beyond the wide world's end

Today I had an ineptshieldmaid and a cursor_mundi all day! It was fabulous, and also I ate out more than I have the rest of the time I've been in England put together, although I did just barely keep myself from buying anything that wasn't food. We also went to the Polar Museum. I have this thing about the Franklin Expedition, due to this exhibit in the Wax Museum in Victoria, so that was cool.

Yesterday, Harry Potter! It was also fabulous. ( cut for brief spoilers )

I just came back from an entire day without returning to Newnham House, and I returned to find the rest of my program watching a movie in the empty room next to mine. So I put my head in, to say hello, and they said they were watching Gladiator. MY FEELINGS TOWARDS GLADIATOR ARE A LITTLE INTENSE, so I said the first thing which popped into my head, which was, "I hate Gladiator, I'm next door and I was wondering what the hell was going on," and then left. I...probably should have added something else. Um. Oh well. But I really do hate Gladiator.

In other news, I have finally had scones with jam and clotted cream. I enjoyed it! And now I have found a tea shop I like very much. (Which is cheaper than some of the other options.)

...and now I am trying to find flights to New Orleans so I can, you know, return to school, and they appear to not exist for the actual day on which I need to arrive (August 28). Wait. Why am I finding them on the United site but not the Continental site, even though they're Continental flights? No, wait, I'm finding them, they're just more expensive so they're in weird places on the page. Damn. Jesus, the idea of getting another plane is making me vaguely nauseous, especially since they're all through IAH and that's a four hour flight. I WANT TO GO THROUGH DENVER. WHY ARE THERE NO FLIGHTS THROUGH DENVER? (Or no convenient ones, anyway.) I really don't understand why airline websites don't allow you to search by arrival day.

Why Sirius Black is awesome. *fans self* Oh, HP, those were the good old days of fandom, back in the day.

I think my favorite comment to that post is this one, though: "even when he has a wand, sometimes he just PUNCHES DEATHEATERS IN THE FACE."

I think I have to go dig up some old HP fanfic and reread it. Of course, my favorite HP fanfic is no longer online, but I HAVE CLEVERLY PRESERVED IT against the tides of time and authors going pro. Although, you know, I have to add that my favorite Marauder was always James (it is always the dead tragic ones with me, always!) and my HP OTP was Sirius/James unto eternity. Like I said, always the dead tragic ones. (OH ANAKIN AND OBI-WAN the nostalgia is strong with me today, apparently.)

One guy in my geology class has been slowly working his way through HP throughout the term. It always made me happy when I came into class and saw him with one of the books. I've been meaning to reread for a while now...

What the fuck did I have this thought about? I can't remember if it was a book or a movie, though -- okay, yeah, I remember, it was The Dark is Rising. (The book, I have not been able to bring myself to see the movie. I think I saw the first two minutes and then promptly tried to rip my eyes out.)

I reread The Dark is Rising with the intent of rereading the series as part of my project to figure out what it was that had been gnawing me about The Graveyard Book in the same standing as Narnia and a couple of other classics of children's fantasy lit (and now I can't remember what they are -- I think I was also going to reread the Prydain Chronicles, but then I had to come back to school). It wasn't the first book of the Dark is Rising sequence that had struck me as being similar to the rest of the books on my list, but I haven't reread the series in a really, really long time.

Yeah, I didn't get to the others, because something about The Dark is Rising bothered me a lot, and here is what it is:

I don't like stories about extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. I like stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Extraordinary people being -- oh, Will Stanton, who finds out he is a superspecial Old One, and just -- agh, I reread the book and was kind of flailing in horror at some parts, I think especially the scene in the church with his brother and the priest, where it's all, oh, these humans wouldn't understand, and human-ness, humanity, becomes a weakness. Like -- I feel that this is actually a generational difference between, say, fantasy/sci-fi/horror written in the past decade or couple decades, and before that, and that more current work is much more focused on humanity as a strength rather than a weakness (HP and the power of love is the first example I can think of, and then most of Robin McKinley's work), but then again - it's been a really long time since I reread a lot of children's fantasy lit, so I could just be making this up. (Or conflating fanfic with original fiction, because I feel like that POV is much more prevalent in fic than in original fic, and I don't read a lot of original fantasy fiction because my tastes are so weird.

But, okay, example: One of the reasons that Narnia really works for me is because, on a core level, it's ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It's four almost absurdly ordinary schoolchildren suddenly forced into an extraordinary situation, finding out exactly what they're capable of. It's not four kids finding out they have amazing magical powers or that they're really aliens (with amazing alien powers!) or anything like that; they're still the same people they were before, just in a new, unfamiliar setting where there's suddenly so much more expected of them. Same thing with Jill and Eustace. Sure, it's an amazing world, but they're still -- just people, with all the limitations that includes.

With Harry Potter -- on one level, that sort of fits into the "extraordinary people" category, but actually -- not so much, at least for me. I mean, he's not one of a privileged few, or the only one ever, he's one out of many wizards, and he's still just human. He doesn't have any special powers because he's Harry Potter, who may or may not be the Chosen One; he's just one wizard out of many, but one who has to do absolutely crazy things.

And now we shall get a little more controversial! I think that, when it comes to Star Wars, the PT actually fits into "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" more than the OT does. I mean, the OT has ordinary as hell Luke Skywalker, but he's special, he's the one remaining Jedi! And the PT has not-so-ordinary Anakin Skywalker, who has the most amazing Jedi powers ever, but -- okay, I give up, I think this argument is falling down unless I switch the focus to a non-Skywalker character, like Obi-Wan motherfucking Kenobi. Yes? Yes. Because he is ordinary; he's just a regular guy (with some cool powers, but he's far from the only one with such skills) doing extraordinary things in extraordinary times. (Minor break for Obi-Wan flail. Obi-Wan! OBI-WAN MOTHERFUCKING KENOBI. Okay, I'm done now.)

