lunabee34: (yuletide: kitty by chomiji)
Possession

On the Nature of a Side
I love that this fic is made up of letters and excerpts of books and that it spans the years just as the original novel does. Really nicely done. It's technically a crossover, but I have never heard of the crossover fandom, so I don't think you need to know anything about it to enjoy it.

Princess Bride

The Fighter Grooms
Fezzik/Inigo
Delightfully funny, true to the character voices, and with lovely authorial intrusion.

Dead Poet's Society

hold your soul open for my welcoming
Neil/Todd
Fix-it-fic where Neil lives (the best kind, naturally!).

Loneliness Is a State of Mind
Charlie/Meeks
A different kind of fix-it fic where Neil lives.

Kate and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

A Conundrum of Charms
This is a lovely, little mystery set just after the first book. Character voices are impeccable.

To Say Nothing of the Goat
This is Kate and Cecelia in different time periods and as characters in different universes; the section where they're Vulcan cousins is my favorite.
lunabee34: (sga: carter b/w by lenyia)
A fic to anyone who places that song lyric without the aid of Google!

Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration
I'm not sure that my love for this vid can be textually rendered. Thank you, thank you, Autotune for making my day a special one. Also, mad props to fiddle playing!Thomas Jefferson.

The Man they Call Jayne
It's Jayne! It's fun. Yay! (Anybody else think they've identified a Ting Tings inspiration?)

Hallelujah
Dead Poets
This song is goose-bump inducing under any circumstances, but couple it with this source text and pretty much the best cover outside of Jeff Buckley, and what you get is transcendent.

You Fill Up My Senses
TOS; Kirk/Spock
Okay, yes, this is kinda of the cheesiest song ever, but OMG this vid is so well-crafted and full of LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Srsly. Makes a Lorraine!heart go yay!

Anything McKay can do, Carter can do better
Do I need to say anything else? *beams*
lunabee34: (yuletide: star on tree by liviapenn)
A Land So Wild and Savage by Elanne; Laura Ingalls Wilder
I love so much the way this fic shows us Charles' interior--his wanderlust, his deep and abiding love for his family, the compromise he's made between the two impulses--in a way that we could never see from his daughter's perspective. I read these books as a child until they were pretty much falling apart and I have read them again as an adult, but not until I read this fic were the parents' motivations made so clear to me. In the book, Pa and Ma really read as ciphers; what are parents anyway filtered through their young children? Certainly not real people. LOL This is so beautifully written and at its end, I am left in tears. Amazing.

A Wall-E Christmas by Jheen
This is just precious. What does Wall-E need most for Christmas? Bonus points for awesome integration of the humans.

Breathe by Trollprincess
What a lovely little coda to The Shawshank Redemption.

Die Hard 4.5: I'll be Hard For Christmas by Aja
I think this fandom is hard to write in. I think it's hard to skirt the line between making McClane too soft and making him so hard that he's not even a real person. I think sometimes that taking these characters and moving them from archetypes to PEOPLE is a fuckload of work. Which is probably why I like writing in this fandom so much. But I digress. This fic is a superb blend of political action on Capitol Hill with John McClane's interior monologue. There is a secondary character, Amit, who I promise you will find at least as interesting as killing a helicopter with a car and enough one liners to make the Yuletide gay. :)

A Very Short Sermon by Solvent90; Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
This whole fic is the most wonderful grace note, the melody--pure and simple and sweet--that continues when the words in canon stop. This is Elinor's first Christmas as Mrs. Ferrars and it is blessed.

Next on Mythbusters: Can Luggage Move Itself? by Tigerbright
This is funny. Like, really, really funny. The voices of all the Mythbusters crew are spot on (I like that Jamie and Adam really aren't the focus here) and the footnotes are to die for.

What Became of Marie Le Fleur? by Sarah Brandt; Beauty and the Beast (Disney)
You guys know how much I love taking peripheral characters and giving them vital and meaningful lives. Their commentary on main characters is subversive and interesting; their perspective often changes what we think canon means, who we think characters are. This is a great look at how Marie might change after Gaston dies.

A Storybook Story by Thelastgoodname; Princess Bride
You know how sometimes you feel like fanfic writers have interviewed an author and asked hir if s/he could go back and write it like s/he really wanted to, what shape would the story take? And then stolen the answer? This is one of those stories. Funny and perfect in every way from the voices on down.

