Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

Cool Halloween link: cat bowling
Word count: 1200

Jamelia mentioned the Return of the King trailer, leading into a discussion of what exactly constitutes a cinematic adaptation of someone’s else’s work. To put it simply, a adaptation for the screen should, where necessary, change the events (no Tom Bombadil) and even the cast list (Arwen plays Glorfindel in her spare time), but it should not change the characters’ character (evil Faramir and angsty Aragorn).

The challenge of adapting someone else’s work - whether from a book to the screen or from a show to a fanfic, is to keep the characters in character and the spirit of the original alive. Lazy writers fail in the challenge, and people who dislike the original intentionally undermine it. ENT is a prime example of intentionally altering the spirit of Trek, though fanfic writers do it frequently as well. (The question arises, if you wrote ENT fic in the spirit of the other Treks - with good Vulcans and less whiny humans - would it be good Trek fic but bad ENT fic?)

I’ve read in the past that Peter Jackson admitted to modernizing the books, but even if you assume he did it innocently, his is still a failure of adaptation. A better movie would use the real Faramir.

Word count: 1300

I wasn’t going to blog because I’m busy writing, but Seema wrote about canon relationships and I couldn’t resist the topic.

My interest in canon pairings began with C/7 - just hearing the rumors undermined my will to JetC, and I went on to write C/7 stories. (I’m writing a new one at the moment.) Though I’m fond of J/P, I’ve never been able to write much of it.

I also love AU’s. What I can’t do is take an AU characterization or a counter-canon relationship and put it into a normal fic. While Voyager was in the Eternal Voyager Now, mixing and matching characters was no great stretch, but in seventh season the P/T became sadly irrevocable and the J/C undertone became a C/7 overtone. I’m not apologizing for anything I did in the Eternal Voyager Now; it wasn’t me who changed but the show.

In Stargate, I haven’t even scratched the potential of canon. The AU’s are canon, too, so if I ever feel like something out of the quantum mirror why should I bother to pretend it happened on this side?

Word count: Shh, I’m editing.

I was going to do the Seema thing and honor the day by omission, but I have updates to report. Hail, Dorothy is my new drabble addition to the episode “Seth.” Several new terms have been added to the Repository.

I read some fic by Denise, pretty much at random. Most notable of my choices was Fini, a post-apocalyptic Sam fic coauthored by Adi. I thought the Sam abuse was egregious, but her reaction and recovery were interesting. There was also plenty of Sam angst in Fractured Reflection. You can tell from the title what subgenre it was, but I won’t reveal which Sam was involved. The tension between a Sam and a Jack was good.

In non-Stargate news, I just discovered that there’s a Khanfest going on. Non-smut and non-slash are allowed. I made a button:

Cool link of the day: Every Fan’s Canon Primer by Steve Roby

So as of a couple of days ago, I’d written 20 drabbles in my first month as a Stargate fan. At first it was a challenge to come up with something to drabble about for every episode, but lately it’s been easy. I’ve also been trying to edit some old fic - part of the Seven Saga and also a couple of TOS stories - without much luck. Maybe the muse has moved on to Stargate permanently, or maybe drabbling has spoiled me for fics of over 100 words.

Actually, I’ve found writing drabbles a much more useful exercise than I ever intended it to be. It’s a pure art - come up with an interesting idea and then express it in 100 words. The hard part is coming up with the idea; rearranging words until you hit 100 is more like filking, and that’s always fun.

I’m looking forward to getting back to my first real Stargate fic, though. It’s for Beta Reader Appreciation Day, so I have until October 13th to finish it.

Word count: 0

The title is Sangerin’s term for the My Friends’ Fandoms meme, inspired by Seema’s response. CGB has a whole list of Stargate responses, but the best one is the Seema’s-eye view of Stargate:

Stargate-1 [sic] — Theirloveissocanon. Sam and Jack are there. Apparently they are in love. Or is it Daniel and Jack? Sam and/or Jack are female. I think. Someone on that show is supposed to be a hussy. They all travel through time and there are aliens because it’s in the future and it’s in space.

