Unthinkable Wings

From which we learn that, though I'm no-one's idea of a BNF in any fandom, a lot more people look at things on the AO3 than comment on them.

1. (420 hits): And After Darkness, Light. That's my 'problem of Susan fic'. I'm not surprised that this is in the top ten, but I am surprised it's the most read one. Admittedly it's in a bigger fandom than "Tell Beauty How She Blasteth," which I would guess is my most commented on fic on LJ/ DW and certainly the most widely recced. But PUSH, which doesn't even appear here, had a lot of comments too. So did the Phineas Nigellus and the Mirror of Erised one, which even got Niffled, and nobody loves at all on the AO3 (it's even beaten by the vaguely disturbing, vaguely Hannay/ Medina ficlet, and who on earth reads that?) Possibly writing in big fandoms just gets your fic swamped, if it's on obscure characters rather than the main pairings? All the same, though, AADL surprises me. It's a fic I'm proud of, and it's on a popular fic theme (I guess most people who have dipped their toes into Narnia fic have written or thought about the Problem of Susan), but it's not the usual take, and it's full of Anglo-Catholic stuff which is, let's say, a minority interest. On the other hand, it does have large chunks of Julina of Norwich, and who can resist Julian of Norwich?

2. (395 hits): Mother Tongue. Sarek/ Amanda fluff, in which Amanda pwns disapproving in-laws. Now the popularity of this one does surprise me. It's a nice little fic, but I don't remember it garnering an unusual amount of attention on LJ/ DW, and I bashed it out quite quickly - it's certainly not my best work.

3. (275 hits). Trailing a long way behind - unjustly I think - Tell Beauty How She Blasteth, aka that Wimseyverse AU, in which Strong Poison has an unhappy ending. This one has been quite widely recced, but of course the links all went to LJ/DW, where I think it is still my most commented upon fic.

4. (273 hits). Putting on Civvies. A very fluffy look at the early stages of Spock and Uhura's relationship, with bonus linguistic geekery.

5. (191 hits). The Exercise of Virtue. Again, a bit surprising. I'm fairly fond of this fic, though exegesis fic's not a popular genre (though I suppose the AO3 promotes small fandoms, and it is quite hard to find Bible fic that's not either Jesus/ Judas slash, or apparently Good Omens slash in disguise...) I thought it was the weakest of my three Bible fics, though it does deal with the most obvious textual difficulty, i.e. how unpleasant Jesus is to the Syro-Phoenican woman. I think Daegar's fic on the subject is better, though.

6. (180 hits). In search of a big picture. Now this is the biggest surprise of all, especially as it was only posted last month. It's a ficlet of Cordelia and Martya discussing higher education choices, and while I think it turned out quite well, it was a quick ficlet for International Women's Day. I suppose the Vorkosigan fandom is small but quite active, which is the sort of situation where fics on the AO3 will get a fair bit of attention.

7. (177 hits). Just Good Friends. In which Gaila is pestering Uhura for details about her totally, absolutely, non-existent relationship with Spock. I thought I got Gaila quite well here, and Uhura's state of denial is quite fun, but I'd say I've written better about Uhura.

8. (135 hits). Illogical. A male Bechdel Test fail (is that a reverse pass?) - in which Spock and McCoy have a conversation about Uhura. I think this fic is nice enough, but I'm not sure why it's more popular than some of the others - again, a bit of fluff.

9. (127 hits). Fly Me To The Moon. In which Caspian tries to write science fiction. This is, actually, hands-down my favourite of my Narnian fic, and I submit that the premise is less cracky than it sounds. Caspian is a total geek.

10. (123 hits). Some Secrets in a Privacy Forever Ours. John and Jesus, post-Resurrection. Can you meaningfully say that God is your best friend? I still really like this piece.

Bizarrely, the eleventh most popular fic is Careers Advice, or, Marx Was A Friend of Narnian, which was a complete jeu d'esprit.

I cannot draw any sensible conclusions from all of this, other than that the AO3 is good for small fandoms.

On a less elevated and very much more sybaritic note, am about to sit down to cold chicken (slow-roasted yesterday with thyme, rosemary, paprika), cous-cous with sundried tomatoes, and what I suspect may be the last of the English asparagus.

