Summer! Christmas! The blending of the two.

flaming_muse asked me: does it feel strange to you that in Western literature/movies/television there's so much emphasis on snowy, winter Christmases when you're used to Christmas being in the summer?

I'm replying here because I know how I feel about it, but I don't know if that's a "just-me" thing or a "generally-Aussie" thing.

We're a very Western country, regardless of our hemisphere (still a member of the Commonwealth, strong Brit background, large US influence in pop culture) and those snowy traditions go hand in hand with the roast for Christmas and the songs and... Hmmm. It's funny when you think about it. I don't know if "strange" is the right word. Because you grow up taking it for granted that most UK/US Christmas traditions are around cold weather (I mean, the fact that I love singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" when it's usually over 90F shows that I don't really have a problem with it).

...but at the same time, the snowy winter isn't really an Australian thing either. Oh, sure, there are places (mostly up high and used for skiing) where it regularly snows, but we don't have the snow that US/UK get. Our winters here (Melbourne) are overcast and rainy, and usually around 5C-14C most days. Canberra was cold, but "cold" is -5C to 12C (cold enough for frost, but snow is a freak occurance). Winter here isn't feet of snow and blizzards -- it's overcast and a need for a jacket, not chains on the tyres.

And that was totally off-topic. But I was going to say that most modern Christmas songs aren't strictly about winter (Baby it's cold utside, Winter Wonderland, White Christmas, etc, are all older tuneS) so it translates pretty well. Doctor Who christmas specials are always snowy, but it just sits in that cultural-gap spot in your head, the one that says, "the UK is a cold place to live". (In fact, that's probably the main impact: a mental assumption that UK/US are cold due to all the winter-during-out-summer reminders.)

Having said all that, one of my favourite Australian summer songs is Sunny Cowgirls' "Summer" which really sums up that feeling of summer, the relief of warmth coming back, the heat coming, the social season coming on, the stretch of school holidays. It's a little more bush than my actual life (wetsuits, dams and tanks aren't part of my summer, but thongs-on-bitumen and hot seatbelts and running through sprinklers will always be summer memories for me) but that thrill of looking forward to the hot weather even though you know there's things that you'll bitch about -- it's the feel of summer.

That's always been a moment of dissonance, actually. Not the Christmas-in-winter thing but the school holidays thing. For me, Christmas/Summer holidays were always the same stretch of six week break growing up. You look forward to Christmas because it's summer and the year's over and a new year will begin. (So having a short Christmas break feels odd to me. Having New Year's in the cold feels strange. Even though New Years was originally a celebration through the winter, getting ready for the next harvest thing, that's not how it falls on my calendar. New Years has always been the height of summer, hot weather and sunlight until 8.30pm and celebrating getting through the cold times months ago.)

Glee Rec: A Caution to the Birds by xsaturated (Kurt/Blaine, Blaine/Sebastian)

A Caution to the Birds by xsaturated (Kurt/Blaine, Blaine/Sebastian)

Summary: “You didn’t transfer schools for a better education or a change of scenery, Blaine,” his father reminds him, not unkindly. “We sent you to Dalton so you would be safe.” Or the one where Blaine’s junior year at Dalton means a boyfriend who is now his competition, a family who are only ever predictable when it suits them, a transfer student with a penchant for stirring things up, meddling Warblers and the realization that the safe option may not always be the best one. A season three!AU.

I started reading this yesterday and couldn't put it down. I read the story summary, thought it would be interesting to see the Kurt/Blaine distance thing where Blaine still had the Warblers as a support group, and tried this. And then I couldn't put it down.

It's been a while since I've been so completely caught by a fic and emotionally invested in it. It's been even longer since I read something 120K long without feeling the length -- the pacing in this was fantastic, always interesting and moving, never dragging or feeling like an effort to keep going. It's a real page-turner, metaphorically speaking.

Given the events of s4, I've been wondering why Blaine's parents agreed to the transfer of schools, and this was really interesting.

I found Blaine's POV completely convincing -- it's definitely the character I see on the screen -- but I also loved Sebastian and Kurt. We get to see flaws and strengths; we get to see all three of them as teens trying to figure out how life works and what they want, and sometimes messing up but genuinely trying and learning and growing.

There were so many characterisation moments that felt really true to me -- either somethig canon has shown us in s4 in another guise, or points of characterisation that I'd imagined similiarly -- but what really caught my attention was that I wasn't expecting what happened. A third of the way through, I was surprised that I wanted to see Blaine/Sebastian and that I couldn't foresee how it would end. Even more surprising was how emotionally involved I was by the end, and how satisfying I found it.

In short, not what I expected but well worth the read.