Fantasy

From a fairly early age, I was reading this stuff about writing and how using fiction to follow through revenge fantasies, etc etc, was a bad thing.  So a lot of my writing was built around subverting that idea.  Superstu clearly isn’t a power fantasy, because the poor sad bugger gets kicked around by life, can’t get a girlfriend, can’t keep a girlfriend.  (Oh yeah, I never got to revealing that Stu and Wanda’s relationship lasted about a month before Stu broke it by running away after causing Dan to burst into flames.  Oh yes.)

But here’s the thing, the older I get, the more I think that’s wrong.  Aspiration is a good thing and there’s no reason not to be doing stories about that.  And seeing people achieve things is entertaining.  Yes, there should be conflict, yes, there should be hardship, but there should also be glory and success.

My stuff tends to be a little downbeat and to miss that.  If there is success, it’s bittersweet or quiet like a smile.  But there are grand moments in life.

And oh, I’m just watching an episode of Buffy and after a prolonged scene of Tara and Willow kissing (which looked like Amber Benson and Alyson Hannigan were trying their best to make work but no), Buffy walks into the nerds’ lair (and a show mostly watched by nerds is disparaging of nerds?  Why?) and sees a Vampirella statue and pulls a face.  Sexuality forced into people’s faces in a vampire context?  Yes, there’s an irony there that I’m sure the creators of the programme didn’t see.  Feh.  And tshaw.  And now there’s a scene where some character is complaining about their fat sister.  And this show is about empowering women?  Think again.

Sorry, distracted.  Mostly it kind of works in a low rent way.  Like that new trailer for the new Doctor.  He’s a very Doctor-y Doctor it seems.  Trust him, he says, and I do.  I’m looking forward to having a Doctor-y Doctor again, after the raging celebrity era Doctor that Tennant gave us.

Anyway, writing again.  So what is this optimism?  Who knows?