A Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar
It's hard to make conversation when your mind is spiked with a thousand pins. Because my brain is plagued with ten hundred butterflies, sniffed flower-hearts, and powdery orange trails, and when I want to speak, write, articulate, it's stab-stab-stab to stop the fluttering, and here's a dead diurnal insect to feast on. Appetizing in ten shades of not-ness. ...Which is just my lepidoteran way of saying that sometimes it's hard to translate what's in my head, and to get started I need to go meta on the problems of getting started.
lobelia321 challenged me awhile back to write an adjective-strewn hom(o)age to pretty men, as I am an adjectival champion while she loves her some adverbs. Not that I don't slobber for adverbs myself, but adjectives...When I first studied Anglo-Saxon poetry I fell for the kennings, the truncated metaphors with which the scops described their world--why call a body a body when you can call it a heart-box, or the sea a sea when you can call it a whale-road? I stole this sensibility, how it tail-spins ordinary perspective so you're forced to re-see the mundane with an added coat of beauty. So adjectives in my prose are all about surreal spin, you might say, or a day at the circus.
Except I started writing about Clark being gang-banged in ancient Rome and found in the little paragraph this chasmic dirth of adjectives. Am I wrong? Do I actually use adjectives more sparingly than I thought? ("Um, Tham," you're thinking, "you could be sharing gang-banged Clark and instead you're yappeling about adjectives?" And a mass defriending ensued...)
I'd intended to write something about "Vessel," which I enjoyed like mad, but that will rocket me straight to my Lexual issues. See, I loved ambiguous!Lex, and this season I'm not seeing the ambiguity, just a guy pathologically envious of Clark. The admiration that formed a key part of that envy was tremendously sexy to me, the big throbbing homoerotic root of their relationship, and now it's...I was going to say it's gone, but in fact Lionel has caught it two-handed: he's the one teeming with ambiguity, the one with the unpredictable edge, even more so than before because instead of inventing new flavors of evil he's also trying experiementing with the taste of good, creating even more intense sexual chemistry with Clark, with Martha...
Yes, I must face it: Lionel is the new Lex.
Granted, I'm loving Zod-possessed!Lex: the shot of him standing atop the building, oozing evil, was fabulous, and when Lana (whom, I must confess, I'm hating with the fiery force of a thousand infernos) prances out, brimming with get-back-at-Clark loyalty to Lex, and Zog is clearly thinking, "Yes! I'm gonna get me some after decades as a cyber-pancake," I was all, "Yes to infinity! Use that idiot like a Kleenex, baby!"
I've tried to rationalize my impatience with both Lex and Lana, reminding myself that, unlike Chloe and Lionel, neither of them knows that Clark's behavior is tied to his alien nature. But then I think, why haven't they figured this out? It's not like they don't have plenty to work with. Smallville is meteor-freak central, and it would take, what, one tiny flicker of a brain cell to figure out that Clark is clearly akin to them, so why not say, "Clark, you clearly have super-powers, and you're obviously scared that we'll hate you if you tell us, but, dude, we love you anyway." But, no. And. A giant frickin' spaceship showed up months ago, so it would hardly require, um, an official rocket scientist to take that tiny step and figure out that Clark's actions, clearly impossible according to the laws of human nature, are related to it.
Then we have Lana freaking out on Clark for being unpredictable, including being a dick. Um, Lana, do you remember being possessed by the spirit of Isabelle, who had *you* chaining up Clark and torturing him, not to mention putting the evil mojo on Lex so that he played the piano until his fingers bled?
And Lex is all, "You're a big lying whore, Clark!" Argh. Lex is the king of lies, and he *knows* that Clark's own manipulations of the truth are always in the service of helping others. Kettle, meet pot.
Now, I won't even compare their behavior to Chloe's, although it would be easy enough to argue that Chloe only knows Clark's secret because her eyes aren't glued to her navel. *cough Lex cough Lana* But, instead, I'll compare it to Lois'. Girfriend here know that Clark is weird and mysterious and a little bit mental. And she takes it all in stride. "That's just crazy Clarky Smallville for ya." Because she can see clear as purified water that Clark's basically a good if immature guy, and she accepts the good with the bad. It's no wonder Clark ends up with her. There's no emotional blackmail, no shrieks of betrayal to force him to cough up his secret, just plain old acceptance.
I must talk about Chloe. I didn't always like her. She used to have that same, whiny, it's-all-about-me-and-my-feelings that characterizes Lana and, of late, Lex. Then she, you know, GREW THE FUCK UP. Please take note, Lana and Lex. She opened her eyes, realized the obvious truth about Clark (and the fact that she literally saw his powers in action doesn't matter--you see what you want to see in Smallville!), and showed him tremendous support. And when that fabulous woman gave him the big pre-battle smooch...Holy momma, I was ready to give up slash forever and embrace the het. And I lovedlovedloved that Clark didn't go all "Ew, girl cooties!" as he has in the past with her. I know that Chloe is going to die. She has to, since Clark is supposed to end up with Lois, and, as it stands now, even sometimes-retarded Clark has to find in himself a serious love for this girl, the kind so strong that it creates its own desire.
That said, I'll always be a Lex/Clark girl. But that Lex will be seasons 1-4 Lex, not this guy, unless I'm given some hardcore proof in the next season that Lex is still both obsessed and admiring. Shape up, you gorgeous bald man!
