Defining characteristics
Apr. 19th, 2006 06:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI'm currently putting all my CDs onto DVDs so I can have some shelf space back. And I rediscovered the 'Birds of Prey' TV series. I apparently have some kind of denial thing going on, for I tend to forget it existed for long stretches of time.
I was thinking about what was wrong with it (aside from 'everything') and I think it comes down to, BoP is not about what the TV show thinks it is about.
It seems to me that fans often have a different take on what are the defining characteristics of a show.
I think part of that is that we are often genre readers, and therefore tend to make our distinctions *within* a genre, rather than between them. I mean from the outside, Farscape, Stargate and Star Trek get lumped in together because they are all Space Shows, or just SF. From the pov of an SF reader, the differences between those shows are more significant. Because we are going to choose what we watch from within the pool of SF, we fine tune distinctions.
I mean to me Farscape, Firefly and Blakes 7 all belong in one box, and Star Trek and Babylon 5 belong in another. Because criminals on the run is an entirely different subgenre from interstellar civilizations.
... This may explain why I never got into Voyager. It hopped subgenres...
So, looking at Birds of Prey... What are the defining characteristics?
I feel the TV people looked at the comics and thought 'oooh, hot chicks with superpowers! yaays!'
But as a comics reader, we have so many hot chicks with superpowers to choose from (I say with a teensy of sarcasm). Therefore the reason we like Birds of Prey has to be a bit more specific.
To me the defining setup for BoP isn't just that they are all women. They are women who have previously been defined by their relationships with men, who are now redefining themselves in relationships with women. (No that doesn't just mean femmeslash.) Also, they have to deal with the aftermath of assault, and subsequent physical limitations (Oracle in the chair, but Canary got depowered for a while)(PG got depowered a bit too, and mucked around every which way by continuity).
Also, they are grown women. They aren't teenagers discovering their power and having little dating relationships that end after a couple of months if they're really serious. They are grown women with long histories, romantic and otherwise, who have to deal with all their ghosts.
Through ass kicking.
Now I haven't reread all of BoP, and I can't quote you the bits that gave me this impression, but that is the feeling I have about why they are a *team*, why thematically they belong together, why I like that book distinct from the other books.
Another time I looked at a TV and wondered what they were on was with Hex. Calling itself the British Buffy. Well, they could get to that comparison... If they thought the defining characteristics of Buffy were: girl lead, High School, lesbians, shagging the enemy, and supernatural elements.
Personally I find the defining characteristics of Buffy to be the metaphor layers, the making emotional demons real and then squishing them, much more than just being a horror show with a femal lead. It's about power. Discovering you have it, dealing with it, dealing with how other people try to use you, but mostly saving the world a lot.
Is also why I watch Buffy and Angel, which have vampires, but not Horror genre stuff in general, which also has vampires. Their defining characteristics are different, because vampires are just the costume not the act.
I actually do have a fair collection of vampire films. Some films are about being attacked by vampires. Them, blah. Boring. Some are about becoming vampires. Now that can have interesting. Power and price. And usually angst, lots and lots of it. I watch most vampire stuff far less than I do BtVS or Ats, but if there is a tension between use of violence and being seduced by violence, that gets interesting.
So again, within what might be seen as a category, I'm making some pretty fine distinctions.
I have no tidy conclusion.
But I am pretty sure that adaptations of fandom stuff go splat if their idea of defining characteristics is too far afield from what attracted that fandom in the first place.
I was thinking about what was wrong with it (aside from 'everything') and I think it comes down to, BoP is not about what the TV show thinks it is about.
It seems to me that fans often have a different take on what are the defining characteristics of a show.
I think part of that is that we are often genre readers, and therefore tend to make our distinctions *within* a genre, rather than between them. I mean from the outside, Farscape, Stargate and Star Trek get lumped in together because they are all Space Shows, or just SF. From the pov of an SF reader, the differences between those shows are more significant. Because we are going to choose what we watch from within the pool of SF, we fine tune distinctions.
I mean to me Farscape, Firefly and Blakes 7 all belong in one box, and Star Trek and Babylon 5 belong in another. Because criminals on the run is an entirely different subgenre from interstellar civilizations.
... This may explain why I never got into Voyager. It hopped subgenres...
So, looking at Birds of Prey... What are the defining characteristics?
I feel the TV people looked at the comics and thought 'oooh, hot chicks with superpowers! yaays!'
But as a comics reader, we have so many hot chicks with superpowers to choose from (I say with a teensy of sarcasm). Therefore the reason we like Birds of Prey has to be a bit more specific.
To me the defining setup for BoP isn't just that they are all women. They are women who have previously been defined by their relationships with men, who are now redefining themselves in relationships with women. (No that doesn't just mean femmeslash.) Also, they have to deal with the aftermath of assault, and subsequent physical limitations (Oracle in the chair, but Canary got depowered for a while)(PG got depowered a bit too, and mucked around every which way by continuity).
Also, they are grown women. They aren't teenagers discovering their power and having little dating relationships that end after a couple of months if they're really serious. They are grown women with long histories, romantic and otherwise, who have to deal with all their ghosts.
Through ass kicking.
Now I haven't reread all of BoP, and I can't quote you the bits that gave me this impression, but that is the feeling I have about why they are a *team*, why thematically they belong together, why I like that book distinct from the other books.
Another time I looked at a TV and wondered what they were on was with Hex. Calling itself the British Buffy. Well, they could get to that comparison... If they thought the defining characteristics of Buffy were: girl lead, High School, lesbians, shagging the enemy, and supernatural elements.
Personally I find the defining characteristics of Buffy to be the metaphor layers, the making emotional demons real and then squishing them, much more than just being a horror show with a femal lead. It's about power. Discovering you have it, dealing with it, dealing with how other people try to use you, but mostly saving the world a lot.
Is also why I watch Buffy and Angel, which have vampires, but not Horror genre stuff in general, which also has vampires. Their defining characteristics are different, because vampires are just the costume not the act.
I actually do have a fair collection of vampire films. Some films are about being attacked by vampires. Them, blah. Boring. Some are about becoming vampires. Now that can have interesting. Power and price. And usually angst, lots and lots of it. I watch most vampire stuff far less than I do BtVS or Ats, but if there is a tension between use of violence and being seduced by violence, that gets interesting.
So again, within what might be seen as a category, I'm making some pretty fine distinctions.
I have no tidy conclusion.
But I am pretty sure that adaptations of fandom stuff go splat if their idea of defining characteristics is too far afield from what attracted that fandom in the first place.