Fandom Snowflake Challenge Day 10: Let's Talk About Tropes Baby...

[tjs_whatnot]

Day 10

In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. Tell us about it, tell us why you love it, give us some examples and recs.



One of my favorite story styles is the epistolary. Which is, quite frankly, unfortunate as I will probably NEVER learn how to spell it correctly.

Using letters, diary entrees, emails and such to tell a story just....guh...gets me. I think maybe it's to do with the confessional of writing, or the mystery of it, our because I'd rather get to know someone in their writing than in person? IDK.

My two favorite epistolary books are Ella Minnow Pea and the Griffin and Sabine books. In Ella Minnow Pea a town loses its mind when their statue paying tribute to the shortest sentence using all 26 letters of the alphabet (The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog), starts losing its letters. The town takes it as a sign that those letters are to be banned from being used. The book is told in letters from Ella Minnow Pea (or LMNOP as more and more letters are outlawed) and her out-of-town aunt. The way the book plays with language (and phonics) is really fun, the way it subversively plays with censorship and totalitarian societies, while not necessarily "fun" is also done greatly. I highly recommend.

And the Griffin and Sabine books? Well, it's been a long time since I've read (more like experienced) these books, but if I remember right, they start off as a communication between an artist and an admirer. And what's so great about these--besides all the talk of art, philosophy and spirituality, which for me at that time was like catnip--is that they allow the reader to play voyeur (which, let's be honest, is the real reasons I love epistolary stories so much!) you have to open envelopes, and pull out someone else's letters and read the confessions and devotions and then put them back as if you hadn't even peeked. GUH! I loved them so!

One day I hope to write something just like it.

But, until then, I continue to search out more stories like this. When I first joined fandom and was consuming fanfic at an alarming rate that I miss like whoa, I found two stories right away that were just... so...GUH epistolary perfections. Midnight in the Owlery and Another Kind of Fandom Wank. Both Snupin and both PERFECT, for Snape and Lupin are sort of the perfect couple to get to know each other-- the real them-- without knowing who they are talking to, without all their issues getting in the way. These two stories, found so quickly and easily and being so amazing, sort of set me up for disappointment. I mistakenly thought that epistolary stories would just be everywhere. In the last 10 years, I have sadly discovered, this is very much not the case. Unless they're hiding from me.

So, can any of ya help a sistah out? Anyone read any good epistolary fics lately? Anyone written any? GIMME GIMME!!

Comments

[dancing_serpent]

Weeeeeelll...if you're willing to give Teen Wolf a try, I recently read this one: Ain't Sayin' He's a Gold Digger by taylorpotato (you have to be logged in to AO3, though.) Peter and Stiles hook up on a sugar daddy dating website. Here's the ensuing love story, told through chat screenshots and text messages.

I thought it was hilarious, and the chats and FB stuff really worked for me.

[tjs_whatnot]

Oh my but that was fun!

And I don't even know ANYTHING about that show!

♥

[pronker]

Escapades on the Book of Faces is super cute in the Penguins of Madagascar fandom - even if you don't watch the TV show or have seen the films, the characterizations leap out in the relationships. I guess the basic thing to know is that these are animals in a zoo.

[tjs_whatnot]

Haha, that was awesome fun!

Thanks for linking me!

♥ ♥

[pronker]

:D

[wendelah1]

I have some for The X-Files. Only one is a true epistolary story, but the others have letters featured as plot points. I don't know that any of them would make much sense without having seen the show.

[capitu]

I totally hear you about epistolary! I thought it'd be ~boring but then I went and read some and dude, epistolary is AWESOME!!!!! :D

I only have Harry/Draco to offer, so if you're interested, ever, let me know! ^^

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Right?!?! So many of our favorite things can be accomplished in letters, UST, pining, intrigue...

And haha, I was just thinking to myself that like Snupin, the Harry/Draco relationship is also one ripe for getting to know the other without all their baggage getting in the way. So, lord help me and I'll probably wind up regretting this, but okay, link me to your favorite Harry/Draco epistolary story. ;)

♥♥

[capitu]

You're so totally right about Snupin/Drarry!!!! :D


So, lord help me and I'll probably wind up regretting this, but okay, link me to your favorite Harry/Draco epistolary story. ;)

LOL! Famous last words. ;) Just kidding, but it's fun to try a new thing, no?

I'll link to two because (obviously) I couldn't decide which one. ^^

Still Life in Wood and Parchment by scrtkpr (PG-13, 6,5K)
Summary: Twenty-two years ago, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy turned their backs on the life they could have had. But they haven't forgotten; and they haven't guarded their secrets closely enough.

This one is Epilogue complaint and has Albus, James and Scorpius finding Harry and Draco's old letters. MY HEART.


Lettered & sequels Lush Life and Home Again, Home Again by pir8fancier (NC-17, 49K – adding all parts)
Summary: Harry has a secret penpal, whose identity is as plain as the nose on his face. Except he's not wearing his glasses. // This is the sequel to Lettered. Draco is now the editor of a gay men's porn magazine and living in N.Y. His self-imposed exile from England is about to end.

A Series, and a long one, which is hard to try a new pair with, but once you start it really keeps you, and it's really, really totally brilliant.

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Okay, so yeah, I chose the "Lettered" one since it was pir8fancier who convinced me YEARS ago to give Snarry a try and my world has never been the same. ♥♥

It was lovely, but I'm not sure I'll get to the other parts. I liked it more when Harry didn't know who his admirer was. ;) I could have read BOOKS of Draco pouring out his heart to someone thinking his secret would never be discovered. ♥