yuletide reveal

[rushthatspeaks]

Yuletide this year was complex and stress-making in ways it's never been before, and then some people Saved Yuletide for me (you know who you are) and I sat around saying to myself, I have the best friends in all of explored space, and it is awesome.

Anyway, I wrote a Yuletide Treat this year that I am very proud of and that was an utter joy to write: Several Architects, of Michael Ende's novel Momo, for octopedingenue. I don't think you need to have read the book to read this, although it is set post-book. If you haven't read Momo, I recommend it, although it is of course harder to find than The Never-Ending Story (I bought my copy in Japan, and the cover is horrendous), and it isn't quite as good, but it's very worthwhile. I saw octopedingenue's prompt in her Yuletide letter on my f-list, and had that marvelous experience where you sit down and a story of whose existence you had no notion comes fully built out your fingertips. It required only minor revision and has made me smile even to think about ever since. Thank you, octopedingenue, for the prompt, as the whole experience has been a Christmas present for me too.

Comments

[sovay]

Several Architects, of Michael Ende's novel Momo, for octopedingenue.

And I love it very much and it makes me want to read the original book, so thank you for an unintended gift, too.

Happy New Year!

[octopedingenue]

I KNEW IT

I haven't left feedback on the story yet because I suck, but God, I love you. I just love you.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I really enjoyed that one, and want to read the source material.

[zeborah]

Whee, someone else already pointed me to that and I liked it heaps.

I always like Momo better than The Neverending Story; I couldn't talk about "better" because I read them both when I was a kid and didn't have a clue what "better" was and heck, even now it's all terribly subjective.

But I think the problem I have with The Neverending Story is the whole sweep where the protag's getting more and more corrupted by the thingammy, and each time it's a little more inevitable that this will just continue. I have always, always hated this kind of trope (see also Wuthering Heights, and Vainglory by Geraldine McCaughline, which is much less famous but I mention it because it's where I first worked out what it was that made me uncomfortable). And it's a shame, because there's so much else to like in The Neverending Story: so much of its imagery still shines in my memory.

But with Momo, it's got all the wonderful imagery and *also* the protag keeps struggling on against the antagonists without ever getting seriously drawn into their corruption, so rereading it is unalloyed pleasure for me.

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder to re-read Momo :-) I haven't read it since I was in Germany.