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For some reason, I feel like posting again. No clue why, and I'm pretty sure by this time my posts are going almost completely into the void. Kind of like a fresh start, which is either neat or terrifying. Anyway, I'm thinking of posting once a week, unless it feels like a burden again. I hope it doesn't start to feel like a burden again.
Here's where I currently stand fannishly:
- 90% of my obsessive thoughts are devoted to Hannibal TV. I don't remember when I first watched it (on a lark), but it was sometime last year (or maybe late 2023?). It's possibly the only show where I watched it through to the end, the rewatched it immediately and got all the way through to the end again without getting bored. (And then, oh yeah, I rewatched it a third time not too long after, and got through that rewatch too.) I haven't been able to watch it since The Events started in late September, but that doesn't matter, because it lives in my head rent-free. Apparently I can only finish fic for it if it's for challenges, though. Oh well, I will take it.
- Speaking of challenges, I've gotten super into these for some reason. I've actually signed up for one, for serial, rather than just drive-by pinch-hitting or treating. Makes me feel useful, I suppose. Also flushes out psychic kersludgen. My brain currently seems to be in hyperdrive and has needed to write since The Events, but it also needs somewhere to be focused with laser-like precision. I can live with this.
- I haven't been able to watch any movies/TV of my own choosing since The Events, which has interrupted my marathons of "watch everything Mads Mikkelsen has ever been in" and "watch recced horror movies". The most irksome thing about this, is that I was midway through the last season of Unit One (too lazy to look up the Danish name/spelling now, sorry), and was quite enjoying that as a procedural. I got a bunch more horror movie recs the other day, so I've dropped them in my queue. My current guess is that I'll get back to choosing my own viewing material near end of January. A bunch to look forward to there!
- I've watching things of my parents' choice instead. This consists of lots of Sherlock Holmes, the latest season of Shetland, and also a metric fuck-ton of old Looney Tunes cartoons.
-- My dad and I watched through all the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmeseseseses back November-ish, and I think he enjoyed them more than I did, lol. I like the earlier ones all right, but when they start padding things out in the later ones...meh. I find them overwrought. Since my mom has come back home, we're rewatching all the Basil Rathbone movies. I know that Official Fan Opinion(TM) is that you're supposed to think Jeremy Brett is the best and Basil Rathbone is the worst, because Watson is actually a super complex brilliant character and Jam Watson is the Worst Thing Ever, and we're supposed to super relate to Watson and care about his depiction at all times. I...do not. I like Basil better. Yes, even Nigel Bruce better. Yes, I think Watson is pretty Jam Watsony in the stories too. No, I don't think the purpose of the stories is that we're supposed to glom on to Watson and care a lot about him as a person. Sorry. We just watched The Scarlet Claw last night, which is obviously a retooling of many elements of The Hound of the Baskervilles (which we've also already watched), and it makes me wish that there was a whole genre of this stuff: monster roaming the moors/marshes with spooky fog, pretending to be a ghost by wearing phosphorous (can phosphorous even do what the movies have it do? I have no clue! You'd think that, if it could, they would've shown us that shit in high-school chemistry class. I should really look it up...), and using it to cover up for murders. It's a good creepy genre, especially the early parts where you learn snippets of the legend, and then hear vague reports of people who have seen the ghost or had weird things happen. Mostly, this just results in 5 million Hound of the Baskervilles remakes. The only original ones I can think of are The Scarlet Claw I just mentioned and this one random Nancy Drew book pretty early on (The Secret of Shadow Ranch, I think? It's been way to many decades, lol). Are there any others out there? That seems like a good theme to ask around about at some point.
-- Shetland: I'm enjoying these more than I thought I would! Very creepy, much atmosphere! I was skeptical of Tosh holding the show, but I'm really liking her as lead, and the new woman as well, and I hope that fandom is shipping them, because it seems like something I might eventually check out, and I want there to be a million fics when I do. Before, my primary interest in the show had been the weird pseudo-two-daddies vibe Jimmy had with Mark Bonnar's character, although the melodrama there eventually got so convoluted that I gave up, so I'm impressed the show managed something to snag me back in (and that I think I like even better!). It helped that the case so far this season is compelling and doesn't feel overly dragged out. Although, of course, I still have to see if it sticks the landing for me.
