team antichrist!
My Shakespeare teacher is a very nice woman, and she can be very interesting, and I don't really hate that class with the fiery passion with which I have hated classes in the past -- and if I do get bored, it's usually because of the material or the slow pace, not the teacher, who is a lovely human being. Right now (okay, all semester) my problem with this class is that there are only so many times I can look at one play or even one scene and interpret it and reinterpret it and reinterpret it UNTIL MY EYES BLEED. Because you know what? There is no right answer. There may not even be AN answer. There is no time travel; you just don't know. You can speculate until the ends of the earth, but most of the time you can't even know what a modern, still-living author was thinking when they wrote a book that was published a week ago, much less a dude who lived hundreds of years ago. And it is possible to read every humanly conceivable variety of meanings into a Shakespeare play and you can make every single one of those arguments sound legitimate with support from the text or from the texts of his contemporaries or other scholars. Every. Single. One. So it's all down to what I choose to believe about the text.
Which is all cool. I mean, sussing out your own opinions is the point of a discussion-based class, and the professor doesn't lecture much. And I really do enjoy overanalyzing things, I do it aaaallll the time with the things I read and watch for pleasure. So. But still, I get frustrated with the stuffiness of academia, the slow pacing of going over one interpretation after another after another after another, and the circular logic of it all... and I just want to be like, if I didn't need this class for the credit. If I didn't. I would be so out of here before you could even blink. *headdesk*
The professor has a habit of saying, "Yeah... so, what do we do with this argument? What do we do with Shakespeare's use of [insert literary jargon]? What do we do with [blank]?" And every time, I just want to say, "Burn it. Burn it all. Give it up for a bad job and go home. Sit outside in the nice weather and enjoy life. Maybe read something different, something that didn't come in a Norton Anthology or from the Penguin Classics series."
Anyway. I have to write another paper for this class this weekend. Plus a paper for Comp class. Plus a paper for Theatre History. And next week I get to write one for World Lit! Woot.
I just want to get to see City of Ember sometime this weekend and I'll be happy.
You know who would burn it all? Burn it with fire FROM HIS MIND? Sammy would. Because Sammy is the Demon Jesus and do you know how phenomenally boring and lame it will be this season if he actually has restraint and we don't get full-on demon!Sammy mind powers of EBIL? I will be pissed, and Kripke will know about it.
So. Last night's episode was okay. A bit recycled -- "Heart" 2.0 without the chick or the sex, but with added recycled!wendigo. Cannibalistic monster is vulnerable to fire, wow. The lessons we take from this episode: fire pretty, cannibalism bad. Don't blame the monsters for their genes, AND DON'T BLAME SAMMY. (It was a bit heavyhanded.) Other hunters always suck unless they're Bobby. (Or Ellen, who has vanished forever and this makes me sad, or Gordon, who I actually liked but all these Lawful Neutral Gordon rip-offs like Travis just kind of piss me off that they had to kill Gordon in the first place -- just like all the female demons piss me off that they killed off Meg, who was their all-time best demon-chick adversary.) And everybody wants a little steak tartar now and then (except me and everyone else who threw up in their mouths a little bit at the raw-meat scene).
BUT. BUT, I say. The scenes between Sam and Dean made the relatively weak storyline SO worth it. (Isn't that always the case?) The "God doesn't want you doing this!" scene and Sam's FACE made me wibble pretty hard. :( And the "STOP THE CAR OR I WILL" scene made me think all kinds of new and interesting things about Sam's condition that I hadn't considered before, but you know what it reminds me of now? Thomas' storyline from Dresden Files. He's the mildest kind of vampire, he just feeds on strong emotion -- particularly pleasure -- and normally he would be a sex vampire, basically, but he almost killed his lover (his real, true-love lover) with a feeding and now he's sworn off of it... so he runs a beauty salon to stay alive off of the low-level hum of pleasure from women being pampered. But there is one scene in I can't remember which book, where Harry is like, "Pfft, why is it so hard for you not to feed? Just don't feed, you know it's wrong anyway." And Thomas is like *stormface* "Oh yeah bitch? Race me." And they sprint for like a quarter of a mile and Harry's like "WTF was that about man?" and Thomas hands him a bottle of water but after Harry's only gotten half a sip he knocks it out of Harry's hands. That. That is what it feels like every moment of every day. Parched, out of breath, rasping through your entire body with the need for something that isn't just a pleasure, a luxury, it's something as necessary to life as water. So... Sammich. I don't think it's that bad for him, I don't know, but it makes me wonder how much of a pull those powers really have on him. Because like he says, it's not just something that can be excised and forgotten about; it is a part of him, he is who he is. And now I wonder if learning to use those powers is like learning to use a new set of thumbs. Easy, instinctual, natural, and then to consciously not use them takes an enormous mental effort every moment of every day, and it makes everything you do more complicated and clumsy. Seriously, someone tells you that your thumbs are evil and you can't use them anymore -- and they may be right and you may believe them -- but that doesn't make "stop using them" into any more of a simple task.
