How do you move in a world of fog that's always changing things?

[sovay]

I don't know what the photographer intended this composition to signify, but it looks like a male-male Little Mermaid to me:



I haven't seen Hans Christian Andersen (1952) since I was in middle school at the latest. It was almost certainly one of my introductions to Danny Kaye, the other, more lasting imprints being The Court Jester (1956) and my grandmother's stories. I recognize but do not entirely remember most of the songs by Frank Loesser, although I make an exception for "Wonderful Copenhagen," which can get stuck in my head for weeks. I don't know if it would hold up to rewatch (I worry less about the Suck Fairy per se than the Twee Fairy). In any case, while I know the musical explicitly represents itself as fantasia rather than biography, from the time I learned anything of Andersen's actual biography it has always burned me that the film has Kaye's Andersen composing "The Little Mermaid" out of unrequited love for the ballerina played by Zizi Jeanmaire, when the real-life Andersen found some romantic fulfillment with the ballet dancer Harald Scharff. I recognize it's not every day that someone's life gets more tragic when it gets more straight, but still.

It's not that I am not aware of the current politics; I am not posting much about them because I am trying to survive most of them. In things I have read today in news outlets which pleased me, Anthony Lane has checked his usual distaste for anything resembling science fiction or fantasy and loves The Shape of Water (2017).

Comments

S&S Recs List (pt4)

[thisbluespirit]

Crossovers
(Given the go-anywhere nature of the fandom, there are quite a few good crossovers too. I went for ones that either don't matter if you know both, or which I know you know.)

The Potter's Field by Annariel (Teen, 4215 words. Silver, Claudia Brown. Crossover with Primeval.) (Basically a missing assignment, really. Annariel has written quite a few other good S&S pieces, but they are mainly crossovers with Classic Who, which may depend on how much of it you know, or mind not knowing about. But all good stuff.)

The Glade by Wiccagirl24 (All ages, 5807 words. Sapphire, Steel, Seventh Doctor, Ace. Crossover with Doctor Who.) Sapphire and Steel are assigned to investigate a snow covered glade where something has gone wrong with time. The Doctor and Ace are drawn to the same place, but for them it's spring and the flowers are in bloom. An angry man, a sobbing woman, a mystery.

Echoes by fog_shadow (G, 2811 words. Sapphire, Steel, Maria Absalom. Crossover with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.) Sapphire and Steel investigate curious happenings in a ruinous house.

Of Angels and Elementals by Allerleirauh (Teen, 65,142 words. Silver/Steel, Lord Asriel. Crossover with His Dark Materials.) Steel and Silver have been assigned. Their destination: Oxford. Upon their arrival they soon discover that they’ve stumbled into a trap — a trap specifically designed to capture an elemental. The question is what is more perilous? Steel realising that he is slowly turning human, Silver discovering that he’s somehow ended up as Steel’s dæmon, or the fact that a dark shadow is transforming innocent school-boys into statues?


Other
After the Last Bus by john_amend_all (G, 800 words. Sapphire/Steel.) Sapphire and Steel's latest assignment has taken longer than they expected. The obligatory coffee shop AU. :-D

Time's Transients by thisiszircon (Teen, 58,769 words. Sapphire, Steel, Jet, Silver.) The Transient Beings have escaped from their prison in the past. Through a sequence of distractions and deceptions they have imprisoned Sapphire and Steel in an impossible cafe, adrift in the lonely expanses of space. The universe is about to become the plaything of the Transients: somewhere to indulge their insatiable capacity for cruelty and malevolence. All life is at risk, now. Fortunately, there is still a glimmer of hope: a Silver glimmer. (A long A6 fic, which looks good - I just haven't managed to read it yet, so can't rec it properly.)

Also, while I wouldn't normally put my own stuff in a recs list, I am responsible for an embarrassing no. of the fic on AO3, including a mass of ficlets, so it's not as if you could easily rifle through it. But I think these are either interesting or worked out well:
Of Elements and Existence (S&S/Discworld crossover)
The Rose Garden (Sapphire/Silver/Steel)
In Darkness (Silver, post-canon, for Yuletide)
Cul-de-sac (No hawkers, traders, cold callers, canvassers or purveyors of religious knowledge) (I'm not sure what to call this one. The not-an-AU because S&S, I think.)
The Cornfield (Silver/Steel and how to S&S a sex pollen prompt)
Quadrangle (Missing assignment)
A Tear the Sun Lets Fall (Full on OC Elemental weirdness.)
(Etc. Etc. So much. /o\ I can link you quite a few more if you like them.)

ETA: And that's it! Most S&S fic is somewhere in the decent to amazing range, so I just went for making sure most of the main authors were represented (hopefully) and otherwise focusing on ones that emphasise the strangeness of it, rather than ones that humanise Sapphire & STeel. (There are quite a few of those and I can point you in the right direction if you're interested, although I naturally have less of those bookmarked. I just assumed you'd be more interested in the former.) Have fun, I hope you enjoy a few of them.

Re: S&S Recs List (pt4)

[sovay]

Have fun, I hope you enjoy a few of them.

Thank you! I've encountered a couple of these before—"Daisy Bell" was astonishing—but not the vast majority, and I look forward.

Re: S&S Recs List (pt4)

[thisbluespirit]

Yeah, that one is pretty outstanding. There are some shorter things that are amazing, too, but nothing else of both that length and excellence that I've come across yet. But that's a pretty high bar!