Bob the Mole

Sorry for the lateness, but I want to thank the kind person who nominated Battlefield of the Gods for the Sunnydale Memorial Awards. It's a thrill to know that someone thought so highly of it.

(Some background for non-fandom people reading this: There was recently an online contest for writing fanfiction based on characters from Joss Whedon shows. Since I'm a fan of said shows and miss doing creative stuff, I decided to try my hand at it. The outcome was four stories inspired by literature from four different eras.)

The January  still_grrr  challenge was to create fiction or art inspired by classic literature throughout history. After hearing that anyone who answered all four prompts (one each week) would get a cookie participation banner, I wrote the four stories below.

Week 1: Ancient to Renaissance literature.
Parable of the Artificial Duck

This one's based on characters from Dollhouse. It's a scene with two scientists and a man whose brain they recently reprogrammed to save his life. Now the guy's paranoid (for good reasons) that they made some changes to his "software".

Week 2: Neoclassic to Victorian literature.
Ghazal for a Slayer

I intertwined a classical Urdu poem with scenes from a dysfunctional (but compelling) relationship between two characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This story will probably make the least sense to someone not familiar with the show, but poetry fans will want to check out the references in the author's notes.

Week 3: Edwardian to Modern literature.
The Barter Economy

I think I'm most proud of this one. It comes closest to a classic short story in flavor, and the mood was inspired by Heart of Darkness and The Gospel According to Mark, both stories that begin in the alleged light of civilization and move toward a creepy and very human darkness. This is also the story that has kept me up at night - I think I committed race-fail in my depiction of the Lanai-ur tribe, and intend to rewrite it at some point.

Week 4: Anything before 1960
Battlefield of the Gods

I did not expect this story to get the positive response it did. There must something about  watching fallen gods acting like spoiled, self-centered twenty-somethings that resonates with our most primitive instincts. Readers not familiar with the Buffyverse find this inaccessible, though it's probably the in-jokes that make it work for those in the know.

I'm hugely grateful to whoever nominated this story for the No Rest For the Wicked Awards (In two categories! WOW!). Wednesday was the worst day I'd had in months, and learning about the nomination gave me a much-needed boost. Thank you, anonymous saint!

I just had an IM conversation with mergle about Angel from the Buffyverse. Note that she hasn't seen the series yet, but I've blathered about it to her enough that she's now having dreams about Buffy and her parents being vampires, the citizens of Sunnydale protesting that she's not slaying fast enough, Angel brooding that he couldn't save some kids from being zombified, and product tie-ins called "Dark Buffy Bars".

She also says about Angel:

mergle : The first I heard of him was "vampire with a soul, gets cursed to have the soul until he's perfectly happy, and then he sleeps with Buffy and is happy so he loses his soul and goes on a killing spree."
mergle : Somehow I wound up imagining Buffy waking up that morning and walking down the stairs to see lots of random dead bodies, and Angel making waffles in the kitchen.
bobthemole : oh god, that has to be reproduced somewhere


Hi, I'm Bob and I drag people into fandoms against their will. I'll bet there's a special circle in hell for people like me.

ETA: We're willing to make a donation to the Haiti relief effort if someone makes fan art of the waffles scene.

Why did no one tell me Interview with the Vampire is so frickin' FUNNY?



I think part of the problems is that I don't think Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt are anywhere as hot as we are (or were, in the mid-90s) supposed to think they are. Then there's the cheesy dialogue, period costumes, and my conviction that snarky, bleach-blond punks exemplify proper behavior for vampires everywhere.

This movie never had a chance with me.







ETA: Ok, the movie improves after half an hour once everyone stops brooding and posturing and starts doing stuff.

There seems to have been a crackdown on Buffy fanvids on YouTube. Half the stuff on my favorites list is gone.

Y'know, I bought a voodoo doll two years ago but never got around to using it. Now I'm sorely tempted.

Just last week I rented the entire Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer because only the first 2 seasons were available online.

Today, Hulu.com announces that Season 3 is now available online for free.

I suppose I can mentally write off that $16.50 rental fee as a donation to a locally owned business...