sundries (and long TW stopwatch theory)

[rm]

- Patty's mom is in town. Tonight we are going to see The Fantasticks. Tomorrow she leaves for Ohio, to return when I get back from Chicago. We'll also buy our Atlanta tickets tonight.

- Wow, three killer FSTs on my friends list this morning. rox0r.

- Hey, Nick Cave is playing a gig here on my birthday. There's half a plan.

- As per usual, you are owed a long fencing post. Next 24 hours.

- Also, if you've friended me in the last week or so, I'm doing maintenance in the next 24 hours or so, which means getting all those adds sorted in. So hello and welcome, almost.

- Would it be rude to make a list of songs/artists I really wish people would stop making fanvids to? Because seriously, the shitty love theme from your prom does not, actually, say Jack/Ianto all over.

- So I've been rewatching season 1 of Torchwood. It's a much better/shocking/different season after you've seen season 2. Either the writers are brilliant or completely out of their goddamn minds (and sloppy to boot). Anyway, I thought They Keep Killing Suzie was shocking the first time. It's even more shocking once you've gotten through the end of season 2. It also makes a shitload more sense.

Point 1: Jesus, most disturbing use of Gorecki. I'd forgotten that that's where that song (on my Torchwood playlist on my iPod) was used in the series. And at first it's all Jack being moony about Gwen, and I'm just like "oh whatever!" but it reads as creepy. Is it Jack being into her or does Gwen have a role in the greater machinations of the universe? But then of course it cuts to that business with him and Ianto in the morgue.

Point 2: Okay, I think I finally know what's going on with the stopwatch thing, or at least have a read on that interaction that makes sense with both season 1 and season 2 and Lisa. I think they were screwing before the Lisa thing happened. Then I think at some point after it Jack came on to Ianto out of a desire for angry, comfort or let's-be-friends-again sex (I'm guessing not angry just from the tone of this thing) and Ianto turned him down, probably in that cold Ianto Feels No Pain But Is a Lying Liar Who Lies bullshit way that's so infuriating. And somewhere in there, or more probably, back when they were screwing, at some point Jack had made some random crack about the stopwatch -- just one of the endless dumb remarks that has come out of his mouth, and then he forgot all about it. Ianto, of course, remembers everything (canonical Mary Sue trait!) and so awkwardly uses the reference to try to approach Jack with a distraction when Jack's in pain because OMG, hi, can Jack have a relationship with anyone that isn't a codependent mess? But Jack, of course, having forgotten the initial remark, is just confused. On the other hand, he gets to fuck the cute office boy again, score.

Point 3: The above said, there's a profound wariness and menace in this moment, actually, and not, I don't think, just because they are standing over Suzie's body. I generally roll my eyes at the idea that Ianto is going to turn evil (thanks, GDL) or that he's really a Time Lord (some awesome fic to that effect aside), but watching this again, combined with the sketchy Ianto backstory from Fragments and I am kinda left thinking there is some big, fucked up reveal coming about him. Which is pretty interesting when you consider the things we've been told about the next season of Torchwood -- it's the most awful, agonizing situation they've dealt with yet; it involves tons of Ianto backstory (we've heard this from JB, GDL and the writers now); it may involve Jack backstory; the writers who have made any noise on the 'shipping wars are very pro Jack/Ianto. Does that feel like a recipe for doom or what? That said, I really, really like Ianto as just a scary, bright, damaged, ordinary mortal human guy, and really hope the show doesn't fuck that shit up.

Comments

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Costello's an Irish surname. I think she comes from an Anglo-Indian family ie that Grandfather Costello was out in the Raj before Independence (probably as a soldier stationed there, quite possibly during and even before WWII) and married a local girl, as did his son, and that there's a lot of messed up post-Colonialism in there (let's say that Papa Costello is a fervent Republican if not IRA supporter, harking back to his roots in County Mayo, and Mama Costello loathes the British with a passion because her father was one of Jinnah's most fervent adherents and got appallingly treated during the days of the Raj and Suzie insists on going off the Oxford and gets a job right in the heart of the British Establishment (Torchwood, after all, is a Crown corporation).

I mean, this is British TV after all. Why go to the trouble of having child abuse screw someone over when the class system and relations between the various constituent parts of the UK are so likely to do a better job?

[antelope-writes.livejournal.com]

Something else along those lines, if you look at family portraits from the Raj era, it's not actually that uncommon to see somebody who is clearly from somewhere in India, usually married to a (wealthy) younger son. The class system may have been snobs, but a "foreign princess" (or raja's daughter) with money managed to squeak through most of the time, especially the ones who were fair.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes; have you read Jan Morris's Fisher's Face? Admiral Jackie Fisher always claimed to be descended from a a Javanese Princess (and, for that matter, Winston Churchill's mother claimed to be 1/4 Iroquois)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Re: the Goa thing - very true, but I've never heard of a S. Asian person with Costello as a last name.

I suppose one could also go the self-loathing Freddie Mercury route, and assume that she hates herself for her Indian-ness and has thus changed her name.

But basically, I actually think it's just weird race-blindness that the TW writers did not really think through when they named her, and it drives me mad.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Or they named her and the casting thing happened after (in which case, they should have renamed her, I think).

And wait, Freddie Mercury, WHAT?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Born Faroukh Bulsara, I believe. His family's from Gujarat. He even went to boarding school in Bombay. Only moved to England @ 17. Changed his name, etc etc.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. I had no idea. That's sort of heartbreaking (and Freddie Mercury was already heartbreaking).

Your people. Damn.

Some Family History, Somewhat Relevant.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Some Anglo-Indian families lived for generations in (British) India, only leaving after WWII/Independence.
When the latter left, their passports were stamped Non Resident by te new government.
My mother refuses to apply for a visa to visit a country she was born in, out of simple stubbornness.