Fandom post
Nov. 25th, 2018 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwiexchangeTell us about your fandoms!
Remember to make sure they fit the criteria as outlined in the rules:
-Substantial parts of the fandom must take place during WWI. It does not have to take place on the front lines, or even close to them. As long as the characters are in some way being affected by the war, it counts. For example, the second season of Downton Abbey would qualify, as would any series taking place on the home front.
-When nominating a canon where large parts do not centre around WWI, for example Young Indiana Jones or Blackadder, it is to be understood that the requests will centres around the part of canon relevant to WWI.
-Exceptions to the above may occur for RPF.
Addendum: If you wish to rec something that takes place over a longer span of time than just WWI, it might be wise to spend a sentence or two describing how it fits into the 'war' part of the canon.
For example: "The second and third volume of Pregnesia in Time focus on Abbey's life as a nurse, after her husband joins up. She ends up having to do things she never thought she would have to, including amputation and open-heart surgery."
Remember to make sure they fit the criteria as outlined in the rules:
-Substantial parts of the fandom must take place during WWI. It does not have to take place on the front lines, or even close to them. As long as the characters are in some way being affected by the war, it counts. For example, the second season of Downton Abbey would qualify, as would any series taking place on the home front.
-When nominating a canon where large parts do not centre around WWI, for example Young Indiana Jones or Blackadder, it is to be understood that the requests will centres around the part of canon relevant to WWI.
-Exceptions to the above may occur for RPF.
Addendum: If you wish to rec something that takes place over a longer span of time than just WWI, it might be wise to spend a sentence or two describing how it fits into the 'war' part of the canon.
For example: "The second and third volume of Pregnesia in Time focus on Abbey's life as a nurse, after her husband joins up. She ends up having to do things she never thought she would have to, including amputation and open-heart surgery."
Lawrence of Arabia
Date: 2018-11-26 06:56 am (UTC)The Great War's hottest fandom is Lawrence of Arabia! Released in 1962, this epic is built on over three hours of the most beautifully photographed desert you ever saw. This movie has everything: camels, scenery porn, trains blowing up, as much homoeroticism as a major studio production in the early sixties could get away with, Peter O'Toole in eyeliner and a Bedouin wedding dress, whump, colonialism, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in brownface! Bonus: Omar Sharif in his first major English-language role, and he is unfairly gorgeous.
Re: Lawrence of Arabia
Date: 2018-11-26 02:08 pm (UTC)Lawrence Of Arabia is known as one of the great films of the 60's, and is one of the really good 'shorter' canons eligible for this exchange. The costumes, the actors, and the environment(Jordan) is just amazingly pretty. The story is nothing to scoff at, either, though it is hard to sum up in a few words. 'TE Lawrence's millitary campaign' is probably the best way of putting it.
Biggles by W. E. Johns(Book series)
Date: 2018-11-26 02:38 pm (UTC)They're fairly rambunctious in tone, and chronicle the aviation-related adventures of James Bigglesworth, a small army brat, and his best friend, the aristocratic Algernon Montgomery Lacey. Later books see them adopting a chi- Taking in an orphan, Ginger Hebbletwhaite. Together, they fly planes and embark on zany pulp adventures.
The first few books were considerably darker in tone, and far less 'zany'. They were set during Biggles' time as a flying ace in the RAF during WWI, and are fairly spot on regarding the large amounts of drinking and death going on in a high-casualty situation.
These early stories mainly centre around the new and exciting experience of flying aeroplanes in battle, but they never shy away from the more unsavoury elements of the RAF.
Re: Biggles by W. E. Johns(Book series)
Date: 2018-12-10 06:29 am (UTC)Re: Biggles by W. E. Johns(Book series)
Date: 2018-12-10 07:21 am (UTC)Offer away! If you feel like you need to clarify what you can and can't write, just let mods know (closer to sign-ups) and we'll match you with something you can write.
Re: Biggles by W. E. Johns(Book series)
Date: 2018-12-10 06:10 pm (UTC)RPF- Harry Fusao O'Hara
Date: 2018-11-26 05:11 pm (UTC)He was an ethnically Japanese man who flew for the RAF. Unfortunately, this appears to be the extent of records around him, but he would make a very interesting subject for RPF.
