Today's roundup
Mar. 25th, 2003 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksI've been really cranky lately, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because of the war. Maybe it's because I haven't gotten the actual dead tree letter from UGA yet. Maybe it's the amount of work I don't want to do, but I have to clear before I leave. Maybe it's the fact that I'm feeling lonely and alienated again (this is a regular cycle) - and reading Cupid fanfiction isn't helping much, although masochistically speaking I'm really really enjoying it.
ObWarCommentary: The war is beging bogged down, and the vision of a swift victory is starting to fade. I don't know what the military mentality behind the invasion plans were, but it's starting to look like their assessment of Iraqi will to fight was horribly wrong. Of course, on hindsight, I say, what did you expect? Gulf War 1991 was easy - all you had to do was chase the Iraqis out of Kuwait - there was practically no fighting in the city itself.
Now, however, you're attempting to essentially conquer their nation - and if they chose to fight, all they have to do is dig in and make you pay for every inch you take from them. Saddam is no tactical slouch - he's a charismatic leader, but don't mistake him for a Hitleresque nutjob. Even Hitler had enough strategic savvy to roll over Europe for 2 years. Saddam has been fighting hot and cold against the Iranians for about thirty years, so he's bound to have picked up some rudimentary military skills.
Why do I get the feeling that the Air Force has been up to its usual, "We can carpet bomb the shit out of them and win the war" arguments that people keep buying despite the fact that it demonstrably never works? In the end, it's all about the infantry, folks. You can bomb them how ever long you like, but they can just hunker down and unless you score a direct hit on a foxhole, most of them will live. It's still the infantry who have to come in, mop up, and hold ground.
And the cities: Fighting In Built-Up Areas, urban guerilla warfare is the worst kind of combat you can ever engage in. So many places for enemies to duck and hide, and clearing houses one by one is so excruiciatingly slow and costly. You expect to get out of this without more than a bloody nose? Think again - this isn't Quake. The coalition will get a preview of what to expect when they try to take Basra. Baghdad will be much, much worse.
Now, back to Cupid. For fanfic, I think the best is Catherine Desgranges' stuff - if Cupid was on today I'd hire her to be one of the writers because she's got really good ideas and a feel for the characters. The difference between her and most of the other fanfic out there which I tend to avoid is that she doesn't write simple 'shipper wish-fulfillment stories, but stories that I could see broadcast as an episode of the regular show. I also prefer reading scripts to the more overblown fanfic prose because that helps me visualize it as though it's on TV. It's a pity she doesn't seem to have written anything more than the few I've been able to find. If anybody knows if she has, let me know. Jill Monoley also has the same good feel for the characters and my feelings about her episodes are similar to what I've said about Desgranges.
(For convenience, here's the Desgranges' and Monoley full scripts I've found so far:
Steve Oyervidez is also pretty good, but he's more into the 'shipping than the series, which is fine, and highly moving, but you know also they would never be doing that kind of stuff in the actual show, which takes some of the fun out of it.
I read one fanfic which describes what happens at the end of the series. Of course, everyone can figure out the main plot points. Trevor and Claire are going to be the 100th true love couple, Claire will turn out to be Psyche, either really or metaphorically. The big question is of course what happens then? Will Cupid ascend? This fanfic took the tack that Trevor really is Cupid and he and Claire go to live on Mount Olympus happily ever after. Sorry. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Nice wish fulfillment, but wrong.
One of the beauties of Cupid is that the show isn't really about Trevor being Cupid - it's about human relationships, human love and Trevor and Claire's competing theories about what makes love work. And one of the best things about it is that you're never sure if Trevor really is the god of love or whether he's actually delusional.
How I would end it is with Trevor apparently being "cured" - one couple short of his 100. Of course, as Trevor, all the life and humor and fun is basically sucked out of him, and Claire angsts about this, wondering if the cure wasn't worse than the disease. In the end, they do get together, and Trevor reveals that he was never really cured at all - he still thinks he's Cupid, and he claims now that even though they're the 100th couple and he's technically served his time, he's chosen to stay on Earth with Claire and live a life out as a mortal before they - him and his Psyche - go back to Olympus. Claire realizes that whether Trevor thinks he's Cupid or not, he's still the person she loves. Cue happy ending.
This basically solves the entire ethics issue because since he's been certified mentally fit, Claire isn't his therapist anymore and they can be together, and this also leaves the question of whether he really is Cupid still up in the air, as it should be. The essential message for that is, it doesn't matter - what matters is who you love, not who they think they are.
(And if you're wondering, what happens in my vision of them going to Olympus, they live happily ever after as a cranky old couple and they die next to each other. Is that ascension? Maybe it is. Olympus or not, ambiguous to the end. And yes, it doesn't matter.)
Ah well. I wish the show was still going on. Hopeless romantics like me need good mush like this - romantic, but with a tinge of cynicism so we can still pretend we're hard men. Wonder if there's any chance of a revival?
