the scourge of the southeast

Fanmix: Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 9 (Supernatural)

useyourlove — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 02:11:35 GMT

Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 9 | A Season Nine FanMix
To listen: go here.

Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8. Share this on Tumblr.

01. Tom Petty - You Wreck Me
Tonight we ride, right or wrong
Tonight we sail, on a radio song
Rescue me, should I go down
If I stay too long in trouble town

02. The Band - The Weight
I picked up my bag, I went lookin' for a place to hide
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin' side by side
I said, "Hey, Carmen, come on let's go downtown"
She said, "I gotta go but my friend can stick around"

03. The Doobie Brothers - Rockin' Down the Highway
Ford's about to drop, she won't do no more
And I smell my motor burnin'
Underneath the hood is smoke
Can't stop, and I can't stop
Got to keep on movin' or I'll lose my mind
Oh, rockin' down the highway

04. Bad Company - Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy
Put out the spot lights one and all
And let the feeling get down to your soul
The music's so loud you can here the sound
Reaching for the sky churning up the ground

05. Derek & the Dominos - Evil
It's a long way from home,
Can't sleep at night.
Call on your telephone;
Something just ain't right.
That's evil, evil is going on wrong.
I want to warn you brother,
You better watch your happy home.

06. The Box Tops - I Must Be the Devil
Well I can't bear to see my face
Wrong's done I can't erase
It's all wrong!
It's all wrong!
It's all wrong, now
Oh God! I must be the Devil, baby

07. Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe
Lunatic fringe
We all know you're out there
Can you feel the resistance?
Can you feel the thunder?

08. Santana - Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen
I got a black magic woman
Got me so blind I can't see
That she's a black magic woman
She's tryin' to make a devil out of me.

09. Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks
Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

10. Grateful Dead - Casey Jones
Drivin' that train
High on cocaine
Casey Jones you better
watch your speed
Trouble ahead
Trouble behind
and you know that notion
just crossed my mind

Fanmix: Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 8 (Supernatural)

useyourlove — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 01:56:20 GMT

Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 8 | A Season Eight FanMix
To listen: go here.

Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7. Share this on Tumblr.

01. The Doors - Break on Through
Made the scene
Week to week
Day to day
Hour to hour
The gate is straight
Deep and wide
Break on through to the other side

02. Derek & the Dominos - Key to the Highway
I got the key, key to the highway
Billed out and bound to go
I'm gonna leave here running
Walking is most too slow

03. The Band - Up On Cripple Creek
Now there's a flood out in California and up north it's freezing cold
And this living on the road is getting pretty old
So I guess I'll call up my big mama, tell her I'll be rolling in
But you know, deep down, I'm kind of tempted to go and see my Bessie again

04. Golden Earring - Radar Love
We've got a thing that's called Radar Love
We've got a line in the sky,
Radar Love

05. The Guess Who - No Sugar Tonight/The New Mother Nature
Lonely feeling deep inside
Find a corner where I can hide
Silent footsteps crowding me
Sudden darkness but I can see

06. Yes - I've Seen All Good People
Don't surround yourself with yourself
Move on back two squares
Send an instant comment to me
Initial it with loving care

07. REO Speedwagon - Time for Me to Fly
I've been around for you
I've been up and down for you
But I just can't get any relief
I've swallowed my pride for you
I've lived and lied for you
But you still make me feel like a thief

08. Yes - Wonderous Stories
He spoke of lands not far
Nor lands they were in his mind
Of fusion captured high
Where reason captured his time
In no time at all he took me to the gate
In haste I quickly
Checked the time
If I was late
I had to leave, to hear your wonderous stories

09. Van Halen - Finish What Ya Started
Come on baby, finish what you started
I'm incomplete
That ain't no way to treat the broken hearted
I need some sympathy

10. Led Zeppelin - Nobody's Fault But Mine
Brother he showed me the gong
Brother he showed me the ding dong ding dong
How to kick that gong to light
Oh, it's nobody's fault but mine

Hugo: The City and the City (2010)

useyourlove — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 16:51:29 GMT

The City and the City by China Miéville
Read September 12, 2013 - September 20, 2013

Premise: Two cities co-exist in the same geographic space--to the point of adjacent buildings being in different cities--only separated by the culture of each and the compliance of the citizens to maintain the boundaries. A detective in one city investigates the murder of a young woman from the other city whose body, somehow, has made it across the border.

Verdict: This book was amazingly evocative while still staying true to its appropriated genre style--by which I mean, the sparse language of the crime/cop novel was used very well to describe the setup of the cities in question (which I myself have failed to do five times now when trying to explain this book to people.) Sometimes I would look up from the page and have to readjust to the world not being the way it was in the novel. I found the climax itself a bit confused and muddled but I guess, in the end, it all came out rather nicely (if slightly predictable--which isn't a strike against it by any means.) I had some plot hole complaints while reading it, but once I was finished it all shook out well enough that I don't feel like complaining anymore.

Definitely recommend--especially if you want to give yourself a little trippy break from the real world.

010: Pacific Rim, or: how to have a perfectly amazing story about two people THAT'S NOT A LOVE STORY

useyourlove — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:00:06 GMT

Once upon a time, I used to track various tags on Tumblr related to the TV show Elementary. In those tags, I saw various fans being upset that everyone was celebrating the way the creators said "they won't" in regards to the "will they or won't they" (bang like rabbits) question that media and culture tries to project onto a show about a man and a woman with a strictly platonic but very close friendship. "But I ship it!" these people opined. "I hate seeing everyone saying how glad they are they won't ever be together!" This strikes me as funny for many reasons but particularly for one. Basically every television show ever broadcast in the United States asserts that a man and a woman cannot be friends without some (possibly hidden, but always there) romantic or sexual intentions upon said friend. Our media slams this into our faces every single day, to the point where it's the only message getting through and a vast majority of people start to actually believe it. "If it's not true, then why does the stereotype exist?" they say. Because media shapes our worldview and what goes into our media is limited by the worldview of those who own it. And yet this (admittedly rather small) group of fans is upset that they're given a text in which this doesn't happen.

Now, Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim, Pacific Rim, Pacific Rim. Quite a few of my friends told me to go see this movie. Friends I trusted. So I went. I walked into the theater about five minutes before the trailers started and saw about 20 people in there already. Which was weird, because most movies I go to there's like no one in the theater. What was extra-weird was that it was literally 100% male. Not a woman in sight. Not a sister, or a daughter, or a mother, or a date. Ok, sure. I sat myself in the back row and only narrowly avoided kicking the loud dudebros in front of me in the back of the head throughout the movie. (This is relevant, I assure you.) A few more people trickled in during the trailers: all men.

First: I loved the film. It had just the right balance of character, plot, and action. The world-building rules were amazing, coherent, and very well done. This was accentuated by the fact that for a while I was going "there is really no reason in this scenario why a bunch of giant monsters would come through a dimensional portal and wreak havoc on earth. No reason. So you'd better give me a reason." Aaaaaand they did! Quite a good one. I was very pleased. My favorite part was my two scientists. They were fab.

Second: Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori supported each other, trusted each other, cheered for each other, stood up for each other, and relied on each other. They made no cracks about gender, there was no "proving" of a woman's worth in wartime or combat, etc. Mako got her chance, they both took it.

During the scene where Mako and Raleigh are doing their stick-fighting-thing (that has a name, I'm sure, but I don't feel like looking it up right now because I'm a bad blogger and it's beside the point), the two dudes in front of me engaged in a loud argument that effectively ended with one of them shouting "Dude, you can't be serious! He totally let her win!" The rest of the argument dealt with whether a woman was strong enough to take down a man in a fair fight and how he obviously let her win to get some sex. Which was the moment when I decided that if Mako and Raleigh kissed at all in the film it would be unequivocally ruined.

Because that's not what the film is about. It isn't a love story. It isn't about a virile masculine man boning a sexy Asian lady and showing how superior he was physically and mentally (which, let's face it, is what about 95% of the action genre is about. The genre is a masculine fantasy in which the superiority of white men to the rest of the universe is violently affirmed.) Pacific Rim is about trust, equality, learning to work together, standing up for each other. It's about putting aside differences.

And in the end? In the end they didn't kiss, not even once and I was so overjoyed at the fact that I was nearly crying. Mako hugged the crap out of Raleigh, the screen went black, the credits came up, and I fist pumped the air. The perfect cap to their story. It's not about sex, kisses, extorting social and sexual favors out of each other in some sort of strange damaging dance that we've been led to believe is "romance." Love is about mutual trust and companionship. It doesn't follow prescribed and expected story tracks that exist for the gratification of the already over-gratified and self-entitled males in the audience. Love isn't drama and porn. It's friendship, support, and cheering for someone when they need it.

