melannen | (no subject)

1. I signed up for

purimgifts. I always want to, because it's a really fun fest and this time of year I really like the idea of something where the MAX wordcount is 1000 and also you have to do bad art and have an option to try doing short podfic. And then I get paralyzed by so many signup options, and it's at the same time as the lupercalia fest, and then I start wondering if it's really weird for a non-Jewish person to sign up for it and ask for all Judaism-related fic (CERTAIN PEOPLE have a habit of writing really good Judaism AUs, okay, and I LIKE THEM ALL, but it still feels weird and/or creepy to admit in public how much I think about Judaism AUs in my fandoms, especially since I definitely wouldn't dare write one. oh well, too late now.) But there was a last-minute extension and people were posting about how we should all sign up and also I've spent a year really wanting an excuse to request fic about the Valskaayan ~~Jews~~ Recalcitrants on Athoek that get mentioned for one line in Ancillary Sword. So now I have signed up and it is too late to back out! Hopefully I will get a letter up here at some point.

2. Meanwhile I am apparently now writing the kind of Star Wars fic - the one I have wanted to write since I saw TFA but couldn't find a way in until now - that includes both the line But while he was alive he had known - in a small way, but enough - what it was to be at one with the Force while in the world; and death, for a Master of Yoda's line who came to it prepared, was only a difference of quality, not of kind; and he knew it would take the merest twist of will, of memory, to know how to be in the world while at one with the Force, and also the line, 'Hi, Not Listening To This Anymore,' Han said, sparkling slightly, 'I'm Dead;' and have thus discovered that as far as I can tell, nobody has yet given the Internet the translation of the Tao Te Ching that starts with "The Force that can be forced is not the Undying Force" and I am not sure why not.

3. And to square the circle, more podfic of one of my old stories!

[Podfic] Mu (7:23) by sisi_rambles
Fandom: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Harry Dresden, John Marcone, Nathan "Cujo" Hendricks, Mouse (Dresden Files - Butcher)
Additional Tags: Transformation, Service, Philosophy
Summary: A monk asked Jõshû, "Has a dog the Buddha Nature?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi, I am also a non-Jewish person who adores Judaism AUs. I always forget purimgifts exists until it posts and then I'm like OH YES THIS YES HURRAY!

(I always forget lupercalia exists and I'm the one running the dratted thing)

I'm also looking forward to your Force Ghosts story a lot.

I think Lupercalia will only happen for me this year if it happens - I have about four half-finished ones from previous years, so maybe if I get inspired?

Purimgifts is always so fun to watch, so hopefully it will also be fun to do!

The Force Ghosts story has no ending, so who knows? (Also I am apparently trying to learn Ancient Chinese so I can finish that translation, augh.)

re: #1: I wholy and completely support this decision. Not that I know what that fandom is, but minor details. ;)

It's Imperial Radch fandom, which you've probably seen people talking about before! You'd probably like it.

(Although not to oversell the Judaism content - there's literally two lines in a conversation where the Valskaayan Space Christian transportee protesters are telling the evil overlord that they would like permission to have a priest for their community, and then one of them says "and we want a separate priest for the Valskaayan Recalcitrants, too," and then another one says, "No, they call them "teachers", not priests, remember? And don't call them Recalcitrants, that's not polite," and that's literally it? But there's SO MUCH worldbuilding about communities-in-exile in those two lines.)

I've never heard of purimgifts before--sounds like a cool ficfest! My icon is a variation on a quotation by a famous Jewish scholar--wish I could remember which one!

I love the concept you have for your Star Wars fic--I'll want to read that (I suppose I also should see the latest film)

I've been watching the community since it started but never written for it! Hopefully it will be fun. Jewish scholarship applied to fandom is always the best.

You should definitely see the latest film before you read my Star Wars fic, anyway.

Dad jokes and the Tao? I'm in. Also for Judaism AUs, of which I haven't seen nearly enough of to be tired of them yet.

It is REALLY HARD to write close-third-person-omniscient POV, ok, and I keep going "Anakin and Han would be weird if they met, surely, except not because they're all one with the force now auggh what is IC even when all your main characters are, like, just eddies in the flow of Life" and then I crib some wording from Lao Tzu because fuck it there are only so many ways to say "I can't write about this because words."

It's fun!