(no subject)

It's so foggy right now that I could barely see the New York side of the GWB. What I could see of it literally faded into whiteness. New Jersey officially does not exist.

It's kind of like waking up inside a big dome, where the walls are so far away, you can't quite tell they're there. Or maybe it's like the Construct in The Matrix, where there's just nothing but white forever and ever. It's eerie. And a little like what I'd imagine purgatory to be--nothingness forever.

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In other cheerful news, oh noes, you are not spending enough money at the movie theaters. AGAIN. I'm sad that The Golden Compass has already been judged a failure, since I don't think it deserved to be regarded as such, but I'm not surprised it couldn't draw in more people. For one thing, I'd absolutely forbid anyone who's not read the books from seeing it. If I didn't know already who all the various groups were and what they were doing, I'd have been really lost.

Regardless of me wanting the movie to do well, I don't give a shit about movie studios whining. They'd been on a high for three-quarters of the year so far, and now they play pauper so you don't forget that they still have movies out. Fuck that. I didn't even get to use my coupon for The Golden Compass because AMCs apparently don't take them. No sympathy for studios when I'm paying $12 for a movie. They had a bunch of sure-fire money-making sequels this summer and they even made a few blockbusters of uncertain quality (a long-delayed Die Hard sequel, the Transformers live-action movie) turn a profit. Are American audiences not entitled to some time off after making Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End unjustifiably profitable? Go to hell studios (but sign the writers a new contract and give them a share of your ludicrously large pie first).

(no subject)

Something writerly has been provoking me for a while now, which is funny because I've not felt arsed to write anything--original or otherwise--for some time. It's a specific thematic element, and a fire of irritation over it has been stoked by--of all things--the miniseries Tin Man, which I watched recently.

I've said before that I have this habit of checking out fanfic after I watch/read a work, even for things I didn't especially like (some times because I didn't like them and the fanfic is either sure to make me laugh or fix problems I had with the original work). I went ahead with this habit even though I didn't love the miniseries, and I had some success with it. I found stories that eventually led to smut for the Callum Keith Rennie fangirls I know. I even enjoyed a few stories just for myself, wonder of wonders.

Then I ran into this thematic bugaboo: Age-gap romances.

( In general, I like them. It's how they're represented that makes me grind my teeth.  )

From my general peeves to my specific ones in fanfic especially. Guess which one is the example of a positive, well-rounded inter-generational romance!

( Jean and Scott in the <i>X-Men</i> movie universe )

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( And one from Dexter (note: minor season two spoilers) )

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Too often, in fiction, the bereft/widowed party is “fixed” by a new love’s persistent attention when, emotionally, pursuing someone who has lost their love is about as vile as you get. Giving the grieving person space to make peace with the loss and then seeing if something else is possible makes for better, if less grandly operatic, romance. That is a big part of why inter-generational romances end up rubbing me the wrong way: they do not acknowledge what came first and how that might keep an object of affection from completely returning a lover’s interest for a long, long time. I’d say the problem is patience—most fanfic writers don’t have it. They don’t want to wait for the wounded partner to have an appropriate amount of time to get better; they want to fix that one by pairing him/her with the love interest of the series.

( Case in point (the one that finally set this off): Tin Man )

I guess I just don’t think like a fan-ficcer any more. That, and if anyone in Tin Man had any sexual chemistry going, it was Alan Cumming and Neal McDonough. After rewatching the miniseries, I'm not convinced that McDonough is any more decidedly straight than Alan Cumming. Maybe he'll get married to a guy after ten years of being married to a woman, too.