New Battlestar Galactica, but mostly? On Dead Women.
So I was going to post thoughts on BSG, but really, I think I need the awesomeness of Nikki Grant and the awesomeness of women of "Big Love" in general tonight before I'm ready to talk about "Sometimes a Great Notion." But some things could not be kept in, so my rage at the death of a certain woman, and, well, women in fiction in general and on BSG, has to be expressed. Spoilers under the cut, of course.
Edgar Allen Poe once said that there's no more poignant fictional device than the death of a beautiful woman. And I was reminded of this when someone called Dee's death a beautiful one during a BSG discussion. And this is actually the general thing I'm seeing around fandom? That her death is tragic but beautiful because she chose to go out on a high note, on her own terms (Just like Iphigenia did, I suppose, after all her choices had been taken away.) than to live out her remaining life in misery.
Yeah, women's deaths are always beautiful, aren't they? So much so that when Polyxena dies, we get to hear about it from the mouth of an adoring man, so we can see the fucking beauty in her death. In all their deaths. The way they're put into the male gaze and then made pretty before they blow their brains out because the fucking patriarchy got to them or because some sexist writer couldn't think of a better way to write them than to give in to the oldest metanarratives of them all.
But would Dee, arguably the strongest person this show has, kill herself? Dee, who told Lee that she was going to marry him despite believing he loved Kara better because she was willing to take whatever she could get and it was going to be enough? No, Dee would've gone on. She would've tried with Lee, and maybe it would've worked and maybe it would not have, but either way, it would not have broken her. She would've survived. And been more beautiful in her strength than she could ever be in death.
The fandom reaction makes me think of Willa Cather's "A Lost Lady," in which we have a narrator who witnesses the decline of the woman he's in love with. And there is this beautiful scene where she tells him that even though she has nothing to live for, she feels "such a desire to live." And after she's fallen from grace, he thinks, "It was what he most held against Mrs. Forrester; that she was not willing to immolate herself...and die with the pioneer period to which she belonged; that she preferred life on any terms." And just...yeah.
And the critics, for the longest time, read this book and didn't see what a criticism of the culture it was, and really, this is what we learn to read: women who have nothing to live for should kill themselves. And just, fucking no. Marian Forrester is one of my favorite characters in all of literature because she doesn't kill herself. Not like Emma Bovary, not like Edna Pontellier, or Lily Bart or a million others who have to be redeemed from some fall or redeem someone/something else's fall (end of humanity's hope in Dee's case) and the only way they can do it is to die.
Because death - always beautiful for women - redeems them, restores them to their beauty, happiness, and honor or what the fuck ever. Because in death, they become a blank text that can be written upon - having nothing but the body that patriarchy finds so interesting, that the male gaze finds easy to objectify - just as Dee became a text to be written on (just as Cally was, before her, 'vacant,' as Tyrol said), so the writers could impart some message using her. She's not a person to them; women rarely are in fiction, right? She's a symbol. Of everything humanity has lost, and everything it continues to lose. But I'm sick of symbolism. Sick of women dying so they can be symbols of some man's revolution or some writer's narrative journey. Sick, in general, of this metanarrative that I hate with a burning passion and that just won't go away.
You know what's better than that proverbial beautiful death? SURVIVING. "Life on any terms," as Willa Cather said. As Dee understood, once upon a time, so much better than anyone else did. It's harder, and it's harsh and stark, but it's every bit as beautiful in its strength and hope as any sacrificial death is supposed to be. So, no, death of a woman is never pretty, and it's certainly never, ever, ever preferable to living.
So, fuck you, Edgar Allen Poe, and fuck you, Ron Moore. This shouldn't have been the end of Dee's journey, but you couldn't think of anyone better to symbolize the death of the human spirit, could you? She deserved better than this.
And, you know, the interview Ron gave about the death? Made me think of the crap he had the nerve to say about Tess after "Departure." And I was so upset with it all last night that I actually, um, had nightmares about the interview. I dreamed about Max and Tess getting together in another plot arc than the one we saw (shut up, I do totally have the most detailed episodic dreams about TV shows ever), and then Tess getting shafted again and dying. Again. And I just...am so upset. About BSG. About women on BSG, and about Tess. Still. I'm pretty sure this is my brain's way of telling me to get out now before it gets to be as bad as "Roswell." Maybe I'll listen this time. Like, if someone were to tell me, definitely, that there would be no Sam/Kara for the rest of the season? I would seriously consider it.
