Oh, it definitely does help to motivate me. It's very exciting to see my characters reflected back through someone else's talent, and I really do feel like you understand the characters in a lot of really important ways. Most of the things you do are essentially true to the characters, if not completely accurate in all the details. That's also very exciting - to see them in a slightly different light, so I thank you for doing that. Authors who have a large fanbase that writes fanfiction must be so interested in that. If I were J.K. Rowling, I would spend so much time reading what the fans have done to her work (though I can see how she got annoyed at all the shipping and stuff - the little epilogue at the end of the last book, where they're all paired off and married, seemed like a blatantly intentional attempt to control the post-story canon for HP fanfiction. It seemed a little cheap and unnecessary to me).
I totally agree. Johnny is very much the head of the household. He's the one that makes sure the bills get paid, and all that day-to-day stuff. It's not easy being the "stick in the mud" responsible adult, but Johnny doesn't mind taking that on. In fact, he really wants to be the one running the show like that. It's the bossy firstborn child in him. Birth order is one of the things I REALLY like to analyze when writing characters. Johnny, Ripp, and Ophelia all have very different situations like that - first, middle, and only, and I think that is really reflected in the way they relate to each other.
That scene just before the fight is really meant to show that there is an intimate connection between Johnny and Ripp. It's subtle, but it's strong. The fight was also oddly intimate, and I feel like they must have been somewhat exhilarated by the close contact there.
I've always intended Ripp to be somewhat bisexual, or a sexual omnivore, or heteroflexible, or whatever you may call it. He's obviously much more attracted to women, but his sexuality touches everything. It's how he experiences the world. It's not surprising that he hasn't been really aware of it (think of him and Stella, who is both a male and a female, and how he sort of realized that, but then explained it away), considering his upbringing. Johnny is definitely trickier. He reads as mostly straight, I agree, so he would be the one to watch, if you're hoping they could be sexually involved. Johnny's not exactly throwing his sexuality around, and he's more concerned about love, above all else. I doubt he's been attracted to a lot of other people besides Phi. I imagine that Johnny would have to be in love with someone before he even found them remotely sexually attractive. So, considering that, the rest of his sexual landscape remains pretty hidden. We know he likes Phi, and that's about it.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-05-26 01:17 pm (UTC)I totally agree. Johnny is very much the head of the household. He's the one that makes sure the bills get paid, and all that day-to-day stuff. It's not easy being the "stick in the mud" responsible adult, but Johnny doesn't mind taking that on. In fact, he really wants to be the one running the show like that. It's the bossy firstborn child in him. Birth order is one of the things I REALLY like to analyze when writing characters. Johnny, Ripp, and Ophelia all have very different situations like that - first, middle, and only, and I think that is really reflected in the way they relate to each other.
That scene just before the fight is really meant to show that there is an intimate connection between Johnny and Ripp. It's subtle, but it's strong. The fight was also oddly intimate, and I feel like they must have been somewhat exhilarated by the close contact there.
I've always intended Ripp to be somewhat bisexual, or a sexual omnivore, or heteroflexible, or whatever you may call it. He's obviously much more attracted to women, but his sexuality touches everything. It's how he experiences the world. It's not surprising that he hasn't been really aware of it (think of him and Stella, who is both a male and a female, and how he sort of realized that, but then explained it away), considering his upbringing. Johnny is definitely trickier. He reads as mostly straight, I agree, so he would be the one to watch, if you're hoping they could be sexually involved. Johnny's not exactly throwing his sexuality around, and he's more concerned about love, above all else. I doubt he's been attracted to a lot of other people besides Phi. I imagine that Johnny would have to be in love with someone before he even found them remotely sexually attractive. So, considering that, the rest of his sexual landscape remains pretty hidden. We know he likes Phi, and that's about it.