rusty_halo | Fic Recs and OTW Babble

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Fic Recs and OTW Babble

Should I watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles? I almost never watch TV shows as they air unless I know that they've already managed to pull off at least one decent season. But Sarah Connor is one of my all-time favorite fictional characters, and The Terminator is in my list of top five movies of all time. (I'm one of those freaks who prefers the original to the sequel; it's just so raw. And it's infiltrated my subconscious to the point where I have nightmares about being chased by the Terminator on a regular basis.) I'm kind of freaked out that Linda Hamilton isn't in it, although I understand that wouldn't really work because of the age issue. And I'm glad that the character, and the whole fictional world, is having a life beyond its original writers and actors. So. Is it worth watching, or am I just going to end up ranting about how disappointing it is?

I'm kind of boggled that so many of my friends are getting into Torchwood. I mean, yes, there's bisexuality, but the show is so badly written. I'm just hoping that people will follow the Torchwood trail back to Doctor Who, and see how much better that show is, and discover the slashtastic awesomeness of the Doctor and the Master.

Today's fic recs:

John Simm did an interview in which he confessed to having worked as a cage dancer when he was young and needed the money. No, seriously! So

versaphile wrote fic in which a young inexperienced David Tennant meets cagedancer!Simm. And then they have some of the hottest sex I've ever read. And the end almost made me cry. Read it here: Kiss Me Quick.

versaphile also wrote more Doctor/Master. (

versaphile, I swear I am not stalking you. I just kind of want to live inside of your brain.) Three for a Wedding. It's actually Doctor/Master and Doctor/TARDIS, and it's extremely disturbing, but it's the good kind of disturbing.

yahtzee63 wrote The Yankee's Loot, in which the Tenth Doctor picks up Scarlett O'Hara as a companion. And it works, brilliantly, because she perfectly captures Scarlett's inner voice. That woman is a sociopathic megalomaniac, and somehow you can't help but love her. I'd never have imagined that these two fandoms could be combined, but Yahtzee makes it work.

Here's another Life on Mars fic that I greatly enjoyed. It's like an episode--70s police show plot, entertaining dialog--just with the bonus of gay sex. You wouldn't think those things would blend together so well, but, obviously, they do. (Sorry, I know there's tons of slashy police show fandoms out there, I've just never been into one before.)

I've been following the

metafandom discussions about the Organization for Transformative Works, and I continue to think that it's awesome. One of the things that boggles me about the internet is that people just take for granted that things disappear. You can read a story that's stunning, life-changing, brilliant, and then look it up one morning and find that it's completely gone.

Some of the best things I've ever read have been fanfiction. There are stories that I love that I'll never read again, because I didn't think to save them to my hard drive. Stories that anyone new to the fandom will never even know existed. And while I respect the right of an author to remove her work from the internet by choice, so many of these disappearances are just by random stupidness. Remember when fanfiction.net deleted all of the NC-17 stories? Work was lost in that purge that we'll never see again, because the author had already left fandom, or switched fandoms, or felt that the fic wasn't worth the effort of reposting anywhere else. Not to mention all the domains that have expired, or sites that were deleted because some studio sent out a bunch of take-down notices, or communities that some petty moderator decided to close and delete. (My earliest interactions with two of my best real-life friends,

jaydk and

drujan, are on a Yahoo Group whose archives were deleted by a list owner who had an extremely inflated idea of her own importance.)

I want a place where fannish work isn't subject to the whim of one person, or some company that just sees us as dollar signs. Our work should be hosted somewhere that won't arbitrarily delete it. That seems so obvious. But I guess people don't think about until it happens to them; that's why

femmequixotic's "Why I Joined OTW" post really got to me. (Her community was deleted by LiveJournal.) I'm still so offended that fanfiction.net deleted all the NC-17 stories; I was reading Modus Vivendi at the time, the first story that ever got me into slash (!!), and I couldn't believe that something so awesome was going to disappear. (Happily, it found a new home. But what about the people who were reading it on ff.net and didn't know where it went? Or the ff.net readers who would've discovered it, but never did?)

