solitary_summer: (Default)
Tired, cranky, headache. Don't want another family birthday. Even if it's my niece's. ::whine::


Since I never seem to have the time to actually sit/lie down and really read anything recently, I haven't much more than browsed through Russell T. Davis's book (although I have started at the beginning now, and it's rather fascinating. Also his frustration with TW 2.1, which I was going to say maybe was the reason why KKBB never completely worked for me, but apparently it got dumped on Chris Chibnall eventually...), reading a couple of pages here and there (so he wasn't completely happy with the Rose/Doctor.2 ending, either), but leafing through the pages I stumbled across this.

Put a man and a woman of roughly the same age on screen and you're telling a story. That's a love story. (Storytelling is very heterosexual in that sense. But that's why gay storytelling is exciting, because the images are still new.) The choice to put those two characters together on screen, in a story, is the crucial thing. Everything else is just detail. And luck. That's what makes you care. The archetypes. They run deep. [...] Man, woman, on screen = love story. Very little work necessary. (p 123)

Which I kind of agree with and kind of disagree, because while it's undoubtedly true, this (and I've said that before) is what for me makes so many of the heterosexual relationship on screen essentially uninteresting. Maybe/probably my brain is simply wired wrong, but if too much of the subsequent story relies just on this, and only this, I'll yawn and and switch off — or start slashing, depending on how interesting the rest of the show and the other characters are. It may be a love story, but it's also often (to me, at any rate) a boring love story. Now I'm not saying that I've never followed or enjoyed one of the will-they-or-won't-they-get-together storylines, but on the whole they don't make for the best storytelling, because once that question is resolved most of the time a) the show is over, b) they're heading towards break-up, or, special bullet point for Joss Whedon, c) someone gets killed.

So generally speaking putting a bit more work and character development into it is not actually a bad thing. The IMO still perfect example of Doing It Right are Sheridan and Delenn on Babylon 5, my OTPest OTP for something like a decade. It's hard to attempt looking at a show one has watched & rewatched with a fresh eye, but was there ever even the suspense of whether they'd get together? I don't think so, or at any rate one was rather more worried about them winning the war and saving the universe. Having a plot that encompasses and mingles action and romance rather than dividing it in two separate storylines, and upsetting a lot of tv gender clichés in the process is what made it so epic and unique. Thank you, MJS. :)

Now Joss Whedon frankly sucks at writing relationships, especially happy relationships, because as a rule he only sets them up to end them in the most painful way possible, but Buffy and Spike, in their own messed up way were a bit like that; even when it always was pretty clear they wouldn't have a happily ever after, they both learned something about themselves and each other in the process, which changed them for the better, it was plotty and not boring to watch. OTOH most of the male/female relationships on Angel were completely uninteresting; Cordelia/Angel as well as the Wesley/Fred/Gunn triangle, because they're indeed little more than man, woman, on screen = love story, and barely that, maybe partly because they never needed to work as relationships for the plot to go forward. I don't think saying that canonically Angel and Wesley had the most complex, if completely fucked up, relationship on that show has anything to do with slash googles, and one day I'm really going to write that essay. Or, Smallville, when I was still watching; Clark/Lex vs. Clark/Lana.

On a similar note, to be perfectly honest, Jack/Ianto would never have caught my interest, and certainly not got me writing all those endless rambling meta posts, if it hadn't come after Cyberwoman with the Fragments backstory and all the... if not exactly canonical, then at least canonically implied complexity and ambiguities resulting from that. So granted, once again a bit messed up, and maybe unhealthily codependent and whatnot, and apparently I've got a faible for that kind of thing, but take that away, and the banter-innuendo-coffee thing would be really kind of boring.

Well, in my opinion. It's pretty obvious that 90+% of fandom differs. Cf. above, brain wired wrong, and all that...

solitary_summer: (Default)
Torchwood 2.12 Fragments; not really a review, just more gushing. )




In non-TW related news, my niece is walking since yesterday, although she still likes to cling to a finger (or lead people around by the finger...) and she's super cute. And the last few times she seemed really happy to see me, so I must have been doing something right, aunt-wise... :)

solitary_summer: (Default)
What?

::sigh::

Since I've already written it, I might just as well post it while Fragments is downloading, and hope it won't be rendered totally redundant.

