G-non-I-P

[skygiants]

I'm feeling oddly twitchy and want to post something here. I don't know why; I just feel like it. (Actually I do know why. It's because I'm supposed to be cleaning my room. Shhhh.) And there are some small things in my life I could post on, I guess, good and bad, but I'm too lazy to find the words to make them interesting/relevant, not to mention putting them into a format that I feel okay releasing to THE WORLD.*

*sidenote: I think I may start keeping a journal. Not because of any desire to keep things from THE WORLD, just because I think it would be nice to have some kind of written record of the way I feel when I feel it, for later, and also a place to put thoughts without having to make them interesting. Note that I have made this decision many times before, when I was small, and it came to nothing, but I'm older now! Surely this will be a relevant factor!

Anyways, as is always the case when I want to post and don't know what, I will revert to my default - writing about books and stories and things, and demanding that you all entertain me by writing back. One book that I wanted to review in my Massive YA Book Post of a few weeks ago and forgot is The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope. The book is yet another iteration of the Tam Lin story, and any book that's based off of that is about 90% certain to catch my interest anyways, just because of the main story element: there's a young man in trouble, and there's an ordinary girl who puts on her ass-kicking boots and goes to face down the Queen of the Fairies to save him. It's predictable that this is one of my favorite base stories. There are other ancient story plots, though, that I love and have no idea why. Rapunzel, for example. Princess in a tower raised by a witch gets compromised by a prince and then has to go wander the desert; why do I latch onto this story? Is it because of the pretty hair? (This is sadly plausible, though I've always kind of thought my eternal desire for long hair came from the story, and not the other way around.) There are trope-plots I'm even embarrassed to like. Confession: I almost always fall for the girl-and-her-mentor romance, like Daine/Numair, even though intellectually the age difference and the power differential disturb me when I think about it.

So tell me, what does it for you? What storylines are almost guaranteed to reel you in, and why? Bonus points if it's against your intellectual judgment. I may have asked this question before, I can't remember, but whatever; I want to hear your thoughts now.

(And relying entirely on character tropes is cheating.)

Comments

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

I like pairs (or groups) of people who are all on equal or semi-equal footing, and who are friends or relatives or lovers (or any mix of the above!), but who are SECRETLY TRYING TO DESTROY EACH OTHER.

. . .

Also revolutions.

Sometimes I like "The Geek Shall Inherit" (TM Wir Sind Helden) stories, but only if they are done well enough to make me forget they are "The Geek Shall Inherit" stories. See also: shameful 'oh, he/she IS me' feel-good-ers.

[skygiants]

I never would have guessed that first. *solemn* Or that second.

(I love revolutions. It's that whole idealism thing, and also idealism-coming-into-contact-with-harsh-reality, whoops, thing.)

Feeling dim, but not quite sure what you mean by 'he/she IS me' feel-gooders. *curious* Example?

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

I know. I am unpredictable in the extreme. *cough*

Oh, I mean that I was a really uncool (although not socially outcast), geeky kid who read on the playground all the time, and so whenever I came across a book whose hero was such a kid (Young Wizardry, for example), I fell hook-line-and-sinker for the "wizards LOVE reading! Just like you!" thing and felt as if the book were about me. It's a little harder to do that to me now, but it still works sometimes.

[skygiants]

- OH. Okay, yeah. Aaaaaaand I totally fell/fall for those too. *cheerfully unrepentant*

I think they're a little less prevalent outside of the YA section - I'm trying to remember recent examples of that trope that I've read to gauge my recent reaction, and failing (although admittedly I spend a fair amount of time in the YA section as well.) Now I kind of miss them!

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I also miss, like, books where (invariably) a boy would go off on RIP-ROARIN' ADVENTURES, like to the California Gold Rush, or he would live in the forest eating treesap and Holding Down the Fort, or he would fly to the moon on the wings of a giant moth... I was also really into the girl versions of these (as you probably also know), but they tended to be more, "girls can't have adventures... EXCEPT ME! I defy societal pressures. ADVENTUROUSLY!" and then there would be an adventure. Unless they were the Oz books, which ruled, because they were unquestioningly just really weird.

[skygiants]

The Oz books were so surreal and fantastic. And the other ones he wrote, too, not just Oz - there was the one where the girl and her dad (grandfather?) hung out in the ocean for a while, and then hung out in the sky for a while, and I have no recollection of the actual plot except that it was wacky funtime adventures.

(In terms of girls having adventures, I have to bring up the awesomely bizarre that is the second Oz book, which is basically "Hey, Very Boyish Adventure-Having Boy, secretly? You are a PRETTY PRETTY PRINCESS.")

I also really miss Siblings on Wacky Adventures stories. I think I really just enjoyed the constant good-natured bickering; no adventure is complete without bickering. And no one writes siblings in the adult world!

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

AND SHE TOTALLY WENT FOR IT, she was so blasé! She was just like, cool, so I'm a pretty pretty princess.

HOWEVER, do you remember - I have no idea which book it was. But Ozma and some girl were in a TRAP, and then Ozma took the girl's hand, and stuck her other hand DOWN HER OWN SHIRT (this took me a while to interpret, not being familiar at the time with the word 'bosom'), and the villain supposedly DIDN'T PAY ANY ATTENTION because both these things were SO NORMAL FOR GIRLS TO DO? Like, what on earth? The older I get, the weirder that is to me. I mean, I've been a girl for a while now, but I don't usually grab my friend's hand and my breast at the same time. And if I did, I don't think it would go unnoticed.

People do write wacky sibling stories! Dexter counts... maybe... I was going to say SPN, but maybe we shouldn't talk about SPN.

[skygiants]

I know! And then she showed up, and everyone else was like, "dude, you're a GIRL, how weird is THAT?" and she was just like *serene smile!*

- I DON'T REMEMBER THAT AT ALL BUT NOW I WANT TO REREAD AND FIND IT. WHAT.

I haven't seen Dexter . . . . SPN counts, but SPN has no girls, and I realize as I type that that I miss girls in sibling stories. I mean, there are freakishly (I use the term with fondness!) considerate and caring siblings like the Tams, but bickertastic siblings! ON ADVENTURES.

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

Ozma was actually going for her -- key? So that she could get them out of the trap? But the narrative's explanation of the villain's non-protesting confused me.

Tams are weird, weird siblings, except when River throws up on Simon's clothes.

[skygiants]

In the unexpurgated version, Ozma was actually trying to use her feminine wiles to seduce the villain. *solemn*

- dude, is there Ozma/Dorothy fic out there? I bet there is. I WANT TO FIND IT.

Tams are normal siblings when they are small! Well, fairly normal. And then they get all Petrelli with bonus crazy.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Have you read Archer's Goon? Not friends/lovers but siblings, admittedly, but still...