(no subject)
Dec. 8th, 2004 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liptonrm_backupAhem
Had the extremem pleasure of using the Big Lug's laptop Christmas present before he did. I was so frustrated on Monday night as I tried to burn cds on the parents' old dinosaur of a computer that the Da let me take the pristine laptop home with me. I am furtively pleased.
Discovered a new tv show last night. I caught an episode of Carnivale on HBO and am in so much love. It was dark and creepy and mysterious and mystical and so.freaking.cool. I forsee a pathological lack of sleep in the upcoming days as I try to stay up and watch all of season one as it's being rerun.
And did you all hear about the Rome series that HBO is putting on next year? I can't express the depth of my excitement. And I used to think that I could live without HBO.
So, as I was watching Carnivale last night my brain kept a' whirring. As much as I enjoyed, nay, loved the show, I was struck once again by how the character on the quest never seems to be a woman. I can't count the number of times in book and movie where the callow young man goes out and has these crazy experiences where he ends up saving the world. Sure, female characters are often involved but they're not central to the quest. As much as I love these stories it would be interesting and innovative to see some innovation in the gender roles. How would a callow young woman deal with similar situations? What would differ and what would stay the same?
This is probably one of the reasons that I was first sucked into Buffy the Vampire Slayer because here was a girl who was doing all of these things. Her story doesn't quite fit the quest mold but it is an intriguing development that will hopefully be expanded upon in TVWorld.
This reminds me of another ... issue I have. Now, you all know how much I love Band of Brothers. It's a great series but I have thought more then once that it would be interesting if they would do a series about life on the homefront. Sure, there won't be as much death and destruction, but there are interesting stories that are just waiting to be told about what women went through during the same era. What about the WAC and Rosie the Riveter? How did women feel when the GIs came home and they were pushed out of their jobs? I'm looking forward to seeing the Pacific Theater series (thought it will hit closer to home as my grandfather served as a CB in the Pacific and would have been a part of the force that invaded Japan) but there are still more stories to be told. I am also interested in seeing World War II through the eyes of a German soldier, but I doubt that'll ever get made. After all, nobody sees the Sack of Rome through the eyes of the Barbarians and that happened nearly two thousand years ago.
Let's see some stuff from the POV of the little guy! Let's celebrate the stories you don't read in a history book! Let's broaden definitions and redefine roles and cliches! Let's have a little fun!
And, next time I sit down to rant I promise to go on about women and religion and the perceived neccesity of Christian conservatism. And people say that a history degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on. I'll show them;-).
Had the extremem pleasure of using the Big Lug's laptop Christmas present before he did. I was so frustrated on Monday night as I tried to burn cds on the parents' old dinosaur of a computer that the Da let me take the pristine laptop home with me. I am furtively pleased.
Discovered a new tv show last night. I caught an episode of Carnivale on HBO and am in so much love. It was dark and creepy and mysterious and mystical and so.freaking.cool. I forsee a pathological lack of sleep in the upcoming days as I try to stay up and watch all of season one as it's being rerun.
And did you all hear about the Rome series that HBO is putting on next year? I can't express the depth of my excitement. And I used to think that I could live without HBO.
So, as I was watching Carnivale last night my brain kept a' whirring. As much as I enjoyed, nay, loved the show, I was struck once again by how the character on the quest never seems to be a woman. I can't count the number of times in book and movie where the callow young man goes out and has these crazy experiences where he ends up saving the world. Sure, female characters are often involved but they're not central to the quest. As much as I love these stories it would be interesting and innovative to see some innovation in the gender roles. How would a callow young woman deal with similar situations? What would differ and what would stay the same?
This is probably one of the reasons that I was first sucked into Buffy the Vampire Slayer because here was a girl who was doing all of these things. Her story doesn't quite fit the quest mold but it is an intriguing development that will hopefully be expanded upon in TVWorld.
This reminds me of another ... issue I have. Now, you all know how much I love Band of Brothers. It's a great series but I have thought more then once that it would be interesting if they would do a series about life on the homefront. Sure, there won't be as much death and destruction, but there are interesting stories that are just waiting to be told about what women went through during the same era. What about the WAC and Rosie the Riveter? How did women feel when the GIs came home and they were pushed out of their jobs? I'm looking forward to seeing the Pacific Theater series (thought it will hit closer to home as my grandfather served as a CB in the Pacific and would have been a part of the force that invaded Japan) but there are still more stories to be told. I am also interested in seeing World War II through the eyes of a German soldier, but I doubt that'll ever get made. After all, nobody sees the Sack of Rome through the eyes of the Barbarians and that happened nearly two thousand years ago.
