Yuletide 2014 recs I -- Women
A smaller set than many years, but I'm still going to attempt to split them by theme. Here lie stories about women being sisters, daughters, wives, lovers, friends, rivals, collaborators, witches & storytellers, women coming into their power...
Arthurian legends
A Disambiguation of Elaines, by Raspberryhunter
'Elaine Garlot walks to the computer, ejects the code-chip with Elaine Astolat's algorithms stored on it, and grinds it underfoot.' Why are there so many Elaines in the Arthur myths? Raspberryhunter's answer reads as if Lois McMaster Bujold were setting the legend on a Jackson's Whole populated almost entirely by women, with all the complicated relationships you'd expect
Historical RPF
Saving Mrs. Fleming, by Selena
'Truth to tell, Mary had struggled with her ending. She always did. She had also struggled with what the secret would be. Her first idea had been for Julian's father to have been a man loving other men, a Greek hero lost in the wrong era, who'd tried to live the horrible married life and failed.' Intriguing take on what might have happened had Hitchcock tried to make a film out of Renault's Return to Night. Selena knows her Hollywood & the creative differences that inevitably follow are a hoot, but the meat of the piece is Hitchcock's unexpected empathy for Renault's situation
Howl's Moving Castle
starfall, by Betony
'The star spluttered with rage, but then quieted, just as Lily was about to drop it and run. "I suppose," it said silkily, "that you can't help it. Quite all right. It's not your fault that you're not clever enough."' An interesting origin story for the Witch of the Waste that weaves together many threads from the source, and succeeds, in the end, in making her sympathetic
The Tempest
After She Wakes, by Fresne
'...It wasn't that she wasn't allowed to run. It was that she couldn't. The weight of her clothes were too heavy.' A little different from the run of Tempest stories, 'After She Wakes' focuses on a Miranda trying to make the best of her happily ever after. It's a bit of an issuefic but I adore Fresne's solution to Milan's rigid gender roles
Watership Down
El-ahrairah and the Litter of Kittens, by Luzula
'Then Hyzenthlay, on a sly impulse, said: 'I was just about to tell the story of El-ahrairah and the litter of kittens.' / Thethuthinnang made a strangled little noise beside her. / 'I don't think I've heard that one,' Foxglove said.' Luzula's feminist slant is a welcome addition to Adams' world, and this tale-within-a-tale remains remarkably canonical in tone, despite the mpreg
Welsh mythology
Three fillings of Prydwen, by CenozoicSynapsid
'You're not supposed to think of the rest of the men, the ones who died on the way. They don't have names. They're not who the story is about.' CenozoicSynapsid uses a brilliant female viewpoint to draw parallels between Y Gododdin & The Spoils of Annwn, and by extension other acts of male heroism, in this clever & moving tale-within-a-tale
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer
Arthurian legends
A Disambiguation of Elaines, by Raspberryhunter
'Elaine Garlot walks to the computer, ejects the code-chip with Elaine Astolat's algorithms stored on it, and grinds it underfoot.' Why are there so many Elaines in the Arthur myths? Raspberryhunter's answer reads as if Lois McMaster Bujold were setting the legend on a Jackson's Whole populated almost entirely by women, with all the complicated relationships you'd expect
Historical RPF
Saving Mrs. Fleming, by Selena
'Truth to tell, Mary had struggled with her ending. She always did. She had also struggled with what the secret would be. Her first idea had been for Julian's father to have been a man loving other men, a Greek hero lost in the wrong era, who'd tried to live the horrible married life and failed.' Intriguing take on what might have happened had Hitchcock tried to make a film out of Renault's Return to Night. Selena knows her Hollywood & the creative differences that inevitably follow are a hoot, but the meat of the piece is Hitchcock's unexpected empathy for Renault's situation
Howl's Moving Castle
starfall, by Betony
'The star spluttered with rage, but then quieted, just as Lily was about to drop it and run. "I suppose," it said silkily, "that you can't help it. Quite all right. It's not your fault that you're not clever enough."' An interesting origin story for the Witch of the Waste that weaves together many threads from the source, and succeeds, in the end, in making her sympathetic
The Tempest
After She Wakes, by Fresne
'...It wasn't that she wasn't allowed to run. It was that she couldn't. The weight of her clothes were too heavy.' A little different from the run of Tempest stories, 'After She Wakes' focuses on a Miranda trying to make the best of her happily ever after. It's a bit of an issuefic but I adore Fresne's solution to Milan's rigid gender roles
Watership Down
El-ahrairah and the Litter of Kittens, by Luzula
'Then Hyzenthlay, on a sly impulse, said: 'I was just about to tell the story of El-ahrairah and the litter of kittens.' / Thethuthinnang made a strangled little noise beside her. / 'I don't think I've heard that one,' Foxglove said.' Luzula's feminist slant is a welcome addition to Adams' world, and this tale-within-a-tale remains remarkably canonical in tone, despite the mpreg
Welsh mythology
Three fillings of Prydwen, by CenozoicSynapsid
'You're not supposed to think of the rest of the men, the ones who died on the way. They don't have names. They're not who the story is about.' CenozoicSynapsid uses a brilliant female viewpoint to draw parallels between Y Gododdin & The Spoils of Annwn, and by extension other acts of male heroism, in this clever & moving tale-within-a-tale
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer