(no subject)
Project uncluttering notepad, pt. 2:
[Only I seem to be cluttering so much faster than I ever unclutter, mostly in the process of writing the project uncluttering posts, which kind of defeats the purpose... ::sigh:: ]
Interesting to me, at any rate.
I finally struck upon the formula reading the Aubrey/Maturin books, trying to figure out why the male/female relationships seemed so bland and uninteresting compared to the friendship between the main characters, despite the fact that O'Brian plainly made some effort to make both Sophie and Diana real, three-dimensional characters with their own quirks and faults. There's a lot of fandom discussion about a real or alleged misogyny among slashers, but I don't think that's the case here, or at least I'd like to think I haven't been harbouring internalised misogyny issues. Moreover, the slashiness evaporated somewhere around volume three as far as I'm concerned, and in any case my inner ex-historian always insists I read a book for what it is, rather than make up my own version in my head, ignoring wives, characters loving said wives, and large chunks of canon in general.
So this I finally came up with this: The (to me) interesting relationships, whether it's love or friendship, are those that tell me something about a character's personality. On the surface it may appear like a variation of the opposites attract formula, but it's not quite that, I think. It's when a character's ability do develop friendship or fall in love with a certain person reveals an aspect of his personality not shown before, when it adds to his character. In less abstract terms, Jack and Stephen's friendship, the fact that these two unlikely men are even able to develop such a deep and lasting connection and mutual respect, ending up more truly married than either of them are to their wives, is saying a lot about their characters. In comparison Jack falling in love with Sophie, who's beautiful, has a decent character and even shares the name of the first ship he commanded, is neither surprising nor particularly interesting, and it tells me nothing new about Jack.
It's not a gay or straight, het or slah thing, although why it works more often which (slashable) same-sex friendships than with heterosexual (canon) relationships, why the latter are so often boring, especially once the suspense of 'will they get together?' is over, is that is heterosexual romance can happen with a lot less character development, because there's always the silent understanding between writer and audience that there is sexual attraction. Doesn't have to be an interesting relationship, doesn't matter if, in the case of some tv shows, the chemistry between two actors just doesn't work, there's always the basic assumption that with two pretty people of the opposite sex sexual attraction is at least a possibility, if not an inevitability. In a still mostly heteronormative society this alone is enough for at least half a season of romance, sex & angsty break-up. On the other hand, if you create a deep friendship between two unlikely male characters, you have to put a lot more effort in character development and arcs, explaining and exploring the connection these people have, what makes them need each other...
Because that kind of raw sexual attraction isn't something I'm personally familiar with, it's doesn't satisfy me when I see it on tv or read it. I'm interested in the dynamics of a relationship, personalities, the interaction between characters, psychological needs, finding out what drives them towards each other. A romantic and/or sexual element can be added then, and work fine for me, hence all the slash fic reading, but I'm not interested in the romance or the sex when the relationship itself doesn't interest me in the first place.
I've tested this theory for a while now, and it seems to work for me... Works for pretty much every slash ship I've ever read, most recently Band of Brothers (if I ignore the whole based on real people thing for the sake of the peace of my mind), Winters/Nixon, another of these odd couples that have nothing in common, except that on some level they need each other. And to prove my point about this not being exclusively a slash thing, it works for Sheridan and Delenn, and curiously enough I've always felt that Delenn is one of the few characters on tv that eschews the traditional categories of male/female, and IMO her and John's relationship in many respects is coded more like one of these emotionally charged male friendships. Works, too, for Spike and Buffy, and perhaps not-so-incidentally this is another relationship that plays with stereotypical gender roles to the point of almost reversing them.
[And this, too, Is why Wesley/Fred never worked for me and wouldn't have worked, if it hadn't been nipped in the bud in S5, and while part of me resents the gratuitous character torture, the 'makes for boring tv' comment does have some justification here. Fred is cute, she's sweet, she's smart, she's brave, everyone loves her, to a quite nauseating degree. Despite her Pylea experience and her brief stint at darkness, at heart she's still the only child of parents who deeply loved and supported her, and it shows. Falling in love with her says very little about Wesley, except maybe that he craves this sweetness and comparative normalcy, whereas his 'There's a signed dollar bill in your wallet I think proves different' non-relationship with Lilah is so much more touching and interesting and reveals a lot more about him; and that's not even mentioning his loyalty to Angel, which is material for another essay entirely.
And that's not even touching upon the fact that there is no readily apparent reason for Fred to finally fall in love with Wesley, because that's simply rushed and slightly choppy final season story-telling and Joss jerking his characters around to make her death even harder for Wesley... ]
[Only I seem to be cluttering so much faster than I ever unclutter, mostly in the process of writing the project uncluttering posts, which kind of defeats the purpose... ::sigh:: ]
Interesting to me, at any rate.
I finally struck upon the formula reading the Aubrey/Maturin books, trying to figure out why the male/female relationships seemed so bland and uninteresting compared to the friendship between the main characters, despite the fact that O'Brian plainly made some effort to make both Sophie and Diana real, three-dimensional characters with their own quirks and faults. There's a lot of fandom discussion about a real or alleged misogyny among slashers, but I don't think that's the case here, or at least I'd like to think I haven't been harbouring internalised misogyny issues. Moreover, the slashiness evaporated somewhere around volume three as far as I'm concerned, and in any case my inner ex-historian always insists I read a book for what it is, rather than make up my own version in my head, ignoring wives, characters loving said wives, and large chunks of canon in general.
So this I finally came up with this: The (to me) interesting relationships, whether it's love or friendship, are those that tell me something about a character's personality. On the surface it may appear like a variation of the opposites attract formula, but it's not quite that, I think. It's when a character's ability do develop friendship or fall in love with a certain person reveals an aspect of his personality not shown before, when it adds to his character. In less abstract terms, Jack and Stephen's friendship, the fact that these two unlikely men are even able to develop such a deep and lasting connection and mutual respect, ending up more truly married than either of them are to their wives, is saying a lot about their characters. In comparison Jack falling in love with Sophie, who's beautiful, has a decent character and even shares the name of the first ship he commanded, is neither surprising nor particularly interesting, and it tells me nothing new about Jack.
It's not a gay or straight, het or slah thing, although why it works more often which (slashable) same-sex friendships than with heterosexual (canon) relationships, why the latter are so often boring, especially once the suspense of 'will they get together?' is over, is that is heterosexual romance can happen with a lot less character development, because there's always the silent understanding between writer and audience that there is sexual attraction. Doesn't have to be an interesting relationship, doesn't matter if, in the case of some tv shows, the chemistry between two actors just doesn't work, there's always the basic assumption that with two pretty people of the opposite sex sexual attraction is at least a possibility, if not an inevitability. In a still mostly heteronormative society this alone is enough for at least half a season of romance, sex & angsty break-up. On the other hand, if you create a deep friendship between two unlikely male characters, you have to put a lot more effort in character development and arcs, explaining and exploring the connection these people have, what makes them need each other...
Because that kind of raw sexual attraction isn't something I'm personally familiar with, it's doesn't satisfy me when I see it on tv or read it. I'm interested in the dynamics of a relationship, personalities, the interaction between characters, psychological needs, finding out what drives them towards each other. A romantic and/or sexual element can be added then, and work fine for me, hence all the slash fic reading, but I'm not interested in the romance or the sex when the relationship itself doesn't interest me in the first place.
I've tested this theory for a while now, and it seems to work for me... Works for pretty much every slash ship I've ever read, most recently Band of Brothers (if I ignore the whole based on real people thing for the sake of the peace of my mind), Winters/Nixon, another of these odd couples that have nothing in common, except that on some level they need each other. And to prove my point about this not being exclusively a slash thing, it works for Sheridan and Delenn, and curiously enough I've always felt that Delenn is one of the few characters on tv that eschews the traditional categories of male/female, and IMO her and John's relationship in many respects is coded more like one of these emotionally charged male friendships. Works, too, for Spike and Buffy, and perhaps not-so-incidentally this is another relationship that plays with stereotypical gender roles to the point of almost reversing them.
[And this, too, Is why Wesley/Fred never worked for me and wouldn't have worked, if it hadn't been nipped in the bud in S5, and while part of me resents the gratuitous character torture, the 'makes for boring tv' comment does have some justification here. Fred is cute, she's sweet, she's smart, she's brave, everyone loves her, to a quite nauseating degree. Despite her Pylea experience and her brief stint at darkness, at heart she's still the only child of parents who deeply loved and supported her, and it shows. Falling in love with her says very little about Wesley, except maybe that he craves this sweetness and comparative normalcy, whereas his 'There's a signed dollar bill in your wallet I think proves different' non-relationship with Lilah is so much more touching and interesting and reveals a lot more about him; and that's not even mentioning his loyalty to Angel, which is material for another essay entirely.
And that's not even touching upon the fact that there is no readily apparent reason for Fred to finally fall in love with Wesley, because that's simply rushed and slightly choppy final season story-telling and Joss jerking his characters around to make her death even harder for Wesley... ]