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[snowystingray]

From dollsome

01. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
02. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Or not so creepy/personal.
03. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
04. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the post.
05. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

1. What do you think Gertrude (of Hamlet's Mama fame) was really up to?
I think she was probably a little flirty with Claudius while still married to Hamlet Sr., but I don't think she thought it would lead to her husband's death. Once it all went down, though, she rolled with the situation and willingly took advantage of the opportunity to marry Claudius. Even though they both kind of know that the other one knows that they know (you know?), she and Claudius have a don't ask, don't tell policy about her first husband's sudden demise -- she pretends not to be suspicious, and he pretends that there is nothing to be suspicious about.

2. What's your favourite Buffy the Vampire Slayer ship?
I started in on the show at the very impressionable age of nine, so Buffy and Angel were like the huge epic beautiful angst of my prepubescent romantic fantasies. For the first three seasons, then, I would have to say Buffy/Angel. When I went back and caught up with the rest of the show later... hmm... I flirted with the idea of Spike/Buffy during the second season, but I was actually disappointed with how it ended up playing out (which is why I have been extremely relieved so far to see Guy/Marian avoid the same fate of great build up but meh execution). Overall I was very satisfied that the series ended with Buffy/nobody. Aaand now of course I realize that you're asking about any ships on the show, not just ones that involve Buffy herself. *headdesk* Well, again, my feelings just changed so much over the years -- I'll admit to being a big Willow/Xander fan way back in the day, which seems extremely silly by the end of the show. My favorite crack ship is Spike/Xander, haha, thanks to bananajai.

3. Are you left-handed or right-handed?
Right. It's a bit disappointing, because I've always loved lefties and get some serious fangirl joy any time I discover one of my fandom loves is left-handed. Ultimately, though, I guess it's a blessing -- I already have the messiest handwriting ever, and if I was left-handed it would be flat out impossible to read.

4. Charlotte Bronte or Emily Bronte?
So hard! Ah! Well, the hard part is that it isn't actually hard at all -- Charlotte Bronte, far and away, times a million, always and forever. I feel bad pushing Emily to the side so quickly, though, because Wuthering Heights is on my top ten of best books ever written; but then Jane Eyre is at the very very topmost spot of that list, so I have to give this one to Charlotte. I can say without any hint of silliness or exaggeration that Jane Eyre is the book that changed my life. Like Buffy, it came a very impressionable period of my life (this time, the summer before I started middle school). It was the first real "grown up" book I ever read, and I think since then I've subconsciously used it as the standard to which I compare every other book. I've reread the book so many times over the years that I think of Jane as one of my closest friends, somebody I've grown up with, somebody whose views of the world and hopes for the future and ideas about life have so closely meshed with my own.

Surprisingly enough, almost six years years passed before I could bring myself to read anything else by Charlotte Bronte. I guess I was just afraid that I had already set such an impossibly high standard for her work that nothing else could ever match... Well, I ended up reading Villette, and, much to my relief, it didn't suck. It was good! Great, even! Although it's less distinguished than Jane Eyre in the plot area, I think it's such a striking emotional study of Lucy, something that really resonated with me. Then this past Christmas I read Shirley, which to me was like a Jane Austen novel given a couple doses of awesome. It needs similar BBC mini series treatment -- what a tragedy to read on Wikipedia that the book "has only been filmed once to date, in 1922." Actually, when I finally watched "North and South" earlier this semester, it reminded me very much of Shirley, and wow I must be the only person who didn't know that Elizabeth Gaskell was Charlotte Bronte's friend and biographer! So now the similarities make a bit more sense, haha. But anyway -- I'm starting a campaign for a Shirley adaptation with Richard Armitage. Who's with me?

5. You have to write a romance novel! What's the title of it? Brief plot synopsis?
Well, it's a very steamy, very conflicted, very forbidden romance between these two characters... let's call them Sir Pie of Pisborne and Lady Darian.

Okay, just kidding.

Well, I used to have a roommate who lived for corny paperback romances, so using some of the principles I learned whilst giggling over the book covers/titles/plots when she was out of the room: it's called Hearts on Parade. Sheltering herself from a mysteriously tragic past, Eloise Draper is driven and career minded. Not even Darren, the dashing new intern at her office, can distract her from work -- that is, until her friends talk her into joining them on a trip to New Orleans over Mardi Gras. Caught up in the sensuous swirl of the celebration, Eloise finds herself drawn to a costumed stranger who seems to understand her as no one has before. Things start to get complicated when Darren joins the party with a not-so-secret agenda of his own, and the masked stranger might not be such a stranger after all...

Comments

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

Ha!! I very much enjoy your Gertrude interpretation, especially the "don't ask don't tell" policy. I think that just might be inevitable. I personally sort of adore the idea that she and Claudius were in love all along -- King Hamlet was just too honorable, and seriously, where's the fun in that? -- and Hamlet was actually Claudius's son. OH, MAN, THE ZANY FUN OF THAT, RIGHT? Right.

And oh, now I feel sort of bad about the fact that I hated Wuthering Heights more than anything and that I haven't actually read Jane Eyre since like eighth grade and therefore have next to no memory of it whatsoever!! I feel compelled to redeem myself. At least Jane Eyre-wise. I'm pretty sure that Wuthering Heights and I are just doomed to be enemies forevermore.

And bwah!! That romance novel is AWESOME. Oh, the ellipses are so tantalizing! I now want nothing more than to pay five bucks for this sure-to-be-epic read so I can satiate my curiosity!

(Sir Pie of Pisborne/Lady Darian OTP 4lyf!!!1)

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

I personally sort of adore the idea that she and Claudius were in love all along -- King Hamlet was just too honorable, and seriously, where's the fun in that? -- and Hamlet was actually Claudius's son. OH, MAN, THE ZANY FUN OF THAT, RIGHT? Right.

SO MUCH ZANY FUN!! I just love that it is so open to interpretation, and you can have a dozen equally fun but completely different theories floating around in your head at once. I do really like your "Hamlet, I am your father!" approach, though, haha.

I love Wuthering Heights, but it is certainly a book of much anger, frustration, and stupidity. I guess that's why it'll never quite match up to Jane Eyre for me -- although Wuthering Heights is beautifully written and leaves me an emotional wreck every time I read it, I think it's so much easier to get involved with and relate to Jane Eyre (because, seriously, if you can relate at all to the characters/events of Wuthering Heights, you should probably seek professional help). I would really recommend revisiting Jane Eyre, or even checking out some of Charlotte Bronte's other novels -- I think you would probably like Shirley.

Well, who knows, maybe I'll get around to writing the whole thing some day. ;) I've always dreamed of being a soap opera writer, but I think writing trashy romance novels could be just as much fun. "Her sapphire eyes glinted dangerously as she flicked her fiery curls over her shoulder with defiance..." Oh, the endless LULZ.

[tatteredreverie.livejournal.com]

and Hamlet was actually Claudius's son.

*Brain explodes*

OMG, YES, YES!