Meanwhile...

[selenak]

On a somewhat more cheerful note, I managed to get my Rarewoman ficathon story done, which meant a return to an old fandom I haven't been writing in for eons, and that proved to be joyful and relaxing. Thus fortified, I started Robert Cara's multivolume The Years of Lyndon Johnson biographies reccomended to me several times over, and so far, Robert Caro strkes me as the best type of biographer: one who sets his subject in the context of the era said subject is living in, and one who while unafraid to show his subject's (massive) dark side also describes, in great detail, amazing achievements. So you get, for example, young LBJ the college election stealing sinister breaker of people, blackmailer and sadist described in detail by former fellow students, while simultanously getting young LBJ the inspiring teacher who (because he had to finance being at college to begin with, took teaching jobs in between terms) teaches Mexican-American kids to speak English and is still remembered with fondness and awe.

I'm also going to watch Cap II again in a few hours, because I was that much entranced by the movie. It feels odd, though, when going through other people's reviews and realise, not for the first time, that 99% of them contain a good deal of capslocking and "feels" (still dislike that word; am a proponent of "feelings" all the way) about Person In The Title, which wasn't what made the movie for me at all. I mean, I'm sorry for SPOILER, given what happened to him, but it's the vague kind of general sympathy that comes with the awful situation of someone whom, as a person in general, you don't have feelings about one way or the other. I seem to be that way with all the Sebastian Stan characters, be they Jefferson in Once Upon A Time, Jack in Kings, or TJ Hammond in Political Animals. As most of the fannish output in the various fandoms tends to be centered around Stan's characters, this puts me always in something of a looking for needles in haystacks position when trying to find fanfic that's not about any of them. One day he and Tom Hiddleston will be in the same film/show, and then there will be nothing for me at all in terms of fic dealing with everyone else whom I'll invariably be more interested in.

Comments

[grimorie]

So... I'm with you on this one about Bucky (and Jefferson tbh). And I'm a fan of Bucky in the comics but here, he didn't have much for me to care for beyond, as you pointed out, general feelings of sympathy.

I've found myself getting a little cranky with all the shouting for Bucky when I'm more partial to the political thriller tone of the movie, Steve's former Strike team, his partnership with Natasha and Sam. Steve's complicated relationship with Fury (Fury bugged his apartment and Steve was only mildly surprised), Natasha's loyalty to Fury. Fury's trust in Maria.

Steve being completely heart broken with Peggy.

Fury's betrayal in the hands of his friend.

Those were the things I really cared about but Bucky was pretty low in the totem pole in this one.

[selenak]

Yes, yes, to all of this. All the aspects you name is what I want to read about because I found them fascinating in the movie, and it provided both fleshing out and tantalizing hints at much more, which should make an ideal basis for fanfiction. I think most of all I want backstory for Fury & Maria & Natasha, how each of these relationships developed. And all the Steve and Natasha friendship stories in the world, by which I don't mean "Steve and Natasha angst together about Bucky" (one reason why I'm glad Natsha doesn't have her comicverse backstoy with Bucky - this way, she and Steve bond because of who they are, not because they share Bucky angst). And of course how Sam fares, having just started a superhero partnership!

[naraht]

Robert Caro's biography of LBJ is an absolute tour de force. I say this as someone who is very interested in biography as a genre and yet (these may be linked) dissatisfied with most of the biographies I read.

You may also be interested in his biography of Robert Moses, though in many ways that was a one-volume warm-up for LBJ. The theme is the same: the corruption of power.

[selenak]

I look forward to all the existing volumes then, and hope he'll finish No.5 (considering he's 76 already, I'm worried!).

[naraht]

I know! It was originally planned in three volumes, IIRC, which always seemed over-optimistic to me. And there's the cautionary tale of William Manchester's lengthy biography of Churchill.

[skywaterblue]

This is one of the big reasons I haven't tried harder to get into the Caro books.

[muccamukk]

After ten years of Brubaker writing Bucky as his precious woobie Mary Sue, I'm preeeety much done with the character. He's fun when other writers use him, but mostly I liked him better when he was dead.

[kalypso]

I have to confess I'd never heard of Sebastian Stan, and had to look him up to find out what film you were talking about... he doesn't really look my type.

With you all the way on "feels". Ugh.

The biography sounds good, if I didn't have such a huge backlog of books.