I wanted to show you that I was more land than water

[alchimie]

Another volunteer task accomplished, and the week ahead only has one more, the pleasant one with my smol son's class, and then next week it is autumn break and our family is going on vacation to stay in a city where the leaves change colour and it will be cool enough to wear sweaters, which is both delightful to anticipate and means some day this week I must go shopping as my daughter has outgrown all of her cool-weather clothes. While there we will go to the zoo and the Chinese garden, celebrate my daughter's birthday with sushi, perhaps go to some other gardens, walk around looking at things, shop at excessively large bookstores even though my home is already full of books, eat very much good food... I am looking forward to it immensely, but in a distanced way, it is close enough now that it is unreal and will likely remain so until I am actually there, navigating the airport with children in tow and helping our spouse find the rental car.

I have been mostly reading things of comfort, which means Angela Thirkell (as I continue to ignore her awful Tory moments) and some 50s and 60s romances by Peggy Gaddis, and I am slowly rereading Thrush Green by Miss Read, which is lovely but closer to life in its very grounded sense of the movement of time. There are many other books underway, of course, there always are, but right now I am picking up the easier ones most frequently -- both the time, and also the last few days I have been binge watching The Good Place, so by the time I am reading it is late (far too late) and I only have time for a few pages of something that will quiet my brain. I did not expect to want to binge The Good Place because I found the premise as I understood it stressful, and the sort of discomfort/anxiety humour unpleasant, but once I got to the end of the 3rd episode (which took months) I suddenly was hooked and now I am midway through the second season and very much engaged with the worldbuilding and the twisty revelations and gladly surprised by the overall sense of hope and possibility in a show whose premise would seem to rule those things out at the foundations. It is such a pleasure to find something I am enjoying so much I do not want to stop with it, and I am poking my toes into the extant fanfic, carefully starting with the oldest works so I cannot get spoiled -- plus it is always so fun to see how the writers react when they are writing week to week and things are changing.

I am not certain if I am more land or water; as with everything I suspect it shifts with time and seasons.

Comments

[enemyofperfect]

The Good Place! I am so happy that you are enjoying it -- I love it so much, and am very much looking forward to the final season. (Which turns out to start in just a few days, so I'm very glad to have been reminded to check!) It's very much that sense of hope and the possibility of growth and change that makes me love it so much.

[alchimie]

Oh excellent, that is delightful news -- both that you are a fan and that it is returning soon! That means if I am timely in my binge watching (which seems likely, the only reason I am not watching it right now is that I have been for the last few days and I felt I ought to do something with words while I am not being interrupted by children) then I can watch it along with people and speculate together.

It was when Jason reveals himself that I was hooked, I am not certain why but he was immediately endearing, and then I realised in the next episode that he is *literally Florida Man* and the humour of that worked for me in ways that cringing over Eleanor did not. And then just the audacity of it at every turn!

[enemyofperfect]

It's been pretty quiet since the last season ended, but I'm hoping that discussion might start up again at the_good_place with the start of the next. I don't know if communities like that are your kind of thing, but if they are, I'd be thrilled to see you there!

Jason's reveal was so baffling when we had to wait a whole week for more! But I love the character he unfolded into -- he's just beautifully without guile. And yes, the show is so audacious, in the best possible way! Which maybe it had to be, to present a show so willing to hope? In any case, I endlessly admire the skill of it!

[alchimie]

Communities like that are very much my kind of thing, so thank you for the link! I have joined, although I am keeping myself from browsing until after I am caught up with the show, in fear of spoilers.

I can imagine how strange Jason's reveal was when you had to wait a week! I like his character also, he is an excellent fool in the right sense and I appreciate that there has been just enough glimpses (so far) of the sort of childhood he must have had that his earthly life is explicable as well as over-the-top ridiculous. It is a delicate balance and I really like that the show asks the viewers to just -- engage and accept, and doesn't over-explain anything.

[enemyofperfect]

That is a very sensible spoiler policy, and I'm delighted that the comm is of interest!

And I love your observation about that balance the show strikes.

[skygiants]

I'm so glad you're enjoying The Good Place! It really is that sense of hope in human possibility that makes the show work for me, too -- that, and the emphasis on connection, the idea that people can genuinely be good for each other.

[alchimie]

Yes, I love that! I have always wanted very much to believe that connection matters and that the little kindnesses count, and I do get that from the show. I was very struck by Eleanor asking if there had ever been a version in which Chidi had refused to help and Michael saying no, he helped every single time. The initial premise could have so easily just been awful and narrow, I am delighted it is so big and generous instead.