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larryhammerA happy new year (Gregorian) to all, and to all a good year.
Now that All Has Been Revealed, I can admit that this Yueltide I wrote Young Agamemnon Sees It Through, an Iliad prequel written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lady_dreamy. It's about Agamemnon meeting Clytemnestra on a mountain road, with an adventure and banter and bicker and sibling relationships and a plot despite these things, and is probably best read with a bowl of popcorn by your side. Tags include "chariots," "sandals," and "across greece without a map." Oh, and Theseus? -- is a skeeve. (But you knew that.)
(For the record, the geography of Aphinda is entirely made up because I couldn't find any period details about it, and while the temple of Artemis the Healer was real, Pausanias knew it as a temple of Isis and Asclepius, which of course I couldn't use as is -- assume a rededication or syncretism or something. Everything else is as geographically accurate as I could make it. Because playing tennis without a net isn't as fun.)
But enough ego. Here's some other Yuletide fics* that have caught my attention one way or another, mostly by being good:
Moirai, an explication of an enigmatic reference in Iliad 1 to the time Hera and Athena bound Zeus, as narrated by the Fates. Tags include "women being awesome."
Bakcheios, in which Pentheus tells his story, and that of his cousin Acteon, leading up to the events of Euripedes' Bacchae. The best-written fic I've read this season.
Here Thy Hands Let Fall the Gather'd Flowers, a Hades/Persephone story that at times reminds me of Georgette Heyer, in one of her amusing-rather-than-madcap moods. Persephone, I might add, is both a follower of Artemis and in the Underworld willingly.
Mother-Tongue, a "lost" episode of Beowulf (in the style of Seamus Heaney's translation), focusing on Beowulf's and Grendel's mothers. Needless to say, I STRONGLY APPROVE of this approach to old narrative poems. (The other "discovered" Beowulf fragment is fun, but petty much a one-joke work.)
On the Moonlit Road of Dreams, which can be summarized as "she's Sei Shônagon, she's Murasaki Shikibu -- together, they fight crime!" Does not, alas, catch Shônagon's voice nearly as well as Bangai. The other Shônagon/Murasaki fic, Brush Talk, works much better as a story but is narrated by Murasaki, who mostly just sounds bitchy instead of wielding Shônagon's elegant sarcasm. You should read all three. Yes, you too.
Four Times Gawain Failed to Recognize Bertilak, and One Time He Didn’t, which has 1 + 4 retellings of a single scene, where the 4 can be taken AU versions or as reincarnation fantasies. I'm especially taken with the spy thriller version, though the frat party does have some laugh-out-loud moments.
A Perfect Woman’s Shape, a Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (!) + Countess of Montgomery's Urania (!!) crossover (!!!) with bonus original sestina (!!!!). The other Arcadia fic is not as interesting, being a high school AU. ETA: They both turn out to be by the same writer.
Rosemary for Remembrance, a space opera AU of Hamlet in which Cadet Ophelia Linus saves the starship Elsinore. Even more fun than that makes it sound.
The Sun Shone on Venus, a sequel to Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day." And almost redeems it, too.
A Piece of the Continent, a Hainish novelette that almost could have been written by Le Guin, were the writing tighter and less comforting; I'm also not sure why the protagonist had to be Genly Ai on his next assignment after Winter. Still, sub-prime Le Guin is better than most people's best.
Out of the Night, a fix-it sequel to Mockingjay in the form of a magazine profile of Katniss and Peeta twenty years later. Does a pretty good job of making the book's conclusion work without contradicting anything canon.
An Incomplete History Of History, As Written For Yuletide, In Five Acts And An Epilogue, a retelling of A Complete History of the Soviet Union As Told By A Humble Worker, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris that is incorrectly tagged "overuse of parentheses." (They are all appropriately used.)
As for Postcards form Kyoto, judging by reactions it seems to be narrowly targeted at people who A) know Kyoto or B) know the Kokinshu (or at least common themes and images of Japanese poetry) -- to readers unfamiliar with those (those fandoms?) it comes across mostly as a lovely mood piece. Ah, well. I still ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ all over it.
* Sorting order left as an exercise for the reader.
---L.
