Memeage to take my mind off
Monday, 4 February 2008 22:56![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
druidspellI was pretty stressed when I started this originally, and my flist was randomly popping up with people being tagged "7 Things" memes, so I decided to take a stab at it to take my mind off of the real world. Months have passed (seriously, I started this shit in OCTOBER), but I still had it saved, and it turns out that I still want to do it. (Sorry for spamming your flists three times in a day.)
So. Seven stated interests, explained by me.
1. delineating reality's boundaries
All right, so, I have this thing about writing, wherein it means something deeply personal and important to me. And you'll get to the part later where I talk about how maps and drawing maps is something that I do to make me feel better about the world, and where this all intersects is that when I was in high school (I think I was a sophomore, so this was pretty much my greatest year of life to date), I read Orson Scott Card's "How to Write SciFi and Fantasy."
The only way that I had ever heard of OSC was the Ender series, which--try as they might--my friends just could not get me to read. (Seriously, every time I tell them that I've never read the Ender books, this look of dawning horror takes over their faces, and they're just incredulous and mortified that I've never read these books.) But the thing is, scifi just isn't the genre of my heart. (Also, OSC is a moralizing homophobic little shit, but that's neither here nor there for this interest.) But he talked about one of his fantasy books, Hart's Hope, and how he'd come up with this idea and premise that the gate through which you entered a city determined which city you saw. (What I expected from that description and what actually occurred were two wildly divergent things, I just want to note, but it was still an awesome premise.) And when I finally hunted this book down at a library (I forced them to special order it), a sect of priests in the book searched for God's message through coded riddles and passages in their Book. The writers had control over the priests' experience with God, and in a way determined through their syntax and diction the reality of God that these people experienced.
The idea that words can be that powerful is something that stuck with me, and is the entire reason why I forced Barnes & Noble to special order the book for me (twice, actually, because I didn't get to the store in time the first time) and why I then shelled out almost $18 for it in paperback. It's why I gave him a shot in the first place, and that book is, in a way, one of my inspirations for why I want to become a writer. I want my words to be able to define someone's world, to shape them and fine-tune them into something bigger and better than themselves. (My Chemical Romance wants their music to save your life; I want my words to do the same, without benefit of music.)
2. midnight rising
I think it was actually the day I graduated high school that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
duchesspariah showed me a text-based RPG online that had taken a great concept (vampires, lycanthropes, monsters of all kinds walking around in the real world) and done not-nearly-enough with it, and allowed me to admit that we could do so much better. Both of us had been writing for years, and our artistic visions meshed and just... worked together, and we created Midnight Rising. The concept of the monsters being real, masquerading as humans (or not masquerading at all) borrowed a little from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, because both of us were addicted, but from the foundations of LKH (and a great many other great fantasy authors, but LKH was the first one I'd read who took contemporary America and made the monsters real) and whatever that other site was, we built a world that is complex and alive, and totally, completely ours. For NaNoWriMo this year, both of us were writing stories set in the MR-verse. We even have our own CafePress store, where we'll eventually be self-publishing stories from Orion (the self-annexed country where the paranormals live--formerly known as the state of New Mexico). We've each done a ridiculous amount of research for this universe, from the activities of the 15th Air Force in Korea (me), to the requirements to become a USMC sniper (her), to human evolution (me again, making use of the anthro major), to customs, names, and beliefs of the Rom (her again), to figuring out magic and supernatural phenomena and freaking weather patterns so that our universe will be as alive as it can possibly be. I love MR with a deep and abiding passion, and have given serious thought to having Orion tattooed on my body somewhere.
3. anita blake
My oldest sister and her husband got into this series before I did--this was back when I was still reading Robert Jordan, and insisted on getting Book 5 of the Wheel of Time for my birthday instead of Guilty Pleasures. (Admittedly, the paperback blurb of GP doesn't sound altogether appealing to me even now, so make of that what you will that this is now one of my favorites fiction series.) But eventually, Andrea wore me down--by bringing home omnibus editions with covers by Luis Royo home with her. There is nothing that will make me want to pick up a book faster than truly awesome cover art--and nothing that detains me more from buying a potentially cool book than really bad coverart, I'll admit. And so I picked up the first hardback omnibus, that was the first three in one, and devoured it. Seriously, in approximately 30 hours, I'd gone through the first three books. And this was in spite of the fact that I was helping my sisters move my aunt out of her apartment. I fell in love with these books in a shitty converted-warehouse-apartment in Louisville, and have been devouring the books, Laurell K. Hamilton's blog, the comic books (Guilty Pleasures was picked up first by DBPro, then Marvel, for adaptation into comic form in 2007), and the Merry Gentry series which is written by the same author. I love Anita, her emotional drama, most of her men, and what LKH has done with the universe has shaped the way I want to read and write fiction. I love the idea of gods and monsters walking among the mundanes, and Anita Blake is my drug of choice to get that fix.
