Weekend Round-Up

[allheadybooks]

Reading:

Great round-up from tozka on some of the conversations happening in fandom lately about federation/Mastodon, Tumblr vs. DW etiquette, and fandom practices generally: Fandom Meta Discussions on Mastodon

sea_changed linked her review of The Favourite to fffriday here (discussion in the comments of both the comm post and her personal journal post): Move Rec: The Favourite (2018). The comm itself is worth checking out! Recs for femslash books, movies, & fanfic, posted every Friday.

I also always find interesting articles through Anne Helen Petersen's twitter feed. She's a pop culture writer with Buzzfeed who specializes in celebrity profiles & social commentaries, and she recently published a piece called How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation which got a lot of traction, and then curated some responses from folks with other experiences for this follow-up. I first heard of her through her excellent, insightful profiles of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner a few years ago--both worth reading if you like critical takes on class, celebrity image, and the publicity machine.

Watching:

I got caught up on season 4 of Legends of Tomorrow, then got curious and went back to Season 1 to see how the show started out. I've been jumping around watching episodes here and there, mostly in the background while I play a game on my phone. My wife tends to wander away because she says it's too loud (all the dramatic music and fight sounds, I think)! I'm liking Sara Lance a lot more as I watch through her early-season character arcs. I like that one of her big characterizations is "cannot visit the past without seducing some historical lady." I'm in Season 2 now and curious to see how the Time Bureau gets started.

Also, The Good Place is back!



Ever since they introduced the 'points' conceit in season one, I've been wondering if they would complicate or subvert it. It seems WAY too easy that our actions and their impact on the world would be easily reducable to a number. I love that in this episode, they shift from thinking about morality as individual intention into considering it in the context of global capitalism--that no matter what our intentions are, when we are embedded in exploitative systems, our actions end up having negative consequences along the way. Really hoping they keep developing this critique!

Also, Chidi in the mailman outfit was ADORABLE, and I love having everyone smell their favorite things. This show always does something funny and interesting with the supernatural locations.

Comments

[yalumesse]

Sara's inability to not hit on historical ladies is one of the best parts of that show. I love Ava but I'm sad that it means less of Sara's history-spanning seductions.

Where did you start watching Legends? Just season 4?

And yes, The Good Place! It's such a massive issue, next to impossible to avoid using something exploitative. I wonder if TGP writers spend their days noticing "Oh, that's an ethical issue", put it on a big brainstorming whiteboard, and see how they can make upcoming episodes/seasons work it in. There's just so much to explore, and they're doing it so well.

And neutral!Janet. Poor dear <3

[allheadybooks]

Yeah, I just started watching at the beginning of season 4. I used to be a big fan of Constantine and the Hellblazer comics, so that’s how I heard of the show, but I’m enjoying it enough that I figured I would go back to the beginning and watch the whole thing. I LOVED when Sara banged the future mother of Henry Quatorze in the season two premiere. 🙌

Also, the only thing I wish was different about The Good Place is that they pick such boring philosophers! There are so many amazing 20th/21st century cultural theorists who would be terrific on that show and more believable touchpoints for Chidi. Come on, man, give me some Deleueze or Foucault or Butler! There’s a great fic about this that I will post in a follow up comment once I grab the link.

[allheadybooks]

Five Times Philosophy Class Was Totally Easy (1506 words) by storiesfortravellers
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Good Place (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Chidi Anagonye, Eleanor Shellstrop, Tahani Al-Jamil, Jianyu Li | Jason Mendoza
Additional Tags: Humor, Philosophy, Foucault, Judith Butler - Freeform, Crack, Possible Hints of Chidi/Eleanor, Possible Hints of Tahani/Eleanor
Summary:

Once in a while, the group understands the readings surprisingly well.

Sort of.

AKA the reboot where the four of them find refuge in the Medium Place and decide to start up their class again, this time focusing on more contemporary thinkers.

[tozka]

uggggggggh I'm so behind on The Good Place! I think I'm somewhere in season 2? D:

[yalumesse]

Sara is the best part of that show. Don't get me wrong, I love almost everything about that show, but Sara is THE best.

While watching, I don't pay too much attention to which philosphers they focus on; it's the ethical questions and theories they pose, and especially how they weave it into storylines, that I'm so impressed by. I think they'll get to others as the show goes on and the storyline makes room for it; some of their theories require more setup. Like, I'd love to see them tackle Foucault's take on death of the author but that's pretty hard to do in a The Good Place episode without building up some kind of literary or author storyline first.

Thanks for the rec! I'll put it on my read list :)

[yourlibrarian]

no matter what our intentions are, when we are embedded in exploitative systems, our actions end up having negative consequences

It's definitely the case this season that they're looking at how systems corrupt everyone, regardless of what the system is (consider the afterlife areas, all a mess in different ways) as well as the positives and negatives of being so interconnected.

One thing I didn't get though was what the postal worker has been doing for eternity, especially since presumably all the mail arriving would pertain to new people coming into the good place. Yet there haven't been any, so what else would the mail be for?

[allheadybooks]

You got a lot of fun stuff to catch up on when you’re ready! I liked season 2 a lot—-they really deep dived into the concept of memory, repetition, and the nature of the self. Good Shit Ahead.

[allheadybooks]

I was a little curious about that too. Hopefully it plays out in an interesting way! Maybe the mail is inter-Place communications?