Indulging myself

[avrelia]

I wasn’t sure whether I should post it, and then I did it – filtered and all, because sometimes I need to see my thoughts written to clear them out of my brain. There were several (or one big) kerfuffles the last summer about constructive critiques vs. hate vs. being nice, and I was thinking about what I love and don’t love and why…

And sometimes my dislikes have nothing constructive in it – I just don’t like the author’s version of the Universe or the characters. And I see no good reason to write the author about it.

Ok, here it is. I strongly dislike herself_nyc’s Bittersweets series. I read all up to the “Buffy in Italy” story – I don’t remember its name precisely – and then I stopped. I realized two things: 1) I really don’t like it. 2) I don’t have to torture myself then.

Why did I read it so far? Well, it is an amazing story. I have a deep respect for the skills and craft, and I admire the style and plotting – in the abstract way. Besides, every new story is an event in fandom from the first chapter with all the revisions and discussions, and I, being a sheep, wanted to know how it is going. Plus, the sex scenes are good. ;)

Also, I quite liked Herself’s “What she deserves” and “Lovingkindness” Universe.

But I don’t like Spike and Buffy there, and I don’t like what is going on with them. It is not even all the babies… it is all the mental torture, and how they don’t change forever, and other characters are pale shadows without making sense to me. They never change. Spike is always a martyr of love; Buffy is always a broken girl who doesn’t really deserve him.
And even the Victorian story, that everyone loves and which was one of the first fics I read ever, apart from amazing period details doesn’t rub well with me.

I don’t like Herself’s Spike and Herself’s Buffy. They are not bad, but they feel utterly alien and wrong to me. Recently I understood why: they belong to high tragedy; or, since their story ends reasonably well, to classical moral drama. They are deadly serious – in bliss and sorrow, in trouble and everyday life. Humour doesn’t exist in their universe.
Now, my Spike and Buffy make fun of each other – from School hard to Chosen and beyond, more over, they make fun of themselves. They mock and tease and laugh; they could be cruel and gently, and they changed. They are still changing.

So, yeah… not much sense, but I feel better.

Comments

[st_salieri.livejournal.com]

Recently I understood why: they belong to high tragedy; or, since their story ends reasonably well, to classical moral drama. They are deadly serious – in bliss and sorrow, in trouble and everyday life. Humour doesn’t exist in their universe.

Wow. That's really a good way of putting it, and it really sums up some of the issues I have with that particular series.

I though it was wonderful in the beginning, when it was set in S6. She really nailed Buffy's bleak despair and Spike's rather selfish love, and I still like to go back and read the first few sections -- up until Jem is born, and then I have to stop.

As quite a few people mentioned above, everything becomes so unbelievably bleak after that that reading is a chore rather than a pleasure. And what gets me is that Spike and Buffy stagnated in their S6 roles and pretty much stayed the same way (with minor variations) for something like the next thirty years.

And maybe it's because she kept Spike soulless, until the most recent installment -- I can buy that, actually, and the one thing I'm very glad about is that she finally gave Spike a soul and put the two of them on a more equal level. But that doesn't explain what she did with Buffy, and I can't really forgive that. Not that Buffy doesn't have her share of damage, but I hated seeing her constantly portrayed as a monster who only mistreated poor Spike. (And I know her stories only focused on the crises between them, but I would have loved seeing some of the everyday stuff that gave some evidence for why these two stayed with each other. It couldn't possibly be that bad for them all the time, right?) I can understand that she went AU from Wrecked, but the thing is that in canon Buffy went through plenty of bad stuff in the rest of S6 and S7 -- the AU, Willow going bad, etc. -- and she never turned into some kind of abusive bitch as a result. If the "real" Buffy could make it through, why not her Buffy? It hurts me to see her treated that way.

(And I have to agree with swsa in having no love at all for Jem as a character.)

Heh. I kind of feel funny saying this. I've given feedback to her most recent installment (although some of the Buffy-hate in the comments made me furious). She's an incredible writer, and I could never approach her skills in a million years, but something funny happens when I try to read her stories. I become lost in them very easily, up until the point when I try to actually picture the Spike and Buffy I know on the shows saying the dialogue she writes. And at that point there's some kind of mental block. I think she lost, or froze, the characters somewhere along the line. (I'm not even sure -- did she watch S7, or S5 of AtS? It might explain something -- some writers focus only on where they fell in love with the show.)

[superplin.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure -- did she watch S7, or S5 of AtS? It might explain something -- some writers focus only on where they fell in love with the show.

I'm not sure whether she watched all of S7, although I remember that I stopped reading her LJ for a while there because she was so very anti-Buffy and hated a bunch of stuff. (Of course, hating S7 is a pretty popular sport, so I had to stop reading a bunch of people there. Heh.)

I think her famous "Spike is officially dead to me" post was in AtS S5, though, so she must have watched at least part of it. Unless I'm misremembering the timing, which is certainly possible.

[swsa.livejournal.com]

Actually she did watch S7. She had a post a couple months ago talking about how much more she liked it when she rewatched it all in one go. But yeah, at the time it was airing, I remember her hating it. Especially LMPTM, which she seemed to consider an absolute betrayal of canon, for reasons of which I still don't understand. Something to do with William's mother not having servants or something. *g*

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Especially LMPTM, which she seemed to consider an absolute betrayal of canon,

I think it had to do with the historical inaccuracies, that rubbed the wrong way with Herself's picture of Victorian England and Willaim's pre-vamp life. She is probably right about inaccuracies, but we judged BtVS and AtS by the way they represent history of this world...

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

As quite a few people mentioned above, everything becomes so unbelievably bleak after that that reading is a chore rather than a pleasure. And what gets me is that Spike and Buffy stagnated in their S6 roles and pretty much stayed the same way (with minor variations) for something like the next thirty years.

Yeah, I find pretty much unbelievable. People change. Even vampires do (especially Spike). We stay recognizable and all, but we change – and married life do change people. I see it in myself. I don’t demand realism from fanfiction, but stagnation is supremely boring.

I become lost in them very easily, up until the point when I try to actually picture the Spike and Buffy I know on the shows saying the dialogue she writes. And at that point there's some kind of mental block.

Yeah, that’s what happens to me, too. That’s why this confusion. Ususally, when I read something I don’t like I just stop reading. Here I got sucked in, and along the way I understand that it feels wrong.