Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

So -- Yuletide, that massive fanfiction exchange for small, rarely written-for fandoms, is complete.

The most important thing you need to know about it, of course, is my gift: Biscuit Lion gave me Living Out The Remainder Of Their Lives, a fic for "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi, a work of historical fiction about the An Lushan rebellion. This focuses on Yang Guifei's time in heaven before finally being reunited with Emperor Xuanzhong -- with crossover appearances by figures from Chinese mythology. So, a posthumous fantasy -- niiice.

Of the few fic for poetry fandoms, it is by far the best. Everyone -- read it.

As for what I wrote, that would be A Change of Season, a Tang dynasty RPF (basically, historical fiction) about the relationship of Wu Zetian, the first and only female empress regnant of China, and Shangguan Wan-er, her personal secretary who become her right-hand woman (sometimes called her "prime minister," a non-existent title -- as a woman, she couldn't take a formal office). I'm pretty sure authorship was entirely obvious to anyone who knows me who stumbled across it: I didn't bother trying to hide any of my quirks. So, yes, there is Chinese poetry. I was just glad to actually write something, anything for the first time in a couple years. Took me the whole Yuletide period to finish, but it was quite satisfying.

Recs later, after I've had time to read some more.

Does anyone have recs for me?

---L.

Subject quote from "Spring View," Du Fu tr. Mark Alexander.

The Three-ladder system of social class in the US is very thinky for me, and large portions of it ring true. Note that this is social not economic class, which Americans often have trouble untangling. (via)

John McPhee has a long meditation on the importance of omission in art. (via?)

Some real covers for public-domain ebooks. Lolwhut. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from "The Spirit of Discovery by Sea," William Lisle Bowles.

There. I declare revisions to A Desert Year complete: 366 poems, each buffed and polished, or in 30-odd cases replaced, all shuffled into something resembling an effective sequence. This being the poem-a-day project started almost five years ago, describing the cycle of seasons in southern Arizona -- now as good as I can get it. Now ready to send out into the world, at least once I finish writing this proposal.

This puts me up to two collections on submission. Which reminds me, I need to toss Ice Melts in the Wind at its next hopeful destination. But first:

Woofs.

In case you're wondering, or would enjoy it anyway, today's poem is:

    After a windy day,
a moon like a tarnished dime
    rises through the haze
and a single cricket chirps
in the trees along the wash.

Now back to revising the YA novel.

---L.

Subject quote from A Desert Year, from "5 May."

A week after seeing Much Ado About Nothing, I still have the lounge-music setting of the hey-nonny-nonny song going through my head. Joss Whedon has earwormed me.

As the MetaFilter poster put it, arachnoFFFABulous. More by the photographer. (via)

Reddit thread: What's the best horror story you can come up with in two sentences? My fave: The doctors told the amputee he might experience a phantom limb from time to time. Nobody prepared him for the moments though, when he felt cold fingers brush across his phantom hand. (via)

Cookie Monster recites This is just to say" on Twitter. (via ML)

janni reflects on lessons from her Writing for the Long Haul series.

---L.

Subject quote from "A Better Answer," Matthew Prior.

... this morning was judgment day

Another meme, one I'm way behind on. For accountability purposes, I note that publishing-wise I did better in 2012 than I have in some time, with 4 poems out:

"Winter Advice" in Goblin Fruit, Winter 2012
"Desert Stories" in Mythic Delirium, issue 26
"Listening" in Tales of the Talisman, volume viii, issue 1
"Laurel Thoughts" in inskscrawl, issue 4

Possibly a trend. One can hope. Or perhaps even aspire to placing another of my long narratives.

*boogies off into the purple sky, people running everywhere*

---L.

Yuletide authors have been revealed -- I can admit to writing an Iliad fic for myhappyface focused on Hector and Paris and their two marriages: Two Brothers, Two Weddings, Two Partings. I'm afraid I broke two rules of fanfic, by incorporating whole-cloth far too much Sappho and Morris and by directly quoting canon. But aside from that and completely failing to disguise anything about the way I write, I'm fairly pleased with it. The story is told slantwise enough you probably need to be familiar with the Iliad.

Many thanks, again, to the authors of my gifts, springgreen for A Prelude to the Adventures of the Boatperson of Heaven and snowynight/sinngrace for To the Star. (I should have known I knew them both, heh.)

While I'm at it, more recs from the Yuletide archive, still in no particular order:

"Worked okay so far?" - A lovely, lovely fic for Hobbes and Bacon, and since all the canon is these four strips (click "Newer Entries" to see the others), all you need to know is the characters and premise of Calvin & Hobbes, which you of course already do (you do, right?) and that Bacon is the nickname of Calvin and Susie's daughter.

