The Joss Whedon Entertainment Weekly
Sep. 3rd, 2013 02:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ericadawn16I know not everyone was able to get the Joss Whedon Entertainment Weekly or find it or barter or ship it or whatever. I did have some favorite parts.
Tumblr had part of this quote but I think they left out one of the important parts;
When Twilight and The Vampire Diaries came along, what did you think about them?
A small part of you is like, "Well, you know, I did that first. I like that band before they were popular." The thing about Buffy for me is - on a show-by-show basis - are there female characters who are being empowered, who are driving the narrative? The Twilight thing, and a lot of these franchise attempts coming out, everything rests on what this girl will do, but she's completely passive or not really knowing knowing what the hell is going on. And that's incredibly frustrating to me because a lot of what's taken on the oeuvre of Buffy is actually a reaction against it. Everything is there except for the Buffy. A lot of things aimed at the younger kids is just Choosing Boyfriends: The Movie.
********************************************************
Me again...the first time my mom saw the trailer for the Cassandra Clare movie, she said, "That looks like someone watched Buffy one too many times..."
I laughed so hard and then I told her about the plagiarism.
Most important though... are there female characters who are being empowered, who are driving the narrative?
YES!!!! If the answer to this is ever no, then you're doing it wrong.
***********************************************************
If somebody wants to look for your voice in Toy Story, what should they look for?
The thing that [Pixar Chief John Lasseter] always quoted was "You're a sad, strange little man' - that little argument between {Woody and Buzz]. They've been very generous about that [credit], and they can afford to be very generous because they got all the moneys. Because everything they touch turns to gold and every Toy Story movie is great. A small part of me was like, "They couldn't possibly do it without me." Oh, no, they did it perfectly without me - twice.
***************************************************************
Plus, he created one of my favorite Toy Story characters ever...REX!
*******************************************************************
Fringe showrunner J. H. Wyman recently gave his take on the future: "I believe in hope, and I believe that we are good. And I believe that we are smart, and I believe that we are going to stop anything terrible from happening." And I find that interesting because you once said the opposite: "I think the world is largely awful and getting worse, and eventually the human race will die out. And it'll be our own fault."
I think that's absolutely the case. I think we're actually beocming stupider and more petty. I think we have one shot - and that's education, and that's being defunded along with social services. What's going on in this country, and many other countries, is beyond depressing. It's terrifying. Sometimes I have to remember who I'm talking to. I'll say something about climate change, how terrible things are, and meaningless, and the world is headed toward destruction and war and apocalypse. And at one point my daughter goes, "Hey! I'm 8!" She doesn't want to hear that stuff. But I can't believe anybody thinks we're actually going to make it before we destroy the planet. I honestly think it's inevitable. I have no hope.
That's surprising, because your work isn't bleak. Bad things happen, there's pathos, favorite characters die. But it's not like the fifth act of Hamlet.
No. My stories do have hope because that is one of the things that is part of the solution - if there can be one. We use stories to connect, to care about people, to care about a situation. To turn the mundane heroic, to make people really think about who they are. They're useful. And they're also useful to me. Because if I wrote what I really think, I would be so sad all the time. We create to fill a gap - not just to avoid the idea of dying, it's to fill some particular gap in our ourselves. So yeah, I write things where people will lay down their lives for each other. And on a personal level, I know many wonderful people who are spending their lives trying to help others, or who are just decent and kind. I have friends who are extraordinary, I love my family. But on a macro level, I don't see that in the world. So I have a need to create it. Hopefully, that need gets translated into somebody relating to it and feeling hope. Because if we take that away, then I'm definitely right. I want to be wrong, more than anything. I hate to say it, it's that line from The Lord of the Rings - "I give hope to men; I keep none for myself." They say it in Elvish, so it sounds supercool.
***********************************************************************
The geek in me immediately screamed at the magazine, That was Aragorn's mom! I used to have the Elvish memorized. Now I only remember Estel and that is probably only because it also became Aragorn's Elvish name. Still, I always found it a heartbreaking scene which, if I recall correctly, is only in the Appendices? Did they mention it in the films? I can't remember all twelve hours.
