Adventures from Yesterday

I got a Student Free Day yesterday, sort of. Cletus's car broke down on Wednesday night and because he is a very poor college student, I took his car to be repaired. I also played chauffeur and drove him to his shiny brand new job and also picked him up. See what an astonishingly good big sister I am. There should be prizes. Or chocolate at the very least.

In the interim, waiting for the mechanic to call that we could pick up his G-ride, I played Jak 3, which is unnecessarily difficult. I didn't have nearly this much trouble with God of War and it's really pissing me off. Some days I just want to chuck it out the window and wash my hands of it. Other days, I'm all -- DAMNIT! I've invested DAYS of my life into this game and I'm not stopping until I've passed it.

In other news, Drive has been cancelled. I can't say that I'm surprised. I just knew that an unusual Fox show featuring Nathan Fillion was destined for early cancellation. However, I am deeply astounded that it only took four episodes. How is a show supposed to develop and/or attract an audience if you only give it four g-damn shows to do so? I didn't start watching Buffy until S3, Roswell caught my attention when they re-ran season 1 during the following summer at like midnight or something ridiculous, and my first Farscape episode was Look at the Princess 2, half way through the second season. Firefly was already cancelled when I saw my first episode, I didn't even know that it was a show that had been MADE until it was already cancelled. Imagine my horror at discovering that it was an awesome show, too.

WTF, Fox?! WTF.

My shows are pretty skimpy these days: Medium, and Heroes are the only network shows that I watch with any regularity; and the cable stuff is all anime (Basilisk, Bleach, Eureka 7, Blood Plus).

You'd think I'd get more reading done.

***

National Poetry Month continues

( Composed Upon Westminster Bridge )

Meta Rec: reading writing meta meta by xanphibian

reading writing meta meta by xanphibian

Can I get a hell yeah!

I love meta and I love discussing writing. I’ve often thought of treating fic as I would treat the books that I’m reading: lay them up against theory and classic crit to examine how the writer is able to do what they do (convey sen, emotion, visuals, etc.). In fandom, this would commonly fall under the banner of concrit. Most people seem to be Very Nervous about concrit, it’s bad form, unnecessary in a community where all is for fun, you don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or hurt their feelings. With that in mind, I offer concrit up to the people who I know are interested and can handle it. xanphibian’s post gets at what my ideas are of concrit on a larger level than just what some assume it is. That is to say, we’re not just talking about criticism in terms of “this is bad” or “this doesn’t work”, but also how the fic operates and achieves its goals via the more technical aspect of writing. We’re talking more than just concrit or a review but a critical analysis of a literary piece, and let’s be real – fanfic is literature. It may not be considered Literature because of its marginal status (copyright issues, derivative, etc.) but it is literature. Hell, if a pamphlet can be literature, fanfic can damn well be literature. Some of it is even Literature.

Personally, I am totally willing to offer up my fic for the attempt. All the same rules of fandom, of course, applying. Although, I have a feeling that there will be no takers because it always comes down to the same argument with concrit – people get their feelings hurt. Well, seeing as how I am an adult, and seeing as how I can only grow if I get concrit, I would love to see an essay or brief meditation on something that I’ve written or a compare/contrast to different pieces, etc. I’d love to do the same for other willing writers. I think that the closest I got was a comment I made to tkp’s Pretty Screams in Paradise. It was a fabulous thinky exercise and reminded me of all those reasons that I love Lit classes and academia, all the fun, technical reasons that I love and hate being a writer.