4. world religions
I went through a period of time where I didn't really believe in anything, back in my early high school days. But most of my family's pretty devout Christian of some variety or other, except for those who, like my cousin Ross, are dedicated and militant atheists.
My thoughts on religion can be summed up pretty simply:
1. As long as what you believe isn't hurting you or the people around you, go ahead and believe it. Whatever helps you through the day, and if that "whatever" is God, or Allah, or Buddha, or Kali, or Danu, or even the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it's your choice, your belief, your life. I've never believed in living someone's life for them, and religion's part of that.
2. That being said: whatever you want to believe is fine, but don't tell me what I should believe.* Nothing on this earth can piss me off faster and more thoroughly than being told what to believe, or lectured about the perceived validity of my religious choices.
*This is why missionaries and proselytizers freak me the fuck out. I hate being told what to believe, and what gives them the right to tell anyone that their ideas about the Divine are the only valid ideas? Nothing, that's what. It's the main thing that makes me agree with Ross when he complains that organized religions are only fighting about whose imaginary friend is cooler.
I'm interested in world religions because religion shapes people's lives in ordinary and extraordinary ways, and I want to learn about this particular aspect of what makes people tick.
5. things fandom taught me
Every so often, a movement goes through the fannish journals I've got friended, where the writers go through and post things that Fandom Has Taught Them. This is my favorite meme in the entirety of the known universe, and 3/5 of the unknown universe. I feel like fandom has brought a lot to my life, and I love knowing that I'm not the only one with deep and meaningful experiences in fandom (and also shallow and frivolous experiences, I'm not gonna lie). For your reference, here are a few things that fandom has taught me:
1. That no matter how much I thought I was the only one, there are at least four other people who love the same thing I do, for the same reasons
2. That no knowledge is bad knowledge, if only because someone else might need it down the road
3. That sometimes, when you're having a really bad day, there are people who are willing to offer *hugs* from thousands of miles away, and it helps more than the real hug from the person sitting next to you
4. There are people who would swim through lava if it meant that the fic they're writing would be as authentic as possible for the experience
5. Sometimes, it's okay to leave a comment that says nothing more than *\o/* when words fail, as long as it's followed with a coherent comment later
6. Sometimes, *\o/* is all that's needed
7. That even though I'm not a very prolific writer, when I do write something, it turns out that there were fifteen other people just waiting for the story to be told
8. Being a beta is one of the hardest jobs there is in fandom, but it's all worth it seeing "Beta'ed bydruidspell, all mistakes remaining are my own"
9. It doesn't pay to piss off the little guy
10. Sometimes you're the eagle; sometimes you're the jet engine. Try not to harsh on squee too much
11. You aren't the only one, and the Touch of The Crazy that makes you the outcast and black sheep of your family will make you just another one of the crowd in fandom
12. It's contagious; when one person joins fandom enthusiastically enough, others will follow. Sometimes, those others will be your friends; other times, they'll be your aunt and mother
Hell, my mother even has things fandom taught her, and that makes me happiest of all.
6. maps
I discovered my junior year that, when I'm stressed out, if I can find time to sit down with a pen and a sheet of paper, I can sketch out a map of a place that doesn't exist, and the act of creating the topography of a non-existent country or region distracts me from the actual things that are bothering me. I've always liked maps and globes, and the fact that straight lines are practically non-existent on maps means that I don't have to worry about it. I'll seriously buy a book if it has a good enough map in the front or back cover. On a related note, I hate globes that have actual blue water; I like the ones that are that weird beige-ish color, because I like the old-timey feel of them.
7. vietnam war
Okay, so LJ/6A will tell you that since I've listed this in my profile, that means that I like, or I support, or I am in favor of the Vietnam War.
This is not true.
The reason I list Vietnam War in my interests is because for the life of me, I can't understand how we thought invading this country would be a good idea. I don't understand how we thought we could win, or what we were doing there, or why so many people had to die in a war that made no sense whatsoever. Vietnam shaped the town where I grew up, in ways that I didn't notice until I'd read more about it and understood that attitudes and behaviors I'd witnessed my entire life had their roots in sending their boys off to serve their country and getting them back in boxes, or not at all, or changed so much they were barely recognizable. Vietnam shaped everyone in Bardstown, because everybody lost somebody, everybody saw someone die a little inside when their son/brother/husband/boyfriend/father/cousin/neighbor/classmate died in a country so far out of our range of experience that it may as well have been on the moon. Vietnam turned serving your country from an honor into a burden, because after it was over and word got out about what had happened over there, what you did for your country was something to be ashamed of. I can't stop trying to make it make sense in my head, and so I learn whatever I can about it, and hope that one day it'll be enough.
