"tangled up in blue..."

[hermionesviolin]

So everyone’s back at Smith now, right? Though almost everyone I care about had already returned -- or wouldn't be returning this year (e.g. Liz-in-Germany, Class of '05, etc.). (Come to think of it, anyone know if Lez is back this semester?)

I miss Smith people. And they miss me, which is something I’m still getting used to.

Late-night AIM conversations are bad ‘cause I have to get up at 6:20am. (Yeah, beat that, bitches.) I think I might actually crash tonight, which will hopefully get my body back into a normal sleep cycle. The problem is that I like the people whom I actually like, and realtime conversation is nice, so unless I’m seriously tired I’m probably not gonna cut latenight IMs short.

Paige mentioned my big crossover fic and damn, the dark and the allusion-making!River... I hadn’t realized how similar this is to the darkfic I just wrote -- probably ‘cause I wrote the crossover back in March.

We talked about Sessions (duh, I hadn’t realized the first and final released sessions were halves of the same session). I need to watch them in numbered order now instead of release order. And I’d forgotten what it would be like to watch them not knowing the canon, to not know the extent of what they do to her.

wisdomeagle wrote Dawn/Tara and reading the comments has been funny ‘cause so many are surpriseish and (a) Dawn and Tara are the biggest sluts on my recs page (with Lilah possibly tying -- oh, it occurs to me that I should figure out a way to include poly and crossover stories on the character pages) and I primarily femslash both of them (though my Tara -- and Dawn -- is BI!), (b) I read Dawn/Tara as practically canon at least in so far as Dawn has a crush on Tara and they have a very close, tender relationship, (c) I will never forgive Willow for S6, so breaking up Willow/Tara is totally not a problem for me, because after probably “Tabula Rasa” I thought Tara was too good for Willow and actively did not want them together (unless Willow reformed, which she didn’t, and now I don’t want them together period). I’m actually trying really hard not to character assassinate Willow in the fic I’m currently working on, particularly because I recently read Teach Me to Hear the Mermaids Singing and felt like the author too easily turned Anya into a nasty character to get her out of the way of the romantic pairing the author wanted.

My parents finished watching Firefly on Monday. I came in for bits and pieces of “Heart of Gold” and sat the whole of “Objects in Space” and then we watched the special features, most of which I hadn’t myself seen before.

My dad asked if the deleted scenes were considered canon. *hearts my geek family*

Joss said that knowing you could be canceled at any moment is good -- not good for your digestion or good for your marriage, but it forces you to focus on the stories you most wanna tell. He called the show a “jewel” and I wondered, If not for that pressure, would we have had the intensely brilliant show we had? Would the quality have been as solid as it was?

Dude, Angie Hart [whose song “Blue” opened the BtVS ep “Conversations With Dead People”] played one of the religious whores in “Heart of Gold.” The blonde one who sings at the end.

And speaking of the end: I have long complained that having two funerals one after the other (the end of “The Message” and the end of “Heart of Gold”) lessens the impact, but watching the end with my parents this time, and I’m sure affected by my mother’s repeated insistent “But she can’t leave,” I realized that the tragic impact we are truly supposed to care about here is Inara, which I think I can get behind. And dude, lest anyone wonder from whence comes my spoilerphobicness? My mom won’t let me say whether Inara’s in the movie.

I’ve mostly just been coming in and out while my parents watched my DVDs, but this time ‘round I noticed even more than I had when I marathoned with Rachel and Jonah that I actually like Jayne. For the longest time he was the one character that I really had no love for. Sure he provided comic relief, but he was brainless and brutish and yeah, ways to totally not win me at all. But I liked Jayne full-stop this time. I think because I read him as human, and seeing him as complex and vulnerable and all that makes me actually like him. Oh, and after having seen The Dive from Clausen’s Pier I am far more susceptible to the hotness of Sean Maher (to whom I had been previously indifferent).