Now that All Has Been Revealed, I can admit that this Yueltide I wrote Young Agamemnon Sees It Through, an Iliad prequel written for
lady_dreamy. It's about Agamemnon meeting Clytemnestra on a mountain road, with an adventure and banter and bicker and sibling relationships and a plot despite these things, and is probably best read with a bowl of popcorn by your side. Tags include "chariots," "sandals," and "across greece without a map." Oh, and Theseus? -- is a skeeve. (But you knew that.) (For the record, the geography of Aphinda is entirely made up because I couldn't find any period details about it, and while the temple of Artemis the Healer was real, Pausanias knew it as a temple of Isis and Asclepius, which of course I couldn't use as is -- assume a rededication or syncretism or something. Everything else is as geographically accurate as I could make it. Because playing tennis without a net isn't as fun.)
But enough ego. Here's some other Yuletide fics* that have caught my attention one way or another, mostly by being good:
Moirai, an explication of an enigmatic reference in Iliad 1 to the time Hera and Athena bound Zeus, as narrated by the Fates. Tags include "women being awesome."
Bakcheios, in which Pentheus tells his story, and that of his cousin Acteon, leading up to the events of Euripedes' Bacchae. The best-written fic I've read this season.
Here Thy Hands Let Fall the Gather'd Flowers, a Hades/Persephone story that at times reminds me of Georgette Heyer, in one of her amusing-rather-than-madcap moods. Persephone, I might add, is both a follower of Artemis and in the Underworld willingly.
Mother-Tongue, a "lost" episode of Beowulf (in the style of Seamus Heaney's translation), focusing on Beowulf's and Grendel's mothers. Needless to say, I STRONGLY APPROVE of this approach to old narrative poems. (The other "discovered" Beowulf fragment is fun, but petty much a one-joke work.)
On the Moonlit Road of Dreams, which can be summarized as "she's Sei Shônagon, she's Murasaki Shikibu -- together, they fight crime!" Does not, alas, catch Shônagon's voice nearly as well as Bangai. The other Shônagon/Murasaki fic, Brush Talk, works much better as a story but is narrated by Murasaki, who mostly just sounds bitchy instead of wielding Shônagon's elegant sarcasm. You should read all three. Yes, you too.
Four Times Gawain Failed to Recognize Bertilak, and One Time He Didn’t, which has 1 + 4 retellings of a single scene, where the 4 can be taken AU versions or as reincarnation fantasies. I'm especially taken with the spy thriller version, though the frat party does have some laugh-out-loud moments.
A Perfect Woman’s Shape, a Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (!) + Countess of Montgomery's Urania (!!) crossover (!!!) with bonus original sestina (!!!!). The other Arcadia fic is not as interesting, being a high school AU. ETA: They both turn out to be by the same writer.
Rosemary for Remembrance, a space opera AU of Hamlet in which Cadet Ophelia Linus saves the starship Elsinore. Even more fun than that makes it sound.
The Sun Shone on Venus, a sequel to Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day." And almost redeems it, too.
A Piece of the Continent, a Hainish novelette that almost could have been written by Le Guin, were the writing tighter and less comforting; I'm also not sure why the protagonist had to be Genly Ai on his next assignment after Winter. Still, sub-prime Le Guin is better than most people's best.
Out of the Night, a fix-it sequel to Mockingjay in the form of a magazine profile of Katniss and Peeta twenty years later. Does a pretty good job of making the book's conclusion work without contradicting anything canon.
An Incomplete History Of History, As Written For Yuletide, In Five Acts And An Epilogue, a retelling of A Complete History of the Soviet Union As Told By A Humble Worker, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris that is incorrectly tagged "overuse of parentheses." (They are all appropriately used.)
As for Postcards form Kyoto, judging by reactions it seems to be narrowly targeted at people who A) know Kyoto or B) know the Kokinshu (or at least common themes and images of Japanese poetry) -- to readers unfamiliar with those (those fandoms?) it comes across mostly as a lovely mood piece. Ah, well. I still ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ all over it.
* Sorting order left as an exercise for the reader.
---L.
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postcards from kyoto
Date: 1 January 2011 12:39 pm (UTC)Happy New Year!
Re: postcards from kyoto
Date: 1 January 2011 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 January 2011 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 January 2011 06:44 pm (UTC)---L.
no subject
Date: 1 January 2011 07:33 pm (UTC)