No longer canning entries

[petronia]

......Ishida-kun? Is that you?

Amazon shipment came in day before last: Bleach fanbooks (SOULS and VIBES), GetBackers 33, that Minami Yuu Haruka** bobbins. It really is completely brainless functional happy pr0n, BTW. I like how her ukes never say no when they mean yes, they're more like "You want to sleep with me? ...Score! Why not." It's refreshing.

("Functional" is a word that people use a lot on the ILM dance threads, and I think it's a quality that should be given more consideration in general. Like, for a dance track what matters most is not really whether it's too cheesy or melodic enough or innovative at that given point in time, or even if it captures the attention when you're sitting in front of the computer listening to it through headphones - what matters is when you play it in public, whether people will want to dance to it. That's what it's constructed for. So in a certain sense, only that public matters.

Functionality is also an important factor w/r/t fanfiction - "The writing's not actually very good, but it will hit your buttons if you happen to like that pairing" - and BeBoy stories. SSBB stories too. XD I wish people would give it the credit it deserves.)

Bleach fanbooks are chapter-for-chapter summaries of the series, mostly. Confirmation of some character insights but nothing you won't have picked up from a close reading in the first place. XD There is random crack here and there but you have to look for it, and the good bits have been posted on soul_society already. Manga fanbook contains a full list of chapter titles with translations into Japanese and explanations of the references/puns-that-only-make-sense-in-KT's-head (Shinigami!Ichigo turns into "Deathberry", "Lady Lennon & Frankenstein" along the lines of "the girl who wishes for peace and the created monster"), giving the impression overall of a pretentious and workaholic 70s progressive rock band's discography. Character design references are in the anime fanbook. Interviews are fun but not insightful to the point that they must be translated right now.

GB33 I am still reading. Ayamine's drawing style is getting increasingly distorted and difficult to parse. =_= I've been saying I would make a GetBackers catch-up post since I read volume 32 but it still hasn't happened. I can't figure out from the panel sequence who the Miroku's father is! The old bearded dude who works for Der Kaiser? x_x;; At least it does explain that only one person can get through the Door to the Archive. ...I think. I think.

Sometimes I worry about Kubo Tite juggling too many plot threads. Then I read GetBackers. Orz

BTW I have figured out what Rukia's Perfect Schoolgirl Mode reminds me of - she talks like she is reading the script of a Maria-sama ga miteiru episode. (I KNOW I KNOW there is a "little sister" joke to be made there but it's just not coming together.)

** I always read this wrong! It makes it even more confusing because I think there is also a Minami Yuu person out there in mangaland.

Comments

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

w/r/t = ?

see exactly! I suppose it's because I spent my adolesence reading terrible romance novels but I judge a certain genre -- including most manga -- by how well they use their tropes or whatever. "So how well DOES she do popular boy who is sekkritly emo?" If it does what it's supposed to do and entertains me I'm not going to complain because it's cliched.

[dipping_sauce]

w/r/t == with respect to

(I think.)

[serendip.livejournal.com]

Okay, EVERYONE knows that Elevator Love Song is like TEH Renji/Rukia song, hell, it's on my nascent Renji/Rukia ST/mix.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

WHAT

...Okay, I see it now. But it wouldn't have occurred to me in 1,000,000 years, it's just not the kind of music I associate with Renji. XD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

My Renji ST is so fucking wussy, it's kind of sad. I need to steal my little brother's CDs, cos he's way more into rap and shiz than I am.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Hmm, so in fanfictionland, you think that form has far too overruled function? XD (For some reason that strikes me as ironic, given how it's said that form is usually the deemphasized one. Nevertheless, has stricken me as somewhat perverse that in a form following a functional form, that functionality is disparaged. )

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I think form tends to overrule function in discussion. People are a bit uncomfortable with the idea that the main purpose of fanfiction is functional in that respect, i.e. its mission-in-life is to "hit your kinks" (or the writer's) not "be a good short story", because of course then it all becomes very ad hominem. ^^; Not to mention a solipsistic discussion killer ("well, it works for me").

It's probably easier to analyze functionality in origfic, ex. the SSBB stories.

