Invisible Gesticulations

What Would You Do if Your Singer was a Whale?

2008-05-12T03:32:17Z

It's interesting to start the day with wine. Wine and coffee. At my mother's house, my coffee was in one room because my thermos apparently didn't suit the table decor, while my glass of wine was on the table, and my brain felt like a yoyo going from room to room. The flavours were certainly interesting together. Now my head feels like helium screeching out of a balloon.

Happy Mother's Day to the mothers out there. I got my mother a candle, which is pretty much what I usually get her as I'm not good at thinking of anything else, and she seems to like them. She, my sister, and I were trying to think of good Mother's Day movies over dinner. My sister thought of Psycho. I thought of Tess of the Storm Country. Afterwards, for some reason my sister wanted to watch a bunch of Disney cartoons on YouTube. We watched the one about Johnny Appleseed, the one about Johnny the lovesick fedora (lots of Johnnys in these), and Willie the Opera Singing Whale. There's something Disney wouldn't have the guts to do nowadays;

I can hardly believe I got caught up with everything last night. The history's moving into an especially savage, extremely strange phase. Having a map for the country with which the comic's primarily concerned has started more wheels spinning in my head, too.

Guess What I Watched AGAIN

2008-05-11T13:15:37Z

A Path is Formed by Laying One Stone at a Time

2008-05-11T01:54:06Z

And yet again, I'm extremely short on time to-day. I feel like my life is filled with clutter. But there was mapwork last night and to-day it's back to history writing.

Gods, I want a sandwich. A really good sandwich with great, fresh, soft bread. No, that's not sexual double entendre. I just want a damned sandwich. But a YouTube search for the word "sandwich" yielded this;

I don't know why I bother with oatmeal anymore. I'm always hungry again an hour later and it takes forever to eat. Maybe I have a black hole inside me? That might explain why I'm so impatient to-day. Or maybe it's the new brand of French Roast I tried.

How would a black hole inside me make me impatient? I don't know, except I'm pretty sure it has to do with a matter/antimatter reaction and my dilithium crystals have secretly been replaced by Folger's. Let's watch.

Actually I was drinking Peet's coffee to-day.

Pink Trees and Supervisors

2008-05-10T01:27:31Z

A couple days ago, when it was raining slightly and the clouds were overcast, I came out of class not particularly noticing all the people around me in grey hoodies, dark green jackets and mud coloured sweat pants until I spotted a Japanese girl in a bright pink dress with white fur fringe on the hem. Now, I suppose this girl might listen to the worst J-Pop in the world, but I have to love someone who treats every day like cosplay.

Some good map work last night. To-night's mostly about labelling maps and I finally have to settle on a name for a country whose name I've constantly been changing. It's the country where the comic begins, so I guess that's why I've been fusing over the name so much.

As usual these days, I'm short on time. I don't think I've ever posted the first episode of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei before, so I'll leave you with that;

The Way of Chiri Kitsu

2008-05-09T03:55:07Z

Last night I wrote around 1,500 words on my project, finishing a big section, and now I'm about 90% done with the history. And I'm keeping to my schedule so far. I'll be done with the history on May 16 if I continue to stick to it. The schedule's relieved so much stress and has made me more productive. I was about halfway through what I was supposed to write last night when I started feeling like I wanted to quit, but I looked at how much I had left to do and convinced myself it wasn't too much, really. I couldn't do that before I had the schedule, and I probably would've quit early without it. What's more, when I finished at 1:30, I felt no guilt about pouring myself some absinthe and logging onto Second Life, fully an hour before I usually allow myself to. Sometimes parameters can set you free.

To-night, I work on maps, which I know I said I was done with, but I thought of a couple more things I need to do. I've been doodling the comic's main characters in class, and I can't wait to concentrate on them properly.

At the grocery store to-day, I saw that the cover of Time had half of Clinton's face and half of Obama's face with the caption, "There can only be one." Immediately I imagined a guy originally coming up with, "There can be only one," and thinking to himself, "I heard that somewhere--I can't remember where--but I'm pretty sure it was very solemn and powerful." And just before the thing was going to print some copy editor looked at it and said, "Are we really quoting the fucking Highlander?!"

Oh, Okay

2008-05-08T00:36:32Z

The Multi Layered Awakening

2008-05-07T23:59:36Z

I've been keeping two pennies balanced vertically on my desk next to me for about a week now. One of them seems to fall over more than the other. I hope this isn't something I'm going to get superstitious about.

Well, there's already been a lot to to-day, and it's only 4:37. I woke up at 1:45 to catch another geisha show in which Leslie, one of the people I play chess with in Second Life, was participating. Three geishas told three Japanese folk tales, one of which was about Yuki-Onna, which was very cool. But I had a hard time concentrating without breakfast and coffee.

Then, I discovered the final episode of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei had finally been subtitled by a funsub group called Volans, who'd done the previous five or so episodes as well. Apparently, although the show is extremely popular, few groups want to tackle the especially difficult job of translating it. Aside from the volumes of throwaway information written in the background on blackboards and signs, there's also a lot of idiosyncratically Japanese dialogue.

The episode was pretty good. I'd post it, but of course it's not on YouTube yet. However, its opening and ending themes are, albeit without subtitles, and I want you to dig this ending theme which is an extremely wonderful (if inexplicable) homage to Hellboy done in the style of Mike Mignola's comics--not in the style of the animated movies. Remember how I was pointing out the average anime series looks better than the Hellboy animated movies? Well, behold my correctness. This is how it's done;

The mead was pretty good last night. I drank the entire bottle, heating most of it on the stove and steeping in it the spices it came with (cinnamon and orange fragments among other things). It gave me a bit of a stomach ache, as I find weak alcohol often does (it was only 11% alcohol). But tasted wonderful, a lot like hot apple cider, which, actually, also often gives me a stomach ache.

Meme Genie

2008-05-07T05:10:41Z

TECHNOLOGY
Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
This picture of Scarlett Johansson;

Yes, I considered taking it down when I heard she was engaged to Ryan Reynolds, who I still consider to be the poor man's Jason Lee. But I kept it up when I considered her album of Tom Waits covers featuring David Bowie.

Q. How many televisions do you have in your house?
Four.

BIOLOGY
Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Right handed.

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
Yeah, I've had two teeth pulled, one a front tooth after it'd split down the middle after being reinserted, the other a molar after an infection had hit the nerve.

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
The heaviest thing lately would probably have been the Norton Anthology of English Literature, volume I.

Q. Have you ever been knocked out?
Not in a fight.

BULLSHITOLOGY
Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
Yes.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I don't really care about my name.

Q. What colour do you think looks best on you?
Black.

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item?
Yes, plenty.

DAREOLOGY
Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
Yes.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
Yes.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000
No.

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
Yes. I'd feel like I was ripping people off, though. As usual, a Morrissey lyric comes to mind; "You without clothes, I could not keep a straight face. Me without clothes, a nation turns its back and gags."

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
I'd drink two bottles for 500 dollars. Hell, I'd eat a barrel of jalapenos for fifty dollars. I'm always looking for a new challenge for my palate.

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
If I could choose the person. I'd probably pick someone who wants to be euthanised.

DUMBOLOGY
Q: What is in your left pocket?
Wonderful.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
It's okay.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
Both. And tile.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
Both.

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
None. I hate flip-flops powerfully. But I wouldn't mind owning a pair of waraji.

LASTOLOGY
Q: Last person who texted you?
Tim; "Artie is back on the Stern show." Yeah, I like Howard Stern, though I only hear the show when I'm at Tim's house. I was actually concerned about whether Artie Lange would be allowed back on the show after he nearly assaulted his assistant on air a couple weeks ago. I feel for that big guy; he's the funniest person on the show, but he's a terrible comedian and a bad actor, so it would've been a shame if he'd been exiled from the only thing he's good at. One of the things I like about that show is that people can fuck up enormously and still be friends the next day.

Q: Last person who called you?
I don't know. Someone called me and hung up from a restricted number.

Q: Last person you hugged?
Human? Probably bloodlette over two years ago. I hugged one of my aunt's cats late last year.

FAVORITOLOGY
Q: Number?
I don't have one.

Q: Season?
Winter.

Q: Colour?
Red.

CURRENTOLOGY
Q: Missing someone?
Caitlin, Sonya, Trisa, my aunt's cats. If I'm forgetting anyone, thank heaven.

Q: Mood?
Mellow.

Q: Listening to?
"Ouija Board, Ouija Board" - Morrissey

Q: Watching?
Lately I've been watching Code Geass, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Countdown with Keith Olbermann. In terms of movies, I watched Ran again a couple nights ago.

Q: Worrying about?
Nothing.

Q: Wearing?
Black button down, long sleeved shirt, black slacks, black socks.

RANDOMOLOGY
Q: First place you went this ~~morning~~ afternoon?
School.

Q: What can you not wait to do?
Try out the bottle of mead I bought to-day.

Q: Do you smile often?
Yeah.

Q: Are you a friendly person?
Yes, unfortunately.

Lucy Can Kick the Damn Football Herself To-day

2008-05-06T23:38:46Z

Short on time to-day again but this time it's because of class.

I dreamt last night that I lived in a shopping mall that'd been converted into a hotel. It kind of reminded me of the Bradbury in Blade Runner except smaller and with drooping moss. At the beginning of the dream, I was just becoming aware of the other tenants being in a panic and I looked out the window to see that the series of narrow hills beside the mall were on fire. And somehow, the fire led to flooding. The main thoroughfare of the mall was soon filled with ten feet of water. There were a couple women in Victorian clothes having a tea party on a raft; I'm pretty sure robyn_ma was one of the women, so I'm presuming listeningowl was the other.

I wanted to get pictures of everything but there was no film in my camera. So I swam down to the floor where I found a completely dry, red and gold hotel lobby. I was going to drive to the desert to get film, but I realised I forgot one of my bags in my room. I woke up while I was on my way back to get it.

I've been so amused by the Miley Cyrus Annie Lebowitz photo controversy (the Onion headline puts it best; "Miley Cyrus Apologises for Breasts") that I actually checked out a Hannah Montana video on YouTube.

So, for those keeping score, this

is sexual while this

is clearly not.

On Proper Social Status and the Healing Water

2008-05-06T13:09:33Z

Treadmills are Stubborn

2008-05-06T00:36:51Z

Short on time to-day, but I wrote this sonnet while eating my oatmeal;

Blood for Earth

Gave me your heart in a ticking parcel
Hoped I would take it inland and bury
It deep in a sour sump or rancid well
My inland empire where soil spriggans lie
Laughing like songs slurred on sun melted tape
Black acid dirt holding red pump with waste
And you could be cool as the slow escape
Of the moon to the stars in ink cold space
Or the muffled flight of whale bodies in
Heavy pushed dark blue bottom depth waters
But your dear flesh must scrape yet on earth when
You drift for dreams your hot heart still gathers
Your supposed naturally cool state
Is pointe pose on a roiling magma plate

Sad and Funny

2008-05-05T02:25:38Z

There sure are getting to be a lot of cats around here. The white one I mentioned several weeks ago finally let me pet him--he turned out to be a neighbour's cat, who told me a bit about him, but I've forgotten his name. Yesterday there was a grey, striped cat in the backyard, chewing on some flowers, and to-day a calico with collar trotted across the porch while I was making coffee. It's the first time I've seen a cat with a collar in a long time.

I watched the new Code Geass episode to-day, which wasn't bad really, but only in the world of anime could you have one episode involving characters fighting against each other in a bitter insurgency war, and in the very next episode feature the same characters in a screwball comedy plot involving a giant pizza. Code Geass really is a Saturday morning cartoon show for adults. This sure is a brave new world.

I want to respond to something in greygirlbeast's blog, which practically seems like a reply to my own post about "CONCERNING ATTRITION AND SEVERANCE";

And speaking of Sirenia Digest #29, my thanks to scarletboi for the exchange yesterday on "Concerning Attrition and Severance." One of my greatest fears about letting people read the piece was that it would be misinterpreted as mere "torture porn," that they would miss the Cosmicism that is critical to understanding the story's intent. He wrote, "I'm glad you chose to share it. It was graphic and horrific (in the original meaning) and brutal. But it was also beautifully written and deeply involving. To be honest, I probably shouldn't have read it until my current work is finished, because I have a feeling it's going to affect the mood of it...I understand the worry. The narration is indifferent enough to be almost clinical, academic. If it took more glee in the proceedings it might edge toward the torture-porn of Saw or Hostel. But I think it came across more elegantly than that, and I hope other readers pick up on the cues as well." Too which I can only add — me, too.

I confess I did misinterpret the story about the woman mutilating another woman for an audience, with special attention to nipples and vagina, as "torture porn". While I did think the language was beautiful, as usual for Caitlin, I did miss the flashing elegance cues that would elevate the story above the Hostel movies* in some particular way. I made the amateur mistake of appreciating it as a psychological profile of someone who's driven to torture people because of her insecurities, instead of the groovy vision of the cosmos it was apparently meant to be. Maybe I ought to have remembered that the "white woman" was also Jack the Ripper and Elizabeth Bathory, both of whom, I'm sure, were perfectly elegant and sophisticated individuals. For my next faux pas, I'll be referring the Corleone family as gangsters.

*I'm a fan of the Hostel movies, remember. Here's my review of Hostel: Part II.

Let's Open Those Neural Floodgates

2008-05-04T20:12:46Z

Bogs of Our Lives

2008-05-03T09:16:35Z

My arms are tired. Why don't the grocery stores open more check stands this time of night? It was like waiting for concert tickets while holding a box of diced onions, a can of pesto, two microwave dinners, a bag of tortillas, a bag of bagels, and a carton of blueberry juice. Except there were no tickets at the end.

Seven hundred words to-day on the project, plus research on walruses and taiga. One of the most interesting things I've stumbled across in research for this thing is Yde Girl. Tell me this image doesn't put the awful distance of centuries under you like an alien glacier;

Last night I came up with a detailed schedule for the month of May. I know what I'm going to be doing every single day of this month, and if I stick to the plan, I'll have finished the first chapter of comic on June 1st. I may wait a week or two before uploading it, though. After Boschen and Nesuko, it seems to me that being one chapter ahead at all times would probably be wise.

I'm debating whether or not to have mithril in my universe. A lot of other fantasy worlds have it since the Tolkien Estate didn't trademark it. What say you?

View Poll: #1181765

Two Dark Places

2008-05-03T00:23:01Z

I'm finding this ~~morning~~ afternoon that YouTube has quite a wealth of animals killing animals videos. Here are two of the best I saw while eating my oatmeal;

Giant octopus versus shark;

Lions versus hippo at night, under the sinister spell of Jeremy Irons' voice;

Stripping Puppets and Wheat

2008-05-02T03:34:23Z

There was a dead rabbit next to my car last night. He didn't look like he'd been run over--his body was perfectly intact, as though he'd just decided to die next to my car. My grandmother says when she went out to-day, it'd been moved to under my car. When I went out later, it was gone. I hope this isn't some kind of omen.

I only wrote just over 600 words on my project last night, but I came to the end of a big section. It won't be long before all is in readiness. Afterwards, I read Caitlin's new Sirenia Digest. The second story, "CONCERNING ATTRITION AND SEVERANCE", was maybe the better of the two, but they were both pretty good. "CONCERNING ATTRITION AND SEVERANCE" was apparently based on some Second Life rp, which is perhaps why its carefree bloodlust reminded me so distinctly of Doom and Quake. It occurs to me that people who were never particularly into the classic first person shooters are just now getting into the kind of rampage that a lot of us have enjoyed for so long. The vignette also reminded me that I want to buy a copy of Hostel part II, with which it has some things in common. In addition to the fact that both works could quite obviously be referred to as "torture porn", the most interesting aspect of both pieces is in the exploration of torturer psychology. "CONCERNING ATTRITION AND SEVERANCE" conveys a pathetically egotistical woman, who apparently commits acts of violence entirely because it's the only way she feels she can be taken seriously.

The first story, "Flotsam" was very pretty, with a very beautifully described siren, the kind that lives underwater. I tend to picture them as bird women on islands, but six of one, half dozen of the other, as they say. Her hair was especially beautifully rendered.

Some time spent in Second Life last night. I finally met one of spacecoyote1981's sculptures in New Babbage;

He was a very gentle ride for Ms. Tairov.

I met up with dadragoness later and she showed me a sim called, I think, Far Away that a friend of hers discovered. I took lots of pictures; the place was wonderfully eerie;

Something about this train made either Toubanua, God, Satan, the Train God, or the Train Satan, very happy.

Table of mysterious knickknacks. The hat gives away headphones and sticks.

Dragoness sitting across from Toubanua at another table.

. . . and Toubanua sitting across from Dragoness.

I think these were glasses of absinthe in the cupboard. Toubanua wants one, I can tell.

A dragonfly's perspective on Dragoness.

Comparing findings.

A dragonfly on Dragoness.

Did You Ever See a Stare Like a Persian Cat?*

2008-05-01T23:10:12Z

Short on time now. More after class . . .

*My favourite Elvis Costello lyric ever. I'm not entirely sure why.

There are Spiders in the Sea with a Taste for Flesh

2008-05-01T02:51:34Z

I didn't actually get a whole lot of work done last night. Being ahead of schedule made me feel like knocking off early and having some fun! So I, er, signed onto Second Life and sorted my inventory. Here's Toubanua as a Japanese school girl;

Then I talked to dadragoness on the phone and she analysed my Marilyn Monroe on a cruise ship dream from Sunday. Let's see what she makes of to-day's;

On a ship again, this time a tanker that'd been converted into a cruise ship. It was night, but the sky was cloudless and the sea was calm. All of the passengers were beautiful teenage girls in white bedclothes who were soon running and screaming through the ship's passageways as some mysterious terror began killing them off, one by one, and also somehow flooded deck after deck. I got up on deck with some girls who were fleeing, and we looked desperately about for some crewmen who could help. There was no illumination on deck; all the lights were off, and I was a little worried about tripping over equipment or running afoul of the beast. But we seemed to be in New York Harbour, and the lights of the buildings surrounded us.

We saw Robert Englund at a vending machine, in a well lit area just under the deck, looking pretty much as he did in the clips from Zombie Strippers I saw on Roeper and Phillips*. He was no help; he just laughed at us. But while we were trying to talk to him, the monster had apparently shown up on deck and was already being restrained by the captain and his men. I had this impression of the captain being a really great man. He looked a little like Joel Hodgson in a thick white turtleneck sweater. The monster turned out to be a giant tarantula and he shot it dead.

*Yes, I'm calling it that already. I must say, though, Michael Phillips is easily the best of all the guest critics and I'm glad they seem to've settled on him.

I Just Killed Four Extra Lines in the Tetris of Life

2008-04-30T04:30:38Z

Turns out the paper I thought was due to-day was in fact due Thursday. Not only that, but the reading I thought had to be done to-day had also been not only pushed back, but reduced. So I suddenly find myself way ahead of schedule.

I certainly can't say I mind having read the first three acts of William Congreve's The Way of the World, which I absolutely adored. But I spent so much time reading and working on my paper yesterday, I had absolutely no time to work on my project. So I'm itching to get at it now. So I will.

Incidentally, the thing I find most amusing about the sinister naked back of Miley Cyrus controversy is that no one sees her father's cameo in Mulholland Drive as a breech of this so-called "goodliness" and "godliness" brand. Billy Ray can be in a David Lynch movie as an adulterer, but Miley shows her back and she's the whore of Babylon? Short-sightedness? Double-standards? You'll find every obnoxious ingredient when closely examining this soup.

I'm a Fool for Forests of Delusion

2008-04-29T12:33:43Z

I finished my paper on King Lear last night, which is good, since it's due to-day. I'm pretty happy with it, though it ended up being four pages instead five. Here it is, for the curious rash monarchs, exasperated fools, and exiled daughters out there;

...

Substance and void are the thematic poles of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. In the absence of discernable order in the universe, truth is the only source of worthwhile substance in life and enlightenment is intrinsically valuable. The opposite of truth, therefore, is the absence of substance; nothing. The further characters stray from truth, the closer they are to nothing. Artifice in the play is an agent for both truth and void, at times communicating truth, while at other times obscuring it. But the unjust ends met by most of the characters demonstrate that salvation does not go beyond truth in the absence of a benevolent god.

“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for sport,” says Gloucester in Act 4. It’s little wonder; having had his eyes gouged out because of his illegitimate son’s treachery, the earl also must live with the knowledge that, for his folly, Edgar, his legitimate heir, has been banished. But the statement reflects much more of the play’s content than that; Lear loses everything for simply misjudging his daughters, Cordelia loses first her home and then her life simply for speaking the truth, and Edmund is denied legitimate claims to inheritance simply for having been born to a woman who was not married to his father. “Wherefore should I stand in the plague of custom,” says Edmund in Act 1, “and permit the curiosity of nations to deprive me, for that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, my mind as generous and my shape as true as honest madam’s issue?” Though Edmund’s actions later prove his nature to be cruel and selfish, no rational mind can dispute this argument, particularly in light of the fact that it’s two of Lear’s quite legitimate daughters who blight his existence throughout the play.

So, there is tragedy evident in Edgar’s statement at the end of the play before he vanquishes Edmund; “The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us,” referring to the circumstances of Edmund’s birth. One might do well to recall a famous line from Julius Caesar, an earlier of Shakespeare’s plays; “The fault . . . is not in our stars but in ourselves.” This is the lesson Edgar misses by attempting to simplify complex and amoral reality into a battle of good versus evil, and here one might perceive Shakespeare illuminating the folly of contemporary inheritance traditions. That, in this case, Edgar was in the right does not prove the rule any more than Cordelia’s fate proves that honesty is bad. All that it proves is that the universe of King Lear does not reciprocate in proportion to what one deserves, and triumph does not imply lessons learned.

Attempts to communicate or reveal truth are both frustrated and enhanced by filtered perspectives. When Lear asks Cordelia to describe the greatness of her love for him after the manner of her sisters, Cordelia replies, “Good my lord, You have begot me, bred me, loved me; I return those duties back as are right fit, obey you, love you, and most honour you. Why have my sisters husbands, if they say they love you all? Haply, when I wed, that lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry half my love with him, half my care and duty.” Respect for her father will not allow Cordelia to speak to him with the hollow flattery demonstrated by her sisters, but this is lost on Lear. His perspective is filtered by his insecurity prompted by the impending distance of his daughters and station. “I loved her most, and thought to set my rest on her kind nursery,” says Lear of Cordelia, as though by her words it was she who was forsaking him. In fact, her statement, while less grandiose than her sisters’, did express love and devotion. Lear is brazenly contradicting the evident reality of just moments before for the inertia of his wrath. He runs on emotion without reflection, prompting his daughter Goneril to implore that he, “make use of that good wisdom whereof I know you are fraught, and put away these dispositions, that of late transform you from what you rightly are.”

Lear asks his men who he is if not Lear, to which his Fool replies that he is, “Lear’s shadow.” An appropriate appellation, as Lear’s behaviour seems to spring from an insubstantial, illusory personality. Again, Lear achieves that which he had previously ascribed to Cordelia. When she said she had “nothing” to say, he replied “Nothing will come of nothing.” So it is with Lear, as he proceeds on the spur of self-deception, on the stimulus of nothing that he construes as something, he finds himself without a roof over his head, without his most beloved companions, with nothing.

Yet, Shakespeare takes time to note that salvation may be achieved through deception or obfuscation, the most vivid example being Edgar’s prevention of his father’s suicide. Edgar describes to the blind Gloucester a creature leading him to the cliff’s edge, saying “his eyes were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, horns whelked and waved like the enraged sea: it was some fiend.” This fanciful, monstrous description is like a story, and perhaps one might here observe Shakespeare promoting the potential for enlightenment through artifice or art.

A plain, physical curtailing of the senses is ascribed value, too, as the very fact of Gloucester’s blindness is conveyed as an occasion for his enlightenment. “Your eyes are in a heavy case,” Lear says to him, “your purse in a light. Yet you see how this world goes.” To which Gloucester replies, “I see it feelingly.”

The final line of the play is one of Edgar’s and it encapsulates well the thesis of the work; “The weight of this sad time we must obey; speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” If Edmund had been honest about his unhappiness in his position, things may have been different. Edmund’s behaviour may have been different if Gloucester had not abused him at the beginning of the play, despite not feeling any particular hatred for him. Cordelia’s fate might have been prevented if Lear had treated her in a manner reflecting the love he felt for her.

Edgar’s line concludes; “The oldest hath borne most; we that are young shall never see so much, nor live so long.” Even though Lear has learned from his errors, Cordelia still dies because of them. There is no god meting out appropriate rewards and punishment, so one needs to make valuable the finite amount of time one has.

Artifice through language or disguise might be seen broadly as the circumstance of human communication, and is not inherently good or evil. Illusion is merely a tool to reach truth or oblivion. Justice or injustice is conveyed by human action without assistance or hindrance from gods, so gods cannot be depended upon to deliver humans from misfortune. Each person has only the span of his or her lifetime to effect what he or she will, so King Lear is a plea for independent consideration of justice and well-being, and an argument against moral negligence and irrationality.

Your 50 Yen for To-day, Pink Supervisor

2008-04-29T01:43:16Z

I got about halfway through my paper last night, which was only something like 500 words. And I didn't have to write the play it's about. Like I said; cakewalk.

I also worked on my project and caught the new episode of Code Geass, which was even better than the last one. And I watched the newly fan-subbed Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, the twelfth episode. Just one more before the end of the season and I'll be left in despair.

I told Dragoness I'd post the episode that introduces Kaere Kimura, the blonde student. It's the third episode of the first season and it also introduces Maria, the illegal immigrant girl. According to Wikipedia*, this episode is, "a pastiche of parodies about foreigners and Japanese attitudes concerning them." I love the layering of meta that a "pastiche of parodies" implies, though I'm pretty sure this episode is simply a parody. I suppose a pastiche of a parody might be an opera based on Spaceballs? Maybe Spamalot? Anyway, here's the episode;

Yesterday I dreamt I was on a cruise ship, far out at sea in a night with flashing blue storm clouds and wind pushing the big ship about. Marilyn Monroe was leaning over a railing and her head fell off to get caught in a spider web of rigging stretched across a curiously obtuse slope of hull. Some guys in rain slickers nearby shrugged and said they'd reattach her head when we put into to port before continuing their conversation, but I couldn't help feeling concerned. I wasn't convinced Marilyn would be fixed simply by reattaching her head, but I figured if there was even a chance, it'd have to be done soon. So I carefully started climbing down the rigging, but I woke up before I reached Marilyn's head.

Now I'm off to do stuff . . .

*Is Wikipedia "Wikipaedia" in Britain?

Setsuled Pauses from Thinking about Sex 24/7 to Offer a Quote from Stephen Colbert

2008-04-28T05:33:33Z

Okay. Obviously I ought to be working on my paper. And obviously I don't have time to read the three billion volume encyclopaedia of texts spontaneously emerging on lj about the now extremely infamous "Open Source Boob Project" (not about free virtual boob code)(I have a feeling I'm not the first person to make that joke). But the_red_shoes has been posting a lot of links to interesting discussions on the topic, and I'm noticing that by and large it's drifting into discussions on how men ought to approach women. And I couldn't help being reminded of a quote from Stephen Colbert's I am America (and So Can You!);

Even though both men and women enjoy sex, they approach it differently. Let's be honest. Men think about sex non-stop, and that's not just a stereotype. It happens on sitcoms and in advertisements all the time.

Women don't feel that way about sex. They prize emotion over physicality. They want a partner who is considerate and attentive, who will spoon them while reciting Keats and feed them organic yoghurt by candlelight on a seaside cliff at sunset.

But here comes the Women's Studies Brigade, railing about how Colbert is reinforcing gender stereotypes. Well, ladies, we have those stereotypes for a reason--a reason I can't remember right now because I'm too busy thinking about sex more than you do. Don't be a knuckle sandwich. The sooner we accept the basic differences between men and women, the sooner we can stop arguing about it and start having sex.

Responsibility (Who's Holding the Umbrella?!)

2008-04-28T03:06:58Z

Oh! Dragoness (if you're reading), I got my guilt complex Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei episodes mixed up. This is the one I was talking about;

Sadly, someone uploaded this with the wrong aspect ratio. I wish the same guy who uploaded the first season episodes (properly!) would upload the second season episodes. Of course, I suppose I could try to figure out how it's done . . .

Proper Responses to Inappropriate Groping

2008-04-28T00:16:20Z

Short on time to-day and I need to work on that paper for class. Five pages, double spaced, open ended subject. I've decided on King Lear. This'll be a cakewalk. But a time consuming cakewalk.

I was going to leave you with an episode of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei that relates to something Dragoness and I were talking about last night, but I see I already posted it a couple days ago. Instead, here's one that (sort of) relates to the latest boob groping scandal to hit lj (seriously, why do these keep happening?);

"Queen Alice?"

2008-04-27T06:04:20Z

Incidentally, I titled the earlier entry "Queen Alice" because I queened one of my pawns last night--just as Alice (a pawn) was queened in Through the Looking Glass. So here's an excerpt from Chapter 9; "Queen Alice";

'Well, this is grand!' said Alice. 'I never expected I should be a Queen so soon--and I'll tell you what it is, your majesty,' she went on in a severe tone (she was always rather fond of scolding herself), 'it'll never do for you to be lolling about on the grass like that! Queens have to be dignified, you know!'

So she got up and walked about--rather stiffly just at first, as she was afraid that the crown might come off: but she comforted herself with the thought that there was nobody to see her, 'and if I really am a Queen,' she said as she sat down again, 'I shall be able to manage it quite well in time.'

Everything was happening so oddly that she didn't feel a bit surprised at finding the Red Queen and the White Queen sitting close to her, one on each side: she would have liked very much to ask them how they came there, but she feared it would not be quite civil. However, there would be no harm, she thought, in asking if the game was over. 'Please, would you tell me--' she began, looking timidly at the Red Queen.

'Speak when you're spoken to!' The Queen sharply interrupted her.

'But if everybody obeyed that rule,' said Alice, who was always ready for a little argument, 'and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the other person always waited for you to begin, you see nobody would ever say anything, so that--'

'Ridiculous!' cried the Queen. 'Why, don't you see, child--' here she broke off with a frown, and, after thinking for a minute, suddenly changed the subject of the conversation. 'What do you mean by "If you really are a Queen"? What right have you to call yourself so? You can't be a Queen, you know, till you've passed the proper examination. And the sooner we begin it, the better.'

'I only said "if"!' poor Alice pleaded in a piteous tone.

The two Queens looked at each other, and the Red Queen remarked, with a little shudder, 'She says she only said "if"--'

'But she said a great deal more than that!' the White Queen moaned, wringing her hands. 'Oh, ever so much more than that!'

'So you did, you know,' the Red Queen said to Alice. 'Always speak the truth--think before you speak--and write it down afterwards.'

'I'm sure I didn't mean--' Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted her impatiently.

'That's just what I complain of! You should have meant! What do you suppose is the use of child without any meaning? Even a joke should have some meaning--and a child's more important than a joke, I hope. You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands.'

'I don't deny things with my hands,' Alice objected.

'Nobody said you did,' said the Red Queen. 'I said you couldn't if you tried.'

'She's in that state of mind,' said the White Queen, 'that she wants to deny something--only she doesn't know what to deny!'

'A nasty, vicious temper,' the Red Queen remarked; and then there was an uncomfortable silence for a minute or two.

The Red Queen broke the silence by saying to the White Queen, 'I invite you to Alice's dinner-party this afternoon.'

The White Queen smiled feebly, and said 'And I invite you.'

'I didn't know I was to have a party at all,' said Alice; 'but if there is to be one, I think I ought to invite the guests.'

'We gave you the opportunity of doing it,' the Red Queen remarked: 'but I daresay you've not had many lessons in manners yet?'

'Manners are not taught in lessons,' said Alice. 'Lessons teach you to do sums, and things of that sort.'