Variations on a meme

[petronia]

It took a while to draw this up; it's a much better list than the other one (where a truly meaningful variation on my part would be, list the ten fics you wrote that failed most egregiously and why - this is not self-deprecation, if you think about it XD). I aimed for ten but got to #7 and realized I couldn't rank #8 to #25, so these are the ones I'm convinced of.

How obakesan worded it: Post a list of your five favorite fics other writers have written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them.

Smoking Mirrors, by luriko_ysabeth [Various]

In the heyday of Aesthe-as-social-hub, when browser default was Anime Web Turnpike not Livejournal, and nobody got told off for writing self-inserts or Sues or improbable porn - halcyon days, in short - there were no essays on intertextuality and reappropriation. XD Not in anime fandom, at any rate. We were too busy trying to score VHS cassettes. But paradigm shifts still occurred in their own sweet time, and what this story taught me was that fanfiction could do things original fiction couldn't. That that was the point of the exercise.

(At bare minimum you'd have to have a good knowledge of Fushigi Yuugi and Yuu Yuu Hakusho to get anything out of it. That's the downside, sorry.)


And When He Falls, by flambeau [Good Omens]

Written years before there was such a thing as a Good Omens ficcing fandom. Nowadays one might call this a "Yuletide Exchange fic" - people joke that Yuletide is a fandom but really it's an aesthetic movement, like quote intellislash unquote. By me, anyway. XD The stories come in varying styles but share a common dogma. Sometimes I think, someone should write a Yuletide fic about that. Whatever "that" is.

It's a trifle, a fugue; torch started in symphonies and worked her way down. GO-the-fandom has its own symphonies, though more inclined to operettas this metaphor's reached the end of its natural lifespan, I think. XD But for a long time it was the only sparkle in the sky.


Dysfunctional, by JeanD [Weiss Kreuz]

No link, no LJ. The author perpetrated some fairly nasty wank last I heard, but even that was years back. Insofar as this exists, it's in archived files shoved to the back of increasingly obsolete hard drives sprinkled around the fandom planetwide. Of those of you who remember, half are giving me the beady eye and muttering "good riddance" right now. The other half understand. XD

As the years pass I harden into the defense of this artifact. It's not a forgiving position. A pros/cons chart featuring Princess Aya and Fanon Draco will lead me somewhere, but probably not where I'm going. I briefly consider mentioning the portrayal of tensions in a polyamorous relationship but then I remember the bit where Viagra is a drug that turns ukes into semes. So I'll just go with the following: slashfic worth its salt is ridiculous anyway, this is more ridiculous and therefore better. astolat is able to maintain the gimlet-eyed conviction of internal consistency through 40,000 words of 120-proof crack because she's one of the best writers fandom has seen (more on this below); whereas "Dysfunctional" just was. Like Zaraki Kenpachi. Who can kick your ass but can't even talk to his fucking sword.

Fanfiction, you know? Con brio.

Also, it sort of insinuated itself into my real waking life. That part isn't my fault, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.


Shalle a la rilla, by supacat [JRock]

Doumoto KyouichiTsuyoshi/Gackt. Reads at current remove like a time capsule snapshot of the millennial jpop scene; probable indirect inspiration for that Hikaru no Go ramen fic of mine. The short version being, this is the funniest fanfic ever written in the history of mankind. Except when it's not.


A Single Foot of Earth, by ladysisyphus [Final Fantasy X]

There's this theory that lasting, classic literature is often tragic because when the writing is good enough, it creates the illusion of reality in the readerly psyche, which reacts accordingly. In other words, all else being equal tragedies are more memorable than comedies, because tragedies cause a mild form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Why I mention this in conjunction with the above fic I'm sure I don't know.


One of a Thousand Roads, by astolat [Gladiator]

astolat's own top six list isn't mine, because I have a taste bias toward short(er) and punchy(ier): "Partnership" and "Queen of Spades" definitely, but I'd take "Revenge" over "Reconcilable Differences", for instance. This one, meanwhile, stands a chance of being my favorite fanfic of all time. I love it with the kind of love I normally reserve for people named Borges or Swinburne. Dead elegant, an AU about the concept of itself. IIRC Shalott hadn't actually watched the movie when she wrote it, which is just as well because it left nothing standing between her and the, er, non-instantiable abstract base class.


Contemptus mundi, by obakesan [Monster]

This is exactly what Tin calls it - notes, circling - but I experienced it** as a formal revolution. And eventually grew frustrated that I couldn't master the format. XD I tried several times to write 20 Things etc. but it never worked. Couldn't strike the right balance between aphorism and scene; no centre of gravity. However I did eventually learn that I could write fake interview transcripts, um, pretty much ad nauseam.

