Far from the Madding Crowd

[chomiji]

Our agency is having a conference today, and apparently it's filled to capacity, if not actually SRO. And then, although the weather is not very spring-y today, it's apparent that the yearly spring school field trips to Our Nation's Capital have started. So when I went out to fetch lunch (I had a yen for curry today), I was dodging hoards of clueless people wearing name tags, all the way through our lobby, around Union Station, and down into the food court. People, don't stop dead at the bottoms or tops of the escalators, and please turn, look, and walk, instead of just turning 180° and charging off ... .

> sigh <

Well, it's Friday. And the curry was tasty.

Comments

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Hee. You sound like me last Saturday afternoon trying to make my way through central Glasgow. Itching for a harisen, I was.

[chomiji]

Yes, that's about the right level! I don't want to seriously hurt the poor schmoes, but they need some training up.

Hey - off topic - I just got blue-hobbit hooked on Saiyuki! But she's not sure who she likes best yet ... I can rec her some fics, but they'll be mostly 585 - you would be a much better person to recommend Sanzo-centric ones. She liked my Hakkai/Sanzo thing, which was pretty angsty. Do you have any favorites for her?

[chomiji]

At the moment she's interested in all of them ... .

:-D

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

My recs are (naturally!) all Sanzo+Goku. Here's three off the top of my head.

http://hth.gatefiction.com/honeymoon.htm

http://soliandxpyne.livejournal.com/13104.html

http://moshesque.livejournal.com/121684.html

And I may have vast quantities of my own Sanzo and Sanzo/Goku on kispexi2_2.

[chomiji]

Thanks! I'll have to check those out myself, when I'm not at work!

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

I am particularly amused to see that the first author is yet another case of Saiyuki/Due South fannishness overlapping,

Really? I don't know Due South so that bit was lost on me. I was simply reduced to goo by the bittersweet 39ness. :-)

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

As a big Firefly fan, I've noticed a lot of Saiyuki parallels between the two shows and this leads me to ponder more on the consumers of Art as much as the creators and on how it becomes something different for each of us depending, not only on our experiences, but also on the books/movies/music that have touched us. Also you make me think I should investigate Due South!

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

And don't even get me started on the music thing or I will never, ever shut up!

All I'll say is - Yes. Absolutely. Me too!

Your description of Due South's characters *does* have a very Hakkai/Gojyo vibe. It sounds fun too.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Ah - Diefenbaker! Now that rings a bell. I may have seen a few minutes of a mid-season episode and been totally bewildered, in that case. And that is a great Hakkai parallel. Sometimes you have to wonder whether writers pick up on this stuff from each other, don't you? Joss Whedon denies ever having seen Red Dwarf before creating Firefly and yet there are a lot of similarities in feel.

[chomiji]

OK, I'm reading the Evolution things, bit by bit, and they're great smut, but you know what? That isn't Gojyo. Maybe it's Kenren, or just AU Gojyo. Saiyuki's Gojyo simply doesn't have that much self-confidence - half of his bragging is to make himslf feel better, because if he can make the person he'd talking to bellieve it, then he can, too. And he half-despises his romantic charm. Remember what he's saying, just before he finds Hakkai in "Be There"?

So I'm taking my time reading them - I'm not reading them compulsively, because I don't feel much of an emotional attachment to this version of the character. For me, this much PWP is like eating a whole box of of taffy at once.

[chomiji]

Before the angst over the relationship set in, it was beginning to resemble a fangirl's how-to manual: Basic Bondage, Basic Sex Toys, etc.

XD

Also, the additional kappa powers were just another thing that made him seem just too confident and in control for the Gojyo I know and love, who can be an awful woobie. And frankly, the antennae are just too exposed and easy to reach for the serious effect they were having ... . And the match-ups with Hakkai and Goku really seemed liked afterthoughts, and of course the Hakkai one contradicts Gaiden canon. (So does the main event, but it's only using Gensomaden characters so it's not quite so in-your-face.)

The Maze was another issue ... arrrghh, anguish, despair! I was reading it last night while I was trying to play the conbini game, which was weird, to say the least. And then I was too tired to finish it - gave up around 2/3 of the way through the middle section. So I had to go online the minute I got up today to finish it. And I raced through it so fast that I'm really not sure about all the politics going on with the humans in the town and the long-time-resident youkai and so on. I'll have to re-read it ... why does that site make it so hard to get back to the first page (with the part I. II. III links), BTW? The bread-crumb trail is near-useless - it only takes you back to the main Saiyuki fic page. Anyway, the resolution between Gojyo and Sanzo was sweet and beautiful and well-earned, and I only had one or two stray thoughts that Sanzo shouldn't know so much what he was doing ... and I liked their thoughts about Hakkai, afterward, when they were on the road again. (And the postscript was horrifying ... .)