One Hell of a Post
Looking through the results of my last poll I have decided to thank the people who read my journal and take my polls. The way I am going to do this is by making a post for each person who responded to this poll, in the order that they responded. The post will contain the subjects and type of journalling that you said you'd like to see.
This first post is dedicated to rogueslayer452, who asked for: Veronica Mars, Real Life, Firefly, Serenity, Literature, Mythology, and Political/Social Issues. In the form of: Informational, Opinions/Reactions, Icons, More Polls.
Addison is supremely awesome in this episode, not that she is not usually awesome, but she goes above and beyond the usual awesomeness in this particular case. I mean Meredith is acting totally understandably in this episode, but that just highlights how exceptional Addison is being, although it's a lot easier for her to be big when she's winning (but then again she's been big when she wasn't too). Derek is still sort of lame, but again not amazingly so. Basically Addison pwns them all.
I love the way that the whole Cristina/Burke/George thing played out. Everyone was so very in character. Cristina is passive agressive and of course she'd resort to blackmail instead of just saying "Listen I really want George to leave because it's making me feel left out." Similarly, Burke was not going to let her blackmail him, but of course he was going to choose to listen to her upset and fix it. I also loved when Cristina was like "you don't need this" to Burke, because she's so rarely gushy but it was so in character. Also the "are you sleeping with him?" "no" "well then he likes having me there better" was to die for. I also love how Cristina told Meredith she might have to be friends with Addison because that's the point of their relationship, to not judge and het say what others don't. George, you are such a little puppy and Alex is right even if he should not have said it.
Speaking of which, I am very dissapointed in Izzie. If she was upset with Alex she should have talked about it with him, but she shoud lnot be taking her distress over Denny out on him and treating him like a non-person. She of all people should know that Alex is very much a person and that inside that jerky exterior he is really sensitive... and he cares about her.... and he's right even if maybe he's not saying it from total altruism. I know they will get back together but seriously Izzie I feel like this puts you totally in the wrong and when you come off of your upset over Denny after he dies you will realize this. Alex adores you and yes he screwed up before but he is sorry and I don't think it's going to happen again. I seriously want Denny to die soon because the whole thing with him and Izzie is quickly getting old.
I am so happy that Dr. Awesome was back again this episode and I hope she becomes a main cast character. I love how she's so forthwright and actually seems to be emotionally healthy, and the scene at the end with George calling her was just way too precious. George needs a powerful woman, and the fact that he specialty is broken bones and setting things right is just so perfect.
When Ollie first appeared I was afraid they were going to make her another ex-lover of the Chief and I cringed, but this was good. I also like that they didn't just make him an alcoholic but tied it into the whole him/Ellis Grey thing. Also someone needed to call him on his emotional affair and it's validating to know that it was really a pivotal relationship for him even though he didn't leave his wife. It also implies, since he only got sober 17 years ago, that the two of them had a relatioship for longer than implied before. So here's my theorizing: Richard and Ellis are both married when they start their intership at Seattle Grace, possibly Ellis has just had Meredith , whom she basically igonores. They start having an affair, we know that they had an affair during their intership because Ellis repeats a conversation about how they should leave their spouses "now" before they end up in different residency programs. Richard also reveals that she did leave Thatcher at this point, so we know Meredith has to have been born before then, unless of course Ellis was pregnant when she left Thatcher and she was born during her residency. I think this is unlikely though, since Meredith has pictures/memories of them as a family. The link created between Ellis and alcoholism for Richard is appropriate, considering that Meredith seems to have an alcohol problem and it is easy to imagine that maybe so did Ellis and she was a bad influence on Richard. Regardless, there are a lot of blanks and questions, and I like seeing this plotline expanded because it ties in to both of Meredith's plotlines so well.
Oh and Burke's cheekbones in this episode looked really amazing... on a more shallow note.
The issue that gets me most worked up is probably reproductive rights. I am adamantly pro-choice, both ideologically and because of common logistical sense. I also hold the probably unpopular and totally rights violating view that all girls under the age of 18 should be given the shot or an IUD when they begin menstruating. Why? Well, other than the fact that they are not emotionally or financially ready to be parents, it's a logistical problem legally for people to be minors and guardians at the same time. If you are not old enough to make decisions for yourself legally you should not be old enough to be making decisions for someone else either. I also think that after a certain number of abortions people should be get their tubes tied... because clearly they are incapable of doing birth control...another totally politically incorrect opinion. Regardless, if you try and tell me that abortion is wrong I WILL be pissed off. I absolutely respect any woman's right to choose not to have an abortion as well as to choose one, regardless of what I would do in their situation, and I think that everyone should show the same respect regardless of what decision someone wants to make. I fully understand that it's not just the anti-choice people who hold prejudiced views... because when you start thinking people SHOULD get an abortion you are doing the same thing as thinking they SHOULDN'T.
