jlh: Seamus and Dean, in uniform, hugging and looking at the viewer (SD Clio)
Before I go off on an entry filled with weird ego-feelings and the usual bittersweet memories, I'm excited to say that [personal profile] reena_jenkins has recorded a podfic of my Natasha/Pepper story, The Shoes Make the Woman, for the KISSES II podfic fest [community profile] audiofemme is hosting for International Day of Femmeslash! You can also find it here on AO3! Go, go, listen! It's really super good! I am flabbergasted and can barely contain my excitement.

So! I went off to Ascendio last weekend, and it was a blast! Got to spend plenty of quality time with my pal [personal profile] catja_mikhailovic, whom I don't see enough, and roomed with [personal profile] heidi, whom I've been lucky enough to see a whole bunch this year, plus cherished convos with [personal profile] stinaleigh when she wasn't wrangling celebs, [personal profile] bookshop when she wasn't on a panel, and [personal profile] zorb when she wasn't Merlin's Circling it up. Heidi also gifted me with the general hilarity of sharing a suite with two thirteen-year-old boys who mostly wanted to hit each other over the head with a pillow shaped like a giant Duff beer can.

This next bit I'm putting behind the cut because it contains weird egotistical ramblings about fandom. I think I have the fandom bends. )

In the meantime I think I might send out an email to some pals to ask for fix cheerleaders for all this stuff I have coming up. I've always been shy about actually talking about what I'm writing—it just seems weirdly egotistical to me, not to see others doing but to do myself; you know, "nobody cares about your rpg character" etc.—but I see lots of folks doing it and maybe it will make me feel better about my first drafts. Hmm. Anyway if anyone has actually read this far and has any interest in that, I would appreciate it!
jlh: Jan from Grease, smiling (Charming Jan)
I'm a little too cranky to write much, so I'm giving people super late comments on entries I missed during the DDoS. Some short things:
  1. Thank you to everyone who gave me those chocolate heads! Super duper nice, you guys!
  2. Also thanks for voting in my poll. The outcome of the vote seems to be split down the middle, so that's what I'm going to do: post it in segments on LJ and DW, post it all-at-once on AO3, and which way I do it on the archives (F&I and FA) depends on how annoying it is to code it all properly. I'll probably post asking for help sometime next week because last time it was super clunky. (Like, which programs actually export to html properly?)
  3. Per your votes I'll be rewriting those little bits on the HP stories and taking down the stuff I wrote before, very self-consciously.
  4. Congrats to everyone already in Pottermore. I'm happy to wait until October and go in with the masses, but I will have all these fantastic friends to guide me!
  5. [livejournal.com profile] five_ht just posted some Arthur/Eames which makes me think that maybe it will be worth it to write the Ariadne/Yusuf Vegas AU after all. (You should read the fic; it's super good.)
  6. [livejournal.com profile] canis_takahari was asked to talk about Jim/Bones mpreg and I suddenly thought of how adorable it would be to write about either two men or two women who get pregnant at the same time, like chef Cat Cora and her partner did in real life. Chef Cora did a whole "Best Thing I Ever Ate" segment on some egg dish available in Miami that both she and her partner craved big time when they were pregnant together, and filmed the piece with their babies in tow in their strollers and the whole thing could not have been cuter. I have a weird thing about writing my boyslash couples wanting babies and my girlslash couples not. I mean, Pansy/Parvati, no; they are happy aunties. Chapel/Rand sometimes. Oh, wait, Carly/Amanda totally had kids, though I think Gina/Haley not so much. But Luna/Tonks, I ship pretty hard, so ... hahaha, there could be that! The two of them getting pregnant at the same time would be many deeply strange things!
jlh: photo of old fashioned green typewriter keys (typewriter green)
SO.

