![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Nov. 7th, 2014 10:59 pm1. Dear Apple Support -
* It is rude to put a customer on hold twice and the second time for 30 minutes.
* If you are suffering that high a call volume, you are probably doing something wrong.
* This is why I don't like gadgets...and try to limit the number I have. "Tech Support".
All this because stupid APP store unauthenticated my user id. And the damn security is keeping me from accessing it. I swear hackers are behind the security guidelines.
2. Reading about the latest fracas in the Doctor Who fandom on my flist, reminds me of why I'm glad I'm not heavily invested in the series or the fandom. But it also brings this to mind...
A: He raped her! How can you even support him after the fact..I can't stand to look at him. He should die.
B: 1) He didn't rape her, it was ahem, ATTEMPTED! and b) It's a FRIGGING tv series. Not real. Get a grip.
A: I know it's a television series..and it doesn't matter if he actually raped her or not, it was attempted, same thing.
B: Not really. And it being a "tv series" means that we are free to interpret it differently and civilly, since it is not real. I can find a character who does nasty things on a television series interesting, you certainly do...without necessarily supporting their behavior or justifying it.
A: Rape is not the same thing as murder.
B: Well, true. You aren't dead, just violated. There is that. And again, you are apparently under the delusion that your favorite character never raped anyone. Heck...there was that scene in..
A: It's not the same. He was possessed. Besides it was only attempted.
B: Right. I take back what I said previously, apparently you do justify bad behavior. I stand corrected.
A: You're impossible! I didn't mean that at all!
B: Just calling it like I see it.
Sigh. Not sure who is in the wrong here, A or B. Doesn't matter - the discussion derailed the moment emotion was introduced. Which is the difference between fan discussions and media analysis. You introduce emotion - and well the whole discussion becomes about the people discussing it, not the series. The above discussion could be about half a dozen tv shows from Rescue Me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer [Okay, maybe not Rescue Me].
In Doctor Who - it appears to be about either companions (rarely the Doctor for some reason, which feels like a societal and internalized sexism to me (mainly because a lot of the critics are women) - but whatever), or the current writers. I'm not really a true fan of the series. I saw a handful of episodes in the 70s, which I found scary and campy sort of like Lost in Space, albeit much better written. The campy nature of the series has to a degree always been a bit of a barrier - I find it difficult to take it seriously. (Odd, considering I had no problem with Battle Star Galatica or 1999 (that did scare me)...so, make of that what you will.) Which may explain why I preferred Moffat to Davies...Moffat's writing for the most part was less over-the-top and campy, and seemed somewhat smarter or more intricate. Watching some of Moffat's episodes was a bit like opening a Chinese puzzle box. The emotion was less manipulative and less mawkish, also he didn't seem to fall as easily into false sentimentality - which I find grating in certain television series. That was the main difference that I saw between the two writers. And well, Moffat has a dry and at times subtle absurdist wit, which works for me. (Why I loved his sitcom "Coupling" but find Friends cringe-inducing.) Davies humor is more overt, and based on slapstick or parody, which does not work for me quite as well.
As for the companions? Moffat is less interested in romantic entanglement with them.
And he was probably trying hard not to repeat what Davies had previously done.
Since Moffat wrote many of the episodes during Davies run, and some of the same writing team hung behind...there's not a lot of difference between Moffat and Davies takes on the series as a whole. If you aren't a fan of either - you probably don't like the revived series. Personally? I like some episodes, some I don't.
Regarding the whole debate over which writer is more sexist/misogynistic ... I've always wondered why people don't ask the hard questions regarding this. Why is the writer making these choices? Why are you personally attracted to series that have these tropes embedded in them? What do these tropes reflect about our culture? Why are they still comforting to so many people? We do after all choose what tropes we watch or read. And they wouldn't be produced or published or put on our television sets if we didn't show an interest in them, didn't watch. The professional writer tends to write to the masses - Shakespeare did, he wrote what sold. So the question shouldn't be - how Moffat or Davis is misogynistic or sexist, but rather - if you see that in the series - why are you attracted to it? And why did the writer choose to convey that? Why is it still selling? What does that say about us, not the writers who are telling the story, but the society the story reflects. For stories, I believe, are in truth reflections of the issues we are dealing with, that's why they appeal to us.
[ETA: As a side note, that occurred to me while attempting to edit this (my idea of editing appears to be adding content), women fans seem to be more negative about the female companions on the series than the male lead. This isn't just true of Doctor Who, by the way. I've noticed a trend...various television series and book series fandoms seem to have female viewers that forgive the guy just about anything, but are rather harsh on the female lead/protagonist. And...they are forgiving of male leads in other series which are nasty, but have difficulty with female characters. I noticed this in the Breaking Bad, Buffy, Supernatural, BSG, Mad Men, Lost, OUAT, and Doctor Who fandoms. Also seen it in reviews of romance novels and urban fantasy series. And it's not the male readers/fans so much as the women. The men in stark contrast seem to be harsher on their own gender. So maybe we all just have this internalized dislike of our own gender? I don't know. But I've been wondering about it.]
Haven't seen the last DW episode. Am waiting until this weekend to watch it - along with the season finale, since it's a two-parter, I think?
