Jack, or, Adventures in Reading Against the Text

"Jack, or, Adventures in Reading Against the Text" (2007) is a fanvid created by LC, based on the television series Heroes.

It focuses on the characters of Niki Sanders, Claire Bennet and Monica Dawson.

The song used for this vid is "Jack The Giant Killer" by the band The Nields.

Overview

In "Jack", LC recontextualises key moments from the series Heroes in order to change their meaning, because she "wanted to make THIS vid, the happy vid, the triumphant vid." And the only way that she could do that, using the source material, was to lie.

The vid shows the three female characters, Niki, Claire and Monica, overcoming threats, violence, grief, lies, overprotection, sexual assault, fear ("yesterday I was afraid, but that's over") and other obstacles, then each of them emerging triumphant as the music reaches the lyrics, "'cause I'm Jack, the Giant killer".

But, LC writes:

In context, when Niki kills her rapists, she experiences it as another violation, as things done to/with her body without her knowledge or consent. In context, she's only allowed to exercise any self-protective power by re-violating herself over and over. In context, she beats up the man who threatens her in the elevator...and then goes and submits to another rape, as ordered. In context, Niki's glorious culminating moment of finally being able to integrate her mind and access her strength willingly to take part in the Final Battle is followed less than a second later by: Dad needs you. Go take care of your family. In context, Niki's integration doesn't mean a damn thing, because next season she gets the exact same plot over again.

This is a profoundly feminist critique of the show that her vid is based on.

External Links

• LC's LiveJournal entry announcing her vid
• Streaming video of "Jack" at Imeem
• Video of "Jack" on YouTube
• Wikipedia entry for The Nields

The article about this title/work is a STUB, meaning it is tiny and needs lots of work. Help flesh it out.