Rich Food for Raptors

⚠️Warning: Minor spoilers for the Showtime series Yellowjackets.

First, thank you to the wonderful Nicole at the Chasing Justice podcast, whom I am proud to call a long-distance friend, and who helped to break the Bill Cosby case and bring it to the public, for sending new subscribers to me this morning, 1,2,3. If you're expecting to be receiving this from theremightbecupcakes@substack.com, hi, it's me, and the same content. And please listen to Nicole's podcast, and read her astounding books, Chasing Cosby: The Downfall of America's Dad and Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors. Thank you for all your support, sweetheart. As tremendous as you are, it's an honor. We must finally get you on the show to talk books.

Yellowjackets has made this lifelong horror fan gag more than a couple of times. But the grossest thing so far has to be the foie gras with cotton candy.
Wealthy people, dude.

I’m not kidding, I feel sick. From Wikipedia: foie gras is defined as "the liver of a duck or goose fattened by gavage (force feeding)". Cotton candy, of course, is spun sugar and pink, in this case, food coloring. Great googily moogily.

And that one bite each probably cost more than my monthly prescriptions will cost soon. To paraphrase Jean-Paul Sartre, horror is other people.

And the title of this post is a paraphrase as well, because everything is connected and I am all about books and so is this podcast. It's one I have been meaning to read for a while, with the best title: Rich Pickings For Ravens by Tom Conrad (The StoryGraph).

Set in an askew, but modern-day London, Rich Pickings for Ravens is Part One of The Afterlife Crisis Trilogy. This quirky, humorous and philosophical tale centres on the afterlife journey of one Midnight Merlot, a ghost who really doesn’t believe in ghosts, at least until becoming one.

I'm going to be snickering about the perfect name Midnight Merlot for some time. Somewhere there's a black kitten, waiting to be born and live with me, with that name.

As for Yellowjackets...the Gen X 80's and 90's soundtrack is the soundtrack of my high school and college years, so that has been so much fun (class of 1990).

lips like sugar sugar kisses

She knows what she knows
I know what she's thinking
Sugar kisses, sugar kisses
Just when you think she's yours
She's flown to other shores
To laugh at how you break
And melt into this lake

I adore Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci, and their power in channeling an askew but powerful femininity. But this show has the same problem for me as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show I am going to rewatch for the podcast...a Willow Problem.

I'll talk about this more on the show when I start the Buffy series, but I found the character of Willow so unlikeable that she was not enjoyable to watch. That's a writing problem, in my opinion, and maybe in that case it can be traced back to Joss Whedon and his apparent need to have a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, sexy but with a teddy bear, really to kill you but is just So Cutesy when she apologizes for it (read; Kaylee Frye on Firefly). Now, there is nothing wrong about a good stuffy. I am leaning on Romano the Hippocampus Squishmallow as I type this. He's a tremendous back support. But there's cute, then there's Forced Cutesy. Kaylee has a two-foot bear patch on her pants, the size of a small child. Willow references kindergarten memories and bakes cookies when she violates her friends' boundaries.

I love unlikeable characters. Of course I do. I love watching Juliette Lewis as the erratic, angry Natalie and Christina Ricci as the personality disordered Misty. They have things to...esteem about them. There is a balance, no matter how small. When Misty tries again and again to belong and be like other people and be accepted, I can't help but feel for her. And I definitely hurt for Natalie's journey, as much as she deliberately injures other people.

I don't know if this is part of neurodivergent thinking, and please let me know if you think it is. But I can't find that in Shauna in Yellowjackets nor Willow in Buffy. It could be neurodivergent thinking combined with writing style...I am fascinated by this, because the Willow Problem has so rarely occurred for me. But here it is again. I don't like young Shauna, I don't like adult Shauna...and I don't enjoy disliking Shauna as a character. It's not a fun part of consuming the storytelling. There has to be a reason to want to let Hannibal Lector into your headspace. I don't want Shauna in my neighborhood, much less my headspace. Her cruelty isn't interesting or sharp or wicked--just mean and selfish. So it's hard to get lost in the horror, which is otherwise fabulous.

So, there. I admitted it. I am that odd, off-kilter Buffy fan that likes Xander and deeply dislikes Willow. I also sometimes get weird aversions to characters, though it is rare. I hope you don't think less of me. But I am honest about myself with this podcast--I have been from the beginning--and unmasking my autistic thinking is part and parcel. Rarely, I cannot parse a character to the point of its overshadowing the media it is within. A huge reason is that my brain never stops working on several multitracks, all the time, gears churning and making connections. Usually to my benefit, occasionally to my peril, as with the Willow Problem, and I can't get out of my own head. I know a yellowjacket is a predator, but they are also beautiful and have a purpose in their ecosystem. But my gears grind too much to see past Shauna's stinger. Is that just me?

Further autistic thinking: I'm rethinking sending and posting this, because I am worried about being too harsh about fictional characters. In being "mean" about Willow and Shauna, I might upset someone else, and and and. Neurodivergence is a blessing but can also be exhausting.

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