Still, his responses remind me of one of my favorite quotes ever from the "Epiphany" episode of Angel:
Angel: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... , then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it.
Kate Lockley: And now you do?
Angel: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because, I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.
********************************************************************
Like on Firefly, each character lacks an ability that another has; for example, Ward is an absolute ninja with zero people skills, and is often partnered with Skye, who has no physical prowess yet is a master social manipulator.
**********************************************************************
If six months go by without any fic based on the premise that Skye is the daughter of Tony Stark and/or Loki, I will be very disappointed.
I'm also hoping that this week's issue will have the full TV fall preview because I want to know when everything premieres and plan what to watch live, what to DVR and what to do both with.
Tumblr had part of this quote but I think they left out one of the important parts;
When Twilight and The Vampire Diaries came along, what did you think about them?
A small part of you is like, "Well, you know, I did that first. I like that band before they were popular." The thing about Buffy for me is - on a show-by-show basis - are there female characters who are being empowered, who are driving the narrative? The Twilight thing, and a lot of these franchise attempts coming out, everything rests on what this girl will do, but she's completely passive or not really knowing knowing what the hell is going on. And that's incredibly frustrating to me because a lot of what's taken on the oeuvre of Buffy is actually a reaction against it. Everything is there except for the Buffy. A lot of things aimed at the younger kids is just Choosing Boyfriends: The Movie.
********************************************************
Me again...the first time my mom saw the trailer for the Cassandra Clare movie, she said, "That looks like someone watched Buffy one too many times..."
I laughed so hard and then I told her about the plagiarism.
Most important though... are there female characters who are being empowered, who are driving the narrative?
YES!!!! If the answer to this is ever no, then you're doing it wrong.
***********************************************************
If somebody wants to look for your voice in Toy Story, what should they look for?
The thing that [Pixar Chief John Lasseter] always quoted was "You're a sad, strange little man' - that little argument between {Woody and Buzz]. They've been very generous about that [credit], and they can afford to be very generous because they got all the moneys. Because everything they touch turns to gold and every Toy Story movie is great. A small part of me was like, "They couldn't possibly do it without me." Oh, no, they did it perfectly without me - twice.
***************************************************************
Plus, he created one of my favorite Toy Story characters ever...REX!
*******************************************************************
Fringe showrunner J. H. Wyman recently gave his take on the future: "I believe in hope, and I believe that we are good. And I believe that we are smart, and I believe that we are going to stop anything terrible from happening." And I find that interesting because you once said the opposite: "I think the world is largely awful and getting worse, and eventually the human race will die out. And it'll be our own fault."
I think that's absolutely the case. I think we're actually beocming stupider and more petty. I think we have one shot - and that's education, and that's being defunded along with social services. What's going on in this country, and many other countries, is beyond depressing. It's terrifying. Sometimes I have to remember who I'm talking to. I'll say something about climate change, how terrible things are, and meaningless, and the world is headed toward destruction and war and apocalypse. And at one point my daughter goes, "Hey! I'm 8!" She doesn't want to hear that stuff. But I can't believe anybody thinks we're actually going to make it before we destroy the planet. I honestly think it's inevitable. I have no hope.
That's surprising, because your work isn't bleak. Bad things happen, there's pathos, favorite characters die. But it's not like the fifth act of Hamlet.
No. My stories do have hope because that is one of the things that is part of the solution - if there can be one. We use stories to connect, to care about people, to care about a situation. To turn the mundane heroic, to make people really think about who they are. They're useful. And they're also useful to me. Because if I wrote what I really think, I would be so sad all the time. We create to fill a gap - not just to avoid the idea of dying, it's to fill some particular gap in our ourselves. So yeah, I write things where people will lay down their lives for each other. And on a personal level, I know many wonderful people who are spending their lives trying to help others, or who are just decent and kind. I have friends who are extraordinary, I love my family. But on a macro level, I don't see that in the world. So I have a need to create it. Hopefully, that need gets translated into somebody relating to it and feeling hope. Because if we take that away, then I'm definitely right. I want to be wrong, more than anything. I hate to say it, it's that line from The Lord of the Rings - "I give hope to men; I keep none for myself." They say it in Elvish, so it sounds supercool.
