Floating on by

[dolorosa_12]

Catching up meme taken from goodbyebird.


So what have you been up to?
Going on holiday - to Norway with my mother, and to Germany with Matthias.

Major life changes? Same old same old?
I got a new five-year visa that will allow me to live and work in the UK, which was a great relief after several months of stress.

What fandom are you in/do you spend most of your time in?
I'm lurking around in Fury Road and Sens8 fandoms. Pretty Little Liars, which had been my biggest fandom for the past three years, had an absolutely awful season finale, and I'm currently wondering if I'm even going to continue watching when the new season airs.

Other than that, the usual tiny YA book fandoms that are my steadfast fandoms-of-the-heart.

Where do you hang out online?
Twitter (ronnidolorosa), Tumblr dolorosa), and here, although I'm having a kind of writer's block about LJ/Dreamwidth. Hence this meme.

What are you reading?
Nothing at the moment. I'm waiting for my copy of House of Shattered Wings by aliettedb to get delivered.

What are you watching?
I'm currently watching my way through Jane the Virgin, which is airing on UK TV. Matthias and I are continuing with Elementary, and are about halfway through the second season.

What are you making?
Umm, I'm cooking, I guess? My mum gave me a food processor, and I made my first ever gazpacho, which was a great success.

I don't really make fanworks, apart from writing the odd piece of fic.

What are you squeeing about today?
I am really, really looking forward to so many recently published books. Apart from the Aliette de Bodard book I mentioned above, I need to get my hands on Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, and Court of Fives by Kate Elliott.

If you could rope old fandom friends into a new fandom, it would be...
I really wish I could get more people into my tiny book fandoms (which are really fandoms-of-one, with me being the one). Judging by my fannish friends' tastes, I know in particular that the Pagan Chronicles and the Romanitas series would be right up a lot of people's alley, but so far my efforts to convince people of that have come to nothing.

I wish more people wrote fanfic for The Bone Season series, but considering that I haven't written any myself, it would be hypocritical to complain about this.

I should really watch/read/dive into _______ and then come talk to you about it!
I just wish I could get beyond this block to write fannish/review posts at all. I don't know what has happened to me - I used to be able to write meta at the drop of a hat. I think it's all tangled up in my feelings about the direction that fandom as a whole seems to be taking, my issues with Tumblr as a platform (and the kind of engagement it encourages), and the feeling that I'm essentially shouting into the void when I post on platforms that suit me better.

What else is on your mind?
I am resolutely not thinking about this year's Hugos debacle and the upcoming ceremony. I have made the sensible decision to spend the entire weekend on a campsite, without any internet access.

Comments

[ellinou.livejournal.com]

How come you didn't like the PLL finale?

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming you've seen it, so I don't need to worry about spoilers.

So, for me, PLL was always about misogyny, and particularly the way some older men abuse, control and fear teenage girls, and by extension, teenage female sexuality. The stalking and abuse the girls suffered always had a particularly misogynistic undertone. 'A', to me, was the patriarchy. (I realise that the first A was Mona, but that made sense on a narrative and character level, because A as Mona was both the embodiment of, and reaction to, high school bullying.) So I would've been happy with A being revealed as any of the adult male characters on the show (apart from Emily's dad), or even a teenage male character such as Toby, Noel or Lucas (less so with Caleb). And to reveal A as a female character - and the only trans character on the show, essentially implying that lack of acceptance of Charlotte's gender turned her into a bullying, abusive stalker - was an appalling betrayal of what I felt was the show's core theme.

What did you think of it?

[ellinou.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it! It left a crapload of plot holes (and created some new ones), but I heven't been taking this series very seriously in terms of plot and timeline since about episode 3 of season 1, so I wasn't too upset XD

I quite liked that Cece was A, rather than someone completely random we'd just met or hadn't seen or talked about in years, or on the contrary someone prominent we see all the time that would have been much more difficult to explain. Pretty much every character has been suspected of being A at some point or another (Toby Ezra...) and we've see girls be suspected of being A (Jenna, the one they killed in NY, not to mention Mona), so I liked the plot twist, I felt it was grounded enough to make sens while still being relatively unexpected. Cece has always been on the fringes, but never suspected (now that I think of it it is odd that she's like the only character we haven't thought of as A before XD)

And I think Charlotte had mental issues unrelated to her being trans. What happened to her just increased her obsession with Ali, but I think she had mental problems that would have manifested whatever the circumstances.

[jordan rastrick (from livejournal.com)]

"I know in particular that the Pagan Chronicles and the Romanitas series would be right up a lot of people's alley, but so far my efforts to convince people of that have come to nothing."

Not nothing! I recently started reading the Romanitas series.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Aaaah, that makes me so happy!

You'll have to tell me what you think when you're finished.

[promiseoftin.livejournal.com]

Cool meme. I might just have to borrow it. :)

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a nice way to ease back into blogging. Borrow away!

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

Where in Norway are you going to?

Congrats on getting a new visa!

I'm on Twitter too :) I'm LynnseyEC

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I was already in Norway; I went to Bergen and Oslo. Bergen in particular was utterly wonderful. I had a fabulous time.

I see you've added me on Twitter. I'll add you back.

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

Thank you for adding me back :)

I've been to Olso too!

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

Thank you for adding me back :)

I've been to Olso too!