assorted thoughts

[fanbeatsman]

- Went to see New Moon at the weekend, drunk and desiring lulz; it didn't disappoint. It is, in many respects, a laughable film; you can laugh at the acting, the script, the narrative, the characters, and like probably about half the internet, galvani and I did, muchly

Comments

[0x]

pics of your tree please!

[fanbeatsman]

I assure you there will be picspam of extreme epicness in the not-too-distant future :)

[0x]

yay!

[miss_prince]

I have been having thinky thoughts about Twilight myself, and I will hopefully try to articulate them later because I shouldn't spend the time on that while I'm hitting the very-end-of-semester-Hail-Mary (no matter how much I would rather talk about Twilight with you). For now, I'll just say that I really agree with pretty much everything you've said.

It's nice to see you surface every once in a while :P Hope your Christmas is awesome.

[fanbeatsman]

Eek, Finals! Best of luck with them *hugs* And I hope that I do get a chance to chat with you once you're done - I'm taking a total break from my thesis over Christmas (I realised this weekend that apart from my anniversary trip to Valencia, I haven't actually given myself a real break this year - I took work with me to France, I took work with me to Jura, and I think I need to give myself a stretch of time in which I'm not constantly thinking about work), and I am fully intending to use it to get back online, get meta-ing again with people and maybe even write some fic. It would be awesome to chat Twilight (or anything else!) with you at some point over the holidays :)

[alienchrist]

I think more than anything, it's how damn popular it is in spite of how dumb it is. That unlike Harry Potter, which may have questionable literary value but at least eschews a decent set of messages and a fantasy that embraces individuality, it is bringing out in women the fantasy of being desirable and possessing very little other qualities. I am not in any way saying that Twilight itself is responsible for the message being attractive, or for the crowds of women attracted by it, but overall it's just... a bit disgusting. It's trash and it feels like something that should be greatly discouraged. However, just because you tell someone McDonald's makes you fat doesn't mean people stop eating there. I don't think disparaging it makes any sense. Some people are always going to have shit taste

[fanbeatsman]

As always, you make a lot of sense :) - and like you, I remember the way in which things like songs, films, books, artists, media consumption generally can get all tied up in that process of negotiating your identity and way of being in the world. Maybe, because of the things I've found myself wanting to do and work on of late, I've spent so long deliberately trying to become as catholic and receptive as possible as regards my tastes and others' that I've forgotten how powerful, personal and significant that kind of identification can be. There's only trivial, mild vestiges of it left in my response to Twilight: frustration that this new, crappy kind of vampire story and vampire mythology is taking such root at the expense of the kind I like, heh.

I like how you put things in that last sentence, too - and I think it gets at why, in the end, I'm not as cranky and mistrustful about the response to Twilight as I am about other mass cultural expressions I've seen as disproportionate. What's frustrated me about other cases where people

[tellezara]

On a totally non-Twilight-related front, you might enjoy Avatar ;) I wasn't expecting to when I first sat down to watch it, but for a Nickolodeon cartoon it has a surprising number of layers, and there's some wonderful snarky moments. Keep an eye out for Zuko's Grandad - he's hilarious XD

[fanbeatsman]

Haha, I'm glad to hear the endorsement! Everything I know about Avatar is either to do with the RaceFail in the casting of the film or has come through fandom_wank reports on the fandom's apparently rather epic shipwars - so it's good to hear some good things about it :D