Shipping against the tide
Sep. 20th, 2012 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Glee continues to be better than last year. Apparently getting rid of half the cast and de-emphasizing the romantic relationships and the adult relationships, helped.
Even Ms. Pillsbury and Shuester were endurable. And the Brittany songs better than expected. Lea Michele is a great performer and Kate Hudson's character, Cassandra July is somewhat interesting.
2. Occurred to me last night while reading reviews of Buffy by a new watcher, and watching them flail all over things that...well, I tried to ignore at the time because they were, shall we say...on the campy and silly side? That I have a tendency to get obsessed over deeply flawed pieces of art or culture. Not that any work of art is flawless of course.
The Navajho and Hopi believe that to state a work of art is flawless ...curses the art. They deliberately put a flaw in their jewelry and art work, to let the bad spirits out, because that's what nature does and their art is a tribute to Nature. (At least that's what my Grandmother told me. She was taught by a Hopi woman to bead. True Native American jewelry has a flaw, if it doesn't, it's not authentic. )
At any rate, works of art or rather stories which have logical and satisfying plots, or
are VERY well told don't tend to obsess me. And I find I don't have a great deal to say about them. Except, yes, that was well told and the structure works. Or hated the character, but brilliantly written. Or, everything works, bravo. Then I just sort of move on. I don't play with it in my head. I don't write or read fanfic about it. I don't re-watch or re-read it countless times. I will most likely remember it. It does stay with me. But, I never become enthralled or obsessed.
While works of art that are flawed, that have lots of problems, and various critics have lambasted or mocked, will captivate and at times obsess me. I often will pick at them until I locate the gold. Not all. Just...I'm not sure what it is that grabs me. I can't quite put my finger on it.
With Buffy...there was maybe 10 -15 really well-done episodes, from an objective perspective. And maybe 5 that I can't pick apart, out of 144. Which granted is not bad by network television standards. But it was a campy tv show. Even the writers have stated that. Comic-bookish. And I, at the time, was obsessed with X-men comics, so jumped from those to Buffy. It's no accident that the writer of Buffy was equally obsessed with X-men and Marvel comics and went on to work for Marvel comics as a writer/director and producer long after Buffy ended. Clearly there was something in both...the X-men and Buffy that compelled me.
And this has been true with other things as well. Sometimes it's just a character that will grab me by the...I want to say balls, but I don't have any, so armpits? And not let go. Others a message or theme (although that's rarer). Unlike a lot of viewers and readers, theme doesn't tend to obsess me nor compel me. I don't tend to be motivated by moral messages in art, or if so, rarely. If I was, I'd have liked Hardy, Rand, Victor Hugo, Jonathan Swift, Tolstoy, the Brontes, Dickens, Hawthorn, James and Wharton a whole lot better than I did. They loved to moralize. I'd get bored and just wish they'd get on with the story. Seriously, if I wanted preaching - I'd read philosophy or the theologians.
For example? Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series is not very good. It's filled with errors, typographical and otherwise. She has the worst editor on the planet. But there's something in it that captivates me, and I can't wait for the next book. I don't know what it is exactly - maybe the complex relationships between the characters who are all different species. Outsider tales tend to turn me on. Which may be what turned me on by Buffy and The X-Men.
The problem with being captivated by works of art that aren't necessarily very good or flawed - is you are more or less being set up for a major disappointment or let-down. Particularly if you build it up in your head. On-going serials are bound to do it. The writer always stretches the story out or cops out at the end. It's inevitable. Or they'll leave one thing hanging or there will be something about the story that just doesn't quite work and you keep thinking that if you watch it enough times, analyze it enough times, you'll figure out how to fix it or convince yourself that you are wrong.
Sometimes I think my obsession with flawed pieces of art is incredibly masochistic. I'd be much happier if I got obsessed with popular ones or better written, because then I wouldn't feel the insane need to defend my taste to people, including myself. Plus they'd last longer. There'd be less ridicule. More accessibility. And the endings would probably be a lot more satisfying.
