Case (
case) wrote in
fandomsecrets2014-05-31 04:03 pm
[ SECRET POST #2706 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2706 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

__________________________________________________
02.

__________________________________________________
03.

__________________________________________________
04.

__________________________________________________
05.

__________________________________________________
06.

__________________________________________________
07.

__________________________________________________
08.

__________________________________________________
09.

__________________________________________________
10.

__________________________________________________
11.

__________________________________________________
12.

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