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branchandroot) wrote2006-03-31 02:53 pm
branchandroot) wrote2006-03-31 02:53 pm
Entry tags:
Lost without my linguistics
*snaps fingers* That's it! *hearts Athena for making her think*
What I really don't like about so much fic-Yukimura characterization. It's that, in absence of hard information, the vast majority of fandom writes Yukimura like they write Fuji.
And that's totally off.
Fuji is one of the single most elusive characters in tenipuri. I'd put him and Tezuka in the top two slots, though for rather opposite reasons. Tezuka is elusive because he shows so little of himself. Fuji is elusive because he shows so much that's misleading. Fuji always keeps an ace in reserve, or tries to. Fuji stays out of arm's reach, perceptually speaking.
Yukimura never hides what he is.
And where part of Fuji's character development has been for him to become engaged, to learn how to feel involved and act on his own and his team's ambitions, Yukimura has never been un-engaged.
Disengaged, perhaps, but most certainly not by his own will or desire, and he takes a significant personal risk to return to tennis and his team as soon as humanly possible.
To write Yukimura as hidden, in the way that Fuji typically hides himself, really seems to miss a core aspect of his character.
*amused* This started with the thought that Yukimura uses ore, while Fuji uses boku, and why the difference exists.
What I really don't like about so much fic-Yukimura characterization. It's that, in absence of hard information, the vast majority of fandom writes Yukimura like they write Fuji.
And that's totally off.
Fuji is one of the single most elusive characters in tenipuri. I'd put him and Tezuka in the top two slots, though for rather opposite reasons. Tezuka is elusive because he shows so little of himself. Fuji is elusive because he shows so much that's misleading. Fuji always keeps an ace in reserve, or tries to. Fuji stays out of arm's reach, perceptually speaking.
Yukimura never hides what he is.
And where part of Fuji's character development has been for him to become engaged, to learn how to feel involved and act on his own and his team's ambitions, Yukimura has never been un-engaged.
Disengaged, perhaps, but most certainly not by his own will or desire, and he takes a significant personal risk to return to tennis and his team as soon as humanly possible.
To write Yukimura as hidden, in the way that Fuji typically hides himself, really seems to miss a core aspect of his character.
*amused* This started with the thought that Yukimura uses ore, while Fuji uses boku, and why the difference exists.
no subject
do you mind if I ask for more on this? Sounds interesting.
:D
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In context, ore is the self-reference that gives notice the boy using it is competition, is in the game, is looking to kick everyone else's butt. Boku, used by anyone other than, say, Kachiro, is... something close to duplicitous. It is, textually, the marker of someone who is not a contender, not in the fight, not a threat. For someone who /is/ a threat to use it means that either he's invincibly young-boy (like Aoi and Kachiro, each in his own way) or else that he's making a kind of joke, using it sardonically (like Fuji and Mizuki).
So, for Yukimura to use ore is... straightforward. He's not mixing his signals. And for Fuji to use boku is, in Fuji's case, both a token of his uninvolvement with the heart of competition and also a mark that he's the kind of person who typically conceals what he is and what he's doing.
... you know, I should just stop even pretending I'm going to write the second eighty pages on Women in Melville and admit that I'm really invested in popular culture. *sighs*
no subject
...we could study together. *grin*
no subject
Takaki, who's 8 and the oldest in my Thursday group, always used Ore unchallengingly until Kento, also 8, showed up and proved to be better at English. They both used 'ore'. In my Tuesday class, Kazuki, 7, uses 'ore' in dialogue with his younger brother and with Masaki, who was 9 and used 'boku'.
I've also noticed this theme throughout the elementary schools and into the junior high schools. The boys who are more 'leaders of the pack' use 'ore' almost constantly, even, sometimes, in dialogue with their teachers.
no subject
no subject
:D