Arrant Nonsense

Which got me to thinking about how Christians are treated in "mainstream" entertainment, and how Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series is a refreshing breath of fresh air.

For years, it was a given: Introduce a Character of Faith, and that character would soon be shown to be crazy, evil, stupid, bigoted, hypocritical, or all of the above. Stephen King, you're brilliant in other ways, but I'm looking at you. Any cop show where a priest or pastor was involved in a plot at all, yep, he did it. It got old. It got very very old very very fast. They were never just normal people, or God forbid, the actual hero of the piece. They were set up to be knocked down, and Hollyweird seemed to like it that way. Oh, sure, there were a few exceptions (Father Dowling, I suppose, and Touched by an Angel; and I adore Father Mulcahey on MASH), but those seemed more like bones tossed to appease the frothing masses than anything else.

Science fiction was no less guilty. Possibly more guilty. Christians were either villains or buffoons, and there was very little in-between there. That's if faith was even a Thing in the far-flung future where humans were now More Educated Than That and the idea of God was a Quaint Throwback to More Primitive Times. In fantasy, you have your Burn The Witch villains, again, if faith in the God of the Bible is even mentioned at all. I stopped reading SF/F for a long time because of this.

And then the lovely and effulgent appomattoxco introduced me to the Dresden Files. It was the first time I'd dipped my toe back into written fantasy in awhile, although I was an avid watcher of Buffy and Angel by then. I side-eyed real hard when Michael Carpenter was introduced, waiting for the inevitable Gotcha Moment.

It never came.

And for that, I will always be fiercely, fiercely grateful to Jim Butcher. I was at a panel on Faith in Fiction at this year's WorldCon, and brought Michael up, and one of the panelists (I don't remember who) actually looked dismissive and practically offended. Apparently Michael's faith is too... simple, or something. And I realize that the sort of simple rock-solid faith that says "God said it, I believe it, that settles it" gives a lot of people an uncomfortableness, because they're not that certain of anything and how dare you be (or something), but for some of us, faith really is that simple and it's not a stretch for it to be that simple for a fictional character.

I mean, do we struggle with it? Of course we do. But the Dresden Files is first person from Harry's viewpoint, so we see Michael through the lens of Harry's eyes. I'm pretty sure Michael keeps any struggles with his faith under wraps where Harry doesn't see it; I know that I'm pretty private about those kinds of things myownself. And even Michael had his own Moment of Darkness when he nearly, in a cold rage, killed the dude who kidnapped his daughter.

And I'm probably rambling by now, as I tend to do. I think my point is that Jim Butcher opened up a door with Michael--where an overtly Christian character could actually be, if not the hero, at least a hero, and it's given me, myself, more confidence to write Christian characters who are also heroes, and to write angelic and demonic characters that are at least nominally Biblical.

So maybe this is, in a way, a love letter to Jim Butcher and Michael Carpenter, and, to a lesser extent, Uriel. Thank you, Mr. Butcher, and I look forward to seeing you at MisCon where I can possibly pick your brain.

As you know, Bob, I'm a huge Robert Downey Jr fan. I will go see him in a movie where he sits on a stool and reads the phone book for two hours. This is not a secret.

That being said: No matter how much of a drooling fangirl I am, not every movie he's in works for me. I loved Iron Man beyond all reason and have probably seen it twenty times. And then he did "Tropic Thunder."

And he was amazing in it. Robbed of the Oscar, IMO. But I didn't actually like the movie itself that much. Yes, it was alternately hilarious and horrifying, sometimes at the exact same moment, but the horrifying moments and the near-constant f-bombs overshadowed my enjoyment. I only saw it once, and it's not in my DVD collection (yet).

Then he did "The Soloist." Which he and Jamie are both amazing in. But it's a Big Serious Movie about Big Serious Issues, and it's not, for lack of a better word, "entertaining." Nor is it meant to be. It wrestles with a tough issue, and I'm good with that, more power to them for going there and not ending it with sunshine and roses and easy answers. But, again, I've only seen it once. There's only so much Sad I can take.

And then Sherlock Holmes crossed my radar. Well. It crossed my radar before they even began filming, because of the aforementioned "drooling fangirliness." I have been looking forward to this movie for over a year. I was terrified that it would disappoint me, that it would rape a beloved character sideways, that it would fail to Tell Me A Story. I had to wait a week after it was released to see it, for various reasons, and I was on pins and needles.

And then I finally got to see it. And it thrilled me. The characters, the story, the cinemetography, the acting, OMG the music--it was a delight from beginning to end. THIS RIGHT HERE is what a movie should be. THIS RIGHT HERE is what I want in a RDJ movie. THIS RIGHT HERE is what I want in a Sherlock Holmes movie.

