Two Memes

[browngirl]

I'm trying not to write a different post, so have a meme that's going around:

Ask me any fandom-related questions in the comments. They can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.

Questions can be as wacky as you want and have as many subparts as you like. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want. [However, you may not ask what post it is I'm trying not to write.]

Fandoms of mine include: Babylon 5, DC Comics, Doctor Who & Torchwood (Nu Who), the Ancient Egyptians, Firefly, Heinlein novels, LOTR, Mary Renault, Mercedes Lackey Novels (back in the ‘90s), the Minoans of Bronze Age Crete, NUMB3RS, Pern, Star Trek: TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Reboot, Star Wars, and Bujold’s Vorkosiverse.

The first comment is the answer to another meme, of Five Questions which 6street gave me a really long time ago.

Comments

Five Questions

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

1. What are your favorite operas?

Nothing you haven't heard of before: Carmen Jones, its originator Carmen (so problematic, so beautiful), Aida, old chestnuts like that. I think my love of opera gave me my love of rock opera, so although I won't count La Boheme I will count RENT.

2. What bothers you the most about Trek fandom?

Seeing the usual patterns show up here, first and foremost the hatred of Uhura and Spock/Uhura. God, but internalized misogyny in action makes me sad. OTOH, here it gets argued with and challenged -- in the first fandom I was in on LJ, that kind of shit was absolutely lauded.

[A note -- I'm not talking about preferences here. We all have preferences -- how much Scotty!fic have I written? But I don't hate Scotty at all! I just love other people more than I love him. I certainly wouldn't write long screeds about how random and undeserved it is that he's Chief Engineer or whatever would be the equivalent to all the hatred of Uhura.]

3. What is your fondest Harvard memory?

I don't think I can pick! Sitting up in bed beside my first good boyfriend and looking at the snow falling outside his Quincy House window. Being handed a Sumerian bowl and feeling my fingers fit into grooves made by fingers that have been dust for five millenia . Sitting on one of the Widener pylons singing "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" with the other members of HRSFA. Staying up all night talking about philosophy because I could. Realizing over and over, in Lamont's stacks, in Sackler's galleries, in Science Center labs, the limitlessness of the universe of knowledge before me. I loved Harvard. Someone else could probably have done better by society for going there, but I'm so grateful they wasted that education on me.

4. What role does fandom play in your life?

An intellectual outlet and a community.

The first is currently prominent -- I write because every comment, every discussion, every motif I use, every jot and tittle of my efforts at character voices and every single time people recognize these things, they are all antidotes against day after day of a job where easily half the people I encounter think I'm dumber than a bag of hammers. Fortunately, my coworkers mostly don't, but it still gets to me sometimes. The second is longer lasting, though; since I was in high school and in Mercedes Lackey's mail-mediated fanclub, I have adored and reveled in the concept and the realities of communities formed around, not coincidence of geography or ethnicity or religion, but shared interests. I love that about fandom, and when surrounded by people who don't understand how I could've seen Star Trek eight times, I need it.

5. You've mentioned your roommates before. Who do you live with?

Three redheads and a silver-eyed Teddywolf.

My roommates are tigerbright, who is the big sister I never had, and her husband and singing partner teddywolf, and their two winsome children, a boy of four and a girl of two. Tigerbright and her kids all have flaming red hair, and Wolf has changeable often silver eyes.

Re: Five Questions

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

2. Every time I see someone bashing Spock/Uhura, or just disparaging it, I have to wonder if that same person would have the same problem with, say, a Sulu/Chekov kiss. I don't know, but I'm thinking no. :(

Re: Five Questions

[ninhursag.livejournal.com]

In a lot of ways, the Uhura wars, as painful and nasty as they got, where an improvement over my last fandom (Supernatural). The rhetoric was just as vicious, but there are also so many fans on the other side who love Uhura (and Spock/Uhura) and don't let that shit stand unargued.

In Supernatural, any woman that touches one of the 'boys' and isn't safely dead forthwith... ouch. I still remember the icon maker who did a whole series with captions about the main male characters gleefully murdering the various female characters.