3. Shipping against the tide. I've learned in life that when it comes to following trends or popular culture, going against the tide, is well a bit like trying to walk EAST down 34th Street (from Penn Station to 6th Avenue in Manhattan) at Rush Hour. Seriously, if you've ever tried this, you cannot move and find yourself, rather quickly, in danger of being trampled. I tried it once or twice, and never again. I saw my life flash before my eyes. You do not walk EAST on 34th Street at 5pm, any more than you walk West on 34th Street at 8:30-9am. Something to keep in mind if and when you ever decide to visit NYC.
Shipping characters, stories, plot-arcs, and/or relationships is a bit like that. You are going to get trampled. Particularly if you have the inordinate bad luck of being online and on a fan site that does not agree with your views. It's not a pleasant experience.
Now it is possible to find like-minded souls and band together in your own little section of the interwebs. Or you can do what I did for a bit, which is not admit your preferences and try to stay ...impartial. If you want to post on a public board, that's the best bet.
Don't talk about your preferences, particularly if they go against the grain of those that you want to interact with. This not to say that there aren't a lot of people who agree with you out there - it's often just a matter of finding them. But if the creators or the PTB don't agree with you, your entire band is basically walking down 34th Street against the on-coming tide. You will most likely be trampled. But hey, you might take down a few of the opposition along with you! We few, We merry few, We band of buggered.
And as is the case in all fandoms, often the disenfranchized few, aren't really as disenfranchized as they think they are. It all depends on where you happen to be located.
For example? Spuffy's feel disenfranchized. Mainly because the PTB (the writers and people in power over the ship) took the ship in directions that well did not suit the vast majority of the shippers. Now, here's the thing, there are disenfranchized sub-groups within the shipping community. That's what people often forget. Like me, for instance, who was perfectly fine with most of the choices, just wished the writers had tweaked a few things differently, were a bit less cliche here and there, and reunited the characters in a way that resolved those dangling plot threads, without necessarily having them ride happily off into the sunset. What I wanted - I haven't been able to find in either fanfic, meta, or in the story itself. I sort of wrote it myself - my No Regrets story probably comes closets to explaining what I wanted. It was not what the rest of the shippers wanted, which is why no one really liked my story. I went against the grain a bit. By the same token, I also went against the grain of the non-Spuffy shippers, and Spike shippers, who did not agree with me either. At least they were polite about it. (They either ignored me or patted me on the head, that's nice, not my view, bye-bye.). Clearly what intrigued me in the tale wasn't what intrigued them. (I was obsessed with complexities of letting go of an intense relationship which doesn't quite work. And why it doesn't work. I was also obsessed with how you forgive people who inadvertently keep hurting you. And most importantly, forgive yourself. Amongst other things. There were a lot of things that obsessed me, obviously.) But that's not the point - I'm trying to make here. The point is that I'm guessing and am fairly certain from my own battles online that there are Spike-shippers out there that feel disenfranchized by the Spike fandom, and Spuffy shippers who feels disenfranchized by the Spuffy fandom. They feel left out of the clique. They are shippers but they aren't shipping the way everyone else is or for those reasons.
For example? Some people shipped evil Spike. Others shipped Spike as a tortured bad boy, they liked to criticize him. They saw him as a serial killer. An anti-hero. Not redeemable.
That's what they shipped.
Other's? Shipped Spuffy as an abusive relationship that can't work. They got satisfaction from the fact that it did not end happily. That they parted. (Granted they probably enjoyed the series and comics more than the other shippers did.)
And that's just one ship. I'm using it as an example, because it's easy for me. I'm sure anyone reading this can think of other examples. From Farscape (you'd be amazed how many variations there are for John/Aeryn - or maybe not). From Doctor Who. Or Star Trek.
Spangel and Kirk/Spock are good examples of variations. Some of us don't ship the slash.
We ship the platonic friendship. While others only ship the slash or sexual subtext.
The fights between these two groups can get downright ugly. There's also the group that sort of does both. I, for example, shipped Spike/Angel as brothers and platonic frienemies.
