That meme, from everyone

[thuviaptarth]

Pretend for a minute that the only contact you have ever had with me is through my fic. We've never exchanged LJ comments or emails, never hung out in chat or on AIM, never talked on the phone or met each other in person, none of that stuff. [I never post long-winded discussions of my own writing, either. *cough*] The only thing you know about me is the kind of fic I write.

What kind of person would you think I am? How would you describe my attitudes and opinions about real-life issues? Or, to use the rephrased question:

Based on the way I write my characters, and the way they speak, think, and behave, what would that say to you about my attitudes and opinions about real-life issues?

[This is really the most bizarre meme.]

Comments

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

You're very smart but only started writing (creatively) recently, or picked it up again after a long pause. When you write, it's very deliberate -- you're thinking about technical things like word choice and sentence construction, and making deliberate choices. On the other hand you do know the right choices to make; you probably read a lot. You like BL and especially cracked-out BL, and myteries and series with strong female characters. I'd guess feminist. You aren't Asian, because you pick up on things that people who've grown up with anime/manga take for granted. You focus on the interactions between characters above other things, like plot or world or tone, which probably means...I'm not sure what it means.

[untrue-accounts.livejournal.com]

That was very amusing, thank you! And I am very flattered by the comments on characterization.

I think that is all pretty much on target, although I am not very good at being funny offline.

[shanola22.livejournal.com]

Well, I have a unique perspective on this meme for you, cuz I haven't ever talked to you on LJ or through email or in person and, really, the only thing I know about you are the kinds of fics you write!LOL (And that we share a few friends. Heh.)

So, based on the fics of yours that I have read? I would guess that you have a college degree or are very well-read because you write extremely well. You keep characters in character, so that shows you know the fandoms you write in and take the time to get to know them before writing. Research, right?*g*

I'm guessing you are in a profession and not currently in school. You seem to write with a larger view of the world than most college students possess.

You have a lovely, sarcastic sense of humor. At least, I think you do, based on that Saiyuki/Gravitation crossover I read.

I would guess that you are more liberal in your political leanings, because you write slash. I think you are probably pretty sharp, because of the insights you make into various characters.

Um....it's hard to say, exactly, what you think of certain topics based on the way you write characters because you, er, keep the characters in character? So that, even if you disagreed with a characters thinking, you could still write them convincingly, because you would make the effort to understand where they were coming from.

Okay. My guessing game is done. =P Am I right on any points?LOL

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

You're a careful writer, which makes me think you're a careful person, paying attention to details and how they build a whole. You've read a great deal for pleasure, but also for knowledge, and both come out in your writing.

You're highly intelligent, and probably very socially aware. Your approach to big issues, though, is dictated by how they impact individuals. You don't believe love is a panacea, but you do see it as...helpful, to those involved, and as something worth working for.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

This is almost impossible to reply to when I do know the person. But I think... pretending I don't know you at all... I think that I would think that...

...you are a disappointed romantic: that you love the idea of true love and happily ever after, but you don't really believe in it, or have to carefully suspend your disbelief before you can believe in it, or that, at the very least, they must be very hard-earned.

...that you live in your body, not just in your mind: there's a lot of sensory detail in your stories, like the precise taste and texture of food, that goes beyond what one might add for color.

...that you have an interest in literary theory, or at least literary meta; some of your stories are constructed in a way that would make me guess that you think a lot about what stories are, how they work, what they say.

...that you're also interested in genre; there's pastiche elements that show that you know what signals noir or horror or romance.

...that you love both reading and books as physical objects, and would very likely, as I once misread a quote, take up arms for the sake of library. (Liberty.)

[oyceter]

This really is very odd.

I guess I'd say that you were very careful and very articulate; words have layers of meaning for you, and you deliberately bring that into play.

You like literature and fairy tales and tales retold and weaving them into your stories.

You like things somewhat tragic or bittersweet at the least.

Small things mean something to you, become larger and more meaningful.

You think in images and sounds and tastes.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Based solely on the stories:

You are deliberate, cautious, and artistically ambitious. You have both taste and learning, which makes you more critical of your own work than you necessarily are of anyone else's. You're also more romantic, in the big-sweep charge-up-the-hill-whether-it'll-work-or-not way, than you'll necessarily let yourself be in what you finish. To that extent, your own good taste and critical sense may be working against you, in that your quite reasonable desire not to go way over the top with stuff may also be inhibiting you before you get anywhere close to the top, let alone at risk of going over.

-- Or, of course, I could be completely and totally off base here. If so, I hope to at least not have been offensively off base.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

And that's what I get for implicitly responding to the other comments rather than to the meme itself. Oops.

I'm not sure I'd conclude anything about your real-life attitudes from your stories alone, actually. I'd assume that you did not suffer fools gladly, and that you were likely to be sensitive to the suffering of members of society who weren't placed in privileged positions by accident of birth or other good fortune, and that you cared about family, but that's really about as far as I'd be able to go.