I am very nearly ready to start posting my sequel to EWFS and I'm trying to figure out how to do that. Not where, but how; the where will be the usual LJ/DW/AO3, plus FA and Fire and Ice, and crossposted to the deamus and the HH comms on LJ.*

The how, though. The sequel is about 56,000 words long in 10 chapters plus a 7000 word interstitial story that bridges EWFS and the sequel. I can't decide if I want to draw this thing out in parts, perhaps two chapters or so a week, or just give it to everyone in a lump. At the end it will be on AO3 in downloadable form, so there's that, but I can't decide if people like things in pieces or sort of hate them. And given that the fic is entirely completed now it could be posted all-at-once (you know, save the space restrictions).

Which of course means I'm making a poll! As some of you aren't into DW (sadface!) and/or making an open id, I'm putting the poll on both LJ and DW. (So yes, you can vote twice if you really want to, haha!) Oh, and I'm sneaking another question in there, too.

Poll #7663 on (my) harry potter fic
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6


How should I post the sequel?

View Answers

All at once, since it's finished
4 (80.0%)

In chapters, a few times a week, since it's long
1 (20.0%)

In some other manner I will describe in the comments
0 (0.0%)

A while back I started this (totally self-indulgent) look back at my HP fic now that I'm nearly done writing HP. Should I continue it, in a shorter form?

View Answers

Yes!
4 (80.0%)

No!
0 (0.0%)

Something else I'll say in a comment!
1 (20.0%)

Your obligatory ticky boxes, sponsored by Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat!

View Answers

Why aren't you working on your STBB? Hmmm?
0 (0.0%)

Femslash!
4 (66.7%)

Man this whole google+ name thing is some bullshit
3 (50.0%)

Oh yeah I got into Pottermore!
0 (0.0%)

I have so preordered that Jay Z-Kanye record Watch the Throne
0 (0.0%)

I'm all over that new PBS show about Daniel Striped Tiger's son. Awww!
0 (0.0%)

Your ticky boxes are not sufficient for what I have to say so I'm taking it to comments.
2 (33.3%)

Your band sucks.
4 (66.7%)



Thanks all!

*I am not posting to Portkey because I didn't find posting EWFS there last year to be a good experience, sadly. I got a lot of slash hate in my comments, even though I warned for slash, partially because I didn't warn specifically for the background Percy/Oliver and Sirius/Remus, and partly because people are jerks. It makes me sad because back in the Pumpkin Pie days, H/Hr was a very slash-friendly ship. I got very few anti-slash comments on my fic at FictionAlley, and this was back in 2002 when people warned for slash pretty regularly. I'm not going to take it down because whatever, but I'm not posting anything else there. If any of you H/Hr folks has another place to suggest, I'm all ears!
jlh: Seamus and Dean, in uniform, hugging and looking at the viewer (SD Clio)
Okay, here we go, with links to my first reactions and everything:
  1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone I saw by myself at a noon screening being held by Time magazine. I got up that Saturday morning, read the book in three hours, walked into that screening, came home, and read the other three books over the course of that weekend. I'd owned PS since GoF came out, but couldn't push my way through that Dahl-esque Dursleys bit (too close to the bone). The movie coming out gave me a reason to do it.
  2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the first real fandom event I went to/helped organize. I had an online gang of friends who stayed in my rather tiny flat, and also a local gang of online/offline friends, and we went to a midnight showing and were ridiculous, and then I hosted a huge party in said tiny flat, during which [livejournal.com profile] bhanesidhe drew the art that is in my icon.
  3. Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban I saw at the the New York premiere at Radio City, and then after that at the PoA IMAX thing in Lincoln Square, another fandom gathering. It is still my favorite. Both times I saw it surrounded by fandom types and that was pretty awesome. My big memory of that is riding in a cab with [livejournal.com profile] scrabble talking about the ending of Nocturne Alley.
  4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire I saw with a big crowd of local folks, and it was either at this screening or at OotP that [livejournal.com profile] blackholly infamously said that JKR thinks that falling in love makes you into an asshole.
  5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I saw with at least [livejournal.com profile] ziggy1278 and [community profile] ali_wildgoose though I don't say who I was there with in my entry, oddly. I'd forgotten that the movie came out just a week before the HP&DH book.
  6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I saw at a matinee either with my roommate [livejournal.com profile] aethelflaed2 or with [community profile] ali_wildgoose, because by then I'd read HP&DH and checked out of the narrative. Like the book, it reminded me, post-OotP, why I loved the books in the first place, being full of teen hijinx and character moments.
  7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 I also saw with [profile] aethelflaed2, low key at our local movie theater and somewhat prodded by her, because I did not love that book.
  8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 I saw last night with [community profile] ali_wildgoose and [livejournal.com profile] emsariel and [livejournal.com profile] hoshizora and [livejournal.com profile] aethelflaed2.


