Vaguely apologist meanderings

[hazelk]

I was discussing the first part of Crossroads with danceswithwords, having followed a link to her most excellent reviews, and it made me think about how I process media. Books, movies TV shows, I think it started with books, I read fast and long ago got into the habit of skipping back and forwards from the ending instead of following the whole story word, by word, by word. Do other people do this? It’s a habit that allows you to reread the books and get something slightly different from them every time, which is no bad thing. But it’s also a habit that forces you to withhold judgement on a story until you’ve had time to reflect on it and put the pieces in order. With stories in a serial format that I can’t skip to the end of (TV series being prime examples) I fundamentally don’t trust my first impressions. If anything the reverse, I’m a horribly uncritical reader/viewer once I’ve decided that something is worth sticking with and I tend to prefer the later parts of a series, to see them as carrying the weight of the whole. I enjoy Carefree more than Top Hat even though I can see that the earlier movie has fewer flaws. But flaws aren’t everything.

To return to the original subject of this post, I think this season BSG has gotten less linear in its story telling. The first season was driven by the mystery of the cylon plan, the oppressive sense that something even worse was going to happen. I remember feeling at the time that this was a great structural device but not one that could be sustained indefinitely and it wasn’t. Stuff did happen but in the aftermath the story has necessarily become much more fragmented. Instead of fastening on one plotline or character it’s been offering snapshots of everyone’s lives in a fashion not unlike the shooting process, taking shots from all possible angles and leaving the audience free to edit them together. It’s an approach that suits me as it’s more or less what I tend to do anyway but it could be seen as lazy or half-baked. In some cases it almost certainly was.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I'm behind on BSG so avoiding spoiler talk there, but your icon made me think of how we recently heard some commentary about Fred Astaire's appearance on the original BSG. Dirk Benedict said that they were waiting for a shot and some noise on the set started, a very percussive thing, and Dirk noticed Fred was doing some dance moves in response to them. He later told Dirk he wanted to do a dance special set in space.

Re: your book reading, I've always read very linearly myself, perhaps because as a child my favorite type of book was a mystery and jumping around would be rather spoilerish! However when you mention being unable to do so with a series, I assume you mean a broadcast one. What about DVDs? I'd just posted myself about how I notice it's changed the way I approach television now that I can see whole seasons (if not whole shows) rapidly. Couldn't you jump around in DVD sets too?

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

So cool about Astaire - from what little I've seen of the original BSG it would have worked better as a musical.

I do struggle with mysteries, I think the skipping ahead may have caused any ability to figure out a plot to atrophy, they all read like The Big Sleep. Which is still a great movie. DVD sets I do watch in order but binge and the information overload has a similar effect.

[spacedoutlooney.livejournal.com]

I pretty much always want to know what happens in a story, whether book, movie, musical/play, or tv show, so I can focus more one how it happens. If I reading a book, I will often times read the last page or last chapter first. If I'm watching a tv show as it airs, I always try to refrain forming firm opinions because I don't know everything yet.

I tend not to think linearly; when I'm writing essays, I'm usually working on the beginning, middle, and ending at the same time.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's the how not the what that's most interesting. I do usually start essays/papers at the beginning but find it hard to write fluently untill there's a verison of everything and I can start cutting and pasting.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

This description ping on several levels with me, even though I never hopped around in books. But the points about being uncritical once I'm attached and being willing to, or needing to, see things in the whole to fully absorb are things I get.

I also had very similar thoughts on the pacing and storytelling style of BSG and how people have been reacting to it. I sort of assumed that everyone realized that initial pace couldn't be held forever. Certainly not a show that developed any serious length, which I certainly think three seasons could be considered. It's been troublesome for me only in regards to wanting to continue interacting with fandom, but having some difficulty resolving the growing dissatisfaction with my own enjoyment and acceptance of the weaker areas.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

It's good to hear other people have similar feelings :D And yes not really a problem except slightly with the interactions. I don't know, there's been a bunch of posts recently about not harshing people's squee. Although never tempted to do that I have sometimes held back from rushing in mother bear-like to defend a poor woobie show from being snarked on. Especially when the defence consists of more or less "it wasn't that bad," "this other bit was really good" and "Ron Moore is a child of his time."