Fannish answers part 1 of ?

What do you think of the Subaru/Kamui ship?
Much as I'm a die hard Seishirou/Subaru shipper, I'm actually rather fond of Subaru/Kamui, when it's well characterised. (Multishipping FTW). I even wrote a K/S fic once :) and enjoyed a great many well written ones (back in the days when I read a lot of fic for the X fandom). There were some fics I liked a great deal less, but that's because I don't think it's a pairing you can write well by dismissing Seishriou and Fuuma (and Kotori)'s importance to Subaru and Kamui. These people will always be more important to them than each others. But they do have a sweet and very interesting relationship in canon, and there's a great deal of interesting things you can do with that.
To be honest, back in the days, it's one of the rare pairing war I got involved in the slightest bit, and I regret that fact. I hadn't realised at the time the kind of self righteous patronising that went with it :-(

What is your opinion on Chobits?
I read it quite a few years ago and was very much uninmpressed. To this day probably my least favourite CLAMP. I love the fetishist clothing that Freya's got and there were two minor characters whose name and roles I forgot which I was fond of. Otherwise I disliked it a great deal. It was a bit of a creepy manga.

If you've read Tsubasa, what are you expecting out Subaru and Seishirou?
Every little bits make me happy, but I would dearly hope for some sort of conclusion of the hints we were given so far (that seems unlikely at this point, but still :() At the same time, I don't really care that much. To me, the real Subaru and Seishirou, the ones I care about, are in X and Tokyo Babylon.

Why Sansa/Sandor? Hey, that doesn't mean you have to rationalize it, but if you thought of something, well...
It's a kink? Hell, I don't know, I love Sansa and I love Sandor, and I love their interraction, it's got chemistry. It's the classic Beauty & the Beast pairing, innocent girl with tough guy. It's very, very archetypal and it's been done many, many times badly, but GRRM actually knows how to do these things without being problematic, by being more realistic and more aware of the potential squickiness; so it's refreshing.
I always love that kind of pairing when it's well done, really ^_^

THOUGHTS ON TSUBASA!
I don't take Tsubasa seriously. I see it as crackful intercontinuity multicrossover clamp fanfic, ya know? And I like it because I'm a CLAMP fangirl, and I get the references and it's always nice to see the characters I loved in another manga being explored in another way. I also love Kurogane and Fye, and I love their slahsy relationship. Also I adore Yuuko. (And I love XXXHolic much more than I do TRC)
I admit I don't like Syaoran and Sakura much, or care about their own drama. Especially Syaoran, because I really adore CCS!Syaoran, but not so much in TRC; while I find that Sakura still manages to bring out some good stuff in TRC (when she's not in a coma) and I wasn't that crazy about her in CCS.
Another way I like TRC is the "So, that's how Sidereals fight using fate magic", but only Exalted players will get that ^_^ (my head, it is hurting!)

(no subject)

So, I've been wondering for a few weeks now, how much I hate Bakker's answer to this interview (led by Pat of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, Larry of Blog of the Fallen and Adam of the Wertzone; three SFF review blogs I follow). And each time I go back to it, I see, that, yes, it is that bad, and even worse.

- Are you baffled by the fact that, though you have pleaded your case several times, some readers continue to interpret your writing style as misogynic?

‘Disappointed’ would probably be a better word than ‘baffled.’ It’s human nature to mistake depiction for endorsement, I think. And I actually think the criticisms of more sophisticated readers, that negative depictions reinforce negative stereotypes, have a valid point to make–one that I would take quite seriously were I writing after-school specials. You know, stories about an Elfen child having difficulty growing up in a Dwarven home.

On the one hand I understand that many readers require overt ideological fidelity to enjoy books–why else would there be religious bookstores? People find agreement agreeable–full stop. On the other hand censoriousness is simply a fact of human nature, no matter where a person falls on the political spectrum. Since we all implicitly understand the power of representations, we often fear them as well. And of course, we all naturalize our values. So you have well-meaning fools like those behind the hate-speech legislation here in Canada, who have no real sense of just how prosperity-dependent democracy is, and so design legal tools to illegalize the public expression of bigotry, all under the daft assumption that those tools will always be used the ways they want them to be used.

I mean the question isn't asked in the most intelligent way in the first place, of course, but there's just no excuse for Bakker's patronizing superiority in his answer. It's simply disgusting to see him dismiss any critical reading of his text along sexism as well-meaning idiocy, that even what he calls the "most sophisticated" readers get called daft and dismissed as wanting afterschool special. It's insulting to all his readers.

And, you know, I love those books. I read them twice, now, and I find them fascinating and intriguing, very well plotted and with some deep explorations of power dynamics in relationships, the impact of philosophies on societies, and some great characterisation.

I love those books, but when I read this answer I wonder if I want to buy the next one. Sometimes writers should really learn to STFU if they don't know how to stay classy. :(

See previous entries on the sexism in Prince of Nothing here; and my overall review of the series here.