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Jun. 8th, 2006 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI don't know how I found it, or who recc'd it to me (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
linaerys I am looking in your direction, though) but, having finally finished Sex in History, I picked up His Majesty's Dragon this morning for the commute read.
Cue ::giggling madly to self::
It's Hornblower. With dragons. SQUEEEE.
Ahem. Of course, this could change when the action moves off the water and into the dragon-rearing, but but but still! What an opening!
I need this book to have an addendum. I don't care if the author has to like come back from the grave to write one, this book cannot end. It begins to speed up as she gets through the twentieth century, with 1990 being the latest date mentioned and the AIDS crisis as the emerging problem for societal views on sexuality. Her point of view has been remarkably professional and untainted by sexism or bias (as in she neither blames nor commends either sex for the shockingly inequal sexual balance of power in the past millenia) while remaining invariably snarky.
She speaks quite frankly about her skepticism that radical feminism worked/will work (time has proven that the backlash against it has nullified many of the positive steps it took). She puts in this bit at the end where psychics said the future would be free from sexualized advertising (Hello, pyschics, I'm Dr. Who's assistant, and I'd like to take you forward in time to a magical place called "Times Square NYC"), where "conventional" morality would once again reign. I wish she could form a response to these now that twenty-odd years have passed and AIDS is still with us, people still think sexuality used to be less abusively in their faces, and pornography has entered the mainstream. Hell, I want to know what she thinks of the new techonology to distribute porn or of the chat rooms that specifically hook up people looking for nothing more than sex or the fact that more kids are performing oral and anal sex acts to avoid losing "real" virginities because those kinds of sex are not "really sex."
In short, it's a wonderful, illustrative book, which makes some profound assumptions about the evolution of attitudes towards sex and that makes an argument so cogent for why men assumed dominancy in sexual politics (as opposed to, say, the Bible-beaters' belief that men were given the right to dominate women by God) that it made clearer a lot of things that came later (obsessions over lineage, "my" child versus "yours" phenom, essentially). I highly recommend it. I might go grab her Food in History, too, just to see her address the other strong drive in our lives.
And, lastly, I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children last night. Bzzu-wha? Maybe it would have helped to have played the game to understand stuff, but I doubt it. Most of the plot of VII I've gotten by video gamer osmosis by now, thank you Kingdom Hearts, so I know the relative relationships of Cloud, Sephiroth, Tifa, Aerith, et al. I can figure out a lot by just watching, too, no problem.
Still, monkey says what? Buh-uh? I mean, very pretty, whoop-di-doo, but it's not even that pretty. For certain, I don't think it was as pretty as the animated, pre-rendered scenes from Final Fantasy X, so maybe there's something to be said for indulging in Square-Enix animation in small doses--the longer it's onscreen, the more flaws you see with it. For one--a major one--the lighting. It's dreadful. It's washed out and too bright almost everywhere. They're not obeying rules of shading except for where it's convenient or "dramatic" (as if one more character with only half his face visible through his hair is "dramatic" at this point in anime). There are remarkably real-looking shots of some of the characters when in close up--when the camera backs off to take in scenery, it looks flat because the proportion is off and the even shading makes that worse.
I could harp on about the animation more--when are they going to soften their edges on fingers so they look less like shrink-wrapped appendages?--but it's not worth it. Square's done some great work. Final Fantasy X stands out in my mind as some of the best because of the opening with Tidus and the Blitzball game. It had a million complications in one shot: Tidus with his crazy mop of blonde hair, him also having water spritz rolling down his cheeks, the little lake he was sitting in, the shadows cast by the track lighting, his breathing (Square needs to have its characters breathe more when they're not otherwise active, that might make them a little less stiff). It's by far and away their most impressive shot, and I wish them better luck with FF13 and any future direct-to-DVD videos.
And then there's the plot--that I am allowed to harp on. God, I thought Cloud was annoying emo in Kingdom Hearts. Here, he's worse, and he's doing that silent-struggling loner hero act to the nth degree while also trying to affect a noble-sacrifice-apathetic-tool attitude. Just ain't cutting it. Plus, what're his motives? More stuff I'd understand better if I played, I suspect, but even the summary in the beginning couldn't explain why either he or the three silver-haired freaks were doing what they were doing. It's great that all his friends (how he has any, I do not know) show up to save the day, but why is Bahamut evil? ::wibble:: I wuv Bahamut. Don't make him evil. And, uh, why is he supposed to be evil if he eats the evil guys' creatures? Muh? Does or does not gravity have any place in this world? AH, sooooo stupid.
And that's all she wrote (for now). Wish I had something for writing group.
linaerys I am looking in your direction, though) but, having finally finished Sex in History, I picked up His Majesty's Dragon this morning for the commute read.Cue ::giggling madly to self::
It's Hornblower. With dragons. SQUEEEE.
Ahem. Of course, this could change when the action moves off the water and into the dragon-rearing, but but but still! What an opening!