Okay, that picture I was wondering about? Gotta be the same artist who did the Australian Serenity poster.

*loves*

mosca on the icon pairing meme:
      2. Ani Difranco/Anya
      Not only could it happen, but there are several albums that it might explain.

Beautiful icons with Leonard Cohen lyrics.

Ann Althouse quotes a NYT article on the winner of China’s version of American Idol ("Super Girl"):

[Li Yuchun], 21, is almost the antithesis of the assembly-line beauties regularly offered up on the government's China Central Television, or CCTV. Tall and gangly, with a thatch of frizzy hair, the adjectives most used to describe her in the media were "boyish" or "androgynous." Some commentators speculated that her fan base consisted of young girls who considered her to be their "boyfriend" because of her appearance.

The first commenter says, "a butch woman is seen as a romantic interest by enough young girls that that was the reason she won a popularity contest? Assuming the commentators weren't total idiots (though they probably are), it would suggest China won't have an overpopulation problem in a generation or so."

Ann replies: "Maybe androgyny is becoming popular because young men are trying to find a way to have sexual relationships. Li really is a woman but she looks boyish. That may help a young heterosexual man find a way to see other men as suitable sexual partners."

---

So, um doyle_sb4 linked to a SomethingAwful.net thread called "Things You've Learned About Your Fandom Thanks to Badfic" and I got sucked in. It’s almost entirely about anime, which meant I could skip over most of it, which was probably a blessing.

Snippets I particularly enjoyed:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:
* There was no book. There was no original movie. There is only Johnny Depp.
(posted by Baelish)

ST Voyager:
B'Elanna would love to wear lacy dresses. Tom would, too.
Harry thinks about wearing lacy dresses, but is too scared to try one on.
Tuvok exists whenever he's in Ponn Farr and needs to bonk immediately or die, which happens about every few weeks dues to a recurring spatial anomaly.
(posted by Dama47)

Newsies:
2. Just because you're selling newspapers in 1899 New York doesn't mean you can't be an American high-schooler a hundred or more years later.
(posted by Cecilia86)

---

So, Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died on Saturday and Bush quickly nominated John Roberts as his replacement. This is the same Roberts who’s been up for Sandra Day O’Connor’s spot, so I’m confused by people who are all, “Who is this guy and where can I find info on him?” (From a Yahoo article: "For the past two months members of the United States Senate and the American people have learned about the career and character of Judge Roberts," Bush said. "They like what they see." Whether you agree with Bush’s assessment or not, the media has in fact been discussing Roberts for quite some time now.)

---

Ann Althouse on why New Orleans is under sea level to begin with

commodorified talks about how relief organizations work and how to make your donation most effective, and damned_colonial talks more about specifying where your donation goes.

versailles_rose has a list of some NOLA landmarks and how they fared, via the Associated Press. And a couple days later: "Katrina doesn't cancel Southern Decadence parade"

---

OkCupid told me:
     You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive)
      and an... Economic Liberal (36% permissive)
     You are best described as a: Democrat
      You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.
*cries*

Comments

[wisdomeagle]

reading the comments has been funny ‘cause so many are surpriseish

I'm always surprised when people are surprised by *anything* fandom-wise.

(though my Tara -- and Dawn -- is BI!)

I need to write more het!Tara fic, I think, since I too think of her (and everyone else in the 'verse except possibly Andrew) as bi.

(b) I read Dawn/Tara as practically canon at least in so far as Dawn has a crush on Tara and they have a very close, tender relationship

I think of Dawn's crush on Tara as almost as canonical as her crush on Xander in S5.

I will never forgive Willow for S6, so breaking up Willow/Tara is totally not a problem for me, because after probably “Tabula Rasa” I thought Tara was too good for Willow and actively did not want them together (unless Willow reformed, which she didn’t, and now I don’t want them together period).

