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]

Good point - angsting over sexual orientation has got to come a poor second to having to fight for your life everyday. And with the Saiyuki boys, it's not so much sexuality that's an issue, but their own different variations on being emotionally damaged that's the issue, I think. For example, I can't imagine Sanzo worrying about it being a man or a woman he was attractewd too, rather that he'd hate feeling that way about anyone, male or female. Gojyo - well, he seems pretty broadminded, even if he does overcompensate!

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Having Sanzou angst over 'OMG I've never liked a boy before!' is kinda jumping the gun when Sanzou is going to have problems with not actively hating other people.

Gojyou has always struck me as extremely androgynous, to the point where I don't even see the 'he's trying too hard to like girls, therefore he must be gay' rationalisation that crops up so frequently. Gojyou's a hedonist. Would he have problems getting off with guys? Nope. Would he have problems being on the bottom? Well, that I can see, but the bottom line is, he might negotiate, but I doubt he'd turn down an orgasm outright just because of the sex of his partner.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

From the clues we get given about Gojyo's life before he met Hakkai in vol 5, like his friend coming on to Sanzo; that Banri thought he might be asking Gojyo for sex men, and the implication that he and Banri lived together, I think it's fair to speculate that he's bisexual anyway or at least that being gay or bisexual was commonplace in the sort of society he moves in.

I don't know if I would call him a true hedonist though- true, he's a very sensual person (oral gratification, anyone?), but his pursuit of pleasure always seems slightly desperate, as though he's really wanting something else. As he says himself, sex is a way to get through a lonely night and is substitute for something he's never had - love. He knows that but seems scared of facing up to it - I think his constant sleeping with women is part of that.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

"Gojyo for sex men,"

Just ignore that 'men' in there. My fingers are random today!