I also am totally pro universal health care. Yes I have socialist leanings. I am educated and it's not like I am ever going to need a lot of the social programs I think we should have, but I feel like people deserve a right to quality of life. Having to work some boring, dangerous, or strenuous, job is consequence enough for not having the education that others have, and it's not like we don't need people to do those jobs or they wouldn't exist. I think that school funding should not be based on district taxes because that just ensures that the poor get a worse education system and stay poor. The money should be distributed equally per child statewide. Nobody asked to be born poor, and I am sorry but just because someone happened to be born to rich educated parents doesn't mean they deserve more than someone else. They are going to get advantages no matter what, but the system doesn't have to make it any worse.
I believe in the seperation of church and state. I believe in equal rights. I believe that people should be able to marry whoever they want. I believe that WASP values shouldn't determine the law. I think we never should have been in Iraq. I'm a Jew, but I think Israel is just as guilty as anyone else. I believe the way to stop terrorism is not to strike back but to alleviate the cause for complaint if that complaint is valid. I believe in open borders. I do not believe in the American People sadly, given their recent trend of prejudice and stupididty, allowing their fear and "moral issues" which shouldn't even be involved in the government to determine their votes. We are going backwards.
I know I sound self rightous, but I am guilty just like everyone else. I cannot completely escape the racial biases of my culture. I can't help feeling that people who make certain lifestyle choices are ignorant and foolish. I do my best to not let these feelings determine my actions and to recognize my prejudices and work on eliminating them, but I am only human like the rest of us.
*If I could rescue 10 people from the apocalypse, one of them would be my cat... yes I'd choose her above a lot of people.
*I started having sex at age 18. I lost my virginity casually and I have never regretted it.
*2 of my 5 closest friends are my brother and sister.
*I hate doing research because I can never look at everything closely enough not to feel like I am missing something.
*I am an organization freak, not in the way where I am super clean, in that I love systems of catagorizing and making lists and such.
*I almost always have major problems with Aquarian women but the men I generally get along fine with.
*As early as I can remember, romance(or sexuality) always seemed like the most important thing in the world to me... like litarally as a small child even. It is only very recently that it's shifted to the point where it's not the most important anymore.
*I tend to martyr myself in my head.
*My ideas are better than my execution of them.
*I walk on my toes.
In my Buffy class we talked about the problamatic nature of how race is dealt with, or not dealt with, in Jossverse. Put bluntly, in Buffy the ethnic characters are generally evil and die quickly. Kendra, the ethnic slayer, dies unlike the white Slayers even though she is at least "good". I have seen almost none of the last season so I cannot comment on Principal Wood, who seems awesome. On Angel, Gunn initially is stereotypically ghetto/black with his rage and opression. Then they whitewash him in season 5. I haven't seen the body of the series, but both versions seem problamatic. Basically I am not qualified to make a definitative statement on either, but at best we can say they ignore racial issues.
So we get to Firefly. We have two ethnic main cast members, the wise and yet badass Sheperd Book and the levelheaded and loyal warrior woman Zoe (and hey it doesn't hurt that Gina Torres happens to be ridiculously gorgeous). Watching the series initially, I felt like race wasn't an issue out in space post-earth that was. But then again it's clear that certain planets are ethnically incluenced, Pesephone is very Asian for instance. Regardless, the black bounty hunter in Objects in Space being black wasn't relevant when I first watched it, but when I watched Serenity, and the operative was another black man, I had to wonder. These two characters are similar in many ways. I guess they fit into the catagory that hobviously and I were discussing at some point: the unflappable black man. They are both totally determined and unphased. In the case of the bounty hunter his strength is his lack of belief, in the operative his strength is his belief (in a better world). Regardless, neither has any compuctions about doing anything nad everything to attain their objective. Is this a good thing about black men being dedicated and successfull, or is it cliche steretypes about them being simpleminded. Since they are both on the wrong side and both conquered it doesn't look good for the latter interpertation. Yes I am reading way far into this, but I am an English grad and this is what I do. So if anyone else wants to tear the text apart with me I'd love to hear what you think.
