::sighs::

[lls_mutant]

There really should be buttons on molecular modelling applications that say "WARNING: PUSHING THIS WILL MEAN A LOT OF COMPUTER TIME!" What's really annoying is I didn't even really know what it was for. (Sometimes being a scientist is fun. Don't know what a button does? Push it and see!)

Hmmm. I remembered one of the things I wanted to say on my last post. I was looking arounnd buttfacemakani's website of her art. (I've recced this before- if you haven't seen it, go see it, because it's really good and her humor is just... yeah.) She doesn't seem to be a shipper of any sort. Look at one of her drawings of Tonks. Pretty cool, huh? Now look at one of Lupin. Really good.

But my head still can't get around the fact that they've been Intended for Each Other by canon. They just don't fit.

(I really like her Sirius, though. Just wish she drew him more often!)

And a favor: can anyone come up with the name of a school of magic set in the Deep South in America? PLEASE? I'm so bad at this part. Thank you.

And why oh why is this little oneshot lurking in my head when I have other oneshots to write? It's not even a proper one-shot. But it's so, so tempting, if I could do it....

Comments

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

School of magic set in the Deep South would probably be named after some famous American wizard, I would think. Somebody with a vaguely French (or Creole) sounding name? Maybe look at a map of street names in New Orleans or something and adapt one from there.

(I have a very weird hang-up about names, and I spend hours choosing them, so I have many, many bizarre and bewildering methods for coming up with names. Maps are just the beginning. :) )

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. That's a thought. actually, as I think about Voodoo, that's a really good thought. I was sort of heading over to Roanoke Island (just because I've always liked the name, given that my maiden name was Roan), but Voodoo tribute might be much, much better.

Thanks!

[poolman.livejournal.com]

Okay, I give. I can't pick it up via context... what the heck does "shipping" mean? I've read a few of your posts now and you use the word (or some variation) over and over again, but I'm just not quite getting it. Worshipping?

[poisontaster]

Relationshipping. You support a specific relationship in the given fandom. Sometimes really vocally.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Yup. What poisontaster said, but in more detail :)

It's a fandom/fanfic term where, as she said, you... well, not support, but are into a certain relationship in fandom. In Harry Potter fandom it tends to be support, because Harry Potter is a work in progress and there's arguments about where romantic attachments are going to form. (Be very, very scared of arguments if Harry is going to get together with Ginny or Hermione.)

Not all ships (short for relationship) are meant to be canon. If you get into fanfic, one of the biggest relationships that people write is Harry/Draco. (Please don't ask me why. I don't know. But if you do ask, someone else please answer?) But I would say almost everyone who likes writing stories about Harry and Draco knows that it's never, ever gonna happen in the books. Same with probably about 80% of the ships (Harry/Snape, Hermione/Remus, Uncle Vernon/the Giant Squid...)

I think there's a defining line, too, between liking a ship and being a shipper. For example, I like Harry with Ginny, Hermione and Ron, Bill and Fleur, Charlie Weasley with Tonks (who she would have been MUCH smarter to go for, if, y'know, she'd ever met him on the page), etc. But I don't really enter any arguments about them or write any stories about those pairings or anything. I just like the idea. So I wouldn't really call myself a shipper there. (Although other people might.) But I DO write stories for Sirius/Remus, so I'm definitely a shipper there. (The nauseating term for it is puppyshipping, but I flat out refuse to use it.) Then the names tend to get boiled down to initials, so the ships above would be H/G, R/Hr, B/F, CW/NT (because Charlie is too minor a character to be identified by first initial alone- in fact, it's more likely to be written out Charlie/Tonks) and R/S. I think (but am not sure) the convention is:

1.) male name first.
2.) if it's a slash (same-sex relationship) the more major character goes first
3.) if it's slash and the two characters have the same importance, go alphabetically.

But I might just be making that up.

THEN (are you scared yet?) certain forums have assigned "names" to their ships. (Usually beginning with the H.M.S.) Harry/Hermione, for example, is either called Pumpkin Pie (I'm not sure why) or Harmony. Remus/Sirius (because it's the only one I ever use the name for) is called Wolfstar on the one forum I frequent (FAP, or Fiction Alley Park- one of the better archives for fanfic). I forget what it's called on the Mugglenet forums, because I rarely go over there. However, I pretty much never call a ship by its forum name in this journal, except maybe Wolfstar.