spoilery thoughts on the movie )

And Seamus and Dean, together at the end. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
jlh: a snitch in Harry's hand (Snitch Ain't One)
There are memes floating around and people making big posts that I'm reading with interest but I find myself, now, not having a whole lot to say about my time in Harry Potter fandom, or how I feel about the books or the movies, more due to my own exhaustion with that subject than anything else. I've said all of it already, in one way or another.

So instead: If you want to know anything about how I feel about HP, just ask!

In the meantime, a bit of a meme from [livejournal.com profile] abigail89:

Books in order of preference:
  1. PoA
  2. HBP
  3. GoF
  4. PS/SS
  5. DH
  6. OotP
  7. CoS


Movies in order of preference:
  1. PoA
  2. HBP
  3. GoF
  4. DH part 1
  5. OotP
  6. PS/SS
  7. CoS


Okay so that's not hugely different.
jlh: Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas at the Yule Ball in GoF (SD Yule Ball)
Lookie at what [livejournal.com profile] kaalee has!!! Alfie and Devon at the premiere today!

I am excite and flailing in the comments.

Oh, OTP. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Some of you will recognize the pun in that entry title, haha!
jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (HHr in sitting in great hall)
Yeah, I know, whatever. I can be irreverent on my own journal, damnit!

So first thing's first: He was perfectly fine. the details, if you want them )

So in sum, I don't think the severe pans were really deserved, though I also don't think the show adds that much to, say, the Broadway stage. It isn't something that needed to be revived. But Dan did perfectly well in it, and I'd definitely go to see him sing and dance again.

Oh and [personal profile] pinkfinity also treated me to a tour of the Harry Potter exhibit, which was super cool. Lots of sets and props and costumes, especially Quidditch robes which, yay, and wands everywhere, and the robes they wore to the ball, etc. etc. etc. Definitely gave me some oomph as I head into the homestretch of the HP writing I'm doing right now!
jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (HHr in sitting in great hall)
So the roommate and I saw Deathly Hallows last night. I … don't really like the book, am not in love with the resolution to the story and all of its death-cult blah blah blah. I'm glad she wanted to see it and got me to go, because I wanted to see it but was having trouble making myself see it.

It's beautifully shot, lots of very flat natural light that makes the endless camping palatable. Also judicious use of handheld cameras. And the sound is incredible, long sequences of just silence.

spoilery )

Infinitus!

Jul. 18th, 2010 09:07 pm
jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (HHr in sitting in great hall)
Most of what I have to say about Infinitus is YAY FRIENDS. Also YAY POOL and YAY FRUITY BOOZE. I was only able to be there Thursday and Friday, but it was still a great time.

A lot of it was sharing a room with [livejournal.com profile] zorb and [livejournal.com profile] nqdonne and [livejournal.com profile] bookshop and spending as much time as humanly possible hanging out with them and [livejournal.com profile] kitsune13 and [livejournal.com profile] sarahtales and [livejournal.com profile] karenhealey. And doing what I do when I'm in Brooklyn, both supporting [livejournal.com profile] ali_wildgoose in trying to get work done and tempting her away from the keyboard with GOOD TIMES. And I met [livejournal.com profile] naominovik and her hubs C, who were both delightful. And I met [livejournal.com profile] abigail89 and [livejournal.com profile] aome! But as with [livejournal.com profile] eibbil_libbie and [livejournal.com profile] pinkfinity and [livejournal.com profile] flourish and Liss, our paths didn't cross nearly often enough. Most conversations were about popular culture of various kinds and fandom in general and it was great fun to hear all the different perspectives because everyone has such a store of information at their fingertips.

