A Writer's Responsibility
Nov. 8th, 2008 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cedar_groveThis is long, and I make no apology for the majority of it not being under a cut.
Today, I have had it irrevocably spelled out for me that I could never write for a network television show... and I'll be surprised if I ever get published - why?
Because I won't compromise.
I have been sitting here today trying to put into words just how I feel, right now, over the question of what /is/ a writer's responsibility.
Is it to bow to pressures of a society that seeks to be entertained only by a 'fluffy bunny,' 'black and white,' 'comfortable' view of a world where there are no monsters under the bed, and we're not faced with moral questions that might alarm us when we see our answers?
Or is a writer's responsibility to her characters, their integrity, and the integrity of the world/society they write.
Is it a writer's responsiblity to challenge us as readers (of any kind of text, be that literary/visual/audio etc) - to hold up the mirror before our faces that prompts us to see within those dark corners of our own beliefs, attitudes and psyches, and make us think and to make us realise, as we examine the villain, Wait a minute - I understand - and there but for the grace of God, go I.?
Is it a writer's responsibility to remind us that the world is not a fluffly place, but that in spite of that, there is still hope?
Is it a writer's responsiblity to remind us that the answers to moral questions aren't 'black and white,' but that in spite of that, there is still hope?
Is it a writer's responsibility to remind us that, actually, there are monsters under the bed and that they could well be, likely are of our own making, but that there is still hope?
And should the writer hold up all of that to us and say, Look... I am the voice of your conscience, I have seen your actions, and your thoughts. I know you and can judge you, and find you wanting, but there is no cause for alarm - do not despair, because there is still hope.?
I believe the all of the latter.
There is only one TV show I could name that consistently, through all its incarnations, was not afraid to do that - to challenge us, to hold the mirror to us, to shake us from our comfortable complaceny and to make us think. That show is Star Trek.
They did it consistently, and they did it well, and still, at the end of each dark night they took us through, made us face, they left us with the message that, yes, there is still hope, but that it is our responsibility to take that potential and shape it, embrace it, make it ours.
They did it in The Original Series, they did it in The Next Generation, they did it with bells and whistles in Deep Space Nine, they did it less well in Voyager, but they still did it, and yes... they even did it in Enterprise toward the end - but then what happened? The show got cancelled.
Is it a symptom of the sickness in our society that we, as a people, given the choice would turn our back on anything and everything that holds that Mirror Darkly up to our faces and demands Look! - that we abrogate the responsibility for our own morality and moral choices - everything that proves our humanity - to others, whom we then revile?
Give us more shows like Star Trek, Writers - challenge us. Shock us from our moral apathy! Show us the real world through your art.
Last night, Stargate: Atlantis, one of the shows that created for us a wonderful 'dark mirror,' with such potential for the kind of examination of ourselves that I fear we need, finally capped its consistent failure to do so. I know there are many who will read this paragraph and tell me, "Yes, but that's not the kind of show it is. They don't write like that." and while I acknowledge that, know that you're right, and hate that it's true - I still had hope.
While the episode was exciting, tense, and contained a lot of good lines, there were too many occasions where the characters displayed stupidity, or in the end were just so out of character, on many levels, that in the end it lessened the impact of the episode.
I truly believe that, in the end, the ultimate victory in this, is Michael's. He proved his point. We're not that different, and in that it made his end that much more ignominious and disrespectful.
The episode treated him badly.
I suppose I'm somewhat biased. I've never really been able to see Michael as a 'villain' in the classic sense of the word. More like and antagonist, perhaps I'd even go so far as to say an 'anti-hero.'
There's been a lot of discussion about the rights or wrongs, merits or otherwise of Fan Fiction on the blog of one of the producers of SGA - Joe Malozzi. In my opinion, The Prodigal was an episode which justifies all of the merits of Fan Fiction, and embodies the responsibilities of the writer, (Official show, or Fan Fic Writer).
After watching that, I don't even know if I want to watch the rest of the season. There are many people singing Cark Binder's praises over The Prodigal (he wrote it), but I actually find myself disturbed by it... and equally as disgusted. Whereas until this point he seemed to have held out against network pressures as much as he could and still have a job, in The Prodigal he finally lost it. Sold out to those network pressures - for a network that must already have known that they were going to cancel the show - that wouldn't allow Teyla to 'go to the dark side' as I'm sure they thought everyone would see it.
