my paper is finished, but i can't sleep!

[schmerica]

I wonder if part of the reason why writing explicit Wilby Wonderful fiction feels so odd or sometimes even wrong is not only the quiet mood of the movie -- but maybe more explicitly the attitude the movie has towards sex itself. Of the three main storylines, all of them can be basically boiled down to a journey from a negatively portrayed sexuality to a nonsexual intimacy. We have the climaxes all in a row at the end: kind words and walking in tandem; hair stroking and a hug; the tenderness of cupping each other's faces -- all from the beginning points of infidelity, insincere manipulation, and dirty illicit fumblings. No wonder it feels so strange to go back to sex in our stories: it's exactly what the movie has been moving away from.

On the other hand, of course, I don't think most of us buy into the implicit message here: we all want them to have sex and intimacy, both together.

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, what a lovely and interesting thought.

I think that maybe what we want at the end is to reclaim the sexuality with added intimacy, you're right. To fix the broken people so they are all complete and full and happy. (Which is a lot of what all fanfiction is about!)

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Mmm -- well, for Duck and Dan, and Buddy and Carol, I kind of think of them having sex because it has got in my head that this is what grown-ups do when they love each other, and sometimes when they don't. It's not really so much that I require the smut. It's just -- that's what you do, unless there is a reason to the contrary.

Now of course there are the grown-ups who break the mold. But. I haven't met any of them yet. I guess I sort of see it as no, nobody's snogging passionately onscreen, because they do in fact love each other and they don't need to snog in public and show everybody how they are totally going to dooo eeet tonight, and just maybe right now on the sidewalk if you're lucky. Aside from which, I totally do not see Duck and Dan Doing It right after Dan gets out of the hospital, or even Carol and Buddy -- who've been married and have probably had sex somewhere during that time -- Doing It as soon as they walk home. It's just -- the end of WW is really really sweet and adorable, but partially the reason it's sweet and adorable (to me) is because people lives have completely changed in a relatively short period of time, and they're still kid of fumbling. Who needs to add sex to that? It's just another complication.

Um. Anyway. That's my ramble. And now I am going to resume being generally axhausted. *yawns and attempts to nap on keyboard*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Aside from which, I totally do not see Duck and Dan Doing It right after Dan gets out of the hospital, or even Carol and Buddy -- who've been married and have probably had sex somewhere during that time -- Doing It as soon as they walk home.

I totally agree with this -- it's not something that would fit with the story or the characters they've set up. I guess my point was more that that was the story and characters they chose to work with here, you know?

Also, I think one of the things that put this into my head was a post on my friends list the other day, complaining about the lack of a Duck/Dan kiss at the end -- and pointing out that there was plenty of heterosexual macking going on. Because my first automatic reaction to that is to think "but that kissing was BAD" which ... is interesting. I think the final scene works perfectly with its artistic choices as is, but it's still interesting that even kisses and other conventional sexual shorthand are avoided.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Also, I think one of the things that put this into my head was a post on my friends list the other day, complaining about the lack of a Duck/Dan kiss at the end

Because my first automatic reaction to that is to think "but that kissing was BAD" which ... is interesting.

Exactly! See, I think of it not so much as going from sexual vs. non-sexual, but as displayed vs. non-displayed. Just -- yes, Buddy, we know you have a tongue. You do not need to stick it in Sandra's mouth in broad daylight out behind Iggy's. You could maybe get a room. And with the privacy thing comes a certain level of intimacy/import -- okay, not much, but it's there. That's just the first level; obviously Duck and Dan would probably go for a little more than "oy, find a room" before doing that.

I think that maybe at this juncture I should say um, I find necking in the middle of a subway just obnoxious and sad, not romantic. If you're really happy with somebody, I figure you don't need the rest of the world to know it. I know that a lot of slash -- in, say, a more normal fandom like dS -- has discovery as a genre of fic, and among those fics are the ones where, say, Ray has been uncomfortable with being gay even though he knows he loves Fraser, and one fine day demonstrates that he's not in fact ashamed of his sexuality or his boyfriend by grabbing Fraser's head in the middle of an airport and snogging him, which is supposed to romantic and sweet and cute. To me, though, that just screams insecurity -- in my head, if Ray does that, he's really subconsciously looking for some sort of acceptance from Air Canada's clientele. If they don't grab him and start beating him up, they're okay with him being who he is, and he needs that. And if he needs that, he's not quite stable.

Now I think that Duck, at least -- maybe not Dan, necessarily -- is comfortable enough being who he is and loving who he loves to not need to traumatize the overly conservative segment of Wilby's population. He would never ever kiss Dan in public, I don't think -- and that's why the camera wanders off, with the idea of "we're intruding on a moment, here, let's leave them to that." Maybe Duck does kiss Dan, maybe he doesn't -- the point is that we're not meant to see. It's private. As for the rest of the movie, it's -- Wilby being a small town, everybody knows everything, and we're just seeing all the stuff that everybody already knows about. We're like a citizen of Wilby, and we can see Sandra and Buddy snogging, sure -- they don't care if they're cheapening each other by flaunting. We can't see Duck and Dan, because they don't want people to see.

Um. That's my brain on caffeine for today.