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musing on FKFicFest prompts
Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 11:57 amThis week, I'll start posting to the various communities about this year's ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fkficfest game. (I didn't happen to see anyone post about it on personal journals during its first week. Did I miss any...?)
The prompts the community chose are, as you know, two phrases and a paraphrase. Interested in chatting through them for general brainstorming, maybe...? I wonder which were picked as most desired to write, and which as most desired to read!
For starters, at the surface level, "cold case" could be a straightforward order for an unresolved police case that has been shelved for lack of developments, or for a police case in cold temperatures (winter, freezer, etc.). Slightly spicier picks might include a cold as in the common illness, or emotional coldness, or a case that is a briefcase, suitcase, gun-case, display case, or musical instrument case ... or a medical case. There have been several high-profile TV series in the US, Canada, and the UK that have focused on law enforcement working on cold cases; someone might want a crossover. FK's police procedural premise is very friendly to the customary "cold case" meaning. Its vampires and flashbacks have a certain angle on "cold," and its Toronto setting, perhaps, another.
"Do over" could bring to mind, say, the movie Groundhog Day, which makes the protagonist do over a single day until he gets it right, or It's a Wonderful Life, where events are seen done over in a distressing way. There could be time travel to change events already unfolded, or perhaps efforts to change a prediction of something yet to happen but thought set in stone. Taken very literally, it might not allow room for themes of regret, repentance, reparations, because doing something over could wipe away the first instance, but taken more loosely, the fact of a do-over is the recognition of something done poorly or gone wrong. An attempt to start over could be a kind of do over. The dictionary reminded me that there's also the decorating sense of the phrase, as in to do over an apartment, and a British slang usage meaning to beat up and/or rob someone. And then there's perhaps simply practice: to do something again and again, as in a musical instrument or athletics. Or something that never stops needing to be done again, as in a self-help practice or pulling weeds or making a bed. A do-over appeals perhaps to the sense of many FK fans that something went terribly wrong at the storytelling level at some point, whether at the LK finale, or when third season diverged from second, or second from first. A do-over could easily appeal to Nick, if offered on the wings of magic, and how far and how wide could determine whether it's a miracle or a monkey's-paw wish: one night only, his years in Toronto, his years as a vampire...
The paraphrase of a famous line from Bujold's novel Memory has a "the girl or the cup" ring to it. What is each character's heart versus heart's desire? Is Nick's heart's desire to achieve mortality but his heart to achieve salvation? Is either of Natalie's to cure Nick, to love Nick, to have not lost her brother or her parents, to make a scientific discovery no other could, to live a happy life and a good death...? Lacroix wants companionship, and he wants loyalty verging on fealty, and he wants to live; which is which? Janette wants revenge when due, perhaps a kind of balance as she sees it. Urs comes to want to change, but has long wanted approval; which could be which? Vachon wants freedom; the Inca wants justice. In Bujold's novel, the original line recaps a powerful scene; in retrospect, the character describes his choice to do the right thing, at immediate and immense personal cost, as an inability, finally, to do the wrong thing: "the one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart."
What do you think...?
fkficfest game. (I didn't happen to see anyone post about it on personal journals during its first week. Did I miss any...?)The prompts the community chose are, as you know, two phrases and a paraphrase. Interested in chatting through them for general brainstorming, maybe...? I wonder which were picked as most desired to write, and which as most desired to read!
For starters, at the surface level, "cold case" could be a straightforward order for an unresolved police case that has been shelved for lack of developments, or for a police case in cold temperatures (winter, freezer, etc.). Slightly spicier picks might include a cold as in the common illness, or emotional coldness, or a case that is a briefcase, suitcase, gun-case, display case, or musical instrument case ... or a medical case. There have been several high-profile TV series in the US, Canada, and the UK that have focused on law enforcement working on cold cases; someone might want a crossover. FK's police procedural premise is very friendly to the customary "cold case" meaning. Its vampires and flashbacks have a certain angle on "cold," and its Toronto setting, perhaps, another.
"Do over" could bring to mind, say, the movie Groundhog Day, which makes the protagonist do over a single day until he gets it right, or It's a Wonderful Life, where events are seen done over in a distressing way. There could be time travel to change events already unfolded, or perhaps efforts to change a prediction of something yet to happen but thought set in stone. Taken very literally, it might not allow room for themes of regret, repentance, reparations, because doing something over could wipe away the first instance, but taken more loosely, the fact of a do-over is the recognition of something done poorly or gone wrong. An attempt to start over could be a kind of do over. The dictionary reminded me that there's also the decorating sense of the phrase, as in to do over an apartment, and a British slang usage meaning to beat up and/or rob someone. And then there's perhaps simply practice: to do something again and again, as in a musical instrument or athletics. Or something that never stops needing to be done again, as in a self-help practice or pulling weeds or making a bed. A do-over appeals perhaps to the sense of many FK fans that something went terribly wrong at the storytelling level at some point, whether at the LK finale, or when third season diverged from second, or second from first. A do-over could easily appeal to Nick, if offered on the wings of magic, and how far and how wide could determine whether it's a miracle or a monkey's-paw wish: one night only, his years in Toronto, his years as a vampire...
The paraphrase of a famous line from Bujold's novel Memory has a "the girl or the cup" ring to it. What is each character's heart versus heart's desire? Is Nick's heart's desire to achieve mortality but his heart to achieve salvation? Is either of Natalie's to cure Nick, to love Nick, to have not lost her brother or her parents, to make a scientific discovery no other could, to live a happy life and a good death...? Lacroix wants companionship, and he wants loyalty verging on fealty, and he wants to live; which is which? Janette wants revenge when due, perhaps a kind of balance as she sees it. Urs comes to want to change, but has long wanted approval; which could be which? Vachon wants freedom; the Inca wants justice. In Bujold's novel, the original line recaps a powerful scene; in retrospect, the character describes his choice to do the right thing, at immediate and immense personal cost, as an inability, finally, to do the wrong thing: "the one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart."
What do you think...?
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