-- Looney Tunes: I will never not hate Porky Pig. That is all.
- I had been rereading the Whyborne & Griffin books prior to The Events, and I think I was book 10-ish, but then there has been a long hiatus since September. I'll probably get back to them later this year. I really wish that series had a good wiki. It looks like someone created a stub, but there's not much there yet. Maybe that's something I'll contribute to, when I get back to things. It makes it hard to write fic when I get stopped up at random points with questions like "Wait, what was the name out that homophobic asshole who booted Griffin out of Fallow again, and did he die at the end of that book or not?" every five or so minutes. In the meantime, I've been grabbing recced ebooks out of the library, because I can read those more leisurely:
-- Wylding Hall: This is my favorite book that I have read in a long, looooooooooong time. I was spellbound from beginning to end. So much excellent creepiness in the house, and the barrows, and whatever the fuck was going on with the wrens, and whoever the fuck The Girl was. I'd had the audiobook recommended because of all the different narrators, and how the different voice actors in the audiobook played together, and that was excellent, but I need to buy a hard copy of this book (definitely a keeper!) and read it for myself too. I love eerie places, especially with all the phenomena of rooms/corridors moving about on their own, and the place only letting some people in on its secrets. I loved loved LOVED the jumpscare of the album cover photoshoot: legit shivers when I got to that reveal! Overall the book did a wonderful job of hinting at terrifying things without showing them overtly, which is the point where 95% of horror loses me, because once I know/see something it's not scary, whereas my imagination can twist "OMG, what was it?!?!" into all sorts of fantastical permutations pretty much endlessly. I will bet that some people were peeved that the book didn't give straight answers to WTF was going on, but that just cemented it as a fave for me. It looks like the author is fairly prolific too, so I'm definitely going to be checking out more of her stuff this year.
-- The Westing Game: I'd heard of this book, but never read it or really knew what it was about. It was solid! I did like the riddle (although I don't think that I was supposed to figure out what all those word clues had in common in the same chapter they were introduced, lol). I did enjoy some of the themes about how the characters grew or found more happy lives through the person they were partnered with in the game. However, the characterization in the book didn't really grab me; it was just sort of okay. And I think we were supposed to really be rooting for Turtle to be the heir? But she was honestly the one I liked the least. And Westing/whatever wasn't really compelling to me either. So it kind of fell apart a bit at the end for me; I still enjoyed the book all right and I'm glad I read it, but I definitely liked the earlier parts better.
-- Murder After Christmas: I found this one on the same way as previous, on a rec list of a bunch of winter/Christmas-themed murder mysteries with many conflicting heirs. It is all right, pretty snappy to read. I like the character voices. That said, I liked the initial character voices best, because every new group of characters that gets introduced has suspiciously similar voices. I can buy one weird family talking irreverently about how they're going to commit murder all the time, but it gets unbelievable when several others start doing the same. It's keeping me entertained, though. We'll see how I feel after it's done.
-- Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation: And now for something completely different... I did a thing 2023-2024-ish where I felt like I was not really informed enough about psychology/neuroscience topics (I mostly realized this when I first looked up the weird-ass shit in Hannibal and discovered that it had some loose basis in actual theory that I'd never heard of), so I made a sort of half-effort to read up more on related topics, although I immediately found myself frustrated the same way I was back when I tried this in college, because everything is like "Here are 12 theories! They're all either disproven, or else there's no evidence for them whatsoever beyond 'Some academic guy thought so and convinced his clique'. If you want to learn more, pick one you like (even if it's disproven)!" And I'm like, no, that's not helpful, why? D: (This is the way I felt all through philosophy in college. Ugh.) Anyway... I had my eye open in any case, and someone mentioned this book somewhere that I saw it, so I added it to my list. It was actually recommended to help explain to people with bad navigation sense WTF is going on, and I have very good navigational sense, but I'd always wondered WTF was up with the people who just didn't have mental maps somehow, so I picked this up out of curiosity. It's interesting so far! Even just the example stories, and how they can do navigation experiments on humans better now that there are trackers and GPS and all that. Still in the middle of this. I have to drive my parents to a gazillion medical appointments next week, so I'll spend a lot of time waiting in lobbies, and I hope to make good progress on this one.