It is not, and it would not have been... and I firmly believe that it is something that she could, perhaps would have done. Consider, she's prepared to work with the Wraith, the mortal enemy of her people - to become one of them, even, for the good of the people of the Pegasus galaxy. Teyla isn't stupid. She saw and heard how her very presence affected Michael and his actions, even in the short amount of time she was with him... how much more could she have done at his side. Yes - her son was the key to Michael's plans...
All these worlds filled with people, busying themselves with their pathetic lives. They come and they go, they live and they die and the galaxy is no better for it. But your son – your son will be an instrument of change. He will be remembered for the ages. (Search and Rescue - Martin Gero)
...she asks him, what of the mother well... The Prodigal should have been her answer. The Mother could have redeemed everything, perhaps even Michael himself... if only she (and the writers) had had the courage.
Teyla questions Michael's sense of justice at killing so many, she knows that what he did, he did to survive. (Allies, Vengeance) and yet, still she accuses him for his motives, and then... when she has him there, dangling from the ledge, calling out her name - which I believe was not just a plea to save him from falling, but from so much more - In. Cold. Blood... she murders him. She truly shows in that moment that she was no different to Michael, in fact, she's worse, because it was no longer a fight for survival. Teyla from the first four seasons would never had acted in such a morally reprehensible way. She would have wanted justice, yes... but the right kind of justice.
And I'm sorry, but, I believe by that point you can forget the whole sorry question of a 'mother bear' protecting her young, that's been bandied about as the excuse for her behaviour. By that point in the show it's no longer germane... it ended when Michael told her he already had Torren's DNA and if she came to him he would turn off the self destruct and leave the city with him... because she would have done. She knows Michael well enough, has a connection with him (what happened to that, btw? Gone the way of the Wraith Telepathy, I'll warrant), enough that she would have no reason to doubt his sincerity. She's felt his emotions, when he asks her to go with him, and she has the evidence of his word that he'll harm neither of them. She woke, her son was there, and he was fine. If Michael was going to harm him, he would have done so before she woke. So no - that excuse no longer stands, or is at best fatally flawed.
For me, sadly, Atlantis (the show anyways) has blown it. The Prodigal was a big thumbing of the nose to all those who vilify Fan Fiction. In this instance... in this fan, and this writer's opinion - the writers on the show have been subsumed by the network ideals too much to write any longer with integrity. They have compromised themselves, they have compromised their characters, and have - unfortunately - taken a cowards' route out. But I must also thank them - because they gave the Fan Fiction writers out here so very much to work with.
And I... at least... intend to do so.
Today, I have had it irrevocably spelled out for me that I could never write for a network television show... and I'll be surprised if I ever get published - why?
Because I won't compromise.
I have been sitting here today trying to put into words just how I feel, right now, over the question of what /is/ a writer's responsibility.
Is it to bow to pressures of a society that seeks to be entertained only by a 'fluffy bunny,' 'black and white,' 'comfortable' view of a world where there are no monsters under the bed, and we're not faced with moral questions that might alarm us when we see our answers?
Or is a writer's responsibility to her characters, their integrity, and the integrity of the world/society they write.
Is it a writer's responsiblity to challenge us as readers (of any kind of text, be that literary/visual/audio etc) - to hold up the mirror before our faces that prompts us to see within those dark corners of our own beliefs, attitudes and psyches, and make us think and to make us realise, as we examine the villain, Wait a minute - I understand - and there but for the grace of God, go I.?
Is it a writer's responsibility to remind us that the world is not a fluffly place, but that in spite of that, there is still hope?
Is it a writer's responsiblity to remind us that the answers to moral questions aren't 'black and white,' but that in spite of that, there is still hope?
Is it a writer's responsibility to remind us that, actually, there are monsters under the bed and that they could well be, likely are of our own making, but that there is still hope?
And should the writer hold up all of that to us and say, Look... I am the voice of your conscience, I have seen your actions, and your thoughts. I know you and can judge you, and find you wanting, but there is no cause for alarm - do not despair, because there is still hope.?
I believe the all of the latter.
There is only one TV show I could name that consistently, through all its incarnations, was not afraid to do that - to challenge us, to hold the mirror to us, to shake us from our comfortable complaceny and to make us think. That show is Star Trek.
They did it consistently, and they did it well, and still, at the end of each dark night they took us through, made us face, they left us with the message that, yes, there is still hope, but that it is our responsibility to take that potential and shape it, embrace it, make it ours.
They did it in The Original Series, they did it in The Next Generation, they did it with bells and whistles in Deep Space Nine, they did it less well in Voyager, but they still did it, and yes... they even did it in Enterprise toward the end - but then what happened? The show got cancelled.