As well as shipped Spangel in all its slashy fun. I could see both on the series.
Kirk/Spock - sorry only platonic in my head.
The biggest problem is when the PTB, the writers, marketing nitwits, actors, producers, etc are against your ship or not proponents of it. You want to kick them into submission.
Why can't they see the light? And why are they sticking with that boring old cliche ship that is so predictable and stupid. Can't they see how dumb they are? How cowardly?
The brave brilliant thing would be to end that dull ship currently going on, break up the characters and start the really cool ship! The unpredictable and interesting one!
Look at all the storylines it would open up. So, it would piss off that section of the fanbase, big whoop, who cares. They got their ship for (fill in the blank), and it's boring. There's just no accounting for test. Stupid writers need to stop coddling and catering to these people and do something risky for once!
And sometimes they actually do that. Buffy did. Much to my considerable surprise. Best thing that happened to that series was ironically the spin-off, Angel the series. (At the time, it should be noted, I was still a Bangle shipper, so I had mixed feelings.) Sometimes a spin-off can open up a story - by getting rid of a couple of characters and breathing new life into the mix. So did Marvel comics for that matter. Why? Because serial writers get bored. And the fandom that wants the status quo tends to be in the minority, if they weren't subscriptions and ratings wouldn't go down.
But even when they do it, it rarely ends well. Often its just a tease. And we're back to that one true ship the writers and marketing people think is so morally uplifting and adorkable. Which makes shipping against the stream even more annoying and painful. It would almost be better if they'd never put your ship together in the first place, then teased you and broke your heart.
Even Ms. Pillsbury and Shuester were endurable. And the Brittany songs better than expected. Lea Michele is a great performer and Kate Hudson's character, Cassandra July is somewhat interesting.
2. Occurred to me last night while reading reviews of Buffy by a new watcher, and watching them flail all over things that...well, I tried to ignore at the time because they were, shall we say...on the campy and silly side? That I have a tendency to get obsessed over deeply flawed pieces of art or culture. Not that any work of art is flawless of course.
The Navajho and Hopi believe that to state a work of art is flawless ...curses the art. They deliberately put a flaw in their jewelry and art work, to let the bad spirits out, because that's what nature does and their art is a tribute to Nature. (At least that's what my Grandmother told me. She was taught by a Hopi woman to bead. True Native American jewelry has a flaw, if it doesn't, it's not authentic. )
At any rate, works of art or rather stories which have logical and satisfying plots, or
are VERY well told don't tend to obsess me. And I find I don't have a great deal to say about them. Except, yes, that was well told and the structure works. Or hated the character, but brilliantly written. Or, everything works, bravo. Then I just sort of move on. I don't play with it in my head. I don't write or read fanfic about it. I don't re-watch or re-read it countless times. I will most likely remember it. It does stay with me. But, I never become enthralled or obsessed.
While works of art that are flawed, that have lots of problems, and various critics have lambasted or mocked, will captivate and at times obsess me. I often will pick at them until I locate the gold. Not all. Just...I'm not sure what it is that grabs me. I can't quite put my finger on it.
With Buffy...there was maybe 10 -15 really well-done episodes, from an objective perspective. And maybe 5 that I can't pick apart, out of 144. Which granted is not bad by network television standards. But it was a campy tv show. Even the writers have stated that. Comic-bookish. And I, at the time, was obsessed with X-men comics, so jumped from those to Buffy. It's no accident that the writer of Buffy was equally obsessed with X-men and Marvel comics and went on to work for Marvel comics as a writer/director and producer long after Buffy ended. Clearly there was something in both...the X-men and Buffy that compelled me.
And this has been true with other things as well. Sometimes it's just a character that will grab me by the...I want to say balls, but I don't have any, so armpits? And not let go. Others a message or theme (although that's rarer). Unlike a lot of viewers and readers, theme doesn't tend to obsess me nor compel me. I don't tend to be motivated by moral messages in art, or if so, rarely. If I was, I'd have liked Hardy, Rand, Victor Hugo, Jonathan Swift, Tolstoy, the Brontes, Dickens, Hawthorn, James and Wharton a whole lot better than I did. They loved to moralize. I'd get bored and just wish they'd get on with the story. Seriously, if I wanted preaching - I'd read philosophy or the theologians.
