words, complexity thereof

today I: ( Read more... )

Actually my 'not make words' problem is something I could talk about with the clever vocabulary from the textbook. Texts are polysemic, and what is encoded is not always what is decoded. Can control the denoted, the word you use, but not the connotations that go with it. There is nothing as can be said that can be interpreted in only the one way. And absolutely everything can come out really wrong.

Of course flip side is people can find really clever depths in things when you weren't aware of them. And you can claim them as products of your unconscious genius.

But really, whats more likely?


*sigh*


Even if there was telepathy, and I could take the thought from my head and put it in the head of the person I wanted to talk to, still it would not have the same meaning. For they would understand it in the context of every other text they've ever read or written or whatever, which would be a different set of texts to me, so very different meanings.

Is also why people build up different ideas of what is 'common sense' or obvious or natural. Ideology hides in obvious-natural-commonsense. Different basic ways of looking at the universe. Makes communication difficult and agreement very difficult indeed.

Especially since those basic disagreements extend to (or start with) norms and values, and roles and that. How to behave, where to behave, what to do and why to do it. What is important or unimportant. What is good to do or otherwise.


And even in textbooks it seems that no two theorists use the exact same words to use the exact same things. Gets most frustrating sometimes. You can think you've got the hang of it and then realise its all turned about in the next page.


So, anyway, I feel like I should not make words, for it is much less likely that the one particular meaning I intend to encode is the one that gets through, when there are so very many possible meanings. And most of the others can offend people. And even the intended can offend people too, if they have a different setup of ideas to fit it into. So why make words at all when without the words there is much less annoying?

Well because I have ideas is why. And yet always there must be the cost/benefit analysis of trying to express them in a particular way place time. Complicated.

*sigh*

for consideration

XANDER: Yo! G-man! What's up?

GILES: Nice to see you. And don't ever call me that.



do we have any evidence Xander did not obey that instruction?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: season 2: Inca Mummy Girl

For Cultural Studies I decided to do an essay on costumes in the episode Halloween. But this episode, only 2 earlier, also has a bit where the characters choose costumes. So there's some bits I can compare.

There's also Oz.

And Oz noticing Willow.
Which can actually fit in with the 'feminism' section of my analysis, because its saying that there's more than one way to be attractive.
(And Oz himself makes a fascinating study in masculinities.)

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Now I go to watch and take notes on Halloween.
But already I notice connections.
Like Willow tries 'sexy' at the next costume opportunity, but then covers it up.
And Xander goes from cowboy to army guy. Both icons of masculinity.
Cowboy, army guy, builder... Xander wanders around the archetypes a bit.

Buffy doesn't dress up in IMG. The dungarees and t-shirt don't precisely count, since she wears them for work related reasons. Xander's quippy And where are you from? The country of White Trash? made me notice things I don't notice, that being mostly the class/money stuff encoded in what they wear. I mean I know Cordelia dresses different than Willow, and it is often shinier, but figuring out it cost more? Only because she says so a lot.

Giles doesn't wear anything unusual here either. But what Ethan says in Halloween leads me to reinterpret what Giles wears as deliberate costume in Giles' own understanding, so in that sense he's always been dressed up. As tweedy teacher guy. Who looks a bit like Indiana Jones when not in adventurer mode. Secretly cooler.
Even if he does faint when Inca girl closes in for a kiss.
(Okay, she strangles him unconscious, but since everyone else stayed conscious for the kissing bit it is a bit odd. And sounds funnier said this way.)


Giles and Buffy get dumped in the 'Chosen One' coffin together. I thought that was interesting themey stuff too. Especially since we're closing in on finding out Giles had tried to escape and got people killed in the process.


Episodes are difficult to analyse because all the before and after influences their meaning, so anything said about them ends up getting *really* long.
I don't know how I'm going to say anything worth essaying in just 2000 words.

Hair, and warrior women

I haven't made notes on 'Halloween' yet. I'm having one of those days when I can't settle. I keep reading a couple of pages then switching to a different book.

So instead I write one thought.

Hair. Specifically, Buffy's hair. At the start of Halloween its a sort of a plot point that slaying messes up Buffy's hair. Being 'pretty coiffed' is a distinguishing point of the old fashioned femininity, the princess lady in the book, and pretty much Cordelia too. Having the time to make hair look good, and the kind of life where it stays looking good. Buffy compares her own hair unfavourably to book girl and to Cordelia, and so feels her life comes up short.

Hair is a Big Deal.
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It seems to me that within F&SF the woman warrior is ever present.

Or, you know, it could be I only *like* shows that have someone to fit that role. *shrugs*

ANYways, if Buffy is especially revolutionary, surely to show it would need comparing her to her predecessors in the kick ass chick role?

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So now I'd wander off into a compare/contrast to see what the characters have in common, how Buffy compares, etc etc.

Most obvious start is she is not the sidekick. She's in the title.


there's other stuff but I've gone all yawny and tired. can't settle to anything today. blech.
will post despite blobbiness of thoughts.

Buffy season 2: Halloween

So, I watched again without taking notes.
my pervasive boredom actually overrides one of my favourite episodes.
also now I have a headache. And nail varnish where it shouldn't ought to be. And apparently 'long lasting' means you can't get it off even with nail varnish remover.
so, that was productive.


The closest I got to observation was the first time we saw Ethan. He was wearing the gold shirt, for the only time ever. A few seconds before we'd seen a statue of a wizard in a gold outfit. Which isn't exactly a blatant clue in a view that cluttered, but it is kind of cool.

Buffy's dress looks pinker or redder depending on lighting, and what settings I have on my TV.

There was a point three, but it fell out. Possibly through the hole the headache feels like its drilled.

blech.

I'm going to bed.
I don't care that its six hours earlier than I got to sleep last night, this is a go to bed sort of a mood.