Something I've been thinking about recently is whether it's really true that what all human beings want in life in general is whatever it is they can't have. I mean, that's really depressing, isn't it? Haha, Sark said that on Alias :D It's also on my mind 'cause of Vaughn, and if-- well, if we don't want what we used to want anymore 'too soon', did we really want it? Memory strengthens desire, but they're not dependent on one another, are they...
Anyway, I'm still watching pretty obsessively, 'cause. It's pure crack, man. Pure, high-grade, absolute CRACK, and I find it so amusing that no one's recced it to me or anything, 'cause I think it qualifies as something like a fantasy show, hahaha. It's like... the mother of all crackfics. The promised crackfic in the sky. The only thing that's yet to happen in the crackland of Alias is mpreg, and, y'know, give it time. You get the point :> Well, if fantasy = crack = fantasy, anyway ^^;;;;
Also, I've been thinking about intelligent characters. Like... every story tends to have (more or less) intelligent characters, if you mean they're good at something involving rational thought, or even creativity, but that's not what I mean. They're most common in 'fancy' or literary novels, I guess, where everyone's too self-aware (and/or self-conscious) and there's no great plot, plus the emotional upheaval tends to be subtle or insiduous rather than dramatic. I suppose you'd call that the 'modern novel', whereas what I usually read or watch is more... um, classic? Haha. Even if it's more pulpy and much less sophisticated.
...Actually, this is also an interesting line of thought, 'cause maybe you get less emotionally intelligent characters in more Greek-play-like (dramatic? tragicomic? something) stories, where everyone's a fool doomed by themselves, so by nature they can't think their way out of their own box. In that sense, Alias is a lot like a Greek play, except on crack 'cause nothing too serious seems to happen if it doesn't serve Teh Crack purposes (ie, to be insane) :D
( ...hm. )
Still... still, I was reading the reviews for The Year of Magical Thinking, a memoir I haven't read by Joan Didion about her grieving for her husband, and it just struck me how... well, not understanding a lot of the reviewers were because she was 'too cool' or 'too snobby' or just too different and how they found that boring. Like, even if a character is totally emotionally 'authentic', there's no guarantee others would see it that way-- wouldn't that actually take intelligence even to see? Intelligence and a lack of cavalier judgment.
It's possible a character that 'really understands' wouldn't even be seen as 'understanding' by 'normal' people in a story because people see or define understanding so differently, especially emotional understanding. Objectively, it's easy to see when people are 'smart', but when it comes to emotions, people get defensive and project their issues left and right without even noticing, right. I'd imagine it would take a really good writer to set a 'clear-seeing' yet cool (meaning, not too obviously biased or excitable) character in a normal dramatic setting where they would be both appreciated and listened to. The closest analog in mainstream media is probably Tara from Buffy, but I don't think she -did- serve that function even if she could have.
It's just frustrating 'cause I think a lot of characters' issues would be solved if they really communicated about how they felt or were able to really perceive how -others- felt. But. Eh.
Anyway, I'm still watching pretty obsessively, 'cause. It's pure crack, man. Pure, high-grade, absolute CRACK, and I find it so amusing that no one's recced it to me or anything, 'cause I think it qualifies as something like a fantasy show, hahaha. It's like... the mother of all crackfics. The promised crackfic in the sky. The only thing that's yet to happen in the crackland of Alias is mpreg, and, y'know, give it time. You get the point :> Well, if fantasy = crack = fantasy, anyway ^^;;;;
Also, I've been thinking about intelligent characters. Like... every story tends to have (more or less) intelligent characters, if you mean they're good at something involving rational thought, or even creativity, but that's not what I mean. They're most common in 'fancy' or literary novels, I guess, where everyone's too self-aware (and/or self-conscious) and there's no great plot, plus the emotional upheaval tends to be subtle or insiduous rather than dramatic. I suppose you'd call that the 'modern novel', whereas what I usually read or watch is more... um, classic? Haha. Even if it's more pulpy and much less sophisticated.
...Actually, this is also an interesting line of thought, 'cause maybe you get less emotionally intelligent characters in more Greek-play-like (dramatic? tragicomic? something) stories, where everyone's a fool doomed by themselves, so by nature they can't think their way out of their own box. In that sense, Alias is a lot like a Greek play, except on crack 'cause nothing too serious seems to happen if it doesn't serve Teh Crack purposes (ie, to be insane) :D
( ...hm. )
Still... still, I was reading the reviews for The Year of Magical Thinking, a memoir I haven't read by Joan Didion about her grieving for her husband, and it just struck me how... well, not understanding a lot of the reviewers were because she was 'too cool' or 'too snobby' or just too different and how they found that boring. Like, even if a character is totally emotionally 'authentic', there's no guarantee others would see it that way-- wouldn't that actually take intelligence even to see? Intelligence and a lack of cavalier judgment.
It's possible a character that 'really understands' wouldn't even be seen as 'understanding' by 'normal' people in a story because people see or define understanding so differently, especially emotional understanding. Objectively, it's easy to see when people are 'smart', but when it comes to emotions, people get defensive and project their issues left and right without even noticing, right. I'd imagine it would take a really good writer to set a 'clear-seeing' yet cool (meaning, not too obviously biased or excitable) character in a normal dramatic setting where they would be both appreciated and listened to. The closest analog in mainstream media is probably Tara from Buffy, but I don't think she -did- serve that function even if she could have.
It's just frustrating 'cause I think a lot of characters' issues would be solved if they really communicated about how they felt or were able to really perceive how -others- felt. But. Eh.
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