How to read subtext (and how better not to)

I’m currently away from the office, so you’re only getting a little something this weekend.

Please note that there are far too many comments (literally hundreds) in my inbox for me to read and reply to, so I apologize, dear reader, that I can’t and most likely won’t reply to your comment specifically. I’m sorry if you’ve been waiting for a reply, but it’s become impossible because of the sheer volume of responses I get.

Short side note because I’ve seen this question pop up here and there: I will not return to tumblr and not to any other social media platform either, but specifically not to tumblr which I have basically found to be a toxic experience, to be honest. The number of times I have received absolutely vile messages from clearly unhinged people on that platform put me off it for good. I’m writing a cinematography and film analysis blog; I’m not part of fan culture or even a fan of a specific show or movie myself, and to be honest: I don’t want to be either (especially if it takes the types of forms it takes on tumblr where it’s apparently normal to speculate about, say, a person’s ethnicity first before considering what they have to say). And again (because I’m still receiving a lot of questions about that), I’m not interesting as a person, but no, my ethnicity is most likely not what you think it is; maybe my sexual orientation is or maybe it isn’t what you think it is, but I honestly don’t see how any of this is relevant. So, that’s my answer to the tumblr question. I realize that some people will be disappointed to hear that I won’t return because they would like to engage with me more in-depth, but taking a step back from other social media platforms was a good choice that I don’t regret.

On that note: I will not accept any name-calling on my own blog, specifically not if it involves calling me a racist or privileged or sexist or any other term of that sort (without even knowing me or my situation). And no, I won’t accept it if it’s done in an underhanded I’m-so-sneaky-you-won’t-notice-that-I-just-called-you-that kind of way either. It’s not cute and you’re not clever. I also do notice when you try to create new accounts and nicknames for yourself around here. I will block you if you’re rude or spread the same kind of unpleasantness about me again! You know who you are and I hope you understand that this was my last warning. I will not tolerate you behaving in the same kind of way you did before on my blog again. Blocking works both for guest commenters and for all types of subscribers.

Thankfully, I don’t have to rely on the money this blog generates. It’s my tip jar. I’m grateful to anyone who has decided to tip me in this way. But this is obviously not my main source of income; it’s a hobby. So, I’m not kidding. I can see that you’re already at it again and are riding roughshod over this blog again. If you leave me long walls of text in which you first thank me in one line and then quickly start to insinuate things about me or call me names again and on the same day I find fifteen different vile messages from fifteen different accounts in my inbox again, spewing hate or even threatening me (those fifteen either being you alone under fifteen different aliases or fifteen of your friends you have rallied around you; I honestly don’t know), then this will have the following consequences:

A) I will either block you (paid subscriber or not).

B) Or (and this is the far more likely option) you will have managed to put me off this show completely, and I will stop writing about ‘Young Royals’. There are tons of interesting black-and-white movies from the 1940s, for example, that I can write about and that don’t come with the baggage of an entire, very active fandom attached to them – a fandom that, while in part very lovely, can also be so jealously protective of its favourite show that some of its members, like you, go out of their way to stalk me across several different social media platforms. So, I can simply stop writing about this show.

You will have ruined the experience for everyone else around here, though. The other followers will all disperse. And I won’t write about the other (missing) half of the show’s subtext on this blog ever. I will specifically not write about the characters that serve other functions in this text (not the mirrors, not the allegorical characters, but all the characters that represent other literary devices). Because I frankly don’t want to second guess every sentence I write on this blog to accommodate whatever is going on with you, your personal political hangups or whatever problems you might have. There is a lot of other stuff I can write about. It doesn’t have to be this show.

In an actual classroom, I would tell you off once, ask you to leave the second time round. And if you persist, the class would unfortunately be dismissed. In other words, keep this up (again, you know who you are and you know what you did the last time) and you will ruin the experience not just for me but for everyone else around here, as well.

Honestly, I am sick and tired of this. This blog is a hobby and a passion project of mine. I’m writing this here for fun. I do have a job and a real life. And I won’t be insulted around here again. Pull the same stuff again you did before, and there will be consequences. So, please try to pull yourself together and control your dark impulses.

There are tons of really lovely people around here, who (even when they disagree with me or are sceptical about something I write) are actually so kind and constructive that I’d love to meet them for a cup of tea and a discussion in real life. The reason this will never happen is the fact that there are also people like you on the internet who behave the exact opposite way.

I understand that a show like this attracts a lot of people who are very invested in it and see fandom as a way life and the show as something that has to be protected at all costs from any outsider (this would probably not be the case if I wrote about, say, some Hitchcock classic or other), but most people know how to approach a blog like this and how not to try and take over the comment section and insinuate the writer (about whom they don’t know anything) is a racist or privileged or whatever else you’ve made up about me in your mind. It’s very rude. So, don’t play games with me again or this whole thing ends.

(Angry rant over!)

All of that being said:

Since I cannot possibly reply to all of your comments that accumulated over the last couple of days, here’s a little something I had wanted to post a while ago. (I do actually agree with some comments and disagree with others, the latter usually being the case when subtext is read, shall we say, in a slightly wild and uncontrolled manner. Because obviously screenwriters usually use certain unwritten rules in how and where they attach subtext to a scene. This is usually not done willy-nilly, so we shouldn’t read anything and everything into every scene in a sort of willy-nilly way either.)

So, here are a couple of ground rules that might help you in your discussions (some of them I have mentioned already; others might be completely new):