So in that way, yes Mako and Raleigh's is a love story. It's a story about two people who love each other. It's not a sappy story about falling/being ~in-love, or a plot cookie that turns Mako into a piece of sexy window dressing. As del Toro himself said:

One of the decisions we made as we went along in the process of the movie was, let’s not have a love story. Let’s have a story about two people…

Bless you, Guillermo. You are king.

What I then found doubly interesting was that when I logged onto Tumblr this afternoon and started looking for Pacific Rim stuff on the blogs of trusted friends (i.e. people whose opinion I value), all I saw with respect to Raleigh and Mako were things related overtly to a romantic relationship. That was it. Since I had been touting the movie in my mind as "AMAZING. THEY DIDN'T EVEN KISS. PLEASE, YES, AND THANK YOU," I was a little shocked at all the shipping. I thought maybe I'd missed something and had lost my mind. Which is actually when I found that del Toro quote and was inspired to write this.

Because it's strange to me how often fandoms, when presented with relationships that aren't sexual or romantic, shove them into sexual boxes. Now, I'll grant you that Mako and Raleigh are great together and that I could certainly see romance in their future. But not in this movie. The closest thing we get is Mako eying Raleigh's fine bod (which I interpreted as her eying his Jaeger scars, but I am decidedly not as shippy as I used to be.) The sexualizing of all relationships in fandom is a subject for another day, so I guess the point of me bringing it up here is simply to say, for once, the dudebros read sex and the fangirls read sex in the same text for different reasons and I find myself a little bit miffed with both of them, simply because non-sexual relationships/friendships between a man and a woman are so rare in media and it's completely refreshing when I find them. Shipping is all well and good--I love shipping. I ship Mako and Raleigh too. But to say "I ship it" in fandom parlance pretty much instantly means "I want these two characters to bang." And I don't really want these two characters to bang. I "ship" the relationship that they have, which is reserved, supportive, and awesome as is in that moment for those characters. I've sort of grown away from shipping culture lately to the point where I value non-sexual/romantic relationships almost more than their sexual/romantic counterparts, just in being rarer within fandoms (though, I suppose, not necessarily within texts.)

But Pacific Rim isn't a love story--it's a story about two people. And that's why I love it the most.

009: Supernatural Fights the Patriarchy... sort of... kind of... a little bit

useyourlove — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 03:07:53 GMT

I've always had a bit of a problem of reading everything in the most ultra-feminist way possible. I took Byron's Don Juan and wrote a six-page paper in undergrad about how it was a liberating feminist text that demonstrated the sexual agency and independence of women. The point being: I will find just about anything "liberating" unless it is deliberately (or poorly) constructed to show women as unbearably awful stereotypes of various kinds. If your characters are flat--forget it.

Which is why I found it interesting when I did finally watch Supernatural that so many people see the text as misogynistic and anti-feminist. What I saw--especially in the early seasons--was a lot of monsters that directly embodied the pitfalls and oppressions of patriarchy being defeated by two very pretty men who seemed to be quite aware of the dismantling, un-apologetically emotional, and firmly secure in their masculinity. Now, no, it's not to the degree that Buffy's monsters embody the tribulations of teenage life. And Buffy gets to kick her own troubles in the ass rather than have pretty men swoop and save her from them (which self-saving is precisely the point of Buffy.) But it did seem to me that the monsters in Supernatural--based largely on urban legends, myths, common horror movie tropes, etc.--often represented some sort of systematic societal evil, usually leveled at women, and that killing the monsters was a way to vanquish those evils.

Now, clearly there are some serious bits of misogyny in the show--not denying that. Oftentimes that comes from fandom backlash against characters, or just plain lazy writing. And I wish I hadn't thought to write this at frickin' 11PM or I could provide some examples and some more coherent thoughts. But I did want to sort of remind myself that during my first watch I did very seriously see a lot of the monster-fighting as something like this. Once we get into both the Christian Lore and the Economy of Souls (see previous SPN related posts) I still feel like Supernatural's purpose is to somehow digest the contradictory bits of our culture and social pressures and make them usable to us as a modern audience. That, I think, is for some time that's not 11PM. I haven't tried to write proper meta in months so I think I've exhausted my efforts.

Hugo: The Diamond Age (1996)

useyourlove — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 22:36:06 GMT

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Read July 3, 2013 - July 21, 2013

Premise: In the not-too-distant (but not too close) future, you can compile anything you want almost-for-free out of centralized matter compilers, the world has split into "Phyles" or self-defined ethnic groups based more on shared values than on national boundaries (which are defunct) and you can make some seriously sophisticated technology if you know how. One man, Hackworth, is asked by his company's CEO to make "The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer," or a computerized educational book that will teach the CEO's granddaughter "subversiveness" in the face of the strict moral codes of the Neo-Victorian Phyle she belongs to. Hackworth does so, compiles a stolen copy for his daughter, is mugged by thugs, and the copy falls into the hands of Nell (who amounts to something like a street urchin in this society.) Nell is basically raised and educated by the Primer (and the "racter" or actor hired to read the lines to her.)

Verdict: I adored this book, and then it got more towards me being emotionally confused instead of just adoring. There were parts in the novel related to literacy and adventure that got me kind of choked up because they were very poignant and beautiful. The parts where the Primer is a refuge or an incredibly patient and effective teacher are amazing. I'm even especially fond the Stephenson's technological future and the way he envisions race, class, and ethnicity in a world that's both idyllic and Rodenberry-esque but also horrific and full of culture-clash and racism without shying away from it. Which is why I think the climax/conclusion is sort of rammed onto the end and not as self-aware as the rest of the book, just because of the creepy racial implications that it has--more with regard to Nell and her Mouse Army, and Hackworth's Seed than anything else. Neo-Victorians are basically the white English-speaking folks from around the world, with modified Victorian mores. Pretty much all of the main characters are Neo-Victorians who live in Shanghai (which isn't abnormal because it's illustrated in the novel that the various races/ethnic groups have spread all over the world regardless of national boundary. I don't want to spoil anything but I'm not as thrilled with the last like twenty pages of this book as I was with the rest of it.)

I do really like Nell's being the sort of "big sister" to the "Mouse Army" (which is a bunch of rescued ethnic Han Chinese girls from the devastated interior of China), and I found it very touching when she basically freed them from enchantment in the Primer, but it got sort of weird when they lifted her up on their arms in real life and started carrying her through the streets. Also: the bits where Nell is raped and she "transcends her soul with the power of her mind" or whatever the shit were just sort of like wtf.

I also feel like I'm less inclined to forgive it these faults because it was incredibly well-written and well-imagined and I'm astounded that it was written in 1995 and (a few notable times) forgot that it wasn't actually real life.

I really loved reading this until I got around to the strange conclusions full of white saviors, and almost-ignored rape and now I'm just confused as to how I feel because a large part of the story was about the fluidity of ethnicity and "nationalism" when such things are largely defined by technological practice and shared social codes. So I don't know if it's like "hurray, white saviors!" or using it to make a point or was just a spiffy conclusion or what.

oh my god, fanlistings still exist

useyourlove — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:26:00 GMT

That is the cutest most quaint fandom throwback I've ever seen and it's made my morning.

I think I actually used to run a few fanlistings, but they were on Geocities and I didn't know what CSS or PHP or MySQL was or anything so it was like me going in and manually updating the thing every time someone filled in the e-mail form.

The Various Ways I Take Compliments of a Personal, Physical, or Intellectual Nature

useyourlove — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:42:11 GMT

1.) Shut the fuck up.
2.) You are so precious, I love you.
3.) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
4.) Are you high?
5.) What do you want?
6.) Wait, what did I say?
7.) I think perhaps you need new glasses.
8.) (Clearly this person is insane, so I will edge away slowly without saying anything.)
9.) No.
10.) Um... thank you?

008: Supernatural's Economy of Souls (or: a Rambling Defense of Sera Gamble)

useyourlove — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:23:10 GMT

I know Seasons 6 and 7 for Supernatural in particular get a really bad rap, but I think they're brilliant for a variety of reasons. They're messier than the first five (which, upon close scrutiny, are actually pretty messy), but they take that first-five mythology and they make it better (why does that sound like a freakish inversion of the Final Five Cylons? OFF-TRACK)

Now, I came into this late, so I got to watch Season 1-7 straight through in like two weeks of insane main-lining. I'll admit that S6 had me on the ropes. They introduced plot after plot and I was like "there is no way you're going to wrap up these fifteen different things in one big bow, and if you don't do that I'll be sorely disappointed." But! They did. Everything in S6 mattered even if it was kind of "wtf" there until like episode 20 or whatever the hell. But even then, rewatching it, it's all there. All the little clues add up.

So what is it that I like so much about Season 6? Season 6's arc takes the mythological groundwork that was laid under Kripke--the whole demons, angels, various gods, etc. thing--incorporates the creatures directly into the groundwork (the werewolves, vampires, etc.) and then builds straight onto that a system in which every single religion, and urban legend, and myth works perfectly. It introduces an economy of souls--not just the human soul, but all souls (that's why the Purgatory bit is such a huge and important part of the mythos of that season.) The more souls the more power for you and the less for the other gods. This works with "A Very Supernatural Christmas" it works with "Fallen Idols" it works with "Hammer of the Gods"--explicitly stating that framework of "the soul is the power that drives this engine" makes everything about Supernatural's internal mythos stand up better. That's why there are lesser gods still hanging around (and why they have to murder for their tribute to stay even vaguely powerful, since they no longer receive worship), the monsters as creations of a pre-angel pseudo-goddess (which explains why they don't fit neatly into those other mythologies, although most of them are pagan ideas bastardized into villains by Christianity, or otherwise have Christian origins), it just makes everything work.

Sera Gamble gets a lot of unwarranted shit for "ruining" the show. If you haven't noticed--the damn thing is still on the air and it's still fantastic. Season 6 retroactively stopped up some of the gaping holes that Kripke left, and Season 7 deconstructed the entire melodrama framework (and the fandom--good god, did it do a number on the fandom!) and left the characters with more dignity and dimension than they'd ever been allowed before. The whole debacle reminds me of when Marni Nixon was in charge of running Buffy the Vampire Slayer and "THAT BITCH SO RUINED THE SHOW. SHE RUINED IT." But Nixon's seasons are my favorite of the entire series.

So what is it? Aversion to change? Dislike of dark or potentially messy story lines, despite how poignant they are or how well they get wrapped up? Blatant screaming misogyny towards any female who dares think she can handle running the blessed glory of our God Joss/Kripke?

I know what the answer is for Supernatural. I've been in the fandom long enough to figure that one out. And with Jeremy Carver at the helm now and "SEASON GR8!" I think it's painfully obvious (and really weird) that a fandom so full of women hates them so much.

You are fully within your fandom rights to dislike Seasons 6 and 7 for whatever reason you see fit--I mean, I hate Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a flaming passion and that's largely heralded as the "best one"--but if you spout bullshit I will call bullshit. Gamble didn't ruin anything, and what she actually did do with the show was enhance it, screw around with the pieces to test their limits, and ultimately put it all back together stronger and leaving everyone with a better understanding of how it works. Just how perfectly it worked (as evidenced by every episode of S8 that has freakishly echoed my exact words on multiple occasions.)

I know this was mostly about Season 6--I have another whole defense of Season 7 that I'll probably write when the mood strikes.

and the angels sing on high: television renewals that affect me

useyourlove — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:19:14 GMT

Supernatural was renewed for a 9th season.

There are angel voices singing "hallelujah" in my head because I am deeply dependent on this show for my mental health. My usual way of denoting this cheesy, TV commercial-style chorus is to say *and the angels sing on high*

Buuuut, that seems a little inappropriate... or perhaps ironically too appropriate, given the topic of discussion.

Femme Fatales

useyourlove — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:04:12 GMT

All right, well I'm trying to head off one of those hopeless pits of despair, so I've been watching random stuff on Netflix that's been in my queue forever.

I just watched Brick. Now a.) Joseph Gordon-Levitt is amazing and I feel like he just keeps getting better, but b.) I adore femme fatales.

And this isn't Tumblr so I can actually say why.

The thing with femme fatales, yeah, they're conniving, back-stabbing, heinous bitches who always are out to screw over men. But the thing is they do. They take any power that they can from the patriarchal system (i.e. the one we live in) and they twist everything around until it works in their favor. They're subtle, they're sly, they often whip out emotions as weapons against men, they play that they're sweet or innocent or coy, and it works. The men fall for it every time. I mean, I suppose as a cultural trope, that just perpetuates the "you can't trust women" mentality men like to play up so much. But, for me? A femme fatale is a woman who knows what she wants and she's completely independent. She's a powerful figure, and it's a liberation to watch one work. I don't even care that they're "evil," femme fatales are women who are in control. If they have to be framed as evil to exist in the stories of American culture, then fine--they're evil.

Nobody ever said we couldn't root for the antagonist and no one ever said she couldn't win.

007: On Supernatural, Problematic Elements, Writing SNAFUs, and Me

useyourlove — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 19:57:18 GMT

My thing with Supernatural is that I see there are problematic elements and I just don't care.

I see the narrative mishaps and hiccups, and I still don't care.

I see the exclusion of groups, and the victimization of people, and the really weird social assumptions, and nothing nothing nothing ruins it for me.

Not a damn thing (excluding the fandom, but I rage about that enough. I will ignore the fandom in this post.)

It's a story about two white dudes and their manpain and how they continually save the universe over and over and over again. And somehow, someway, I can see beyond the surface triteness and stupidity of that concept and love it more than any other television show I've ever watched. Why, though? Why?

I think it has to do with a lot of things. Firstly, Dean Winchester. Dean Winchester hits every single personal character button of mine. He's a hardass, he's bottles his emotions (which is not the same as not having any!), he does his job even if it's ugly or unpleasant or somehow morally reprehensible. He forms weird dependent attachments that he doesn't like to admit to. He has a moral code for himself alone, and woe betide anyone or anything that violates that. He shoots first and never bothers to ask questions because what's the point? It's hard to even describe. It's the same reason why I adored Jack Harkness in Torchwood (the first two seasons, I do not speak of the others), and Kara Thrace in Battlestar Galactica.

The plotlines themselves--not just the arc, which at times ranges into pedantic bullshit, but the Monster of the Week stories--those are amazing. They're the same old stories--where do you get new mythologies? But they're always fresh. There's always a twist or something unexpected (I will say now that I exclude "Bugs" from anything and everything because holy shit that episode is awful. But it's from Season 1 so we'll forgive them their follies.) I'm an X-Files veteran, ok? I raised myself on this kind of shit, and SPN is top notch in that respect.

Atmospherically, they set the show up to basically speak directly to my soul. The assholes drive around in a fucking 1967 Chevy Impala and I have a thing for classic cars. I always have. They (meaning Dean--the show is framed from Dean's perspective, though it's usually about Sam) listen to classic rock music which is basically my native musical genre. Superficially, they're really fucking hot, ok, THERE I SAID IT. But it's beyond that. Try being the person who sobs "BUT I WATCH IT FOR THE PLOT" literally and is never believed. It just so happens that these frickin' male models people the landscape.

Now, the fucked up elements? Most specifically: the treatment of women. I find it ironic that both inside and outside of fandom there's such an outcry about how sexist and misogynistic the show is when--if you look at early attempts at female characters: Bela, Jo, Meg, Ruby--you get some incredibly complex and well-written characters. What happened to them? Oh, well the fandom threw repeated hissy fits and the writers killed them all off. Why? Well, you can't have anyone near Sam and Dean except Sam and Dean lik duh dn't u watch tha sho???

I also wrote about this on Tumblr recently, but I tend to find the use of women as victims, especially in the early seasons, both a holdover from its horror roots and an explicit commentary. Because they are not framed as victims of gratuitous violence, they're framed as people who are caught in these negatively constructed systems who don't deserve what they're getting. They're not stupid people. They're not tits and ass and nothing more. True, most women on the show are either mothers or slightly air-headed college students (or Dean Winchester is fucking them, or all three???), but I like to take the monsters as metaphors for the evils of our patriarchal society. I mean, duh, well, the people who save all these women from the patriarchy then turn out to be two hawt white dudes in a sexy mufuggin car. Which is, of course, problematic. But fuck it because they're two hawt white dudes in a sexy mufuggin car and at this point I no longer care. The show is written so well, it avoids so many tired tired tired television tropes, it's superbly acted even when the plot my be overwrought or absurd or any number of other things that I just sit back, I enjoy it, I very much trust that the writers will never piss me off (because 7.5 seasons and NOT ONCE. And I'm really hard to please.) And I just enjoy it. I might note some things every now and then (like, did we really have to fridge Channing there? Really???? It's been 8 fucking season since your last fridge. THAT WAS THE PILOT. AREN'T WE OFF OF THIS BY NOW??? THAT IS NOT HOW YOU HUNTERS MAKE!!) But for every one issue there are about seventeen places where I'm like "don't you DARE, Supernatural!" And you know what? They always subvert my expectation (my expectation being that they're going to do something trite, stupid, problematic, and yet for some reason commonly accepted on television.)

