Challenge The Celtic Song Challenge|All New Songs Now Claimed

And of course the reasoning has to be delivered in two sentences, and as with all songs, it's about the emotion rather than the details.

I've got this vague image of the f' up of the family sitting up on a back table at the wedding, watching with envy and resentment the happiness everyone else is part of, ignoring him, treating him as an embarrassment to be avoided.

And he drinks, and he gets mean.

 

I am going to have to return my song as well. Sorry.

 

I'll take "Black is the Colour." I already have an idea. What a beautiful song.

 

I'm halfway through the one assigned to me, but this one is kind of.... sexy.
Blowing out candles and all.

Not alot of that kind of fanfiction here.

 

I have to admit that I'm none too surprised that "As I Roved Out/Night Visit" hasn't gotten a story yet. It doesn't fit well with the particular climate of the boards. And no, I don't think it's really entirely because of the sexual content, per se. It is certainly within the site TOS: and, well, it was originally written in, and was long performed in, Ireland--in a conservative culture that would have been considerably more restrictive about what was socially permitted to say than the "family friendly" standards in practice here.

I think it has much more to do with the fact that this is a story of a wandering cad/kriffslider who goes home with this girl he's just met, at her invitation; and after he spends the night with her, leaves with no intention of ever returning. If there are any consequences from their encounter (and I'm pretty sure they didn't use protection), she will endure the stigma alone. As the song says, they'll get married "when broken shells make Christmas bells." There is no true love, or any sort of love at all, in this song. It's far more earthy than anything in the Star Wars canon. And there's really nothing here to ship.

(As an aside: I shall never cease to be amused at the bit in Christy Moore's version where the girl says, before they go to bed, that she hopes that he'll be capable of performing sexually. It couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow.)

You could say that there isn't any place in the far far away galaxy where this story would work. But I wouldn't say that at all: when broken down to its basic components, it is a fairly basic story that could work in a variety of settings, even ones that are far different from the culture it originated in. It is just, I think, a story that is not one that people here want to tell.

 

I could see Han Solo in this story in a way, but yes, casually dumping the poor girl in the morning with a "See you around never, babe" would be a bit problematic nowadays.

 

I would say that it was definitely problematic back in the day: when the sexual double standard was even worse than it is now, and this sort of thing could--even if there was no tell-tale pregnancy--get a young woman a one-way ticket to the Magdalene Laundries.

(If you want to know more about just what sort of culture this song would have been taking place in, I recommend the documentary Sex in a Cold Climate, upon which the movie The Magdalene Sisters was based. It's available for viewing on Youtube.)

Personally, I don't have an issue with one-night stands, so long as the parties involved are on the same page. Sadly--as in this song, where the girl didn't bring this soldier-boy home just to get dumped in the morning--they oftentimes are not.

 

Even Hamlet has this issue: in Ophelia’s songs she sings:
“You said before you tumbled me you promised me to wed/ quothe he- and so I’d have done by yonder sun if thou hadst not come to my bed”
That’s a theme that’s been around (pardon the pun)

As for hot romances in fanfic, it’s definitely there. Maybe you’ve been looking for love in ..... oh, I can’t say it.

 

Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,
And dupped the chamber door,
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

Ophelia again. (And I have had those last two lines running through my head for a while, but couldn't remember where they came from. For shame! But my memory hath been jogged.)

As for hot romances: I know that, back in the day, it was fairly common for authors to have hot versions of chapters that they would send out via PM to those over eighteen. But I haven't noticed this happening hardly at all since the move to the new boards.

 

I offered a PM only chapter on one of my stories and got zero takers so I didn’t dup that chamber door again. I think people put their “mature versions” on the other popular fanfic site.

 

@divapilot: I offered a PM only chapter on one of my stories and got zero takers so I didn’t dup that chamber door again. I think people put their “mature versions” on the other popular fanfic site.

Yes, I know what you mean: back in the 2006-2007 era, I offered the original, mature versions of chapters I had needed to edit down in several of my stories, and no one came to the chamber door. I did post one of those chapters on the livejournal I had at the time, so the one person who was interested just read it there. And I have to say that, in general, I didn't care much for the experience of editing those chapters to fit into the TOS here. The results just felt gutted and off.

So I understand why people just put their more "mature" works on that other fanfic site where they do fit, because it's definitely what I prefer to do. The boards aren't the right place for every type of story, and there isn't anything wrong with acknowledging that.

All right, returning to the original subject of this thread: If you're having difficulty coming up with an idea for your song--or turning an idea you do have into an actual story--feel free to brainstorm it with us, either here, or by contacting us via PM.

 

Here is my entry.

Black is the Color

 

Very well. Hi. Haven't posted in a while.
This isn't... nice.

The Cruel Brother

 

The muse fell asleep as regards this one. I might even need a reminder what my song was.

 

Still have ideas, but they're somewhat ambitious. So I don't have a good estimate of when I'd have it done. Do you need to wrap them all up to start over?

 

*It's good to see your stories, @divapilot and @GregMcP. I have liked them both and shall get to reading and commenting soon.

* @Kahara : There is no deadline for producing a story, so don't worry. So long as the boards still stand, this thread shall be here when you have one.

*It's going to be some while before I have my own story written. The thing is: I could come up with several ideas for my song without much effort--the only problem is that none of them would be set in the far, far away galaxy, or in any other fandom world. I'm beginning to think that I'm better at co-hosting this challenge than writing for it.

*On that note: if you need any help or advice with making your story idea into a posted reality, I too offer my services.

*As a trivial aside: this is my 1000th post. It only took me almost fourteen years to produce that much message board content. I feel I should do something special now, but I can't honestly think of anything.

 

WOOT! High five!

 

Yeah! We should dance now to something appropriate for this thread:



(As an aside: I picked this song in part because Monaghan is one of my family names--it was my one maternal great-grandmother's maiden name.)

 

*grabs a partner and dances a sprightly swing waltz to the above tune*

 

@Mira_Jade, it was Pandora. Nearly the same number of letters, ends on "a" too. Congrats Pandora, by the way!