NaNo Day 5: 500ish words before bedtime. Did the rest of my homework for class, too. Turns out all I want to do on a Friday night is sleep. Does that mean I’m a real adult now?
NaNo Day 6: Woke up to write. Wrote. Cleaned the kitchen. Talked to my roommate about fairies. The ultra-rad Kat Vellos came and brought me delicious food. Wrote more. Freaked out and went outside for a while. Wrote more. Got distracted by writing revisions for my other piece. Got distracted by watching the entirety of The Guild. Ordered pizza. Wrote a tiny bit more, then gave up and went to bed. Total word count so far: 9,200ish.
So, my conversation with the roommate about fairies was pretty funny. I started talking about changeling stories and all the horrible things that people are supposed to do to a changeling child in order to get their own child back from the fairies: beating, exposure, burning, etc. My roommate commented how gruesome that was.
“I thought fairies were supposed to be nice,” he said. I talked about some choice bits from changeling tales, like how you’re supposed to stick hot pokers down a child’s throat if you suspect them to be a changeling, or else you can hang a pair of open iron scissors above their bed.
“I thought you were just supposed to clap,” he said. “I mean, Peter Pan’s nice, right?”
”Peter Pan is the spirit of an unbaptized crib death. That’s what all the Lost Boys really are. Ghosts of dead children.”
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m a little disillusioned about fairies. I was that kid that loved the Flower Fairy books and had a big crush on Legolas–from the book, I’ll have you know, even before Orlando Bloom. Then I started reading lots of actual fairy tales, plus a little Bruno Bettleheim, Neil Gaiman, and Terry Pratchett. I think my current thoughts on fairies can be well summed-up by a passage from Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies:
“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.”
Here’s to writing more bad romance with fairies! Huzzah!
3 comments
Cole
November 11, 2010 at 7:43 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
That is an excellent little passage. I always liked discussing Terrible and Terrific vs. Horrible and Horrific. Terrific is the stand out in ambiguous meaning. Also, elves are bad.
My odd pseudo-literary crush is on the green girl in Wicked. But it has so much more to do with the pipes that the actress playing Elphaba has. Can you have a crush on a pretty voice?
Anyway, Happy Writing!
Angie
November 14, 2010 at 11:02 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
My boyfriend is basically Orlando Bloom with facial hair and pierced ears (more Kingdom of Heaven, less LotR). I have come to terms with the fact that my most significant relationship to date may be simply the wet dream of my teenaged self.
I also have a crush on Idina Menzel (Elphaba).
Anne Bean
November 18, 2010 at 8:33 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I validate your life choices.
Mikeatron is definitely not Wesley Crusher, and I’m okay with that.
Also, I totally had a bookcrush on Legolas even before Orlando Bloom got ahold of him.