Since I rejoined the ranks of starving students, I haven’t been able to spend money on books as […]
Category Archive: Literature
I’ve recently been converted to Gaimanism (@AlwaysUpAndDown assures me that I’m a Gaimaniac now), and after devouring Coraline, I […]
https://twitter.com/dearcollectress/status/499731166836957184
Since I’m returning to university for another graduate degree, I felt that it was time to do some more reading. (confession: I haven’t read a single novel of literary merit since completing my first MA two years ago, but of course the Overlord would get me back in the habit).
My book for September is We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas, and I cried on eleven separate occasions while I read this book.
*Warning: There are spoilers ahead.*
My name is not Eileen Leary. I have never lived in New York.I am not the daughter of Irish immigrants, but I am the granddaughter of Norwegian ones. I will never be a nurse or have a son named Connell. I do not own my own house nor do I have any desire to purchase a fur coat. My ambition does not lie in physical possessions but intellectual accomplishments.
For all this, We Are Not Ourselves may be my own story.
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There are several reasons that I blog anonymously. I like the freedom, I like knowing that the Diva and I built our readership without relying on the “click-throughs” of FB friends, but the biggest reason is one I haven’t written about on here. I come from a conservative Christian culture, and it’s the kind of conservative culture which would sooner judge me for my interests in popular culture than make an attempt to understand the importance of why I write what I write, or even why fandom itself is a significant part of our society and history.
Before I continue, it’s necessary for me to say that, while I no longer actively participate in organized religion, I have faith, I have beliefs, and I judge no one for theirs. This blog post is merely the venting of the frustration I feel when I try to build a bridge between my conservative past and my pop culture savvy present.
This past weekend, I overheard a conversation between two family members that unnerved me. Out of respect to my family, I shall not repeat verbatim what was said, but the gist of it was that these two persons were of the opinion that the writers of Hollywood could not possibly be good religious people, because they have made a living from writing.
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Time for a nerd-fession: I spend much of my hard-earned money on grammar and writing books. Ultra nerd-fession: I’ve been known to special order them.
Having participated in two simultaneous BB Fanfic extravaganzas this year, I’ve written more in a shorter amount of time than I ever have in my life. With no time to leisurely amble through the writing process, I’ve had to be at the top of my writing game, and well, I got by with a little help from my books.
Here are my 5 favorite books on the craft of writing, in no particular order. Pardon the low-quality photos; these are from my personal collection.
1. The Elements of Style by Strunk & White
- Available here on Amazon
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The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien As you well know, The Collective Bloggers are pretty hardcore television fangirls, but […]
Ms. J.K. Rowling has been busy of late. With the film Fantastical Beasts and Where To Find Them becoming a […]
Jon Snow
House: Bastard son of Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell
Title: Steward of the Night’s Watch
Direwolf: Ghost
Allegiance: Night’s Watch, House Stark
Love interest: Fire-haired Wildling, Ygritte
Actor Portrayal: Kit Harrington
Main Character in Books 1-5 and Seasons 1-4
Jon Snow is a hero, he just doesn’t know it yet. I know readers aren’t supposed to have a favorite character whilst trudging through George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, but Jon Snow tugs on my heart strings as, I’m a sucker for an outsider and rebel with a heart of gold. Jon is the bastard son of Eddard Stark and his mother is unknown. Nobility do not give house names to bastards, instead, northerners give them all the same last name: Snow. In the text, we see Ned Stark bring Jon to Winterfell after Robert Baratheon takes the throne, to be raised with and loved by the Stark children as a half-brother. Unfortunately, Catelyn Stark is not as welcoming, and when he is nearing adulthood, Jon joins the Night’s Watch at the urging of his uncle Benjen, a Night’s Watch raider.
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Reinventing Sherlock Holmes: The Transmedia Co-Construction by and for Fan Communities
The adventures of Sherlock Holmes continue to fascinate audiences, regardless of the fact that the author of the original text, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, has been dead for 84 years. Doyle penned a total of 4 novels and 56 short stories containing the beloved Holmes over a period of 40 years, the 8-year long “Great Hiatus” between The Final Problem (1893) and The Hounds of Baskerville (1901) notwithstanding. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the protagonist Sherlock Holmes is “’the most-portrayed movie character’, with more than 70 actors having played the part in at least 200 films” (Fox 1). In the last ten years, there have been numerous movies, books, and television series’ devoted to reinventing Sherlock Holmes, each one aimed at helping audiences find value in the historical character while simultaneously attempting to entice newer, younger consumers to participate in fan communities based on said character. For purposes of this “Transformative Fandom” series, I will take this concept a step further. According to the Archive of Our Own website for transformative fan works, there are currently a total of (I’ve updated this number 4 times in 1 week) 59,761 texts, pictures, videos and podfics uploaded and tagged with the term “Sherlock Holmes”. The characters of Holmes and Watson, as created by Doyle, are in the public domain, which means anyone can use them without permission, the caveat being that works only include the specific qualities of these characters as defined by the author in his texts published before 1923. For writers, artists and filmmakers, this means commercial adaptations can be made (mostly) without fear of copyright infringement, as long as the features of the characters are explicitly early canon or, conversely, unique. The Consulting Detective has enamored readers for over a hundred years, but with only 60 original stories written by Doyle, fans take it upon themselves to explore, in detail, the universe surrounding Sherlock, while others enjoy filling in the blanks of our beloved character’s existence with imagined cases, love interests and encounters that Doyle never anticipated. While neither community is necessarily exclusive or superior, both have specific goals and characteristics that assist in the co-creation of Sherlock Holmes via multiple media sources.
acollectivemind.com 