slinkling

I am so far behind on posting and whatnot that it's like I've regressed from slinking, slid straight past lurking, and become some kind of LJ troglodyte who lives underground and only pokes my head up when I've run out of crucial supplies. Like, I dunno, explosives, or peanut butter, or porn. (What do troglodytes need, anyway? I'm not real clear on this point.) Some form of update from me is long overdue.

For example -- several of you have heard about this already, but maybe it's time that I mention here that I'm pregnant. (Also, I might be dying. Send lip-gloss. Okay, not really. In fact, just so we're entirely clear, I am NOT dying, and my lips are adequately glossy. But I AM pregnant.) I'm due at the end of September, so I'm now a bit past three months, and let me just say that so far the second trimester is way better than the first. And that's without having had any morning sickness at all. I just spent the last three months in a fog, going weeks at a time without ever feeling fully awake, much less able to concentrate on anything more taxing than when I could take my next nap. But this last week or so, I have actually started feeling like my normal self again (albeit with bigger boobs and a rounder stomach) and this is a great improvement. Huzzah!

I doubt I'll talk much about the pregnancy here, since I try to keep this journal fandom-focused. But there it is. Wacky, huh?

As for fandom stuff, the only wee involvement I've had in fandom for the last month or more was to compose a top ten list of reasons Al & Miles are leaving SV. Because

miss_tress was having an impromptu contest, which I spotted in passing and couldn't resist contributing to. To my surprise, I actually wound up winning said contest -- thanks to all who voted! You can see my proposed reasons over here. For the work of about 90 seconds, I'm fairly proud of the results.

In other fannish news, I've been watching my way through Angel, and will see the final 2 episodes of the series tonight. ( Cut for spoilery nattering. )

I've not seen the last several episodes of SV, and the fact is, I just can't seem to care anymore. It's a little sad. I've read the capsule descriptions over at TWoP, and cannot muster any enthusiasm about seeing the actual eps, or even reading the full recaps. Maybe when the season is finished I'll watch all the rest in one go; it's always been a show that benefited from taking in large chunks at a time, instead of isolated episodes. But it feels like the end of an era, wholly aside from AlMiles taking a powder. No doubt some new fandom thing will swoop in to fill the vacuum sooner or later. Though it might be later, since I'm a little distracted lately (see above)...

Anyway. I shall try not to be so troglodyte-ish from here on out. Though if I disappear again (especially, oh, sometime this fall) at least you'll know why.

bop_radar tagged me a while back. What can I say, I'm slow. ( The 20 questions meme )

It seems like all I do here these days is throw out random questions. But this one is fandom related, I swear.

( Where do we see Lex breaking glass? )

It's possible that the Fandom Exchange Program I've started with

kassrachel is working a little too well. Kass is getting fairly caught up in SV, and I'm getting a very late start to my work-day because I got all absorbed in SGA fic. *hangs head* (It's not my fault! She recced me a story by

cesperanza! I can't help if if she brought out the big guns! Then again, I did put her onto

lanning's "Identical" series last week, so I might just possibly have been asking for it.)

I find that, while I'm enjoying the SGA episodes we watch, they're kind of like popcorn: tasty, and I'm happy to snack on more of them, but I don't exactly feel passionate about them. The fic, on the other hand, seems to me like much stronger stuff, and the fact that so many of my favorite writers from SV and DS have been scarily prolific in SGA suggests to me that I could lose a lot more time here. Most recently we watched the end of SGA s1 and the start of s2 -- "The Siege," parts 2 and 3 -- and I've just read Speranza's MVP. Note to self: never, ever start reading a long Speranza story at the beginning of a workday.

