sundries, totally personal edition

[rm]

Today I went shopping for clothes for my headshot and compcard shoot on Wednesday. I bought my first pair of blue jeans in at least 20 years, and a bunch of tight, ribbed tank tops that make me look about 24 and like I should be on BSG and like I could beat the shit out of you, which was pretty much the plan there. I also bought an olive-green t-shirt (to bring out my hazel eyes, apparently) a cute little nautical theme cropped sweater, a cute little army-esque cropped jacket, a floor length eggplant skirt that can be bustled like woah, a black business shirt and a grey and white stripped woman's dress shirt. All for under $200. I will spend the next 48 hours practicing my smile in the mirror. You think I'm joking. YOU ARE SO WRONG.

Last night Patty and I saw Sam Mendes's production As You Like It at BAM. I really, really enjoyed it (except for that point I always hit with all Shakespeare's comedies where I'm like "I get it, everyone is confused and now they have to fix the mess, FOR FUCK'S SAKE FIX THE MESS ALREADY"). It was very, very Sam though. Central artistic blood spatter? Check. A bunch of red doors? check. Sexualized violence between men? check. I love Sam's work, as a rule though, so I was cool with it, but I suspect it was slightly bewildering to people that aren't fans of his films and were like "um, this is a COMEDY?" Also, Rosalind in male garb was wearing a slightly baggy khaki suit and she was quite blond, and I kept thinking she looked like John Simm. For this I may be going to hell.

After, we ate at L'Express and then went home and finished watching season 1 of Buffy. It's already reaching the point where I look at Patty sometimes and go "that's so Joss." It's a really, really good show, but I'm already sort of conscious of how his formulas are more well-suited to this show than his subsequent projects with which I am familiar.

A thinky thought about Torchwood fandom I had at redstapler during brunch today: Fanfiction is, arguably, largely a Watsonian pursuit. That is, we commit fic, often and in part, to solve issues within the canon as if they are true things within the canon (not a matter of writer error or external interpretation). When Ianto was killed off, large swathes of fandom, not wanting to have to reconcile this as a (Watsonian) truth, immediately switched into a Doylist mode of reaction by trying to analyze what the creators were thinking. Both the Doylist and Watsonian perspectives are, of course, totally useful and interesting, but the Doylist perspective abruptly crashing down on an already emotionally overwhelmed fandom didn't make life more comfortable for anyone, and left (I say this, as a fairly committed Watsonian on all matters) the Watsonians going "Look, we're really sad, but all the controversy amongst the various Doylist factions (was Ianto fridged/is RTD homophobic/didi GDL want off the show/is this about Torchwood America/ad infinitum) is really stressing us out!" Personally, it's still sort of weirding me out, but now that I have this framework, I'm a happier clam.

Looking at someone's pitch for something. I'm often too envious and jealous to do it, but there are a few friends I have what I call "professional poly" relationships with -- i.e., we do the same sort of stuff, but more success for them makes me happy even if it's on my turf and we might even be competitors. Anyway, helping other people take over the world is fun.

Comments

[better-late24.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly baffled by your lack of jeans! Outside of work, I LIVE in jeans. I'm not sure what I would default to, otherwise.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute. Rosalind? That would be As You Like It, not Much Ado.

But I'm so glad you're watching Buffy. But I'm curious about the Watson/Doyle framework you're describing, the difference between author and narrator.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you, brain fart.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Your post is bringing out the English professor in me. I shall ponder.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The Watsonian/Doylist thing is like my favorite thing ever. Instead of "what is this authorial error" it's like "okay, this is true for this world, now we have to decide how/why."

It's actually more _fun_ (I suppose this is why I do fanfic) in properties with a lot of odd contradictions from authors. It's like I can bemoan JKR's editors or I can try to figure out why Lucius Malfoy has two birthdays. What in the wizarding world makes this so. I'm much more interested in the second problem than the first.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

When Ianto was killed off, large swathes of fandom, not wanting to have to reconcile this as a (Watsonian) truth, immediately switched into a Doylist mode of reaction by trying to analyze what the creators were thinking. Both the Doylist and Watsonian perspectives are, of course, totally useful and interesting, but the Doylist perspective abruptly crashing down on an already emotionally overwhelmed fandom didn't make life more comfortable for anyone, and left (I say this, as a fairly committed Watsonian on all matters) the Watsonians going "Look, we're really sad, but all the controversy amongst the various Doylist factions (was Ianto fridged/is RTD homophobic/didi GDL want off the show/is this about Torchwood America/ad infinitum) is really stressing us out!"

