Date: January 09, 2023 08:16 am Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
I congratulate you on a beautifully written story. I’m afraid it’s not for me though, Ryan is a douche and I’m too much of a Jam shipper to ever be able to see Pam with him, however well written. I also think Kelly would make a much greater nuisance of herself!
1 [Report This]Date: April 09, 2020 03:07 pm Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
I read this story a long time ago and loved it so much I even watched The Philadelphia Story so I could understand all the references. I was rereading it nostalgically and thought that after ten years, I probably owe you a review, lol.
This is one of my all-time favorite Ryan/Pam fics. I think you really nailed the characterization. Ryan and Pam have real chemistry even as they fight, and Jim is sweet but unhelpful in a crisis. You're great at showing the little cracks in Jim and Pam's relationship: Jim running from fights, idolizing Pam, and smirking at the camera instead of communicating while Pam is quietly disappointed and wishing for her current fiance to be a little more like her ex-husband.
I love the details you include--from paper clip sculptures to swordfish, every line has something worth remembering. Thank you for a wonderful, moving story!
10 [Report This]Date: May 02, 2009 11:17 pm Title: My, she was yar.
Wow! I have enjoyed me a Ryan/Pam fic before... but you actually got me to root for them over JAM! I think you did what every author should aspire to do; you took the characters and kept them true to the people we know from the show but with different circumstances, they end up in a different place than the show might take them. I think where you got me was the with Pam and Jim loving the idea of each other more than the real thing. On the show, I absolutely believe they are the best people for one another... but on the show, Jim DID come back when Stamford closed and Pam and Ryan never really had that one-on-one time in the supply room that led to everything else.
Anyway, I very much enjoyed reading this and never could quite figure out what I wanted, I felt so bad for Ryan but how could I not want Pam with Jim? Great job!
Author's Response: Oh man, thank you so much! That really means a lot to me -- what a great review!
Date: June 11, 2008 11:02 pm Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
Woo!
Sigh.
I love Ryan.
:)
Author's Response: Yay! Thanks so much for all your reviews, it's awesome you liked it!
Date: June 11, 2008 10:52 pm Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
I'm so torn!
I love Jim and Pam, but...
Ryan is so sad. :(
Date: June 11, 2008 10:36 pm Title: My, she was yar.
I love Ryan Howard. So much.
Obviously I love Jim/Pam, but.
There's something about Ryan.
Date: June 11, 2008 06:54 pm Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
*Stands and applauds wildly* Perfect, absolutely amazing :D
Author's Response: Oh man, thanks so much! Getting all these reviews from you tonight made my evening. :)
Date: June 11, 2008 06:33 pm Title: Ah, that's the old redhead. No bitterness, no recrimination, just a good swift left to the jaw.
I love you Annakovsky. I am going to review every one of these chapters :)
Date: June 11, 2008 06:23 pm Title: The course of true love gathers no moss.
serious squee-age right now... THANK YOU
10 [Report This]Date: June 11, 2008 06:14 pm Title: My, she was yar.
*sighs* I sooo love Pam/Ryan. I know I'm about to read the next chapter of this story you probabyl wrote ages ago and Jim will be there, but i just wanted to pass props on writing some good Pam/Ryan for me :D
8 [Report This]Date: January 27, 2008 08:50 pm Title: My, she was yar.
Wonderful story. I couldn't stop reading. I especially liked the bit about Pam being home alone and watching the show and how that might impact her feelings for Jim. Well done.
Author's Response: Thanks so much!
Date: January 26, 2008 07:27 am Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
well - i will say this. i am a huge fan of your writing, it's incredibly moving and well-executed always. this piece too is wonderful. and i do enjoy pam/ryan from time to time. but there is this feeling in me that is unsatisfied by this ending, where pam and ryan end up together in part because jim is a yutz. that is a personal issue, though, but i wanted to share. i LOVE the references to "the philadelphia story" - spot on. i love your ryan; i wish we could see him this happy and simple and normal. and greg and gene and randall! wonderful.
Author's Response: Well, thank you. :)
Date: January 25, 2008 01:30 pm Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
Aww! This is perfect.
Author's Response: Thanks so much!
10 [Report This]Date: January 25, 2008 12:36 pm Title: My, she was yar.
I'm another one who's terribly torn about this story. I'm not an OMGJAM4EVA or I'll die!!!11 kind of person, so it's not the pairing in and of itself that I find disturbing. Of course it's fabulously well written, with attention to those little details that make everything come alive without ever descending into tedium. You're always masterful about knowing just when to zoom in, and when to pan out.
If I actually saw Jim-on-the-show as the passive, ballsless, idolizing and slightly dim character he's written as in this story, I'm sure I'd feel differently. (Really, he couldn't tell Ryan was dissing him about being a steel salesman? Srsly?) The same if I saw Ryan as the basically cool guy with a strong undercurrent of feeling who just sometimes lets his asshole side take over without quite realizing it. If Ryan-on-the-show came across to me as he does here, then I'd probably want him with Pam, too.
So how can I put it? I think this is a fabulously well written and well told story, but it's about characters that are a couple of lens stops away from the ones I see, if that makes sense. I'm able to enjoy it more if I read it as being about three original characters--played by the same actors as the ones on The Office, but otherwise bearing only a superficial resemblance.
Author's Response:
First of all, thanks so much for those very kind comments on the writing -- I really appreciate them.
