InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "It was love to me."

dementordelta (dementordelta) wrote,
@ 2009-04-17 20:03:00

The Week Thus Far!
Fannish News: Snarry-A-Thon has started posting over at

snape_potter and it's a blast so far! I never read all the fics in any one fest, mostly because ~~I'm a big wimp~~ I like happy ending stuff, but I've enjoyed several stories in the fest so far. If you have any recs/pimps, feel free to leave them here. I reserve the right to giggle if you rec my own story to me…

Gadget News: I got a new phone! A Samsung Alias, with a qwerty keyboard! Anyone who knows how much I text will know how cool this is for me! Oh, and it has a camera and internet access and all that but a qwerty keyboard! ♥

Visiting: As is becoming a delightful habit, despite the fact that we live in different states, I spent a lovely day with

cruisedirector and her family at the amazing Delaware du Pont estates Winterthur an American antiques museum/estate and Longwood, just down the road with a conservatory that could have doubled as the Garden Of Eden!

Birthdays: Happy Birthday

shezan and

angela_snape!

(Post a new comment)

	angela_snape 2009-04-17 09:24 pm UTC (link)
	I imagine texting is much less frustrating with a qwerty keyboard... Thanks for the wishes! hugs (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dementordelta 2009-04-17 09:45 pm UTC (link)
	hugs Hope it was a great one! (you should have a chat invite hanging out there if you feel like yakking!) (Reply to this) (Parent)

slashpine
2009-04-17 10:50 pm UTC (link)

Mmm, a cool phone sounds so nice! Ah well. For me, some day... probably right after I get a TV.

Snarry-a-Thon, yes, some cool stuff I think! I'm trying to read/view and comment on all, though I must admit dark-fic is not my cup of tea. However, it lets me practice *very* short comments. :D

Recs so far... Hm, for the fics my top pick so far is unquestionably An Awkward Customer, the kind of light romance that to me, epitomizes Snarry. This means a lovely light-hearted plot, deftly written, with rich dialogue, amusing side characters, details sufficient to keep it somewhere in distant sight of canon, and a generous assortment of unforgettable scenes and lines. Like a good figure skating long routine, it dazzles with sparkling leaps of humor, eloquent twirls of phrase, smoothly strung along sweeping clear lines of plot.

There's one slightly awkward turn with a Weasley scene, several OCs so vivid their scenes are as good as entire stories, and an abundance of lines of the kind I most love: breathtakingly taut, yet bulging with meaning. Like this:

Potter smiled.

"And it had the benefit of educating me," he said. "Thanks."

"An unfortunate side effect," said Snape, but he couldn't bring himself to mean it.

Structurally this paralleled a line I equally adore from a favorite older fic: </i> Gryffindors always wanted to top, [Snape] thought, but not with any true objection.</i>

~~|O|~~

A close second so far: The Plant. This is shorter, but nearly as deftly written, with a classic clueless!Harry confiding his divorce stories and Snape!love to a curiously defensive potted plant. The main part of the story is told through dialogue and Harry-to-plant monologue, paced so well and written so amusingly, it never lags. Pepping up the many short scenes are a pregnant Hermione, a darling next-gen Lily, a forgetful long-distance plot!driver Neville, and an endearingly cute plot!relief owl.

The highlight of this story for me is the Snape-Harry reunion. Snape is utterly, adorably complex, crusty and befuddled by turns. His dialogue and gestures are written as beautifully as ever I've seen. Harry's a perfect foil with a mix of generosity and sparkling desire. This gives the story what a wine conoisseur would unhesitatingly call a "great, long finish" - full of love, warm comforts and laughter.

~~|O|~~

A stand-out for its creativity is Papa Mia, a long (nearly 16,000 words), high-spirited spoof of Mamma Mia. It works in a cute Snape daughter, pervy!ghost!Albus, Lucius, Lupin, Shacklebolt, and more side characters than anyone knows what to do with. Snape's daughter Eileen nearly steals the show, but the real star throughout is all the ABBA lyrics the worked in, including two songs that she filked with deliciously Snape-centric, singable new lyrics.

I took the time to open a youtube of each song as I identified it (there is no playlist, alas) for a musical accompaniment. What a romp! The climactic scene features a priestess trying to carry out a marriage over all the characters' confusion. In an opera this would be an octet, competing with a trio, while fending off a full chorus plus sundry special effects. The tartly efficient priestess could have been McGonagall, trying to get the Marauders and Snape to behave. And she succeeds!

There's never been enough Snarry filk, and this fic provides two that are so deliciously singable - especially when they go with ABBA songs. I'm hoping we might remember to test them out at Azkatraz!

~~|O|~~

Finally, I smiled all through Felinated, another light-hearted Snape!shifting romance; this time he's a cat, exercising his claws on Harry back in Hogwarts years. There's a small but creative plot, and a sustained genial treatment of many familiar characters that for me is one of the main treats of HP fic.

Art-wise? You want art recs? It is this: ALL GOOD!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	dementordelta 2009-04-17 11:05 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, wow, thanks for all the thoughtful recs! I've read them all so far except The Plant, which I will definitely make time for! We seem to have the same taste in fic! :D (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	slashpine 2009-04-17 11:15 pm UTC (link)
	Dontcha know, I take my guide in taste from your fic? shamelessly flatters you (But ... honestly, too!) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dementordelta 2009-04-17 11:27 pm UTC (link)
	giggles Well, it was pretty cool that you recced stories that I saw and said, Mmm that sounds like something I'd like! I didn't read the plant one because it looked a little weird,but if you say it's good, I'm happy to give it a try! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

slashpine
2009-04-18 12:30 am UTC (link)

Oh, do! And then please tell me if you agree. Trying to make recs is wildly hard, I think. But I'd love to get some "calibration".

And yes, actually, my thoughts were very much the same first impression. One of BZUH. TALKING PLANT!?!? It was honestly only seeing it referred to as a "Giftiger lautsprecher" in the summary that pulled me in. Literacy is never a bad sign.

Plus, a plant that insists it's Severus Snape? Too intriguing to pass by... you never know when you're going to find another fic with the quality, kink, and creativity of "Inanimagus"!

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dementordelta 2009-04-19 08:59 pm UTC (link)
	I read The Plant last night, and you were absolutely right! It was a delightful read. I thought the end game was a little weak--I expected a bit more reaction out of Snape but otherwise just a delightful story! (Reply to this) (Parent)

slashpine
2009-04-17 11:14 pm UTC (link)

Well? Are you giggling? *eyes you hopefully*

:D

There are some pretty outstanding fics popping up in other fests, too:

hp_beholder - see two hearty recs from me are here. There's a pretty damn fine Poppy/Severus(/Minerva/Aberforth) gen, too. Short but very tight, and well-wrought with emotion (the hurt-comfort type), it has a good, mature depiction of these "background" characters, with a convincing happy ending.

springtime_gen is so far tending to be short and on the dark or sad end, but is a Cedric/Teddy post-war story (AU obviously) that I found delightfully written, with a very rich mixture of humor, wizarding-world detail, cross-generational friendship, and deeply thoughtful exploration of relationships to memories, heritage, and other species in the Wizarding World. I will definitely look for more by this writer, and I'm sold now on Cedric-lives fics.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	accioslash 2009-04-17 11:34 pm UTC (link)
	Any chance you could post this lovely list to your journal? I've been seeing wonderful, wonderful comments, but few recs. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	slashpine 2009-04-18 12:31 am UTC (link)
	Done! I am a crap recs-poster but trying to improve my flaily ways.Now if I could also get the hang of writing good recs... (Reply to this) (Parent)