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Chae Soo Bin & Yoo Yeon Seok for Harper's Bazaar Korea '24

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I was chatting about this with a mutual and it made me want to expand this because I've been thinking about this for a bit on and off.

I think the disconnect/arguments between people who watch/read books/shows/movies etc, label things as green flag/red flag and complain when there are "problematic" characters or "dynamics" - both in terms of the narratives and people who enjoy these narratives being targets and people who like me love some intense/fucked up/weird stuff is because these two groups of people approach fiction in two fundamentally different and incompatible ways.

The former view it as a sort of aspirational content or self-insert - they want to watch/read about people/lives/situations they would enjoy being in/with in real life. It's sort of a self-insert wish fulfillment, the way other people watch youtube channels about traveling the world or cooking or home decorating - you imagine yourself in this.

And I think this is where the disconnect comes in - because a decent chunk of them assume everyone else uses fiction for the same reason so if you enjoy e.g., watching a dysfunctional relationship or a bad dude/lady or some world set up that is nuts it's because you think this is all great in real world and that you want to be (or be with) with a problematic partner/in problematic situation and you think it's morally worthwhile.

To that former "aspirational" type of fiction consumer, fiction taste = morality.

But the disconnect is that for that latter "we like fucked up/dark/problematic/intense/whatever" group it's not really about aspiration or self-insert. People didn't love Hannibal because they secretly long to run off and cook humans in a stew. The fans of 2ha don't really want to kidnap their hot teacher and keep them as a sex slave in a palace. Harem dramas aren't popular because women are dying to poison and frame others to get to sleep with a fat old powerful megalomaniac. Most of consumers of mafia romances don't really think it's a great idea in real life to be taken against your will by a hot killer with abs who can't control himself around you and is great at forcing you into orgasms against your will.

That latter group (among which I find myself) likes all that stuff precisely because it's nothing they have or want to have in real life. It's a safe way to explore fantasies that would not be great in real life (I assure you most people who have noncon fantasies don't want to be raped in real life; also in real life no most people don't want to bang a buff but super murdery villain; fiction is a safe place in a way) but also to explore situations and interactions and characters you would never want to in real life from the safety of the page/screen. To use a very easy example - think of the large audience of action movies. I am pretty sure most fans of action franchises don't want to be in car crashes/insane chases/explosions/etc. Any more than roller coaster enthusiasts want to actually be thrown upside down for real or horror movie fans want to either chase someone with an axe or be chased with one. I myself love really intense situations in fiction, ones that push characters to their limits and sometimes beyond, but I cannot imagine anything less pleasant to go through in real life.

Unlike with the self-insert group, this is actually the very opposite. It's like a game of what-if, a glimpse into an alien world fascinating precisely because of its difference with my life. An exploration of aspects of life/relationships that one could never safely or happily do in one's life but are interesting at a safe fictional remove.

This is getting repetitive so I am going to stop but I really do wish more people would understand that enjoying X in fiction does not mean enjoying X in real life (or approving of X in general.) I mean, I love period epics but you'd pry antibiotics and rule of law out of my cold dead hands.

The moral panic over fiction reminds me both the old "video games make you into killers" panic of a few decades ago and the much older belief that reading novels would wreck morals of society especially by those weak women since the novels' (lack of) morality would warp them. Most people have brains and use them and can distinguish between fiction and reality. I wish people would accept that.

P.S. A corollary is conflation of morality/quality/enjoyment. By that I mean I wish more people would accept that moral message, quality, and enjoyment of work are all three separate things. You don't need to prove that some fictional piece is immoral and/or badly made to justify you not enjoying it. It can be well done and just not for you. And conversely, you do not need to prove a work having societal value or being high quality to justify enjoying it. It's fiction. Just enjoy it or don't.

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I want no one to escape. But even after admitting this, there is no catharsis; my punishment continues to elude me, and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing. AMERICAN PSYCHO — 2000, dir. Mary Harron

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I wish I had died on Daecheong Island instead.

EMPRESS KI (기황후) | Episode 13

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whoever wrote when the phone rings I would like to personally thank you for understanding that the real sex appeal is in the ✨hands ✨

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Yoo Yeon Seok as Paik Sa Eon

When the Phone Rings (지금 거신 전화는) 2024

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"A lot of people ask, if this is an adventure or a love story. And to me, I think, it’s a love story at heart. Because there wouldn’t have been a story if Will didn’t love Elizabeth. It would have been Elizabeth being kidnapped, and that would be the end of it. But because he loves her, he goes to all these lengths. That’s what drives him, and that’s what drives the story. At the end of the day, I think it’s a love story between these two people. Separated by class, then the worst thing in the world happens, and it ends up being the one thing they needed to get them together."

Stuard Beattie, Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Jay Wolpert - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl audio commentary

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Seok Jiwon & Yun Jiwon Love Your Enemy 사랑은 외나무다리에서 (2024) dir. Park Joon Hwa

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Outwardly, I am a normal person doing normal person things.

Inside, I am here:

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Man Idiot in Love

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Ep.2 │Love Your Enemy 사랑은 외나무다리에서 (2024) dir. Park Joon Hwa

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We know at least part of the reason that Heejoo allows herself to be controlled by her mother is to keep her father safe and provided for in a psych ward. Her father is her weakness.

But what is Saeon's first weakness? I'm sure there is something that has been used against Saeon all his life by his parents to keep him under control. Which is why he doesn't give even a hint of how much he actually loves and protects his wife—even to her—so she can't be used by his family against him as well. It's why he's so curt and standoffish with her. It's why he hasn't learned sign language: to intentionally keep her at bay. He knows once he starts showing he cares he won’t be able to stop himself from diving in head first. Which is where our story begins.

Once they finally work out their issues and realize they can trust each other, they will fall even deeper in love and become an epic team to take down everyone who is holding them hostage. Ooooh. I can't wait.

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“Because you said to call back only when there’s a corpse”

YOO YEON SEOK & CHAE SOO BIN as BAEK SA EON & HONG HEE JO WHEN THE PHONE RINGS 지금 거신 전화는 (2024) dir. Park Sang Woo

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“Do you want to take it off, or should I?” WHEN THE PHONE RINGS , 2024 × EP. 02

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I need to find out which one is the real one. Right now, you're my only lead. So cooperate.

WHEN THE PHONE RINGS 지금 거신 전화는 dir. Park Sang Woo, 2024.

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When The Phone Rings (Ep.2)

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Two eps in, much as I like cracking up about Mr Communicator being so bad at communicating with his wife, I love that he actually isn't at all.

He's not a man who would love to woo her/have her love him but has no idea how to express it or is bad at showing it. Nah, he fully wants to come across as he doesn't care (to her and everyone else) and has no plans for a marriage where she ever likes him back, so he's actually coming across to her very much the way he wants to. The only time he's not like that is when he slips up under stress (which he is getting more and more of and so more and more delicious slip ups coming.)