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feedback challenge: lalejandra
I've heard ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lalejandra's name bandied about, but we've never crossed paths due to lack of shared fandoms. I was a bit apprehensive this would prevent me from being able to give her real feedback, but then I discovered a treasure trove in her memories:
My So-Called Life
There's fic for this???? Good fic?
Like, yes.
~~~
I know the series is out on DVD (and it's on my wishlist). I also am pretty sure it's currently being rerun on the Nick-for-Teens station. I was an adult when the show originally aired, but Mr. Glove and I watched religiously and, like, related. Not to Patty and Graham, the parents, but to Rayanne and Angela and Brian. And, like Rayanne, for whom I felt the deepest affinity (closely followed by Brian), I wanted to be Angela, or was frustrated with her, or had a crush on her, or just wished she'd act on some of the things that seemed so simple, yet which she insisted on making complicated.
So,lalejandra's stories: I read them in the order they're listed here, ate them up with a spoon. None are very long, and all are worth reading. I'm going to cover three stories with however many quotes smack me upside on this re-read:
First: When you grow up, your heart dies.
Rayanne POV. Wonderful, sad, wild Rayanne with her slutty mom and poor impulse control, who wanted Angela's life, or maybe just Angela's options. Here we have Rayanne thinking about Angela, and the things that make her both in love and in exasperation with her friend:
But goddamn Angela thinks caring is worthwhile anyway, and she practices caring constantly and without discretion, and maybe Rayanne wishes she could feel that way, too.
Later, I was reminded of how Rayanne, despite her teenage wrongheadedness, did really seem to understand so much more about Angela than Angela ever would about her (though Angela would probably just assume the opposite), especially in this passage:
And, well, that part ties in beautifully with the end of the story, which I will not give away here because, like, it's the end, and a big part of why you would have read it anyway. So, go read. The rest of this will be here when you get back.
~~~
Break-ups and Make-ups and Fuck-ups and Fake-ups
Angela and Brian:
A perfect bit of wrenching, pissed-off honesty. Gah. I lovelalejandra's Brian voice - here, and in the story Stairway, as well. The onscreen Brian goes through life frustrated, tension building and cresting in regular waves of irritable outburst before reverting into a bemused, generalized submission. Um, like a real teenage boy, I suppose. Yeah. The writers for MSCL had that down, and so does lalejandra.
~~~
Tres Tragique: Oh my god. A crossover with The O.C.. Having only seen about two and a half eps of that show, I'm no expert, but I do think this actually Summer (completely with footwear imagery) and Ryan visiting Pittsburgh during the plaid years. Special bonus crossover with that other Pittsburgh show, which no doubt influenced the few moments of full-frontal. I always thought the show was hinting at this kind of life for Jordan, but wouldn't go there for obvious reasons…
There's another crossover in the list, Jordan Catalano: The Last Refuge of 1998, where he meets up with Ephram of Everwood. I've never seen Everwood, but the Jordan who meets up with Ephram is a wonderful and positive extrapolation from the vague, sad, drifting kid of MSCL. I never imagined Jordan as a success. Like, never. I assumed he'd end up drunk and living in his car. But this is a completely believable Future!Jordan who actually has something going for him besides the enigmatic manner in which he leans.
It seems possible thatlalejandra shares my identification with both Rayanne and Brian, as their voices are both particularly strong, accurate, and felt in a way that effortlessly recalls the cadence of the show.
~~~
I've been trying to skew my comments here towardlalejandra rather than trying to sell the stories to potential new readers, but I'm at least halfway failing. However, I do think it's quite apparent that I enjoyed her work ;)
And I lied in the cut tag text. Not so much with the exclamation points.
lalejandra's name bandied about, but we've never crossed paths due to lack of shared fandoms. I was a bit apprehensive this would prevent me from being able to give her real feedback, but then I discovered a treasure trove in her memories:My So-Called Life
There's fic for this???? Good fic?
Like, yes.
~~~
I know the series is out on DVD (and it's on my wishlist). I also am pretty sure it's currently being rerun on the Nick-for-Teens station. I was an adult when the show originally aired, but Mr. Glove and I watched religiously and, like, related. Not to Patty and Graham, the parents, but to Rayanne and Angela and Brian. And, like Rayanne, for whom I felt the deepest affinity (closely followed by Brian), I wanted to be Angela, or was frustrated with her, or had a crush on her, or just wished she'd act on some of the things that seemed so simple, yet which she insisted on making complicated.