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/harry-fusao-ohara-japanese-fighter-pilot-1918/
Parade's End - book series & TV series
Date: 2018-11-29 04:49 pm (UTC)Hands down the best prose writing about WWI that I've ever read in my life. Quite possibly one of the best writing examples of a character's interior thought flowing and a timeline that's not 100% linear, without being unbearably pretentious or impossible to read. In fact, it's quite the opposite; I sometimes pick up one of the books and just read a bit from literally anywhere because the prose makes me happy as all that! And, if I'm allowed to be pretentious for just a second, it's not just me that's saying this is The Good Stuff--Parade's End is a fuckin classic. It does an absolutely gorgeous job of illustrating all the ways that the war impacted life for all civilians, from the recently-knighted academic to the widow and her daughter trying to make ends meet, and it does just as magnificent a job of illustrating the trenches, all in intimate detail.
But chances are you're here for compelling characters, right? Boy, do we have em! The central three characters are as complicated and compelling a trio as anyone could ask for.
Christopher Tietjens views himself first and foremost as the last bastion of old values, "the last Tory", the second son of a landowning and historic family, but times are changing around him, and changing with a brutality and swiftness he can't deny. A highly intelligent and mildly eccentric man, he works as a government statistician and has been known to soothe himself by thinking about the mathematical theories of waves. But, underneath about twenty solid miles of repression, there's a soft-hearted and loyal man. As the war progresses and he becomes a soldier, I will not spoil but basically, character development.
Sylvia Tietjens is dynamite; she commands everyone's attention with her destructive brilliance. She's fascinating, charismatic, fierce, and incredibly adept. She's a bundle of contradictions: a faithful Catholic and an unrepentant adulteress, a cruel, intelligent person and so overwhelmed by the misery & meaninglessness of the war that she sometimes puts her head in the sand and does something that'll backfire, e.g. sending food off to a few highborn German friends who are POWs. She uses her incredible beauty to devastating effect.
AND THE TIETJENS' MARRIAGE IS REALLY SOMETHING ELSE. It's so fucking complicated and I won't spoil it but gah, there is so much to unpack there.
Valentine Wannop really is that woman. Like she really is. Brought up in the household of a revered academic and encouraged to read Latin and participate in athletics from a young age, she was meant for some kind of greatness, but then her father died and her family became penniless and, without any kind of whining, she took up a job as a housemaid and she's been scraping her way through life ever since, supporting both herself and her novelist mother. Valentine's honest disposition is a breath of fresh air in the book, although she's incisive and intelligent, so her shouldn't be mistaken for simplicity, either. AND! She's a suffragette, really out here confronting MPs, hiding fellow suffragettes from the police, and the like. Not to say "we stan a woke queen," but, well, we do.
Now, did I tell you the plot? No, but you already have enough information to tell whether or not you're gonna enjoy these books, so I'm going to move on before I end up writing a whole fuckin essay.
Note: I am one of those people that neither reads nor acknowledges the fourth book in the series because FMF intended to stop after #3 and just wrote #4 cause he needed the money and my soul was satisfied at #3 and I refuse.
Parade's End the BBC/HBO series
Same characters, mostly the same plot, but obviously without the pleasure of the prose and cutting several things from the books. That said, the series benefits from excellent production values, a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, and stellar acting from Rebecca Hall as Sylvia Tietjens, Benedict Cumberbatch as Christopher Tietjens, and Adelaide Clemens as Valentine Wannop.
Re: Parade's End - book series & TV series
Date: 2018-11-29 04:50 pm (UTC)I wrote a whole fuckin essay. Shhhhhh...
Re: Parade's End - book series & TV series
Date: 2018-11-29 05:01 pm (UTC)And I was trying to think of a way to say this earlier, but then I gave up and googled around for someone to put it into words for me: "Parade's End is virtually alone of the male writing of the 1920s in affirming the ascendance of women and advocating a course of graceful withdrawal from dominance for men". Thanks, David Ayers!
Peaky Blinders (TV show)
Date: 2018-11-29 04:59 pm (UTC)How does FREDDIE THORNE go from being a tunneler to a Communist and labor organizer?
How does TOMMY SHELBY turn from a broken-hearted Communist to a steel-eyed capitalist and gangster, while having pretty much the same experiences as a tunneler? (Note: subtext is heavy that there was at least unrequited love there, even though showrunner is too much of a coward to give us what we want. Everyone on this show is bi as I am and that's the end of the matter, as far as I'm concerned)
How does ARTHUR SHELBY get such a bad case of PTSD while fighting in Gallipolli?
How does POLLY SHELBY run the family's illegal gambling & racketeering business while the men are away?
How does JEREMIAH JESUS end up fighting alongside a bunch of Birmingham white boys despite himself being a black man from the Caribbean? And how does he eventually decide to become a pacifist and street preacher?