* It is rude to put a customer on hold twice and the second time for 30 minutes.
* If you are suffering that high a call volume, you are probably doing something wrong.
* This is why I don't like gadgets...and try to limit the number I have. "Tech Support".
All this because stupid APP store unauthenticated my user id. And the damn security is keeping me from accessing it. I swear hackers are behind the security guidelines.
2. Reading about the latest fracas in the Doctor Who fandom on my flist, reminds me of why I'm glad I'm not heavily invested in the series or the fandom. But it also brings this to mind...
A: He raped her! How can you even support him after the fact..I can't stand to look at him. He should die.
B: 1) He didn't rape her, it was ahem, ATTEMPTED! and b) It's a FRIGGING tv series. Not real. Get a grip.
A: I know it's a television series..and it doesn't matter if he actually raped her or not, it was attempted, same thing.
B: Not really. And it being a "tv series" means that we are free to interpret it differently and civilly, since it is not real. I can find a character who does nasty things on a television series interesting, you certainly do...without necessarily supporting their behavior or justifying it.
A: Rape is not the same thing as murder.
B: Well, true. You aren't dead, just violated. There is that. And again, you are apparently under the delusion that your favorite character never raped anyone. Heck...there was that scene in..
A: It's not the same. He was possessed. Besides it was only attempted.
B: Right. I take back what I said previously, apparently you do justify bad behavior. I stand corrected.
A: You're impossible! I didn't mean that at all!
B: Just calling it like I see it.
Sigh. Not sure who is in the wrong here, A or B. Doesn't matter - the discussion derailed the moment emotion was introduced. Which is the difference between fan discussions and media analysis. You introduce emotion - and well the whole discussion becomes about the people discussing it, not the series. The above discussion could be about half a dozen tv shows from Rescue Me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer [Okay, maybe not Rescue Me].
In Doctor Who - it appears to be about either companions (rarely the Doctor for some reason, which feels like a societal and internalized sexism to me (mainly because a lot of the critics are women) - but whatever), or the current writers. I'm not really a true fan of the series. I saw a handful of episodes in the 70s, which I found scary and campy sort of like Lost in Space, albeit much better written. The campy nature of the series has to a degree always been a bit of a barrier - I find it difficult to take it seriously. (Odd, considering I had no problem with Battle Star Galatica or 1999 (that did scare me)...so, make of that what you will.) Which may explain why I preferred Moffat to Davies...Moffat's writing for the most part was less over-the-top and campy, and seemed somewhat smarter or more intricate. Watching some of Moffat's episodes was a bit like opening a Chinese puzzle box. The emotion was less manipulative and less mawkish, also he didn't seem to fall as easily into false sentimentality - which I find grating in certain television series. That was the main difference that I saw between the two writers. And well, Moffat has a dry and at times subtle absurdist wit, which works for me. (Why I loved his sitcom "Coupling" but find Friends cringe-inducing.) Davies humor is more overt, and based on slapstick or parody, which does not work for me quite as well.
As for the companions? Moffat is less interested in romantic entanglement with them.
And he was probably trying hard not to repeat what Davies had previously done.
Since Moffat wrote many of the episodes during Davies run, and some of the same writing team hung behind...there's not a lot of difference between Moffat and Davies takes on the series as a whole. If you aren't a fan of either - you probably don't like the revived series. Personally? I like some episodes, some I don't.
Regarding the whole debate over which writer is more sexist/misogynistic ... I've always wondered why people don't ask the hard questions regarding this. Why is the writer making these choices? Why are you personally attracted to series that have these tropes embedded in them? What do these tropes reflect about our culture? Why are they still comforting to so many people? We do after all choose what tropes we watch or read. And they wouldn't be produced or published or put on our television sets if we didn't show an interest in them, didn't watch. The professional writer tends to write to the masses - Shakespeare did, he wrote what sold. So the question shouldn't be - how Moffat or Davis is misogynistic or sexist, but rather - if you see that in the series - why are you attracted to it? And why did the writer choose to convey that? Why is it still selling? What does that say about us, not the writers who are telling the story, but the society the story reflects. For stories, I believe, are in truth reflections of the issues we are dealing with, that's why they appeal to us.
[ETA: As a side note, that occurred to me while attempting to edit this (my idea of editing appears to be adding content), women fans seem to be more negative about the female companions on the series than the male lead. This isn't just true of Doctor Who, by the way. I've noticed a trend...various television series and book series fandoms seem to have female viewers that forgive the guy just about anything, but are rather harsh on the female lead/protagonist. And...they are forgiving of male leads in other series which are nasty, but have difficulty with female characters. I noticed this in the Breaking Bad, Buffy, Supernatural, BSG, Mad Men, Lost, OUAT, and Doctor Who fandoms. Also seen it in reviews of romance novels and urban fantasy series. And it's not the male readers/fans so much as the women. The men in stark contrast seem to be harsher on their own gender. So maybe we all just have this internalized dislike of our own gender? I don't know. But I've been wondering about it.]
Haven't seen the last DW episode. Am waiting until this weekend to watch it - along with the season finale, since it's a two-parter, I think?