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shadowkatIt happened again, I lost everything I posted fighting with LJ ad demons and scripts. I was attempting to insert an image.
Ugh. So a summary, because don't remember any of it. Bad day. Battered and bloody internally from it. Went to gym, listened to ipod, got better. Music heals the soul.
Mad Men - hilarious this Sunday. Watched it last night and laughed my head off when the secretary threw the paper-weight at Don Draper, told him he was not a nice person. (ME: No he's really not. Sort of an understatement.) Then laughed even harder at the reactions of Joan (who I adore) and Peggy (also adore). Have come to the conclusion that the women are presented favorably, while the men are presented as complete bastards. It's sort of comedic female noire, with hints of satire, and hints of gallows humor thrown in.
Also finished watching Season 2 True Blood - on Monday. (watched Dexter - first two episodes of S4 on Tuesday, and no, don't feel like discussing at moment, except to state :A) I'm enjoying it. b)it is Angel without the metaphors, plus better acted, and better written, and damn, I can't help but wonder what Michael J. Hall would have done with that part. No one broods better than Michale J. Hall or looks more fiendish.)
True Blood is wickedly clever satire, amongst the best I've seen to date - and far more ambitious in scope than what Stephen Colbert has done. In case you haven't seen it, or don't see the satire - (which may well be the case if you don't know what they are riffing off of. I do. OOOh, I really do. I sort of wish I didn't.) I'm going to remedy that small problem with voila images and explanations. Proving that this is not just cotton candy folks. Well not unless you think Mark Twain's humorist tales, and Swift's essays, and Guillivar's Travels were well cotton candy. Satire is an interesting brand of humor. Ball is an accomplished satirist - if you've ever seen the flick American Beauty - you know whereof I speak. Satire is not the same as Parody, which tends to be broader and more obvious. You can see parody from a mile a way. Satire tends to be more subtle. True Blood also combines farce. So it's a bit of both. And that's hard to pull off. Not everyone gets, likes or can pull off satire. Just ask Jonathan Swift.
Just in case you don't think True Blood is satire or that it's just fluff - There's these two extras at the end of Season 5 DVD - one entitled The Vampire Report, which is basically a riff off of the Colbert Report, except it's about Vampires, and it's off of one of those CNN or Fox News Specials with the Pretty Blond Anchor. Think Nancy Grace or Ann Coulter.
The other one is Fellowship of the Sun Ministeries - with such gems as "How to Detoxify Your Marriage".
The Fellowship of the Sun is a riff on Joel Osteen and Rick Webster - Self-Help/Journey Church
style ministeries. This is a huge deal in the US right now. They've made the best-seller lists and are packing churches, the size of shopping malls, in the South. The churches resemble Fellowship of the Sun. Complete with CD's, a tv show, and a series of ministeries on DVD.
Here's a comparison photo of Joel Osteen and his wife and the Newlins (the Fellowship of the Sun)
Another comparison:
Here's the link to the satirical web site set up for Fellowship of The Sun:
http://fellowshipofthesun.org/reflections/index.html
And the web site for Osteen.
http://www.joelosteen.com/Pages/Index.aspx
The other thing True Blood is satirizing, which at times falls into farce - is pop cultures obsession with vampires, and the whole vampire romance genre. Actually Charlain Harris tried to do this, but she is not a good enough writer to pull it off. That was my difficulty with Harris - she had great ideas, but wrote like a bad Harlequin Romance Novelist (which I'd read an embarrassingly large number of in my youth, what can I say, we didn't have Twilight back then, although the Harlequin romances were actually better written - hard to believe, I know, but true. The Publishing Industry has gotten lazy and gone downhill - seriously, no one appears to edit any longer.)That said, Harris is better than Stephanie Meyer, so if you liked or made it through the Meyer novels? Go read Harris. If you found Meyer unreadable, L.A Banks silly, the and can't stomach Ann Rice - don't bother. Hamilton, who writes the Anita Blake mysteries, is actually the best of the vampire romance novelists at the moment, and well, that unfortunately is not exactly a compliment to Ms. Hamilton. Harris like Meyer, can't write dialogue, also sucks at description - her sex scenes made my eyes roll. But - she has some witty ideas. Such as the name Sookie Stackhouse for instance. And Eric Northman (LOL!). Nice play on words.
When I was reading her, and hoping she'd improve like Jim Butcher did (she didn't, damn it, but her books were actually better suited to an Alan Ball than Butchers), I kept thinking if only we could get a good writer to write these books. And voila - we did, in Alan Ball, who is, if you'll forgive the pun, having a ball playing with Harris' witty ideas and attempts at farce and satire.