BTW I had something to say re the discussion of "Why do people like the fic/pairings they like", but I can't find the post on your LJ (am going blind with eyestrain though so never mind XD). It was... sometimes it's actually very difficult to define why something clicks with you, even if you're willing to get all analytical/archetypal/Freudian/etc. about your preferences. Like Aizen x shota!Gin (I have just seen another J-fanart site with this). I know it works but I honestly can't tell you why it works, though it's not merely because Gin was a cute kid (so was Ichigo!) or because shota is always good (it's not). Maybe Aizen somehow gives off the impression of being an ephebophile over and above his other sins (see also: Aizen x Momo shippers), but that's not much of a theory.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Eh? How is it 'ad hominem,' unless the discussion really is that adversarial in the first place? If everyone did think that was the purpose, though, discussions might be more interesting/pertinent. The strange thing is that I would think origfic would be (when written by fanfic writers), probably less functionalist and more 'formalist,' considering that "write a good short story" vs. "satisfy demands of the audience" would tend to win out (if they're not writing for and editor).

Yeah, that is true, sometimes, but I tend to find that most of the time when people ask it, it's not about a specific person, but about a group. There will tend to be various reasons, but in a group situation, there tends to be an easier to understand LCD.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I guess what I mean is that it opens you to ad hominem attacks by implication, or gives the impression that you are taking them as such when they're not? Id est if someone is spouting off re zomg why do people ship A/B when they are not remotely canonically supported and all the fic for the pairing are rote yaoi crap written by 14-year-old FFNers, it takes courage to say "Well, it might be rote and badly-written, but it hits my buttons." Placing yourself in the underage FFNer camp as it were. XD I do agree if people were more used to discussing "functionality" as a concept/valid metric of quality in and of itself, the false dichotomy wouldn't arise.

I think origfic can often be less functional than fanfic written by the same author (the phenomenon of the doujinshika whose "spark" doesn't carry over to pro work), but I doubt it has anything to do with formal concerns - more because the concept isn't strong enough, usually.

Though I imagine there are as many people who would be incapable of writing "functional" fanfiction, except they would stick to origfic and never write fanfic in the first place!

(Yup, that's the post. OMG, I didn't actually go and read the fic after you quoted the first paragraph, so I never realised it was Fuji/Ryouma! XD XD *TWO THUMBS WAY UP*)

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ipso facto, though, the question is a personal one, so it is always in danger of falling into ad hominem (you might say it is inherently hominem? Especially when it is dealing with fanon, I think.) However, people's likings are usually traceable to something the canon, and it is possible to write any fanfic topic/pairing badly, so I wouldn't claim that liking the fic is the same thing as being a fan of the pairing, or that even if many of the fans are stupid/poor writers, that that means that no one intelligent can like the pairing. Those seem to be separate issues.

I guess I wasn't referring to the ability of original fiction to be functional or not, but more with regards to the intent. I would guess that typically when fanfic writers write original fiction, they're attempting to reach for a broader audience, and thus become less functional, or that functionality is built into fanfic, simply because it's inherently a niche thing.

See, that's why you have to read the things I link. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Eh, I guess when I'm talking about origfic in this context I mean something like a SSBB story (or, say, this thing Sub D just posted (http://sub-divided.livejournal.com/62929.html?#cutid1)), as opposed to a literary short story you intend to submit to the New Yorker. XD Or even a gen fantasy novel. In which case it's not even possible to establish the comparison, I think.

"Even if many of the fans are stupid/poor writers, it doesn't mean no one intelligent can like the pairing" is analogous to "Just because the fandom is dumb/wanky/LCD, doesn't mean you should be turned off the canon itself." That is, they should be separate issues in theory, but in practice they're not. ^^;

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying about a orig fic genre story being better able to 'hit kinks' than a fanfic one, because you don't get any tiresome people (like moi) reading it and going "but this is directly contradictory to page 37 in volume 16!!!~" but many of the original fiction projects I see tend to be the 'for publication' sort, so it tends to skew my impression. (The typical blockbuster shounen and shoujo as perhaps fiction that is aimed at hitting the 'kinks'? See Weekly Jump reader surveys...)

I try to remain optimistic! Some people will be willing to see beyond the fandom to the good series beneath. (I shall spare you the rant. XD) [Does this always happen, though? I didn't begin to hate Gundam Wing because of the insanity of the fandom, e.g.]

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

http://worldserpent.livejournal.com/166151.html

This one?

[iatros.livejournal.com]

Ah...unfortunate to hear that the Bleach books were less crack filled then you were expecting as I remember you mentioning that you were looking forward to them.