This is why I keep All About Spike running, even though I haven't been in Buffy fandom for years. The site still gets a steady stream of traffic, and new reviews are posted every day. People go back and re-read their old favorites, and newbies to the fandom are always showing up and finding the classics. I don't know if I'll keep it online forever, but I want to; I hope that, twenty years from now, when there's The Buffy Chronicles and a whole new revival of the thing, newbie fans can go back and be inspired by the work of their fannish predecessors. But the way fandom works now, pretty much everything will be gone. The links will be broken and the webpages will give 404 errors.

I know that people are annoyed by the academic talk on the OTW website, but that's because they're starting a non-profit organization. It's necessary; you have to get the IRS to approve you. It's worth it, because a non-profit is the best possible way they could run this. It means that the organization will last long past the interest of the original founding group, and it means that it won't be controlled by the whim of one person, and it means that it won't be subject to the demands of advertisers and profit. All of these are exactly what an archive needs.

I haven't read a single complaint that struck me as valid. You don't think OTW represents you? Either join up and represent yourself, or start your own organization. You don't want to post your work in their archive? Okay, don't; no one's forcing you. You're pissed off that they aren't chasing after the approval of men? Cry me a fucking river. You don't care about fandom being approved of by the mainstream? Neither do I, but I do care about our work being deleted because the legal system regards us as criminals.

Right now the people leading the discourse about what we do are companies that either regard us as thieves (yes, I know that what we do spreads the word about their products and draws more people into purchasing them, but companies can be petty and stupid; look at Viacom suing YouTube for a billion dollars over Daily Show clips, or, say, pretty much the entire music industry, suing twelve-year-olds for sharing MP3s) or else realize that what we do could lead to profit, and thus want to reign us in and change us to suit their needs. The biggest voice out there making an articulate defense of what we do is Henry Jenkins, and he's generally lovely, but he doesn't get everything; he's not part of our community; and more voices can only be better. People complain about OTW trying to "represent everyone" but they're not; they're just another voice, saying things that need to be said. If you don't like what they're saying, OMG, start your own organization and say something else, but don't whine just because other people decided to get off their asses and try to represent themselves.

Every time LiveJournal deletes someone's journal, or a hosting company cracks down on "subversive" works, and fans complain about their hard work disappearing, someone comes in and snarks, "Well, what did you expect? Companies exist to make a profit; if they want their site scrubbed clean and safe for advertisers, that's their prerogative. If you want control of your work, get your own damn server." And they're right. The only way we'll ever have control of our work is if we own our own servers. That's why OTW is awesome.

(I didn't realize I had that much to say. I know I'm just reiterating stuff that's been said by more articulate people elsewhere; go read that. Incidentally, I would totally want to join OTW, except I have no freaking time, and all my non-profit volunteer energy is going into SuperVegan.)

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

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Thing is, it's the ONLY bisexual show on regular TV. I mean, if I had a buffet of choices, sure, I'd pick one that was Emmy worthy. But right now, I'm in take what I can get territory. Also, so far, it's not so badly written. Of course, I've only seen the first ep in its entirety and a shitload of clips.

I really do love that it's a bisexual show. I love that Captain Jack exists so much. He's an action hero! And he kisses boys! It's revolutionary and wonderful.

It's just... y'know, it just drives me crazy because I know it could be better. (Jack is so much more of an appealing character on Doctor Who. I don't really think the actor is great, but he has awesome charisma, and for some reason they let him shine far more on DW than on his own show, where mostly he's like, grumpy boss man. I am absolutely boggled that they managed to make a character like Jack boring for a good part of the first season!)

And, man, the characters do things that are just so stupid that I lose my ability to suspend disbelief, and then I find it really hard to care about anything they do when I can't respect them at all. And I don't understand why they haven't all been fired like 500 million times over. Let me tell you, if I kept an evil cyber!monster in my office basement, and it came out and tried to kill all of my coworkers, I would expect to be fired!

