SPINNING IN THE WEB

My trophy!

Which Illya Kuryakin are you?
this quiz was made by lyrebird

How long since I pitas'ed?

Too long. Where the heck does time go anyway. Whine, whine, whine. I'm still beating my head on the wall with my story, too. Help!

C.C., I so agree with you on the "safety blanket" thing. How claustrophobic. How revolting. Wouldn't they be better off buying a dog than hanging onto each other for safety?

I also like what you say about the edginess of the relationship.I'm not sure I can ever make that happen in a story, though. *sigh*

I have returned here. For awhile anyway.

Bloggers Away

Where have I been all this time??? Well, reading a lot of Soviet history, for one thing - am here to tell you, no matter what Sam Rolfe dreamed, IK isn't a good little Soviet communist. He couldn't be, and be a good little UNCLE agent. So forget it.

Gee, glad I got that off my chest. C.C. put up that wonderful photo of NS' eyes as a resource for fanfic writers and mentioned the shot I have of IK - so as an additional resource, you can see IK's eyes here, for a limited time only. (Well, until I archive this page.)

And yes, I have been writing. A story set in a certain European city... I"m not alone, am I?

Bookmark here.

Bloggers Away

Where have I been all this time??? Well, reading a lot of Soviet history, for one thing - am here to tell you, no matter what Sam Rolfe dreamed, IK isn't a good little Soviet communist. He couldn't be, and be a good little UNCLE agent. So forget it.

Gee, glad I got that off my chest. C.C. put up that wonderful photo of NS' eyes as a resource for reference and mentioned the shot I have of IK - so as an additional resource, you can see IK's eyes here, for a limited time only. (Well, until I archive this page.)

And yes, I have been writing. A story set in a certain European city... I"m not alone, am I?

Bookmark here.

Bloggers Away

Where have I been all this time??? Well, reading a lot of Soviet history, for one thing - am here to tell you, no matter what Sam Rolfe dreamed, IK isn't a good little Soviet communist. He couldn't be, and be a good little UNCLE agent. So forget it.

Gee, glad I got that off my chest. C.C. put up that wonderful photo of NS' eyes as a resource for reference and mentioned the shot I have of IK - so as an additional resource, you can see IK's eyes here, for a limited time only. (Well, until I archive this page.

And yes, I have been writing. A story set in a certain European city... I"m not alone, am I? Bookmark here.

Unslashed

It's true, it's true, C.C. MfU slash is dying. I would say rigor mortis is setting in, but there's nothing, er, rigid in sight is there? I should go through my RS zines and do a count for you of how many scenes there are, in all, that show anything like sexual tension - let alone SEX - between IK and NS. It's like they're affectionate brothers. A few little kisses and hair rufflings - sweet. NOT. These are grown men. If they're involved at all, they have to do more than cuddle, for crying out loud. Kids cuddling are cute. Thirty-year-old men who cuddle all the time are ... very strange.

I think it's pressure from the gen side. The St. Crispin's Day stories are more like Holmes and Watson than NS and IK - IK is there to take notes and tell everyone how wonderful NS is. Oh, and to be patronized. HOW is this supposed to be "canon" or "true to the show"? The stories are dark and dismal. Ninety percent, probably, of the episodes were light. And there was *always* banter between NS and IK - always time for that bit of dry humour. These stories are humourless.

Why should a slash writer model her stories on them? Slash is supposedly about relationships, about two characters, namely IK and NS, interacting. Something you never see in those stories. Everything you say, C.C. convinces me that the only sane approach for someone who loves UNCLE and slash is to stay away from those lists. They take the fun out.

Worse, they take the sex out! ;-)Leaving unsuspecting fans to buy expensive zines with NO NOOKIE. They need to make another category. Gen and Hair Ruffle. When they grow up and write sex they can call it slash.

If you're an UNCLE fan, hey, you don't *have* to be a member of those UNCLE lists and you don't have to do things their way. Independence is a good thing. My favorite UNCLE writers are not there.

Bookmark here.

Loooooooooow "Q"

FanQ predictions, C.C.? Snort!! I wonder how many people actually vote for those things?

They're meant to be a sort of "people's choice" awards, I suppose, and bear about the same relationship those awards do to the Oscars? (yeah, which would *you* rather have?)

Not a good comparison -- both of those are about politics and lobbying voters and pestering your friends to call in favors - which makes them both like FanQ. I'm trying to think of a *writing* award that would be the equivalent of "people's choice"/FanQ. But I can't. Happily.

Hmm, the comparison is not entirely off, though. Oscars are chosen by your peers, who, presumably, have better judgement than fans.

The discussion of slash preferences you pointed to (I won't try to link it!) is interesting, C.C. I admire the frankness. Some slash fans seem uncomfortable with calling things by their right names. I keep wondering what it is that attracts readers to visions of IK brutalized, raped, etc. and cast NS in the role of maternal or even, er, avuncular caretaker. Come 'ere little IK and let me wipe your chin and straighten your nappies. Our tastes say things about us - might as well be aware of that.

Mary Stewart, Aithine? I *love* her books. As a teenager I must have read "Moonspinners" a kajillion times. I was so disappointed with the Disney film version though - it never felt like Crete, the lead actor was really icky, and they generally Hollywood-ized it. Funny - I haven't reread any of her books in ages.

