#alas metafandom we knew ye | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hoidn · 9 months

Text

okay so i watched all eight episodes of 1899 in one go on monday and i cannot stop Having Thoughts. quite honestly it is the most superbly executed narrative i've ever encountered outside of literature. the sheer thematic scope and complexity is breathtaking. THEY WROTE A GREEK TRAGEDY about all my favourite things and it begins with an emily dickinson poem. !!! the universe was aiming its arrow right at my brain with this one.

(so of course it wasn't renewed. given that la révolution also wasn't renewed, i'm forced to conclude that tptb at netflix have something against thoughtful and nuanced excellence in storytelling.)

this is one of those times i especially miss metafandom because i'm sure there've been discussions about everything my brain is yelling at me but how the hell does one find the good shit anymore? or even the bad shit, for that matter. so here you go, tumblr frēonds, have yet another brain dump that nobody asked for or cares about.

a list of topics covered by 1899 that i recall after watching the entire thing once, in no particular order:

the nature of identity

the nature of reality

how grief warps both the self and the perception of reality

the often inexplicable nature of trust

the human brain's capabilities

the inherent untrustworthiness of memory and the irony that it's all we have

explorations of female identity

the many meanings of freedom

communication!! — trying to understand and be understood through barriers of language, of levels of reality, of technology

the destructive nature of religious zealotry (and christianity in general *internal sigh*)

classism

patriarchy

homophobia (both social and internalised)

the beautiful and horrific acts humans will commit in the name of love

the looming shadow of the male authority figure

space as a concept, both literal and psychological: liminal spaces, confinement

'the odyssey', obviously

the trope of the mad woman in the attic (this one gets its own post because I Have A Lot To Say)

now let's talk ancient greek references!

[1] the names of both ships come from ancient greek mythology: prometheus stole fire from the gods to give to humans and was sentenced to eternal punishment; kérberos (or cerberus) was the multi-headed dog who guarded the gates of the underworld to prevent the dead from leaving.

[2] in ancient greek philosophy, there were four classical elements; this concept was taken up in western alchemy, which made a hobby out of giving everything a glyph or symbol. the symbols of the four elements are triangles:

🜂 = fire 🜄 = water 🜁 = air 🜃 = earth

[3] it's been four months since the prometheus went missing. what, i wondered, is the significance of the number 4? in greek numerals 4 is represented as Δ´. oh, look, a triangle. and what's a triangle in three-dimensional space? a pyramid. and what's a pyramid geometrically speaking? a tetrahedron! which has 4 faces and 4 vertices. it's also the smallest possible platonic solid and plato associated it with the element fire. i don't know enough about geometry or philosophy to take these associations any further, but, as shakespeare would say, come the futtock on. this level of detail is RIDICULOUS and EVERYTHING TO ME.

#1899 #1899 netflix #it's not a show it's a FIELD OF STUDY #alas metafandom we knew ye #yes i did quote upstart crow #i regret nothing

70 notes · View notes

hoidn · 9 months

Text

hunting through my fandom journal for something completely unrelated, i came upon a post from 2009 that amused me greatly because it might as well have blinky text announcing MA field of study detected! somebody said they thought ‘dollhouse’ was postmodernist and i sidled into the conversation citing lyotard like the nerd that i am. :D :D :D

considering that lyotard's definition of postmodern is incredulity of metanarratives, and fairy/folk tales are some of the oldest metanarratives around, i'm not sure how a show that is consciously enacting fairytale tropes can be considered postmodern. unless its use of those tropes is parodic in that it's inhabiting as well as critiquing them. which i'd be very surprised to see argued about dollhouse, given its sort of self-conscious ponderousness.

SPEAKING OF SELF-CONSCIOUS PONDEROUSNESS (affectionate)

#me and my charms #if you can't amuse yourself who CAN you amuse?#alas metafandom we knew ye

1 note · View note