Snowflake Challenge 2017 - Day Two

[teddy_radiator]

Media affects all of us in different ways. It can inspire, enrage, and engage us. In fandom we take that to the next level and engage back, transforming and twisting media to our delight. It is core to who we are. So what kind of media inspired and engaged you?

Day 2

In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Being the greedy so-and-so that I am, I have decided to list one of each. It's really better this way. You should see how long it takes me to pick out a tomato at the supermarket.

Book: The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, by JR Ward. I had already written my first novel, and knew that I could do better. I had been given the entire series on my kindle as a gift, and it had grown dusty and cobwebby as I ignored it and read other things. Then one day I felt an overwhelming compulsion to start reading the first book. When that happens, I know I am being what I call 'Muse-driven'. That is to say, my Muse is nudging me toward doing something.

I started reading them, and devoured them. What compelled me was the edgy, sometimes manic POV of the characters. Very deep, very visceral. I was so inspired, and I knew this was the style of POV I had needed for my novel but just didn't know it. Later, I read her Guide to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, in which she talked about writing the books themselves. Some of the exercises she used and the publishing advice she gave proved invaluable.

Song: The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot. I suppose this sounds like a strange choice, but it is the first song I remember that haunted me in a way that few have since. It is based on a true story of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. Gordon Lightfoot was so affected by the story he wrote a true, bard-like ballad about it.

There is a plaintive tone to the melody - a real madrigal chordal progression that gives it the feel of a very old song. You can almost picture something like this being sung in Elizabeth's court. Lightfoot also sings it in a straight-forward, matter-of-fact way, no sentimentality, which makes it even more poignant.

The opening lines just give you that chilling feel of a ghost story, told by a master storyteller:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy...

Then later on, when all is lost, and they know they are lost, it is painful to contemplate:

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Sayin', "Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya,"
At seven pm a main hatchway caved in,
He said, "Fellas, it's been good t'know ya,"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril;
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...

Finally, he asks his listeners a question that sends chills down my spine:

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters...

It brings me to tears every time I hear it. It showed me that music can take a intriguing story and make it a great one.

Movie: The Way We Were, starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Again, another strange choice, but hear me out. I was really young when I first saw this story – my mother wanted to go and dragged me along. And I liked the stars so I wanted to go. By now, everyone knows the story, the wonderful theme song by Marvin Hamlisch, the politics of it.

he often unlikely joint lives of Katie Morosky and Hubbell Gardiner (Redford was the original Golden Boy before Brad Pitt was even a twinkle in his dad’s eye) from the late 1930s to the late 1950s is presented, over which time, they are, in no particular order, strangers, acquaintances, friends, best friends, lovers and adversaries. Their differences are immense: she is a stridently vocal Marxist Jew with strong anti-war opinions, and he is a carefree WASP with no particular political bent.

Hubbell fascinates Katie, because he is the perfect example of the privileged goy. He also is an outstanding writer of short stories, which makes her jealous because they are in the same class and he is better at it. One of his stories begins, "Like his country, things had come too easily to him." This becomes one of the themes of the film.

It was also the first film I’d ever seen which simulated sex (although it’s rather tame by today’s standards). The film got rather panned for being too weak to carry the dual plot of the love story and the political headbutting, but it has stayed with me since I was eleven years old, so that must stand for something.

Spoiler Alert: After all the blazing passion and angst, and even having a child together, Katie and Hubbell realise that they are ultimately toxic for one another, and part company. The ending bookends the beginning, and they meet up one last time, and are genuinely happy to see one another and to discover they are content apart in a way they could never have been together.

That’s a very intense realisation for a young girl who was brought up on ‘and they lived happily ever after’.

It made me realise that you didn’t have to live together to have your HEA, but I still can hardly bear to have my protagonists argue or split up, even though I might understand why they need to. I suppose you could say this movie taught me I could live with an ending like this, I didn’t necessarily have to like it.

TV Show: Star Trek, TOS. I was a first generation Trekkie. I started watching it when I was four (when it first aired in 1966), and I adored it. I was a true Spock hound. I thought he was marvelous. My imagination bloomed during that time, and I became one of the best players of Let’s Pretend you’ll ever know, thanks to Star Trek. To this day, my friend Angela will say, “Remember when we used to ‘play’ Star Trek?”

Of course I do. I still play it. Leonard Nimoy was my first dark-haird, dark-eyed man.

Fanwork: Hands down, the fanwork that affected me more than any other was For The Potions Master’s Amusement, by Snape_submiss. A friend told me about it, and one day out of boredom I looked it up. It changed my life more than anything on this long list.

And one of my proudest moments was meeting the author, and telling them that FTPMA literally changed my life. I would not be typing this entry if I hadn’t read FTPMA. There is a lot more I could say about it, but I won’t right now. But out of all the things I have read or heard or seen, this one story is the ultimate game changer.

Without it, there would be no Teddy Radiator.


This entry was originally posted at http://teddyradiator.dreamwidth.org/421313.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Comments

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

I read her Guide to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, in which she talked about writing the books themselves. Some of the exercises she used and the publishing advice she gave proved invaluable.
Intriguing! I love reading writers on the process of writing. This is now on my list of things to check out!

Oh, Gordon Lightfoot! I don't know if you're familiar with Stephen Colbert's love of the man, but... there's THIS. The Gordon Lightfoot bit picks up after the four minute mark.

[mywitch.livejournal.com]

No wonder I love you! We have a lot in common. I was a super Trekkie, although I split my love equally between Kirk and Spock. GordonLightfoot is majestic. That song! Gah! So haunting.

[stgulik.livejournal.com]

What an inspirational list. Of course you couldn't grow up near Michigan without constantly hearing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" on the radio. I would always stop what I was doing, even as a child, and listen to that haunting story.