On Perspective and Validity
Sep. 19th, 2004 02:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflySometimes, I really want to pull out Giles' utterly hypocritical, "I appreciate your thoughts on the matter... ...except, of course, in this instance, when I am clearly right and you are clearly wrong," (I Only Have Eyes For You -- and if you haven't seen the episode? He's wrong.) because it is so easy to feel that way.
Every so often, I read or hear things that baffle me completely, and I have to remind myself to take a step back and remember that everyone has their own perspective and that every point of view is subjectively* valid (though only povs with factual or (as in a tv-show) canonical backup are valid objectively**, which is completely different). People don't believe things without sufficient cause. I can look at an opinion and be unable to imagine how anyone can think that way, but they do and for them, it makes perfect sense.
Personal example from Stargate -- saying that Daniel and Jack are friends is objectively valid. It's clearly stated in the show. Saying that Daniel and Jack are totally in love is subjectively valid. It's something that I read into the show.
*subjectivity: Judgment based on individual personal impressions and feelings and opinions rather than external facts
**objectivity: Judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices
Jack and Daniel are so in love! It is fact!
1. I like that they blew up Abydos. But I'm from Buffyverse, where Blowing Up Shit is a sign of mental growth. It's symbolic of moving onto a new stage of life, thus, when Abydos blew up, I was happy because it was symbolic of Daniel's choice to interfere like the Nosy Parker that he's always been.
2. Daniel probably didn't sleep with Ke'ra, mostly because I don't see when they had the time. But even if he had, I don't see anything wrong with it. He wanted something that wouldn't hurt so much (good luck, there, sweetheart), she wanted something that wasn't complicated by her amnesia. Yes, Sha're died the episode before. But he'd been waiting for her for two and a half years. That's a long time to be stuck in a state of frozen grief (rather like we saw Jack in during season six -- the person that you care about is gone to where you can't reach them, but they aren't dead.). Kissing Ke'ra was the ice cracking over.
3. Daniel in middle part of Need, with that messy hair? Is really fucking hot. I'm aware that this is an unpopular opinion. And I don't get the big deal with Wet!Daniel in Fire and Water. I don't like his hair when it's long and wet. I also adore the bandanas and hate the boonie hats with the fire of a thousand burning nuns. I don't think those hats looks good on anyone. But yeah. BadBoy Daniel was a big turn-on. It's that kiss and that pouty thing he does with his mouth just after.
4. I don't think that Jack was aware of how fucked-up Daniel was feeling in season five. In fact, I think that both Jack and Daniel managed to repair their friendship quite well from the hits that it had taken in seasons three and four. Daniel's problem wasn't his relationship with Jack but his relationship with the military. On a counter-note, I get the almost-distance between Jack and Daniel in season seven. It feels cautious, which makes sense. Jack had to live a year without Daniel and had two incredibly important encounters with Daniel that Daniel did not remember. After Meridian and season six, Jack is very aware of how easily Daniel (or any of his team) could die. And it's scary to care about people that much. It takes time to let someone who's hurt you that much (intentionally or un) back in. And I don't think that he will ever forget that Daniel wanted to leave. That Daniel chose to leave.
5. I wish that Sam could have a non-love-life related plot. When was the last time she had one of those? Even the Tok'ra thing became all love-life related. Teal'c Frees Jaffa and Does Drugs. Jack, yaknow, commands and suchlike. Oh, he's everyman, he doesn't need a plot arc. And Daniel has, like, five arcs a year or something (okay, slight exaggeration). I mean, there's her dad, but really there's no character arc there. He came, he got snaked, he got nicer. End arc. There's just so much that they could do with Sam. And yet, she gets engaged, while Daniel gets blackmailed, Teal'c sees his brethren die, and Jack suffers a crisis of authority/decision. And Daniel, Teal'c and Jack are actually visibly affected because of these things.
