Predatrix

Aspie, heavily-verbal, British, early fifties, loves my cat, loves my Mac, gets a little obsessive (currently diving into fanfic writing for JSMN fandom)

[pred-x]

[pred-x]

My very first fan-art, from a screenshot, using Procreate to trace an image, colour it, and use layers to re-do mistakes.

[bookhobbit]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an illustration per chapter - 4/69

Most of the interesting material in this chapter is Norrell’s adventures at the party. I chose this moment because a) going to a party only to become overwhelmed and anxious and retreat to a corner with a book is the most Relatable Norrell Moment, and b) it seemed appropriate that he should be reading in my first illustration of him.

[pred-x]

This is gorgeous!

[stormduffy]

Hello World

The obligatory Hello World post. I’m of the USENET generation, and was dragged kicking and screaming onto LiveJournal when many of my friends started blogging there instead of posting to newsgroups and mailing lists as God intended. I’m still on LiveJournal/DreamWidth, but have acquired a WordPress blog or two since then. Some of my friends have decamped to Tumblr, so I’ve decided the time has come to join yet another platform.

[pred-x]

Did you message me this morning -- I'm in a bit of a bad way with mental and physical health lately and having trouble with Tumblr's appalling UI. Think I saw. the start of a message from you on my watch (ie a few characters) but because I can't see things sorted by date on my Tumblr feed I can't find the rest of it.

Cheers, Pred'x

[pred-x]

Idea for birthday present

Norrell gets himself into trouble with an embarrassing (cough, cough, I mean "sex") spell. Possibly a spell that a respectable gentleman doesn't realise is about sex. Strange or Childermass (or both) help, with or without explaining what's going on.

[pred-x]

Birthday!

It's that time again! If anybody wants to write me a birthday fic (Norrell/anyone) I would be highly delighted!

[clotworthyskeffington]

strange/norrell for @pred-x, happy birthday!

[pred-x]

Thank you! Am very pleased!

[pervocracy]

I’m not sure if I disapprove, because harm reduction is important, but I find it terrifying how often people promote hormonal birth control with “of course you won’t be able to stop your partner once he gets going, so it pays to be prepared!”

[pred-x]

More people need to read about the Boner Werewolf...

[pred-x]

Boule de Suif

A friend reminded me of the above de Maupassant story about a good-hearted prostitute on a coach journey (nineteenth-century, with horses). "Oh, I haven't thought about that for years! I remember: 'Boule de Suif' means 'Dumpling'." I have now got cognitive whiplash (like cognitive dissonance only more violent).

[wolfinthethorns]

Hey Team Peninsula! It’s the DeGrancy love child :p

[etave]

Good grief!!!!

[luminousthings-deactivated20171]

The boys clearly should have been using protection.

[thegrumpiestfox]

but I’m sure they will be good parents…

[luminousthings-deactivated20171]

Well one of them maybe. The other didn’t earn the nickname of Colonel Goodtime for nothing.

[pred-x]

But what is it? A fquirrel? A sox?

[cakesandsnouts]

“He was a very neglected young boy, brought up by his uncle and he had no kind of love, no affection, brought up by servants, a very rich boy but very isolated. And the only thing he had was one book on magic. Magic to him signified a control, power, autonomy in a very delicate and very dangerous world. And that’s why Norrell always wants to be in control. What’s fascinating about playing Norrell is that he’s the man with all the information, all the knowledge and yet he’s always scared. The world is always precarious to Norrell, that’s why he’s a control freak.” - Eddie Marsan on playing Gilbert Norrell [x]

[nefertiti22002blog]

Presumably the back-story for Norrell made up by the writers or Eddie for Norrell, since this isn’t in the book. Interesting.

[onjollityfarm-blog]

It’s not entirely dissimilar to the fanon for him though. And Norrell does state in the book that he first became interested in magic when he first read a book of magic in his uncle’s library when he was twelve. So one can see where the idea fits, that it doesn’t contradict canon. Except perhaps when Norrell mentions in passing that there was a Tom Otherlander who worked on “one of our farms” when he was a child. “Our” farms implies that there was a larger family than just the one uncle at some point. Obviously, there had to have been parents, this is just common sense, but there may also have been siblings who didn’t survive to adulthood. Or there may not have been. It’s all very open to interpretation.

I wonder about the uncle that owned the book of magic, and who left Norrell his fortune. I presume they’re the same uncle. I headcanon Mr. Haythornthwaite as being his mother’s brother, and presumably an unmarried magician like Norrell.

