![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mific posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
amplificathonThis may seem like a weird category for a recs post, but bear with me.
I have to confess that I use certain stories like a drug - hell, I use most of them that way. I've been going through some difficult times across the past year, in the throes of anticpatory grief about losing my parents, and getting involved in fandom reading and writing has been a pretty major way to cope. Well, that and denial, but same difference.
My main fanfic obsession has been John/Rodney SGA fics and when I'm feeling especially fragile it has to be fluff and happy endings all round. But mostly I can handle lashings of angst as long as it all comes out okay in the end for the boys.
That's meant that certain not-really-happy-ending fics were well outside my comfort zone and I avoided them for some time despite all the rec lists telling me I wasn't a true fan until I'd read them. In the end I found that although I couldn't bear to read them, for some weird reason I could listen to them as podfic. Maybe it's something to do with the feeling of driving while listening - maybe that allowed me enough of a sense of escape, of movement. Or maybe it was the opposite - that in the car I had no escape, I had to listen for as long as the trip took, and I have a long commute. In the end, listening while driving was enough to pull me into the stories so that I finished them at home, which was just as well because it was hankies all the way for the first two.
I'm going to rec three fics here. I should warn that there are spoilers here for the stories, inevitably, as I can't talk about them without discussing the content:
Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose by synecdochic, read by kuepo
The classic 'hurts so good' fic of them all. It takes the essential silliness of SGA (where, lets face it, they'd all be drowned, blown-up or ancient dried-up husks in about five minutes if there were a shred of reality in the series) and carves ruthlessly through to the inevitable tragedy at its core, as only great fanfiction can, being so much braver than the series writers were ever allowed to be. Of course most of us don't want it to be real, we read or listen for escapism and harsh reality is the last thing we're looking for. In this fic, John dies relatively young but his death's well in the past and the story's largely about Rodney who has gone on with his life, teaching physics back on Earth. It's heartbreaking but poignant as Rodney comes to terms with his grief by mentoring the next generation of physicists, teaching them the hard lessons he learned in Pegasus. Kuepo reads it beautifully and her calm and measured delivery works very well with the intensely emotional material. A great podfic of a very human, very grown up story.
Your Cowboy Days are Over by M (samdonne), read by general_jinjur
This one was hard to read as I'd gottten wind from a posting somewhere that it involved John's grief for his child, and as it's not a John/Rodney fic. That's another way in which podfic broadens my appreciation. I seem to be able to listen to gen or other pairings more readily in podfic form, when I can't always handle reading them. Perhaps it's the car effect again, or just that I love podfic so much it makes most well-written fic gripping even if it's not my OTP (aka defence mechanism). It's not the easiest story to handle - there's real alienness in the world John, his son and Teyla have fled to as refugees from Atlantis and John selling his memories to support them is deeply creepy. And as the story about his son unfolds it's more and more obvious that there's tragedy ahead, embedded in how much John loves him as much as anything. It's a powerful story, wonderfully read by general_jinjur who's such a fluid reader that in podfic form the story flowed over me and carried me along despite how painful it eventually became. The end when John's son is finally dying is desperately sad but was read so well, with the reader's voice on the edge of tears as John somehow comes through and survives his loss.
All These Places We Have Met by toft, read by thingswithwings
This one was not so hard to take as the others, as there's a John/Rodney pairing, some hot erotic encounters and bearable angst leading up to them getting back together in the end. Sort-of. As with all Toft's fiction it's wonderfully well-written and there's a complex plot with John chasing "his" Rodney through alternate realities. Which is where the rub lies, as the end's a killer. Many alternate universe fics gloss over the plights of the unhappy realities where John and Rodney never meet, or one or the other dies, or their alternates' situations are desperate. We get carried along with the "main" pairing and cheerfully forget about the others. Toft doesn't let us get away with that, so the ending is intensely bitter-sweet. Thingswithwings reads it really well, with great feeling, phrasing and timing as the story builds to its dramatic, gut-punching conclusion.
So - my suggestion if you haven't been able to make yourself read any of these: try the podfics. They're well worth it.
(and apologies for the shouty bolding - laptop's playing up and won't format properly)
Crossposted to![[info]](https://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
amplificathon
I have to confess that I use certain stories like a drug - hell, I use most of them that way. I've been going through some difficult times across the past year, in the throes of anticpatory grief about losing my parents, and getting involved in fandom reading and writing has been a pretty major way to cope. Well, that and denial, but same difference.
My main fanfic obsession has been John/Rodney SGA fics and when I'm feeling especially fragile it has to be fluff and happy endings all round. But mostly I can handle lashings of angst as long as it all comes out okay in the end for the boys.
