the things in my head

[ontology]

You know you are losing your touch when:

You write approximately half of a fic you have been trying to write without any success for about a month. You go to bed, and by the next morning have no memory of having done this.

Yeah.

Also? I have been procrastinating about this for quite a while, because I'm sort of worried that if I talk about it too much, I will have to write it, and if I write it, it will EAT MY BRAIN, and tuesday_skyline will disappear into The Black Hole of Banui Where Stories Go To Die. However, Skyline seems to be going strong (too strong! ack! despite the fact that it is still missing a plot), and I really can't procrastinate much longer, or one of these days I'm going to make a reference to the bloody thing and no-one will understand what I mean and think I've gone mental(er).

So, the Story That Ate My Brain. I suppose you've all gathered by now that this is a work of fiction. What you do not know is as follows: Once upon a time there was a copper-haired librarian named Evangeline. In her spare time, and mostly by accident, she hunted vampires. Then there's this whole theorising on the actual nature of vampires, because I can't buy the idea of anything that used to be human being soulless and utterly irredeemable. (Neither can Evangeline. This leads to Interesting Things. I have no idea what they are, though.) This sort of stemmed, in a way, from my frustration with gothic novels and how they're either mocking the cliches and, while being utterly delightful, just don't have enough of that dark-cathedral asethetic I'm craving, or they are stupid and contrived and have teenagers in them and I want to throw things at them. (I haven't read the actual content of most of these, just the summaries and, occasionally, Amazon reviews.) Then the rest of this happened because Evangeline hopped into my brain and attempted mutiny. Apparently, she lives in 1913 or so. She's been rabbiting on about odd things like the dark and...I seem to remember something about brooches or something equally mundane recently. I don't write it down (it's too weird), i.e., I don't remember it. We're going to have a nasty row about this eventually, I'm sure: she'll tell me in biting tones that something tangled up in a long spiel about winter or organising books was Very Important and I ought to have paid attention.

Getting headache. Must go read. (I am aware that the one does not necessarily cure the other.)



P.S.: I could do this for hours. Yes, really.

Comments

[bonny-kathryn.livejournal.com]

If you ever want to talk about vampires, I should rather like to. I have several (mutually conflicting) theories about what they are (including, but not limited to, the Dracula sort of vampire, the sort of human but drinks blood sort, and the sort that answers to the moon itself (which is a rather interesting but useless idea that states that vampires can only be out when the moon is up) and then there's the sort in Buffy).

Oh, and if you like stories involving vampires, you should read Dracula and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine suggested the theory that vampires are demon-possessed, which sounded plausible and interesting, yes, but thematically, I just don't like the notion of vampires...not being themselves. For a satisfying story, a vampire's got to be its own being. Do you know of anything I could read on the subject, particularly something that dicusses vampire mythology from everywhere it's sprung up? (I read the Wikipedia article, of course, but there's only so much that stuff covers.) I checked my library, and the only book on vampires is apparently written by a complete mental case who thinks that the immortal bloodsucking sort is real, or is at least pretending that they are, and recounting legends and things as though they are rumours and/or historical fact, complete with various touched-up photographs and general creepiness of the unpleasant variety. :p

I did get a book on Slavic mythology which will probably contain something about vampires; I've been too busy reading Terry Pratchett to delve into it just yet.

I will definitely read Dracula! I've always wondered how good it actually is, because pop culture's turned it into something very campy, but I've heard some various people rave about it recently, and I ♥ classic literature. Buffy will, unfortunately, have to go into the box along with Doctor Who of Things No-One Will Rent For Me And I Can't Afford To Rent Until I've Got A Job. I've always been vaguely intruiged by it, though.

[bonny-kathryn.livejournal.com]

I promise to write a lovely long response to this discussing the various types of vampires, with specific references where found. Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now. If I haven't written said reply in a couple of days, please bug me until I do. (Either by posting comments, or sending off an email to biolagal at gmail dot com).

[midenianscholar.livejournal.com]

Not really into vampires...at all... but sounds interesting.

And that site is EVIL. It sucks your brain into its addictive vortex.

[wanderlight.livejournal.com]

I haven't read many vampire stories besides Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire, precisely because I know they would be the sort of tripe that you cite up there in the Big Paragraph Of Doom. ;) If you were to write yours, though? I would be there encouraging and demanding you to hurry up every step of the way, and fangirl the finished product. I mean, a vapire-hunting librarian -- how much cooler can you GET? :DD

That has happened to me with fic before, also! I always make sure I leave the document open or the paper lying in plain sight once I finish & before I go to bed, or I'll completely forget the next morning.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Yeah, other than Robin McKinley's brilliant and delicious Sunshine and some YA tripe which will not be named (it was all about HIGH SCHOOL and DATING and the plot was pastede on yay at the end and there wasn't any pretty gothicness at all, really, and the writing was bland, and the main characters Just Happened to have really gothic names which nothing appropriately gothic ever came of, and by the end of the book I wanted to impale the main character with something pointy and metal because, despite her claim of having her mother as a best friend, the only person she 'lived for' was her vampire boyfriend, and no-one else mattered, which was made very clear by the end--what is this stupid author teaching teenagers, anyway?), I haven't read a whole lot of vampire lit. either; I've just been intruiged by it, because, hey, well-done gothicness is gorgeous, and there's always potential for symbolism.