Now don't anyone write anything else that I can't resist reacting to anytime soon, 'kay? ;-) Or, do. Then I'll have lots of fun stuff to read.

Bookmark here.

Abs for grabs

I seem to have hit a vein of MfU stories recently in which IK and NS are constantly grabbing each other's biceps. I don't know if this is a way of showing off anatomy lessons learned from exercise vids, but do people, other than trainers, ever really grab each other's biceps? Ew. Squick of the day.

C.C., regarding recs - that's one of the reasons why I am tempted to put up a recs page - with a proviso explaining what kinds of stories I like, so that hopefully the passerby would be able to gauge whether our tastes might match. I've also thought about a Stories to Avoid list - the one you and Aithine have referred to would be at the top of *that* list. If the author had left the sex out - if only - she would have had an okay gen story. But she glories in rape. She likes it vivid and brutal, she likes it slow and indulgent, she likes it a lot. And I don't. Rape is ugly and it's not about sex. It damages lives. People don't get accustomed to rape - as she apparently got accustomed to writing about it. The slashers who like rape don't live in my neighborhood and I ain't visitin' theirs. (And this whole thing ties into IK as perennial victim, used, abused, soiled, etc. - the thing that squicks me most of all.)

Re: File 40 -- I suppose from the outset they made a policy that they would not try to go for the best, but simply put up every story that comes in their path, no matter its merits. It does nothing to promote good writing, but it keeps lots of people happy, which is probably the intent. I can understand that. It's uncritical, like an encyclopedia or index.

But it leaves the visiting reader in a weird place of pearls and pebbles. So -- rec pages could be handy guides, if the reader understands why you are recommending a story, what your own bias is. You seem to have a bias toward slash stories that are in keeping with the character of MfU - hey, I like that. ;-)

Threads tangled here.

I love your story

I've read some comments lately about constructive criticism and feedback, what kinds are useful, what kinds are not. Is there anything more useless than the bovine suckups given to BNFs? Because I've also read some of those lately and they remind me so much of the Empress. You know, the one who was prancing and preening about her new dress, unaware that she had no clothes on because no one would tell her?

How can these people (BNF) have a clue whether their writing is on track now or not? Who would tell them? All the wannabes are so eager, they know how to dish out those praise pats regularly. They do it expecting to be rewarded with kindness and an elevation in status. They'll say anything for that. Which the BNF forgets to her peril.

Someone asks for a story recommendation, say, for a certain type of story - whether BNF1 ever wrote a story like that in her life, you can bet someone, the most eager wannabe, will say she did. Several, in fact. In fact, *all* her stories are like that. And BNF preens and smiles for her adoring fans, blissfully unaware of her bare-backed state. It's kind of sad, but not really because it is unlikely that the BNF will ever know she goes about underclothed. Her flatterers will keep her in ignorant bliss.

Maybe there's a cautionary thought there for any fanfic writer, though. Beware praise. Appreciate it, but don't take it too seriously, and hope you have or else look for some friends who aren't afraid to tell you if they see something in your work that they think has gone astray.

Which also makes me think about the LoCs I have written myself. When I love a story enough to tell the writer how I feel, I'm very enthusiastic. I'm rarely moved to write an LoC unless the story is just one that truly blows me away. I would hate for any writer to think my LoC was just a praisepat - well, it is in one respect: a praisepat that hopes to be rewarded with another story.

But how is a writer ever to be sure that praise is sincere? Praise is maybe a dangerous thing to a writer. Makes me think I ought to rethink my LoCs.

And on the other hand, I have never written an LoC to a BNF (as I define the term - which means a person whose ego is well filled with hot air about her role in the fandom). There are a couple of writers who may have been deemed BNF in MfU at one time -- I don't know, because they left the fandom before I got here -- to whom I would like to write an LoC. But the current crop . . . nah. Have you seen the Empress'new dress?

Brain leak here.

Too many eggs in the basket

Don't you love seasonal imagery? I have now reached the point where I have lost count of how many started stories I have on my hard drive. Why do I do this? I didn't think I would do this? The first two came one after the other, very neatly and orderly and well-behaved. By the time the third one was underway, however, it had a fellow. And I swung back and forth between them, then this third little goblin popped up and said, me, me, write me. So I did, about 30 paragraphs.

What turns one of them into the Story that Takes Off Now?

Why can't I just write the one that's started first and not start anymore until I finish that one? Ideas can be duly noted... I don't have to start running with them all, like I have a full basket of eggs and am afraid someone will take one away before I crack it.

Oh, it's too late for that imagery, isn't it?? Unless you're reading this next year.

Great musing, C.C. The exact hue of a man's bedroom equipment has never been particularly noteworthy to me. I don't think that's where eroticism lives.

Mer, Where, where?

I want to do a links page, but ... no way can it be a thorough one. I think I will just link a few absolute favorite stories? Then the links will be handy for me too. ;-)

Brain leak here.

Lost and Found

Okay, archive mystery solved. Duh. FWIW

C.C., Durian fruit is a real thing? Now I'm very tantalized. I thought it was another product of your ingenious imagination!

And Mer, where is your ficlet? I wanna see! (And anything with fresh cilantro in it has to be good - I wish it would grow here.)

Bookmark here.

Hey, where'd it go?

So that's how the archive feature works. Err....

Bookmark here.

BLOGS I WATCH

C.C.
Aithine
Mer

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