Essay Day is Heeeeeeereeee!!!!
Jan. 16th, 2012 09:46 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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wicked_sassyhas graciously allowed me to co-host with her today and bring you ESSAY DAY: PILOTS PROSE FOR A NEW WAVE OF FANGIRLS (and boys).
What awaits you:
Essays. Haiku. Malarkey. The Shipper Nation Make-A-Wish Foundation.
For those of you who have prepared essays beforehand:
First off, gold star for you!!! Way to prepare ahead. Now….
1. Go forth and post your essay. (In the comments is great, if it’s too long, just post a comment with a link to your LJ.)
2. As a reward for your planning-ahead-ness, you get to participate in the Shipper Nation Make-A-Wish Foundation, which means that you make a fannish wish (for fic, for icons or graphics, for vids, for icons, for meta for hijinks and tomfoolery, whatever)—and
wicked_sassyand I will endeavor to make sure that wish is granted. (Which may entail us begging for favors and/or enduring periods of indentured servitude for the cause but do not fear—we shall make it happen!)For the unprepared:
1. Yes, you still get punch and pie (This is a Bee!joint, yo. Everyone gets punch and pie.)
2. Please please please—come and leave us a few words on why you ship pilots like whoa and what makes them near and dear to your heart.
3. If you do, you get to participate in the Make-A-Wish Program as described above. Huzzah!!! :D
For everyone:
Pilots Haiku-Off, right frakking now.
17 syllables. Knock yourself out. Bring me your crack, your angst, your banter, your sexin’,
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Some haiku to get us going...
Date: 2012-01-16 03:10 pm (UTC)Ashes for the rest.
Don’t care — this is all that matters.
Why Pilots Are My OTP aka Why Nicole Falls In Love With Made Up Characters Instead of Real People
Date: 2012-01-16 03:21 pm (UTC)*Ahem*
PILOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's the thing about pilots, they reflect everything I want but will never have and likely, shouldn't ever have. They are both so many little pieces of me and as me, I want my separate parts to be together or the world feels even more askew than the world usually feels.
Individually, they are both complex and meaty characters in their own right, but when paired...GOOD GOD! They leap through the screen and electrify my insides like very few things do. They are damaged and scared and tender and cruel and NOTHING is halfway with them. Everything is right there; all the things that people are supposed to feel but never let themselves actually feel, all the ways we hurt each other and fix each other. They reach out of the screen to confirm the most basic of human desires for me, the knowledge that we are not alone; that all communication, no matter how flawed or frail is a glimpse of immortality. And maybe those briefest moments of connection are the only form of immortality that we can touch.
Mostly, they make me believe (in the most vague and intangible way possible) that real love is possible. Even when it doesn't look like most people think that it should. Cuz all the love I've had in my life has been messy and dysfunctional and angsty and raw and terrible and no one has ever understood it from the outside. And then I see pilots and think, “it's OK, these things don't always make sense but it doesn't mean they aren't real.”
And a good friend of mine named Buffy Summers once said, "I know it's nuts, but part of me believes that real love and passion have to go hand-in-hand with pain and fighting." And then she staked a vampire and said, "I wonder where I get that from?” And it always stuck with me. If you love something so deeply that it scares you, you'll often be brought to terrifying places because of that love and fear causes people to act rashly, thoughtlessly, defensively. And so, conflicts are inevitable.
My most recent ex (I swear, this is relevant) would not fight with me. Absolutely never. Not when we disagreed, not when I insulted his sexual prowess, not even when I broke up with him when I suspected him of cheating. He was unflappable despite his fervent declarations of love and loyalty, but he had no fire in him. And if you're not willing to fight for the things you claims to love, can you truly love them? Nope. And guess what? He was cheating.
Part 2
Date: 2012-01-16 03:22 pm (UTC)So, do I love them because they hurt me? Def. Am I a masochist for this frakked up love/hate amalgamation which is pilots? Yup. Do they call to me as a fellow member of their misanthropic, damaged tribe? Totes. Should this worry me? Probably. Am I just making up questions at this point because my brain stopped paying attention to this little essay about 3 paragraphs ago and I've now forgotten my point? … umm, I'd prefer not to answer that question madame prosecutor.
