Being part of the story
Dec. 29th, 2004 03:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethA thing I have just figured out I like about BtVS and Ats- Being Other is not the story. Being Other *in that world* is the story.
The story is not 'Angel is a vampire'. There are a lot of vampire stories. The vampire in question ponces around being all 'woe is me, for I am immortal and pretty/ugly/whatever, but only if I kill people', and being all metaphor-of-the-week. It is a story about the Vampire.
Blah.
But with Angel, the story is 'Angel is a vampire detective'. (Which I know isn't new- I've got Forever Knight on DVD. I like that series too.) But sometimes the 'vampire' part wasn't even the foreground at all and something else happened. It was always there, because otherwise they lose the distinctiveness of the story, but it was just one element. The whole world is made up of so many kinds of Other that the Vampire thing just blends in. There aren't just two kinds of people - normal and not - there are a whole spectrum of kinds (even more than two skin tones, tho kind of rarely). Other in the world, most of which is all kinds of Other.
Why this needs noticing- for christmas I got a book that is about an autistic detective. Only it isn't. It is about being autistic. The detective stuff is the frame, being autistic is the story. And it upset me, putting all the worst behaviours on display, and getting no benefit from the good ones. And an autistic detective could be *great*, with the right focus. Maybe if they were the forensics person, crime scene investigator, and they had a partner who did the people stuff. An autistic person would make no assumptions- they wouldn't see the assumptions everyone else makes, so they don't trip themselves up making them. They see small details in busy backgrounds, don't overlook stuff that other people filter out. They could notice smells and shapes and the one thing in the box that does not belong. Major skill set there. And yeah, some things that would be strange, but most detectives have partners. The whole yin-yang thing. So why has nobody written that story? Because autism is still The Story. Like, distinguishing characteristic- autism. Or, black. Or whatever flavour of Other.
On Ats the Other is Vampire, but that isn't the whole story. Yeah, he is a vampire, he has the blood drinking and the brooding and the 'so pretty but can't get any' thing. But every week there is an actual plot for this character to be part of. Same with Gunn- yeah, sometimes him being black and street and all is key to the story, but it is not, of itself, the story. Stuff happens. They don't spend the whole episode watching poor street kids be hungry and consider that to be a whole plot. On BtVS Willow being gay is never the story. One element, sometimes key, but not the whole story.
And that is pretty darn shiny, and fairly new.
I'm fed up of being Other being the story. So I love these shows, because they just bring what it means to be that flavour of Other to bear on how they deal with the world.
The story is not 'Angel is a vampire'. There are a lot of vampire stories. The vampire in question ponces around being all 'woe is me, for I am immortal and pretty/ugly/whatever, but only if I kill people', and being all metaphor-of-the-week. It is a story about the Vampire.
Blah.
But with Angel, the story is 'Angel is a vampire detective'. (Which I know isn't new- I've got Forever Knight on DVD. I like that series too.) But sometimes the 'vampire' part wasn't even the foreground at all and something else happened. It was always there, because otherwise they lose the distinctiveness of the story, but it was just one element. The whole world is made up of so many kinds of Other that the Vampire thing just blends in. There aren't just two kinds of people - normal and not - there are a whole spectrum of kinds (even more than two skin tones, tho kind of rarely). Other in the world, most of which is all kinds of Other.
Why this needs noticing- for christmas I got a book that is about an autistic detective. Only it isn't. It is about being autistic. The detective stuff is the frame, being autistic is the story. And it upset me, putting all the worst behaviours on display, and getting no benefit from the good ones. And an autistic detective could be *great*, with the right focus. Maybe if they were the forensics person, crime scene investigator, and they had a partner who did the people stuff. An autistic person would make no assumptions- they wouldn't see the assumptions everyone else makes, so they don't trip themselves up making them. They see small details in busy backgrounds, don't overlook stuff that other people filter out. They could notice smells and shapes and the one thing in the box that does not belong. Major skill set there. And yeah, some things that would be strange, but most detectives have partners. The whole yin-yang thing. So why has nobody written that story? Because autism is still The Story. Like, distinguishing characteristic- autism. Or, black. Or whatever flavour of Other.
On Ats the Other is Vampire, but that isn't the whole story. Yeah, he is a vampire, he has the blood drinking and the brooding and the 'so pretty but can't get any' thing. But every week there is an actual plot for this character to be part of. Same with Gunn- yeah, sometimes him being black and street and all is key to the story, but it is not, of itself, the story. Stuff happens. They don't spend the whole episode watching poor street kids be hungry and consider that to be a whole plot. On BtVS Willow being gay is never the story. One element, sometimes key, but not the whole story.
And that is pretty darn shiny, and fairly new.
I'm fed up of being Other being the story. So I love these shows, because they just bring what it means to be that flavour of Other to bear on how they deal with the world.