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six feet under, story rec, vid rec
It's all related.
Saw season premiere of Six Feet Under last night. What a depressing hour of television! How glad I am that it's back! I'm so impressed and horrified by Peter Krause's performance. Nate is becoming more and more unlikable, yet more sympathetic. I anticipated the end result of the cremation vs. burial issue, but I didn't think they'd go as far as they did, showing his disgust and horror and pain and love so vividly…and the little glimpses of her corpse were just enough to give me nightmares.
Claire's attempts at "breaking the eye," then David's repetition of the concepts in a new context, with Keith. David and Keith are the only remotely normal couple on the show, which is just sad.
Justin Theroux!!!! He's like a pretty serial killer! Did Rachel Griffiths gain about 50 lbs? It looks good on her, but it seems like she's a lot more there.
And, stream-of-muddled-conscience-y talk: I've always loved the ick factor on this show, being shown intimate horrors that we cannot recoil from because they're inherent to our flesh. Although gross things happen to men and men's bodies, it tends to focus on the women as a landscape of the grotesque: Claire's abortion, Lisa's stunted and mutilated corpse, Brenda's fluctuating boundaries, Ruth's middle-aged lusts. It's easy to interpret such representation as misogynistic, but instead I see it as a very apt extension of transformation, of transformative experience in general, which is certainly much more the bastion of female bodies than male. And, frankly, SFU tends to show the women already in possession of knowledge that the men struggle to articulate, so I'm rather inclined to see the cretinous flesh as a sort of odd compliment...
Breaking the eye. Seeing differently, which may or may not be seeing more clearly.
So, I cried and felt like a great weight was resting quietly on my chest. A great, depressing, heaviness. Depression that isn't something that my own chemistry inflicts on me is almost a pleasure. Different origins, differently emotions.
Yeah, I take this way too seriously. But I'm glad it's back.
~~~
ETA: Well, apparently you can't read it any more. But if you want to read about how much I liked![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
resonant8's Exog, it's behind the cut. Sorry. See her post about taking it down here. I get to the story rec eventually: The best sci-fi uses the science to allow us to reevaluate something familiar in a new context, from a new perspective. I'm not so concerned with future technologies and how shiny-cool they'll be. I'm more interested in speculation as to how we'll deal with each other with the same monkey weaknesses we'll always be plagued with when we're presented with all the mod cons of the flying-car future.
Connie Willis is my favorite "sci-fi" writer for this reason. She writes what might be better termed speculative romance than sci-fi, despite the futuristic settings and her staple technology, time travel. Her short stories and novels aim for (and connect with) emotional marks, which is ever so much more satisfying than spaceship specs or laser canon action sequences. I'm always hoping to find another author who does this in a similar manner, as I have read everything Connie Willis has written and I need more.
I had never read anythingresonant8 had written until last night, although I'd heard her (?) name here and there. Both runpunkrun and lenajill gave this story effusive praise, and now I will, too:
(link removed)
If Connie Willis were to write human/sentient non-human homoerotica, she'd be very fortunate if she could come up with something much likeresonant8's tale. And now, despite the lack of shared fandoms, I think I need to go read some of resonant8's fanfiction.
~~~
vid rec: I have a hard time getting excited about most fanvids. While I can appreciate technical skills, clean edits and pretty effects, I'm more interested in story. There are also issues of musical taste--if I can't stand to listen to the song, the beauty of the visual work will probably be lost on me. That said, I am very pleased to repeat rec I saw onhappyminion's journal for Euphony's Lex-centric vid to the NIN version of Hurt.
Links to Euphony's vid site
-or-
links on the TWoP forum, here, which are useful for those who, like me, can never get those streamload vid links to work.
Mostly S3 clips. No manufactured intensity or forced relationships in the arrangement of clips. Rather, the choices pare down the canonical events to pinpoints of painful regret. Every scene reflects resignation to emotional loss. It's pretty fucking harsh. It does make me think wistfully that Michael Rosenbaum should just accept that he's a fabulous dramatic actor and a not-exceptional comic actor and choose his roles accordingly. I mean, just look at this vid...