Torchwood 2.09 From out of the Rain )


I don't know why I always end up writing about the shippy aspects, when this is... all right, definitely an added bonus, if also at times a source of frustration, but not the sole, or main reason why I watch Torchwood.
solitary_summer: (Default)
Because I ordered myself to finish this during my week off, before I lose interest and it joins all the other forever unfinished fanish posts in their folder. (OTOH? I'm almost tempted now to take out again the Angel/Wesley one. Almost.)

Not that it matters much either way, but... eh. If my brain insists on starting this kind of posts. ::shrug::



Thoughts about the Jack/Ianto... we can call it a relationship, right?


Wherein I over-interpret in rambling & massively tl;dr ways, and I'm not joking here. )


solitary_summer: (Default)
Ship meme, stolen from [livejournal.com profile] mawombat...



Six Ships I Like
1. Angel/Wesley (AtS)
2. Sheridan/Delenn (Babylon 5)
3. Buffy/Spike (BtVS) theirloveissofuckedup
4. Beecher/Keller (Oz) ditto, times two
5. Dylan/Tyr (Andromeda) Still made the list? God help me.
6. Brian/Justin (QaF:US) I'msuchagirl

Three Ships I Used To Like But Don't Anymore
7. Mulder /Scully (X-Files)
8. Lex/Clark (Smallville)
9. Aubrey/Maturin (Master and Commander, books & movie)

Three Ships I Don't Like
10. Angel/Cordelia (AtS)
11. Xander/Spike (BtVS)
12. Brian/Michael (QaF:US)

Two Ships I'm Curious About
13. Jack/Ianto (Torchwood)
14. Berger/Claude (Hair - the Milos Foreman movie)


questions & answers )
solitary_summer: (Default)

My life, or lack there of. I can't believe (although I have to, because sadly it's a fact) that I wasted most of the weekend (a sunny, warm Sunday, too) watching the rest of Oz. Even my two-day weekends always seem too short - I'm looking forward to them, but when they finally arrive I just want to get a little breathing space first, quiet and solitude and not being expected to do anything for a while, and before I realise, and just when when I feel I've maybe caught my breath and relaxed enough to gather up the energy and do something a little more productive, it's Monday again, and the same shit routine starts all over again.



So, about that, since there's little else to write about. It isn't a bad show and it certainly kept me glued to the tv and computer screens respectively, but in the end it worked for me only partially. (Although that might also be a result of watching everything but the first season on YouTube, with at least half an eye on some other page more often than not, and so much for attention span...)

lengthy & rambling )


ETcorrect&A )

solitary_summer: (Default)

::groan:: There's a reason why I usually try to get away from tv & computer for vacation, but with the weather we're having and lack of snow and the new belly-dancing (*) & Spanish class (**) starting this week it just didn't seem worth driving to Maishofen. But. I would have read a couple of novels by now, but instead I've been binging on watching two and a half seasons (à 14 episodes only, not that this makes it much better) (***) QaF on YouTube (still not fangirling, but addicted enough to Want To Know What Happens) (****), going to bed at weird times, getting up late and getting practically nothing I'd planned done. Photography walk on Sunday (the pink cubes), cuddling my niece on Monday, belly dancing class on Tuesday, cleaning a post mud-bath horse & trail-ride yesterday, but other than that... Any one needs an extra brain, because I'm certainly not using mine at the moment. Re-starting morning runs postponed until next week, Die Brüder Karamasow still lying unread except for the first twenty pages or so on my bed, haircut will have to wait, and as for the camera, I'm not in a consumerist mood at the moment.


And why is the lj menu still all pink & hearts? The 14th surely must be over in pretty much every part of the world by now?!



(*) Much, much better, btw, with a more competent teacher, making me regret the time and nerves I wasted last semester. Also rather cranky, because I apparently have to re-learn moves now.

(**) God. I've forgotten everything, don't even remember proper pronunciation of the letters, and the couple of Italian classes I took for university since messed up whatever remained. Need to rouse myself from my current brain-dead slug state and actually study a bit.

(***) And I entirely blame whoever accidentally alerted me to the existence of alluc.org, a site collecting links of episodes of tv shows online. I've started on Torchwood now. Again with the ::groan:: But it's adorable so far.

