The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spooks
Jul. 28th, 2010 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastI shall not allow the fact that I am not awake dissuade me from making this blog entry.
Yesterday was, as I said, a day off. And it was not a bad day off, but I fear my head was not cleared out during the course of the day, as I'd hoped it would be. So, I move ahead with a cluttered head.
I've done A-E of "The Yellow Alphabet." Today, F-H.
Watching The Runaways night before last, and pretty much any time I see something made before the advent of the personal computer, the cellphone, the iPod, videogames, the world wide web, and so forth...I am left with the disquieting feeling that the world is becoming increasingly less real. No, I cannot yet quantify that. I'm still working on some way to explain precisely what I mean. Just a sense that things were more real than they are now, and that we continue losing the integrity of reality as we accept more and more techno-distraction into our lives. And sure, this likely goes back to radio and motion pictures, television and telephones. Maybe it even goes back to the invention of the printing press. But the latter was invented in 1440 or so, and it was only at the end of the 19th Century that the explosion of communication and entertainment media via electronic delivery devices really began. Sure, I sound like a Luddite. I probably am a Luddite, albeit a Luddite who spends most of her life online, who uses Twitter and Facebook and LiveJournal and Gmail. Who has an iBook (from 2000, but still), an iPod (from 2005, but still) and a cellphone (from 2004, but still). Mostly, I'm just thinking aloud here. I think the world is becoming less real, and the rate of disintegration may be exponential. Maybe this is what all those transhumanist H+ wonks mean by the "Singularity."
---
I think that my various new meds have my body a little off kilter. Specifically, my blood pressure. When I went to the doctor last Monday, my blood pressure was high. But mostly, the Prazosin is causing my blood pressure to drop. In the mornings, I am woozy and weak. My pulse tends to race. But the alternative to the meds is unacceptable, so...I'm dealing with it.
---
So, yesterday we saw Phillip Noyce's Salt. The first half was slow, but it picked up steam and the second half was quite enjoyable, as long as you didn't expect the plot to make much sense. As long you're satisfied by watching Angelina Jolie kick butt. Which I was. The ending is more of a "just stopping," so I assume this is the beginning of a series, unless this film tanks. But yeah, big dumb fun, leave your brain at the door.
Which brings me to the fact that we finished Season Two of 24 last night. It's a strange, strange show. It's really not very good. It is, in fact, often perfectly ridiculous. And yet we keep watching it. I think it's mostly Kiefer Sutherland, and the violent absurdity of it all, that keeps us coming back. But I can't imagine anyone watching this one week at a time, one episode a week, with commercials. It's certainly not that compelling. And, setting aside all the silliness, the plot devices and stuff the writers just pull out of their butts because it looks cool and Jack's such a badass that physics don't apply and the like, my main annoyance with the series is it's insistence on irrelevant subplots. In this respect, Season Two was both better and worse than Season One. All that business about Kim and the murdered wife and the murdering husband...it was just a huge distraction. I suspect studio execs insisted there be something to "appeal to the female demographic." But none of it had anything whatsoever to do with the actual story until the very, very end, and then only as a too-convenient device to distract Jack during a crucial minute or so, which was hardly enough to justify its existence. But yeah, we made it through two seasons. Not sure if we'll keep going (especially given that what happens after the Season Two cliffhanger was put into a frakking videogame).
Also, I'm not usually opposed to American remakes of foreign films, not by default. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it doesn't. But I am horrified at what's been done by Matt Reeves to Låt den rätte komma in. It's one thing to move the film to America. It's a far, far worse thing to remove Eli's gender issues. That, essentially, guts the film of one of its driving forces. This is not just a story about a budding serial killer and vampirism, but about sexual violation and gender ambiguity, and by striving to make the story more "accessible" (Reeves' own choice of words), he's destroyed it. There's a reason Tomas Alfredson's movie was pretty much limited to the art-film circuit. It was smart and subtle and dealt with complex issues, and dumbing it down for the mass American consumer is an abominable notion. Even if it's a notion that makes money.
We have eBay auctions ending this afternoon. Please have a look.
Anyway...I should get to work.
Yesterday was, as I said, a day off. And it was not a bad day off, but I fear my head was not cleared out during the course of the day, as I'd hoped it would be. So, I move ahead with a cluttered head.
I've done A-E of "The Yellow Alphabet." Today, F-H.
Watching The Runaways night before last, and pretty much any time I see something made before the advent of the personal computer, the cellphone, the iPod, videogames, the world wide web, and so forth...I am left with the disquieting feeling that the world is becoming increasingly less real. No, I cannot yet quantify that. I'm still working on some way to explain precisely what I mean. Just a sense that things were more real than they are now, and that we continue losing the integrity of reality as we accept more and more techno-distraction into our lives. And sure, this likely goes back to radio and motion pictures, television and telephones. Maybe it even goes back to the invention of the printing press. But the latter was invented in 1440 or so, and it was only at the end of the 19th Century that the explosion of communication and entertainment media via electronic delivery devices really began. Sure, I sound like a Luddite. I probably am a Luddite, albeit a Luddite who spends most of her life online, who uses Twitter and Facebook and LiveJournal and Gmail. Who has an iBook (from 2000, but still), an iPod (from 2005, but still) and a cellphone (from 2004, but still). Mostly, I'm just thinking aloud here. I think the world is becoming less real, and the rate of disintegration may be exponential. Maybe this is what all those transhumanist H+ wonks mean by the "Singularity."