Maryanne's arc was a bit goofy, but hilarious in places. And I adored the Queen's description of the Maenad and her religion. "I didn't say He Who Comes doesn't exist, just that he never ever comes."LOL! And, "that if you believe in something hard enough, you can make yourself into it, and eventually 'evolve', how do you think we exist?" The Queen is a bit of a cynic.
Yahetesee - the Queen states is the great equalizer. Any one can do well at it. Regardless of who you are. Yet, says her two kept humans, she always wins and is always ahead. We watch both Eric and Bill stuck playing yahtsee for hours on end. Their expressions are priceless.
The fun thing about farce and satire - is no, you aren't supposed to take it seriously, but at the same time - it is deliberately poking fun at something that is dangerous, and by poking fun at it - reveals how silly and inept the thing truly is. You don't want to be satirized.
Parody - is sort of laughing at oneself. It's light. Satire - is social and political commentary. It has a deeper purpose. Satire tends to be "political" in nature. The difference between say The Simpsons and South Park, or Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report.
In True Blood - Ball is commenting on how society views queers, gays, or LGBT. How we view people who are not like us - or that we see as dangerous or a threat to our values. He comments on how we rely on religion to provide us with a sense of self, and a sense of right and wrong.
How people lose themselves in religion or a religious doctrine - to the point that they are little more than a pawn to it's will. Maryanne has no more self - she is her religion, immortal, and craves nothing more than death at her religion's hands - she wants to be the ultimate sacrifice. Just as Godric, similarily wishes to sacrifice himself to a God, to be a religious sacrifice. One to the light of the sun and sky, and the other to earth and ground.
Both brought death where ever they went. And both wish for something greater than them to take over. Tara likewise yearns to be devoured by either love, passion, something - to escape completely who she is. Just as Sookie escapes herself in Bill's arms, each time he sucks her blood. Or Jason escapes into the Fellowship of the Sun - wishing to be a hero, a savior, more than he is.
The credits to True Blood tell it all - express all the themes in a deft collage of images, religious and violent and sexual. And each episode is titled after a religious or spiritual folk song - I Will Rise Up, Release Me, Hard Hearted Hannah...to name a few. And the songs are all about yearning for some kind of spiritual release.
In True Blood - Ball is commenting on a society that is intent on losing itself, escaping from itself, not thinking. As LaFayette states to Sookie's description of Tara's condition under Maryanne's control - sounds wonderful. Being inside Tara, was like being expanded, and allowed to do whatever you wanted, no controls, no inhibitions, no right, no wrong, just be.
While on the other end of the spectrum, are the Newlins, and religious right - determined to restrict and repress everything. Bright and sunny, but empty inside. And as hypocritical as the day feels long. Jason, like Tara, escapes into the Newlins world - a world that does not require a brain. You are but a sheep. To follow. We'll take care of you. Tell you what to do.
What to say. Who to be. The pretty couple who has it all, wealth, fame, love, and they can tell you how to have it all too! Yet, rip away the mask, and you find nothing of substance and a lot of hate.
The only character in True Blood that seems real or there, may well be Sam Trammel. The true protagonist, and in some respects the metaphor for what it means to be different in a society obsessed with looks, image, and who is having sex with whom. He can shift into any animal he imprints himself on, but he is lost to himself, unable to truly connect with any one. He tries to. And of all the characters he may well be the most heroic and the only straight man in the bunch. Ball has taken Harris' throwaway shifter, and made him - a sort of sane everyman in the midst of this crazy world.
Is True Blood feminist? Not really. It doesn't pass the Bechdel test, but few shows do.
And the women seem to be seen more through male eyes than well, their/our own. But this unfortunately is true of most of the tv shows I've seen. Not that this excuses it or justifies it - so much as explains it. Ball is male after all. And human. He's the show-runner, setting the tone. And he picks and writes from the pov that he best knows. There are female writers but much like Ms. Harris, we too, write what we know. And what we know is not, a feminist world,
where we have true equality. And well, everyone defines equality differently.
Sookie much like her brother Jason is too stupid to be taken seriously. She feels at times more like a farcial cartoon than a character, and she felt much the same way in the books. A satire on the heroines of all the romance novels. The damsel who swoons at the foot of the attractive guy and lets him take her over, even if she knows it is a mistake. Buffy was the exception of this endless trope. And the oddest thing about Buffy? Is in the fanfic, the female writers turn her into Sookie Stackhouse and Bella from Twilight, they take her back to damsel status, or punish her for not swooning at the foot of the guy, regardless of what he does. They are courageous, but they still both require saving on some level. Sam saves the day in Maryanne's camp - standing up to the woman he fears and threatened to turn him into her sacrifice, instead he sacrifices her and rips out her heart. Jason saves the day for Sookie, he shoots the Minister, stands up to the Minister's wife, and declares he had sex with the man's wife. He wins the day, not Sookie. Sookie much like Tara is rendered a mere bystander, neither are the true protagonists or heroes here. And in the books, they weren't either, not really.