The relationship between Watson and Holmes. Holmes being a badass. Holmes being too clever for his own good. Holmes having a woman fall in love with him with no idea what to do with that. Watson being long-suffering. Mary being awesome. A villain with a dastardly plan that only Holmes can thwart.

And underlying it all, a sense of out and out FUN. I've now seen this movie three times, and it never gets old. It's brought back the same feelings I had watching Iron Man. And that's why I love it.

Giving hope, and then snatching it away with both hands. No, Janni, Ben is not dealing well with this. At all. He's having a hard time forgiving himself for what he sees as a moral failing on his part, no matter that you don't care what he did with that vampire bitch. Even if you think it was rape, he doesn't. His mind very possibly broke in the lab (what with the needles and the wolfsbane and the being tied down). The 3/4ths of a bottle of Glenlivet he just consumed is, probably, Not Helping.

So, yeah, as you all should know by now, I'm all over the Broken Characters like whoa. And now I'm turning my attention to Patrick Jane, of "The Mentalist." Because I realized yesterday that there's no other show I'm watching right now where I'm sitting here waiting for a character to snap right in half. All the other shows I watch have pretty mentally stable characters. This is the only one I can think of right now that hits my "broken dude" kink right where it lives. Even "Dollhouse" doesn't do that (other than in "Epitaph One," and I'm not sure that counts because it's just the one ep).

The thing is, Jane isn't good with weapons, like, at all. Or violence. He's the one cowering in a corner when violence of any kind starts ensuing. He's planning on killing Red John when he finds him, but whether he can actually Do The Deed is up for question. And if he couldn't, I don't know if that would break him more, or less...

In Query Letter of Doom news, I've already got a rejection back from one place, but it didn't appear to be a form rejection and it was somewhat encouraging, so I'll take it. I'm still wibbling, though.

I have scribbled another shower scene. Now that not!Harry is a vampire and doesn't need to breathe, you'd think that drowning wouldn't be an issue so much anymore.

Yeah, tell his backbrain that.

But this scene makes a nice contrast from the previous one; it's not empty filler because it tells us he's changed and grown and not!Harmony isn't as much of a crutch as she was before.

And my word count just went over the 90K mark.

I still have the same problem with not!Harmony that I had before, however. She's wrapped up in Her Man and His Problems. She doesn't seem to have anything of Her Very Own--and not only that, but I can't think of anything, plot-wise, that I can insert in there. It would seem ridiculous and frivolous for her to be calling on auditions and stuff while they're dealing with this crap. Not only that, but her one attempt at attending a callback ended pretty incredibly disastrously.

Heh. She might have a phobia about that now. That might be interesting.

The thing is, she feels real to me. She's just living her life, being a waitress, auditioning for plays and TV shows and movies and whatnot in her spare time--and her boyfriend has this huge crushing problem that she helps him deal with on a daily basis. She doesn't have a big exciting job or do big exciting things, but how many of us actually do?

Her big exciting job here seems to be making sure that not!Harry doesn't fly apart into a million billion bitty shards. This is the skill set she brings to the table. From a "life" standard, I'm okay with that. From a "literary" standard, however...

I'm not so sure. When not!Harry isn't in the room, she doesn't really have anything to do. This is a bad thing, I think. I even remark on it, from her POV, in the narrative--she actually feels pretty useless, more than once. And maybe that's me being meta and projecting, because she's not useless, she's as necessary to him as air (more necessary than air when he's a vampire, heh), and she's pretty proactive when people try to kidnap her and when the bad guy is holding a gun to her head. No shrinking violet, she; not!Harry calls her "Hermia" for a reason. She doesn't deal well with physical trauma to him, but she's there when his shakes start, reminding him to breathe.

The problem is that she's necessary to him. Or is this a problem?

Hell, I don't even know anymore.

Maybe instead of reading a magazine, she reads a script. That would be better...

See, this is why I write this stuff out. I just semi-solved a problem without even meaning to.

And maybe I'm just slow.

( Spoilers for Iron Man, although if you haven't seen it yet, why not? Hey, look! A broken paradigm! )

X-posted to ironman_lounge.

First off, icon. Because I love making my fandoms collide:



If Tony doesn't have a t-shirt that says that, he totally should.

Second of all, meta!

So, we're watching S3 of BSG (as we do), and the difference between a character like Gaius Baltar and Tony Stark struck me.