In the opening scene of the Veronica Mars pilot we are told that there is no middle class in Neptune. I would say that strictly speaking this isn't true, but the point is that the bourgeious... the middle class, is a fairly recent invention in some sense, one that lead to the French Revolution among other things. No having a middle class is quintessentially feudal... so Neptune is in some sense a feudal kingdom or something. So let's tear away the issue cars instead of horses and prom instead of a ball. Veronica is the daughter of the former constable. He was wrongly demoted when he discovered some treachery within the noble family of Kane surrounding the mysterious death of their daughter. Lord Jake Kane had a love affair with Lianne when they were young but abandoned her and married the socially appropriate Celeste. Celeste knows that Jake really loved Lianne and so gets pleasure in torturing her because of her insecurity and yet cannot keep Jake from having Veronica as a playmate to her children, Lilly's waiting gentlewoman. When the girl catches her precious son's eye Celeste comforts herself thinking that he will leave Veronica just like Jake did Lianne, but she shows no such inclination, so she has to force the issue by convincing him that Veronica is his sister. Mac is the rightful princess Sinclair, but due to a cradle debacle she is instead raised as the miller's daughter, but she is so clearly noble that Count Casblanas' younger and unfavored son notices her skill and beauty and falls in love with her anyways, while the imposter Princess is trashy and ignoble of character... because classiness is genetic you know. The peniless orphan Eli is clearly a diamond in the rough and quickly rises to the top of the pickpocket ranks (maybe because one of his parents was really nobility), but falls from grace because of the same nobleness that got him attention and power in the first place. Tell me this doesn't all fit into a period piece wonderfully?
The lunacy and pain that River experiences is nothing new so far as (at least female) Prophets go. The oracle of Delphi went into scary trances and spoke gibberish. Cassandra was cursed to know the truth and yet never be listened to. Even the male Tiresias lost his gender, his sight, and was abused by those who he told the truth to. Being a seer has never been fun. In Firefly, they give a scientific reason for River's telepathic powers, but the symptoms of those are not really terribly different from what has always been the case in the tradition of the mythology around mind reading and seeing the future.
Poll
This first post is dedicated to rogueslayer452, who asked for: Veronica Mars, Real Life, Firefly, Serenity, Literature, Mythology, and Political/Social Issues. In the form of: Informational, Opinions/Reactions, Icons, More Polls.
Addison is supremely awesome in this episode, not that she is not usually awesome, but she goes above and beyond the usual awesomeness in this particular case. I mean Meredith is acting totally understandably in this episode, but that just highlights how exceptional Addison is being, although it's a lot easier for her to be big when she's winning (but then again she's been big when she wasn't too). Derek is still sort of lame, but again not amazingly so. Basically Addison pwns them all.
I love the way that the whole Cristina/Burke/George thing played out. Everyone was so very in character. Cristina is passive agressive and of course she'd resort to blackmail instead of just saying "Listen I really want George to leave because it's making me feel left out." Similarly, Burke was not going to let her blackmail him, but of course he was going to choose to listen to her upset and fix it. I also loved when Cristina was like "you don't need this" to Burke, because she's so rarely gushy but it was so in character. Also the "are you sleeping with him?" "no" "well then he likes having me there better" was to die for. I also love how Cristina told Meredith she might have to be friends with Addison because that's the point of their relationship, to not judge and het say what others don't. George, you are such a little puppy and Alex is right even if he should not have said it.
Speaking of which, I am very dissapointed in Izzie. If she was upset with Alex she should have talked about it with him, but she shoud lnot be taking her distress over Denny out on him and treating him like a non-person. She of all people should know that Alex is very much a person and that inside that jerky exterior he is really sensitive... and he cares about her.... and he's right even if maybe he's not saying it from total altruism. I know they will get back together but seriously Izzie I feel like this puts you totally in the wrong and when you come off of your upset over Denny after he dies you will realize this. Alex adores you and yes he screwed up before but he is sorry and I don't think it's going to happen again. I seriously want Denny to die soon because the whole thing with him and Izzie is quickly getting old.
