#I’d also say both are not super feminine but Kei is more so intended to be tomboy over Yuki- and also Yuki mech is very feminine lol

[no1ryomafan]

“If I had a nickel for every time Jun Kawagoe directed a mecha that’s consider “manly” but the main character feels more like the female led due to her getting more general focus in the plot then the boys even though she gets one real fight and isn’t the focus in the promotional work, I’d have two nickels-“

Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

[potteresque-ire]

More ask answer about Word of Honour (山河令, WoH) and the so-called “Dangai 101 phenomenon” under the cut ~ with all the M/M relationships shown on screen, does it mean improved acceptance / safety for the c-queer community?

Due to its length (sorry!), I’ve divided the answer into 3 parts: 1) Background 2) Excerpts from the op-eds 3) Thoughts This post is PART 3 💚. As usual, please consider the opinions expressed as your local friendly fandomer sharing what they’ve learned, and should, in no ways, be viewed as necessarily true. :)

(TW: homophobic, hateful speech quoted)

Here are the key points I’ve picked up from these op-eds:

* The state believes Danmei can turn young people queer. * The state also believes Dangai dramas can turn young men “feminine” to suit the taste of Dangai’s young, largely female audience. * The state views queerness in both sexes, and androgynous beauty in men as negative traits. * The state is wary of Danmei and Dangai’s popularity and wishes to contain them as subcultures. * The state is particularly annoyed by how the Dangai dramas have achieved their popularity with CP-focused promotions and marketing tactics, in which the actors are involved and blur the line between fictional and real-life suggestions of queerness.

What do I think of, concerning the acceptance and/or safety of … everything, with the above opinions given by the state media about Dangai?

* For c-queers, I don’t think things are different from before—these op-eds didn’t change the big picture for me. The op-eds taking traditional BL characterisation for Dangai / Danmei means the state’s intended focus of the genres is not its queerness; this is not unexpected, as the established review system is supposed to have removed the show’s queer elements, and to characterise those elements as queer would be a critique against the NRTA.

 While unpleasant, the veiled, antagonistic view towards non-traditional gender expressions and homosexuality isn’t new: the state has long believed popular culture can turn its young male audience “feminine”; the NRTA directive that bans homosexual content from visual media already makes clear its stance that homosexuality is, while not criminal, something that is Not Good in its eyes.

A (very) good thing that can be said, I think, is that none of the op-eds explicitly disapprove of the queer elements, the things that got away from being censored—of which there were, arguably, many in WoH. While Article O2a noted such “playing edge ball” (note the articles use this term to avoid mentioning “queer”), the comment right after was neutral / positive (“provide their audience with room for imagination”). Article O3, meanwhile, acknowledged that Dangai can be imitated by introducing suggestive atmosphere between male characters in their plot layout, thereby admitting that suggestive atmosphere between male characters in their plot layout is a defining trait of Dangai—and it didn’t say anything bad about it; the criticism was only for non-Dangai playacting Dangai.

This signals, to me at least, that Dangai can continue to be the cover for queer relationships to reach its audience for now — which is, perhaps, the best case scenario for continued queer representation on TV, given the current sociopolitical climate.

* For Danmei / Dangai, I’d also venture to say the genres are safe. Upcoming Dangais may need to undergo stricter / further reviews (if the rumours surrounding Immortality 皓衣行 are to be believed), and whether they can still achieve explosive popularity after such reviews remains a question; the genres themselves, however, will likely survive. 

Article O1 was a very positive, very enthusiastic review of WoH; its determined focus on the show’s aesthetics (as TU’s review) signals to me that the state approved of the genre’s take on aesthetics—which, again, also includes the aesthetics of a world cleansed of its real problems, which also aligns with the NRTA’s directive on TV / web dramas to focus on the positives of life in the country (Previously translated in this post: D12: … They [Pie note: the dramas] cannot place too strong an emphasis on social conflicts, must showcase the beautiful lives of the commoners.). Article O2b was very critical at places, but actually tried to sever Danmei  / Dangai from its major complaint, argued that the attention-grabbing gimmicks path was taken * instead of * aspiring to positively, proactively guide and display Danmei culture, therefore positioning Danmei on the “good side”.  While Danmei was named a (bad) influence for potentially turning youths queer (and predator, by the cartoon) in Article O2a, no mention was made of eliminating the genre both in the same Article or its editorial (Article O2b). The focus was placed, instead, on the subculture’s “containment”, and how it has been broken for “Rot Culture” to reach mainstream. The implied solution to Danmei’s “bad influence”, therefore, was to re-contain rather than eliminate.

