rivkat: Dean reading (dean reading)
2017-07-30 10:15 am

News & reviews (incl. plays, clothes)

First, Grana is one of my favorite clothes shops--the materials are really high quality and their modal/cotton tops are the softest I've ever had. There is a big clearance now, and if you use this link then you get 10% off and I get $20 in credit. (Socks & tops are really cheap in the clearance.)

I went to see Alexandra Petri's To Tell My Story: Although the structuring conceit is a loose retelling of Hamlet, with a modern-day fangirl as the tragic protagonist Elsie, there are a number of other fandoms represented, most obviously Harry Potter, secondarily Twilight (though only identified as “vampire” in the promo materials, grrr), MCU (similar, grr), LoTR, Sherlock, and Historical RPF (Abraham Lincoln). Some observations:

1. Just as Ready Player One hails as its ideal reader an 80s fanboy, this play hails a 21st-century fangirl. I laughed a lot.

2. Me, a pedant: Technically, this isn’t a “fanfic,” but a “fandrama” or “fanwork,” though I understand why they used the more well-recognized term.

3. For a number of reasons, commercial “fanworks,” if you accept the application of that term to them—and for this play at least I think we should—tend to be metafictions, interested in the mechanisms of storytelling (see, e.g., Jasper Fforde’s series, Dumas père’s Kean as remixed by Sartre, Supernatural’s Fan Fiction and Slash Fiction episodes), especially if you include in the metafiction category retellings from the perspective of a character whose experience is elided from the original (see, e.g., Wide Sargasso Sea, Lo’s Diary, The Wind Done Gone, Jacqueline Carey’s retelling of LoTR). This play is no exception, as the title indicates, and I also sense a reference to Hamilton’s “who lives, who dies, who tells your story”—especially since Petri’s play, much more than Shakespeare’s, emphasizes that you (the character) have little to no control over those things. In Petri’s version, Elsie is not able to orchestrate the narrative for Horatio to repeat.

4. The program fascinated me because the format is very specifically taken from the Archive of Our Own, with its major tags, additional tags and kudos count, as well as fandom categorizations. And I’m pretty sure all the additional tags are canonical, even though some of them are not what we envisioned when we set up the additional tags field. That’s folksonomy for you. Anyway, obviously I don’t think there’s any trademark problem, and wouldn’t be for a creative work even if it used more of the Archive’s trade dress, but it’s notable that the AO3 now provides some standard formatting choices.

A few reviews, in the fannish theme:

Joe Harris & Dirk Maggis, The X-Files: Cold Cases (audiobook):Scully! )
I am Princess X & Princeless )

Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology: Gaiman retells some of the key Norse myths, and it’s enjoyable, though I liked Astolat’s version of Thor’s near-marriage to a giant better.
rivkat: Rivka as Wonder Woman (Default)
2014-01-10 09:38 pm

we get questions!

For [livejournal.com profile] destina: January 10 - I think I'd love to hear some nostalgic thoughts from you about X-Files, either the fandom, or what it was like being RivkaT in that fandom, or the show itself - whatever tickles your fancy. :)

x-phile but not ex-phile )PS I still have room for other questions for this month.  This is fun!
rivkat: Dean reading (dean reading)
2014-01-07 02:47 pm

bunch o'recs

For [personal profile] serrico: Jan 7: What are some of your all-time classic/favourite fics, and why do they hold a special place in your heart/bookmarks? Any fandom.

I love dramatic angst! )
rivkat: trust no one folded dollar bill by dan tague (trust no 1)
2013-12-28 12:03 am

Yuletide recs etc.

New icon on DW from a piece of art that is way too expensive for me, but that I love anyway (because of the X-Files, of course).  It's made from a crumpled dollar bill.

I got a delightful Sleepy Hollow story for Yuletide! Three Gifts is the kind of Ichabod/Abbie pining that really does it for me.  This is a relationship with real barriers and I respect that greatly. 

