Why would a woman want a guy like him?
I'm hanging out at work even though my hours are over since I won't have time to go home before double quartet practice anyway and might as well get some quality computer time in. Seems like the perfect time to make a post trying to figure out why on earth I'm so nuts about Sawyer.
See, as anyone can find out by browsing my fic (or my LJ for that matter), Sawyer isn't my type at all. Hurley and Sayid are my type. Sun is almost my type. (I just wish she was funnier. None of the women on Lost are really funny,for some reason. But she's got that quiet intelligence thing going for her that I think is way sexy.) Charlie would kind of be my type, except for some reason he annoys me.
Sawyer's the "sexy bad boy", and not only do I not usually like those - I tend to actively dislike them. (And did in fact dislike him to start with.) He's not even a pretty-looking brunet, in which case sheer physical presence could override my instincts.
Okay, yeah, dimples. I have a pretty hard time resisting dimples, regardless of the circumstances. And that scruffy look really works for him. (Clean-shaven and well-groomed he doesn't look much to the world, IMO.) Plus, that lovely mix of snark and angst... *eyes get a faraway look*
Um. Sorry.
I tried to compare him to other characters I like, to see if I could get any clues. Han Solo and Wolverine are the ones most frequently mentioned by others. Skipping Wolverine because I don't really like him (though I'm quite fond of Hugh Jackman as an actor), I went straight for Han Solo.
Trouble is, Han Solo may be a boy, but he's not sexy and he's not bad. With Han, the issue is if he's going to do the right thing or run away - there's never any danger of him beating up Luke. And when it comes to loin-stirring, Harrison Ford has zero effect on me. I like the char because he's funny, and that's pretty much that. Sawyer's funny too, but he doesn't have to say funny things where I'm concerned. He doesn't even have to flash those dimples. He just has to... y'know... be there.
Spike the vampire is another name in the running. Now, he's a pretty looking boy, but still... when Spike starts angsting, I just want him to shut up and go back to the snark. (Except in Beneath You. I actually felt for crazy!Spike, melodramatic as he may be.) When Sawyer starts angsting, I go all melty-hearted.
I then thought of the Other Spike, that is to say Thomson, only to realize - no, not Spike, Lynda.
Which, externally speaking, is insane. She's an intellectual, ambitious office bitch who wouldn't be caught dead hoarding cigarettes.
Still. There's the complete lack of social skills in every day situations, but an exquisite ability to manipulate people when the situation calls for it. ("Can you explain to me how I just talked myself into doing what you wanted me to do in the first place?") The way she can almost take pride in how much people hate her ("Vampira? Is that what you call me? -- Why not? I kind of like it!"), but can still get hurt when a cutting comment gets replied to in the same fashion. How she can go for years carrying guilt, but not letting that actually affect her behaviour to the better. And that sudden, unexpected kindness that turns up... wherever.
Spike, in that scenario, is kind of like Kate: the hoodlum/criminal with a heart of gold. And like Kate, his lover resembles his failing parent. The difference is that Spike really wants things to work with Lynda (possibly because he sees his father as the real "culprit" in the divorce), while Kate rejects both her father and Sawyer as one. Which I think is the reason why the love story plays out in reverse, with Kate being the "cold" one like Lynda, even though she has a warmer personality like Spike.
On a sidenote regarding the hot/cold: I heard a lecture yesterday, and the guy we listened to spoke amongst other things about empathy. He said there had been an experiment where teachers were to grade their pupils' empathic abilies. Scientists then set up role-playing and other tests for the pupils, and came to more or less the same result. They then included a third measurement: they had a teacher pretend to faint at the schoolyard, and with hidden cameras filmed the pupils' reactions. It turned out that the pupils deemed most empathic were often "frozen" and unable to act, while the ones deemed least empathic were more likely to run for help, check for a pulse, comfort frightened peers or in some other way act empathic.
Then I really thought of Sawyer, because while he doesn't always show his best side under pressure, it's a lot more likely than he will. There's the polar bear scene in the pilot (though that's more courage than empathy), the marshal in Tabula Rasa, the Jin/Michael fight in House of the Rising Sun, Kate asking for alcohol in Do No Harm, and of course the ending of Exodus. It could be simply what the lecturer said about some less empathic people being more able to keep their heads cool (the opposite end of the spectrum being Hurley, sweet as hell but faints at the sight of blood). But knowing what we know about Sawyer, there's also the thought that perhaps he stops acting like an asshole when he doesn't have the time or the opportunity to get his act together. (The flashbacks in Outlaws, as well as the scene after the marshal fails to die in Tabula Rasa, shows that his empathic ability sometimes does override his cool head.)
Which leads to the interesting triple quality of Sawyer: we get the manipulate charmer (mostly shown in flashbacks and sometimes when he tries to get into Kate's pants), covering for the rough-talking asshole, who in turns covers for something else... and that part of Sawyer he's not too happy about letting people see, even us-the-audience who are let in on a lot of secrets the lostaways aren't.
In a final comparison, there are a lot of similarities between Sawyer and certain characters in Cornelis Vreesvijk's songs. (Or even to Cornelis himself, who was certainly a mixed bag: a drunken, sexist, homophobic asshole, but also an artist whose work went from the poetic, to the gritty an kitchen-sink realistic, to the morbid, to the entertaining, to the politically radical, often in the same song.)
A name comes to mind: Ann-Katarin Rosenblad. Often the muse in Cornelis' songs, a lady who can be soft as snow or in biting resistance point out that the moon is a corpse. ("Karlar är ena svin som svamlar om kärleksglöd och månen är kall och död." = "Men are pigs rambling on about love, and the moon is cold and dead.") Yet she's also the devious woman who was the downfall of pal Per. "Men kärleken var av kortvarig art / utur mitt liv försvann hon med fart / och nu har jag knappt ett öre kvar / och själv är hon inte annträffbar. / Ann-Katarin Rosenblad / dyraste damen i vår stad. / Kostar mer än det smakar, det där / jävlar i det", sa polaren Per. (" 'But her love was brief in nature / she disappeared from my life in a hurry / and now I have barely a penny left / and I can't reach her on the phone. / Ann-Katarin Rosenblad / the most expensive woman in town. / Costs a lot more than she's worth / or I'll be damned,' said my pal Per.)
I've been staying online for a lot longer than I should and really have to go. I've reached no conclusion - but at least I've found that even if Sawyer isn't my type per se, there are traces of him found in certain of my previous preferences.
See, as anyone can find out by browsing my fic (or my LJ for that matter), Sawyer isn't my type at all. Hurley and Sayid are my type. Sun is almost my type. (I just wish she was funnier. None of the women on Lost are really funny,for some reason. But she's got that quiet intelligence thing going for her that I think is way sexy.) Charlie would kind of be my type, except for some reason he annoys me.
Sawyer's the "sexy bad boy", and not only do I not usually like those - I tend to actively dislike them. (And did in fact dislike him to start with.) He's not even a pretty-looking brunet, in which case sheer physical presence could override my instincts.
Okay, yeah, dimples. I have a pretty hard time resisting dimples, regardless of the circumstances. And that scruffy look really works for him. (Clean-shaven and well-groomed he doesn't look much to the world, IMO.) Plus, that lovely mix of snark and angst... *eyes get a faraway look*
Um. Sorry.
I tried to compare him to other characters I like, to see if I could get any clues. Han Solo and Wolverine are the ones most frequently mentioned by others. Skipping Wolverine because I don't really like him (though I'm quite fond of Hugh Jackman as an actor), I went straight for Han Solo.
Trouble is, Han Solo may be a boy, but he's not sexy and he's not bad. With Han, the issue is if he's going to do the right thing or run away - there's never any danger of him beating up Luke. And when it comes to loin-stirring, Harrison Ford has zero effect on me. I like the char because he's funny, and that's pretty much that. Sawyer's funny too, but he doesn't have to say funny things where I'm concerned. He doesn't even have to flash those dimples. He just has to... y'know... be there.
Spike the vampire is another name in the running. Now, he's a pretty looking boy, but still... when Spike starts angsting, I just want him to shut up and go back to the snark. (Except in Beneath You. I actually felt for crazy!Spike, melodramatic as he may be.) When Sawyer starts angsting, I go all melty-hearted.
I then thought of the Other Spike, that is to say Thomson, only to realize - no, not Spike, Lynda.
