Jane Cannary: Calamity In A Bottle

[Wilowy]

Custer was a cunt. The end.

[Catherinewriter]

"I will not be drunk where he is buried and I cannot stay f--kin sober."

[walnutqueen]

"I will not be drunk where he is buried and I cannot stay f--kin sober."

 

Breaks my fucking heart, every fucking time I hear it.   

Jane is a truly tragic heroine.

[Catherinewriter]

Walnut queen: Word, wordy mcword.

[Wilowy]

This is one of my favorite Jane/Charlie scenes. It speaks to Charlie's ability to reason with her and the true nature of their friendship, and to Jane's past, as well as her need to protect the orphan squarehead (I had never heard this particular descriptor before watching the show, and I have to say that now whenever I see a person of Nordic descent, that is the first thing that pops into my head, right or wrong). It goes from funny to dangery to resolution all in under two minutes. Brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcNt8WGTzSA

[Catherinewriter]

Jane goes back and forth in terms of courage. She was courageous when accompanying Bullock and Charlie to Al's to recover Bullock's gun, she was courageous in caring for the plague victims. But when she has a chance to plug Wolcott to keep him from killing Joanie, she freezes. So Joanie takes care of herself. And the next morning finds Jane lying on her doorstep, armed, to watch over her friend. Admits she's "after the fact." Oh, Jane. I suppose courage after the fact is better than no courage at all. God, I love this character.

[walnutqueen]

Jane has heart and soul and courage to spare, but her fatal flaw (including the resulting alcoholism, it would seem) is intricately entwined with her fear of very bad men.  Guys like Swearingen and Wolcott can paralyze her with fear (I'm sure CY would've reduced her to a blubbering human puddle), which suggests a background of some pretty serious abuse.

 

To give her credit, she did overcome her natural fear of Wolcott to brace him about Joanie - did you kill her?  Drunk as she was, her instincts to protect the weak remained intact.

[Wilowy]

Man I love how people talk about this show. Everyone who watches is so well-spoken and filled with LOVE for it. *sniff*

[walnutqueen]

Willowy - I feel like singing "if I only had a brain" every time I hear the eloquence of language that was such an integral part of the Deadwood world for me.  A lost art is given a breath of life in this series, and serves to remind me that great minds can inspire us in many ways.  My heart BREAKS at the thought of all we lost with Deadwood, and I miss it fiercely. 

 

I'm just glad to find someone who understands and answers my fangirl posts!  (Great minds sometimes work alike - but fools seldom differ).

 

Fucking fuckedy fuck, you've fucked me up with your sappy fucking sentimentality,  Now fuck off; Deadwood starts in less than 10 minutes and I need to blow my nose.  :-)

[Wilowy]

Those who disagree suck cock by choice!

[walnutqueen]

You would not believe how many times I iterate that very quote, and how many "uninitiated" eyebrows and ires have been raised as a result, Willowy. 

 

On the other hand, I can excuse my language most foul by claiming "Deadwood", so there's that.

[Wilowy]

Truth in that. Even my gay neighbors use it (we watch together).

[walnutqueen]

If you're anything like the people I see watching TV together on The People's Couch, I'm jealous of you and your gay neighbors.  :-)  But also strangely relieved to be able to watch in solitude without the performance pressure of having to come up with a clever quip on the fly (or even worse, having to explain every utterance and confabulation to the general populace of hoopleheads).

[Wilowy]

I know what you mean, though I have a strict 'Deadwood Watch' set of rules. Low lights, brown alchohol, and no questions til the end. 

 

:)

[Catherinewriter]

Walnut Queen, that's a good point about Jane and her courage or absence of it. REALLY bad men. Which explains why she's just as likely to punch out many of the other not-as-bad men characters, or even the ones she "likes," such as Charlie, as listen to them.

Be brief. Be fucked.

[Catherinewriter]

Hot!! Hot!! Burned my snatch!!

Speaking of bathing, where is the bath house? There have been several characters who wanted to bathe, but I've seen tubs only in the room in which Al played off the two drug thieves against each other and then drowned one of them, and Joanie apparently has one at the Chez Amis. I don't think the creek is deep enough to serve for bathing. Anyone have any info? Where do the prostitutes bathe? And speaking of bathing, where do they get the water? Carry it from the creek?

Of all the elements of life in Deadwood, the one that would militate against my being able to exist there would be not being able to be clean.

[honeywest]

There's a bathtub at the Bella Union. (Unfortunately, we had to see Jarry in it.)

[Kalliste]

There's a bathtub at the Bella Union. (Unfortunately, we had to see Jarry in it.)

I'd forgotten all about that, now I can't unsee it.

[Catherinewriter]

Well, damn. I don't recall seeing it but now that I know about it I can't not know it!

[honeywest]

"The exact type malicious cocksucker tars every other fucking drunk with the same brush."

Edited May 15, 2014 by honeywest

[Kel Varnsen]

There's a bathtub at the Bella Union. (Unfortunately, we had to see Jarry in it.)

Isn't there a bathhouse somewhere else too? I am thinking of the place where Al had to drown that fucking dope fiend. Chinatown maybe? And just thinking of it now I have to imagine that for places like that hauling water from the creek and heating it up would have to be pretty labour intensive. Which would probably mean you wouldn't dump the water out after one bather.

[revbfc]

After rewatching the entire series, I'm now of the opinion that a little Calamity Jane goes a very long way. It's like watching a drunker, more brain damaged Festus Haggen, and it gets old real quick.

[FormerMod-a1]

^ Very late to the party, but I agree.  I think for me, the way she speaks just seemed so fake and forced and it takes me out of the moment, like I can see the actress struggling and it all comes out marble mouthed.  You can sound drunk, or scared or belligerent or shy or any combination of those things w/o that much affect and strain.  Even allowing for her trying to seem more "masculine" or "strong" or not wanting to sound girly, one can lower the pitch of their voice w/o that much strain.

That said, I did end up liking her more by the end.  At first she seemed quite cartoonish, and that lasted longer than I anticipated, but she did get fleshed out more.  I did like her relationship with Joanie, who I also ended up liking quite a bit.

[Drogo]

I just really like the way Jane says "corksucker." 

Even Mr. Wu pronounces it better than she does, but I prefer the corksucker.

[nyxy]

lol. I agree Jane and Mr. Wu are the top contenders, but for me he comes out ahead. He just puts so much feeling into the word. Explosive. And bitter. 

I reember thinking that until I heard heard him say it, I just hadn't appreciated its power and beauty.

She's pretty good too though.

[purist]

A small theatre company in Sydney is mounting a production of the Calamity Jane stage musical next month. The role of Jane is being played by a fantastic actor/singer called Virginia Gay. She and I are sort of friends, and when the production was originally announced, I tweeted her to ask if she had seen Robin Weigert's Jane in Deadwood. She replied that she adores Weigert's portrayal and that it is one of her main influences for the show. You can sort of tell that from the awesome publicity shots. Of course, the musical is pretty silly, but it's still cool to know that our Jane has been so influential!