Yuletide Madness also brought me the equally delightful Covert Affairs story Away, which is Auggie/Eyal as part of an established threesome with Annie. It went directly to my own personal cravings for them. 

Others: Excellent multimedia in this Galaxy Quest story, which is as affectionate towards fandom as its source. And GQ fandom also got the amazingly tender/pleasurably painful Alexander Dane story I didn’t know I needed, The Space Between,  in which there is also a reboot.

Charlie Stross’s Laundry universe: Violins at Work, from the perspective of Mo O’Brien, Bob Howard’s extremely dangerous wife. Very Strosslike: “Is there a word for an appetite and some kind of understanding without a mind to do the planning? Kind of like a cat deciding that this human will just about do as a servant, because it smells of food, but without the sensitivity and consideration for which all felines are well known.”

Non-Yuletide: my J2 story Full Service Firm now has a Russian translation, which I think is a first for me. As always, I remain impressed by the archive’s growth: the translation’s work number is an order of magnitude greater than Full Service Firm’s.

Also, randomly, anyone who really wanted to rock my world could make a Vampire Diaries Damon vid to Diamond Ring’s Wait and See. He’s chancing on situations and he’s out of his league! He just needs some provocation and he’s down on his knees! (I am so serious here: this would be my Lord King Bad Vid of great commitment if I did such things.)

Personal note: the new scar on my arm reminds me way too much of the Eye of Sauron. Or any eye really. Scars should not look like eyes, is what I’m saying here.

And finally: This is the best pickup conversation ever, and the fact that it comes from a Dean Winchester sex dream is only icing on the cake. 
rivkat: text with damon and bonnie (damon and bonnie)
2013-12-13 08:38 pm

Late Crazy Nights 3/update

So, I got mansplained to yesterday about how there’s no sexism in the rap music business because Salt ‘N Pepa. OK, white guy! Also the videographer told me that he liked me because I was feisty. All in all a somewhat strange day.

I am still poking away at Eight Crazy Nights, I swear!

[personal profile] giandujakiss : Anything Abbie & Ichabod, snarking at each other over Ichabod's adjustments to the modern world, would make me so happy!


shot heard round the world )


[personal profile] wendelah1: in honor of the twentieth anniversary of The X-Files, how about a holiday ficlet?

a kiss under the mistletoe ... or was that toe? )

For Anonymous: It occurs to me that Smallville's Clark got his superhearing very shortly after the events of "Asylum." What if that ability came just a bit sooner?


can you hear me now? )


For [personal profile] ceares: It's sad that's I've burned out on TVD and have no idea what's going on but I'd still love some Bonnie/Matt/Jeremy if you're so inclined.

NC-17, in which Matt shares the benefit of his experience )

END

rivkat: Scully with her "bitch please" face on (bitch please)
2013-09-15 08:24 pm

I'm one half of a fandom classic!

In the latest Transformative Works and Cultures, Emily Regan Wills has Fannish discourse communities and the construction of gender in The X-Files, in which Iolokus is cited as one of the fandom's attempts to recuperate Scully's reproductive arc. 

I wish I hadn't lost my hard drive with all the XF fic on it.  Perhaps it's time to reread the other stories discussed!

rivkat: Dana Scully, FBI (scully fbi)
2013-06-08 10:35 am

The fortunate fall

I am very much enjoying The Fall (I’ve seen only to episode 4). I thought I was done with serial killers, but as it turns out Gillian Anderson, even blonde, can bring me back in, Dana Scully 4ever )

Maddy Myers has a good piece about supporting Anita Sarkeesian and her series, Tropes v. Women, without being in full agreement with her on particular choices.  It reminded me of other conversations about loving problematic things; we forgive ourselves that very easily.
rivkat: Dean: green-eyed monster (green-eyed monster)
2013-05-10 12:28 am

nattering

I’m finally catching up with SPN, and  spoilers for 8x20 )

From the department of ‘I don’t know quite how I feel about that’: I met a fellow XF fan who told me, “I read Iolokus when I was fourteen and it changed my life!” I told her that we were very angry at the time, and she indicated that she’d been able to tell. (Additional note to self: I’m old.)