One of the problems with the gothic novel is that, for me, to be successful it has to have a certain fluidity of prose. Other works of gothic art--photography, digital art, painting, film, song--have that otherworldly ethereality which a story can generally only attain through beautiful prose. The problem is, of course, that half the people who write it can't and don't, and the forty percent or so can't and do anyway.

I read The Thirteenth Tale recently, which hasn't got vampires or anything in, but it's a Victorian gothic tale of intruige, I suppose, and while the plot was interesting, and most of the characters at least decently drawn (although the whole twin-connection thing and 'twin language' was...odd), but the author was trying to write soaring prose and mostly sounding awkward and occasionally pretentious. Someitmes she managed to actually write something beautiful, but mostly it just felt...rather the way I do on the edge of a crowd of people I don't know. It didn't ring true. (Well, and then--the story sort of centres on a fictional author, and we get little, occasional excerpts from her writings. So far, so good, but the thing that nettled me was that Vera Winter's writing style was exactly like the real author's, complete with its odd irregularities such as weird sentence pacing and fragments and grasping for lyrical profundity. Maybe I'm just more--able--because I have different sorts of styles depending on what sort of thing I'm writing, but I think that if you're going to write about the writer, you've got to make sure that you give them their own voice, otherwise they don't ring true.)

AGH, PARAGRAPH BLOCKS OF DOOM. :D

If you were to write yours, though? I would be there encouraging and demanding you to hurry up every step of the way, and fangirl the finished product. I mean, a vapire-hunting librarian -- how much cooler can you GET? :DD
Well, good, thankee; I'm a horrifically lazy writer. :D I've only survived so far because I have very loud and persistent friends. ;)

[wanderlight.livejournal.com]

Banui, that was the longest bracket I have EVER SEEN. You should win an award, or something. *hands award* :DD

I think I know what you mean about gothic novels. In order for a book to really work, all parts of it need to be working together to create the whole, and writing voice contributes a lot to that. Eg. Stephen Chbosky's stripped-down prose works really well in The Perks of Being A Wallflower; Montgomery's spelling mistakes make Emily of New Moon that much more authentic.

And gothic novels really do need that "otherworldly" atmosphere to them -- I mean, they're about in-between places and transience; the way they're written should reflect that. I would love to find a novelist who's got that tone dead-on; tell me if you ever do, because I haven't, yet.

I suppose that means that I should stay away from The Thirteenth Tale, then? ;) Far, far away? The idea of a book-within-a-book is an interesting one, but it'd be terrible to see butchered. Ouch.

Actually, in that Neil Gaiman short story anthology which you can't get ahold of, eep! :( there's a story about a Gothic novelist... writing a gothic novel... and it's a parody and very Gaiman and very awesome. One more thing to look forward to, once you get the book.

I've only survived so far because I have very loud and persistent friends. ;)

Well then. *is loud and persistent, with trumpets!*

[trolliepop.livejournal.com]

I love the name Evangeline! I've been planning on naming one of my daughters that. I just can't find a good middle name to go with it...

Your story sounds fascinating! I've had a plot bunny for an original story playing around in my head for a few months. I'm going to have to ask my College Algebra teacher if I can use it, because it's very loosely based on a crazy family story she told us. I keep forgetting to ask her, and I don't want to start writing it and get all excited about it, and then ask her and have her say no, and dash all my dreams.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

I really love long names that aren't too awkward. I would love to name my daughters, say, Imogen, Charlotte, Eloise, and Marina. Whichever ones my husband doesn't agree on will get recycled as character names. :D

Oho! Now that you've told me about this, I will HAUNT YOU. MWAHAHA. Er. *waggles eyebrows* You must write it. I don't know what it is, but I shan't let you turn an opportunity down!

[trolliepop.livejournal.com]

I'll go ahead and give you the basics of it, just to get another writer's input on whether or not it's a good plot.

So, all his life, my College Algebra teacher's dad thought that the reason his lived with his dad was that soon after he was born, his mother had run away with another man and tried to kidnap them. NOT SO. It was basically the other way around. It wasn't until he was a fully grown adult and his father had passed away that he learned that after he was born, his father had run away with another woman. They "converted" and decided his kids needed to grow up as "christians" so they kidnapped him and his sister. His real mother was devestated and tried as hard as she could to find them. His sister was old enough that wherever they went, she would tell people what happened. So their "parents" tried to kill her. Twice. I think both times it was by trying to get the garage door to close on her. Finally she somehow managed to get back to her real mother.

He doesn't find out about any of this until his father died and he tries to find out who his real mother is so he can contact her and let her know her ex-husband is dead. Through this, he also got reunited with his sister who told him the whole thing.

I've sketched out a few scenes. I want to write it like the dad and step-mother are the here and now, and the finding his mother, his sister trying to tell people the truth, and his dad trying to kill his sister are flashbacks, and the reader won't know how they all tie into each other until the end. I'd just use the basic plot, none of the personal details, and expand on it, but I still want to make sure it's okay with Ms. Riley.

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

Once I pulled a loose baby tooth out in the middle of the night and set it on the hotel nightstand next to me. Then I woke up that morning and thought I must have dreamed it, because there was no tooth around anywhere...but it wasn't in my mouth, either.

Um, yeah. Anyway. I still think Evangeline is awesome, and I will also bug you until you write her. I am also almost positive that I have read at least one decent vampire book besides Sunshine, and I can't for the life of me remember what. Well, there's of course the 30 Days of Night trilogy, but...you know what I think about that. (On the other hand, I suppose it's...interesting. I don't know. There are, maybe, two or three cool parts out of the whole trilogy, really.)