Feeling verbose
May. 15th, 2003 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsallovernowI have revised and sent back to beta. Therefore I'm feeling virtuous and accomplished, and talkative, not that me running off at the mouth should come as a surprise.
Nina Totenberg was interviewing Sandra Day O'Connor yesterday, and I was struck by several things. First of all, how remarkable it is, that after and eight year Democratic run, we still only have one other woman on the Supreme Court, as well as the fact that Justice O'Connor was appointed by a conservative Republican in 1981. I find that amzing. I do admire Justice O'Connor, for the work she has done and the role she has played, even if I haven't always agreed with her positions, her politics or her views. She stepped into a job she knew she wasn't prepared for, as part of a political machine trying to garner support from an emerging part of the voting population, and has always conducted herself with grace and dignity.
At this point in my life, I find my self surprised at being able to hold someone with wildly different political views in high regard, but maybe that's a sign of maturity:)
This was also on NPRGood Morning Midnight:Life and Death in New England. Author Chip Brown has published a book on Guy Waterman, a former presidential speechwriter who started his life over in the middle of nowhere in Vermont. He committed suicide by exposure on the top of a mountain, with the willfull if unhappy complicity of his wife. He was haunted by the dissappearances of two of his sons, and felt that he had contributed to their own unhappiness. He climbed to the top of the mountain, his pack containing stuffed animals, a canteen and a book, and left words from Paradise Lost in his wake.
This story just broke my heart. This man, so filled with agony, with a need to control his life and death, choosing his way out, planning it for a year, and going up a mountain to die alone because of his failures. This sounds really depressing, and believe me, it is, but it is also unbelievably poignant.
And, echoing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
haphazardmethod
LATP - It's a great two parter stuck inside a good trilogy. It's also got some of the best episode titles - A Kiss is Just A Kiss, The Maltese Crichton, come on, these are genius:) The first episode is an incredible set up, and although the payoff doesn't quite match that, nonetheless, there is lots to love.
My favorite moment of the trilogy, aside from the final scene, is the moment between John and Aeryn, right after he talks to D'Argo. Aeryn, still painfully obtuse to his fear, is happy that he's fighting, trying to offer him her pride and praise, and he realizes that she just doesn't get it. She tells him to run away, but can't bring herself to say "With Me", which would have been the ultimate temptation for John. And he accepts his fate, accepts his fears, and the consequences of Aeryn's limitations and his position, and gives in. He's not facing more torture, he may be adding something good to the universe if his actions can maintain some sort of peace, and if he's giving up friends and family, well he's been in that position before. At least this way , he won't die. And Aeryn, standing there, angry and hurt and confused, still doesn't get it, and leaves him. He curls up into a ball and it is just so painful.
I don't want to get involved in the discussions about Season 4, about people's dislikes and disappointments for a variety of reasons. Some of this is just lack of agreement. I enjoyed Season 4 thoroughly, still think it was one of the best things on TV. It was flawed, and I definitely have issues with certain things, but I'm not really ready to talk about them. Yes, there are things I'd like to slap the writer's up the side of the head for, but at least I wanted to keep watching.
For the most part, this is because I think a lot of the reaction - and indeed I think a lot of the backlash towards Buffy right now echoes this - has to do with the cancellation. I don't think that people's annoyances or dismay, or any of that are only about the ending of either series, but I think it feeds into it. Knowing that this is it, there's not going to be anymore, makes most human beings long for perfection, for everything they wanted to be answered. And kids, it just never happens. Not in TV, not in real life. When you say goodbye to a person, you always want it to be perfect and memorable and often it's just awkward and uncomfortable.
Not getting a Season 5 meant that none of our issues or concerns or problems could ever get resolved, we're left with what we've got, and even if everything had been perfect, there would still be that feeling of unsettledness, disquiet. Now, that doesn't excuse sloppy writing, or strange characterization, or poor planning. I'm not saying that.
However, look at the turnaround with Angel. I admit that I wasn't as enthusiastic about this season as other people, but the writer's did manage to reinvest me in it after turning me off completely in Season 3. It can be done, and when looked at as a whole, will reconnect the viewer.
I really don't have a desire to discuss season 4 right now, and I'm not criticizing, or actually particulalry sympathizing with anyone's views, positive or negative. I'm having too much fun watching Farscape from the beginning:)
If I had to say anything, it would be to agree withthemoonbar and say that every show has a golden year, and for me it was Season 3, for a variety of reasons. It broke my heart, made me cry, made me laugh and always did the unexpected. The writer's couldn't have topped that, so for me Season 4 was like candy.
There was fantastic stuff, mediocre stuff, bad stuff, odd makeup choices, leather pants, juvenile humor, brilliance, strangeness, pain, resolution both heartbreakening and embarrasingly cheap, the shattering of boundaries, love, great characters, bondage, deus ex machina, giant plants, a walk on the moon, and I am happy to have watched it all.
Nina Totenberg was interviewing Sandra Day O'Connor yesterday, and I was struck by several things. First of all, how remarkable it is, that after and eight year Democratic run, we still only have one other woman on the Supreme Court, as well as the fact that Justice O'Connor was appointed by a conservative Republican in 1981. I find that amzing. I do admire Justice O'Connor, for the work she has done and the role she has played, even if I haven't always agreed with her positions, her politics or her views. She stepped into a job she knew she wasn't prepared for, as part of a political machine trying to garner support from an emerging part of the voting population, and has always conducted herself with grace and dignity.