But, um, yeah. I'm curious what you'll think when you've seen the whole thing. And I don't want to minimize how awesome it is that they've got bisexual action hero characters. I just wish they'd stop acting like that's enough to make a successful TV show; revolutionary sexuality is good, but you still need stuff like three-dimensional characterization and interesting plots.

I am hopeful that they're realized the flaws of the first season and will fix things for the second. *fingers crossed*

Well, I like grumpy!Jack too, because he reminds me of Angel. So.

I'll let you know what I think when I've seen more. I just don't think it will bother me as much, mostly because I am totally aware that I am in this fandom for the sex. I had my Srs Bzns fandom with Jossverse, and I'm ready for some light hearted fun with Pron.

OMG a fandom where I do not have to be insane. Is it possible, L???

I'm trying to figure out what I can contribute to the OTW at the moment.

Since about 30% of the people I interact with in fandom are trans men, it sometimes feels like the whole "fandom is female space" thing is another way of telling us, O HAI, UR NOT REAL MEN KTHNXBAI, and that aiming for fandom being *feminist* space might be a better way to go, but that's a whole 'nother discussion. The guys pissing and moaning because they feel they're being "excluded" get right up my nose, though.

I think that finding a way to be involved in OTW, or talking with them about what makes you feel excluded, would be a good way to go. Because I am sure that they're not trying to make trans men feel excluded. And it does seem that the ideal way to get different voices represented is for those people to participate in the OTW. It really bothers me when people complain "my group is excluded," when it's like, well, someone from your group should join and represent themselves, then.

My understanding of the "predominantly female community" thing is that they're celebrating the fact that 1) historically speaking, media fandom was created by women to suit the interests of women, and 2) in a world where nearly everything evolved to suit the interests of men, this is a good thing. It doesn't mean that people who aren't women aren't welcome, or that only women have contributed to its development. In their mission statement, while acknowledging that women shaped media fandom, they also said that they welcome and celebrate gender diversity. I don't think saying that media fandom was primarily shaped by and for women excludes anyone else; it's historical fact.

This is just my interpretation, and I can't speak for them, of course, but I think

cesperanza explained it really well here.

I'm one of those freaks who prefers the original to the sequel

You aren't the only one. Actually, I can't stand the sequel.

I like a lot of things about it. Sarah's an awesome character, and I love her attempts to save humanity while struggling against her own dark side, and the fact that she doesn't give up even though she's completely alone and misunderstood by the whole world. I think it's awesome that they gave that kind of moral complexity to a female character.

And, on the shallow side, [whichever Patrick brother] is great as the T-1000. So creepy.

But the whole emo!Terminator and his relationship with John make me gag. Alas. The movie has this slick sentimentality that the first one completely lacks.

I never even saw the third, which I hear is for the best.

[Reposted because I suck at editing. And I forgot that you can edit comments now.]

The third film appears to be disgarded from the continuity of the show, so from that perspective, you aren't missing anything.

Ooh, nifty. Perhaps I can get through life without ever seeing it.

Sarah Connor Chronicles hasn't developed to the point that I can say what the series will be like, so I don't know about it in the long term. However, the actress playing Sarah has done a good job and it's clear that the series has paid attention to the movies, so it's been a faithful adaptation of the source material (which is a good thing.)

And, yes, I prefer the first movie to the second (something my nephews completely disagree with me about, but looking at it from their POV, they were small boys when T2 came out so I can see where they would have identified with the story in T2 more completely than the story in T1. T1 remains my favorite and the series does a nice job of nodding to T3 while deftly rendering it obselete.)

Yay! T1 fans band together!