Really, what I love about the show is that there are these trite sets of narrative assumptions that seem to always be present in television shows. The whole "BLOOD FAMILY B4 ERRTHING!" and "oh look a child I MUST PARENT IT" and so so SO many other things that will make me turn off a show as fast as I can hit the POWER button. THEY NEVER HIT THOSE. I mean this show made it all the way through both Christian mythology and a season heavily themed by Fate without me hating it for one minute. They've introduced single-mothers with children who turned out to not be offspring of either main character! Despite teasing that they were! They acknowledge repeatedly that just because someone is a blood relation, doesn't mean that they're "family." It can often mean exactly the opposite. And people in your family don't have to be related to you at all.

I just.

SUPERNATURAL. MY LOVE. MY ONE AND ONLY. GIVE ME ALL YOUR THEMES, YOUR DEATHS, YOUR ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS, YOUR CARS AND FACES AND SONGS, YOUR OCCASIONAL SHITTY EPISODE, YOUR PROBLEMS, ALL THE PLACES THAT THE FANDOM SAYS YOU'VE GONE WRONG AND THAT YOU'VE NARRATIVELY FUCKED UP.

BECAUSE, SUPERNATURAL, I LOVE YOU AS YOU ARE. IN YOUR ENTIRETY. I LOVE YOU JUST AS YOU ARE. YES, EVEN WITH "BUGS" IN YOUR CORPUS.

Reading 2013: A Game of Thrones (ASoIaF)

useyourlove — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 03:34:11 GMT

I finished A Game of Thrones again last night finally. I decided, after the travesty that was HBO's second season of Game of Thrones that I'd re-read the entirety of A Song of Ice and Fire because I adore the novels but the TV show adaptation made me forget that.

The weird thing about AGoT is that it took me about 8 months to finish reading it the first time I read it too. But the rest of the books? They take me maybe two weeks a piece if I have other things that need doing. I can't quite figure out what it is about the first book that takes me so damn long to get through, but it always happens.

So, on to A Clash of Kings, hurraaaaay. This one is probably my favorite but I'm kind of in love with the entire series.

I also handed off AGoT to my dad (finally) who refused to read the novels on an e-reader, but who my mom and I finally convinced to read the novels by giving him a running commentary during GoT episodes about how fucking stupid the characters/actions were and how they were way better in the book.

What you don't do is take away every slice of agency that a 9-year-old armed terror has and give it to males at every chance. Arya isn't Arya is she gets constantly rescued or bailed out of her jams. Arya makes her own damn way and woe upon anyone who tries to oppose her. Gendry is a tag-along, Jaquen is a co-conspirator, but in no instance does she actually get rescued by these people. Syrio and Yoren you could frame as rescuers, but she learns quickly not to rely on people for rescue and not to trust people just because she used to believe they were trustworthy.

Don't even get me started on the Cat/Robb/"Talisa" bullshit. Because fuck all of that.

006: Shipping, Legitimacy, and "Outside Opinion" in fandom, fanon, and gif-culture

useyourlove — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:17:50 GMT

It dawns on me that one of the major problems with fanon and Tumblr is that gifs are often intentionally constructed to remove the context of a canonical situation and frame it in ways that are more friendly to fanon interpretation.

So then people take those gifs as gospel truth because they see the gifs more than they see the episodes. Upon revisiting the episodes they're distressed when those moments that last .002 seconds don't as heavily imply things as watching them looped in a gif would suggest.

I've seen at least five posts in the past week that attribute thoughts or opinions to someone else. For example "I asked my dad why he ships x" or "I showed this gif to my guy friend and--" There seems to be this notion that to legitimate your ships or your interpretations of events you need to have someone else--someone outside of the fandom and usually male--affirm that you're not just reading too much into things, or that you're not crazy, or that they see it too. For one, it's ridiculous that there's a notion even within fandom and shipping culture that to ship is somehow lesser or illegitimate, or that the only people who do it are clearly just reading too much into things. For another, why does it only count as legitimate if some outside male is the one confirming these suspicions? And another, these "what's happening in this gif" experiments erase all context for the situation, characterization, and scene. It's just a gif of a person's reaction to an unknown scenario. We're trained by mass media to expect romance in everything. In conducting an experiment in that way we're also diminishing a highly intricate and fantastic relationship down to "this is how they look at each other!" It's not about their relationship--the way they relate--anymore. It's about tiny ticks of the actors. Frankly, I find that degrading to the writers and actors who have given us relationships (relationships, not just "ships"--not just "I want these two characters to kiss/have sex/get married/have kids/whatever other sex-focused romantic scenario you can think of"--the relationships that these characters have, inclusive and exclusive of sex) that are as well-constructed as the ones we're getting--Dean and Cas from Supernatural especially.

There are two scenes in particular that are "infamous" and that people keep claiming to show gifs to their male friends for confirmation of the romantic overtones--the scene where Cas appears clean and whole and Dean shifts awkwardly in his seat, and the scene where Dean looks at Cas after the old woman in the rest home basically hits on Cas.

In the first situation, the gif is always taken out of context and to impose a "boner" reaction onto it erases all of Dean's character history and the shared history of his relationship with Castiel. (Yes, I'm still mad about the whole "boner" fiasco on Tumblr. Massive guilt complexes do not equal "boner.") To understand the gestures of both characters in that scene you would have to know their entire story from the start and fundamentally understand the issues of both characters--something that any unsuspecting subject of an experiment couldn't even begin to guess. The trust issues, the guilt issues, the self-loathing--all of that is even directly in the episode. No one outside of the fandom is going to read that into the gif when they don't know it exists, and the "pretentious jerks" and "anti-shippers" that the experimenters are running these experiments to confront are people who do watch the show and are aware of those character traits.

In the second situation it's usually reported that someone says "oh, he's looking at a significant other--his girlfriend or wife." What they fail to inform these supposed test subjects is that the person he's looking at is--in that moment--the subject of a joke. It's similar to the look you give your best friend when the person you were just talking about walks in the room and does exactly what you were just discussing. It's a joke. If you were tell your test subjects "oh, by the by, this woman just said something funny in regards to the person he's looking at" they probably wouldn't read the gif as romantic, but as a reaction to a punchline. Because that's what it is.

Most media is heavily romance focused--even media where romance isn't the primary objective. We're bombarded with images of love, sex, relationships. If you show someone a small cycling snippet of a media object the odds are pretty high that it's going to be assumed to have a romantic overtone. For me, a large part of the glory of SPN is that it doesn't focus on romance at all. Romance or romantic relationships only ever exist to demonstrate how unfeasible, dangerous, or unrealistic they are. Trying to construe every single nanosecond of a show like Supernatural as explicitly focused on romance fundamentally warps perception of the show, both by viewers and by non-viewers. It erases the nuances that have been painstakingly built into the relationships in canon. So if I hand you a gif and give you canonical context do things still get read as romantic? They may. There's plenty about Dean and Cas's relationship that's implicitly treated as romantic. But not every second is about how much they love each other.

Guys, I ship Dean and Cas pretty damn hard. But everything doesn't have to be about romance, sex, and kisses. Take the goggles off and discover the fantastic nuance of the show, the writing, and the performances that they give us. And, yes, the romantic under/overtones between Dean and Castiel.

005: On "Dean girls" and his "unforgivable" actions

useyourlove — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:18:10 GMT

I'm not sure I'll ever understand that part of SPN fandom that thinks the Winchester brothers have this super-rosy completely loving and supportive relationship.

I mean from the Pilot to now they are constantly at cross-purposes and often ruthlessly undercutting each other. They love each other, sure, but they also hate each other just as much. They stay together because of trust, and guilt, and familiarity.

To complain of one abusing the other in some "unforgivable" way at this point is stupid.

I saw someone yesterday on a confessions blog (yes, I have all confessions blogs blocked and blacklisted and yes they still end up on my Tumblr dash) say that "what Dean did to Sam with the phones was unforgivable. Sam never pulled crap like that with Lisa and Ben."