Not an opinion, but something that I noticed that may or may not be a coincidence:
For some reason, I'd thought that that pretty tune that plays when Oma shows up in Meridian was an ascension theme of some sort. So, I was pretty floored when I heard something that sounded a lot like it in Need. Different instrument, but it definitely sounds like a variation and not a separate piece altogether. I noticed it when Shyla first appeared, but it plays during most of the significant Daniel/Shyla scenes. It's not as pure and high as the Oma Desala version, but it's the same vibe. Which leaves me with an itch to see if I can spot it in any other episodes (I think that it shows up in at least one of the Daniel season six episodes and possibly in S3's Maternal Instinct). For all I know, it could be a quite common theme in the show that I just didn't notice until now.
Every so often, I read or hear things that baffle me completely, and I have to remind myself to take a step back and remember that everyone has their own perspective and that every point of view is subjectively* valid (though only povs with factual or (as in a tv-show) canonical backup are valid objectively**, which is completely different). People don't believe things without sufficient cause. I can look at an opinion and be unable to imagine how anyone can think that way, but they do and for them, it makes perfect sense.
Personal example from Stargate -- saying that Daniel and Jack are friends is objectively valid. It's clearly stated in the show. Saying that Daniel and Jack are totally in love is subjectively valid. It's something that I read into the show.
*subjectivity: Judgment based on individual personal impressions and feelings and opinions rather than external facts
**objectivity: Judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices
1. I like that they blew up Abydos. But I'm from Buffyverse, where Blowing Up Shit is a sign of mental growth. It's symbolic of moving onto a new stage of life, thus, when Abydos blew up, I was happy because it was symbolic of Daniel's choice to interfere like the Nosy Parker that he's always been.
2. Daniel probably didn't sleep with Ke'ra, mostly because I don't see when they had the time. But even if he had, I don't see anything wrong with it. He wanted something that wouldn't hurt so much (good luck, there, sweetheart), she wanted something that wasn't complicated by her amnesia. Yes, Sha're died the episode before. But he'd been waiting for her for two and a half years. That's a long time to be stuck in a state of frozen grief (rather like we saw Jack in during season six -- the person that you care about is gone to where you can't reach them, but they aren't dead.). Kissing Ke'ra was the ice cracking over.
3. Daniel in middle part of Need, with that messy hair? Is really fucking hot. I'm aware that this is an unpopular opinion. And I don't get the big deal with Wet!Daniel in Fire and Water. I don't like his hair when it's long and wet. I also adore the bandanas and hate the boonie hats with the fire of a thousand burning nuns. I don't think those hats looks good on anyone. But yeah. BadBoy Daniel was a big turn-on. It's that kiss and that pouty thing he does with his mouth just after.
4. I don't think that Jack was aware of how fucked-up Daniel was feeling in season five. In fact, I think that both Jack and Daniel managed to repair their friendship quite well from the hits that it had taken in seasons three and four. Daniel's problem wasn't his relationship with Jack but his relationship with the military. On a counter-note, I get the almost-distance between Jack and Daniel in season seven. It feels cautious, which makes sense. Jack had to live a year without Daniel and had two incredibly important encounters with Daniel that Daniel did not remember. After Meridian and season six, Jack is very aware of how easily Daniel (or any of his team) could die. And it's scary to care about people that much. It takes time to let someone who's hurt you that much (intentionally or un) back in. And I don't think that he will ever forget that Daniel wanted to leave. That Daniel chose to leave.
5. I wish that Sam could have a non-love-life related plot. When was the last time she had one of those? Even the Tok'ra thing became all love-life related. Teal'c Frees Jaffa and Does Drugs. Jack, yaknow, commands and suchlike. Oh, he's everyman, he doesn't need a plot arc. And Daniel has, like, five arcs a year or something (okay, slight exaggeration). I mean, there's her dad, but really there's no character arc there. He came, he got snaked, he got nicer. End arc. There's just so much that they could do with Sam. And yet, she gets engaged, while Daniel gets blackmailed, Teal'c sees his brethren die, and Jack suffers a crisis of authority/decision. And Daniel, Teal'c and Jack are actually visibly affected because of these things.
Not an opinion, but something that I noticed that may or may not be a coincidence:
For some reason, I'd thought that that pretty tune that plays when Oma shows up in Meridian was an ascension theme of some sort. So, I was pretty floored when I heard something that sounded a lot like it in Need. Different instrument, but it definitely sounds like a variation and not a separate piece altogether. I noticed it when Shyla first appeared, but it plays during most of the significant Daniel/Shyla scenes. It's not as pure and high as the Oma Desala version, but it's the same vibe. Which leaves me with an itch to see if I can spot it in any other episodes (I think that it shows up in at least one of the Daniel season six episodes and possibly in S3's Maternal Instinct). For all I know, it could be a quite common theme in the show that I just didn't notice until now.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 02:57 am (UTC)1. Can't agree. Buffy blowing up Sunnydale High is not the same as Anubis blowing up a planet full of ex-slaves, IMO. I'm not denying it's symbolic to moving onto a new stage of life (in the show, and in Daniel's willingness to interfere -- interference which sadly results in tragedy) but it's not cathartic the way blowing up Sunnydale High was. It's just another wound to bear. Another failure.
2. Agree.
3. Eh. MS is always good looking, but for hot badboy Daniel, I'd rather look at "Absolute Power".
4. Also agree that Jack and Daniel are friends again in S5. And I love your assessment of Jack post-"Meridian". Poor guy is certainly hurting, and hiding it.
5. God yes. I rather wish we could see her mentoring that girl from "The Prodigy", Lt. Hailey. Two stubborn scientists brainstorming and butting heads over theories. Could be interesting...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-20 09:14 pm (UTC)3. I don't actually find AP Daniel attractive. Except his ass, which is shown off to spectacular effect, thank you, Peter DeLuise. I think it's the pouty good-bye kiss to Shyla that shows up in Need that really does me in.
5. That would have been cool. Kid was a brat, so I liked her.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 09:24 pm (UTC)Don't get me wrong, I'm still absolutely in love with the show, but I HATE what they did to Sam. She is the only character whose personality didn't grow during the seasons. They all changed, sure, but Sam went backwards if anything. She started as this wonderful woman, a genius scientist and a good soldier, who defined herself through these things, and not through her private life. Now she is Ms. SuperWoman-know-it-all-still-having-teenage-crush-on-her-CO, a parody of herself. She makes me very very angry.
I love Sam. Fortunately, I have my very own version of Sam, so i can completely ignore the show, or at least find my own explanations for the writer's attempts to damage her even more.
My Sam is not still in love with Jack. Only sometimes, whern she looks at him and he is so damn irresistible. But my Sam is old enough that attraction doesn't equal love, and that a life can be fulfilled without a husband. My Sam secretly lusts after Daniel and would sleep with him in an instant (really, who wouldnt?). She wouldn't even be embarrassed to have casual sex with him, but she knows that Daniel would, so she doesn't. Which doesn't keep her from fantasizing about in in the showers.
I have a whole list of "My Sam..." written up somewhere. I was going to polish it up one day, but lately, i've been so depressed with canon Sam that I can't motivate myself. Maybe during the hiatus.
I wish someone would tell those writers that women can be female without a man, even women in the military, yes, even women who aren't afraid of numbers and who carry P-90s. But that's what you get when you let men write female characters: they think we are only whole when we have a man at our side.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-23 10:13 am (UTC)If you ever polish up that list, I'd love to read it.
But that's what you get when you let men write female characters: they think we are only whole when we have a man at our side.
Right, which is one of the primary differences between male-written sex (which I would classify as porn) and female-written (which I would classify as erotica). Porn, generally written by men, for men, focuses on flesh and on the observer -- some guys like the idea of two chicks, but they also want the impression that they would be welcome in the sex. Whereas erotica focuses more on the emotional connections because that tends to enhance the sex appeal for women. Most female readers of slash don't want to 'get into the picture'. They want to read about a relationship between these two characters.
I've read quite a lot of both types (because faceless porn works for me sometimes) which tends to mean that I can pinpoint the few male slash writers in the first paragraph. It's much more physical -- there's extremely poorly-written material on both sides of the gender line, but it's poorly-written in very different and what seem to be gender-distinct ways. Bad female writers tend to lose the 'male' parts of the character (which leads to wimpy!Daniel and suchlike), while bad male writers lose everything but the 'male' factor (which means that everything reads like a really boring wet dream). Either side can sound overly clinical if they don't know how to write sex, but, again, I've noticed that it tends to be in different ways.
And that was probably boring. Sorry.