miscellany (confused and a lot to take)
Last night I had a dream that my peanut allergy acted up.
I am not allergic to peanuts. Also, I have not eaten anything nut-containing in a good two weeks. But dude, that freaked me out more than dreams about fish do. Hee.
Poll
I have not watched last night's Smallville. However, I'm enjoying the fandom's continuing implosion, because it's so rare that both sides of a debate appear on my flist. It's like Fandom Wank comes to you.
Okay, seriously, we all know that I don't take Smallville seriously. I don't begrudge anyone else's decision to take it seriously or not seriously, unless they refuse to admit that it also has inherent value via both its underlying themes and its lack of deeper meaning. In other words, I don't care if you take your show seriously, or if you watch your show for the pretty, as long as you don't care that I watch (when I watch) because it's light and fluffy and I don't find anyone particularly attractive so I mostly spend the time making fun of characters and then defending Lana against whoever I'm watching with. Or... no. That's not what I mean, exactly.
I guess the thing is, I hate people deciding there is One True Reading of a text. People who say the show was never marketed as the story of Clark and Lex are just as bad as saying that the show was always marketed as the story of their relationship. That's an element. It's an element that can't be eliminated, but it's also not the only story in the show. I think we as fandom tend to be blinded to the casual fans' views of the series; we tend to assume that our viewing, or the viewing of our friends, is the default for the universe, and it's not.
So I'm sitting here, and every time people defend Smallville as a great show because it's fluff I get annoyed, and every time people complain about it because it stopped being what it used to be, well, same thing. I feel like we as overall fandom society are losing one of the things that I liked best about fandom- the ability t like something that's crap, because it's crap, without dignifying or justifying it. And I'm not saying Smallville is crap, or more accurately that you have to view it as crap. But it makes me sad when people either need to justify it as Art or condemn it as Bad, and not allow for that middle area where it's... you know. Young Americans and whatnot.
And I guess I'm just amazed at how divisive public opinion suddenly is, and more to the point, how much people are angry about the diverse opinions. I always viewed SV as, like, the happy fluffy fandom. Which is what everyone always said it wasn't? But, well, people lie.
Or... they don't, actually. Which I guess is the point.
Smallville fandom is weird, y'all.
Alias last night = awesome, by the way. For serious. I was up late because jennyo said it was good, so of course I had to wait til it finished downloading and THEN watch it and by the time it was over it was 4 AM.
And let me tell you, it was fucking worthwhile.
1. Mindfucks! Yay!
2. Garner and Vartan's real life breakup really has made me adore the Syd/Vaughn scenes a lot more. They're pretending they don't hate each other! That's awesome! Also, along these lines, I have chosen to believe that this entire season is Vartan's version of closure.
3. Is it wrong that I automatically assume that every single thing that happens must be because of Irina working behind the scenes? Because if it's wrong, I don't want to be right. Essentially, I think of Irina as this crazy type of meta-JJ, but much hotter and with an actual plan.
4. Jack should always have a gun. Like, all the time.
5. Dude, Syd needs to be kept, like, in a cage. Or a cell. Someplace where she cannot be harmed by society. Did you notice that Dixon doesn't go crazy unless, you know, his wife dies? It's not even that she's the worst spy ever. Just... as a human being hse kind of sucks.
6. I'm already waiting for bad fanart of, like, Spike biting Sydney. *taps feet impatiently*
7. Aw, Nadia and Weiss! They're so cute, I can almost forgive them for not, you know, being Nadia and Syd.
8. Ooh, look at the temperature! Sydney's on FIRE. Which I suppose is what happens when you are the child of insanely hot SpyParents.
9. Aw, Nadia and Syd have some inappropriate tension. They should work on that.
10. I love Nadia's feminism. She is so my crazy spy girlfriend before Syd is.
11. I adore that Sloane brings up SD-6 as a reason that his judgment should be trusted.
12. Essentially, Syd is like River, but without the brain thingy and with the bite marks.
13. Jen Garner is very good with the wigs.
14. They let Jack into a club? That is excellent.
15. Dude, Rambaldi is going to be so sad to find out Syd's cheating on him.
16. Why does everyone believe Syd? Why do they ALWAYS BELIEVE SYD? I mean, if nothing else, EVERY LAST PERSON IN THE AGENCY has betrayed EVERYONE ELSE. It's not like it would be that hard to say "Gosh, perhaps everything the woman who SOUNDS CRAZY is saying is, you know, CRAZY." But that would not be nearly as fun.
17. 24-hour-soldiers? Dude. It's Sleepless! But Krycek is not kicking Vaughn's ass. Which, sad!
18. "You can't imagine how much I hate it when you talk." Oh, Jack. I love you. Even crazy hallucinated!Jack.
19. Vaughn, stop calling yourself Michael. It's like calling Scully Dana. It's unsettling and I don't like it.
20. Dude, when Syd and Vaughn get back together, he's totally going to be like "Okay, not so much with the kissing. Ever. There is no kissing, there is no oral sex, I would prefer if we could actually get the creepy guy from the pilot to remove all of your teeth..."
21. I kind of really want Sloane to actually be good this time. Just. You know. For variety.
Oh, and the conference? I'm not freaked out anymore. It's like being at in-person LJ, except I don't really have a flist, and there is not the component of my flist that's younger than I am. Also, I cannot report people to Fandom Wank, no matter how much I want to. Hee.
I kind of want to beg people to be around later tonight, to read my paper and interrogate me on it so I feel more comfortable answering questions. Because I think that would be good and helpful. But at the same time, maybe I should... you know. Relax. Which, I have heard, is good and productive.
