Banana Soup and Author Avatars
Apr. 23rd, 2010 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodel Food update! Tonight's din was "Supa Ya N Dizi," a tongue-twisting spicy chicken and banana stew. Yes, bananas. I'm sure the original recipe used plantains, but this health-skewed version uses barely-ripe bananas. It is seriously good stuff and a household favorite in Asphodel Land. That coconut-milk "ice cream" from the hippie food section of the grocery store makes a nice follow-up.
In other news, writing Nyna-fic is emotionally toxic. I'm mostly done with the first chapter, and kind of know where I'm going with the rest of it, but her interactions with the other characters are so... spiked. Example: later on in the story, there's a scene where Alm comes over to Zeke's place to have dinner and talk shop, and the balancing act going on there between Zeke and Nyna is just a mind-screw. The secondary theme of the piece turns out to be a lot about identity and names and "language" (see: code-switching), and having Alm/Albyne/Rudolf, Camus/Zeke/Sirus and Not-Princess-Anymore Nyna around a table (oh yeah, and Teeta too) is... liek whoa.
[I worked on Chapter Four of "Another Piece of Blue" as well, so that's good.]
Anyway, the main theme is the sort of desire vs obligation thing that always makes me want to smack Nyna. Not that I'm trying to demonize her in this-- if anything, I'm trying to get some sort of positive resolution for myself about her, or at least a non-negative resolution. In a sense, it really is personal, or rather personal/professional. I'm not actually using her as a substitute for the dear friend and co-worker who royally screwed me over last year[*]-- but it's there, in a sense, in the same way that Seth in "Heaven's Blessings Upon Us" was me on some level. I don't try to use characters as my avatars or mouthpieces-- "Motherland" had huge chunks of my life run through a blender and incorporated into its fabric, but nobody complained so I guess it was done well enough. I know that a huge portion of FE 'fic comes out of frustrations in my professional life, and the Nyna 'fic is part of that. On some level, I'm displeased with the mixed messages FE canon provides about destiny and duty as opposed to self-actualization. On some level, maybe I am having a smackdown with my buddy "Stan" over the mess he handed me last year. Nyna, at least, is a lot more attractive than a middle-aged Polish-Sicilian guy.
* For "personal reasons" that were completely understandable. We're still friends. But he still screwed me over in ways that impact me every single day at work. He took a time out for personal fulfillment, and I got stuck holding the bag. Oh, I had the option of running away myself and saying "No way, too hard, don't wanna," but I actually wanted this thing to succeed, and nobody else remotely competent had the balls to step forward and take responsibility. I guess I'd rather jack things up personally than watch from the sidelines as someone else ruins the division.
In other news, writing Nyna-fic is emotionally toxic. I'm mostly done with the first chapter, and kind of know where I'm going with the rest of it, but her interactions with the other characters are so... spiked. Example: later on in the story, there's a scene where Alm comes over to Zeke's place to have dinner and talk shop, and the balancing act going on there between Zeke and Nyna is just a mind-screw. The secondary theme of the piece turns out to be a lot about identity and names and "language" (see: code-switching), and having Alm/Albyne/Rudolf, Camus/Zeke/Sirus and Not-Princess-Anymore Nyna around a table (oh yeah, and Teeta too) is... liek whoa.
[I worked on Chapter Four of "Another Piece of Blue" as well, so that's good.]
Anyway, the main theme is the sort of desire vs obligation thing that always makes me want to smack Nyna. Not that I'm trying to demonize her in this-- if anything, I'm trying to get some sort of positive resolution for myself about her, or at least a non-negative resolution. In a sense, it really is personal, or rather personal/professional. I'm not actually using her as a substitute for the dear friend and co-worker who royally screwed me over last year[*]-- but it's there, in a sense, in the same way that Seth in "Heaven's Blessings Upon Us" was me on some level. I don't try to use characters as my avatars or mouthpieces-- "Motherland" had huge chunks of my life run through a blender and incorporated into its fabric, but nobody complained so I guess it was done well enough. I know that a huge portion of FE 'fic comes out of frustrations in my professional life, and the Nyna 'fic is part of that. On some level, I'm displeased with the mixed messages FE canon provides about destiny and duty as opposed to self-actualization. On some level, maybe I am having a smackdown with my buddy "Stan" over the mess he handed me last year. Nyna, at least, is a lot more attractive than a middle-aged Polish-Sicilian guy.
* For "personal reasons" that were completely understandable. We're still friends. But he still screwed me over in ways that impact me every single day at work. He took a time out for personal fulfillment, and I got stuck holding the bag. Oh, I had the option of running away myself and saying "No way, too hard, don't wanna," but I actually wanted this thing to succeed, and nobody else remotely competent had the balls to step forward and take responsibility. I guess I'd rather jack things up personally than watch from the sidelines as someone else ruins the division.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 10:49 pm (UTC)Thank you! I think it stems from many, many years of practice. :D
I try to disperse it by distributing little fragments of my P.O.V. among different characters, or by having characters take opposite / different sides of the same issue.
That is generally what I do in original 'fic and fanfic both. It's far less perilous than investing undue personal interest in one character.
(Curry, I trust?)
There was some curry powder in it, but this soup is more African or West Indian, I think. The coconut is more for texture, and the tomatoes and chiles predominate.