distraction, please?

[rivendellrose]

Today has been a Monday. Very much... a Monday. As in the kind of Monday in which I discovered when I went on lunch that the frozen potpie I brought is not microwavable, and when I went to the Vietnamese place down the road and bought a banh mi sandwich, it ended up having chilies in it. Which I did not notice. Until I'd eaten three bites of the sandwich. Ow.

So, gacked from seemingly everyone - a meme.

Give me a topic - fannish, political, religious, whatever - and I'll post about it. Maybe a sentence, maybe a paragraph, maybe a multi-part post complete with pie charts... IF YOU'RE LUCKY.

Come on, people... somebody distract me. *Hope*

Comments

[sg1padawan.livejournal.com]

Distraction at your request!

Why is Firefly so awesome?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! ♥

The beauty of Firefly, for me, comes down to true humanity. All good science fiction has something to say about human nature and the universe we live in, but with Firefly it was a very visceral, lived-in, realistic kind of humanity. Not necessarily always the kind we like to admit to, but the kind that I think is essential to the truth about us and the world. Firefly isn't a show about politicians and soldiers and scientists - it's about normal people trying to get by, in circumstances that aren't all that extraordinary for them. They're just living their daily life, and although the details might be different from what we live in this time and place, the general concept is all too familiar. How are we going to get by until our next paycheck? Is it okay to ignore our morals in order to get ahead a bit? How can we live in terrible times without becoming terrible people in response?

The characters aren't perfect - they have flaws, they have doubts, they snipe at each other, and they make bad decisions sometimes. They make deals with the devil in order to get by, and sometimes they regret them. They don't speak in high-flown, noble tones or make fancy speeches about the things they've done and seen, but they speak in a real and often beautiful way, using language that is at once very familiar and down-to-earth (particularly to someone who grew up, and still lives, in the American west), but is also unique, creative, and linguistically very interesting. And of course the characters themselves are equally interesting, I think - there's no such thing as a one-dimensional person in Firefly-verse, I don't think, and that's a wonderful thing to see. Circumstances and revelations through the series constantly changed and challenged our impressions of each of the main characters, and that's the kind of writing that really impresses me.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

That was really beautiful. You summed it up so well.

Honestly, I want to re-post this to my LJ - crediting you of course. Would that be ok with you? Alternatively, I wonder if you might want to post this on fireflyfans. I bet all of us Browncoats could use a reminder on why we love this show so much.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

*Ducks head* Thanks!

And of course you can! I might rework it a little, see if I can get it a bit more polished before posting to fireflyfans, but other than that I'm just flattered you liked what I had to say. *g*

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

Something you really wanted to see in Firefly; really wished they had done.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Six more seasons.

...Okay, no, that's not my full answer. But seriously, that's pretty much what I would want. More than anything, I'm still sad that we won't get to see the full span of development that the series should have gotten.

More specific than that, the biggest thing I wish they'd had the opportunity to deal with was Inara's background. I've got a good feel, I think, for everyone else's past, but Inara is a mystery... and I have a feeling that mystery is tied to a lot of other things, as well.

[stormkpr.livejournal.com]

More than anything, I'm still sad that we won't get to see the full span of development that the series should have gotten.

Me too. Though part of me truly fears that it may have gotten bad over the course of 7 seasons, we'll never know that either -- maybe it would've gotten even better, if possible!

The movie gives us somewhat of an ending but I sure would've wanted to have seen it all slowly unfold over several seasons instead of get crammed into a movie.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Though part of me truly fears that it may have gotten bad over the course of 7 seasons...

Exactly. Having seen most of Buffy, now, I'm... I don't know. When we were in the thick of watching S6, I was almost happy Firefly ended too early for Joss to do anything like that to them. It would have hurt too much - I cared so much about all the Firefly crew, it would have just driven me nuts to watch them go through all the horrible things I'm sure Joss would've thrown at them. Considering how he treats his other characters... yeah.

I agree that it would've been better spread over several seasons than straight in the movie, though - we'd have gotten all the good fun bits, too. Which Joss is so very good at.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

That, plus I feel the stories of these people would be best told in 45 minute, intimate and low key increments rather than in a two hour flashy epic cinematic opera.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Another very good point. *g*

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Ooph. I've done the pot pie thing before. I was working for a company at the time that literally had no where within a mile for me to get something else, so I ended up pulling it out of the pie pan, nuking, and eating this largely uncooked flattened dough thing with filling oozing out.

Classy. Yeah.

Tell me about a time (if you believe in such things) that you ran into something creepy or wonderful and potentially "supernatural" that you couldn't explain. :D And if you don't believe in such things, tell me what you think it *was* that wasn't "supernatural".

(Yeah, I'm unable to come up with a normal prompt. My uterus is trying to kill me, and I need a distraction, too :D)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I thought about it, seriously. I kept looking at the thing and thinking "well... if I were to put it in the microwave for a while, and then put it in the oven, maybe..." But I decided it wasn't worth screwing around with it and potentially wasting my lunch hour on the process.

As for the other, it's tricky for me to answer this, really - I'm one of those people who deeply want to believe in the supernatural, but was also raised to think in a very rational, scientific way, question everything, and try to assess them in terms of real evidence.