On the SV front, last night we watched "Tempest" and "Vortex." There's just so much to love there. And driving home afterwards, I had a thinky thought. ( Read more... )

We're getting together for another night of viewing tomorrow, which means I need to decide which episodes of season 2 I'm going to show her. Some of them are no-brainers: "Heat" and "Red," OBVIOUSLY. (I'm thinking the two of them will make for a most cracktastic evening.) Later on, "Prodigal" and "Rosetta" are essential, and I'm also incredibly fond of "Insurgence." My problem is that there are just so many episodes in season 2 that contain incredibly important character development, and we won't have time for all of them. Because what about "Duplicity"? What about "Lineage"? What about "Skinwalker" -- it's silly, sure, but do we need it to understand everything that comes later? And how could I possibly leave out "Calling" and "Exodus"?

What do you think, SV fen? If you had to select, say, 6 episodes from season 2, which ones would you pick? Which ones that I've listed would you cut? This decision is just too hard.

kassrachel and I are trying an experiment with pimping each other into our fandoms; in addition to keeping each other company while we watch current episodes of SGA (hers) and SV (mine), we're showing each other selected episodes from seasons past, and recommending fics to go with them.

Last night I showed her "Hug," from season 1 SV, and then we watched "Blue," and then she showed me the 2-part SGA pilot. Which had so much nutty exposition that I still have no clear sense of who these people are (I mean, I understand the basic roles they play, but I don't yet know them as *people*), though I've been assured that Teh Gay will soon raise its fabulous head.

Meanwhile, Kass showed proper appreciation for SV's Big Gay Love. One of my favorite moments of the evening came during "Blue," when Kass commented on how Lex seemed awfully fond of his pool cue. Which I'd hardly even noticed; I'm just so used to Lex fondling phallic objects that it barely even registers anymore. Pool cues, swords, long-necked water bottles, telescopes, guns... It'd be more remarkable if Lex WASN'T fondling a phallic object.

( And not to change the subject, but can I bitch about Blue for a second? )

Anyway, after our evening of squee, Kass sent me a couple SGA recs for fics that relate to the pilot. I sent her a link to my favorite post-Hug story: Impact, by Livia. But that's got me thinking about which other episodes I'll show her, as well as what she should read.

( Help me, SV fen. What are the essential SV fics? )

On a separate note, happy Thanksgiving to the Americans, and happy latter-part-of-the-week to the non-Americans. We have actual SNOW here. A couple inches of the stuff, that is turning to slush even now. Lucky us.

kassrachel pointed out this article about a new Joss Whedon TV series starring Eliza Dushku. That’s just nifty.

2) I’ve just listened to a cover of “Don’t Fear The Reaper” by Nick Cave and Enya. It was wrong in many, many ways. But still, the fact that Nick Cave and Enya entered a recording studio together -- and the world didn’t end, despite the coming together of musical matter and anti-matter -- is really kind of cool. Even if the results of their collaboration are scarier than this reaper I’m not supposed to fear.

3) So I go offline for two weeks, and J.K. Rowling outs Dumbledore. (Coincidence? Yeah, probably.) There’s an interesting essay in the NYTimes about Dumbledore’s sexuality and whether or not it matters (you’ll have to register with the Times to read it, but it’s free). I’m particularly intrigued by this paragraph:

Her heroes are the hybrids, the misfits, those of mixed blood, all bearing scars of loss and love: the half-giant Hagrid, the mudblood Hermione (whose parents were not wizards), the poverty-stricken Ron, the orphaned Harry. Perhaps speaking of Dumbledore as gay was just a matter of creating another diverse rebel against orthodoxy.

Go down the ranks of the Order of the Phoenix and you get yet more examples: the werewolf Lupin, the uncertainly gendered Tonks, the estranged-from-his-evil-family-and-wrongly-imprisoned-for-twelve-years Sirius, etc. So far, so good. But it seems to me – and I preface this by saying that I’ve never been into Potterverse slash, so I don’t have a vested interest in proving this one way or the other – but anyway, it seems to me like this is all an eloquent argument in favor of the gayness of Draco. ( Cut for VERY vague DH spoilers. )

4) I watched SV 7.04 and 7.05 -- "Cure" and "Action" -- yesterday. Holy crap, Smallville! Two really good episodes in a row! With clever plots and juicy Clex scenes and seriously fascinating canonical meta! Dare I hope that this is a trend? ( Some spoilery comments follow. )

5) “Action” has inspired a wee little addition to my 69 Love Songs project. It’s a bit dopey, I admit. But it had to be done. (I am, as always, Lex’s bitch.)

