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petroniaBeautiful spring day, drenched in sun. Tossed some new music on the mp3 player: Kristin's Byakuya mix, which I finally got around to ripping as I had some idea it'd be more suited for out-and-about than noodling in the basement, and the TeniPuri FST, to stress-test what I've inflicted y'all with. XD (BTW I really appreciate the people who gave detailed feedback on the tracks - that means the Tennis Twins, mostly <33 - it makes me feel slightly less insane, and tells me more about your musical tastes. I am with the musicblogging as I am with my fics: I don't insist or even plead for comments, because people are people are lazy, moi foremost, and I find it bad form to demand of others what I can't be bothered to manage myself. ^^; If I want numbers I go view my tracker. However the more accurate a picture you give me of what you like, the greater the chances that I'd put up something to please you, because after all that's the purpose.)
Unrelatedly: you know, sometimes fandom controversy is illuminating for fic purposes. Really. Take TeniPuri, in which most of the low-level snarking can be traced back to vastly divergent character/pairing preferences, which itself can be traced back to... people not being all the same. Because much as one may like to pay lip service to the idea that It's All Fandom And Shouldn't Be Taken Personally - it really is personal. I mean, it stands to reason, doesn't it, that someone whose favorite character is Kawamura would be quite a different personality from someone whose favorite character is Kirihara? That someone who identifies with Kikumaru has different reactions from someone who identifies with Fuji? ...The point I'm getting at is not so much a platitude regarding the possibility of Everyone Getting Along, but that in a series like this with 5,821 characters, each with their own development arc, one learns interesting things by watching people's knee-jerk emotional responses.** People who find Tezuka boring versus people who don't. People who find Ryouma's all-winningness annoying versus people who don't. Now you have the people who find Fuji's lack of motivation - the most accurate word is insulting - versus (I suspect) the people who secretly like him a little better for it. Extrapolation, of course, but I think it's the people who have played and enjoyed competitive sports that fall in the former category, and in the latter you have... at least all the people who themselves can't be motivated to win at something like tennis. This is not to say they wouldn't play, either, if it came easy - I would! - because activities that come easy tend to be more fun than activities that don't. However if the activity is by definition competitive then it becomes a bit of a travesty (this can be argued - for analogous reasons I find abstract painting to be a bit of a travesty). I don't think it makes them out to be lazy people, necessarily; but there are people in whom competition doesn't bring out the best and brightest, and my RL experience is that it's difficult for understanding to reach across that particular divide. More to the point - setting aside the question of intellectual understanding - I think it's possible for the latter group to admire the former, but I'm not so sure it's possible for the former group to admire the latter.
The truth is that Fuji is only where he is because of a vastly unfair natural advantage, that he has sense enough to realise doesn't actually reflect well on him as a person - and because he also has sense enough not to let anyone know what he's really thinking. You have to figure he realises pretty fast he screwed up, telling that to the captain for chrissake. Thus, "If I ever become a liability, kick me off the team" - if he ever became a liability due to a lack of desire to win no one in Seigaku would want him on the team, and he's letting Tezuka know he's not dumb enough not to realise it. We've discussed how Fuji probably never grokked Tezuka's "Nationals above all", or taken him as seriously as he should have even when Tezuka tells him to his face; double dollars to doughnuts says Tezuka didn't take Fuji seriously either when he came out with that bit about playing for the thrill of toying with the opponent. How alien is that to Tezuka? And one may as well be glad of the profound lack of understanding, because how Tezuka would despise him otherwise.
** For your information, I'm also carrying The Little Prince in my bag. No, seriously, I am. I decided to give up, give in and just re-read the damned thing, and the only time I have for doing it is on the metro to work.
Unrelatedly: you know, sometimes fandom controversy is illuminating for fic purposes. Really. Take TeniPuri, in which most of the low-level snarking can be traced back to vastly divergent character/pairing preferences, which itself can be traced back to... people not being all the same. Because much as one may like to pay lip service to the idea that It's All Fandom And Shouldn't Be Taken Personally - it really is personal. I mean, it stands to reason, doesn't it, that someone whose favorite character is Kawamura would be quite a different personality from someone whose favorite character is Kirihara? That someone who identifies with Kikumaru has different reactions from someone who identifies with Fuji? ...The point I'm getting at is not so much a platitude regarding the possibility of Everyone Getting Along, but that in a series like this with 5,821 characters, each with their own development arc, one learns interesting things by watching people's knee-jerk emotional responses.** People who find Tezuka boring versus people who don't. People who find Ryouma's all-winningness annoying versus people who don't. Now you have the people who find Fuji's lack of motivation - the most accurate word is insulting - versus (I suspect) the people who secretly like him a little better for it. Extrapolation, of course, but I think it's the people who have played and enjoyed competitive sports that fall in the former category, and in the latter you have... at least all the people who themselves can't be motivated to win at something like tennis. This is not to say they wouldn't play, either, if it came easy - I would! - because activities that come easy tend to be more fun than activities that don't. However if the activity is by definition competitive then it becomes a bit of a travesty (this can be argued - for analogous reasons I find abstract painting to be a bit of a travesty). I don't think it makes them out to be lazy people, necessarily; but there are people in whom competition doesn't bring out the best and brightest, and my RL experience is that it's difficult for understanding to reach across that particular divide. More to the point - setting aside the question of intellectual understanding - I think it's possible for the latter group to admire the former, but I'm not so sure it's possible for the former group to admire the latter.
The truth is that Fuji is only where he is because of a vastly unfair natural advantage, that he has sense enough to realise doesn't actually reflect well on him as a person - and because he also has sense enough not to let anyone know what he's really thinking. You have to figure he realises pretty fast he screwed up, telling that to the captain for chrissake. Thus, "If I ever become a liability, kick me off the team" - if he ever became a liability due to a lack of desire to win no one in Seigaku would want him on the team, and he's letting Tezuka know he's not dumb enough not to realise it. We've discussed how Fuji probably never grokked Tezuka's "Nationals above all", or taken him as seriously as he should have even when Tezuka tells him to his face; double dollars to doughnuts says Tezuka didn't take Fuji seriously either when he came out with that bit about playing for the thrill of toying with the opponent. How alien is that to Tezuka? And one may as well be glad of the profound lack of understanding, because how Tezuka would despise him otherwise.
** For your information, I'm also carrying The Little Prince in my bag. No, seriously, I am. I decided to give up, give in and just re-read the damned thing, and the only time I have for doing it is on the metro to work.
