romance

Took a short break from a beta and am currently in tears over...I can't believe I'm actually typing this out, but here we go...a Pride and Prejudice vid. No, I'm not kidding. (Keira Knightley version) And I'm wiping my nose and shaking my fist at the screen and saying things like, "God, Darcy, you love her." There's this entire hand holding sequence? Where he's handing her up into the coach? And they slow down the action. And I'm drooling. And the other one? Has him walking away from that moment and flex his hand. My God.

And seriously, that's just--well, come to think, it's very me. I have this horrible suspicion I'll be pulling out the ultra romantic, ultra OOC Queer As Folk fic I still have saved on my hard-drive--and I gotta tell you, no slash fandom did extreme OOC romance like QaF; there was no shame. It was saccharine-rich, sugary-castle goodness all the way through. You came out of it diabetic and craving deathfic like there was no tomorrow? But while it lasted--whoo and hoo, the rush.

I have my A&E P&P DVDs somewhere here. I may need a course of watching the pining. Darcy was the best piner ever.

You know. I'm far more comfortable talking about fic that broke my heart or creeped me out or made me hate a character enough to feed them a metaphorical lemon or the character-equivalent thereof? I'm so much less comfortable with straight romance. I don't even feel perfectly comfortable writing it unless there's a traumatic background or something twisty inside. Why *is* that? I don't actually hold to the entire darkfic has a higher value or deathfic is more meaningful or blah blah blah, must be serious and say something about the human condition--I have been known to run many miles if someone threatens me with a story with some sort of obscure lesson in it. I read freaking Georgette Heyer and Amanda Quick when I need a fix. There are times I dno't even care if it's perfectly IC. I just need my fix, and if I can't get Godiva, I'll take Dove, and if I can't get Dove, there are M&Ms somewhere in some backpack somewhere. Hmm. Pretend I didn't say that last bit.

Okay. Getting back to beta. I think on my next break, I'll get the last brownie and start going through my folders. I have to have something appropriate for this particular craving.

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

M&M's in the bottom of some backpack somewhere, buried under pen caps and old bus schedules. :)

(and I used to love Amanda Quick, especially...thingy. The girl was, like, a paleontologist and the guy was some scarred nobleman? And there was a cave? *g*)

[mahaliem.livejournal.com]

Isn't that Ravished?

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's the one!

Hmm...I wonder if my old copy is still in a box in the attic somewhere? *g*

[dawnie-faith.livejournal.com]

Do you have a link for the vid? You've made it sound too good to ignore! :)

[grand-sophy.livejournal.com]

I second that.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Ooh, me too!

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

There was no shame in QaF fandom, but there were a lot of meticulously written vacation trips to Europe :D

[seperis.livejournal.com]

They spent an inordinant amount of time grand touring, didn't they? And always Italy at least *once*.

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

Dude! don't apologise for Pride & Prejudice! Jane Austen is the Original. I got the spouse to watch the A&E movie version, after *much* arm-twisting over having to watch "girly" stuff, and he was shocked that he liked it. and then, with very little additional pressure, I got him to read the book--and he *loved* it: the snark! the razor-sharp sacastic wit! the clever put-downs! the characters! I don't know that he'll ever admit to his friends that he now likes Jane Austen, but I did catch him sniffing around my bookcase....

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

OMG the hand flexing is SO HOT in that.

SO FUCKING HOT.

That is all.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

YES! FLEXING HAND OF LOVE!

[girlnamedpixley.livejournal.com]

Okay, for me? Sniffly, over-the-top romance gets no better than Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility. The line that does me in every time and makes my heart go all gooey and sobby: "Give me an occupation, Miss Dashwood, or I shall run mad."

Gah! He loved Marianne SO MUCH! And he FOUND HER IN THE RAIN AND CARRIED HER! And she was DYING! *sniff* And it was the MOST TRAGICALLY ROMANTIC THING EVER! That hits every single sappy, chocolate-craving, tissue dabbing, romantic wallowing girl button I have.

Damn it. I totally have to go watch S&S now.

(Out of curiosity, what's your favorite AQ book? Mine's Ravished.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

oh my dear God. Yes. With the raining andd the running and teh carrying and OMG THE LOVE.

*breathes* OH yes yes yes.

[eleveninches.livejournal.com]

Worse than writing romance is writing situational romance, where you have to make two random characters fall in love with each other even though you know it would never happen in canon.

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

and I gotta tell you, no slash fandom did extreme OOC romance like QaF; there was no shame.

God, that is so true - and it's STILL TRUE. People are STILL writing it. And I love it/hate it :D

[akacat]

Is it comfort? Or just that there's so much less to say about non-twisty non-tragic romance? Regardless of the specific pronouns, it's boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. It's what you read when you want something safe and predictable--but there's not really anything to analyze or discuss.

[soho-iced.livejournal.com]

I watched it with both my Austen-fancying parents supplying critical commentary, largely because I loved Matthew Macfadyen in Spooks. We all agreed that the tension between Darcy and Elizabeth was the best thing the film added: people enjoy the witty dialogue and period detail in Austen so much they can be in danger of letting it obscure the 'ardently in love' bit.

(I resisted watching the film: I didn't even want to watch the BBC series where everyone drooled over Colin Firth as Darcy, because I grew up with adaptation before that, where Darcy wore a top hat most of the time.)

So I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I thought MM did a powerful but deceptively low-key characterisation: it was all in the details - looks, tone of voice and of course the hand-flex moment.

[mahaliem.livejournal.com]

The hand flex! It makes my heart flutter when Darcy does that.

[justabi.livejournal.com]

Darcy!!! *swoons* The hand touch! *flail*