Question meme from sartorias
Jan. 17th, 2025 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sally_mariaWhich she probably thought I'd forgotten about...
Mum is gradually improving, but still wobblier on her feet than we would like, which means more time doing household things when I'm not working, so I haven't always got to the computer.
But thank you for the chance to think about something different and interesting - if anyone else would like some questions to keep the content going, please ask.
1. Talk a bit about your relationship with music, and how it has evolved over time.
I've realised this is something I could write an essay about, but trying to be concise (and probably failing) - I've always enjoyed listening to music, and singing in church and school choir growing up, though I don't consider myself to have any great talent. But for a long time it was a background thing in my life - I'd like the sound of a song, or a singer, and buy albums if I enjoyed it enough, but I never paid that much attention to the musicians as people. I've always been a fangirl, but for genre fiction. That changed back in 2017/8 when I was between fandoms and was introduced to Peter Hollens and his solo acapella versions of songs from the Peter Jackson Tolkien films, at a time when I'd just got the technology to watch YouTube on TV. I found myself being drawn in to a number of the artists he collaborated with, and particularly Home Free. Gradually I had music I loved to listen to, but also lore to explore, and friends to squee with. I do still listen to other artists some of the time, but there's something different about the songs that come from the community of artists I have a personal connection to (the ones I've met, and/or the ones who actually know I exist). I also didn't go to concerts growing up - I didn't have much of a social life as a teenager - but that's something I've discovered the joys of over the past couple of years, again because I have a community to share the experience with.
2. Do you have a favorite fic, one you reread? If so, what about it works?
I used to reread a lot, but with the modern internet there is so much to read, I don't tend to go back to things so much. One thing I've also found is that I can reread fic while I'm in the fandom, but once I've moved on it just doesn't hit the same most of the time. Having said that, the ones I do go back to are the ones portraying the characters as ones I can both like and respect - that they are good and competent at what they are doing, whatever that is.
3. You're giving a dinner party, and C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, and Ursula K Le Guin are coming. What do you think the topics of conversation will be?
Hmm - interesting. I get the impression they are all people who liked talking about ideas, and in general are much cleverer than me. They could debate religion, or talk academia, but I'd be really interested to hear them talking about stories, about myths and legends and what makes them still work for the modern reader.
4. What is your earliest memory?
One of earliest memories, and I can't be more precise that that, was my only foray into shop-lifting. ;-) I must have been about three, we were at a place in Cornwall that had holiday cottages in the grounds of a hotel, and a shop, which sold sweets. I went in without my parents, and with a slightly older girl, she might have been four or five, and they had lollipops in a jar, which we proceeded to take and eat, without the idea of paying for them occurring to us. We got caught, Mum paid the 2p (I think it was) and I learnt stealing was not worth getting caught.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I'm a fairly parochial person at heart - I've visited various European countries and very much enjoyed it, I like day trips to London to visit museums, and these days a concert or perhaps a stage show. But I live in a very pretty part of the world, that's really in my bones, and I'm not sure I'd want to move anywhere else permanently.
Mum is gradually improving, but still wobblier on her feet than we would like, which means more time doing household things when I'm not working, so I haven't always got to the computer.
But thank you for the chance to think about something different and interesting - if anyone else would like some questions to keep the content going, please ask.
1. Talk a bit about your relationship with music, and how it has evolved over time.
I've realised this is something I could write an essay about, but trying to be concise (and probably failing) - I've always enjoyed listening to music, and singing in church and school choir growing up, though I don't consider myself to have any great talent. But for a long time it was a background thing in my life - I'd like the sound of a song, or a singer, and buy albums if I enjoyed it enough, but I never paid that much attention to the musicians as people. I've always been a fangirl, but for genre fiction. That changed back in 2017/8 when I was between fandoms and was introduced to Peter Hollens and his solo acapella versions of songs from the Peter Jackson Tolkien films, at a time when I'd just got the technology to watch YouTube on TV. I found myself being drawn in to a number of the artists he collaborated with, and particularly Home Free. Gradually I had music I loved to listen to, but also lore to explore, and friends to squee with. I do still listen to other artists some of the time, but there's something different about the songs that come from the community of artists I have a personal connection to (the ones I've met, and/or the ones who actually know I exist). I also didn't go to concerts growing up - I didn't have much of a social life as a teenager - but that's something I've discovered the joys of over the past couple of years, again because I have a community to share the experience with.
2. Do you have a favorite fic, one you reread? If so, what about it works?
I used to reread a lot, but with the modern internet there is so much to read, I don't tend to go back to things so much. One thing I've also found is that I can reread fic while I'm in the fandom, but once I've moved on it just doesn't hit the same most of the time. Having said that, the ones I do go back to are the ones portraying the characters as ones I can both like and respect - that they are good and competent at what they are doing, whatever that is.
3. You're giving a dinner party, and C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, and Ursula K Le Guin are coming. What do you think the topics of conversation will be?
Hmm - interesting. I get the impression they are all people who liked talking about ideas, and in general are much cleverer than me. They could debate religion, or talk academia, but I'd be really interested to hear them talking about stories, about myths and legends and what makes them still work for the modern reader.
4. What is your earliest memory?
One of earliest memories, and I can't be more precise that that, was my only foray into shop-lifting. ;-) I must have been about three, we were at a place in Cornwall that had holiday cottages in the grounds of a hotel, and a shop, which sold sweets. I went in without my parents, and with a slightly older girl, she might have been four or five, and they had lollipops in a jar, which we proceeded to take and eat, without the idea of paying for them occurring to us. We got caught, Mum paid the 2p (I think it was) and I learnt stealing was not worth getting caught.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I'm a fairly parochial person at heart - I've visited various European countries and very much enjoyed it, I like day trips to London to visit museums, and these days a concert or perhaps a stage show. But I live in a very pretty part of the world, that's really in my bones, and I'm not sure I'd want to move anywhere else permanently.
