Ranting about Cliff's Notes for The Hobbit

I need to rant. Feel free to ignore :-)

I hate people who use cliff's notes and those... well I don't even know the other companies who do the same thing, but those things. I hate them. I think there should be a special place in Hell for people who use them instead of reading the book. I know that's harsh, but it's how I feel. Plus I don't actually believe in Hell so it's not quite as bad as it seems. They should be reincarnated as a gnat or something, those people. DAMN but I hate them! With a passion! It's taking a piece of art- something that came out of someone's mind and soul and taking it down to a level where it's unappreciated because of pure stupidity and laziness. I don't fucking care how hard it is to read and understand some books. I don't care if it's a book you don't care about. It's as bad as murder to me. It's taking something someone created and not giving it any respect at all. No time to even try and understand it. I don't fucking care how much work people have or how slow they read if they don't even TRY to make an effort to read a book. It's somebody's art. Somebody's creation. And to take something beautiful that teaches and brings insight and cast it off like it's just a stupid assignment is just utterly wrong. I fucking hate people who use those things instead of reading the original piece. I really do. I don't care how nice a person is or how stressed and overworked they are, it's just wrong.

GROWL!!!

TG is one pissed chica right now. Mostly because one of those things is in my HOUSE now. My sister got it out of the library. She had exactly ONE book on her summer reading list. The WHOLE BLOODY SUMMER to read just a single book. Back in my day we had to read 4 or 5 books over the summer. And she couldn't read just one. She's a senior, mind you.

And which book was it? The Hobbit. I'm sorry, but it's like, 250 pages of fun. How the FUCK can you justify getting Cliff's Notes for The Hobbit? My parents read that to me when I was, like, 6. It's not a very difficult read. And if you're given a whole bloody 3 months? It's just not right. NOT RIGHT! *pets Bilbo* But even if it wasn't The Hobbit, I'd still feel that way about the study guide thingies. They're degrading and horrible things. They take away all originality of thought and understanding. They treat art like pure mindless unappreciated crap. And I don't take kindly to their users. Especially when my favorite books are concerned. I fucking hate those things.

And the whole summer she says "Oh I started it once but never finished it. So I'm going to start it again from the beginning" which of course means "I'm pretending to have read it so it doesn't look so bad when you see I'm still on page 1 but I really have no intention of reading it". And today she was sooo worried because none of the local libraries/stores had Cliff's Notes for it, so she had to make a special trip out of town to get a copy out (because everyone else in her school has checked out copies). GROWL! IT'S NOT RIGHT! People who use them just don't care and should go to Hell. Period. I hate 'em. End of rant.

Fics 'n stuff

Thanks for the hugs yesterday, people. Today's been a bit less hectic. The problems with my cousin are still pretty bad, but there's nothing I can do from the other side of the country. *sigh* I hate feeling helpless.

Fics today were varied and mostly new:

• Worked a little bit on the full fic of 'Futile Hopes & Unexpected Kindnesses'. Every time I want to mention this fic I have to go up and copy&paste the name like an idiot. I just call it the RemusSnapePotion fic. LOL It's sooo close to being done with draft 1. I think I'm a little nervous about the final scene, so I'm mentally avoiding finishing it. I'm just scared about how Snape & Remus are going to interact in the last scene. It's like I've been building for 30 pages and don't want to be let down by the ending. There's nothing worse than that. I really must tell myself to just do it. I can always rewrite it if it sucks, right? heehee
  
• Wrote a little more of that original fic long-hand. The dog-walking one. I'm really enjoying it :-) I typed up what I wrote in it yesterday and now have more of it to type. Incidentally, I number my original fics and this one is story69_new. (Somewhere around story 100-something I lost count so I started renumbering from 1 and putting _new at the end. LOL!) It's rather sad that this story has NO hope of having any 69-ing in it. A good name gone to waste. LOL
  
• Started a new Remus/Sirius (nonsneezefic) story right out of the blue. It's a bit different than any others I've written. It started out as a Remus-is-embarrassed-about-his-scars fic and has slowly turned into a Sirus-is-obsessed-with-Remus-as-a-werewolf fic. It's almost like I'm writing two different stories and I can't decide which is which at any given moment. I don't really know what to do. I don't want to make it two stories... but somehow I need to make it into a Remus-is-embarrassed-about-his-scars-because-Sirius-has-been-obsessed-with-his-werewolfness fic. Right now it's a series of flashbacks and LOTS of angst.
  
• Started a new X-Men sneezefic. I stumbled on X2: United on HBO tonight and the idea popped into my mind. So far it's going in a completely different direction than I'd intended. I can't quite seem to break out of the narrative and get to the point of the fic, but it's going all right, which is something, I guess. So far Gambit's sneezing. I think I need to watch an episode to get his accent stuck in my head, but once I do that I think the fic will speed up. It's going to be another Wolfcrawler fic.
  
• Had a couple flashes of a fic with haystack sex. With an allergy to hay, of course. Can't feel it fitting anywhere yet, but it's in my head. LOL If anyone has suggestions, let me know :-)