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* I need help, I'm addicted to buying books on the Kindle. This is not good. Did you know you can buy books between 0$ and 5$ and then just delete them from your device after you are done? No upkeep. Or they just sit there, not taking up apartment space or shelf space. Maybe it will run its course - I went nuts this summer buying itunes for the ipod touch. Bought over 600 songs. Including the entire soundtrack to the Wire amongst other things. (I haven't tried audiobooks yet...I tremble to think what would happen if I did.).

(Note: this does not mean I won't keep buying books from bookstores..I will. I'm in love with books. I fell in love with them at the age of 3 and as I grew older, it just got more intense. This past year? I bought five. I come from a long line of insane bookworms. Or voracious readers. My father collects books - buys them in hardback drives my mom crazy, although she's just as bad as he is. And my grandparents, on both sides had large collections that I borrowed heavily from. I remember becoming a library aid in Junior high and high school - just so I could read all the books in the school library. One co-worker asked me..."are you one of those people who always has a book in their hands?" Yep. I feel naked without them.)

* Saw Revenge last night. But see no reviews on flist. Maybe I need to friend some new people? No one on my flist is reviewing any of the shows I like at the moment - well except for one or two here and there. Makes me wonder if there's much point in reviewing these shows? Oh well, will do it anyway for five or six who appear to be into it.

( spoilers )

* My boss read about my cost savings and gave me the proverbial cookie. Yay.

* Still reading The Hating Game which while entertaining is not as subversive as I thought. Pretty people still rule. And it still plays to romantic tropes. The cheating boyfriend didn't really cheat. The sarcastic bitter heroine has Daddy Abandonment issues. And like all romances there's this decidedly odd anti-career pro-traditional values undercurrent. It's like we're hard-wired ...to feel guilty if we don't live the traditional life or something - so it comes out in our romantic fantasies? I know, I know...I shouldn't analyze these things, but I can't turn it off.

Musings on Romantic Relationships...or Shipping in Fandom?

Sometimes I wonder if it is safer to ship in private? To love a specific romantic relationship between two decidedly fictional characters without a soul knowing. Used to be that way up until...roughly 2001/2002. And I wonder sometimes if that makes more sense. Over time, I've found that it is easier somehow to defend explain why I love the fictional characters that I do without too much sturm and drang, but discussing fictional relationships specifically "romantic" ones is another matter entirely. One thing is clear, it's best if you do not care what others think or can shrug off their opinions - something I've found is a lot easier said than done.

And people do have such strong opinions on fictional character's romantic relationships (short-hand? Ships) particularly regarding thos romantic relationships that make them see "red" or that they despise, although often they usually aren't that straightforward regarding it. It's usually a barrage of moral out-rage or turpitude that anyone could possibly think XYZ and ABC could be happy together.
( Read more... )

Why do I like the fictional romantic relationships that I do? I'm not sure I know or that it is necessarily important that I do. Some things are unknowable after all or should be. I know that my tastes change like the wind.

But I do know... that there is a pattern in the "fictional" relationships that appeal to me...and the is the gender power-play. Two people struggling to come to a common place. Equals. In power. In view. The push-pull. The banter. But mostly? It's the feeling of two people who are equally matched. They've met their match, their equal. No not soul mate. Not that. More someone who gets you, who understands your values, not your interests, but what means the most to you, what you would die for, what is the most important thing to you. Who knows your weaknesses, your triggers, and what
makes you tick...yet is your shadow self, the other side. The complement. The yang to your ying. I look for those relationships in fiction. The other bits whatever they might be are just gravy, sometimes lumpy and unappetizing, and sometimes perfect and rich.

Favorite Romantic Ships include.

*( Buffy and Spike aka the all too controversial Spuffy )

*( Starbuck and Lee Adama )

*( Aeryn Sun and John Crichton )

*( Doctor Who and Doctor Song )

* ( Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet )

*( Lymond and Phillipa in the Chronicles of Lymond, last three books of the series. )

Romantic relationships...are in the eye of the beholder I think. For me...they are brilliant dances either in words or bodies across the screen or page. Carey Grant forever bickering with Rosalind Russell and Kate Hepburn, or John Wayne fighting with Maureen O'Hara...or the frenetic dancing of Bernado and Anita in their playful song America. Filled with color and contrast, not simple, not clear, and always surprising. The conflicts more internal than externalized, no Romeo and Juliets...more Helena's and Demetrios or better yet? The lovely lead in Twelth Night who dresses as a boy and romances her erstwhile Lord, while wooing his lady-love. Or Benedict to his Beatrice.
The words matter. The ability to converse. To speak. To banter. To talk forever and a day. I can't imagine a relationship lasting longer than a few moments without the ability to talk and converse. To meld minds. As Spock might say. The physical after all is fleeting, we all grow old, our bodies all wither, vampires we aren't, gods nor zombies neither...just frail bits of flesh and bone..and if we can't speak, banter, converse, meet on the mental level and the level of the heart...where are we?

For me...it's always about the words. The dance of quips. Spike and Buffy who start their relationship exchanging quips and insults. Dancing with words, then dancing with bodies. Aeryn and John who argue philosophy. Eliza Doolittle says don't speak, show me, yet...if she didn't love words, she'd love Freddy not Henry Higgins, ass that he is. Even Starbuck and Lee with all their physicality, are about their words...their hearts on their sleeves as they scream them to the universe.