Which, externally speaking, is insane. She's an intellectual, ambitious office bitch who wouldn't be caught dead hoarding cigarettes.
Still. There's the complete lack of social skills in every day situations, but an exquisite ability to manipulate people when the situation calls for it. ("Can you explain to me how I just talked myself into doing what you wanted me to do in the first place?") The way she can almost take pride in how much people hate her ("Vampira? Is that what you call me? -- Why not? I kind of like it!"), but can still get hurt when a cutting comment gets replied to in the same fashion. How she can go for years carrying guilt, but not letting that actually affect her behaviour to the better. And that sudden, unexpected kindness that turns up... wherever.
Spike, in that scenario, is kind of like Kate: the hoodlum/criminal with a heart of gold. And like Kate, his lover resembles his failing parent. The difference is that Spike really wants things to work with Lynda (possibly because he sees his father as the real "culprit" in the divorce), while Kate rejects both her father and Sawyer as one. Which I think is the reason why the love story plays out in reverse, with Kate being the "cold" one like Lynda, even though she has a warmer personality like Spike.
On a sidenote regarding the hot/cold: I heard a lecture yesterday, and the guy we listened to spoke amongst other things about empathy. He said there had been an experiment where teachers were to grade their pupils' empathic abilies. Scientists then set up role-playing and other tests for the pupils, and came to more or less the same result. They then included a third measurement: they had a teacher pretend to faint at the schoolyard, and with hidden cameras filmed the pupils' reactions. It turned out that the pupils deemed most empathic were often "frozen" and unable to act, while the ones deemed least empathic were more likely to run for help, check for a pulse, comfort frightened peers or in some other way act empathic.
Then I really thought of Sawyer, because while he doesn't always show his best side under pressure, it's a lot more likely than he will. There's the polar bear scene in the pilot (though that's more courage than empathy), the marshal in Tabula Rasa, the Jin/Michael fight in House of the Rising Sun, Kate asking for alcohol in Do No Harm, and of course the ending of Exodus. It could be simply what the lecturer said about some less empathic people being more able to keep their heads cool (the opposite end of the spectrum being Hurley, sweet as hell but faints at the sight of blood). But knowing what we know about Sawyer, there's also the thought that perhaps he stops acting like an asshole when he doesn't have the time or the opportunity to get his act together. (The flashbacks in Outlaws, as well as the scene after the marshal fails to die in Tabula Rasa, shows that his empathic ability sometimes does override his cool head.)
Which leads to the interesting triple quality of Sawyer: we get the manipulate charmer (mostly shown in flashbacks and sometimes when he tries to get into Kate's pants), covering for the rough-talking asshole, who in turns covers for something else... and that part of Sawyer he's not too happy about letting people see, even us-the-audience who are let in on a lot of secrets the lostaways aren't.
In a final comparison, there are a lot of similarities between Sawyer and certain characters in Cornelis Vreesvijk's songs. (Or even to Cornelis himself, who was certainly a mixed bag: a drunken, sexist, homophobic asshole, but also an artist whose work went from the poetic, to the gritty an kitchen-sink realistic, to the morbid, to the entertaining, to the politically radical, often in the same song.)
A name comes to mind: Ann-Katarin Rosenblad. Often the muse in Cornelis' songs, a lady who can be soft as snow or in biting resistance point out that the moon is a corpse. ("Karlar är ena svin som svamlar om kärleksglöd och månen är kall och död." = "Men are pigs rambling on about love, and the moon is cold and dead.") Yet she's also the devious woman who was the downfall of pal Per. "Men kärleken var av kortvarig art / utur mitt liv försvann hon med fart / och nu har jag knappt ett öre kvar / och själv är hon inte annträffbar. / Ann-Katarin Rosenblad / dyraste damen i vår stad. / Kostar mer än det smakar, det där / jävlar i det", sa polaren Per. (" 'But her love was brief in nature / she disappeared from my life in a hurry / and now I have barely a penny left / and I can't reach her on the phone. / Ann-Katarin Rosenblad / the most expensive woman in town. / Costs a lot more than she's worth / or I'll be damned,' said my pal Per.)
I've been staying online for a lot longer than I should and really have to go. I've reached no conclusion - but at least I've found that even if Sawyer isn't my type per se, there are traces of him found in certain of my previous preferences.