And I wonder if that's more a commentary on society at large - media and the arts are often a reflection or direct expression of our culture, our society and how we view ourselves and our world. Our nightmares and our dreams put in words, celloide, film, paint or song. So when we are critical of the arts, I often wish we would take it a step further and ask a much scarier question - what does this say about our world? About our society? Why is the writer expressing this view and more importantly why is it on, why was it published, or produced over everything else? And why do we watch and enjoy it? Why does it resonate for us? And can we ask these questions of ourselves and each other without condeming or judging, but simply seeking to understand the pattern being represented, and through understanding, trying to change those things that don't quite sit right with us or bug us?
In True Blood - Ball appears to questioning his world and society, through farce, satire, and
at times pathos. Why he asks do we want to lose ourselves? And are we justified in wanting to do so? The world is after all a difficult place. And to what degree are we the damsels to our own desires? Sookie tells Jason that he has a brain, he's just not using it. That's lazy.
Ball asks the same question...we have a brain, why aren't we using it? And he in a way also answers -- because it hurts. The best Humor often comes from a place of pain. Through laughing the questions become easier to answer, and the choices, less painful. Life a cruel joke.
Today on my flist, someone asked what do you need? Today...I need laughter. Laughter to kill a headache. To calm the nerve. Laughter and the calming strands of songs.
Ugh. So a summary, because don't remember any of it. Bad day. Battered and bloody internally from it. Went to gym, listened to ipod, got better. Music heals the soul.
Mad Men - hilarious this Sunday. Watched it last night and laughed my head off when the secretary threw the paper-weight at Don Draper, told him he was not a nice person. (ME: No he's really not. Sort of an understatement.) Then laughed even harder at the reactions of Joan (who I adore) and Peggy (also adore). Have come to the conclusion that the women are presented favorably, while the men are presented as complete bastards. It's sort of comedic female noire, with hints of satire, and hints of gallows humor thrown in.
Also finished watching Season 2 True Blood - on Monday. (watched Dexter - first two episodes of S4 on Tuesday, and no, don't feel like discussing at moment, except to state :A) I'm enjoying it. b)it is Angel without the metaphors, plus better acted, and better written, and damn, I can't help but wonder what Michael J. Hall would have done with that part. No one broods better than Michale J. Hall or looks more fiendish.)
True Blood is wickedly clever satire, amongst the best I've seen to date - and far more ambitious in scope than what Stephen Colbert has done. In case you haven't seen it, or don't see the satire - (which may well be the case if you don't know what they are riffing off of. I do. OOOh, I really do. I sort of wish I didn't.) I'm going to remedy that small problem with voila images and explanations. Proving that this is not just cotton candy folks. Well not unless you think Mark Twain's humorist tales, and Swift's essays, and Guillivar's Travels were well cotton candy. Satire is an interesting brand of humor. Ball is an accomplished satirist - if you've ever seen the flick American Beauty - you know whereof I speak. Satire is not the same as Parody, which tends to be broader and more obvious. You can see parody from a mile a way. Satire tends to be more subtle. True Blood also combines farce. So it's a bit of both. And that's hard to pull off. Not everyone gets, likes or can pull off satire. Just ask Jonathan Swift.
Just in case you don't think True Blood is satire or that it's just fluff - There's these two extras at the end of Season 5 DVD - one entitled The Vampire Report, which is basically a riff off of the Colbert Report, except it's about Vampires, and it's off of one of those CNN or Fox News Specials with the Pretty Blond Anchor. Think Nancy Grace or Ann Coulter.
The other one is Fellowship of the Sun Ministeries - with such gems as "How to Detoxify Your Marriage".
The Fellowship of the Sun is a riff on Joel Osteen and Rick Webster - Self-Help/Journey Church
style ministeries. This is a huge deal in the US right now. They've made the best-seller lists and are packing churches, the size of shopping malls, in the South. The churches resemble Fellowship of the Sun. Complete with CD's, a tv show, and a series of ministeries on DVD.