[Logically, of course, this makes little sense. Blaming Danmei on turning youths queer is already confusing correlation and causation—youths may be drawn to Danmei because they are queer, rather than Danmei turning them queer. Re-containment, meanwhile, suggests that the state, which isn’t a fan of gays, is okay with Danmei turning kids gay… as long as there aren’t a lot of kids.

However, I’m hoping to tease out what the state may do, not whether the state is logically sound.]

Article O3 had the harshest wording on Danmei—“the canon and the Rot Culture behind it still hides large amounts of pornographic, violent content…”; “this vulgar custom of “playing edge ball” as a means to tempt, to lead the audience into indulging in fantasies [Pie note: sexual fantasies implied by the idiom 想入非非] have spread from visual media production…” . Still, no word on axing the genre, only containment.

* For CP culture, specifically, actor-character based CPs that are promoted with the dramas: while I don’t see it on the chopping board yet, these op-eds are, I believe, warnings for those in charge of the promotion and marketing of the upcoming Dangai dramas to tread carefully. I find the reach of these warnings difficult to predict still, because these warnings can be genuine—as in, the government truly believes the CP-focused promotion and marketing tactics are morally objectionable—or they can be more for show, in that the true reason behind the warnings is that CP-focused promotions, which also put a heavy focus on in-drama candies, make the NRTA / censorship board look like a joke and the government had to put up some objections to save face. 

In all cases, companies will likely need to talk to the government to nail down its stance. Whether to heed the warnings afterwards, tone down or eliminate the CP-focused promotions will require a thorough risk-benefit analysis. After all, CP culture appears to sits at the heart of the money-making machinery of Dangai dramas. The expenditure of fans is mainly to support their favourite actors and see their interactions, and money is, ultimately, what Dangai 101 is about.

Finally, for the sake of completion ~ how likely did these op-eds reflect the actual opinions of the state? Here are the sources of the articles:

Article O1: 上觀新聞, which is under Liberation Daily 解放日報,  the official daily newspaper of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Article O2: 半月談 Banyue Tan, a state-controlled biweekly magazine published by the Xinhua News Agency, the official state-run press agency of China.

Article O3: 光明日報 Enlightenment Daily, a newspaper associated with Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (中共中央機關報).

None of them are of the calibre of People’s Daily (official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party). However, they’re all very well-respected state-sponsored sources. Banyue Tan does require an asterisk  ~ while affiliated with the Xinhua News Agency, the massive influence of which has earned it its nickname “the world's biggest propaganda agency”, Banyue Tan‘s authority on this particular issue of Danmei/Dangai has been somewhat undermined by a … strange (?) trivia to end this super long piece: the magazine has also been caught in the controversy surrounding 227. Due to its pro-TU, pro-Gg stance, antis have insisted there are Gg fans within its writer’s ranks, who have used the state-sponsored publication for their private, support-Gg purposes. To this day, the argument is ongoing—with the criticism of Danmei in Article O2 sparking another round of “discussion” due to its previous approval of TU—and the lead anti is a well-known international politics professor and CCP (Chinese Communist Party) mouthpiece named Shen Yi (沈逸), whose claim to fame was the US government cancelling his visa and denying him entry due to suspected espionage …

[Banyue Tan was not the only state-sponsored publication caught in 227′s cross-fire. This is one of the reasons why some political watchers have suspected 227 to have a political component, that some form of political power struggle was happening in the post-227 chaos and disguised as the fan war.

While the truth may never be revealed, one thing is for certain ~ fan wars are about the worst things fans can do for their favourite idols, by lending space for such veiled conflicts to happen, by lending the names of their idols / their idols’ fans to the actually warring parties who may not wish to reveal who they are.]

