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semeleThis entry is based on a comment I posted in an episode discussion hosted by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ever_neutral. It's some sort of an intellectual experiment ― I'm bored, my literature classes are not as good as I expected them to be, my TVD discussions on a forum are mostly dying, so I've been entertaining myself with creating this interpretation. I'm well aware that it's not the only possible way of looking at the show, and it certainly leaves out some aspects, but, well. If I wanted to include everything, I'd have to write a book ;).
Spoilers up to TVD 3x04. Huge thanks tole_mru and ever_neutral for giving me some new ideas :D.
Damon is deeply rooted in Romantic narratives (aka he is the Bella Swan ― thank you for this mental image,ever_neutral...). He started out believing that he should do anything for the woman he loves, ended up dying for her, and then spent 145 years waiting for her. According to his understanding, the world is based on extreme reactions: when he loves, he'd sacrifice just anything, when he suffers, he feels that it's reason enough to do do impulsive, evil things (this is desperation - it's not ok morally, but, according to the rules of his narrative, it's appropriate). When he finds out that Katherine was never in the tomb, his reaction is still within the boundaries of his narrative - he starts drinking (well, drinking MORE) and sort of steps back into the role of a villain (i.e. his dealings with Rick). Since he is attracted to Elena anyway, he simply switches the lady and doesn't change a bit - he still does whatever it takes to make his lady happy. When Damon starts becoming a good guy in late s1, he doesn't do it against his basic instinct, because his basic instinct is to make Elena happy and to win her love. His narrative breaks in 2x01, with Katherine telling him that what they had was never real (try to imagine Giaour finding out that Leila never loved him; it would be absurd), and Elena telling him that he won't have her no matter how hard he tries. Something like that cannot happen to a romantic character; it's against all the rules, it crushes his narrative into pieces. So from the beginning of s2 Damon gets a new narrative; a postmodern one. It's ambigious and eclectic and highly personalized; pragmatic to some extent (he is the guy who makes the hard choices without blinking), but also hedonistic (he often does things just because he feels like doing them), realistic (he refuses to pretend that he could be a reformed vampire) and many more. His narrative is still a bit shaky; as you see, it's even difficult to define. Damon's new narrative is still under construction.
With Stefan it's pretty easy: he is Manicheic. He believes in good and evil that don't mesh, and when he is on one side, he cannot be at the other.
Elena is a girl brought up in late 20th century culture, and her narrative is love narrative (different from Damon's Romantic; hers is more of "Amor vincit omnia" sort). Love, for her, is some sort of power that can influence people. If they are broken, love can fix them. To oversimplify - Elena believes that if she kisses a frog, it will turn into a prince.
Up to the end of s2 Elena and Stefan reinforce each other's narratives; he keeps telling her that he does it all for her and to be with her (= her love changes him), and she keeps him on the side of the forces of good (= there is good and there is evil and nothing in between). In s1 the narratives of the main trio are in correspondence: even though Elena marks Damon as evil, she can comprehend his narrative and recognize his reasons (although she doesn't justify them). Stefan and Damon obviously understand each other, and spend most of their time questioning each other's lifestyles ;).
Enter s2.
Stefan and Elena do not notice Damon's change of narrative; whatsmore, his new narrative is absolutely incomprehensible for them, especially for Elena (we don't know that much about Stefan). S2 is constant tension; it's Elena trying to manipulate Damon in ways that would've worked in his old narrative, but are absurd within the current one (ever_neutral gave me a good example once: when Elena gives Damon a lofty pep talk in 2x12, it results in him going out and killing somebody). Damon doesn't hide his new narrative from Stefan and Elena, because TVD is not metafiction, hence Damon is not aware of even having a narrative ;). They just don't notice that something has changed, because, even though the change is so fundamental for Damon, it's quite subtle when you look from the outside (his motivations change completely, but until now it didn't lead to big changes in behavior).
Enter s3.
Stefan is killing again, and he does it for the love of Elena. That would be their narratives dying a horrible and slow death: Stefan is doing evil things for right reasons (you can't have that in manicheism, you're either good or bad), mainly because he loves Elena and wants to protect her (Elena's love has just lead to something ultimately horrible). They haven't faced it yet, because things are happening too fast and they are just trying to keep a facade for the time being, but the damage is done, and now it's just a matter of time. Simultaniously, we've just had Elena having a moment of recognision about Damon: the tension from s2 is broken and now she starts seeing that she has no power over Damon, at least not in a sense she thought she had. So, basically, by mid s3 we'll have two characters who have lost any idea as to what are the rules their worlds function by + a character who has already built some set of rules, but it doesn't help, because his rules lead to destruction and disorder anyway.
Now, many Damon/Elena shippers reacted badly to s2 change of narrative (note: I'm not talking about the people who didn't like Damon's s2 arc, because they aren't ok with the way the show dealt, or rather didn't deal with the abuse of women; that's different kind of critisizm, and, even though I mostly agree with it, I don't want to discuss it right now). Ironically, it turns out that 21st century audience is quite conservative and doesn't like stepping out of certain conventions. I'd say they want to keep some sort of decorum (in a sense that they want Damon to have one, consistent narrative; they cannot accept the switch of narratives), although I doubt they explain it like that. The same audience will probably react badly to Stefan's and Elena's arcs in s3. Change of narrative is stepping out of comfort zone.
I'm sorry if I don't answer to your comments right away; I have a family event to attend, and I'll be back online tommorow.
ever_neutral. It's some sort of an intellectual experiment ― I'm bored, my literature classes are not as good as I expected them to be, my TVD discussions on a forum are mostly dying, so I've been entertaining myself with creating this interpretation. I'm well aware that it's not the only possible way of looking at the show, and it certainly leaves out some aspects, but, well. If I wanted to include everything, I'd have to write a book ;).Spoilers up to TVD 3x04. Huge thanks to
le_mru and ever_neutral for giving me some new ideas :D.Damon is deeply rooted in Romantic narratives (aka he is the Bella Swan ― thank you for this mental image,
ever_neutral...). He started out believing that he should do anything for the woman he loves, ended up dying for her, and then spent 145 years waiting for her. According to his understanding, the world is based on extreme reactions: when he loves, he'd sacrifice just anything, when he suffers, he feels that it's reason enough to do do impulsive, evil things (this is desperation - it's not ok morally, but, according to the rules of his narrative, it's appropriate). When he finds out that Katherine was never in the tomb, his reaction is still within the boundaries of his narrative - he starts drinking (well, drinking MORE) and sort of steps back into the role of a villain (i.e. his dealings with Rick). Since he is attracted to Elena anyway, he simply switches the lady and doesn't change a bit - he still does whatever it takes to make his lady happy. When Damon starts becoming a good guy in late s1, he doesn't do it against his basic instinct, because his basic instinct is to make Elena happy and to win her love. His narrative breaks in 2x01, with Katherine telling him that what they had was never real (try to imagine Giaour finding out that Leila never loved him; it would be absurd), and Elena telling him that he won't have her no matter how hard he tries. Something like that cannot happen to a romantic character; it's against all the rules, it crushes his narrative into pieces. So from the beginning of s2 Damon gets a new narrative; a postmodern one. It's ambigious and eclectic and highly personalized; pragmatic to some extent (he is the guy who makes the hard choices without blinking), but also hedonistic (he often does things just because he feels like doing them), realistic (he refuses to pretend that he could be a reformed vampire) and many more. His narrative is still a bit shaky; as you see, it's even difficult to define. Damon's new narrative is still under construction.With Stefan it's pretty easy: he is Manicheic. He believes in good and evil that don't mesh, and when he is on one side, he cannot be at the other.
Elena is a girl brought up in late 20th century culture, and her narrative is love narrative (different from Damon's Romantic; hers is more of "Amor vincit omnia" sort). Love, for her, is some sort of power that can influence people. If they are broken, love can fix them. To oversimplify - Elena believes that if she kisses a frog, it will turn into a prince.
Up to the end of s2 Elena and Stefan reinforce each other's narratives; he keeps telling her that he does it all for her and to be with her (= her love changes him), and she keeps him on the side of the forces of good (= there is good and there is evil and nothing in between). In s1 the narratives of the main trio are in correspondence: even though Elena marks Damon as evil, she can comprehend his narrative and recognize his reasons (although she doesn't justify them). Stefan and Damon obviously understand each other, and spend most of their time questioning each other's lifestyles ;).
Enter s2.
Stefan and Elena do not notice Damon's change of narrative; whatsmore, his new narrative is absolutely incomprehensible for them, especially for Elena (we don't know that much about Stefan). S2 is constant tension; it's Elena trying to manipulate Damon in ways that would've worked in his old narrative, but are absurd within the current one (
ever_neutral gave me a good example once: when Elena gives Damon a lofty pep talk in 2x12, it results in him going out and killing somebody). Damon doesn't hide his new narrative from Stefan and Elena, because TVD is not metafiction, hence Damon is not aware of even having a narrative ;). They just don't notice that something has changed, because, even though the change is so fundamental for Damon, it's quite subtle when you look from the outside (his motivations change completely, but until now it didn't lead to big changes in behavior). Enter s3.
Stefan is killing again, and he does it for the love of Elena. That would be their narratives dying a horrible and slow death: Stefan is doing evil things for right reasons (you can't have that in manicheism, you're either good or bad), mainly because he loves Elena and wants to protect her (Elena's love has just lead to something ultimately horrible). They haven't faced it yet, because things are happening too fast and they are just trying to keep a facade for the time being, but the damage is done, and now it's just a matter of time. Simultaniously, we've just had Elena having a moment of recognision about Damon: the tension from s2 is broken and now she starts seeing that she has no power over Damon, at least not in a sense she thought she had. So, basically, by mid s3 we'll have two characters who have lost any idea as to what are the rules their worlds function by + a character who has already built some set of rules, but it doesn't help, because his rules lead to destruction and disorder anyway.
Now, many Damon/Elena shippers reacted badly to s2 change of narrative (note: I'm not talking about the people who didn't like Damon's s2 arc, because they aren't ok with the way the show dealt, or rather didn't deal with the abuse of women; that's different kind of critisizm, and, even though I mostly agree with it, I don't want to discuss it right now). Ironically, it turns out that 21st century audience is quite conservative and doesn't like stepping out of certain conventions. I'd say they want to keep some sort of decorum (in a sense that they want Damon to have one, consistent narrative; they cannot accept the switch of narratives), although I doubt they explain it like that. The same audience will probably react badly to Stefan's and Elena's arcs in s3. Change of narrative is stepping out of comfort zone.
I'm sorry if I don't answer to your comments right away; I have a family event to attend, and I'll be back online tommorow.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-08 02:17 pm (UTC)Damon is deeply rooted in Romantic narratives (aka he is the Bella Swan ― thank you for this mental image, ever_neutral…).
LMAO, YOU'RE WELCOME.
So from the beginning of s2 Damon gets a new narrative; a postmodern one. It's ambigious and eclectic and highly personalized; pragmatic to some extent (he is the guy who makes the hard choices without blinking), but also hedonistic (he often does things just because he feels like doing them), realistic (he refuses to pretend that he could be a reformed vampire) and many more. His narrative is still a bit shaky; as you see, it's even difficult to define. Damon's new narrative is still under construction.
YES YES YES YES YES. HE'S A WORK IN PROGRESS, HAHA. And man, I LOVE that you pulled out that word, "post-modern", because he totally is, as a character, as a work of art, and it's excellent.
I'm not talking about the people who didn't like Damon's s2 arc, because they aren't ok with the way the show dealt, or rather didn't deal with the abuse of women
Yeah, glad you made that distinction, because I have exactly the same issues, but I don't wish they'd written Damon as less bad.
The same audience will probably react badly to Stefan's and Elena's arcs in s3. Change of narrative is stepping out of comfort zone.
I am expecting as much, yeah. You don't have to look far to see people crying "But Stefan is just doing it for Damon and Elena!!11!!" and "HOW DARE ELENA BE ATTRACTED TO DAMON IT'S SUPPOSED TO JUST BE STEFAN ALWAYS STEFAN". Stefan/Elena has served as a sort of moral compass for the show up to this point, and now what? Now there isn't one. Dangerous ground.
So yeah, agreed with basically everything, as we have discussed! Glad you posted!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 02:52 pm (UTC)I didn't want to use the word "post-modern", because it felt to broad, but then I simply couldn't find a better word, so I had to settle for "post-modern" + description. Besides, I tend to like some forms of post-modern art (see: fanfiction XD) and I'm not ok with the fact that some people use "post-modernism" as a derogatory term. So I figured I should use it as often as possible to show them my contempt XD.
Yeah, glad you made that distinction, because I have exactly the same issues, but I don't wish they'd written Damon as less bad.
Exactly. It's the lack of any comment that is an issue. TVD it's a teen show, for God's sake, and with that comes some sort of social responsibility :(.
You don't have to look far to see people crying "But Stefan is just doing it for Damon and Elena!!11!!" and "HOW DARE ELENA BE ATTRACTED TO DAMON IT'S SUPPOSED TO JUST BE STEFAN ALWAYS STEFAN"
Let's prepare ourselves for tons of Elena bashing :((((.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-08 05:14 pm (UTC)LITERARY ANALYSIS OF SHINY VAMPIRE SHOWS = WIN
Ironically, it turns out that 21st century audience is quite conservative and doesn't like stepping out of certain conventions. I'd say they want to keep some sort of decorum (in a sense that they want Damon to have one, consistent narrative; they cannot accept the switch of narratives), although I doubt they explain it like that. The same audience will probably react badly to Stefan's and Elena's arcs in s3. Change of narrative is stepping out of comfort zone.
WORD. We are the unconventional minority! (But seriously, how often does life follow one consistent narrative? It's much more interesting to me to see those narratives torn apart and watch the characters flail around without them.)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 03:19 pm (UTC)Awwwwwwww, how did you know Donna is my favorite Doctor Who character? :DDDDDD
LITERARY ANALYSIS OF SHINY VAMPIRE SHOWS = WIN
That's what happens when they don't let mi analyse Hemingway at school - I come back home and do sth insane!
But seriously, how often does life follow one consistent narrative? It's much more interesting to me to see those narratives torn apart and watch the characters flail around without them.
Life certainly doesn't do anything like that, but then not everybody is interested in art that mirrors life. Many people like narratives and want them to work. I usually avoid comparisons like that, but this example is so striking I can't resist it: in 18th century people in England were staging Shakespeare's King Lear with a happy ending. Not because they were dumb or were avoiding depressing subjects, but because their sense of aesthetics was so closely bound with conventions they viewed the original ending as a mistake, as bad literature. So, while I believe that many of the people who can't handle the changes of narratives in TVD are simply avoiding difficult subjects, because they are afraid that their little shiny bubble of delusions about life would be broken, there is also some aesthetic background in their opinion. There is more to that than just artistic cowardice.
Though personally I think there is a good deal of cowardice as well...no subject
Date: 2011-10-08 10:21 pm (UTC)Stefan is killing again, and he does it for the love of Elena. That would be their narratives dying a horrible and slow death: Stefan is doing evil things for right reasons (you can't have that in manicheism, you're either good or bad), mainly because he loves Elena and wants to protect her (Elena's love has just lead to something ultimately horrible). They haven't faced it yet, because things are happening too fast and they are just trying to keep a facade for the time being, but the damage is done, and now it's just a matter of time. Simultaniously, we've just had Elena having a moment of recognision about Damon: the tension from s2 is broken and now she starts seeing that she has no power over Damon, at least not in a sense she thought she had. So, basically, by mid s3 we'll have two characters who have lost any idea as to what are the rules their worlds function by + a character who has already built some set of rules, but it doesn't help, because his rules lead to destruction and disorder anyway.
I LOVE THIS. I have never enjoyed both Stefan/Elena and Damon/Elena as hard as I have this year and I think the main reason for it is because I think the writers are destroying the idea/romantic fiction that if you just love someone hard enough they will reform for you. I don't want to applaud them too hard yet for being courageous but I loved everything I saw in 3x04. EVEN THE DAMON/ELENA BITS. NO, ESPECIALLY THOSE BITS.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 03:25 pm (UTC)I don't want to applaud them too hard yet for being courageous but I loved everything I saw in 3x04. EVEN THE DAMON/ELENA BITS. NO, ESPECIALLY THOSE BITS.
They've made such a wonderful mess, haven't they? Let's hope they'll keep it up, otherwise they'll have THE WRATH OF US.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 12:18 am (UTC)I also think Katherine's his Joker. Because she so is. :3 But yeah--Bella works...amazingly well, only she doesn't have much personality herself. I've read those suckers. ....
...
Yep.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 03:31 pm (UTC)I blame
For the record, this is what she wrote:
Damon is pretty much the Bella Swan of the TVD universe--he was entirely willing to give up his life and humanity, and leave his family behind, for his abusive vampire girlfriend. Then he spends the next 145 years romanticising that abuse. It's really fascinating gender subversion.
My imagination did the rest. I need some brain bleach.