Fandom does weird things to my opinions about characters. Fandom hates Fred, which made me love her more, and fandom obsesses over Spike, which makes me totally indifferent to him, but fandom's big ol' problems with S6/7 Willow make me kind of dislike her and struggling to find the squeeful reaction that was my initial reading of her.

Joss said that knowing you could be canceled at any moment is good -- not good for your digestion or good for your marriage, but it forces you to focus on the stories you most wanna tell. He called the show “jewel” and I wondered, If not for that pressure, would we have had the intensely brilliant show we had? Would the quality have been as solid as it was?

Good point.

I realized that the tragic impact we are truly supposed to care about here is Inara, which I think I can get behind.

Hmm. "Heart of Gold" bugs me because Inara's crying in the corner squicked me on first viewing because the surface reading (which admittedly was later twisted back) is that she's crying over Mal sleeping with someone else, which, regardless of my issues with the 'ship, is not an Inara I can get behind. After realizing that what she's crying over is the realization that she has to leave everyone, not just Mal, it's a more tolerable moment but still annoys me, and the annoyance I have with the 'ship in general lessened the emotional impact of the whole episode for me.

Well, are you an economic liberal? Because it strikes me that you're very much a social liberal, though perhaps that's just me doing the usual equation of pro-queer=social liberal, but based on conversations I've had with you, it seems like the part of your personal politics that's most Republican/non-Democrat is your view of foreign policy.

gee, look, an overlong comment

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I need to write more het!Tara fic, I think

There are far more women than men whom I am interested in pairing Tara with, but I heart Spike/Tara (though less than I used to as S6-7 has receded into the distance and with it the pressing-ness of my issues with Buffy and her treatment of Spike) and think the possibilities of Tara&Ethan (especially of a darker Tara) are really interesting. The fic I'm writing in which I'm trying to be fair to Willow is a Giles/Tara. I think that exhausts my personal het!Tara options.

fandom's big ol' problems with S6/7 Willow make me kind of dislike her and struggling to find the squeeful reaction that was my initial reading of her.

I totally validate the squeeful reaction to early Willow, she just squanders it all for me in S6 (and 7).

"Heart of Gold" bugs me because Inara's crying in the corner squicked me on first viewing because the surface reading (which admittedly was later twisted back) is that she's crying over Mal sleeping with someone else, which, regardless of my issues with the 'ship, is not an Inara I can get behind. After realizing that what she's crying over is the realization that she has to leave everyone, not just Mal, it's a more tolerable moment but still annoys me, and the annoyance I have with the 'ship in general lessened the emotional impact of the whole episode for me.

My instinct is always to read it as her reacting to Mal sleeping with someone else (damn, where was that fanfic I read recently where HoG!Inara tries not to think about what it says about her that she cries over sex and not death) and I'm okay with that.

This is of course aided by the fact that I really like the potential of the Mal/Inara relationship -- their snark and banter and the occasional tenderness beneath that, and the way they fall for each other despite themselves.

The reading of "she's crying over is the realization that she has to leave" makes a lot of sense, and I think my reading of the scene tends to combine the two. Mal rags on her career of selling sex (there are hints that the whole Companion thing is almost a religious experience, but obviously Mal wouldn't give half a hump for that, would just see it as dressing up a trashy idea in fancy defenses) so I think the idea of him having casual sex really wounds her -- especially because she believes he has feelings for her, so for this man who so rarely lets anyone get close to have sex with another woman (especially one he isn't likely to see again) . . . . At the same time, the fact that she is so wounded by what feels to her like a betrayal from him is the proof that forces her hand, that shows her she has gotten too attached and things have gotten too complicated and she has to leave.

[wisdomeagle]

There are far more women than men whom I am interested in pairing Tara with,

For me, there are just far more Buffyverse women than men whom I'm interested in writing, full stop.

I think that exhausts my personal het!Tara options.

