A Certain Slant of Light

29. Have you ever tried to write for a fandom or ship, and found you couldn’t?

I tried valiantly to write Pushing Daisies fic - in fact, I even posted some, in the dubious hope that it was better than I thought it was - but really it never came together. The show had such a specific visual and audio aesthetic which was central to the whole experience, and I found it basically impossible to translate into the written word.

As I recall, a lot of other fanfic writers had this problem too. I think this was the first show where I really grasped that just because you loved a show (or any other piece of media), that didn’t mean that you would love the fic. In this case it wasn’t even a clash in shipping priorities - I loved Ned/Chuck, which was the big ship. The fic just didn’t scratch the same itch as the show and it didn’t seem to scratch any other itches, either.

I’ve also never been able to write sitcom fic. It’s partly the rapid one-liners (honestly, I have so much admiration for people who can write that, either in a TV show or in fic) and partly the sort of absurdist logic that many sitcoms employ. The characters’ actions seem perfectly natural when the actors on screen are doing it, but when I sit down and try to write a fic about them, everything just seems to fall apart in my hands somehow.

Day 22 - Favorite series finale.

As much as I hate the fact that it ended so abruptly, I actually think the Pushing Daisies series finale is pretty excellent. It wrapped up all the long-running plot threads I cared about - will Chuck ever tell her aunts she’s still alive, what will happen to Olive? - and didn’t retroactively ruin any of the things I loved about the series.

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic, which is about the memory of the Civil War in the South. It’s interesting, particularly the parts about Civil War reenactors and the lengths to which they’ll go for the hardcore experience - Horwitz falls in with a group that likes to do ten-mile marches at least partially barefoot - but rather shallow; Horwitz covers a lot of ground but doesn’t get very in-depth with it.

Also Kate DiCamillo’s Floyd and Ulysses, which won the 2014 Newbery Medal. I find this baffling. It’s not a bad book, but it’s awfully slight, and most of the characters are so broadly drawn as to feel slightly unreal.

And why does DiCamillo keep writing books about rodents who fall in love with humans? First the mouse in The Tale of Despereaux and now the squirrel in Floyd and Ulysses. It’s such an odd and specific theme.

What I’m Reading Now

Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. The plot by itself probably wouldn’t grab me, but such plot as there is exists mostly as a hanger for the Night Circus itself, and given that I would happily wander around the Night Circus for hours, that’s just as well. It’s almost painful to realize that this place, described in all this loving and dreamlike detail, doesn’t actually exist and can’t be visited.

The Narrator from Pushing Daisies narrates the audiobook of The Night Circus, which is pretty perfect. The Night Circus doesn’t have the same aesthetic as Pushing Daisies, but it is similar in that it’s a strongly aestheticized story, where the aesthetic is at times purposefully at odds with the underlying grimness.

(I’m contemplating having a Night Circus tea. The aesthetic would make it easy to decorate for: black table cloth, white table runner, crimson cookie tin as a centerpiece…)

I’ve also started Eva Rice’s The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp as my new book to read a chapter a night. So far, we’ve been introduced to Tara’s large family and Tara’s late childhood habit of sneaking into the neighboring estate to ride horses in the pre-dawn light. This seems most promising.

What I Plan to Read Next

I’m thinking about reading the rest of Pamela Dean’s books. She only wrote six, but getting my hands on them may be tricky. The local library has The Dubious Hills and Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, but not the Secret Country trilogy…

I need to stop picking up new authors whose work is hard to get a hold of. This is getting a little ridiculous.

Title: Lonesome Dove
Author: osprey_archer
Beta: visualthinker11
Fandoms: Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies
Pairings: Jaye/Eric, with a splash of Olive/Randy and a touch of Ned/Chuck
Rating: PG, for cussing
Summary: Jaye, in an uncharacteristic burst of fellow-feeling, agreed to go on a road trip with Eric. Partway through, her habitual misanthropy firmly back in place, they end up at the Pie Hole - where Olive is trying to figure out is Randy has a hidden criminal life. What could possibly go wrong?

( Lonesome Dove )

I feel inexplicably blissful - not that I usually sit around weeping; but my friends are all leaving for college, so more sorrow is in order.

