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

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Hmm... if Logan were a girl, would she not be hot? In a tough way, like Anna Lucia on Lost?

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

I'm no expert on cloning, but testosterone does coarsen the features. So okay, a female Logan wouldn't just look like Wolverine in a wig.

Still, I think Logan is hot (to people who are into guys) because he's masculine, no? The strong jaw, the unwavering gaze. He's not like Cillian Murphy, whose attractiveness is very feminine. Or even James Marsden -- I'd buy it if Cyclops' girl-clone were really hot, at least in movieverse.

I imagine Girl!Logan would be hot in her way, but not conventionally attractive. Logan himself isn't conventionally attractive -- he's a short hairy dude who smokes cigars.

(That said, in early Ult-X where they introduce Logan at the airport and he's wearing a toque? SWOOOON.)

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

Oh wait, Michelle Rodriguez? Yes, totally would buy her as X-23. I only knew her from Girlfight, not Lost.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

1. She wouldn't have testosterone because she wouldn't have testicles.

2. Guys who are into guys have wildly varying tastes, of course. Don't paint stereotypes! Bad writer! Even I have wildly varying tastes. In the X-verse alone, I'm hot for Shawn Ashmore's Bobby and for some incarnation's of comicverse Logan (e.g. Quitely's and maybe Byrne's). They are wildly different and I lust after them for different reasons, some of which have to do with fic's I've read. If someone goes deep into the macho zone with no redeeming femininity, I can never heart them or even lust after them.

3. Hoser Logan! Whoot!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

She's awesome in Lost. Lost is crack. You must watch it all. Dharma compels you.

[waterstrider.livejournal.com]

1. That was my point, clumsily expressed. (Is someone really a clone if their genes have been altered enough to change their sex? Do we leave that to the philosophers?)

2. You're right, I shouldn't get too deep into gender theory for my own good. But (goes my argument), I like both feminine and masculine girls. I like butchy girls qua their butchiness, and femmy girls qua their femminess. Logan is of the butchy type; his hotness would not be his hotness if he weren't masculine. Logan as a silken epicene is a little difficult to picture.

3. Toques, man.

[waterstrider.livejournal.com]

P.S. I don't even know what I'm arguing anymore. This is why I don't take a lot of feminist/queer theory classes. Or biology classes, for that matter.

[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.

[youngest-one.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I seem to be unable to post links to other people's journals, these days. I was trying to link Minisinoo's journal, but all I got was that user link.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

1. Sounds odd to me, agreed.

2. I like where masculine and feminine meet. I love muscle guys who are too short. I love strong geeks who know who they are. I like Johnny Depp because he strong and masculine who radiates beauty in the way of a beautiful woman.

3. Byrne once drew Logan in a real Calgary Stampede type cowboy hat. Yick.

[ex-the-epic80.livejournal.com]

I will be doing your survey, after I dwell on it.

[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?

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

Pacing is something I struggle with a lot, especially in short pieces. I always feel like I have too much dialogue and action, but I'm glad that people are telling me the opposite (since I like writing that stuff).

I don't read that much lit mainstream, so it's odd that I sound that way. Our writing course in high school strongly encouraged it, though.

[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.