(no subject)
I wrote up and never quite completed a longish bit of due South language/communication meta/musing, and think I'm not going to a) finish all the trains of thought I started, and/or b) find my point, so instead I'm going to post it. I love the internets.
(What I wrote ended up very Kowalski and F/K-centric. Shocking.)
Been thinking about mistaking words in due South. The show continually plays with miscommunication in a variety of ways--fun with homonyms and near-homonyms, misinterpretation, taking rhetorical questions at face value--and I'm intrigued both by their absolute insistence on working the gag (it happens a LOT; EVERYBODY does it) and with the rich potential for meaning.
It's rarely deliberate joking, as punning would be, and that's part of the reason I enjoy it. Puns aren't a favorite with me, especially when the puns are pointed out, when it's a "Hee, look at that pun I just made! Two words that don't mean the same thing! Look!" type treatment. But beyond that, that kind of overt punning requires both participants to understand both meanings of the word involved (and then make a pained groan), and what's fascinating about due South's treatment of language is how rarely both sides do share that information. (Of course, the presumed in-on-the-joke viewer does, and thus completes the communication circuit, but let's ignore the viewer, okay?)
It's gotta mean something, right? The emphasis on miscommunication and language barriers. Broadly, I think by usually revolving around Fraser's superior vocabulary and the Chicagoans' failure to understand/reluctance to understand him, it emphasizes his isolation and otherness and the fish out of water shtick the show is based on. He speaks "Canadian," not regular English like the Rays. But it's so pervasive in the show--with Ray, Ray, Frannie, Turnbull, Welsh, and probably others participating in communication misfires with each other as well as with Fraser--that it goes further to highlight the isolation of every individual: everybody speaks their own personal language, raising the possibility/impossibility of bridging the language gap or really understanding each other. And I tend to see really understanding each other as intimacy, as knowing and being known, and much of what we enjoy in creating in the romantic relationships in fanfic.
Plus, it's amusing. There's Frannie always getting common terms wrong:
Frannie: It's on the pop sheet there.
Ray: You mean rap sheet.
Frannie: Okay, rap. Pop, country, classical, ska.
and Kowalski:
Kowalski: Yeah, but that's not the point. The point is, I mean, my whole life, it all starts and ends with this one guy. I'm like one of those, um.... whatchamacallem? Uh, knights looking for the Holy Grill.
Fraser: Grail.
Kowalski: What?
Fraser: Holy Grail.
Kowalski: You sure?
Fraser: I'm pretty sure it's not a diner.
Kowalski: Grill, grail, whatever. I'm just trying to settle an old debt.
For my F/K-inclined eyes, it emphasizes both the gap--the many differences--between Kowalski and Fraser, and how they are positioned to bridge that gap. Because Kowalski does the Frannie-style mistaken word thing sometimes, but I think more often doesn't recognize (or pretends not to recognize) a two dollar word Fraser uses (Prudent. Is that like germane? ). Which, I think Frannie and Kowalski are very similar characters, but where Frannie is humorously stubborn about her malapropisms and fails to recognize the possibility of error:
Francesca: Pirates? What do you mean? Like, pieces of eight and sliver me timbers?
Kowalski: It's shiver me timbers.
Francesca: It's sliver.
Kowalski: Frannie!
Francesca: Ray, what can that mean, shiver me timbers? That doesn't mean anything.
Kowalski: Sure it does. It means, like, shake your booty, something like that. . .
Francesca: Ray, pirates. They slide down masts. Wooden masts. Sliver, you get it? Sliver in their timbers?. . . Shiver!
Kowalski: I never got that.
Kowalski knows he gets stuff wrong, and is varyingly and simultaneously ashamed/belligerent/curious about it. So Frannie and Kowalski share an off-kilter understanding of language, neither terribly clear on the actual meaning, but Kowalski is nearly unique in both his awareness of the miscommunication/language gap and his gestures to cross it. When he interacts with Frannie, it's largely humorous--Kowalski trying to set her straight and her blowing him off, as in the "pop sheet" exchange--but still meaningful: he's aware of the gap and tries to bridge it, and maybe is a bit intolerant of her malapropisms because of his sensitivity about sharing the weakness.