Edgar Allen Poe once said that there's no more poignant fictional device than the death of a beautiful woman. And I was reminded of this when someone called Dee's death a beautiful one during a BSG discussion. And this is actually the general thing I'm seeing around fandom? That her death is tragic but beautiful because she chose to go out on a high note, on her own terms (Just like Iphigenia did, I suppose, after all her choices had been taken away.) than to live out her remaining life in misery.
Yeah, women's deaths are always beautiful, aren't they? So much so that when Polyxena dies, we get to hear about it from the mouth of an adoring man, so we can see the fucking beauty in her death. In all their deaths. The way they're put into the male gaze and then made pretty before they blow their brains out because the fucking patriarchy got to them or because some sexist writer couldn't think of a better way to write them than to give in to the oldest metanarratives of them all.
But would Dee, arguably the strongest person this show has, kill herself? Dee, who told Lee that she was going to marry him despite believing he loved Kara better because she was willing to take whatever she could get and it was going to be enough? No, Dee would've gone on. She would've tried with Lee, and maybe it would've worked and maybe it would not have, but either way, it would not have broken her. She would've survived. And been more beautiful in her strength than she could ever be in death.
The fandom reaction makes me think of Willa Cather's "A Lost Lady," in which we have a narrator who witnesses the decline of the woman he's in love with. And there is this beautiful scene where she tells him that even though she has nothing to live for, she feels "such a desire to live." And after she's fallen from grace, he thinks, "It was what he most held against Mrs. Forrester; that she was not willing to immolate herself...and die with the pioneer period to which she belonged; that she preferred life on any terms." And just...yeah.
And the critics, for the longest time, read this book and didn't see what a criticism of the culture it was, and really, this is what we learn to read: women who have nothing to live for should kill themselves. And just, fucking no. Marian Forrester is one of my favorite characters in all of literature because she doesn't kill herself. Not like Emma Bovary, not like Edna Pontellier, or Lily Bart or a million others who have to be redeemed from some fall or redeem someone/something else's fall (end of humanity's hope in Dee's case) and the only way they can do it is to die.
Because death - always beautiful for women - redeems them, restores them to their beauty, happiness, and honor or what the fuck ever. Because in death, they become a blank text that can be written upon - having nothing but the body that patriarchy finds so interesting, that the male gaze finds easy to objectify - just as Dee became a text to be written on (just as Cally was, before her, 'vacant,' as Tyrol said), so the writers could impart some message using her. She's not a person to them; women rarely are in fiction, right? She's a symbol. Of everything humanity has lost, and everything it continues to lose. But I'm sick of symbolism. Sick of women dying so they can be symbols of some man's revolution or some writer's narrative journey. Sick, in general, of this metanarrative that I hate with a burning passion and that just won't go away.
You know what's better than that proverbial beautiful death? SURVIVING. "Life on any terms," as Willa Cather said. As Dee understood, once upon a time, so much better than anyone else did. It's harder, and it's harsh and stark, but it's every bit as beautiful in its strength and hope as any sacrificial death is supposed to be. So, no, death of a woman is never pretty, and it's certainly never, ever, ever preferable to living.
So, fuck you, Edgar Allen Poe, and fuck you, Ron Moore. This shouldn't have been the end of Dee's journey, but you couldn't think of anyone better to symbolize the death of the human spirit, could you? She deserved better than this.
And, you know, the interview Ron gave about the death? Made me think of the crap he had the nerve to say about Tess after "Departure." And I was so upset with it all last night that I actually, um, had nightmares about the interview. I dreamed about Max and Tess getting together in another plot arc than the one we saw (shut up, I do totally have the most detailed episodic dreams about TV shows ever), and then Tess getting shafted again and dying. Again. And I just...am so upset. About BSG. About women on BSG, and about Tess. Still. I'm pretty sure this is my brain's way of telling me to get out now before it gets to be as bad as "Roswell." Maybe I'll listen this time. Like, if someone were to tell me, definitely, that there would be no Sam/Kara for the rest of the season? I would seriously consider it.