Reservoirs (Day 4)

[rosie_rues]

is up at dogdaysofsummer here



A bit of a change of mood for this one. Sirius is finally up and functioning, and I wanted to ease off on the oppressive mood a little, partly to relieve my readers and partly to give Sirius' little bombshell at the end more oomph. So a proper bit of banter this time, with Remus being the one who can't cope with mornings (the Latin I got off I stupid website, which claims it means something along the lines of You can go and shit on yourself, bastard/cocksucker. Classicists will probably quibble). My favourite little thing about this is that Sirius is completely unselfconscious about his nudity until Lily walks in, when he gets embarrassed.

Ah, yes, let's talk about Lily. A lot of people have commented on the way I'm writing Lily, and how it's unusual to see a tough Lily. The thing is, though, Lily Evans is awesome. She's canonically awesome. This is a woman who dies fighting to save her son's life. She loves that son fiercely enough for her love to protect him for years. She personally defies Voldemort three times and survives. She stands up against the Marauders' bullying, and can see the good in Severus Snape for long enough that she stays loyal friends with him for years after he starts going wrong. Yet she takes no shit, from James or Severus. She takes immense joy in the use of her magic. She's a little Muggle girl from a Northern industrial town who goes into a school full of wealthy, blood-obsessed wizards and not only holds her own, but comes out as a popular Head Girl. She's invited to join the Slug Club, despite being a Muggleborn with no illustrious relatives. She's brilliant at Potions. We see enough of her to guess there's a few rough edges there, even through Snape and Harry's biased points of view, but she blazes off the page every time I read those tiny glimpses of her.

I really wish I saw that Lily Evans, the Gryffindor one, more often in fandom.

Comments

[lyras.livejournal.com]

A lot of people have commented on the way I'm writing Lily, and how it's unusual to see a tough Lily.

That's interesting, because you write Lily exactly as I picture her. She is awesome.

I am enjoying your commentaries, so thanks for posting them. I'm also really impressed with the way you seem to be so aware of what you're trying to do with each instalment. My own approach is usually to scribble down a terrible first draft, reread, edit about fifteen times and at some point think, "Oh, so that's what I was trying to do." :)

[rosemaryandrue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, somebody left a comment about how nice it was to see a Lily with a personality and it saddened me. Lily rocks.

*chuckles* Sometimes I don't work out what I was up to until I think it through for the commentary. I do feel very underprepared with this kind of writing - in my original stuff everything is plotted out in advance. My walls are covered with notes and plans and maps and family trees and photo references. Writing blind like this is something I only do for these seasonal communities and probably one of the reasons I find them so refreshing.

[navigate-by.livejournal.com]

ohhh these commentaries are so interesting! that's a lovely reading of lily, and one i also wish i saw more. from what i've seen of her in fandom, there is a lot of painting her as strong and capable, but i rarely see her having her own fight scenes, or saving the day. she totally would though. just wanted to let you know again how much i enjoy your take on her!

hope you don't mind me randomly dropping by your journal :)

[rosemaryandrue.livejournal.com]

I often see her as being clever, but she always seems to be relegated to supporting roles - you're more likely to see her as a healer than an auror, for example.

Drop by anytime :)

[melandry.livejournal.com]

*Perks up at the mention of classicists*

There's a bit of grammar issue (tu ipse is the wrong case - should be te ipsum) and of course irrumator is one of my favorite words because it doesn't actually mean cocksucker but rather the opposite, and I love that Latin has a single word for "guy whose cock gets sucked" but also am always frustrated that in English there's basically no way to convey the idea without some element of passivity (gets sucked) because to the Romans that's the active, penetrative role.

Sorry, I see irrumator and its variants (there's a verb!) and you can't shut me up.

[rosemaryandrue.livejournal.com]

*grins* I knew someone on my flist would know. And, ouch, that shows how rusty my Latin grammar has become. I really should do something about that, er, one of these days, sometime soon...

*cackles* An awesome verb ^_^

[melandry.livejournal.com]

There's a Catullus poem that starts "pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo vos" ("I will fuck your asses and I will fuck your mouths" might be a good translation) and not only is it so violently sexual I feel dirty just reading it, it all goes to prove that Catullus is a manly man, because when he has sex with other men, they're the ones on their knees.

Other paradigms of sexual identity are so interesting, even when they're still basically awful.

[penhaligonblue.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem! As every foul-minded Latin student knows, cocksucker is "fellator" - so what would "irrumator" be? There must be something in English... to UrbanDictionary!

[sambethe.livejournal.com]

I really wish I saw that Lily Evans, the Gryffindor one, more often in fandom.

Certain people get this, which is why I love them. I can put up with a lot of weird fandom things, but a limp Lily is the thing that will most often have me hitting the back button.

[rosemaryandrue.livejournal.com]

It's one of my pet annoyances, too, obviously. It just seems very sad. The world is still lacking in awesome female characters. It seems a shame that people need to minimise them when they could just enjoy writing them. (I tend to have the opposite problem with my original writing - my male characters are more likely to be limp and amenable).

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Ah, it is a fine thing to see an energetic discussion of Latin sexual vocabulary. I've had the Catullus poem melandry talks about running through my head all day. Er, thanks?!

I'm so glad you're writing these five again! Your Lily is indeed awesome. Hope you're having as much fun writing as we all are reading.

[rosemaryandrue.livejournal.com]

*cackles* Isn't it great? *hearts fandom*

I'm having great fun, though I am spending at least two hours a day with my brain in 1976, which is a little disconcerting at times.