Here's a comparison photo of Joel Osteen and his wife and the Newlins (the Fellowship of the Sun)
Another comparison:
Here's the link to the satirical web site set up for Fellowship of The Sun:
http://fellowshipofthesun.org/reflections/index.html
And the web site for Osteen.
http://www.joelosteen.com/Pages/Index.aspx
The other thing True Blood is satirizing, which at times falls into farce - is pop cultures obsession with vampires, and the whole vampire romance genre. Actually Charlain Harris tried to do this, but she is not a good enough writer to pull it off. That was my difficulty with Harris - she had great ideas, but wrote like a bad Harlequin Romance Novelist (which I'd read an embarrassingly large number of in my youth, what can I say, we didn't have Twilight back then, although the Harlequin romances were actually better written - hard to believe, I know, but true. The Publishing Industry has gotten lazy and gone downhill - seriously, no one appears to edit any longer.)That said, Harris is better than Stephanie Meyer, so if you liked or made it through the Meyer novels? Go read Harris. If you found Meyer unreadable, L.A Banks silly, the and can't stomach Ann Rice - don't bother. Hamilton, who writes the Anita Blake mysteries, is actually the best of the vampire romance novelists at the moment, and well, that unfortunately is not exactly a compliment to Ms. Hamilton. Harris like Meyer, can't write dialogue, also sucks at description - her sex scenes made my eyes roll. But - she has some witty ideas. Such as the name Sookie Stackhouse for instance. And Eric Northman (LOL!). Nice play on words.
When I was reading her, and hoping she'd improve like Jim Butcher did (she didn't, damn it, but her books were actually better suited to an Alan Ball than Butchers), I kept thinking if only we could get a good writer to write these books. And voila - we did, in Alan Ball, who is, if you'll forgive the pun, having a ball playing with Harris' witty ideas and attempts at farce and satire.
Maryanne's arc was a bit goofy, but hilarious in places. And I adored the Queen's description of the Maenad and her religion. "I didn't say He Who Comes doesn't exist, just that he never ever comes."LOL! And, "that if you believe in something hard enough, you can make yourself into it, and eventually 'evolve', how do you think we exist?" The Queen is a bit of a cynic.
Yahetesee - the Queen states is the great equalizer. Any one can do well at it. Regardless of who you are. Yet, says her two kept humans, she always wins and is always ahead. We watch both Eric and Bill stuck playing yahtsee for hours on end. Their expressions are priceless.
The fun thing about farce and satire - is no, you aren't supposed to take it seriously, but at the same time - it is deliberately poking fun at something that is dangerous, and by poking fun at it - reveals how silly and inept the thing truly is. You don't want to be satirized.
Parody - is sort of laughing at oneself. It's light. Satire - is social and political commentary. It has a deeper purpose. Satire tends to be "political" in nature. The difference between say The Simpsons and South Park, or Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report.
In True Blood - Ball is commenting on how society views queers, gays, or LGBT. How we view people who are not like us - or that we see as dangerous or a threat to our values. He comments on how we rely on religion to provide us with a sense of self, and a sense of right and wrong.
How people lose themselves in religion or a religious doctrine - to the point that they are little more than a pawn to it's will. Maryanne has no more self - she is her religion, immortal, and craves nothing more than death at her religion's hands - she wants to be the ultimate sacrifice. Just as Godric, similarily wishes to sacrifice himself to a God, to be a religious sacrifice. One to the light of the sun and sky, and the other to earth and ground.
Both brought death where ever they went. And both wish for something greater than them to take over. Tara likewise yearns to be devoured by either love, passion, something - to escape completely who she is. Just as Sookie escapes herself in Bill's arms, each time he sucks her blood. Or Jason escapes into the Fellowship of the Sun - wishing to be a hero, a savior, more than he is.
The credits to True Blood tell it all - express all the themes in a deft collage of images, religious and violent and sexual. And each episode is titled after a religious or spiritual folk song - I Will Rise Up, Release Me, Hard Hearted Hannah...to name a few. And the songs are all about yearning for some kind of spiritual release.
In True Blood - Ball is commenting on a society that is intent on losing itself, escaping from itself, not thinking. As LaFayette states to Sookie's description of Tara's condition under Maryanne's control - sounds wonderful. Being inside Tara, was like being expanded, and allowed to do whatever you wanted, no controls, no inhibitions, no right, no wrong, just be.
While on the other end of the spectrum, are the Newlins, and religious right - determined to restrict and repress everything. Bright and sunny, but empty inside. And as hypocritical as the day feels long. Jason, like Tara, escapes into the Newlins world - a world that does not require a brain. You are but a sheep. To follow. We'll take care of you. Tell you what to do.
What to say. Who to be. The pretty couple who has it all, wealth, fame, love, and they can tell you how to have it all too! Yet, rip away the mask, and you find nothing of substance and a lot of hate.
