Comic beardiness, and the style meme

[tocryabout]

Coming by the end of the week, inshallah, is a New X-Men: Academy X short (actually a New Mutants vol 2 short, but this book has so many names it's easy to quibble). It won't require much background knowledge of the comics, so a number of you might enjoy it.

I bought #21 of New X-Men last night, so just allow me to stroke my neckbeard a little.

- I guess it's too much to ask for Wolverine's clone to look like him, isn't it? Anyone who replies that some cloned animals don't resemble the "originals" wins the nerd prize for the day, but I still think it's pretty Sueish to make X-23 beautiful as well as lethal and tortured. Wouldn't an ugly, hairy chick with claws be more interesting? Or at least more believable? Fuck the conventions of comics, if Wolverine were a girl he'd be an ugly bitch of a girl, not a waifish wunderkind with enormous soulful grey eyes.

- I like David's Danger Cave, although it seems sort of...I dunno, pointless? Irrelevant? Some adjective like that. Brian as Storm was priceless.

- Ooh, Jay drama. Whatever. [This has always bothered me about Jay: he has wings, but when he wanted to kill himself he went with a knife in the chest? The hell?]

- Julian being an ass is always awesome. I would read a book solely centred on Julian, in which all he does is fly around and say insensitive things to people. Santo is a great sidekick in this regard.

- Noriko being an ass is less awesome. I'm not sure why that is -- maybe because she's so self-righteous about it. At least Julian knows he's a dick. And he takes so much joy in it. P.S. to Brian Reber: Nori dyes her hair. Her eyebrows should not be blue. You can go blind if you try to dye your eyebrows.

- "The path to Eden is paved with swords and serpents, only the chosen will survive the journey..." Is Stryker a Calvinist, or some sort of believer in the predestination of an Elect? I'm probably giving Kyle/Yost too much credit. But that would be an interesting religious angle on the Decimation: as a signal grace or sign of predestination. I don't know if the Protestant and evangelical traditions include beliefs like this (they might think it was superstitious), but 19th-century Catholicism did embrace this sort of thinking in popular devotions.

________________

I've been resisting this meme for a couple of days, but I'm succumbing. Via reunion and minisinoo:

01. Do I have a distinct style of writing?
02. If so, what exactly is it that defines my style?
03. Would you say my stories follow a certain theme?
04. Is there anything you feel I ought to improve or change?
05. Does my style (if I have one) remind you of anyone else?
06. Judging from whatever writing of mine that you've seen, what do you think is/are my strength(s)?
07. What do you think are my weaknesses?

(If you want to treat 4 and 7 as the same question, go for it.)

Comments

[youngest-one.livejournal.com]

1)Do I have a distinct style of writing?
I think so.

2)If so, what exactly is it that defines my style?
Your focus on the inner conflicts of your characters, bringing their emotions and thought to the forefront. You do a good job with description and action, but characterisation seems to be your main focus. Your writing has fascinating descriptions of people's emotional states.

3)Would you say my stories follow a certain theme?
From what I've read so far, I'd say you focus most of your effort on tortured, dysfunctional relationships. Also, you write about politics and religion, and how people relate to them.

4)Is there anything you feel I ought to improve or change?
I feel you get too bogged down in description at time, to the loss of your story.

5)Does my style(if I have one) reminds you of anyone else?
Your emitional desrciptions remind me of Flannery O'Connor, at times. Some of your work reminds me ofuser; you share a flair for dialogue and deptiction of realistic relationships.

6)Judging from whatever writing of mine that you've seen, what do you think is/are my strength(s)?
You have excellent spelling and grammer. Your OCs are fully realised and three dimensional, and never veer off into Mary/Gary Stu territory. Your dialogue and scene setting are all excellent, as are your descriptions of a character's inner thoughts. The plots I've read so far have all been superb, and you write decent action and movement.

7)What do you think are my weaknesses?
See 4; you can slow the story down considerably with too much description. I felt there were some minor characters that could have been elaborated on better, but that curiosity may just be me.

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

Flannery O'Connor, wow. *blush*

tortured, dysfunctional relationships.

Heh. I often hear stuff like this about my writing and I'm usually surprised. Joel's relationships may be tortured, but they're the best thing he has, so I tend to see them that way.

you can slow the story down considerably with too much description.

There's definitely a pacing problem, as Min pointed out. That's interesting that you think it's description, because I'm always pulling back from action and dialogue--I don't want to have bodiless characters (well, unless they're supposed to be) floating around in space. Maybe I should second-guess myself less?

I felt there were some minor characters that could have been elaborated on better, but that curiosity may just be me.

Now I'm curious -- who?

[youngest-one.livejournal.com]

Now I'm curious -- who?

Hmm. I would have liked to learn more about Father Giles, and how he met Charles and started quarrling with him,, how he founded St. Rita's, stuff like that.

There's something about your description of your character's thought and longings that reminds me of O'Connor. "Parker's Back", for instance.

[waterstrider.livejournal.com]

That is a bit beyond the scope of the novel, although it might work for an associated short piece. I did always want to include more St Rita's stuff (and in fact cut quite a bit out) but that just wasn't where the story action was, so I couldn't justify leaving it in.

That's the thing about writing online, there's always so much room to expand that you can get self-indulgent. Not that there's anything wrong with self-indulgence, if it really is for yourself.

"Parker's Back" is a beautiful story. I need to read more O'Connor.