Let me break this shit down for you. First, Sam was soulless when Dean was with Lisa and Ben. Sam didn't give a shit about Lisa and Ben. Sam didn't give a shit about Dean. Of course he didn't pull that shit with Lisa and Ben. When Dean found out that Sam was alive, he split and he rarely went back except in cases of immediate danger to the Braedens. Dean wasn't living his "normal" life because of his own desire, he was living it out of obligation to Sam. Dean didn't want that life. Sam wants that life. And Sam had it with Amelia.

What Dean did switching the phone numbers in Sam's phone was a last resort should Dean ever need to protect his friend and ally Benny. And guess what? It worked! Had it not worked we would certainly love Sam less for abandoning the woman he loves. Had Dean not done it we would also certainly love Sam less because Sam was being dragged towards a nasty conclusion by Crazy Martin. Sam would have killed Benny. Benny hasn't done anything to deserve killing (quite the opposite, actually). It's my understanding that people hated Dean last season as well for killing Amy Pond (lmao, writing room, what were you thinking?) when Sam was clearly saying over and over again what a good person she was. What's different here except that Benny hadn't actually hurt anyone while Amy had? What's different here except that it's Dean who was protecting his friend instead of Sam? What is different?

I love how there are so many professed "Dean girls" in the fandom, but what that really means is they like fanon Dean, or butt monkey Dean, or bishounen Dean, but not actual Dean Winchester. Dean Winchester is rough, and lumpy, and prickly, and he has trust issues and control issues and guilt issues and daddy issues. That Dean Winchester is no fun at all. But you give them that Dean and they throw up their hands and defend Sam in all things.

Here's a hint: that means you're a "Sam girl," even if you like Jensen Ackles' face better.

Wow my LJ right now is 50% complaining about the SPN fandom, 15% hating on the most recent installments of DW, and 35% lamenting my life and my choices.

004: Amy Pond and the Narrative that crashed into a wall

useyourlove — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:25:29 GMT

I was just considering this and figured I might as well make it one of my 100 Things.

You know, conceptually, Amy Pond's story arc is gorgeous. Here's a girl who everyone leaves and in desperation she hinges her life around someone who most people believe is her imaginary friend. The Doctor then basically fixes her entire life to the point where it's practically perfect in every way, she finally allows herself to grow up, she gets married, she tries to have a family but oh, hey, the Doctor gets in the way of that because once you're that close to the Doctor you're a good thing to use against him. Once that gets sorted, the girl who desperately needed the Doctor no longer really needs him, she needs other parts of her life. But the Doctor is her best friend and drops in and out of her life infrequently and sporadically so that she comes to rely on people and things that are more consistent for her while still enjoying his company. And it turns out, in the end, that it's really been the Doctor who needed her all along, and not the other way around.

Because 11 (oh, dear, sweet 11!)--particularly contrasted to 1, since I'm in the process of watching some Classic Who--is like those who hit a second childhood. 1 is serious like a teenager trying to prove he's mature. He's the oldest physically, but the youngest mentally. 11 is the youngest physically, but the oldest mentally. 11 masks his self-hatred and his darkness and his disillusionment under frivolity and play. He's mischievous and he takes a childlike wonder with so much of what he sees. I was told to watch DW by about five of my friends who all turned out to hate 11 because "he's a frickin' toddler!" Yes, that's why I love him. His coping mechanism is that bouncy, channel-changing, poke-it-with-a-stick reverence and energy as opposed to 10's moping hypocrisy. But 11, more than any Doctor that I've seen (mind, I haven't seen even half of them) relies heavily on his companion to keep him grounded and his main companion has been Amy from the start. He needs that naivete with equal energy to constantly amuse and bemuse and bewilder and if Amy matches the Doctor in anything it's energy. If she exceeds him in anything it's pluck. Just as Donna was going to be with him forever, the Doctor assumed Amy would be with him forever because Amy always kept up. And now she isn't. She isn't there. And he can't cope.

But here's my thing: the way the show actually did all of this is appalling. Amy seems scatterbrained and constantly out of character past series five because no one bothered to figure out who Amy was after that series. She wasn't the same character anymore. All of her damage had essentially been erased, although it was later claimed that she had both timelines in her head. Rory (ugh) is sweet in series five but constantly comes across as a guilt-tripping, shaming, control-freak beyond that. If the focus had remained on Amy--who she is, why she is, how she is--and if Amy's story had been properly built up then Amy's story would be an amazing story from start to finish. However, Rory is so much easier to write, and so the narrative skidded sideways and became Rory's rather than Amy's. Rory gets to make the quips; Rory gets to object; Rory gets to save the day and know the score and be genre savvy; Rory's needs are put first; Rory's desires are paramount; Rory this; Rory that. I find Rory despicable. Rory--a window-dressing of Amy's story--eclipses Amy completely. And the funny thing is, Amy is still the Doctor's touchstone, but now we get to suffer through all of Rory's righteous indignation and manpain at the same time. I thought I'd be happy when Rory was gone--I thought I'd be able to enjoy the show again. But I found that the manner and execution of his exit were so repulsive--particularly where Amy was concerned--that I've given up on the show altogether. I don't think I can stomach any more of the same crap. (I'll also note that Amy and Rory's "romance" never seemed even halfway genuine and I was only aware of it because the writing continually informed me that they were in love, oh so in love, look how desperately in love. And I was like "yes, you keep saying that. Where is it?")

Amy's my favorite because she's the wishful thinking companion. Her power is a power of imagination and tenacity. Her story is one that suggests that the Doctor can drop in on us at any time--past, present, future--and mix up our whole world and make it part of his. So that lonely little girl ten or fifteen years ago? She still has a shot. All of that sadness can go away. That's what Doctor Who is about, for me, is giving people hope--not just in themselves but in the world and in other people. That it takes a time-skipping spastic alien to do that is a bit extreme, but worth it.

But then literally the only series of NuWho that I even enjoy is series 5. You can keep the rest of it.

003: Canon v. Fanon and Fandom Behavior

useyourlove — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:31:09 GMT

Fan fiction is almost never regarded as canonical. However, certain ideas may become influential or widely accepted within fan communities, who refer to such ideas as "fanon", a portmanteau of fan and canon.[7][10] The term may also be used to refer to fan fiction in general.

Fanon is established in a spontaneous manner by the community of fans at large, for example fan clubs, whenever the official canon is not clear on some points of its narrative.[11]

Fanon is a common feature in large franchises and fictional universes where there are many canon and non-canon works, as in the Star Trek universe. Sometimes, fanon comes from the acceptance of non-canonical explanations provided in expanded universe published works.
--Wikipedia "Canon (fiction)" accessed December 6, 2012

What I want to talk about is Supernatural, fanon, canon, and the behavior of the fandom at large.

Here's my disclaimer: you can enjoy whatever media whatever way you want. It's no skin off my nose--I don't care. What I don't enjoy is being harassed, mocked, flamed, called names, or otherwise bullied around and out of a fandom because I do not enjoy said media in the same way as others. Ironically, in this case, I'm not talking about enjoying the fanon--I'm talking about enjoying the canon. Now on to the show.

I want to sit the Supernatural fandom down and have a nice heart-to-heart. I'll start by saying no, none of the characters you want to be fucking are fucking. They may be in your head, they may be in your fic, they may be in the fan community of which you are a part, but in the show they are not. I'm finding more and more that there is a permanent disconnect between a show canon and a show fanon, with more of the active audience members insisting upon adhering to only their fanon interpretation. The problem there is that when they return to the canon they are continually upset with it as it doesn't jive with their fanon.

Now, I have seen people beat the concept of "canon" into the ground for no reason other than to justify their demands on the writers that Dean and Cas should kiss, hold hands, and say schmoopy things to each other. Here's my beef with this: Dean and Cas are in a very close and emotional relationship. They open up to each other and only each other, they trust each other even though at this point in all their other relationships that trust would have been revoked. What this show does not need is a sappy explicit romance plot layered on top of what is already a fantastically intricate, nuanced, and well-written relationship. Are Dean and Cas in love? If you ask me, fuck yes they are. Would having them be in an explicit romantic relationship in a moderately popular television series increase queer visibility and representation in media? Yes, of course it would. Two more hot wide dudes to add to the list.

What I want is for everyone to chill the fuck out because these writers know what they are doing. They know the relationships that they have. The know the characters that they have. The know the situations, and loose threads, and implications that they can work with. They know what the vocal part of fandom is screaming for, and they know how to fulfill those requests in ways that will keep everyone in character and the entire show in the same tone and mood that it's always had.