[nefertiti22002blog]

No, it’s not entirely dissimilar from either the book or fandom–though a surprising number of fic writers present Norrell as having been away at school and bullied. I can’t picture someone so rich not being taught at home.

Actually, Norrell doesn’t say his uncle owned a book of magic. He says he found a single page ripped from an older book inserted into a book “from my uncle’s library.” I assume Clarke that intended to suggest that the uncle himself had no interest in magic and that the page came to Norrell purely by chance (or was planted there for him to find by John Uskglass, if Norrell is to become part of the Raven King’s spell).

I guess I have always assumed that by “our farms” Norrell meant the farms owned first by his uncle and then by him, hence “our.” It’s possible, of course, that Norrell’s parents had a share in them.

Part of the vagueness about Norrell’s background is that we get no sense of when or how his parents died and to what degree the uncle raised him. That he was raised by servants without any significant contact with his uncle is a pure invention, though he presumably had a nurse and had servants to do things for him.

Still, it’s a common assumption among fans that something about his childhood made him the way he is, isolated and fearful, and that the uncle, pictures as distant and unloving, is the obvious candidate for shaping young Norrell. I’ve written it that way myself. It seems almost inevitable.

He does have a “distant connexion,” Wendell Markworthy, who is definitely on his mother’s side of the family. He writes to Norrell asking for money, and, because he gets it, eventually arranges for Norrell to meet Sir Walter Pole. I suppose we could extrapolate from that that Norrell had a poorer group of poorer relations on his mother’s side, though they are unlikely to be very close relations of hers, either. That wouldn’t preclude the uncle being his mother’s brother, but it might make it a trifle more likely that he is a paternal uncle.

Clarke makes a joke of the fact she tells us so little about Norrell’s family, introducing  Markworthy by beginning, “Even a magician must have relations.” (Ch. 5)

[pred-x]

...sometimes quite frequent relations... Ahem, sorry I'll get me coat

[mrsbillycranston]

Guys guys guys I need your help cause I’m here sitting next to this cute boy who looks a bit like Enz and I’ve been crushing on him for weeks and I’m freaking

[pollyprouvaire]

Oh dear! Where are you? Is he a colleague? A neighbour?

[owl-by-night]

I am not good with this kind of thing so I’ve no advice to offer, but I’m cheering you on from the other side of the world!  

[mrsbillycranston]

I’m at a meet up!!

[pred-x]

Good luck, hope it goes well!

[jsmnkink-deactivated20201014]

It’s our birthday!

Today (5 June 2016) the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Kink Meme turns one! 

Thank you to everyone who’s contributed to or interacted with the Kink Meme in its first year, it’s been wonderful. We’d also like to say another big thank you to those of you who continue to follow this blog for updates. 

We’re looking forward to seeing what you’ll create in our second year!

[pred-x]

Happy birthday, and thanks for the all the work!

[mrsbillycranston]

Hey guys! Let’s have a virtual meet up this Saturday at 7:00 PM GMT!

[mrsbillycranston]

Yes! This is happening on skype for anyone curious!  You will just have to send me you username so I can add you. 

[pred-x]

On the off chance this is current (for some reason Tumblr doesn't put dates on things), yes, can do! (thinks: British Summer Time is an hour out, isn't it?) user: predtrx (they wouldn't let me use my preferred abbreviations)

[thejsamnsocietyofmagicians-blog]

The Society Forums

Hello everyone, @brightestjewel here! I’m the one who runs the forums and I wanted to clear up a few things about their closing.

1. First off, nothing has happened. No drama, no fighting, none of that. This was a decision made by myself that has nothing to do with anyone or any particular situation that may have happened.

In fact, I think the forums produced some pretty good discussions, which unfortunately brings me to my second point…

2. The forums just aren’t being used. I know interest in fandoms waxes and wanes, people come and go, but I’m not sure that’s the problem here. 

I’ve received some negative feedback regarding the registration process. The forums require that you register and provide your email and date of birth. People seem to be OK with the email address, but they don’t want to give out their date of birth (which can be hidden from the public in your profile). The DOB is necessary because of a law in the US called COPPA, which requires forum owners to keep children under the age of 13 from seeing “adult” content. So if a COPPA complaint is made, I need to be able to provide a list that says all of the forum members are over the age of 13 or I could get a big fine. Sure, someone could enter a false DOB, but in that situation I wouldn’t be responsible, since I don’t have to verify any of the DOB information. The current program that I used to create the forums requires that you ask this question of new members and it doesn’t give you the option of skipping it.