[Okay okay, I will shut up now :) ].

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 <-- YOU ARE HERE

[the-100-meta-library]

Dear followers and meta fans!

Today, we present you the first segment of a series of interviews that will feature the brains and minds behind all those wonderful analyses floating around The 100’s tumblr tag.

For our first interview, we are pleased to welcome Elizabeth, also known as the lovely @hawthornewhisperer!

We connected with Elizabeth back in May, before Season 4, Episode 12. So this a little bit of a blast from the past. Read to see how right-- and wrong-- we were about some speculating. 

We’d like to thank Elizabeth again for her time, and the supporters of the Meta Library who encouraged us. Keep an eye out for the next interview!

The 100 Meta Library (bellamysfern):    The first questions are just about some background info. Anything you feel comfortable releasing to the internet. Who are you, what do you do, how does that affect how you write meta (if it has any effect at all), and your level of fandom experience.

Hawthornewhisperer: Okay, well, first of all, thanks for interviewing me! This is an honor and I appreciate you guys doing this.

You can call me Elizabeth, and I'm a writer-slash-historian living in Minnesota. I teach college courses on European history and write romance novels on the side (second one should be out this year!)

In terms of how that influences my meta, I've found that both of my jobs dovetail very well into analyzing the show.  

As a historian, my main lenses of analysis are gender and imperialism so I tend to apply those to the show as well-- in what ways do characters fulfill our expectations of femininity/masculinity, and in what ways do they challenge it? What does that tell us about the characters?  

My imperialist/colonialist focus also helps me sort out what the writers are saying (either intentionally or unintentionally) with regards to hegemonic cultures, etc.

As a writer, I try to think about the choices the writers room is making and what that tells us about the story

Oh, and fandom experience-- I wrote fic for The Hunger Games (Gale/Madge, mostly) but The 100 is probably the first fandom I've been very active in.  But my first true fandom is probably Star Wars.

BF: That's absolutely amazing. I feel like anything with fandom can be trivialized, but so much work goes into writing meta and thinking about the choices made on the show.

HW: Yes, definitely!  

I have very strong feelings about the importance of fandom, particularly transformative fandom (fics, headcanons, etc) as a primarily female space and how important that is to protect and take seriously.

BF: Right. And I know you write fanfic too (very good fanfic, btw).

Do you think writing meta influences how you think about fanfiction? They are two different ways of interacting with a show, but both require authors to really understand the material.

HW: Oh yeah, definitely!  

I see fic and meta as two sides of the same coin-- writing meta

helps me understand characters better, because if I can explain why Bellamy or Clarke would make a particular choice in a particular episode that helps me craft their characters in fics in a way that feels true (or I hope so, at any rate.)

And writing fic helps with meta, because I have a little insight into how writers make decisions.  In particular it makes me slightly more sympathetic to plot twists that seem to have no clear resolution because I frequently write ficlets with cliffhangers and then have *no idea* where it's going after that, because sometimes I just like to raise the stakes for myself.  Of course, there's a major difference in that my fics are only limited by my imagination and can go in any direction I choose, whereas the show has actor contracts, studio pressure, budgets, filming limitations, and a dozen writers working on one story, and they’re getting paid to do this so they should be really be better at it than me.

BF: Is there anything you've ever read (fic or meta) that surprised you? Any interpretation or theory that influenced the way you thought about the show?

HW: You know, most of my favorite metas and theories come from the Meta Station podcast, and I wouldn't say it's *surprising* but I do think my favorite theory this season is probably Erin's suggestion that Bellamy will be key to brokering peace between all the clans.  (I think we got the start of it in the most recent episode, actually, with his faith in Octavia).  It wasn't a direction I'd initially considered for his character, but it fits very well with the story they've been telling thus far this season and I hope we see it come to fruition.

In terms of influence, one thing I really enjoy about fandom is how *collective* it all is-- lots of people come up with complementary ideas that fit together and overlap in really intriguing ways, which makes narrowing down influence kind of difficult.  But on a personal level, I do toss ideas back and forth with @reblogginhood a lot, which probably shows in my writing.

