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thebratqueenSince I'm taking a break from writing anyway, I thought I'd give some answers.
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narcolepticcat asks:
how'd you get so smart and have so many viable intellectual arguments about btvs/ats? i'm just curious cuz everytime i watch angel i think about your gay!wesley/gay-positive article.
Powerful, powerful narcotics and a diet consisting of nothing but yoghurt.
Or, um, not ;)
I'd say the Buffy/Angel comments come out of a combination of things. First up was an English minor at Barnard, which I mention not so much to brag about my college as to give context to things like the gay symbolism essays. Stuff like that - and many, many feminist discussions - were the sort of things people at Barnard talked about TO DEATH. Seriously. Great school, very pretentious ;) You can't open an envelope out there without the socialists hauling out the black flag, someone staging a protest, and peer groups being formed to discuss the symbolic meanings the whole envelope issue might have to minorities, and how can we make sure that envelope-loving Americans and non-envelope-loving Americans were supported and made to feel welcome at our school and was the proper PC term really envelope-loving so much as using and can we please, somehow, drag this back to the discussion of Khalid Abdul Mohammad because we can't talk about that incident enough, really.
So that's where I got my encouragement to talk about stuff at length, I think. The English minor helped out in that it started to give me the tools to understand writing, and why authors do what they do in order to make their work do what it does. FWIW one of my teachers was Mary Gordon, which I mention b/c I believe someone on my friends list really enjoys her work. She was an amazing teacher who really taught me a lot about appreciating how well a story was put together even if I hated the story itself. She actually got me to sit through Virginia Woolf which, if you know me, is a difficult thing to do.
Add on top of that is a fascination with Hollywood and how TV shows and movies are put together. Ironically, reading a lot helps here too. Roger Ebert, for instance, talks a lot about what makes a movie work and what doesn't, and even if you don't agree with him I think that gives you the tools to understand why you have your own opinions. Movie reviews were also how I started to gain an appreciation for camera angles, pacing, and where to give credit to the writer vs director vs editor vs actors (er - in no particular order of importance).
After that I think it's just a lot of watching. What scenes did you like, what did you not like, what about them worked and what didn't? How did the scene satisfy what you wanted and how did it fail? Things like that.
And the gay!Wes essay came out of a reading of The Celluloid Closet. Their discussion of the sissy character just slapped me across the face and screamed WES!!
Er - did that make any sense? Answer the question any? I'm not entirely certain I didn't go off on a sequitor there. =)
wesleysgirl asks:
Is everyone in your family as self-confident as you are?
Hee hee hee!! Sorry I just love how this is worded. Such a polite way of avoiding words like "flaming bitch" ;)
Actually though I had to stop and think about it. What's throwing me is the "as you are". Self-confident I'd say yes across the board. Even Mom who's got depression and other things that give her something of an obstacle course in doing things and feeling good about herself. But in and of herself she is confident.
Likewise my dad is confident in himself, but I don't know that you'd necessarily say in the same way I am. He's a very Mr. Rogers kind of guy so he's not in your face, but he still has self-confidence. He knows who he is and what his values are and he sticks by them.
And, of course, I am my parents' daughter so anything I learned about being confident in myself came directly from them. Love my self-confidence, love my folks so to speak.
But if we're getting to the specific like me then we're going to have to avoid the other technicalities and point the finger straight at Elder Brother, aka #1 son. Older Brother (#2) is confident but he's also laid back. Elder Brother, on the other hand, blows me out of the water. Man if you think I'm an alpha dog you should meet him. Total go-getter, driven, takes control of the room from the word go, you name it. He makes me go bibble.
Seriously, if I had a conversational kryptonite, EB would probably be it. He's got close to a 9 year head start on me so while I might be as good as he was at my age, he's still older and therefore more experienced. He's definitely the Mycroft to my self-confident Sherlock Holmes ;)
eliade asks:
Do you have any pictures of your cats stored online? Can I see them? {g}
At the moment, only thanks to my weeny little webcam. I just put up a couple of Luna. There's also a couple of pictures here of Mac and Luna, or possibly of Bigfoot and a member of his family. I leave it to society to decide.