Screaming that the writers are "ruining" everything and that "they don't know what they're doing!" and that "they're writing this all wrong!" is asinine and ridiculous. The true problem here is that personal or even fandom-wide fanon is not jiving with canon--a canon, I might add, that is meticulously internally consistent over seven and a half seasons. Fanon is fine. It's inevitable and it's healthy and there is nothing wrong with it. Where fanon goes wrong is when the loudest fans--the ones whose voices reach the actors, the producers, the writers, etc.--are the ones who feel overly entitled to everything they desire. They demand that the show be written to suit their fanon. They demand that we turn a gritty, fresh, trope-busting Monster of the Week fantasy show into a soap opera romantic interlude--often with skeezy claims of being an ally attached to try and add legitimacy to their desires. They demand that x character be booted from the show repeatedly because "oh everyone hates them" when in reality only a small minority of the audience hates that character and only because they perceive him or her to be in the way of their ship. They spend the majority of their fandom activity actively spreading hate over everyone and everything within their reach rather than engaging in fruitful discussion or even enjoying aspects of the media they claim to be a fan of.

Fandom has always been a petty place full of in-fighting and disagreement. The issue I'm discussing seems to be caused by the shrinking of the gap between producer and consumer. Personally, I adore that shrinkage. I think that having feedback on the media that you consume and causing positive change are important aspects of our lives. However, in the case of Supernatural, oftentimes that channel of communication has been hijacked by those with militant and ridiculous agendas related to their fanon and those who wish to show pornography to the faces that feature in it.

What makes this worse is that there is a prevailing attitude within multiple fandoms that to ship slash is to be somehow supporting of LGBTQ rights when in actuality the most prevalent method of slash shipping is nothing more than exploitative objectification. Do all slash fans hate women? No. Do all slash fans scream on and on about how they'd ship their kids with people if their kids were gay? No. Do all slash fans circulate those gross fandom appropriated versions of "Some ____ marry ____. Get over it." ads and think they're being somehow supportive of an oppressed group? No. But here's the catch: the loudest slash fans do. And hence why slash and slash fic are derided by so many other fan groups.

To the producers, the face of the Supernatural fandom is these vocal, maladjusted slash shippers who want to take a show that is unlike any other I've ever seen on television and turn it into every other show--just with some hot dudes having sex thrown in.

Here's my main advice: read some fic, write some fic, have fun making manips, discuss head canons with friends, but when it comes to tweets etc shut the fuck up. No one is here to tell your story and screaming at the people who make your shows only forces them to perceive their entire fan base as deranged. There's a reason that Becky Rosen is written the way that she's written. It's not that Kripke has disdain for his fans, it's that he disdains their behavior and their complete disconnect from canon.

I'm not trying to tell you that your fanon is "wrong," and I'm not trying to tell you that you have to stop or you cannot watch your shows in certain ways. They're your shows to do with as you will. You can watch them, take them, mix them up, glue them back together--that's the glory and the beauty of fandom and media and our current level of access to the tools that allow us to do such things and to distribute our works for other fans to enjoy. I adore fan appropriation--I've written over half of my academic work on it. I've actively engaged in fandoms and fan works for as long as I could read and had an internet connection. What I don't adore is bullying, entitled demands, and people getting pissed at a show canon that has not changed but that doesn't live up to their fanon expectations when revisited later.

Keep your canon and your fanon in separate dishes to prevent them from spoiling.

002: Secular Mythmaking and Doctor Who

useyourlove — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:47:04 GMT

I've long held that television shows, novels, movies--all of our cultish texts--function in an increasingly secularized society in much the same way the shared mythologies of religion have cemented cultures before us. Rather than relating through our religious texts, even religious peoples now often relate to others through shared taste in music, television shows, etc. I'm too lazy to look them up now, but I recall coming across a number of scholarly articles on the subject when I was doing my Master's Paper research, referencing the community building power of fandoms as similar to older communal reference points such as a shared religious belief.

My very favorite college course in six years of higher education was a 100-level English class I took my senior year of undergrad that was about Fantasy and Science Fiction. My professor introduced me to a concept called "the Re-Enchantment of the World" which essentially sought to explain the increasing popularity of fantasy and science fiction, such as the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings films, and the booming genre of paranormal teen romance. From the cover blurb of the textbook by Landy and Saler:

The Re-Enchantment of the World is an interdisciplinary volume that challenges the long-prevailing view of modernity as "disenchanted." There is of course something to the widespread idea, so memorably put into words by Max Weber, that modernity is characterized by the "progressive disenchantment of the world." Yet what is less often recognized is the fact that a powerful counter-tendency runs alongside this one, an overwhelming urge to fill the vacuum left by departed convictions, and to do so without invoking superseded belief systems.

I find that the current BBC series Doctor Who is a particularly good example of this Re-Enchantment.

Doctor Who is about an alien man known only as "The Doctor." When you are in trouble, the omniscient TARDIS who exists in all of time and space will bring the mythical Doctor to you to set right all of your human problems. The Doctor has been shown to be absolutely instrumental in not only historical events such as the eruption of Vesuvius, but in the creative genius of everyone from Dickens, to Shakespeare, to Van Gogh. It should be noted, however, that all of the Doctor's historical interventions occur in the Western canon--at least in NuWho. The secularization of Western culture in particular seems to be where the Doctor now swoops in and re-enchants what is perceived as an otherwise cold and rationalized existence. (In truth, we fill this existence with stories of people like The Doctor--it's far from actually sterile of magic and myth.)

The Doctor's "magic" comes not so much from actual magic, omniscience, benevolence, or any other supernatural power. It comes from the science of a much more technologically advanced civilization--one that's had the technology of time travel for so long that the species is known as the Time Lords. He doesn't swoop in and fix problems with magic, he uses logic, reasoning, and his centuries worth of knowledge. He has a sonic screwdriver--a mundane tool with a human analog, although it's technologically suped up. To quote Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In this case, whether it's truly magic or science is simply the difference between Doctor Who being a science fiction or a fantasy series.

Doctor Who places its hope in the antics of an alien being who is by all counts a wild eccentric even in his own society. His quirk happens to be that he is fond of Earth and of human beings. The fact that he is from a society so much more advanced than ours is what allows him to act in ways that make him appear both omniscient and all-powerful. In what is even explored in the series as a type of megalomania, he sets himself up in the role of a god, dipping in and out of history at random to set right the problems of the time.

But what is more believable in a god to us now? That he loves us and yet made us with so many detestable, reprehensible flaws that he himself finds repulsive? Or that our god loves us because of our resilience in spite of these flaws? He loves us because he himself has a quirk which allows him to see the minute amount of good even through the torrents of bad and he loves us because of our persistence to nurture that good, even if it's often only to please him.

And honestly, when it's all said and done? I have huge problems with Doctor Who--particularly the reboot. I only just started watching Classic Who, but I find it less repellant because it is less self-conscious and grandiose. It does not endeavor to be this moral center of a sanitized childhood the way the newer ones do. It's about an old man with a time machine and the hapless but ultimately good people who get caught up in his antics. NuWho, on the other hand, constantly endeavors to teach, to preach, to proselytize. It wavers between being a show with a distinct moral center for children, and a more sophisticated exploration of the implications of this Mad Man and his Box. I spent most of series 1-4 hating the show with a passion because it crept just to the edge of that exploration, and then backed back down into trite parables. Series 5 is, in fact, the only piece of NuWho that I love with a passion. After that? It wanders off into random incoherent ridiculousness and increasing pomposity.

I like the idea of the Doctor as a moral center--a sort of ideal, a being whose approval we should endeavor to seek--but what I like more is the idea of the Doctor as a perceived moral center with deep flaws. I like the view of the Doctor from Torchwood when disaster strikes and he doesn't show. I like the view of the Doctor as fallible, as seeking both adventure and knowledge, as making shit up on the fly, and as full of a very potent rage just beneath the surface.

I also like the whimsical, often ridiculous episodes of Classic Who in which the prevailing attitudes of the times are often extremely visible. In which the Doctor is little more than a petulant child who throws tantrums and the humans he travels with must swoop in to save the day. I like him less as a god and more as the man behind the curtain. That's my favorite Doctor.

What I don't like is the absolute moral positioning that the show often takes. It sets itself up as a sanitized parable for children even as it tries to combat that same sanatization, as if conflicted on whether children really should be exposed to complex concepts. I don't like the constant whining and hemming and hawing over what is good and proper and just. I also don't like the Doctor as all-knowing, unstoppable, prevailing, terrifying to the entire universe in his power--but he's so friendly to us.

The Doctor should function more as a genie and less as a god. Phenomenal cosmic power, itty-bitty living space. And his living space is within the function of the TARDIS to take him to new worlds and allow the companions to reign in his crazy. The Doctor should not be the source of humanistic messages even as a form of residual love of absent (and human) friends--the humans should be the ultimate source of that message. It's far more powerful that he function as a conduit through which we see ourselves, rather than as the arbiter of our behavior and mentality.

Doctor Who is a fantastic example of secular mythmaking, but it also must realize that it is not a religion, it's a lesson in how humanity has all of the power and potential they need to make the world a better place already within themselves. The Doctor should just be there to show us how to use it.

001: Tumblr, Fandom, and Fan-Entitlement (hint: fans aren't entitled to anything)

useyourlove — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 01:19:20 GMT

My poor LJ was abandoned around April because I had been very involved with multiple fandoms and had just finished off writing my Master's Paper (which was fandom intensive.) I ended up just shoving all of my energy into one or two things and disappearing off into Tumblr because I had more active friends there.

Let me tell you though: Tumblr is not somewhere that you want to be. It is, however, a very good lesson on the darker side of fandom and mob mentality.

Tumblr is very spastic--it's conducive to short bursts of text and pretty pictures. It's easy to sit in one small group, not expose yourself to other points of view, and basically stagnate in your own isolated opinions.

That's the problem with Tumblr. People with short attention spans and a mentality that everything is purposefully calculated to offend them don't bother to debate or discuss--they simply scream cruel things, send anon hate, and are generally douche-nozzles.

So here's what I really want to get down to right now. There is an alarmingly prevalent style of fannish activity on Tumblr that involves building up expectations about media that are not actually relevant to the media in question.

Example 1: I was a very active member of the A Song of Ice and Fire fandom for a few months, and in that time I grew so tired of the sniping and in-fighting that I nearly gave up on the series altogether. With ASoIaF, the fandom is very polarized into "old school fantasy dudebros"--i.e. males, usually white, who insist upon reading the novels as if they are 1950s fantasy romps, and the "radical feminist" fans who escalated to the point of not allowing any criticism of Cersei Lannister, Sansa Stark, and a myriad of other female characters at all despite their inherent and interesting character flaws.

Now, whatever, it's possible to ignore all that and go about one's business. The problem I have is when people build these expectations for the series in their own minds and then are disappointed when they return to the series and it doesn't retroactively meet that expectation. I saw one particularly egregious post championed by some of my very good friends in which they were annoyed by the fact that this was a medieval fantasy, that Daenerys fulfilled a "white savior complex," that the series didn't basically burst every trope known to the genre and turn all of it on its head, that it pushed the limits of the rules but didn't break them.

Well duh. It's a fucking fantasy series. I don't even read much fantasy as a rule because, typically, even the ones that do push those limits are still gross in my estimation. Fantasy is a genre of white supremacists, racists, misogynists--it always has been just by its very nature. I like the A Song of Ice and Fire series because it doesn't hold to those gross tropes, it features them and--rather than playing them straight and putting on a cardboard pageant of trite roles--it bends and subverts all of them, creating a very rich world and characters that are psychological wholes instead of roles. Does it have problems? Yeah, duh, everything has problems. Even things eternally lauded as "perfect" by adamant social justice bloggers have problems. However, within the fantasy genre which is the genre in which the stories reside, it's quite an interesting and fresh take on the pieces that the genre gives you to work with.

Example 2: So, I never wanted to watch Supernatural. I had no inclination to watch a show about sappy gay dudes crying all over each other and sometimes killing things--mostly killing women. None. After I graduated grad school, however, I had nothing better to do and Misha Collins was super-hot so I was like "well, we'll see if it's that bad."

It wasn't. It wasn't bad at all. By my estimation, it's the best thing I've ever seen and is also nothing like the fandom or hatedom present it to be. But again, we have a polarized fandom--or, in this case, a fandom and a hatedom.

Fandom for SPN, particularly on the internet, seems to consist of slash shippers. I don't have a problem with that. Whatever, it's cool, and I see the appeal and the reasoning behind all of it.

What I don't appreciate is the a.) constant whining that x ship is not canon, b.) constant hate of any/all characters who are perceived as coming between the shipped couple in question, c.) the fucking insane behavior present in the fandom itself, particularly in regards to asking the actors direct pointed questions about their sex lives and sexualities, d.) the entitlement present within the fandom in general that they deserve to be given things like kisses, love declarations, sex between two male characters, etc. Because, guess what! Supernatural isn't actually a romance. Not in the least. It's one giant. fucking. allegory. It's a brilliant deconstruction of modern mythology and mythmaking, even tackling Christianity with its postmodernist dry wit and cynicism.

You know what doesn't happen? Explicit romance. It would ruin the tone of the show. Ruin it.

Now, I'll go ahead and tell you I ship Dean and Castiel. But I'm perfectly content with what they have given me and what they keep giving me, which is that the two of them have a very deep attachment, trust, and (oh, jesus help me for saying this) "profound bond." Because, hey! They do. What I don't need is for them to turn the show into a fluff-fic. I know it's the CW and that's the kind of awful shit you'd come to expect but please. It deserves more respect than for them to destroy it like that.

As far as the SPN hatedom? I see where they're coming from. I was once a part of that hatedom before I watched the show. As I understood it, all that happened was that gorgeous men pined after each other and women were nothing more than objects to be brutalized, martyred, punished, and penetrated. That isn't actually what happens at all. And, let's be real, the actual enemy of women in Supernatural isn't the writers or the media climate or any kind of misogyny except for internalized misogyny because the real enemy here is the fandom itself. Bela, Jo, Anna, Lisa--all of them were ousted because of fan outrage from a fan base that is predominantly female.

Example 3: The existence of the Boardwalk Empire fandom didn't even come to my attention until last night when I was pointed in the direction of someone who constantly lambasted Owen Sleater. "How," I thought, "in the fuck can you hate Owen Sleater?" When I went on their blog, it turned out that they had essentially created some sort of alternate universe in their mind where they preferred to ship Margaret with a different character, and presumably various other avenues of plot intricacy that that would entail. The only thing this person didn't want to happen was exactly what had actually happened.

Now, I'm sorry--I've been watching this show literally since it began airing. That's three years of watching Boardwalk Empire. And to expect anything other than what the show has given us this season is fairly ludicrous. The writing this season has been phenomenal--better even than in the first season--and the acting is superb.

What the complaints of "awful writing" and "ruining the show" come down to are self-aggrandized assertions that are worded prettily as semi-academic meta and amount to nothing but a temper tantrum that their ship isn't canon.

Here's a hint: a show isn't ruined just because what you want to happen doesn't happen. Maybe for you, but not on a grand scale. Boardwalk has a cast of literally a dozen or more extremely important characters which have all been handled with grace, intelligence, and depth. I'm sorry you're ship isn't canon. Go write fic and throw your tantrum elsewhere.

Here is my advice to Tumblr: if you watched something and liked it, then went away and stewed about it and came back to decide that, no, it really should've done even better at x, y, and z social issue go write your own story, because that's clearly all you wanted to do in the first place.

Writers are not beholden to their audiences simply because of the amount of emotional energy that said audience pours into the story. They are beholden to their audience to give them a coherent and plausible story--one of the writer's own choosing. They are not writing to tell your story--they are writing to tell theirs. If it really bothers you that much, write your own, make your own, go out and create instead of sitting around and sniping and destroying to make yourself feel superior.

Hey, Y'all!

useyourlove — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:09:18 GMT

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

So, I'm determined to return to my LJ and use it for evil. I signed up for this, essentially, "be a wordy asshole" challenge and I'm excited about it. I'll even post most of the stuff public instead of f-locked!

I miss having people to discuss things with, but I feel like everyone has left LJ. Friend me if you wish! My topic for this challenge is "Science-Fiction and Fantasy Media and Fandom" and topics will include discussion about fandom itself (which I wrote my Master's Thesis on, sooo) and things ranging from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to Supernatural, to Battlestar Galactica, to Star Trek, to A Song of Ice and Fire, to Doctor Who, to the Final Fantasy series, and various crazy anime. Just, generally everything I love.