#11 turns my soul upside down every time I read it.

I could compile OP10s out of Tin's writing alone but this is the only one I remember frenetically copy-pasting into MSN windows with baffled third parties. XD There's another one, Utena, written directly after we talked in chat for the only time ever (I remember babbling about Depeche Mode), but... I can't find it. ^^;

** Rather, "Conversations with a God of Death", but I like this one better because I understand all of it. *dies*


Biography of the Cheated Girl, by sesame_seed [Mirage of Blaze]

The best thing anyone's ever written for me (here is why). As a karma sink it's not so bad, I did reciprocate. XD My emotional involvement with the characters' travails seems faintly alarming to me now - the sort of thing that should really be reserved for a real relationship, one's own, except I'd like to be that kind of basketcase in real life n-e-v-e-r - but this is brilliant and Tiptree-worthy even on the morning-after of obsession. Chrissie insists so often on motives like whimsy and desire-to-please that I forget her capacity for gravitas. Until I actually re-read her stories, anyway.




As you can see I'm not very good at talking about other people's writing; I end up talking about me. This is the major reason I don't rec often. ^^;

In other news, I made a Xanga, because... I have Asian peeps to keep track of? Even if the Great Firewall of China is currently blocking it as well as LJ. Anyhow, if you have one, you know what to do.

Comments

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

That's actually about the best compliment I could have gotten on said fic, and I confess I'm flattered that there are still people who out there who remember it, much less still like it. I'm still mostly fond of it, as it's the only thing I've ever written that I've cared enough to make a mix for (http://ladysisyphus.livejournal.com/330108.html).

In conclusion, ♥

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

supacat's fic is actually of the Domoto Tsuyoshi/Gackt persuasion, if I'm not mistaken, cough. I'd probably adore it if I didn't have that frightening teeny-intense attachment to Koichi -- I can't achieve the suspension of disbelief necessary to appreciate and enjoy fic involving him, in pretty much the same way the thought of Magic Johnson slash makes me want to hide underneath a pile of pillows.

I do adore astolat's One of a Thousand Roads, of course. It's probably in my top five as well, though I'm no good at ranking things, which is why I'm babbling here in your journal instead of making my own list. (It's also one of those fics that I imagine must be a little problematical for the author, though, because how can you ever top yourself again? I'm fond of astolat's other two Gladiator fics, which are written in the same general style, but they're not quite on the same level, IMO.)

And ha! I dug out Dysfunctional again while discussing it with Charmian (I think?) not long ago, but she refused to bite. Is my memory deceiving me, or have you written up an extended defense of it somewhere? I searched for it to link to her, but came up empty-handed. SABINA, YOU HAVE THE STRANGEST TASTE. I say this with all love.

The MoB fic would probably make my top five of my own fic as well, just because you like it. *g* I'm very glad you do!

[summertea.livejournal.com]

*HANDS FLAIL ALL OVER* Shalott! Chrissie! Tin!

Yes, some of the greatest writers of fandom. :>!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Tsuyoshi, ok! I knew I was going to get that wrong. Despite having reread the thing approximately five minutes before I recced it. Such is inevitability. XD

Re: topping oneself - my personal experience is that this is the sort of thing one worries about if one's faffing around reading one's own fic (not that I ever do this of course). The thought goes away if one's actually writing the next one, in which case it's just like OHSHI HOW DO I GET IT TO WORK, let alone in comparison with anything.

I've written a defense of Dysfunctional, and I think it's gone, because it was on an anon hate meme. XD

[supacat.livejournal.com]

Reading this list is like a fandom version of "This is Your Life" -- the NOSTALGIA. Dysfunctional Series! Sweet lord. I was up all night reading that story -- Princess Aya tapped some scarily beautiful deep id vein. The diamonds, the . . . princessiness. You're spot on with the Princess Aya / Fanon Draco flow chart, those two resonate in all the same ways. Good times!

I loved Biography of a Cheated Girl, that's one of my all time favourites too. One of those stumble away from the screen in an unrecognisable emotional state stories. If someone had told me the concept before I read it I would have said, "No way, that story is impossible". And then I read it and, guh.

I would never have guessed in a MILLION YEARS that Shalle would make anyone's top-10 list, let alone yours, because it is NUTS. So, that's awesome, and thanks and stuff. :D

And just read Smoking Mirrors for the first time, and it's also very nostalgic, it has that flavour of early fandom. I'm not sure if it's because fandom's evolved, yadda, or because I don't tend to swim in open waters these days, but I don't really come across stories like that anymore.

