NaBloPoMo Day 5: I Can't Handle All These Calls

[terabient]

Ugh, this election has been exhausting. I've gotten so many political phone calls on the land line that I actually flinch when I hear it ring. I understand the importance of voting in a swing state, but at a certain point the mechanics of campaigning become overwhelming and my brain just turns off for the last two weeks leading up to election day.

FTR, I'm voting Obama, and most of the Democratic candidates for the state-level offices. There are a few exceptions at the city level, and for my city alderman I'm voting for the guy who runs the pizza joint that I always order from when I'm feeling too lazy to cook, which is often. I guess he's bought my vote with pizza??? Except, I paid him for the pizza, so...I paid him to buy my vote with pizza?!?! JUST KIDDING. He is a pretty good alderman, and by that I mean in the rare moments when I care about city politics I don't see him voting for things I deem stupid. That he makes delicious pizza I eat regularly is just a bonus.

Wait, what am I writing about?

My brain is kinda fried today. My clinicals this week are an hour longer than usual and with the end of daylight savings time, my inner clock is a mess. That, combined with the weekend's bombardment of canvassers from both parties and the constantly ringing phone, has left me stupefied and numb. So yeah, I don't really know what to write about today...

OH WAIT. I have a question that maybe you can answer for me, flist!

Is there a difference between deconstructing a trope, and subverting a trope?

I generally think of them as interchangeable, but after reading a few descriptions of 'deconstruction' they...might not be? Critical analysis: I do not understand it. :(

Hopefully I will be able to write something more interesting tomorrow after voting is done.

Comments

[tyger]

... I think deconstructing a trope is picking it to pieces and looking at why it is so, whereas subverting one is setting it up so ~everyone knows~ exactly how it's going to play out, and then doing something completely different. Often the exact opposite, but sometimes something completely off the wall, too.

For example I think this manga page is subverting a trope, but not deconstructing it?

But I probably don't ~get it~ either; I don't really do critical analysis in this sorta way. These are just the definitions I've kind of absorbed by being in fandom.

[terabient]

Your definition of deconstruction sounds about right, at least as far as fandom's concerned. (I looked up a definition of 'literary deconstruction' and um. Yeah. Pretty esoteric, and probably not what fandom people mean when they say something's deconstructionist.)

...that manga page is amazing.

Thanks!

[tyger]

.o/ (Hahaha, yeah, well. Academia, always has to take things in a different direction!)

Isn't it? :D

Not a problem~

[masu_trout]

Ahaha! Not gonna lie, I think I could be pretty effectively persuaded with delicious pizza myself. I'm voting Democrat as well (though where I live that's the political equivalent of trying to stop a flood with a dishtowel, so). I'm mostly worried about getting myself to the booth- I Mapquested it, and my polling location is exactly .33 miles away from where I live. And if there's one person on the entire planet who could get lost walking so short a distance, it would totally be me.

[terabient]

The promise of delicious pizza has persuaded me to do a lot of things. :P

I know what you mean! I'm lucky my polling location is at my old high school, otherwise I'd never find it. I hope you're able to get to yours without too much trouble.