I, unsurprisingly, am willing to pair Tara with all the Buffyverse men I personally find attractive in some way, thus: Giles, Wesley, Xander, possibly Oz (though the fact that the Willow-in-the-middle in this pairing seems somewhat unavoidable makes me wish there were fic that explored this 'ship in the AU where Willow and Tara never got together).

This is of course aided by the fact that I really like the potential of the Mal/Inara relationship -- their snark and banter and the occasional tenderness beneath that, and the way they fall for each other despite themselves.

I didn't know that. Huh. I saw virtually no chemistry between them until watching the commentaries, when I realized there was supposed to be romantic tension, which just left me confused. Probably because in large part I like het!banter to remain platonic and because I have spillover canon!het issues from the Gateverse.

Mal rags on her career of selling sex, so I think the idea of him having casual sex really wounds her -- especially because she believes he has feelings for her, so for this man who so rarely lets anyone get close to have sex with another woman

Hmm! See, I'd never thought it through like that; I tend to think of it as sort of brutally unfair of Inara to have the double standard that it's okay for her to have sex with many people but Mal is expected to remain celibate and waiting for her even though as near as I can tell, she's made it pretty clear with repeated "won't service the crew" statements that she's not offering her sexuality to Mal. So while it might be a perfectly natural reaction it always strikes me as most unfair of her. Also, because I was literally het-blind to the chemistry between them till that point, it struck me as totally inconsistent with my characterization of Inara.

[vaguely spoilerish for the first two volumes of the comic] Oddly enough, I actually bought Inara/Mal in the comics, which makes me wonder if it was the acting that failed to convince me.[/spoilers]

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

For me, there are just far more Buffyverse women than men whom I'm interested in writing, full stop.

You know, I almost added a sentence

I, unsurprisingly, am willing to pair Tara with all the Buffyverse men I personally find attractive in some way, thus: Giles, Wesley, Xander, possibly Oz (though the fact that the Willow-in-the-middle in this pairing seems somewhat unavoidable makes me wish there were fic that explored this 'ship in the AU where Willow and Tara never got together).

I have like no interest in Xander. And while I think the Wesley character arc is possibly the greatest triumph of the ME team, I tend to not be too interested in reading/writing him -- for reasons including the fact that we got *so* much onscreen. Now that you mention Oz it occurs to me that I've written Tara/Oz (http://www.athenewriter.com/fic/familiarsmells.html). Twice (http://www.athenewriter.com/fic/beautyinthestones.html). I tend to have little interest in reading/writing Oz, though. Like, he's a cool idea but I'm like, "So, you're terse, and thus kinda profound, and you play guitar, and you're not big on the structured education, and you're pretty zen . . . and after that I got nothin.'"

I saw virtually no chemistry between them until watching the commentaries, when I realized there was supposed to be romantic tension, which just left me confused. Probably because in large part I like het!banter to remain platonic and because I have spillover canon!het issues from the Gateverse.

I tend to sexualize basically all relationships and see potential for 'shippiness everywhere.

Rewatching the series in order I was saddened that "Serenity" and "Train Job" had Inara/Kaylee as practically canon and then it was like "Look, het for everybody!" But I don't really have canon!het issues.

I tend to think of it as sort of brutally unfair of Inara to have the double standard that it's okay for her to have sex with many people but Mal is expected to remain celibate and waiting for her even though as near as I can tell, she's made it pretty clear with repeated "won't service the crew" statements that she's not offering her sexuality to Mal. So while it might be a perfectly natural reaction it always strikes me as most unfair of her.

I can see how her reaction would seem unfair. As I said, I read it as Inara holding Mal to what she saw Mal's standard of behavior as being, rather than holding him to her personal standard for herself. (Plus, man who rags on the whore thing every chance he gets suddenly going for a whore? That's gotta sting.)

I feel like we only see her "won't service the crew" statement in OOG. Mal makes a crack about it in "The Train Job" when she's brushing Kaylee's hair, but mostly it's just understood. Though I think she does say something to Book when she meets him in "Serenity." (Yes, I'm being lazy and not pulling up transcripts as I'm at work and don't have my bookmarks handy.)

