June of Doom & Gloom - Week 3 discussion and etc. post

[huinare]

A slightly belated welcome to the third week of this here.

Have another update/progress/discussion post thing. Any progress in your writing, frustrations, new plot bunnies? Feel free to gab. General discussion question (all welcome, participants or otherwise): Are there particular characters you tend to victimize select more frequently as subject matter when writing sad, scary, or otherwise not-lighthearted stories? or particular groups/settings/time periods? Put another way, are there certain characters who just can't seem to catch a break from you in your fanworks?

Comments

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I've taken my sweet time in leaving a response to my own update posts, for the simple reason that I didn't begin my own fic efforts until late yesterday evening. That didn't seem the best showing for my own challenge, but since I myself stated that it runs all month, I never did violate my own requirements. ;)

I've been pondering some stuff about Mairon/Annatar/Sauron's sojourn in Númenor for a while, so that seemed the evident project to work on now. I originally intended to begin with a short story inspired by Nico's "The Falconer" (this goes with week 2 and the music discussion, really).

The aforementioned song can probably be obliquely blamed for anything I write about Númenor during this month, but what I did end up writing yesterday was just about Mairon-as-high-priest-of-Melkor. Tiny snippet:

“I couldn’t,” the young man apologized.

“Couldn’t what?”

Thrown by the question, the acolyte attempted to find delicate words for the grotesquely obvious, quickly reduced himself to stammering, and concluded with a sudden interest in the floor, “Kill the woman, your reverence.”

“Well, yes, that is apparent.” Mairon’s voice hung artfully suspended between amusement and annoyance. The acolyte, gazing compulsively back upward, noted the same ambiguity in his face. “What aspect of that process prevented your carrying it out?”

I find it worth mentioning that my rough draft of yesterday had the as-yet-unnamed acolyte addressing Mairon as "your holiness." I liked the sort of deadpan irony--even obscenity, if you will--of that title, but I ended up switching it solely on the basis of the cult of Melkor still being in its start-up phase at this point (picture Mairon running it out of Ar-Pharazôn's basement or attic, albeit with the latter's blessing). "Holiness" seemed a bit too lofty, to my mind, given the context. I welcome opinions on that point.

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

"Holiness" seemed a bit too lofty, to my mind, given the context. I welcome opinions on that point.

The DM heartily approves of the use of "holiness." In the Pandë!verse, there are plenty of blatant religious references similar to that(cf. Downfallen and Into This Wild Abyss). Prior to writing those, I had read not a few fics that addressed Sauron in Numenor that also played on the religious angle but these heavily (and quite uncomfortably) alluded to Islam in certain imagery. My knee jerk response was to incorporate, ummmm, little nods to another Abrahamic religion that the original author of the source texts embraced. So "your holiness" is spot-on. Mairon is, after all, the high priest.

DM: You could say I was darker version of Elmer Gantry.

All righty then...the DM and I must return to our "doom and gloom" documents. ;^)

p.s. Love the snippet. I now hear Aidan Gillen whenever your Mairon speaks, and I CLEARLY hear that voice here!

[huinare.livejournal.com]

... ummmm, little nods to another Abrahamic religion that the original author of the source texts embraced.

You mean said religion is not infallible? Surely you jest. ;)

I loved both of those stories, but it has been some time since I read them.

"Your holiness" wasn't a reference to any real world religion per se (it evokes the Dalai Lama as much as the Pope for me, when I hear it). The holy varies culturally and even individually so I do find it a plausible (and also satisfyingly jarring) title for priest!Mairon. I thought possibly it was too extreme a title at the chronological point of the story, since I don't see him as having a completely firm hold on things in Númenor just yet. Today I've been pondering keeping it as "your reverence" in this ficlet, and later on in the sequence it will conspicuously become "your holiness." >=D

Thanks much for commenting! I know you (and the DM) are swamped.

p.s. Love the snippet. I now hear Aidan Gillen whenever your Mairon speaks, and I CLEARLY hear that voice here!

Score! Voicecasting success.

[independence1776]

Butting in: I like the "your reverence" now and "your holiness" later; your reasoning makes sense.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Not butting in at all, I asked for opinions. =)