Memorable Prose · 4:20am Oct 13th, 2020
Funny the things that stay with you. The first quote here popped into my head earlier today, when I put on a coat I hadn't worn in a while. And it got me thinking about how fanfiction, for all its humility, sometimes makes a lasting impact. That can be a story twist, a characterisation, a witty barb of dialogue... but sometimes it's just a little bit of prose. And it worms its way in, and sticks with you for years and years, because there's just something about the phrasing that's a tiny bit magical.
...A bat-winged angel, falling, always falling... but never, quite, completely fallen...
-Beats a Cruel December, by Brighid.
West of Canterlot, beyond the Galloping mountains, beyond vast rolling plains filled with waving grass, beyond a desert painted with the pastel colors of a faded rainbow, beyond the last town and the last road and the last tree, the world comes to an end.
-Lost Cities, by Cold in Gardez.
Everone shook there cheer at the pony and she went bow in "thankyou".
-MLP The fate Crash, by 00mariofan4eva00.
The violet dress had been so pretty, once, just like her. At least she'd survived that night, the last time she'd worn it, while the same could hardly be said for the tortured fabric. It was a sorry sight now, torn in places, stained in others, and wrinkled everywhere from being crumpled and wadded in the corner for nearly a week. At least her own scars from the ordeal were internal.
-Adagio, by NaiadSagaIotaOar.
Suddenly, the rope pulled tight and Chrysalis and Trixie were nose to nose. Chrysalis felt a warmness bubble up inside her. Their eyes lidded; their mouths parted. Their tongues touched. They were in lesbians.
-Chrysalicksy, by PresentPerfect.
A leader, Cheval had been taught, never gives a command they know will not be obeyed.
-The Last Changeling, by GaPJaxie.
And the Shadow fell upon the land, and the world was riven stone from stone. The oceans fled, and the mountains were swallowed up, and the nations were scattered to the eight corners of the World. The moon was as blood, and the sun was as ashes. The seas boiled, and the living envied the dead. All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon.
-Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World
This last one is not fanfiction, it just seemed a good note to end on. Maybe sometime there'll be a sequel blog, focused on dialogue.
Ah, yes, a true triumph of literature.
5376856 It so is. The whole story is one of setting up silly expectations and then subverting them for something even sillier.
If I may offer a few of my own:
—Unbalanced Scales, by Bugsydor
—Mendacity, by Dromichosuchus
—The Silver Standard, by PatchworkPoltergeist
—Triptych, by Estee
In between Naiad and CiG, no less.
Then I get one entry down and know you trollin'. :V
I wonder what it says about me that this is the only example I can think of off the top of my head.
-Aria Wakes Up as a Zombie, by Majin Syeekoh.
5376984 How had I forgotten Syeekoh?! The one of his I always remember is:
-Time-Out Tuesday
5376919 Thanks for sharing!
5376925 Alas, this website has a real problem with creating an arbitrary distinction between 'trolling' and 'real work.' Rarely have I been more disappointed in people I otherwise generally respect than when Jakkid was the RCL feature and at least half of hell broke loose. All that matters about a story is that you enjoyed it, and felt on some level that it was worth reading. If you enjoy Evictus more than Shakespeare, good for you. I'd much rather have studied the former's work in school than the latter. The drive of authors on this site to improve their craft is a wonderful thing, and the reason fimfiction is leaps and bounds better than all other fanfic places, but sometimes it does fuel a sneering elitism that's desperate to find someone ostensibly less talented to mock and therefore make yourself feel superior.
The most widely read and respected Harry Potter fanfic might be Methods of Rationality, but the most famous and, dare I say it, loved, is My Immortal.
This isn't fanfiction, but it stuck out to me:
From Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane. It's inconspicuous, but effective. Who hasn't felt exactly like that before?
Probably my favourite paragraph I've ever read is the penultimate paragraph of Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. But I couldn't explain why it's so good, because it depends on everything that comes before it.
5377193
I for one would rather read My Immortal than Methods of Rationality. :B
This is not prose.
This is like a painting. A picture. Suspended perfectly in that neverland that all artists seek to enter. Truly Shakespearean.
5377405 It's poetry. I can't think of another sentence that's got stuck in my head like that one.
5377296
Are they really all that different?
5396810 If you already have a deep understanding of every single concept discussed in HPMOR, then I can see how they'd be equally pointless. If you don't already have that (and you almost certainly don't, like most others), then one of those stories is good for some laughs at poor grammar while the other can genuinely be described as life-improving.
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I guess for me the parts of HPMOR that became the most memorable in their own ways were some lengthily gruelingly grinding parts in the very long middle, and the very very tippy-top end with the misused unicorn horn and one Charlie's Angel. I might be inadequately appreciating some other bits.
To be fair, there definitely are some other bits, such as the part where Harry and Draco meet each other for the first time.
To be fair in the other direction, I feel that HPMOR is a bit of a cult induction document, whatever you might think it is. Not the worst cult, true! Some cults have a lot of good in them! But a lot of religions and cults have more than a little good in them, and substantial amounts of truth along with some probably-not-truth. Doesn't mean they can't give me the creeped out heebie-jeebies (even for reasons.)
On the third hoof, HPMOR went through enough revisions that there's no guarantee that certain parts I read were the same as certain parts that you read. And I am not willing to reread those parts (yet) again to see if they've rechanged some more.
On the fourth hoof, I did read the whole danged thing once, and some parts more than once as necessary to follow a document that was under revision, and I read some now-censored critiques of it, so I certainly have a right to speak from my own experiences.
5396816
I guess for me one of the relevant questions is, did the author of HPMOR "already have a deep [and fully correct] understanding of every single concept discussed in HPMOR?" I think the correct answer is, not entirely.
But my disinclination to idolize such things makes me a being obviously wrong to nearly everyone.
On the other hand, my positive appreciation of people and their works is often sincere and considered!