Inherent Vice fic?
Jun. 6th, 2016 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verushka70Having seen Paul Thomas Anderson's film Inherent Vice over the weekend (I missed it in theaters), I'm now tempted to tackle the source, Thomas Pynchon's novel. Joaquin Phoenix's performance reminded me somewhat of his similarly hapless role in Clay Pigeons (with Janeane Garofalo, back in the 90s), but of course here he's a stoner PI rather than the main suspect.
I really loved all the period details. I'm old enough that I remember some of the early part of my childhood, when hippies really *were* perceived as dirty, filthy degenerates and a threat equated with the Manson family, Viet Nam was a nightly horror on the news, and Nixon's paranoia colored the straight world's perception of everything (not to mention the casual police brutality of the times, which seems to have morphed over the decades from a policy of blanket brutality to superficial civil rights punctuated by frequent outbursts of "justified" lethal force... progress, not so much). So maybe I'll give it a shot, though I find Pynchon's stuff intimidating in general, probably because my ADD makes it hard enough to finish books... I do better with nonfiction these days, and I'm embarrassed to admit I got a gift of Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49 years ago, and just couldn't get into it.
But imo, there's a definite culture clashy slashy vibe between Doc the dirty hippie and Bigfoot the brutal LAPD cop--not helped by Bigfoot frequently sucking on chocolate covered frozen bananas around Doc often throughout the film. And their weird working relationship seems preslash, to me. I'm disappointed to find no Inherent Vice fanfic at all on AO3, much less slash. Of course now a plot bunny for them is rolling around my head... just what I need.
In other news, yesterday and last night I had a migraine so bad, I threw up a few times. And now I have these tiny petechiae (dots of burst blood vessels) all around both eyes from the force of the vomiting, like blood red freckles. If I were dressing up as a zombie, this would really work for that look. Instead, I'm maxed on concealer. At least my coworkers are all healthcare professionals. Though who knows what the patients work think if they saw them. And, realistically, my coworkers could also easily assume that the vomiting associated with the petechiae was from drinking to excess. Sigh...
I really loved all the period details. I'm old enough that I remember some of the early part of my childhood, when hippies really *were* perceived as dirty, filthy degenerates and a threat equated with the Manson family, Viet Nam was a nightly horror on the news, and Nixon's paranoia colored the straight world's perception of everything (not to mention the casual police brutality of the times, which seems to have morphed over the decades from a policy of blanket brutality to superficial civil rights punctuated by frequent outbursts of "justified" lethal force... progress, not so much). So maybe I'll give it a shot, though I find Pynchon's stuff intimidating in general, probably because my ADD makes it hard enough to finish books... I do better with nonfiction these days, and I'm embarrassed to admit I got a gift of Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49 years ago, and just couldn't get into it.
But imo, there's a definite culture clashy slashy vibe between Doc the dirty hippie and Bigfoot the brutal LAPD cop--not helped by Bigfoot frequently sucking on chocolate covered frozen bananas around Doc often throughout the film. And their weird working relationship seems preslash, to me. I'm disappointed to find no Inherent Vice fanfic at all on AO3, much less slash. Of course now a plot bunny for them is rolling around my head... just what I need.
In other news, yesterday and last night I had a migraine so bad, I threw up a few times. And now I have these tiny petechiae (dots of burst blood vessels) all around both eyes from the force of the vomiting, like blood red freckles. If I were dressing up as a zombie, this would really work for that look. Instead, I'm maxed on concealer. At least my coworkers are all healthcare professionals. Though who knows what the patients work think if they saw them. And, realistically, my coworkers could also easily assume that the vomiting associated with the petechiae was from drinking to excess. Sigh...
no subject
Date: 2016-06-06 06:00 pm (UTC)And you really seem to be having a run of "where's the fic for this"...well, it may be up to you to start some new fandom trends. *g*
no subject
Date: 2016-06-06 10:38 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, between the tendinitis/epicondylitis, the migraine, fibromyalgia pain/stiffness, and my general apathy after finally getting back to normal(ish) after being sick for a month plus, I don't have the energy to start anything new or see it through... not to mention having the two dS and TW WIPs I already haven't finished. And my new Win8 laptop has a lousy keyboard that's hard to type on, I've discovered. Sigh.
I wish we were had the cyberpunk technology so I could just record my imaginings on a chip in my brain, and then have them automatically transcribed into a story or vignettes or whatever. That would be so cool.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-06 10:40 pm (UTC)OTOH...
Date: 2016-06-06 10:50 pm (UTC)I mean, it's basically what I consider a perfect day weather wise, especially now that I'm in the phase of life where it's always too hot... so I'm going to put my sunglasses on and walk the dog for a while.
Re: OTOH...
Date: 2016-06-06 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-06 07:04 pm (UTC)Like, I thought there would be tons of fics for Magic Mike XXL...but the reality was that they were only v. few written and only 1 for my fave ship for that movie.
Sometimes, you can explain it away as the source being complex or stylized in a way that's v. hard to replicate (HBO's ROME and The Wire). Perhaps, that's what happened with Inherent Vice. FWIW, it doesn't help that the movie wasn't popular or a success (I have vagueish memories of hearing about it, but it was pretty much gone from the theaters by the time I wanted to see it). I don't think I've ever read any Pynchon (his books don't ping my interests).
Maybe a story or two could pop up during Yuletide (which I also call "the place I go when I'm in the mood for fics in rare/less well known fandoms.)
Ugh, migraines are the worst! *pets you v. gently*
no subject
Date: 2016-06-06 11:09 pm (UTC)I've liked a lot of Paul Thomas Anderson's movies (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love--the ONLY Adam Sandler movie I've ever really liked, probably because he was playing the opposite of his usual shtick). So I meant to see Inherent Vice in theaters, but I vaguely recall that, like Magnolia, it only played in a very few theaters around Chicago and the surrounding area, and was gone rather quickly.
It's got a dreamy mise en scene which I'm sure is too "art film" for most mainstream moviegoers anyway, though that's one of the things I quite liked about it--a cross between stoner beach culture and LA noir corruption. That and Joaquin's slightly befuddled, stoned, but persistent PI, like a gentler, more thoughtful/serious (and 1970s) inversion of Lebowski (and where the threats of physical violence are not from a silly German techno band, but from very real, scary threats). Plus all the period details seemed quite authentic.
I'm not sure if Pynchon pings me or not... I haven't tried to read him again since I attempted The Crying of Lot 49... and 389 pages for the source novel for Inherent Vice is intimidating enough, even if I weren't in a particularly distracted phase of life, which I seem to be.
But yeah... I think you're right, I'll have to look for something around Yuletide, or may be in another small fandom big bang or porn battle, though the latter seems to be on permanent hiatus, unfortunately...