With Fraser, through my F/K-inclined eyes, Kowalski's awareness of the communication gap is even more meaningful. While Fraser is often isolated through his word/phrase choices, Kowalski recognizes the language gap and attempts to bridge it through both teasing and frankly asking (sincerely or belligerently) what Fraser's words mean. These interactions seem key to the F/K dynamic, as Kowalski alternately or simultaneously comes off as truculent and stubbornly inarticulate and insecure and wanting connection/communication with Fraser. Which is just a lovely little bundle of F/K love-with-bruises and I want to squish him. Ahem.
Further, Kowalski actually uses the individuality of language as a tool when he makes the "one, with a happy face" argument in "Eclipse."
Fraser uses a similar technique to make jokes (mainly for his own benefit, not expecting anybody else to really follow, and yes, today I am insisting he's joking):
Fraser: Hi, Ray. [Ray lowers gun] So we're on a stakeout. That's good. Who's the target?
Kowalski: None of your business.
Fraser: Ah. Secrecy. That's very wise.
Which is nearly the same interaction he'd had with Turnbull:
Turnbull: It's been very quiet today, sir, with the exception of the builders and movers and a peculiar conversation with a man named Wright.
Fraser: That was me, Turnbull.
Turnbull: Ahh. Deliberately misidentifying yourself. Very cunning, sir.
This is very much in keeping with much of Turnbull's interactions. But we're largely led to believe that (as with Frannie) Turnbull isn't aware of the language gap. (Although this is a point of entry for seeing a Turnbull who's more savvy than on a surface view: undercover!Turnbull or playing with your mind!Turnbull, for example.)
Sometimes Fraser gets things wrong, much as Frannie does, but he's both correctable and, I think, there's usually that slim chance that he's still being dryly humorous:
Fraser: Likewise. Let's lock our load.
Kowalski: It's lock and load.
Fraser: Lock and load. I'm sorry.
It's just so over the top, the sheer weight of miscommunication and playing with language in this show ("This is either empty, broken, or not working"), that it makes the moments of communication, the stubborn attempt to communicate, more meaningful and valuable.
When Fraser and Kowalski make eye contact and point or rub their noses and have silently agreed on a plan, it's exciting. Look what they did! Look how they know each other and how their differences aren't essential after all!
And, um, done soon. So, here, have my personal favorite:
Fraser: Could you elucidate, sir?
Welsh: No, no, not since the late sixties.
In conclusion and in contrast, communication:
Fraser: Well, I realize that logic doesn't always work.
Kowalski: I know. And I realize that going on instinct doesn't always work, either.
Fraser: No. . . no, so. . .?
Kowalski: You going to take the transfer?
Fraser: I don't think so. You?
Kowalski: Me? No.
Fraser: All right. So we're - we're still, uh- ?
Kowalski: I think.
Fraser: Okay.
Kowalski: Good.
Fraser: Right you are.
Quotes from here, though I switched "Ray" to Kowalski because I intended to go back and explore ways Vecchio and Fraser do the same thing and how it might be different, but then I never did. You guys do that for me, okay? (Next time, I think I'd probably put it as RayK or RayV rather than the full surname, as identifying RayK as "Kowalski" in series transcripts is so misleading. Also, speaking of miscommunication, when Ray and Fraser are exiting after threatening [and drive me insane annoyingly leaving that lighter with] Motherwell in BDtH, the unofficial transcript says
Fraser: That was just a posture, wasn't it?
Ray: Yeah, sure. . . What's a posture?
Is that what you guys hear? I'm too lazy to check at the moment, but I always thought it was "Yeah, sure... It was a posture!" Like he protests too much.)
ETA: I think this might be part of the appeal of Elaine, actually, though I'm weaker on seasons 1/2. Besides being gorgeous and refreshingly non-white, she's SUCH a straight shooter and such a great straight man. We get a thrill out of somebody so fucking sensible and coherent in that cast.
