I'd definitely had an interest in reading/watching the story as soon as I heard about it. (Though, I didn't seek it out, because it seemed popular among women, and I know I shouldn't say it, but you know. In general, things that are popular with American women are often dumb.) I famously dislike (detest, even) romantic comedies on principle (notable exception being When Harry met Sally . . . ) though I won't now go into the reasons why, because they are boring. But man, give me a romantic tragedy any day. I eat that shit up. And romantic tragedy brought about by science fictiony situations? Yes please. Star Trek would explore this sometimes, and it's always so fascinating to me. It's such a shame that they didn't do it more often, but you know, to speak in broad generalities, boys watch Star Trek, and boys aren't interested in love stories. (Though you and I both know that neither of those things are entirely true.)
One episode that springs to mind is the TNG episode "Second Chances." Okay, so here's the deal: in present day, as we know, Deanna Troi and Will Riker are exes, working on the same starship. They used to be hard-core full-on in love. (Riker is Troi's Imzadi. That's like being her lobster.) It turns out that eight years earlier, Riker had been in a transporter accident (the most fictionally useful kind of accident!) and had been duplicated, unbeknownst to Will. So this whole time, another Riker -- the exact same person -- has been trapped on a planet or moon or something. When they find this Riker (who eventually decides to go by his middle name, Tom), he's been pining for Troi the whole freaking eight years. Because they had been totally in love at the time of the accident; Riker later chose his Starfleet career over his relationship. So Deanna, who has come to find a peace with working with Riker, now has a new Riker -- but the same dude -- who is still in love with her. Who won't choose his career over her. Or maybe he will, eventually! But he's in love with her now! And he's the same dude, sorta! But then Will is still around, and all, hey, maybe I do want to go after Troi again, I don't know! It's like Troi can go back in time to a better stage of a relationship, can do it over again, knowing now what she didn't know then. Can you imagine? That is fucking fascinating! To me, anyway. They had to wrap it up in one episode, which is a shame, because I would have loved to have them revisit that over the course of seasons. And have THAT be the focus. Because there's so much to explore there! Anyway, that's the kind of shit I like, it's a pity there's not more of it.
Hence my interest in The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm glad it's on HBO; that means I should be able to catch the first half eventually. (Though I already read the plot summary on Wikipedia to answer some questions.) The end seems more concerned with !SPOILER ALERT! their attempts to have a kid, and then with his impending death. I hope the beginning explores more of how weird it must be to be seeing each other during different points in their lives. I mean, sometimes he'll visit her when she's young, so he knows stuff she doesn't. But sometimes he's young and sees her when she's older -- like when they do it in the parking lot -- so she knows stuff HE doesn't. Or they'll be in the middle of a fight, and then he travels, so he's in a bad mood wherever he's going, and she's in a bad mood staying where she is, until he comes from somewhen else! Man, fascinating. Just everything is fascinating. How hard that would be.
Of course the reason it hits me so hard -- and I assume that everyone does this, right? -- is that I picture me and Chris. I don't care about Rachel McAdams and the Hulk, but what if that were Chris? What would it be like to see him old? To grow old and see him young? What would it be like if he were !SPOILER ALERT! to be killed in a freak hunting accident? And knew about it? What would it be like to only have a husband part of the time, to never know when he would come, and for how long he would stay, and when he would leave again? Tears, guys. Tears.
Remember that Pearl Jam cover of that song, with the people in the car accident? And Eddie Vedder goes flying but lives and holds his love as she dies? Oh man that song, when that was on the radio, I'd picture me in that song, and oh man, TEARS. Every fucking time, and that song was on the radio a LOT. Tears. I almost had a car accident myself.
So yeah. I'm sorry this LiveJournal post is so rambling. I'm out of practice. To sum up: I like romantic tragedies, I like to cry about them, and also I like the aspects of romantic relationships that can be explored through the use of time travel and/or transporter accidents. And I wish there were more of both. The end.
Happy New Year!