Lunete and Ondine, or The Clever Maiden - a "translation" of a sequel to Yvain, complete with "scholarly" introduction explaining why it could not, despite the text's claim, to have been by Chrétien de Troyes. I somewhat regret that the "translator" did not attempt rhyme or meter, but do not hold it against them as 1300 lines of Arthurian femslash is an laudable accomplishment in itself. Can be read without knowing canon, as most of the backstory is explained, though a familiarity of the conventions of medieval romance probably helps. One of my favorites of the season (along with "Contagious Fogs").

Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua - Technically, this is a fic for Pat Barker's Regeneration, but in effect it's historical RPF about Siegfried Sassoon conversing with something who may or may not be the ghost of Wilfred Owen, but certainly a ghost of his war experiences. Knowledge of the novel not needed, but knowledge of the poets helps.

Die ente magd - Uses the characters and tropes of Princess Tutu to tell an archetypal fairy tale and critique several of its tropes, including the treatment of villains. Requires knowing the series.

Into the Woods - A space marines adventure in a dystopic future. A backstory fic for Aliens, but it works just fine without knowing canon.

Lebenswerk - Another backstory fic, this one for Sunset Boulevard. Works quite well indeed even if you haven't seen the movie but only know something of the history of Hollywood and the transition from silent movies to talkies. It probably works even better with the movie, though.

---L.

Despite feeling Overwhelmed By It All, I will supposedly be able to crawl out from under my deadlines in early November, so I once am again participating in Yuletide -- this being an annual fanfic exchange for "rare" fandoms. As usual, I'm requesting and offering fics for works (almost) entirely in the public domain. If anyone is interested in my details, my Dear Yulemouse letter, offering further information to whomever gets randomly assigned to me, is here. Needless to say, I'm still kicking myself for not thinking of I Ching Anthropomorphic in time to nominate it.

(If you're interested in playing, signups are here; requires an account on AO3 and being willing to offer to write fics for at least four of these fandoms, in return for which you get to request fics from any three or four from the same list.)

A live-action recreation of the title sequence of The Simpsons. (via)

Stacked images from ISS flyovers make for a very trippy video of lightstreaks. (via)

A short new piece about some university engineers attempting to build a human-powered helicopter. (via)

ETA: Jonathan Coulton rerecords "Code Monkey" for the 15th anniversary of /. and makes it rather beautiful. (via all over)

---L.

The going was excused by Sirens -- which was fun and full of thinky and some wonderful remeets (waves to rachelmanija, kateelliott, chibicharibdys, starlady38, swan_tower, artemisgrey, jennifergale, rhinemouse, metteharrison) and defictionalizations (waves to thistleingrey, rilina, esotera). But really, the traveling was all about the Oregon coast.* Three slow days of winding US-101 and dune hikes and empty gray beaches was not enough. I did journal, but the daily haikus are more likely to convey something of the scene, however haltingly.


under the maples
a single seed whirling down --
children trudge to school

—Portland, 6 Oct

a tattered cover
flutters in the restless breeze:
reading in the park

—Portland, 7 Oct
and no, that's not a good haiku

footprints in the sand --
off in the moss-covered pines
a bird croaks once, twice

—Reedsport, 8 Oct

shiranami wa
hisoi hiroi hama e
kuru ya kuru

—Reedsport, 9 Oct**

on the empty beach,
sounds of continual surf
a plover piping

—Reedsport, 9 Oct

one wave
rides piggyback
on another

—Depoe Bay, 9 Oct

gray fog fades inland
suddenly
a sparkling bay

—Netarts, 10 Oct

until the next wave
Arcturus is reflected
in receding water

—Seaside, 10 Oct

a long white spray
rumumumbles on black rocks --
below, train whistle

—Columbia Gorge, 11 Oct

gray veils the river --
a drop of water runs off
a pale maple leaf

—Skemania, 12 Oct

green grass and green moss
and green-on-green Douglas firs --
*clink* of a golf ball

—Skemania, 13 Oct

pale faces in the lobby --
black crows on a wet green lawn

—Skemania, 14 Oct
idea stolen from starlady38

brown leaves plastered flat
on the wet concrete sidewalk --
cars shush in the street

—Portland, 14 Oct
no, this one isn't good either

* Okay, okay, and the pilgrimage to Powell's. NB: It turns out they can ship your purchases with a single price for 10–1000 books.

** Not only am I not sure whether the final line achieves the effect I'm going for, I don't know how to translate it -- which is an odd feeling to be sure. A rough rendition might be white waves / to the broad beach / coming, coming. Maybe.

---L.

My default for when I have nothing else to say seems to be to post another of these. This may be a dangerous habit.

( mountain above water mutates to lake above heaven )

---L.

( heaven over mountain changes to fire over fire )

---L.