The Farmstead

So I've been busy and failing to be online and not receiving comments on some posts and not paying attention and nobody told me, ultimately, that someone on seasonal_spuffy made art based on a passage from a fic I'd written years ago, To Apprehend Air. Namely the amazingly talented boiiko!!!

http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/542235.html

http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/542235.html

http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/542235.html

Go and see!! As I say on it: I love the colours and how stark it is, as well as the way that Buffy is looking at Spike's head and Spike is looking at his hands, as though Spike can't recognise himself while Buffy can't do anything but see who he is. It's all just perfect.

I feel like such a cad for not seeing this when it was posted nearly a week ago. :( I fail.

Yes, it's a post that's not about me! Now, I am a very bad lapsed gen reader, through the fault of my own Spuffyism and some sort of years-old border conflict or something or too many fics that at one time seemed to decide it was OK to have Spike and Buffy post S5 in the same locale and never have a conversation and/or forget everything that had ever happened.

Anyway, such are my issues - but! More fool me, because you should all go and read this fic:

Green Smoke and Empty Mirrors by apprenticebard

I saw familiar faces in the kudos, because I am behind the times, but I am reccing it anyway!! It's a long Spike and Dawn story, set just at the end of Angel S5, when Dawn gets wind of what's going down and Andrew knows Spike's there, so they head off to figure stuff out. Amazing cameos from Angel and Illyria; Giles is kinder than I've ever managed to write him post S7 (and so lovely for it); all these ace Spike-Dawn flashbacks which give you a Dawn who is cleverer and more cynical and appropriately younger than often she gets portrayed. And obviously Buffy would have got in the way, but she's off and unreachable somewhere, so the fic makes sense and gets to not be about Spuffy without any chinks in the characterisation. And Spike is all Spike-like. It's great, basically. And did I mention there were flashbacks and a dragon and Illyria?

OK, people, one day I will shut the hell up about my fic, but as much I want to act like the coolest cucumber in the universe and live out that Romantic myth where the story comes through me to you in this perfectly realised form, it has also become clear that chatting to people after the final chapter that there were things that feel neglected, and this rings true with what I wanted from the fic and why the final part was originally delayed anyway (some emergency surgery I did wasn't quite reconstructive enough!!). But! The final stitches are a-go-go and should be half done tonight, and depending how productive I am tomorrow things should be posted in some magically subtle way tomorrow evening, because I have a plan to bastardise my post about the Iliad into a conveniently dove-tailed extra chapter when things are shuffled backwards and forwards. And then I will produce a carefully managed spoiler-tagged explanation of where there are new things, so anyone who has read may find themselves appropriately redirected. Of course, anyone who's finished and is happy, it doesn't matter!!! But now I know what I know I am aware that if I don't fix this I will greatly dislike myself in six months time and won't be able to get back into the fic.

So, I suppose what I am saying to you is that if you haven't started (and would like to start), you may like to wait a couple of days. However, things will only be altered from Chapter 12 onwards, so there's actually a lot of words to read if you would like to begin. The, er, myth of flawless publication will return at the end of the week. I dunno what the hell I'm going to say to people on AO3.

And I'm being crap with comments too now. All virtue will return, I promise!!!! And then I'll focus solely on the other book I'm supposed I write this summer!

People, I'm sorry. I've been shit on toast recently. But I had a very, super busy week last week and this week I have good news, because I believe I have finished a draft of my S7 novel! bogwitch has to read the second half of it and I have to fix this bit in the middle and then generally make it all shiny, but watch this space. It may even be I don't post it all at once like a fool! Though the chapters are quite long.

Because I can't really be arsed to dig into it, but apparently Joss has been chased off Twitter by The Feminists, who it seems were no longer to be bought off by Joss being Joss and writing retrograde claptrap but nonetheless having the women punch people while doing it. And then there's a side narrative about the Marvel execs ruined his creative vision, which may or may not be related. I know many of us are Joss fans but at some point I actually started hating him, so I'm finding myself unbelieeeeeeeeeeeeevably amused!!!!!!!!!! Has the world woken up to his poor little baby auteur games? Have mainstream standards for women's plots actually managed to shift in the last twenty years? Is this the start of the revolution? Or will the fanboys just take this as another reason to act like dicks?