Afterwards by Bookwormsarah; Dead Poet's Society
I was in such good company this year in the archive, I'm surprised anyone even read my story after reading this one. It's a fantastic what happens next for Todd--how Keating changes him, how Neil changes him, the growth he finds all on his own. This chokes me up, y'all. This brings tears to my eyes and makes me love this movie much more fiercely than the rewatch would have led me to believe I could. Not to make this rec all about me, LOL, but I love that we both took the same idea (the DPS doing a version of Midsummer Night's Dream) and used it for very different ends.

As Long Ago as Forever, There Lived a Prince by Cinaed; Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea
Oh, my. Oh, my. This is lovely. For me, the Ged/Arren just leaps off the page from the second they appear in print together and this a wonderful acknowledgement of that relationship. The prose here is so like LeG's but is never merely derivative. I love the framing device. Pretty much, I love the whole damn thing.
lunabee34: (this ain't yo daddy's shipper fic by sto)
Nestled deeply in the pages of the conservative propoganda book that my aunt and uncle gave us was a crisp twenty dollar bill. How tricksy of them, potentially losing a twenty like that. LOL We are now the proud owners of a chest (30 cans) of High Life in the classy orange cans (to enjoy after the hunt!), a bag of Doritos, and a bottle of Ruby Red grapefruit juice.

I've been going through this year's Yuletide by fandom and already the squee is overwhelming. LOL I've only gotten up to Live Free and Die Hard, so expect more rec posts forthwith.

Shall I Miss the Selkies and the Seals
Fandom: A.S. Byatt's Possession
Possession is usually my favorite book; sometimes Dan Simmons's Ilium takes the honor, but usually it's Possession. Possession is about scholarship at its finest, at its most compelling and intriguing. It's about that little thrill in the pit of your stomach when you realize that you are touching things, reading things, that no one else has read or touched in ages. It's the goosebumps when you discover you've put together the puzzle, figured out the mystery, made a connection that no one else has noticed. Those feelings are rather few and far between in academia, but if you've ever had a moment like that (and I so gloriously have) you know how precious it is. It's the one book every English major should read. Period. This fic is very short and is a study in contrasts. We see Ash and Christabel together and then with each of their other respective partners; the language here is beautiful and compelling and evocative of the source material.

Weaving Lesson
Fandom: A.S. Byatt's Possession
Blanche is such an interesting character, the doomed Alice B. to Christabel's Gloria. There is such a lovely and aching despair that colors her and this missing scene from her life with Christabel is all the more poignant because we know what happens next. The Blanche voice here is particularly fine and engaging.

Sweet, Salt, and Bitter
Fandom: Bible
This story slashes the sisters Leah and Rachel and is seriously, seriously awesome. I love the dynamic between the two siblings here and the exploration of the roles they play. There is such an undercurrent of violence throughout the whole piece; these women are angry and so they lash out with their bodies, even as that violence is somehow transmuted into a strange kind of tenderness.

Are We the Fools For Being Surprised?
Fandom: Daria
And the answer to that question is, "Well, duh." This is told from Daria's POV and seeing the first semester of college through her inimitably snarky eyes--the confusion, the homesickness, the bright moments of epiphany--made me want to go mainline the whole series right this instant. I didn't have MTV growing up so I didn't see Daria until I was in college; I don't think I've seen all the episodes and the ones I have seen, I've only seen once. I wish this fic is one they'd filmed, the episode where Daria and Jane go off to college and miss Brittany and Kevin more than they'd ever admit and realize that their friendship runs much deeper than they'd expected.

The Thorny Edge of Evening
Fandom: Dead Poets Society
We've all got that handful of movies, right? The ones that shaped us, the ones we memorized all the words to, the ones that will not let go of us years after we initially watched. For me, DPS is at the head of that list. What I remember most is being transfixed by the power of the words they recite to each other. I had to go right out and start reading Thoreau and Whitman. This movie is so powerful for me because that joy they all experience--it can't be real, it can't last, it is beautifully fictional and unattainble and ultimately tragic. This piece lives right on that knife's edge between the joy and what happens next, in that moment when youth and words and life are enough to sustain, before the moment when they are not. Neil is so deftly drawn here, as is Todd. I ache for them both because I know what lies ahead.

