Sunday links, the non-fiction part

Not only of interest if you've watched him as Mr. Eko in Lost (or Simon Adebesi in Oz): a fascinating article about Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who was born Nigerian, fostered by a (white) British family and struggled with conflicting race and class identities as well as a great many other things. He comes across as compelling as the characters he portrayed as an actor.

Also in this Sunday's Observer was something that ticked me off: the ten best historical novels. With the exception of War and Peace, there's not a single novel among them not written in the English language. So even leaving alone the extreme questionability of the "best" criterium - I always prefer titling such lists "my ten favourite etc." because that's more honest, and nobody can argue about personal preferences - I have to wonder why the critic in question didn't simply leave Tolstoy off the list and call it "my ten favourite historical novels written English". Either that, or he's truly ignorant of non-Anglo literature. I mean, for God's sake - no Dumas or Victor Hugo, who founded the genre more than Walter Scott did? No Princesse de Cleves? No Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, Stefan Zweig? No Mika Waltari? Boooooooooooo. Hissssssssssss.

While I'm in combatitive mood: what she said, "she" being the brilliant legionseagle, in relation to the use of a certain scene in The Avengers and some fannish reaction to same. The comments to her post are also good for the most part, but contain one of the most irritating examples for attempted argument derailment I've seen since catvalente posted about the difference of reactions had Christopher Priest (apropos his Clarke award rant) been a woman and had to deal with a troll. Also, ( and here it gets spoilery for The Avengers and Thor )

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Sunday Links, the fanfic part

All Avengers, all the time. Bear with my enthusiasm. Though there is one crossover with an old favorite, Sandman!

The party is over, we go down: Each of the Avengers meets one of the Endless. Some of the Endless weren't who'd I have matched with the Avenger in question, some made me go "of course!", but all are poetic to read.

Fifteen Short Stories About Teamwork : delightful collection of vignettes about the team, post-movie, interacting in various combinations. Hooray for ensemble fic resulting from an ensemble film!

Though of course I'm happy with stories focusing on only some of the characters as well. "Bruce is uncertain whether to stay or leave, Tony persuades him to stay" has rapidly become a new subgenre. Here's a fine specimen for said subgenre:

The space between staying and walking away

As is this one: ain't gonna do me any good . Which also has a strong Pepper participation, and I love it when people don't forget that when we see him in this film, Tony is in a happy relationship with her. (BTW I must say, their few minutes on screen in The Avengers did more to sell me on the idea that this pairing actually works in non-dysfunctional ways than the entirety of Iron Man II.)

On to my favourite movieverse SHIELD spies:

Of forgeries and fire: two complimentary stories about Natasha and Clint, where they came from and how their partnership started.

Contingency: in which post-movie, brooding Clint gets an unexpected request from Steve Rogers.

In other news, I had a nice mother's day with the Aged Parents, who are off to Crete in the middle of the week while I'm off to Italy on Wednesday. For work. Oh, the hardship of having to visit Venice, Bologna and Naples. :) Don't condole me yet, I'm bound to post before Wednesday, but feel free to go green in a not-Hulk way.