So here’s my view of fandom. Complaints should be directed to Seema, who incited this:

• Alias: Like 24 Hours, but it never ends, and people never stop talking about it.
• Angel: It’s a great show except for the title character, who still can’t act. Buffy with a side of evil lawyers.
• Enterprise: Lots of whiny people and angsty fic, all over a show that could be used as a cheap form of anaesthesia in third-world countries.
• Farscape/Firefly: In my mind, these two are the same show. If they were so great, why are they off the air, eh? Eh?
• Harry Potter: A fandom in which every single pairing is equally controversial, even the twincest ones. Oh, and the people who brought us plagiarism.
• Lord of the Rings: Nasty things done to nice hobbits and elves. JRR is spinning in his grave.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: I hope the pirate and the girl get together, because that was the only chemistry in the entire movie.
• Pros: Cop show that’s off the air but never ends. See Alias.
• RPS: Nasty things done to real live people. How do you sleep at night?
• Seachange: Hey, they have TV in Australia! Who would have guessed?
• ville: Where all fans go in the end. Annoying teen superheroes.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Worf and his woman problems, and his Angry Klingon problems, and more of his woman problems. Oh, and Garak/Bashir. Dark and icky, just like the show.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Lori is TNG.
• X-Men: Annoying adult superheros. The one-eyed one can’t act.

Word count: 1175

The Repository has undergone some major additions. Many minor characters have been added from the credits of the episodes I’ve seen, as well as a few unexpected spellings from the credits: Jaffa and N.I.D. Also, rdanderson.com has been added as a reference and used to clear up all the unsubstantiated spellings I had, most notably Tauri. A few of the spellings there are incorrect, for zatn’kitel, McKenzie, and naqahdah, so the Repository is in no danger of becoming an rdanderson.com shill.

I even read a Stargate fic, The Matchmaker by Roxie, which was posted to TheGenGate. It’s a fun little farce that’s perfect for Intergalactic Hussy Week, and is marred only by Teal’cized spellings.

Word count: 100

The SG-1 tab has been expanded and now includes Repository: A Stargate Spelling Dictionary. Finally, we have hard evidence for naqahdah.

Submissions are welcome, but please provide a source.

Word count: 100

As the word count indicates, I have a new drabble up: We Call Them Angels, for the first-season episode “Enigma.”

“Enigma” was wonderful - now I know that the movement is in full swing. If I were the obsessing type, I’d be googling Garwin Sanford right now. Instead, I’ll just contemplate future Sam/Narim fic.

Word count: 1010

Yet another drabble is up, Pheromones, based on the episode “Hathor.” I’ve seen “Hathor” before; though it’s not quite a Fish Story, there was a gratifying amount of cheese.

I was surprised at how quickly Hathor ran away from a fight. My theory is that the Goa’uld are too lazy and cowardly to take over a planet when there’s effort involved and they might, say, break a nail from overuse of the mortal-whomping ribbon device.

Or it could just be the cheese…

Word count: 100

When the 2003 Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Awards came out, I ignored the warning on Queen of the Amazons by SelDear telling me not to read the fic. I didn’t understand all that much of it. I was mainly attracted by the title, and I figured humor was universal, or at least that I’ll never get it if I don’t read more.

I’m finding that watching the show is more satisfying than reading the fanfic. I was worried for a while there that Stargate was just too good to fic - fanfic flourishes best in a cheesy atmosphere. My worries ended with “Fire and Water” - you can’t go right with the Creature from the Black Lagoon, character death, and unreasonable demands for information available for free in any public library.

While researching my forthcoming drabble, “Fish Story,” I found a cool Stargate mythology site, The Truth Behind Stargate SG-1, which had a random link to this Ninja mask lesson. I was unable to determine the connection to Stargate, but it’s funny.