I've clearly failed to explain myself properly, and I'm not sure I have the energy to try again. But I'm not talking about psychological flaws--because I think actually that the psychology of the characters, Sapphire and Steel as much as Rob or Tully or those poor ghosts, is extremely well drawn and convincing. I'm not complaining that the psychology of the series doesn't work. (It makes perfect sense to me that Steel would sacrifice Tully in perfectly cold blood and feel not a shred of remorse, just as it makes sense to me that Sapphire would object, and regret deeply, but not stop him, either.) I'm saying that structurally, the narratives are flawed, and furthermore, that there are these odd artifacts scattered through the episodes that can be put together into a third narrative strand, and that doing so creates a story that makes (to me) structural sense.
I can build a different third narrative strand for "The Railway Station," in which Tully truly doesn't matter, that it's just his bad fortune to be in view when Steel needs a victim. (And please notice, I still think that strand has to be built, that the series, whatever its intentions, has not managed to put that reading into the story. It may be that other people see that strand with perfect clarity as the story stands. But I don't. Personal reaction.) But the thing I was trying to talk about was the ways in which that's not the story the series is telling, these strange aborted gestures toward a different story.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 04:07 pm (UTC)I've clearly failed to explain myself properly, and I'm not sure I have the energy to try again. But I'm not talking about psychological flaws--because I think actually that the psychology of the characters, Sapphire and Steel as much as Rob or Tully or those poor ghosts, is extremely well drawn and convincing. I'm not complaining that the psychology of the series doesn't work. (It makes perfect sense to me that Steel would sacrifice Tully in perfectly cold blood and feel not a shred of remorse, just as it makes sense to me that Sapphire would object, and regret deeply, but not stop him, either.) I'm saying that structurally, the narratives are flawed, and furthermore, that there are these odd artifacts scattered through the episodes that can be put together into a third narrative strand, and that doing so creates a story that makes (to me) structural sense.
I can build a different third narrative strand for "The Railway Station," in which Tully truly doesn't matter, that it's just his bad fortune to be in view when Steel needs a victim. (And please notice, I still think that strand has to be built, that the series, whatever its intentions, has not managed to put that reading into the story. It may be that other people see that strand with perfect clarity as the story stands. But I don't. Personal reaction.) But the thing I was trying to talk about was the ways in which that's not the story the series is telling, these strange aborted gestures toward a different story.