So. Seven stated interests, explained by me.
1. delineating reality's boundaries
All right, so, I have this thing about writing, wherein it means something deeply personal and important to me. And you'll get to the part later where I talk about how maps and drawing maps is something that I do to make me feel better about the world, and where this all intersects is that when I was in high school (I think I was a sophomore, so this was pretty much my greatest year of life to date), I read Orson Scott Card's "How to Write SciFi and Fantasy."
The only way that I had ever heard of OSC was the Ender series, which--try as they might--my friends just could not get me to read. (Seriously, every time I tell them that I've never read the Ender books, this look of dawning horror takes over their faces, and they're just incredulous and mortified that I've never read these books.) But the thing is, scifi just isn't the genre of my heart. (Also, OSC is a moralizing homophobic little shit, but that's neither here nor there for this interest.) But he talked about one of his fantasy books, Hart's Hope, and how he'd come up with this idea and premise that the gate through which you entered a city determined which city you saw. (What I expected from that description and what actually occurred were two wildly divergent things, I just want to note, but it was still an awesome premise.) And when I finally hunted this book down at a library (I forced them to special order it), a sect of priests in the book searched for God's message through coded riddles and passages in their Book. The writers had control over the priests' experience with God, and in a way determined through their syntax and diction the reality of God that these people experienced.
The idea that words can be that powerful is something that stuck with me, and is the entire reason why I forced Barnes & Noble to special order the book for me (twice, actually, because I didn't get to the store in time the first time) and why I then shelled out almost $18 for it in paperback. It's why I gave him a shot in the first place, and that book is, in a way, one of my inspirations for why I want to become a writer. I want my words to be able to define someone's world, to shape them and fine-tune them into something bigger and better than themselves. (My Chemical Romance wants their music to save your life; I want my words to do the same, without benefit of music.)
2. midnight rising
I think it was actually the day I graduated high school that
duchesspariah showed me a text-based RPG online that had taken a great concept (vampires, lycanthropes, monsters of all kinds walking around in the real world) and done not-nearly-enough with it, and allowed me to admit that we could do so much better. Both of us had been writing for years, and our artistic visions meshed and just... worked together, and we created Midnight Rising. The concept of the monsters being real, masquerading as humans (or not masquerading at all) borrowed a little from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, because both of us were addicted, but from the foundations of LKH (and a great many other great fantasy authors, but LKH was the first one I'd read who took contemporary America and made the monsters real) and whatever that other site was, we built a world that is complex and alive, and totally, completely ours. For NaNoWriMo this year, both of us were writing stories set in the MR-verse. We even have our own CafePress store, where we'll eventually be self-publishing stories from Orion (the self-annexed country where the paranormals live--formerly known as the state of New Mexico). We've each done a ridiculous amount of research for this universe, from the activities of the 15th Air Force in Korea (me), to the requirements to become a USMC sniper (her), to human evolution (me again, making use of the anthro major), to customs, names, and beliefs of the Rom (her again), to figuring out magic and supernatural phenomena and freaking weather patterns so that our universe will be as alive as it can possibly be. I love MR with a deep and abiding passion, and have given serious thought to having Orion tattooed on my body somewhere. 3. anita blake
My oldest sister and her husband got into this series before I did--this was back when I was still reading Robert Jordan, and insisted on getting Book 5 of the Wheel of Time for my birthday instead of Guilty Pleasures. (Admittedly, the paperback blurb of GP doesn't sound altogether appealing to me even now, so make of that what you will that this is now one of my favorites fiction series.) But eventually, Andrea wore me down--by bringing home omnibus editions with covers by Luis Royo home with her. There is nothing that will make me want to pick up a book faster than truly awesome cover art--and nothing that detains me more from buying a potentially cool book than really bad coverart, I'll admit. And so I picked up the first hardback omnibus, that was the first three in one, and devoured it. Seriously, in approximately 30 hours, I'd gone through the first three books. And this was in spite of the fact that I was helping my sisters move my aunt out of her apartment. I fell in love with these books in a shitty converted-warehouse-apartment in Louisville, and have been devouring the books, Laurell K. Hamilton's blog, the comic books (Guilty Pleasures was picked up first by DBPro, then Marvel, for adaptation into comic form in 2007), and the Merry Gentry series which is written by the same author. I love Anita, her emotional drama, most of her men, and what LKH has done with the universe has shaped the way I want to read and write fiction. I love the idea of gods and monsters walking among the mundanes, and Anita Blake is my drug of choice to get that fix.
