![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Truth is out there, but so are secrets.
Does that sound as weird to you as it does to me? SV has this anvilicious opposition going on: Truth/secrets. To me, two more fit oppositions have been mushed together: truth/lies and knowledge/secrets, or perhaps exposure/secrets. Clark doesn’t always need to lie to protect his secrets. Sometimes he just shrugs, fails to explain, and accepts the consequences. It’s his unwillingness to do that with Lex that’s getting him into hotter and hotter water. The writers seem to have fallen into what I think is a logical fallacy – all lies are a kind of secret, so all secrets are a kind of lie. That is, frankly, a frighteningly totalitarian concept.
I can see why Lex would believe it, though, especially since he doesn’t feel any need for reciprocity. It’s nice to be the man behind the curtain, all-seeing and never seen, but it’s not so nice to be observed. (Insert here discussion of “the gaze” and the subject, Laura Mulvey-style, and the oddity of the pure object Lana insisting on being the one to see. Is that going to be her fatal flaw? I have the sinking feeling she’s going to end up being punished for wanting to use that pedestal to see a little better.)
Lana says people who are close shouldn’t have secrets from each other, and maybe the truth/secrets opposition is intended to be limited to people in intimate relations. I’m still uneasy about that. I think there’s room for a little mystery in the human or Kryptonian heart. Also, truth is different from knowledge, which implies understanding. That Lana wants truth makes her less appealing to me than Lex, who wants knowledge. On the other hand, knowledge seems much more susceptible to misuse than truth, and I can see why giving Lana the truth is a lot safer than giving Lex the knowledge. Truth can reveal secrets, but knowledge can exploit them.
Knowledge/secrets is traditionally a gendered opposition, written on the body as it were; truth/lies is somewhat less so unless we look to overt misogyny. I’m not sure how that fits in, but I have a feeling that it does.
Re: Smallville recently. I’ve never had a show break up with me before. I’ve had them cancelled on me; I’ve sat by the bedside during a long wasting disease, turning my head only at the last horrific moments (yes, that’s the XF); I’ve even had the relationship just sort of dissolve into nostalgia and no hard feelings (Buffy; I’m a weirdo who loved S6). But having SV flaunt its other audiences in front of me stings. Maybe that’s why I can’t seem to finish a story lately.
I can’t believe I thought Lana & Clark did a good job kissing. Is nothing sacred in this insane world?
Also, Farscape. It’s neat to find a good show that doesn’t demonize or erase the father. John Crichton’s relationship with his father isn’t exactly smooth, but it is loving and he didn’t start out his journey broken. I’m really enjoying watching the show in order, though my TiVo is groaning with all the stored episodes.
Mary Ellen, would you be willing to take another hack at "Tempest"? I've added a bunch and, I hope, improved the ending.
Does that sound as weird to you as it does to me? SV has this anvilicious opposition going on: Truth/secrets. To me, two more fit oppositions have been mushed together: truth/lies and knowledge/secrets, or perhaps exposure/secrets. Clark doesn’t always need to lie to protect his secrets. Sometimes he just shrugs, fails to explain, and accepts the consequences. It’s his unwillingness to do that with Lex that’s getting him into hotter and hotter water. The writers seem to have fallen into what I think is a logical fallacy – all lies are a kind of secret, so all secrets are a kind of lie. That is, frankly, a frighteningly totalitarian concept.
I can see why Lex would believe it, though, especially since he doesn’t feel any need for reciprocity. It’s nice to be the man behind the curtain, all-seeing and never seen, but it’s not so nice to be observed. (Insert here discussion of “the gaze” and the subject, Laura Mulvey-style, and the oddity of the pure object Lana insisting on being the one to see. Is that going to be her fatal flaw? I have the sinking feeling she’s going to end up being punished for wanting to use that pedestal to see a little better.)
Lana says people who are close shouldn’t have secrets from each other, and maybe the truth/secrets opposition is intended to be limited to people in intimate relations. I’m still uneasy about that. I think there’s room for a little mystery in the human or Kryptonian heart. Also, truth is different from knowledge, which implies understanding. That Lana wants truth makes her less appealing to me than Lex, who wants knowledge. On the other hand, knowledge seems much more susceptible to misuse than truth, and I can see why giving Lana the truth is a lot safer than giving Lex the knowledge. Truth can reveal secrets, but knowledge can exploit them.
Knowledge/secrets is traditionally a gendered opposition, written on the body as it were; truth/lies is somewhat less so unless we look to overt misogyny. I’m not sure how that fits in, but I have a feeling that it does.
Re: Smallville recently. I’ve never had a show break up with me before. I’ve had them cancelled on me; I’ve sat by the bedside during a long wasting disease, turning my head only at the last horrific moments (yes, that’s the XF); I’ve even had the relationship just sort of dissolve into nostalgia and no hard feelings (Buffy; I’m a weirdo who loved S6). But having SV flaunt its other audiences in front of me stings. Maybe that’s why I can’t seem to finish a story lately.
I can’t believe I thought Lana & Clark did a good job kissing. Is nothing sacred in this insane world?
Also, Farscape. It’s neat to find a good show that doesn’t demonize or erase the father. John Crichton’s relationship with his father isn’t exactly smooth, but it is loving and he didn’t start out his journey broken. I’m really enjoying watching the show in order, though my TiVo is groaning with all the stored episodes.
Mary Ellen, would you be willing to take another hack at "Tempest"? I've added a bunch and, I hope, improved the ending.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
Thanks!
I was never a XF watcher, hence I can't really comment on it, but I do understand your annoyance with the use of family. Generally, it's just laziness/lack of creativity on the writers part. Not everything comes down to childhood/family trouble, but it's an easily understood way to get a point across. I think that's it's far more work, far harder, to get into a character from a less familiar angle, but the payoff is much better.
I like that he didn't start out cracked, but got there because of pressures simply too great to bear.
I couldn't agree more. I do think that it's a very hard thing to do, as well. Hard not only to show the character slowly disintegrating before our eyes, but also hard to keep him sympathetic and interesting to the audience.
I get what you're saying about Scorpy, but I don't think I've seen John need his approval in a familial way.
Hmmm... I'm thinking about this. I don't think he ever seeks Scorpy's approval so much as Harvey's approval. (Have you seen the last season? If you haven't this won't make much sense. I mean Scorpy as in Scorpius, and Harvey as in the Scorpius clone trapped in John's mind.) On occasions, such as the time travel/nuns episode, he does seek Harvey's guidance... but still, it's not a case of seeking approval to validate himself. In fact, he frequently goes out of his way to avoid behaviour that Harvey encourages.
I have the gut feeling that when it comes to approval, John generally seeks that from his crewmates. I'm just intrigued because I never thought about the family relationships on Farscape. It honestly just never occured to me. We have John's healthy relationship with his dad, Chiana's healthy relationship with her brother, D'Argo's difficult relationship with his son, Aeryn's non-existant relationship with her mother... I think it mentions somewhere that Crais was close to his family, before becoming a Peacekeeper.
All in all, the relationships aren't perfect, or even all good, but there is a nice mix of both. And generally, although they are used to help give us background, they aren't used to completely base the character upon.
Yeah, I'm rambling, and missing the fact that Farscape seems to have disappeared from our screens. *sigh* Knowing my luck, SV's going to be next.