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bestworstcase · 11 months ago

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Great, now a couple more questions about the life-death-rebirth cycle come to mind. Namely, isn’t it some level of unfair to punish characters who “break the rules” by resurrecting the dead when they don’t know that’s a rule in the first place?

Take Pietro. He had no idea about Remnant’s past nor any way to learn about it (the only conceivable courses are the relic spirits, which are off limits without a Maiden, and Lewis, who is dead and likely never told anyone beyond what he wrote), so why should he and Penny suffer for it?

Heck, you could make a similar argument for Salem and even the GoD, but really, I’d like to hear what this says about the GoL. He created and strictly enforced the entire false paradigm of death being eternal. Sooo… what about him?

(Sorry if I’m asking too many questions, you just have so many amazing insights.)

in the case of pietro and penny, it’s less about punishing wrongdoing than it is just a natural consequence of the way penny is treated (not just by pietro but by the whole system of the atlesian military) – why does she suffer? because her father built her as a living weapon owned by his very powerful employers and brought her back, after beacon, into a situation where she had zero autonomy. it’s implied that penny literally does not have down time – she’s either working or in standby mode, no time for friends. and when she breaks away from ironwood, he gets so obsessed with forcing her back under his control that he winds up treating salem assaulting his city as a secondary concern.

this has nothing whatsoever to do with some sort of cosmic punishment for “breaking rules” – there aren’t any rules at all, besides the arbitrary ones the brothers tried to impose and light is (notionally) still trying to enforce. the point is that abrogating someone’s personhood, taking away their autonomy in this manner, is wrong because it inflicts grievous harm on that person. and in a setting where death isn’t an ending but rather a moment of transition between the old life and the new, where nothing can happen to you except what you want to happen, it’s wrong to take that choice away from someone by bringing them back.

that’s not to say it would necessarily turn out badly every time – for example, in a world where the brothers decided to relax, salem and ozma would’ve been fine, probably; millions of years later when ozma’s given the chance to return to her, he eagerly takes it. but there’s always, inescapably, that dimension of wrongness. of not letting go. of not letting the person you love choose. (& this is why salem did the right thing in not ever trying to bring ozma back herself after the gods fucked off.)

the narrative explores this with penny through the extreme control she’s subjected to in life. she isn’t allowed to leave. she isn’t allowed to make her own choices. she isn’t even allowed to die, because the atlas military considers her its property, and her father loves her very much and is also cheerfully complicit in this system right until the moment his daughter gets branded a traitor.

pietro knowing or not knowing about the distant past or the arbitrary rules set by the gods doesn’t matter. what is salient is that he knows what he’s bringing his daughter back into – the military machine of atlas in which she is, against her will, a mere cog. and he’s fine with that.

(i do think it’s sort of interesting how blasé he is about penny being the protector of mantle early in v7, before public opinion turns against her; this is a dimension of his overprotectiveness that often gets overlooked, but pietro is completely fine with penny being atlas’s robotic supersoldier. similar to his blithe lack of concern about mantle’s network security, pietro has several massive blindspots because he has very much drunk the atlesian exceptionalism koolaid)

and eventually that view of penny – doesn’t matter if she dies, we’ll just bring her back; doesn’t matter if she’s unhappy, she’ll do what we built her to do with a smile on her face; doesn’t matter what she thinks or feels or wants, she’s under control – was going to come due. inevitably. in the same way that rhodes training cinder to fight and then putting a weapon in her hand had obvious, completely predictable consequences.

what happened with salem is a whole different kettle of fish because she is being punished – tortured, really – for not even breaking but just questioning an arbitrary rule that had no basis in reality. and of course that’s unfair; that injustice is the beating heart of the story because salem was and is right to loathe the brothers as tyrannical monsters. all she did was pray to both of them for something light didn’t want her to have.

and then light’s issue fundamentally is that he doesn’t understand destruction, and therefore disdains and fears it, so change terrified him and he’s obsessed with control. very much in the same mold as ironwood; by the time it gets to the point of light setting up the divine ultimatum it’s less about the original sin than his fixation on salem as The Aberration Who Must Be Corrected (By Punishing Her Until She Submits).

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onewomancitadel · 11 months ago

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A smattering of thoughts

I was really into classic science fiction when I was a teenager and liked collecting oddities (this really started with The Avery Cates Series when I was ten, which was not classic sci-fi but was cyberpunk) and my tastes have evolved so I'm despairing at the fact that if I had read the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy at said age I probably would've loved it, and it was published in English at the right time for it. Two ships in the night...

I don't derive that same comfort or intrigue from it. I think especially as an 'artsy' type I felt like it was more of the approximate correct path to understanding how the world ought to work and how it ought to work in storytelling. If anything, I think that the reason I really understand #narrative cynicism is because that is a natural phase for adolescence. But separate to that, it was very attractive to me that you could prove fundamental things about humanity, or lack thereof, in a newer neutral context: space. And I think that that idea still interests me, in terms of where my research interests ended up, just not really in that context.

There are other problems I have with the series, not just that I'm not in the right position to love it anymore, but also I struggle with the fact that the reason I would read it then and the reason I've read it now is really still for the same reason: there is no horror to me like existential horror. Every other horror falls short of it. Monsters - they can be saved and redeemed or they can just hurt you. Psychological torment - that is part of being alive and can be as cathartic as it could be scary. Whatever, name it, it can be scary, but I don't think anything is as bone-deep searing, fundamentally disturbing and unsettling, enough to make me scared to sleep and wake up, than existential horror. And what is existential horror? I mean, that's just the nature of existence: the nature of consciousness, the afterlife, the heat death of the universe. Yeah, it's terrifying to think of humanity wiped out because of aliens. That hurts. Existential horror here crosses over a bit with body horror too: brains in vats, robots... that's the really terrifying stuff.

Also, of course, I haven't even touched on the feminist mindset here. But would you believe me if one of the reasons I really love Dune is because I honestly believe it's more progressive than a lot of classic science fiction? Hahaha. It's not because I believe Frank Herbert had a conscious feminist mindset, far from it, but that the setting and overall aims of his themes managed to overcome classic misogynistic blindspots, and in turn I think it suggested something subconsciously quite interesting. Don't get me wrong, the Orientalist problem is not something I easily forget, so that's not the only issue I care about, but it is a common criticism aimed at the series. The homophobia is probably one of the least excusable, but for me my metric for reading a series is how much it manages to overwhelm the specific ideas the author has. It's a very subjective metric, and obviously based on my own personal taste, but when I can tell that the author's hatred overcomes their actual intellectual or artistic intentions, that's when I start scrutinising it much harder. I guess in this sense I'm much more of an apologetic than some: I do think there is a difference between implicit bias and explicit bias which is indulged in, and though ultimately those harms interact and maximise each other, I do take a more 'harm reduction' view. I guess what I am trying to say is that I think Dune is smart enough and thoughtful enough about its entire cast, and I say this of the whole series, that it has a certain artistic integrity which makes me a bit softer on it... gender, race, sexuality are all modes of expression in that setting.

That was sort of what I was getting at in the post from yesterday: the misogyny in the storytelling services thematic expression, which is where I was taking a specific quibble with it even though I understand it. The feminisation of humanity, the infantilism, the death of good men, facilitated the devastating loss of humanity... and this was where I absolutely could not ignore it. I had been giving the series the benefit of the doubt up until then - and in this case, it really can't be ignored that the suffering and sacrifice of men is considered necessary by the narrative, which is a related tin of worms - but it was at that point that it all crystallised into a problem. It is in itself so infantile, so rooted in basic banal assumptions about humanity that I find the aspirational hard science, speculative science fiction, totally laughable juxtaposed against it. Yes, this is about Remembrance of Earth's Past.

I guess this post is walking all over the place, but I don't really feel like segmenting my ideas across different posts right now. This is part of the same stream of thought. I guess an ongoing issue I have with feminist analysis is that on one side, you have a lot of antifeminist beliefs becoming mainstreamed in previously feminist spaces - just look at the state of Tumblr now, which harms more than just your archetypal most privileged woman on earth - just think of trans women, who always mysteriously vanish from the converation - or the glee with which ostensible leftists make rape jokes now - and then on the other side, there is a total rejection of looking at gender through an anthropological lense, and more specifically, how it organises men's behaviour as much as it organises women's. I don't mean in the sense of 'toxic masculinity' - how that was mainstreamed was completely irresponsible, in my view, but it's a catchy phrase - and I don't mean in the sense, really, that 'patriarchy hurts men too' - because it's not a case of 'too', as if that were not the intention to start with. Traditional class analysis borrowed from Marxism starts to fracture under the fact that I don't think that class solidarity amongst men exists in the sense that Marxists really mean (this in itself is a polemic on its own, so I won't make this any longer than it needs to be, but if it did exist in the sense they mean, then it would be insurmountable). I also really think you get a superimposing problem of reality reflecting theory than theory reflecting reality, and sorting the evidence as such therein. I don't really know what the answer is here; I don't really know many feminist scholars who integrate the same research interests as me into their work, and of the scholars who do look at similar things to me, well, they are less feminist minded. And it's not to diminish misogyny as an issue: the reason I think misogyny is so all-encompassing, and crossculturally evolving, is because of its historic utility, not because it is inevitable in our biology, or because of God (and in my hated nemesis evopsych, it tends to be that 'evolution' replaces 'God').

I was actually thinking about this because there was a study I had seen passed around disputing that men leave their wives when they're ill at a grosser rate than women leave their ill husbands (obviously a heteronormative study, let's move on); it was bandied around as proof that men do not have the same concrete emotional attachment to women that women do to men, and subsequently discard their wives once they no longer served them, for all the good that 'in sickness and in health' does as a vow. The study was retracted because it suffered from extremely fucked values which counted couples leaving the study as male partners leaving their wives. But it was a study which affirmed their beliefs, and so it was taken at first glance. This is why you must have a certain degree of science literacy when looking at statistical surveys to back up your political beliefs. This wasn't even just a replication problem, which is the most common issue which crops up, but straight up bad science. If you think this is an outlier, it is most certainly not. This is not to reject science by any means either, as bad faith readers might be quick to point out: you can only criticise it insofar as you trust scientific analysis.

And, I know, the common belief espoused right now about the return to misogyny in leftist spaces is because they were just waiting for it. But in some ways I wonder if it were a strategic failure and what that means for feminism going forward. This isn't a popular view, and it is unsurprising that leftism doesn't support unpopular views, not least because this position would challenge the idea that oppression is cosmically inevitable. But I find this attitude unconscionable myself, not least because I don't think the majority of people are inherently evil. There are good things in the world and there can be good things in the world, and people are complex creatures.

But this is really obviously informed by my interest in cultural criticism and more specifically fiction, which ranks pretty low in terms of immediate material problems. It's easy to say that gender has a place in society when you know that it makes life hard accessing treatment for endometriosis or HRT or whatever. That's the thing feminists are interested in, the symptoms of misogyny and how to cure the underlying pathology. Does anybody care why it exists? Some dispute it's a biological inevitability, some dispute it is necessary on the basis that society would be chaos without it. How else could men possibly know who might pay for the date? And then when you get down to it, who excuses rapists and who excuses rape? But then to me, I think it is a matter of patriarchy and human cowardice and the excusal of evil. There are baser things which patriarchy expresses. This is important for me to think about because I don't think you either are or you aren't a misogyny machine who outputs a misogynistic belief or not. Misogyny is a vehicle for human expression, and it is in itself a hatred.

There is an ease to my perspective that makes many people uncomfortable. But the reason I can take that anthropological lense that other women don't have the liberty to is precisely because of the fruits of feminism, and that is not something to castigate oneself for. It's aspirational. I don't know why that sort of thing can't be celebrated but is instead condemned as a libertine hedonism. But it's part of that misogynistic mythology, I suppose. Is it wrong to say that everybody on earth deserves drinkable water, and I enjoy drinkable water on demand, and want to understand why others cannot access such?

And when it comes to my fictional interests, which is my own personal hobby and something I get to enjoy outside of pure political utility, it is impossible to think about its cultural thesis without thinking about the question of all of this; I don't 'take off' my feminist hat to enjoy something, because otherwise I couldn't appreciate its contribution to a cultural canon. But I am still able to enjoy storytelling with a pretty wide berth of tolerance because of this background I have outlined here, and I think it is the most enjoyable middleground. I'm not someone who reads stories or watches films to turn my brain off; to me, comfort and relaxation comes from the liberty of being able to think!

Of course, my issues with Remembrance of Earth's Past actually go beyond the question of gender. I've torn through the series in the past couple of days because I've been rather unwell, and in terms of personal taste, I have just really changed. The third book especially ends up sounding like an encyclopaedia entry. I am pleased with myself for predicting most of the twists. The ones I didn't were character-based betrayals in the second book, but I think that can be excused because the character foreshadowing and development is somewhat weak, and it was designed to be shocking. I do find the Chinese default, as opposed to the English default, very diverting, though, and I think illuminates a lot of interesting things about Western science fiction. In some ways, a cultural default is natural, but there's a whole new cultural hegemony to analyse.

But it is so ambitious, and I have to admire that fact about the series. It's a modern book which feels like it could've been published in the golden age of sci-fi, and I think that partially explains its popularity. It's all the good bits with better character work and even more developed science, which you really only could have if you worked in STEM. I think my problems with it are philosophical and artistic. There are fundamental differences between the author and myself. Before I've conducted any fandom surveys, I suspect that people loathe Ye Wenjie; naturally, I think she's fascinating.

So that's the end of the post. A lot of people online are quick to assume that not liking something or taking quibbles with something is tantamount to personal insult and/or finding the experience a waste of time, which it isn't for me. I've enjoyed a nostalgic return to the things I was really interested in when I was a teenager and I have semi-enjoyed torturing myself with existential horror. I get to write Tumblr posts exploring the issue; I am having fun. You are allowed to like things and no one is more of a proponent of that than me. This liberty you enjoy is the same liberty I enjoy in disliking something or being mean. Being mean isn't oppression.

But I think this is an online problem. When I discuss these things with people in real life they are generally quite good about it. My best friend and I have lots of interesting conversations about our differences and it's a source of fun, not discord. I am a romantic and she is not a romantic. But I also think the online world can tell us some scary things about humans, no? Especially if you're used to your online world as being your safe, expressive space. That cyberbully Seraphina onewomancitadel is being mean again about my animes...

Hahah. I hope you are all doing well and taking care of yourselves. I guess I am 'signing off' on a more classic blog post... wonder of wonders. The microblogging platform is now a macroblogging platform.

#stirring the pot #long post

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forgetmenautical · 1 year ago

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do not ever ask me about love + death + robots volume 1 episode 17 BLINDSPOT. i forgot how horrifically infatuated it made me.

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mesillusionssousecstasy · 1 year ago

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Love, Death + Robots : Volume 1

The animation were incredible and so different from each other.

But the show should have been named "Kill, Death + Robots".

My favorite one was again the three robots exploring the apocalyptic earth and lucky thirteen wasn't that bad at all.

So here a review for each episode :

Three robots (1x01) : I love those three robots, the way they are discovering each human tradition was well done. I really liked the part about the cats being the god of them all. It's also the fragility of the human race.

Beyond the Aquila rift (1x02) : The animation was amazing. From the beginning you know that it will end badly. It's the idea of what's real. Terrible story, I really didn't expect that.

Ice age (1x03) : The only episode with true actors. I also liked the mini world in the freezer, being the repetition of the same story, the same cycle.

Sonnie's edge (1x04) : It's about monster fight in a pit controlled by human. The end is really unexpected.

When the yogurt took over (1x05) : the story was very stupid and ridiculous, but I liked the demolition of human satellite.

The secret war (1x06) : It was the best SGI animation from the entire volume, every detail was so well done. However, the characters should have spoken in Russian and at the end, the episode became too much like a video game.

Sucker of souls (1x07) : I was sure from the first moment of the episode that it will concern vampires, but I don't understand what they were looking in the first place, in this tomb? Also, why Gary has a girl's voice, that doesn't make sense. And I really liked the importance of cats in this episode too.

The witness (1x08) : Every animation is different, this one was very different from the other, like animation on drugs too. Why there isn't any one in this town? Why the man has the key of the flat? It seems that the two of them are stuck in a loop in which he killed her and the other she killed him.

Suits (1x09) : Poor cows. It was honestly a weak episode. What was the point of it?

Good hunting (1x10) : First of all why the characters do not speak in Mandarin? And why it couldn't be a love story between Jan and Ling instead of this horrible story, even if the end is good.

The dump (1x11) : Is about a monster who survive on garbage, I called it "le monstre des poubelles".

Shape-Shifters (1x12) : I really hate war, but I think they want to show us, who are the real animal during war?

Fish night (1x13) : From the beginning, there was a foreshadowing of what will become later in the episode. The animation with the ocean sea was amazing, the desert becomes a sea of glowing fishes. It also shows us that the young boy becomes a fish, suggesting his descent to death.

Helping hand (1x14) : The episode was disgusting, but I presume it's about surviving and not dying in the atmosphere.

Alternate histories (1x15) : If only an application like this could exist. It's called multiversity.

Lucky 13 (1x16) : The story in itself was a bit sad, but cute. The ship sacrifice itself.

Blindspot (1x17) : The only episode with a happy ending I presume, but it's a shame that we don't know why this microchip is so important.

Zima Blue (1x18) : The episode with a bittersweet ending, the last art of Zima, beneficing himself at the end.

Some quotes:

"- You've seen one post-apocalytic city, you've seen 'em all." (Robot 1 - 1x01)

"- No. Indeed, it was their own hubris that ended their reign, their belief that they were the pinnacle of creation that caused them to poison the water, kill the land and choke the sky. In the end, no nuclear winter was needed, just the long heedless autumn of their own self-regard. (Pyramid robot) - Are you okay? (Orange robot) - Yeah, sorry. Thought that would sound better than, "Nah, they just screwed themselves by being a bunch of morons." (Pyramid robot - 1x01)

"- And what makes you so special? - I'm not special. Unique." (1x04)

"- Now, hate that was something I had to learn. You don't come into this world with hate." (1x04)

"- Everyone sees what they want to see." (1x04)

"- Do try to at least act excited. (Doctor) - Mercenaries are like hookers, pretending to be excited costs extra." (Mr. Flynn - 1x07)

"- Well, at least I'll die young and beautiful." (1x09)

"- You know what I think? It's all in the attitude. The right attitude can sell anything." (Young boy - 1x13)

"- God damn company penny pinchers, am I right? (Bill) - Why pay two when one'll do?" (Astronaut - 1x13)

"- I had to make a wee sacrifice to the great nothing." (Astronaut - 1x14)

"- In spite of all his success, Zima was still dissatisfied and what he did next was, for many, too extreme a sacrifice to make for art." (Clare - 1x18)

"- But you're a man with machine parts, not a machine that thinks it's a man. (Clare) - Sometimes, it's difficult even for me to understand what I've become. And harder still to remember what I once was." (Zuma - 1x18)

#love death and robots volume 1 #love death and robots #love death + robots #quotes #netflix series

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desirepathzine · 29 days ago

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FIF Retrospective: Our Newest Album Ever!

Welcome back to my continuing retrospective on formative Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy. Today, I'm revisiting the no longer truthfully titled, Our Newest Album Ever! (exclamation mark is part of the title!)

I wouldn't call this record a blindspot in my FIF listening history, but of all their records, I didn't gravitate towards it, even though it's got a few classics on it.

Released in November of 1997, ONAE! starts with "Handbook for the Sellout", which I think is hilarious for a band on their sophomore album, one released with the same indie label as their debut, after several offers from major labels were rejected. After the jokey diversion of "Where is Micah", FIF returns to grappling with their new found indie success on Superpowers "we've been given superpowers, ask us for an autograph, we sing, we dance, we'll make you laugh, don't you want to be like us?". The band had been able to live off of their touring revenue after Upbeats and Beatdowns, and are clearly having feelings about this minor status change, even as they delve into the unglamorous details of their touring habits (and satirize them). But, as noted in Superpowers, there is still the focus on engendering hope and peace in their audience.

Fistful of Sand is one of the more cryptic entries on a record that is often on-the-nose with its lyrics, a sort of moody anti-hero's ramblings on a world of emptiness, as all material pleasures can disappear like a fistful of sand. There's a wild hardcore gang vocal bridge that comes out of nowhere, and it's awesome. I really love the instrumentation on this one, it's a musical stretch for the band.

Suckerpunch finds us back in self-deprecating territory, a joyfully bouncy full ska moment that remains a beloved entry in FIF's discography. It's about being a big ole nerd. "They're all suckerpunching me, get in line for a wedgie, all I want, and all I need is someone who believes in me". It is exactly what a Christian ska song would be about. Quintessential FIF, a little dorky, very heartfelt, insanely catchy.

Kitty Doggy is a 40 second lo-fi piss-take made in what must have been tour induced insanity. The stuff of youth group inside jokes and church camp chanting.

Blue Comb '78 is a reflection on lost youth from lead singer Reese Roper, about his sister tossing his brand new blue hair comb out the car window on a family road trip, and his parents refusing to go back for it, a symbol of lost childhood innocence. It's both wildly silly and bittersweetly told. Although I'm sure for many youth group kids, it seems a grown up companion piece to "Oh Where is my Hairbrush" from classic Christian cartoon VeggieTales.

Banner Year returns to a familiar topic for FIF, the atrocities committed against indigenous Americans. Centering mostly on Chief Black Kettle, a leader who ceaselessly advocated for peace, and who was literally shot in the back while walking alongside his wife by white soldiers at the Battle of Washita River. It also includes broader Christian nationalism themes: "A piece of cloth cannot hold your faith". Another song that feels like it could have come out yesterday.

One thing that has started to crop up production wise for me on ONAE! is just a little too much vocal trickery on Reese's vocal. He goes strangely robotic due to pitch correction or something often enough that I'm starting to really notice on this record. I can't really recall that happening too much on other releases, but it is extremely obvious throughout this particular record.

Second Season is a lovely midtempo track about death and rebirth, maybe the most nebulous so far on a record marked by its specificity. The bridge is delightful. It's clear the horn section has been really putting in the work.

Litmus is an extremely interesting song to me, and exists at the intersection of so many of the most interesting qualities of Five Iron Frenzy (it interpolates Low Rider too?). How do you define "Christian enough" in music? In life? Every aspect of mainstream Christianity is carefully calculated, with gains and returns, at what point does it stop mattering? "You'll never formulate your own maker" and "You put my God inside a box" hit me like a ton of bricks. As someone growing up in corporate structured Christianity, full of supplemental materials, divining the exact right way to be an optimal Christian decided by some guy who wants to make money off of the faithful, Litmus hits different. As someone who was outside of the perfect image, who questioned why it cost that much money to be righteous, who hated the fucking insider lingo of Christianity that persists, this might be my favorite song on ONAE!

And now the absolute youth group classic, Oh Canada! A great little joke song about our neighbors to the North, their milk in bags, etc. It's completely unrelated to anything that has come before. It's very catchy, this was stuck in my head constantly for about five years.

Most Likely To Succeed is aimed at some unnamed jerk who has fully assimilated into a modern capitalist asshole, depriving others so that they can succeed, using others pain for their gains. The vitriol feels justified but I feel like other songs on the record tread this territory maybe a tad more effectively. It's a real late cut that doesn't do much for me personally, but it doesn't suck.

Every New Day is a song that has come to close ever Five Iron Frenzy show, their personal benediction to their audience and the world. A world weary anthem for those still clinging to hope. It's maybe the most "praise and worship" lyrics FIF have ever written, but that's not a knock when these words are also some of their best and most powerful. "Yearning for grace, hoping for peace". It makes me cry pretty regularly, even on the days I'm not sure what I believe. It feels so separate from the stale platitudes projected on the megascreens on my childhood mega church's walls. Here is an actually hopeful song about something other than "this hard season of life" or what the fuck ever. Perfect ending, perfect show closer, one of the best FIF songs.

Altogether, I really enjoyed delving into this album that I hadn't really taken the time to consider before. I think hearing Kitty Doggy and Oh Canada and maybe even Suckerpunch etc. all the time out of context put me off of thinking that there were "serious cuts" on Our Newest Album Ever!, which is a shame, because there are two or three deep cuts on here that I count among the band's best. Litmus, Every New Day, even Blue Comb '78 and Second Season are lovely, thoughtful, and something you can't get anywhere else. FIF handily beats the sophomore slump.

#five iron frenzy #zine #writing #music review #ska #exvangelical

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