Yamaku Book Club (20220124 Dish Washing)

[brythain]

Dear all,

I've received a few suggestions, and in the time-honoured tradition of arbitrary decision-making...

The next reading will be:
Rin: Hisao's Gift — by cosmicmustache

It's a pretty short piece, so I'll just by guesswork offer a few days for read-through?
Let's set the next meeting: Thursday 19th March-Friday 20th March

Thanks!

[brythain]

Meeting is open!

Current book is:
Rin: Hisao's Gift — by cosmicmustache

All are welcome to the discussion!

[LorSquirrel]

Sadness. All I can say is sadness.

I thought it was rather well written, even if I almost immediately knew what the twist was. Nice little epilogue and felt pretty in character for Rin.

[Mirage_GSM]

Yes, well written, but also predictable and quite depressing, so not really my cup of tea.

[fermatiauda]

One of the saddest ones after Closure, but still, soo depresing i knew there was something wrong, i knew it couldn't be a happy story with a happy end, but still was pretty good.

I don't think i've cried while reading a fanfiction since Closure. So damn good

[Solistor]

I can't say I saw it coming; maybe I missed the subtlety that led the rest of you to figuring it out? As such, I thought the twist was misdirected well. At first I wondered just how delusional Rin was by believing that Hisao was still alive*, but then I figured it was just her coping mechanism and that she lives in some merged reality. Either way I liked it. It was interesting to see Rin's life after Yamaku even if it was like this.

*Sorry, I'm not sure of the spoiler policy for the club since I am new to its workings.

[LorSquirrel]

It was really just a gut feeling and how much she was mention that she couldn't find him. That and it just seemed too easy to not happen. Still major sadness, though.

[dewelar]

You know, I promised myself I'd never read this again. But I did. It wasn't any easier this time. Cosmicmustache Rins better than anyone I've read before or since. This story is just so poignant. This one is among the best KS one-shots ever...but man, is it hard on the feels-muscle.

[Atario]

I read this one quite awhile back. Very sad, but also illustrative of the "Rin doesn't process time like we do" theory. Not that Hisao "had a bad heart" but "has a bad heart". However, acting as though he's still around is not at all uncommon among real, non-Rinny people — "talking to" them, "showing" them things, etc.

I do like that Emi stayed in their lives.

[Fardels]

Another rookie here...
I wanted to compliment the writing here - detailed without interfering with the plot, crisp, and direct. Cosmic Moustache did a really nice job, especially working from Rin's POV - I haven't been able to do that yet.
Good selection.

[brythain]

Thanks for all the thoughts so far expressed. Glad to see so many of us were hit by that particular feels train in a similar way.
Personally, I like the 'natural' misdirection of Rin's mind, and the sudden introduction of her old friend, who's apparently been looking after her.
So many manly feels were had...

However: cosmicmustache's alternative ending can be found [here]!

Further cosmicmustache reading (for those who're interested):

Rin: Osmosis — Oct 2013
Rin: Clearer Than Words — Feb 2014

Next week, we'll either work our way pseudo-randomly through that era of fanfics, or new suggestions will be used.
I'll put up the next reading on Monday if the ideas dry up, along with a summary of the discussion.

[brythain]

I was left with two questions and a terribly mischievous thought at the end of the discussion of cosmicmustache's Rin piece.

1. What are the difficulties people encounter when writing Rin, specifically? They look obvious at first sight, but if they were so obvious, surely they could be circumvented...

2. Some people saw the ending coming a mile off. Are some people always expecting tragedy in a KS environment? (Maybe prepped by certain KS routes.)

3. Fardels (I hope I'm not transgressing here) has often claimed rookiehood, and used the phrase 'interfering with the plot'—and then I saw a certain irony. Because on my strange and arbitrary list there was a certain interesting piece of writing...

*****

The next reading will be:
Prelude To Another Future Yet — by Fardels
It's divided into three posts: [Chunk 1] [Chunk 2] [Chunk 3]

It's a short piece, but not that short. It should carry us into April. I'm sure there'll be a lot to think about. And it's NOT a tragedy!

The next meeting will therefore be around: Thursday 2nd April–Friday 3rd April

Till then, discussion on anything related to the previous work is still welcome!
Thanks to all who've taken time to put their thoughts out here.

[d2r]

I suspect people have difficulty writing Rin because even in her own route, she's fairly enigmatic. I can imagine that it makes it hard to get inside her head effectively - it's hard to simulate a train of thought so alien to your own. Obviously it's not impossible, but it makes her challenging to write in the first person, and still kind of tricky to write in the third (i.e. from someone else's perspective) without making her just random or something.

[dewelar]

1. What are the difficulties people encounter when writing Rin, specifically? They look obvious at first sight, but if they were so obvious, surely they could be circumvented...

Being a Rinfidel (heh) myself, I decided to think about how difficult people would find it to find their RinSpace, or maybe their DewelarSpace? So, for those who do, or did, here's a thought experiment: imagine that, to you, everyone else in the world was Rin. Because that's kind of how Rin sees the world -- that they're as alien to her as she is to them. Or you. Then think about, if you'd been in that situation for essentially your entire life, how would you go about trying to communicate to those people. Then try writing about it. After that, go back and read through Rin's in-game dialogue and see if it makes any more sense to you.

Don't know if that will help, but it's worth a try, right?

[Fardels]

I suspect people have difficulty writing Rin because even in her own route, she's fairly enigmatic. I can imagine that it makes it hard to get inside her head effectively - it's hard to simulate a train of thought so alien to your own. Obviously it's not impossible, but it makes her challenging to write in the first person, and still kind of tricky to write in the third (i.e. from someone else's perspective) without making her just random or something.

Entirely right, where I'm concerned. I am trying to develop something from Rin's POV, and it's hard going. I think I may have found an answer, but whether I can translate into a story is as yet undetermined.