Saw season premiere of Six Feet Under last night. What a depressing hour of television! How glad I am that it's back! I'm so impressed and horrified by Peter Krause's performance. Nate is becoming more and more unlikable, yet more sympathetic. I anticipated the end result of the cremation vs. burial issue, but I didn't think they'd go as far as they did, showing his disgust and horror and pain and love so vividly…and the little glimpses of her corpse were just enough to give me nightmares.
Claire's attempts at "breaking the eye," then David's repetition of the concepts in a new context, with Keith. David and Keith are the only remotely normal couple on the show, which is just sad.
Justin Theroux!!!! He's like a pretty serial killer! Did Rachel Griffiths gain about 50 lbs? It looks good on her, but it seems like she's a lot more there.
And, stream-of-muddled-conscience-y talk: I've always loved the ick factor on this show, being shown intimate horrors that we cannot recoil from because they're inherent to our flesh. Although gross things happen to men and men's bodies, it tends to focus on the women as a landscape of the grotesque: Claire's abortion, Lisa's stunted and mutilated corpse, Brenda's fluctuating boundaries, Ruth's middle-aged lusts. It's easy to interpret such representation as misogynistic, but instead I see it as a very apt extension of transformation, of transformative experience in general, which is certainly much more the bastion of female bodies than male. And, frankly, SFU tends to show the women already in possession of knowledge that the men struggle to articulate, so I'm rather inclined to see the cretinous flesh as a sort of odd compliment...
Breaking the eye. Seeing differently, which may or may not be seeing more clearly.
So, I cried and felt like a great weight was resting quietly on my chest. A great, depressing, heaviness. Depression that isn't something that my own chemistry inflicts on me is almost a pleasure. Different origins, differently emotions.
Yeah, I take this way too seriously. But I'm glad it's back.
~~~
ETA: Well, apparently you can't read it any more. But if you want to read about how much I liked
resonant8's Exog, it's behind the cut. Sorry. See her post about taking it down here. I get to the story rec eventually: The best sci-fi uses the science to allow us to reevaluate something familiar in a new context, from a new perspective. I'm not so concerned with future technologies and how shiny-cool they'll be. I'm more interested in speculation as to how we'll deal with each other with the same monkey weaknesses we'll always be plagued with when we're presented with all the mod cons of the flying-car future. Connie Willis is my favorite "sci-fi" writer for this reason. She writes what might be better termed speculative romance than sci-fi, despite the futuristic settings and her staple technology, time travel. Her short stories and novels aim for (and connect with) emotional marks, which is ever so much more satisfying than spaceship specs or laser canon action sequences. I'm always hoping to find another author who does this in a similar manner, as I have read everything Connie Willis has written and I need more.
I had never read anything
resonant8 had written until last night, although I'd heard her (?) name here and there. Both runpunkrun and lenajill gave this story effusive praise, and now I will, too:(link removed)
If Connie Willis were to write human/sentient non-human homoerotica, she'd be very fortunate if she could come up with something much like
resonant8's tale. And now, despite the lack of shared fandoms, I think I need to go read some of resonant8's fanfiction. ~~~
vid rec: I have a hard time getting excited about most fanvids. While I can appreciate technical skills, clean edits and pretty effects, I'm more interested in story. There are also issues of musical taste--if I can't stand to listen to the song, the beauty of the visual work will probably be lost on me. That said, I am very pleased to repeat rec I saw on
happyminion's journal for Euphony's Lex-centric vid to the NIN version of Hurt. Links to Euphony's vid site
-or-
links on the TWoP forum, here, which are useful for those who, like me, can never get those streamload vid links to work.
Mostly S3 clips. No manufactured intensity or forced relationships in the arrangement of clips. Rather, the choices pare down the canonical events to pinpoints of painful regret. Every scene reflects resignation to emotional loss. It's pretty fucking harsh. It does make me think wistfully that Michael Rosenbaum should just accept that he's a fabulous dramatic actor and a not-exceptional comic actor and choose his roles accordingly. I mean, just look at this vid...