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wiseheartI've just realised that I've hardly posted anything else but update alerts since we came back from our holidays - which is mosty because I was having fun with the delightful ladies of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
picowrimo. It was an intense 2-months-session for me, as you could see from all the update alerts.
But there were other things happening, too, and now that I've actually survived the annual carpet washing insanity (which includes the complete emptying of various cupboards, so that they can be moved from their allotted places) I finally have both the time and the energy to pay attention to other things.
Be warned: this is going to be an ungodly long post, as I don't want to write several entries. You'll get it all in one, intimidating heap, assuming you want to read it. Hence the tags. *g*
This is something I intended to send my good friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
songfire3for weeks. And I will, I swear. I just thought I'd put it up here, too, in case one has a no longer wanted DVD gathering dust somewhere on a bookshelf, in Region 2 format. My DVD player can get skittish with copies.
I actually tried the honest way and order them via the Bestsellers English bookshop, here in town. It's not the lack of money that's the problem, you see; I don't spend more cash on DVDs than the average smoker spends on cigarettes in a week. But the folks in the bookshop didn't find half of them available through their provider. They did find about one third of what I wanted, which I ordered at once, but the others are either sold out or only available through Amazon, which doesn't deliver to bookshops.
Anyway, the ones still on the list are:
First Doctor episodes: The Chase, The Ark, The War Machines
Second Doctor episodes: The Evil of the Daleks, The Tomb of the Cybermen, Fury from the Deep, The Wheel in Spae
Fourth Doctor episodes: Shada (this was never actually shown, but a live-action version featuring Tom Baker does exist; I saw it on YouTube, but would very much like to watch it on the TV screeen, where I can really see it), Logopolis
Fifth Doctor Episodes: Castrovalva, Warriors of the Deep
I'm also looking for the 2008 movie Zygon, which doesn't have very much to do with the Doctor but has everything to do with the Zygons, which is why I'd be interested in it.
The Selection seems to be a bit eclectic, I know. But nobody can own Dr Who in its entirety, and I've picked the episodes that feature alines or companions that play a certain role in my stories... or had interesting aliens. *g*/lj-cut>
By all the obsessive writing and TV addiction, I haven't stopped reading, though. And in this case I'm not even looking for writing aids - although reading always helps with writing, of course - just for some reading pleasure. Unfortunately, these are mostly older books, so that Bestsellers often doesn't find them. So, used books are the parole of the day, as the Germans would say.
My dear friendlhun_dweller, who's gifted lots of DS9 relaunch books upon me for numerous birthdays, asked me about which other ones I'd need. I'm still trying to hunt down the parts of the series I already own in the various corners of the flat; having rearranged my book-case several times lately doesn't help. So I thought I'd turn my eyes to other fandoms that are also dear to my heart and that also have old books. *g*
Again, I'm posting this here in case anyone has copies of these books they don't need anymore and would only throw out anyway. I can offer DVDs and music CDs from Hungary in exchange as well as hand-stitched greeting cards, as our national currency is still incompatible with the rest of the world.
So, let's start with Stargate-Atlantis:
- Blood Ties by Sonny Whitelaw & Elizabeth Christensen
- Exogenesis, by Sonny Whitelaw & Elizabeth Christensen
- Halcyon by James Swallow
We continue with Andromead:
- The Broken Places by Ethlie Ann Ware & Daniel Morris
- Waystation by Steven E McDonald
- Through the Looking Glass by Joseph Sherman
- Paradise Drift by Sherwood Smith
And finally Torchwood:
- Sky Point by Phil Ford (this was the one Bestsellers could only offer as an audio book. Unfortunately, I understand things much better when I can read them.
So, and now that I've provided all my friends with ideas for possible birthday/Christmas/whaetever gifts for the next tweny or so years, lets go on to the promised fanfic ramblings. Namely,
Oh, there are exceptions. Not many, but there are. Dreamflower's Bilbo fic, for example. And one or two others, including my own ones, if I may be so immodest. But one would have expected the Tolkien archives to explode with new fics, once the first film aired. Well, it didn't happen. Not on Stories of Arda or even Axe & Bow, which is the more surprising as it's a Legolas/Gimli archive and list, and one would think the people here would be happy to write about Dwarves some more. Or the SOA people to write tons of Bilbo fics; many of the authors there are hobbit-centered writers, after all. It didn't happen.
The only archive getting tons of "Hobbit" fic is FF.Net. Well, the only one I regularly visit, that is. I still can't navigate AO3 - it confuses the Hell out of me. Anyway, the "Hobbit" fics on FF.Net are, with a few notable exceptions, divided in two categories.
One is the usual horribly written, gratutiously OOC adolescent smut (even if it *isn't* written by adolescents), including high school stuff, the wife/daughter/niece/lover/whatever of [insert character of your choice] joining the Company (otherwise known as the Mary Sue), all possible variations and permutations of bad slash, including incest, complete disgregard of canon (even where the films are considered), character rape, the total changing of the geography of Middle-earth and the other goodies. Usually, these are the stories that got hundreds of gushing reviews from similarly-minded fanpoodles.
