sure a lot of people are reading it. It's just very long and needs to be chewed over slowly. I'm about halfway through and am absolutely fascinated. There are so many things that I do while I'm writing that seem to me to be completely unconscious, but now I can see that there are real, narratological reasons for doing them. Then that makes me wonder, when and where did I learn these things? From English classes? from reading in general? From reading fanfic? Or are they simply things that spring organically from the writing process? Do not fear, I will be bugging you with all sorts of feedback and questions in the days and weeks to come. I think you've done the fanfic community a great service!

Ooh, and I must check out the David Mitchell!

T'h asked me what was so great about Cloud Atlas. I said, 'It's because he writes about the soul.' And that is what I ultimately believe it all boils down to.

Absolutely. I think that's what every single truly great novel or story I've read is truly about. And somehow, you just know it when you see it.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

There are so many things that I do while I'm writing that seem to me to be completely unconscious, but now I can see that there are real, narratological reasons for doing them.
I'm torn between believing that there are such reasons and that narratologists have *discovered* them (and that we all apply these categories subliminally, much as we apply grammar in our mother tongues without needing to learn it)and believing that narratologists make up their categories and construct them according to their own agendas, which aren't necessarily any authors' agendas.

Then that makes me wonder, when and where did I learn these things? From English classes? from reading in general? From reading fanfic? Or are they simply things that spring organically from the writing process?
Yes, exactly! These are such interesting questions!! From reading in general, I'm sure. And it would be interesting to conduct a survey of fanfic writers' reading habits outside fandom: I have an inkling that a lot of them are genre fans (when they stray into origfic they tend to write sci fi or fantasy) and genres have fairly tight conventions, mostly tight third pov and so forth; and also, that they tend to read contemporary literature and not much a) 19th century and 18th century and earlier stuff and b) not much modernist experimental stuff.

And then I believe that *some* of these concerns spring organically from the writing process. They do for me. But only once I started thinking about it seriously and coming up against obstacles; when I used to write origfic I never thought about these things (as I said before).

But which ones are organic-writing-process and which ones are culture-of-literature?

I think you've done the fanfic community a great service!

Thank you. Heh. Well, if 'service' that remains to be judged by others....

And I'm so glad we agree about the soul. Who's to say that slash isn't deeply ethical and philosophical to boot?? Not to mention theological!!

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm torn between believing that there are such reasons and that narratologists have *discovered* them (and that we all apply these categories subliminally, much as we apply grammar in our mother tongues without needing to learn it)and believing that narratologists make up their categories and construct them according to their own agendas, which aren't necessarily any authors' agendas.

Perhaps it's a bit of both? The writer generates these categories because she must, in the process of creating the story. Then the narratologists try to make some sense out of a process that probably defies easy categorization.

I have an inkling that a lot of them are genre fans (when they stray into origfic they tend to write sci fi or fantasy) and genres have fairly tight conventions, mostly tight third pov and so forth; and also, that they tend to read contemporary literature and not much a) 19th century and 18th century and earlier stuff and b) not much modernist experimental stuff.

That was surprising to me when I first entered fandom. Maybe it shouldn't have been because of LOTR, but for me, reading sci-fi and fantasy is the exception, not the rule. And yes! I hadn't thought of that before: the genre readers are going to write much the same way. I was pretty daunted by how "strict" the rules were. That was one of the reasons I loved your writing so early on; there was something so quirky and iconoclastic about it!

Who's to say that slash isn't deeply ethical and philosophical to boot?? Not to mention theological!!

Absolutely. We deal with the big questions of existence here. And I believe the very first slash I ever wrote was theological! *g*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

That was surprising to me when I first entered fandom. Maybe it shouldn't have been because of LOTR, but for me, reading sci-fi and fantasy is the exception, not the rule.
Same here! With the surprise, I mean. I suppose I had always read Lotr 'against the grain' of the fantasy folk -- it's the daddy of them all, after all, isn't it? But also so much more. Anyway, *stops self from rambling on about Lotr* Actually, considering we're such absurd fans, we spend fairly little time on rambling about t'book, don't we? I wonder if the fps'ers do...

I did have a period in early puberty when I devoured sci fi but since then I've read William Gibson and that's about it. Thinking about this has made me realise that I'm not really a genre reader -- the one and only genre I've been obsessed by and have read voraciously is Lotrips! I suppose in the Lotrips niche of the world I *am* a true geek! As are we all... :-) I can don boffinish specs (on top of my usual specs, that is) and say, "I say, that characterisation of Lij topping Karl is a tad unusual, is it not, but it reminds me of that fic by ladyiwannafucklegolas which was sort of an AU but written from the pov of an ooc Lij..." Blah-de-jargon-blah!!

Thank you also for the compliment. I love hearing things like that because I never think of them myself.

And I believe the very first slash I ever wrote was theological!
Eep, what was it? Martin/Erasmus?

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Actually, considering we're such absurd fans, we spend fairly little time on rambling about t'book, don't we? I wonder if the fps'ers do...

Yes, I think the "purist" fans tend to look down their noses at the slashers in general. They are the London Philharmonic to our Britney.

I can don boffinish specs (on top of my usual specs, that is) and say, "I say, that characterisation of Lij topping Karl is a tad unusual, is it not, but it reminds me of that fic by ladyiwannafucklegolas which was sort of an AU but written from the pov of an ooc Lij..." Blah-de-jargon-blah!!

We do that sort of thing, don't we? I love it- it's like having our own secret language!

Eep, what was it? Martin/Erasmus?

Yes, it was! And you may have even provided a little Martin/Melanchthon. I don't know if I can find that madness again, it was either in your LJ or in [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]'s. In any event, I'm sure that little venture will keep us out of heaven, if the rest doesn't already!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Eeep, I remember those days of Protestant-slashing! Speaking of catholics: have you seen the Mel Gibson torture-fest

They are the London Philharmonic to our Britney.
*laughs very loudly* Oh, so true, so true!!

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Mel Gibson's movie, and plan to avoid it as long as it's in the theater. I might rent it sometime though, just because I really don't feel if I can bash it if I haven't seen it! But it's also entirely possible that I just don't really care. :)