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| Well, it's certainly been a while. Somehow it's really easy to forget to update Xanga. I'm not sure whether LJ has a different culture to Xanga, or just my corner of LJ, or if it's just that I behave differently on LJ now because I'm talking to more people, and in the (nearly) seven years since I got my Xanga, the internet has become much less anonymous.
I think that's the thing I miss about my early days on Xanga - the feeling of being able to post emotions and little niggling reactions to things and know that someone, somewhere out there, would see them. I think I also miss the lack of history I had when I was here in 2002. What I didn't know at the time, but have learned since, is that once you've spent a lot of years posting somewhere, to a group of people which will change around the edges but have basically the same core, you self-edit. You feel judged whether people are actually judging you or not, because you imagine them reading your posts in the context of earlier stuff - emotional freak-outs, errors of judgment, phases of bad temper that made you irritating to read. That can be pretty inhibiting, even though you're really being inhibited not by the people reading, but by you yourself.
I'm not whining - or at least, I hope it doesn't come across that way. I'm just thinking about how, paradoxically, my dissatisfactions with LJ and Xanga are linked. LJ could do with a bit more of the old spontaneity I had here, and Xanga could do with me actually updating regularly enough that I don't feel disconnected.
So, after this morass of self-interest, how are all of you? | | |
| I can't believe it's over two weeks since I updated. I am currently migrating from laptop PC to MacBook and it's been... interesting. Interesting in the "I've spent six hours at this! SIX HOURS!" kind of way that only seems to arise when computers are involved. But most of the kinks seem to have worked out.
*crosses fingers*
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But after this I'm getting offline.
Somehow still being online at six raises the chances of still being
here at 8.30, and being knackered. Anyway, as I was saying:
OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! WANTWANTWANTWANTWANT! I just about died reading this. Not only is here is a guy writing horror stories set in Northern Ireland, they're vampire
books. And this is all just so encouraging considering that what I am
writing is suspense/horror which is locally set and which very much
relies on that sense of place...
*DIES*
See, I've come
to the conclusion that there is a rich vein of good horror fiction in
this place that is only just beginning to be tapped. (I can't apologise
enough for using the kind of cliche beloved of the mainstream media
when discussing the genre; I'm just tired enough that no other phrasing
springs to mind.) I began to realise this when I heard about Battle of the Bone - and let me tell you, I wish I'd heard about it soon enough to participate in the shoot when they were looking for extras.
Battle of the Bone
(released on DVD today), a movie in which rival sectarian factions come
together to kick zombie ass, came about because director George Clarke
was advised that he wouldn't get funding unless the film involved the
Troubles. I love the subversiveness of his riposte; the fact that it's
a chance to mock both genre and local cliches, and the fact that this
is a local film made by local people (that cliche was intentional, and there will be more LoG-ness
later) rather than opportunistic use of Troubles-related stuff by
film-makers from elsewhere who don't necessarily understand what
they're playing with.
So, what was I saying about horror and
Northern Ireland? Well, I've got a theory. The present generation of
up-and-coming film-makers, novelists and other creators grew up during
the Troubles and absorbed mordant humour, a sense of the fragility of
life, and a polarisation of "good" and "evil" (which of course varied
according to one's perspective) as prime influences. All those things
can play into an appreciation of, and desire to play around with, the
horror genre.
Historically, horror has been a genre which
waned during major conflicts and prospered during peacetime; other
people have written much more incisively than I could about why that's
the case (this being but a humble fannish blog from one who hopes to
turn pro), but it strikes me that there is a small but growing movement
of people here who are synthesising both their heritage and the
conventions of the genre to produce something distinctive, and an
audience ready to appreciate these works. I'd happily count myself
among the passengers/drivers of either bandwagon.
You might be interested in the website of Yellow Fever Productions, the people behind Battle of the Bone. The one caveat is that there are some flashing images in the site intro.
*
In other incoherence-inducingly exciting news, the Radio Times informs me that new TV goodness from members of the League of Gentlemen will soon be upon us. Psychoville
(with a cast including many interesting people, of whom Dawn French
particularly pleases me) began shooting recently, and - oh my stars and
garters! - Mark Gatiss's Crooked House
will be shown over Christmas, and is a portmeanteau horror featuring
stories in the M.R. James mould. It will be on BBC4, appropriately
enough, since the channel has already featured new James adaptations
and last year repeated the very popular old ones during the Christmas
period. As if many of you were not quivering with delight already, the
cast will include Derren Brown in his first acting role.
*listens
to thuds as everywhere, fangirls fall off their chairs raving that the
Tivo must be set with the utmost care, etc. etc.*
I thought you'd be pleased. | | |
| Guys, thanks to kissthewitch I've finally found out why nobody was commenting to my Protected posts for ages. Turns out that somehow or other, the settings had gone backwards and the only people who had access to my Protected posts were the people whose usernames I had previously REMOVED from the access list (either because they'd stopped using Xanga, fallen out of contact or because they already read my filtered entries on LiveJournal). The people who were supposed to have access didn't have it!
This is so weird... all this time I've been sitting here resenting that people didn't comment to the really personal stuff, and wondering if they just hated my long posts, and now it turns out that they couldn't even see it. There's a message in there somewhere. Also, if any of you have had similar issues, you might want to check your Protected Posting settings. You never know...
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| R. is in hospital with what is probably a kidney stone. He's having tests tomorrow and then we'll know what's happening... hopefully. | | |
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