Aja and Karen and I did a panel on RL issues in fic and fandom, mostly "how to avoid ____fail" and it seemed to go quite well—no derailing, lots of questions, receptive audience that wasn't just our friends. I was encouraged! Maybe writing this post on historical AUs won't be quite as wanky as I was worried it would be. When the delicious links are all posted I'll link here.

The highlight from a non-friend, Potter-centric perspective, however, was absolutely seeing this girl stand up and sing this song in the middle of karaoke night at one of the bars in the hotel. She wasn't cosplaying, and even better live and pig-tailed.



To say that the place went nuts would be an understatement.

And now I am back in the land of the well-rested, and I have a lot of beta-ing and writing to do!
jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (HHr drawing)
So thanks to a series of coincidences and benefactors … I'm going to Infinitus!

I'll be there Thursday and Friday, leaving early Saturday morning. I honestly haven't been paying a ton of attention to who is going because I wasn't going, but now I am going, so:

1. Who's going?
2. Does anyone have room in their room, on their floor, etc, for one lady (who'll pay her share) and her small bag on Thursday and/or Friday night?
3. I'm also going to be on a panel, so now I have to write a bio. Any suggestions on what should definitely be in my fannish bio?

This all happened in like, less than an hour this morning so I'm still like, wow, really?

Mostly I'm excited to see people and be able to go to [community profile] ali_wildgoose's discussion, and hey, get out of town for a weekend during the summer too!
jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (Default)
So apparently Dan Radcliffe is coming to Broadway in a revival of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and hearing that I couldn't help but think of the list of roles my old friend Josh and I had put forward for D-Rad way back in the fall of 2005. We didn't luck upon this particular role (or Equus) but we came damn close!

In other news, today I haven't done what I meant to do—beta and read some fic—but I did get out of the house this morning, catch up on a week's worth of Tumblr, write a sort-of-essay, and formulate a theory of comfort food on twitter. So there's that.
jlh: Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller (gents: Cameron Frye)
I'm rather irritated that I won't have cable or internet at home until mid next week, among other irritating things, so I'm thinking about entirely silly things, like:
  1. JKR maybe saying something sort of nice about H/Hr shippers. It isn't so much that her saying that makes me feel better about her, or the interview, or all that, but it does make me feel less like the OBHWF crowd had the "right" to push me out of fandom, which is how it felt at the time, and also makes me feel better about being able to post the story I'm writing without all my new Idol friends thinking I'm insane.
  2. the blind items coming out about Simon Cowell's girlfriend breaking up with him, which hint that she's being paid off to not talk about what she knows. Hard not to be tinhattish!
  3. Yuletide! I just filled out my request, and I can't say what I offered, but I requested WKRP (again), Charles & Caroline Ingalls, Liz Imbrie and Mike Connor, and, well, Rymon. I must say, I'm surprised that Idolfic is small enough to be on Yuletide—and that HIMYM is still small enough. I guess the threshold is higher than I'd thought! 2007 Yuletide was one of the best experiences I've ever had in fandom, so I'm really looking forward to 2008!
jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (smokin' matt albie)
In my tags list, I have 14 tags that refer to specific "canons." Of those, 5 are reality shows, one is a book series, and the other 8 are scripted television shows. I'm going to talk now about a summer in which many of them ended, and others ended for me.

Six Feet Under and Buffy, two ends of the spectrum )

Ugly Betty, CSI, Studio 60, Veronica Mars, and oh, yeah, that book series I was reading )

So, what have we learned?

