De-hermiting

[bop_radar]

I once had someone on my f'list who wrote all their posts as numbered lists. I could say that this post was an ironic tribute to them, but actually it's also a convenient way to precis a great deal into a short space. :) This is all the stuff I could have posted about recently, but didn't.


1. I went hermit-y for a while. It's a thing. It happens periodically and unexpectedly and usually for no specific reason. Sorry. It's not personal. But I haven't read my f'list for days, so if important stuff has happened you should let me know.

2. BSG's 'Revelations' has NOT settled well with me. I'm fronting up about that now in case any of my BSG friends wonder why I'm not much interested in engaging about the show at the moment. I enjoyed the adrenalin rush of the episode in the immediate moment, but I have some major, probably insurmountable issues with the direction of the show and I've heard a couple of things recently that make me think that I (will soon) have had it with the whole show, forever. This is not an abandonment of the fandom or my friends in it: you guys rock! But yeah. Better to be honest.

3. On the advice of mskatej and radioreverie I have been mainlining 30 Rock and loving it. I have watched most episodes at least twice now! It is so very charming, and Liz Lemon is awesome. Even though I know everyone who likes the show relates to her because the show is constructed that way (and there's a Liz Lemon aspect to all of us), I feel like she is very much 'me'--in the workplace, at least. And especially me-how-I-was-last-year when I was in a temporary middle management position. Ah, middle management: how I do not miss you!

4. I read Stephanie Meyer's 'Twilight' and declare it to be the most insipid and disturbing Mary Sue I have ever read. I hear that the series only goes from bad to worse in the subsequent novels.

5. I have the 'blahs' about a lot of things these days: TV, books, movies, LJ, even vidding... I'm hoping that will shift soon, but I'm finding it means I don't know what to post about.

6. I've been browsing a lot of non-LJ blogs recently, semi-obsessively, and kind of want to share my finds, but does anyone care? What are your favourite blogs? Should I be reading them?

7. I'm in a post-'Paranoid Android' vidding slump, which is probably not unexpected. However, the good news is I submitted two vids for Vividcon: 'Southside' for bradcpu's Action panel, and 'Paranoid' for Nearly New. The Vividcon schedule is up, so I can stare enviously at all the sessions I'd go to if I was going.

8. I've started yoga again. I learnt that I should NEVER STOP IT AGAIN because the first week absolutely killed me. I was practically narcoleptic after two 6am starts, and my whole body ached. But I'm finding my way back into it.

9. Doctor Who's not bad at the moment, eh? I was surprised how much I enjoyed an episode that included the Torchwood gang: I thought that was impossible for me. I still have Issues with the show, but it gets points from me for entertainment value for the last couple of eps.

10. I am de-hermiting at a very foolish time. We're about to have (yet) another houseguest, so I may have intermittent net time. Ah well! So goes life.

So what's up with you guys?

Comments

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I won't defriend! Everyone has a right to like what they like, and I don't intend to talk about the Twilight series much at all since it really troubled/annoyed me, so I certainly won't be arguing with you about it!

I think 'Mary Sue' is a term that has several different meanings--which you can kind of tell from the extended definition on that site. The aspects of it that I think apply to Twilight are:
- idealised main character who we are told rather than shown is desirable (I can't fathom why so many of the high school guys chase after Bella--she sounds insipid and annoying and not even very pretty)
- heavy identification between author and main character, if only subconsciously so that the work becomes an extended wish-fulfilment fantasy. This can work for people if they too identify heavily with (in this case) Bella.
- the victim!Sue is definitely the way I'd see Bella--she was characterised as so helpless and yet that's meant to be cute/desirable? 'almost disabled' is not attractive to me!
- the entire universe revolving around the main character. This becomes more obvious as the series develops I gather.

That's not the only thing I dislike about the Twilight series though. My main complaint is with the gender politics--the incredibly cliched characterisation of male sexuality through Edward as predatory and barely controllable, and the characterisation of female sexuality in Bella as passive, helpless and overwhelming.

That's the short version. Does that help you understand why I didn't like it? I do see that it fulfils a lot of classic romance tropes--I've just never really been into those, so they weren't going to work for me.

[redteekal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. It was good to get to read a clear and concise argument for why you disliked it. So many Twi-haters are very vague about what it is that makes it so distasteful to them. I have never read romance before...in fact it was a genre I steered clear of. Although Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Bronte's Wuthering Heights were both quite fascinating to me (mandatory reading in high school) but more for the insight into the austere and completely alien (to me anyway) English culture during those times. I must admit I did not see Bella as passive or helpless, although there were occasions during which she was either one or both of these things but not to the extent that I felt her whole persona could be classified as this. I don't think her clumsiness was depicted as desirable in general but it was obviously one of her traits that drew Edward to her. Edward did not appear as cliched to me because all the fiction (novels and fanfic) I read has male characters whose masculinity and sexuality is so far removed from his portrayal that he comes across as brand new to me.

I must admit I am more drawn to the story behind the vampires and the Cullen family and their back stories which we do get to read more of in the next few novels. I like that sort of genre. I think Bella could have been written better....that I definitely agree with, it would have caused less of a back lash I think.
Guess I'm more of a popcorn reader than I thought.
Anyway thanks again for taking the time to reply.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Thanks to you too! It sounds like we came to the novel with different frames of reference and things to compare it against, as well as different sensitivities. If these weren't issues for you, or you didn't perceive the book this way, then I can better understand why it would be enjoyably escapist. And I definitely have my own 'popcorn' reading! :)