Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2006-10-22 06:47 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2006-10-22 06:47 pm
Entry tags:
Poll: Consensus, Part One
So. I miss talking to and hearing from y'all. But I'm suffering from a tiny problem, namely absence of any ability to finish anything. Someday I hope to be able to write actual useful sentences that connect to other sentences again, but today is not that day, so I'm going to do a themed poll series instead of meta or a themed recs post. (There are only three parts to this themed poll set, but I realize that, from me, three posts is totally massive spamming. My apologies in advance.)
The poll's theme is: consensus.
In part one, below, I'm going to try to establish my relative fannish sanity by consensus. To do so, I need to take you on a brief tour of my brain, focusing on two particular fannish things it does that I'm starting to suspect are - well, weird. (And keep in mine I'm judging myself compared to other fans; we'd already be considered insane by many of Them Folks Out There.)
We will now depart on our trip through TFV's brain. Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.
Imaginary Fandoms. I have, um, imaginary fandoms. I don't mean original fiction that I tell myself - I mean original fandoms, where I come up with, for example, a long and detailed original story, and then entertain myself with considering - and sometimes, um, even writing - various types of fan fiction or kerfluffles or meta that might result from given installments of the story. Sometimes I do, like, a TV series, and cast it with imaginary actors and plan out both FPF and RPF. In my most recent imaginary fandom, I've even begun mentally vidding it.
These imaginary fandoms hit basically all my buttons, of course. I'm not actually going to describe this in any kind of detail, because, um, oh my god so embarrassing that I kind of want to die just from typing it out, but the current one involves time traveling teams (one "temporal scientist" and one assassin-ish type) from the future. The main team, at this point (in my head, we have arrived roughly at book or season three), has uncovered evidence that they are working for - and trapped by, and no, I'm not even going to elaborate on the whole legal enslavement aspect, because I do not want to die of embarrassment - an organization of extremely questionable ethics and purpose, which opposes an organization that also has extremely questionable ethics and purpose. Oh, and the timestream, which they're supposed to protect, is slowly dissolving.
I have assorted mental fan fiction for this story, all carefully tagged to various chapters or episodes. I have, as I said, mental vids. I entertained myself on one long, hideous drive to Pasadena imagining the meta resulting from the end of book or season one.
I'm pretty sure that all this is the very definition of sad and pathetic. But, hey, this is fandom - maybe we all do this. Do you?
Epics That Must Not Be Read. (Term borrowed from the only other person I know for sure has written one of these. She will not be named here - unless she just wants to be - out of mercy for her.) Another thing I do is write these long, involved pieces of FF that are only for an audience of one, and that one person is me. They're always AUs of some kind, and they always start in canon and move sharply away from it, and they always entertain the hell out of me. But only me.
I've written two. The first is a BtVS story that currently stands at 80 pages of actual story, 30 more of notes and dialog, and 5 of outline, plus 10 pages of deleted scenes. It assumes that canon remains the same up to "Once More with Feeling." (Please note that "Once More with Feeling" is the only episode of BtVS season six that I've seen - and I haven't seen any of five or four, either. No, wait - I think I've seen one episode in season four. My point is, the first clue I had to the ETMNBR status of this beast was that I was writing in canon I hadn't seen.) At that point, a single line changes, and this massively alters everything from then on. In terms of timeline, I've written up to where season nine would have been if there had been one, and I know how things will resolve in season ten.
There are only two people in the world who would be interested in this story; one is me, and the other is Best Beloved. We've both read it. I know it's an ETMNBR, so I'm not worried about finishing it. But I re-read it fairly regularly, and I still write on it from time to time, because it entertains me so damned much.
The other one is much more embarrassing because I didn't realize it was an ETMNBR until after I sent it to be beta-read. It's also rather long (and needs to be much, much longer), an AU that assumes canon up to a certain point and then sharply diverges, and entertaining only to me. (My poor, poor betas - some of them actually read the fucker, and provided really helpful, thoughtful, useful comments - in short, they helped me make a story that was interesting only to me even more interesting. To me. At the cost of a lot of their time and effort. I would send them flowers and chocolate except that I'm embarrassed to speak to them.)
Now for consensus. Feel free to judge harshly.
[Poll #851020]
The poll's theme is: consensus.
In part one, below, I'm going to try to establish my relative fannish sanity by consensus. To do so, I need to take you on a brief tour of my brain, focusing on two particular fannish things it does that I'm starting to suspect are - well, weird. (And keep in mine I'm judging myself compared to other fans; we'd already be considered insane by many of Them Folks Out There.)
We will now depart on our trip through TFV's brain. Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.