Is it a symptom of the sickness in our society that we, as a people, given the choice would turn our back on anything and everything that holds that Mirror Darkly up to our faces and demands Look! - that we abrogate the responsibility for our own morality and moral choices - everything that proves our humanity - to others, whom we then revile?
Give us more shows like Star Trek, Writers - challenge us. Shock us from our moral apathy! Show us the real world through your art.
Last night, Stargate: Atlantis, one of the shows that created for us a wonderful 'dark mirror,' with such potential for the kind of examination of ourselves that I fear we need, finally capped its consistent failure to do so. I know there are many who will read this paragraph and tell me, "Yes, but that's not the kind of show it is. They don't write like that." and while I acknowledge that, know that you're right, and hate that it's true - I still had hope.
While the episode was exciting, tense, and contained a lot of good lines, there were too many occasions where the characters displayed stupidity, or in the end were just so out of character, on many levels, that in the end it lessened the impact of the episode.
I truly believe that, in the end, the ultimate victory in this, is Michael's. He proved his point. We're not that different, and in that it made his end that much more ignominious and disrespectful.
The episode treated him badly.
I suppose I'm somewhat biased. I've never really been able to see Michael as a 'villain' in the classic sense of the word. More like and antagonist, perhaps I'd even go so far as to say an 'anti-hero.'
There's been a lot of discussion about the rights or wrongs, merits or otherwise of Fan Fiction on the blog of one of the producers of SGA - Joe Malozzi. In my opinion, The Prodigal was an episode which justifies all of the merits of Fan Fiction, and embodies the responsibilities of the writer, (Official show, or Fan Fic Writer).
After watching that, I don't even know if I want to watch the rest of the season. There are many people singing Cark Binder's praises over The Prodigal (he wrote it), but I actually find myself disturbed by it... and equally as disgusted. Whereas until this point he seemed to have held out against network pressures as much as he could and still have a job, in The Prodigal he finally lost it. Sold out to those network pressures - for a network that must already have known that they were going to cancel the show - that wouldn't allow Teyla to 'go to the dark side' as I'm sure they thought everyone would see it.
It is not, and it would not have been... and I firmly believe that it is something that she could, perhaps would have done. Consider, she's prepared to work with the Wraith, the mortal enemy of her people - to become one of them, even, for the good of the people of the Pegasus galaxy. Teyla isn't stupid. She saw and heard how her very presence affected Michael and his actions, even in the short amount of time she was with him... how much more could she have done at his side. Yes - her son was the key to Michael's plans...
All these worlds filled with people, busying themselves with their pathetic lives. They come and they go, they live and they die and the galaxy is no better for it. But your son – your son will be an instrument of change. He will be remembered for the ages. (Search and Rescue - Martin Gero)
...she asks him, what of the mother well... The Prodigal should have been her answer. The Mother could have redeemed everything, perhaps even Michael himself... if only she (and the writers) had had the courage.
Teyla questions Michael's sense of justice at killing so many, she knows that what he did, he did to survive. (Allies, Vengeance) and yet, still she accuses him for his motives, and then... when she has him there, dangling from the ledge, calling out her name - which I believe was not just a plea to save him from falling, but from so much more - In. Cold. Blood... she murders him. She truly shows in that moment that she was no different to Michael, in fact, she's worse, because it was no longer a fight for survival. Teyla from the first four seasons would never had acted in such a morally reprehensible way. She would have wanted justice, yes... but the right kind of justice.
And I'm sorry, but, I believe by that point you can forget the whole sorry question of a 'mother bear' protecting her young, that's been bandied about as the excuse for her behaviour. By that point in the show it's no longer germane... it ended when Michael told her he already had Torren's DNA and if she came to him he would turn off the self destruct and leave the city with him... because she would have done. She knows Michael well enough, has a connection with him (what happened to that, btw? Gone the way of the Wraith Telepathy, I'll warrant), enough that she would have no reason to doubt his sincerity. She's felt his emotions, when he asks her to go with him, and she has the evidence of his word that he'll harm neither of them. She woke, her son was there, and he was fine. If Michael was going to harm him, he would have done so before she woke. So no - that excuse no longer stands, or is at best fatally flawed.
