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herotheshiro · 3 years

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so i reread all of behind the desks today lol bc i was thinking abt it last night as i was going to sleep, and also fully read through the epilogue chapters which i don’t think i had done before. which means i read through all of the plot points all at once this time around. i think my thoughts for this readthrough might end up being the length of a regular post so i’m just writing up a new post instead of reblogging my old review of this manhwa. obviously spoilers for the story below the cut

again i like this manhwa mainly bc of 2 things:

i like the juxtaposition of young’s obviously manipulative language with taesung’s innocent language that also sounds suspiciously the same. obviously you know taesung has positive intentions and isn’t a controlling freak like young but it’s such an interesting way to depict the aftermath of an abusive relationship and the difference in intentions despite the same words even though in retrospect that probably wasn’t what the author was trying to do. unless... ?

sunny seo as a character!! on the surface he definitely seems to fall under the standard BL uke tropes of being clumsy and looking pretty and stuck in a love triangle as the shared obj of affection but from the very beginning you already know he’s not a pushover but he just seems like that bc he doesn’t really have or express strong opinions. a lot of BLs tend to have the shared obj of affection be like oh nooo i can’t pick bw the 2 of them... but i mean from the start sunny doesn’t want to be w young and his fear of backlash and change is what motivates his secret-keeping from taesung... also throughout the story they imply that he’s a good match for taesung who canonly likes action stuff by being someone who actually likes high-energy activities/vibes. tl;dr sunny is generally a good character who also has a lot of foreshadowing done for him to reveal aspects of his personality that contribute to the story

anyway onto my thoughts that i had during this specific readthrough

jaeyoon. anyone who read my prev review for this manhwa knows that i had beef w how they used him during the conclusion to young and sunny’s relationship. i now realize that maybe they DID actually give him a face reveal during his wedding when young and sunny split off to chat with a friend each and the friend who spoke to sunny was actually jaeyoon himself... BUT YOU GOTTA FUCKING SAY THAT!! i suspected they were the same guy bc of the hair color and them always hiding jaeyoon’s face until that “random” moment where they give this character who looks like him a face but like i was never sure... no offense to the author or anything but i think you have to put in-text that it’s jaeyoon and not assume readers will know based on your art that it’s him... there are too many side characters who show up so it’s not like we’ve ONLY seen taesung/sunny/young so far so now this 4th person who shows up has to be jaeyoon... i mean maybe other readers ID-ed it as him w no issue esp since he shows up being like ‘dude...’ when that other friend is like ‘well jaeyoon was in rehab and stuff’ but i personally think it should’ve been mentioned in-text esp since that face reveal wasn’t nearly dramatic enough to 100% capture readers’ attentions.

otherwise i think the fact that jaeyoon and taesung are similar is a great plot point. jaeyoon was clearly the only friend in that group who saw young and sunny’s relationship accurately so i’m glad sunny had at least one GOOD friend then. jaeyoon is implied to be someone who takes care of others similar to taesung (even if it’s only sunny he dotes over the most) too. other than young’s general possessiveness of sunny, them being similar also explains why young saw jaeyoon as such a threat. but yeah unfortunately i still don’t think it was handled as well as it could have been.

young’s explanation for his behavior towards sunny... i hesitate to say it was the standard “villain redemption” but tbf i think it was a good explanation for his actions even if it felt a little too clean of a conclusion (young letting go of sunny so easily and also apparently realizing and accepting how damaging he was to him). i say it’s partially redeeming bc it shows that young was kind of trapped in such a specific and damaging way of thinking abt life that it affected how he treated sunny but it’s also not really redeeming him bc like. be normal man lol you don’t have to be like that to others.

separate but related note but young’s mindgaming of taesung... when he was like oh everything abt sunny seo you like is bc of me... like DAMN that’s evil and good (writing-wise). although the thing is that young and sunny also haven’t interacted apparently for 5 years so i mean you do have to realize that by the time taesung reunites w him, sunny has developed enough of an individual personality so it’s not ALL young’s shit.

in my last review i said i felt like i wanted more of young and sunny’s history... tbh i think they gave us enough actually. all we really need to know is that they’ve known each other for a very long time and that young manipulated sunny enough during an impressionable time (young age, college. ppl know how college can be lol) that sunny felt that young was the only one for him. i was actually surprised jaeyoon’s story/details came up so quick in the story (i think it showed up in the 1st half of the manhwa) but i think it was a good point bc the story had to move on to the middle/2nd half of sunny and taesung trying to get their relationship to work. past me was also apparently looking for this scene in the bar apparently where young explains his “reasons” to taesung lol

not really much to say this time abt the hosung x young endgame. still don’t think they should’ve done it or had hosung have unrequited feelings but whatever i guess. tbh i didn’t really realize/connect until this time around that hosung actually was in freelancing art/publishing which was why taesung had him look at sunny’s work lol... i think last time that part in the epilogue hadn’t been translated yet so i just didn’t have the room to make the connection maybs

the epilogue ending... so i actually never read the epilogue ending or at least its eng translation, and i was like hell yea at the full circle shit w sunny being like ‘oh the cherry blossom petals are falling just like when i first met taesung in the infirmary’ but then the ch kept going w taesung and sunny on the beach... idk i think ending it literally at sunny being like ‘w you i feel alive’ was such an abrupt ending... like maybe if they added another panel of them smiling at each other it could’ve been fine but if the author was running low on time i honestly think they could’ve ended it at the scene of sunny accepting his contest award

also when sunny was like ‘yeah lol all my classmates at the children’s book program also get sick all the time’.... i was like bruh this author is prob speaking from actual experience lmao

the other thing abt the ending that was a little random was the quick aside abt taesung’s mom being against their relationship... i mean it was a reference to the mom wanting taesung to get married in the main story but then they dropped it and then suddenly brought it back up again... randomly adding that taesung had a sister who was his contact w their mom... like i get it, it wraps up the loose end of his mom but wow i was uh ok random ch abt potential family conflicts. also where are sunny’s parents lol but that would’ve been too much to get into too regardless of homophobia or not lol

overall it’s still a pretty solid manhwa. stuff proceeds at a good pace and the conflicts/misunderstandings make sense. i said before it’s kinda like a love triangle but it’s really not which works w me bc i don’t like love triangles that much (they stress me out lol); it’s also good bc young is clearly toxic for sunny and it’s good that sunny knows that rather than sunny being like “oh i know he’s bad but also... hmm maybe i can overlook it”. the manhwa’s not perfect -- i still get the sense the writing could be better even if i can’t really enunciate why -- but enough details are tied together that there’s nothing major i have to extrapolate bw (like i can overlook the jooyeon mishap even though it legit threw me off the 1st time i read through). also yes i know the manhwa is based off of a game w characters essentially already established but my understanding is that the author/artist essentially had to write up a lot of the actual story themselves even if they had a general plotline provided to follow

also the final author’s note abt the author personally preferring fucked up stories... when i started rereading i was like wait isn’t this the same artist for that one manhwa where the characters look like the k!lling st@lking? mains and even if i didn’t remember i would’ve realized w that author’s note lol. i think fortunately for them that sunny isn’t an entirely “pure” character so they had enough room to make him a little more twisted.

#reading #reread

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rooneywritesbest · 5 years

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All It Takes Is One Bad Day

Have you ever really wondered who is the joker? I mean actually who he really is, or what made him into the clown prince of crime. Join me on a trip descending into the psychological observation of the deep dive of the subconscious of the comic-book villain. The only origin we have recorded of the Joker is in the novel “The Killing Joke” by Alan Moore. Moore paints and illustrates a period piece of the underbelly of Gotham City. The timeline is a little fuzzy. However, the artwork of Brian Bolland and the tone and direction of writing from Moore brings the graphic novel to life.

