Self-reflection and poll on archetypes
I'm in a chatty mood but have nothing to chat about! This NEVER happens to me. How very strange! Consequently, I'm overcompensating by drawing together various ideas that have been swimming around in my head recently.
I've been thinking a lot about archetypes recently and why we're drawn to certain characters or pairings. I'm sure most people have particular archetypes or relationship dynamics that they're continually intrigued by, but in fandom we spend more time than most analysing them and obsessing over them. I know for me this has meant that on several occasions I've had 'epiphany-like' moments where I realised what my interest revealed about my own personality or life. Am I alone?
The counterargument would say that fiction and reality are completely separate and what we find amusing for entertainment purposes has no connection to our own psychology or life circumstances. Maybe that's so.
This poll is rather vague, I know, but please feel free to share your more detailed thoughts and/or anecdotes in the comments if you feel so inclined. I have other thoughts kicking around too--like have you ever started liking a character you previously disliked when some new attribute was revealed to you? (an example for me would be River from Firefly who I found annoying as all get out until I saw Serenity ;)) Do you have characters you invariably dislike/find hard to relate to? What do those things say about you?
Personally I'm always interested by what my likes/dislikes reveal about me, though I can't say that the revelations have always been very comfortable. :-) I'm also pretty open about confessing these reasons once I know, but I wonder whether other people are more uncomfortable with doing so?
In the shows I write serious meta for (Smallville, BSG, FNL), I strive to think about each character 'fairly', while also admitting my own preferences. (I'm a bit more flippant with Heroes--everyone's fair game there, as far as I'm concerned!) But of course my views are still highly subjective and I often look to others in fandom to 'balance' my opinion: I always run to the Kara fans after a BSG episode; I learnt to appreciate Lana thanks to some very patient and well-argued responses; only last week toadstoolsmiles gave me a new perspective on Matt from Heroes, etc.
But despite all that, there are still always going to be characters I identify with more than others. And sometimes I do get self-conscious about that. Sometimes I worry that if (for example) I admit I like Lois because she's like me in being a bit socially clueless and awkward and overcompensating for that, then it will diminsh my opinion about her in the eyes of others. Or is that a good thing? Does that give me more insight into her character? And is there such a thing as overidentifying? Where/how do you draw the line?
Anyway, poll:
Poll
I've been thinking a lot about archetypes recently and why we're drawn to certain characters or pairings. I'm sure most people have particular archetypes or relationship dynamics that they're continually intrigued by, but in fandom we spend more time than most analysing them and obsessing over them. I know for me this has meant that on several occasions I've had 'epiphany-like' moments where I realised what my interest revealed about my own personality or life. Am I alone?
The counterargument would say that fiction and reality are completely separate and what we find amusing for entertainment purposes has no connection to our own psychology or life circumstances. Maybe that's so.
This poll is rather vague, I know, but please feel free to share your more detailed thoughts and/or anecdotes in the comments if you feel so inclined. I have other thoughts kicking around too--like have you ever started liking a character you previously disliked when some new attribute was revealed to you? (an example for me would be River from Firefly who I found annoying as all get out until I saw Serenity ;)) Do you have characters you invariably dislike/find hard to relate to? What do those things say about you?
Personally I'm always interested by what my likes/dislikes reveal about me, though I can't say that the revelations have always been very comfortable. :-) I'm also pretty open about confessing these reasons once I know, but I wonder whether other people are more uncomfortable with doing so?
In the shows I write serious meta for (Smallville, BSG, FNL), I strive to think about each character 'fairly', while also admitting my own preferences. (I'm a bit more flippant with Heroes--everyone's fair game there, as far as I'm concerned!) But of course my views are still highly subjective and I often look to others in fandom to 'balance' my opinion: I always run to the Kara fans after a BSG episode; I learnt to appreciate Lana thanks to some very patient and well-argued responses; only last week toadstoolsmiles gave me a new perspective on Matt from Heroes, etc.
But despite all that, there are still always going to be characters I identify with more than others. And sometimes I do get self-conscious about that. Sometimes I worry that if (for example) I admit I like Lois because she's like me in being a bit socially clueless and awkward and overcompensating for that, then it will diminsh my opinion about her in the eyes of others. Or is that a good thing? Does that give me more insight into her character? And is there such a thing as overidentifying? Where/how do you draw the line?
Anyway, poll:
Poll