Yes, more memes. These are from
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eponymous_rose. Hello!
*waves*
First Meme:
1. Leave a comment to this entry - it could make sense, or it could just be the first sentence crossing your mind.
2. I'll ask you five questions in response, so that I'll get to know you better.
3. Answer my questions at your personal LJ.
4. Keep the thing going by explaining the rules, asking and answering.
Question One: Is your style of writing influenced by any particular author?
I really wish I had a different answer to this question, but – alas – I must admit that no single writer has had as much influence on my writing as Aaron Sorkin. The West Wing first premiered when I was a freshman in high school, and I was immediately captured by the sound of it, the musicality of dialogue that was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. I was entranced, hypnotized. I was in love. It not only revolutionized the way I wrote, but the way I spoke and the way I listened to speech. I imitated him shamelessly for a long time, but as I grew older I began to discover his limitations as a storyteller. As brilliant as he is, his flaws as a writer are many – his carelessness with continuity, his moments of self-indulgent sentimentality, his egoism. (*cough*Studio 60*cough*)
I hope I’ve now grown past such blatant mimicry of his style, but I know I benefited greatly as a writer from the strength and energy of his dialogue and the vivid characters he created. And even though he’s a gigantic asshat, I can’t deny that the man is freakishly talented. (Though I think Tommy Schlamme deserves the credit for a lot Sorkin’s awesome. Just saying.)
Question Two: When did you first get into Doctor Who?
My earliest Doctor Who memory is of flipping through those specialty VHS catalogs my mum always left lying around. I used to go through them and choose what Sherlock Holmes tapes I wanted for Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza/Yule, and always stopped at the British sci fi pages, because they had the weirdest pictures. There was Red Dwarf and this funny show about an alien with a scarf who, for some reason, was played by both this young blond guy and a curly-haired, bug-eyed man who reminded me of a Muppet. I spent some considerable time pondering why this might be.
Fast-forward three or four years, and it’s 1996, and my mother and I are watching the Doctor Who television movie on Fox. (Or so she claims. I have no memory of this.) Apparently, this was when my nascent anglophilia kicked into high gear. Then again, that was also the year I read my first Douglas Adams book, so who knows what was the cause.
Jump ahead eleven years and I’m channel surfing on my mum’s couch, back at the old homestead during my winter break. Some skinny dude in a suit, looking rather distressed, screams my name. Which, you know, gets my attention. Unfortunately, the blonde girl seems to be getting sucked into that big, white wall no matter how much he yells.
Then I see the TARDIS spinning alongside a supernova and cry out, “Holy freakin’ hell! That’s the phone box! The skinny dude is the bug-eyed man with the scarf!” And from that moment on, my world was forever changed.
Question Three: What would you do with a quiet day at home, with no studying or deadlines to worry about?
How sad is this? I can’t even imagine such a day. Erm…if I had no studying or deadlines to worry about, I would:
1) Gloat.
2) Write hundreds of pages of fan fiction, because holymotherofgod I just want to get this crap out of my head already.
3) Probably be dead. I can’t imagine any other reason that this situation might arise.
Question Four: What is your favorite lj user pic?
This one! *points*
Question Five: What do you like on your pizza?
Oh, heavens. I am so boring. I like my pizza plain. I have terrible fear of mushrooms, onions, and peppers, which eliminates most veggie pizza options, and ham, sausage, and pepperoni always seem entirely unnecessary to me. Pizza is perfect just as it is.
Second Meme:
Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.
aardvarks
I am a huge zoology nerd. (I recently realized that nearly every piece of Who fic I’ve written contains at least one random animal reference. Why? I haven’t the foggiest.) Aardvarks are awesome. Crazy tongue, crazy teeth, and really large ears. Also, they are sometimes called ‘antbears’. How cute is that?
jam
Oh dear. I have something to confess – I don’t eat jam. Love the word jam, love the idea of jam, but it’s not something I ever actually, you know, put on my food. I am, I’m afraid, a sham. A jam sham. I’ll understand if you can never forgive me.
sandwiches
Sandwiches are beautiful;
Sandwiches are fine.
I like sandwiches –
I eat them all the time.
I eat them for my breakfast;
I eat them for my lunch.
If I had a million sandwiches,
I’d eat them all at once
-- Barry Louis Polisar
the office
Both UK and US versions entrance me. I think they’re simply two of the best television shows I’ve ever watched. I love ensemble shows, and the US version’s real strength lies in the hilarious, complex supporting characters they’ve created: Angela and Phyllis, Kevin and Oscar, Toby and Kelly. Creed Bratton of the Grass Roots playing a demented, kleptomaniac version of himself. How could I not love this show?
children’s literature
Ugh. I’ve finally hit that point when even the slightest hint of a thought about my thesis sends my poor, beleaguered mind into lockdown. I’ll give it a shot, though.
Books are important. I like books. Books made my brain better when I was small; I like to talk and write about how books is good for brains. Even small brains. When Big Brains write for Small Brains, funny things happen. Like immortal flying children and places where lunch boxes grow on trees. Big Brains seem to wish they could be Small Brains, hyper idealizing the supposed simplicity and innocence of Small Braindom. Big Brains are kinda dumb, sometimes, even when they’re awesome.
existentialism
Sophomore year, I took an amazing class in post-war European drama and learned that Joss Whedon had been brainwashing me with existentialist philosophy since I was thirteen. The course itself was limited to the plays of Camus, Sartre, and Genet, but, inspired, I went out and read everything I could get my greedy little hands on. I adopted Camus and Simone de Beauvoir as my existentialist peeps, and lived happily, philosophically ever after.
Look, I don’t claim to know anything about anything. I just know that the world started making a lot more sense to me when I began to think of life in terms of choice. We may feel as if we’re forced into living our lives as they unfold, guided by the demands of society or family or fate – and maybe we are – but the only useful course of action is to view each situation as a choice, and to accept the consequences of each choice we make.
Erm. Yes. Beauvoir said it better. And in French, so – bonus points for that.
bananas
Are:
1) Fruit.
2) Good.
3) Yellow. Unless they’re not.
4) A Woody Allen film.
5) The topic of my current fan fic.
6) An excellent source of potassium.
