Happy Happy Joy Joy by Jasonzzz

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Happy Happy Joy Joy

POSTED BY: JASONZZZ
UPDATED: Thursday, October 3, 2002 09:32
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VIEWED: 3493
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Thursday, September 26, 2002 9:16 PM

I must begin by telling you that my life is a drudgery of sorts. No, I am not telling you that my life is sad, I am not going for comparing whether your life are better or mine is. That doesn't matter - at least not to me.

What I am trying to tell you is that, most of my days entail listening to people griping about how things are broken (as if things never break) and how they are never fixed. (No, I don't work in a callcenter doing phone support. Thank God! I would hate to be a phone monkey getting yelled at by dis-satisifed jerks 24 hours a day) I spend most of the rest of the time not only looking for problems, but seeing problems. After about 15 years of this, that's all I see now - problems. Problems, defects, and flaws that I simply don't have enough time, never will have enough time to fix. Haley Joel Osment's character sees Dead People everywhere. I see problems, defects, and stupid VPs "who otherwise have no proof of their existence except to torment folks like me with their inadequacies and their completely unimportant problems - life is important, broken down technical crap is not; but they don't/will never understand that". Everywhere. In finance systems, in street corners, in the taxicab, in the local supermarket. To the annoyance of my companions, I feel compelled to point them out and go on in extraordinary details on how inadequate I find a particular restaurant/store's service system; or perhaps launching into a diatribe on the failings of a company's maintenance policy. No, it's not just a bad episode of the Seinfelds. It's practically painful. Almost fatalistically so, But I digress.

I come to found out lately that I operate pretty much the rest of my life the same way. It's really rather annoying, especially to the people around me who doesn't understand what I have now unknowingly chosen as a career (or did it choose me?)

So like most of you, over the years, I have actually been drawn more and more to Sci Fi shows, if merely to escape what my eyes keep showing. Especially a show such as Star Trek, when Roddenberry ran most of the franchise, the show was about optimism. Optimism about what the future might bring, about the human condition, about how we have solved problems and have taken the next step into doing bigger and better things. Oh, it showed the ugly side too, but it usually wasn't merely an essay or an exploration of some character flaw or defect. It asked you, what would you do, how could we can around/over/solve this? In order for the human race to move on?

At least that was until Berman moved in. Shows like DS9, as entertaining as it was, pretty much degenerated into an embrassing array of car chases and space humor.

Now, I don't do the Happy Happy Joy Joy thing, but the optimism in Star Trek lifted me up out of what I otherwise thought was a big rut in perpetuity.

Shows nowadays no longer are so generous, all of the shows have a "darkside" to them. Tells me and constantly reminds me of the "hidden"/"darker" conspiratorial side of things. Sometimes it's disguised with humor, sometimes as satire, sometimes as.... well... "Space Opera". I don't think I need that, I don't think people in general need that, at least not every other show with the hidden theme.

In a way, Firefly is sort of like that. I don't need to be reminded of how bad things are, I know, and my eyes keep telling me. I don't need to be told that, 400 or 500 years, things are still the same, it still sucks (Yes, I know it will; but I don't want to be reminded of it). I don't want to see how we are broken down in a bad Western. I don't want to see how everything still needs fixing. No, I don't need Happy Happy Joy Joy.

I just need less of the reminder of what everyday life is like and that nothing has changed/will change, in most ways where it counts, in 400 years.

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Friday, September 27, 2002 2:55 AM

SHUGGIE

I think you're watching the wrong show - yet I don't want to discourage you.

I recognise some of myself in your description. The thing I can't stand is false optimism - futures where technology solves all our problems without any real downsides or side-effects.

Optimism is good but it's much more powerful effect on me when it's rooted in realism.

Plus there are other things which shows like Buffy, Angel and Firefly have that I enjoy - warm-hearted, sympathetic, yet realistically flawed characters. Characters that work together in the face of adversity (most of the time).

To put it another way - it's not that our heroes always win that I enjoy - it's the way they fight, that they're in stuff together and caring about each other.

And when they have the occasional big win it's all the more satisfying because it doesn't come easily and all the time.

If you can get hold of a copy and can stand the quality, I recommend the original pilot. It was an even bleaker view of the world in some ways and yet it's ultimately more uplifting. At least for me.

I did love Train Job - but it was more of a straightforward crime caper romp.

Shug

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Friday, September 27, 2002 3:19 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

Sorry, guy, there is no happy ending in Whedonverse. Watch Providence.

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Friday, September 27, 2002 4:16 AM

LIVINGIMPAIRED

First off, you're forgetting something. Just because there isn't a "happy ending," per say, doesn't mean there is an unhappy ending. The way I interperate Joss's policy on happy endings is that nothing ever ends perfectly. The hero may save the day, but at a cost.

Let's take Buffy for instance. Season one, the Scoobies win. The world doesn't end and the Master's looking like something Professor Snape would keep in his office. Yet this came at a price: Buffy had to die. Now this still could be concidered a happy ending, yet to do this the writer would have to ignore the consquences of her death. If Roddenbury were running the show, he might just have had Buffy be okey-day afterwards, and poof! Happy ending. But Whedon calls the shots and realizes that dying would be tramatic as hell, and so he had her deal with that. Even years later, we still see that Buffy is kind of thrown by the whole drowning thing. A great example of this is in the begining of "Consequences" (S3), where Buffy dreams she is dying, and the deputy mayor is pulling her under. After all that time, Buffy still subconsiously related drowning to despair and loss of control.

So, anywho, my point is that Whedon isn't a pro-unhappy ending guy, or even someone that trys to be depressing. Whedon is interested in showing the world the way it is. Some time that is the Roddenbury happy, sometimes it's a dark pit of despair. Life is like that. In short, Whedon likes realistic endings.

And if TV as a whole is just getting to dark for you, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Historical literary fact: it's a phase. Writing of all kinds goes through cycles. Right now the current zeitgeist leans towards cynicism, but give it a few years. We'll cycle through and everybody will be aggressivly cheerful again.

________________

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass." —Maya Angelou

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Friday, September 27, 2002 4:52 AM

ZICSOFT

You work in Information Services? How sad.

JOSS, WHERE'S MY CHECK???!!!

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Friday, September 27, 2002 5:42 AM

JASONZZZ

Yes and No, People around me work in the trade, I am a troubleshooter. I find problems and faults, I find their causes.

I don't know if it's sad. But it's a thing to do. The condition that I am recognizing lately is that what I do has permeated through out my life and somehow taken over and changed how I see the world around me.

Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:
You work in Information Services? How sad.

JOSS, WHERE'S MY CHECK???!!!

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Friday, September 27, 2002 5:56 AM

JASONZZZ

May be a bit of clarification is in order...

I am not into the "Happy Ending". If I was, I would just be sitting at home watching "Happy Days" or "Charles in Charge" or someother Happy Happy Joy Joy moronic nonesuch. It would be simple to compare and contrast Happy Days with this, but I wouldn't want to, and neither would you - I imagine.

Optimism perhaps, but generally an improvement in the human condition. Afterall, what the heck are we here to do? Just generally wallowing and getting mired in our own muck and filth? I already live it and so do you, I don't need to see any further exploration or exposition of what I consider to be an everyday experience - albeit with a supernatural or fantastic twist. It is the same situation, it is the same basic experience. The thing that I "want to see", is an a general improvement in our lives and in the human condition. That's very different from a happy ending. I want to see us face new problems, not the sameone over and over again. I want to see us learn from our mistakes, not mired in the same muck.

We can't improve as a people unless if we think and dream about how we can improve and what it would be like when we have improved. It's not just plain blind optimism or false optimism. Is it false optimism when an Olympic diver visualizes how a perfect dive would be? It is a goal, I have never seen anyone succeed when they keep focusing and re-experiencing and wallowing in the same miserable condition of their lives. Yes, learn from your mistakes, but there has to be some improvement. There isn't any "normal" live. If you continually fail at something or if you continue wallow in the same filth - and there's just no sign of improvement, you really need to move on. It's just not good for the person.

Now, even realizing that we generally haven't done a whole lot in improvement since anywhere since the beginning of time. We have moved forward in some ways. Humans, as a phenomenon, are no longer crowded in caves and swinging from trees. We have come together and build cities. We live longer because of advancement in medicine and technology. We police ourselves a bit better.

The point is that we have learned and applied some of what we learn to better ourselves. I don't see us solving all of our problems completely with technology -unless if we all turn ourselves into mechanical beasties... But after a fashion, we have still got to deal with what's inside - the intangibles, the values, the morals, the thoughts. That's where I see Sci Fi having a value, setting a vision, a goal for us to work towards. Letting us envision what it would be like to work using ourselves, our technology, our thoughts into improving ourselves for the future and advancement.

Otherwise, its just eye candy. To me whether its Happy Days or some super-conspiratorial fantasy - it's all re-examination of the same without any thought of how we can improve and move. There is certainly entertainment value, but too many milkshakes makes me sick in the stomach.

Quote:
Originally posted by Haken:
Sorry, guy, there is no happy ending in Whedonverse. Watch Providence.

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Friday, September 27, 2002 6:44 AM

JASONZZZ

Quote:
Originally posted by LivingImpaired:
First off, you're forgetting something. Just because there isn't a "happy ending," per say, doesn't mean there is an unhappy ending. The way I interperate Joss's policy on happy endings is that nothing ever ends perfectly. The hero may save the day, but at a cost.

I don't mind if its "happy ending" or "unhappy ending" or anything in between. I actually don't care if its has an ending or closure at all. Would be nice to have closure, but for me not necessary. To me, it's not relevant.

Quote:
Originally posted by LivingImpaired:

Let's take Buffy for instance. Season one, the Scoobies win. The world doesn't end and the Master's looking like something Professor Snape would keep in his office. Yet this came at a price: Buffy had to die. Now this still could be concidered a happy ending, yet to do this the writer would have to ignore the consquences of her death. If Roddenbury were running the show, he might just have had Buffy be okey-day afterwards, and poof! Happy ending. But Whedon calls the shots and realizes that dying would be tramatic as hell, and so he had her deal with that. Even years later, we still see that Buffy is kind of thrown by the whole drowning thing. A great example of this is in the begining of "Consequences" (S3), where Buffy dreams she is dying, and the deputy mayor is pulling her under. After all that time, Buffy still subconsiously related drowning to despair and loss of control.

I don't agree with the comparison of how GR would close the same show. But then again, Directors are people too and since I don't know either of them personally, I wouldn't hazard a guess as how they might do it and rationalize their decision and behaviours.

Quote:
Originally posted by LivingImpaired:

So, anywho, my point is that Whedon isn't a pro-unhappy ending guy, or even someone that trys to be depressing. Whedon is interested in showing the world the way it is. Some time that is the Roddenbury happy, sometimes it's a dark pit of despair. Life is like that. In short, Whedon likes realistic endings.

So, I am not sure if I want to know something is Happy or Depressing. The depressing part for me is that there is no advancement of how we deal with situations and how we improve. It could be a buck-ass naked, cry your eyes out, tear out your guts and soul episode/situation/story. It would still be great and I would still be pleased if there is a general sign of improvement and folks learning and moving forward.

Quote:
Originally posted by LivingImpaired:

And if TV as a whole is just getting to dark for you, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Historical literary fact: it's a phase. Writing of all kinds goes through cycles. Right now the current zeitgeist leans towards cynicism, but give it a few years. We'll cycle through and everybody will be aggressivly cheerful again.

I actually quite enjoy dark stories, dark humor of all sorts. I would expand the idea of cycles beyond not just writing or literary world.

Quote:
Originally posted by LivingImpaired:

________________

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass." —Maya Angelou

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Friday, September 27, 2002 10:21 AM

LIVINGIMPAIRED

Quote:
Originally posted by Jasonzzz:
So, I am not sure if I want to know something is Happy or Depressing. The depressing part for me is that there is no advancement of how we deal with situations and how we improve. It could be a buck-ass naked, cry your eyes out, tear out your guts and soul episode/situation/story. It would still be great and I would still be pleased if there is a general sign of improvement and folks learning and moving forward.

OK, then, if you don't have a problem with happy endings, and you don't have a problem with unhappy endings, the what the heck do you want?

As I see it, Buffy and co. are all about progress. They have no eventual goal, true. But they do progress. They evolve as people.

I think the whole mission statement of the JW shows was outlined succicently in "Epiphany" :

Quote:

ANGEL: It doesn’t… mean anything. In the greater scheme, the big picture, nothing we do matters. There's no grand plan, no big win.

KATE: (confused) You seem kind of chipper about that.

ANGEL: Well, I guess I kind of worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy. I never got it.

KATE: And now you do?

ANGEL: Not all of it. But now I just wanna help. I wanna help because people shouldn't suffer as they do. Because, if there isn't any bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.

Now how's that for humanity striving for something better?

________________

"You still don't get it. It's not about right, not about wrong... It's about Power." —Morph-O-Monster, "Lessons"

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Thursday, October 3, 2002 9:32 AM

JASONZZZ

Quote:
Originally posted by LivingImpaired:
I think the whole mission statement of the JW shows was outlined succicently in "Epiphany" :

Quote:

ANGEL: It doesn’t… mean anything. In the greater scheme, the big picture, nothing we do matters. There's no grand plan, no big win.

KATE: (confused) You seem kind of chipper about that.

ANGEL: Well, I guess I kind of worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy. I never got it.

KATE: And now you do?

ANGEL: Not all of it. But now I just wanna help. I wanna help because people shouldn't suffer as they do. Because, if there isn't any bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.

Now how's that for humanity striving for something better?

________________

"You still don't get it. It's not about right, not about wrong... It's about Power." —Morph-O-Monster, "Lessons"

Not sure if I am happy or sad about that... It doesn't sound like she is trying to help humanity progress, or if she is just trying to make herself feel better. The latter might be a bit self-centered, but then everyone needs to feel good about themselves, I guess

.

It's an unfortunate fact, but most people who need help really need more than just the moralistic fascade that some of the "charities" out there put up. But then again, it makes the people, who other wouldn't know what else to do with their time, feel better about themselves. The sad part is that, the people who needs help still needs help - sometimes they end up worst off then they were before they got their help.

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