***********************************************************************
The geek in me immediately screamed at the magazine, That was Aragorn's mom! I used to have the Elvish memorized. Now I only remember Estel and that is probably only because it also became Aragorn's Elvish name. Still, I always found it a heartbreaking scene which, if I recall correctly, is only in the Appendices? Did they mention it in the films? I can't remember all twelve hours.
Still, his responses remind me of one of my favorite quotes ever from the "Epiphany" episode of Angel:
Angel: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... , then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it.
Kate Lockley: And now you do?
Angel: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because, I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.
********************************************************************
Like on Firefly, each character lacks an ability that another has; for example, Ward is an absolute ninja with zero people skills, and is often partnered with Skye, who has no physical prowess yet is a master social manipulator.
**********************************************************************
If six months go by without any fic based on the premise that Skye is the daughter of Tony Stark and/or Loki, I will be very disappointed.
I'm also hoping that this week's issue will have the full TV fall preview because I want to know when everything premieres and plan what to watch live, what to DVR and what to do both with.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 07:14 pm (UTC)"This is our last parting, Estel, my son. I am aged by care, even as one of lesser Men; and now that it draws near I cannot face the darkness of our time that gathers upon Middle-earth. I shall leave it soon."
’Aragorn tried to comfort her, saying: "Yet there may be a light beyond the darkness; and if so, I would have you see it and be glad."
’But she answered only with this linnod:
"Onen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim."
no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 07:21 pm (UTC)I tend to go between the two because it's so depressing sometimes but I want to think things will get better when we have come so far socially and environmentally with improvements...they're just such small baby steps to what's really needed and then, as he said, we are going backwards in other aspects.
Still, I'm Christian so I figure if things get too bad, then God and Jesus will just be like...fuck this, let's do the apocalypse.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 08:29 pm (UTC)I get what you mean, on one hand even in my short lifetime I've witnessed such great technological and societal advancements that give me hope, but on the other hand it has been worrying to watch that Doomsday Clock tick nearer.
Does being a Christian make it scarier, then, or do you find peace with the idea that our fate might be taken out of our hands? Or something else, if I'm getting it all wrong? (I'm an atheist, raised Hindu, although in a largely Catholic country).
no subject
Date: 2013-09-04 12:49 am (UTC)To me, it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I don't know if you're familiar with them. They were really popular when I was young. You have different choices that lead to different pages. A lot of the endings are okay and some are horrible deaths but there are a few endings that are the ultimate ideal.
To me, that's what life is like. God has an ideal plan and lots of chances to get to that ideal plan when we make a choice but our choices could also lead to other endings.
Then again, if I make a choice and it seems wrong or it's not what I thought, then I think my choices made something happen for something else because I also believe everything happens for a reason. God makes something good happen from everything even if it's not good for you.
I know I sound totally crazy but it works for me. After all, just the idea of God is crazy. I've had people ask how do I know God exists and really, God exists because I believe, like Tinker Bell, Santa Claus or the Doctor, if you believe hard enough, they're real to you no matter what anyone else says.
Most of the time it is comforting to think something good will come out of it, but sometimes, it's kind of terrifying to not know what's around the corner...even though someone else in the universe does.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-04 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-04 12:58 am (UTC)I'm even annoyed when works do have more to them than choosing boyfriends but the general public only sees the boyfriend thing. Take The Hunger Games, here we have a Dystopian series delving into the power of government and how it can be overcome by a determined populace.
Is this the bulk of discussion with The Hunger Games?
No, it's all about whether she'll end up with Peeta or Gale and whether the novel gave her the right one. The media turns it into nothing more than Choosing Boyfriends: The Movie.
You can see the difference better when comparing the female protagonists with male ones like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. Were their love lives included in their books?
Yes. Were they an important, even crucial plot point?
Well, no, it was always a subplot.
We can do better when it comes to female protagonists and the fact that Barnes and Noble even has a "Paranormal Romance" section in their teen reading...
no subject
Date: 2013-09-04 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-04 06:36 pm (UTC)Rex is also my favorite Toy Story character.
Skye a daughter of Tony Stark or Loki...interesting concept.