How does ALFIE SOLOMONS deal with the antisemitism of the time while rising through the ranks to become a captain?
How does GRACE BURGESS turn her vengeful rage over her father's death at the hands of Irish terrorists into an actual career working undercover for the police, especially since she's a woman? Who trained her to shoot like that? Is she active as a spy during WWI?
How does MAY CARLETON deal with the long-distance relationship between her and her husband, and how does she adjust to running the huge estate and racing business while he's away? What kind of impact does his death have on her? (Huge opening for epistolary fic here, if you ask me.)
As you can see, I've thought quite a lot about this and I'm very invested in the prequel material, so I am begging you on bended knee to include this fandom.
Re: Peaky Blinders (TV show)
Date: 2018-11-29 05:07 pm (UTC)However, As a) the request focuses on the characters during WWI, and b) The great war does have a great impact on the aforementioned first season, the mods will allow it.
Go forth and request prequel fic!
Re: Peaky Blinders (TV show)
Date: 2018-11-29 05:37 pm (UTC)Re: Peaky Blinders (TV show)
Date: 2018-11-30 04:34 pm (UTC)Re: Peaky Blinders (TV show)
Date: 2019-01-05 12:00 am (UTC)Re: Peaky Blinders (TV show)
Date: 2019-02-22 01:43 pm (UTC)https://archiveofourown.org/collections/peakyblindersexchange2019/profile
https://archiveofourown.org/collections/peakyblindersexchange2019/signups/new
Wonder Woman (2017)
Date: 2018-11-29 05:36 pm (UTC)And, in what I suspect may be the only uplifting trench scene in all the canons we nominate, the scene where Diana crosses No Man's Land is forever a fave.
Also, Gal Gadot is gorgeous and I am weak!
Aside from Diana & Steve Trevor, who I do indeed ship with the heat of a thousand suns, I'd like to point out that her motley crew of associates gives fanfic writers plenty of openings to write about WWI from very different perspectives. Sameer, the aspiring actor, and Chief, the Native smuggler, both deserve their own movies.
Rilla of Ingleside (part of the Anne of Green Gables series)
Date: 2018-11-29 05:51 pm (UTC)RILLA is a somewhat flighty but delightful girl who is just on the cusp of womanhood when WWI strikes and she has to grow up fast. Her WWI escapades are complete with a crush on a Toronto soldier, an accidentally adopted war-baby, and the internecine politics of the Junior Reds (young Red Cross volunteers).
WALTER is her brother, an imaginative and sensitive young man whose sense of justice is in conflict with his fear of the violence and ugliness of war. White feathers, poetry, and making me cry a lot.
SUSAN is the family cook, housekeeper, and more-or-less adopted aunt. Stoutly patriotic and completely hilarious, she's the one that runs up the flag at good news and rolls up her sleeves to go work in the fields when the harvest needs to be taken in. She would rather die an old maid than marry the likes of ----- ---------. I would die for Susan.
(Also there's like a billion other children and characters. But those are my favorites!)
Ivor Gurney, poetry
Date: 2018-11-29 05:56 pm (UTC)The last three lines of his sonnet On Somme are, to put it delicately, absolutely fucking peak. Observe the last slant rhyme and bury me in a deep, deep grave:
Suddenly into the still air burst thudding
And thudding and cold fear possessed me all,
On the gray slopes there, where Winter in sullen brooding
Hung between height and depth of the ugly fall
Of Heaven to earth; and the thudding was illness own.
But still a hope I kept that were we there going over
I; in the line, I should not fail, but take recover
From others courage, and not as coward be known.
No flame we saw, the noise and the dread alone
Was battle to us; men were enduring there such
And such things, in wire tangled, to shatters blown.
Courage kept, but ready to vanish at first touch.
Fear, but just held. Poets were luckier once
In the hot fray swallowed and some magnificence
Crossovers?
Date: 2018-12-29 04:06 am (UTC)Sybil Crawley (Downton Abbey) & Valentine Wannop (Parade's End)
Tommy Shelby (Peaky Blinders)/Sylvia Tietjens (Parade's End)
Mary Crawley (Downton Abbey) & May Carleton (Peaky Blinders)
Mary Crawley (Downton Abbey)/May Carleton (Peaky Blinders)
Walter Blythe (Rilla of Ingleside)/Alfie Solomons (Peaky Blinders)
Herbert West--Reanimator
Date: 2019-01-06 03:06 am (UTC)