The clown was just a normal person trying to get by, struggling to pay bills, and living in a run-down apartment. Interesting enough, he was never given a name in the novel. Joker had a wife pregnant with his child. The emotion was painted on the panels, and he was terrified internally. So to alleviate the pain dragging down his well being. He soon made a choice that would affect his life by turning to the mob. The man was tasked with being the fall guy, he was also given a new code name or alias “Red Hood”.

Then you know the history that follows. Batman chases him and Joker falls into the vat of acid at ace chemicals. The chemical bath changes his mind and personality. Peeling away back at the persona that was once present. Now all that is left of the poor tortured soul. Being plagued by society is a man with pale white skin and the affinity to bring laughter in horrific fashion. The question to bring forth into context. Does he truly have any sliver of memory before undergoing his cosmetic change?

The answer is a tricky one to understand the mindset of the Joker, you have to understand the other incarnations of the character. In the animated series where the clown is brought to life by Mark Hamil. He seduces the mind of Dr. Harleen Quinzel. He makes us a fabricated backstory of him and his father going to the circus. However, he also brings to the forefront that he grew up in an abusive household. The new foreground truth is quickly dismissed as false facts. When Batman tells Harley that Joker has a million stories. Just furthering exploring the identity crisis hiding beneath the pale skin of a clown clad in a purple tuxedo with a top hat to match.

In addition to the critically acclaimed BTAS. The Arkham-verse from rocksteady stands on its own feet. However, being told time and time again that it’s a separate canon from the cartoon. Many would coin it as a continuation of the animated series due to the inclusion of the original remaining cast voicing the iconic roles that put them on the map. Kevin Conroy as the caped crusader, and Hamil as the Joker even bringing back the talented Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn. In the darker, grittier version of Gotham City. Being a world that is woven together by the seeds of Arkham spanning a timeline of Arkham origins all the way to the night the batman died on Arkham Knight. The games touch on certain Joker heavy moments and thematic events leading the clown down the path to where he’s meant to be. While also committing roles of unspeakable action such as showcasing the events of Killing Joke and crippling batgirl or referencing the comic “the death in the family leading to the execution of Jason Todd. It just goes to show that the Joker is just a person who wants to see the world burn. A great point made by buddy Joe is that “The Joker represents many things and it is the filmmaker/comic writer's responsibility to depict the character in a way that never idolizes what he stands for”.(Joseph Torres).

It boils down to the justification that every incarnation or vision of the Joker is different in almost every aspect. It could change from the tone or sense of realistic nature or being a social commentary brought to the light in the comics being allegory’s into the mind of the writer stepping into the shoes of the Clown Prince Of Crime.

However, a name would complete the tragedy and give something the audience to sympathize with. Something that the Todd Philips darker realistic take of the Joker actually does. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck. A man drove to insanity by the corrupt and evil society around him. The film is a blend of color tones and wonderfully crafted shots that incorporate no CGI. Weighing down the background and giving it a fake or faux sense of the movie.

Witnessing The joker trailer. I found it seems intriguing in many ways. I love the laugh. Phoenix is terrifying, um the just stunning visuals with an interesting concept two trailers in and still no idea or concept or even major spoilers have been shown. The only sense of context I can piece together is that it’s a period piece like the killing joke. Also, the mention of social commentary on those affected and plagued by mental illness could be brought to the forefront. The director Todd Philips has a really neat quote that follows “I don’t believe that in the real world if you fell into a vat of acid you would turn white and have a smile and your hair would be green. So you start backward-engineering these things and it becomes really interesting”(Todd Philips). The acting is phenomenal and oscar level. Another thing I like about this film is that Phoenix feels like a combination of major versions of the character. For example, his laugh has hints and moments of Mark Hamil. Or the color scheme of his outfit feels reminiscent of Cesar Romero from Batman 66, and the outfit along with the makeup pays homage to Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight. Also, the story is taking elements from the killing joke.

Just one gripe, how can you make a joker movie work without his moral juxtaposition of the dark knight. The Joker needs Batman to thrive it’s like Heath ledger said: “anarchy needs order.” Essentially meaning Batman needs Joker and vice versa. We will see how Phoenix does when the film opens up worldwide Oct 4th.

In conclusion, The Joker is the most important villain in all of the literature. Just something about him resonates with the reader and fans alike. Every version of the character will be different because it just depends on the vision and direction of the narrative. Which is the director or writer’s job to cement themselves into the mindset of The Clown Prince of Crime or better known as the Joker? Thus explaining the perfect reason why the Joker’s real name should never be revealed.

Due to the role of human psychology. How anybody could be Spider-Man and wear the mask. Well anyone could be the Joker cause all it takes is one bad day to descend into the madness that awaits.

#batman #joker #DC comics #joaquin phoenix #joker movie #DC Universe #dceu #dcau #arkhamverse #arkham #batman arkham series #arkham city #assault on arkham #harley quinn #robert deniro #the killing joke

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maryag15-blog · 5 years

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Book Review 12: My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King JR. Written by Christine King Farris Illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

*NAACP Image Award Winner

*A Child Magazine Best Book of the Year

Christine King Farris is the only surviving member of the King family able to recount what Martin’s childhood was like. Often when individuals are immortalized for their accomplishments as an adult, it is often forgotten that the individual had a childhood that enabled them to become great as an adult. With this book, Farris wants to provide a more holistic picture of her brother Martin’s life. While it is impossible to capture every moment that would have led to the development of Martin as an activist who started something great. In this story, Farris chooses to highlight his birth and the following birth of their younger brother, story time with their great aunt and grandmother, mischief and pranks, playing piano, and playing with friends. She pauses here to explain the conditions of the neighborhood on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia where they lived. She notes the disparity in living conditions and the “cruelty and injustice” in no longer being able to play with their friends who did not look like them. The two friends who were white said they were no longer allowed to play with A.D. (Alfred Daniel), M. L. (Martin Luther), and Christine anymore because of their skin color. Farris shows this occurrence as being the turning point in Martin’s life. He promised that he would “turn this world upside down.” By following his father’s example, Martin never forgot his father’s example or what he had promised his mother. The story ends with him turning the world upside down.

This text provides a unique glimpse into the life of Martin Luther King Jr., who we often think of in terms of his accomplishments and activism as an adult. However, we often forget about the many things he learned in life leading up to that point that prepared him for such greatness. Though the text is empowering in shedding light on some things unknown about Martin’s early life, the illustrations lead the reader in certain ways of making meaning from Farris’ words.

There are five particular spreads I want to focus on regarding the color used to show skin color. Many of the spreads leading up to this first one show the King family together, all shown as sharing the same shade of skin color. The first I want to focus on, however, shows A.D., M.L. and Christine playing with the two white boys whose parents owned the one store on Auburn Avenue. The two white boys are not given a name in this story, but they appear as having red and blonde hair and light tan skin with a pink hue and blue eyes. The kids are all playing and having a grand time in the King’s backyard. The second spread shows the four boys enjoying their time visiting the fire station, showing seven white men, some waving to the four boys. At this point, Farris notes in text: “the thought of NOT playing with those kids because they were different, because they were white and we were black, never entered our minds.” It is at this point that the illustrations and text speak to not only the innocence of the child but the socially constructed nature of race and racism. This is a powerful message portrayed by both the author and illustrator in tandem. The third spread shows A.D. and M.L. walking away from the store where the two white boys sat disappointedly with longing faces on the general store’s steps - they couldn’t play “together anymore because A.D. and M.L. were Negroes.” Though the same boys have been seen playing in previous spreads, this spread shows the wall that has been built between the two worlds - black and white. To me, the juxtaposition of this spread with the two previous shows how the innocence of childhood has passed and the realization that there are powers at play that dictate who is accepted and who is not. Perhaps there is a turning point just like this in every child’s life in which they realize that they are “different” or acceptable or unacceptable in the eyes of society - the white supremacist society, that is. At this point, Farris then brings the story closer to what Martin is known for - his activism. The fourth spread features white people and people of color marching for voting rights, desegregation in schools, integrated schools, jobs for all, end to bias, and others. Once again, there are black people and white people joining hands like the boys did in their early innocence. However, at this point, it is important to note that these people are standing up against the conditioning of those in power that aim to maintain racism and inequality for their own purposes. The final spread shows how Martin “turned the world upside down.” There are two girls linked arm in arm, one with blonde hair, pinkish tan skin and blue eyes and the other with brown skin, dark brown hair in braids, and brown eyes. Ending this book with such a picture makes me wonder if we can take Martin’s work as having returned us back to that childlike innocence, before being conditioned to see people in a certain way. I love the theme of innocence and social construction at work in this text, but I would challenge the narrow use of color to depict characters of different racial identities. All black people are depicted with the same shade of brown skin in this book. However, in life, that is not true. Similarly, not all people that are considered white have the same shade of skin though they are depicted the same in the book’s illustrations. I understand that this book is highlighting the dynamics between black and white people and Martin’s role, but there should be a greater variation in skin color to reflect reality.

Farris, C. K., & Soentpiet, C. (Illustrator). (2003). My brother Martin: A sister remembers growing up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

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folkwane-blog · 5 years

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The Art of Storytelling: Innovation by BTS

Stories are a celebration of humanity and are communicated through platforms as a form of expression or artistry. Stories would normally be shared between two receiving ends in a single channel: people in a conversation, a speaker to a crowd, an artist through their music. But I’ve only ever seen one group of people combine multiple mediums to birth a whole alternative universe. And that’s worldwide Korean boy band BTS, internationally known as Beyond the Scene. They create not only music, dance, art, and literature to tell the world of their narrative called “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life”, but also utilize technology for enhanced visualization, marketing, and multi-platform distribution.

Members of BTS from their latest Japanese single FAKE LOVE/Airplane pt.2; from left to right: RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook

BTS debuted in 2013 and is comprised of seven members: leader, rapper, and producer RM at the forefront; vocalist, visual, and the eldest member, Jin; rapper and producer Suga; dancer, rapper, and producer J-Hope; dancers and vocals Jimin and V; and youngest member, as well as the main vocal and lead dancer, Jungkook.

BTS is known for their self-composed and self-produced songs that root from their personal experiences “growing up” in the music industry. They translate their own stories into relatable messages that explore the themes of the struggle of youth and their pursuit for dreams and success, coming-of-age, the difficulty of mental illnesses, togetherness in friendship, and ultimately, the harrowing journey towards self-love, which are all significant experiences encountered by many in this age of expediency.

Now, what I found most interesting about their storytelling is that, while all the aforementioned themes have been reflected across their entire discography (which also holds a diverse range of genres from hip-hop, rap, rock, ballad, R&B, EDM, trap and the like), they melded all those elements together and integrated different forms of art to produce a spectacularly visual, auditory, and spiritual experience that is the story of “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life”.

“I NEED U” music video’s take on mental illness and potrayals of suicide

This BTS universe begun with their early 2015 extended play album called “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1” (Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa in Korean, or HYYH), which deals with the struggles of mental health. Their titular single, “I NEED U”, manifests such themes where the members portray life in despair. J-Hope is seen overdosing on pills and subsequently fainting on a highway; V had killed his father and is now living with utmost regret for the sake of protecting him and his sister; and then there’s Suga and Jimin committing acts of suicide through death by fire and death by drowning, respectively.

“RUN” music video; juxtapositions of isolation and freedom

By November of 2015, they released a sequel called “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2” where the main themes include camaraderie, friendship, and loneliness. This is told in the form of the music video “RUN”, where the boys are evidently in an “us against the world” concept, as freedom from inhibition takes its course.

Music video of “FIRE”; the boys’ writing and controlling their own destiny to spite their haters

“EPILOGUE: Young Forever” music video, which consists of VCR flashbacks from their previous music videos, as well as their finding comfort and solace in each other in the aftermath of their losses

By the first quarter of 2016, they released the final compilation of the HYYH universe called “Young Forever”, where they gave more emphasis on the enjoyment of youth (as is the title), as well as a combination of themes from the first two albums. “FIRE”, in particular, is an anthem of the underdogs to disrupt the norm. In contrast, “EPILOGUE: Young Forever” takes on a more sentimental tone lyrically and visually, representing the struggles and responsibilities of being artists of youth in whatever form and occupation.

The artistic take of “Blood Sweat & Tears” on classical artwork and allegory, painted with themes from Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth by Herman Hesse and philosophies from Friedrich Nietzsche

In the same year, the “WINGS” album was released that reflected adulthood, forgiveness of the self, and responsibility for mistakes, all the while utilizing a stylized but substantive collection of classical art, literature, symbolism, and allegory for a richer narrative. “Blood Sweat & Tears” referenced works such as Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth by Herman Hesse; The Fall of the Rebel Angels and the Landscape with the Fall of Icarus both painted by Peter Bruegel the Elder; and The Lament for Icarus by Herbert James Draper. Biblical motifs such as the event of The Last Supper, and a remodeled version of the Pietà by Michelangelo, were seen in some scenes, as well.

Interwoven artwork of the “LOVE YOURSELF” trilogy from left to right: 'Her’, ‘Tear’, and ‘Answer; depicts blossoming love, withering love, and loving oneself, respectively

In 2017 all the way to 2018, the tripartite “LOVE YOURSELF” series became another of their hits, and focused on the path to self-love. The first edition, LOVE YOURSELF 承 'Her', mainly communicates the joys of loving oneself and others. The sequel, LOVE YOURSELF 轉 'Tear', explores themes of pain, suffering, and separation, and more specifically, the difficulty of reconciling with yourself and your demons. The last release, LOVE YOURSELF 結 'Answer', teaches oneself to appreciate the gradual process of self-love. Rather than rush the process, forgive and move on; it’s a journey, not a race.

"SAVE ME” webtoon; Jin’s graphic character discovering his ability to time travel

What makes BTS stand out from the rest and establish a foothold in the international music scene is not just the relevance of their message, or their thought-provoking concepts; but it’s also the way they celebrate art and humanity through the following mediums: striking music videos for visualization, explosive live performances that also contain clues and secrets to the story, supplementary notes in the form of diary entries posted on their social media handles that house additional details to the fragmented universe (of course, originally posted in Korean; thus, translated by fans—like right here), and even a recently publicized webtoon called “SAVE ME” that, by far, answers a lot of questions to the HYYH universe. Surprisingly (or even as expected), BTS had recently tapped into the literary fountain and released preorders for their trilogy books called “Smeraldo Books” or “HYYH The Notes”, which are available in both English and Korean. Many fans have speculated that the books will finally draw the universe to a full circle after three years of being milked.

Moreover, because the narrative had been meticulously planned since the start of their debut and has not yet drawn to a close, the story of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life has also become such a fantastic marketing tool. Fans are once again re-streaming their previous music videos and songs to piece the visuals and imagery, the webtoon, and the notes together. Not only does this solidify the story even more, but it also entails exposure for BTS, their brand, music, message, and love of different art forms. It’s exactly this kind of marketing that keeps the fans hooked and anticipating, wanting and craving for more, all the while fueling artistic interpretation and getting their lives enlightened with the group’s heartfelt, healing, and inspiring messages. After all, marketing must be humanizing.

As it is, no artist has done it quite like BTS has. That’s why even though I’ve only been a fan since late 2016, that’s still the longest time I’ve stayed within a fandom because BTS are the artists of life. BTS use their voices and talents to inspire people of all ages to have strength against the face of adversity, and oftentimes, to go against the system and carve their own path to self-discovery. Their creativity and passion has encouraged many from various walks of life, and will continue to do so with their high engagement with and empathy for the audience. They are timeless and transcendent, and are constantly breaking the barriers of language and storytelling right at its core.

