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[Oct. 23rd, 2008|03:25 pm] |
I've seen this linked in a few places, and something about the way it's being described kind of annoys me.
Someone's taken the Simpsons, whom we all know as extremely stylized two-dimensional cartoons, and imagined them as creepier, less stylized three-dimensional figures. It takes some impressive photo-manipulation skills and the end result is great-- uncanny and disturbing yet instantly recognizable.
The maker of the photo, though, describes it as showing what the Simpsons would look like "if they were real people," which doesn't make any sense to me. If the Simpsons were real people, their ears would be in a normal place (since on the show their ears are normal for their world), their eyes would be in normal proportion to their faces (since they wouldn't be cartoons, which often have exaggerated eyes), they wouldn't have unnaturally sallow skin tones or weirdly protruding jaws, and so on. If they were real people, they would look like real people. If they were intentionally disturbing yet still unrealistic and caricatured 3D cartoons, they would look pretty much like they do in the link. There is a difference.
This might seem like just a semantic nitpick, but it touches on an attitude that I see a lot but can't really put my finger on. It has something to do with a kind of surprise that non-realistic things are unrealistic. The way, for instance, people sometimes complain about how myths and fairy tales could never work in the real world-- well, of course they couldn't, they're not in the genre of realism, they're following a different standard entirely.
It’s as though people sometimes think of “realistic” as meaning “good”, when in fact all fictional things are, and ought to be, at least somewhat unrealistic. Stories ought to be consistent, they ought to be beautiful or entertaining, they ought to follow their own rules, and they ought to have something to say about the world we live in.
I need to think about this more, since I'm not sure exactly how to describe the attitude I'm talking about. Do you know what I mean? Or do you disagree, even though it’s kind of hard to tell what I’m complaining about?
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 19th, 2008|06:14 pm] |
I recently came across this essay, Creating the Innocent Killer by John Kessel, which is a really intriguing discussion of some of the ethical problems in and with Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.
Like a lot of other people I know, I once loved the Ender series, but, rightly or wrongly, I began to like it less when I heard about Card’s extreme right-wing politics. There are conservative writers that I like and admire, either because they can explain their views through reasonable argument, or just because their writing is interesting. After all, it would be a boring world if we all had the same opinions.
But my reaction to Card’s political essays was more than disagreement. The things he said seemed so cruel—and, almost worse, so stupid—that I had to struggle to keep my long-held faith in the New Critical idea that anything outside the text of is irrelevant.
After reading this essay, I think part of the reason Card’s views made me so angry is that they aren’t entirely outside the text. The characters who desperately need to have babies even though they’re teenagers in the middle of a war zone, the focus on nationalism in the futuristic politics, the disproportionate numbers of gay characters in marriages of convenience, the violence, the obsessive focus on marriage as the only reasonable life goal—all of this made me deeply uncomfortable when reading. Card has such an unbelievable gift, but I find his stories stifled time and time again by the intrusion of his distorted views on morality.
I agree with Kessel, who argues that Ender’s Game presents the morally reprehensible idea that one can consciously exterminate an entire species and still be considered innocent. But, since it’s been a while since I’ve read any Card, I’m not sure how much of my agreement comes from the memory of how sad and vaguely betrayed I felt when I stopped reading his books.
What do you guys think?
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| A free idea |
[Oct. 16th, 2008|12:32 am] |
This is an idea I had about a year ago. I can never do anything with it, because I can't draw mice and it's not a good enough idea to work around that fact, so I'm setting it free.
This is a children's cartoon called Church Mouse and State Mouse. It stars Abraham (Abie) the State Mouse, and Augustine (Augie) the Church Mouse. Abie and Augie are the best of friends and they travel together through a vaguely depression-era landscape while discussing religious/political issues. They both carry their belongings in those red and white checkered cloths on sticks.
Every episode, Augie and Abie encounter some kind of church/state issue, but always in a cute anthropomorphized form. For instance, there's a hive of cute fuzzy bees, some of whom want to have a revolution and become communists, and some of whom want to keep the Queen. Our heroes get in trouble when they try to make off with the honey-- and halfway through the episode all the political subtext suddenly disappears and it's basically just one big chase scene with everyone jumping into vats of honey and trying to climb the honeycomb.
The only other recurring character is a mysterious black cat, who may or may not want to eat the mice. The cat speaks only in enigmatic pseudo-philosophical phrases. Sometimes it works with the mice, sometimes it tries to turn them against each other, and sometimes it just tries to eat them.
Now I've written all this down, I'm getting kind of excited about it and forgetting that I still can't draw mice. I'll have to stop writing before I convince myself I can do it live-action. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 14th, 2008|11:33 am] |
I had one of my periodic fits of initiative and signing up for things about a week ago, and before I’d recovered, I signed up to sell my baking in the Paradox, our charming yet efficient campus coffee shop. Apparently they don’t vet the bakers at all, because, despite my name, I haven’t baked anything since at least two years ago when I burned two pans of chocolate chip cookies.
The night before I was supposed to bake, I glanced through my computer’s erratic system of files and found a recipe for butter raisin pie that I found in a forum once and saved. The recipe involves a lot of corn syrup and almost no butter, but it looked simple to put together, so I rushed out to the nearby organic alternative grocery store to buy ingredients.
As I might have predicted, they didn’t carry corn syrup. I asked if there was something less evil that I could substitute, but the worker just gave me a disdainful look and said he suggested I buy it elsewhere. In a fit of rage, I put all my groceries back in the wrong places and went to safeway.
The baking itself actually went pretty smoothly this morning, although it was a little unnerving to have the three million repair people still working on our building milling through the kitchen on their walky talkies. The pie is in the oven now. I’m pretty nervous. |
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| Vacation Missive |
[Jun. 7th, 2008|02:17 pm] |
I am in England, having a lovely time with my beautiful and talented bezzie mates Charlotte and Susie. They shower me with love and affection, and I only partially return their love because I am Canadian and reticent.
I have seen castles and old things, they speak to my soul.
Love and huggles,
Han-Span |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 9th, 2008|12:49 am] |
So it’s been a while since I decided to do a reviewing thing here on lj. I haven’t been able to get it started for a while, NOT because I’m a useless procrastinator, but because everyone recommended TV shows, and, since TV Links closed down about a week after, I had no way to watch them. Other than spending money. But I decided not to do that.
Anyway, TV Links is back now, so I decided to get started on this reviewing thing by watching some episodes of Dr. Who, recommended by Lily (and by Adena in the real world). I watched the first two episodes of the new series, and I couldn’t get in to them. It’s hard to say why, since I thought they were really cleverly written, and I love zany science fiction stuff. And the bits with Dickens were great.
I think the problem is that I don’t like either of the main characters. Rose spent way too much time staring around in awestruck wonder, causing me to think she was annoying and to jealously mutter that I would better appreciate the advantages of getting to see all that cool stuff. And the Doctor kept doing that annoying mysterious protagonist thing of brushing off perfectly reasonable and important questions with evasive one-liners then getting annoyed that people don’t trust him.
I might like it better when it gets into its stride—does anyone know any really especially good episodes I should watch. I really want to like Dr. Who, to be honest with you, because I’m kind of freaked out about what happened after I got bored with watching it. Having frequently heard Torchwood, the Dr Who spinoff, referred to as “Dr Who with sex and violence”, I decided to give it a try. I loved it, and watched eleven episodes in a week. Even though it doesn’t make any sense, it plays into clichés I hate, and the characters seem to regularly switch personalities for no reason, I really really love it.
Why do I like Torchwood so much, and not its older, longer-running, probably better, mother show? I can think of two reasons, neither especially flattering to my personality.
- The main thing I look for in a TV show is lots of gratuitous sex and violence, and as long as I have my fix of porn and bloodshed I’m willing to overlook everything else.
- I’ve subconsciously decided that I don’t want to like Dr. Who because it’s too popular, but Torchwood is small enough for me to like it and still be contrarian.
Someone explain this to me! I’m having an identity crisis. |
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| My new idea! |
[Oct. 18th, 2007|06:17 pm] |
I've been thinking of ways I can update this thing more often, since I think I ought to. I don't want to write about my life, because by the time I write life events down here, I've already lived them, told everyone about them, and emailed the long-distance friends about them. It would be pretty boring to write about them again after that.
So my new idea is this: I'll review things! But instead of reviewing everything I read or watch, which will involve admitting how much embarrassing stuff I read, I'll have you guys suggest things!
If you know of a:
- Movie
- Book
- TV Show
- Comic or Webcomic
- Short Story
- Fanfic
that you think that either:
- I, Hannah, in particular
- or just everyone in general
should experience, then recommend it to me. If I haven't already read/watched/whatevered them I will do so, and then I'll review them all here. This way everyone will profit:
- You'll all get to force me to read/watch some thing that you've always wanted to get me (or everyone) to read
- I'll get a lot of good recommendations and I'll be able to practice critical writing!
- The lj will be updated more
So give me your recommendations! Also, I hope the huge sentence up there with all the colons and bullet points wasn't too confusing. I was in a bullet point mood. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 8th, 2007|03:18 pm] |
So I've decided I might as well start updating this thing again, since I'm becoming incredibly bored this summer. For a while I had a horrific job, which many of you have heard me complain about, at this café that insanely added maple syrup to everything.
The job is gone now (the manager fired me, and I shouted "You can't fire me-- I quit!" and there was a big scene). I have enough money, if I get occasional babysitting jobs, so I have no real reason to do anything other than sit around the house and do nothing. I miss Reed to a scary degree--much more than I did last summer.
To occupy myself, I've started lots of projects, like for example I've catalogued all my books and put them in alphabetical order. I've also started a blog to put those radio show scripts on.
I'm also going to try to update this more often. Let's see how it goes. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 27th, 2006|11:43 pm] |
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My birthday is tomorrow, and I just realised that, as far as Canada goes, this is the last milestone. I can vote, own property, be sued, sue someone, buy lottery tickets, buy alcohol, buy stocks, get married, be charged with a crime, and have a credit card. All grown up. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 26th, 2006|02:45 pm] |
Merry Christmas! to those of you who are doing Christmas, and I hope the rest of you hada great day. I know it's the day after, but it still feels very much like the Christmas season. I got an ipod, which made me very happy, and also some nice clothes and books.
One of my books, The Scar by China Miéville, is a book that I feel strangely betrayed by, upon reaching the 3/4 point, so I think I'll try posting a book review here once I'm done with it. It will be fun.
I also got a cross-stitch kit and I've been trying it out. I really like it, even though I ignored most of the instructions, so I intend to make lots of cross-stitch art. |
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