Five Pieces of Meta I particularly Enjoyed

[shapinglight]

There were lots of great Meta posts in 2006. This is a selection I particularly enjoyed. This being me, they do have a strong Spike-centric bias.

School Hard Re-examined, by peasant_. In this essay, the author makes what is to me a very convincing argument confounding the widely held fanon belief that Spike was bad at planning.



Spike: Man,Archetype,Beloved by morgantree. A beautiful essay that encapsulates so many of the things I love about this character.

Slash and Why we Write it, by twilightofmagic. In this essay, the author tries to get a grip on the reasons why women write slash fiction. Very interesting essay.

elisi was particularly busy with meta in 2006. The final two posts are two of hers that particularly struck me.

The Whole Sire Thing by elisi. In this, the author explains why Spike calling Angel his sire in School Hard is not really contradicted by the later revelation in Fool For Love that Drusilla was the one who physically sired him. How, in fact, it adds to the complexity of the relationship between the three of them.

I Think I understand the First Evil by elisi - because really, someone has to.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Wonderful list. I'm familiar with all of these and I'm glad to see someone rec'd them.

[shapinglight]

They were all very good - in fact, I could've recced another dozen posts just by elisi and peasant_

[jamalov29.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this great list. morgantree wrote some wonderfully memorable lines about Spike.

[shapinglight]

She did, didn't she.

[yourlibrarian]

So good to see another rec for essays! And you've got some terrific posts by these writers here. I think there's only one I haven't read.

[shapinglight]

They were all very good. Elisi wrote some great posts on the back of re-watching BtVS season 7 though even she couldn't convince me that As You Were was actually a very cunning piece of bluff/counter-bluff on the part of the writers rather than just a badly written mess

[yourlibrarian]

Hee! Well essays, perhaps especially the ones one doesn't agree with, are great exactly because they make one rethink things. Or remind you why you enjoy something so much. Which in the end is why most of us are here.

[shapinglight]

Or remind you why you enjoy something so much. Which in the end is why most of us are here.

Exactly. If this wasn't mostly fun still, I wouldn't be here and nor would most of us.

Am very glad it still is for so many people.

[mommanerd.livejournal.com]

Peasant's meta on School Hard was new to me, and really great. Thanks so much. Great list.

[shapinglight]

It's good, isn't it? Glad you liked it. She had some more interesting meta posts around the same time, which you might enjoy if you scroll through the entries.

[laisserais]

Thank you for this list! I love meta that deals with canon, and though I've read peasant_'s, the rest are new to me. I look forward to reading them!

[shapinglight]

I hope you enjoy them. I particularly liked Elisi's one about the First Evil. Suddenly, the lameness of that villain didn't seem quite so lame.

[laisserais]

"Suddenly, the lameness of that villain didn't seem quite so lame." lol! now that i have to read to believe!

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Great list. I haven't read the essay on slash - thanks for pointing it!

[shapinglight]

I hope you enjoy them.

[lily-le.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reccing these. I'd never really read meta before, and these Top 5 lists are a good incentive to try new stuff!

I can't access twilightofmagic 's essay, tho it sounds really interesting - is it flisted?

Thanks

Lily

[shapinglight]

Yes, I'm sorry about that. It seems she'd flocked the post and I never even realised. I will have to try to find another essay to replace it with.