More Enjoyment of Media

[jedishampoo]

** I'm through episode 10 of Tiger and Bunny, and of course it was a cliffhanger, eee! We would have watched more episodes last night but I was having trouble burning a DVD. (I never watch stuff on the computer - I am fussy and must have a nice DVD to put into my player so I can see them on the nice, big TV.) I am still avoiding everyone's spoilers, but it's difficult, I tell you, because I am a spoiler whore.

** Speaking of anime, did anyone ever fansub the Saiyuki Gaiden OVA, and I just missed a download somewhere?

** I'm about a third of the way through the first George RR Martin Game of Thrones book (A Sword of Ice and Fire? or is that the series name?). Anyway, overuse of epithets by the author aside, almost NOTHING GOOD has happened in this book yet. So far it's bad happening followed by dark, confusing intrigue followed by bad happening. When something halfway decent does happen, there's so much Dark Intrigue that I can't trust it to be truly good. Um... does good stuff start happening in these books at all?

** In other reading good, I have a set of Bleach 1-27 thanks to conjure_lass, and I'm already through volume 1. I'm totally enjoying that so far.

Happy Labor Day Holiday to all of those in the US! Whee, cookout today. EDIT: and to Canadians, too, for I learn that y'all have "Labour Day."

Comments

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

OMG, that's sucha great way to put it. I wish I'd known you then so I could steal your words and share them back with her.

Haha I just have to share; that one was in Lord of the Rings and seriously, someone different was getting raped and maimed in every chapter and some other Fellowship member had to come upon them and begin weeping copiously before nursing them back to life... only to be raped and maimed again. But hey, lots of people seemed to love it. And... I've seen it in Hetalia/US/UK fandom, too. I just sniff it out and stay away. Yannow? Sad stuff that happens naturally in a story, rather than being forced on the characters, is so much more organic and believable. IMHO, let me caveat.

[conjure-lass.livejournal.com]

Sad things are natural and fine. They happen. But they are not the be-all, end-all of the world. One's life is not constant sadness anymore than it's constant happiness.

Like I said, when you write happy things, people tend to find it less "believable" than the angsty crap. Drama is "good writing" to people.

OH GOD. USxUK is just ripe full of angst, isn't it? I mean, their natural relationship is ALREADY angsty, why add more with the rape and drugs and prostitution?? Does it really NEED that?? LOL

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

I have to horn in just a bit here... One of the biggest things I adore about Saiyuki is how Minekura manages to convey how tragic the boys' lives have all been, and how they are going through all this horrific shit, and yet still have there be so much love and SO much humor woven all throughout the story. My favorite writer, William Styron, wrote very graphically about the holocaust in Sophie's Choice and ended the book (sorry if this spoilers anyone - the book is OLD) with the suicides of the two main principles, and STILL manages to find gracenotes of hope and redemption, and inserts bits of humor and irony here and there pretty liberally.

People who write relentlessly angsty tragic shit are just expressing and venting their own issues, IMHO, and not creating a real artistic reflection of life in their works. Even in my darkest times (and at almost 55 y/o, I've been through some), I've managed to find some humor and love and hope somehow, somewhere. That's just the way life is. To fail to do that in one's writing is just lazy and narrow. (And like both of you, I tend to avoid those fanfics like the plague. I had a parting of the ways with a good friend in the Saiyuki fandom because she couldn't see anything beyond relentless hopeless darkness in either life or her own fics, and I just frankly got tired of it. Especially since she was less than 20 years old.)

Sorry. Clearly a pet peeve! Rant over. ^________^

[conjure-lass.livejournal.com]

I...I think I love you.

No, seriously, all my ranting and you nailed it on the head so much more easily. *laughs*

Truthfully, I think that you have to live a bit of life (not to say i'm all-knowing at 31, but I do know more than at 21) to really realize that life isn't fully of tragedy. It's hard to see through the haze of "woe is me" when you're that age as I recall. *laughs*

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

*loves being loved on ^_________^ *

I guess you are right... but I swear, as the Merciful Goddess is my witness, this particular person was... a wallower. Self-pity was her thing. It just got fecking old after a while, you know? Especially after having been through the shit I've been through in my life. After a while, I just wanted to shake her! Not very Buddhist of me, I admit... *lol*

I really hope I wasn't that insufferable at that age. I remember being kind of smug -- I was probably (well, ok, I was) guilty of that. But not that tragic pose, I don't think. But then, life hadn't really started to beat the crap out of me at that point. *lol* But honestly, I think if you can't keep your sense of humor about things, you might as well just pack it in. *shrugs*