5 questions

[louiselux]

lovelyzelda asked me five questions:


1. What's your most hated fic cliche? (any fandom)

I have so many pet hates, sometimes they crowd out my ability to enjoy stories and I get all peevish - mostly at myself for being so picky. I try to be less judgemental, but I can get very riled over little things. But, my most hated, loathed cliche of all time (for today anyway)? Usually goes something like this:

Character A: *is hot* *is a guy*
Character B: *is another guy* :  A looks hot today. Hey, wait, hang on!  I just thought that A looks hot!?  Where did that come from? Why am I thinking that? Could it possibly mean...

I've seen this in so many stories and for me it always ruins it. The thing about this cliche is - you have to work really hard to make me believe that B, who in this scenario is usually straight until this point, wouldn't have, at some point in the past, and even though he may not be admitting it,  realised on some level that he likes guys. Yes, he might be in buttocks-deep in denial, but the fact that he find A attractive should not come as a surprise to him, not really. If it does, then I'm going to have to believe that B is suffering from some level of mental illness. People repress things, sure, but on the whole they generally have an inkling about what it is that they're not admitting to themselves.  B might think 'oh fuck - I think A is hot - I don't want to be thinking this. I'll pretend I don't think that'. Or they might think, 'Oh god I want to screw A stupid, but there's no way I can ever let myself sleep with a guy (for whatever reason)' or something. Please not, 'oh, hey, I just thought A was hot. Why am I thinking that?'  because it's just not believable. Man, know thyself.

Oh, I know that people do deny things and that making a man know himself is one of the joys of slash - but perhaps it's more about making a man admit that he knows himself.


2. Do you know how to make tea?
Yes - in a mug with a teabag.

But I am skilled in the art of making proper tea in a pot: heat the pot with hot water, put in one spoon of tea leaves person and 'one for the pot', pour in water just off the boil, let brew for 3 minutes, or if you're my mum, until the tannin buildup reaches a stage where it takes the roof of your mouth off. Slurp.


3. Do you still spend your commute furtively writing slash?
Not so much this winter, although I've got back in to it since the arrival of so many tempting notebooks over Christmas. Over winter I've tended to doze in my seat with brightly coloured images of fictional characters having sex flickering through my mind like a film that has no end-- so I was thinking the slash rather than writing it down. I look so respectable as well, *cough*, no one would ever suspect they were sitting next to a well of depravity. 


4. What kind of music do you listen to while writing? (if any)
I've recently got into listening to Saiyuki  drama cds (like a radio play available on cd) in Japanese. I like the way the voice actors sound and it actually helps that I can't understand what they're saying because it's less distracting that way. Music wise I rarely listen while writing because it stops me fully concentrating, although once I really get into a story, any background noise tends to fade away.


5. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

It would be to fly, and really really fast if I wanted. Imagine how exciting life would be if you could fly everywhere!  You'd get to recognise people by the tops of their heads and I bet you'd develop a real obession for plan diagrams. I know I would.  And there'd be that amazing feeling of weightlessness and the fun of floating around on clouds.

I think the drill is now that you comment and I get to ask you questions too.

Comments

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Yes, I should have made that distinction-- my peeve applies to adults in the main, because part of growing up is having the sorts of epiphanies about your sexuality that general make it impossible for someone to not realise they've been gay all along, later on in life.

I can completely buy Harry or Ron, for example, having a sudden realisation about themselves in their early teens, or whenever. Even then, I think they'd look back on various events and see that those feelings had always been with them.