I need this book to have an addendum. I don't care if the author has to like come back from the grave to write one, this book cannot end. It begins to speed up as she gets through the twentieth century, with 1990 being the latest date mentioned and the AIDS crisis as the emerging problem for societal views on sexuality. Her point of view has been remarkably professional and untainted by sexism or bias (as in she neither blames nor commends either sex for the shockingly inequal sexual balance of power in the past millenia) while remaining invariably snarky.
She speaks quite frankly about her skepticism that radical feminism worked/will work (time has proven that the backlash against it has nullified many of the positive steps it took). She puts in this bit at the end where psychics said the future would be free from sexualized advertising (Hello, pyschics, I'm Dr. Who's assistant, and I'd like to take you forward in time to a magical place called "Times Square NYC"), where "conventional" morality would once again reign. I wish she could form a response to these now that twenty-odd years have passed and AIDS is still with us, people still think sexuality used to be less abusively in their faces, and pornography has entered the mainstream. Hell, I want to know what she thinks of the new techonology to distribute porn or of the chat rooms that specifically hook up people looking for nothing more than sex or the fact that more kids are performing oral and anal sex acts to avoid losing "real" virginities because those kinds of sex are not "really sex."
In short, it's a wonderful, illustrative book, which makes some profound assumptions about the evolution of attitudes towards sex and that makes an argument so cogent for why men assumed dominancy in sexual politics (as opposed to, say, the Bible-beaters' belief that men were given the right to dominate women by God) that it made clearer a lot of things that came later (obsessions over lineage, "my" child versus "yours" phenom, essentially). I highly recommend it. I might go grab her Food in History, too, just to see her address the other strong drive in our lives.
And, lastly, I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children last night. Bzzu-wha? Maybe it would have helped to have played the game to understand stuff, but I doubt it. Most of the plot of VII I've gotten by video gamer osmosis by now, thank you Kingdom Hearts, so I know the relative relationships of Cloud, Sephiroth, Tifa, Aerith, et al. I can figure out a lot by just watching, too, no problem.
Still, monkey says what? Buh-uh? I mean, very pretty, whoop-di-doo, but it's not even that pretty. For certain, I don't think it was as pretty as the animated, pre-rendered scenes from Final Fantasy X, so maybe there's something to be said for indulging in Square-Enix animation in small doses--the longer it's onscreen, the more flaws you see with it. For one--a major one--the lighting. It's dreadful. It's washed out and too bright almost everywhere. They're not obeying rules of shading except for where it's convenient or "dramatic" (as if one more character with only half his face visible through his hair is "dramatic" at this point in anime). There are remarkably real-looking shots of some of the characters when in close up--when the camera backs off to take in scenery, it looks flat because the proportion is off and the even shading makes that worse.
I could harp on about the animation more--when are they going to soften their edges on fingers so they look less like shrink-wrapped appendages?--but it's not worth it. Square's done some great work. Final Fantasy X stands out in my mind as some of the best because of the opening with Tidus and the Blitzball game. It had a million complications in one shot: Tidus with his crazy mop of blonde hair, him also having water spritz rolling down his cheeks, the little lake he was sitting in, the shadows cast by the track lighting, his breathing (Square needs to have its characters breathe more when they're not otherwise active, that might make them a little less stiff). It's by far and away their most impressive shot, and I wish them better luck with FF13 and any future direct-to-DVD videos.
And then there's the plot--that I am allowed to harp on. God, I thought Cloud was annoying emo in Kingdom Hearts. Here, he's worse, and he's doing that silent-struggling loner hero act to the nth degree while also trying to affect a noble-sacrifice-apathetic-tool attitude. Just ain't cutting it. Plus, what're his motives? More stuff I'd understand better if I played, I suspect, but even the summary in the beginning couldn't explain why either he or the three silver-haired freaks were doing what they were doing. It's great that all his friends (how he has any, I do not know) show up to save the day, but why is Bahamut evil? ::wibble:: I wuv Bahamut. Don't make him evil. And, uh, why is he supposed to be evil if he eats the evil guys' creatures? Muh? Does or does not gravity have any place in this world? AH, sooooo stupid.
And that's all she wrote (for now). Wish I had something for writing group.
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Date: 2006-06-10 05:44 am (UTC)And Cloud is emo in Kingdom Hearts, I almost don't want to know why.
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Date: 2006-06-10 10:32 pm (UTC)Cloud was pretty emo in FFVII but it makes alot of sense, actually i think alot of KH makes more sense for having played FFVII. I tried the other ones but just never got that addicted, perhaps its because i have the attention span of a fruit fly? Who knows?
Well sorry to ba another to jump on the band wagon of OMG you have to play this game...but if you think about it i dont think i have ever said that to you before. I am uber picky about what games I play. I can see where going back and looking at the old graphics would be a let down compared to whats out now. I am willing to bet that all of us who are its personal cheerleading team, are the ones who sat there slack jawed at the graphics when it first came out, and have played it again recentlly for the nostolgic value (except me who cant find it here, but i have hope...)
Besides you will have your hands full next month, Legos Star Wars II comes out. Episodes 4,5,6. That i will nag you to play because its YOUR FAULT we got so addicted to the first one we have this on preorder.
PS> Darryl and I have been waiting for you to go on a tangent about how they made Blade into a TV show...did we miss this? Or did you?