Our Endless Work Down Here in Paradise
Fandom: Independence Day
I saw this movie on the third of July in a packed theater and it was one of those amazing theater experiences where the audience is all involved with the simultaneous gasping and laughing and the applauding and cheering at relevant moments. This fic is about what happens next. What happens after the debris stops raining from the sky? What do we do then? What I love about this piece is that, despite the solidarity from the film's conclusion, we've learned suprisingly little about how to function as a globe. What I also love is that this piece takes its time; there's no rush, no hurry, and the sense of inevitability with the pairing is quite lovely. Just in case, like me, you need a little refresher on the characters: David is played by Jeff Goldblum and Tom is the president played by Bill Pullman.
lunabee34: (this ain't yo daddy's shipper fic by sto)
Guess who's been dipping her toes in the Yuletide Archives?

The Listening Game by Adrienne
Fandom: Toy Soldiers
Pairing and Rating: Billy/Joey; Adult
This was my first rebellious movie, the first movie I watched despite being forbidden to do so. We watched Toy Soldiers at Sandy's thirteenth birthday party, five or so girls huddled around a tiny TV and eating popcorn while braiding each other's hair. This movie further cemented my infatuation with Wesley "I got a fucking machine gun" Crusher and began my lifelong love of the boy who would grow up to be Middle Earth's gayest most loyal hobbit. Toy Soldiers resonated so strongly with me as a teenager; the adults can't fix the situation, but a group of kids can outwit a terrorist strike group. I've also always been a major fan of angst and so I found Joey's death incredibly compelling. I rewatched this movie a year or so ago and was floored by all the slashy subtext I'd missed the on the first viewing. From that moment on, I've wanted TS fanfic like breathing but unfortunately could never find any until now. This fic strips away all the cheesiness of the movie and leaves behind its emotional intensity, the rawness that sometimes takes you by surprise. If there's gotta be only one TS fic, I'm really glad it's this one.

I Would Not be You For a Kingdom by Jane Carnall
Fandom: Charlotte Bronte's Villette
Rating and Pairing: Lucy/Ginevra; PG
I am very fond of Villette. I taught it several years back and while most of the students hated the novel, several really got what what Bronte was trying to do and made the teaching experience a true joy. Ginevra is such a fascinating character and what this fic does is offer us a femslashy and completely believeable explanation for her strange repulsion/attraction to Lucy. This fic very much inhabits the spirit of the novel and is a wonderful read.

Puerio Solivagi by Dira Sudis
Fandom: Dead Poet's Society
Rating and Pairing: Charlie/Todd, Neil/Todd; PG
I hate to reduce this to a pairing because there really isn't one even though there's a snog or two. This is about the hole that Neil leaves behind and what the others do to fill it. *cries* I was once obsessed with this movie and although I no longer remember every single line of dialogue verbatim, I do still remember the way this film made me feel. This fic takes me back to that place.

The Childing Autumn by Elizabeth de Epee et du Mot de Eau
Fandom: Dead Poet's Society
Pairing and Rating: Todd/Neil; PG
This fic is structured around the idea of firsts and it's seriously gorgeous--beautiful language that makes my heart ache in the most pleasant of ways. It's set in that magical time before everything falls apart, but we know what is to come and that knowledge hurts. The third paragraph from the end through the fic's conclusion is pretty much as close to perfect as anything I'd ever care to read.

In Truth No Beauty by Epigone
Fandom: M*A*S*H TV series
Pairing and Rating: Winchester/Klinger; Adult
This should not work. It should not work at all. It should not be beautiful and inevitable and right. It should not sting so much at its end. But oh, oh, it does.

the hours between dawn and nothing by anotherjuxtaposition
Fandom: M*A*S*H TV series
Pairing and Rating: Hawkeye/BJ; PG-13
This is one of those marvelous stories that skirts the line between friendship and romance. The author never truly makes clear whether Beej and Hawk ever laid hands on each other, but what she does make clear is that sex or no, their relationship is the most important one that each of them has ever had. I didn't rate this PG-13 for sexual situations because there aren't any. Instead I based the rating on a fairly graphic and incredibly well done description of PTSD. In this fic, BJ flounders after the war is over. He's uncomfortable in his old skin and his old life and the one person he truly needs has made himself unavailable. To paraphrase another commenter, I knew when I was dreading the end of the war that this fic had gotten to me. LOL You wanna see what the gold standard looks like, my friends? Read this. You will not be disappointed.

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