Of PDAs and Bunnies

[mamadeb]

New PDA is in the shipment process now. I'm looking forward to having a new toy. I'm also looking forward to just having it back - I keep looking for my old one for mundane things like a game of Snood or to start writing a story. A good half the birthday stories I've been writing have had their start on that PDA - and using Graffiti to do it. I have a keyboard somewhere, but the stylus is right there, you know? And now I'll have a thumboard.

The last one was the Luna Lovegood I just wrote - I'd written out the first few paragraphs but then I lost the thing and anyway, it turned out I needed to go a completely different way. Which happens to me a lot.

Does that happen to any of the other writers out there? You start writing a story one way, but end up with something completely different?

In the queue: One Harry/Ron. One Ron/Draco or Lily/James. One JLA or SiriusRemu. One Jim/Blair "for old time's sake." jaci's wedding challenge, which will be H/D. (And needs to be fluffy, and I have no idea how to do a fluffy HP story.) And indigocat, whose birthday is tomorrow, wants the final installment of Phases, also known as the Snape/Lupin trainwreck.

And there's the Snape Chanukah bunny. 12am_nosh has a non-Christmas challenge, and I got the idea from that. Not for the challenge, because it's a Snape/Black (Sirius or Regulus) challenge and I can't make it work for that pairing. Or maybe any pairing.

Yeah, I know. I have a *thing* about holiday stories. I've written, um. Three. Two were generated from an anger I'm just not feeling this year. Amazing, no? This might change, but right now I'm feeling pretty mellow about the whole thing. Maybe it's the Chanukah lights shining out of the windows along my street.

But still, I don't like writing holiday stories much - anyone's holidays, including my own.

Anyway - I've been amused for the past however long in all the various ways authors and rpg players have have found to reconcile Alan Rickman's looks with this very English character. I've seen Italian, Arabic and Rom, and the truly amusing native speaker of Esperanto. (Waits for laughter to stop. That means you, gnomi.) And all of these (except the, you know, Esperanto thing) are reasonable and often fun to read. hp_dungeons has done quite a lot with the Rom heritage, for example. I have not seen one possible heritage, though - Alan Rickman's own.

While I do not actually believe Snape to be Jewish, he *could* be, even from his canonical description. And thus, the bunny.

(Also, I have Theories about Jewish Wizardry, and this might be a way of showing them or I could write another essay.)

So. Thoughts? Should I? Or should I be clearing my queue first? I address this last to ellen_fremedon, cmshaw, ariestess, hiddenhibiscus and indigocat - I think you ladies do have top priority, but Chanukah only has seven more days.

Comments

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

I really want to hear about your Theories of Jewish Wizardry, and I'd bet littlewings04 and the rest of the Lightningchix do too.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

This is for lightningwar?

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. LW has an interesting history because nearly everyone who stuck with the game has some connection to Judaism (a lot of us are half-Jewish and one of us is a marrano) and so we've batted the topic about a lot. (The other thing most of the people who stuck with LW have in common is a strongly Slytherin orientation. Not to imply that the two have any connection whatsoever, just, that's who ended up sticking with the game.)

It would be interesting to hear what someone who isn't one of us thinks about it, if that makes any sense at all.

The game's not very active right now. We're thinking of trying to revive it in January, after using our winter break to straighten out some of the loose ends.

[littlewings04.livejournal.com]

Yes. I definitely want to hear your theories on Jewish wizardry. I have more then my own full share, and I love comparing notes.

I'm the marrano, btw. Just for clarification.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I would enjoy seeing your Theories about Jewish Wizardry play out in a story.

This has nothing to do with my Rickman fixation. Nothing at all. It's pure intellectual curiosity, naturally.

::whistling innocently::

Chag sameach!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

See, I don't *have* a Rickman fascination. He's certainly handsome enough, and there's that rich voice...

But, um. I'm spoiled. My husband is a baal tefillah. He has a rich, warm voice of his own - not theatered-trained, but he can fill a synagogue unamplified, and he lacks the British accent and the snarkiness - and I get to hear it every day.

On the other hand, Snape is the most complex character in the books, and therefore he's fun to write about.

