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God, I just, it hit me all over again while watching eps just how much I love this show and how much it feels like every episode was written for me, because it resonates with my mind in a way that very few shows do. It usually frustrates me that I can't enjoy the usual shows other people around me enjoy, sorta in the way that I'm frustrated that I can't think linearly very easily; which is to say that I figured out another way to go about it.
Hence fandom. Though even then, I kinda just drifted fandoms, mostly lurking and not sending feedback.
Until PotC. Until OUaTiM. Until Saiyuki.
(HP doesn't really count because I've never read any of the books.
Yes, I wrote fic based on the fanon alone. ::braces self for skewering::)
And it makes my head tilt because these fandoms not really similar and they span different genres and mediums. Or rather, maybe it's not because I have a Genre that I truly love. I love, really, the sort of a meta-genre, if it could be called a genre at all, of pastiche. It's a type of story within a genre that's both a tribute and a loving parody of the genre itself. (examples would be American Psycho for horror, PotC for pirate movies, Sin City for Film Noir, OUaTiM for spaghetti westerns, and Saiyuki for adventure sagas) I love love love homages that makes fun of itself, that has a sense of humor about itself, that undermines its own genre while at the same time celebrates it.
Pastiche is perhaps, in essence, the crack!fic of the genre. But let me pause here to define crack!fic as I think of it. Because crack!fic doesn't mean bad!fic to me; instead I think of it as good!fic with astonishing qualities. It's "I can't believe that just happened" and "I can't believe that worked". It's subversive and strange, strange because it shouldn't happen and subversive because it uses its own medium to comment on itself. My favorite type of crack!fic is consequently usually simultaneously meta!fic (which, come to think of it, explains RPAS), done with joy and love and insuppressable glee.
So perhaps it's not so surprising that I love SGA.
It is so much so true to its genre that it has, for lack of a better term, wiggle room. It's sorta like my liking slash because it's an exploration of relationships without the difficulties of power dynamics tied to gender, it's sorta like Republicans being able to critique Bush and being more easily believed because they're Republicans, it's sorta like in an experiment controlling the constants while swiveling only one variable.
I adore so much how SGA is a critique on sci-fi genre itself (sci-fi genre itself frequently being a critique on culture and society), while showing it so much love and empathy and fondness. It's a show that knows both it's roots and loves it and comments on it, from the Ancients in Aurora (who we are shown in that ep. is like Star Trek) to the variations of the Prime Directive (Sanctuary, End of Childhood) to the characters themselves. For instance Halling is like a physical comment on his character archetype (Wise Black/American-Indian Shaman), and Sheppard and Teyla are self-contained gender-fucks (see previous meta), and how they sometimes have a character play the part of Sceptical Audience when they do the especially cliched plotlines (like McKay in Sanctuary).
Granted, I think the cliched plot-lines are part of the point. To be able to allow such play in character and themes, to be able to mess with and to critique the genre so much, a show needs some stable structure (some "draw") to allow it to connect with the audience. In SGA's case, it's the sci-fi codes and conventions that they're utterly playing with, and succeeding at playing with, and doing so with such love in a way that utterly facinates me and nevermind the cliched storylines that aren't really the point for me anyways.
Then again, it returns to how SGA so very much feels like it's made for my brain 'cause I personally don't think there's any new story under the sun. Solely-narrative-based plotlines lose me whereas SGA approaches its narrative like a monumental McGuffin and basically said, "Lets mix up characters and themes and turn every cliche inside out, and do it with some salt for the wounds and lime for McKay and DON'T FORGET THE UMBRELLA!"
God, I love my show. ::blissed out::
Hence fandom. Though even then, I kinda just drifted fandoms, mostly lurking and not sending feedback.
Until PotC. Until OUaTiM. Until Saiyuki.
(HP doesn't really count because I've never read any of the books.
Yes, I wrote fic based on the fanon alone. ::braces self for skewering::)
And it makes my head tilt because these fandoms not really similar and they span different genres and mediums. Or rather, maybe it's not because I have a Genre that I truly love. I love, really, the sort of a meta-genre, if it could be called a genre at all, of pastiche. It's a type of story within a genre that's both a tribute and a loving parody of the genre itself. (examples would be American Psycho for horror, PotC for pirate movies, Sin City for Film Noir, OUaTiM for spaghetti westerns, and Saiyuki for adventure sagas) I love love love homages that makes fun of itself, that has a sense of humor about itself, that undermines its own genre while at the same time celebrates it.
Pastiche is perhaps, in essence, the crack!fic of the genre. But let me pause here to define crack!fic as I think of it. Because crack!fic doesn't mean bad!fic to me; instead I think of it as good!fic with astonishing qualities. It's "I can't believe that just happened" and "I can't believe that worked". It's subversive and strange, strange because it shouldn't happen and subversive because it uses its own medium to comment on itself. My favorite type of crack!fic is consequently usually simultaneously meta!fic (which, come to think of it, explains RPAS), done with joy and love and insuppressable glee.
So perhaps it's not so surprising that I love SGA.
It is so much so true to its genre that it has, for lack of a better term, wiggle room. It's sorta like my liking slash because it's an exploration of relationships without the difficulties of power dynamics tied to gender, it's sorta like Republicans being able to critique Bush and being more easily believed because they're Republicans, it's sorta like in an experiment controlling the constants while swiveling only one variable.
I adore so much how SGA is a critique on sci-fi genre itself (sci-fi genre itself frequently being a critique on culture and society), while showing it so much love and empathy and fondness. It's a show that knows both it's roots and loves it and comments on it, from the Ancients in Aurora (who we are shown in that ep. is like Star Trek) to the variations of the Prime Directive (Sanctuary, End of Childhood) to the characters themselves. For instance Halling is like a physical comment on his character archetype (Wise Black/American-Indian Shaman), and Sheppard and Teyla are self-contained gender-fucks (see previous meta), and how they sometimes have a character play the part of Sceptical Audience when they do the especially cliched plotlines (like McKay in Sanctuary).
Granted, I think the cliched plot-lines are part of the point. To be able to allow such play in character and themes, to be able to mess with and to critique the genre so much, a show needs some stable structure (some "draw") to allow it to connect with the audience. In SGA's case, it's the sci-fi codes and conventions that they're utterly playing with, and succeeding at playing with, and doing so with such love in a way that utterly facinates me and nevermind the cliched storylines that aren't really the point for me anyways.
Then again, it returns to how SGA so very much feels like it's made for my brain 'cause I personally don't think there's any new story under the sun. Solely-narrative-based plotlines lose me whereas SGA approaches its narrative like a monumental McGuffin and basically said, "Lets mix up characters and themes and turn every cliche inside out, and do it with some salt for the wounds and lime for McKay and DON'T FORGET THE UMBRELLA!"
God, I love my show. ::blissed out::
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I think you will like it.
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And god, knowing my skin chemistry, the violets and kelp will probably be ramped up which might ::crosses fingers:: make it work.
Or in any case I'll keep it to sniff for inspiration. =D
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::GLOMPS:: and omg it's like flowers on a speedboat, I breathe it in and can taste the salt sting at the back of my throat, this is fantastic. Thank you!