i already wish i had spent the time it took to type this on something else.

[elapses]

Things I should be doing instead of writing up this post:
- finishing my last paper of the semester
- studying for Chem tomorrow
- writing my yuletide
- UM, ANYTHING?

So I kind of want to talk about Harry Potter again (sooooooorry) and how I think the epilogue is so much better when you're not a) reading it for the first time and b) interpreting "all was well" as "happily ever after". Because it isn't happily ever after-- they lost so many. It's about how if the survivors cannot enjoy life, what was the sacrifice of the dead for?

OKAY BUT YOU GUYS! I feel like between this and my drunken confession to reading Next Gen fanfic last weekend I am coming off as some weird psychopath (...because who else reads Next Gen fanfic? I MEAN REALLY? All I wanted was stories about 11-year-olds discovering hoggy warty Hogwarts and having dumb adventures, but all there is is like... a bunch of people who can't let go of their Draco/__________ pairing continuing it on with Draco/[child of __________] porn). I MEAN, I DON'T KNOW, I am having fun with my mini-Harry Potter phase, because like, I haven't felt this way since Deathly Hallows came out and even thaaaaaat was pretty much just excitement stretching from the OotP movie to the discussion superskittles76 and I had over Tex-Mex a couple of days after the book was released. I totally used to write Harry Potter fanfic, and once it was done it actually felt like I was totally over it. Like actually completely forever only passingly interested in Harry Potter. But silly self, you don't get over these things for good.

ANYWAY WHAT THIS POST IS ACTUALLY ABOUT IS THE POTTER FAMILY NAMES-- James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna, because I HATE THEM LIKE BURNING. Part of that is maybe me being neurotic, because it actually drives me a little batty that like, every baby ever born in fiction is named after someone. LIFE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY, friends. And I would like to demonstrate that with a poll!

I know a lot of you actively think about what you would name your kids (captaincatapult and goldenmelisande did their own polling to this effect pretty recently): is that because you think they're beautiful names, or is it because you want to honor someone in your life?


[Poll #1316344]

I... don't mean to belittle anyone that does want to name someone after someone. I think it is a lovely, lovely way to honor someone important to you (I found out recently that my favorite Aunt Monti is named for a Professor Montague that my Nana was especially affected by, which I think is so lovely), what I take issue with is the frequency with which it happens in fiction. It's like anytime anyone pops a kid out it has to be named for someone, they cannot be bothered to come up with their own names. (It is lovely, though, in the West Wing when Toby calls his baby girl Molly after the dead secret service agent.)

I guess the other thing is that they're all Harry's names he wants to give to honor all the dead in his life, and it just... doesn't sound like Ginny had much input at allllll in what to name them. You know? She lost family too, but the scope of people represented in the little Potter's names is all Harry. Something about that really kind of bothers me. (BUT, on the other hand, I think a legitimate argument can be made that Ginny recognizes that having kids and a family means... not necessarily more to Harry than it would to her, but it's special to her, the youngest of seven, in a different way than it would be to little orphan Harry, who has always craved that family connection. It's like Scully and Mulder! And the way poor, emotionally abandoned Mulder really desperately would like a family, but Scully has grown up in a big family with brothers named Bill and Charlie and even if she would like kids, Exceeeeeept it's not like Scully and Mulder at all, because Mulder does not view himself as deserving of that family, and they weren't supposed to have kids. BUT STILL, I think Scully named William for Mulder's William and not her Williams for the exact reason that Ginny might let Harry give all her kids really awful names.)

Hi my name is Alexandra and sometimes I like to write up six long paragraphs about something everybody already agrees with anyway/doesn't even think about anymore and post them on the internet.

P.S. LAST NIGHT'S CHUCK WAS AMAZING.

Comments

[ofadoration.livejournal.com]

I was sortakinda named for my dad -- I was born three months premature, aaaand my parents were pretty sure they were having a boy, so they had boy names picked out, but no girl names. I was sort of named on the spot. I'm kind of worried I'm going to overcompensate for having a plain first name (not that I hate it or anything) when it comes to naming my kids. :/

