boogieshoes | poetry corner.

so i'm reading blood bound, by patricia briggs, which is the usual werewolf/vampire urban fantasy thing. i like this setting, but i was thinking about how i would interact with it, because that's what i do when i like settings. in briggs' world, female werewolves aren't allowed to run lone, un-mated females 'belong' to the alpha, and mated females take orders from their mate, who takes orders from the alpha, if they aren't one themselves. it occurs to me that this is a bit like slavery, where the females are concerned, and there's no real out for them. and in the course of my maunderings, which inevitibly take place as stories i tell myself where i interact with the author's characters in various conversations, one of my favorite poems came up: invictus, by william, earnest henley.

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance	5
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,	10
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:	15
I am the captain of my soul

this is why i fanfic. i could build a whole story around this thematic with a combination of original characters and patricia briggs's characters - although i'm sure it would be terribly mary-sue-ish. at least, in that when i tell myself these stories, it's always from my point of view. i haven't learned to tell stories to myself from someone else's point of view... and that is why i *don't* write original fic. *i'm* fascinated with these characters enough that interacting with them is fascinating, from my pov. but i'm also boring enough, i'm sure, that i'd bore to tears anyone else who was reading these interactions from my pov.

-bs, thinky