I think it's the lovely weather. After three days of rain and lightning and tornado watches, we have sunshine and a breeze

Also, the afterglow of a couple of excellent Pushing Daisies episodes. (I'm finally catching up with them.) I loved "Robbing Hood" - partly because I'm a sucker for Robin Hood stories, but also because Pushing Daisies does sweet, idealistic, totally cracked villains really well. And "Comfort Food!" Which has the best costumes ever! (Seriously, could Ned and Olive be any cuter in their stripy vests?) And the reappearance of Muffin Buffalo from Wonderfalls! And Olive singing!

Now that we know that Pushing Daisies and Wonderfalls take place in the same world, I have this urge to do a crossover where Jaye goes to the Pie Hole, even though the only animal shaped thing that could talk to her there are those little bumblebee lapel pin intercoms that Olive and Chuck sometimes wear.

But that would work, right? Olive could be wearing the bumblebee (because Emerson et al are investigating a homeopathic drug smuggling ring and she's trying to get the homeopathic salesman who had a crush on her first season to confess), and it would talk to Jaye and Jaye could somehow help transfer Olive's affections from the Piemaker to that homeopathic medicine guy, while simultaneously helping Emerson find the real drug smuggler!

"It's so sweet," Jaye said, gagging a little, as she watched Olive and Mr. Homeopathic Dude share a piece of Georgia peach pie a la mode. Eric put an arm around her shoulder.

"It certainly is," said Emerson, smiling paternally at his newest pile of fifty dollar bills.

RULES: Comment and I'll LJ stalk you to find THREE FANDOMS you apparently love. And then you answer these questions about them!

01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

zormatoform gave me Veronica Mars, Pushing Daisies, and Torchwood.

( Read more... )

Title: Curiosity
Author: osprey_archer
Pairing: Chuck/Ned
Rating: G
Beta: silksieve
Disclaimer: If I owned it, the show would be returning for a third season.
Summary: “Could you bring to life a pair of leather shoes and make them spontaneously tap dance?”

( Curiosity )

I'm very distressed by the news of Pushing Daisies cancellation. Really, ABC? I realize that you sold your soul to Mammon long ago, but this is still outrageous.

Beyond all else - all the character development that won't happen and storylines that won't wrap up and the fact that my weekly infusion of joy is being destroyed by a corporate behemoth - I am saddened by the fact that there will never be an episode featuring a dinosaur museum. Because Ned revivifying fossils would be SO COOL.

***

I have finished Dailan Kifki! *trigger celebratory downpour of papel picado* enemyfrigate, did you in fact read Harry Potter in Spanish? Because I need a new Spanish book now, but I'm a little worried Harry Potter will be too hard.

It amuses me somewhat that the first Harry Potter book in Spanish is "Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal." Evidently someone thought the Spaniards could handle the whole philosophers' stone concept, it's just us dumb Americans who need to have our hands held.

Via visualthinker11: Pushing Daisies! Is having a crossover with Wonderfalls!

I love the fact that Bryan Fuller’s stories are all connected by a Grand Unified Field Theory. Because his characters are so brilliant and full of life, and watching them meet each other would make me so happy.

Personally, I’m partial to visualthinker11’s idea that Mahandra is Emerson Cod’s daughter. I’m not sure he’s quite old enough for that to be reasonable, but that’s a minor inconvenience we will ignore in favor of Mahandra and Emerson snarking at each other, possibly with assistance from Jaye.

***

In other news: I got my router back! So I have internet! And I can watch the season premier of Pushing Daisies and feed my neopet before it dies!

There is the minor hitch that my router, heartbroken by its abandonment to ITS, has spent the last few hours pitching a hissy fit that disconnects it from the internet every other minute, which will make watching Pushing Daisies difficult. And by difficult I mean I will be tempted to go at the router with a hammer before I get halfway through the episode.

And thus (intones the computer nanny, A.D. 2501) began the serial killing career of Jin, Computer Killer, most prolific Luddite in the early computer age. Before she fell before the electronic pulses of justice, she gruesomely murdered thousands of computers and dreamed of committing computer genocide with an EMP.