( Love Song #34: My Only Friend )
***

1) I have signed up for

yuletide this year. Which was possibly foolish of me, but I'm going to assume that it'll be fun. If nothing else, stretching to write in a fandom I'm not used to ought to be interesting. I think I offered 8 fandoms, only one of which I've dabbled in previously. The people who offer dozens upon dozens blow my mind.

2) I saw last night's SV! Like, on TV and everything! The night that it aired! This is entirely thanks to the generosity of

kassrachel, who was even game enough to sit through it with me while I tried to explain who these people were and what was going on. Of course, it was quite late in the evening by the time we watched it, and I'd had a couple glasses of wine, so my mind was not what I'd call razor-sharp. But ( cutting for spoilers... )

3) Also last night, Kass and I ran into an old friend of ours, a guy who was my dearest friend and practically the center of my world when I was 18. We gradually drifted apart in the years after that, and I hadn't seen him or been in touch with him at all in more than 9 years. He's now a theatrical designer -- in every possible sense of "theatrical" -- and talking to him, I was struck by how it's like talking to a blend of the guy I used to know and Darren Nichols (link goes to YouTube, so may be NSFW). He kind of always had the Darren Nichols thing going on, to some degree, but now it's, er, blossomed. It was very, very hard to keep from giggling once I figured out who he was reminding me of.

4) I was away from home and computer-less for much of this week, and on Monday I'm leaving for a two-week trip during which I shall also be computer-less. Hence my absence from all sorts of nifty and/or wanky fandom things. Le sigh. I'll be more communicative in November, I swear.

Ah, Smallville. You're a big colorful comic book -- so very silly, and yet so awesome. I can't help loving you.

Assorted thoughts on season 7, so far:

( Jimmy )

( Chloe and Lois )

( Clark )

( Kara )

( Lex )

( The new baddies )

( And finally )

If I were in charge over at SV, this is how things would go from here: ( Season 7 probably won't go like this, but it should. )

Obviously I'm not going to hold my breath for any of this to happen, but it would make me really happy if it did.

Firstly, I am using this icon just because I find it really funny, and I don't think I've had a chance to use it yet.

Secondly, I totally had not realized (until seeing other people's posts) that Smallville was starting up again this week. It's been entertaining reading about people's hopes (and fears) for season 7. ~~At some point very soon I mean to write up my own.~~ ETA: I've just posted mine over here. But first--

I've been thinking about it, and trying to remember if SV has a single major character who has not died, or been presumed dead, or been very nearly dead, at least once. ( I'm cutting for spoilers through season 6. )

I’ve watched the episode again, and man, that’s some good television. I’ve got some more thoughts on the way it plays with images from prior episodes, as well as the visual symbolism of certain scenes, and finally some speculation about what the rest of this season will hold, all of which I’m putting behind a cut( because I’m nice that way )

I've just watched the last four episodes of SV (Promise, Combat, Progeny, Nemesis) all in a row. And, um, wow. ( Cut for spoilers. )

And now it is late, and I'm heading for bed, having thoroughly enjoyed my evening in the happy place.

This episode was so damn much fun! ( It was better than cookies. )

I've been reading through the responses to

norwich36's "Change one thing about SV" game, and there's a lot of discussion about Jonathan and Martha, relative parenting styles of, and it got me thinking. ( thinkthinkthink, with S6 spoilers )

(Okay, first of all, I need some Oliver icons. Where can I find them?)

Having finally seen Wither and Arrow, some thoughts: ( cut for spoilers )

Better late than never with the episode reactions, right?

( Squeefulness (of which there is much) )
( Meta-ness )

Okay, first of all, HOW DOES THIS EPISODE END? My download cuts off the ending; ( here's what I've got: )

Botched ending aside, ( here are my thoughts on the episode. )

Okay, I didn't build up to anything coherent there, but there's so much interesting stuff in this episode, and I'm still digesting it.