BF: Haha, my fill of meta usually comes from Meta Station too. I just listened to the segment talking about fic and fandom with Chash and thought "Wow, this is great interview prep".

HW: I can't wait to listen to that!  Those are three of my favorite fandom people, talking about my favorite topics, so I'm excited.

BF: I know, I was so excited when I saw the announcement. It was super cute and funny. Anyway, back on topic.

So for you, meta is a more collective thing. Do you have a writing process and need to go through the same steps every time, or does it vary?

HW: It varies, for sure.  Sometimes I realize something and can just throw it all together very quickly, and sometimes my idea is very vague and I have to write and write and write (and talk it over with people) before I really figure out what I'm saying.  But after writing a dissertation I'm pretty used to writing six different versions of the same idea before I feel like I've found it.  I just edit those metas very heavily as no one needs to read four false starts. 😉

BF: So the amount of time it takes to write metas varies too.

Are there any characters/themes that come easier than others?

HW: Oh definitely.  

Bellamy is probably the easiest for me to understand, followed by Clarke. There are other characters that just don't *speak* to me/I have less interest in writing meta on, but that doesn't mean I dislike them.  

Roan, for instance-- he's probably my favorite minor character in the whole show but I don't have too much desire to get into his headspace for some reason.

The-100-Meta-Library (parapluiepliant): We could have had it all. Still in denial about Roan by the way.

HW: I'll always be in denial about Roan, but he will live eternal, shiny, and chrome in all of my fics so at least we have that.

PP: Yippieh! Something to look forward to!

BF: I am still in real actual denial because I thought I saw something about Zach coming back for season five.

HW: I would totally be fine with time travel becoming a thing on the show if it meant someone could go back in time and save Roan.

PP: Talking about time travel: let's go back in time.

I just scrolled a bit through your The 100 meta tag and came upon "Bellamy Blake, Clarke Griffin, and The Iliad". It was one of your first metas, or am I wrong? 

Even though that referred to season 3, would you say that some of it still holds true for season 4?

HW: It probably wasn't my first meta, just the first one I bothered tagging-- I'm terrible about that, and I apologize to everyone for my poor organizational skills.

BF: I'm right there with you with the tagging.

HW: You know, I'm not sure it does hold true for season 4?  The core of the Iliad is hubris, rage, and war between nations being manipulated by the gods, and that doesn't seem to be the story they're telling in season 4.

I will say, in retrospect I do think both Clarke and Bellamy were the Achilles in season 3 -- Clarke for separating herself from the fight, and Bellamy because it was his anger over Mount Weather 2.0 that incited a lot of the conflict.

(But I also doubt they were doing a straight parallel, so take that for what it's worth)

PP: Okay. Just a thought. I am not that familiar with the Grounders (and to the Arkadians to some extent) might still be an entertaining thought.

HW: Ooooh yes, that would work very well, especially since I suspect conflict between Becca and Cadogan is at the root of a lot of problems the societies are facing.

BF: I did find it interesting that the brought the Iliad in so explicitly. And there was a lot of speculation based on it, when maybe so much worth shouldn't have been placed on the Iliad/Odyssey.

But we won't know until the end, I guess.

HW: Yeah, it's tough to know what is meaningful and important and what's just a fun, throwaway moment until you've got a complete narrative to examine.  But I do enjoy how fandom can take something like "Bellamy gets a present that probably just means he's a Big Ol' Nerd" and turn it into a coherent, unifying gloss on the season.

PP: One of the most entertaining and enlightening things in the fandom for me.

HW: Yeah, me too.  

Fandom is such an enriching experience in so many ways.

PP: Another question in that regard: Is there a meta of yours of which you are most proud of? Or which you thought of as the most fun to read/the most clarifying in regard to certain aspects?

HW: I think the one I'm proudest of would be the one I wrote about Bellamy undercutting the Alpha Male trope, because I find "how we perform and understand gender" to be a really interesting topic, and I think Bellamy as a character really complicates our understanding of what it means to be an alpha male.  

