case: (Default)
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2014-05-31 04:03 pm

[ SECRET POST #2706 ]


⌈ Secret Post #2706 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 079 secrets from Secret Submission Post #387.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Re: The Monstrumologist

[personal profile] seventh_seal 2014-06-01 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess I'd vote for Warthrop unintentionally screwing up their chances of a more normal life. The changes in Will Henry that took place after Socotra scared him, and I think he, having the world's worst social skills, simply failed to do the necessary things to try and bring WH back. Which led to more estrangement on Will Henry's part and consequently to his becoming royally fucked in the head. Warthrop promised to never leave and to try and prevent WH from "drowning", and he tried, but he didn't understand the kind of attention and warmth WH would need.

Yeah, but this is the part that gets unfortunately skipped over, so I concur with your conclusion that TFD is an exaggeration - I mean, how more unreliable can you get as a narrator than Will Henry who isn't even Will Henry - and the fact that no reconciliation was described doesn't mean that it couldn't happen.

TFD is the kind of book that is begging for a fix-it fic ;)
dreemyweird: (austere)

Re: The Monstrumologist

[personal profile] dreemyweird 2014-06-01 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. Not!Will Henry has the reliability of a talking potato.

I picture it as a spectrum of understandings, with notable interpretations being "WH snapped under the pressure and everything went to shit" (pure TFD&probably what Yancey originally meant), "bad things happened and WH wrote TFD to give the impression that everything went to shit in order for others to avoid shit" (the most text-compatible interpretation, in my opinion), and "the whole of TFD is just a fake".

The second option certainly does imply the possibility of recovery they missed after Socotra. So, yes, there could be a healthier WH&PXW 'verse.

>TFD is the kind of book that is begging for a fix-it fic ;)

so it is. I may or may not end up being the first gen AO3 writer for TM.

You did reassure me a great deal.



Do feel free to talk to me whenever. If you want to discuss TM or anything else. You can ask me for my twitter username if you like, too (seeing as f!s and twitter are probably way better for fannish discussions than tumblr).

Re: The Monstrumologist

[personal profile] seventh_seal 2014-06-02 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
I don't have Twitter, but also feel free to talk to me anytime and anywhere ;) Even if you just want to check a canon fact, I've read the three books twice. Yeah, Tumblr has its drawbacks, but I've gotten used to it.

Anyway, I'm really glad that you enjoyed the books. And I'm glad your perception of TFD went from "this terrible inevitable doom" to basically "nah" :)

It's funny how the way to deal with TFD seems to be to try and find leeway for the characters not to end up quite so terribly rather than take it at face value, and yeah, this may be against Rick Yancey's original intention --- but, let's not forget he also wrote himself into the books as Will Henry's editor, thereby making the final authority on canon within canon his unreliable narrator, so ... there.

I've written a tiny gen fic for TM too, but I've also been working on a "fix-it" off and on for months now and I made that into Willinore, hopefully, I'll actually finish sometime.

dreemyweird: (austere)

Re: The Monstrumologist

[personal profile] dreemyweird 2014-06-02 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
Well, tbf I accept Yancey's original idea and I still think it was a very logical outcome. And if we are talking serious literary analysis, I would be considering the series from Yancey's point of view (thanks to the fact that my hang-ups about authorial intent are the size of California).

But as pure text compatibility goes, I do believe our headcanon is just as valid (if not more).

He could choose between treating his characters as living people and treating them as a means to his end, and he chose the former; and, though in so doing he enforced his message, he also sort of derailed it at the same time. Which was bound to happen, really. Living, well-developed characters have too many specifics to be a part of a universal philosophical idea. I mean, nobody tries (...I presume) to write a fix-it Metamorphosis thing. Samsa is a tool and all he does is serve his purpose. But WH&PXW aren't tools and they do more than convey a message; it is a weakness and simultaneously a strength of Yancey's work.

I wonder if anyone asked Yancey as to whether he thinks WH&PXW had any hope prior to TFD. Maybe I should.

>I've written a tiny gen fic for TM too, but I've also been working on a "fix-it" off and on for months now and I made that into Willinore, hopefully, I'll actually finish sometime.

did you, now?? Is it posted anywhere?

I'm not a shipper (which, considering this fandom's specifics, may just make me a sad outsider) and I've no interest in romance tropes, but I'll read shippy stuff as long as it has good characterizations. And I'll certainly read a fix-it.

Re: The Monstrumologist

[personal profile] seventh_seal 2014-06-02 11:26 am (UTC)(link)
I mean, nobody tries (...I presume) to write a fix-it Metamorphosis thing.

Lol, you know I think someone somewhere may have at least fantasized about Gregor's sister or whoever being nice to him and him turning slowly back to a human :D

But yeah, Will and the doctor are certainly the sort of characters that come alive and that's probably why readers have such an emotional response to them (rather than to just what their story represents).

Don't worry, I actually think the majority of TM fans don't ship the main characters, for what are probably obvious reasons, except that they haven't produced any fics - so you might be the first ;)

My fic is here. It's short and kind of meta-ish, but I'll put it on AO3 too, if just for the sake of motivating myself to finish the longer one.
dreemyweird: (austere)

Re: The Monstrumologist

[personal profile] dreemyweird 2014-06-02 11:43 am (UTC)(link)
Oh my God, this is brilliant. I laughed way too hard. I can imagine Warthrop being pretty good at writing but lolariously awful at giving writing advice. Or maybe he didn't even try - maybe the point of the whole exercise was to see how Will Henry would describe him in different ways. Because Warthrop is secretly dying of happiness that WH is writing about him :D

We'll see! I'm okay with being a forever-alone fan, anyway - it's virtually the story of my life, fannish and otherwise.

Re: The Monstrumologist

[personal profile] seventh_seal 2014-06-02 11:57 am (UTC)(link)

Yeah, well, The Monstrumologist fandom is all about laboring in darkness and obscurity, so welcome :)