I tend to think that "Shindig" made it pretty clear that Mal cares about Inara and OMR that Inara cares about Mal, but just as slashers sexualize ineractions "normal" people might read as platonic, I validate reading as platonic interactions the text intends as sexualized.

Will flag this e-mail to read&respond to the white-text after I've read the first two comics.

and the political portion of the reply

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Mostly I was pouty 'cause the quiz called me a Democrat.

based on conversations I've had with you, it seems like the part of your personal politics that's most Republican/non-Democrat is your view of foreign policy.

Which is partly because The War is one of the huge issues in contemporary discourse. I could be a raging liberal on absolutely everything, but the minute support for The War exits my mouth, I am teh evol. (Okay, I exaggerate. I just got frustrated with The War being the defining issue throughout college, particularly with the assumption that of course any person with at least half a brain and half a heart opposed the war, full-stop.)

I get really frustrated by the Let's Throw Money At It solution to problems -- which Republicans are doing with obnoxious frequency recently.

I once saw a button that said "Libertarian: Pro-Choice on Everything," and that pretty much sums up my approach to everything. I like free markets. I think education is hugely important in preventing all manner of badness and I think preventative measures are better deterrents not to mention cheaper in the long run. I find abortion morally repugnant but think the world is a better place with it as a safe option. I would like to see the drinking age abolished (or at least brought back down to 18) and the War on Drugs stopped, opting instead to legalize and then regulate drugs (making them safer for the consumer, plus making them part of the licit economy).

The queer thing is the most obvious thing that marks me as a liberal and is what most frequently makes me feel out of place when I'm around more traditionally conservative people. [However, the assumption that pro-queer = socially and probably even economically liberal on all other matters, and certainly you think GWB=Satan, bothers me. Oh, are my 4 years at Smith showing? ;) ] I don't entirely have faith in poly as a workable long-term relationship model, but I admire the honesty and negotiation that legit poly people put into their relationships and I certainly think people have every right. So long as you're not hurting anyone else, do whatever you want. (See, I can be all hippie pagan: Do what ye wilt an ye harm none.) I haven't figured out what the state's role should be in marriage, but maybe at some point I'll come up with something.

So that's a beginning list of stances that does nothing to clarify how I should be categorized :) [Though to answer your original question: Given that I'm a fan of minimal government interference in most everything, my instinct is to classify myself as an economic conservative. Really I just wish people thought more about the most effective use of funds before throwing money at problems.]

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

I made a Doctor Who icon based off of Cohen's 'The Future'. Oh, Natural Born Killers.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

OT: I really like the icons you made for U_Z.

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

Thanks. As a member, you can use one. You should be on AIM, because I'm bored.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks.

I actually did the before midnight bedtime thing last night. Hope you found entertainment.

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

I'm also kinda bothered by those Serenity pics, because from what I can tell, River's so not this sort of Xena-esque warrior woman. She's a warrior woman, but not in that way.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Having seen the movie, I refuse to make a statement about the accuracy of the warriorness of River as depicted in these or any other posters and the warriorness of movie!River. I will say, though, that the Australian poster is not the River we see in the episodes.

[paper-crystals.livejournal.com]

*pats head*

Awww...poor baby....we won't let those OkayCupid people tell you you are a demacrat.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks :)

[pardalis05.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so, I tried that quiz... and it told me I was a socialist. ::sobs::

[helholden.livejournal.com]

I was guily of those late night AIM conversations all throughout the summer, but I had to quit once I started college. They can keep you up until dawn if you aren't careful. But they're so fun. ;-)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I usually did them more while I was in college because then everyone was up late procrastinating all at the same time. Plus when I was home I was sharing the Internet. (Now that my brother's gone away to college I have always Internet, though :) )