As for the characterization -- what was key for me in writing the story, and what I maybe didn't get across very well, is that this is Ryan POV, and Ryan is not necessarily a reliable narrator, especially when it comes to Jim. I wouldn't take any of Ryan's thoughts about Jim as being gospel truth, or even necessarily the truth as Ryan sees it -- from Jim's point of view, this story would look very different. And for Ryan himself, this is a Ryan that could've been in an AU if he and Pam had gotten together after season 2, rather than what he's grown into in the canon of the show in seasons 3 & 4 -- and again, of course he seems like less of an asshole from inside his own head.
Anyway, you might still be right that it's as out of character as you say, but that's what I was going for.
Thanks again for your thoughtful comment.
Date: January 25, 2008 12:30 pm Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
YAY YAY YAY! Epilogue please!
Author's Response: Heee, thanks! It's coming along. :)
10 [Report This]Date: January 25, 2008 10:31 am Title: My, she was yar.
So good! I think another reviewer mentioned that this seemed so "adult" and I agree. It was so real and heartwrenching and good. Thanks for such an amazing ride.
Author's Response: Thanks so much! I really appreciate that!
Date: January 25, 2008 10:31 am Title: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
Gyarg.
This fic makes me... uncomfortable.
I'm a JAM shipper to the core, and this version--with Jim idolizing Pam instead of, like, bestfriending her, just...the problem is that you portray it in such a convincing way--you've thought it out well, with the way the documentary affects Pam, and all that time apart making Pam larger than life for Jim--and that makes my insides hurt. Pathetic, I know. I keep wanting to quit reading but you write the story so well that I keep coming back.
I'm never gonna go for the Pryan, never ever, but in a fic like this, I can at least understand people who do.
Ok. I'm going back to my happy place now, where Jim and Pam are best friends. Best! Friends!
Author's Response: Heh. Thank you?
10 [Report This]Date: January 25, 2008 05:29 am Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
The funny think is that I just saw "The Philadelphia Story" for the first time last weekend. I love the parallels between this story and the movie. Looking forward to the next installment!
Author's Response:
Oh man, isn't it a great movie? I am in love with it.
Thanks!
10 [Report This]Date: January 24, 2008 11:44 pm Title: My, she was yar.
Okay I officially now want it to end with Ryan getting the girl. I never, EVER, thought I'd say that, but there it is.
This fic is all kinds of fantastic.
Author's Response: Thank you so much!
Date: January 24, 2008 08:07 pm Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
Wow. Why did it take me four chapters to realize that the titles were from A Philadelphia Story; it's not like you see/hear/read the word "yar" everyday...
This continues to be the best Ryan characterization I've read, complete with his deep abiding love of chicken fingers. And I love that Toby just radiates "pathetic"...why is that? Shouldn't he be a beam of sympathy or something as the HR guy? Anyway, still loving this :)
Author's Response:
Oh man, thanks so much, I'm really glad you think so! And heh. I love Toby, but man, he really is the pathetic-est. I'm not even sure why.
Thanks for reading!
10 [Report This]Date: January 24, 2008 05:57 pm Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
You're actually making Pam/Ryan more appealing that JAM! Hell hath frozen over! This story is seriously amazing. I can't even point out any specifics, it's all fabulous! I watched an ep today and actually liked Ryan. It was weird... hahaha. I can't wait to see what happens next!
Author's Response: Hee, thanks so much!
Date: January 24, 2008 05:38 pm Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
So, I kind of enjoyed the cynical view of the jim/pam wedding (the wedding the documentary built). Don't get me wrong, I'm a die-hard Jim/Pam fan, but I guess I enjoyed a fresh look on things (which this entire story was, really.) Anyway, I really enjoyed it!
Author's Response: Thanks so much! I'm glad you like a different look. :)
Date: January 24, 2008 05:05 pm Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
Dammit, I know how the Philadelphia Story ends and if this story is parallel to that story in every way then I better stop waiting with bated breath for the next installment because even with your writing as good as it is, I don't think I could take Ryan getting the girl in the end. That said, I'm a fan of everything else. Really high quality writing--not overwrought, which is pretty much the MO of fanfic, and I love overwrought angst sometimes but it's nice to read a story that seems a little more . . . adult I guess, or semi-pro. Maybe even real pro, who knows. I'm not a professional book reviewer or anything. Anyway, here's hoping Ryan's not going to get as lucky as CK Dexter Haven did. I know Cary Grant, and Ryan's no Cary Grant. Also, I love Jim, even though he's so far pretty one note in this. (I'm sure it's deliberate--that's not a criticism, by the way.) Oh, and one more thing--I like how you put the pedestal parallel in here. That was one of my favorite parts of TPS--the part about K. Hepburn being on a pedestal and how putting people on a pedestal is just another way of marginalizing them. Alright, sorry this is so rambling. I have really enjoyed your story so far and I'm hopeful that its end won't be as sad for Jim as it seems like it might be.
Author's Response: Thank you!
Date: January 24, 2008 04:19 pm Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
Ugh, I am so torn!! I am such a JAM fan it's ridiculous, but part of me feels so sad for Ryan and thinks that Pam should give him another chance. I can't believe I just said that!
Author's Response: Hee, aww, I'm really flattered you're into the story! Thanks!
Date: January 24, 2008 12:18 pm Title: Doggone it, C. K. Dexter Haven. Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
So now that he's actually at Applebee's, he wonders if his motivation was more his desire to annoy Jim Halpert for no good reason, or Applebee's moderately priced high-quality comfort food. It might be a tie – he never gets to eat chicken fingers in New York.
Best fic paragraph ever. I wish everyone wrote like you.
Author's Response: Oh man, thank you!