That's meant that certain not-really-happy-ending fics were well outside my comfort zone and I avoided them for some time despite all the rec lists telling me I wasn't a true fan until I'd read them. In the end I found that although I couldn't bear to read them, for some weird reason I could listen to them as podfic. Maybe it's something to do with the feeling of driving while listening - maybe that allowed me enough of a sense of escape, of movement. Or maybe it was the opposite - that in the car I had no escape, I had to listen for as long as the trip took, and I have a long commute. In the end, listening while driving was enough to pull me into the stories so that I finished them at home, which was just as well because it was hankies all the way for the first two.
I'm going to rec three fics here. I should warn that there are spoilers here for the stories, inevitably, as I can't talk about them without discussing the content:
Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose by synecdochic, read by kuepo
The classic 'hurts so good' fic of them all. It takes the essential silliness of SGA (where, lets face it, they'd all be drowned, blown-up or ancient dried-up husks in about five minutes if there were a shred of reality in the series) and carves ruthlessly through to the inevitable tragedy at its core, as only great fanfiction can, being so much braver than the series writers were ever allowed to be. Of course most of us don't want it to be real, we read or listen for escapism and harsh reality is the last thing we're looking for. In this fic, John dies relatively young but his death's well in the past and the story's largely about Rodney who has gone on with his life, teaching physics back on Earth. It's heartbreaking but poignant as Rodney comes to terms with his grief by mentoring the next generation of physicists, teaching them the hard lessons he learned in Pegasus. Kuepo reads it beautifully and her calm and measured delivery works very well with the intensely emotional material. A great podfic of a very human, very grown up story.
Your Cowboy Days are Over by M (samdonne), read by general_jinjur
This one was hard to read as I'd gottten wind from a posting somewhere that it involved John's grief for his child, and as it's not a John/Rodney fic. That's another way in which podfic broadens my appreciation. I seem to be able to listen to gen or other pairings more readily in podfic form, when I can't always handle reading them. Perhaps it's the car effect again, or just that I love podfic so much it makes most well-written fic gripping even if it's not my OTP (aka defence mechanism). It's not the easiest story to handle - there's real alienness in the world John, his son and Teyla have fled to as refugees from Atlantis and John selling his memories to support them is deeply creepy. And as the story about his son unfolds it's more and more obvious that there's tragedy ahead, embedded in how much John loves him as much as anything. It's a powerful story, wonderfully read by general_jinjur who's such a fluid reader that in podfic form the story flowed over me and carried me along despite how painful it eventually became. The end when John's son is finally dying is desperately sad but was read so well, with the reader's voice on the edge of tears as John somehow comes through and survives his loss.
All These Places We Have Met by toft, read by thingswithwings
This one was not so hard to take as the others, as there's a John/Rodney pairing, some hot erotic encounters and bearable angst leading up to them getting back together in the end. Sort-of. As with all Toft's fiction it's wonderfully well-written and there's a complex plot with John chasing "his" Rodney through alternate realities. Which is where the rub lies, as the end's a killer. Many alternate universe fics gloss over the plights of the unhappy realities where John and Rodney never meet, or one or the other dies, or their alternates' situations are desperate. We get carried along with the "main" pairing and cheerfully forget about the others. Toft doesn't let us get away with that, so the ending is intensely bitter-sweet. Thingswithwings reads it really well, with great feeling, phrasing and timing as the story builds to its dramatic, gut-punching conclusion.
So - my suggestion if you haven't been able to make yourself read any of these: try the podfics. They're well worth it.
(and apologies for the shouty bolding - laptop's playing up and won't format properly)
Crossposted to
amplificathon
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-23 03:24 pm (UTC)I think there's something about hearing someone reading the story to you that makes you feel the presence of another person, even if you stop registering *their* voice. It comforts me and draws me into the story more than if I am reading a fic on the computer and I periodically stop and bop around to other tabs. Podfic keeps me listening but I also feel like hearing a reader's voice steadies me for the difficult sections-- often their expression is so emotional that I don't feel alone in reacting emotionally to the content, too? Just musing aloud, here.
Fantastic post, and great recs! I have never got around to Your Cowboy Days Are Over, so I am downloading it now! Thank you, and here's hoping this year is better than the last.
[edited to fix link]
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 02:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-23 08:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 02:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-23 10:54 pm (UTC)I will now do download tour other two rec's. Thank you.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 12:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 01:43 am (UTC)Just so you know, everything that's archived at audiofic is always available as an mp3, regardless of what file type we receive, since mp3 is the most widely-accessible format. If you only have a link to a non-mp3 file, you can do a search for the title using the search box at the top of the navigation bar on the right. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 01:57 am (UTC)Thanks again!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 02:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 02:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-24 02:08 am (UTC)