The other sort is the so-called serious fanfic. Unfortunately, it often means that the authors take themselves more seriously than the source material, be it the Book (with alarmingly diminishing rate) or the films (unfortunately, as they are also guilty of canon rape, more and more often). For me, the most annoying aspect of these "serious" fics is the gratutious use of Neo-Khuzdul, as provided for zealots for the taking by The Dwarrow Scholar.
Never mind that Tolkien, albeit first considered, eventually rejected the idea of using the word "Dwarrow" for Dwarves. Never mind that - again, according to Tolkien - the Dwarves mostly spoke Westron and Khuzdul was slowly but steadily becoming the language of rituals and storytelling. Never mind that it's utterly idiotic to insert Khuzdul words into a sentence when they're speaking Westron; and when they're speaking Khuzdul anyway, why only highlighting *some* of the words, instead of giving the entire sentence in Khuzdul (of course few other people than David Salo could do that, and those people neither write nor read fanfic, as a rule).
Yes, I know I've already ranted about this phenomenon. Repeatedly. I was every bit as annoyed when, in the wake of the LotR films, every other fic was stuffed with unnecessary Sindarin or Quenya words - or what the author thought were Elvish words. But even if they were, what is the bloody point? To make the dialogue seem more realistic? Nobody would ever speak like that!
I grew up bilingual and often speak German with my mother, but when we do, then we speak German, not some twisted mix of German and Hungarian, because that would be idiotic. The only ones in our family who did that were the children of my cousin, until the age of 3 or 4, while they still had difficulties keeping their two mother tongues apart, but even they grew out of it.
I can justify the using of ellon and elleth for male and female Elves if someone finds elf-man or elf-woman a contradiction. I can accept that. But why millennia-old Elves would feel the urge to mention their parents or grandparents in Sindarin or Quenya while they are otherwise speakign Westron is beyond me. We didn't say "Omilein" to Granny when we were speaking in Hungarian to her, and we're considerably younger, right?
Okay, I'm done. Sorry for the rant. Originally, I just wanted to discuss my sorrow about there not being any good "Hobbit" fics. Although, considering what an utter sithe the second film was, I'm not surprised that few good authors would still find themselves inspired.
The really sad thing is, though, that the visuals are so strong that a lot of people took them for canon. I got a review lately where someone asked me why my Lindir didn't have dark hair. Well, sorry, Peter Jackson, my Lindir was there first.
picowrimo. It was an intense 2-months-session for me, as you could see from all the update alerts. But there were other things happening, too, and now that I've actually survived the annual carpet washing insanity (which includes the complete emptying of various cupboards, so that they can be moved from their allotted places) I finally have both the time and the energy to pay attention to other things.
Be warned: this is going to be an ungodly long post, as I don't want to write several entries. You'll get it all in one, intimidating heap, assuming you want to read it. Hence the tags. *g*
This is something I intended to send my good friend
songfire3for weeks. And I will, I swear. I just thought I'd put it up here, too, in case one has a no longer wanted DVD gathering dust somewhere on a bookshelf, in Region 2 format. My DVD player can get skittish with copies. I actually tried the honest way and order them via the Bestsellers English bookshop, here in town. It's not the lack of money that's the problem, you see; I don't spend more cash on DVDs than the average smoker spends on cigarettes in a week. But the folks in the bookshop didn't find half of them available through their provider. They did find about one third of what I wanted, which I ordered at once, but the others are either sold out or only available through Amazon, which doesn't deliver to bookshops.
Anyway, the ones still on the list are:
First Doctor episodes: The Chase, The Ark, The War Machines
Second Doctor episodes: The Evil of the Daleks, The Tomb of the Cybermen, Fury from the Deep, The Wheel in Spae
Fourth Doctor episodes: Shada (this was never actually shown, but a live-action version featuring Tom Baker does exist; I saw it on YouTube, but would very much like to watch it on the TV screeen, where I can really see it), Logopolis
Fifth Doctor Episodes: Castrovalva, Warriors of the Deep
I'm also looking for the 2008 movie Zygon, which doesn't have very much to do with the Doctor but has everything to do with the Zygons, which is why I'd be interested in it.
The Selection seems to be a bit eclectic, I know. But nobody can own Dr Who in its entirety, and I've picked the episodes that feature alines or companions that play a certain role in my stories... or had interesting aliens. *g*/lj-cut>
By all the obsessive writing and TV addiction, I haven't stopped reading, though. And in this case I'm not even looking for writing aids - although reading always helps with writing, of course - just for some reading pleasure. Unfortunately, these are mostly older books, so that Bestsellers often doesn't find them. So, used books are the parole of the day, as the Germans would say.