---
I think that my various new meds have my body a little off kilter. Specifically, my blood pressure. When I went to the doctor last Monday, my blood pressure was high. But mostly, the Prazosin is causing my blood pressure to drop. In the mornings, I am woozy and weak. My pulse tends to race. But the alternative to the meds is unacceptable, so...I'm dealing with it.
---
So, yesterday we saw Phillip Noyce's Salt. The first half was slow, but it picked up steam and the second half was quite enjoyable, as long as you didn't expect the plot to make much sense. As long you're satisfied by watching Angelina Jolie kick butt. Which I was. The ending is more of a "just stopping," so I assume this is the beginning of a series, unless this film tanks. But yeah, big dumb fun, leave your brain at the door.
Which brings me to the fact that we finished Season Two of 24 last night. It's a strange, strange show. It's really not very good. It is, in fact, often perfectly ridiculous. And yet we keep watching it. I think it's mostly Kiefer Sutherland, and the violent absurdity of it all, that keeps us coming back. But I can't imagine anyone watching this one week at a time, one episode a week, with commercials. It's certainly not that compelling. And, setting aside all the silliness, the plot devices and stuff the writers just pull out of their butts because it looks cool and Jack's such a badass that physics don't apply and the like, my main annoyance with the series is it's insistence on irrelevant subplots. In this respect, Season Two was both better and worse than Season One. All that business about Kim and the murdered wife and the murdering husband...it was just a huge distraction. I suspect studio execs insisted there be something to "appeal to the female demographic." But none of it had anything whatsoever to do with the actual story until the very, very end, and then only as a too-convenient device to distract Jack during a crucial minute or so, which was hardly enough to justify its existence. But yeah, we made it through two seasons. Not sure if we'll keep going (especially given that what happens after the Season Two cliffhanger was put into a frakking videogame).
Also, I'm not usually opposed to American remakes of foreign films, not by default. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it doesn't. But I am horrified at what's been done by Matt Reeves to Låt den rätte komma in. It's one thing to move the film to America. It's a far, far worse thing to remove Eli's gender issues. That, essentially, guts the film of one of its driving forces. This is not just a story about a budding serial killer and vampirism, but about sexual violation and gender ambiguity, and by striving to make the story more "accessible" (Reeves' own choice of words), he's destroyed it. There's a reason Tomas Alfredson's movie was pretty much limited to the art-film circuit. It was smart and subtle and dealt with complex issues, and dumbing it down for the mass American consumer is an abominable notion. Even if it's a notion that makes money.
We have eBay auctions ending this afternoon. Please have a look.
Anyway...I should get to work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:39 pm (UTC)Perhaps we're connected by a tentacle, albeit a long distance one.
I wondered what that tickle was.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:30 pm (UTC)I do not know if things themselves are any less real now, but I do think it is becoming more and more possible—and acceptable—to treat the representations of things as a valid alternative to or even a preferable substitute for their reality. A Twitter feed equals the intimacy of a friendship. The ocean in storm is indistinguishable from a computer-generated typhoon onscreen. Death is a special effect.
It's a far, far worse thing to remove Eli's gender issues.
What? No. That is not correct.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:40 pm (UTC)Good line. And yes, as regards substitution.
What? No. That is not correct.
Next up, Of Mice and Men, only Lenny's not mentally retarded.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:45 pm (UTC)Also I read the translation of 'Let the Right One In', and I think you would like it.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:56 pm (UTC)I just finished 'The Ammonite Violin & Others' and it was fabulous. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Also I read the translation of 'Let the Right One In', and I think you would like it.
I read it, too. It's not bad, but I actually think Alfredson's film is an improvement on the novel.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 04:58 pm (UTC)Give me Son House in an old juke with a single microphone and a slide guitar any day.
But don't take away my Android phone.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:04 pm (UTC)But don't take away my Android phone.
Somehow, this is part of the general insidiousness of the reality's loss of integrity. Even those of us who complain have something (or many somethings) we can't imagine letting go of.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:17 pm (UTC)Amen.
My two cents ... We make things real by paying attention to them. People are paying less attention to the real world and more attention to the idiotic light-and-pixel representations of same that abound in chat rooms, video games, etc. The next generation will be content to wallow in isolation tanks of nutrient goo, connected directly into the Internet via skull prongs.
