Fish Recs

For my policy on things such as spoilers, warning, and ratings, please see [my policy post].

If you'd like to see this rec set with all cuts intact (nicely hiding everything), clicky clicky: [This rec set with cuts intact].


I am immensely, totally, completely, terribly, horribly, and utterly sorry that this has taken so long in coming. I can only offer my apologies and hope that the existence of a rec set does something to make up for it.

And actually, it isn't even a full rec set *facepalm* It's the first half of one though! That has to count for something, as does the fact that it's so bleeding long that it's in two LJ posts, right? (To be honest, I'm not sure if that's a positive or a negative at this point...) The rest of the rec set will be up at some indeterminate time in the future and will be linked here when it exists.

So at long last, I present you with:

Part I*.a** of II: Harry Potter fic recs since HBP(ish)
*because otherwise it would have taken even longer and been even longer
**OMFG, what the fuck, I had to split this up into two posts to fit in LJ's character limits, I'm pretty sure this means I fail at something. Probably knowing when to shut up? *facepalm of ridiculousness*

The prompt for this rec set went something like:

(begin prompt)

Requirements:

Harry Potter fandom; about Harry Potter's generation; very strong preference for fanfic rather than other forms of fanwork; really good writing; written since the publication of HBP, or only just a bit before [for WIPs, the completion date was used ~Fish].

Likes:

threesomes; UST and the resolution thereof; teamwork and friendships; both low-key and angst (in their separate ways); medium and long stories preferred but the elegance of a character glimpse or a sharp what-if also appreciated; gen is fine; all gender permutations of romance and sex are fine.

Dislikes:

spoilers for the story being recced; 7th year fics.

Do not includes:

incest, chan, bestiality.

(end prompt)

( The British dates of publication of the HP books )

*drumroll* And now onto the recs proper! *drumroll*

( Harry Potter. Fic. And more! oooooh! )

This rec set is continued on in the next post: [constellations of fanworks (or 'An orgy of storytelling'. Which is different than 'storytelling of orgies', FYI.)]



As always, if anyone spots any inaccuracies/dead links/missing info/additional transformative works, please let me know.

My policy on how I do my recs (including for things like warnings and spoilers) can be found at [my post about my recs], for those interested.

I've been watching these vids repeatedly for much of this week. It's been one of those weeks where these stupid little things keep happening and adding up and you feel redicolous by feeling put out by the whole thing, but you just really want to tear out your hair and yell a lot. So these have been comfort-vids for me right now. I don't know why, exactly, but I figure, any vid I can stand to watch somewhere between twenty-five and fifty times in a five day period I may as well rec. You needn't wait for a bad day to watch them though! I do love them even when I'm not in a mood :)

Vid: [Handlebars]
Vidder: Seah and Margie flummery
Song & Artist: Flobots
Fandom, Etc.: Doctor Who (Tenth Doctor, specifically), 3:27
Format: AVI, no lyrics, no captioning
Summary: I'm the Doctor. Look me up.
My Notes: This is how I see the Doctor-- yes, he's wonderful and fun but also ever so very powerful and alien. He may consider the Earth (one of) his pet planet(s) but that doesn't mean that he's not scary too.

Vid: [Four Years]
Vidder: Fabella wistful_fever
Song & Artist: "Life Less Ordinary" by Carbon Leaf
Fandom, Etc.: SGA, 3:44
Format: xvid avi, no captioning, no lyrics given
Summary: Four years of John loving Rodney. Rodney is a) oblivious, b) deliberately ignorant, or c) not as smart as he likes to think he is. Mckay/Sheppard. John POV.
My Notes: Oh, John and Rodney love each other so much! And then they do Atlantis things!

Vid: [The Temptation of John Sheppard]
Vidder: isagel
Song & Artist: "The Temptation of Adam" by Josh Ritter
Fandom, Etc.: SGA, John/Rodney, 3:46
Format: DivX AVI, DivX, streaming at BAM Video Vault, not captioned, lyrics provided at post
Summary: I never had to learn to love you like I learned to love the bomb.
My Notes: From inside John's head, we look at Rodney. Oh, I love this vid simply amazing amounts.

Vid: [Apple Candy]
Vidder: talitha78
Song & Artist: Apple Candy by Ben Lee
Fandom, Etc.: Star Trek Reboot, Kirk/Uhura/Spock
Format: WMV, AVI (XVid), YouTube, not captioned and no lyrics given
Summary: James T. Kirk believes in having it all.
My Notes: Everyone and their pet cat has already recced this, it really is that awesome. I love the cutting and the pacing and how well the clips are suited to telling a story along with the song. I love the longing that Kirk feels and from the looks of Uhura and Spock I'm convinced that they all end up together. (For extra fun, I quite enjoy watching this vid and thinking about where those shots were in the movie-- it gives me a sense of how one can clip things to say things other than what precisely was shown on the screen.)

Vid: [Open Secrets of the Pegasus Galaxy]
Vidder: yevgenie
Song & Artist: Everybody Knows -- Leonard Cohen
Summary: That's how it goes, everybody knows.
Fandom, Etc.: SGA, cast (gen), seasons 1-4, rated PG, 4:04
Format things: mp3 and mov, not captioned but lyrics included in post
My Notes: This is one of those vids I had to watch a bunch before I felt that I was understanding what the vidder was trying to do. She says "This is my love letter to Stargate Atlantis. It is also a letter about how Stargate: Atlantis drives me fucking crazy." I like it because it reminds me that the situation in Pegasus is much more complicated than the show often portrayed it and that things are not always simple and easy and such in a war zone.


I have no real idea what I'm doing with formatting these vid recs, so if you have suggestions, please let me know.

As always, if you spot any inaccuracies/dead links/missing info/additional transformative works (e.g., podfics, commentaries), please let me know.

For my policy on things such as spoilers, warning, and ratings, please [see my policy post].

These podfics didn't fit in elsewhere in this meme but I like them! So today's theme is no theme! Whee!

( X podfics in Y fandoms. <--That was originally dummy text, but I'm keeping it because *mystery podfics* )

[Originally posted] at fish-echo on 29 August 2009

For my policy on things such as spoilers, warning, and ratings, please [see my policy post].

Here's a bit of meta on the topic of RPF and some fic recs.

RPF (real person fanfiction) kind of freaks me out. I know that the stories are fake, made up, pretend. That they're based off of the public persona and then filtered through the author's brain. I know all of this. It doesn't stop it from being really weird for me to read RPF-- the back of my brain is screaming the whole time: this is a real person. I suppose it's related to the part of my brain that had issues with me initially reading fanfic written in universes with actors (I've never had issues with fanfic where the canon is solely textual-- they're the canon author's mental playthings and now they're ours because we've read the books too. Regardless of if we write about them, we were going to be thinking about them anyways, so may as well put the words on the page. *derails this discussion* nb: this is not discussing the *legal* complexities of fanwork)-- because actors actually exist! And one of the things that can squick me out when reading fanfic based on live-action canon is too-true physical description (especially in a sexual context... When CharacterA is lusting after CharacterB's wrists or elbows or whatnot, there's the voice in the back of my brain going 'ummm, real person!')-- it simply feels like an invasion of privacy to me. So generally I've steered clear of RPF. But as I'm sure you know, even if you are avoiding reading something in fandom, you'll run across it eventually and then just sort of randomly read it.

But I have discovered that there's a few ways I can read RPF and not be squicked out by it:

1. If I have no idea who the real people are, this bothers me less-- because then (as far as my mind knows) this is simply a fictional story with fictional people set in the present-day. (But then I do the canon-osmosis thing and then it sometimes starts being weird again.)
1. The story has to stand entirely on it's own without knowing the 'canon'.
2. If the rating is somewhere around PG-13-- keep the sex off-screen and keep the laudatory physical descriptors minimal-to-nil-- because then it feels less voyeuristic.
1. If there is explicit-ness in the story, I'll likely skim over it or skip it entirely, so it cannot be crucial to plot.
3. It's a cross-over into something clearly not of the real world-- Buffy/Angel, Farscape, Stargate, etc., etc., etc., because then it's clearer to my brain that the entire thing is fiction and thus I can treat the RP as fictional people. (Oh is there an RPF/Valdemar or Pern crossover anywhere? Because the reactions of the RP could be awesome!)
4. If it uses a plot device that I love. Because I'm willing to venture into scary RPF-land for the sake of a damn good trope. (Some day I might well list the plot devices I love, but this entry is long enough already.)

Hmm, *ponders* evidently this translates roughly to 'I'm okay with RPF when I can pretend it's original fiction'.

To my surprise, I've come across RPF fics that I can read without hitting the back button. I haven't really been looking for them, so I don't know how exactly I've found these, but all's well that ends well! And if you know of other good RPF fics that you think might meet some of these criteria, then let me know :)

RPF fics I like despite being wigged out by RPF:

( SGA RPF/SGA crossover, 1 fic/podfic )

( Supernatural RPF, 1 fic )

( 6 American Idol RPF fics, including 1 podfic and 1 cross-over with Merlin )

[Originally posted] at fish_echo on 6 March 2009.