A recent conversation on Twitter about the trend of advertising (romance?) novels simply by their tropes got me thinking about how I choose what I want to read, what gets me interested, and how different it is for books vs fanfic. And so, here I am writing this post, which honestly is of interest to exactly one person (me!).
Read more “How I choose what books or fics to read (spoiler: it’s different!)”Every time I try to start blogging again, I do this…
Anyway, the last three posts are fairly representative, if not in that order. I did get into Downton Abbey (or rather, into Thommy: Thomas/Jimmy) for awhile, although mainly back during the original seasons.
Then I moved abroad to do a master’s degree, came back, started working freelance, and wasn’t as actively in fandom for awhile.
And then the Good Omens tv show happened, and I watched it more times than I can remember, reread the book, and spent a good year and a half reading mostly Aziraphale/Crowley fanfic (and by this I mean, yes, to the exclusion of published books).
Sometime around that same time, I also (re)joined WoT fandom, mainly on Twitter, in expectation of the tv show. It was a very fun couple of years, but then the show came out, I watched the first two eps, didn’t feel like watching more, and sort of fell out of WoT fandom (given that conversation revolved around the show at the time).
Along the way, a Tokyo Babylon anime was announced, I joined a discord for TB, and shall we say rediscovered my CLAMP roots. I even started writing Touya/Yukito fanfic again.
But then, in December 2020 I read Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS), and since then, well, it’s taken over my fandom life. I’ve branched out into other danmei, but MDZS is still what’s fueling my imagination.
To be more exact… Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang is.
In the past year I’ve maybe read two or three books, because I’ve been too busy reading Good Omens fanfiction. This is what I’m reading this week.
Also, this may become a regular thing. It will always be Ineffable Husbands, because this is one case where it really is a “One True Pairing”.
By indieninja92. Ongoing, author says it’s all written.
Post-canon. Things have progressed but not enough. Crowley got Aziraphale a smartphone two years before and loaded it with apps. Aziraphale is now on Grindr, and starts sexting with a mysterious stranger, who is of course Crowley. Neither realize who they’re texting with.
My favorite thing about this is the scenes when Crowley and Aziraphale hang out during the day (and which leave both with an itch to scratch at night).
By theplatinthehat.
The Doctor has disappeared in the Tardis. Aziraphale has disappeared from the bookshop. Crowley and Donna Noble team up to find them. Donna is absolutely magnificent.
By hanap / @ineffableomens. Ongoing, updates on Monday. Just started.
AU. Crowley and Aziraphale misinterpret Agnes Nutter’s prophecy and are turned human but lose their memories. They keep living the same days, but in completely different lives and always find each other. I think it’s a glitch and not the intended punishment.
Anyway, I love timey wimey shenanigans!
Hey, first blog post in just YEARS!
So. Finally got to watch the Downton Abbey movie. Thoughts (mostly Barrow-centric) below.
Read more “About Thomas and the Downton Abbey movie”
So The Wheel of Time is going to be a TV series.
There is no other story that I have as much history with. I started reading it over 25 years ago, when I was 13. It was my Harry Potter. I read it through all of high school and university and then, like many people, I took an extended break at around book 9, before coming back two years ago, rereading the whole thing, and going on to finish it. More than that, The Wheel of Time was my introduction to online fandom, back at the old WoTism boards. In a way, I might not be quite who or what I am today if not for The Wheel of Time.
Read more “Expectation and dread, or “The Wheel of Time” is going to be a tv series”…because it’s been A LONG time since I’ve kept a blog.
Current series I’m watching actively right now:
So about three days ago, I noticed that Caprica is on Netflix…
I have now watched up to episode 5, “There is Another Sky” (which is, by the way, my favorite so far for reasons I’ll get into). Mostly I have to admit that the ideal time to watch would have been back in 2011, after I marathoned all of Battlestar Galactica in like 2 months and the finer details of the BSG universe were fresh in my mind. On the other hand, I certainly knew about Caprica back then and could have watched, but chose instead to nurse the Galactica-shaped hole that BSG left in my affections. This was in large part due to the fact that I knew that Caprica was very different in flavor to BSG.
And it is. I loved the grittiness of Battlestar Galactica, I loved the desperation of it all. I also think that it was able to make its points about racism, terrorism and all the rest of it a lot more elegantly than Caprica has managed so far. It’s of course nothing new to say that science fiction has always made points about the human condition allegorically, but I’ll say that it’s very interesting to see that making the racial “other” look and feel latino/mediterranean (and by the way, I myself am latina) makes its points more specific, less universal, and in the end less effective than making the “other” simply be cylons.
All that being said, I am enjoying it, particularly for the world-building. I have to say though, much as I appreciate the effort being put into building the Tauran culture, I can’t help but feel that it feels a littleretconny, in that I don’t actually recall it ever being stated that Adama was Tauran, or it being any sort of big deal… which it certainly should be, given the revelations in Caprica.
I also can’t help thinking that it’s very odd for a third-generation Tauran to look like Lee Adama. Even taking into account that William Adama’s ex-wife was blonde and presumably Caprican, somehow I don’t think Adama himself was likely to have any recessive lilly-white blond genes to pass on to his kid. Which I freely admit is me being too nitpicky and overthinking it. And in any case, it was always unlikely that someone who looks like Edward James Olmos would produce a Jamie Bamber.
Aside from all that, the reason “There Is Another Sky” has been my favorite episode so far, is that I find Tamara’s story a lot more compelling than Zoe’s. Zoe knew going in that she was an avatar, and despite scenes such as “Do I look male to you?” she really doesn’t seem to be having that much trouble adjusting to her robotic body. Maybe it’s the actress. On the other hand, Tamara did not know or understand what was happening, and I find that a lot more intriguing. I like the tantilizing little hint about the train bombing, and how it made her pause and troubled her a moment, before putting it out of her mind. If anything I wish we could have seen more evidence of her doubts and suspicions (if she had any) as it became more and more obvious that something was seriously wrong. And I did like the scene where she finally finds out the truth; I like to think that her reaction shows that a part of her suspected or knew, but she’d refused to contemplate it.
So I certainly hope that Caprica deals more with Tamara going forward.
And I kind of want to rewatch Battlestar Galactica now