4. world religions
I went through a period of time where I didn't really believe in anything, back in my early high school days. But most of my family's pretty devout Christian of some variety or other, except for those who, like my cousin Ross, are dedicated and militant atheists.
My thoughts on religion can be summed up pretty simply:
1. As long as what you believe isn't hurting you or the people around you, go ahead and believe it. Whatever helps you through the day, and if that "whatever" is God, or Allah, or Buddha, or Kali, or Danu, or even the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it's your choice, your belief, your life. I've never believed in living someone's life for them, and religion's part of that.
2. That being said: whatever you want to believe is fine, but don't tell me what I should believe.* Nothing on this earth can piss me off faster and more thoroughly than being told what to believe, or lectured about the perceived validity of my religious choices.
*This is why missionaries and proselytizers freak me the fuck out. I hate being told what to believe, and what gives them the right to tell anyone that their ideas about the Divine are the only valid ideas? Nothing, that's what. It's the main thing that makes me agree with Ross when he complains that organized religions are only fighting about whose imaginary friend is cooler.
I'm interested in world religions because religion shapes people's lives in ordinary and extraordinary ways, and I want to learn about this particular aspect of what makes people tick.
5. things fandom taught me
Every so often, a movement goes through the fannish journals I've got friended, where the writers go through and post things that Fandom Has Taught Them. This is my favorite meme in the entirety of the known universe, and 3/5 of the unknown universe. I feel like fandom has brought a lot to my life, and I love knowing that I'm not the only one with deep and meaningful experiences in fandom (and also shallow and frivolous experiences, I'm not gonna lie). For your reference, here are a few things that fandom has taught me:
1. That no matter how much I thought I was the only one, there are at least four other people who love the same thing I do, for the same reasons
2. That no knowledge is bad knowledge, if only because someone else might need it down the road
3. That sometimes, when you're having a really bad day, there are people who are willing to offer *hugs* from thousands of miles away, and it helps more than the real hug from the person sitting next to you
4. There are people who would swim through lava if it meant that the fic they're writing would be as authentic as possible for the experience
5. Sometimes, it's okay to leave a comment that says nothing more than *\o/* when words fail, as long as it's followed with a coherent comment later
6. Sometimes, *\o/* is all that's needed
7. That even though I'm not a very prolific writer, when I do write something, it turns out that there were fifteen other people just waiting for the story to be told
8. Being a beta is one of the hardest jobs there is in fandom, but it's all worth it seeing "Beta'ed by
druidspell, all mistakes remaining are my own"9. It doesn't pay to piss off the little guy
10. Sometimes you're the eagle; sometimes you're the jet engine. Try not to harsh on squee too much
11. You aren't the only one, and the Touch of The Crazy that makes you the outcast and black sheep of your family will make you just another one of the crowd in fandom
12. It's contagious; when one person joins fandom enthusiastically enough, others will follow. Sometimes, those others will be your friends; other times, they'll be your aunt and mother
Hell, my mother even has things fandom taught her, and that makes me happiest of all.
6. maps
I discovered my junior year that, when I'm stressed out, if I can find time to sit down with a pen and a sheet of paper, I can sketch out a map of a place that doesn't exist, and the act of creating the topography of a non-existent country or region distracts me from the actual things that are bothering me. I've always liked maps and globes, and the fact that straight lines are practically non-existent on maps means that I don't have to worry about it. I'll seriously buy a book if it has a good enough map in the front or back cover. On a related note, I hate globes that have actual blue water; I like the ones that are that weird beige-ish color, because I like the old-timey feel of them.
7. vietnam war
Okay, so LJ/6A will tell you that since I've listed this in my profile, that means that I like, or I support, or I am in favor of the Vietnam War.
This is not true.
The reason I list Vietnam War in my interests is because for the life of me, I can't understand how we thought invading this country would be a good idea. I don't understand how we thought we could win, or what we were doing there, or why so many people had to die in a war that made no sense whatsoever. Vietnam shaped the town where I grew up, in ways that I didn't notice until I'd read more about it and understood that attitudes and behaviors I'd witnessed my entire life had their roots in sending their boys off to serve their country and getting them back in boxes, or not at all, or changed so much they were barely recognizable. Vietnam shaped everyone in Bardstown, because everybody lost somebody, everybody saw someone die a little inside when their son/brother/husband/boyfriend/father/cousin/neighbor/classmate died in a country so far out of our range of experience that it may as well have been on the moon. Vietnam turned serving your country from an honor into a burden, because after it was over and word got out about what had happened over there, what you did for your country was something to be ashamed of. I can't stop trying to make it make sense in my head, and so I learn whatever I can about it, and hope that one day it'll be enough.
