Supernatural Spring Break Musings
Mar. 19th, 2010 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
violetrose1922 I have been on Spring Break all week and have spend entirely too much time on my Supernatural obsession. Reading fanfic, watching season 2 of Dark Angel, reading gossip, etc. Loved some of the stories I read, and can I say how much I love that I can send my favorite stories to my Kindle? Awesome! I also wondered how in the world Jensen Ackles had not appeared on my radar of pretty men until Supernatural. He is almost unbelievably beautiful in Dark Angel. Not sure I love the show, I think he is good, but nowhere near Dean good in it. But oh, the eye candy.
The gossip reading has been amusing, but I always find something (or lots of somethings) that bugs me and on which I feel compelled to state an opinion. This time it is the idea that celebrities are lying if they do not tell all the truth all the time. Now I actually think that no one tells all the truth all the time. Stories change sometimes because of the audience, sometimes because of our own memories, sometimes because we just hold things back. There is the famous law school experiment (I assume every first year law student has participated in this) where an "event" is staged in class, then everyone writes down what happened...descriptions, etc. Of course all the stories are different. Then you wait and do it again a bit later, guess what? Your own story is different--especially if you have compared stories with the others in the room. So when fans complain that things are told differently over a period of a year or two, and somehow think that is evidence of lying...well I just cannot agree.
I also think that celebrities have a perfect right to prevaricate if they want to keep parts of their private lives private. I wish people did not have to do that, but in the days of the internet, I think it can sometimes be forgiven. If they can shade things to make people think slightly differently then maybe that is OK. Maybe it means some piece of personal information I really would like to know remains unavailable to me. But really, some of the things fans want to know about celebrities, I do not even want to know about my friends.
I will say though, that Jensen and Jared have done some strange things that are not easily understood to the not-so-casual observer. And what is unfortunate, in my opinion, is that this just makes fans more curious and determined to find out more information. I am certainly in this "guilty group." Sure I want to know if they were ever together...I think it is not a crazy assumption based on their own behavior. But the weirder the stories and actions from them are, the more I really really want to know. Because now it is a game and I want to understand the weird behavior, not just have my "hunch" confirmed or refuted. And I think lots of non-crazy fans fall into this same category. I have no vested interest in the outcome, just want the so-called mystery solved.
Now, there are plenty of people who would say that if they get married that does solve the "mystery." I just know too many gay people who have gotten married for lots of different reasons. Sometimes to just fit into prescribed societal roles, sometimes to hide to themselves, sometimes for more clear-cut business type reasons. I know from experience that lots of professions prefer men to be married and even better to have a kid. So the idea that talented, successful actors who want to be even more successful would decide that being married was important makes sense to me. So does marrying for love, and I think that is just about equally plausible for the J's.
I just find my obsession with all of this somewhat unsettling, harmless, but weird. I also find this fandom so entertaining and interesting I just can't seem to help myself from wanting to read more and more. Fiction and gossip--and sometimes I think it is impossible to tell the difference between the two.
The gossip reading has been amusing, but I always find something (or lots of somethings) that bugs me and on which I feel compelled to state an opinion. This time it is the idea that celebrities are lying if they do not tell all the truth all the time. Now I actually think that no one tells all the truth all the time. Stories change sometimes because of the audience, sometimes because of our own memories, sometimes because we just hold things back. There is the famous law school experiment (I assume every first year law student has participated in this) where an "event" is staged in class, then everyone writes down what happened...descriptions, etc. Of course all the stories are different. Then you wait and do it again a bit later, guess what? Your own story is different--especially if you have compared stories with the others in the room. So when fans complain that things are told differently over a period of a year or two, and somehow think that is evidence of lying...well I just cannot agree.
I also think that celebrities have a perfect right to prevaricate if they want to keep parts of their private lives private. I wish people did not have to do that, but in the days of the internet, I think it can sometimes be forgiven. If they can shade things to make people think slightly differently then maybe that is OK. Maybe it means some piece of personal information I really would like to know remains unavailable to me. But really, some of the things fans want to know about celebrities, I do not even want to know about my friends.
I will say though, that Jensen and Jared have done some strange things that are not easily understood to the not-so-casual observer. And what is unfortunate, in my opinion, is that this just makes fans more curious and determined to find out more information. I am certainly in this "guilty group." Sure I want to know if they were ever together...I think it is not a crazy assumption based on their own behavior. But the weirder the stories and actions from them are, the more I really really want to know. Because now it is a game and I want to understand the weird behavior, not just have my "hunch" confirmed or refuted. And I think lots of non-crazy fans fall into this same category. I have no vested interest in the outcome, just want the so-called mystery solved.
Now, there are plenty of people who would say that if they get married that does solve the "mystery." I just know too many gay people who have gotten married for lots of different reasons. Sometimes to just fit into prescribed societal roles, sometimes to hide to themselves, sometimes for more clear-cut business type reasons. I know from experience that lots of professions prefer men to be married and even better to have a kid. So the idea that talented, successful actors who want to be even more successful would decide that being married was important makes sense to me. So does marrying for love, and I think that is just about equally plausible for the J's.
I just find my obsession with all of this somewhat unsettling, harmless, but weird. I also find this fandom so entertaining and interesting I just can't seem to help myself from wanting to read more and more. Fiction and gossip--and sometimes I think it is impossible to tell the difference between the two.