I probably shouldn't have limited myself to Sci-Fi and Fantasy what with things like Boardwalk Empire and Elementary in existence, but I don't even care.

Fanmix: Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 7 (Supernatural)

useyourlove — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:46:40 GMT

Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 7 | A Season Seven FanMix
To download: copy and paste hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/3p4ap1, changing xx to tt
To listen: go here.

Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6. Share this on Tumblr.

01. Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger
Goodbye stranger it's been nice
Hope you find your paradise
Tried to see your point of view
Hope your dreams will all come true
Goodbye Mary, Goodbye Jane
Will we ever meet again
Feel no sorrow, feel no shame
Come tomorrow, feel no pain

02. REO Speedwagon - Roll With the Changes
So if you're tired of the
Same old story
Turn some pages
I'll be here when you are ready
To roll with the changes

03. Derek and the Dominos - Layla
Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.

04. Led Zeppelin - Over the Hills and Far Away
Many have I loved - Many times been bitten
Many times I've gazed along the open road.
Many times I've lied - Many times I've listened
Many times I've wondered how much there is to know.

05. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

06. Bob Seger - Night Moves
We weren't in love, oh no, far from it
We weren't searchin' for some pie in the sky summit
We were just young and restless and bored
Livin' by the sword

07. Supertramp - Hide in Your Shell
Hide in your shell cos the world is out to bleed you for a ride
What will you gain making your life a little longer?
Heaven or Hell, was the journey cold that gave you eyes of steel?
Shelter behind painting your mind and playing joker

08. ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man
Clean shirt, new shoes
and I don't know where I am goin' to.
Silk suit, black tie,
I don't need a reason why.

09. The Beatles - The Fool on the Hill
Day after day, alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
As he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

10. The Allman Brothers Band - Dreams
Just one more mornin'
I had to wake up with the blues
Pulled myself outta bed, yeah
Put on my walkin' shoes,
Went up on the mountain,
To see what I could see,
The whole world was fallin',
right down in front of me.

Fanmix: Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 6 (Supernatural)

useyourlove — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 03:43:21 GMT

Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 6 | A Season Six FanMix
To download: copy and paste hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?t5ladrwy1gh8869 into your browser, replacing xx with tt, password: volumesix
To listen: go here.

Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5. Share this on Tumblr.
Minor aside: "Get Off of My Cloud" is what first inspired this entire project to begin with.

01. Led Zeppelin - Ten Years Gone
Then as it was, then again it will be
An' though the course may change sometimes
Rivers always reach the sea
Blind stars of fortune, each have several rays
On the wings of maybe, down in birds of prey
Kind of makes me feel sometimes, didn't have to grow
But as the eagle leaves the nest, it's got so far to go

02. The Rolling Stones - Respectable
Well now you're a pillar of society
You don't worry about the things that you used to be
You're a rag-trade girl, you're the queen of porn
You're the easiest lay on the White House lawn
Get out of my life, don't come back
Get out of my life, don't come back
She's so respectable
She's so respectable
She's so delectable
She's so respectable

03. Bob Seger - Still the Same
The trick you said was never play the game too long
A gambler's share, the only risk that you would take
The only loss you could forsake
The only bluff you couldn't fake

04. Tom Petty - Don't Do Me Like That
'Cause somewhere deep down inside
Someone is saying, "Love doesn't last that long"
I got this feelin' inside night and day
And now I can't take it no more

05. Journey - Lights
It's sad, oh there's been mornings out on the road without you,
Without your charms,
Ooh, my, my, my

06. Supertramp - Give a Little Bit
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
I'll give a little bit of my love for you
Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we're on our way back home

07. The Rolling Stones - Get Off My Cloud
I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud

08. The Who - Behind Blue Eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man, to be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated, to be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams they aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance that's never free

09. The Yardbirds - For Your Love
For your love, for your love
I would give the stars above
For your love, for your love
I would give you all I could

10. Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see
Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind

Fanmix: Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 5 (Supernatural)

useyourlove — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:12:43 GMT

Highway Rockin' Blues, Volume 5 | A Season Five FanMix
To download: copy and paste hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?85szasb9uwafaou into your browser, replacing xx with tt, password: volumefive
To listen: go here.

Volumes 1, 2, 3, & 4. Share this on Tumblr.

01. Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlights, people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin', somewhere in the night
Don't stop believin'
Hold on to the feelin'

02. Hall & Oates - Private Eyes
Private Eyes
They're watching you
They see your every move

03. Supertramp - The Logical Song
There are times when all the world's asleep,
the questions run too deep
for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am.

04. Jethro Tull - Bungle in the Jungle
Just say a word and the boys will be right there:
with claws at your back to send a chill through the night air.
Is it so frightening to have me at your shoulder?
Thunder and lightning couldn't be bolder.
I'll write on your tombstone, ``I thank you for dinner.''
This game that we animals play is a winner.
Let's bungle in the jungle --- well, that's all right by me.

05. Grateful Dead - Friend of the Devil
I ran down to the levee but the devil caught me there
He took my twenty dollar bill and vanished in the air.
Set out runnin' but I take my time
A friend of the devil is a friend of mine
If I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.

06. Fleetwood Mac - Say You Love Me
Baby, baby, hope you're gonna stay away,
'Cause I'm getting weaker, weaker everyday,
I guess I'm not as strong as I used to be,
And if you use me again it'll be the end of me.
'Cause when the loving starts, and the lights go down,
And there's not another living soul around,
Then you woo me until the sun comes up,
And you say that you love me.

07. Pink Floyd - Mother
Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb
Mother do you think they'll like the song
Mother do you think they'll try to break my balls
Ooooh aah, Mother should I build a wall

08. Led Zeppelin - The Battle of Evermore
Queen of Light took her bow, and then she turned to go,
The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom, and walked the night alone.
Oh, dance in the dark of night, sing to the morning light.
The dark Lord rides in force tonight, and time will tell us all.
Oh, throw down your plow and hoe, rest not to lock your homes.
Side by side we wait the might of the darkest of them all.

09. The Rolling Stones - Paint it Black
I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facin' up when your whole world is black

10. Don McLean - American Pie
So bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die.
This'll be the day that I die."

Hugo: The Gods Themselves (1973)

useyourlove — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 19:28:32 GMT

The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Read August 14, 2012 - August 17, 2012

(Yes, I'm back! You'll note the over one-year gap between novels. I was in grad school and had a master's paper to write. Now I'm thoroughly over-educated and unemployed. A lot has happened to me over that big break, but I'll endeavor to keep the reviews the same.)

Premise: A group of catty egotistical scientists attempt to one-up each other in the realm of physics and energy while systematically ignoring the dire consequences to the universe. They create an "energy pump" which trades elements with a parallel universe where the laws of physics are opposite. In that parallel universe, a group of extraterrestrials also deals with the identical problem.

Verdict: The title of this novel is taken from a German play about Joan of Arc--the full quote being "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." That seems to sum up the whole novel quite well. The novel is in three parts (the parts originally published in Galaxy Magazine as three separate stories)--the first part is the humans discovering the strange element, the second is a sociological almost-soft-sci-fi exploration of the social structures and scientific dynamics of the aliens in the parallel universe, and the third returns to the humans and features a moon colony and a scientist focused on the problem and not the politics. My favorite part was the part with the aliens and the novel is well worth reading if only for that section (entitled "The Gods Themselves.") The last section suffers from the same sort of genre-disease that most male-written sci-fi of this time exhibits. Through the mid-60's, really, science fiction was dominated by male authors which can make for some unfortunate portrayals of women in their novels. Then you have people like Le Guin (and others) coming in and stirring the pot, so all the old white dudes were like "crap! We need to put women in these books!" What you end up with is the sexually-free, independent woman who nevertheless needs the middle aged man and desires a traditional nuclear family the second she meets him. This happens constantly--particularly with Heinlein, but also Asimov. It's tired, but it's expected when I'm reading this from this time period, so I just roll my eyes and move on.

This book was enjoyable and a quick read. Basically, read this novel for the aliens.

This LJ is a Supernatural Positivity Space

useyourlove — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:46:18 GMT

That means that you won't see anything negative about this show coming from me.

I may, occasionally, post something that deconstructs some of the more problematic elements of the show. But on the whole I love it so much that I'm not going to be relentlessly negative about it. This is the one television show that has never pissed me off. Seven seasons, and I haven't been pissed once. I've been iffy a few times, but they always pull it through for me in the end.

So, this is a Supernatural Positivity Space. If you need a big shot of positivity about SPN, come to me.