Smallville: The Lois secrets non-paradox

[butterfly]

Apparently there are people who see a conflict between Lois's S4 advice to Chloe re: secrets and what she has to say to Clark here. I'm (again) rather baffled by that.

Aside: Smallville may be the most baffling fandom ever. Seriously, though I never believed in the whole 'Spike can be good without a soul' theory, I could understand where it was coming from. Most of what the vocal bits of Smallville fandom say makes no sense to me. It's like I'm living in an alternate universe... or they are. Something.

Anyway, Lois's advice regarding secrets seems to all hold together from what I can tell.

A) She knows that Clark has secrets (he's saved her life a couple of times, Chloe implies more than once that there's something going on with him, and the Kents as a group are incredibly tight-mouthed about a lot and Lois noticed that). She doesn't really care. They're his secrets.

B) This approach is both told to us in her advice to Chloe ("I wouldn't tell [the person that I knew their secret]. I've learned the hard way that people keep secrets for a reason.") and shown to us in her actions towards Clark (most noticeably in the gift of the journal, which is implicit permission to keep secrets).

C) However, when faced with a particular reason to keep secrets, namely, to 'protect loved ones', Lois calls 'bullshit'. And not only is Clark's reasoning faulty, but it isn't even (mostly) true.

Clark has never been lying mostly to protect others -- he lies to protect himself (the one exception that I can think of is Reckoning, when he had reason to believe that knowing his secret would lead directly to Lana's death). Lying to protect others demonstrably does not work (just look at all the concussions Lex, Lana, and Lois have all gotten while not knowing secrets). And when we've been allowed to look into Clark's fears, we see him being hurt by knowledge of his secrets, and not (generally) other people.

Lying to protect other people simply doesn't work (it totally didn't work with Lex, and Chloe was in danger just as often before she knew Clark's secret). Clark himself admits in his conversation with Oliver that loving someone and not telling them the truth about yourself just leads to a short and unhealthy relationship.

Seriously, not seeing the contradiction here.

Comments

[huzzlewhat.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, exactly!!! There's a difference between saying that it's all right to keep secrets, and saying that this particular reason for keeping secrets is bullshit, because it's a different question — it's the difference between what and why. There's no contradiction in Lois' reasoning, because there's absolutely no indication that she thinks — or Clark thinks, for that matter — that protecting others is the only reason someone might want to keep a secret.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

There's no contradiction in Lois' reasoning, because there's absolutely no indication that she thinks — or Clark thinks, for that matter — that protecting others is the only reason someone might want to keep a secret.

Exactly. Honestly, I really should just not read the SV section of TWoP, because I just can't even take them even a little seriously anymore. They make so little sense and overlook so many things in the text that they're practically mocking themselves.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

My knowledge of Smallville is almost completely limited to your episode reviews, which I have read for no particularly good reason, seeing as I've seen maybe four episodes of the show.

I agree with your reasoning here. It sounds like Lois is consistant. From an outside perspective, I think that the idea of Clark keeping secrets to protect others is borrowed from a long tradition of similar characters keeping secrets for that alleged reason. That line of thinking is used by Spider-Man and countless others in the Marvel Universe, by Max Evans in Roswell, in the Buffyverse (although briefly), and of course by various characters in DC Comics, including the original Superman.

I know that Smallville canon differs from Superman, although I don't know by how much, but I'd be fairly surprised if Superman canon didn't leak into Smallville fanon. It's also my vague observation that there is a fair bit of overlap between the Smallville and Roswell fandoms, so some fans may be drawing parallels that aren't entirely accurate.

Anyway, that's my answer for the fandom weirdness. That, and the simple fact that fandom is weird. I mean, look at the Voyager fandom. Those people think that Captain Janeway and the plant in her ready room make an acceptable "pairing." Weird ideas spread through a fandom with remarkable speed.

Off to catch that nap I so desperately need.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, it's definitely typical Superhero reasoning -- I recall Peter Parker doing the same thing at the end of the first Spider-Man movie. Generally, the smart superheroes all seem to come to the ultimate conclusion that it's a dumb reason (PP does, I think -- I don't remember the movies spectacularly well, so perhaps he doesn't?).

[clari-clyde.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I always thought Lois’s advice to Chloe was to say, “Hey, don’t be so judgemental tiill you find out why.” But here, she’s actually given a why and she calls b.s. on it.

And it’s a call I agree with. Lying isn’t done to protect other people as much as it’s done to protect oneself. Because if Lana, Chloe, Lex (and Pete before that reveal) knew, they would have been able to make better decisions about how to keep themselves safe.

And I hope they expand on this topic to illustrate why Clark will open up to Lois in the way he hasn’t to the non-superheroes in his life. Everyone has a rght to self preservation, even if it means keeping secrets. However, I hope Lois will be the one to open his eyes on the importance of people being able to make informed decisions about their lives.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I always thought Lois’s advice to Chloe was to say, “Hey, don’t be so judgemental tiill you find out why.” But here, she’s actually given a why and she calls b.s. on it.

Exactly!

And it’s a call I agree with. Lying isn’t done to protect other people as much as it’s done to protect oneself. Because if Lana, Chloe, Lex (and Pete before that reveal) knew, they would have been able to make better decisions about how to keep themselves safe.

Definitely. And in the episodes Scare and Splinter, when Clark's afraid about people finding out about his secret, we see that he's afraid of those people hurting him (Lana stabbing down with a hunk of Kryponite is an image that lingers in the mind).

And I hope they expand on this topic to illustrate why Clark will open up to Lois in the way he hasn’t to the non-superheroes in his life. Everyone has a rght to self preservation, even if it means keeping secrets. However, I hope Lois will be the one to open his eyes on the importance of people being able to make informed decisions about their lives.

I hope she does, too.