Imaginary Fandoms. I have, um, imaginary fandoms. I don't mean original fiction that I tell myself - I mean original fandoms, where I come up with, for example, a long and detailed original story, and then entertain myself with considering - and sometimes, um, even writing - various types of fan fiction or kerfluffles or meta that might result from given installments of the story. Sometimes I do, like, a TV series, and cast it with imaginary actors and plan out both FPF and RPF. In my most recent imaginary fandom, I've even begun mentally vidding it.
These imaginary fandoms hit basically all my buttons, of course. I'm not actually going to describe this in any kind of detail, because, um, oh my god so embarrassing that I kind of want to die just from typing it out, but the current one involves time traveling teams (one "temporal scientist" and one assassin-ish type) from the future. The main team, at this point (in my head, we have arrived roughly at book or season three), has uncovered evidence that they are working for - and trapped by, and no, I'm not even going to elaborate on the whole legal enslavement aspect, because I do not want to die of embarrassment - an organization of extremely questionable ethics and purpose, which opposes an organization that also has extremely questionable ethics and purpose. Oh, and the timestream, which they're supposed to protect, is slowly dissolving.
I have assorted mental fan fiction for this story, all carefully tagged to various chapters or episodes. I have, as I said, mental vids. I entertained myself on one long, hideous drive to Pasadena imagining the meta resulting from the end of book or season one.
I'm pretty sure that all this is the very definition of sad and pathetic. But, hey, this is fandom - maybe we all do this. Do you?
Epics That Must Not Be Read. (Term borrowed from the only other person I know for sure has written one of these. She will not be named here - unless she just wants to be - out of mercy for her.) Another thing I do is write these long, involved pieces of FF that are only for an audience of one, and that one person is me. They're always AUs of some kind, and they always start in canon and move sharply away from it, and they always entertain the hell out of me. But only me.
I've written two. The first is a BtVS story that currently stands at 80 pages of actual story, 30 more of notes and dialog, and 5 of outline, plus 10 pages of deleted scenes. It assumes that canon remains the same up to "Once More with Feeling." (Please note that "Once More with Feeling" is the only episode of BtVS season six that I've seen - and I haven't seen any of five or four, either. No, wait - I think I've seen one episode in season four. My point is, the first clue I had to the ETMNBR status of this beast was that I was writing in canon I hadn't seen.) At that point, a single line changes, and this massively alters everything from then on. In terms of timeline, I've written up to where season nine would have been if there had been one, and I know how things will resolve in season ten.
There are only two people in the world who would be interested in this story; one is me, and the other is Best Beloved. We've both read it. I know it's an ETMNBR, so I'm not worried about finishing it. But I re-read it fairly regularly, and I still write on it from time to time, because it entertains me so damned much.
The other one is much more embarrassing because I didn't realize it was an ETMNBR until after I sent it to be beta-read. It's also rather long (and needs to be much, much longer), an AU that assumes canon up to a certain point and then sharply diverges, and entertaining only to me. (My poor, poor betas - some of them actually read the fucker, and provided really helpful, thoughtful, useful comments - in short, they helped me make a story that was interesting only to me even more interesting. To me. At the cost of a lot of their time and effort. I would send them flowers and chocolate except that I'm embarrassed to speak to them.)
Now for consensus. Feel free to judge harshly.
[Poll #851020]
no subject
Huh. How would you? Because, okay, I've never seen the show, but from what I know about it, it's kind of a creature of its time.
Although if you did, well, it seems really obvious to me that Lone Ranger/modern equivalent of Tonto (Tanto?) would be the pairing of choice for that fandom.
My fanac musings are more along the lines of what LJ fandoms for various properties that never had them would be like
The link is totally unnecessary; I loved and adored that post, and read it many times with appropriate cackling and head-nodding. (I can't remember if I actually mentioned that to you at the time, though. Um. Well, if I didn't, now I have.)
So, have you taken the final leap and figured out what the LJ fandom for the revamped Lone Ranger show would look like? Because I've been considering that ever since I read your comment, and it's only fair that you should, too.
no subject
This is worth a really long LJ post, but the short answer is: identify the show's essential qualities, and run with 'em. To me, there are a few things that are pretty essential to a good interpretation of THE LONE RANGER: 1) it's a kids' show; 2) it's an anthology series with two stars, whose teamwork and interaction fuels the storytelling; 3) the mask does not come off. There are additional elements, but they'd require more room and time to expand on. May post in my LJ later.
I'd keep the focus on the stories, because that's what I'd prefer, but I think modern audiences want a little more character depth for the stars. So the ongoing story arcs wouldn't involve a "Big Bad" for each season, ala BTVS, or an epic quest, ala SUPERNATURAL, but the evolution of the characters, particularly of the Lone Ranger. This involves changing the nature of the Ranger's quest a bit, and dealing with the psychological aspects of it.