(What I wrote ended up very Kowalski and F/K-centric. Shocking.)
Been thinking about mistaking words in due South. The show continually plays with miscommunication in a variety of ways--fun with homonyms and near-homonyms, misinterpretation, taking rhetorical questions at face value--and I'm intrigued both by their absolute insistence on working the gag (it happens a LOT; EVERYBODY does it) and with the rich potential for meaning.
It's rarely deliberate joking, as punning would be, and that's part of the reason I enjoy it. Puns aren't a favorite with me, especially when the puns are pointed out, when it's a "Hee, look at that pun I just made! Two words that don't mean the same thing! Look!" type treatment. But beyond that, that kind of overt punning requires both participants to understand both meanings of the word involved (and then make a pained groan), and what's fascinating about due South's treatment of language is how rarely both sides do share that information. (Of course, the presumed in-on-the-joke viewer does, and thus completes the communication circuit, but let's ignore the viewer, okay?)
It's gotta mean something, right? The emphasis on miscommunication and language barriers. Broadly, I think by usually revolving around Fraser's superior vocabulary and the Chicagoans' failure to understand/reluctance to understand him, it emphasizes his isolation and otherness and the fish out of water shtick the show is based on. He speaks "Canadian," not regular English like the Rays. But it's so pervasive in the show--with Ray, Ray, Frannie, Turnbull, Welsh, and probably others participating in communication misfires with each other as well as with Fraser--that it goes further to highlight the isolation of every individual: everybody speaks their own personal language, raising the possibility/impossibility of bridging the language gap or really understanding each other. And I tend to see really understanding each other as intimacy, as knowing and being known, and much of what we enjoy in creating in the romantic relationships in fanfic.
Plus, it's amusing. There's Frannie always getting common terms wrong:
Frannie: It's on the pop sheet there.
Ray: You mean rap sheet.
Frannie: Okay, rap. Pop, country, classical, ska.
and Kowalski:
Kowalski: Yeah, but that's not the point. The point is, I mean, my whole life, it all starts and ends with this one guy. I'm like one of those, um.... whatchamacallem? Uh, knights looking for the Holy Grill.
Fraser: Grail.
Kowalski: What?
Fraser: Holy Grail.
Kowalski: You sure?
Fraser: I'm pretty sure it's not a diner.
Kowalski: Grill, grail, whatever. I'm just trying to settle an old debt.
For my F/K-inclined eyes, it emphasizes both the gap--the many differences--between Kowalski and Fraser, and how they are positioned to bridge that gap. Because Kowalski does the Frannie-style mistaken word thing sometimes, but I think more often doesn't recognize (or pretends not to recognize) a two dollar word Fraser uses (Prudent. Is that like germane? ). Which, I think Frannie and Kowalski are very similar characters, but where Frannie is humorously stubborn about her malapropisms and fails to recognize the possibility of error:
Francesca: Pirates? What do you mean? Like, pieces of eight and sliver me timbers?
Kowalski: It's shiver me timbers.
Francesca: It's sliver.
Kowalski: Frannie!
Francesca: Ray, what can that mean, shiver me timbers? That doesn't mean anything.
Kowalski: Sure it does. It means, like, shake your booty, something like that. . .
Francesca: Ray, pirates. They slide down masts. Wooden masts. Sliver, you get it? Sliver in their timbers?. . . Shiver!
Kowalski: I never got that.
Kowalski knows he gets stuff wrong, and is varyingly and simultaneously ashamed/belligerent/curious about it. So Frannie and Kowalski share an off-kilter understanding of language, neither terribly clear on the actual meaning, but Kowalski is nearly unique in both his awareness of the miscommunication/language gap and his gestures to cross it. When he interacts with Frannie, it's largely humorous--Kowalski trying to set her straight and her blowing him off, as in the "pop sheet" exchange--but still meaningful: he's aware of the gap and tries to bridge it, and maybe is a bit intolerant of her malapropisms because of his sensitivity about sharing the weakness.
