Late night fandom ponderings
For whatever reason, this has been on my mind of late. I was contemplating my fandom interests as I travelled on the train up to
What is it about an essentially closed story that holds my interest two years after the demise of the show?
Buffy and Spike. Spike and Buffy. Their story is ended, at least in canon, yet here I am two years later, still watching the show, reading their stories, hoping for a continuation, a resolution. Why? Is it the actors, the story of redemption, the hopelessness of the love story, or something else? I wished for more, and got much less, but it didn’t diminish my faith in the relationship. Why?
There is a compelling argument for the charisma that James Marsters brought to the role of Spike, but it has to be more than that. JM’s real life personae leaves me a little cold – I quite often want to meet him only to bitch slap him, and tell him to grow up, and please let someone else buy him clothes. So it has to be more.
I have had the fortune (or misfortune depending on your outlook) to download all the songs from Civilized Man – the man is a better actor than singer, but some of the songs are quite listenable, more so than when he was with GotR. One or two are cringe worthy, and one is so excruciatingly bad, lyric-wise, that I burst into sniggers every time I hear it. I haven’t even really been following reports or posting boards because my JM love has been waivering. Then comes the most recent concert reports, and pictures, coming out of Britain, and he was wearing the pimp shirt of doom again, and those bloody silver chains – James grow the bloody hell up. I attempted to watch Cool Money, but couldn’t get past the fact that Spike was with another woman – weird indeed. So OK, it’s not JM, it’s Spike.
What then is it about the Buffy and Spike relationship that is so compelling for me? Don’t expect any earth shattering epiphanies from me, I actually can’t articulate any particular explanation. It just is. Perhaps rather than trying to understand it, I should just enjoy it, and leave the exegeses to those far more coherent than I am.
Whilst I wish James all the best with his career, preferably acting not singing, I don’t think I’ll be there to watch it. I shall retreat to my Spuffy world, and appreciate the Spike that JM gave us, preserved forever on my shiny discs, and in the writings of my fave fanfic authors, past, present, and hopefully future. I’m not ready to let go of this obsession just yet.
</p>Hitchhikers - another fandom – do I go to see the movie, or not? I listened to the records of the series and the radio series, watched the TV series, read the books. Will the movie live up to my expectations, or ruin them. Decisions, decisions. Of course the fact that Alan Rickman voices Marvin, and Bill Nighy is in it as well, is heavily influencing me in favour of a viewing. Thankfully my movie-going friend is back this week from digging up mummies in Chile, so will have to see if I can organise something with her next weekend.
Dr Who - Thankfully the new series starts here later this month (the 21st I think), so I can save my downloading for Veronica Mars and Lost. Still don’t know what to make of Billie Piper as the ‘assistant’, know more about her from the tabloids than anything else. Will just have to wait and see I guess.
Monarch of the Glen - How much am I enjoying this – Tom Baker (my Dr Who), and Tony Head, with his Ripper-like accent, how lovely it is to see them on the screen again.
Now off to watch the new VM (well for me) after taking only 3 days to download. At least it’s May 1, which means our internet speed has clicked back up to 1500kbps, and surprisingly enough there’s another photo of Spike this month on my calendar …
If I wasn’t such a pedantic freak I would consider selling my Buffy and Angel DVD boxset collection (no longer available, you can now only purchase the tacky Amaray collection) – I have just watched an eBay auction where Buffy S7 Pt 1 and Pt 2 went for $172.50 and $182.50 respectively, each part only cost me $65.00!!
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contemplative
Spuffy: I was reading this long post on Spuffy s6, from someone who clearly loves and has thought about s6 a lot, and once again I wondered why it is I'm not fond of s6 and loathe s7. I think the Spuffy affair derailed the balance in Buffy for me -it sucked up the oxygen from the show. Or maybe the ending of s5 was so perfect for me that anything after was anti-climax. Or maybe the writing and quality control just sucked, despite good eps and moments in poor eps. What I mean is, I loved Spuffy s4-5, but it was because it was in the midst of other interactsions. Eg., I loved the character of Willow, and I also liked what they were trying to do with the darkness in her character in s6, but there were so many shortcuts (like the 'instant magic addiction') and never any Spike/Willow and never really any resolution of the terrible thing that Willow did to Buffy either. Dawn was so wasted (and Spike/Dawn, one of the more interesting relationships in the show, completely dropped) and the two Dawn-centric eps pretty awful. I loved the concept of a Spuffy relationship, and certainly the general idea of the relationship (that they would be bad for one another in so many ways) seemed appropriate. But somehow it either ruined the show or coincided with a huge drop in quality control. I still can't decide which.
Hitchhiker's Guide: I'm so there. Unlike JM, Alan Rickman could read the phone book and have me panting gently nearby.
S5 - yep should have ended there.
Alan Rickman - him and Patrick Stewart, the two most mellifluous voices in the galaxy.
I would be interested to hear about your 'descent' into the fandom, and about the screenwriting course as well, looking forward to getting to know you.