The Lone Ranger is so admirable, so stalwart, so noble and cheerful and so much of a friend to all, that the character is not believeable as a real human being. That's because he's not. John Reid is the lone survivor of an ambush that killed his brother and his friends, and who copes with this by pretending to be dead. He does not go about his life as John Reid and turn into the Lone Ranger when trouble strikes: he *is* the Lone Ranger, all the time, full stop. The Lone Ranger isn't John Reid in a mask: like Captain Marvel to Billy Batson, he's an idealized version of who Reid wishes he could be, the kind of man he'd like the world to be full of. The Lone Ranger does not wallow uselessly in the pain of his loss; instead, he goes out and makes the world a better place.
The Lone Ranger's quest is a little mad. Tonto knows this, and takes care of him.
I think the Ranger's family, and his relationship to it, is key to the evolution of the character. In some incarnations of the legend, Tonto knew John Reid as a kid. But he never calls the Ranger "John." The Lone Ranger's nephew Dan -- the son of his dead brother -- is involved in their adventures on occasion, and *he* never even calls the Ranger "Uncle." The story of the Lone Ranger begins with John Reid being killed; the series deals with how John Reid comes back to life.
This also gives Tonto an interesting role. He's still a partner, but at the same time he's subtly watching over the Ranger, and it puts him in an awkward spot with regard to the Reid family.
A side note, about Tonto: an interesting thing about the old TV series is that Tonto was simultaneously portrayed as an outrageous stereotype and as a smart and very capable individual. It's a little disorienting to watch the episodes, because you start to think, "Oh, JESUS, could this get any more... hey, wait a minute." It helps that Jay Silverheels was fantastic as Tonto, and he had terrific chemistry with Clayton Moore. (The two men became close friends, and Moore was at the hospital bedside when Silverheels died.) My idea -- and this might be too politically incorrect to fly -- is that in the same way that the Lone Ranger often plays goofy, harmless-seeming characters to get the drop on the bad guys, Tonto deliberately uses the "dumb Indian" card so white folks will be more easily inclined to write him off. Or when he's taking the piss out of the Ranger, which I think he should do, gently, every so often. (Also, I confess, my pilot script for this hypothetical series would actually use the old chestnut. RANGER. "Hostile Indians, Tonto. Looks like we're in for it." TONTO. "What you mean 'we,' white man?")
no subject
I...I see now that I should never have asked, because I'm probably going to go into a decline and die of longing for this show. (Well, okay. This is me. So it's not so much that I want the show, although it sounds fantastic - I want the fandom, and especially the fan fiction, this show would inevitably create.)
So, yeah, thanks for taunting me with this glorious fandom, which I now need like lysine. As a result, there will be a long, drawn-out sickbed sequence, and, in the fullness of time, a romantic and tragic death. (And that's far, far down on my list of preferred ways to go - basically, just above burning to death, but way below drowning.)
Not that you should feel guilty or anything.
*pines tragically*
*coughs just once, very dramatically, in the way that indicates she'll be dead by the time the movie is over*
(You know, I keep a special list of ficteases, because ficteasing is Bad and Wrong. And I think your name is going to head a new list: fandomteases. Not quite as impressive a ring, I'll grant you, but believe me - it's an even worse sin.)
no subject
*grin* Glad you like it. The tone's the important thing; the Ranger isn't emo or anything, but the way he's put his life back together involves largely abandoning parts of it, in ways that aren't fair to the people who knew and loved John Reid. He's doing this for an important and noble purpose, but that doesn't make their pain any less. The sacrifices the Ranger makes requires other people who don't share his crusade to make sacrifices, too. Tonto tries, unobtrusively, to help him, and them, with that.
Please oh please let Tonto be smart, and capable, and pragmatic, and maybe a little obsessive about his competence, and also a little obsessive about the Lone Ranger.
My Tonto would definitely be very competent; not sure if obsessive is the right word for the role I described above. "Delicate" might be better. On the one hand, he's convinced that the Ranger has a divine calling, and he trusts him absolutely; on the other, because (unlike the Ranger) he can talk freely with the Reid family, he's caught in the middle of an uncomfortable situation where everybody knows exactly what the problems are, but aren't entirely free to talk about it, and he tries to gently guide the Ranger to doing right by the Reids, with the season-by-season changes having to do with what the Ranger's idea of "doing right by them" is. (Basically, I see the Reids and Tonto as uneasily interacting in a state of what amounts to Jim-Gordon-esque willful denial: there are things they shouldn't know, but know anyway, and fully understand they know, but that they just don't talk about EVER.) Which leaves Tonto caught between two worlds, on multiple levels: as an Indian in white society, and the Ranger's crusade vs. the Reid family.
I don't know what the fandom would be like for this one, but it'd be interesting to see. I suspect Tonto/Ranger hurt/comfort would predominate. (Also, Tonto would get a lot of "forbidden romance" stories, and the Ranger would get many touching reunion fics.)