(no subject)

[skygiants]

Oh, golly. Okay, for the 18th, marginaliana asked me if I could commission the perfect piece of fiction, what it would look like.

This is a very hard question! I think the best I can do is provide an incomplete list of things that appeal specifically to my id:

- multiple different relationships between women that are important to the narrative
- strong and important relationships between siblings BUT NOT IN AN INCEST-Y WAY
- sympathetic characters getting on each other's nerves
- characters developing as people over the course of the story
- characters engaged in the act of performing or writing or some form or some sort of conscious creation of story
- complex and multi-layered portrayals of politics and revolution
- multiple different viewpoints presented as understandable and sympathetic
- a balance between scenes that are heart-wrenching and scenes that are hilarious
- characters being implausibly witty
- characters putting their responsibilities over their personal desires
- really epic set pieces
- really intense and fraught dance scenes
- lesbians
- cross-dressing

I am slightly tipsy right now after grad school cohort's December birthdays celebration, so you know this comes from the heart! If anybody would like to undertake the challenge of describing their own ideal piece of fiction in response, PLEASE FEEL FREE.

Comments

[rymenhild]

*icon*

Edit: Seriously, as you know, Princess Tutu has all of the above except cross-dressing and surtextual lesbians. And possibly implausible wit.

So put that together with Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken, which lacks cross-dressing but certainly includes relationships between women, lesbians and completely improbable wittiness, and Debi's queer Scarlet Pimpernel, and you have all of the above.

But I would certainly like one story that did everything. Besides Debi's Scarlet Pimpernel.

[skygiants]

WHY DO YOU THINK I FELL FOR TUTU SO HARD

Like if there is anything that reinforces my self-assessment here, Princess Tutu IS IT!

Also I would very much like more stories like Debi's Scarlet Pimpernel.

[rymenhild]

cross-dressing ladies

[skygiants]

I respect the existence of that post but argue with its choices. Why such lack of appreciation for Julie Andrews? Why would you list You're Beautiful but ignore Coffee Prince and Sungkyunkwan Scandal?! MYSTERIES.

[vass]

Have you read any Margaret Mahy? I just finished her The Changeover, which is YA fantasy set in suburban New Zealand. It was written in 1984, but could really be any time before everyone had a mobile phone.

The heroine, Laura, immediately knows that the handsome new prefect, Sorensen 'Sorry' Carlisle, is a witch, but she doesn't do anything about it until a sinister antique shop owner puts a curse on her little brother, and she asks for Sorry's help.

The relationship between Laura and her mother Kate is really strong and interesting - lots of irritation and sympathy and people doing the best they can in a really bad situation but still not necessarily being adequate.

And Sorry and Laura develop a lot over the story. There's some interesting stuff with Sorry's characterisation, in that he has these traits that in a lot of YA novels would be presented as super romantic, and here they're just unacceptable behaviour that he needs to overcome. Creepy and dickish, not angsty and mysterious. And he never overshadows Laura as the protagonist.

[skygiants]

Oh, man, I love The Changeover! I actually just read another Mahy novel which was not as good that I need to write up, and keep being sidetracked by the fact that my overwhelming reaction was "but it wasn't The Changeover :("

[marginaliana]

Ooh, this is fascinating! I've asked a couple of people the same question, and you're the first one to have mentioned siblings. Also, "really intense and fraught dance scenes" - ha!

Thanks for answering.

[skygiants]

Really? Oh, man, I love siblings! Especially the kind of siblings who bicker all the time. *___* BEST. My favorite books growing up were always the ones where it was a PLUCKY GROUP OF FOUR SIBLINGS bickering their way into world-saving.

Thanks for the question! :D

[genarti]

I'm now remembering that time you and I, on the subway at stupid o'clock, started plotting out a completely unmarketable co-written novel on the basis of OKAY WHAT TROPES DOES IT NEED TO INCLUDE??? *giggling*

(I still have the outline somewhere. I'm pretty sure it contains... all of this, actually.)

[skygiants]

STAGGERING MERMAIDS! Yes, it still exists on Google Docs, and it is never not going to exist on Google Docts, because it's GETTING WRITTEN SOMEDAY. You know this to be true.

[genarti]

*shifty*

I am not disagreeing.