Yuletide 2013 recs VIII -- Death
Resurrection, zombies, Frankenstein's monsters & more than one flavour of anthropomorphised Death... seven very different takes on death not necessarily being the end. Another couple of my favourites (*)
Calvin & Hobbes
Hello Operator, Please Give Me Number Nine, by Starlingthefool
'She's twenty-one, damn it. The world is big and she's seen only a little of it. She wants to finish her theses and graduate. She wants to travel outside the Midwest. She wants to see the weird stuff Calvin posts on Twitter this week. She wants to become an anthropologist, or a writer, or a lawyer, or a botanist/politician/social worker/cat lady. She wants to live.' Susie encounters Death in a delightful tale that deservedly Won Yuletide
Discworld
'Tis Impossible To Be Sure Of Any Thing, by Karanguni
'There was almost a sense that he'd cheated somehow; as though seeing Death around the corner during some of his assignments was some kind of unfair advantage that the gods had extended a scholarship boy.' Winds neatly around canon to a perfect ending that could easily have been written by Pratchett
Frankenstein
Letter to Mrs Salville, England, by Cefyr
'I hesitate, dear sister, to write what I know I have to; many times now have I laid down my pen, as if the very act of setting down on paper the latest course of events would somehow make them less real.' A thoughtful piece which takes an unusual look at the moral questions of the novel
Peter Pan
No Unworthy Aim, by Sinope
'No matter how restless the patient, however so much he shuddered with waking nightmares or groaned with incurable pains, Wendy could always find the directest path from their heart to the Neverland. To one lad, she told tales of knights jousting for the honor of fine ladies; to another, she recounted travelers summiting Oriental peaks to discover lost cities of silk and gold.' It's a bit of a wish-fulfilment story for Wendy/Hook shippers, perhaps, but there are some interesting insights to be gained along the way to a genuinely moving end
Romeo and Juliet
Nothing But One of Your Nine Lives, by Russian Blue
'Tybalt had died. Now he walked again, and he knew not what it meant.' When pulled off, the crack premise taken straight is among the most delicious of fanfiction flavours. This one forms an interesting lens on the Prince of Cat's character, and Russian Blue also paints a vivid picture of Verona before & during the play
Songs
The Coffin Builder, by Calvinahobbes*
'The sign was not so much a sign as a miniature coffin, lid disconcertingly ajar.' Calvinahobbes has crafted a rich & original fairy tale from the song 'My Boy Builds Coffins', with echoes of 'Bluebeard' building tension to a lovely slippery ending
Rose in June, by RecessiveJean*
'First time I ever saw her, I'd no inkling that she might become my friend. She was a grown lady, and I was just gone thirteen, and that sort of disparity in ages didn't seem what you might call conducive to friendship. But that was back when things were ordinary, before everybody gave up the habit of staying dead when they died, so the rules were different then.' A darkly comic tale, based on 'Darling Cora' & 'Down in the Willow Garden', with a wonderfully pragmatic narrator. Unusual & engaging
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer
Calvin & Hobbes
Hello Operator, Please Give Me Number Nine, by Starlingthefool
'She's twenty-one, damn it. The world is big and she's seen only a little of it. She wants to finish her theses and graduate. She wants to travel outside the Midwest. She wants to see the weird stuff Calvin posts on Twitter this week. She wants to become an anthropologist, or a writer, or a lawyer, or a botanist/politician/social worker/cat lady. She wants to live.' Susie encounters Death in a delightful tale that deservedly Won Yuletide
Discworld
'Tis Impossible To Be Sure Of Any Thing, by Karanguni
'There was almost a sense that he'd cheated somehow; as though seeing Death around the corner during some of his assignments was some kind of unfair advantage that the gods had extended a scholarship boy.' Winds neatly around canon to a perfect ending that could easily have been written by Pratchett
Frankenstein
Letter to Mrs Salville, England, by Cefyr
'I hesitate, dear sister, to write what I know I have to; many times now have I laid down my pen, as if the very act of setting down on paper the latest course of events would somehow make them less real.' A thoughtful piece which takes an unusual look at the moral questions of the novel
Peter Pan
No Unworthy Aim, by Sinope
'No matter how restless the patient, however so much he shuddered with waking nightmares or groaned with incurable pains, Wendy could always find the directest path from their heart to the Neverland. To one lad, she told tales of knights jousting for the honor of fine ladies; to another, she recounted travelers summiting Oriental peaks to discover lost cities of silk and gold.' It's a bit of a wish-fulfilment story for Wendy/Hook shippers, perhaps, but there are some interesting insights to be gained along the way to a genuinely moving end
Romeo and Juliet
Nothing But One of Your Nine Lives, by Russian Blue
'Tybalt had died. Now he walked again, and he knew not what it meant.' When pulled off, the crack premise taken straight is among the most delicious of fanfiction flavours. This one forms an interesting lens on the Prince of Cat's character, and Russian Blue also paints a vivid picture of Verona before & during the play
Songs
The Coffin Builder, by Calvinahobbes*
'The sign was not so much a sign as a miniature coffin, lid disconcertingly ajar.' Calvinahobbes has crafted a rich & original fairy tale from the song 'My Boy Builds Coffins', with echoes of 'Bluebeard' building tension to a lovely slippery ending
Rose in June, by RecessiveJean*
'First time I ever saw her, I'd no inkling that she might become my friend. She was a grown lady, and I was just gone thirteen, and that sort of disparity in ages didn't seem what you might call conducive to friendship. But that was back when things were ordinary, before everybody gave up the habit of staying dead when they died, so the rules were different then.' A darkly comic tale, based on 'Darling Cora' & 'Down in the Willow Garden', with a wonderfully pragmatic narrator. Unusual & engaging
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer