Fantasy, Credibility, and Crime
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Fantasy, Credibility, and Crime |
| Creator: | Edith Crowe |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Beauty and the Beast (TV) |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fantasy, Credibility, and Crime is a 1998 Beauty and the Beast (TV) essay by Edith Crowe.
It was published in Sanctuary #4.
Some Topics Discussed
- what genre is Beauty and the Beast (TV)?
- one fantasy in the show is the depiction of Catherine Chandler's job as a District Attorney and how its portrayal is not very realistic
- the essay has MUCH description of what Catherine's job would really be like (she wouldn't have a lot of free time to hang around with Vincent Wells, and her tasks would be mostly desk work and paperwork)
- incorporating the fantasy element into one's own writing
- the violence on the show and Catherine's reactions to it
- cites a book by Linda Fairstein called "Sexual Violence" and a book by David Heilbroner called "Rough Justice: Days and Nights of a Young DA"
- some subtle remarks on how a good Classic fan supports the first two seasons
From the Essay
Although Beauty and the Beast is probably viewed by many fans primarily as a romance, it also fits in the genre known as fantasy. Vincent, after all, isn’t possible by any knowledge of genetics that exists today.. .and although there are groups of people living under the streets of New York in tunnels, they certainly don’t resemble the comfortable and utopian community we’ve come to love. So Beauty and the Beast is a fantasy, but a very controlled one. In early interviews, Koslow indicated that he purposely shied away from fantasy-type stories, because he wanted Vincent to be the only fantastic element. If you think about the episodes, you can see this is true — only to "Where the Bluebird Sings” comes close. Voodoo, for example, is viewed as supernatural by some, but others give scientific explanations for its effects. Characters that seemed fantastic — like Narcissa — could have been interpreted in more mundane ways. Father certainly did!
Although Vincent was supposed to be the fantastic element in Beauty and the Beast, things didn’t necessarily work out that way. Through the talent of Ron Perlman, Rick Baker, Margaret Bessara, and other actors and crew, Vincent became totally believable. How many of us really saw Vincent as a fantastic creature after the first fifteen minutes or so? (Except in the hubba-hubba, ooooo, baby! sense?) One of the reasons many people don’t really think of the Tunnels and Vincent as fantasy is that they were made so believable.
The part I liked least about Beauty and the Beast was the too-frequent lapses into violence. The last episodes of second season pretty well stretched my limits of tolerance for darkness and pain. To continue the story from that point, one has to bring it back in the other direction. Catherine, having recognized the awful possibility that she allowed herself to be put in danger so Vincent could rescue her, would never have allowed that situation to continue. Most Classic fan authors recognize this, and have Catherine make some change in her job so that won’t happen again.
As all good Classic fens know, there were only two seasons of Beauty and the Beast. But some of us have had a recurring nightmare about an aborted third that did unspeakable things to the characters that we love. Among its other sins, it portrayed the District Attorney as corrupt. This is a particularly low blow, since the real Manhattan DA’s Office has exactly the opposite reputation. As Heilbroner says, “Growing up in Manhattan, I had seen the New York County District Attorney’s Office—the Manhattan DA—cited as perhaps the most competent and honest state prosecutor’s office in the country.” Fairstein has nothing but praise for the current District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, who has served in that office since 1975. She particularly praises his respect for women’s role in the office—he was the first to declare that all jobs there were open to women. Morgenthau also has a reputation for being tough on white-collar crime and organized crime. He still serves as DA at the age of seventy-nine.
I’ve tried to use this knowledge in my stories. For those of you who’ve read “My Furry Valentine” in the Kingdom by the Sea conzine — the whole first section describing Catherine’s experience at work is based on Heilbroner’s book. My current story-in-progress, whose working title is “Sanctuary,” (wonder where she got that?) also uses background from these two first-hand accounts. One last interesting statistic: few people stay with the DA’s office more than five years. For a long time I’ve struggled with how to write Catherine’s life after she has children, as have other writers. It’s hard to give up that wonderful working relationship between Catherine and Joe, but for those who decide to find Catherine another job. Above or Below, it’s a credible choice.