(****) I'd never have thought I'd be (almost, in a bitter-sweet way) glad not to see Brian and Justin walk off in wedded bliss at the end of the show. I'd have wished that Justin wouldn't have to go off to New York to become the next Picasso and they could have stayed together, for once because it'd have been nice to have a happy ending for a more unconventional relationship than the kids & picket fence variety à la Michael and Ben and Melanie and Lindsey, and also because Brian has come such a long way and he's hurting a lot in the end, more than Justin, I think, but the wedding felt just wrong (was meant to feel wrong, I assume) for the characters, a too hasty 180 degree turn. What I've always liked about their relationship was the brutal honesty and autonomy both of them had, and even when much of it was rooted in Brian's emotional fucked-up-ness, it is was beautiful in its own fashion. And I guess in my asexual way I'm just as cynical/skeptic/wary as Brian when it comes to relationships, and just as ego-centric. I do like my happily-ever-after in fiction and film occasionally as much as the next girl, but I don't really believe in it in real life.
solitary_summer: (Default)

Project uncluttering notepad, pt. 2:

[Only I seem to be cluttering so much faster than I ever unclutter, mostly in the process of writing the project uncluttering posts, which kind of defeats the purpose... ::sigh:: ]

More fanish ramblings: the secret of interesting 'ships. )

solitary_summer: (Default)

Finished S4 yesterday, meaning I can now at least temporary un-glue myself from the tv until sometime in May when S5 is released. Provided, that is, I can stifle the rather persistent urge to re-watch every single Wesley episode...

So maybe it's occasionally flawed and the characters are occasionally a little irritating, and I still feel like I've been dumped into a different show sometime mid-S3, when suddenly it's all pain, angst & apocalypse and hardly any laughter anymore, but despite all that I'm in deep fanish love. I think I'd have preferred if they'd allowed a little more time for characters and events to unfold, because since mid-S3 for me everything seemed a little too fast-paced, some episodes a little over-freighted, characters forced to to adjust to story-lines too quickly, but S4 especially has some terrific story-telling with things falling into place, and I did mention the glued-to-the-screen thing? If it's flawed it's because it's over-ambitious, and this is rare enough on tv these days.

more rambling ... )

Wesley & Angel... )


Also finished Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange ad Mr. Norell, which made a curiously satisfying read, considering the fact that at no point I was really emotionally invested in any of the characters. But it's always a pleasure to read a well-constructed story and I did find it compelling and occasionally touching, the world-building was convincing and despite the rather detached, Austen-esque style the inclusion of magic felt genuine - genuinely magic, more so perhaps than the Potter-verse. The ending was perfect and true to character, anything else would have spoiled the book.
solitary_summer: (candy (© clive barker))

# Unsurprisingly, the horse chose this day to be particularly aggravating, too. Half an hour until she let me tie her to exactly the same pole we've been using for years. Drama queen.

# I'm so loving the camera. Now when (e.g.) I have this small wicker-basket full of blooming narcissus with the most lovely scent - entirely unexpected, too: I expected them to look pretty, never knew they'd smell at all - I can show them.

# Yes, yes, yes. Too much DVD watching recently. So far I like Angel S4 better than the second half of S3, and now I might actually be starting to mindlessly fangirl Wesley. Wesley and Angel in Deep Down... that's fucked up and beautiful, painful and almost sweet, intimate and stunningly erotic all at once, and a lot of other things I can't find words for at almost 2 am.



Going to bed now...
solitary_summer: (candles (© clive barker))

Update for the sake of writing something, anything, to get over my writing/journaling block, although not with much energy or conviction. Blah.

Last Friday saw Finding Neverland with my sister, kind of semi-voluntarily. Not exactly boring, nor aggravating like Alexander, but pretty, pointless and rather predictable from her first cough. The kind of movie that makes you wonder why someone felt the urge to make it at all. I'm really not enough of a Johnny Depp fan for his presence to make up for the lack of most of everything else.

Car broke down on Sunday, M. was sick with the flu, minor annoyances at work, it snowed a lot; the whole week was really rather stressful and irritating.