Plus, Sam seriously has a point about his method not killing the hosts. I don't think Dean has a leg to stand on here if he tries to argue that it's worth it to sacrifice the innocent lives of the possessed just so one person can stay "safe." I mean, it's not like Sam is ever safe anyway, with their high-risk occupation. And Old Testament God or not, I can't really see the hosts of heaven approving of stabbing innocent people left and right when the angels are probably going to come down on Sam's ass whether he uses his powers or not -- just because of who he is. Just like Travis came down on Jack Montgomery. And then Sam will go all evil out of self-defense, just like Jack Montgomery, or because he sees the angelic host as a threat to Dean, or at least to his relationship with Dean, just like Jack saw Travis as a threat to his wife. Sam is totally going to go evil to protect Dean. AND IT WILL BE AWESOME.
See, I have this mental image that will probably never happen, but it's just so damn badass... of Sam, like, turning on the drop of a pin and all of a sudden his eyes do something freaky awesome (but they can't be red, yellow, white or black, because DemonJesus/PossiblyLucifer!Sam going to be a whole new creature unto himself) and his long emo hair just swooshes up in a fiery wind and then Jared Padalecki will be able to finally use every inch of his ridiculous Sasquatch height and general enormity to his advantage. Because Sam normally scrunches a bit; he always looks like he's apologizing for being so tall. Satan!Sam will totally be like, BITCHES, I TOWER OVER YOU ALL.
But yes, I can't wait to see Uriel, the more "trigger-happy" angel, as Misha Collins put it. I love Castiel, I think he's about as trustworthy as a Republican in office, and I know he's going to be a real wrench in the works -- it never entered my mind that he was going to be the preachy, compassionate, saving kind of angel who might help fix things between the brothers. No way. He will fuck their shit up as much as Ruby did when she first showed up. But just like Ruby was, he will probably be helpful despite everything and Sam & Dean won't be able to not acknowledge him. I love the parallels between Dean-Castiel and the Sam-Ruby dynamic of early season 3. And I can't wait for the inevitable meeting scene between Sam and Castiel, because even though I wasn't nearly as big a fan of Ruby, it was pretty awesome when she and Dean finally met.
And next week's ep looks like it will totally make up for this week's suckyish plot. XD
Done rambling for now. Three papers to write. 50 pages of lit to read. A play to dramaturg for. Supernatural to pine over.
-rave
Which is all cool. I mean, sussing out your own opinions is the point of a discussion-based class, and the professor doesn't lecture much. And I really do enjoy overanalyzing things, I do it aaaallll the time with the things I read and watch for pleasure. So. But still, I get frustrated with the stuffiness of academia, the slow pacing of going over one interpretation after another after another after another, and the circular logic of it all... and I just want to be like, if I didn't need this class for the credit. If I didn't. I would be so out of here before you could even blink. *headdesk*
The professor has a habit of saying, "Yeah... so, what do we do with this argument? What do we do with Shakespeare's use of [insert literary jargon]? What do we do with [blank]?" And every time, I just want to say, "Burn it. Burn it all. Give it up for a bad job and go home. Sit outside in the nice weather and enjoy life. Maybe read something different, something that didn't come in a Norton Anthology or from the Penguin Classics series."
Anyway. I have to write another paper for this class this weekend. Plus a paper for Comp class. Plus a paper for Theatre History. And next week I get to write one for World Lit! Woot.
I just want to get to see City of Ember sometime this weekend and I'll be happy.
You know who would burn it all? Burn it with fire FROM HIS MIND? Sammy would. Because Sammy is the Demon Jesus and do you know how phenomenally boring and lame it will be this season if he actually has restraint and we don't get full-on demon!Sammy mind powers of EBIL? I will be pissed, and Kripke will know about it.
So. Last night's episode was okay. A bit recycled -- "Heart" 2.0 without the chick or the sex, but with added recycled!wendigo. Cannibalistic monster is vulnerable to fire, wow. The lessons we take from this episode: fire pretty, cannibalism bad. Don't blame the monsters for their genes, AND DON'T BLAME SAMMY. (It was a bit heavyhanded.) Other hunters always suck unless they're Bobby. (Or Ellen, who has vanished forever and this makes me sad, or Gordon, who I actually liked but all these Lawful Neutral Gordon rip-offs like Travis just kind of piss me off that they had to kill Gordon in the first place -- just like all the female demons piss me off that they killed off Meg, who was their all-time best demon-chick adversary.) And everybody wants a little steak tartar now and then (except me and everyone else who threw up in their mouths a little bit at the raw-meat scene).
