Scary stuff...

[fajrdrako]

fannish5: I might as well combine the October 19 and October 26 questions, which are: 1. What are the 5 creepiest or most frightening pieces of fan fiction you have ever read?

To which I can only reply: not applicable. I don't like to read or watch scary stuff. If I start a piece of fanfic and find it creepy or frightening, I stop reading. So it's safe to say I've never read a piece of creepy or scary fanfic. I read fanfic for other reasons - because it's interesting, funny, exciting, sexy or imaginative. Never because it's scary.

2. What are the five spookiest episodes or scenes?

As with fanfic, so with entertainment in general: I avoid scary things. But here at least I can scrape up a few answers.

1. The Doctor Who series one two-part episode "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". I've watched them so often now that any fear-factor they ever had is long gone, but I remember how spooked I felt the first time I watched, and how much I enjoyed the story. I liked its combination of spookiness and humour. These are also the episodes that first introduced Captain Jack Harkness. The story was, of course, by the very best of Doctor Who writers, Steven Moffat. I don't, as a rule, find Doctor Who creepy in the least, but Moffat knows how to scare me and make me like it.



2. The Doctor Who episode "Blink", by (who else?) Steven Moffat.



3. Anything written by Alan Garner. Back in my teens I read The Owl Service. It terrified me and I loved it. Beautiful writing, which frightened me so much I then avoided his his books. Years later, I picked up another of his books - I don't recall the title - and was so scared by the first paragraph I couldn't continue. There wasn't even anything scary on that page. It's just all in his style. He has the unique distinction of being the writer I most love and admire whose works I can't read.



4. The X-Files episode "Humbug". It was the third episode I saw - up to that point, I thought the series rather silly, but not unwatchable for when I was doing exercises. "Humbug" was funny and scary at the same time - I liked that. I then became a passionate X-Files fan for a few years, and particularly a Fox Mulder fan, until the show lost its intelligence.



5. Carnivale. I watched till about the middle of second season, when it got to be too much for me. It was somewhat like a serious continuation of X-Files' "Humbug", with its carnival background - and of course a role for Michael J. Anderson in each. It had its share of time-bending, too. It was loosely about mythological forces of good vs. evil as played out with the story of a Methodist minister (who had supernatural powers) and a travelling "Carnivale" wandering through Texas in the Depression.
   
   Carnivale had consistently good actors, like Nick Stahl, Patrick Bauchau and Clea Duvall - and a special nod should go to Cynthia Ettinger, who played Rita Sue. And it had consistently good writing, for all it didn't usually make a lot of sense. Even the opening title sequence (which won an Emmy) was always fascinating to watch. My favourite episode was the one called "Babylon", a creepy story about a Texas ghost town with an abandoned mine.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

The only things that frighten me in fic are things that are not meant to be frightening, but are: generally written by 14-year-olds or people with a mental/emotional age of 14:

In Patriot fandom:
An 18C story with a vegetarian Valley-Girl-in-Paniers author-insert heroine. Another that had a tartan-wearing warrior heroine who somehow managed to be descended from both William Wallace and Rob Roy Macgregor. All signs that the authors knew f-all about history but a lot about bad 'bodice-ripper' fiction.

In KoH fandom:
Anything that involves Baldwin IV and sex. The bishounen-ing of the character by stupid young girls who impose manga/anime stereotyping on every bloody fandom, even when it's totally culturally inappropriate. Worst of all: Guy/Baldwin rape.

What terrifies me is that the perpetrators do not actually see that there is anything wrong with this, especially when using real-life characters.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It doesn't bother me much in this sort of fanfic, because I think the greatest thing about fic is the total freedom it gives everyone - even the fourteen year olds - to write whatever they want. And I have, of course, the freedom not to read it.

And I don't read stories like the above, because they are, generally speaking, easy to avoid because their nature is usually clear from the first paragraph. Even if not that, it might well have a warning that says something like, "This is my first KOH story ever, be kind," and adds that it hasn't been beta'd. Or worse, that list of people who beta'd it goes on forever - for some reason, those are the worst.

I wrote stories when I was fourteen, and they probably weren't any better. But I didn't let many people see them, either. Just as well I couldn't put them online!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I wish that teenagers today had the same self-restraint. I wouldn't even share some of my stories with my parents when I was young. "Writing for the drawer" has gone out of style. They are all rampant exhibitionists who want praise (and nothing but) for everything they do. Then, of course, there are those who are over 14 in years, but are just emotionally retarded.

I was on a yahoo group, that meant I couldn't avoid getting the 18C stuff mailed to me in the lists. What I found disturbing was that negative comment, however polite, was not allowed, and was considered to be 'flaming', lest it deter some people from writing. The fact that some people ought to be deterred didn't seem to occur to anyone. Some of the worst examples (such as the imposition of Japanese manga stereotypes on 12C Outremer) were by over-20-year-old adults who were still emotionally 14-ish.

I strongly believe in deterring bad writers (including published ones). There should be a "national do-not-write-a-novel month". Or year. They could always take up knitting, or something that they are actually good at.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You would never, ever want to see my knitting.