And I think some of that is directly intended by the writers, but I also think some of it comes from the performances (Bob in particular, but also Ian, Eliza, and Mike Beach because he's not just reading what's on the page, he's reacting to their performances as well.)

It makes Bellamy into a really interesting and nuanced character in a way that draws me in.

PP: Absolutely! One of the reasons I love him so much.

BF: Do you have a lot of interaction with your meta? Do people mostly reblog or like it, or do you get some conversations going?

HW: I think mostly people just like and reblog posts, but every so often someone will add something to my meta that I hadn't considered/seen before and it'll just blow my mind. I love it when that happens.

And sometimes people send PMs to respond and I end up having long, in depth conversations about characters with people I've never met before, and I *also* love that. I've made some really great friends that way.

BF: Fandom friendships are so interesting that way.

HW: Yeah, definitely.  

I really treasure the friendships I've made in fandom, and I know they'll outlast the show itself, which is wonderful.

BF: Yeah, definitely contradicts everything people told you about everyone on the internet being dangerous. But I haven't met an axe murderer yet.

HW: Haha right?  *fingers crossed*

PP: Who says that I am not one?

HW: Oh no! Haha!

BF: You are on the other side of the ocean. I think I'm good. Well, that was all questioning that I had. Laura?

PP: I would have one last question.

Can we hope for another meta pretty soon and if so, can you already tease it a bit?

HW: You know, there's nothing that I'm currently writing, I think because most of the stuff I'm interested in from 411 (the Bellarke fallout) seems to be on hold until 412, but I also tend to work best in response to prompts/questions.

So is there something you'd like me to talk about/you're interested in discussing?

BF: What’s your Becca/Cadogan speculation?

HW: Oooh, good one!  

I think Cadogan's messed up childhood (Jaha mentioned an abusive father) is going to resurface, and I suspect it was a conflict between him and Becca that set things into motion. I have my fingers crossed for a flashback!

PP: Definitely. Oh, I missed that with Jaha because my stream didn't work properly. I really need to watch it so I can catch up!

HW: The Jaha-Cadogan mention was just a throwaway line, however, so I might be putting too much weight on it. And as for the Bellarke fallout, I do think Clarke holding a gun on him and then being unable to pull the trigger, even though she truly believed the human race might die if she didn't pull it, is going to carry a lot of weight in their relationship.

Clarke has consistently been shown as willing to put her own wants and needs and loves aside in order to save people, and this is one of the first times we see her make a heart choice instead of a head choice, if that makes sense.

But Clarke's decision to not shoot Bellamy was really big, and while I'm disappointed we didn't get the fallout immediately, I think 411 was a really busy episode and I have hopes that it will be addressed in some respect in 412.

BF: Thanks so much for taking so much time to talk to us!

HW: Of course!  Thank you for interviewing me-- this was really fun!

[firstpuffin]

Multiple topics: pronouns and creative techniques

So rather than straining to stretch a single topic over roughly 1000 words, I figured I’d write about a few subjects instead. These will all be on a similar topic, that being writing. I’m going to start simply with why I want an English unisex third-person pronoun and my problem with those that have already been proposed.

  Then I’m going to discuss a few techniques, for a lack of a better word, used in writing and other mediums: pastiche, parody and satire. Now I’m sure most people know what parody and satire are, or at least have an idea about them, but I know that I am not alone in that I only recently learned about pastiche in 2018; it’s not as common as the other two.

 So pronouns, you know what these are and if you don’t (no shame in that, I had to recently learn about them from scratch, just in case I missed something), they are him, her, they, me etc. If it interests you then I will be talking predominantly about third-person singular pronouns but there is no need to actually remember that.

  So I’m sure you get that I am talking about he and she here, and you know that we English speakers can use “they” if we don’t want to specify sex or gender (which is a rabbit-hole I don’t want to go down, but as writing is clearer when speaking of biological sex I’m going to refer to that) but that can be clunky given that they is more commonly used as a plural. If, for example, you are speaking of an individual in a group and don’t want to specify sex for reasons such as retaining a certain amount of mystery, then “they” can be either the individual or the entire group and the sentence may require a certain amount of twists that a contortionist would envy.