It's all very complicated in a very silly way, really. I forget how active you are in any given fandom (or you might not even confess to it... ;) ), but it's kind of scary at times in the Harry Potter fandom.

After Half-Blood Prince came out, there were two major "ship wars". There were a lot of people (most of whom do not read this journal, as far as I know!) that were VERY upset that Harry got together with Ginny and not Hermione, and took it to extremes. If you go to some of the big forums, you can see some examples of very juvenile behavior and name calling and all that. There's people threatening to return their books, and someone was rewriting Half-Blood Prince to make the main relationship be Harry/Hermione. I sometimes refer to that ship war because it's such a big one it's hard to avoid knowing about if you're in the fandom. The other one that happened is the debate over the Sirius/Remus ship, and if the fact Remus hooked up with a girl in the books makes that relationship still possible. That one gets messy because then you start getting into discussions about homosexuality in literature, and authorial intent, and all sorts of other issues. (It also can get really ugly when people start insulting each other, because some of the insults being tossed around- from both sides- are truly nasty.) But those are the two ship sets I seem to refer to, I think.

Fandom can be a scary, scary culture, really.

[pfrsue.livejournal.com]

Are you sorry you asked, Pooly? ;)

[poolman.livejournal.com]

No, not sorry at all. I really wanted to know what it meant, considering how much Lissa tosses it around.

I've toyed with writing some Star Wars fic myself, but never got it off the ground. What I would REALLY aspire to is rewriting the prequels. DarthMadler and I have come up with about a hundred ways to make the story make more sense than it currently does. Which is really odd to me, considering I have a serious thing for obeying canon. I guess only the original trilogy (and maybe RotS) counts as canon to me now. Ah well.

My level of fan interest in Harry Potter is: literary fan who likes a good debate. I've had extensive conversations with my wife about points of all the books, and really enjoy having them. But I've never felt any urge to write HP stuff.

And who knew Sue was on LiveJournal? I'm gonna go Friend you like, right now, hooray!

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Hehe. I can understand that with the prequels. I was so disappointed in them- even in parts of RotS. There's just stuff that doesn't make sense, like... what happened when Vadar found out that the Emperor LIED to him? (Kind of like a romantic comedy in a twisted sort of way.) I mean, he definitely found out- Luke was waltzing around. It's very bizarre.

I'm actually kind of with you on the prequel aspect, which is funny. I very, very rarely write anything set in the present of HP, and definitely not with Harry. I think I've written one piece with Harry in it, and he was a minor character. Most of the stuff I write is about Harry's parents' generation. Much more freedom, because like you, I try to obey canon. But there's nothing in canon to discount some of my pet characters, because there's only a line about a lot of them. I so cheat.

(Although the piece I wrote that IS set during Order of the Phoenix was NEVER intended to be taken as any sort of adherence to canon. If JK Rowling ever saw Accio Bananas!, she'd probably hunt me down and shoot me or something.)

And Sue- toldja he didn't know ;)

[poolman.livejournal.com]

What, that Sue was on LJ? If I had ever thought to check the list of people who have Friended me, I would have caught on. But no, I had no idea. Now I can hassle Sue, too! Yay!

[poisontaster]

Um. Eulalia? Beauregard? St. Anthony of Padua (Patron saint of oppressed peoples)?

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I think I'll try to avoid oppressed peoples, since the characters in the story happen to be black and it just gets messier than I want. But thanks!

[krisomniac.livejournal.com]

One point for pushing the big red button!!

marie laveaux

[jazzypom.livejournal.com]

she's a famous creole voodoo witch.

Good name for a school, eh, cherie? You'd probably have to put it in french.

Re: marie laveaux

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

That's the name I was looking for. Perfect. Thank you!

check on the spelling

[jazzypom.livejournal.com]

of her surname. I don't think that it's correct.

I think sionnain would know, she's from the South. But Marie Laveaux has a house in New Orleans, and her legacy is a state attraction.

According to the rumours, she was an octaroon (1/8 black, 7/8ths white), with creamy skin and black hair. She was supposed to be enternally young.