I am so happy that Dr. Awesome was back again this episode and I hope she becomes a main cast character. I love how she's so forthwright and actually seems to be emotionally healthy, and the scene at the end with George calling her was just way too precious. George needs a powerful woman, and the fact that he specialty is broken bones and setting things right is just so perfect.
When Ollie first appeared I was afraid they were going to make her another ex-lover of the Chief and I cringed, but this was good. I also like that they didn't just make him an alcoholic but tied it into the whole him/Ellis Grey thing. Also someone needed to call him on his emotional affair and it's validating to know that it was really a pivotal relationship for him even though he didn't leave his wife. It also implies, since he only got sober 17 years ago, that the two of them had a relatioship for longer than implied before. So here's my theorizing: Richard and Ellis are both married when they start their intership at Seattle Grace, possibly Ellis has just had Meredith , whom she basically igonores. They start having an affair, we know that they had an affair during their intership because Ellis repeats a conversation about how they should leave their spouses "now" before they end up in different residency programs. Richard also reveals that she did leave Thatcher at this point, so we know Meredith has to have been born before then, unless of course Ellis was pregnant when she left Thatcher and she was born during her residency. I think this is unlikely though, since Meredith has pictures/memories of them as a family. The link created between Ellis and alcoholism for Richard is appropriate, considering that Meredith seems to have an alcohol problem and it is easy to imagine that maybe so did Ellis and she was a bad influence on Richard. Regardless, there are a lot of blanks and questions, and I like seeing this plotline expanded because it ties in to both of Meredith's plotlines so well.
Oh and Burke's cheekbones in this episode looked really amazing... on a more shallow note.
The issue that gets me most worked up is probably reproductive rights. I am adamantly pro-choice, both ideologically and because of common logistical sense. I also hold the probably unpopular and totally rights violating view that all girls under the age of 18 should be given the shot or an IUD when they begin menstruating. Why? Well, other than the fact that they are not emotionally or financially ready to be parents, it's a logistical problem legally for people to be minors and guardians at the same time. If you are not old enough to make decisions for yourself legally you should not be old enough to be making decisions for someone else either. I also think that after a certain number of abortions people should be get their tubes tied... because clearly they are incapable of doing birth control...another totally politically incorrect opinion. Regardless, if you try and tell me that abortion is wrong I WILL be pissed off. I absolutely respect any woman's right to choose not to have an abortion as well as to choose one, regardless of what I would do in their situation, and I think that everyone should show the same respect regardless of what decision someone wants to make. I fully understand that it's not just the anti-choice people who hold prejudiced views... because when you start thinking people SHOULD get an abortion you are doing the same thing as thinking they SHOULDN'T.
I also am totally pro universal health care. Yes I have socialist leanings. I am educated and it's not like I am ever going to need a lot of the social programs I think we should have, but I feel like people deserve a right to quality of life. Having to work some boring, dangerous, or strenuous, job is consequence enough for not having the education that others have, and it's not like we don't need people to do those jobs or they wouldn't exist. I think that school funding should not be based on district taxes because that just ensures that the poor get a worse education system and stay poor. The money should be distributed equally per child statewide. Nobody asked to be born poor, and I am sorry but just because someone happened to be born to rich educated parents doesn't mean they deserve more than someone else. They are going to get advantages no matter what, but the system doesn't have to make it any worse.
I believe in the seperation of church and state. I believe in equal rights. I believe that people should be able to marry whoever they want. I believe that WASP values shouldn't determine the law. I think we never should have been in Iraq. I'm a Jew, but I think Israel is just as guilty as anyone else. I believe the way to stop terrorism is not to strike back but to alleviate the cause for complaint if that complaint is valid. I believe in open borders. I do not believe in the American People sadly, given their recent trend of prejudice and stupididty, allowing their fear and "moral issues" which shouldn't even be involved in the government to determine their votes. We are going backwards.
I know I sound self rightous, but I am guilty just like everyone else. I cannot completely escape the racial biases of my culture. I can't help feeling that people who make certain lifestyle choices are ignorant and foolish. I do my best to not let these feelings determine my actions and to recognize my prejudices and work on eliminating them, but I am only human like the rest of us.
*If I could rescue 10 people from the apocalypse, one of them would be my cat... yes I'd choose her above a lot of people.
*I started having sex at age 18. I lost my virginity casually and I have never regretted it.
*2 of my 5 closest friends are my brother and sister.
*I hate doing research because I can never look at everything closely enough not to feel like I am missing something.
