Escher Perspective

[butterfly]

Last year, in Deep Down, Angel said that life under water had given him perspective - "kinda an M.C. Escher perspective". In Lineage, Fred compares the insides of the cyborg to Escher's work.

Both last year and this, we're getting treated to skewed perspectives. Last season, it's still hard to pinpoint where Cordy left off and Jasmine began. Connor and Angel kept moving, but they were always on the same level of stairs. They never got any higher or lower, as the season wore on. And this season, up is down and people keep walking on the underside of the metaphorical stairs. When do the black birds in the day become white birds at night? And we have Spike, the hand drawing himself.

What is real? What is not? How far can you push the perspective? How far can you push before everything falls apart, as it does in Labyrinth? When will AI realize that they're standing on the wall and when they do, will gravity kick in?

This season is very much about perspective and about point of view. About how things looks from inside the belly of the beast. About lies and deceptions and the lies and deceptions only showing deeper truths.

It's about what people remember and what people see and what people know. And how none of that can ever be trusted, because nothing is what it seems to be.

Comments

[chrisjournal.livejournal.com]

Oh neat! I love friends' friends pages.

This is so well put. You remind me of Tara's speech to Willow over on BtVS during Entropy. AtS has always been a different point of view on the same universe... It makes sense that the deconstruction of AtS would take a different form from that of BtVS.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

"Things fall apart." So true, yes. I love Tara.

And Angel definitely has a different vibe to it. It had more edges, more places where the unwary can cut themselves, I think.

And it's nice to meet you.

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

I love your reference to Spike as "the hand drawing himself." What a perfect metaphor.

Thank you...

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

When I tried to think of an Escher for Spike, that one immediately came to mind. It's so very him.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Very interesting insights, as always. I especially love the Spike bit, which is so very true.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thanks. And yeah, I may not be a big fan of Spike (well, he was hot with the insane curly hair in Lessons) but he's an interesting character.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

What a great analogy...an M.C. Escher perspective, indeed.

As a child, I would browse that large M.C. Escher collection in my parents book shelf again and again, losing myself in worlds of impossibilities.

Think of the captions of the images, too: Ascending and Descending (http://www.worldofescher.com/gallery/A2.html) fits so perfectly-- see Hellbound for the latter, and Destiny for the first.

Or the shifting images: vague forms taking shape, becoming clear and distinct but fading again into blank images-- am I the only one who thinks Connor?

Also, think black to white to black, often in circular form...Shanshu as the way to break this eternal (well, up to the apocalypse) merry-go-round?

Encounter (http://www.worldofescher.com/gallery/A14.html)-- man and demon, (to be) generated from each other...and, in the same vein, how about angels & ;-) and devils (http://www.worldofescher.com/gallery/A8.html)?

Ahem. Enough stream-of-consciousness now.

Last comment: I'm with koimistress: the hand drawing itself is such a stunningly accurate image of Spike...

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, stream-of-consciousness is always good.

vague forms taking shape, becoming clear and distinct but fading again into blank images-- am I the only one who thinks Connor?

That's works well.

And yeah, Angel to Angelus to Angel - how can he get out but by Shanshu? Well, so he thinks. There may be another way (Buffy could always find another way - instead of forever climbing the stair, she'd instead rappel down the wall.) The problem, of course, is that they're trapped in the 2d image - if they could find the third dimension, they'd be free. Angel needs to find his third dimension (Liam, perhaps?).

Spike as the self-generating image is very appropriate, yes. He creates costumes for himself, but while he's doing that, he's also creating himself. And though he shows himself capable of breaking into the third dimension by the very act of creating, he doesn't see, because he's so busy making a new him.

[cerisaye.livejournal.com]

Have you by any chance seen this?

Escher Everywhere You Look

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I had not. Thank you very much.

[cerisaye.livejournal.com]

I've just been scrolling through your LJ looking at all the wonderfully detailed thoughts on AtS, current and past. Wow. I've cut'n'pasted quite a few posts. Now I need to spend some time reading it all. You've made me want to go rewatch S2 yet again. It'll keep me going while we wait for new S5.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Aw. Thank you. That's great to hear. Let me know what thoughts you have.

(And this long wait is always agony.)

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Interesting perspective about different perspectives. ;)

Was Spike as a ghost something of model for everyone in “Angel” regulars? He lost a dimension by being incorporeal, everyone else (but Angel) by losing big chunk of their memories (and lives, and personalities), Angel by losing hope, purpose, meaning.

And it was mentioned that W&H is a multi-dimensional company.

Escher Perspective would be an illustration of a funs’ perspective. Different people can see completely different shows – even if watching it at same time at the same channel.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Very good point about Spike.

And that last bit is so true. Just so very true.