An Odyssey of Dreams

There's been a lot going on in the real world - moving, traveling, etc. Not much of an update, except hopefully something that will prove amusing.

I have, of course, read HP7. But before I did, we went to see Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time in a long while. And so, when Doyle & I were driving through New York, an image swam up before me. Of Snape standing over Dumbledore's body, looking at Harry and saying "Oh don't be upset! It was a mercy killing!"

You're welcome.

The monicker, used in Swordspoint to aptly describe one Lord David Campion has been stuck in my head for days. It has been lodged in association with Felix Harrogate, after reading the opening chapters of The Virtu, and it has brought on a case of speculation regarding characters and character archetypes.

Namely, I love those bastards.

Athos was my favorite Musketeer, not the golden D'Artagnan. But I have a feeling that, were I to reread those books today, Aramis would be coming up neck and neck to my troubled gentleman. Likewise, it is the Comte de Monte-Cristo who captures my imagination, not the young Edmond Dantes.

It is never the hero who attracts me, not in the classic sense. Harry Potter with his loving parents who died on his behalf, guided on your typical hero's journey toward the inevitable triumph (though not without proper amounts of sacrifice) is, to me, quite boring. It is, for that reason, I suspect, that while we ( spoiler! ) in A Song of Ice and Fire, it is Jaime and Tyrion Lannister who hold my affection, along with Jon Snow, who ( more spoiler! ).

It is easy to be a hero when you're Harry Potter. You might be scared out of your mind, but in your heart of hearts you know you're a good guy. You know that good is what you do, and you know that evil is something you can overcome.

But how much more meaningful is it when you're not said Harry Potter? When you're a kingslayer, a kinslayer, a guy who organizes bum fights, a runaway drugged-up academic, or a former child prostitute and an instrument of your own destruction? When you know that evil you've done, whether it served the greater good or not, is evil you've done, and you struggle to do better anyway?

The odd thing, I find, is that I can only think of one female character who fits into this archetype (Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey, of Hammered, etc). Why is that?

And who do you think of?

My very first one.

So, bethbethbeth requested a Snape/Rasputin icon with some fun text at The Witching Hour last weekend, and after some ditzing around in Photoshop, I made a bunch.

Free to a good home, with credit. Please don't hotlink, you are more than welcome to alter. If someone would like me to post blanks, comment, and I will. Enjoy.

( Anyone here read cyrillic? )

After all the trouble in waiting for Amazon to deliver the books, I gave up and just went to buy them at the Coop near MIT. Thus, I've decided to do the same for Book 7, whenever it should become avaliable.

My boyfriend refused to let me read until we were on the interstate, and I left the book in the car when we stopped for food. Also, given my surety that someone was going to die in the last chapters, I left off reading them until after I slept, thus while I did not finish the book until Sunday morning, it took a grand total of 6 hours, if we don't count the breaks.

( And now, to spoilers! )