Remix Recs

[lunabee34]

I've been through the Remix comm (and wow did I not realize that Remix was so huge!) and clicked on everything I thought might appeal, but as there are so many entries and I got eye-swimmy trying to navigate through them all, I know I missed something or several. Which is why I can't wait for the reveal, because then I'll know what you guys wrote if I missed it. (Well, that and I can finally post the first rule-breaky remix story I wrote.)

Four times Sam leaves and one that he stays (Heading toward the light remix) SPN; gen; PG-13
This is the remix of my fic, "Four Times Dean Watched Sam Die (and one that he didn't)," and I absolutely love it. My fic consists of four drabbles and a sentence. It isn't long at all and there is so much room to play around with what I wrote. All the drabbles are from Dean's POV and my remixer opened that up and wrote each vignette from a different perspective. The way s/he rewrites the first section in particular affects me in the sobby way you all know I love so well. What's interesting to me is the way that the third drabble remains consistent between both stories, like an anchor, and that the opening and ending sections veer away from the original. One section in this fic is drastically different from the way I'd envisioned it when I was writing it (the funeral scene), but I really love that my remixer took things in a direction I hadn't anticipated. Thank you, unnanmed Remixer, for doing such awesome things with my story.

I'm Just a Bill (the Right to Remain Rough 'n Ready Remix) SPN; John/Dean and implied Sam/Dean; parental incest; Adult
Holy freaking crap. *swallows* This is a piece of sheer genius here. The language is fantastically, gloriously sharp; read too deeply and you will get cut, my dears. I had my heart in my throat the entire read. Even if daddycest is not your bag, this is exquisite. Dean's are Mary's eyes plus a toothache. I mean, damn, that's some good shit.

Breathe on Sister (They Pass Me By Remix) SPN; Henricksen; PG
I love Henricksen's character; I love that even before he gets all intimate with a cloud of black smoke, the man knows that the pieces of the Winchester puzzle do not add up to the picture he wants so desperately to believe. The fic is about those slivers of doubt.

Non Sequitur (the Keep the Car Running Remix) SPN; Sam/Dean; R
Oh dear lord is there a thing that Lorraine loves more than a Sammy standing at the crossroads and taking charge? Dean's interior monologue is perfect and his perceptions of Sam are all the reasons I love this fandom. I cannot imagine you being disappointed by this read.

Pegasus Literature 101 (Pass/Fail Remix) SGA; McShep; PG-13
Speaking of genius, take a look at this one, folks. I am so insanely jealous that this is not the piece I wrote. LOL For most of the remixes, I have not gone and read the original story; I've been reading the remixes as standalones, which yes, is made entirely of fail, as I know that's not what this exercise is about. The pieces work in concert. But, *flails* I am so busy right now that I just can't. This piece really makes me want to read the original to see just how the two stories work together. The Atlantis expedition bonds over the Great Books of Pegasus and it kicks ass.

And a handful more anon. HLOTS calls.

(Also, still getting feedback. *boggles* Yay!)

Comments

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

Pegasus Literature 101 is amazing. I don't think I've read a more interesting story in a long time.

The original, which I read just before I read Pegasus Literature 101, is very good -- if I hadn't read Pegasus Literature 101 immediately after, I would have been perfectly content and amazed by the original. But PL 101 (that's way that I always ended up abbreviating my undergrad classes) -- it's what a vast number of stories in many fandoms want to be. It tackles politics, and culture, and relationships within the team and across Atlantis -- I'd love for you to read it in (name of community which I have rather embarrassingly forgotten).

The two stories work together in a very interesting way for a meta fan, but not so much qua themselves (in my opinion). I'd say more, but I'd rather hear your reactions uncolored by my own.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I just read the original, which I should probably append to this post as I also really enjoyed that one. The two seemed very different to me. "the John sheppard Book Club" is mostly about the Lanteans (about John and Rodney) and about using literature as a flirtation device. PL 101 is about Pegasus and about where Pegasus and the Milky Way intersect. I think the two stories have very different goals, which is as it should be, but that they are both very clever and enjoyable to read.

OK----say more, since I've read. :)

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's pretty much it -- The John Sheppard Book Club is a light, fluffy romantic comedy/character study that plays with flirting and romance and life through literature (just like The Jane Austen Book Club, and in light of that NYT article about dumping people because they don't like the right books (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Donadio-t.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1208890104-kqJXK/q%20/lcAyqeXiu6Bjw&pagewanted=print)). It's great, but at heart is a light fluffy thing that doesn't really have a lot of weight in terms of philosophical inquiry.