Can I also say how much fun it is to be able to watch and discuss this with y'all while it's actually fresh? Because it really and totally is. Squee! :-)

supacat got me thinking about Clark and maturity, and

bop_radar has got me thinking about tragedy, and I'm seeing some overlap that I think I'll explore here. (Don't expect coherent conclusions, just an unpacking of stuff that's on my mind.) ( meta ramblings under the cut )

bop_radar had a wonderfully thoughtful post recently about this long article about "queer secrecy" in SV. And boppy had a bunch of smart things to say, and the article is an interesting if frustrating read (a little repetitive and laden with academic jargon), and I don't have coherent conclusions but just thought I'd add a few thoughts.

( Cut for rambly philosophizing )

I just watched "Spiderman." (I saw it when it came out, but this is the first time I've watched it since then.) And over the last couple weeks I've seen the original "Superman" movie, and "Superman Returns." And we all know I've seen a lot of "Smallville." So I suppose it makes sense that I've got superheroes on the brain.

Watching "Spiderman" tonight, though, it was striking me that at some point in recent years there's been this cultural shift, so that what excites audiences now is deeply conflicted superheroes. Peter Parker isolates himself emotionally because Spiderman's enemies will target the people he cares for. And we're not supposed to read him as stoic and manly; his isolation makes us pity him, this incredibly powerful figure who sees no choice but to wall himself off. Along similar lines, in both "Superman Returns" and "Smallville," it's not the alien superpowers that make Superman a compelling character; it's the fact that he's also living this human life but he can't let anybody get close to him. Obviously "Smallville" focuses on this more, since it's about who Clark Kent is before he becomes Superman. The show presents us with this young guy who desperately wants to love and be loved, but he can never stop hiding who he is. "Superman Returns" comes at it from the other end; here we see a Superman who's apparently resigned to keeping himself aloof from humanity, but he still has a recognizably human longing for love. The movie's Clark Kent is a bumbling goofball, but his sadness and loneliness are visible to anyone who's looking.

Contrast this with the original movie. The 1978 Superman didn't angst about his split identity; sure, he had a little chagrin over the fact that Lois swooned over Superman and thought Clark Kent was a dork, but it was played for laughs, a comedy of errors. Thinking back a little farther (not that I'm by any means a scholar of these things), I don't recall the biff!pow!Batman of the old tv show doing all that much brooding, or for that matter any pre-1990ish superhero having this kind of existential angst.

But it seems really common now. Every recent superhero (or quasi-superhero) movie I can think of deals with these same themes of isolation, alienation, and the price of power. Even Lord of the Rings fits this model, in which a character is required to sacrifice his humanity in order to take on super-human responsibilities. Contemporary pop culture is full of physically powerful, emotionally crippled characters. Why?

Seriously, what happened? I'm fascinated by this trend, but what's causing it? We used to like our heroes unassailably heroic; why is it that we now want them to be emotional wrecks?

The only partial explanation I can come up with is that studios have started deliberately targeting the female audience for their action thrillers, at least more than they used to, and therefore they're giving us heroes who are in touch with their feelings, or who just need someone to love them. (Which, as a rationale, degrades both sexes, and I don't mean to imply that I'm endorsing this view; it's just that, from a marketing standpoint, there may be something here.) But that can't be all.

I'm quite certain that most of you denizens of LJ-land know a lot more about this than I do. So I'm asking. Why all the angsty superheroes nowadays?

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March 2012

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Entries tagged with smallville meta

catching up

Memery

yet another random question

Um. Oops?

Fandom Exchange Program

Happy Thursday things. And a ficlet!

various

reactions to SV 7.01 & 7.02

If I ran the zoo...

Smallville: Home of the Grim Reaper

More thoughts on Nemesis

SV, 6.16-6.19

Hydro!

thinky thought of the day

Green is the new purple.

SV 6.02 -- Sneeze

Zod!

today's deep thought: time

Get meta with me

superhero meta