I think for me (and probably for a lot of others), the reason I have trouble accepting Ianto's death as "truth" is because his death had this sense of what I can only describe as "wrongness" about it, from a narrative perspective. It felt like he was killed before his story was finished, which I thinks the broader thematic shift in CoE, which changed a show that was about hope in tragedy to a show about hopelessness (and I know you don't see it that way, but I think it's undeniable that plenty of people -- probably a majority -- think CoE was pretty damn hopeless). "The end is where we start from" became a lie. And because we're enculturated to believe that stories tells us some sort of transcendental truth (even if we know better intellectually), it becomes difficult or impossible (depending on the person) for many people to accept the event that encapsulates that lie (ie, Ianto's death) as any sort of "truth".

And yeah, when you get thinking like this, it is pretty easy to start thinking in terms of "why did they tell us this lie?" And of course that leads to all sorts of speculation about motives and intentions, etc.

[better-late24.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with you on that. It sort of felt like a huge departure from the progression of the show and the "truths" that it had told us so far. And his death felt more like a plot device rather than a narrative about that character.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

which I thinks the broader thematic shift in CoE

That should be "which I think reflects the broader thematic shift in CoE". :P (The comment got a reply before I could edit.)

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Which is the difference between the fan reading and the critical reading. The critical reading identifies the discrepancy; the fan reading attempts to explain it from within the narrative. It's why professors sometimes have to tell students to read like a critic rather than reading like a fan.

[jadegirl.livejournal.com]

Eggplant skirt that can be bustled? May I ask where you got it?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Forever 21!

[miep.livejournal.com]

and this is why I hate literary criticism, which seems to do anything it can to divorce the reader from the narrative world.

I'm much happier analyzing fairy tales and folklore.

[darklingwoods.livejournal.com]

ahh, think I understand now, when I blink and say "But Jack wouldn't say that.. and my husband looks at me and says "He just did" I'm being a Doylist.

I'm a newbie in this fandom and is it ever a painful one!

And strangely enough we are watching Buffy now from season one (my girls and I) we love Firefly and decided to give a go.

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

I'm, like, a total Watsonian who is able to step back and look at the Doylian framework. Like, I can go "this is how tv works and this and this are why what you want is impossible", rather than "OMG EVERYONE IS HOMOPHOBIC". (Though I'm slightly more open to the idea that CoE was homophobic on the Doylian level now. :/)

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

Totally agree.

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

lol I feel like I would have done that a lot during CoE except that I was already analysing why he said it by the time he finished saying it!

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

I almost exclusively wear long (preferably ankle-length) skirts. Sometimes I wear black trousers instead. This is slightly odd considering how genderqueer I am, you'd think I'd wear more gender-neutral clothing.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I'm so amused by your lack of jeans on account that I basically live in them. I think I'm waiting to be ready to just jump past khakis entirely and into lovely trousers. Budget fail.

You're making me want to rewatch Buffy.

Fanfiction is, arguably, largely a Watsonian pursuit. That is, we commit fic, often and in part, to solve issues within the canon as if they are true things within the canon (not a matter of writer error or external interpretation).

Oddly, that's almost entirely how I've always approached Torchwood's canon material, both as a fanwriter and in my interpretation. People are irrational in real life, their behaviors are fluid, etc. I can, in general, account for the things that seem weird from an outside perspective by approaching them within canon.

I also think your thought about CoE may be spot on. Something so jarring makes a person ask why, and when the answer is basically that death is no respecter of persons, and there's something else to ask...

[nehmet.livejournal.com]

I must take you shopping with me. Clearly you possess great mojo.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Something so jarring makes a person ask why, and when the answer is basically that death is no respecter of persons, and there's something else to ask...

You know, out here in the non-fictional world, when epopel die, those left behind sometimes rail against god. In the athiestic world of the Whoniverse (which remains bizarre because of things like Abaddon and The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit and at least half of what they've done with the Ood -- but officially, there is no God), there's no God to yell at. Step out into a Doylist perspective and there's RTD as the target of everyone's formerly Watsonian "death isn't fair!"

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Ayup.

Which, frankly, is sort of amusing to watch when people are talking about how much RTD doesn't matter in one hand, and freaking out about ZOMGRTD in the other.

And now I'm sort of terrified that somewhere out there is a fandom Richard Dawkins for me to facepalm at. Oh dear.