Pegasus Literature 101, as I read it, is about the value of literature as a tool to understand cultures, both your own and other people's, and about translation and fully understanding other people's lives and values and points of view (or not being able to -- as when Miko's has to get rid of the better translation setting). It's also about politics, and making choices (The Betrayal of Ptar sounds like a fabulous way to imagine and understand what life is like under the Wraith -- because life under the Wraith is not actually All About the Wraith), and dealing with those choices for decades and centuries afterwards. And I love the note about why the Athosians don't have much literature -- because they couldn't bring it with them. Yep.

So, moving outside the world of the story to an analytic frame of the fandom and the show: Book Club is the prototypical slash romance story -- excellent, and sweet, and light and fluffy and the entire story is in service of the sex. (I don't think this is a bad thing; I feel odd having to make that disclaimer, because I shouldn't have to.) Literature 101 is essentially a critique of SGA, and fandom's appreciation for the light and fluffy at the expense of the dark and difficult (I mean critique in the analytic sense, not in the critical sense). Where Book Club accepts at face value the isolated and protected world of Earthers on Atlatis (not only are they importing their food across two galaxies, but they're importing their entertainment, too), Literature 101 probes that aspect of canon, and pushes it to a very uncomfortable place: John doesn't actually understand Pegasus very well (he didn't even realize what the betrayal of Ptar was), because none of the Earthers understand Pegasus very well. But he's trying. And more than that, Teyla and Ronon, despite having some things in common, aren't from the same world, either, so everyone is coming together without any common ground except that they want to learn, they want to understand.

And the titles, too, point to this difference: a book club versus a class in literature. That's everything, right there. (And the subtitle! Pass/Fail! Whoever wrote that story is brilliant.)

In sum: I love really good remixes. When the two stories work in concert, they are things of absolute beauty.

(I think I might even write a post about these two stories, because I love what's happening here.)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

And I love the trope of flirting through literature. I do. I love the Jane Austen references and hearing each character analyze some of my favorite books. (This is the way my friends and I frequently talk to each other, lit nerds that we are, so this is my kinda fun).

And then PL 101 takes that trope and jumps a few degrees to the left--now we're flirting with culture--more than flirting really. This is pass/fail.

Please do post on this.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

musesfool insists that readers should not feel obligated to read the originals. I personally insist on reading the original first and then the remix, but that's my own personal preference and I try not to impose that on other people.

And of course you're still getting feedback :) There are far too many stories for everyone to have read everything in the first 24-48 hours.

P.S. The link to the Remix of your fic goes to one of your own SGA fics.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the catch, Elizabeth. What is wrong with me? LOL I also in this post put the wrong title with the wrong description, but fortunately, I caught that error last night before it had been posted too long. Friends don't let friends drink and link, I suppose.

RE: feedback. Everybody keeps reiterating that Remix is such a low feedback 'thon and that no one should really expect much response, so I had psyched myself down to expecting really only my remixee to respond. So I'm just happily surprised that others are reading. I mean, granted, it's only a handful of comments, but still more than I was anticipating and I also ran across a rec on someone's journal, so just a little yayness for me. :)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, getting recced is awesomesauce.

musesfool often says that Remix is a low feedback 'thon, and I was going to say that I feel like my perspective is skewed since my fic rarely gets much feedback, and I don't read a whole lot of fic anymore due to time constraints etc., so I don't necessarily perceive it as a low feedback 'thon because my comparison sample is so off -- but I've been noticing the low amounts of comments on even fics I've seen recced, even now that we're a few days past the fics going live and so people have (theoretically) had more time to read more stuff, and it's been really striking to me 'cause I'm like, "But this fic is so good! Or this other fic I feel like should have been widely read by virtue of what fandom it's in or whatever and it's not like it's a sucky fic." I've been trying to leave feedback on everything I've read (though I read the originals first and some of those I've not been especially taken with and so I've only fb'ed the remixes for those), which I try to do anyway, but I know the anonymity really hinders a lot of stuff getting read (since starting with authors you know/trust is a great way to begin delving into a huge crop of fic) so in some ways feedback is artificially low before the reveal (though yes of course there are the arguments that it increases the odds of unknown authors being read -- obviously it's a little of both, and I don't know whether one outweighs the other since there's no way to really empirically test it).

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

*nods*

I've seen two recs of my fic so far, one of which was linked to a major comm in that fandom, and as far as I can tell, these recs elicited no more comments to my story. Not that it matters, or that I care, per se, but I also share your kinda hmmm on why the recs aren't generating more response.

All in all, I'm completely thrilled with the response I got since I was expecting pretty much none and I know once the reveal is on, that more of the flist will read. I think it's pretty hard to go through the comm and find everything; it's so huge that stuff is bound to slip through the cracks.

While I sympathize in theory with the notion that anonymity is useful for increasing the chances of a less than BNF getting read, at the same time, I wonder if it's really necessary. I can't tell you how many posts I've seen since I got in fandom in which people mention that they won't bother reading remix until after the reveal, so I don't know how much ground is gained by the anon.