ADHD World
May. 16th, 2011 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oselleIs our current Twitter/Facebook/YouTube soundbite culture responsible for the absolute epidemic of plotless fiction? Has the technology revolution caused a global ADHD that keeps people from even noticing that they're consuming plotless fiction?
I rented Eclipse this weekend (shut up, it was raining out) and I will say one thing for Stephenie Meyer -- her work never suffers from plot holes because her work has no plot. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the third book, in which there is really only one story -- MY NAME IS BELLA SWAN AND I TOTES LUV EDWARD CULLEN!! -- and then in the background there's such a sorry excuse for a plot that Meyer herself can hardly be bothered to spend any time on it. There's an utter nonentity of a villain who spends most of the book offstage, some "vampire army" borefest that also happens mostly offstage, and then some lackluster "action" that is so offstage we only get to "see" it through Edward's monotonous narration. Meyer clearly expended more energy on descriptions of the Cullens' glass-walled McMansion and Bella's daily wardrobe choices than she spent on this plotless plot, showing you exactly what her priorities are.
The movie, of course, has to bring the plot a little more to the fore, especially since it's blessedly free of the endless Bella internal monologue that occupies most of Meyer's writing. Nevertheless, at the end of the movie you still have the strange sensation that you've just spent 120 minutes with the wind whistling through your skull. This movie (like the other two) does a wonderful job of eliminating most of Meyer's creepy, ever-present subtext about sexuality and gender roles, so at least you don't have that to freak you out, and the actors make a valiant effort to infuse some life into these anemic characters (although I cannot for the life of me figure out why Kristen Stewart has to swallow the end of every sentence), but it still leaves you with the impression that it was a movie about nothing at all. And yet...no one seems to notice. People talk about both the book and the movie as if there was something there, an actual plot, when there's not. I will say, however, that it's a wonderful, drug-free sleep aid, because I dozed off in the middle of it and took a deeply relaxing 90-minute nap.
Then last night was the last installment of a Masterpiece Theatre import, South Riding, which I'd been thoroughly enjoying until Part 3 when all of a sudden it just...ended. Just like that. We go from being thoroughly immersed in the life of this Yorkshire village in the 1930s and the saga of the independent-minded schoolteacher who has come there to make a difference in the lives of these devalued girls and then BOOM. It's over. There's a thrown-together flash forward that includes shots of the girls as young women and the schoolteacher touring what appears to be her much-desired modern school facility and then that's it. I almost fell off the couch because it felt like I'd just had some freaky blackout and missed two hours of television. I give the British a lot of credit for great storytelling and South Riding was so good but then they just took the whole plot and flushed it as if they couldn't be bothered with it anymore. Again...ADHD.
You know, now that I'm on the subject, I've noticed that lately, I'm increasingly hearing people proudly labeling themselves as being "ADHD." I don't think any of these people have actually been diagnosed with the disorder, they just like to call themselves that because it's taken on a whole new meaning. Someone "with ADHD" is not a scatterbrained liability who can't get things done but a whipsmart multi-tasker who's always ten steps ahead, pushing the needle, taking it to the next level and whatever other bullshit jargon you can think of. Focusing on any one task and doing it carefully is for losers who think small. These days, when someone says, "Oh, I've got ADHD!" or "It's my ADHD acting up!" they're really telling you how awesome they are. They're also showing you that they've found a very clever way to avoid ever doing any actual work. Work is for losers.
I'd come up with a summary to this post but my ADHD is acting up and this topic is so ten minutes ago kthxbai.
I rented Eclipse this weekend (shut up, it was raining out) and I will say one thing for Stephenie Meyer -- her work never suffers from plot holes because her work has no plot. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the third book, in which there is really only one story -- MY NAME IS BELLA SWAN AND I TOTES LUV EDWARD CULLEN!! -- and then in the background there's such a sorry excuse for a plot that Meyer herself can hardly be bothered to spend any time on it. There's an utter nonentity of a villain who spends most of the book offstage, some "vampire army" borefest that also happens mostly offstage, and then some lackluster "action" that is so offstage we only get to "see" it through Edward's monotonous narration. Meyer clearly expended more energy on descriptions of the Cullens' glass-walled McMansion and Bella's daily wardrobe choices than she spent on this plotless plot, showing you exactly what her priorities are.
The movie, of course, has to bring the plot a little more to the fore, especially since it's blessedly free of the endless Bella internal monologue that occupies most of Meyer's writing. Nevertheless, at the end of the movie you still have the strange sensation that you've just spent 120 minutes with the wind whistling through your skull. This movie (like the other two) does a wonderful job of eliminating most of Meyer's creepy, ever-present subtext about sexuality and gender roles, so at least you don't have that to freak you out, and the actors make a valiant effort to infuse some life into these anemic characters (although I cannot for the life of me figure out why Kristen Stewart has to swallow the end of every sentence), but it still leaves you with the impression that it was a movie about nothing at all. And yet...no one seems to notice. People talk about both the book and the movie as if there was something there, an actual plot, when there's not. I will say, however, that it's a wonderful, drug-free sleep aid, because I dozed off in the middle of it and took a deeply relaxing 90-minute nap.
Then last night was the last installment of a Masterpiece Theatre import, South Riding, which I'd been thoroughly enjoying until Part 3 when all of a sudden it just...ended. Just like that. We go from being thoroughly immersed in the life of this Yorkshire village in the 1930s and the saga of the independent-minded schoolteacher who has come there to make a difference in the lives of these devalued girls and then BOOM. It's over. There's a thrown-together flash forward that includes shots of the girls as young women and the schoolteacher touring what appears to be her much-desired modern school facility and then that's it. I almost fell off the couch because it felt like I'd just had some freaky blackout and missed two hours of television. I give the British a lot of credit for great storytelling and South Riding was so good but then they just took the whole plot and flushed it as if they couldn't be bothered with it anymore. Again...ADHD.
You know, now that I'm on the subject, I've noticed that lately, I'm increasingly hearing people proudly labeling themselves as being "ADHD." I don't think any of these people have actually been diagnosed with the disorder, they just like to call themselves that because it's taken on a whole new meaning. Someone "with ADHD" is not a scatterbrained liability who can't get things done but a whipsmart multi-tasker who's always ten steps ahead, pushing the needle, taking it to the next level and whatever other bullshit jargon you can think of. Focusing on any one task and doing it carefully is for losers who think small. These days, when someone says, "Oh, I've got ADHD!" or "It's my ADHD acting up!" they're really telling you how awesome they are. They're also showing you that they've found a very clever way to avoid ever doing any actual work. Work is for losers.
I'd come up with a summary to this post but my ADHD is acting up and this topic is so ten minutes ago kthxbai.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-17 09:09 am (UTC)I watched the 3rd movie (that is the one with the bad CGI wolves, right?) on the plane back from Chicago last year, with the sound off. I think that improved its appeal actually - I kept glancing up to see close up after close up of intense anguished staring between Bella and Edward, or the other boy whassisname. Then bad CGI and people running through woods, badly. It was rather funny.
I think your post was too long, I have to skip away to read 3 plotless fanfics in between reading it. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 03:20 am (UTC)http://reasoningwithvampires.tumblr.com/
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 02:31 pm (UTC)In full agreement with you about ADHD. It's almost as annoying to me as all those assholes with no social skills who took a quiz on the Internet and diagnosed themselves with Asperger's Syndrome. So now they don't have to make ANY effort not to be assholes because they have a SYNDROME! *throttle*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 10:21 pm (UTC)So now they don't have to make ANY effort not to be assholes because they have a SYNDROME!
Yes, these days, everyone has a syndrome or a condition or something. No one's ever just an asshole anymore.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-19 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-19 01:52 am (UTC)You're not alone. I almost threw the book at the wall when Bella got down on her knees and started scrubbing her father's bathtub...after doing his laundry and starting his supper. There are times when these books read like one of those Victorian manuals on how to be a proper wife. It's not surprising that this sort of stuff is entirely absent from the movies. No one's gonna pay twelve bucks to watch Kristen Stewart clean grout.