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Lots of News and Thinky-Thoughts
Jan. 14th, 2014 12:17 pmAfter my post about the horribleness of fruitcake, my friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
empty_mirrors decided to send me DECENT fruitcake from the UK, where she's from. The packages arrived earlier this week and included some other UK delicacies that we can't get 'round here, including Jelly Babies and Treacle (because Mason always hears about treacle in the Harry Potter books and had to know!) We haven't had a tasting yet, because Shawn came down with a horrible case of the laryngitis crud that we've been passing around the household, and we wanted to wait and have a special UK day/tea where we tried ALL THE THINGS and it seems unfair with her snorfling and unable to taste much beyond her own mucous....
With any luck, that will be this weekend. I plan to take may pictures and post all our reactions.
But, poor Shawn, this cold/laryngitis thing has been growing stronger with each person it attacks (like a shounen hero!), so she's been really knocked back, far worse than either Mason or I. I'm still suffering a tiny bit--my sinuses are still runny and my throat hurts, but I'm otherwise mostly over it.
The issue of British food (and fruitcake) came up last Friday when I dined with the Wolves (the good folks at Sofa Wolf had me over when my friend and fellow writer Kyle Gold was in town.) Turns out, the Wolves make their own figgy pudding, which is another one of those things that you always hear about, but... at least in my case, have never had. So I slyly invited myself to some holiday gathering so I could taste it. I mean, it sounds like some kind of sweet version of haggis! You make it one year and let it... ferment?... age?... in a cold, dark place for OVER A YEAR???? Seriously, I can't wait.
I had a lovely time, as usual, with the Wolves. Afterwards, Kyle and I have been emailing back and forth percolating on an idea for a furry-type novel for me. Could be fun, is all I'm saying, and at this point, I have so very little to lose.
In fact, later this afternoon, I have scheduled a phone call with my agent that I'm kind of dreading. It's one of those that could go either way. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Also, since I was sick, I've been neglecting my around the house duties. Today I tackled a pile of dishes. One of the things I like to do while doing the dishes is watch Anime on my iPad. It sits nicely in the windowsill above the sink, so I can do my work and still read subtitles. I've gotten through Full Metal Alchemist, Free!, Attack on Titan, and Samurai Champloo that way. I've just started Death Note. Death Note is different from a lot of other shounen Anime in that our hero is... kind of a villain. No, not kind of... totally. The basic premise is that a death god, a shinigami, has dropped his notebook , into which the names of the dead are written, into the Human World. A bright high school boy named Light find it and discovers that he can kill people by writing their names, times of death, and cause into it. His plan, of course, is to use it for GOOD. He starts by picking off condemned criminals. But, what's interesting about the story is that the slippery slope is VERY slippery and pretty soon we discover when the shinigami comes to track Light down, that our "hero" plans to create a new world and SET HIMSELF UP AS GOD.
I spend a lot of this show not sure who to root for. It's like "Dexter," without the funny/interesting insights into human nature from the point of view of a sociopath. The only thing that's compelling about Light is how smart he is. But he's DEVIOUS-smart, which is compelling, but also kind of... scary, especially now that Light is trying to save himself from discovery. I like the show a lot, but it makes me remember why I'm not terribly fond of vigilante heroes, like Batman.
I know everyone loves Batman, but Batman has never been a favorite of mine (nor his Marvel analog Iron Man), because essentially Bruce Wayne (and Tony Stark) is a rich vigilante. Both heroes use money to give them powers that allow them to operate beyond the law. Both heroes believe they're serving justice. In the Marvel and DC universes, it's very rare that either of them make a mistake and it's clear that we're meant to believe they're right, they *are* doing the right thing for the right reasons and filling a real need. What's funny to me is that I'm a huge fan of two other rich vigilantes: the Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro, but in both those cases, the universe in which the heroes live is very clearly screwed-up and both heroes fight to protect those being harassed by corrupt governments. You could make a case that Gotham is a corrupt government, but it's not usually portrayed that way OVERTLY. Again, over in the Marvel Universe, the same could be said for New York (or LA, depending on if Tony is in the East Coast or West Coast Avengers at the time), but, you know, again not strictly obvious or overt....
I don't really know where I was going with this thought except to say that I guess shows like "Death Note" feel more honest to me, like a REAL exploration of what might happen if you have an intense sense of justice combined with the knowledge that sometimes the system fails to catch the bad guys/punish them properly. And maybe some Batman story lines *have* dealt with this, I don't know.