***
Okay, keep 'em coming! =)
***
narcolepticcat asks:how'd you get so smart and have so many viable intellectual arguments about btvs/ats? i'm just curious cuz everytime i watch angel i think about your gay!wesley/gay-positive article.
Powerful, powerful narcotics and a diet consisting of nothing but yoghurt.
Or, um, not ;)
I'd say the Buffy/Angel comments come out of a combination of things. First up was an English minor at Barnard, which I mention not so much to brag about my college as to give context to things like the gay symbolism essays. Stuff like that - and many, many feminist discussions - were the sort of things people at Barnard talked about TO DEATH. Seriously. Great school, very pretentious ;) You can't open an envelope out there without the socialists hauling out the black flag, someone staging a protest, and peer groups being formed to discuss the symbolic meanings the whole envelope issue might have to minorities, and how can we make sure that envelope-loving Americans and non-envelope-loving Americans were supported and made to feel welcome at our school and was the proper PC term really envelope-loving so much as using and can we please, somehow, drag this back to the discussion of Khalid Abdul Mohammad because we can't talk about that incident enough, really.
So that's where I got my encouragement to talk about stuff at length, I think. The English minor helped out in that it started to give me the tools to understand writing, and why authors do what they do in order to make their work do what it does. FWIW one of my teachers was Mary Gordon, which I mention b/c I believe someone on my friends list really enjoys her work. She was an amazing teacher who really taught me a lot about appreciating how well a story was put together even if I hated the story itself. She actually got me to sit through Virginia Woolf which, if you know me, is a difficult thing to do.
Add on top of that is a fascination with Hollywood and how TV shows and movies are put together. Ironically, reading a lot helps here too. Roger Ebert, for instance, talks a lot about what makes a movie work and what doesn't, and even if you don't agree with him I think that gives you the tools to understand why you have your own opinions. Movie reviews were also how I started to gain an appreciation for camera angles, pacing, and where to give credit to the writer vs director vs editor vs actors (er - in no particular order of importance).
After that I think it's just a lot of watching. What scenes did you like, what did you not like, what about them worked and what didn't? How did the scene satisfy what you wanted and how did it fail? Things like that.
And the gay!Wes essay came out of a reading of The Celluloid Closet. Their discussion of the sissy character just slapped me across the face and screamed WES!!
Er - did that make any sense? Answer the question any? I'm not entirely certain I didn't go off on a sequitor there. =)
wesleysgirl asks: Is everyone in your family as self-confident as you are?
Hee hee hee!! Sorry I just love how this is worded. Such a polite way of avoiding words like "flaming bitch" ;)
Actually though I had to stop and think about it. What's throwing me is the "as you are". Self-confident I'd say yes across the board. Even Mom who's got depression and other things that give her something of an obstacle course in doing things and feeling good about herself. But in and of herself she is confident.
Likewise my dad is confident in himself, but I don't know that you'd necessarily say in the same way I am. He's a very Mr. Rogers kind of guy so he's not in your face, but he still has self-confidence. He knows who he is and what his values are and he sticks by them.
And, of course, I am my parents' daughter so anything I learned about being confident in myself came directly from them. Love my self-confidence, love my folks so to speak.
But if we're getting to the specific like me then we're going to have to avoid the other technicalities and point the finger straight at Elder Brother, aka #1 son. Older Brother (#2) is confident but he's also laid back. Elder Brother, on the other hand, blows me out of the water. Man if you think I'm an alpha dog you should meet him. Total go-getter, driven, takes control of the room from the word go, you name it. He makes me go bibble.
Seriously, if I had a conversational kryptonite, EB would probably be it. He's got close to a 9 year head start on me so while I might be as good as he was at my age, he's still older and therefore more experienced. He's definitely the Mycroft to my self-confident Sherlock Holmes ;)
eliade asks:Do you have any pictures of your cats stored online? Can I see them? {g}
At the moment, only thanks to my weeny little webcam. I just put up a couple of Luna. There's also a couple of pictures here of Mac and Luna, or possibly of Bigfoot and a member of his family. I leave it to society to decide.
***
Okay, keep 'em coming! =)