But honestly, if it was just all hurt with these two I would certainly not still carry my fannish torch, but it's not. Because when they eventually both stop pushing for even a moment, we get the most glorious glimpses into how beautiful they can be with one another and it sends away all the pain ever. And maybe who needs a lifetime of alright when you can have moments of bliss like that?
In the end, theirs was a journey worth traveling and it touched the deep places in my cold, cold heart in unexpected and wonderful ways that no other pairing ever has. Plus, they are so, so insanely hot that it is just not even fair. Talk about fishing with dynamite! Yes, I am this shallow.
Yeah, it's late and my brain is getting cracky so let me just leave you with this little gem to gnaw on. Like Rhianna once said, “We found love in a hopeless place.” Our pilots did that and it is amazing. And that, my peeps, makes my own hopeless place a little less hopeless. And that means that my life is better for having known them be they fictional characters or not.
So cheers to pilot!love in all it's terrible and transcendent forms. Pilots foreva yo!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:23 pm (UTC)Ode to a too-small towel.
Date: 2012-01-16 03:30 pm (UTC)On battleships in space
(and fangirls rejoice)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:31 pm (UTC)It's entirely up to you. If you want to wait and finish and post later, that's fine, but feel free to bring what you have as well. Either way, I hope you'll come and play in the comments! :D
Re: tl;dr -- A Kara/Lee Smut Discourse. aka Prepared Nora Prepared!
Date: 2012-01-16 03:33 pm (UTC)**RAISES GLASS**
Oh-- don't forget to make a wish!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:41 pm (UTC)Just ignore me. I'm convinced this comuter is just weird.
Re: Part 2
Date: 2012-01-16 03:42 pm (UTC)**cracks up and nods**
when they eventually both stop pushing for even a moment, we get the most glorious glimpses into how beautiful they can be with one another and it sends away all the pain ever. And maybe who needs a lifetime of alright when you can have moments of bliss like that?
YES. SO MUCH YES TO THIS.
Re: Why Pilots Are My OTP aka Why Nicole Falls In Love With Made Up Characters Instead of Real Peopl
Date: 2012-01-16 03:43 pm (UTC)cracky haikus here we go!
Date: 2012-01-16 03:45 pm (UTC)vipers exhilarate, strut
apollo panting
Re: cracky haikus here we go!
Date: 2012-01-16 03:47 pm (UTC)dust specks gather in her eyes
on lee's toes gone now
Re: cracky haikus here we go!
Date: 2012-01-16 03:48 pm (UTC)biceps flexing in a rack
continues with smut
no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:50 pm (UTC)Re: cracky haikus here we go!
Date: 2012-01-16 03:50 pm (UTC)a star calls out from her mouth
he gasps, finishes
no subject
Date: 2012-01-16 03:51 pm (UTC)Re: cracky haikus here we go!
Date: 2012-01-16 03:54 pm (UTC)a neat rack calls remorseful
lay down now we met
Haiku----angsty AND Sam,,,,,,not my usual combo
Date: 2012-01-16 03:56 pm (UTC)Bit back while she came
In Sam's unknowing arms
Re: cracky haikus here we go!
Date: 2012-01-16 03:56 pm (UTC)the clock stops for a blown song
on my tongue harder
Re: tl;dr -- A Kara/Lee Smut Discourse. aka Prepared Nora Prepared!
Date: 2012-01-16 04:06 pm (UTC)Re: cracky haikus here we go!
Date: 2012-01-16 04:51 pm (UTC)Re: tl;dr -- A Kara/Lee Smut Discourse. aka Prepared Nora Prepared!
Date: 2012-01-16 07:26 pm (UTC)(Note to Bee: BEE! I AM TOTALLY ALLOWED TO HALF RPF, RIGHT? YOU NEVER LET ME NORMALLY.)
So interesting that you think the sexin' over here is uniformly hawt. I can't speak to most of the fandoms you talked about, but I generally find BSG sex to be some of the tamest stuff out there. Written well for the most part but pretty standard stuff. (Especially in comparison to HP, land of debauchery, bdsm, orgies, incest and just all sorts of, ahem, magically enhanced nakenfuntime.
I do think that the vanilla is reflective of an UST laden ship on screen, with little actual physical fulfillment and lots of hurt feelings and, you know, dealing with genocide. So that when they do get together, there's intensity but not a whole lot of creativity. Because it's such a relief to get them there and get them off, as it were. The hotness is fulfilled by the act itself as opposed to the trappings.