Lesson 4: Don't get involved in a serial narrative whose narrative priorities are different than yours--namely, character change/development and, if there are romances, a satisfying romance. The narrative will work to preserve its own priorities, and even if it threw a few crumbs to these other issues, it will jettison them all if it has to in order to preserve its priority, be it world building/philosophy or action/adventure or a kind of procedural "plot." In other words, be really, really careful about "genre", because most of it won't you what you crave.

Lesson 5: Best case scenario, don't get involved in an unfinished serial narrative, especially in American network television, with their sort-of-but-not-really narrative arcs that don't lead to satisfying endings and their need to "shake things up" to create drama by never letting the couple get together, or breaking up the team.

Lesson 6: Steer clear of canons with open shipping, because if there's really a love triangle it means they're not going to build either of the pairings up very well. Also, it makes for a vicious fandom.

Next: How Avatar almost, but not quite, soothed my PTSD, and why I went running off to reality television.
jlh: Jason Bateman looking dubious (probably from Arrested Development) (gents: Jason Bateman)
So I'm watching Teen Wolf, a movie I dearly love (oh Michael J Fox how I adored you) because, Boof! Boof is awesome! Anyway, there's that confrontation between Scott's dad and the asshole principal that was a requirement for all 80s teen films, at the prom? And it was all about how the principal had liked Scott's mom back in high school but his dad got her instead, and now she's dead and stuff? And Scott's dad is all, this is between me and you, leave the kid out of it?

Friends, that is totally Snape's plot! Now, I love Teen Wolf, but it is by no means actually a good movie. It was a throwaway movie starring a kid from TV. So, you know, not exactly the place of awesome plot points, even if Mr. Bateman starred in the much crappier sequel.

I'm returning to the climactic basketball game with its crappy Alphaville soundalike song-with-on-the-nose-lyrics, "Win in the End," but I leave you with this:

Image Peronality Quiz thing )
jlh: Jason Bateman looking dubious (probably from Arrested Development) (gents: Jason Bateman)
I know, I know, spammy; I'm a little bored at the freelance job.

So my question, honestly and not wankily asked, is: Why are people so happy that JKR won the lawsuit? I wander over to FW and I see people going hurrah, and there's a few posts on my flist saying that folks are over the moon, and I'm just not sure why? I mean, fandom is the land of caring about things, so that's cool and all. But my caring was pretty limited to the actual legal test of the case.

My memory of the last time this came around was that people wanted her to win because without her there wouldn't be fandom and you know, if you feel that you have to take her side in all disputes because of that, that's fine. I personally feel that my obligation to her ended when I bought two copies of each of her books, tickets to all the movies released thus far, and three of the movies on DVD. But you know, YMMV. And that might not be why so many people are so happy about this ruling. So, enlighten me!

Thanks!
jlh: Alexander Hamilton, with a banner that says "Federalist" (gents: Alexander Hamilton)
So this is what I did:

Thursday night I watched SYTYCD with [livejournal.com profile] ali_wildgoose, [livejournal.com profile] honestys_easy, and [livejournal.com profile] sistermagpie as usual. I agreed with the eliminations this week, and [livejournal.com profile] jm_cats was totally right about the bottom three.

Friday [livejournal.com profile] sistermagpie and I saw Gonzo, the Hunter S. Thompson docu by the guy who did the Enron docu. The movie was fantastic and very appropriate to the holiday. However, SM was covered in butter due to fake butter dispenser blowback. Then we got pizza and a beer at an old pub nearby, where some young drunk was very loud and eventually left. The bartender was awesome, though.

Saturday I went to [livejournal.com profile] erinfinnegan's and read a great deal of yaoi, and then was recorded for a podcast talking about it. Some of it was good, some inexplicable, and some was obsessed with jewelry. We also ate cake and baked potatoes and watched the first episode of the Antique Bakery anime, and now I want an icon of the cgi cat. Ali stayed over as [livejournal.com profile] emsariel was out of town.

Sunday Ali and I had brunch with friends and then wrote quite a lot and ate gazpacho.