As for the story...:)

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

I don't have a Rickman fascination either. He doesn't look very much like I always pictured Snape, though the voice is perfect.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Hey, what do you have against native speakers of Esperanto?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

Nothing, any more than I do against native speakers of Klingon.

[vass]

And Sindarin?

By the way, your Chanukah icon is so pretty.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

And Golic, too.

Thank you! darthfox made it pretty for me.

[lomedet.livejournal.com]

I'm not in your queue, but I'd love to see you address Theories of Jewish Wizardry, in whatever format seems best.

(There's a story that I can't remember the title or author of which deals with Snape and Harry making a golem and having to learn a lot of Jewish stuff - have you read it?)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I think kassrachel *points up* wrote that one.

[lomedet.livejournal.com]

::blushes in embarassment at faux pas::

now that you mention it, that makes a lot of sense. I knew it was a story that used Jewish magic in really cool ways...

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i'm similarly not in your queue, but would similarly love to see your Theories of Jewish Wizardry. plus jewish!snape -- does he not eat at Grimmauld Place because it's not kosher? (okay, he's not that frum, surely. but, you know.)

chag sameach!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Snape? Not religious at all. Barely knows how to ...well.

He doesn't eat at Grimmauld Place because would you eat with your ex and his boyfriend? :)

(Or, canonically, because he truly hates Sirius and couldn't stomach any food around him.)

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

Now I'm wondering, too....

[hiddenhibiscus.livejournal.com]

By all means go for the Chanukah stories! I'd love to see one!!! (I'll poke you later for a story, don't worry.) Happy Chanukah!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You're next after the one I'm writing now. But Ron/Draco will be a stretch, so maybe I'll tackle this one first.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I'd like to hear anything you have to say about Jewish!Snape, Jewish wizardry, or anything else. In my het pairing's fics (sorry, it's relevant) it has apparently happened. I did hear of one fic where Snape was portrayed as Jewish, by a Jewish author. It was infamously controversial for other reasons and I didn't read it. I actually read one where he made reference to his mother having lived through the Holocaust (it was far less tactless and offensive than it may sound, in fact I found it moving) but her ethnic background wasn't specified and the story had AU elements.

I'm sure you could do a wonderful job.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I hope so. I just don't want to be too expositiony.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

If you mean about your theories on Jewish wizardry and using them in a fanfic, that I'm not sure I can help about.

If you just mean about Jewish elements, and working their presence into the story: I'd say to do something small. In my main fandom I had a plot bunny about one character giving another a yahrzeit candle... but she wouldn't know what one was. So there was the opportunity, the character explained that he was from a Jewish background and what the candle was, and I think it flowed fairly well. Both people who didn't know what a yahrzeit candle was and people who did enjoyed the story, in fact one person honored me with a little reference to the same character lighting a yahrzeit candle in a ficlet. (Not bragging here... just explaining that I think it can be done well.) This was a slightly different situation as I the character was not supposed to be practicing Judaism but more remembering his family practice so I had room to portray things differently.

Just couldn't resist telling that over, sorry.

[ariestess]

I am curious to read your theory on Jewish!Snape....

You can hold my b'day story for a later date....

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Not a problem. BTW - you have a favorite JLA pairing?

[ariestess]

*thinks* I'd say WonderWoman/Hawkgirl, but I'm also partial to the whole Batman/Superman thing somehow. Must be the whole broody hero thing *g*

[axiom_of_stripe]

oh, i have no problem with extending my birthday a little longer. :) and i'm as curious as the rest!

[museclio]

Mama, I would like to see it... and my birthday is Friday

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

and the truly amusing native speaker of Esperanto.

*tries not to laugh*

*fails miserably*

Hey, it could have been worse. He could have been a native speaker of transpiranto. (= Mock language made up by a Swedish humor magazine. "I'll be happy with simple pleasures" for example was translated into "Spartan-entertainment tolereras.")

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

(Waits for laughter to stop. That means you, gnomi.)

*snort* *giggle* *guffaw*

Nope...still laughing. Native Esperanto speakers. Yuppers.

As for holiday stories, I tell you -- one of these days, I'm gonna write the Great American Shavuot Story. Just because. :-)