maggie2 | Off the Fence about Season 8

It's not impossible that the last four issues could push me back over, but I'm now 99% sure that when all is said and done, I'm going to think Season 8 was great. I think there's a better than even chance that I'll think it's the best season ever.

One of my favorite images, which I use with my students, is from chemistry. Apparently you can supersaturate a liquid -- pour in so much powder that the substance really, really wants to gel. But you can keep it in liquid form somehow. Then if you tap on the container, a crystal will form instantly.

I use that image for my students about how the writing process should go. (I'm thinking here about academic writing -- when you're trying to make an argument or reach an insight). You pile in a bunch of thoughts and considerations. You pour in facts and theories until your head hurts. You let it all rattle around. And then you wait for the moment of 'tap' -- when it all crystallizes.

My willingness to stay open to the comics has been because I thought it might be a deliberate effort to supersaturate us with confusion so there'd be this moment of 'tap'. I love that moment. The 'tap' is one of my favorite parts of being a human being. I'm willing to pay a high price in patience to get it.

I got my 'tap'. See my piece on the Spuffy reading,angearia 's meta, and aycheb's musings on the Brain Overload thread at BF. See specially Emmie's latest meta on LWH #1. Everything that didn't add up was supposed to not add up. The world is skew. An effort to read the season as a linear story is bound to be frustrating. But once you tilt your head to the right angle, it pays out. At least it does for me. Spectacularly.

Emmie just reminded me of a short post I made about The Wild Bunch which had a totally not veiled subtext about season 8. This is 10,000 better.

I totally get that it's not everybody's cuppa. And I'm surely not saying it ought to be your cuppa. But I'm getting what I want. A text that is layered and complex. A story that tells a story cogent on its own level while commenting on stories and the role they play for us. This time we're adding in the extra spin that the commentary on story telling is actually part of the plot.

So I'm a happy girl! That doesn't happen too often, so I figured I'd pipe up and say so.

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Yay! It's very nice to see you're happy. And it's so exciting to compare how 36 transformed your take. It seems as if your intial negative reaction seems what allowed the tap to happen, which is pretty cool. And, hello, is what happens to Buffy in Retreat--to gain access to her power she has to be defeated. For the story to make sense you have to lose faith in it.

I love your analogy about the tap. But I don't think the tap has happened for me. I'm not positive it will. It's related to what I suggested above: maybe you have to be convinced that the story can't work, before you see that it does--in order to have the emotional impact of everything clicking into place. I feel generally positive on the story, though I've felt wary in the past. I haven't gone through the figurative underworld that you (and Emmie!) have to travel to the place where everything fits. But Buffy's arc and the storytelling tropes fit together now in a way they didn't before, with the influx of meta that 36 generated. There's a big influx of comments and the whole thing is coming together. It's very exciting! It's hard to believe we're going to have to wait another four months though....

For the story to make sense you have to lose faith in it.

This is very true for me. I had to lose faith in the story in the last arc for this arc to suddenly have it all pull together.

I'm not sure if it took a big down to get to the up. I mean, the one did follow the other in this case. (Though the down wasn't so very down... I just got tired of carrying the flag for optimisim for a bit.) I was near to seeing how to see the thing -- and then #36 seemed to be a problem. Emmie and others pointed out to a few key details, and then it all fit together quite nicely. Team effort, I'd say. Can't say it wouldn't have happened even if I'd kept waving my happy flag.

But yay! It's nice to be happy about it. And the rush of meta quickly showed that it's not only the right line, but it's a very rich line.

I'm glad you're still pretty positive about it. We'll see what comes up in the next few issues. It's going to be a wild ride!

I think I may have been overstating the down that I saw you have before the bounce way up (and straining to connect it with the Retreat Buffy-defeat-superpowered flying story). I think you said in your 36 review (the first one!) that you were pretty well emotionally disengaged, if intellectually interested. The down-then-up formulation seemed to happen with Emmie too (maybe Elena also, who was pretty positive on 36 and negative on Twilight?), so it might have been reasonable. It looks like stormwreath and aycheb are as positive as ever, so a dip may not be required to have the love. I think I'm mostly there anyway, and loved 36, and haven't even hated any issues for real.

Oh, there was a down. It'd been hard to hold out hope when it all seemed so bizarre, and then #36 set me back because I've been pretty tender of the hope that Buffy didn't know. I'm just not sure that the down caused the 'tap' or if the tap happened and thus ended the down!

I'm glad you're close to loving the comics! Here's hoping the last four live up to the billing!

Off the Fence about Season 8

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