Fannish 50: Post 4!
Jan. 22nd, 2026 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soricel"Blue wondered what sort of creating they meant. She was always creating things, taking old things and cutting them up and making them better things. Taking things that already existed and transforming them into something else. This, she felt, was what most people meant when they called someone creative.
But she suspected that wasn’t how Calla meant it. She suspected that what Calla meant was the true meaning of creative: to make a thing where before there was none."
Narrative (what's going on when the quote appears?)
From chapter 15. Gansey and co. show up to 300 Fox Way for their psychic readings. Of course, this is pretty monumental for Blue, because this is the first moment she realizes who Gansey, the boy she's destined to fall in love with and/or kill, is, and that she's had two sort-of interactions with him already: once on the Corpse Road, and once at Nino's. Anyway, Adam and Ronan get their tarot readings first, and Calla and Ronan have a tense moment that leads to Ronan storming out after Calla tells him she knows about what happened to his dad. There's also a good line there about Ronan looking like a "lanky wildcat" next to Calla's "lioness,"--maybe in one of these posts I'll write about some Calla/Ronan and Persephone/Adam parallels. Anyway, this quote comes after Calla cryptically mentioning that Ronan is "creating," alluding to his Dreamer powers, which no one really knows about yet but which we're all getting a sense of by now.
Connections (what does this quote remind you of?)
Maybe this is kind of cheating, but honestly the first thing that came to mind here were the Dreamer Trilogy books. I feel like that series is so much about art and creativity, and there's this ongoing theme of forgery/imitation versus originality. The creativity Blue describes here, and which she practices, isn't quite forgery, but it does seem a little closer to the kind of art that Hennessy and Jordan do: working with things that someone else made and making something new out of them. That's contrasted, both here and in the DT, with this other kind of creativity, this ability to make something entirely original. Although, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think that's actually what the quote is saying: "[making] a thing where before there was none" doesn't necessarily imply that it's "entirely original," just that it's drawn from some source besides already-available raw materials. Like, Blue makes things out of cardboard and fabric; Hennessy and Jordan make things out of other people's artwork. Ronan just pulls things out of his mind, fully formed. I'm honestly not totally sure what to make of this in terms of metaphors for actual art-making, but I do feel like this, like the environmental stuff, is a theme I want to try to pay closer attention to on this pass through the books.
Contemplation (how does the quote relate to your own life?)
I feel like this quote is bringing up some things for me about my feelings related to fanfiction versus original fiction and poetry. I guess in this analogy, fanficion would be the Blue style of creativity, and original works would be the Ronan style. I feel like this quote is sort of presenting the latter as superior in some way to the former, and I think part of me still believes that. But when I really think about it, I don't really buy this distinction between these two kinds of creativity, and I don't even think the second kind is really a thing. Like, is it even possible to make anything that doesn't involve turning old things into something new? How "original" *is* "original fiction" anyway? Hmph.
Invitation (what does the quote call you to do?)
I think reflecting on this quote is helping me break down this false binary in my head about different kinds of creativity, and it's making me feel better about where I've been directing my creative energy.
But she suspected that wasn’t how Calla meant it. She suspected that what Calla meant was the true meaning of creative: to make a thing where before there was none."
Narrative (what's going on when the quote appears?)
From chapter 15. Gansey and co. show up to 300 Fox Way for their psychic readings. Of course, this is pretty monumental for Blue, because this is the first moment she realizes who Gansey, the boy she's destined to fall in love with and/or kill, is, and that she's had two sort-of interactions with him already: once on the Corpse Road, and once at Nino's. Anyway, Adam and Ronan get their tarot readings first, and Calla and Ronan have a tense moment that leads to Ronan storming out after Calla tells him she knows about what happened to his dad. There's also a good line there about Ronan looking like a "lanky wildcat" next to Calla's "lioness,"--maybe in one of these posts I'll write about some Calla/Ronan and Persephone/Adam parallels. Anyway, this quote comes after Calla cryptically mentioning that Ronan is "creating," alluding to his Dreamer powers, which no one really knows about yet but which we're all getting a sense of by now.
Connections (what does this quote remind you of?)
Maybe this is kind of cheating, but honestly the first thing that came to mind here were the Dreamer Trilogy books. I feel like that series is so much about art and creativity, and there's this ongoing theme of forgery/imitation versus originality. The creativity Blue describes here, and which she practices, isn't quite forgery, but it does seem a little closer to the kind of art that Hennessy and Jordan do: working with things that someone else made and making something new out of them. That's contrasted, both here and in the DT, with this other kind of creativity, this ability to make something entirely original. Although, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think that's actually what the quote is saying: "[making] a thing where before there was none" doesn't necessarily imply that it's "entirely original," just that it's drawn from some source besides already-available raw materials. Like, Blue makes things out of cardboard and fabric; Hennessy and Jordan make things out of other people's artwork. Ronan just pulls things out of his mind, fully formed. I'm honestly not totally sure what to make of this in terms of metaphors for actual art-making, but I do feel like this, like the environmental stuff, is a theme I want to try to pay closer attention to on this pass through the books.
Contemplation (how does the quote relate to your own life?)
I feel like this quote is bringing up some things for me about my feelings related to fanfiction versus original fiction and poetry. I guess in this analogy, fanficion would be the Blue style of creativity, and original works would be the Ronan style. I feel like this quote is sort of presenting the latter as superior in some way to the former, and I think part of me still believes that. But when I really think about it, I don't really buy this distinction between these two kinds of creativity, and I don't even think the second kind is really a thing. Like, is it even possible to make anything that doesn't involve turning old things into something new? How "original" *is* "original fiction" anyway? Hmph.
Invitation (what does the quote call you to do?)
I think reflecting on this quote is helping me break down this false binary in my head about different kinds of creativity, and it's making me feel better about where I've been directing my creative energy.