Why do I loathe Gaius and love Tony? Hotness is not a factor; Gaius is handsome, brainy, and occasionally gets a sarcastic zinger off. Also, glasses. Did I mention the accent? *drool*

And then I knew.

Tony Stark is a Rogue.

Gaius Baltar is a Weasel.

Tony will pretend to go along with a terrorist group, and pretend to build their weapon, and stall for time--and then kill them dead. He may be a bit of a bastard, he may be an alcoholic, he may be an irresponsible little boy with lousy impulse control...but in the end, he'll do the right thing for the right reasons. And he might die trying.

Gaius, on the other hand will do anything to preserve his own skin. The man has no principles whatsoever, other than "What's best for Gaius." He will lie, cheat, steal, and sell out his own species if he thinks he's going to die. And that's as far as he takes it. He's not scheming to betray the Cylons later, all he's doing is figuring out how best to stay alive for the next three seconds. He doesn't have ulterior motives, and he doesn't have angles.

So, the difference is, the Rogue is redeemable. Sawyer will run into a burning building to save Claire. Rhett will join the army after the war is lost. And Tony will build a suit to kill terrorists with. But Gaius will always be a Weasel.

Then again, I hope that Gaius surprises me one day.

I have a deep and abiding inability to just let things go.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I got into a small argument with the writer GoH, Michael Stackpole, during a CONduit panel this weekend. The argument was whether you can learn anything by writing fanfic. I, of course, am firmly in the camp that you do. I maintain that I would not be nearly the writer I am today (which is, apparently, not all that, considering the number of rejections I've gotten just this week), without the practice I obtained writing fanworks.

Mr. Stackpole said that it was like putting on "training wheels," and you'd be better off just jumping on the bike and going for a ride. This...may be true. I wouldn't know; I didn't come up that way. I didn't begin writing until Spike started whispering in my ear. Whether or not I'd be ahead of the game had I started writing original fiction is moot, because I wasn't actually inspired to write original fiction.

So. Leaving aside the fact that we write what we're inspired to write...

I find this attitude rather comical coming from someone who gets paid (generously) to write what is basically Star Wars fanfic.

And I would have liked to ask him (why can't I think of these questions in the heat of the moment???) if he didn't learn anything about writing, while writing in the Star Wars 'verse. Did the only time he learned techniques like characterization, dialogue, plot, pacing, etc, only happen when he wrote his own characters?

Because, that strikes me as being a patently ridiculous argument, especially considering the source.

At least now I have an debating point to toss at tie-in writers *cough*LeeGoldberg*cough* when they holler and shout about how fanfic doesn't teach you anything about writing.

I'm going to discuss one of my linguistic pet peeves right now. Those of you who have no interest in writing meta can just scroll on by. These thoughts were brought to the surface by a discussion of the Oscars with the handsome and talented kurukami, and the movie title "There Will Be Blood."

Which has to be, like, the lamest title ever.

Now, I freely admit, I've come up with a few clunkers in my time. My least favorite title for an original story of my own is "Guardians of Public Safety." However, if I ever put the word "there" in one of my titles, unless it's referring to an actual place? Shoot me.

Seriously, "There Will Be Blood"? It sounds like a bad zombie movie with giant spiders and vampires thrown in just for fun. It's cliche, it's tired, it's boring, and it's pretentious. Many other words can do the job of the "there" in that title, and do it better and more descriptively. What will the blood be doing? Flowing? Spattering? Running? "Blood Will Run in the Streets," while not much better, is better than that. Even if a character in the movie says this line (which I can totally picture in an Oscar-nominated film, don't get me started), "There Will Be Blood" is still a horrible title.

And this brings me to the use of "there" in prose. "There was a dog sitting in the doorway." UGH UGH UGH. NO. DON'T DO THIS. Not only does it start with the hated "there," but it's passive. "A dog sat in the doorway." Doesn't that sound better? Nine times out of ten, you can either expunge the word completely or rephrase the sentence to make it do more work and sound stronger.

The only time I'll tolerate that word at the beginning of a sentence in my own stories is in dialogue, because that's the way people actually talk. Otherwise? Horrible horrible word. I just went through the Giant Bugs fic and got rid of all but one instance, and that instance was part of a "here, there, that other place" sequence.

"It" is another one of those words. "It was raining." WHAT was raining? This doesn't tell us anything about the rain. Make your sentences work harder than that. "Rain drizzled from the sky." "Rain slashed at the ground in torrents." Don't get urple with it, but for Pete's sake, you can do better than "there" and "it."

Why, yes, I wander around in Wank_Report to see what the buzz in fandom (and other places) is all about these days. Some of it is hilarious, some of it is sad, and some of it is rage-inducing.