Anyway, go read the episodes. They're very good.
ObWarCommentary: The war is beging bogged down, and the vision of a swift victory is starting to fade. I don't know what the military mentality behind the invasion plans were, but it's starting to look like their assessment of Iraqi will to fight was horribly wrong. Of course, on hindsight, I say, what did you expect? Gulf War 1991 was easy - all you had to do was chase the Iraqis out of Kuwait - there was practically no fighting in the city itself.
Now, however, you're attempting to essentially conquer their nation - and if they chose to fight, all they have to do is dig in and make you pay for every inch you take from them. Saddam is no tactical slouch - he's a charismatic leader, but don't mistake him for a Hitleresque nutjob. Even Hitler had enough strategic savvy to roll over Europe for 2 years. Saddam has been fighting hot and cold against the Iranians for about thirty years, so he's bound to have picked up some rudimentary military skills.
Why do I get the feeling that the Air Force has been up to its usual, "We can carpet bomb the shit out of them and win the war" arguments that people keep buying despite the fact that it demonstrably never works? In the end, it's all about the infantry, folks. You can bomb them how ever long you like, but they can just hunker down and unless you score a direct hit on a foxhole, most of them will live. It's still the infantry who have to come in, mop up, and hold ground.
And the cities: Fighting In Built-Up Areas, urban guerilla warfare is the worst kind of combat you can ever engage in. So many places for enemies to duck and hide, and clearing houses one by one is so excruiciatingly slow and costly. You expect to get out of this without more than a bloody nose? Think again - this isn't Quake. The coalition will get a preview of what to expect when they try to take Basra. Baghdad will be much, much worse.
Now, back to Cupid. For fanfic, I think the best is Catherine Desgranges' stuff - if Cupid was on today I'd hire her to be one of the writers because she's got really good ideas and a feel for the characters. The difference between her and most of the other fanfic out there which I tend to avoid is that she doesn't write simple 'shipper wish-fulfillment stories, but stories that I could see broadcast as an episode of the regular show. I also prefer reading scripts to the more overblown fanfic prose because that helps me visualize it as though it's on TV. It's a pity she doesn't seem to have written anything more than the few I've been able to find. If anybody knows if she has, let me know. Jill Monoley also has the same good feel for the characters and my feelings about her episodes are similar to what I've said about Desgranges.
(For convenience, here's the Desgranges' and Monoley full scripts I've found so far:
Steve Oyervidez is also pretty good, but he's more into the 'shipping than the series, which is fine, and highly moving, but you know also they would never be doing that kind of stuff in the actual show, which takes some of the fun out of it.
I read one fanfic which describes what happens at the end of the series. Of course, everyone can figure out the main plot points. Trevor and Claire are going to be the 100th true love couple, Claire will turn out to be Psyche, either really or metaphorically. The big question is of course what happens then? Will Cupid ascend? This fanfic took the tack that Trevor really is Cupid and he and Claire go to live on Mount Olympus happily ever after. Sorry. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Nice wish fulfillment, but wrong.
One of the beauties of Cupid is that the show isn't really about Trevor being Cupid - it's about human relationships, human love and Trevor and Claire's competing theories about what makes love work. And one of the best things about it is that you're never sure if Trevor really is the god of love or whether he's actually delusional.
How I would end it is with Trevor apparently being "cured" - one couple short of his 100. Of course, as Trevor, all the life and humor and fun is basically sucked out of him, and Claire angsts about this, wondering if the cure wasn't worse than the disease. In the end, they do get together, and Trevor reveals that he was never really cured at all - he still thinks he's Cupid, and he claims now that even though they're the 100th couple and he's technically served his time, he's chosen to stay on Earth with Claire and live a life out as a mortal before they - him and his Psyche - go back to Olympus. Claire realizes that whether Trevor thinks he's Cupid or not, he's still the person she loves. Cue happy ending.
This basically solves the entire ethics issue because since he's been certified mentally fit, Claire isn't his therapist anymore and they can be together, and this also leaves the question of whether he really is Cupid still up in the air, as it should be. The essential message for that is, it doesn't matter - what matters is who you love, not who they think they are.
(And if you're wondering, what happens in my vision of them going to Olympus, they live happily ever after as a cranky old couple and they die next to each other. Is that ascension? Maybe it is. Olympus or not, ambiguous to the end. And yes, it doesn't matter.)
Ah well. I wish the show was still going on. Hopeless romantics like me need good mush like this - romantic, but with a tinge of cynicism so we can still pretend we're hard men. Wonder if there's any chance of a revival?
Anyway, go read the episodes. They're very good.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-25 04:38 am (UTC)One of the reasons I don't follow the war news TOO closely -- I'm too aware of the little biases the media brings with it.
Love,
-R
War is war
Date: 2003-03-25 09:22 am (UTC)I'd hoped for a quick finish, but I guess it ain't gonna happen.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-25 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-25 07:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-25 10:30 am (UTC)