  For future reference, double brackets such as -(( and ))- denote an excerpt of my own fiction writing; I use it in personal notes to separate notes from, say, dialogue and I’ll use it here for my examples.

((The secret society held secrecy as their greatest tenet as befitted the term secret society. Accordingly, every meeting was attended solely by people in black, face concealing robes and voice changers that worked to hide both identity and sex. Unfortunately, not every member appreciated this and many took liberties such as adding frills to the hood or others exposing their hairy masculine chests lest, heaven forbid, someone confuse them with a lady.

As the Supreme Leader looked over them, they decided quite firmly that they wouldn’t trust them to zip up their own trousers. In fact, they considered ordering the men to wear button-up trousers, just to lower the chance of unfortunate absences. Finally, they were joined on the stage and they called for silence. They were met by innumerable faceless faces and at least nobody knew who anybody else was. Well, they knew of course.

The Supreme Leader looked at those on the stage with them, nodded imperceptibly and reached inside their robe. They stepped forward. Alone at the front of the stage but still supported by those at their back, they addressed their audience.))

  So that’s nearly 200 words of my own writing that I hope gets across how tough it can be not using he or she. Now normally I would give characters names, or at least identify them using their physical traits such as “Frills” or “Hairy Chest” and that would be their nickname until their actual name was revealed. The above piece was meant to be an extreme example but I have struggled with this in the past. A hooded character who I deliberately want to be a mystery was a recent one but I felt that with characters assuming they are male, referring to them as “them” would be too obvious. In the end I just used the male pronouns and whatever happens, happens.

  Need I even bring up the dehumanising issues of calling someone “it”?

  To bring up previous attempts at inventing an appropriate word, there have been quite a lot thrown out there to address this problem, usually by proponents of transgender or sexless acceptance. I’m gonna skim over this controversial topic for a couple of reasons: 1, I don’t wanna distract from what I am talking about and 2, while I am hardly conservative my opinions on this are worth an entry all by themselves. A third reason is also one of the reasons why I think that there has been limited success in spreading these propositions, that is the controversial nature of there being anything other than two sexes and that sex and gender are the same thing. I don’t want to derail what it is that I am actually talking about with these arguments.

  So, people don’t want to think of there being people who are anything other than male or female and so oppose this reason for a unisex pronoun, but what other reasons are there? Well a number of the suggestions are clunky. Ne, ve, xe… how the hell do you even say these? That is immediately going to put people off, but most of the possible pronunciations are uncomfortable to say. Sure, new words often are, but V and X are not super common in the English language anyway and will intimidate readers. If I say “eir” then I’m gonna feel like I’m putting on heirs. “Per”? Perself? Nope. I just don’t like that one.

  It’s tough creating new pronouns and borrowing them may not be any easier. I had no success looking at Latin and then I turned to Greek (as English has a lot of Greek words) and found what I think was “tous”, which seems to their equivalent of our “they”. I could be wrong. I’ve always found it hard to find Greek language learning or dictionaries that don’t use Greek symbols (which I can’t read) so I think that’s how it’s spelt and I suspect it’s pronounced “two”, but I could be wrong. And it’s not exactly intuitive.

  So next I tried looking at French. We English have a loot~ of French words in our vernacular so what’s one more? But the French use masculine and feminine words so which one do we choose? We could use “tu” or “vous”, both of which seem to mean “you” but I would personally say that sounds too much like “you”.

  To lean into a language that interests me personally, Japanese appears to refer to people using gender specific words but can also use “ano hito” which literally means “that person”. Would this one work? My biggest problem with that is that hito sounds like a name to me and would feel weird.

  Finally I tried looking into history. I knew that “thee” and “thou” died out because they were impolite or informal variants and being English, we stuck to the polite “you”, so I looked into the third-person pronouns. Unfortunately they just developed into what we already use today.

  So what should we do? Keep looking at other languages until we find one we like and steal it? That would be very English. Making one up would be difficult as in this age we are less forgiving than in Shakespeare’s time (apparently he invented 2000 new words and people just went with it) and people these days can’t embrace anything until they know the agenda behind it.