I probably just don't like Batman because he has a butler. Who has a butler in this day and age? (And yes, I KNOW some people still do, but do we LIKE them??)
empty_mirrors decided to send me DECENT fruitcake from the UK, where she's from. The packages arrived earlier this week and included some other UK delicacies that we can't get 'round here, including Jelly Babies and Treacle (because Mason always hears about treacle in the Harry Potter books and had to know!) We haven't had a tasting yet, because Shawn came down with a horrible case of the laryngitis crud that we've been passing around the household, and we wanted to wait and have a special UK day/tea where we tried ALL THE THINGS and it seems unfair with her snorfling and unable to taste much beyond her own mucous....With any luck, that will be this weekend. I plan to take may pictures and post all our reactions.
But, poor Shawn, this cold/laryngitis thing has been growing stronger with each person it attacks (like a shounen hero!), so she's been really knocked back, far worse than either Mason or I. I'm still suffering a tiny bit--my sinuses are still runny and my throat hurts, but I'm otherwise mostly over it.
The issue of British food (and fruitcake) came up last Friday when I dined with the Wolves (the good folks at Sofa Wolf had me over when my friend and fellow writer Kyle Gold was in town.) Turns out, the Wolves make their own figgy pudding, which is another one of those things that you always hear about, but... at least in my case, have never had. So I slyly invited myself to some holiday gathering so I could taste it. I mean, it sounds like some kind of sweet version of haggis! You make it one year and let it... ferment?... age?... in a cold, dark place for OVER A YEAR???? Seriously, I can't wait.
I had a lovely time, as usual, with the Wolves. Afterwards, Kyle and I have been emailing back and forth percolating on an idea for a furry-type novel for me. Could be fun, is all I'm saying, and at this point, I have so very little to lose.
In fact, later this afternoon, I have scheduled a phone call with my agent that I'm kind of dreading. It's one of those that could go either way. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Also, since I was sick, I've been neglecting my around the house duties. Today I tackled a pile of dishes. One of the things I like to do while doing the dishes is watch Anime on my iPad. It sits nicely in the windowsill above the sink, so I can do my work and still read subtitles. I've gotten through Full Metal Alchemist, Free!, Attack on Titan, and Samurai Champloo that way. I've just started Death Note. Death Note is different from a lot of other shounen Anime in that our hero is... kind of a villain. No, not kind of... totally. The basic premise is that a death god, a shinigami, has dropped his notebook , into which the names of the dead are written, into the Human World. A bright high school boy named Light find it and discovers that he can kill people by writing their names, times of death, and cause into it. His plan, of course, is to use it for GOOD. He starts by picking off condemned criminals. But, what's interesting about the story is that the slippery slope is VERY slippery and pretty soon we discover when the shinigami comes to track Light down, that our "hero" plans to create a new world and SET HIMSELF UP AS GOD.
I spend a lot of this show not sure who to root for. It's like "Dexter," without the funny/interesting insights into human nature from the point of view of a sociopath. The only thing that's compelling about Light is how smart he is. But he's DEVIOUS-smart, which is compelling, but also kind of... scary, especially now that Light is trying to save himself from discovery. I like the show a lot, but it makes me remember why I'm not terribly fond of vigilante heroes, like Batman.
I know everyone loves Batman, but Batman has never been a favorite of mine (nor his Marvel analog Iron Man), because essentially Bruce Wayne (and Tony Stark) is a rich vigilante. Both heroes use money to give them powers that allow them to operate beyond the law. Both heroes believe they're serving justice. In the Marvel and DC universes, it's very rare that either of them make a mistake and it's clear that we're meant to believe they're right, they *are* doing the right thing for the right reasons and filling a real need. What's funny to me is that I'm a huge fan of two other rich vigilantes: the Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro, but in both those cases, the universe in which the heroes live is very clearly screwed-up and both heroes fight to protect those being harassed by corrupt governments. You could make a case that Gotham is a corrupt government, but it's not usually portrayed that way OVERTLY. Again, over in the Marvel Universe, the same could be said for New York (or LA, depending on if Tony is in the East Coast or West Coast Avengers at the time), but, you know, again not strictly obvious or overt....
I don't really know where I was going with this thought except to say that I guess shows like "Death Note" feel more honest to me, like a REAL exploration of what might happen if you have an intense sense of justice combined with the knowledge that sometimes the system fails to catch the bad guys/punish them properly. And maybe some Batman story lines *have* dealt with this, I don't know.
I probably just don't like Batman because he has a butler. Who has a butler in this day and age? (And yes, I KNOW some people still do, but do we LIKE them??)