With Fraser, through my F/K-inclined eyes, Kowalski's awareness of the communication gap is even more meaningful. While Fraser is often isolated through his word/phrase choices, Kowalski recognizes the language gap and attempts to bridge it through both teasing and frankly asking (sincerely or belligerently) what Fraser's words mean. These interactions seem key to the F/K dynamic, as Kowalski alternately or simultaneously comes off as truculent and stubbornly inarticulate and insecure and wanting connection/communication with Fraser. Which is just a lovely little bundle of F/K love-with-bruises and I want to squish him. Ahem.
Further, Kowalski actually uses the individuality of language as a tool when he makes the "one, with a happy face" argument in "Eclipse."
Fraser uses a similar technique to make jokes (mainly for his own benefit, not expecting anybody else to really follow, and yes, today I am insisting he's joking):
Fraser: Hi, Ray. [Ray lowers gun] So we're on a stakeout. That's good. Who's the target?
Kowalski: None of your business.
Fraser: Ah. Secrecy. That's very wise.
Which is nearly the same interaction he'd had with Turnbull:
Turnbull: It's been very quiet today, sir, with the exception of the builders and movers and a peculiar conversation with a man named Wright.
Fraser: That was me, Turnbull.
Turnbull: Ahh. Deliberately misidentifying yourself. Very cunning, sir.
This is very much in keeping with much of Turnbull's interactions. But we're largely led to believe that (as with Frannie) Turnbull isn't aware of the language gap. (Although this is a point of entry for seeing a Turnbull who's more savvy than on a surface view: undercover!Turnbull or playing with your mind!Turnbull, for example.)
Sometimes Fraser gets things wrong, much as Frannie does, but he's both correctable and, I think, there's usually that slim chance that he's still being dryly humorous:
Fraser: Likewise. Let's lock our load.
Kowalski: It's lock and load.
Fraser: Lock and load. I'm sorry.
It's just so over the top, the sheer weight of miscommunication and playing with language in this show ("This is either empty, broken, or not working"), that it makes the moments of communication, the stubborn attempt to communicate, more meaningful and valuable.
When Fraser and Kowalski make eye contact and point or rub their noses and have silently agreed on a plan, it's exciting. Look what they did! Look how they know each other and how their differences aren't essential after all!
And, um, done soon. So, here, have my personal favorite:
Fraser: Could you elucidate, sir?
Welsh: No, no, not since the late sixties.
In conclusion and in contrast, communication:
Fraser: Well, I realize that logic doesn't always work.
Kowalski: I know. And I realize that going on instinct doesn't always work, either.
Fraser: No. . . no, so. . .?
Kowalski: You going to take the transfer?
Fraser: I don't think so. You?
Kowalski: Me? No.
Fraser: All right. So we're - we're still, uh- ?
Kowalski: I think.
Fraser: Okay.
Kowalski: Good.
Fraser: Right you are.
Quotes from here, though I switched "Ray" to Kowalski because I intended to go back and explore ways Vecchio and Fraser do the same thing and how it might be different, but then I never did. You guys do that for me, okay? (Next time, I think I'd probably put it as RayK or RayV rather than the full surname, as identifying RayK as "Kowalski" in series transcripts is so misleading. Also, speaking of miscommunication, when Ray and Fraser are exiting after threatening [and drive me insane annoyingly leaving that lighter with] Motherwell in BDtH, the unofficial transcript says
Fraser: That was just a posture, wasn't it?
Ray: Yeah, sure. . . What's a posture?
Is that what you guys hear? I'm too lazy to check at the moment, but I always thought it was "Yeah, sure... It was a posture!" Like he protests too much.)
ETA: I think this might be part of the appeal of Elaine, actually, though I'm weaker on seasons 1/2. Besides being gorgeous and refreshingly non-white, she's SUCH a straight shooter and such a great straight man. We get a thrill out of somebody so fucking sensible and coherent in that cast.