BUT. BUT, I say. The scenes between Sam and Dean made the relatively weak storyline SO worth it. (Isn't that always the case?) The "God doesn't want you doing this!" scene and Sam's FACE made me wibble pretty hard. :( And the "STOP THE CAR OR I WILL" scene made me think all kinds of new and interesting things about Sam's condition that I hadn't considered before, but you know what it reminds me of now? Thomas' storyline from Dresden Files. He's the mildest kind of vampire, he just feeds on strong emotion -- particularly pleasure -- and normally he would be a sex vampire, basically, but he almost killed his lover (his real, true-love lover) with a feeding and now he's sworn off of it... so he runs a beauty salon to stay alive off of the low-level hum of pleasure from women being pampered. But there is one scene in I can't remember which book, where Harry is like, "Pfft, why is it so hard for you not to feed? Just don't feed, you know it's wrong anyway." And Thomas is like *stormface* "Oh yeah bitch? Race me." And they sprint for like a quarter of a mile and Harry's like "WTF was that about man?" and Thomas hands him a bottle of water but after Harry's only gotten half a sip he knocks it out of Harry's hands. That. That is what it feels like every moment of every day. Parched, out of breath, rasping through your entire body with the need for something that isn't just a pleasure, a luxury, it's something as necessary to life as water. So... Sammich. I don't think it's that bad for him, I don't know, but it makes me wonder how much of a pull those powers really have on him. Because like he says, it's not just something that can be excised and forgotten about; it is a part of him, he is who he is. And now I wonder if learning to use those powers is like learning to use a new set of thumbs. Easy, instinctual, natural, and then to consciously not use them takes an enormous mental effort every moment of every day, and it makes everything you do more complicated and clumsy. Seriously, someone tells you that your thumbs are evil and you can't use them anymore -- and they may be right and you may believe them -- but that doesn't make "stop using them" into any more of a simple task.
Plus, Sam seriously has a point about his method not killing the hosts. I don't think Dean has a leg to stand on here if he tries to argue that it's worth it to sacrifice the innocent lives of the possessed just so one person can stay "safe." I mean, it's not like Sam is ever safe anyway, with their high-risk occupation. And Old Testament God or not, I can't really see the hosts of heaven approving of stabbing innocent people left and right when the angels are probably going to come down on Sam's ass whether he uses his powers or not -- just because of who he is. Just like Travis came down on Jack Montgomery. And then Sam will go all evil out of self-defense, just like Jack Montgomery, or because he sees the angelic host as a threat to Dean, or at least to his relationship with Dean, just like Jack saw Travis as a threat to his wife. Sam is totally going to go evil to protect Dean. AND IT WILL BE AWESOME.
See, I have this mental image that will probably never happen, but it's just so damn badass... of Sam, like, turning on the drop of a pin and all of a sudden his eyes do something freaky awesome (but they can't be red, yellow, white or black, because DemonJesus/PossiblyLucifer!Sam going to be a whole new creature unto himself) and his long emo hair just swooshes up in a fiery wind and then Jared Padalecki will be able to finally use every inch of his ridiculous Sasquatch height and general enormity to his advantage. Because Sam normally scrunches a bit; he always looks like he's apologizing for being so tall. Satan!Sam will totally be like, BITCHES, I TOWER OVER YOU ALL.
But yes, I can't wait to see Uriel, the more "trigger-happy" angel, as Misha Collins put it. I love Castiel, I think he's about as trustworthy as a Republican in office, and I know he's going to be a real wrench in the works -- it never entered my mind that he was going to be the preachy, compassionate, saving kind of angel who might help fix things between the brothers. No way. He will fuck their shit up as much as Ruby did when she first showed up. But just like Ruby was, he will probably be helpful despite everything and Sam & Dean won't be able to not acknowledge him. I love the parallels between Dean-Castiel and the Sam-Ruby dynamic of early season 3. And I can't wait for the inevitable meeting scene between Sam and Castiel, because even though I wasn't nearly as big a fan of Ruby, it was pretty awesome when she and Dean finally met.
And next week's ep looks like it will totally make up for this week's suckyish plot. XD
Done rambling for now. Three papers to write. 50 pages of lit to read. A play to dramaturg for. Supernatural to pine over.
-rave