Infinite Stories

[peroxidepirate]

The fandom part of my brain has been filled up with Will of the Empress and current-season Doctor Who: both things I love, which plenty of other people criticize pretty harshly (and in the case of DW, at least, some of it is out and out hate). And it sometimes makes me wonder what I'm missing, what I'm not seeing that everybody else is seeing and up in arms over.

I can't answer that question, but I'm also not sure I need to. Here's the key thing, from my point of view:

No story is all things to all people. No story can be all things to all people. No story should be all things to all people. No story should try to be all things to all people.

That cuts both ways, of course. For me, that means forgiving a lot of things that some people find problematic in the stories I love -- River Song is a Mary Sue, and Canton Everett Delaware's boyfriend is a black man who's a plot point instead of a character, and Daja is in danger of being forgotten, and I don't care because there's another story out there where the shoe is on the other foot, and I probably love that one, too.

But... the stories I love, though they're not all things to me, are NOT the stories everyone loves.

I keep reminding myself, that's okay. There are an infinite number of stories, and no one will love them all, and none of them will be loved by everyone.

Comments

[boosette.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, you have meta a couple of entries back. Missed that, somehow.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

I think the important thing to remember, especially with all the screaming about Moffat's Who, is that even when it tries to disguise itself as reasonable social commentary, it isn't rational. A lot of the time these are the same people who fucking ADORED RTD for whatever reason that is beyond my realm of comprehension, and his writing had all sorts of issues with race, sexuality, gender, etc. But they liked it, so they didn't care. At least not as much. We give our favorite writers a pass on certain things, as long as they don't do anything too egregious. But that doesn't make their hatred of it rational.

And frankly I think anyone who calls River a Mary Sue at this late date just isn't paying attention.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

"But they liked it, so they didn't care. At least not as much. We give our favorite writers a pass on certain things, as long as they don't do anything too egregious."

Trufax! I think I'm just not used to being so in love with a story and a way of storytelling that I stop looking at it in a critical light. I love a lot of things about RTD Who, too, and can often overlook most of the gender/race/size/etc issues enough to really enjoy watching it. But it seems Moffat Who speaks to me more, and I had the misfortune of happening on a mess of very, very critical DotM commentary when I wasn't able to brush it off.

[kitty-ryan.livejournal.com]

River Song makes me happy. She makes me happy in a way no other television character has...er...ever. That is the end of my story. And Daja is herself, and beautiful.

(Also, I have not encountered this Mary Sue fandomwank. I am deeply curious.)

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

:D It makes me happy to read this.

"River is a Mary Sue" was really a tiny part of the overall wank about Day of the Moon's many failings, and I'm not even sure I can find it again, but it bothered me!

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE. One of my favorite books ever is hated by so many people because they think one character is stupid and the other one is a monster. Personally, to me, it's about love and the fact sometimes the greatest act of love you can do is saving someone from themselves. Yes, one of them is a human monster. Yes, one of them was a fool. But they're both betrayed by each other, they both do the unforgivable, and never, not once, do they ever stop loving each other.

I know how it feels to love someone who would beat strangers' faces in with a lead pipe if she knew she could get away with it. I know how it feels to be the only person in the entire world they love. The only person who makes them feel anything, that makes them want to build something - maybe not something good, maybe not something bad, but BUILD. I know what it is and I wouldn't trade it for the world. She is someone I can call for anything. Anything at all. There is no line she won't cross for me and in return, I keep her from crossing them for anyone else.

That makes that book mean so much, no matter what others see.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, love doesn't always make sense. Whether it's one person's love for another person, or someone's love for a creative work (be it book, TV show, music, whatever), it's not necessarily logical.

Though I hope to one day figure out why I love Doctor Who, since that one is still a mystery to me.

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

I just have images of you asking that in therapy. 'I'm serious, Doc. I need to know.'

Ah, brain crack.