No wine, but after the washing up there will be one or two gins and tonic and West Wing. I've been drinking Blackwoods of late, which is lovely, remarkably delicate (it contains all manner of interesting Shetland botanicals).

1. Reply to this post with 'Icons!', and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

rivrea gave me:


Showing Charles I, quoting the description of the Cavaliers in 1066 And All That by Sellars and Yeatman, the best parodic history book ever written. I am not, in fact, much of a fan of Charles I (I may be an Anglo-Catholic, but I don't have much time for the cult of Charles King and Martyr, though he's a classic case of 'naught became him in life but the losing of it). However, I do have a great sympathy for doomed loyalties. I don't weep for Bonny Prince Charlie, either, but the fate of the Jacobites does move me, even if I think the House of Stewart, by and large, was a disaster we're better off without. Wrong but Wromantic, in fact. the icon is by angevin2, who has made a number of good Sellars and Yeatman icons (including the Not Angels but Anglicans one).


The pierced gothic of the Minster at Freiburg, with the sun setting behind it (and the Vogesen). The inhabitants of Freiburg know it as 'the most beautiful tower in Christendom', and I think they might well be right. A memory of a beautiful city and a very happy year - even if the tower is actually hidden behind scaffolding at the moment (I also use it for my more serious religious posts, where the snarky ones don't work...)


Surely this one doesn't need explained? I am an Anglican, and a socialist, and.... well, you've been following my journal. The icon's by commodorified; I tend to use it for political posts, or ones on Anglicanism (when I'm not using John Keble or Alan-Rickman-as-Slope)


Harriet Walters as Harriet Vane, one of my favourite characters in any medium, because of her honesty, stubborness, and way with a quotation. Also, my life looks pretty much exactly like this at the moment, only with a laptop.


Gene Hunt, in Life on Mars, on spotting-the-bleeding-obvious. I use it for being sarcastic and/ or gloomy about academia, mostly (actually, a worryingly high proportion of my icons are ironic or sarcastic). The icon's by royaldawn_uk.

Literally - a credit-card sized mirror etched with the London Tube map.

I used to think I wasn't particularly bothered about clothes; however, I have come to realise that this isn't true... Walking past the various shops on the High can be a bit of a trial, particularly Hobbs and Toast.

Anyway: Toast has a green woolen waistcoat in a sort of subdued tweed in their window. It is a ridiculous sort of garment, and I really, really want one. Unfortunately - or possibly fortunately - Toast never puts their prices in the window (and we all know what that means...) and I don't dare go in and then sneak out intimidated by the price. Or, come to that, end up buying it when I can't actually justify it.

As I was standing their coveting, a middle-aged couple walked past the window, and the woman said, in tones of surprise and pointing at the old telephone, "Oh look, darling, we used to have a phone like that." And I thought, of course you did. So did I, as a kid, and so did virtually everyone I knew. It was the BT standard issue one.... (I remember doing the 'how to dial 999 in the dark by feeling for the metal catch' drill in the Brownies, too - a lot easier than doing it by touch on a digital phone).

(Uses Tolkien icon, because of the waistcoats).

I suppose a waistcoat might work under a gown. And it does seem to have good pockets... No! Cease this madness, and go to the library....

While in the self-indulgent corner, we have a wordle for Tell Beauty How She Blasteth



And for The Blue Flower, or Phineas Nigellus versus German Romanticism:



As before, image attribution to wordle.net under a Creative Commons license. And now I must stop playing....

Happy Thinking Day/ Founder's Day to any Guides and Scouts out there.

Secondly, I have to link - even though those of you who are interested have probably seen it already - to a newly discovered Chaucer lyric lamenting that brave knight Will Thatcher/ Ulrich v. Lichtenstein (and how on earth did I contrive to forget the Ulrich von Lichtenstein reference in A Knight's Tale? Very embarrassing).

Looking at the blog somehow led me to look at the memorabilia. I'm so tempted to get this to wear to give my saints paper (no, Mechthild wasn't a recluse, but still). If I was a Julian scholar I'd definitely do it!

Although I'm also tempted by the academic peasants' revolt one, even if it is in American terms, or, as a a very obscure tribute to Joseph Wright and Tolkien, this one