My dear friend
lhun_dweller, who's gifted lots of DS9 relaunch books upon me for numerous birthdays, asked me about which other ones I'd need. I'm still trying to hunt down the parts of the series I already own in the various corners of the flat; having rearranged my book-case several times lately doesn't help. So I thought I'd turn my eyes to other fandoms that are also dear to my heart and that also have old books. *g*Again, I'm posting this here in case anyone has copies of these books they don't need anymore and would only throw out anyway. I can offer DVDs and music CDs from Hungary in exchange as well as hand-stitched greeting cards, as our national currency is still incompatible with the rest of the world.
So, let's start with Stargate-Atlantis:
- Blood Ties by Sonny Whitelaw & Elizabeth Christensen
- Exogenesis, by Sonny Whitelaw & Elizabeth Christensen
- Halcyon by James Swallow
We continue with Andromead:
- The Broken Places by Ethlie Ann Ware & Daniel Morris
- Waystation by Steven E McDonald
- Through the Looking Glass by Joseph Sherman
- Paradise Drift by Sherwood Smith
And finally Torchwood:
- Sky Point by Phil Ford (this was the one Bestsellers could only offer as an audio book. Unfortunately, I understand things much better when I can read them.
So, and now that I've provided all my friends with ideas for possible birthday/Christmas/whaetever gifts for the next tweny or so years, lets go on to the promised fanfic ramblings. Namely,
Oh, there are exceptions. Not many, but there are. Dreamflower's Bilbo fic, for example. And one or two others, including my own ones, if I may be so immodest. But one would have expected the Tolkien archives to explode with new fics, once the first film aired. Well, it didn't happen. Not on Stories of Arda or even Axe & Bow, which is the more surprising as it's a Legolas/Gimli archive and list, and one would think the people here would be happy to write about Dwarves some more. Or the SOA people to write tons of Bilbo fics; many of the authors there are hobbit-centered writers, after all. It didn't happen.
The only archive getting tons of "Hobbit" fic is FF.Net. Well, the only one I regularly visit, that is. I still can't navigate AO3 - it confuses the Hell out of me. Anyway, the "Hobbit" fics on FF.Net are, with a few notable exceptions, divided in two categories.
One is the usual horribly written, gratutiously OOC adolescent smut (even if it *isn't* written by adolescents), including high school stuff, the wife/daughter/niece/lover/whatever of [insert character of your choice] joining the Company (otherwise known as the Mary Sue), all possible variations and permutations of bad slash, including incest, complete disgregard of canon (even where the films are considered), character rape, the total changing of the geography of Middle-earth and the other goodies. Usually, these are the stories that got hundreds of gushing reviews from similarly-minded fanpoodles.
The other sort is the so-called serious fanfic. Unfortunately, it often means that the authors take themselves more seriously than the source material, be it the Book (with alarmingly diminishing rate) or the films (unfortunately, as they are also guilty of canon rape, more and more often). For me, the most annoying aspect of these "serious" fics is the gratutious use of Neo-Khuzdul, as provided for zealots for the taking by The Dwarrow Scholar.
Never mind that Tolkien, albeit first considered, eventually rejected the idea of using the word "Dwarrow" for Dwarves. Never mind that - again, according to Tolkien - the Dwarves mostly spoke Westron and Khuzdul was slowly but steadily becoming the language of rituals and storytelling. Never mind that it's utterly idiotic to insert Khuzdul words into a sentence when they're speaking Westron; and when they're speaking Khuzdul anyway, why only highlighting *some* of the words, instead of giving the entire sentence in Khuzdul (of course few other people than David Salo could do that, and those people neither write nor read fanfic, as a rule).
Yes, I know I've already ranted about this phenomenon. Repeatedly. I was every bit as annoyed when, in the wake of the LotR films, every other fic was stuffed with unnecessary Sindarin or Quenya words - or what the author thought were Elvish words. But even if they were, what is the bloody point? To make the dialogue seem more realistic? Nobody would ever speak like that!
I grew up bilingual and often speak German with my mother, but when we do, then we speak German, not some twisted mix of German and Hungarian, because that would be idiotic. The only ones in our family who did that were the children of my cousin, until the age of 3 or 4, while they still had difficulties keeping their two mother tongues apart, but even they grew out of it.
I can justify the using of ellon and elleth for male and female Elves if someone finds elf-man or elf-woman a contradiction. I can accept that. But why millennia-old Elves would feel the urge to mention their parents or grandparents in Sindarin or Quenya while they are otherwise speakign Westron is beyond me. We didn't say "Omilein" to Granny when we were speaking in Hungarian to her, and we're considerably younger, right?
Okay, I'm done. Sorry for the rant. Originally, I just wanted to discuss my sorrow about there not being any good "Hobbit" fics. Although, considering what an utter sithe the second film was, I'm not surprised that few good authors would still find themselves inspired.
The really sad thing is, though, that the visuals are so strong that a lot of people took them for canon. I got a review lately where someone asked me why my Lindir didn't have dark hair. Well, sorry, Peter Jackson, my Lindir was there first.