From Deadspin: “You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach.”

Interesting fan-relevant argument from Jess Nevins about why Lovecraft became canonized and other, better writers of the period didn’t (the second reason strikes me as dependent on context-specific definitions of “first” relating to the rise of copyright, but is still worthy of consideration):
Lovecraft escaped the fate of the vast majority of writers — obscurity, to a greater or lesser degree — through several extra-literary events. … Lovecraft’s letter writing … was critical in establishing Lovecraft as a literary presence to his contemporaries. Lovecraft was an extraordinary correspondent, writing an estimated hundred thousand letters in his lifetime, to fans and fellow writers, especially those working for the pulp Weird Tales. Decades before the social media, Lovecraft used letter writing to create a presence for himself in the consciousness of fans and writers and to create the social capital that paid off after his death.
Too, Lovecraft was the first author to create an open-source fictional universe. The crossover, the meeting between two or more characters from discrete texts, is nearly as old as human culture, beginning with the Greeks if not the Sumerians. The idea of a fictional universe open to any creator who wants to take part in it is considerably newer. French authors like Verne and Balzac had created the idea of a single universe linked through multiple texts, and following them, the dime novels and story papers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had established the idea of ongoing fictional universes, but those universes were limited to magazines published by the original stories’ publishers. It was Lovecraft who first created a fictional universe that anyone was welcome to take part in. Both during his lifetime and immediately afterward, other authors made use of Lovecraft’s ideas and creations in their own stories and novels. Lovecraft’s generosity with his own creations ultimately gave them a longevity that other, better writers’ ideas and characters did not have.
rivkat: Mulder and Scully (mulder and scully)
2013-04-23 10:48 pm

Those of us who are still alive

Quick question before school eats me again: my computer died and I'm trying to get good XF casefile recs ... anyone have a good list?

Free pilots on Amazon—all kids’ shows and (apparently vulgar) comedies now, but one of the comedies involves the zombie apocalypse and another is divas against the supernatural, if this is of interest.

Valedictatorian:
Testing is the accounting of the reform movement, and the executives are cooking the books. They’re manipulating the statements so it looks like the venture is turning a profit. Well, actually, it’s got negative cash flow. The gains are phantoms. The enterprise is insolvent. Even by its own standards, reform fails.
The central proposition of so-called education reform is that it endeavors to make schooling more entrepreneurial. Now this is bogus on its face. The most salient fact about entrepreneurialism is that most ventures fail. Is that the proper model for the delivery of a universal service? …
Like most pro-market types, these people are ignorant of the actual workings of capitalism. They see Apple’s glittering headquarters, Google’s quarterly revenue numbers, and they think, Damn! I wish schools could be more like that! Strewn across the historic landscape behind all this success are hundreds of thousands of failed attempts, many of which don’t make it out of their first year. And you want school to look like this? Well, uh, no; we only want school to imitate successful ventures! Well, I want better arms and a bigger dick, but editing every other eighth of an inch out of the measuring tape will not make it so.

rivkat: olivia from fringe (olivia fringe)
2012-12-13 05:50 pm

Eight Crazy Nights 6: Vampire Diaries, Fringe/XF, SPN, Dark Angel

for [personal profile] jadelennox, Vampire Diaries, “made out of clay.”

and when it's dry and ready )


... and for [personal profile] wendelah1: Fringe/X-Files cross-over fic! Maybe Scully is asked to consult on a case. Mulder can come, too.

The precision of your incisions )


... and for anonymous: Captured by the Game verse!! Please for all that is holy with a cherry on top could you add another part??? Note: Okay, I’ve kicked around various alternate paths for them; this is a continuation of this earlier bit.