*I am an organization freak, not in the way where I am super clean, in that I love systems of catagorizing and making lists and such.
*I almost always have major problems with Aquarian women but the men I generally get along fine with.
*As early as I can remember, romance(or sexuality) always seemed like the most important thing in the world to me... like litarally as a small child even. It is only very recently that it's shifted to the point where it's not the most important anymore.
*I tend to martyr myself in my head.
*My ideas are better than my execution of them.
*I walk on my toes.
In my Buffy class we talked about the problamatic nature of how race is dealt with, or not dealt with, in Jossverse. Put bluntly, in Buffy the ethnic characters are generally evil and die quickly. Kendra, the ethnic slayer, dies unlike the white Slayers even though she is at least "good". I have seen almost none of the last season so I cannot comment on Principal Wood, who seems awesome. On Angel, Gunn initially is stereotypically ghetto/black with his rage and opression. Then they whitewash him in season 5. I haven't seen the body of the series, but both versions seem problamatic. Basically I am not qualified to make a definitative statement on either, but at best we can say they ignore racial issues.
So we get to Firefly. We have two ethnic main cast members, the wise and yet badass Sheperd Book and the levelheaded and loyal warrior woman Zoe (and hey it doesn't hurt that Gina Torres happens to be ridiculously gorgeous). Watching the series initially, I felt like race wasn't an issue out in space post-earth that was. But then again it's clear that certain planets are ethnically incluenced, Pesephone is very Asian for instance. Regardless, the black bounty hunter in Objects in Space being black wasn't relevant when I first watched it, but when I watched Serenity, and the operative was another black man, I had to wonder. These two characters are similar in many ways. I guess they fit into the catagory that hobviously and I were discussing at some point: the unflappable black man. They are both totally determined and unphased. In the case of the bounty hunter his strength is his lack of belief, in the operative his strength is his belief (in a better world). Regardless, neither has any compuctions about doing anything nad everything to attain their objective. Is this a good thing about black men being dedicated and successfull, or is it cliche steretypes about them being simpleminded. Since they are both on the wrong side and both conquered it doesn't look good for the latter interpertation. Yes I am reading way far into this, but I am an English grad and this is what I do. So if anyone else wants to tear the text apart with me I'd love to hear what you think.
In the opening scene of the Veronica Mars pilot we are told that there is no middle class in Neptune. I would say that strictly speaking this isn't true, but the point is that the bourgeious... the middle class, is a fairly recent invention in some sense, one that lead to the French Revolution among other things. No having a middle class is quintessentially feudal... so Neptune is in some sense a feudal kingdom or something. So let's tear away the issue cars instead of horses and prom instead of a ball. Veronica is the daughter of the former constable. He was wrongly demoted when he discovered some treachery within the noble family of Kane surrounding the mysterious death of their daughter. Lord Jake Kane had a love affair with Lianne when they were young but abandoned her and married the socially appropriate Celeste. Celeste knows that Jake really loved Lianne and so gets pleasure in torturing her because of her insecurity and yet cannot keep Jake from having Veronica as a playmate to her children, Lilly's waiting gentlewoman. When the girl catches her precious son's eye Celeste comforts herself thinking that he will leave Veronica just like Jake did Lianne, but she shows no such inclination, so she has to force the issue by convincing him that Veronica is his sister. Mac is the rightful princess Sinclair, but due to a cradle debacle she is instead raised as the miller's daughter, but she is so clearly noble that Count Casblanas' younger and unfavored son notices her skill and beauty and falls in love with her anyways, while the imposter Princess is trashy and ignoble of character... because classiness is genetic you know. The peniless orphan Eli is clearly a diamond in the rough and quickly rises to the top of the pickpocket ranks (maybe because one of his parents was really nobility), but falls from grace because of the same nobleness that got him attention and power in the first place. Tell me this doesn't all fit into a period piece wonderfully?
The lunacy and pain that River experiences is nothing new so far as (at least female) Prophets go. The oracle of Delphi went into scary trances and spoke gibberish. Cassandra was cursed to know the truth and yet never be listened to. Even the male Tiresias lost his gender, his sight, and was abused by those who he told the truth to. Being a seer has never been fun. In Firefly, they give a scientific reason for River's telepathic powers, but the symptoms of those are not really terribly different from what has always been the case in the tradition of the mythology around mind reading and seeing the future.
Poll