That is all for now.
Here's where I currently stand fannishly:
- 90% of my obsessive thoughts are devoted to Hannibal TV. I don't remember when I first watched it (on a lark), but it was sometime last year (or maybe late 2023?). It's possibly the only show where I watched it through to the end, the rewatched it immediately and got all the way through to the end again without getting bored. (And then, oh yeah, I rewatched it a third time not too long after, and got through that rewatch too.) I haven't been able to watch it since The Events started in late September, but that doesn't matter, because it lives in my head rent-free. Apparently I can only finish fic for it if it's for challenges, though. Oh well, I will take it.
- Speaking of challenges, I've gotten super into these for some reason. I've actually signed up for one, for serial, rather than just drive-by pinch-hitting or treating. Makes me feel useful, I suppose. Also flushes out psychic kersludgen. My brain currently seems to be in hyperdrive and has needed to write since The Events, but it also needs somewhere to be focused with laser-like precision. I can live with this.
- I haven't been able to watch any movies/TV of my own choosing since The Events, which has interrupted my marathons of "watch everything Mads Mikkelsen has ever been in" and "watch recced horror movies". The most irksome thing about this, is that I was midway through the last season of Unit One (too lazy to look up the Danish name/spelling now, sorry), and was quite enjoying that as a procedural. I got a bunch more horror movie recs the other day, so I've dropped them in my queue. My current guess is that I'll get back to choosing my own viewing material near end of January. A bunch to look forward to there!
- I've watching things of my parents' choice instead. This consists of lots of Sherlock Holmes, the latest season of Shetland, and also a metric fuck-ton of old Looney Tunes cartoons.
-- My dad and I watched through all the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmeseseseses back November-ish, and I think he enjoyed them more than I did, lol. I like the earlier ones all right, but when they start padding things out in the later ones...meh. I find them overwrought. Since my mom has come back home, we're rewatching all the Basil Rathbone movies. I know that Official Fan Opinion(TM) is that you're supposed to think Jeremy Brett is the best and Basil Rathbone is the worst, because Watson is actually a super complex brilliant character and Jam Watson is the Worst Thing Ever, and we're supposed to super relate to Watson and care about his depiction at all times. I...do not. I like Basil better. Yes, even Nigel Bruce better. Yes, I think Watson is pretty Jam Watsony in the stories too. No, I don't think the purpose of the stories is that we're supposed to glom on to Watson and care a lot about him as a person. Sorry. We just watched The Scarlet Claw last night, which is obviously a retooling of many elements of The Hound of the Baskervilles (which we've also already watched), and it makes me wish that there was a whole genre of this stuff: monster roaming the moors/marshes with spooky fog, pretending to be a ghost by wearing phosphorous (can phosphorous even do what the movies have it do? I have no clue! You'd think that, if it could, they would've shown us that shit in high-school chemistry class. I should really look it up...), and using it to cover up for murders. It's a good creepy genre, especially the early parts where you learn snippets of the legend, and then hear vague reports of people who have seen the ghost or had weird things happen. Mostly, this just results in 5 million Hound of the Baskervilles remakes. The only original ones I can think of are The Scarlet Claw I just mentioned and this one random Nancy Drew book pretty early on (The Secret of Shadow Ranch, I think? It's been way to many decades, lol). Are there any others out there? That seems like a good theme to ask around about at some point.
-- Shetland: I'm enjoying these more than I thought I would! Very creepy, much atmosphere! I was skeptical of Tosh holding the show, but I'm really liking her as lead, and the new woman as well, and I hope that fandom is shipping them, because it seems like something I might eventually check out, and I want there to be a million fics when I do. Before, my primary interest in the show had been the weird pseudo-two-daddies vibe Jimmy had with Mark Bonnar's character, although the melodrama there eventually got so convoluted that I gave up, so I'm impressed the show managed something to snag me back in (and that I think I like even better!). It helped that the case so far this season is compelling and doesn't feel overly dragged out. Although, of course, I still have to see if it sticks the landing for me.
-- Looney Tunes: I will never not hate Porky Pig. That is all.