For example? Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series is not very good. It's filled with errors, typographical and otherwise. She has the worst editor on the planet. But there's something in it that captivates me, and I can't wait for the next book. I don't know what it is exactly - maybe the complex relationships between the characters who are all different species. Outsider tales tend to turn me on. Which may be what turned me on by Buffy and The X-Men.
The problem with being captivated by works of art that aren't necessarily very good or flawed - is you are more or less being set up for a major disappointment or let-down. Particularly if you build it up in your head. On-going serials are bound to do it. The writer always stretches the story out or cops out at the end. It's inevitable. Or they'll leave one thing hanging or there will be something about the story that just doesn't quite work and you keep thinking that if you watch it enough times, analyze it enough times, you'll figure out how to fix it or convince yourself that you are wrong.
Sometimes I think my obsession with flawed pieces of art is incredibly masochistic. I'd be much happier if I got obsessed with popular ones or better written, because then I wouldn't feel the insane need to defend my taste to people, including myself. Plus they'd last longer. There'd be less ridicule. More accessibility. And the endings would probably be a lot more satisfying.
3. Shipping against the tide. I've learned in life that when it comes to following trends or popular culture, going against the tide, is well a bit like trying to walk EAST down 34th Street (from Penn Station to 6th Avenue in Manhattan) at Rush Hour. Seriously, if you've ever tried this, you cannot move and find yourself, rather quickly, in danger of being trampled. I tried it once or twice, and never again. I saw my life flash before my eyes. You do not walk EAST on 34th Street at 5pm, any more than you walk West on 34th Street at 8:30-9am. Something to keep in mind if and when you ever decide to visit NYC.
Shipping characters, stories, plot-arcs, and/or relationships is a bit like that. You are going to get trampled. Particularly if you have the inordinate bad luck of being online and on a fan site that does not agree with your views. It's not a pleasant experience.
Now it is possible to find like-minded souls and band together in your own little section of the interwebs. Or you can do what I did for a bit, which is not admit your preferences and try to stay ...impartial. If you want to post on a public board, that's the best bet.
Don't talk about your preferences, particularly if they go against the grain of those that you want to interact with. This not to say that there aren't a lot of people who agree with you out there - it's often just a matter of finding them. But if the creators or the PTB don't agree with you, your entire band is basically walking down 34th Street against the on-coming tide. You will most likely be trampled. But hey, you might take down a few of the opposition along with you! We few, We merry few, We band of buggered.
And as is the case in all fandoms, often the disenfranchized few, aren't really as disenfranchized as they think they are. It all depends on where you happen to be located.
For example? Spuffy's feel disenfranchized. Mainly because the PTB (the writers and people in power over the ship) took the ship in directions that well did not suit the vast majority of the shippers. Now, here's the thing, there are disenfranchized sub-groups within the shipping community. That's what people often forget. Like me, for instance, who was perfectly fine with most of the choices, just wished the writers had tweaked a few things differently, were a bit less cliche here and there, and reunited the characters in a way that resolved those dangling plot threads, without necessarily having them ride happily off into the sunset. What I wanted - I haven't been able to find in either fanfic, meta, or in the story itself. I sort of wrote it myself - my No Regrets story probably comes closets to explaining what I wanted. It was not what the rest of the shippers wanted, which is why no one really liked my story. I went against the grain a bit. By the same token, I also went against the grain of the non-Spuffy shippers, and Spike shippers, who did not agree with me either. At least they were polite about it. (They either ignored me or patted me on the head, that's nice, not my view, bye-bye.). Clearly what intrigued me in the tale wasn't what intrigued them. (I was obsessed with complexities of letting go of an intense relationship which doesn't quite work. And why it doesn't work. I was also obsessed with how you forgive people who inadvertently keep hurting you. And most importantly, forgive yourself. Amongst other things. There were a lot of things that obsessed me, obviously.) But that's not the point - I'm trying to make here. The point is that I'm guessing and am fairly certain from my own battles online that there are Spike-shippers out there that feel disenfranchized by the Spike fandom, and Spuffy shippers who feels disenfranchized by the Spuffy fandom. They feel left out of the clique. They are shippers but they aren't shipping the way everyone else is or for those reasons.