At this point in my life, I find my self surprised at being able to hold someone with wildly different political views in high regard, but maybe that's a sign of maturity:)
This was also on NPRGood Morning Midnight:Life and Death in New England. Author Chip Brown has published a book on Guy Waterman, a former presidential speechwriter who started his life over in the middle of nowhere in Vermont. He committed suicide by exposure on the top of a mountain, with the willfull if unhappy complicity of his wife. He was haunted by the dissappearances of two of his sons, and felt that he had contributed to their own unhappiness. He climbed to the top of the mountain, his pack containing stuffed animals, a canteen and a book, and left words from Paradise Lost in his wake.
This story just broke my heart. This man, so filled with agony, with a need to control his life and death, choosing his way out, planning it for a year, and going up a mountain to die alone because of his failures. This sounds really depressing, and believe me, it is, but it is also unbelievably poignant.
And, echoing
haphazardmethodLATP - It's a great two parter stuck inside a good trilogy. It's also got some of the best episode titles - A Kiss is Just A Kiss, The Maltese Crichton, come on, these are genius:) The first episode is an incredible set up, and although the payoff doesn't quite match that, nonetheless, there is lots to love.
My favorite moment of the trilogy, aside from the final scene, is the moment between John and Aeryn, right after he talks to D'Argo. Aeryn, still painfully obtuse to his fear, is happy that he's fighting, trying to offer him her pride and praise, and he realizes that she just doesn't get it. She tells him to run away, but can't bring herself to say "With Me", which would have been the ultimate temptation for John. And he accepts his fate, accepts his fears, and the consequences of Aeryn's limitations and his position, and gives in. He's not facing more torture, he may be adding something good to the universe if his actions can maintain some sort of peace, and if he's giving up friends and family, well he's been in that position before. At least this way , he won't die. And Aeryn, standing there, angry and hurt and confused, still doesn't get it, and leaves him. He curls up into a ball and it is just so painful.
I don't want to get involved in the discussions about Season 4, about people's dislikes and disappointments for a variety of reasons. Some of this is just lack of agreement. I enjoyed Season 4 thoroughly, still think it was one of the best things on TV. It was flawed, and I definitely have issues with certain things, but I'm not really ready to talk about them. Yes, there are things I'd like to slap the writer's up the side of the head for, but at least I wanted to keep watching.
For the most part, this is because I think a lot of the reaction - and indeed I think a lot of the backlash towards Buffy right now echoes this - has to do with the cancellation. I don't think that people's annoyances or dismay, or any of that are only about the ending of either series, but I think it feeds into it. Knowing that this is it, there's not going to be anymore, makes most human beings long for perfection, for everything they wanted to be answered. And kids, it just never happens. Not in TV, not in real life. When you say goodbye to a person, you always want it to be perfect and memorable and often it's just awkward and uncomfortable.
Not getting a Season 5 meant that none of our issues or concerns or problems could ever get resolved, we're left with what we've got, and even if everything had been perfect, there would still be that feeling of unsettledness, disquiet. Now, that doesn't excuse sloppy writing, or strange characterization, or poor planning. I'm not saying that.
However, look at the turnaround with Angel. I admit that I wasn't as enthusiastic about this season as other people, but the writer's did manage to reinvest me in it after turning me off completely in Season 3. It can be done, and when looked at as a whole, will reconnect the viewer.
I really don't have a desire to discuss season 4 right now, and I'm not criticizing, or actually particulalry sympathizing with anyone's views, positive or negative. I'm having too much fun watching Farscape from the beginning:)
If I had to say anything, it would be to agree with
themoonbar and say that every show has a golden year, and for me it was Season 3, for a variety of reasons. It broke my heart, made me cry, made me laugh and always did the unexpected. The writer's couldn't have topped that, so for me Season 4 was like candy. There was fantastic stuff, mediocre stuff, bad stuff, odd makeup choices, leather pants, juvenile humor, brilliance, strangeness, pain, resolution both heartbreakening and embarrasingly cheap, the shattering of boundaries, love, great characters, bondage, deus ex machina, giant plants, a walk on the moon, and I am happy to have watched it all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-05-15 12:53 pm (UTC)Yes, a thousand times yes. Every time I try to pull my thoughts about Season 4 into words, I drift off in so many directions.
There's so much to say, things I loved, things I hated and so much in between and it's all tied up with all the unrelated things and I don't know where to begin so I just been letting it all spin around in my head.
In the end, when it all spins down into something I can hold in my hand (if not describe), I loved it.
Re:
Date: 2003-05-15 01:57 pm (UTC)In the end, when it all spins down into something I can hold in my hand (if not describe), I loved it.
Yes, yes, absolutely. And thank you. I agree whole heartedly. There are so many things looped together with my reactions, and what I'm left with isn't sorrow or anger but love and adoration, along with many hysterical repressed (ok, not so repressed) snorting noises:)
BTW - May I kidnap you and force you to make icons for me?:)