Ugh, which probably means my standards are just ridiculous low at this point. Uhura bashing still pisses me the hell off, though :(

Re: Five Questions

[dsudis.livejournal.com]

OTOH, here it gets argued with and challenged -- in the first fandom I was in on LJ, that kind of shit was absolutely lauded.

The arc of fandom is long, but it bends toward sanity justice sucking less in the bad way and more in the good way?

Hmm, not quite as pithy as the original. *g*

[boosette.livejournal.com]

What's your favorite comfort ship/the one you turn to for warm fuzzy happytimes?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

It depends. I turn to genres rather than ships, and usually? I turn to darkfic, or dealing-with-darkness fic. I turn to stories about characters dealing with viceral difficulty. (I love Mirrorverse for this, and the more unbalanced the better. Frex, early Brightness Burns stories, which make me cry, are paradoxically more comforting than the later stories when they're getting a less-unequal footing.)

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Pern! I don't think I knew you were into Pern. Okay, hmmm. Who's your favorite Pern character and why?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Moreta! My favorite Pern era was her era, without either the "OMG THREAD WTF" or the "Wow new planet OMG THREAD WTF" factors. For some reason, I like the "OMGPLAGUEWTF" factor better. And Moreta was just so competent and gorgeous and captured my heart.

Honorable mentions to: Nerilka, who I loved for her very unglamorousness, and Jaxom because he appealed to the part of me that always wanted to be Super Speshul and he really did try his damndest, though he did lose a lot of my sympathy when he totally abandoned his first girlfriend for The Girl He Would Marry.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

What do you consider to be your first fandom? (I suppose the Lackey'd be it, but perhaps I'm wrong!)

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

My first exposure to fandom was the Mercedes Lackey Fanclub, but the first thing that I was, in retrospect, fannish about is probably the Minoans.

[gingicat]

Numb3rs!

Do you think an Amita-Charlie-David-Colby foursome would work? ;)

What do you think Alan was like as a child?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

NUMB3RS!

I think that foursome would be MAGNIFICENT and would totally work. I'm sorry I never wrote the Amita/Charlie/Colby of "welcome back; we're glad you're not a spy!" but then one reason was not knowing where David was. Mmmm. *contemplates*

Alan built things constantly, and was extremely whiney. I mean, look at him even now, often expecting that exceptions should be made for himself and those he loves. He was even sympathetic to the customers of organleggers trying to get new kidneys for their family members!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

SO much, or I wouldn't be here. :)

I love the look of the Reboot universe; it looks futuristic in a way that TOS couldn't, due to budget and technology. I love all the women we see in non-speaking or one-line roles even though I wish more had had more prominent roles (but they had a hard enough time shoehorning in every prominent character from the TOS cast, I can understand that). I love Uhura's update as a whipsharp linguist. I love the balances they struck with Kirk; his characterization appeals to both my 'nature' and my 'nurture' leanings. I love the expansion of the universe, and the one TOS character they brought into it is totally who I would've picked if I'd been asked.

I'll probably think of more, too. :)

[spikeface.livejournal.com]

What draws you to the Mirrorverse when you write/read it?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I have a thing for darkfic, and it's a universe tailor made for darkfic. I love contemplating how characters deal with being hurt by those closest to them, how people forge human connections over great inequities and cruelties, how a brutal universe shapes the people in it. In my LOTR days I wrote a lot about the hobbits under occupation by Ruffians, not very much of which I posted here, for the same reasons.

[cereta.livejournal.com]

Why is Susan Ivanova awesome?

[gingicat]

Ivanova is God! ;)

Also, have you seen the awesome Babylon 5 fic from Yuletide? 19K words of Susan being awesome.

[sophinisba]

How do you feel when people on your f-list post a lot about fandoms that hold no interest for you? Do you have any of the kind of situation where you've given a show or a fandom a chance, given up on it because you can't stand the racism and/or misogyny, and your friends continue to squee about it, and how does that make you feel? Have your attitudes about these things changed over the years you've been on LJ?

I loved your answers to 6street's questions!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

How do you feel when people on your f-list post a lot about fandoms that hold no interest for you?