 I’m gonna leave you hanging and move onto my next section of satire, parody and pastiche.

  Parody is pretty straightforward. It pokes fun at something but not necessarily with ill-intent. A parody can be completely absent of malice while pointing out issues with the original, or taking it to a comical extreme. An example of this could be Death from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Pratchett is currently my favourite author and anyone will be hard-pressed to take this position from him. He uses parody and satire in a manner completely unique to him. The Discworld series is so full of examples that it practically bursts at the seams and his take on how humanity anthropomorphises everything is a reoccurring theme.

  He frequently directs this at religions but it is Death who captured my heart. The scythe wielding black cloaked skeleton known the world over as Death is a main supporting character in many of the books, appearing as a lovable goofball. He isn’t there to make jabs at people for giving nature human form, he is a comical representation of the fact that people do so. Death isn’t the only anthropomorphic being in the series, the Hogfather is his play on Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairies have an entire organisation backing them.

  Shakespeare makes a number of “appearances” and his Discworld equivalent (a dwarf of all things) has the “Disc theatre” made in his honour. Many of Pratchett’s books are based around famous stories and the only reason why I hesitate to call “The Masquerade” a pastiche is because all of his books are so absurdly witty. I don’t know if that counts.

  Satire on the other hand is absolutely poking fun at what it imitates, although not always humorously. Often ruthless and containing sarcasm and irony in heavy and sometimes cruel doses, satire intends on changing things by ridiculing its target. I hesitate to use Pratchett as an example again, but he can be ruthless in his criticisms of more-or-less anything. Parody and satire are closely related and sometimes it’s not easy to know what the author intends, but my personal rule-of-thumb is that if it’s just funny then it’s parody, if it is making a statement then it is satire.

  And then there is pastiche. Pastiche is a creative types’ get out of jail free card. Yes it can be abused, but it is incredibly reassuring to know about. See, one thing that motivates me to write is seeing good ideas wasted. The webshow (I think it’s a webshow? Not sure of the definition though) RWBY is a key example: as a young adult story (think teens) that has a lot of potential in that it covers things such as entering a new school, making friends and dealing with all the things that comes with being a teenager, plus the low-fantasy excitement of superpowers and monsters. This sort of content can be invaluable to readers, particularly those entering a new school or such-like. Unfortunately, the show suffers from poor dialogue (clichés abound), poor story structure and- let’s kindly call it “distracting” voice acting. This compelled me to write something along the same lines but with my own original ideas.

  Let’s be clear, pastiche is seriously imitating an existing work, style or period. It’s not meant to ridicule the original and honestly I’m not sure where the boundaries are. I watch RWBY and am like “I wanna do this, but better” and go on to create my own world, unique characters and abilities, creatures etc. I watch The Flash tv show and say “I wanna do this, but better” and start writing rules of time-travel, rules that The Flash dearly requires because it doesn’t have any! Me and a friend are working on a pastiche of the Discworld series with a sci-fi element instead of fantasy.

  Naturally there is a limit: my work is completely different to RWBY but if I were to make the lead a cheerful black haired girl who skips years to join her blonde sister in school and joins a team of four to fight monsters then that is straight up copying. It’s plagiarism which is bad (I’m not making that joke, okay?). There is some overlap, but it also coincidentally overlaps with Harry Potter and Twilight and literally any young adult novel if you nit-pick enough.

  Pastiche is done out of respect or out of a compulsion to do better (I used to think I wasn’t competitive, now I’m not so sure) or any number of things, but the main difference is that it isn’t poking fun at anything.

 So that is a brief and hopefully clear overview of a number of items that I had wanted to talk about. This ended up being longer than expected but honestly, I really enjoyed writing it and I do hope someone learns from this or is encouraged to think deeper about the topics I’ve raised.

[draculabackward]

40-65! :)

Shit, man, lemme preface by saying that I just now figured out where the inbox is on mobile. Haha. Sorry for the delay! Idk where the original post is to link it, but I did save the questions!

40 how many languages do you speak?Idk… 1.5? Like, I can comprehend like 3rd grade German but other than that just English. I want to learn every single language though. I think that’s such a neat thing that humans have the capacity to do.

