DVD Commentary Meme

[out_there]

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any story I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

Comments

[paulettekid.livejournal.com]

Halfway through the junior pile, he gets a call from Felicia, saying, "Of the many, many themes present in Moby Dick, bestiality is not one of them."

It surprises a laugh out of Alex. "A man's love for his whale? There's got to be a market for that somewhere."

"But not in my class," Felicia complains. "I have an entire essay on bestiality."

"I'm trying to work out the logistics of that." He leans back in his chair, stretches his arms up and then drops his pen to his desk. It's not that he doesn't sympathize with Felicia, it's that she's fun to needle and it's nice to watch someone else deal with idiot students. Stretching and flexing his fingers against the ache of constant writing, Alex smirks and says, "I mean, how would you even--"

Felicia talks through him. "Don't go there, Alex. Really. Some of these kids, they're just not right."

"Ask me, there just isn't enough written about a guy getting it on with a whale," Alex says, turning his head and stretching his neck to the side. That's when he notices someone standing in his doorway.

The kid looks surprised and amused. Alex knows how fast rumors spread around campus. In the faculty room tomorrow, there'll be fish jokes, he's sure of it.

"I've gotta go," he tells Felicia, and she snorts and says, "Don't forget lunch," as he hangs up.
~~Just wanted to add that I loved this story but being an English major I had to pick the Moby Dick paragraph :)

[out-there.livejournal.com]

Halfway through the junior pile, he gets a call from Felicia, saying, "Of the many, many themes present in Moby Dick, bestiality is not one of them."

It surprises a laugh out of Alex. "A man's love for his whale? There's got to be a market for that somewhere."

"But not in my class," Felicia complains. "I have an entire essay on bestiality."

Moby Dick is one of those stories where even if you've never opened hte book, you still know about it. It's cultural osmosis, really. Sorry to disappoint an English major, but I've never read it. I've seen the Patrick Stewart version and heard about it enough to know enough to see that Ahab is clearly focused on the whale, and his obsession eventually causes his own downfall.

What makes it such a great literary comparison is that it's so clearly known. It gives Felicia a way of pointing to Alex that an objective opinion can be needed, that being too focused on your own goals/opinions/beliefs/fears can lead to your misery. Felicia brings it up earlier, admittedly in a round-about way, but it's the underlying thread of this entire story (acknowledging your blindspots and achieving happiness -- or the hope of it -- by testing your self-imposed limits).

"I'm trying to work out the logistics of that." He leans back in his chair, stretches his arms up and then drops his pen to his desk. It's not that he doesn't sympathize with Felicia, it's that she's fun to needle and it's nice to watch someone else deal with idiot students. Stretching and flexing his fingers against the ache of constant writing, Alex smirks and says, "I mean, how would you even--"

Felicia talks through him. "Don't go there, Alex. Really. Some of these kids, they're just not right."

This section started because I liked the idea of Felicia being Alex's closest friend. I liked the idea that even though they're quite different (as they are in canon, in many respects) they still *get* each other and Felicia is still the person that Alex would turn to and genuinely trust.

In a lot of ways, this story is barely about Alex/Michael. Oh, sure, the Alex/Michael is there, but mostly the story is about his friendship with Felicia. It's about how this version of Alex sees the world and how much Felicia means to him. (As you can see, I clearly believe Felicia Lang rocks.) I wanted to show a moment of them relaxing and having fun, a moment of them bothering each other as only best friends can.

It's also a sign of what they can and can't comfortably discuss. Alex can make jokes about beastiality, about his students, and almost about his lovelife, but not about the dishonourable discharge. While he trusts Felicia and her advise, while they share the world of academia (but not the same subjects), while he can accept that what she teaches will bleed through to her conversations (much like his students and subjects will be a big part of his life each semester), there are still limits.

"Ask me, there just isn't enough written about a guy getting it on with a whale," Alex says, turning his head and stretching his neck to the side. That's when he notices someone standing in his doorway.

I had to have that. When I thought about this section, I wanted an utterly ridiculous and bordering-on-moronic example of what a student might submit, and as soon as I thought of Moby Dick and bestiality, I knew it would be the most embarrassing thing to have a stranger overhear.

The kid looks surprised and amused. Alex knows how fast rumors spread around campus. In the faculty room tomorrow, there'll be fish jokes, he's sure of it.

"I've gotta go," he tells Felicia, and she snorts and says, "Don't forget lunch," as he hangs up.

But true to form, while Alex knows it might be embarassing, while he knows it's going to haunt him, it doesn't really phase him. It doesn't even make him stop his conversation with Felicia or try to pretend he was saying anything else.

Really, Alex just sits there, finishes his conversation, and silently dares Michael to say anything about it. And I have to admit, that kind of oomph, that kind of personal confidence, is one of the things that really attracted me to Alex as a character. (He's pretty awesome, it must be said.)