16. Can we go back to November?
Nov. 14th, 2022 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slowpartsSince October, I have started and completed the Nancy Drew show. Here is what I think. I love it. I am hard-pressed to think of an adaptation of anything that is so bursting with love and respect for its characters, even and especially as they spiral out of the source material and into their own stories. I get the sense that Kennedy McMann, the lead actress, loves Nancy the same way that I love Nancy and have loved Nancy since I was a kid.
Anecdote: I have an aunt named Nancy. After my parents split up and my mom was struggling to figure out child care while she was out of town on business trips, Aunt Nancy stepped in—my brother and I would be shepherded to her tree-shaded house an hour's drive north, by the river, skip a day or two of school, and spend the weekend there. There was a trampoline in the backyard, and two dogs named Taz and Alma. Alma had one blue eye and one brown eye. The house was cozy and quiet and always smelled like incense. Sometimes when I would have spent a whole afternoon on the trampoline, I would get into bed at night and still feel like I was flying, like my body had adjusted itself to a new gravity. It was Aunt Nancy who gave me The Secret of the Old Clock. After that, there was no going back.
I have engaged with nearly every iteration of Nancy since then. Pamela Sue Martin's bell-bottom-wearing, emotionally unavailable take on her remains one of my favorites. I was elated when I saw her name pop up in the guest star list for the CW's pilot. For some reason, when I was a tween watching my The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries DVDs, I always got the sense that she was unhappy. I hope I was wrong and that she loved being Nancy enough to come back and go to the trouble of passing the torch. But maybe they were just paying her a lot.
The Her Interactive games are a major component of my coming-of-age's DNA. Back when there was a family computer and it was stored in a room specifically for the family computer, and I was allotted a certain number of hours on that family computer per day, those games were all I could think about. To me, Lani Minella is as crucial a component of the generation-spanning entity that is Nancy Drew as the Stratemeyer Syndicate itself. I will probably never play Midnight in Salem.
The CW's contribution to Nancy's legend is nothing to sneeze at. It's completely bonkers absurd, certainly, and it is not a mystery show: it is a ghost show. Nancy, like it or not, is less of a detective and more of an exasperated spirit medium. Her obligatory skepticism about the supernatural lasts a grand total of four episodes maybe. When she is on board she is on board. She is citing ghostly activity on police reports. She is obsessed with séances and rituals. Everyone is obsessed with rituals.
I like that they not only made Ned a Black man but actually bothered to make that identity significant to him, and significant to the way he interacts with the world, without hinging his character on it entirely. I am white, obviously, and cannot speak to the success of this representation, but Season 2 in particular touched upon the justice system's bias against Black people, and police violence against Black women and how these crimes are under-investigated, and how people at all levels are complicit in this system. Tunji Kasim is an incredible actor and I truly believe that were this not a goofy silly CW show he would have been a contender for an Emmy for some of his work in Seasons 2 and 3. I think that Season 1 didn't quite make full use of him—Ned curse!—and some of his narrative purpose in the first half of Season 2 was mired by a drawn-out and largely stagnant relationship with George (who needs to date woman, like, yesterday), but Kasim's acting has always been so sincere and sweet and human, and his turns at more dramatic emotions like anger, grief, and fear are always a tour de force. The man can cry!
The diversity choices in general are really excellent. George is Chinese (played by The Half of It's Leah Lewis!), Bess is English-Iranian (and a lesbian!), and although Chief McGinnis's tenure was short-lived it was neat to see him played by a Native actor. Bess's most current love interest, Addy, is also Native! Ace’s father is played by a deaf actor, and ASL is used liberally when he shows up—which is often! Ace is Jewish, and his and his dad’s designated bonding time is Shabbat dinner, and this is shown in detail on screen, not just mentioned. Even Nancy's Stratemeyer siblings the Bobbsey Twins and Tom Swift—who got his own spin-off, apparently—are reimagined; the Bobbseys are Indian, and Tom Swift Black (and gay). He and Nick KISS! It is just unbelievably refreshing to see a take on Nancy Drew that is not predominantly white, and I feel like the show rarely if ever employs tokenism. It definitely has its missteps, especially in the first season, but somewhere along the way it really hits its stride. (I'm very excited to see that it looks like there are at least two Black women on the creative team for Season 4: producer Lauren Andrea and writer Tiffany Patterson. If I am forgetting any, I apologize; I haven't thoroughly researched the crew yet!)
I think what ultimately won me over about Nancy Drew is that it places consistent and committed emphasis on the necessary labor of healing. Its characters experience traumatic events—in the past, in the present—and these traumatic events change them, and send them to a bad and frightening place, and they cannot repress the effects without betraying themselves. George, who was nominally raised by an alcoholic and absent mother, is a parentified child whose desperate need for validation sees her starting out the series in a relationship with the adult Ryan Hudson; she has an incredibly moving confrontation with him after that relationship ends, telling him, "I can't even hold a guy's hand in public because you taught me the wrong rules." Ned (here called Nick) spent time in juvenile detention for a crime I will not spoil, and only at Season 3's end does he seem ready to confront and explore the toll that it took on him. Bess is a former con-woman who escaped an abusive relationship. In the finale of Season 2, Nancy—in a supernatural dreamscape, of course—tells Ace that she was born broken. Ace replies, "You weren't born broken. You're hurt, maybe—but in the end, the only way to heal is to let that pain become love." Wow! Go off.
I also think that Nancy and Ace's unfolding romance and the fact that they can as of right now never consummate it because Ace has been cursed to die if Nancy fucks him is just about the sexiest thing in the world. The way they look at each other could have caused the fall of Troy. I feel like an oracle, like a soothsayer of yore, for taking one look at him in the pilot and being like, "Oh, Nancy should Friends With Benefits that guy, I think it would be good for her." (Related: I read a bewilderingly hot, sweet, beautifully laid-back fic about him smoking her out pre-canon. Yonder. AO3 user pressdbtwnpages you have awakened my brain.) It helps that he is Frank Hardy-coded. Nancy and Frank's romance has captivated me since they did the bicker-kiss one-two punch in 1977. I will still support Ace if he is not a Hardy Boy but you can't just solve mysteries at an old mill and look at Nancy Drew like The National's "Born to Beg" is playing in your head and not expect a man to wonder. In my opinion. I hope that they work it out, though, and get un-cursed. I was thinking as I was driving today that Ace is sort of the first love interest Nancy's had who appeals to her on an emotional level instead of just an intellectual or physical one. And how that is so neat and tasty. I wish I'd known the hold they'd have on me when I'd signed up for Yuletide! It's too late to request them now...
Let's see, in other news I have generally had a very busy autumn. A lot has happened to me this year. I have been a reactive protagonist for most of it but proactive in certain areas. I guess right now I am just waiting to see what it all means. When I got my hair cut a few weeks ago—the first major chop since my March 2020 pixie—my hairdresser said I am probably going through a transformation. I hope that's true. I would like to be changing into something. Kind of done with whatever I was before.
Some smaller updates...
Onward, onward, past the ides of November. Christmastime soon—my favorite time!
Anecdote: I have an aunt named Nancy. After my parents split up and my mom was struggling to figure out child care while she was out of town on business trips, Aunt Nancy stepped in—my brother and I would be shepherded to her tree-shaded house an hour's drive north, by the river, skip a day or two of school, and spend the weekend there. There was a trampoline in the backyard, and two dogs named Taz and Alma. Alma had one blue eye and one brown eye. The house was cozy and quiet and always smelled like incense. Sometimes when I would have spent a whole afternoon on the trampoline, I would get into bed at night and still feel like I was flying, like my body had adjusted itself to a new gravity. It was Aunt Nancy who gave me The Secret of the Old Clock. After that, there was no going back.
I have engaged with nearly every iteration of Nancy since then. Pamela Sue Martin's bell-bottom-wearing, emotionally unavailable take on her remains one of my favorites. I was elated when I saw her name pop up in the guest star list for the CW's pilot. For some reason, when I was a tween watching my The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries DVDs, I always got the sense that she was unhappy. I hope I was wrong and that she loved being Nancy enough to come back and go to the trouble of passing the torch. But maybe they were just paying her a lot.
The Her Interactive games are a major component of my coming-of-age's DNA. Back when there was a family computer and it was stored in a room specifically for the family computer, and I was allotted a certain number of hours on that family computer per day, those games were all I could think about. To me, Lani Minella is as crucial a component of the generation-spanning entity that is Nancy Drew as the Stratemeyer Syndicate itself. I will probably never play Midnight in Salem.
The CW's contribution to Nancy's legend is nothing to sneeze at. It's completely bonkers absurd, certainly, and it is not a mystery show: it is a ghost show. Nancy, like it or not, is less of a detective and more of an exasperated spirit medium. Her obligatory skepticism about the supernatural lasts a grand total of four episodes maybe. When she is on board she is on board. She is citing ghostly activity on police reports. She is obsessed with séances and rituals. Everyone is obsessed with rituals.
I like that they not only made Ned a Black man but actually bothered to make that identity significant to him, and significant to the way he interacts with the world, without hinging his character on it entirely. I am white, obviously, and cannot speak to the success of this representation, but Season 2 in particular touched upon the justice system's bias against Black people, and police violence against Black women and how these crimes are under-investigated, and how people at all levels are complicit in this system. Tunji Kasim is an incredible actor and I truly believe that were this not a goofy silly CW show he would have been a contender for an Emmy for some of his work in Seasons 2 and 3. I think that Season 1 didn't quite make full use of him—Ned curse!—and some of his narrative purpose in the first half of Season 2 was mired by a drawn-out and largely stagnant relationship with George (who needs to date woman, like, yesterday), but Kasim's acting has always been so sincere and sweet and human, and his turns at more dramatic emotions like anger, grief, and fear are always a tour de force. The man can cry!
The diversity choices in general are really excellent. George is Chinese (played by The Half of It's Leah Lewis!), Bess is English-Iranian (and a lesbian!), and although Chief McGinnis's tenure was short-lived it was neat to see him played by a Native actor. Bess's most current love interest, Addy, is also Native! Ace’s father is played by a deaf actor, and ASL is used liberally when he shows up—which is often! Ace is Jewish, and his and his dad’s designated bonding time is Shabbat dinner, and this is shown in detail on screen, not just mentioned. Even Nancy's Stratemeyer siblings the Bobbsey Twins and Tom Swift—who got his own spin-off, apparently—are reimagined; the Bobbseys are Indian, and Tom Swift Black (and gay). He and Nick KISS! It is just unbelievably refreshing to see a take on Nancy Drew that is not predominantly white, and I feel like the show rarely if ever employs tokenism. It definitely has its missteps, especially in the first season, but somewhere along the way it really hits its stride. (I'm very excited to see that it looks like there are at least two Black women on the creative team for Season 4: producer Lauren Andrea and writer Tiffany Patterson. If I am forgetting any, I apologize; I haven't thoroughly researched the crew yet!)
I think what ultimately won me over about Nancy Drew is that it places consistent and committed emphasis on the necessary labor of healing. Its characters experience traumatic events—in the past, in the present—and these traumatic events change them, and send them to a bad and frightening place, and they cannot repress the effects without betraying themselves. George, who was nominally raised by an alcoholic and absent mother, is a parentified child whose desperate need for validation sees her starting out the series in a relationship with the adult Ryan Hudson; she has an incredibly moving confrontation with him after that relationship ends, telling him, "I can't even hold a guy's hand in public because you taught me the wrong rules." Ned (here called Nick) spent time in juvenile detention for a crime I will not spoil, and only at Season 3's end does he seem ready to confront and explore the toll that it took on him. Bess is a former con-woman who escaped an abusive relationship. In the finale of Season 2, Nancy—in a supernatural dreamscape, of course—tells Ace that she was born broken. Ace replies, "You weren't born broken. You're hurt, maybe—but in the end, the only way to heal is to let that pain become love." Wow! Go off.
I also think that Nancy and Ace's unfolding romance and the fact that they can as of right now never consummate it because Ace has been cursed to die if Nancy fucks him is just about the sexiest thing in the world. The way they look at each other could have caused the fall of Troy. I feel like an oracle, like a soothsayer of yore, for taking one look at him in the pilot and being like, "Oh, Nancy should Friends With Benefits that guy, I think it would be good for her." (Related: I read a bewilderingly hot, sweet, beautifully laid-back fic about him smoking her out pre-canon. Yonder. AO3 user pressdbtwnpages you have awakened my brain.) It helps that he is Frank Hardy-coded. Nancy and Frank's romance has captivated me since they did the bicker-kiss one-two punch in 1977. I will still support Ace if he is not a Hardy Boy but you can't just solve mysteries at an old mill and look at Nancy Drew like The National's "Born to Beg" is playing in your head and not expect a man to wonder. In my opinion. I hope that they work it out, though, and get un-cursed. I was thinking as I was driving today that Ace is sort of the first love interest Nancy's had who appeals to her on an emotional level instead of just an intellectual or physical one. And how that is so neat and tasty. I wish I'd known the hold they'd have on me when I'd signed up for Yuletide! It's too late to request them now...
Let's see, in other news I have generally had a very busy autumn. A lot has happened to me this year. I have been a reactive protagonist for most of it but proactive in certain areas. I guess right now I am just waiting to see what it all means. When I got my hair cut a few weeks ago—the first major chop since my March 2020 pixie—my hairdresser said I am probably going through a transformation. I hope that's true. I would like to be changing into something. Kind of done with whatever I was before.
Some smaller updates...
- Lily invited me to see MUNA with her and they were transcendent. I'm always astonished by how much more I love a band after seeing them live. I always cry at concerts. Nothing else moves me as enormously as watching artists share their music in real time, and the community of seeing it with a crowd of strangers, all of you bound by the words and melodies you ALL know, just adds to the magic. I sort of understand religion when I'm at a concert. They played "Loose Garment" and "Taken" and "Pink Light." I hated that someone interrupted Katie Gavin by screaming "YOU'RE SO HOT!" when she was sharing her feelings about what it meant to be performing for us. I hate this new trend of women at concerts thinking cat-calling and objectifying another woman is okay just because she is queer or may be queer. This is why I will never go to a Mitski show.
- The band that opened for MUNA, Meet Me @ The Altar, absolutely fucking ROCKED and I am so excited for their debut album to come out next year so that I can rec them in earnest. Their energy was fantastic and their sound rattled my bones. Felt like all the pop punk concerts I'm sad I missed out on as a wee 2000s teen. They opened with "Say It to My Face," their current lead single. And I was BEAMING! I love music.
- My beloved kitty Therru has been diagnosed with tarsal lymphoma, but is responding well to chemo and should make a full recovery after we have the affected leg amputated. It's a big, harrowing decision, but I know her well and I want to believe that she will still have a good life even with just three legs. I hate that it is happening at all, I hate it with all my heart, but I want to make sure she's afforded every chance there is and I am, selfishly, just not ready to let her go yet. She has been by my side since I was 16—I like to joke that she's as old as my relationship. There are still a few more late writing nights left for her to keep me company...
- I have two stories floating in submission limbo and it's driving me nuts. Just reject them so I can move on!
- I looooove my Yuletide assignment this year. Tee hee.
- I had a dream the other night that I was getting a blackwork tattoo on my left outer thigh. It was an image of a stone tower, like a turret, in the style of a medieval woodcut print, and the tower was in flames. It seems like an omen of very ill portent so I don't know if it would be tempting fate to actually get it, but like, it was a very radical image, in the dream.
- On my social docket this week is a wake for the 100th anniversary of Marcel Proust's death. I cannot wait.
- I think Lily and I will kick off our rewatch of The Hunger Games soon. Peeta... I will let you break my heart again. Just this once. Just once more.
Onward, onward, past the ides of November. Christmastime soon—my favorite time!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-17 06:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-17 06:39 am (UTC)i am sending you and therru the most love and well wishes. i love the dream tattoo and think you should get it drawn if not inked onto your body. what will you be doing for the proust centennial! bread boy
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-17 08:19 pm (UTC)i have conveyed your well wishes to therru. i thought you might like the dream tattoo. i will probably get it inked onto my body. the proust centennial is an event held annually by my mom's longtime friend, who is a proust fanatic and used to have a proust-themed restauraunt, and for the wake she would make an enormous cake in proust's likeness for everyone to eat. i hope the proust cake is there this year and if it is i'll send you a pic. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-17 08:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-18 06:49 am (UTC)I was so alarmed
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-18 07:21 am (UTC)