A bit on fanfiction

Amy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:15:01 +0000

I used to read fanfiction. It’s interesting to see that the word “fanfiction” is still not actually a dictionary word — it still has the red squiggle under it if you type it out — and how there’s some sort of stigma attached to people who write fanfic — like they’re geek nerds who write about Kirk and Spock getting together or are crazy people who need to stop picking up tiny canon details and then pairing people like Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood together. And to those responses, I say: FACEPALMMMM!

In light of being really impressed with Tom Felton’s performance in the sixth Harry Potter movie (if I have to be picky, I’d say he was the only thing that was memorable and left an impression on me), I’ve been scouring for good Draco-centric pieces. Came across this piece (D/Hr) called “The Universe is a Great and Beautiful Thing,” and here are some passages I really liked. (Just because it’s my habit, here’s also a song to listen to while you read the passages.)

[See post to listen to audio]

In his dreams, he wakes up to different images and different sounds. On Thursday he wakes up to the image of bees pollinating from flower to flower and hears blurry, jingly Indian music, as if his neighbors had turned their music up so loud that it had crept through the cracks and bled through the crevices – like a leak – into his apartment. The span of time varies for how long he sees them – sometimes they come in quick flashes, like lightning in the country, or a slap a mother gives to a misbehaving boy in public. Other times they play and play, like a haunted tape that never runs out – until it finally does, and he is left in darkness.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

He misses the big things – like the sky, and the people, and the sun. But he also misses the little things, like the sound of rain against the pavement, and the moisture rings from cold drinks.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

This – this was his funeral. Except sadder. Because he wasn’t dead, except he kept wishing he was, though he had no way of possibly hinting that to anyone around him. He thought about death all the time, and every time he kept imagining how it would be. A beatnik party. A sauna with a broken dial. A rodeo with monsters and whores and thieves. Or maybe – and this was his favorite one – a strange little club, almost like AA, where people are doomed to always meet and talk about their feelings and their internal afflictions and even hug. Except, maybe, instead of the neat donuts and treats there would be stale crackers and veggie platters.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

These days, any bit of distraction is good, no matter what it is. For example: the other day a fly was trapped inside his room, and, seeing the light coming from outside the window, it had spent a good amount of time trying to find its way out. And he’d watched it. It reminded him a little of himself, really. Sad little fly, stupid as hell.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

It reminds him of ingredients to certain exotic dishes that when someone reads out loud, it doesn’t make sense. Nor does it make sense on paper. But when you finally put it all together, it oddly does come together – even in a strange, uncoordinated and unexpected way.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

There are millions of microscopic trembles inside his body – not from pain, not even from the desire of pain, but from something he doesn’t really recognize.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

One day she’ll tell him about how her father proposed to her mother, and why her mother had first told him No. Another day she’ll tell him about what her favorite book is, and how she uses her least favorite book as a coaster. And maybe another day she might tell him about her sleepwalking neighbor who had gone missing one night, or about how her cat had died a few years ago from eating a dead mouse that had been killed with poison.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

You could retrace your steps and relive your life and try to distinguish the bad choices from the good ones – and in the end, you come to find out that it doesn’t really matter. Because you end up where you end up, and it’s hard to imagine anything else.

– Read “The Universe is a Great and Beautiful Thing.”

WHOOPS. I got really carried away. But I love it when an author’s writing is so good that you’re just astounded at how an author managed to think those things and then found the right words, and then put the right words into the right order to form those just right sentences.

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A bit on fanfiction