This one is more WTF-inducing than anything else, and I wouldn't be linking to it if it weren't for this post, in which the poster asserts that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an anti-feminist show.

Why, yes, that was my head you heard exploding. A show that had women as the most powerful beings on the planet...was anti-feminist.

Her reasoning?
Buffy - whenever she becomes sexually involved, is the victim of abuse
Faith - depicted as sexually open, is "evil"
Jenny - gets involved with Giles, is killed for shock value
Anya - depicted as sexually open, is jilted at the altar and also goes "evil"
Tara - in a committed lesbian relationship, killed for shock value
Willow - in a committed lesbian relationship, "magic" formerly equated with this relationship now equated to crack, goes evil

Waitaminute. Buffy was the "victim of abuse"? WHEN? Was that before or after she beat the everliving snot out of Spike and left him to die in an alley? Was that before or after she said "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you"? When did she ever let Angelus abuse her? She's the friggin' Slayer, dude; she gave as good as she got. When did Riley abuse her? HOW THE HELL could Riley abuse her in the first place? Did I miss that episode? Parker? She kicked his ass.

Faith? Was evil for about a season. After that? Big Damn Hero. Ditto Anya.

You could debate the "killing for shock value" bit until the cows come home. I personally disagree with that assessment; there were plotful reasons that Jenny and Tara died, and while some folks might not like those particular plots, they weren't pointless. Angelus had damn good reasons for wanting Jenny dead; Tara's death was the catalyst for Willow's meltdown and subsequent redemption.

As for Willow and the "crack magic" aspect, the poster seems to be assuming a cause-and-effect with the Tara relationship that I just don't see, since Will started with the magic before she met Tara. Also? Willow = Big Damn Hero in "Chosen" and through the rest of S7 as well.

Dude, Joss tortures all his characters. You could even argue that Jenny had it a lot easier than Giles did; after all, she's just dead. Giles had to find her in his bed and then live with that image seared on his brain for the rest of his life. Angel goes evil with a moment of pure happiness...think he doesn't consider that every time he gets laid? Xander leaves Anya at the altar and loses an eye. Riley cheats on Buffy with a vamp ho and loses Buffy completely.

In the meantime, Harmony has sex with the liaison to the Senior Partners and gets a letter of recommendation from Angel before he goes off to fight evil. The liaison? Dies. Lindsey falls in love with another liaison--and is killed by a "flunky." Eve's fate, meantime, is unknown, although I always assumed she died when the building came down. She might have lived, though.

Point being, no one in the BuffyVerse was allowed happy couplehood, at least not for long. Hell, Fred and Wes got ONE episode, and as far as we know didn't even sleep together before Fred became Illyria and Wes's world came crashing down on his poor head. Oh, and look. He died too.

It's amazing what you can read into a show when you're looking at it through a certain pair of glasses or smoking the bad crack.

Okay, I'm sure I had a towel over here somewhere...ah, there it is. *cleans up*

I think my Fanfic!Muse might be dead.

I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, I'd like to keep my hand in. Instantaneous feedback is nice. I'm comfortable with these characters. They're fun to play with.

On the other hand, I realize that fanfic is the red-headed stepchild of writing, and it's held in contempt by a lot of people who really have no understanding of the several subcultures within it. That being said, I'll always have affection for it and will defend it to all and sundry until a definitive legal ruling comes down. You say "copyright infringement," I say "fair use"...to-may-to, to-mah-to.

So...I think I may have moved beyond fanfiction. I've written four original stories, beaten two of them into enough submission that they're (probably) ready to send out, am editing the third, have no idea what I'm going to do with the fourth, and have begun a fifth.

Also, I have the sneaking suspicion that the last few fanfics I've written...kind of suck. And I've had that feeling for a fair while. It's like they're being forced. While I bang my head over the origifics, it's a different feeling than the one I get when I'm banging my head over fanfic. I have one other ficathon to write for and a title to come up with for the cya_ficathon backup I just finished, but after this, I'm just not sure I'm going to be writing much more fanfic unless a Plot Bunny grabs me by the throat and won't let go.

So, if you're here to read fanfiction? Probably not going to be happening much. And if you want to defriend me, then I'm shiny with that. Of course, it's always "Defriending Amnesty Day" around here, anyway, but I thought I'd throw that out there.

That being said--I've created a filter for concrit for my origifics. About nineteen of you are already on it. Being on it puts you under no obligation whatsoever, and I'm going to make a locked post later for the folks that are already on it, so they will know who they are. If you wish to be on it, drop me a note, and I'll add you to it. :)