So,
lalejandra's stories: I read them in the order they're listed here, ate them up with a spoon. None are very long, and all are worth reading. I'm going to cover three stories with however many quotes smack me upside on this re-read:First: When you grow up, your heart dies.
Rayanne POV. Wonderful, sad, wild Rayanne with her slutty mom and poor impulse control, who wanted Angela's life, or maybe just Angela's options. Here we have Rayanne thinking about Angela, and the things that make her both in love and in exasperation with her friend:
It's like. If you care about one thing you have to care about everything else. So maybe she understands why no one would want to care about anything--because it's like a downward spiral. Caring about one thing sucks you in and makes you care about everything else. Caring about Rickie made Rayanne care about Angela and caring about Angela made Rayanne care about Sharon, and the whole thing made Rayanne sick.
It wasn't like caring meant anything. It didn't change anything. It didn't bring back fathers or erase sixteen years of being underestimated or cross off your name under "Most Slut Potential". Caring didn't give you money or time or enough brains to get by in school without having to concentrate. Caring never helped anyone.
But goddamn Angela thinks caring is worthwhile anyway, and she practices caring constantly and without discretion, and maybe Rayanne wishes she could feel that way, too.
Later, I was reminded of how Rayanne, despite her teenage wrongheadedness, did really seem to understand so much more about Angela than Angela ever would about her (though Angela would probably just assume the opposite), especially in this passage:
Angela once told Rayanne and Rickie that she thought school was like a battlefield for your heart. Rickie had sighed and leaned his head against Angela's shoulder and said, "That's so pretty. You're like a poet." Rayanne had said, "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard," and pushed off the wall and went to find Tino.
Because, like, didn't Angela know that she was so behind the times? Pat Benetar already said that love was the battlefield, and it was like--like--how could that make sense? Battlefields were where the battles were fought, not what the battles were. The battlefield was unimportant--it could be the hallway or the bathroom or the parking lot of Let's Bolt or Angela's mom's bedroom. Maybe what Angela had meant to say was that school was the war, the enemy your heart was fighting against, and the building was the battlefield.
And, well, that part ties in beautifully with the end of the story, which I will not give away here because, like, it's the end, and a big part of why you would have read it anyway. So, go read. The rest of this will be here when you get back.
~~~
Break-ups and Make-ups and Fuck-ups and Fake-ups
Angela and Brian:
“Brian, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Oh, really? Newsflash, Chase: nobody cares what you mean—people only care what you say and what you do. If nothing in the world matters, then what you mean matters the least.”
A perfect bit of wrenching, pissed-off honesty. Gah. I love
lalejandra's Brian voice - here, and in the story Stairway, as well. The onscreen Brian goes through life frustrated, tension building and cresting in regular waves of irritable outburst before reverting into a bemused, generalized submission. Um, like a real teenage boy, I suppose. Yeah. The writers for MSCL had that down, and so does lalejandra.~~~
Tres Tragique: Oh my god. A crossover with The O.C.. Having only seen about two and a half eps of that show, I'm no expert, but I do think this actually Summer (completely with footwear imagery) and Ryan visiting Pittsburgh during the plaid years. Special bonus crossover with that other Pittsburgh show, which no doubt influenced the few moments of full-frontal. I always thought the show was hinting at this kind of life for Jordan, but wouldn't go there for obvious reasons…
There's another crossover in the list, Jordan Catalano: The Last Refuge of 1998, where he meets up with Ephram of Everwood. I've never seen Everwood, but the Jordan who meets up with Ephram is a wonderful and positive extrapolation from the vague, sad, drifting kid of MSCL. I never imagined Jordan as a success. Like, never. I assumed he'd end up drunk and living in his car. But this is a completely believable Future!Jordan who actually has something going for him besides the enigmatic manner in which he leans.
It seems possible that
lalejandra shares my identification with both Rayanne and Brian, as their voices are both particularly strong, accurate, and felt in a way that effortlessly recalls the cadence of the show. ~~~
I've been trying to skew my comments here toward
lalejandra rather than trying to sell the stories to potential new readers, but I'm at least halfway failing. However, I do think it's quite apparent that I enjoyed her work ;) And I lied in the cut tag text. Not so much with the exclamation points.