Until the giant robot weasels come to eat them.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:23 pm (UTC)My two cents ... We make things real by paying attention to them. People are paying less attention to the real world and more attention to the idiotic light-and-pixel representations of same that abound in chat rooms, video games, etc.
Interesting.
Until the giant robot weasels come to eat them.
Of course.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:27 pm (UTC)Of course.
So glad we agree ...
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:37 pm (UTC)The release date is October 1st.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 06:22 pm (UTC)I agree. Over the last few months I've come to believe that the internet sucks us into a kind of waking dream, bombarding us stimulus, but without the corresponding sense of tangibility that we gain from the world itself.
One could also say that extended periods of writing can cause the same effect. When one spends the lion's share of one's time inhabiting an alternate world that may only bear a passing resemblance to our own, the sense of dislocation can become profound. At least, I feel that way more and more these days.
I got as far as the cougar in season two, and that was my breaking point. I never went back.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 06:52 pm (UTC)I agree. Over the last few months I've come to believe that the internet sucks us into a kind of waking dream, bombarding us stimulus, but without the corresponding sense of tangibility that we gain from the world itself.
A waking dream. It might be interesting, here, to cross reference this idea with Inception and how the generally positive reception the film is enjoying. Perhaps a recognition of a communal dream state, existing in many layers...
One could also say that extended periods of writing can cause the same effect. When one spends the lion's share of one's time inhabiting an alternate world that may only bear a passing resemblance to our own, the sense of dislocation can become profound. At least, I feel that way more and more these days.
Agreed. I also experience the same thing reading at length, or roleplaying at length. It becomes an issue of immersion.
I got as far as the cougar in season two, and that was my breaking point. I never went back.
The cougar was an astoundingly stupid moment.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 08:48 pm (UTC)That's a fascinating idea. Not having seen the movie yet, I can't really speak to that, but now I'm really interested in seeing it.
When I was younger, I could manage that kind of immersion while reading; in fact, I consciously pursued it, because it was preferable to the reality I lived in. I never really experienced the same thing in roleplaying though, perhaps because I was always the Gamemaster, and thus I spent all my time driving the world rather than inhabiting it.
And now, ironically, I find myself unmoored from the real world more and more, and crave the kind of grounding I used to try and escape.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 09:25 pm (UTC)I never really experienced the same thing in roleplaying though, perhaps because I was always the Gamemaster, and thus I spent all my time driving the world rather than inhabiting it.
Also, online rp with a visual interface greatly increases the potential for immersion.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 07:22 pm (UTC)Then I physically isolated myself and buried myself in books.
Now the people I met and talk to online spill over into my life and take me bowling and visit me in hospital. I see a lot of the world thru virtual images but am constantly reminded their are real people at the other end, (almost anytime there is a disaster around the world I will have talked online to someone affected by it, The world is more PERSONAL now, I care more) wheras when I was young the bubble around you was complete and if you didn't already know people through family or geography your options to reach out to people with similar interests were very limited.
To me the world is becoming more real, more intense, every day and with every new way of making connections.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 07:28 pm (UTC)To me the world is becoming more real, more intense, every day and with every new way of making connections.
I would say that you're mistaking the overwhelming deluge of data and connectivity for an actual increase in the quality (and authenticity) of experience. But I've been wrong before.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 08:51 pm (UTC)I find life a lot less grey now.
Maybe what is lacking is meaningful physical "work" rather than artificial "exercise" for the sake of it.
I'm just saying I didn't feel more real 30 to 40 years ago, just more bored and very frustrated.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 09:22 pm (UTC)Does it take boredom and limitations to make life seem "authentic" to you?
Indeed, these are an inherent and necessary aspect of life. They permit both reflection and the necessity of imagination.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 07:59 pm (UTC)I -WISH- I had been able to see that version. Aside from the spectacular and world-renowned Toledo Museum of Art, I live in a cultural void and the "art film" version came nowhere near me. I excitedly rented the DVD when it first came out, but the dubbed vocals and the inane translation to English made me want to bludgeon someone. It was only when I went online to try and figure out why it was so highly praised that I realized I'd fallen for a bait-and-switch. I have the book a ways down on my reading list though, and I hope to see the -real- movie some day.
ETA: Wait! I just realized you said "remake". I was under the impression you were referring to the mangled translation. There's actually an American remake though? I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Disgusted and annoyed, but not surprised.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 09:23 pm (UTC)There's actually an American remake though?
Yes.
Yep. Disgusted and annoyed.
Date: 2010-07-28 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 11:40 pm (UTC)That feeling hit me when I became a parent.
Let The Right One In
Date: 2010-07-29 02:49 am (UTC)the broomsticks dip their buckets
Date: 2010-07-30 04:30 am (UTC)Eventually the tools will learn to craft from scratch, or our culture will degrade to total remix. Then we can let the machines prepare the feast, and eat ourselves to death. And those who have trained their palates to finer things will starve.
~Jacob
no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 05:08 am (UTC)