41 how has your life changed from last year?This is a huge question. Right around this time last year I just got married and had moved to a completely new (and huge) city. I was overwhelmed, but I finally found my spot, I think. I have Cool College Friends™ and I’ve lost several friends that I believed I’d have forever. But that’s just the way life goes, huh? I’ve also become more confident in the fact that I’m a super-feminine person. Masculinity is gross.

42 why do you have your name/url?So, back in middle school, my friends and I were a close-knot group on twitter. Well, everyone started changing their names to be vaguely threatening, and I decided on mine because of course I love big stupid words like defenestration. Fun fact: I can’t ever think of any good holiday urls, so I’ve been this way since forever! (Currently hoping against hope that whoever owns @bingcrosby will give it up eventually)

43 do you keep secrets? how well?The secret to keeping secrets (no pun intended) is to never talk to anyone. So I got that shit down. But really, if you tell me something in confidence, like, have no fear. It won’t find it’s way into others’ ears.

44 favorite animalCats! I admire them. I, too, wish to lay around and do nothing. From the very bottom of my soul. I also love tapirs, if cats is too cliche for you. Cows are also adorable.

45 what is love to you?Love is being able to stick by a person no matter what, because you feel an incorporeal spark between the two of you. It’s not something to explain. But dependability and support are the keys to love.

46 future children name?No clue, tbh. Ask my wife. But I really love Ramona and Charlotte. Boys’ names, as a whole, suck. I don’t know very many that I like.

47 favorite colorPurple!

48 favorite movieScott Pilgrim vs. The World. It’s an issue, because I really hate movie adaptations, but Edgar Wright just did a wonderful job adapting the source material (which I also love) that I can’t help it.

49 cuddles or kisses?…why not both #ayyy

Really though, I’d choose cuddles if the person and I could find a god-damned position where my arm doesn’t fuckin’ fall asleep.

50 if you could have any person in the world over for dinner, who would be?Tough question. Probably Jeff Mangum, lead singer of Neutral Milk Hotel, because I love him and I feel like he’d really enjoy chicken pot pie.

51 someone to bring back from the deadDavid Goddamned Bowie. He’d set us all straight (ironically)

52 lipstick or lipgloss?Matte-ass, black-ass lipstick, please. I’m not a fan of glossy lips. They’re gross feeling and gross looking.

53 are you street smart or book smart?Neither tbh

54 your biggest strengthI try my best to be a good listener. People need that so much, and it’s something that, while not hard at all, most people seem to suck at.

55 favorite sportI don’t do sports. Not even a little bit. Just don’t need them in my life. Don’t want any part of them. I don’t do sports. I’ve done my time, looking back on it all, and it blows my mind. I don’t do sports. So, been there. Don’t do sports. Just don’t… care.

56 favorite drink?Inca Cola. It’s a soda that fucking tastes like cream soda dum-dums.

57 favorite winter activityEnjoying the weather, wearing coats, drinking hot cider, being outside

58 last time you went abroadNever! But the wife and I are most likely going to Uganda in the spring, so that’s something!

59 favorite dessertI’m not big on dessert, actually! I always say that I’d like to have more savory food rather than anything sweet. I’m partial to cinnamon rolls and Cadbury creme eggs, though.

60 favorite artistRight now? Hm. I’ll just give a list and you can pick any one you fancy. Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Mondrian, Magritte, Rothko, Duchamp.

61 favorite singer/bandNeutral Milk Hotel forever, though I’ve recently gotten into Beverly Tender: beverlytender.bandcamp.com

62 favorite dancing songI don’t really dance, but I do love Favorite Song by Chance the Rapper.

63 favorite crying songBig Bird by AJJ (formerly Andrew Jackson Jihad). I relate to it on such a personal level that it really scares me. I also cry whenever I hear Dear Theodosia from Hamilton or A Little Fall of Rain from Les Mis. So there’s that.

64 do you wear glasses?Nope. I like the way glasses look on me but I don’t need to wear them.

65 first thing you do when you wake upLay in bed and contemplate how long I can stay in bed before I need to get up.