I was there first )


... and for [personal profile] lilyoftheval5: Dark Angel - Max/Alec - In a near future Transgenics had the chance and the time to start developing their own society, social structures that feel natural to them. There are Heats. There are hierarchies. There are children.

natural aptitude )
rivkat: Mulder and Scully (mulder and scully)
2012-11-09 09:28 pm

Delicious warning, Megaupload help, math and a fic rec

Via [twitter.com profile] OTW_News: Alert to fans who lost fanworks as part of the Megaupload seizure: the EFF wants to help. Tell them your story!

Also, via several sources: Delicious is now displaying whatever full name you gave them when you signed up. In my case, my wallet name! Oops.

In happier news, have an old-school XF MSR recommendation:  i made it in my mind, by [archiveofourown.org profile] postcardmystery (warning: suicidal ideation and Mulder’s general lack of wellbeing).

And finally, the complete guide to the US debt problem, brought to you by math.  I'm now largely done with schadenfreude and contemplating various reality-related things, like the weirdness involved in fetishizing Nate Silver because science, when science would perhaps suggest that you not fetishize anyone, and the related question of how to speak to people in a state of epistemic closure (related since liberals have their emotions bound up in their facts, too).
rivkat: Scully with her "bitch please" face on (bitch please)
2012-06-15 09:37 pm

XF ficlet (Fugue)

Yes, I am done grading, why do you ask?  For [personal profile] wendelah1: The ending of Fugue: The image of Scully shivering on that cold floor, in shock after the visit from the Smoking Man? It haunts me. Please get her up off that floor and, if possible, into a happier ending. 
XF, Gen, G.
Heavier on the -er than on the happy )
rivkat: Scully with her "bitch please" face on (bitch please)
2012-01-18 09:11 pm

Belated Eight Crazy Nights 6 3/3 (XF/Fringe, SPN/Firefly)

For [personal profile] wendelah1: Fringe/XFiles cross-over: Olivia has to consult Scully for some case that needs...consulting. Mulder can come too, of course.
The old X designation )



For [personal profile] maraceles: more of that Supernatural/Firefly crossover, Angels in the Architecture. Gen or Sam/Dean. (Note: can be read either way. Also River/player to be named below.)

spinning in infinity )
rivkat: Mrs. Lovett: bright ideas just pop into my head (bright ideas)
2010-08-23 02:21 pm

First fanwork love

Passing it on: the pink sparkly hearts challenge at fanlore. The idea is that over the next two weeks, we're encouraged to make new pages at Fanlore celebrating favorite fanworks -- specifically, the first fanworks we ever fell in love with.

I did one for The Sin-Eater, which was either the first X-Files fic I read online or as near as makes no difference; it was the first for which I wrote feedback, and I received a gracious reply from Jane Mortimer, which was a wonderful introduction to online fandom. So I went ahead and wrote another for Mercy. I’m not sure how I prove the story was influential, but I remember that it was much talked-about.

In other news, I’m in the middle of reading a book that, when I described the first 60-odd pages, two separate people spontaneously responded, “Red Dawn with aliens!” It’s mostly, but not quite, that; I’m still reading.
rivkat: Fandom is my fandom (fandom is my fandom)
2010-07-27 08:27 pm
Entry tags:

Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land!

Imaginary vids: The Antlers, Two, is a Scully arc vid in my head.

A long time ago, I wrote, “Today I did a very good job at something where the extent to which I did a good job doesn’t matter and should.” Turns out it did matter! Go me!
rivkat: Dean reading (dean reading)
2009-12-18 01:16 am

Eight Crazy Nights: Seven (SPN, Fringe, XF, SPN/Firefly)

[livejournal.com profile] suzumi_tori: a continuation of the Supernatural/Firefly crossover.

angels in the architecture )


[personal profile] aloysiavirgata: I'd love to see a post-Orison fic with Mulder and Scully dealing with the immediate aftermath. Cleaning up her apartment, the emotional/professional ramifications of the shooting, that kind of thing.

not prince Hamlet/all my sins remembered )

