Things, You Know, Stuff
Jun. 8th, 2014 01:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
netgirl_y2k-This week I got suckered into teaching my younger sister how to drive. I think I have given the finger to more people this week than I have in ten plus years of driving, or indeed the whole rest of my life. I am kind of appalled and amazed at the number of people who think that, if someone is obviously new to driving, say because they are in a car covered with L plates, and they get flustered at a junction and stall the car, then the thing to do is rev right up behind them, flashing your lights, and holding down your horn. I mean, it's not going to fucking speed up proceedings, is it?
I've never had road rage; but I seem to have driving instructor rage.
It's going quite well. The only thing is, my sister, who has many otherwise stellar qualities, is one of those people who has difficulty accepting that she is ever in the wrong. And she will patiently explain to you why she was right, and actual, objective reality was wrong. Over the years I have learned to mostly tune these explanations out-- but, 1) it really would be better if she didn't insist on explaining these things to me when we sitting in the car trying to get onto a roundabout, and 2) you are in a toyota hatchback, and he is in an articulated lorry; this is the very definition of a might makes right situation!
-I went to see Maleficent, which I loved! I liked lots of things about it, particularly I liked that it was less than two hours long and not part one of whatever. It has become a bit of free entertainment amongst my friends, of an evening, to get me started on my genuine and lasting bitterness about Desolation of Smaug.
We went for a drink after Maleficent and I was talking away about how much I'd liked it, and how feminist retellings of fairytales were pretty much my bag, anyway. Always a bit of a risk - one of my dearest friends is a wonderful woman, kind and funny, she's prone to baking me red velvet cupcakes when she thinks I need bucking up... she also uses the word feminazi un-ironically. So I got to talking about the scene where Stefan steals Maleficent's wings, and how I thought it was a date rape analogy. I mean, I thought it was pretty obvious, he drugs her and violates her bodily autonomy, together with Maleficent's reaction when she comes round and realises what's happened. And I was accused of being a pervert for reading such things into a children's film. Not in a horrible way, really, just in a 'oh you, with your feminism and overthinking things, bless'
It was just interesting because I realised I was talking to my mates in the pub as though they were, well, you guys. It was a weird moment of inadvertent crossing the streams.
Also, I thought pervert was kind of a strong word. Many years ago we used to share thin-walled student housing. I know things about some of these people that no self respecting homosexual should know.
-I have been writing further tropey fic(lets)! I have now written 10k of tropey ridiculousness in a fortnight; let us never speak of this again.
Only Love Can Break Your Heart (LotS; Cara/Kahlan, Kahlan/Richard; 1200 words)
Is it still a soulbond AU if the soulbonds are more, er, guidelines than anything else? Also, I still can't write Cara/Kahlan without significant wailing and gnashing of the teeth over Richard. In my defense, Richard is a precious puppy.
Practice Makes Perfect (GoT; Sansa/Margaery; 2000 words)
I'm going to call this a sixth form college AU, because that way I feel better about having written what is essentially a high school AU. Also, I am ridiculously fixated on the idea of Sansa as a lesbian; as an identity, I mean, not just an excuse for femslash.
No Gravity, No Fallen Angels (Merlin; Gwen & Morgana; 1900 words)
Um, behold as an atheist attempts to write an angels & demons AU without ever alluding to god or religion!
I've never had road rage; but I seem to have driving instructor rage.
It's going quite well. The only thing is, my sister, who has many otherwise stellar qualities, is one of those people who has difficulty accepting that she is ever in the wrong. And she will patiently explain to you why she was right, and actual, objective reality was wrong. Over the years I have learned to mostly tune these explanations out-- but, 1) it really would be better if she didn't insist on explaining these things to me when we sitting in the car trying to get onto a roundabout, and 2) you are in a toyota hatchback, and he is in an articulated lorry; this is the very definition of a might makes right situation!
-I went to see Maleficent, which I loved! I liked lots of things about it, particularly I liked that it was less than two hours long and not part one of whatever. It has become a bit of free entertainment amongst my friends, of an evening, to get me started on my genuine and lasting bitterness about Desolation of Smaug.
We went for a drink after Maleficent and I was talking away about how much I'd liked it, and how feminist retellings of fairytales were pretty much my bag, anyway. Always a bit of a risk - one of my dearest friends is a wonderful woman, kind and funny, she's prone to baking me red velvet cupcakes when she thinks I need bucking up... she also uses the word feminazi un-ironically. So I got to talking about the scene where Stefan steals Maleficent's wings, and how I thought it was a date rape analogy. I mean, I thought it was pretty obvious, he drugs her and violates her bodily autonomy, together with Maleficent's reaction when she comes round and realises what's happened. And I was accused of being a pervert for reading such things into a children's film. Not in a horrible way, really, just in a 'oh you, with your feminism and overthinking things, bless'
It was just interesting because I realised I was talking to my mates in the pub as though they were, well, you guys. It was a weird moment of inadvertent crossing the streams.
Also, I thought pervert was kind of a strong word. Many years ago we used to share thin-walled student housing. I know things about some of these people that no self respecting homosexual should know.
-I have been writing further tropey fic(lets)! I have now written 10k of tropey ridiculousness in a fortnight; let us never speak of this again.
Only Love Can Break Your Heart (LotS; Cara/Kahlan, Kahlan/Richard; 1200 words)
Is it still a soulbond AU if the soulbonds are more, er, guidelines than anything else? Also, I still can't write Cara/Kahlan without significant wailing and gnashing of the teeth over Richard. In my defense, Richard is a precious puppy.
Practice Makes Perfect (GoT; Sansa/Margaery; 2000 words)
I'm going to call this a sixth form college AU, because that way I feel better about having written what is essentially a high school AU. Also, I am ridiculously fixated on the idea of Sansa as a lesbian; as an identity, I mean, not just an excuse for femslash.
No Gravity, No Fallen Angels (Merlin; Gwen & Morgana; 1900 words)
Um, behold as an atheist attempts to write an angels & demons AU without ever alluding to god or religion!
no subject
Date: 2014-06-08 06:18 pm (UTC)Yeah, I didn't think the rape metaphor was so obvious that you couldn't miss it, or even necessarily that people should have picked up on it, especially if they aren't steeped in fandom discourse. But, I thought it was definitely there, and I was surprised that my friends seemed to think that this was something I'd plucked out of my sick imagination.
Here learners have to have red "L" plates on their cars - which counterintuitively seems to make drivers be more impatient and wanky.