alixtii: Player from <i>Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?</i> playing the game. (Default)
alixtii ([personal profile] alixtii) wrote2006-08-16 10:03 pm

Return of the Memetic Engineer

If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or NaNoWriMo or what have you, post exactly one sentence (or more) from each of your current work(s) in progress in your journal. It should probably be your favourite or most intriguing sentence so far, but what you choose is entirely your discretion. Mention the title (and genre) if you like, but don't mention anything else -- this is merelyto whet the general appetite for your forthcoming work(s).

"This is Captain Kaywinnit Lee Frye of the transport Serenity requesting to dock."



Willow Rosenberg was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.



Wait, why am I telling you this? What happened next was none of your damned business. I will say this much, though: she was great.



They met again on Londinium, each on the arm of an M.P., and they saw each other at the same time. They both turned away at the same time, as if reaching for a weapon, then turned back, suddenly remembering where they were. No weapons were on hand, which meant pre-emptive offense was not a necessary defense. They pretended to not notice each other for two dances, then each excused themselves from their dates and made their way to the punch bowl.



William knows that Anna is not like other girls. He thinks this without the least hint of sentiment or romance. That Anna is not like other girls is an objective fact. She can beat him every time at arm wrestling, and what girl could do that? And once, when she had fallen asleep between takes during a hard day on the set, she began muttering in what he suspects was Latin. Anna does not, as far as he knows, speak Latin.



Gakked from [livejournal.com profile] likeadeuce (who actually dreamt it up, if I'm not mistaken, because she felt evil and wanted to mislead) and then from [livejournal.com profile] buffyannotater (whose poll this one resembles more), see if you can guess the following.

1) Shakespeare Play
2) Non-Shakespeare Play
3) Playwright
4) TV show
5) Novel
6) Musical
7) Movie
8) Screenwriter
9) Actress
10) Season of Angel

Also, ask me for top five lists, and I will provide you with the top things in the category you requested. Gakked from [livejournal.com profile] inlovewithnight.

Re: guesses

[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com 2006-08-17 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
1) I'm curious how much these are guesses, because this is correct. 'Tis my favorite Shakespeare, indeed.

2) Wonderful play, of course, maybe even objectively better than my favorite play, but no.

3) Definitely not! He was brillaint at times, but othertimes he was just a hack. I left my Shakespeare class in college liking Shakespeare a lot less than I did when I started.

4) Not quite. Firefly doesn't run quite so close to the adolescent fantasy as a certain, erm, fantasy show about adolescents with which we might both be familiar.

5) It is indeed by Heinlein. Some people view this novel as masturbatory, didactic, and self-indulgent. I'm actually part of that "some people." I love it so much.

6) Excellent musical, so much fun, and Kristin Chenowith is awesome. But no.

7) I'm sort of with you as to not seeing it as a fannish text. I think it has to do with different ways of approaching it as a text--it's hard to approach its aesthetics critically when one is busy asking "How many children had Lady Macbeth?"-type questions. Serenity may well be the best action movie ever made in my opinion, and of course it's more than "just" an action movie, but it's still far too concerned with weapons and explosions and not concerned enough with ideas to qualify as my favorite movie. (It probably ranks third or fourth among my favorite movies.)

8) Without a doubt I bow down before Joss' creative genius, and if he put all that effort into screenwriting without dividing his attention between screenwriting, directing, producing, and writing other things like comic books he'd probably rise to the top of the pack without difficulty. But as it stands, no he's not who I was thinking of.

9) I adore Summer to pieces, as you know. I'll fanboy her to the moon and back. But the fact remains that I've only seen her play three different characters, the Russian ballerina in "Waiting in the Wings," River on/in Firefly/"The R. Tam Sessions"/Serenity, and Tess on The 4400. So I don't feel qualified to make a judgment about her as an actress, you know. Summer and Tina are somewhat similar, actually. As long as they play their main characters (River and Mac, obviously) with enough depth, and they keep on being awesome elsewhere (and Summer is very awesome on The 4400, just as Tina was in Napoleon Dynamite) I don't really care if they can act or not. Because they are Summer and Tina. Who are awesome. That's enough for me. I don't particularly want to see Tina do a nuanced performance of Lady Macbeth. Although I do want to see her make Lady Macbeth awesome now. (Nuance would get in the way!)

*tries to plot Summer/Tina RPF* [Although what icon would I use to post it?]

10) That's what Carrie said too. I'm wondering what that says about me, that two of the online people who know me the best think that would be/could be my favorite season. But a very strong no.
wisdomeagle: (sci-fi guest stars)

Re: guesses

[personal profile] wisdomeagle 2006-08-17 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
They are all guesses -- as you yourself might guess, since I only got one right.

5. Stranger in a Strange Land
6. Phantom?

Re: guesses

[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com 2006-08-17 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
but you did get one right!

5. I thought you might guess, considering what I know you have and haven't read. And while I love Stranger and recognize it does fit my description, it's not my favorite. You've got this one as correct as you're going to be able to, I think.

6. Also no. I do like the musical though because the way its plot looks at psychology and insanity and evil and the will-to-power and all that, and because I like reprises and so does ALW.

Lastly, my above comments should not be taken to indicate that my favorite actress is not awesome, because she is. She's just been awesome a little longer than most of the objects of my fannish passion.
wisdomeagle: Original Cindy and Max from Dark Angel getting in each other's personal space (Default)

Re: guesses

[personal profile] wisdomeagle 2006-08-17 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
6. JCS?

Unless your favorite actress is Judi Dench or Maggie Smith, I'll have to give up on that one. "Non-fannish actresses" is a category of knowledge in which I am notoriously dumb.

Re: guesses

[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com 2006-08-17 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, JCS is a musical (and a movie) I really, really love. But it so much a spiritual experience for me that I probably wouldn't think to list it as my favorite musical. (Although I think I remembered to put the movie on my favorite movie list that I made and have since lost.) So no.

While Maggie Smith isn't the actress whom I call my favorite, I decided when I put up the meme that I would accept her as well. Because, well, yeah, she's Maggie Smith. I first ever saw her as Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden.