2x02, "Sugar"

[Emma Bull]

Aha--a word out! Thank you. Would you mind posting that again, under "Website"? I think there's a thread there for typos. It's so darned handy to have them in one place when we do the housecleaning!

[Clarentine]

Got it!  I knew there was someplace central they were supposed to go, but couldn't put my cursor on where.

[celticelk]

On re-re-(re!)reading of some of the SU episodes, I've been noticing some narrative errors.  I looked for a general place to drop these on both the forum and the wiki, but I'm not seeing anything. (These are things that seem a little more extensive than just typos, or I'd put them in that thread.)  So I'm checking the individual episode threads for mention of them, and will detail them when I don't see a prior mention.  I don't know if they'll be any use, but if the PTB ever want to revise for dead-tree publication, these might be places to start.  So, in this ep:

-The Act I timeline around Bekk's itching powder incident is repeatedly self-contradictory.  Falkner is late to the briefing room "that morning" because Ben calls "at noon" to tell her about the incident, which had apparently just happened but which led Bekk to take the bus home "in the middle of the afternoon," and Falkner excuses herself because the team is waiting and it's "five past eleven."
-Falkner doesn't talk to Bekk about the mall incident until her phone call home the next night, which explicitly contradicts her habits as detailed in "Things Ben Falkner Does..." (admittedly, an extra published over a year later), and is contradictory with her character in general.

[Lioness]

I read Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson yesterday, - Spoilers ahead! - and it kept reminding me of Sugar.  Not just because they are both about girls wanting to be thin, but because of how the friendships play out in  them.  How the girls in both stories are not only each other's greatest support, but also how the main characters end up hurting their friends out of fear and just plain inability to handle their own problems, much less their friends' as well.

Huh -- that sounds really interesting.  I think I'll look that one up.  Thanks! 

Hm. Warning about that book:  as someone who survived an eating disorder (at least, so far), I found it incredibly dishonest a book. 




OK, I put a short form below, but now I feel compelled to put a warning  before it.







WARNING:  VERY LIKELY TRIGGERY,

ESPECIALLY IF CUTTING IS AN ISSUE FOR YOU.




It wasn't for me,
but damn, if I had read Wintergirls back when I was a practicing anorexic,
it probably would have driven me to it.



SRLSY, THIS IZ SQUICKVILLE.


OK, you have been warned.





Short form: it reads like a dieter's fantasy of what being an anorexic or bulimic would be like, and it feels damn near like really awful exploitative porn -- the kind in which the porn producer is totally wrong about the motivations and emotions of the people on screen, but so very into their bodies. Yuck. Also, the cutting scenes -- which I have not seen much warning about, and there really SHOULD be some warnings on those -- are swear-to-god written like a Penthouse Forum scene in a porno theatre, complete with disrobing, arched hips, and licking of blood.  And the ending? Not even good enough to be deus ex machina.   REALLY unrealistic and unsatisfying.


Damn. I better write that rant about it that I promised to write for Debbie Notkin and Laurie Edison and Elizabeth Lynn, huh?  Because it's being foisted on early teenaged young women all over as a Classic Issue Book For Our Time, and it is in my opinion pretty poisonous.

[Lioness]

Did I mention that that particular scene happened IN a theatre? Surrounded by little kids?

Eek.  But besides eek, I just do not buy it.


Anyhow, I actually pulled this topic up because I just re-read Sugar, and it is one that makes me cry every time. It's really well done. Leah, you have serious genius.  Thank you for this episode.

[eschatonic]

And the ending? Not even good enough to be deus ex machina.   REALLY unrealistic and unsatisfying.

snipped for brevity and to avoid squicking people unnecessarily re: the cutting stuff.

I hated the ending too, and I've never had an eating disorder or any other kind of mental health issue. Cheap-ass pop psychology where there is one answer for everything, and knowing the answer magically solves all your problems. You have anorexia because X! And once you know that, you can just stop having anorexia! I mean, come on, seriously? It's the same bullshit idea that prompts people to tell somebody with clinical depression to stop moping.

Knowing that your behavior is a reaction to some kind of stress, and that your behavior is not a helpful coping strategy, does not magically allow you to change your behavior, nor does it magically cause you to want to change your behavior. Anybody with half a brain can see how ridiculous that whole idea is just by looking at their own (even non-obsessive) worthless coping strategies: think of how hard is it to stop biting your nails when you're anxious, even right after you give yourself some kind of nail infection. Now multiply the difficulty level by factors of ten until you get to a compulsive anxiety disorder.

[Emma Bull]

I recommend Kim Antieau's Mercy, Unbound as an alternative to Wintergirls.

[miminnehaha]

It's the same bullshit idea that prompts people to tell somebody with clinical depression to stop moping.