- I had been rereading the Whyborne & Griffin books prior to The Events, and I think I was book 10-ish, but then there has been a long hiatus since September. I'll probably get back to them later this year. I really wish that series had a good wiki. It looks like someone created a stub, but there's not much there yet. Maybe that's something I'll contribute to, when I get back to things. It makes it hard to write fic when I get stopped up at random points with questions like "Wait, what was the name out that homophobic asshole who booted Griffin out of Fallow again, and did he die at the end of that book or not?" every five or so minutes. In the meantime, I've been grabbing recced ebooks out of the library, because I can read those more leisurely:
-- Wylding Hall: This is my favorite book that I have read in a long, looooooooooong time. I was spellbound from beginning to end. So much excellent creepiness in the house, and the barrows, and whatever the fuck was going on with the wrens, and whoever the fuck The Girl was. I'd had the audiobook recommended because of all the different narrators, and how the different voice actors in the audiobook played together, and that was excellent, but I need to buy a hard copy of this book (definitely a keeper!) and read it for myself too. I love eerie places, especially with all the phenomena of rooms/corridors moving about on their own, and the place only letting some people in on its secrets. I loved loved LOVED the jumpscare of the album cover photoshoot: legit shivers when I got to that reveal! Overall the book did a wonderful job of hinting at terrifying things without showing them overtly, which is the point where 95% of horror loses me, because once I know/see something it's not scary, whereas my imagination can twist "OMG, what was it?!?!" into all sorts of fantastical permutations pretty much endlessly. I will bet that some people were peeved that the book didn't give straight answers to WTF was going on, but that just cemented it as a fave for me. It looks like the author is fairly prolific too, so I'm definitely going to be checking out more of her stuff this year.
-- The Westing Game: I'd heard of this book, but never read it or really knew what it was about. It was solid! I did like the riddle (although I don't think that I was supposed to figure out what all those word clues had in common in the same chapter they were introduced, lol). I did enjoy some of the themes about how the characters grew or found more happy lives through the person they were partnered with in the game. However, the characterization in the book didn't really grab me; it was just sort of okay. And I think we were supposed to really be rooting for Turtle to be the heir? But she was honestly the one I liked the least. And Westing/whatever wasn't really compelling to me either. So it kind of fell apart a bit at the end for me; I still enjoyed the book all right and I'm glad I read it, but I definitely liked the earlier parts better.
-- Murder After Christmas: I found this one on the same way as previous, on a rec list of a bunch of winter/Christmas-themed murder mysteries with many conflicting heirs. It is all right, pretty snappy to read. I like the character voices. That said, I liked the initial character voices best, because every new group of characters that gets introduced has suspiciously similar voices. I can buy one weird family talking irreverently about how they're going to commit murder all the time, but it gets unbelievable when several others start doing the same. It's keeping me entertained, though. We'll see how I feel after it's done.
-- Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation: And now for something completely different... I did a thing 2023-2024-ish where I felt like I was not really informed enough about psychology/neuroscience topics (I mostly realized this when I first looked up the weird-ass shit in Hannibal and discovered that it had some loose basis in actual theory that I'd never heard of), so I made a sort of half-effort to read up more on related topics, although I immediately found myself frustrated the same way I was back when I tried this in college, because everything is like "Here are 12 theories! They're all either disproven, or else there's no evidence for them whatsoever beyond 'Some academic guy thought so and convinced his clique'. If you want to learn more, pick one you like (even if it's disproven)!" And I'm like, no, that's not helpful, why? D: (This is the way I felt all through philosophy in college. Ugh.) Anyway... I had my eye open in any case, and someone mentioned this book somewhere that I saw it, so I added it to my list. It was actually recommended to help explain to people with bad navigation sense WTF is going on, and I have very good navigational sense, but I'd always wondered WTF was up with the people who just didn't have mental maps somehow, so I picked this up out of curiosity. It's interesting so far! Even just the example stories, and how they can do navigation experiments on humans better now that there are trackers and GPS and all that. Still in the middle of this. I have to drive my parents to a gazillion medical appointments next week, so I'll spend a lot of time waiting in lobbies, and I hope to make good progress on this one.
That is all for now.