T2 came out when I was a little kid (I remember playing T2 video games) and I liked it, but it was just another slick Hollywood movie. I remember being blown away when I saw the first one and realized how much more raw and emotionally honest it was. Maybe as an adult I'd have been snarking at Kyle and his idealized pure love for Sarah, but at eleven it was the most heartbreaking beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Let me ask you a question. Imagine Sarah had to reach out to a former friend for an important favor, and this friend ends up screwing her. Not in the Sarah/friend sense, but in the sense that he threatens her freedom, the freedom of her son, and thus the future of humanity.

Does your Sarah have any hesitation before she blows him to Hell?

If she doesn't, I'm not sure you should join in. If she does, I'd say OK.

The actress playing Sarah is not quite the Sarah I want her to be. I could not see her physically pumping a shotgun with one hand, for example. And if you asked me before yesterday, I'd say "no question". Then I remember how she broke down after shooting Miles Dyson.

T:SCC is my new BtVS. Mileage varies, to be sure, but after these two eps, I like it.

Hmm. Interesting. I think I'm going to have to see it and judge for myself.

I felt like they took Sarah in an *extreme* direction in T2. Not necessarily that it was OOC, but she was obviously terribly traumatized and emotionally disconnected. It bothered me a bit because at the end of T1 she'd really come into her own; she'd reached a kind of peace, an understanding of her purpose in life. She seemed a lot wiser at the end of T1 than she was throughout T2. But it was plausible, with everything she'd been through between films, that the peace hadn't lasted. Her struggle against fate is part of what I love about her.

So, yeah. I'm very curious to see what they've done with her now.

Haven't thanked you lately for keeping All About Spike up and running, but THANK YOU. I get the urge to go back and reread my favorites sometimes, and it's so wonderful that they're there. When I think about new fans not being able to read classics, it makes me really sad.

And re: your thoughts on OTW

YES. :)

Thank you! All About Spike is totally the best thing I ever did in fandom. I just wish I could come up with something else to contribute now!

I like Sarah better in T2 than T1 (while Ah-nold bores me in both), and I recognize my Sarah in T:TSCC. The actress isn't as buff, but she has the same desperate determination. And I'm extremely pleased by some other aspects of the show too (unsure if you're spoiled for casting).

I'm not spoiled but I don't mind; what else are you pleased with?

I guess I'm going to have to watch it to make up my own mind about Sarah.

I really like Sarah in T1 because I think the whole film is really about her growing as a person and coming into her own. She starts out just like anyone, but the way she deals with what happens to her reveals the strength that's always been there underneath. And while she initially needs Kyle to show her the way, ultimately she is the one who takes over and saves herself (and, eventually, humanity).

Why do you like her better in T2? (I like her a lot in T2, although I'm sad that she's so traumatized and emotionally disconnected. Plus I'm a bit annoyed at the theme about her needing to reconnect with her emotions and be all motherly again. And the scenes with her in the institution just fill me with empathetic horror. But I do love her struggling against fate and trying to change the future.)

I'm not spoiled but I don't mind; what else are you pleased with?

Summer Glau is another regular on the show, and I adore her character's interactions with the Sarah character. I feel like she calls Sarah on some of her crap and keeps her from being so single-minded and disconnected. I also am 'shipping them, so there's that. :)

Overall, I'm just thrilled that there is an action TV show which has 1) multiple female protagonists 2) who carry on conversations with each other 3) about something other than a man. You know, the Bechdel test. There has been little on my TV since Buffy which passed this test.

I really like Sarah in T1 because I think the whole film is really about her growing as a person and coming into her own.

It's been years since I've seen T1, but from what I recall, she spent a lot of the movie needing to be rescued. I prefer my movie heroines to do the rescuing.

I must have blocked out all the "be motherly" crap, because I pretty much just internalized "be a badass " as the message of T2. ;)

The SCC is sweet because it's got such strong female characters having pretty much all the agency; the whiny teenaged boy is the one who starts out needing rescue and hopefully will learn from these women what it means to be a warrior...

Heh, you can stalk me anytime.

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Fic Recs and OTW Babble

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