Supposedly.
I am not allergic to peanuts. Also, I have not eaten anything nut-containing in a good two weeks. But dude, that freaked me out more than dreams about fish do. Hee.
Poll
I have not watched last night's Smallville. However, I'm enjoying the fandom's continuing implosion, because it's so rare that both sides of a debate appear on my flist. It's like Fandom Wank comes to you.
Okay, seriously, we all know that I don't take Smallville seriously. I don't begrudge anyone else's decision to take it seriously or not seriously, unless they refuse to admit that it also has inherent value via both its underlying themes and its lack of deeper meaning. In other words, I don't care if you take your show seriously, or if you watch your show for the pretty, as long as you don't care that I watch (when I watch) because it's light and fluffy and I don't find anyone particularly attractive so I mostly spend the time making fun of characters and then defending Lana against whoever I'm watching with. Or... no. That's not what I mean, exactly.
I guess the thing is, I hate people deciding there is One True Reading of a text. People who say the show was never marketed as the story of Clark and Lex are just as bad as saying that the show was always marketed as the story of their relationship. That's an element. It's an element that can't be eliminated, but it's also not the only story in the show. I think we as fandom tend to be blinded to the casual fans' views of the series; we tend to assume that our viewing, or the viewing of our friends, is the default for the universe, and it's not.
So I'm sitting here, and every time people defend Smallville as a great show because it's fluff I get annoyed, and every time people complain about it because it stopped being what it used to be, well, same thing. I feel like we as overall fandom society are losing one of the things that I liked best about fandom- the ability t like something that's crap, because it's crap, without dignifying or justifying it. And I'm not saying Smallville is crap, or more accurately that you have to view it as crap. But it makes me sad when people either need to justify it as Art or condemn it as Bad, and not allow for that middle area where it's... you know. Young Americans and whatnot.
And I guess I'm just amazed at how divisive public opinion suddenly is, and more to the point, how much people are angry about the diverse opinions. I always viewed SV as, like, the happy fluffy fandom. Which is what everyone always said it wasn't? But, well, people lie.
Or... they don't, actually. Which I guess is the point.
Smallville fandom is weird, y'all.
Alias last night = awesome, by the way. For serious. I was up late because jennyo said it was good, so of course I had to wait til it finished downloading and THEN watch it and by the time it was over it was 4 AM.
And let me tell you, it was fucking worthwhile.
1. Mindfucks! Yay!
2. Garner and Vartan's real life breakup really has made me adore the Syd/Vaughn scenes a lot more. They're pretending they don't hate each other! That's awesome! Also, along these lines, I have chosen to believe that this entire season is Vartan's version of closure.
3. Is it wrong that I automatically assume that every single thing that happens must be because of Irina working behind the scenes? Because if it's wrong, I don't want to be right. Essentially, I think of Irina as this crazy type of meta-JJ, but much hotter and with an actual plan.
4. Jack should always have a gun. Like, all the time.
5. Dude, Syd needs to be kept, like, in a cage. Or a cell. Someplace where she cannot be harmed by society. Did you notice that Dixon doesn't go crazy unless, you know, his wife dies? It's not even that she's the worst spy ever. Just... as a human being hse kind of sucks.
6. I'm already waiting for bad fanart of, like, Spike biting Sydney. *taps feet impatiently*
7. Aw, Nadia and Weiss! They're so cute, I can almost forgive them for not, you know, being Nadia and Syd.
8. Ooh, look at the temperature! Sydney's on FIRE. Which I suppose is what happens when you are the child of insanely hot SpyParents.
9. Aw, Nadia and Syd have some inappropriate tension. They should work on that.
10. I love Nadia's feminism. She is so my crazy spy girlfriend before Syd is.
11. I adore that Sloane brings up SD-6 as a reason that his judgment should be trusted.
12. Essentially, Syd is like River, but without the brain thingy and with the bite marks.
13. Jen Garner is very good with the wigs.
14. They let Jack into a club? That is excellent.
15. Dude, Rambaldi is going to be so sad to find out Syd's cheating on him.
16. Why does everyone believe Syd? Why do they ALWAYS BELIEVE SYD? I mean, if nothing else, EVERY LAST PERSON IN THE AGENCY has betrayed EVERYONE ELSE. It's not like it would be that hard to say "Gosh, perhaps everything the woman who SOUNDS CRAZY is saying is, you know, CRAZY." But that would not be nearly as fun.
17. 24-hour-soldiers? Dude. It's Sleepless! But Krycek is not kicking Vaughn's ass. Which, sad!
18. "You can't imagine how much I hate it when you talk." Oh, Jack. I love you. Even crazy hallucinated!Jack.
19. Vaughn, stop calling yourself Michael. It's like calling Scully Dana. It's unsettling and I don't like it.
20. Dude, when Syd and Vaughn get back together, he's totally going to be like "Okay, not so much with the kissing. Ever. There is no kissing, there is no oral sex, I would prefer if we could actually get the creepy guy from the pilot to remove all of your teeth..."
21. I kind of really want Sloane to actually be good this time. Just. You know. For variety.
Oh, and the conference? I'm not freaked out anymore. It's like being at in-person LJ, except I don't really have a flist, and there is not the component of my flist that's younger than I am. Also, I cannot report people to Fandom Wank, no matter how much I want to. Hee.
I kind of want to beg people to be around later tonight, to read my paper and interrogate me on it so I feel more comfortable answering questions. Because I think that would be good and helpful. But at the same time, maybe I should... you know. Relax. Which, I have heard, is good and productive.
Supposedly.