Saturday Night at the Movies: Inception

I had an awesome Saturday night. I went to see Inception and then had take out sushi afterwards. Happy place, I tell you.

I liked Inception a lot. I went to see it because I wanted to know why people were writing fic about it. It’s been incredibly disorienting seeing Arthur/Eames pop up as a pairing, because my automatic reaction was ...there’s a new knight? Named "Eames"? What? Wait....

I went in knowing that it was a science fiction film with Leonardo DiCaprio in it and that there was Arthur/Eames fiction. I really, really, wasn’t sure what to expect. The last film I saw that had that kind of instant slash reaction (I haven’t seen The Losers yet.) was Sherlock Holmes and while that was a romp I also felt pandered to as a slasher. (It’s not a good feeling.)

I was afraid going in that I was going to get bludgeoned; I wasn’t. Arthur and Eames are side characters, both are kind of awesome, and they have a fun dynamic. There is so much going on that I’d probably have missed it if I hadn’t been looking.

I liked it; I liked the film. Shit blows up and it’s clever, [The last piece of sci-fi I saw before this was Splice; I wanted to bash my head against something. (It wasn’t clever. There were also no explosions. The shiny graphics failed to make up for this.)] which isn’t standard.

I haven’t read any fic yet, but I can tell you that people are writing fic about this film because the world set out in this is incredibly interesting and there are fun little potential-filled characters*.

I liked this film. I liked it in a literary analysis sort of way, even.

*There’s also kink potential in the ‘verse/characters.

(I really need to do a rec set of films that aren’t about men and male narratives. Seriously. Inception is a science fiction epic about manpain. I mean, the way technology is used to enable those narratives in the film is fascinating, but if anyone has female-centric recs to toss at me that’d be awesome.)

Writing

It’s weird. I’m kind of spoiling to write right now, have been for months, but I don’t have a fandom right now, or, actually, I do, but it’s not one that I’m comfortable writing.

I picked up an unused yuletide prompt, finished about 90% of the prep work I needed to do before actually writing anything, and then went wait. There is more source material now, isn’t there. Shit. Shit, indeed. I want to ignore it, but think I might need it for characterisation. Decisions; I do not like them. (I also need to look up the NYR story policy.)

..okay, I lied. I just made myself a liar, apparently, because my traitorous brain just generated a first line. I may have written it down. There may even be a second line.

The fandom I’m talking about is American Idol RPF, or, as I sometimes think of it, the WTF fandom, because for the past year or so I’ve been seeing people stumbling onto their journals and posting things like:
WTF!?!?!!!1 I do not know what has happened!!?!!
I am weirdly invested in this (IT HAS NEVER BEEN LIKE THIS BEFORE!)/I just spent the past 48 hours reading fic (WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?!?!!) ...is there more fic? ...are there vids?!?!?! Can I get recs?/I have committed fic!!?! *tosses it at you people and hides under bed, listening to album on repeat*/I am strangely intrigued by all of this! IT IS SHINY! *shows you the shiny she has acquired* WHERE CAN I GET MORE SHINY?!?!!!1

I’ve been pretty zen about it. I think it helps that I offered to write an explanatory post on Adam Lambert before I was actually in fandom; it means that I’ve been writing meta as I’ve been going. (I think you’ll get that post by the end of summer, by the way, sobluethesky.)

The reason I’m hesitant about writing in this fandom is that it’s RPF. I’m character-centric, have a tendency towards research, and there’s a level of detail available about these people that I’m not comfortable having and do not want.

So. What is it that makes you comfortable writing a fandom or pairing? How does writing work for you? What does your process look like? What do you need to be able to write? Are there things or people or places that you’re more drawn to writing than others? [I DEMAND ANSWERS. (ESPECIALLY TO QUESTIONS I HAVE NOT ASKED.)]