true romance
marej asked what five things we find romantic in stories. In no particular order, mine are:
1 -- Someone goes to ground, after a failure or a fuckup or a defeat, and then has to dig themselves back out, and the other person -- I hate the word support, but the other person just makes sure they're right there the whole time, maybe bitching about it and maybe joking but always there. It's a kind of hurt/comfort thing, I suppose, but a very specific kind, where the hurt is in some way self-inflicted, and the comfort isn't so much of the "I will save you!" or "Let me help you!" kind, but more along the lines of, "You're going to have to get yourself out of this, no one else can do it for you, but you don't think I'd leave you alone while you're working on it, do you?"
2 -- When the revelation of love come as a surprise. There's something about that moment, especially when someone's got to get courageous and actually say or do something, and the best thing is when it's somehow a surprise for both people, when they were both off in their parallel worlds falling in love and thinking the other person didn't know (which they didn't) and didn't care (which they do!) and then thinking, at the same time, fuck it, I've got to do something even if it's never going to work. And then surprise!
3 -- The noir conventions. That's probably the best way to lump these things together. People who don't say much but feel everything. Whistling in the dark. Long car rides or train rides, especially at night. Rain. Smoking. (I know so many people hate this but I can't help it, I've never been a smoker but I find it romantic. My favorite thing, though, was I once read someone ranting about smoking in a story and how disgusting a habit smoking was and how character X would never do such a thing and they were talking about an AU in which character X was an assassin.) Women who talk fast and men who don't talk much. A sacrifice, especially one you never tell anyone about. Basically, if you can picture it in a black and white 30s movie, I like it. Also those hats they wore in those movies -- fabulous.
4 -- Nicknames, not private ones exactly and nothing too foofy (I lean toward something like "kiddo" for this), but a nickname that someone always uses and means something every time they do. Maybe other people use it too but it doesn't mean the same thing -- it can't. "J" in timbertrick is a good example.
5 -- Near misses, both in happy endings and bleak ones. I like when something almost happens, whether it's that someone almost doesn't say something, doesn't do something but at the last moment they do and things end happily, or else when someone almost doesn't say something and they never do and things don't end so well. I like the element of chance there, and the fragility, the idea that one small action can change something so drastically, for good or ill.
1 -- Someone goes to ground, after a failure or a fuckup or a defeat, and then has to dig themselves back out, and the other person -- I hate the word support, but the other person just makes sure they're right there the whole time, maybe bitching about it and maybe joking but always there. It's a kind of hurt/comfort thing, I suppose, but a very specific kind, where the hurt is in some way self-inflicted, and the comfort isn't so much of the "I will save you!" or "Let me help you!" kind, but more along the lines of, "You're going to have to get yourself out of this, no one else can do it for you, but you don't think I'd leave you alone while you're working on it, do you?"
2 -- When the revelation of love come as a surprise. There's something about that moment, especially when someone's got to get courageous and actually say or do something, and the best thing is when it's somehow a surprise for both people, when they were both off in their parallel worlds falling in love and thinking the other person didn't know (which they didn't) and didn't care (which they do!) and then thinking, at the same time, fuck it, I've got to do something even if it's never going to work. And then surprise!
3 -- The noir conventions. That's probably the best way to lump these things together. People who don't say much but feel everything. Whistling in the dark. Long car rides or train rides, especially at night. Rain. Smoking. (I know so many people hate this but I can't help it, I've never been a smoker but I find it romantic. My favorite thing, though, was I once read someone ranting about smoking in a story and how disgusting a habit smoking was and how character X would never do such a thing and they were talking about an AU in which character X was an assassin.) Women who talk fast and men who don't talk much. A sacrifice, especially one you never tell anyone about. Basically, if you can picture it in a black and white 30s movie, I like it. Also those hats they wore in those movies -- fabulous.
4 -- Nicknames, not private ones exactly and nothing too foofy (I lean toward something like "kiddo" for this), but a nickname that someone always uses and means something every time they do. Maybe other people use it too but it doesn't mean the same thing -- it can't. "J" in timbertrick is a good example.
5 -- Near misses, both in happy endings and bleak ones. I like when something almost happens, whether it's that someone almost doesn't say something, doesn't do something but at the last moment they do and things end happily, or else when someone almost doesn't say something and they never do and things don't end so well. I like the element of chance there, and the fragility, the idea that one small action can change something so drastically, for good or ill.