That said, I've had a number of rather intense experiences where I foresee/intuit things that I was entirely unaware of on a conscious level. A few involved dreams that closely resembled or implied later events that actually happened (nothing extreme - usually it's a purely personal thing that's being indicated), and I've always had very good luck with fortune-telling, particularly with runes. I'd think less of the fortunetelling if I didn't have an established practice of asking not to be told the querent's question - I like to think that because my conscious mind is in the dark about what they're asking, I'm less likely to influence the results. Logically, I figure I'm probably just picking up subconscious hints and piecing things together, but I've had a few cases of strong shock on that count that make me doubt.

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the "want to believe" but am generally too rational. Regardless, I've had a few things I've tried to get explanations for, but failed. I mostly wondered because we are both spiritual without being all "woOoOo woOoOo" (imagine flailing arms) about it :D

I get dreams sometimes, too. I had one last year, right before a conference, where my car wouldn't start at the hotel and I couldn't get a hold of M because his phone wasn't working. I even told him about this dream before the conference. It was my new car, so there was no reason to expect problems, although M's phone WAS having problems at the time.

And after the conference, lo and behold, my car wouldn't start (near as we can tell, my passenger had turned on the map light on her side and not turned it off, draining the battery over the weekend), and I couldn't reach M.

See how I try to rationalize it as I explain it? :D Although I suspect the dream was stimulated by my fear of not being able to get a hold of M because I knew his phone had problems, there was absolutely no good reason for me to believe my car would have problems.

Crazy, huh?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting one, because there's no logical reason that you would think "hey, I bet my new car is going to have problems the weekend of the conference." So unless you have generalized anxiety about cars (I do - ever since I started learning to drive I've had nightmares about losing control of my car or something like that), there wouldn't be any rational explanation.

Honestly, my impression of the dreams I get isn't even that I actually "see into the future" or something. I generally take it to be that my subconscious and/or something on a "higher plane" (gods, I hate that term) is trying to get a message across to me, trying to work out something like that, trying to get me to notice something on a conscious level that I hadn't noticed before... and the dreams are the way it comes across.

For instance, I take very seriously dreams I have about relationships. Whether or not I consciously admit what's going on in a given relationship, if it turns up in a dream? That's it, I can't refuse it anymore. For a while a few years ago I was dating a really nice guy who I had no interest in, but who was really (inexplicably, now that I think of it, because I really wasn't good company at that time) into me. I kept putting off breaking up with him, hoping I'd get over all the stuff that was keeping me aloof and iffy, until one night I had a dream that we were getting married, and that I was absolutely desperate to call it off but couldn't seem to find a way to do it. The dream, horribly exaggerated as it was, was exactly what I needed to make me get off my butt and fix the problem.

That's a whole different kind of thing than what you're describing, though. Honestly semi-prophetic dreams are soooo neat. :D

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

I have no clue where this came from, but: Are there books you can't live without, that you read multiple times for comfort or based on a mood?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh yes. Fun question! Let's see... I've read Tanya Huff's "Smoke and Mirrors" about a zillion times. "Lord of the Rings" is a perennial re-read, though I'm not quite up to the once-a-year read that I'd like to do. "A Little Princess" is another that I reread frequently - a little embarrassing, at my age, but I adore that book. Others are dependent on mood, and often read in bits and pieces - I'm a huge fan of my Bulfinch's Mythology, but I could never read the whole thing straight through, and the same goes for my various poetry collections. Usually I just skip to favorite parts, like last night when I went on a T.S. Eliot binge. ;)

[velvet-midnight.livejournal.com]

The fantastic Bab 5. heh.

*needs a Bab 5 icon like woah*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

The funny thing about Bab5, for me, is that I love it passionately even as I think that in a lot of ways it's sort of unbearably cheesy and sort of embarrassing. The sfx are terribly 90s, the acting, especially of the guest stars, is sometimes spotty, and sometimes the dialogue makes me want to tear out my hair. And yet, I love it.

It's so very mythic in a lot of ways, sometimes it feels like it's going to crush itself under the weight of all those deep themes and messages, and sometimes it's a bit too preachy for me, but I still get it, and the mythic quality resonates deep for me even when I get irritated by how heavy-handed it can be.

The characters saved it, for me. I fell in love with Ivanova pretty much the minute she walked on screen. Same thing with G'Kar. Londo was so delightful - such a buffoon at the beginning, and it was both terrible and wonderful to watch him change over the course of the series. Same thing with Vir and Lennier, both of whom are extremely dear to me - particularly the latter, as I seem to have a soft spot a world wide for loyal but unrequited lovers. ;) Best of all, was that tired old chestnut in the first season that really did end up being more true than I had ever imagined - nobody there was what they seemed. Best example for me is, was, and always will be Delenn. She gets played up most of the time as this sort of... benevolent, ethereal, wise, peaceful Virgin Mary sort of figure, and I suspect in a lot of series that'd be all she ever was. Wife, helpmeet, diplomat, mother, what-have-you. Instead, we get to see her as that... and also as a cut-throat politician who lies and connives and manipulates people into doing whatever she wants. A woman who ordered the genocide of the very people she later joins with. A woman who lies to her fiance and keeps secrets from him so that he doesn't find out things she knows will upset him. A very dangerous and impressive tactician, presumably something of a general, even, among the religious caste. There are so many facets to her, and to all the other major characters, that I just couldn't get enough of seeing them from every angle possible.

Eee. Sorry, you probably weren't really looking for an impromptu essay on Delenn. o_O Oops.