Snowflake 2021 #3

[jedi_of_urth]

Challenge #3: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

In your own space, tell us who, from one of your fandoms, would you most want to have dinner with (or tea, or a random afternoon visit), And why? This could be a creator, an actor, a costumer, a set designer, a director, a character, a composer, anybody! What would you talk about? What are you dying to know? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I found myself thinking about this for a bit after it was revealed, even as I was reading it. My first thought was that I would read it as characters I wanted to hang out with, and realized that in my recent fandoms there aren't a lot that I wanted that. Not that I would mind if I could meet them; Chidi from The Good Place for example, I could get FroYo with him sometime.

Then my mind went back to old favorites, and I found myself debating which characters from Babylon 5 I'd want to have lunch with, and I had a pretty hard time deciding that. I kind of want to (per my icon) talk with Sheridan about politics and how we make things better; I just want to hang with Ivanova; I want to turn to Delenn for life advice because I think she'd be a really good person to turn to; I might get a bit lost with G'Kar (late G'Kar), but I sure wouldn't miss the opportunity to hear more of his thoughts; I think Vir and I could have a really chill time.

But then I realize I could go with a real person and that the absolute dream is meeting JMS; he's basically been my idol since I was 12 and having the chance to sit down with the man himself for a while would be amazing. And it would have to be a while because I'd be too nervous to talk, and then I'd just be squeeing for a while. But it would be amazing for 13 year old me, 20 year old me, 30 year old me, and now me. I've loved Babylon 5 for 2/3 or my life and it would be wonderful to meet the man who created and basically penned it, and gave me so many ideas that shaped who I am.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Ivanova would be a fun person to grab a drink with! I think I'd opt for Garibaldi to have dinner with out of the B5 crew -- especially if he cooks!

I read JMS's memoir (Becoming Superman) last year, which made me respect him even more and want to check out more of his work -- I've loved B5 for two and a half decades, as well as some of the animated shows he'd worked on, but the book made me want to dip into his comics, and give Sense 8 a shot, and maybe even watch Changeling, though it's not my genre AT ALL. (But also whoooa, what a brutal read that book was.)

[jedi_of_urth]

I wouldn't mind getting Garibaldi to cook, but he's actually fairly low on the people I think I'd have good dinner conversation with. Though he is ahead of Londo who would probably be a great person to have at your B5 character party (I don't think anyone throws a better party than him), but I'm pretty sure he'd be frustrating one on one.

I hadn't sought out the memoir, but that sounds like a decent recommendation. I have more or less always figured I ought to watch Sence8; though as far back as when it was announced I was wary of not knowing whether the balance would be to JMS or the Wochowskies (probably not spelled right, not going to look it up), since both of those sides are ones I've been exposed to having a lot of creative control on their projects, but I love B5 and...well, the Matrix sequels exist. And then when the show came out it ended up getting the exact kind of praise that turns me off thing, especially while they're popular - like, can you tell me what the actual plot and story are instead of just going on about how diverse the characters are? I'm not saying I doubt they're good and interesting characters, but I never heard people talking about who they are, just so happy with representation. The fervor has died down since the show ended though, so at this point I could probably finally get around to seeing it and deciding for myself whether the show is actually good.

[hamsterwoman]

(I don't think anyone throws a better party than him)

Agreed!

I highly recommend the memoir, but with A LOT of content warning (let me know if you'd like specifics; there are a lot of different things, and many of them are very intense).

but I never heard people talking about who they are, just so happy with representation.

Yeah, that was my experience, too, and that in itself doesn't make me interested in a show (I typically don't watch much TV -- although 2020 was a bit of an excetion in that regard -- so it take a lot to get me to give a show a try, and even more activation energy to keep me going on anything longer than a 1-season-of13-30-min-episodes show.) But reading JMS's thoughts on it did make me more interested, so it's moved from indifference to tentative curiosity on my list.

[jedi_of_urth]

Yeah, that was my experience, too, and that in itself doesn't make me interested in a show

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way (not that I thought I was, just fringes of fandom uncertainty). I'm not against diversity/representation but it's not a particular selling point of a show; and I respond badly if I feel like people are trying to use that to guilt others into watching/reading something.

If I can insert a bit of a rant: say there are three basic categories for trying to sell such a show to me:
Person 1: Hey people, did you know about show A? It has a really good mystery with interesting twists, the main characters are interesting and the dialog between them is snappy. The supporting cast contributes a lot and you're sure to love at least some of them.
Person 2: Show A is awesome, I'm really enjoying it and hey it also has a really diverse cast (one of the leads is -insert something-). So you should give it a shot, I think you'll like it too.
Person 3: WATCH SHOW A IF YOU SUPPORT (something) REPRESENTATION.

I respond well to person 1; person 2 I'd like to know more about what they're suggesting but if I've already heard of show A, or I know person 2 from something else so I feel confident where they're coming from, I'll count it as a mark of recommendation (much like with your claims about JMS' memoir). Person 3 has me reaching for the Life on Mars DVDs because I love that show even (and for the moment, especially) if it's the opposite of whatever person 3 wants represented.

The problem with person 2 is if you don't know them you're not sure if they're a person 3 who just uses less guilt-trip wording or a person 1 for who the representation of (something) is one of many things they like about show A. And Sense8 seemed to have a lot of persons 2&3, at least who made the most noise at the time; and the persons 2 were rarely people I knew or thought were drawn to it for the same reasons I was (the JMS factor).

(Yeah, that turned into a bit more of a ramble than I planned)

[hamsterwoman]

Rambles are great! Rambles are the soul of Snowflake, IMO :) (or at least I've been going on rambles all over the place)

Anyway, yeah, I don't consider Person 3 as a rec at all, and would just ignore it. I watch/read things because I think I will like them / they seem interesting, and representation is all well and good, but tells me nothing about whether I'll actually enjoy something or not. (I mean, the best book I've read in the last five years and the worst book I've read in the last five years both had women of color as protagonists, largely POC settings, and African-American women as authors, for an example.)

Person 2 -- unless it's a personal rec from someone whose taste I trust -- is also not a very useful rec, and I'd probably only take it into account if I've already heard other, more substantive things about the show or was already thinking of checking it out.

In general, "I love thing A, so you should also check it out!" is not, I think, a very useful rec-ing method, because over the course of years of talking with people about shared favorite books and shows, I've come to the conclusion that even when there's significant overlap in the things we like with any person, we very often like the things for different reasons, and also have different things that would turn us off about something. So in general I try to give recs which are more along the lines of, "I loved thing A! I think you might enjoy it, too -- the central relationship reminds me of [pairing that they love], and there's a great car chase/heist montage/huddling for warmth/etc. scene in episode 2, buuut there might be more violence than you would enjoy" -- so, yeah, person 1 all the way. (I mean, I also have things that are fundamental enough to me that I would say "I love thing A -- I'd be super excited if you checked it out so we could talk about it" -- but that's not a rec, that's "come join me in my squee for my sake", and I don't foist that on people who aren't family members or very close friends.