Another update for the wicked ;)
School has been draining, but fun. I think I'm slowly getting the hang of this. Besides I don't even get so fatigue at the end of the day anymore. A lot of this is due Hanna driving me around whenever she can and the help of the evil busses, but I also think I'm just generally less tired all the time. I have time for school, kendo, inside street hockey, random stuff with Hanna and Emmi, homework, cleaning, and some online time as well.
Still something has been missing for awhile now... yeah, I haven't been writing - at all. I noticed this a few weeks ago, frowned at it and tried a little harder. I got something written, but didn't feel it was anywhere near good, so I ditched it and tried again. No matter what I wrote it just didn't come out. I don't make notes on different fics spontanously anymore. Forcing's not helping either. I've almost completely lost my interest in fan fiction, hell, I put my whole ff.net account on HIATUS when I realized this was gonna take some time and I'm not even bothered by it. For some reason I just don't write anything.
I'm not saying this is the end, it just feels funny to be this disconnected from writing when I've never had a break this long without some form of planning/writing happening during it. With fan fiction I can totally understand this. I never get anything done anyway and most of my fics were updated sparsely anyway. Sad about a few fics, since I liked writing them and had started rather freshly too. I have a feeling this break will be going on for some time.
Perhaps it is simply due the lack of stimulates. I haven't read a book nor manga in ages. I do watch new series regularly, but they haven't been stirring any new ideas in me. I read fan fiction pretty much only when I find it on my FO page, meaning Rayne scenes and the stuff at 50scenes + friends' fics, so that isn't much that. I had just gotten through some major problems with my original, finnish stuff when this began. Now I just stare at my notes blankly and think it's a shame. Well it is.
Anyway, won't yap about that any longer. I found an interesting interview from the maker of Aeon Flux the series, Peter Chung. He made some interesting points I'd love to share. Then again, not being familiar with the Flux series or even the movie it might be a bit shady for you. Who knows, maybe not? It's past midnight. My brain shut down hours ago. Includes some spoilers you'll probably forget minutes after you've read it.
About how he came up with Aeon's character
Creating Aeon was very much a process of elimination. I set myself a rigorous set of restrictions-- of things I'd disallow: not an ideologue, a patriot or a crimefighter; no one giving her orders; no family; no assumptions. I tried to eliminate anything that would allow you to predict her actions.
Aeon has no family, or ties to anyone. Any dramatic points a screenwriter can score by holding family members hostage (or killing!) reveal nothing about her as a unique individual. Too easy. It's shorthand. We assume anyone is going to feel an emotional attachment to their sibling. That tells me nothing about her.
Her worth (to us) is her responsibility and hers alone. The point is, we all define our own worth. It's the main point of the series, actually.
A character in a film is not someone whose background we need to know in order to consider proceeding in a relationship with him/her. The process of discovery IS the relationship. Explain nothing. What matters is not the names of families, how many years in the future or past. What matters is the structure, the relationship of events, the thread which allows us to accept an unlikely outcome through the carefully delineated (and orchestrated) sequence of causal progression driven by character. You can transpose a good story on any setting, any era.
What makes a story compelling is that it: 1.has coherence and 2. corresponds to personal experience. The more unlikely the conclusion, the more compelling the tale. We want to learn how an event that seems to make no sense actually does when you know the details. That's how headlines hook you and what keeps you reading till the end of the newspaper article.
It's an interesting idea he has that characters need to have no past to affect their motivation, especially since the first step they usually tell you to do when creating a character is to give them a past. In Flux we never learn anything about either Trevor or Aeon in that aspect and yet we know the characters pretty well. We get what drives them and turns them off, and essentially have all the information we need about them.
About Trevor and Aeon's relationship
Their existence depends on the eternal struggle between their respective views. They are aware of this "dependency" on the other, and that is why they can never bring themselves to destroy the other.
Aeon doesn't want the Breen populace to become as free as she is. They're not up to it. That was the point of Thanatophobia. She likes Trevor's hands to be tied, so to speak, by the burden of his office, by his addiction to power. She doesn't want the Demiurge to relieve him of that burden. (That was implicit in that episode- though not the main point.) Revolutionaries need an oppressive establishment to thrive, just as governments need hidden enemies to justify stricture. If he were to be deposed or give up his office, she might even have to face the possibility of a committed relationship. Better that he remain unattainable. Besides, it's his supreme power that makes him attractive. Not because she likes powerful men-- but because his sense of responsibility is something she identifies with so strongly. She bears her own responsibility in her own way, for sure, but only for herself. She's both repulsed and fascinated that Trevor would take on the burden of so many that depend on him. She'd never admit it, but in that way, she admires him. It's a balance that must be maintained in a state of tension. (The ONE time Aeon does act to kill Trevor is when she pulls the lever in the Purge. And that is done at the coaxing of Trevor himself. He taunts her into acting against her "conscience" as proof that she is not under his control. "Conscience" is an idea, therefore a word, therefore a tool.)
I never understood allowing one's nationality, or allegiance to a regime, to be a defining characteristic of one's personal identity. That is an accident of birth. Who I am, even within that historical framework, is a matter of my own invention. Still, Trevor is primarily interested in inventing (or reinventing) what it is to be human-- not what it is to be a Breen. He uses the state as a laboratory. Nationalism is not his goal, but a tool towards possible transcendence. That is his saving grace.
Trevor and Aeon were not married in a previous life. That is the least interesting explanation I can imagine for their attraction to one another. It gets around the problem of making the characters interesting people in their own right. Also, it bears no relationship to what causes attraction between two people in real life; even if you believe in reincarnation. In fact-- I know a couple who vow they are destined to be together because they were once ancient Egyptian royalty. I know them well enough to question how that bond between them could survive millenia, yet the same can't be said of their Egyptianness (they are both as white/Anglo as they come). The point is, the compulsion of destiny does not make their relationship richer from the perspective of an observer. Only to themselves. (And yes-- fictional characters only exist to be observed.)
Aeon and Trevor should be attracted to each other because they are damned fascinating people. It's the author's job to come up with behavior to convince us that they could find qualities to love in each other in spite of everything. Not to tell us that they can't help it because they were born (or destined) that way.
I know a person who also thinks she was an Egyptian in a previous life >.> *rolls eyes* Tiididi didiid idiiddiii.
I love the relationship of Trevor/Aeon in the series. That stupid movie totally wrecked their beautiful balance and made them both into watered booze. You wouldn't get drunk on that licker. I could rant on forever about this subject but I yawned and have an early morning so. Another time then. ^^
Oh and I haven't been able to log into Facebook lately, in case you're wondering.
Still something has been missing for awhile now... yeah, I haven't been writing - at all. I noticed this a few weeks ago, frowned at it and tried a little harder. I got something written, but didn't feel it was anywhere near good, so I ditched it and tried again. No matter what I wrote it just didn't come out. I don't make notes on different fics spontanously anymore. Forcing's not helping either. I've almost completely lost my interest in fan fiction, hell, I put my whole ff.net account on HIATUS when I realized this was gonna take some time and I'm not even bothered by it. For some reason I just don't write anything.
I'm not saying this is the end, it just feels funny to be this disconnected from writing when I've never had a break this long without some form of planning/writing happening during it. With fan fiction I can totally understand this. I never get anything done anyway and most of my fics were updated sparsely anyway. Sad about a few fics, since I liked writing them and had started rather freshly too. I have a feeling this break will be going on for some time.
Perhaps it is simply due the lack of stimulates. I haven't read a book nor manga in ages. I do watch new series regularly, but they haven't been stirring any new ideas in me. I read fan fiction pretty much only when I find it on my FO page, meaning Rayne scenes and the stuff at 50scenes + friends' fics, so that isn't much that. I had just gotten through some major problems with my original, finnish stuff when this began. Now I just stare at my notes blankly and think it's a shame. Well it is.
Anyway, won't yap about that any longer. I found an interesting interview from the maker of Aeon Flux the series, Peter Chung. He made some interesting points I'd love to share. Then again, not being familiar with the Flux series or even the movie it might be a bit shady for you. Who knows, maybe not? It's past midnight. My brain shut down hours ago. Includes some spoilers you'll probably forget minutes after you've read it.
About how he came up with Aeon's character
Creating Aeon was very much a process of elimination. I set myself a rigorous set of restrictions-- of things I'd disallow: not an ideologue, a patriot or a crimefighter; no one giving her orders; no family; no assumptions. I tried to eliminate anything that would allow you to predict her actions.
Aeon has no family, or ties to anyone. Any dramatic points a screenwriter can score by holding family members hostage (or killing!) reveal nothing about her as a unique individual. Too easy. It's shorthand. We assume anyone is going to feel an emotional attachment to their sibling. That tells me nothing about her.
Her worth (to us) is her responsibility and hers alone. The point is, we all define our own worth. It's the main point of the series, actually.
A character in a film is not someone whose background we need to know in order to consider proceeding in a relationship with him/her. The process of discovery IS the relationship. Explain nothing. What matters is not the names of families, how many years in the future or past. What matters is the structure, the relationship of events, the thread which allows us to accept an unlikely outcome through the carefully delineated (and orchestrated) sequence of causal progression driven by character. You can transpose a good story on any setting, any era.
What makes a story compelling is that it: 1.has coherence and 2. corresponds to personal experience. The more unlikely the conclusion, the more compelling the tale. We want to learn how an event that seems to make no sense actually does when you know the details. That's how headlines hook you and what keeps you reading till the end of the newspaper article.
It's an interesting idea he has that characters need to have no past to affect their motivation, especially since the first step they usually tell you to do when creating a character is to give them a past. In Flux we never learn anything about either Trevor or Aeon in that aspect and yet we know the characters pretty well. We get what drives them and turns them off, and essentially have all the information we need about them.
About Trevor and Aeon's relationship
Their existence depends on the eternal struggle between their respective views. They are aware of this "dependency" on the other, and that is why they can never bring themselves to destroy the other.
Aeon doesn't want the Breen populace to become as free as she is. They're not up to it. That was the point of Thanatophobia. She likes Trevor's hands to be tied, so to speak, by the burden of his office, by his addiction to power. She doesn't want the Demiurge to relieve him of that burden. (That was implicit in that episode- though not the main point.) Revolutionaries need an oppressive establishment to thrive, just as governments need hidden enemies to justify stricture. If he were to be deposed or give up his office, she might even have to face the possibility of a committed relationship. Better that he remain unattainable. Besides, it's his supreme power that makes him attractive. Not because she likes powerful men-- but because his sense of responsibility is something she identifies with so strongly. She bears her own responsibility in her own way, for sure, but only for herself. She's both repulsed and fascinated that Trevor would take on the burden of so many that depend on him. She'd never admit it, but in that way, she admires him. It's a balance that must be maintained in a state of tension. (The ONE time Aeon does act to kill Trevor is when she pulls the lever in the Purge. And that is done at the coaxing of Trevor himself. He taunts her into acting against her "conscience" as proof that she is not under his control. "Conscience" is an idea, therefore a word, therefore a tool.)
I never understood allowing one's nationality, or allegiance to a regime, to be a defining characteristic of one's personal identity. That is an accident of birth. Who I am, even within that historical framework, is a matter of my own invention. Still, Trevor is primarily interested in inventing (or reinventing) what it is to be human-- not what it is to be a Breen. He uses the state as a laboratory. Nationalism is not his goal, but a tool towards possible transcendence. That is his saving grace.
Trevor and Aeon were not married in a previous life. That is the least interesting explanation I can imagine for their attraction to one another. It gets around the problem of making the characters interesting people in their own right. Also, it bears no relationship to what causes attraction between two people in real life; even if you believe in reincarnation. In fact-- I know a couple who vow they are destined to be together because they were once ancient Egyptian royalty. I know them well enough to question how that bond between them could survive millenia, yet the same can't be said of their Egyptianness (they are both as white/Anglo as they come). The point is, the compulsion of destiny does not make their relationship richer from the perspective of an observer. Only to themselves. (And yes-- fictional characters only exist to be observed.)
Aeon and Trevor should be attracted to each other because they are damned fascinating people. It's the author's job to come up with behavior to convince us that they could find qualities to love in each other in spite of everything. Not to tell us that they can't help it because they were born (or destined) that way.
I know a person who also thinks she was an Egyptian in a previous life >.> *rolls eyes* Tiididi didiid idiiddiii.
I love the relationship of Trevor/Aeon in the series. That stupid movie totally wrecked their beautiful balance and made them both into watered booze. You wouldn't get drunk on that licker. I could rant on forever about this subject but I yawned and have an early morning so. Another time then. ^^
Oh and I haven't been able to log into Facebook lately, in case you're wondering.