Yeah, that's the main reason I can't write for books, because they have the single mind behind them who knows the Truth, and it feels kind of like...stepping on toes? Like it's too crowded.
*nods* Oh, believe me, I know exactly what you mean with the toe-stepping feeling. I can't write fic AT ALL for authors that I know personally (like ever, at all, nada) -- well, the exception is if we've discussed it beforehand and what I'm writing is canonically plausible, but in that case, it's really more of a collaboration. ^^;; But in general, yeah ... the lines are blurry for me, but I know that I wouldn't sit down and write a big epic story in Butcher's universe, and I feel weird enough about the amount of fic I've already been writing for it, even though he's said he's okay with fic as long as the disclaimer is on there.
I was thinking about that after "Changes", actually, because had it been a TV show or a movie that ended that way? Oh, I'd be writing a big long epic "everyone rescues Harry from purgatory" (or whatever) story IMMEDIATELY. But I didn't even have the desire to do so. Butcher's writing the next book. (And, er, yeah, I see what you mean about the name... Can we call him JB instead? ^^;) And I really don't want to read one either. I want more canon. I want to know what REALLY happens. Well, for certain values of "real", obviously ...
I think I feel less toe-steppy about universes that are closed, where the author has moved on. Actually, I was reading Vivian Vande Velde's website before requesting her book to make sure she's okay with it, and what she says on there is that she never writes sequels to her books because "you're already imagining what happens next, and I don't want to take that away from you" (or words to that effect). Or dead authors, obviously, are never going to be coming back and writing more. :D But yeah, something like Dresden Files, where the series is not only actively going on but the author is actively exploring the nooks and crannies of canon, and openly talks about what's going on with the characters between the pages ... the more I read on his website, the less interested I am in exploring it secondhand, via other people's brains (or my own), and the more I want to see what HE does with it.
It is interesting that Butcher* doesn't see Thomas as completely angsty right now - I remember when reading Changes that I was surprised that he seemed better adjusted and less outright darkside than expected. Still think he could use some fixing, but...
*nods* I think, actually, getting JB's take on it made a lot of things about Thomas's current situation click into place for me. One thing that JB (okay, calling him that feels too intimately familiar ... AAAUGH.) says on his website in a number of places is that we're just getting Harry's take on things, and not everything that Harry believes or is told is entirely accurate. It wasn't mentioned specifically in relation to the Thomas situation, but thinking about it ... a lot of the conflict between Thomas and Harry right now is due to Harry's refusal to bend his morality where vampires and vampire feeding is concerned. The thing is, I can totally see where Harry is coming from, because what they do is monstrous -- but he's also not willing to concede the point that Thomas is happier and less conflicted when he's not having to fight his Hunger all the time. From Thomas's point of view, he was very badly hurt and his vampire family took him back, fixed him up, and gave him a place and a life where he doesn't have to pretend to be something he's not all the time. And it's what he lived with for a good 10 or 15 years before he met Harry, after he came into his demon powers -- he might accept on a conscious level that what the White Court does is wrong, but as far as what he's used to ... this is "normal" for him. He might hate it about himself (and probably still does), but Harry doesn't really have a better solution to offer, just the same amount of self-loathing, plus he's starving all the time.
Anyway, I do think Thomas is kind of fucked in the head at the moment. But I don't think he'd be particularly unwilling to see Harry if he didn't KNOW that Harry was going to take every opportunity to "convert" him again.
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*nods* Oh, believe me, I know exactly what you mean with the toe-stepping feeling. I can't write fic AT ALL for authors that I know personally (like ever, at all, nada) -- well, the exception is if we've discussed it beforehand and what I'm writing is canonically plausible, but in that case, it's really more of a collaboration. ^^;; But in general, yeah ... the lines are blurry for me, but I know that I wouldn't sit down and write a big epic story in Butcher's universe, and I feel weird enough about the amount of fic I've already been writing for it, even though he's said he's okay with fic as long as the disclaimer is on there.
I was thinking about that after "Changes", actually, because had it been a TV show or a movie that ended that way? Oh, I'd be writing a big long epic "everyone rescues Harry from purgatory" (or whatever) story IMMEDIATELY. But I didn't even have the desire to do so. Butcher's writing the next book. (And, er, yeah, I see what you mean about the name... Can we call him JB instead? ^^;) And I really don't want to read one either. I want more canon. I want to know what REALLY happens. Well, for certain values of "real", obviously ...
I think I feel less toe-steppy about universes that are closed, where the author has moved on. Actually, I was reading Vivian Vande Velde's website before requesting her book to make sure she's okay with it, and what she says on there is that she never writes sequels to her books because "you're already imagining what happens next, and I don't want to take that away from you" (or words to that effect). Or dead authors, obviously, are never going to be coming back and writing more. :D But yeah, something like Dresden Files, where the series is not only actively going on but the author is actively exploring the nooks and crannies of canon, and openly talks about what's going on with the characters between the pages ... the more I read on his website, the less interested I am in exploring it secondhand, via other people's brains (or my own), and the more I want to see what HE does with it.
It is interesting that Butcher* doesn't see Thomas as completely angsty right now - I remember when reading Changes that I was surprised that he seemed better adjusted and less outright darkside than expected. Still think he could use some fixing, but...
*nods* I think, actually, getting JB's take on it made a lot of things about Thomas's current situation click into place for me. One thing that JB (okay, calling him that feels too intimately familiar ... AAAUGH.) says on his website in a number of places is that we're just getting Harry's take on things, and not everything that Harry believes or is told is entirely accurate. It wasn't mentioned specifically in relation to the Thomas situation, but thinking about it ... a lot of the conflict between Thomas and Harry right now is due to Harry's refusal to bend his morality where vampires and vampire feeding is concerned. The thing is, I can totally see where Harry is coming from, because what they do is monstrous -- but he's also not willing to concede the point that Thomas is happier and less conflicted when he's not having to fight his Hunger all the time. From Thomas's point of view, he was very badly hurt and his vampire family took him back, fixed him up, and gave him a place and a life where he doesn't have to pretend to be something he's not all the time. And it's what he lived with for a good 10 or 15 years before he met Harry, after he came into his demon powers -- he might accept on a conscious level that what the White Court does is wrong, but as far as what he's used to ... this is "normal" for him. He might hate it about himself (and probably still does), but Harry doesn't really have a better solution to offer, just the same amount of self-loathing, plus he's starving all the time.
Anyway, I do think Thomas is kind of fucked in the head at the moment. But I don't think he'd be particularly unwilling to see Harry if he didn't KNOW that Harry was going to take every opportunity to "convert" him again.