Not even drunk. But this is hilarious. No, I haven't seen the Avengers and don't plan to... Spoil me however!

ETA: This is quite interesting, and I think raises an important point about the sheer volume of messages about Avengers AoU to Joss - it makes you question if whether this was really a hounding that can be compared to that orchestrated against much less major figures. It also seems like the Whedon line on Twitter is that it's part of his job, and when the job is done he generally leaves it alone. Not trying to excuse anybody's behaviour, but I'm starting to see this slightly as another pitched battle between the stans and the haters, with the casus belli (as usual!) a rather ambiguous event...

ETA2: Fab conversation people; I will be back this evening. Just going to add that the man has spoken. From which we learn that people shouldn't blame the critics, for one will always be cursed for one's art and daring to have a political point of view, even if those militant feminists do actually generally bring other feminists down because if Joss says he's a feminist then he will always be helping the cause no matter what. It's backhanded graciousness for everyone!

So, the last couple of weeks have been slightly underblogged... It was my birthday yesterday (thank you all for the good wishes!!!), which involved a return to the parents' homestead and a nice lunch, including pudding wine, the leftovers of which is calling my name from the fridge. It was however, also an hour too short, glad as I am about the clocks going forward (light! Till 7.30 in the evening!! Even on horrible cold and gloomy days like this one!!), and also rainy. But never mind!

I also managed to graduate from my PhD last weekend, finally (after submitting last June), so I am now a Doctor! Updating the world is a pain in the arse, so I mostly haven't bothered, but I did buy a mattress last week, and when the man asked me if I was a Miss or a Mrs I got to say the immortal line of 'Erm, it's actually Dr...'. I was then told that I looked quite young for a doctor, but I don't care. The tyranny of Miss has ended and the great world of joy has begun. I must tell the bank. Not sure when.

The painting of my flat is also complete - and by the end of next week it may even be the case that there is some useful bits of furniture in it. So I am rather happy.

I have committed to Seasonal Spuffy but am not sure about my ability to come up with anything (sing me a new one, they say!). I had one idea, but I don't think it's going anywhere, and then another idea that bogwitch helped with which is very silly, and I am going to see where I get with that, though I fear I am not writing humorously enough with it at the moment. (Humour! Where did you go???) There's no reason why I can't produce a story and I want to produce a story. I shall have to figure out the Spuffy of it as I go along, like I always did when I just came up with a random premise and went with it. So there. Watch this space.

So, I have been very entertained by this MBTI meme. Partly because I was always entertained by it generally, partly because this time I finally worked out what the heck was going on with the functions aspect of the whole lark. This page says something about it, but the basic thing is that the personality types are all based on the different ways that the four lettered attributes interrelate. (The Wikipedia page on each type in general gives some info about this.)

But the interesting thing is that I was googling, and managed to find someone's blog where they explained the different functions (as the dominant part of people's personalities) through Buffy characters. Et voila:

http://anyankas.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-explaining-the-8-functions/

This person seems to have a nice blog and it is interesting (and if I know Wordpress they're going to get a pingback, so hi! I like your blog). But I am not sure I agree on their interpretations of the characters (and you act like you're shocked!). Their Buffy is an ESFP, based on the principles of horror stereotypes and Buffy's supposedly dominant Se (extroverted sensing, ie. uncanny awareness of the world around her). Now, I would never say that Buffy doesn't do extroverted sensing, but I think the thing that most occupies the way she goes through life is far more Fe (extroverted feeling ie. the desire to produce social harmony, as they have Joyce representing). Really, I think she has to be ENFJ (Fe-Ni–Se–Ti; driven towards social harmony based on gut instincts, increasingly supported by an awareness of the physical world and, god, finally, if really necessary, the application of rational judgement).

As for Spike... It has to be ISFP (Fi–Se-Ni–Te; driven by internal feelings based on sensory experience of the world around, increasingly supported by gut instincts and finally, when push comes to shove, sorting shit out.)