Wow, it's a good thing I never meant for this post to be coherent, huh?

ETA: Because it probably bears repeating at this point, I was just talking about the title book, not the whole series as a whole.

Title: Missing Strings
Author: bedlamsbard
Fandom: HP
Rating: PG
Summary: "Sir, are you saying this is a parallel universe?"
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its characters, settings, situations, etc., belong to J.K. Rowling.
Author's Notes: Written for briebribeez for apocalyptothon. Takes place in a roughly OotP-shaped place, if OotP had not happened. AU. Had the misfortune of being begun in June 2008, a.k.a. the descent into Narnia.

we cannot change the past

I really want to work on the HP AU I want to write. Except then I remember that I don't have much of a plot.

(I will note that this is the James lives! AU, the one where Sirius, Lily, and Harry all die. *inspects fingernails* There may also be use of the Veil as a portal between universes. Also, Dumbledore is Minister of Magic, McGonagall is Headmistress of Hogwarts, and James is the Transfiguration teacher. Also, friends with Snape. Oh, and drunk most of the time.)

You know, one of these days I'll write something other than AUs. Today is not that day.

(You know it's really bad when I have a working AU set up for my original novel. I call it the evil clone universe, and it actually fits into the novel. I just have to figure out how to fit it into the story. Well, I have to figure out the story first. Details, details. How is it the evil clone universe? Beau nuked the Middle East. *wide eyes*)

Apparently, when I skip band to go do chemistry, my band director decides to hold elections. GOD DAMN IT.

That said, started screwing around with sweatshirt designs again today. So far, I have one. I like it. It's cute, short, sweet, and to the point.

I really want a new iPod. Not that there's anything wrong with mine, just the fact that every time I add new music on, I have to delete stuff to get it to fit. I've pretty much gotten rid of everything I can let go. (I have a four gig iPod Mini. Yeah, they don't even make the Mini anymore. I totally want an 80GB, you know? I mean, I don't even need video! I just want the space. *grabby hands*)

I'm also in one of those moods where I need a little love, so teeny bits of fic from various pieces in progress (mostly Star Wars, a little bit of HP). Say something, please?

( pieces of eight -- I mean dialogue. Guess the speakers! )

Why, yes, I did just go through my notebook picking out the interesting bits of dialogue. Why do you ask?

I'm still on my HP reread, and have finally reached OotP, and you know Chapter Two, "A Peck of Owls", just after Harry and Dudley have been attacked by Dementors? Where Petunia says, "I heard -- that awful boy -- telling her about them -- years ago," and Harry replies, "If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?" (OotP, American edition, hardback, 32). Well, ( cut for slight DH spoilers ). Or, you know, this could be a realization that everyone's already figured out, but I think it's cool!

In other words, blah blah blah Anakin and Padme's great tragic love story due to being completely unsuited for each other blah blah what does happen when New Hope rolls around in the Lostverse? blah blah SO MUCH KNITTING blah blah blah am getting really good at spider solitaire blah blah.

Nothing new, then! Marching band starts Monday.

Reading old HP fic is the best thing ever. I'm talking old here, guys -- not just post-GoF, but fic that was originally begun post-CoS.

Yeah. Old.

I mean, there's that tiny moment where you run into something that's been Jossed since, but it's relatively tiny, and we're fandom, we've been doing this forever anyway.

*goes to read more* I haven't gotten into fic like this in forever. War stories, and post-war stories, all made totally noncanon by HP7. Well, I like these better anyway.

On the subject of Deathly Hallows, all I have to say is:

Squeak!

and that I will have to think about it, ( DH SPOILERS! )

Coming home is weird. Man, I'd like to go to college now; I don't know if I can put up with my parents for another year. At the risk of sounding mean, half the reason I did the program was to get away from home, because I spend a lot of time in the house and so much of it is with my parents that it gets...stifling. And claustrophobic. And now I'm back home, and I'm so used to the freedom of Brown and Providence that it's really claustrophobic. New plan: go to college somewhere decent-sized. (By the way, the pile of college stuff I got over the course of four weeks is Really Thick.) Also, reconsidering the Ivy League, because I did, in the end, like Brown.

I miss the freedom of Brown. I even miss the people, because it is very comforting to always have people around, even for a loner like me. I miss Providence, and the weather in Rhode Island. Well, not the rain. *sigh*

Also, I watched the 2004 version of Return of the Jedi, and had one, "Dude, what the fuck is this shit?" moment, but followed that up with Revenge of the Sith -- look, I was packing, it was background noise that I turned around and watched a lot -- and am this close to going on a hardcore Star Wars kick. Which, okay, I was on before I watched the endpieces of both trilogies, but I'm talking hardcore here, guys.

Must finish revising the apocalyptothon story first, though. *beckons* Bring it on, Calypso. Do your best.

I think I need an HP icon for the occasion. *goes to search*

Oh. My. God. What. The. Fuck.

Yeah, that about sums up my feelings in regards to it. Also, what the hell did you do to Dark is Rising, Hollywood?

( cut for length )

The problem was that the book was so damn clunky, and this was one case where it would work if they streamlined it, and did they? Well, I didn't think it was possible for Order of the Phoenix to get more clunky, but somehow they managed it. *shakes head* Holding out for Deathly Hallows, now, even though I'll be sad to see the series end.