References

BTS Official Website: http://bts.ibighit.com/bts.php

BTS Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/bts_bighit?lang=en

BTS Profiles (translated and curated from different K-media articles): https://kprofiles.com/bts-bangtan-boys-members-profile/

“I NEED U” Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=i+need+u

“RUN” Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wn85Ge22FQ

“FIRE” Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBj4y9Zibao

“EPILOGUE: Young Forever” Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBj4y9Zibao

“Blood Sweat & Tears” Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmE9f-TEutc

Official SMERALDO Books Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/smeraldo_books?lang=en

HYYH Notes Translations: https://twitter.com/i/moments/918138828581347328?lang=en

“SAVE ME” Webtoon: https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/bts-save-me/list?title_no=1514&page=1

Official “HYYH The Notes” Preorders: https://m.ibighit.com/goods/catalog?code=0016

#emj #bts #passion article

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spotlightsaga · 7 years

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Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews… American Gods (S01E02) The Secret of Spoon Airdate: May 7, 2017 @americangods Ratings: 0.710 Million :: 0.30 18-49 Demo Share Score: 8.75/10

*********SPOILERS BELOW*********

There was quite the uproar over the polarizing reception of Bryan Fuller, Michael Green & David Slade’s premiere episode of the small screen adaptation of the novel ‘American Gods’. For me, it felt like the trio was oversetting the stage and throwing psychedelic-tinged visuals and buckets of blood, introducing character after character without giving it much substance. But 'The Secret Of Spoons’ is packed with both psychedelic goodness, heavy world building backstories, and is literally teeming with substance. I calls 'em like I sees 'em. Ya heard me?

They say if you want your audience to stay put, you not only have to stay consistent, but you have to grab them by the balls (that lines going to haunt me when I run for president in 2020). 'American Gods’ doesn’t just grab you by the balls in 'The Secret of Spoons’, it literally grabs the whole human undercarriage, with one or two fingers in the ass and all. Oh, is that too graphic for you? Then your watching the wrong show. The pulpy storytelling remains and Orlando Jones gives us a fired up, very much WOKE Mr Nancy who sticks out like a kaleidoscope colored tarantula on a slave ship coming to America. 'Oh you don’t know your black yet?’ Nancy barks at the men of color shackled to the ship going through a thosand emotions at once. Shame inspires major events, but fear does too… And from fear, Anger is born, and its fear and anger with a sliding scale of everything in between that drives would be slave turned sacrificial rebel to burn 'that motherfucker down’. While 'Anansi’ or Mr Nancy tells the slaves a somewhat accurate depiction of 'Coming To America’, the details are not all there and he tricks them into sacrificing themselves for him. God mode, baby.

This was a fantastic introduction to the African God Anansi AKA Mr Nancy, a mythical god well preserved by our Caribbean brothers and sisters, particularly the notoriously culture copied Jamaican 🇯🇲 people and the culture-rich, female strong country of Trinidad & Tobago 🇹🇹. He’s slick, talks the talk, walks the walk, and preaches quite the pulp to the masses. His intentions are are both transparently clear and opaque as unclear can be. He is knowledgeable and speaks truths from his solar plexus… That is when he’s not a colorful spider. Do spiders have solar plexus? Maybe, possibly this one. The wreckage of the boat washes ashore and Anansi crawls off a plank in spider form. At first the scene felt disjointed, excellently executed, but still disjointed… After the episode ends we see there is a theme tied throughout its duration. Immigration and color, technicolor, and the things that separate us as Americans are the very things that bond us together, like it or not.

'The Secret of Spoon’ slows down the pacing and let’s us take in these characters, their movements, their quirks, the nuances of their very being… This is exactly the type of pace and character work that I love, especially if you are going for a psychedelic aesthetic and perspective. THIS is my forté… So those who *attempted* to clock me last week, I told you to be patient. I WILL NEVER praise a series, even a favorite, when praise is not well earned or righteously deserved… But when it is, I will bow gently. I suspect this wasn’t an easy story to start, especially with the drop in number of episodes… But now that the characters with less density and foundation, such as the fractal eye candy Technical Boy have been introduced we are getting to the actual 'meat and potatoes’ of The Old Gods.

We see there is core narrative of a battle between The Old and New Gods brewing, bubbling to the surface… But there is still much mystery behind certain Gods and Goddesses’ intentions. Bliquis, for one, remains a huge question mark, continuously enveloping both women and men into her vagina which leads them to a place of psychedelic and sexual ecstasy, as we see her original date full on hard with his legs spread open taking a ride into a starlit constellation that resembles a vagina. She’s taking in a lot of 'victims’ and apparently using the internet, which is ruled by Technical Boy… Could New be using Old in a strange strategical power move? Ever taken 5-MeO-DiPT? It’s an intense sexually charged, erotic psychedelic tryptamine that induces a journey much like what we see here. It’s actually a favorite of mine (in the correct dosage, which is vital with the drug otherwise known as 'Foxy’ or it’s less intense, lighter body load sister Chem 'Moxy’). I bring this is up because the scene where her date is floating in the spacey landscape is exactly where the chemical takes you. If these Mythical God’s were real, they would work through chemistry, and since I fancy myself a modern shaman, these connections are made to best my understanding… And maybe those who have a deep understanding with spiritual journeys through varieties and psychedelic chemicals.

As Shadow shops for a few items Mr Wednesday gives him to prepare for their long long road trip in his trusty car, Betty (one of which doesn’t like highways and enjoys slow rides and taking in the beauty), he’s ambushed into the television isle by Media, a New God, who manifests on an myriad of TV’s in the form of Lucille Ball. Gillian Anderson has always been great, but I can’t recall her playing such an out of the box, spot-on, character actress before. She looks, talks, sits, and presents herself like a toned down, real life Lucille Ball… Not the 'I Love Lucy’, 'cameras on’ Lucille Ball, but the woman herself dressed and prepped to film. It’s quite astonishing and I can’t wait to see who she pops up as next. Media spits rhetoric and principles that are far too close to that of Technical Boy, the man who just attacked Shadow and left him a bloody mess. She promises to never hurt him and says that men like him end up in suicide… And that she’s trying to prevent that. If you ask me, none of these bitches are to be trusted. With great power (old or new), comes great manipulation.

Shadow & Mr Wednesday continue their trip to Chicago where they meet The Slavic Zorya Sisters, 2/3 of which we see with our very eyes. Cloris Leachman gives us everything as Zorya Vechernyaya, the wise fortune telling leader of the family. Her quiet, reserved sister Zorya Utrennyaya is played by one of my favorite faces on television, FX Baskets’ Martha Kelly. She’s perfectly cast, but I’m partial to her and her work anyway. I will always love everything she does… Capturing a naive vulnerability that she allows people to use for their advantages. The third sister sleeps through the entire episode, only to call out from her bedroom to see if everything is alright.

Their brother, Czenobog, needs no introduction. He’s been represented in media many times before including the evil monster in 'Fantasia’. Wednesday needs both him and his hammer… Not his brother who represents light. Czenobog is played by the legendary Peter Stormare who chain smokes and speaks his Eastern European dialect in a menacing deadpan manner. He talks about his brother representing light and him representing dark, their lifelong fight, and ultimately both of them turning the same color of grey, making their fight irrelevant… Making color irrelevant; A nice nod, tie in, and juxtaposition to the opening scene where we see the many different ways and struggles that Americans eventuality made it to this country… Some shackled to boats, some shackled to dirty streets, but all shackled to a struggle that has defined us as individuals many generations down the line. Czenobog is a dangerous man, a man who does not give any fucks, and wages Shadow’s life on a game of Checkers that Shadow ultimately loses. How that will play out? We’ll have to find out next week, but this episode left me ravenous for more. If I had access to all the episodes, I wouldn’t have stopped. Clearly 'American Gods’ just had trouble setting its original stage, because now, just in its second episode, its firing on all cylinders… A sign that bodes well for the remaining 6 episodes of the series that now has my full attention and enthusiasm.

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ethelindawrites · 7 years

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Song Review: The War Was In Color by Carbon Leaf

I’m honestly not even sure if song review are a thing, but I’ve been in love with this song for months and really want to talk about it, so I’m doing it anyway.

So, I first discovered The War Was In Color through this fan video that someone made based on the first Captain America and Avengers movies, which is honestly kind of perfect, so I would definitely recommend watching that. But the song is also really gorgeous just by itself, so that’s what I’m going to focus on here: it is a tribute to those who fought during World War II, from a U.S. perspective.

I happen to be involved in a big WWII project at work right now, so I’m already feeling a bit invested in the time period and also pretty emotional about it. That makes the lyrics for this song hit me a little harder even than they did when I first discovered it.

I see you've found a box of my things - Infantries, tanks and smoldering airplane wings. These old pictures are cool. Tell me some stories Was it like the old war movies? Sit down son. Let me fill you in

I love the imagery here – it’s just a box of old photographs, but to the WWII veteran, it’s a lot more than that: “infantries, tanks and smoldering airplane wings.” These are the pieces of the war that he remembers, not the two-dimensional pictures. I like also the imagery of a younger family member actually asking a veteran about his time in the war, and the veteran being willing to answer and speak about it.

Where to begin? Let's start with the end This black and white photo don't capture the skin From the flash of a gun to a soldier who's done Trust me grandson The war was in color

There is something about the last line of this verse/the title of this song that really hits me. Even as an historian who knows better, it is still sometimes easy to get caught up in the immediate depictions of the war that are readily available to me...the black and white photographs, newspapers, and movies of the time. There are other artifacts as well, of course, that are not black and white (colorful propaganda posters, flags, etc.). But so many of the direct photographs of that era are black and white, that it can be easy to forget: like life for all people, in all places and all times, this war too was in color. It was immediate and real...the present for many millions of people, even if it is the past for us now.

From shipyard to sea, From factory to sky From rivet to rifle, from boot camp to battle cry

There is so much alluded to in just two lines here, a whole nation of people who came together and built things in order for America and the Allies to win. Reading up about the defense industry in my local area has been part of what I’m doing at work, and the sheer speed at which some of it got going, and the sheer amount of war material produced over the course of the war, even just right around here, is almost mind-boggling. There were the women who stepped up to work, either in the factories or by enlisting in the armed forces to do work here in the States (the first time they were officially allowed to enter the US military). And of course there were the millions of men who took up arms and trained and then went overseas to fight. I wore the mask up high on a daylight run That held my face in its clammy hand

The allusion for me here to a pilot, flying with Death’s hand on his face, is just chilling. Always riding on the edge, and any flight might be your last. My grandfather was a pilot with the Marines, although in the Korean War, rather than WWII, so it hits pretty close to home that way too. Crawled over coconut logs and corpses in the coral sand

The juxtaposition of things in this line really gets me: lovely tropical coconut logs and coral sand...covered with corpses. And not just any corpses, but the dead bodies of your fellow soldiers that you must crawl over because the fight isn’t won and you have to keep going. This is a clear reference to the fighting in the Pacific theater, trying to take islands back from the Japanese. It really makes me think about the three men from my area who won Medals of Honor during WWII – all three were in the Pacific, and all three were awarded the Medal for covering Japanese grenades in order to save fellow soldiers. That’s not a part of our research that I can read with dry eyes.

Where to begin? Let’s start with the end This black and white photo don't capture the skin From the shock of a shell or the memory of smell If red is for Hell The war was in color

I like the reminder here that not only was the war in color, but it was more than just a visual experience. The concussive blast of a shell exploding, the smell of the gunpowder and the dead and the dying...those are things that most of us haven’t experienced, and that’s an integral part of a soldier’s experience of the war that is pretty much forever out of our reach. We might occasionally have sound to go with the visuals...but that experience of the war is very different from that of someone who lived through it. Even a movie (with that constant subconscious knowledge that it is fiction) does not have the same impact.

I held the canvas bag over the railing The dead released, with the ship still sailing, Out of our hands and into the swallowing sea

No time to grieve in war. I know it’s a fairly well-known phrase, but for some reason that “into the swallowing sea” here really gets me. The reminder of the immensity of the ocean, I guess, and its indifference to our tragedies. I felt the crossfire stitching up soldiers Into a blanket of dead, and as the night grows colder In a window back home, a Blue Star is traded for Gold.

For those who may not know: If someone in your family was away fighting in the war, you got a “Blue Star Banner” to hang in your window. Officially, they are called a Service Banner, and they look like this. If that person was killed, then you took down the blue star, and hung a Gold Star Banner in its place. Thousands and thousands of American families had gold stars hanging in their windows before the war was over. (Additional history facts: These were first used during WWI, and are still used today.)

Where to begin? Let's start with the end This black and white photo don't capture the skin When metal is churned, and bodies are burned Victory earned The War was in color

That repeating line of “This black and white photo don’t capture the skin,” that acknowledgment that this photograph isn’t enough to capture what the soldier went through...but it’s all that he has. It is enough, at least, to evoke the memories, enough for him to tell the story. The war was hard-fought and hard-won, and victory, like everything else, was in color.

Now I lay in my grave at age 21 Long before you were born Before I bore a son It is one of the harder things to learn about, as you study WWII, just how young many of the soldiers were (on all sides, and certainly here in the US as well). The three Medal of Honor winners I mentioned earlier? One of them joined before he was even out of high school, and the other two on their 18th birthdays, as soon as they no longer needed parental permission to enlist. This is true of others killed in action from my area as well. Many of them weren’t even 21 yet when they died. What good did it do? Well hopefully for you A world without war A life full of color

That was the real question – what good did it do? With the lives of so many individual human beings cut brutally short – was it worth it? I think that, in the case of WWII, the answer is a clear yes. Many, many people were able to go on and live their lives in greater peace and freedom (whatever the conflicts that came later). And that is probably what so many of the soldiers were fighting for: a chance for themselves and their loved ones, friends, and neighbors to live good lives, lives full of color

Where to begin? Let's start with the end This black and white photo never captured my skin Once it was torn from an enemy thorn Straight through the core The war was in color

Where to begin? Let’s start with the end This black and white photo never captured my skin From the flash of a gun to a soldier who’s done Trust me grandson The war was in color Trust me grandson The war was in color Trust me grandson The war was in color (Performed by Carbon Leaf. Written by Barry Thomas Privett, Carter Gravatt, Scott Andrew Milstead, Terrell H. Clark • Copyright © BMG Rights Management US, LLC)

The refrain at the end, trying to emphasize the realness of it to someone who was not there, who has only “old war movies” and this box of black and white photographs to learn from. But the soldier was there, and he saw it all, and smelled it and heard it and breathed it, and now he can give a little piece of that story to his grandson, to help him learn and understand.

I don’t know that I have much else articulate to say about this, and this is really more of an “oh god the FEELS” than a proper review, but I needed to get some of this down. I hope other people enjoy the song, and perhaps even the mini, rather disjointed history lesson.

~Ethelinda

#the war was in color #WWII #world war II #history #carbon leaf #music #song review #song recommendation #feels

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yasbxxgie · 7 years

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The scene in Atlanta that gets Zazie Beetz the biggest reaction involves hair. In the pilot episode of Donald Glover’s FX series, her character Van walks into a bathroom and unwraps her headscarf to reveal a head full of Bantu knots. When I tell her over the phone that I slightly gasped at the sight of 1) a headscarf, 2) bantu knots, and 3) the act of a black woman untwisting her hair on television, she says, “Everyone always asks me about that.” Atlanta is outright one of the most heavily favored new shows of the fall and, in it, Beetz, who’s based in Harlem, portrays a single mother among men trying to make it big. In the lightly edited interview below (tonight’s episode centers prominently around Van), we talked about the show’s central relationship between Van and Earn (Glover), black hair on TV, the internet, and the challenge in depicting a so-called angry black woman who has a right to be mad.

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JEZEBEL: Let’s start with how you were cast on the show.

