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I wasn't planning on doing anything with the pony rounds this year, but I wouldn't want the first second writeoff of the new year to go without reviews...
This piece is my introduction to Ginsberg, and though I'd like to take more time to examine Howl in more depth at some point I thought it was worth noting that I thought this piece held up quite nicely to the scrutiny of an audience who doesn't know the source material. This piece is haunted. It's haunted by the poem it draws inspiration from, it's haunted by the loneliness of an empty forum, and it's haunted by the memories of a fandom that has shrunk and faded as time has passed. Its metatextuality is both unsubtle and clothed in defensive layers of irony, but I found the glint of sincerity at its heart quite lovely: that moment when you peel back and just lay bare what you wanted to say, no frills, is honestly just nice. I like that kind of thing.
I won't be too wordy for once, but just wanted to leave a note to say I read this and enjoyed it, which given the content of the piece I felt was quite appropriate.
Also it's very funny that this round got another entry.
This piece is my introduction to Ginsberg, and though I'd like to take more time to examine Howl in more depth at some point I thought it was worth noting that I thought this piece held up quite nicely to the scrutiny of an audience who doesn't know the source material. This piece is haunted. It's haunted by the poem it draws inspiration from, it's haunted by the loneliness of an empty forum, and it's haunted by the memories of a fandom that has shrunk and faded as time has passed. Its metatextuality is both unsubtle and clothed in defensive layers of irony, but I found the glint of sincerity at its heart quite lovely: that moment when you peel back and just lay bare what you wanted to say, no frills, is honestly just nice. I like that kind of thing.
I won't be too wordy for once, but just wanted to leave a note to say I read this and enjoyed it, which given the content of the piece I felt was quite appropriate.
Also it's very funny that this round got another entry.
Awww I love this! I am a sucker for the fun of magical worldbuilding, and of any story that lets us see truly different schools of magic and their philosophies. And I am a sucker for the trope of someone viewing another field through the lens of their own biases without even realising it. MLP always gave a great worldbuilding foundation for that sort of thing in fanworks, and this piece was a nice reminder of that.
You build the characters well. It's an interesting choice, using... OCs? I think they're OCs look I've been out of this fandom for years and Google isn't the most helpful these days. Certainly an interesting choice not to use the main cast for this, and I mean that in a good way, especially with Honeygold's entire character just being Applejack stripped of the weight and meaning that comes with being Applejack. I actually... really like that? It's a clever tool, and it serves this story very well.
Anyway yeah this was really good and I liked it a lot! Sorry I don't have much more to say than that—I'm very much only on the periphery of this fandom these days, so I don't feel I have a load to say, but I didn't want this going by without any comment at all because it deserves having nice things said about it.
You build the characters well. It's an interesting choice, using... OCs? I think they're OCs look I've been out of this fandom for years and Google isn't the most helpful these days. Certainly an interesting choice not to use the main cast for this, and I mean that in a good way, especially with Honeygold's entire character just being Applejack stripped of the weight and meaning that comes with being Applejack. I actually... really like that? It's a clever tool, and it serves this story very well.
Anyway yeah this was really good and I liked it a lot! Sorry I don't have much more to say than that—I'm very much only on the periphery of this fandom these days, so I don't feel I have a load to say, but I didn't want this going by without any comment at all because it deserves having nice things said about it.
Just a note: as I've said in both reviews, I wasn't really planning on engaging much with ponyfic these days, but I gave the stories this round a read on a whim and had a great time with them both and thought someone ought to say something about them? I'm not sure I'll vote though because, like I said on Orchard, I feel a lot less qualified on ponyfic these days, and honestly they're both very compelling pieces doing very different things and I don't really want to choose between them.
>>QuillScratch:
Thanks for the comment!
When I checked last week and saw that no one had submitted a prompt, I found myself getting all nostalgic for the good ol' days 'round here. So I thought I'd do some sorta take on nostalgia and went looking online for well-known poems that deal with nostalgia so I could get a title. Nothing struck me in any way, and then I remembered that first line of "Howl," the way Ginsberg positions himself as a survivor looking back.
And then I just let myself get goofy with it. :)
But yes, I'm glad GGA got one in here, too. The more, the merrier!
Mike
Thanks for the comment!
When I checked last week and saw that no one had submitted a prompt, I found myself getting all nostalgic for the good ol' days 'round here. So I thought I'd do some sorta take on nostalgia and went looking online for well-known poems that deal with nostalgia so I could get a title. Nothing struck me in any way, and then I remembered that first line of "Howl," the way Ginsberg positions himself as a survivor looking back.
And then I just let myself get goofy with it. :)
But yes, I'm glad GGA got one in here, too. The more, the merrier!
Mike