thedeadparrot

Warning: not entirely coherent rant directed at other internet forums ahead.

I stumbled across a recent discussion on /r/books about hating on Twilight on reddit (which is a shitty place in general. don’t go there if you don’t enjoy watching white guys circlejerk each other about how awesome they are).

This conversations is mostly tossing out old arguments about how the writing is terrible and how the fanbase is terrible, blah blah blah, and I’ve been thinking about that lately, about how many people trot out the "but think of the children and the TwiMoms!" argument.

Personally, I feel like Twilight is objectively bad in terms of quality(though I've only seen the movies and have not read any of the books) and that it does sort of try to frame Edward’s seriously creepy as shit behavior as being rilly, rilly in luv u gaiz! Seriously, that shit is creepy and not okay.

However, I think that the fact that it is so creepy and not okay is a crowbar that Twilight haters (many of them male) can use to bludgeon people who don’t care about or even defend Twilight. This also ties into the whole line of thinking about ‘I hate it because it’s popular with teenage girls! Teenage girls are stupid!’ (Like how people whine about Dan Brown, but with extra misogyny!)

Apparently, teenage girls are too stupid to realize that Edward doesn’t exist and that guys who, I dunno, take the engine out of your vehicle because they don’t approve of your friends, are kinda abusive. And of course, teenage boys don’t get any harmful messages about sex or girls from popular culture from their movies, music, or television shows. Not from anything like Superbad, 300, the ever so popular Manic Pixie Dream Girl (warning: tvtropes). It would be so difficult to rail against those things (along with other harmful messages to teenage girls) and the culture that perpetuates them! And besides, isn’t that moment where the white guys kill the evil, sort of flaming, brown guys in 300 really awesome? C’mon, you have to admit that the cinematography is great!

I am really sick of this double standard where things that are popular amongst girls (in ways that dudes don’t expect or aren’t used to) are held up to a higher standard than things that are popular amongst boys (because boys will be boys, amirite?). I don’t see long ass lectures about why it’s creepy to try to center a plot around getting girls drunk in order to have sex with them outside feminist/progressive spaces, and yet everyone wants to call Twilight out on its shit everywhere?

I don’t know if it’s concern trolling or something else, but these days, I generally roll my eyes when people start trotting out the ‘but it’s BAD FOR YOU’ line of reasoning for having such a hateboner Twilight. Mostly, I hear, ‘but I FIND TEENAGE GIRLS LIKING THINGS UPSETTING’ instead.

Seriously, dudes, just let it go. We know it’s shitty and sexist and fucked up. If your internet feminist activism begins and ends with Twilight, I am seriously going to question your motives for hating on it.

So this fic just went past 20k words, and I am so tired of it, but I am so close to the finish line! Editing this is going to be a really big pain in the ass, but I am looking forward to it. Only three scenes left! Three! I can do this!

This year I ended up writing a lot of words. So many words. I'm glad I did, though. The average length of one of my fics is getting longer, which I hope is a good thing. Thematically, this year was all about TSN, and mostly about the mafia AU.

( the fic )

( the meme itself )

Title: pieces form the whole
Fandom: The Social Network
Pairing: Mark/Eduardo
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2,600
Summary: His Dark Materials AU/fusion-ish thing. Mark is an obsessive workaholic, which suits Eduardo just fine. It makes Eduardo feel like he needs to keep up with him, work harder because Mark won't try to distract him. Alochka keeps herself busy while Mark is working, too, spinning webs on the edge of Mark's desk, in the corners of Mark's window.
Notes: I was brainstorming what sorts of daemons I thought Mark and Eduardo would have, and this is a small character sketch based on that universe. Many thanks to merisunshine36 for the beta and sounding board and to ninhursag for the extra brainstorming assist.

( pieces form the whole )

I'm still a little woozy and jetlagged, and I haven't even unpacked my suitcase (HA, WHAT IS THAT EVEN.), but I do have pictures from my trip and some commentary.

( picspam + food porn and commentary )

I just finished The Magician King, and now I am sort of annoyed and also Have Thoughts.

( Spoilers )

I didn't end up signing up for yuletide this year, which makes me feel kind of sad, because I do love it a lot and it's one of those fannish challenges where it's really easy to get swept up in the energy of it.

I might pick up a pinch hit or two if they look exciting.

Meh.

I have a draft of fic! I just need to type it up and edit the shit out of it and get it betaed. I don't know if I'll finish before the next ep airs on Wednesday, but I really want to! If I'd been around this weekend, I'd probably have a typed version already, but I was up to other nonsense.

Mostly motivated by fannish psychosis (as dubbed by M, who is usually right about these things), merisunshine36, ninhursag, and I went to go see Asuncion in New York City. The weather was gorgeous, and the food was great, and we even got to have lunch with azephirin. All that was awesome.

The play? Not so much.

( thoughts about things )

HOLY SHIT, THAT EPISODE OF REVENGE. HOLY SHIT.

I really want this show to have a fandom, you guys! It's really gay! Nolan is everything fandom wants in a character! He has chemistry with everything! Emily is so badass and awesome and also has lots of chemistry with everything! They know how to write genuinely nice guys! There is fucking over of rich people!

I'm going to go try to write fic, but ugh, I have such a hard time writing a lot without an active fandom around squeeing and talking a lot and writing lots of other fic to enable me.

REVENNNNNNNGE.

Bleh. I've been having trouble writing lately, mostly out of, I dunno, a lack of commitment and interest. I miss writing! It gave me such pleasing endorphin hits.

I had this sort of vague idea for a Good Will Hunting AU. Mark would, of course, be Will, the genius from the wrong side of the tracks with the sharp tongue and the chip on his shoulder. Dustin can be Chuckie, the hilarious sidekick character who is bad at picking up chicks. Eduardo can be the confused Harvard girlfriend. Sean can be the psychology prof. Peter Theil can be the douchey MIT math prof. The Winklevii are, of course, like them apples. It all works so well! Alas, I tried to write pieces of it, and I'm just not feeling the story as a whole. It'd take a lot to adapt it so that Mark's character could fit into Will's place in the narrative, and I just don't care enough to put the work in.

I went back and reread some older fic in fandoms I haven't really read in a while. It's kind of amazing to go back and look at your ~influences~ and see how they hold up. Pretty damn well, if I do say so myself.

Still enjoying Revenge! It feels like they're still setting stuff up, but it also feels like they know exactly where they're going and how they're going to get there. I really like Daniel as a character, and that's a tough act to pull. Actually, I like all of the characters except Declan. That kid needs to DIAF.

Have somewhat added Vampire Diaries to my slate of TV watching. It's trashy and fun and much better put together than True Blood, as crazy as that sounds. It's like not having an HBO budget is forcing them to actually rely on characterization and plot instead of whatever gimmick they've decided to come up with for the season.