I’ve also received complaints about some of the questions asked in the member profile, that people don’t want to fill out their FB account name, what kind of job they have and whatever else is being asked. However, none of that information is required, you can leave it blank or even make stuff up, it doesn’t matter. Some people seem offended that these questions even exist and won’t sign up based on principle, and in that case there’s not much I can do.

(Since this is getting long, I’ll continue it in another post.)

[pred-x]

Oh, I hope something gets sorted out! This is the first I've heard there was such a thing, so I'd love to join it (won't offer to run it as sadly can't code).

[alatarielgildaen-deactivated201]

Is it too much to ask for smutty fanfic that’s…well.. a bit more… real? I don’t really want women who are already “dripping wet” and able to achieve multiple orgasms just through a guy’s somehow magical dick. I love reading about my otps getting it on, but so many smut fics are so samey, and I just want something a bit more relatable!

[alatarielgildaen-deactivated201]

Dammit. We all know what this means.

*goes off to write it myself*

[mrsbillycranston]

This just made my day.

[pred-x]

Made my day too! I am a terrible offender for too-many-orgasms, because I like to write excess, but I like to write and read awkward, sometimes embarrassed and clumsy sex. As long as they're enjoying themselves!

[smallscarecrow]

ok, normally I don’t comment on things like this, bc i am absolutely terrified of confrontation

but  @the JSMN fandom who’ve been sending anon hate

what the actual fuck is wrong with you? have you forgotten there’s actually people on the other side of that screen? i’d call you immature, but frankly it’s too mild a word for the likes of you. 

[onjollityfarm-blog]

I’m not sure I’ve seen everything that’s been happening, and I’m still reading back through my dashboard - but I am dismayed to think there might be fights. I don’t want the kind people I follow to be at war with one another, or with other mysterious people I don’t follow. Fandom shouldn’t be an unhappy experience.

[nefertiti22002blog]

Fortunately this isn’t a fight among those of us within the fandom. A bunch of us, including some of the best-known and favorite authors in the JS&MN fandom were targeted and cluster-flamed by someone called sabhaircin. She claims that the JSAMN [sic] fandom is problematic: “Between the ableism, classism, racism, transphobia, sexism, internalised misogyny, other various bigotries, this fandom has it all.” Gosh. I blocked the person and can’t link to the original and don’t want to anyway. I assume if someone wants to see what all the fuss is about, he or she can track it down. It’s the usual mean-spirited, holier-than-thou guff that trolls spew. Not worth taking seriously. Unaffected, I return to giving Mr Strange and Mr Norrell a love-life.

[onjollityfarm-blog]

Well, that person seems to have unmade their journal too. Though I gather there was also anon hate that was “anti-sjw”, and so I’m still terribly bewildered. I mean, that might well be the same person - stranger things have happened - but I feel (in my irrational anxious brain) that I might be caught in the midst of some fandom rift.

[nefertiti22002blog]

Well, so many of us were attacked specifically (seven individuals and “the entirety of Team Peninsula”) that I suspect it’s more one or two people dissing the fandom as a whole rather than creating a rift. I hope so, anyway! One the whole there’s a fun bunch of people in the fandom.

[onjollityfarm-blog]

The things I miss by my incapacity for getting involved in things. Obviously, it’s probably for the best that they ignored me, but I worry about others, and would like to give them all internet hugs and cute animals.

[pred-x]

Thank you! (Ooh, moggy!) Funny thing is, I wouldn’t have classed myself as involved in anything (possibly except the Poor Sulky Dumpling’s Fluff & Smut Brigade), and I still managed to irritate this person. Probably by existing.

[nefertiti22002blog]

I have become convinced that it’s the Smut (or, far less likely, the Fluff) that offends this judgmental person. But some of us love the Smut, simple as that. Others can ignore it. It’s part of the fandom, and I think you and I and others who give the Poor Sulky Dumpling a love-life do it pretty darned well.

[pred-x]

No, it's definitely a smut thing. They get on fine with an ace writer's which are very shippy (and none the worse for that) but they seem to be specifically targeting fanac that (in their opinion) defiled characters and real people with Filth. I'm glad that fandom is full of variety, and I'm glad that it's not as sex-negative or shaming as some might have it.