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

So I can't recall more than 38 of America's 50 states, but for this my memory rises to the occasion. (http://community.livejournal.com/fanfic_hate/3904.html?thread=1076288#t1076288)

[obperob.livejournal.com]

Hey (newblog) - you prolly don't remember me as soma from back in ASML days. Never quite made the crossover to lj till now. XD

Have to comment that I remember when Dysfunctional first came out, and the slow shift from omfgwhatatrainwreck to staring transfixed as said trainwreck developed a gravitational force of it's own. I *know* I'm not the only one who read that crack obsessively. Have never been a fandom wonk so never followed any of the drama surrounding the author.

Glass Houses is probably the only other WK fic I've followed anywhere near as long, and for completely different reasons. I think I become very compelled by WK writers who do extended AU, because the actual canon is not so much to speak of.

Also, I hope my previous Dys addiction will not detract when I say that as WK AUs go, yours is still my absolute favorite. I swear, the atmosphere of your Wk is second to absolutely none.

Also loved the ladysisyphus and flambeau stories you linked. I never save fics I read, and most of them disappear into the ether afterwards, so thanks for the blast from the past!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Of course I remember you! Hi! XD

I read a lot of WK longfic too. It's widely recognized that canon is only the perfunctory starting point for the fanfic, I think, and Dys was great because it pushed fanservice to an unapologetic extreme. That's probably what I like about it: the never-apologize. XD

And thanks~ ^^

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Your fics in general are great favorites with me, but when I went and looked at your fanfic page it was clear to me which one would top the list. There wasn't any logic to it, but neither was there any question. XD

Glad you had fun with this. :) I'm thinking of continuing, actually, through to #25 or so.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

You still have it up! Mmm, Brian Eno.

I find it difficult to imagine that anyone who's read ASFoE could fail to remember it. *g*

[luriko-ysabeth.livejournal.com]

I think I still write rather like that, although I've gotten better about the gratuitous Japanese when English would do perfectly well. ^_^

[luriko-ysabeth.livejournal.com]

...I hadn't run into "A Single Foot of Earth" or "Biography of the Cheated Girl" before; thank you!

As well, thank you very much for recommending "Prism: Smoking Mirror" (and getting me to notice that some typoes had made it through the last revision: never, never make webpages with Netscape Navigator. This is half of why I now add the tags by hand ;_;) which I find nostalgic for several reasons as well: it was something like the fifth or sixth fic I ever posted (not counting the script-format ones), one written before either of the shows in question had been licensed in the US, one of the first of my ideas to finagle its way into personal canon despite its inherent unlikelihood, and the first award I ever won (setting up all sorts of unreasonable expectations on my part. ^_^ ) It's also one of the ones on the theme that I kept writing all round for most of my sophomore and junior year, for reasons I've never quite been sure of: I didn't notice anything in my life that would have required me to work something like that out for myself, not even after the fact.

I feel sort of embarrassed to admit that I don't quite know what you mean by "paradigm shifts" above; I do find that one of the reasons I like writing fanfiction is that you can leave so much of plot and characterization gapped because it is common knowledge, leaving you to get on with the story you want to tell with a minimum of setup.

[supacat.livejournal.com]

Oh, hi! I liked Smoking Mirrors lots, I can see why it's in Sabina's top 10. :D Nostalgic -- I guess I meant not just the fandoms, but the -- I can't describe it well -- the openness in the writing, the sort of "anything goes" flavour of early fandom. It's the sort of thing that I associate with -- long long ago in a kingdom far far away.

[supacat.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of continuing, actually, through to #25 or so.

YES PLEASE. :D

[petronia.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! ^^

Yes, the old stories are sort of like snapshots of one's mental state, at the time. When I look at my own from that same period I find it's not so much that I'd be able to improve on the stories if I were to write them now; I don't think I'd be able to write them at all.

"Paradigm shift" referred to my own experience. XD Without blowing the objective significance of your fic qua fic out of proportion, I can say it was a seminal work of prose for me, as a reader and (necessarily from that) as a writer. I guess if I had to pin it down, I'd say I learnt it was possible to write fanfiction, not only as wish-fulfillment fantasia or even direct critical response to canon, but in order to forge connections and bring others to light: to construct a personal vision out of interstitial spaces available only to fanfiction. Basically, it gave me the idea of derivative fiction itself being a genre, with its own genre-specific nooks and crannies.

I think most of the stories on this list are cliché-defiers - at the time I read them they opened up possibilities re: what could be done. ^^