It's like Scully and Mulder! And the way poor, emotionally abandoned Mulder really desperately would like a family, but Scully has grown up in a big family with brothers named Bill and Charlie and even if she would like kids, Exceeeeeept it's not like Scully and Mulder at all, because Mulder does not view himself as deserving of that family, and they weren't supposed to have kids. BUT STILL, I think Scully named William for Mulder's William and not her Williams for the exact reason that Ginny might let Harry give all her kids really awful names.
UGH, I WANT TO GO CRY NOW. I wish and wish that the series had just ended with Existence, because it makes sense from a narrative point of view. (Well, one that isn't Chris Carter's, I guess. I thought I had totally gotten over what I disliked about IWTB, but apparently I'm meh on it again. ANYWAY.) Have you read By Falling In and In by aloysiavirgata? It's probably the best fic I've read in terms of exploring what Mulder and Scully's lives would have been like if Mulder hadn't gone on the run and Scully hadn't given William away, even though it does deal with colonization so it's not exactly the kind of denial!fic I like to read when I read XF babyfic. (I've still never been to The Nursery Files, but lately I am tempted. I know this is probably a bad idea, AND YET.)

As for the HP names, I think I'm neutral on them, but I totally understand why everyone else thinks they're a bit too much, since, well, they are.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

Oh that's kindof interesting-- your dad wanted a Jr? Are you an only child?

I have read that and you pretty much articulated exactly how I feel about it-- although I don't know, the colonization at the end was kind of weirdly handled and kind of put me of it-- I hate it when they get saved because of CSM, and just kind of let the world crumble at their feet without fighting it, however unreasonable fighting it may be? And LOL, THE NURSERY FILES. I have a draft saved in gmail of all the decent to palatable stories I found there (although it was for my personal reference, so it doesn't include the faves that I will not lose/stuff that was already in my del.icio.us). If you get desperate I can send it to you and you will not have to lower yourself to the actually exploring the Nursery Files?

BUT YES, Existence. I think if they had ended it there it would not have been standing on its best foot (the way ending it with Requiem could have? Season 7 isn't greaaat, but Je Souhaite and Requiem are), but it would have been standing, where season 9 and IWTB have really really dragged it down completely. GOD, I JUST WANTED THEM TO BE HAPPY :(

[ofadoration.livejournal.com]

If I'd been a boy I was either going to be named George (for my paternal grandfather) or Jack, apparently. And yeah, I'm an only child.

I agree about the colonization at the end! I loved most of the fic SO MUCH, though, and it involving colonization kind of hurt a little because the rest of the fic was so great. I might try to re-read it and just scroll past the allusions to colonization and see if I can somehow stop reading it before colonization is really brought up. I might take you up on that offer -- I think I've read all of the relatively decent babyfic people bookmarked on del.icio.us, so. I think I may have even attempted to find some decent post-Existence fic on Gossamer, too. Ew.

I totally would have no problem overlooking my issues with S8 if it HAD ended with Existence, but we're not allowed to have nice things. :( I know it wasn't entirely CC's fault since the show got renewed and whatnot, but that still didn't mean he had to write more emotional Scully torture and give away William. (What gets me so much about giving away William is that it was TOTALLY because he would ~interfere~ with a film franchise, and, uh, what film franchise? Stupid CC's ego.) While I'm pretty enamoured of the idea that just Mulder and Scully are enough for each other, I just hate that they got to have a baby and didn't get to keep him. And even the happiness they got in IWTB is tainted by Scully being not really Scully in it. Hahaha, funny story -- when I began watching the show this year it was in complete ignorance of how the show ended, so I assumed it had ended relatively happily, in the movie Mulder and Scully would be in an established relationship, there would be no relationship drama, and it would just be a fun, creepy MotW along the lines of Squeeze or something. I was pretty shocked when I found out how the show actually ended. SO NAIVE.

. . . um, long comment of babble is long, so I'm just going to stop now.

[elapses.livejournal.com]

YEAH, I was really enjoying it? AND THEN COLONIZATION. Ugh, my life: so hard. But it's okay, I still have Milk & Cake and the Ghosts series.

But we pretty much share a brain on the whole baby issue. I love the idea of them being enough for each other too, but... like, you can't give them that and then take it away and expect them to ever really be happy again. WHICH UPSETS ME SO MUCH! I feel like I am so completely overinvested in William compared to... sane people in this fandom, but it's like... I wouldn't've wanted him at all if it were my decision, but once he's there, it makes me miserable that he doesn't stay.

The thing that aggravates me most about Existence, though, is that absolutely every other XF season finale ends in mayhem (either Mulder in peril or "oh, crap, the closed the X-Files!"). Existence reads like a series finale because it's an ending-- slightly open ended, but mostly closed. I'm not a huge Doggett and Reyes fan, but I do like the way they're portrayed in the end of Existence, and I would be okay with that Doggett and Reyes pursuing social justice and continuing the X-Files while Mulder and Scully... get to just be them for awhile. BLERG, IT'S SO UPSETTING.