As a final note, I'd be ecstatic, on the other hand, if people could convince me that this season has demonstrated Lex's wild longing for Clark. (And note the "for," which can't be replaced with "to be.")
lobelia321 challenged me awhile back to write an adjective-strewn hom(o)age to pretty men, as I am an adjectival champion while she loves her some adverbs. Not that I don't slobber for adverbs myself, but adjectives...When I first studied Anglo-Saxon poetry I fell for the kennings, the truncated metaphors with which the scops described their world--why call a body a body when you can call it a heart-box, or the sea a sea when you can call it a whale-road? I stole this sensibility, how it tail-spins ordinary perspective so you're forced to re-see the mundane with an added coat of beauty. So adjectives in my prose are all about surreal spin, you might say, or a day at the circus. Except I started writing about Clark being gang-banged in ancient Rome and found in the little paragraph this chasmic dirth of adjectives. Am I wrong? Do I actually use adjectives more sparingly than I thought? ("Um, Tham," you're thinking, "you could be sharing gang-banged Clark and instead you're yappeling about adjectives?" And a mass defriending ensued...)
I'd intended to write something about "Vessel," which I enjoyed like mad, but that will rocket me straight to my Lexual issues. See, I loved ambiguous!Lex, and this season I'm not seeing the ambiguity, just a guy pathologically envious of Clark. The admiration that formed a key part of that envy was tremendously sexy to me, the big throbbing homoerotic root of their relationship, and now it's...I was going to say it's gone, but in fact Lionel has caught it two-handed: he's the one teeming with ambiguity, the one with the unpredictable edge, even more so than before because instead of inventing new flavors of evil he's also trying experiementing with the taste of good, creating even more intense sexual chemistry with Clark, with Martha...
Yes, I must face it: Lionel is the new Lex.
Granted, I'm loving Zod-possessed!Lex: the shot of him standing atop the building, oozing evil, was fabulous, and when Lana (whom, I must confess, I'm hating with the fiery force of a thousand infernos) prances out, brimming with get-back-at-Clark loyalty to Lex, and Zog is clearly thinking, "Yes! I'm gonna get me some after decades as a cyber-pancake," I was all, "Yes to infinity! Use that idiot like a Kleenex, baby!"
I've tried to rationalize my impatience with both Lex and Lana, reminding myself that, unlike Chloe and Lionel, neither of them knows that Clark's behavior is tied to his alien nature. But then I think, why haven't they figured this out? It's not like they don't have plenty to work with. Smallville is meteor-freak central, and it would take, what, one tiny flicker of a brain cell to figure out that Clark is clearly akin to them, so why not say, "Clark, you clearly have super-powers, and you're obviously scared that we'll hate you if you tell us, but, dude, we love you anyway." But, no. And. A giant frickin' spaceship showed up months ago, so it would hardly require, um, an official rocket scientist to take that tiny step and figure out that Clark's actions, clearly impossible according to the laws of human nature, are related to it.
Then we have Lana freaking out on Clark for being unpredictable, including being a dick. Um, Lana, do you remember being possessed by the spirit of Isabelle, who had *you* chaining up Clark and torturing him, not to mention putting the evil mojo on Lex so that he played the piano until his fingers bled?
And Lex is all, "You're a big lying whore, Clark!" Argh. Lex is the king of lies, and he *knows* that Clark's own manipulations of the truth are always in the service of helping others. Kettle, meet pot.
Now, I won't even compare their behavior to Chloe's, although it would be easy enough to argue that Chloe only knows Clark's secret because her eyes aren't glued to her navel. *cough Lex cough Lana* But, instead, I'll compare it to Lois'. Girfriend here know that Clark is weird and mysterious and a little bit mental. And she takes it all in stride. "That's just crazy Clarky Smallville for ya." Because she can see clear as purified water that Clark's basically a good if immature guy, and she accepts the good with the bad. It's no wonder Clark ends up with her. There's no emotional blackmail, no shrieks of betrayal to force him to cough up his secret, just plain old acceptance.
I must talk about Chloe. I didn't always like her. She used to have that same, whiny, it's-all-about-me-and-my-feelings that characterizes Lana and, of late, Lex. Then she, you know, GREW THE FUCK UP. Please take note, Lana and Lex. She opened her eyes, realized the obvious truth about Clark (and the fact that she literally saw his powers in action doesn't matter--you see what you want to see in Smallville!), and showed him tremendous support. And when that fabulous woman gave him the big pre-battle smooch...Holy momma, I was ready to give up slash forever and embrace the het. And I lovedlovedloved that Clark didn't go all "Ew, girl cooties!" as he has in the past with her. I know that Chloe is going to die. She has to, since Clark is supposed to end up with Lois, and, as it stands now, even sometimes-retarded Clark has to find in himself a serious love for this girl, the kind so strong that it creates its own desire.
That said, I'll always be a Lex/Clark girl. But that Lex will be seasons 1-4 Lex, not this guy, unless I'm given some hardcore proof in the next season that Lex is still both obsessed and admiring. Shape up, you gorgeous bald man!
As a final note, I'd be ecstatic, on the other hand, if people could convince me that this season has demonstrated Lex's wild longing for Clark. (And note the "for," which can't be replaced with "to be.")