I have a large distance between "uninterested" and "have a reason to not participate in" [the latter often happens with 'I'm interested but can't participate because of Reason X']. So, if I'm merely not interested, I'm just happy for my friends who are. I get much more annoyed by squee-harshing than by squee. That said...

Do you have any of the kind of situation where you've given a show or a fandom a chance, given up on it because you can't stand the racism and/or misogyny, and your friends continue to squee about it, and how does that make you feel?

This approaches the Post I'm Not Writing. *wry grin* If I do write it I'll write it in my other journal, because I generally try very hard not to harsh others' squee, and because this is my fannish journal and that is my 'real life' journal. If I really feel I must say something here I write a post that's as well reasoned as I can make it, and post it, and try to step back.

If it's something that I see a lot of but my direct friends aren't involved in I may write friendslocked rants.

Have your attitudes about these things changed over the years you've been on LJ?

I think I've grown more fed up with bigotry and excuses for it, wherever I find it. OTOH, I really don't want to hurt people's feelings unless I really *must*. So it's a balance, sometimes a difficult one.

(And, thank you. :)

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Why do you think in LOTR fic that the era around the Troubles appealed so much to you?

(gosh this is all I can think of, others have asked much better questions omg)

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

The Year of Troubles is darkfic with a built in expiration date; the hobbits would ultimately prevail, whivh made inflicting awfulnesses on them both fascinating and bearable.

(Perfectly good question!)

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

Do you have any comfort fics in the Reboot fandom, ie stories you read over and over? If so...what are they and why?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I do, but I have a lot, too many to really list. It depends on my mood; I'll usually find an author whose stuff I feel like rereading and reread several tales.

[eppic.livejournal.com]

What in specific draws you to Bones/Kirk as a pairing, and what do you try to focus on about them when you're writing them?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with their friendship. I often ship pairings with canonical friendships, so I went into the movie unspoiled and expecting to see the great and wondrous K/S of fame and legend. (Amusingly, I did, in Spock Prime -- one day I'm totally going to write K/S!P about S!P going 'it's an adorable naughty young version of my bestest naked friend! Hooray!' but I digress.) Instead, among other niftinesses I watched one of the cutest meet cutes ever ("I may throw up on you" has never been sexier, somehow) and an epic and lovable friendship with enough touching and insane loyalty to inspire thousands of slashfics.

When I'm writing them I try to remember:

1) Jim is perceptive and brilliant. The frat-boy affect is just that, a mask.
2) Bones has a giant heart under his rough tongue.
3) Bones is also a young doctor and a trauma surgeon. The whole sensible-old-man-and-not-an-adrenaline-junkie-like-you-kid way he presents himself is somewhere between a relative effect and a pure facade.
4) They bitch and argue and snark and probably have had a fistfight or two and utterly love each other.

[marymack19.livejournal.com]

Tell me about Hikaru Sulu?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Ah, Hikaru Sulu. It took me a little time to think my way into his head, and to decide on certain choices.

My Hikaru is mostly movieverse and has some dichotomies within him. He's a little quiet, stable and studious, but with an explosive quality. His family's been in the US for generations, and the language he knows best after English/Standard is probably West Coast Spanish. And he's a switch, mostly a dom; he spent some time exploring the venerable SF scene from his last year of high school onwards.

I'm not sure if there's any concrete reason why he loves being a pilot, anything more specific than liking control, speed and adrenaline. He sees Kirk as a pleasantly bad influence towards the rakish, romantic, adrenaline-junkie side of his character, and Pavel as a wonderfully good one towards inspiring him to be his smartest and his best.

After the Narada Incident he never had nightmares about the Romulans he killed. He worries about that sometimes.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Totally off-topic... but... you're going to be at Arisia? I'm so excited! See you there, yes? :D

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Heh, my roommate told you about my reaction to finding you'd be attending. *grin* I'll be there for one day, if I can. Probanbly Sunday or Mnday.

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

How do you combat the DCU nostalgia blues?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I don't, really. I go for nice short wallows in some of my favorite stories, and then I go onwards. It helps to have a new shiny fandom, but I do miss our IRC gang.

*hugs you across the Internet*