Posted this earlier on, but dunno if it showed up...

[elisi]

It is Comics Day so rejoice, for lo, it is almost over! *\o/*

I seem to have reached nirvana, which is a nice place. I was there once before, but then I got very cross and grumbly. However I've managed to get my zen back, yay! I've actually been looking forward to today. Partly because I've got my 'review' all ready and waiting (have added a tiny something this time! *g*) - but there's something else I need to talk about first. Feel free to skip and jump straight to the review btw. :) (I've read spoilers so feel free to talk about what happens. Or just admire the shiny.)

Anway, there's Whedonistas - you've heard of it y/y? I shall pimp it wholeheartedly, even though that book is the thing responsible for me diving back into the comics, which I'd happily left behind. To explain...

Well. This is sort of bittersweet for me, since I wrote an essay that wasn't included: Simply put, it didn't fit the overall tone of the book. But then an essay on the comics was always going to be... an interesting adventure. And despite being exceedingly diplomatic (no really! You have no idea), I can't deny that it was on the negative side. To quote Gaudy Night (which is my habit at the moment):

"You'd lie cheerfully, I expect, about anything except - what?"

"Oh, anything!" said Harriet, laughing. "Except saying that somebody's beastly book is good when it isn't. I can't do that. It makes me a lot of enemies, but I can't do it."

"No, one can't," said Miss de Vine. "However painful it is, there's always one thing one has to deal with sincerely, if there's any root to one's mind at all.

So, knowing that I can't lie about my opinion of someone else's writing (not even when it might get me published), is actually quite reassuring. ;) Also - despite being very excited about writing something for publication - there was the problem of the subject of my essay. I don't mind people knowing I'm a Buffy fan, but the comics are something else, so I shall be spared that embarrassment.

Anyway, to talk of something other than meeeeee, then looking at it from a fannish point I am also a bit torn. Part of me was impossibly gleeful at the thought of having all our grievances in print (!!!), but the other part is happy that it was left out, since that will hopefully help speed up s8's consignment to the dustbin of fannish history. And you know, its absence will hopefully be quite an eloquent comment in itself. ('If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.')

So yeah, bittersweet. I'll probably post my essay at some point (maybe when the book comes out?) so people can read it, cause I'm pretty proud of it. (It is also the reason I find it hard to engage in fannish discussions about s8 - I poured everything into that piece, and whenever I chat about it online I feel that I am only repeating myself...)

ANYWAY, on with the review!



This time I had fun re-writing some of the lyrics to ‘Single Ladies’...

Now put your hands up
Up in the club, we just broke up
I’m doing my own little thing
you decided to dip but now you wanna trip
Cuz another brother* noticed me
I’m up on him, he up on me
don’t pay him any attention
cuz I cried my tears, gave three good years seven good seasons
Ya can’t be mad at me

*and he is mocking you with his SHINY SHINY SHINY pants! ;)

Comments

[cindergal.livejournal.com]

You know, I watch that video and laugh and laugh every comics day. :-D

I'm sorry your essay didn't make it to publication. I do hope you post it - I'd love to read it!

[elisi]

You know, I watch that video and laugh and laugh every comics day. :-D
I can't even remember how I thought to use it in the first place - it was something about it being the bestest thing that the internet had ever produced... :)

I'm sorry your essay didn't make it to publication. I do hope you post it - I'd love to read it!
Oh I'll definitely post it - it's only a question of when.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

You know, I watch that video and laugh and laugh every comics day. :-D

It's a tradition!!

[cindergal.livejournal.com]

It is!

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'd personally be interested in reading your essay on the comics. Why wait or rather make us wait until the book is published? ;-)

[elisi]

Heh - you make a compelling argument. Maybe next week? Once the snow has vamoosed and I have some time & no children around all the time...

[calturner.livejournal.com]

Your comic review is always the best one posted every month! :D

I'd definitely be interested in reading your essay. :)

[elisi]

Your comic review is always the best one posted every month! :D
It is the SHINY TROUSERS that do it! *nods*

Your comic review is always the best one posted every month! :D
Thank you, I look forward to sharing it.

[kathyh]

I'd be fascinated to read your essay even though I have, for the sake of my own sanity, completely lost interest in the comics.

[elisi]

Like I said, I'd given up on them completely and then got dragged back in... And even when reading them all, in order, and trying my darnedest to make sense of it all... I failed. Although addressing ALL THE ISSUES was very cathartic.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

I had to pretty much completely rewrite my essay for Whedonistas because my first draft was too negative. I managed to make things more in line with the tone they were looking for.

Writing on request is HARD. Sorry your essay didn't make it in. I get the difficulty there.

[elisi]

I had to pretty much completely rewrite my essay for Whedonistas because my first draft was too negative. I managed to make things more in line with the tone they were looking for.
Well that's reassuring (I've looked at the authors' list trying to work out which one is yours btw. But none of them is called something like Feminism 101, so... *g*) I think if it had been any other subject I could have done it (apart from possibly women's fates on ATS *g*), but the problems with s8 are so many, and so ingrained, that it was just impossible to gloss over them. (I wish it'd had a more coherent theme, cause I wouldn't have minded writing pure meta, but that too was impossible...

Writing on request is HARD.
WORD! (Plus I got roped in at the last minute, which was fun. *g*)

Sorry your essay didn't make it in. I get the difficulty there.
I'm very philosophical about it. Apparently the editor-in-chief is a comics fan, so...

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to read Gaudy Nights. I'm pretty sure I'm getting a kindle for christmas (squee!! There's a distinctly kindle sized box in with a "don't open until christmas" sticker in my guest room) people keep quoting from it, and I'm officially intrigued. I think Gaudy Nights might have to be my first kindle book!

Looking forward to reading your essay. They missed out when they didn't include it!

[elisi]

I'm going to have to read Gaudy Nights.
*cheers* Although are you familiar with Peter Wimsey at all? If not, then it might help to read another book or two first, since Gaudy Nights is very... dense. And a kindle sounds exciting!!

Looking forward to reading your essay. They missed out when they didn't include it!
Thank you. And well - the book is a *celebration* of Joss's work. An essay that says 'Basically, he kinda dropped the ball on this one' was always going to be a bit tricky...