Re writing, I've been working on two long projects lately and thinking about a third. One is the endlessly talked about sequel to EWFS, which went in a rather long wrong direction during planning and was pulled back from the brink by excellent suggestions from [livejournal.com profile] ali_wildgoose, and so has life and spark and lots of things and is fun to write and move forward, especially thanks to lots of help from [livejournal.com profile] sisterpandora. (And yes, I do plan to finish the Seamus/Dean [livejournal.com profile] fanfic100!) The other is a new Idol AU, Rymon-centric, which is probably slightly past the halfway point right now, and I want to have it all written before I start posting it as it's a fairly complicated story and I do keep going back and putting little things into earlier chapters. I have a third fic, for Avatar: The Last Airbender, percolating in the back of my brain, but I'm waiting for that canon to close before giving it serious thought. But a look at my icons would likely tell you which character it would focus on.
jlh: Barney and Robin, posing with arms around each other (himym: Barney and Robin)
For me: While I was at MoCCA this weekend I thought about how much boyslash is floating around all the time and how much more girlslash I need in my immediate vicinity, and I'm awaiting [livejournal.com profile] femslash08 with great interest.

In the meantime, I'm looking for novels or manga with lesbian themes. I am planning on reading Sarah Waters's books for a lot of reasons, but I'd love to read other things—any recommendations? I prefer romances and mysteries as genres, and I do like historical fiction but I also like things set in the present day.

For you: [livejournal.com profile] foxysquid was in NYC this weekend for MoCCA and ended up in my flat on Sunday evening enjoying AC and gazpacho (for those of you who heard my tale of woe on Saturday, we got it in eventually) and I was reminded, for no apparent reason, of Amanuensis's Rituals and Traditions, an oldie-but-goodie Harry/Draco story. Hilarious, and entirely ridiculous, and completely awesome. Link is to the author's website—thanks, [livejournal.com profile] anemonerose!

Also, through a sequence of events that included [livejournal.com profile] fandomsecrets, I found a really superlative Kiss Kiss Bang Bang story, You Know What They Say About Eavesdroppers. Harry/Perry, NC-17, plus a very well done Harmony.

I've actually been reading a great deal of het lately, despite these recs. As you might expect the HIMYM fandom has exploded with Barney/Robin since the series finale, and [livejournal.com profile] himym_fic has a lot of it. I hesitate to make recs because really, there isn't that much fic and also it depends on your preferred take on the pairing. I say check it out!

On owing

Nov. 5th, 2007 03:02 pm
jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (OotP Six)
Okay, fine, I'm just going to say this once, and then I'm going to try to not only shut up about it but also not pay attention to much conversation about it and try not to let other people's snide comments get under my skin as maybe they are not talking about ME. That said, I did post my reaction to the whole Dumbledore outing thing earlier.

I took a quick inventory of the media (books, movies, music) that is in my house and on my computer right now and I am pretty sure that JKR is the largest single beneficiary of my media dollars. (The Beatles are next probably, but there are four of them, or Prince, but books cost a lot more than CDs.) The only author with more space on my bookshelf is my friend Julia Quinn, but those are all mass market paperbacks at $5-6 a pop, not hardcover books I bought when they came out for $35-40. I have:
  • US Paperbacks of books 1-3
  • UK paperbacks of books 1-4
  • US hardcovers of books 4-7
  • UK hardcovers of books 5-7
  • DVDs of movies 1-3
  • I've seen all five movies in the theater, PoA twice. Two of those were at special screenings free to me, so that's four movie tickets.
I figure I've paid to JKR what I owe her: the retail costs of the works she has created, or others have created after she gave them the rights to do so. That's at least $200 worth of media, fairly bought and paid for, sitting in my apartment.