Let's see some stuff from the POV of the little guy! Let's celebrate the stories you don't read in a history book! Let's broaden definitions and redefine roles and cliches! Let's have a little fun!
And, next time I sit down to rant I promise to go on about women and religion and the perceived neccesity of Christian conservatism. And people say that a history degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on. I'll show them;-).
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 08:31 am (UTC)That's good to hear about the PTO project. Shoot, it's not like I needed another reason to be awaiting that particular series with baited breath. My head reels when I think about all of the stories out there that are waiting to be told. It's a good feeling.
And, just so you know, you are my all things BoB related goddess. This is in no way a bad thing and may even include offerings of boys of Easy Company shaped offerings at some future point.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 08:56 am (UTC)and may even include offerings of boys of Easy Company shaped offerings at some future point.
Oohh! Exciting! I'm so glad to be your BoB goddess :-) And fyi, even before you dropped your hint, some minor BoB shaped offerings had been collected. They will appear in your near future.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 11:04 am (UTC)I will soon be building a shrine and offering various alcoholic libations.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 11:49 am (UTC)Re: Women on journeys:
It would help if we had more female writers who wrote this type of story. And it would help if more of those female writers had a woman as their main character. Too bad we all like men so much.
Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote a book about the fall of Troy from the perspective of Cassandra that you would like. My sister has it; you should
beat it out of herask to borrow it the next time you see her.no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 12:10 pm (UTC)More female authors is a necessity. It is interesting that many of the female authors do write from the male perspective rather then the female. It's an interesting conundrum.
Next time I see your sister I will certainly work to ... encourage the loan of that book. Cassandra, now there's a character who needs to have a good movie made about her post haste.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 11:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 08:15 pm (UTC)I really agree with you about the women on the homefront thing. I've always been interested in the roles women had during the war. It'd be cool to see a series about the WASPs in the US and the ATA in the UK, where the women actually got to fly the planes, though obviously not in combat. I've always wondered how the men reacted to this shift in roles. Somehow I don't think many would have accepted that women could fix and fly planes as well, sometimes better, than men.
It also must have been really crushing to have experienced this taste of a different life, where you could work and actually contribute to the war effort, and then get pushed back into the kitchens when the men came home.
x.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 01:50 pm (UTC)Rick Warden in in the Rome series, seriously? Shoot, just when I thought I couldn't love HBO any more then I already do I hear stuff like this. Oooooo, my toes are tingling.
Exactly! Can you just imagine being a part of the WAC, feeling like you were doing important things during the war and then have all of that taken away from you? I remember catching old episodes of I Dream of Jeannie when I was a kid and seeing the female officers being treated with less respect then the girl stuck in the bottle!
I'm of the belief that the culture of the fifties was a kind of dreamlike illusion that people created to try and cover up the wounds that had been inflicted by the Depression and the War. They had gone through all of that and damnit if they weren't going to have that happy life, whether they really wanted it or not.
I would love to see movies and shows that deal with these issues, that show that coming home wasn't necessarily as easy as playing ball in the sun of a warm Austrian summer day.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 06:52 pm (UTC)Really?? Cor! That makes me sound like I'm some really interesting person! Thanks! *g*
Can I maybe kind of sort of friend you by the way? Is that okay?
It's amazing the roles some women had in the war. They contributed so much and hardly got any recognition or respect. Have you ever heard of Nancy Wake? She was an Australian who joined the SOE, parachuted into France and ended up leading a huge guerilla resistance force. She did some incredible stuff. I mean, she wasn't just passing on information and such like - she was right there, literally in the thick of battle, firing bazookas and blowing up trains and getting shot at. She was phenomenal. But hardly anyone has even heard her name. I mean, she was on the Gestapo's most wanted list! It must have been awful to feel like you've taken some steps towards a more equal future, and then find you haven't really gotten anywhere.
Maybe we should write to HBO and campaign for a mini series about women during the war, seeming as they've done such a good job with things like BoB!
It's really interesting, your theory about the perfect illusion that everyone created after the war. Funny though, how even though they were trying to achieve this perfect life, their children were forming the first teenage generation, and were running around like little rebels without causes. So if the parents were in denial that the Depression and the War had ever happened, their children weren't.
Oh yes, and there should definitely be more films about soldiers, men and women returning after the war. Let's pester HBO about that too! yay!
x.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 08:09 pm (UTC)Why had I never heard of Nancy Wake before? She's just the sort of historical figure I should know about! Her story needs to be told. All of the stories need to be told.
HBO needs to tell these stories. We do need to pester them. I also feel the need to go to some big university library and try to pull together some books/articles that focus on the subject. BoB would never have been half as good without Stephen Ambrose and all of the hard work he put into compiling the stories of the 101st.
*pokes HBO with a big stick*