For me, sadly, Atlantis (the show anyways) has blown it. The Prodigal was a big thumbing of the nose to all those who vilify Fan Fiction. In this instance... in this fan, and this writer's opinion - the writers on the show have been subsumed by the network ideals too much to write any longer with integrity. They have compromised themselves, they have compromised their characters, and have - unfortunately - taken a cowards' route out. But I must also thank them - because they gave the Fan Fiction writers out here so very much to work with.
And I... at least... intend to do so.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-08 07:48 pm (UTC)when I watched the Prodigal last night and saw how it was developing, the first thought that crossed my mind, and that stayed with me as a comparison was your development of the characters and story in your fiction. I kept watching what SGA has doen with Tey'la and Michael and kept thinking about your Michael and Tey'la. You have done what SGA seems completely incapable or unwilling.
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Date: 2008-11-08 09:07 pm (UTC)I agree 100% with the above quote and with everything else, but this quote summarises my general feeling about the show.
I really started watching it regularly because of the Michael episode, so I do feel let down by the writers and their cheap *writing tools*
I don't know if you have ever watched Battlestar galactica, it's a sci fi show ( which I think you like ;) ) it's very well written and could certainly be described as a dark mirror to our current society. It can be very dark but I find it very powerful and the writers on that show have balls, it's edgy, sometimes uncomfortable, it brings loads of questions, and it's also very simply great drama with complex multidimensional characters, no black and white there!!!
to come back to SGA, I totally agree as well and Teyla being out of character. You mentioned her protectiveness of her child not being an excuse of her cold blooded murder of Michael, and you are right. It was my only explanation to her behaviour but it is not an excuse. I was wondering if she would question her actions in the future, feel guilt, as normal Teyla would, but as Spikey reminded us, she seemed quite cheerful in the end with the guys, no sign of guilt anywhere.
This also cheapens Michael's death. After building up a character, giving hints to a possible relationship, if only one sided, they have him crushed like a bug.
I am irritated by this poor writing of an ending, frustrated. it's almost as if every time they have an opportunity to write something more profound they turn to the most manichean plot leaving me dumbfounded by its stupidity !!
(no subject)
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From:no subject
Date: 2008-11-08 09:16 pm (UTC)Hmmm, as I was reading your comments about how you can show multiple moral equations I kept wondering if you had watched Star Trek, specially DS9 so I was glad when I got to that part. I think they did it really well. Another great one for that was Babylon 5. Heroes tries, but... Well, they're just not very good at it. I do think there are other, non sci-fi shows that play with it from time to time as well, but I can't really think of any offhand.
That said, I disagree with you about this last ep of SGA.
By that point in the show it's no longer germane... it ended when Michael told her he already had Torren's DNA and if she came to him he would turn off the self destruct and leave the city with him
snip
She's felt his emotions, when he asks her to go with him, and she has the evidence of his word that he'll harm neither of them
In the ep itself as the countdaown reached 2 minutes she radioed him that she was willing to go with him so long as he turned off the countdown and allowed Atlantis to survive. His response was that she disappointed him and he rejected her offer, leaving her to die because he was unwilling to not destroy Atlantis. So, when she killed him at the end, I don't have any problem with her doing that because at that point any empathy, any reason she might have to think she could influence him away from his madness was moot. He was bent on revenge and she would not be able to stop him. Additionally, he's been good at escaping in the past and he now had Torren's DNA - she was taking no chances with the fate of the galaxy.
Personally - and this is entirely my opinion - I've never been sure her empathy was toward him as a person, but more she disapproved of what SGA did to him and the idea in general and as such viewed him as a victim. That changed as he made choices - his own choices to kidnap her people and experiment on them, kidnap Teyla for her unborn child, kill millions by releasing the Hoffan drug - those were very much choices he made that he didn't have and wasn't forced into. So, I don't see why she should be expected to empathetic to him at this point.
Look, I agree with the general idea that Michael was a victim of the SGA and their running amok in Pegasus without ever thinking of the consequences. I would have loved last week's ep to be less about saving money with flashbacks and having nothing really change because ultimately it was a power game and instead have it actually be a Hague-like situation where "our Heroes" finally understood what they had done as they played Ancient in Pegasus. I would have loved to it if the writers had an ep with an outside OC who would view SGA's actions through a non-heroic spotlight and felt that the first Michael ep did just that to devastating effect. There is a lot of room in SGA for playing with the question of right/wrong actions as it comes to SGA's decisions that influence so many with such little control over the decision process. And occassionally they've done it, so I know they could if they wanted to and the fact they don't makes me sad. Michael's storyline, though, once he came back as a villain that first time, was set in stone because he made bad choices that hurt people. It's not morally ambiguous, but then it couldn't easily be and have him be a true villain, however sympathetic his past may have made him.
