These endless days are finally ending in a blaze!

[dolorosa_12]

I'm sitting around drinking Bailey's instead of doing anything productive, skittering between Youtube and Facebook and LJ in a desperate hope that someone will post something interesting. I sort of have a vague desire to post something ranty about the weird attitudes some reviewers seem to have towards 'inappropriate' content in YA books, but I think I'll leave it for a couple of days until I'm clear about what I want to say.

I can't seem to interest myself in any new books after Sunshine, and I don't really have any TV series to watch, so I'm just half-heartedly skimming through Youtube clips from the Buffy episode 'Once More With Feeling'. I'm avoiding listening to 'Something To Sing About', as losseniaiel can attest to the fact that I cry every time I hear/see it. It's still too close. Mostly, I'm repetitively listening to 'Walk Through the Fire', which sends chills down my spine. Yep, it doesn't need saying again, but seriously, Joss is a genius. That musical episode is creepily accurate, not just as a representation of all the characters' unspoken feelings and fears at that point in the series, but as a representation of what it is to be 21-25, and absolutely, spine-chillingly terrified, not of the vampires in the alleyway, but of adult life.

Four days until D(iss)-Day.

Comments

[losseniaiel.livejournal.com]

I was listening to the soundtrack to OMWF this afternoon, until I realised that I can't sing and type at the same time (and I can't listen to OMWF without singing). So many of those songs resonate for me (and I think this week is not the time to listen to 'Where Do We Go From Here' although I now want to listen to that and 'Brothers in Arms'). Is there time for one more Buffy-a-thon?

I'm getting there with my dissertation, but seriously, I expect to have nightmares about the word count.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

We should try and have one, but my mum's getting here on Thursday and I'm already abandoning her for May Ball and celebratory drinks on Friday, so we'd have to plan all Buffy-a-thons very carefully so as not to leave my poor mother alone for more time. Otherwise...we could have one in July after we graduate?

Good luck with the dissertation! Nearly there now!

[losseniaiel.livejournal.com]

I'm not here in July, but if you feel like getting out of Cambridge for the weekend, we could have a Buffy-a-thon at my dad's house? (He likes Buffy as well).

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be in London between May Week and the two days we have our vivas (vivae?) so I could potentially do that in mid-June? Are you going to be back home then? I suppose we can talk about all this on Friday instead of our usual arrange-things-via-LJ-comments method...

[losseniaiel.livejournal.com]

My room licence expires on the 30th of this month. I suppose talking about it on Friday would be the sensible option.

[boojumlol.livejournal.com]

Since yesterday evening I've had OMWF songs in my head - especially 'Where do we go from here' for some reason. Maybe I'm picking them up from you, on the other side of the world...

I've decided that once my essay's in and my friends have finished as well, I'm going to plan a Buffy night, where we sit around, eat junk food and watch a bunch of episodes. It's been years since I've done that - my Buffy friends moved away or got lives - and I miss it. I'm not sure some of my latest friends are into Buffy but I guess I can try to convert them.

Understand we'll go hand in hand
But we'll walk alone in fear

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yeah, losseniaiel and I have been doing that since mid last year. I'm lucky to have found a fellow Buffy fan at Cambridge!

[stefeny.livejournal.com]

I was hoping to send you a link to a Sydney Writers Festival discussion panel on YA fiction and what is considered 'beyond' the target audience - it was a really interesting topic.

Alas, it seems that this is just another of those things that you hear about and think 'damn, I wish I had been there!'. SWF hasn't come through with the goods ...

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a shame, but I'll try to track it down myself. Who was on the panel?

[stefeny.livejournal.com]

Here's the SWF blurb

Young adult fiction has achieved a new respectability in recent years with the rise of the "cross-over" novel and a willingness of adults to be seen reading Harry Potter in public. Yet alongside this new respect for the genre comes a loss of respect for the audience. Novels for teenagers are routinely described as too nuanced, too sophisticated, too complex and just plain too hard for teenagers. The panellists - all of whom write nuanced, sophisticated and complex novels for young adults - discuss whether or not today’s teenagers are as up for a literary challenge as their Salinger and Cormier-loving forebears.

YA literature expert Judith Ridge speaks with authors Mal Peet, MT Anderson and Margo Lanagan.