kmo

A questions meme!

-Comment with "What is a week-end?"
-I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
-Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
-Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions. (If you want. Totally optional.)

Questions provided by

netgirl_y2k

1) If you could pick one ASOIAF character to make it to the end of the series unscathed who would you choose to protect?

As much as Arya is my favorite and the only character who hasn't made me shake my fists in frustration at this point, I'm not sure my little assassin deserves to make it through unscathed. Plus, she's a wily little thing and can probably take care of herself. So, I would choose to protect Brienne at this point, because girlfriend is too effing noble for her own good (still) and has been through enough shit already. And as much as Westeros is a crapsack amoral place, I do feel her constant choice to try to do the right thing should be rewarded somehow. Even if it just means she goes back to Tarth and becomes some kind of sword-slinging cat lady.

2. What's the fandom, trope, or pairing that you least understand the appeal of?

I really don't understand a/b/o, where it came from, and why it's so popular right now. Which is not to knock any of my friends who like a/b/o- to borrow a page from Dan Savage, "Your Kink Is Not My Kink But Your Kink Is Okay." I think part of my reaction is that it also involves mpreg, which is another trope that i just don't get. And possibly the boundary blurring between human and animal characteristics is just not for me. But to each their own.

I wish we could make the sort of genderqueer opposite of mpreg happen- growing a kid in a vat. I am totally okay with separating sexuality and reproduction. I like children (still undecided if i want them...) but am very ambivalent about the whole messy biological pregnancy stuff. Just goes to show that one person's Orwellian dystopia is this woman's fantasy.

3. If you could only have five books to read over and over again for the rest of your life, what would you pick?

Oooh this is tough. But I will go with:

1) Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey- to get my porn/awesome female characters/adventure fix

2) Catch-22, Joseph Heller- my favorite work of "serious" literary fiction. it's pretty complex and has a lot of layers- it would be fun to re-read

3) The Unredeemed Captive, John Demos- i'm a historian and this is my favorite history book. it's kind of cliche in academic circles to say you like this book but haters gonna hate. It's about a young girl living in frontier Massachusetts in the mid 18th century who gets abducted during an Indian raid and spends the rest of her life as a Mohawk, despite her Puritan family trying to ransom her. it's fascinating and very well written. Actually very accessible to non-historians- it won a National Book Award.

4) Wise Child, Monica Furlong- this is a childhood fave. Orphaned girl gets adopted by the local witch in medieval Scotland. feminist pagany goodness! I still want Juniper to adopt me. If I ever become a parent, I also want to be as awesome as Juniper.

5) Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman- something i haven't read all of! because at least one thing on this list should be something kinda new. and if i'm stuck with only 5 books, i want something- like poetry- that i might not get the meaning of right away.

4. Do you have any interesting or unusual phobias?

I really, really hate roller coasters. Just the sight of one makes me feel panicky. Whenever I go on one, I close my eyes and wait for it to be over....which is kind of like lying back and thinking of England. Yeah. Combines my fear of heights with issues about control. I don't find them fun at all. My partner loves them- this is not one of those things we share as a couple.

5. What's your ideal fic, the one you wish you could bring into being just with the power of your mind?

I keep hoping someone someday (maybe me) is going to write that fic where Carmen Sandiego is a fobwatched Time Lady and goes off to drive the Doctor nuts/inflame him with lust.

I also really want a fic where Sarah O'Brien inherits a ton of money and gets elevated to the aristocracy and...it's actually really hard and confusing for her. She's spent her entire life scheming and plotting and feeling resentful about her lot in life- who does she become when that identity is taken away? And everyone at Downton is all resentful and flabbergasted because "Oh noes, how could something so wonderful happen to someone so mean?"