What I don't think I owe JKR:
  • Unadulterated praise for everything she has done or ever will do
  • Acceptance of post-publication interviews as canon. She has every right to say whatever she likes, but if it's not in the books, it isn't canon. And if she didn't prove it to me in the books, then her telling me now doesn't mean it was in the books.
  • Allowing JKR to control how I read and understand and feel about the books that she wrote. I paid for the book—and even if I'd taken it out of the library, it would be the same—and I get to have my own opinions on it, like any other reader.
  • Changing my mind because JKR insulted me. Look, I've never written the woman any hate mail, and I don't spend a lot of time shrieking about this, but I am tired of feeling so damned defensive about this that I was worried that my friends in other fandoms would see that I had posted Harry/Hermione stories and think I was a lunatic.
I was talking to a friend a little bit ago and she said that I might be reacting more to the cluck-clucking of those elements in fandom who not only think that being closer to JKR is like being closer to, I don't know, God maybe? but also think that now that the canon is "done" that it is disrespectful to JKR to write fanfic that doesn't ship the same ships as canon. I admit that I don't even understand this, but there are a lot of claims floating around of what kind of behavior is or isn't disrespectful to JKR, most of which I've already violated at some point, so that horse may have left the barn where I am concerned. If JKR is deciding who gets into fandom heaven, looks like I won't be there, blasphemer that I am.

But I admit that all this "wow, people are really mean to JKR" comments has feeling a little taken aback. I don't want to fall on that old canard of "I can say what I want" because that always comes with consequences. Now, maybe those comments aren't meant to include me and my opinions, and maybe the people making them don't have the same "JKR's way or the highway" attitude of some others.

But I am willing to say that I have paid fair and square for JKR's books and movies and I'm not sure that I "owe" her more than that.
jlh: Lucy Van Pelt pounding her fist into her palm (ladies: Lucy Van Pelt)
Okay, JKR, your little victory tour where you're telling us all this stuff that you kinda forgot or was kinda too much of a wimp or whatever to put in the books? Like how Harry and Ginny were soulmates when they had, what, all of four conversations on the page? Or that no, the trio really do, erm, triple-handedly change the entire structure of the wizarding world in a few short years, thus ending the cyclical blood wars that have been plaguing the wizarding world for years, and yet we have to wait for Harry's kid to redeem Slytherin House?

Or, now, that a safely octogenarian and therefore safely nonsexual (and, as [livejournal.com profile] sistermagpie pointed out, apparently celibate since he had no affairs) character is gay? And I'm supposed to be all excited about this?

I'm not taking the crumbs, Jo. If it isn't on the page, it doesn't count. If you wanted us to know it, you should have written it in the books. If you wanted him to be gay, he should have been gay in the books. And maybe, just maybe, he could have had some past loves because gay people? HAVE PAST LOVES. I think we did away with the "gay people live tragic and lonely lives" trope back in the 70s, Jo. The Boys in the Band was a long time ago. This smacks of the worst kind of tokenism.

(Here's what you can do: ring up my uncle in CT. He's almost 80. He's gay. He not only has past loves, HE'S HAD THE SAME LOVE FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS.)

And let me say this again. If it's not on the page, IT DOESN'T COUNT.
jlh: Dean Thomas painting a picture (gents: Dean Painting)
I hate it when you have a lump in your throat, and you'd rather just cry and get it over with, but it isn't happening, so you'll just go to bed with that lump. Feh.

Oh, also? The HP backlash continues to sadden me, because I'm not sure why we need so much for people to agree with our reactions, and I think the wank has just driven all the interesting posts behind locks which is really too bad. But I also want to say that I love my friendlist because there has been a huge variety of opinion, but not one bit of real wankiness. You guys rule.

Anyway, saw Ratatouille yesterday and I thought it was cute. I super loved the ending, but there was something in the midplot that had me restless and looking at my watch, though I can't really pin down what it was.

Just saw Sunshine, which Z and I were going to see before getting book 7 but didn't for various reasons and I have to say, I'm glad we didn't see it then. I'm not sure I can really recommend it; again, I liked the ending, but there was a direction it took before the end that was disappointing. Z had warned me before we went into the film that he'd heard it was "intense" but I'd go further than that: it was downright scary in parts. I'm a big wimp about that sort of thing, though, so take that from whence it comes.

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jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (Default)
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