in which I guess I have a lot of thoughts after a longish absence
Militarization of Campus Police -- this link on the Davis pepper spray incident has been going around. It's worth a read if you haven't seen it yet.
There is an awful lot I'm tempted to say about the UC/CSU system, administrative BS and red tape, budget cuts, furloughs, the tuition hikes both students and teachers have been protesting for years by now, and the ridiculous state of public education here at all levels, but I won't bore all you non-Californians with it. :P
(Especially since I suspect to an outsider it all just sounds utterly insane. Well, that's because it is...)
- - -
Not much else to say. My life has been either uninteresting or interesting in all the wrong ways lately.
Although maybe a brief expansion of my earlier comments on Un-Go at various places: it's perhaps more cyberpunk than it is mystery, i.e. people who pick it up for that aspect will almost certainly be disappointed. It's very much a subversion of the classic whodunnit in some ways, in fact. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the supernatural aspect -- I both like and feel wary about it, and given my recent track record with anime there's a very good chance I'll end up hating or disliking the way it plays out. But pretty much everything else about the series really caters to me intellectually. (I'm still unabashedly impressed with the clever and sometimes quite subtle manner in which the Meiji/Taisho/Showa parallels and allusions are implemented.) And it proves also, I think, that cyberpunk is not yet irrelevant as a genre. For those who were just into the trappings, yes... I think that part's long been over. There was an excellent William Gibson interview I read recently, however, which I think really articulated a great deal of my personal feelings about the genre and what it encompasses. (Although his books are hit and miss for me, I never fail to be amused by Gibson's... not-quite-perplexed feelings about the genre he spawned, and his continuing perspective as more or less an outsider.)
I guess I'm impressed in particular because this certainly isn't the first time in recent years I've seen a show attempt to tackle similar themes. Far from it, in fact. It's been kind of interesting to me to trace the political atmosphere in Japan through recent animanga/dramas, because there are a few recurring themes or questions that keep showing up in the most random places, sometimes when least expected. Not something I can pin down, exactly... but this is something that's been kind of on my mind ever since watching C earlier this year (and probably as early as Eden of the East or even earlier yet, but C really hammered it in this year). The thing is, Un-Go is the first time I've seen these issues handled so... organically? smoothly? in a manner that's far from heavy-handed? I'm not quite sure. It's perhaps too early to tell just yet and YMMV on the subtlety or lack thereof.
All I can say is, so far it's been quirky and thought-provoking without being silly, exactly. (Quirky != silly) Somehow it manages to be smart even with the seemingly out-of-place supernatural element (actually, I suspect this is a relic of the adapted material and so have been assuming it's not completely extraneous in the big picture). And I don't think it's perfect, but I feel it's so far been a genuinely thoughtful show rather than provocative just for the hell of it or to prove its "relevance" or, uh, hipness. I think I may actually like it better than Eden of the East. (Though I still have not gotten around to watching the movies, and like I said, it's probably too early to make any judgments on Un-Go just yet.)
(Just watch, a few weeks from now I'm gonna be like omgwtfbbq what the hell, BONES. XD)
There is an awful lot I'm tempted to say about the UC/CSU system, administrative BS and red tape, budget cuts, furloughs, the tuition hikes both students and teachers have been protesting for years by now, and the ridiculous state of public education here at all levels, but I won't bore all you non-Californians with it. :P
(Especially since I suspect to an outsider it all just sounds utterly insane. Well, that's because it is...)
- - -
Not much else to say. My life has been either uninteresting or interesting in all the wrong ways lately.
Although maybe a brief expansion of my earlier comments on Un-Go at various places: it's perhaps more cyberpunk than it is mystery, i.e. people who pick it up for that aspect will almost certainly be disappointed. It's very much a subversion of the classic whodunnit in some ways, in fact. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the supernatural aspect -- I both like and feel wary about it, and given my recent track record with anime there's a very good chance I'll end up hating or disliking the way it plays out. But pretty much everything else about the series really caters to me intellectually. (I'm still unabashedly impressed with the clever and sometimes quite subtle manner in which the Meiji/Taisho/Showa parallels and allusions are implemented.) And it proves also, I think, that cyberpunk is not yet irrelevant as a genre. For those who were just into the trappings, yes... I think that part's long been over. There was an excellent William Gibson interview I read recently, however, which I think really articulated a great deal of my personal feelings about the genre and what it encompasses. (Although his books are hit and miss for me, I never fail to be amused by Gibson's... not-quite-perplexed feelings about the genre he spawned, and his continuing perspective as more or less an outsider.)
I guess I'm impressed in particular because this certainly isn't the first time in recent years I've seen a show attempt to tackle similar themes. Far from it, in fact. It's been kind of interesting to me to trace the political atmosphere in Japan through recent animanga/dramas, because there are a few recurring themes or questions that keep showing up in the most random places, sometimes when least expected. Not something I can pin down, exactly... but this is something that's been kind of on my mind ever since watching C earlier this year (and probably as early as Eden of the East or even earlier yet, but C really hammered it in this year). The thing is, Un-Go is the first time I've seen these issues handled so... organically? smoothly? in a manner that's far from heavy-handed? I'm not quite sure. It's perhaps too early to tell just yet and YMMV on the subtlety or lack thereof.
All I can say is, so far it's been quirky and thought-provoking without being silly, exactly. (Quirky != silly) Somehow it manages to be smart even with the seemingly out-of-place supernatural element (actually, I suspect this is a relic of the adapted material and so have been assuming it's not completely extraneous in the big picture). And I don't think it's perfect, but I feel it's so far been a genuinely thoughtful show rather than provocative just for the hell of it or to prove its "relevance" or, uh, hipness. I think I may actually like it better than Eden of the East. (Though I still have not gotten around to watching the movies, and like I said, it's probably too early to make any judgments on Un-Go just yet.)
(Just watch, a few weeks from now I'm gonna be like omgwtfbbq what the hell, BONES. XD)