random ranting

[burntcopper]

Am avoiding the tv. We have used the twitter tag #activatethequeen. I'll stop wincing in a minute and prepare to sacrifice the weatherman for electoral reform and another election in six months.

In the meantime, to calm my nerves, I'll rant about fanfic tropes instead.

Have discovered that the one that pisses me off the most? It's not rape. It's not ultra-violence. It's not really bad h/c. It's not 'I have read about cancer so i will make character x suffer through the whole experience in full medical detail'. Nope. Turns out to be eating disorders.

Seriously. WHY? Is it that you want them to suffer delicately and prettily without the blood and pain of violence? It's the new h/c, it must be. with added route to salvation if everyone around them loves them enough and they *finally learn to love themselves. :smacks the authors doing this: If this was the 19th century, you'd be bloody writing the characters with TB, only that's got no way out. But they can survive for years coughing delicately...

I have read decent mental disorder fic. I have seen really damn plausible mental disorder fic. Often written as horror story. The really good ones leave a gaping hole in you. I have yet to see a fucking plausible eating disorder (which yes, is a mental disorder too) fic. And stunningly, the characters they *give* eating disorders aren't even the ones you could handwave as having an eating disorder since the actors now look like skeletons - or are stated to starve themselves in canon.

ARRRRRGH.

Second, unrelated: 'reel_insertfandomhere' challenges are rather popular, where you adapt a film and create a poster or fic. Some have been really, really fucking good. Take beloved characters, insert into beloved screwball comedy/action helmer/horror story. What's not to like, seeing how, say, the crew of Serenity would turn out if you'd chucked them into Pirates of the Caribbean? It's an AU with set rules. Star Trek loved doing it on the show.

Sometimes they just take the world - there was an amazing Bladerunner adaptation (WITH TRAILER, HOMG) which took fandom x's characters, chucked them into the world, and then went to infinity and beyond with the plot.

Sometimes they pretty faithfully follow the plot of the film but keep the fandom characters intact. Admittedly it helps if the original fandom is sci-fi/historical so there's a grand tradition of modern-day/this world AUs. There's a good Merlin version of The Proposal. it's even funnier when you see which characters they've decided to use for the cameos.

What you *don't* do, under any circumstances, is have the characters extensively quote the film lines. You might as well have just done a search/replace with the names. in fact, I've seen one I could have sworn just did with Some Like it Hot in reel_torchwood.

I'm now going to hide from reality and watch more SCC.

Comments

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I have yet to see a fucking plausible eating disorder

I have, but I'd sit through three days of non-stop David Cameron footage before I'd willingly revisit that or indeed any other eating disorder fic. Personal preference.

Just depressed myself with that fictional choice.

[peterjevans.livejournal.com]

Am avoiding the tv.

You and me both. I’m afraid that if I catch a glimpse of the news, it will be just in time to see David Cameron’s shiny pink face split apart from within as a chittering, skeletal Thatcher-thing rips free and hauls its horrible way out into the light…

As for the anorexfic, I’m not even going to look. One abyss too many.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

I am just hoping like hell that the Lib Dems will be able to moderate them. At least we've got rid of some of the tax plans.

[peterjevans.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed.

Just hoping that the uncomfortable Grima / Saruman vibe I’m getting off this whole situation doesn’t prove true.

[jovieve.livejournal.com]

How are you liking SCC? And where are you in the series at this point?

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Just seen the 1920s ep.

I am ridiculously in love with this series.

[jovieve.livejournal.com]

Was that the one with the terminator in the wall?

You should be coming up on one of my absolute favourite episodes. Keep me posted on where you're at so we can squee together.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Yeppers, terminator in wall we can has.

Just done the one where the baby's born who's going to be the immunity pill for a virus, and the one where Sarah goes to the UFO convention/Riley breaks down. The baby one? good and interesting, especially the family stuff. UFO bit really didn't work too well, but watching Riley's relationship with Jessie was very interesting. (also, rather glad that they've now thrown in the point that Jessie is from Australia which explains the actress not yet mastering the US accent)

[jovieve.livejournal.com]

I remember the UFO. I don't remember the baby. I'm clearly going to have to re-watch. You're really damn close to my favourite episode, but I don't want to say any more for fear of spoiling stuff. Just keep me posted on where you're at.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

the factory has blown up and they went to the funeral of the town. kind of... not so good.

[eggblue.livejournal.com]

I recently wrote a film-based AU fic of my own and I haven't posted it yet, but you mentioned quoting lines from the film and this very issue has been on my mind for a few days. So I wanted to take advantage of your rant, if I could :)

I decided to use several lines from the film 'A.I.' and in some places mini-speeches that to me are very striking and famous. The rest of the fic is all mine, but in the moment it seemed reasonable to include quotes from the screenplay where I did. To anyone who has seen the film, the quotes would be very obvious. But to anyone who has not seen the film, the quotes would seem as if they were mine, perhaps. Which is unfortunate. It's definitely not a cut-and-paste, but it's there. Do you think it is alright to include famous lines from a film? Or do you think it's all in danger of being a case of plagiarism? I guess what I'm asking is, what do you consider "extensive" quoting? (I couldn't find the exact fic you were talking about.)

I'm just asking for your opinion, if you're willing to rant more :) I don't know of any fan consensus on this topic. Thanks!

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

a few quotes are fine, and can often make the experience more enjoyable - anticipation to see how they'll pull it off, but what I've seen is nearly full-on cut and paste. Like a screenplay with added description.

[eggblue.livejournal.com]

Thanks for helping me out! Sorry for the awkward comment, but I appreciate it.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Pardon belated comment from a complete stranger, but one suggestion might be to put an 'author's notes' thing at the end where you credit the particular speeches, if they are few enough to do so? Sort of, "Bob's comments about the ineffable nature of trees were quoted from This Film" or whatever? If there are too many/too short quotes for this to be sensible, just a blanket thing in the disclaimer of "there are several direct quotations from This Film throughout the fic, which are solely intended as a tribute and I make no claim to them blahdiblah..." I think the main issue with plagiarism (cf Cassie Clare) is when the author passes off stuff as her own, or just allows other people to think it's hers and takes the praise without disclaimer, which you clearly aren't trying to do, so it sounds fine to me. Burntcopper's rant sounds less about the plagiarism issue per se, to me, than just about fic ending up as rather boring and pointless!

[eggblue.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay! Yes, there's no excuse for boring pointless fic, I agree ;)

I am definitely putting a disclaimer in the beginning of my fic, and crediting the screenplay writers by name. It seems the fairest way to go.

Burntcopper was nice enough to let me hijack her journal for a moment, but I do appreciate your comments - I've been spazzing about this much too much, and you make me feel better, so thank you :)