Thursday saw Happy End with sister & sister's boyfriend; nice, nothing too profound, but nice in a good way. Cute, but with a slight edge. The actress playing Lilian was very good.

Re-watched the Hair dvd yesterday, and, yeah, triangle. Claude wants Sheila, Sheila wants Berger and Berger wants Claude. Berger uses Sheila to get closer to Claude, Sheila uses Claude to get close to Berger, and Claude, poor boy, is confused until it's too late.

Even if no one else is actually seeing this.
solitary_summer: (Default)

Nothing to say, really.

Lazy Sunday, sleeping in, not doing much of anything.

Re-watched M&C and a good part of the extras dvd; The "making of" is very impressive indeed, not so much the storm trick-sequences, but the way they actually rebuilt the ship, trained the actors to sail her, to shoot the cannons &c.; Crowe learning to play the violin is extremely cute; Bettany's voice is strangely sexy. The deleted scenes especially Jack going for a swim should have stayed in the movie... they'd have provided a better sense of the daily routine of the ship.

I hadn't really noticed the first time, but Crowe's Jack gave me a bad case of déjà vu, and after an exasperating couple of minutes, it struck me - Sheridan, from B5. I'm still not sure whether it is something in the voice, a similarity of personality, a streak of boyishness both characters share, the way both slightly pout when they can't get their way... Which would make Stephen... Delenn? *slaps self*


[ETA, following through the last thought, disregarding self-censoring strike-tags: It's not as absurd a comparison as it might seem at first. The main literary/artistic/emotional appeal of any close relationship, sexual or otherwise, is when it transcends gender stereotypes, simply showing a deep connection between two human beings who balance and complement each other in certain ways. I'm struggling with an essay on friendship and (or, vs.?) marriage In O'Brian's novels, trying to pinpoint my frustration with him in this regard, but it always comes down to the (rather useless) complaint of why even introduce a wife, when to all appearances she'll never be allowed to have as close a connection with her husband as the two male protagonists share: historically accurate perhaps, given the age the novel is set in, but nonetheless frustrating to me as a female reader. Now for me a great part of the appeal about the Sheridan/Delenn relationship has always been that it deftly ignores any such gender stereotypes, showing only two people who are very much equal in every respect, two strong, independent personalties who nevertheless shape and need each other, fight a war together and fall in love. In fact in terms of literary prototypes IMO Sheridan and Delenn's relationship in some respects is closer to the dynamics of male friendships than to most male/female romance plots.

'I'm not in the least degree interested in women as such', said Stephen. 'Only in persons.']
solitary_summer: (Default)
Further thoughts after a Sunday mostly spent idly in front of the tv...

B5 really brings out the closet romantic in me. )

Also? Here I was, mentally beating myself up for entertaining even vaguely slashy thoughts, because, you know, B5 is the holy grail, B5 canon is to be worshiped and not to be altered, interpolated or otherwise meddled with, and then I was listening to the cast commentary for 'Interludes And Examinations' and there are Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle and Richard Biggs blithely slashing Garibaldi and Franklin, quipping about 'lost arcs', 'i'm sleeping on the couch tonight', 'this marriage could have been saved'. I never even saw this (what I do see are possibilities for Sinclair/Garibaldi and vague possibilities for Zack/Garibaldi), and now of course it's impossible not to see it. :: headdesk:: And I'm not even touching their commentary on the scene where Sheridan confronts Kosh...


Great. Now it's 2:30 am and I'm not even remotely tired.
solitary_summer: (Default)

Despite expectations to the contrary and about a million Vanillekipferln today was in fact rather tolerable. Ought to remember next year that it's much less stressful doing the baking on two weekends rather than two subsequent days. We actually finished around 6 pm which was something of a novelty and much of an improvement.

Inspired by [livejournal.com profile] soavezefiretto...

the favourite 'ships meme, version: lazy )


[[So they have have caught Saddam Hussein, or claim to (and isn't it just a little too convenient for comfort at this point...). Maybe I'm getting really jaded about politics, but what's the hype? Good for the Iraqis I suppose, even better for Bush & Co, but am I really supposed to care on a personal level? ]]

Profile

solitary_summer: (Default)
solitary_summer

March 2013

M T W T F S S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
1819202122 2324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 25th, 2025 09:10 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios