Trigun, the Manga -- No Punch-Pulling Here

Rem is a Nazi, and this pretty much sums up Trigun. That's right: I am going to make a Holocaust analogy, with many caveats (and spoilers) under the cut...

( Caveats, Spoilers, Review, and Meta... )

(light spoilers, not cutting)

In church today, we had the Earth Day service, which consisted of singing about gratitude to God for the glories of the Earth and about our responsibilities steward the Earth. Because I've been obsessing about Trigun, I found myself contemplating how Trigun's Plants function as a metaphor for ecological awareness ( Read more... )

Gungrave as an Asexual-Positive Text

The anime, Gungrave, offers a refreshingly balanced view of sex. While acknowledging sex as important, it is a rare example of a text that does not exaggerate the importance of sex within a healthy society. (Mind you, Gungrave in no way presents a healthy society, but its narrative stance does show healthy ( Read more... )

I'm weighing in on the Orson Scott Card kerfuffle, the one where he rewrites Hamlet to be about the evils of homosexual parents and this brings further to light his homophobia, as on display in this 2004 speech. I wasn't going to comment because if ever there was preaching to the choir, it's here in this corner of DW/LJ. But then,
( Read more... )

I seldom read non-fiction but, on my parents' recommendation, have been ferociously skimming two books by physician, Gabor Maté, that I want to rec to the world: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and When the Body Says No.

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts discusses addiction (very broadly defined) as an ineffectual coping strategy for finding external ( Read more... )

"Boston Partnership: A Defense of Primary Friendship""The only thing lacking in Izzy's life was a romantic relationship, but even that wasn't enough to spoil the sense of peace that had settled over her. So many of her friends were single that it didn't seem odd for her to be that way as well. They filled up the holes in each other's lives and ( Read more... )

When I was three, I wondered at how my mind came to be stuck in my body. Now that I'm nearly 36, I still wonder at it, though differently. Then, I was startled by the revelation of self-awareness. Now, I am startled by the awareness that my existence is more than a third over ( Read more... )

For the Easter service in church today, they sang the "Hallelujah Chorus"--very well. I was surprised, given that completely unrehearsed people from the congregation were invited to come sing with the choir. It sounded almost professional ( Read more... )

When I get home after several hours away, my lonely little kitty likes to assail me and sit on any available part of my anatomy, purring loudly. This makes it tricky to sit down at my computer and immediately start checking email, doing DW/LJ, updating my online class, etc.: it's hard to type with Kitty strategically placed between me and Keyboard ( Read more... )