[livejournal.com profile] jakrar: Fringe - It would be great to see your take on Peter finding out that Walter brought him to this world after his own son died. Also, should they be expecting any sort of repercussions from that any time soon...? See also: [livejournal.com profile] ignazwisdom: FRINGE FIC! I have NO specifics, though. Just ... Fringe fic.

we are not who we are )

[personal profile] thuviaptarth: Dean/Alastair or Dean & Alastair in hell. Note: I'm pretty sure Dean/Alastair is always implied; that's how it stays here.

give me all of you )

END
rivkat: batman and superman: in conclusion, brothers (batman superman brothers)
2009-12-16 11:14 pm

Eight Crazy Nights: Six

OMG did I really promise to do 17 more of these, plus Yuletide? *facepalm*

[livejournal.com profile] skippy_fluff: SV: Oliver and Clark find they have more oil than they expected (or the oil they have lasts longer than expected). Came out a bit shaggy-dog, sorry.

Oiliens! )

[personal profile] giandujakiss: The Inside, Rebecca/Web/Paul UST, mindgames! This seemed to me to be the same prompt as [personal profile] livrelibre's Web/Rebecca/Paul (trust).

Inside man )

[personal profile] meret: SPN - A Captured by the Game (Sam/Dean) time stamp.

fallen idol )

[personal profile] livrelibre: Chuck, Chuck/Casey/Sarah (post-finale, training or "Let's get ready to rumble!"). Bonus to the first to ID the movie reference.

Chuck talks a little dirty in this one )

[personal profile] ariadnes_string: Fringe!fic: Locked room/trapped/quarantine always does it for me. Gen, Peter & Olivia.

A nice trip to the forest )

[personal profile] libgirl: M/S: snowflakes. Warning: gratuitous meanness to Bill Scully Jr.

Fight Club was wrong about you )

[personal profile] kass: SV, Clark/Lex, glow

fully poseable )

END
rivkat: Rivka as Wonder Woman (claire castiel)
2009-12-14 08:57 pm

Eight Crazy Nights: Four

Nobody wants to give me a warning label! It can't be the case that I don't require a warning, can it?

[personal profile] thefourthvine: BtVS: Ten Years after Sunnydale: Encounters with the Survivors of the Nation's Biggest Natural Disaster.

Look on my works, ye mighty )

[personal profile] libgirl: M/S: "It's not what it looks like”

early XF )

[personal profile] alexseanchai: SPN: The angels are obviously not above using unethical means to persuade Dean...well, Ben Braeden isn't the only person out there who's probably Dean's kid. (Just the only one Dean knows about so far.) And judging by Claire Novak, whatever makes Dean and Sam suitable angelic vessels has even odds (if not a guarantee) of being passed on to Dean's kids...

angels are dicks. )

[personal profile] eclectic: girl!Dean, surprise visit to Sam, Stanford era.

Came out angsty, sorry. )

[personal profile] niangao: SV + Kon from DC canon

This *actually happened* in DCU canon. I don't even know! )
rivkat: Mulder and Scully (mulder and scully)
2009-10-24 12:45 pm
Entry tags:

Sick sad world

Loopy on meds and cycling between sweats and chills, so sad. But I have a report on The Sex Files: (1) sex between random people = not a turn-on for me; Mulder's hand hovering over the doorknob to Scully's room, wanting to see her but afraid to reach out = a turn-on; (2) bad actors desperately trying to remember the obviously-more-complex-than-they're-used-to dialogue sometimes, though only sometimes, come off with a pretty good Mulderish/Scullyish flat affect.  Other times it's just funny.  (3) When Mulder watched porn, as is his wont, they actually showed the porn, for an extended period.  (4) The final M/S scene was played differently than the other sex scenes, like they really loved each other but for some reason had to try all these different positions and have a money shot the first time. 

Anyway, I offer you the credits and first post-credit sequence, no sex at all, but the visuals and music are creditable versions of the real thing.  External shots of the FBI building!