For example? Some people shipped evil Spike. Others shipped Spike as a tortured bad boy, they liked to criticize him. They saw him as a serial killer. An anti-hero. Not redeemable.
That's what they shipped.
Other's? Shipped Spuffy as an abusive relationship that can't work. They got satisfaction from the fact that it did not end happily. That they parted. (Granted they probably enjoyed the series and comics more than the other shippers did.)
And that's just one ship. I'm using it as an example, because it's easy for me. I'm sure anyone reading this can think of other examples. From Farscape (you'd be amazed how many variations there are for John/Aeryn - or maybe not). From Doctor Who. Or Star Trek.
Spangel and Kirk/Spock are good examples of variations. Some of us don't ship the slash.
We ship the platonic friendship. While others only ship the slash or sexual subtext.
The fights between these two groups can get downright ugly. There's also the group that sort of does both. I, for example, shipped Spike/Angel as brothers and platonic frienemies.
As well as shipped Spangel in all its slashy fun. I could see both on the series.
Kirk/Spock - sorry only platonic in my head.
The biggest problem is when the PTB, the writers, marketing nitwits, actors, producers, etc are against your ship or not proponents of it. You want to kick them into submission.
Why can't they see the light? And why are they sticking with that boring old cliche ship that is so predictable and stupid. Can't they see how dumb they are? How cowardly?
The brave brilliant thing would be to end that dull ship currently going on, break up the characters and start the really cool ship! The unpredictable and interesting one!
Look at all the storylines it would open up. So, it would piss off that section of the fanbase, big whoop, who cares. They got their ship for (fill in the blank), and it's boring. There's just no accounting for test. Stupid writers need to stop coddling and catering to these people and do something risky for once!
And sometimes they actually do that. Buffy did. Much to my considerable surprise. Best thing that happened to that series was ironically the spin-off, Angel the series. (At the time, it should be noted, I was still a Bangle shipper, so I had mixed feelings.) Sometimes a spin-off can open up a story - by getting rid of a couple of characters and breathing new life into the mix. So did Marvel comics for that matter. Why? Because serial writers get bored. And the fandom that wants the status quo tends to be in the minority, if they weren't subscriptions and ratings wouldn't go down.
But even when they do it, it rarely ends well. Often its just a tease. And we're back to that one true ship the writers and marketing people think is so morally uplifting and adorkable. Which makes shipping against the stream even more annoying and painful. It would almost be better if they'd never put your ship together in the first place, then teased you and broke your heart.
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 01:56 pm (UTC)are VERY well told don't tend to obsess me. And I find I don't have a great deal to say about them. Except, yes, that was well told and the structure works. Or hated the character, but brilliantly written. Or, everything works, bravo. Then I just sort of move on. I don't play with it in my head. I don't write or read fanfic about it. I don't re-watch or re-read it countless times. I will most likely remember it. It does stay with me. But, I never become enthralled or obsessed.
While works of art that are flawed, that have lots of problems, and various critics have lambasted or mocked, will captivate and at times obsess me.
Oh, me too!
I think it may be because poking or analysing why something works in some ways but fails at others can be an interesting exercise. There are things to say. If you're just sitting around saying "That's awesome!" you feel like you're cheerleading and aren't really interacting. When you're dissection "Why does this work, and this, but this over here doesn't, and why did it turn out THAT WAY?" it gives you've got a ball to play with.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-22 12:35 am (UTC)It's true with books as well. You want to figure out what works and what doesn't work. And why. Game of Thrones is an example - books and tv series, there's so much to play with. So was Buffy.