Anyway, these are the blogger's impressions of the other Buffy and Angel characters (they have Spike as ISTP - you just can't convince me Spike (Spike!!) is driven by rational judgements about situations. I'm not sure Spike has had a Ti thought in his life.):

http://anyankas.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-jungian-types/
http://anyankas.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/angel-the-series-jungian-types-2/

I think Dru has to be an ENFP, as they say, and Angelus as an ENTJ sort of makes sense... But then passion does (/should) rule us all according to him and Angel is a people person, whatever he says. I could see Angel in general as another ENFJ; he and Buffy (and without a soul) just disagree about what harmony means. Anyway, now I want to type everyone! I've only got to Xander, who I'm pretty sure is an introvert, and goal-oriented and feelingsy and sensingy, so - ISFJ (Si–Fe–Ti–Ne; driven to learn from/build on the past based on a will for social harmony, increasingly supported by rational interpretation and, under extreme duress, a sense of likely consequences). I dunno; I think it works???

I'm never here; I'm not up to date with anything; my last Seasonal Spuffy fic was written in an even bigger unbeta'd rush than usual; I'm not entirely sure I've managed to address the criticisms I got on a version of this eight years ago - but how could I resist, nonetheless? Please bring out your concrit and anything you've ever thought but didn't want to say at the time!

END OF YEAR FEEDBACK MEME
my thread here

Or just say it here. I'm going to try and think of things to say for other people, though I might leave it a little while so the timestamping doesn't give it away...

*nomnomnom crit*

But we had a great Halloween challenge on sb_fag_ends, not that I was much help with it. (Still not... *waves at co-mods feebly*) seasonal_spuffy is back again, so make sure you catch up with that too!

My SS day, of course, is Sunday... I was basically stuck on things to do, then came up with an idea during my walk to and from the faculty or maybe when I was reading Seuils in the shop and eating porridge (neither of these things bear relevance to the idea). Unfortunately there is now limited time to produce this idea, which is still possibly without a point and will almost certainly want to be longer than I can possibly produce. Sigh face! Also, I'm so out of practice for writing fic that I keep shifting tenses into the present. I used to wonder how the heck anyone did this because it seemed like such an unnatural pattern of thought, but it turns out that if you are very much in the habit of writing in the present tense then your ideas start coming out that way even though you don't mean them to. I think my problem is that the plot I want to do isn't really a medium for dealing with the theme I think I'm writing about. I have no idea what a plot would be for that. Especially to make sure it's a Spuffy plot. Why does everyone else seem to be able to come up with stories when all I ever come up with is puzzles!

Blergh. Ill. Might got to bed now. Tired.

Although one ETA: Housemate and I watched The Fugitive last night and it was excellent. I miss that film's prevalence in Christmas schedules.

Go, go, go: moriwen1's What is This, a Joke?

Spike and Aslan walk into a bar. Or, more exactly, Spike's on the hunt for his soul and ends up with a bloody terrifying lead. Cue a breezy-fresh short story with solid metaphysical credentials nonetheless. And chapter one has a twist that keeps on giving. brutti_ma_buoni already linked it, but I'm linking it again, because I don't want you lot to miss it!

In other news, which should probably get its own post so as not to sour the proceedings, I've been sucked back into The Voice? I think it must say something for the rejigging of the format, because it was about this time last year that I abandoned it. It's just a fact, though, that neither Danny wotsisarrogantface nor Tom Jones have any clue about production, which is such a shame, because Jessie J and will.i.am's people are the only ones who end up giving proper thought-through performances.

Everyone's clear favourite, as it should be, is Leah... Because this is just aces! I can't bear pop, but modern covers of disco I apparently like. Also, the vast heaps of sarcasm she pours over the lyrics are great.



But I also like Leanne, who got kicked off. I think she dreams of being Christina Aguilera, but she really needs to be on the dance circuit. That icy high register of hers is dying out for pounding electronics. As they started getting to with this:



Soz; I iz proper hyper on curry and Hotel Chocolat chocolate wot I couldn't resist on the way home.