ZAZIE BEETZ: It was relatively straightforward. I went out on audition and I left thinking that I hadn’t done a very good job. I wrote it off, and then three weeks later, my agent called me and told me I had gotten a screen test for this show and I didn’t even remember what it was. For the screen test, which is super quick, I read with Donald, and the director Hiro [Murai] was in the room, Paul Simms—one of the producers—and the casting director. I had no idea how many people I was in a pool of, but later that night, I got a call that I had gotten the role for the pilot.

Why didn’t you think you nailed it at first?

I remember feeling like my energy was super low and I wasn’t totally memorized, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It doesn’t mean that’s how it came across, but it felt very fast to me. Honestly, the energy maybe worked for Van. She’s all over the place a little bit and trying to keep it together. One of the first notes also that they gave, which is something important to me—and I also talked about a lot—was to not have her be, that she’s not only an angry black woman. That was the first thing the casting director Alexa Fogel said. That really resonated with me.

I’m interested in that note because the “angry black woman” topic comes up in Van’s conversation with Earn where they’re talking in bed.

Yeah, that was very much an active thing. It’s interesting because the episode coming out [tonight [10/4/16]] is one of quote-unquote my episodes, the Van episodes. It does a little bit explaining in terms of why she may come across as an angry black woman. Of course she’s interested in doing other things and has other aspirations, whether it be social or self-care or wanting to be friends, but then when she does engage in those things, you realize that has repercussions and she’s the only one that actively takes care of the responsibility. So she’s not really allowed any space to have downtime.

Right, she’s clearly doing her own thing within the relationship, but you get the sense that she wants to make it work with Earn. The show picks up in the middle of their relationship, so we don’t see what drove them apart. We only know that they have a baby together and they’re kind of trying to rekindle something. How did you view their relationship while reading it?

We went back and forth. Originally, they had the idea of, like, we’ve known each other for a long time and then this happened. But then we decided they knew each other and then they started hanging out but then super quick into that she got pregnant and they never had a chance to actually date. So they never got a chance to see if it could work out. It could have worked out. But this huge responsibility got slapped onto them and so they have basic compatibility things. He makes her laugh. I remember in the screen test, [Donald] talked about how Van is the only person that actually gets Earn in his community and environment. And Earn is the only person that actually gets Van, which as the season goes on, particularly in Episode 8, which was a big thing that I also piped in about, was that you have to see them also love and care for each other. You see a little aspect of that, but that episode fully comes into this idea of choosing love over choosing conflict, allowing an audience to believe they would be together because they do have this energy in common. And had Van not needed to be a mother, I think she would be able to engage or understand Earn’s lifestyle more than she does now.

Right, there’s a purpose to her seriousness. Her main concern is that Earn needs to get it together for their child. There’s the scene where they go on the date and he can’t afford to splurge on dinner. What did you think of that dynamic where the woman is basically taking care of this child and this broke male character?

I mean, I see where that’s also an archetype within itself. Like, hard-working mom and slacking off dad. But I think that’s why it’s important to show that they care for each other and that Earn isn’t just a big ole asshole. And that love exists beneath it all. As I was doing that scene with the date, I was like, man, I think it speaks mountains that he feels like he can’t even tell her that his check didn’t come in. The silence of that, that’s their issue. Yes, maybe she’ll be upset. But the fact that he feels like he can’t communicate it, that’s this sort of thing of men and women choosing to not communicate because they’re afraid or whatever reason when that’s what you need to do. Also, for him to not always assume that I’m going to be crazy or I’m going to be upset, which is something I talked about in that [pilot] episode. He could have still gotten her a drink or taken her somewhere else and said, “I do want to do this for you.” It makes me think of other situations with friends or family where things maybe weren’t said or talked about and it’s not the thing itself, but it’s the fact that why not talk about it. What else is there that you can’t talk to me about.

It’s great to see this weird in-between black relationship. They have this silent language between them. What appealed to you about her character and how she fits in with the show’s overall themes? It’s a show about rap where she’s not the rapper’s girlfriend.

Well, in terms of tone, I feel like a lot of the show—I kind of like to compare it to Louie in terms of it being billed as a comedy but there’s a lot of sadness and slowness. I don’t think the laugh is necessarily the punctuation mark of the show. More that moments and daily reality are. I feel like Earn is sort of the juxtaposition of the Alfred and Darius world versus the Van world. Earn is the person who dreams and then is awake, and then dreams and is awake. And within the show, scenes with Darius and Alfred become surreal. There are literally scenes where surreal shit happens. Like, the sandwich thing is an example, or the lemon pepper wings glowing. And it sort of mimics a dream or mimics Earn dreaming for more and wanting more and those two guys are his pathway to that.

I had to come to terms because I don’t identify as a comedian. At home I’m funny, with my mom, my boyfriend, but if I’m commissioned to be funny or tell jokes, I don’t feel like I’m good at delivering that. So I for a long time was like, why did they cast me, I’m not funny. And I kind of realized, Van doesn’t have to be funny. She’s the reality, she’s the ground, the earth and when Earn wakes up and imagines all these other things, he also has this very real thing that he needs to take care of and this very real thing that isn’t funny. And it can also be lovely. But he chooses to not necessarily take that as a happy path and is resistant to taking on responsibility, being that raising his daughter could also be a dream. Does that make sense?

That makes sense.

I felt Van was the one that always brought Earn back to Earth. That’s tonally how she works. It’s a lot of pressure but also an honor that she’s the only real female figure on the show and I’m glad it’s not a negative one. But it’s also, like, Atlanta offers variations on black men in terms of Earn and Darius and Alfred and then one variation of a black woman. But it’s also the story being told through the eyes of a black man and so that’s his reality and black womanhood is not his reality, so you have to also respect that.

Right, though I definitely wanted more scenes between them.

I want more scenes between us.

Even though this is a story about a rapper and his manager trying to make it, a lot of themes play out. What did you feel like the show was about when you were reading the script?

That’s always a hard question: what’s the show about. I’m always like, alright, you’ve got two cousins trying to make it in the rap scene in Atlanta. But it’s also like, when we were first talking about the pilot stuff before we even shot the season, a lot of comparisons from outside sources were being made to Empire because it’s black and music, which is a totally different world. I feel like music is much more actively a character on Empire, whereas music in this show provides world and tone and feeling and supplement to these characters. It’s not about them making music. I feel like it’s a love letter to the city of Atlanta and to the people and about daily life to the average person living there.

What’s also interesting is Donald’s brand in itself is part of a unique blackness, someone who’s interested in science and technology and a little bit of a nerd and has all these alternative interests outside of smoking weed and oh whoa that’s revolutionary. Media, at large, thinks only people like Alfred come from Atlanta. But Donald literally grew up in Stone Mountain. He’s a product of the city. The show offers that all kinds of black people live there, live all over. Even Alfred’s character, visually people are like, oh, he’s a gun-carrying black man, but when you get to know his character, he has a heart and fame freaks him out and he has feelings and he gets upset and has a range of things and he cares for his people. I feel like it offers a window into all kinds of people’s lives in a much more realistic eye.

You talked about showing the love between Van and Earn. Where would you want their relationship to go just as a person watching the show?

I’m rooting for them. I want them to figure it out. I don’t think Van criticizing his interests is great. It’s something he wants to pursue. I talk about how it’s a high school thing that he wants to do, which is not really fair. I feel like both characters have growing to do in terms of accepting each other, but I like them together. I think Earn definitely can be really selfish. Reading it sometimes I’m like, oh my god, really, come on. I think it’s commendable for Donald to make his lead not necessarily a totally likable guy. He’s sort of the least likable person on the show, which is real. He’s hanging onto a youth thing, which is in his costuming and how he’s walking around with a backpack, lone man, hanging onto something that is not—he’s in his 30s now. You need to move on and that doesn’t mean you can’t be into music; you just have to change how you’re into music.

I want them to have another baby. I want them to do it. I think that might take time. We got our second season now, which is great. I have no idea what’s come up in that. They tell you things way last minute or you get the script two weeks before you shoot, but I’m interested in seeing how that develops. Brian [Tyree Henry, the actor who plays Alfred] and I keep hoping that Van and Brian have more of a relationship because we don’t share a scene with each other the entire season except for the one phone call you’ll see.

There’s been a push for more stories about people of color. It’s weird that “diversity” has become a clinical thing on TV, but this show is obviously part of the good part of it.

I think art in general has to come from a place of reality. So obviously you don’t want to feel like you have to throw in a token black person when you’re talking about a small little white town in Oklahoma or whatever. That’s not speaking to truth, that’s not speaking to reality. I just don’t want to perpetuate falseness. And falseness for a long time was having only white people on TV or in movies and that is not the truth. A big issue, which we’re still working on is when you’re watching TV and if the family is mostly Asian or the family is black, it’s about them being black or about them being Asian, whereas if you watch the show Friends, it’s not about them being white; it’s about them being friends. Yes, I experience the world as a woman of color. I know I experience things differently because I have a mixed background, I see that. That’s always part of your experience, but I’m not thinking about that 24 hours a day, so that other part of my reality needs to be told, too. I just want to see people be in all kinds of stories and the story doesn’t have to be about because of or in spite of their skin color.

I think the idea is to present different types of realities from people of color. Some shows might address race and some won’t. That’s kind of a goal that hasn’t been met yet on TV, but I love shows where it’s just about black daily life. And also the visual language, people like how this show looks, the landscape of Atlanta and the way it shows the city and people. Is that something you noticed while shooting or more so afterward?

Yeah, watching it I feel like it’s a pretty cinematic experience, which I really like. Since it’s a single camera show, shots are chosen. It’s not about what’s convenient but about what continues to tell the story. It’s framed.

I feel like I’ve been seeing more TV scenes that feature black women doing their hair. Being Mary Jane, How to Get Away with Murder, Insecure. In Atlanta, Van goes into the bathroom and takes off her headscarf and her hair is in twists. It’s sad that I kinda gasped at that. It’s a small thing, but what does it mean to you to be able to depict that on TV?

Almost only from women, that is the biggest takeaway. Everyone always asks me about that, which I’m really happy about. And that was Donald’s idea. He really wanted to do that. I love that ’cause as someone who grew up having natural hair and who deals with that everyday, it shows, again, the reality. It’s funny ’cause with my boyfriend, I put my hair in braids every night.

Me too.

My boyfriend will go to bed and I stay up another 20 minutes and do my hair. I watch a show and then I braid my hair and that’s the ritual. Whenever I was dating someone, to have somebody see me in my braids—the day they saw me with my hair in my braids was a big step for me. I have come to love myself and my hair and grown into loving my brown skin, but that doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with my hair too sometimes. I still cry about it, be it the difficulty or aesthetically what I wish I had and it’s because you really just don’t see it.

What’s the soundtrack to life like right now? Specifically, have you listened to Solange’s album?

I didn’t hear it, I need to hear it.

It’s really good and there’s a song called “Don’t Touch My Hair.”

I don’t think people who don’t have our hair type realize I have strangers touch my hair all the time. Straight up. I will be on the street and I will feel something in my head and be like, is that a bird? And it’s a person and I turn around and they’re like, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” And they don’t introduce themselves and walk away. And I’m like, excuse me? That happens all the time. In terms of my soundtrack right now, I think a soundtrack to my life in general is—I really love Billie Holiday. I always go to that when I’m stressed or going through things. That’s my go-to for almost anything. I have a lot of her albums. Josephine Baker. I recently have been listening to a lot of West African music. Amadou & Mariam, they’re great. They’re a blind couple. I’m also very into “single woman R&B,” like Corinne Bailey Rae and Erykah Badu and Jill Scott. I love electro-funk like, modern funk.

Your website says you did a lot of community theater when you were younger. Was that how you got into acting and performing?

Yeah, I didn’t do it professionally until I got my agency two years ago. But I’ve been doing stage stuff since I was like seven. After that, I was always engaged. I did a lot of community theater and was a part of a lot of theater companies, Harlem School of the Arts for example in high school. And I went to LaGuardia High School. I always had my hands in creative things. I was also very much a visual artist. For a long time, it was like, am I going to pursue visual art? My dad was pushing for me to do graphic art and then theater took over. I like to dance, I sing, and I was generally in that mindset for my whole life and ended up doing theater. I do have a lot of other interests that I hope acting will allow me to use as a vessel to pursue. Traveling is really, really important to me and I love language. For a long time I wanted to be a midwife and I want to work with women. For a while, I was having an emotional reaction to whether or not I should continue acting or pursue these other things that I find important too. I feel young still, so I hope those opportunities and options will still be open to me later on.

I noticed you don’t have a Twitter account. What’s the reason for that?

I think the internet is the devil. [Laughs] I really do think it’s the birth and death of all of us and I find myself addicted to it. And I’m not even—since the show is on, I haven’t been on Facebook. It’s a little bit overwhelming and I don’t know how to totally navigate through all of it yet, but it’s all positive. I see how the internet has changed my habits and changed my sort of will to be motivated and my creativity and left me feeling empty and worthless. Every night I used to read or draw or write and I don’t do those things anymore. I feel like I have this urge to numb my mind and I go online for that. I don’t really want to add noise for myself and get a Twitter account. I don’t know. I don’t have a publicist yet, so maybe someone will convince me one day, but I’m a little bit resistant to that.

Have you talked to Donald about that? He had a whole album about the internet...

He’s such a great person. Honestly, almost every conversation with him goes deeply philosophical very quickly and a lot of it has to do with his relationship with the internet and online. Episode 4 was sort of about that. I read some things where people were like that felt too millennial, but that was also a commentary: what are we losing, what are we gaining? The general public having the all-around access to the internet is sort of 16 years old. From 2000 and on, that’s when things really started changing with how we interact online and I feel like we as a society are reacting to it like it’s a teenager. Like it’s new and we’re hormonal about it. We’re discovering and we’re learning how to have sex with it and be in a relationship with it or not. We just haven’t come into adulthood about how to behave with the internet. I feel like there is a pullback already of people rejecting online life. I see that with my friends. I have a friend who reverted back to not having a smartphone anymore. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, but I think we’re still figuring it out.

Are you working on other projects?

I just finished shooting a feature in Chicago that should be out in January. The name keeps changing. I think Slice. And I’m in the running for some other things I can’t talk about. But I’m also very happy to be home. My boyfriend and I moved in together in January and we haven’t had a chance to live together because he’s also an actor. New York is my hometown so I’m happy to be home.

#zazie beetz #clover hope #atlanta fx #angry black woman #tv #television #interview #interviews #donald glover

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phogenson · 7 years

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Leni

Reflection

Believe it or not I think I watched Triumph of the Will (1935) for the first time when I was like 13 or so, and it's significant place in cinematic history was pretty immediately apparent to me. As I recall the other thing that kind of stuck out to me had to do with the rhetorical style of most of the figures documented here. Both of those observations kind of underly a lot of what my career in philosophy has been ever since--how is something being said and what is the significance of the utterance--these are philosophical questions at the heart of my work.

So Mrs. Young said we could write about anything for our last quarter paper in AP European History. My papers previous to that had really all been research essays that were very pre-19th century in their focus. This was something that I had a growing interest in and which I felt that I could just sort of belt out.

The paper is typical of a slightly unrefined style of my high school papers. It meanders though examples and struggles to come together around a thesis. If I had to retroactively put a thesis to this, it might be the early formulation of a proposition that would underscore some of my later work in this area and an early stab at my general formalism about art. (But I didn't know anything about those things at the time.) The thesis to look for might be something like this: the formal properties of a work do nothing to distinguish the ethical standards we want to hold artworks to because, as I will show, formal properties of morally dubious works significantly overlap with the formal properties of ethically praiseworthy works and in fact are deployed in with the same intention from work to work.

