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I recently emailed Bloodcult of Freud to ask if there was any chance of “Seven Preposterous Things” being finished. The author pled real life and other writing, but also said, “The dwindling feedback was a factor in the stalling of the story.” You have to join Digital Quill to leave a review (which wasn’t always the case--as I pointed out to BcoF a possible reason for dwindling). However, you can, as I belatedly realized, email BcoF directly with feedback. It’s a marvelous AU (from the end of HBP)—featuring Severus/Hermione and Draco/Millicent. Great characterizations (Millie is the best, but they’re all good), wonderful dialogue, an interesting and different Pureblood culture, a plot that twists from hysterically funny to tragic to sexy unexpectedly… really you want to read it. And having started it, you will, really truly, need to see it carried to completion. So go read it, and then let Bloodcult know you’re not content to be abandoned. BCoF’s own warnings on the story were:
Dark Comedy and Angst. Graphic Sex, Character Death, Pimples, Gore and Unflattering Characterizations.
Not a one of which were inaccurate. So now go read. Or reread. Bloodcult of Freud, Seven Preposterous Things
http://www.digital-quill.org/viewst
Dark Comedy and Angst. Graphic Sex, Character Death, Pimples, Gore and Unflattering Characterizations.
Not a one of which were inaccurate. So now go read. Or reread. Bloodcult of Freud, Seven Preposterous Things
http://www.digital-quill.org/viewst
To be honest, that is not a ringing endorsement and gives me a kneejerk reaction of 'I will not read your story, ever'. No matter how good. Comments and feedback are nice but holding a story hostage till we praise you to eternity come, not cool.
Holding a story hostage?
I asked BCoF a PRIVATE question and published the response publiicly without expicit permission.
The author, BCoF, did NOT ever state or imply that he/she was holding the story hostage pending feedback.
In effect, all internet-published fanfic is published on a "will work for food" basis, with the food being understood to be positive (or, for the more sturdy, constructive) feedback.
BCoF stated only that the lack of such feedback (which, as I said, might have been tied to the hosting websites's sudden decision to disable anonymous reviewers) had discouraged him/her from continuing to work on the story.
Which, it seems to me, is a perfectly natural response on an author's part. (Particularly on the part of one who seems a bit tired and discouraged.) If no one much cares, and Real Life Calls, why trouble to update?
MY point, really, was that anyone of decent taste who actually had READ the story would urgently want it continued. And I had specific evidence that urging the author to write might possibly have an effect.
And, asserts my Slytherin sensibility, if I can induce others to read it, and to join me in urging the author to finish it, we're all more like to read the final chapters and enjoy together.
I'm really just hoping for the win-win situation here. Where I, and jin-fenghuang, and everyone else who's ever been inveigled into casting eyes over this fiction, all rejoice in concert in its completion.
Bloodcult of Freud is not asking, has never asked, anyone to read this fiction, or to admire it, or to urge the writer to complete it.
I am.
For my own completely selfish ends-- I want this story to be finished: I want to read the rest!
And I really, truly, sincerely do think that a lot of SS fans, were they in the know, would join me in this wish. And that the more who express the wiish directly, the more likely that it'll be satisfied.
Have I made myself clear?
Thanks, Terri
Re: Holding a story hostage?
Re: Holding a story hostage?
Ascribe the ineptness of expression to me, not to the story's author, I guess is mostly what I'm saying.
And ascribe the assumed eagerness for feedback to me, if you truly do think the desire (or need) for feedback that reprehensible.
Bloodcult of Freud was content simply to stop writing, after all. I, me Terri, am the one who stirred the waters here, the one who implied that increased feedback on this story might inspire the author to continue writing.
Thanks for your response.
Terri
Millicent and even Draco don't have much canon characterization to go on, and BcoF has made them into very interesting characters. (I don't agree with the Hermione characterization. Canon Hermione is not "an attractive girl who has her pick of the guys, at least for sex"; canon Hermione is so academically driven that most guys seem to dismiss her as sexless. But who said we all had to agree on everything? Anyway, BcoF's Hermione characterization serves the plot.)
Severus' characterization is very accurate. Oh, when the Lily backstory was added just after DH's release, its pasted-on nature showed a bit -- but just a *bit*. (If someone were writing for publication, they'd want to edit all previous chapters to add minor references to The Lily Thing, instead of just adding a few paragraphs to the latest chapter. But this is a fanfic -- she's only writing for fun anyway.) And there are maybe two instances in the entire story where I said to myself, hey, that's not how canon Severus reacted when treated that way. *Two.* He's *very* true to canon.
Yet he's not a wind-up toy, producing "Typical Snape Behavior" in every situation. Instead, he's put into new and different situations, and reacts "the way someone with canon Severus' personality would" to situations canon Severus was never in. That's the best kind of accurate characterization a fanfic can have.
Aaaand the backstory BcoF created for Severus' family is interesting, doesn't contradict canon details, and feels very human.
The cultural differences aren't 100% *perfect* (example: would a woman from a society wherein sex transfers magical power from men to women -- so men have strong reason to take sex slow, and women have extra reason to rush in -- even imagine the existence of *women* selling sex? Yet Millicent immediately guesses a foundling is the offspring of a prostitute), but they're much more creative and interesting than the usual "pureblood culture" of fanon (see above).
Last few random thoughts... The story's graphic sex almost always advances the plot and especially characterization. And this story, like the HP series itself, has a rather dark view of human nature. It's a good story, everyone: go read.
I would also like to explain the lag.
I have a rather elderly grandmother, she has Alzheimer's Disease and I am her legal guardian. The point where I began to slack off on posting (and writing) Seven Preposterous Things, was the point where her disease made itself impossible to ignore. With a professional writing career and three children, as well this slowed me down considerably, particularly her habit of calling me roughly 50 times a day from 5:30 am to 11:30 pm,
I stopped working on the story altogether after I was appointed her legal guardian by the state, her disease became all consuming for me as I had to care for her properties in addition to her person.
These days changes in her illness (it has worsened considerably) make it possible to write on non-essential projects again so I have returned to Seven Preposterous Things.
So there is the long and the short of it. I hope to have the story finished by the end of March.
Oh my...I hoped
Re: Oh my...I hoped
Re: Oh my...I hoped
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