Mal: Well, you were right about this being a bad idea. Zoe: Thanks for sayin', sir.

'Serenity'


Lovesick, my Ass!  

[NAFDA] Discussion of all Wonderfalls episodes, including the unaired ones. When discussing Wonderfalls, anything goes. Safe-words and white fonting are not needed. Spoilers for other shows are verboten. Posts with offers to buy, sell, or trade copies of episodes will be deleted.


§ ita § - May 04, 2004 5:05:19 pm PDT #312 of 668
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

We have the bleeding/crying statues.

I'm now visualising a crucified puppy statue talking to Jaye.

Ta, ever so.


P.M. Marc - May 04, 2004 6:25:17 pm PDT #313 of 668
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

What %age of mystical white people do you see?

In Wonderfalls in particular, or in entertainment in general?

In entertainment in general, I do see a lot of mystical white people, and they're almost always Celtic. Which, as a decidedly non-mystical white-ass chick of Scottish descent, I will freely own pissed my shit off but good for a while.

And may explain why I had a more negative reaction to Doyle than most people.


§ ita § - May 04, 2004 6:32:10 pm PDT #314 of 668
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Very good point, Plei. White folk can be pagans too.

But that's where the "reality" seems to lurk. Those mystical forces can interact directly in character's lives. Judeochristianity is so much more a matter of faith.

However, per capita, I think Indians have the league locked down. Black folk don't tend to have an explicit connection -- it's more of a primal connection.


Kristen - May 04, 2004 7:38:34 pm PDT #315 of 668

I do see a lot of mystical white people, and they're almost always Celtic.

Do you think it's because we're always drunk?


P.M. Marc - May 04, 2004 7:39:51 pm PDT #316 of 668
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

Do you think it's because we're always drunk?

Possibly. Quite possibly.


Allyson - May 04, 2004 7:41:24 pm PDT #317 of 668
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica

I'm an Irish Italian Jew. I'm drunk while shooting out kneecaps and running all the banks.

I Am What's Wrong with America.

Sorry!


Kristen - May 04, 2004 7:43:04 pm PDT #318 of 668

If I were an academic type person, it could make for a nice little research paper:

Substance Abuse & Mysticism: When I Say I See the Future, It Really Just Means I'm Making You Buy the Next Round.


Topic!Cindy - May 05, 2004 2:14:11 am PDT #319 of 668
What is even happening?

Toughed By An Angel the first time -- much more fun, much more leather

Mmmm, Angel.

Taking a moment to deal with the fact that my TV is going to soon bereft of so much salty goodness. And, I'm done.

I may be behind on my White People Studies, but what religion has the talking tchotchkes?

I was offering an option within the 'verse, because I unsure whether you meant religion(s) of white people in reality, or within the Wonderfalls 'verse (not that the tchotchkes constitute a religion, but they constitute or represent a mystical force).

(I'm afraid I still might not be grasping your point, but I'm going to wait and reread when the kids are at school.)

but the main mystical person always in focus (or at least the mystically affected person) is a white woman

She doesn't get mystical until episode 11. Supernatural, yes, but not mystical.

Hence my parenthetical "mystically affected person" comment. Which episode is 11? How does she get mystical?

In entertainment in general, I do see a lot of mystical white people, and they're almost always Celtic. Which, as a decidedly non-mystical white-ass chick of Scottish descent, I will freely own pissed my shit off but good for a while.

MacSister.

However, per capita, I think Indians have the league locked down.

Yes, and Indians have the mystic role locked down in those genres which bother to portray them at all. The problem seems to me to be more that they're overwhelmingly portrayed as mystics. They are seldom--if ever--shown in a variety of roles, such that their roles show them in the full range of human experience. Stereotyping objectifies--it dehumanizes.

Specific to this episode of Wonderfalls though, does having an Indian mystic rise to the level of stereotyping? Should we take into account that the first tribal Seer was contacting Jaye (thus somehow placing them both within the sphere of influence of the same mystical forces, and so portraying this force as something that's neither exclusively belonging to either the Indians or the Anglos)? Is the stereotype subverted at all here, in that we also had an accountant, a merchant, and a lawyer?

I don't consider psychic mystical in the least.

What is the difference between a Psychic and a Seer?

Do you think it's because we're always drunk?

Great. Now I have to clean this Irish coffee off of my monitor.


§ ita § - May 05, 2004 4:09:18 am PDT #320 of 668
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Which episode is 11?

Totem Mole.

Is the stereotype subverted at all here, in that we also had an accountant, a merchant, and a lawyer?

Since the lawyer's the religious person they were seeking and the accountant wants to be/is resisting being religious, and the merchant is all about finding a religious person, no, NSM.

I'm diving for some term clarification -- what's happening with the Satsuma Indians is a religious thing. What's happening with Jaye is undefined -- by the end of Totem Mole, by association, it is at least recognised by a religion, and deemed positive.

Cindy, Indians are in the episode to have their religion manifested. That's the be all and end all of that. Putting in couple rocket scientists wouldn't really balance that out. The treatment of it, however, can, might have, but fell short in my eyes.


Topic!Cindy - May 05, 2004 5:29:07 am PDT #321 of 668
What is even happening?

Since the lawyer's the religious person they were seeking and the accountant wants to be/is resisting being religious, and the merchant is all about finding a religious person, no, NSM.

I think this is where I missed it the first time. I'd really like to see the episode. I do understand the points, and want to make clear that I don't think anyone is being delusional or overly-sensitive. To the contrary, I am having a huge attack of conscience for missing stuff, particularly since when I first saw that it involved Indians, I knew it was a potential problem. That's why I asked the questions yesterday about cutting slack to writers who we know (at least by reputation). I am trying to figure out why I didn't cringe--where there's a potential blindness on my part. I don't mean to come across as if I am asking anyone who cringed to justify their cringes. I don't want to be the big, insensitive oaf. I just wanted to understand the cringes (if that makes any sense).

I'm thinking I read it backwards. What I mean is, instead of the lawyer's the religious person they were seeking, I read the mystic they were seeking is a lawyer. Instead of the accountant wants to be/is resisting being religious, I read the guy who is assumed to be a mystic because of his lineage, is simply an accountant. I failed to take the shopkeeper's desire into account, at all.

I'm diving for some term clarification -- what's happening with the Satsuma Indians is a religious thing. What's happening with Jaye is undefined

Thank you, ita. This is another place where I missed it, in that I mentally lumped it all together as mystic. But you're right, because this has to do with the Satsuma's whole world view, whereas for Jaye, this is just "new, freaky thing."

The treatment of it, however, can, might have, but fell short in my eyes.

One thing that did make me cringe (that's overstated, but it disappointed me a little) while reading, was that it was the female, not the male, who ended up being the mystic. I didn't really want to bring up the whole closer-to-the-earth thing yesterday, though. Besides, it cracked me up that the lawyer was the mystic.