The only character in True Blood that seems real or there, may well be Sam Trammel. The true protagonist, and in some respects the metaphor for what it means to be different in a society obsessed with looks, image, and who is having sex with whom. He can shift into any animal he imprints himself on, but he is lost to himself, unable to truly connect with any one. He tries to. And of all the characters he may well be the most heroic and the only straight man in the bunch. Ball has taken Harris' throwaway shifter, and made him - a sort of sane everyman in the midst of this crazy world.
Is True Blood feminist? Not really. It doesn't pass the Bechdel test, but few shows do.
And the women seem to be seen more through male eyes than well, their/our own. But this unfortunately is true of most of the tv shows I've seen. Not that this excuses it or justifies it - so much as explains it. Ball is male after all. And human. He's the show-runner, setting the tone. And he picks and writes from the pov that he best knows. There are female writers but much like Ms. Harris, we too, write what we know. And what we know is not, a feminist world,
where we have true equality. And well, everyone defines equality differently.
Sookie much like her brother Jason is too stupid to be taken seriously. She feels at times more like a farcial cartoon than a character, and she felt much the same way in the books. A satire on the heroines of all the romance novels. The damsel who swoons at the foot of the attractive guy and lets him take her over, even if she knows it is a mistake. Buffy was the exception of this endless trope. And the oddest thing about Buffy? Is in the fanfic, the female writers turn her into Sookie Stackhouse and Bella from Twilight, they take her back to damsel status, or punish her for not swooning at the foot of the guy, regardless of what he does. They are courageous, but they still both require saving on some level. Sam saves the day in Maryanne's camp - standing up to the woman he fears and threatened to turn him into her sacrifice, instead he sacrifices her and rips out her heart. Jason saves the day for Sookie, he shoots the Minister, stands up to the Minister's wife, and declares he had sex with the man's wife. He wins the day, not Sookie. Sookie much like Tara is rendered a mere bystander, neither are the true protagonists or heroes here. And in the books, they weren't either, not really.
And I wonder if that's more a commentary on society at large - media and the arts are often a reflection or direct expression of our culture, our society and how we view ourselves and our world. Our nightmares and our dreams put in words, celloide, film, paint or song. So when we are critical of the arts, I often wish we would take it a step further and ask a much scarier question - what does this say about our world? About our society? Why is the writer expressing this view and more importantly why is it on, why was it published, or produced over everything else? And why do we watch and enjoy it? Why does it resonate for us? And can we ask these questions of ourselves and each other without condeming or judging, but simply seeking to understand the pattern being represented, and through understanding, trying to change those things that don't quite sit right with us or bug us?
In True Blood - Ball appears to questioning his world and society, through farce, satire, and
at times pathos. Why he asks do we want to lose ourselves? And are we justified in wanting to do so? The world is after all a difficult place. And to what degree are we the damsels to our own desires? Sookie tells Jason that he has a brain, he's just not using it. That's lazy.
Ball asks the same question...we have a brain, why aren't we using it? And he in a way also answers -- because it hurts. The best Humor often comes from a place of pain. Through laughing the questions become easier to answer, and the choices, less painful. Life a cruel joke.
Today on my flist, someone asked what do you need? Today...I need laughter. Laughter to kill a headache. To calm the nerve. Laughter and the calming strands of songs.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-19 11:35 pm (UTC)I think they were trying to do too much - there were one too many subplots. We had Sam/Daphne, the townspeople, Arlene/Terry, Andy/Sheriff, Lafayette/Eric, Tara/Eggs/Maryanne, Sookie/Eric/Bill,
Bill/Morena or Lorena (I was never sure which it was), Eric/Godric,
Jessica/Hoyt...Jason/Newlins/Luke, that's a lot of balls to juggle for a series that is only 15 episodes long.
The Fellowship of the Sun arc was truly brilliant, particularly if you know anything about Osteen (which I unfortunately do, because my landlords appear to be into them - each Christmas they give me another Osteen book. And they give money to his church.) He came into prominence after Rick Webster (The Purpose Driven Life) and is part of the rather annoying big church protestant self-help movement - please check the brain at the door. These churchs are insane - they have food courts, big screen tv's, stadium seating, valet parking, and multiple committees/arts and crafts etc you can join, and yep, conservative and anti-gay as all get out.
True Blood's The Fellowship of the Sun is a completely accurate and methodically detailed depiction of this movement. It's scary.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 05:05 pm (UTC)And I'm glad to hear the Fellowship of the Sun was an accurate representation of a certain type of Christian in America. We do have them here too, but they're not nearly as powerful.