Lonely Girls, Pt. 1.5

So because I've been out of the loop and not reading very many blogs lately, I'm just now catching up on the blog discussions around LonelyGirl. Thanks go to zp who pointed me in the direction of this post at the churty experiment. At the time this entry was written, the mystery around the authenticity of LG was just about to boil over, and the degree to which LG's use of "new media" was instrumental in the hoax was the subject of much discussion. In a comment on this post zp observes that LG, despite its use of new media, is in fact an "old story."

I think what really bothers me is that, in this case (like, probably, the previous cases of the early novel and the fairy tale) the reader-consumer is solicited as an agent that is allowed to imagine that he might intervene and "save" the girl in all her princessly virginity.

That this experience (the experience of belief/participation in this particular narrative suspense) is being realized (because, in all the media and regardless of whether the story is fiction or claims to be something real, the reader-consumer's experience IS real) yet again, in a "new media" just makes me tired. If new media does new things, now that would be interesting.

Can we please become invested, as an audience, in something other than a young woman's purity now?

This comparison of LonelyGirl to fairy tales seems especially salient. The series was developed under the title The Children of Anchor Cove, and this sounds pretty fairy tale-ish to me. The lack of parents is reminiscent of fairy tale, as are the themes of entrapment and "being lost." I'm also reminded of the depiction of real-life lost girls -- girls like Jon Benet Ramsey in her pageant/red riding hood outfits.

What especially interests me about zp's comment is the observation of how the audience is solicited to intervene -- to mediate. Is the impulse to intervene separate from an impulse to judge and evaluate Bree? Is it a response to the absence of parents? Is it a recognition of the world as a cruel and sinister place? Does it inspire a radical critique of power?

Next: the use of the occult and magical in these types of stories