Comments | bop_radar: SV meta: Queer secrecy in Smallville

bop_radar

SV meta: Queer secrecy in Smallville

Sep 01, 2006 16:51

hazywizard linked to this article on Queer secrecy in Smallville. It’s a good read if you haven’t seen it before (I think it’s been out a while?), though a little clumsy in places. I was particularly amused by the captioning (and miscaptioning) of the stills. (Um, should someone tell the writer that that bathtub scene is not from Smallville?) The article’s ( Read more... )

smallville_meta, meta_recs

Comments 39

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bop_radar September 1 2006, 07:51:23 UTC

Oh, you're welcome! Thoughts are good! Perhaps these thoughts could even lead to fics...?! *winks*

talitha78 September 1 2006, 12:01:02 UTC

I just had time to read through a couple of paragraphs, but this is interesting stuff. I especially love the "Lex" as "lex" correlation. How clever!

bop_radar September 2 2006, 03:49:16 UTC

I know, right?! I really liked that too. I'd never thought of that angle before but it's given me lots to muse over.

myownghost September 1 2006, 12:14:54 UTC

how interesting. i don't know if i'll have the attention span to read the original article, but i'm glad to have read your synopsis and discussion thereof. it seems to me that she, and you, are right all down the line. the reason i'm interested in SV at all, aside from the luminous beauty of welling and the fascination of rosenbaum as lex, is the depth of allegory and the ambiguity that battis hints at -- yes, lex will become the villain, but he's not in the beginning, and it's the development of his villainy (and the hope of redemption from it) that drew me in. but SV's clark is not the unalloyed hero that i remember from comics and tv when i was a kid, either -- he can be petty and judgmental and just wrong.

the idea of Lex as language is intriguing. i'll mull that over a bit for the pleasure of it.

bop_radar September 2 2006, 03:53:15 UTC

the reason i'm interested in SV at all, aside from the luminous beauty of welling and the fascination of rosenbaum as lex, is the depth of allegory and the ambiguity that battis hints at
I totally agree. At first I was just 'oh shiny! pretty! yay!' but the real hook, the aspect that keeps me coming back for more and which means I'll watch to the end of the journey, is the allegory and the subtlety--most of which is brought out in visual metaphor or the actors' performances rather than in the script.

Like you, I love that neither Lex nor Clark is a stereotype of their future selves--but I also love those moments when we get glimmers (chilling or exciting) of how they will grow into those selves.

the idea of Lex as language is intriguing. i'll mull that over a bit for the pleasure of it.
hee! That is just how I felt. It was such a nice conecept to play around with.

myownghost September 2 2006, 10:11:04 UTC

ok, today i feel bright enough (barely) to tackle the article. so glad i went to it -- the photos and captions along the side are wonderful. i haven't read much meta, and i haven't watched but about half the episodes, so this will be more revelatory to me than it might've been.

i love that about the Stepford Kents. it's so true!

bop_radar September 2 2006, 10:29:52 UTC

Oh YAY! I'm really glad you got to it and enjoyed it. I think it's a pretty good introduction or starting point for people who haven't read this type of analysis before. It's couched in a lot of queer theory/pop culture jargon which personally I find bogs it down a little (but that's probably just the legacy of having been scarred by such language at uni). But she definitely covers a lot of interesting ground.

And yeah, so true about the Stepford Kents! The idolisation of the pastoral American ideal in the Kents is quite fascinating to me, because it seems very untypical of current culture. On the surface it seems so wholesome too--but at the heart of that idyllic family is something that threatens their entire way of life--an alien child. That's just so dark and great--I love it! It's also a fabulous way to analogise secrecy in families and in conventional culture--whether that secret is queer or not.

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voldything September 1 2006, 13:05:18 UTC

I don't think I have anything to add, but I'll be thinking about this and if I do I'll come back :D

bop_radar September 2 2006, 03:54:05 UTC

*g* Yay! I'm just dusting off my meta brain after hiatus. ;-)

norwich36 September 1 2006, 14:12:07 UTC

Damn! I just had time to skim through the original article and now I have to rush off to work, but I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts about it.

bop_radar September 2 2006, 03:56:03 UTC

Hee! I know that feeling so well. I was delighted to get breathing space to really consider the article yesterday. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts too--I've focussed above on what I liked about the article and skimmed over the moments that 'clanged' for me.

(Though I also confess to having been delighted that she honed in on Bound the way I did!)

norwich36 September 2 2006, 04:55:19 UTC

Well, now I have time but no brain. It's been a long week. But I really enjoyed the original article--like you said, a lot of what she points out in the essay is not really original, but I did like a lot of the same points you did, especially the pastoral/urban dichotomy and Lex as Renaissance men educating Clark. And I liked your point here:

I also think Lana’s one of the most interesting characters to explore in terms of her relationship to the pastoral and the urban. Her deepest longing is to see beyond Smallville (windmill!) but she can’t ‘escape’ her ties there. At the start of Season 4 we saw her pursue a more urban life in Paris, but she was drawn back almost against her will. Is it any wonder then that she is torn between the two men that represent the urban and the pastoral respectively--Lex and Clark? This is one reason why I now find Lana interesting as a character-because like Smallville itself, she represents a ‘site’ where the pastoral and urban converge and engage in a continual tug-of-war with one another.I agree with ( ... )

bop_radar September 2 2006, 07:25:58 UTC

Yes, that's true! There's something deeply strange about the fact that Nell and Lana stayed in Smallville and it makes me doubly uneasy to think that Lana will end up choosing the pastoral. I think you're right that they could have done more with Nell--lost opportunity there.

It also makes me wonder about Lois--she's not been framed as clearly pastoral OR urban within current Smallville canon. She's more urban than the Kents, but in giving her a military brat background rather than a city one, they've made her status a little more ambiguous.

And I guess Chloe is interesting because she's always been an urban figure within the pastoral world--but she embodies some of the 'lighter' aspects of the urban, rather than the 'dark' forms of the Luthors.

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