(no subject)

daegaer interrogated me mercilessly:

1. If you could visit any country (money is no object) where would you go and what would you do first?
I think I'd go to Africa and spend some time observing gorillas. Being with animals so like ourselves and so intelligent would be amazing, and it would be a relief to get away from human beings for a while.

2. What novel do you feel has had the most influence on you, in any way?
You ask all the easy questions! The novels I read as a teenager are the ones I think of as having most effect. I associate three novel in particular with the difficult early teenage years, when I often submerged myself completely into fiction. They are The Lord of the Rings, The Left Hand of Darkness and Fire from Heaven. The ability to become very involved in fiction was certainly there in me before I read them, as I would spend my pocket money every Saturday morning on a Famous Five adventure and would have read it by mid-afternoon, but they're special because between them they formed a set of stepping stones, or points of escape, from the age of 11 to when I was 16, where I could read them at any time and be taken into another life or age or world. They added a rich layer to my life and they exercised my imagination. I think they still inform the sorts of fiction I want to read and write, and of course they gave me lasting interests.

3. In canon/fanon debates, is there anywhere you feel fanon should take precedence over canon?
In the sense of fanon being better than/preferable to canon? No, not really. By its very nature fanon is a cliché - elements used and then reused by others because they tap into a shared view of the character, or a shared need for the character to represent something that maybe it isn't. Why the latter happens is a whole different question, but I could stick my neck out and say that possibly the need is based on something that fans want in their own lives. When fanon first appears, of course it can't be fanon because it's only been used once. I remember Jaykay, as was, making Snape smell of mint in 'Wicked Game'. Snape continued to smell of mint for at least a year after, in stories by other writers. I believe he still might carry a faint whiff of it - I certainly saw it recently.

I think there are certain things that make fanon happen. If a writer is talented other fans like their details and copy them, maybe even unconsciously. A good writer is more likely to have created a believable extrapolation of the character, which becomes easy to confuse with canon. Another possibility is that something becomes fanon because it taps into a wellspring of expectations from fans about what the character really should be like, not what they are actually like in canon. This last one might explain why to some people Crowley absolutely must wear leather, or Aziraphale is actually slender and toned. Parts of Aziraphale are referred to as plump in the book. It's canon that he's plump. So, unless we're told he's gone on a diet or started aerobicising, he's got to be plump in fanfiction. Crowley wearing leather is a possibility and not really beyond the bounds of canon, because we're only told he wears a suit. It might be a leather suit. Maybe. But he seems rather a conservative sort to me, lunching at the Ritz and listening to classical music. I suppose the question a fan writer should be asking themselves is, 'would the character talk like this, or say those things, or wear those trousers? etc, to make sure that their interpretation of the character is recognisable as the original. Of course there will be varying interpretations, but that doesn't mean they can't all be believable extrapolations. I've strayed a bit from the original question, haven't I? I hope I've answered it somewhere in the above ramblings.

4. What historical figure would you most like to have a conversation with?
Another easy one (not). Hmm. Boudicca, to find out how she managed to defeat the 9th legion. Alexander to find out how he motivated his troops. Hmm, these are all based on war - I'm not sure why though, I'm not having that bad a day.

5. What is the silliest thing that you love?
It has to be my battery operated fairy wand. It's a pink and purple plastic floppy tube with a small plastic fairy jammed on the end. When you press a button the fairy lights up and the thing emits a tinny arpeggio that sounds as if it was played on harp made from bits of old fencing wire.

er..

I have spam which tells me where to find vagina tightening cream, followed by the words 'masonic baggage'. Am upset.

Last night I watched the BBC version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, with Richard Roxburgh as Holmes and Ian Hart as moody!Watson. It's slashy as hell - this is what we like to see. I adored Watson's sly amusement and Holmes wistful-sounding, 'goodbye Watson'. They have a lovely 'odd couple' sort of tension going on between them, and Watson at one point tells Holmes to 'take your hands off me!' Ahh, lover's tiff. The scene at the very end is a veritable slasher's paradise, as Holmes tries to make Watson like him again with dinner and a show. I read on the BBC website that Ian Hart is to continue playing Watson, this time to Rupert Everett's Holmes when they film 'The Empty House' next year.

I forgot in the last post - would you like me to ask you five questions?