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Date: 2008-11-09 05:17 am (UTC)I must have missed something along the way, 'cause I don't get why Michael wants the kid. Michael has plenty of subjects for hybridizing...doesn't he? Does it work better if the subject's younger? Even if so, surely he could pick up lots of babies around the galaxy.
What's so special about THIS baby? (And I don't think that "Teyla has Wraith DNA" is a good enough answer. Because, um, Michael HAS Wraith DNA available. It's what he's using to hybridize people, no?
Until someone explains this to me, I'm going with the theory that Michael, who was clearly insane at this point, had fixated on Teyla & Torren as his family, his wife and son, since she was the only one who was ever nice to him.
And yes, I do think that what the Atlantis team did to him is morally reprehensible.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-11-09 09:59 pm (UTC)You make a really good point about Michael and how he pleaded with Teyla at the end but I think the more interesting scene between them was earlier in the show when Michael was all but begging Teyla to come with him. It really struck me then that for Michael it was not about Torren (as you say he already had his DNA but we didn't find this out until much later). He was pleading with Teyla. He wanted her beside him and I believe it was for more than simply a trophy existence. In some way perhaps Michael was trying to create a family of his own, one outside the clones and experiments we've seen of the past.
I'd love to hear more talk about this in the fandom especially the implication if Teyla had gone with Michael and the ending on the balcony. We've obviously seen a darker side of Teyla this season but her actions on the balcony did surprise me.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 12:31 am (UTC)I think the writers should have handled that differently. Perhaps Teyla looks like she's going to let him fall, goes for his hand to lift him up - can't bring herself to do it and it's Sheppard that lets him fall while Teyla watches on??Or even the classic, she goes to help, he loses his grip anyway and falls without her having responsibility for it.
It did seem a little...off.
(no subject)
From:i feel compelled to add my two cents
Date: 2008-11-16 04:45 pm (UTC)it had the potential to take the most interesting "villain" or anti-hero (whatever suits you) in atlantis mythos along a morally complex and unpredictable story line. instead they turned his character into a 2 dimensional, standard-issue, predictable bad guy- exactly as i figured/feared they would.
imo it really started in Vengeance, when they made him so completely evil that redemption after that point would have been too implausible to consider writing in.
that pissed me off, becos the whole strength of that character came from making the viewer for the first time actually feel sympathy for someone who was against atlantis. suddenly it wasn't so black and white. you could see why the atlantis crew did what they did, and michael's reaction to it all seemed natural and understandable. it was incredible really, the opportunity the writers had. if they had found a way to keep that sympathy in play consistently, he could have been one of the more memorable anti-heroes in sci-fi.
(tho i'm not necessarily a teyla/michael shipper) they could have merely continued what they started, and explored in more detail his emotional weakness for teyla and vice versa. instead they made his weakness for her something much more campy and simplistic...and impossible for her character to react to in any way than utter horror. they took the easy way out and made him wholly evil. you can almost imagine the writers saying "look, it just writes itself! no thought required!"
so the whole teyla booting him off the ledge ending to me was merely par for the course, something that i had seen coming since Vengeance. i really didn't feel anything for either character throughout the whole episode. they tried to throw us a bone with his last minute offer to her, but it would have been much more compelling if the back history of the story had been written so that the audience could buy that it was sincere or that she might actually consider taking him up on it. it would show that he might have some small human part of him worth redemption, and thus we might care if he actually did die.
it's a shame, and i'm not one to bash the show usually. i'm rather forgiving on most counts when it comes to my sci-fi/space operas. but yea, this particular point did piss me off some.
thanks for letting me vent. :)
Re: i feel compelled to add my two cents
From:no subject
Date: 2008-12-17 01:27 am (UTC)I have to admit- I have a hard time with that Teyla moment. And then I think- I don't have to like it. It was a very human thing to do- and we have done a lot of horrible stuff. I felt like I could see into her head- this guy is a mass murderer, but more than that, he threatened my child and almost made me the last of my people, and he won't leave me alone.
So I wanted remorse from her. I understood what made her do what she did, and I would have completely forgiven her, if it had been done in the spur-of-the-moment, all my hatred comes up but I will regret this later way.
But yes, it would have been much more Teyla to have stood there for a second, and then reach for him. And she would have missed, or not gotten there on time, or he would have let go... And we'd both be easier.
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