I am so totally painting this in giant letters across the back of my car. The garage door.  Embroidering it on the back of my jean jacket. Using the mower to carve it into the lawn. Something!

[jimsmyth]

It's the same bullshit idea that prompts people to tell somebody with clinical depression to stop moping.

I am so totally painting this in giant letters across the back of my car. The garage door.  Embroidering it on the back of my jean jacket. Using the mower to carve it into the lawn. Something!

I am now picturing you embroidering this on a giant garage-door cozy.

[Lioness]

It's the same bullshit idea that prompts people to tell somebody with clinical depression to stop moping.

I am so totally painting this in giant letters across the back of my car. The garage door.  Embroidering it on the back of my jean jacket. Using the mower to carve it into the lawn. Something!

I am now picturing you embroidering this on a giant garage-door cozy.

My fandom does stompy crafts. That stomp with the giant boots of giants.

[Emma Bull]

Holding back the heat death of the universe with yarn bombing!

[Lioness]

Holding back the heat death of the universe with yarn bombing!

OMFG I just realized something.   I just realized that the thing I keep saying "Oh, I wish I knew something small enough to run in the Sheraton Midtown, next to Global Market, because they don't have enough function space, but the location is brilliant," -- I know what that thing is now.

OK, here are the specifics:

- Meeting rooms that will handle between 20 and 80 people, with 80 as the absolute maximum.
- Property (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1546 is part of hotel chain which has good relationship with local convention organizers.
- Global Market shares a parking lot with the hotel. (Global Market is http://www.midtownglobalmarket.org/, and houses Pham's Deli, home of my current favorite banh mi, and the Salty Tart, makers of excellent savories worth getting up early to grab some of before everybody else buys them out, not to mention the eponymous salted caramel chocolate tart, and La Sirena Gorda, and the place with the good Middle Eastern groceries and prepared food, and umptyleven other good things. It's been a major excellent startup zone for new businesses, particularly restaurants and grocery stores, in a range of cuisines weighted toward South and Central America, Mexico, southeast Asia, and parts of Europe and Africa, especially around the Mediterranean, though there's other stuff as well.)
- Science fiction bookstore and mystery bookstore within one block. (Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's)
- Outstanding yarn store (more of a yarn lounge/salon/hangout/paradise, really) six blocks away on direct busline. (StevenBe's Yarn Garage Workshop, http://stevenbe.com/, and he probably knitted something Vivian Cartwright wore in the SU television show.)
- Connections by public transit to airport (one bus ride to light rail), train station (two connecting buses, though it's a rather long ride), interstate bus station (one bus ride) and downtown Minneapolis (one bus ride).

What that says to me is Shadow Unit convention.  Gathering. Ingathering. Whatever.

I wants it. I wants it enough to make it happen if anybody else wants it and if we've got some lead time.

(The place is also a five minute cab ride from my house, and a block from where I go to physical therapy. I know the area fairly well. I think Chaz would find stuff he likes to eat, and he'd fit right in among the clientele and business owners, as would the rest of the team.)

Edited to add: There's even a place at Global Market called, I think, Kitchen In The Market or something like that, which could possibly be hired if, say, we had a mad scientist who wanted to make something. Just supposing we did.  *whistles innocently*

[Emma Bull]

Chaz in the general area of Chicago and Lake? Not only would he eat All the Things, everybody would try to engage him in conversation in about six different languages from multiple continents. *g*

I would love to see a Shadow Unit gathering in Mpls. I think we need to increase the reach of our tentacles to make sure there are enough attendees to gather there, though. Maybe. ?

And are you thinking of Hafidha's petrol-blue sparkle sweater in "Fidelity"? I heard he designed it for her, but Viv knit it herself.

[Lioness]

Chaz in the general area of Chicago and Lake? Not only would he eat All the Things, everybody would try to engage him in conversation in about six different languages from multiple continents. *g*

I would love to see a Shadow Unit gathering in Mpls. I think we need to increase the reach of our tentacles to make sure there are enough attendees to gather there, though. Maybe. ?

Minneapolis is an air hub, so if there's something distant people are to-ing and fro-in to or fro, they could stop over. Perhaps we should look for something like that, for a few far-flung regulars?

And are you thinking of Hafidha's petrol-blue sparkle sweater in "Fidelity"? I heard he designed it for her, but Viv knit it herself.

Ah! Much is revealed.

[Edmund Schweppe]

And are you thinking of Hafidha's petrol-blue sparkle sweater in "Fidelity"? I heard he designed it for her, but Viv knit it herself.

Good thing Ms. Cartright doesn't read these boards:

She is always Vivian, never Viv. Even to her friends.

I'm not at all surprised that she knit the sweater, though. She made the socks James Patrick Kelly wore in part 3 of "Wireless Girl", after all. (Granted, that was crochet, but Vivian is multitalented.)