So basically I was just shining a light into the morass of the way films are made. The answer I guess I was seeking was "it's complicated, I'll get back to you on it." But let's get into the weeds here and see the kind of crazy work I was doing in high school.

Quarter Paper

Leni Riefenstahl is a singularly controversial filmmaker. While discussing her propaganda films has been common since the fifties, homaging and using her work similarly time honored: watching Triumph of the Will in its original context seems similar to reading Mein Kampf in any context. While propaganda is hardly new, Riefenstahl’s work not necessarily defensible or even unorthodox, it is important to film history in general to understand that the techniques used in Triumph of the Will are significant in their ubiquity and effectiveness, not to mention their pervasiveness in contemporary films, dealing or not dealing with the Third Reich itself, partly artistic rather than purely tendentious. Propaganda requires a direct emotional assault on the viewer, effective propaganda would use a variety of tactics to achieve such an assault but propaganda on the level of subtlety of Riefenstahl’s becomes effective in many contexts beyond persuasion. Thus, regardless of the confines art tries to break from, artistic film also directs the audience’s gaze or emotion with a level of tact and exigence that is similar to the best propaganda. It is important, then, to realize that the images and juxtapositions most effectively used by Riefenstahl in the late 1930s are not tactics purely to engender support for an obviously extreme regime but are devices that are necessary to deal with themes ranging from power to friendship, hopelessness to strength, and the implications of living in the Nazis power.

The content and conditions of her films do little to help Riefenstahl’s controversial status, what is focused on is how Riefenstahl often moved aside questions and allegations about the nature of her films in favor of shameless self promotion.[1] The academic who seems to make this point most clear is Susan Sontag. Sontag’s “Fascinating Fascism” is considered the seminal work on analyzing Leni Riefenstahl’s films in context with the information presented in her later photographic essays. “Fascinating Fascism” presents a compelling case that Riefenstahl’s later works were “full of disquieting lies” and continuities with Nazi sentiments.[2] It seems that after the war, author biographies focused on the fact that she had been acclaimed but not what she had been acclaimed for. This redirection, however, seems logical considering as Sontag does that Riefenstahl was, regardless of for how long, detained by the allies after the war and de-Nazified.[3] Further the megalomania that Sontag describes would be reason enough for Riefenstahl to continue working as an artist. She would hardly be the first so motivated. It seems significant also that, though there were parallels between all her works even though Riefenstahl’s subject matter progressed from Nazis to African tribes to aquatic scenes; progressively further from subjects that might be misconstrued. Riefenstahl herself had a self absorbed drive with highly political connotations in that she used her ego to redirect the flack she should have faced for her films.

While Sontag’s opinion of Riefenstahl the woman seems, ultimately, apt, her characterization of her propagandist work is unconsidered. Sontag comes down on Triumph of the Will hard saying it is “the most successfully, purely propagandistic film ever made, whose very conception negates the possibility of the film maker’s having an aesthetic or visual conception independent of propaganda.”[4] Even if Sontag is correct in her analysis of why Triumph of the Will was made, she does not see a means of assessing it on its own merits. Writing in 1991, however, Linda Schulte-Sasse takes a stance on Riefenstahl that is less extreme and seeks to describe the artistic side of fascist art. Schulte-Sasse wants “to eschew a personalized debate on the exaltation or excoriation of an individual and search for criteria in assessing the films that allow for both historical specificity and problematic continuities.”[5] To critically understand Riefenstahl’s work, it is necessary to distinguish a continuity of Nazi or not (though it would seem that Riefenstahl never really put down the principles behind Nazi art) and significant techniques.[6] Riefenstahl’s work is obviously biased on the first account and, though not necessarily groundbreaking on the second, in cinematic history her films and techniques do have continued influence. Perhaps Sontag is writing at a time before she could see the effects that Triumph of the Will would have on more recent films, but Sontag should also have realized the potential for effective non-propagandist techniques as a critic.

Propaganda has two general forms; commanding and exemplifying. Film, with its principally narrative and dynamic ability to juxtapose images and recreate situations, is uniquely capable of making example-based propaganda. The Battleship Potempkin is a case in point as a reenactment that would demonstrate to the intended average Russian viewer what might be done in the situation of the sailors; rebel against the czarists.[7] Alternatively, the poster (right) comes to the viewer from an assumed position of authority with recommended action. While technically Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will seems to fit the example-based category its technique is totally different; while Eisenstein and others used reenactment or staged situations Riefenstahl used the documentary genera and nearly unlimited resources to create a film that was both immediate and affecting.[8] Here is where Schulte-Sasse’s argument becomes all the more important. Her definition that fascist works represent a combination of something done for aesthetic effect and real experiences is central, they “break down the boundary between the aesthetic and life and thereby lead the spectator into an aestheticized activism” thus becoming propaganda.[9]

Schulte-Sasse, unlike Sontag, believes that it is right to recognize the strengths of Riefenstahl’s films; she no doubt sees their significance in retrospect. Nevertheless Triumph of the Will plainly fits into the camp of fascist films because it “clearly does transgress the boundaries of the imaginary, merging the political and the aesthetic, and permitting the individuals attending the rally and those reliving it through the technological apparatus the experience of a collective decentering… it goes beyond this by trying to introduce the imaginary into the public sphere, by conflating the imaginary with modern reality.”[10] Riefenstahl is less making an argument and more relating conflicting images. Analytically, as a result of Schulte-Sasse’s assertion, one must recognize the importance of the techniques Riefenstahl used in her films to achieve a balanced juxtaposition of themes for propaganda rather than dismiss them because of films made so far as Sontag does.[11]

Riefenstahl’s two part documentary Olympia most effectively depicts her raw ability as a director. Olympia captures the movements of its subjects in a way that can only be described as lucid. The number and variety of angles of single actions is staggering, it is little wonder that it took nearly two years to edit Olympia because of the difficulty there would have been at the time in spooling through reels and reels of not always synchronized footage. At the 1936 Olympics, Riefenstahl would have emphasized the camera movements and positions extensively just to capture shots like the one above which makes effective use of the longest line on the frame.[12] This shot alone demonstrates Riefenstahl’s skill as a director but it is not what she is known for or really representative of her work or the influence her work has had on a variety of movies since. This scene in Olympia while transient of reality in some respects does not accurately reflect what it is that Schulte-Sasse means when she posits “the transgression of the separate realm of the aesthetic, or, more precisely, the introduction of the aesthetic into reality, requires an actual mediation of the instrumental and decentering experiences in a new mode of the political.”[13]

Alternatively Triumph of the Will, the most totally propagandistic of Riefenstahl’s films makes full use of the cinematic medium not to make an argument really for or against the Third Reich, but rather to guarantee the audience’s investment and engagement in visuals and motifs which would otherwise seem irrational. When watching so much footage of Hitler orating, a viewer might be overcome by the dramatic excess in his delivery. Thus, context becomes an important tool; the excess which Schulte-Sasse would consider aesthetic--i.e. that done for effect--is mitigated by the “real” context the excess is placed in. In terms of actual technique, Riefenstahl’s answer to the problem is simple; juxtaposition of the aesthetic with a personal reaction. The shot of Hitler above is far from humanizing.[14] Rather it is the classic depiction of the strong leader over his people; reserved, not human. Hitler’s central location perpendicular to the camera makes the viewer feel like this is a glance; good but not great seating at a concert. Yet this cannot be the dominating view of the system Hitler represents in a film glorifying the extreme. Thus another shot is needed to bridge the gap between the aesthetic of the genre and the tacit critical eye of the viewer. The subsequent shot of a soldier espousing similar rhetoric provides the necessary visuals to re-involve the audience in what is supposed to be an emotional experience; it is as though a metaphor of seating is extended, the soldier being another audience member behind the viewer and invested in the event regardless of rationality.

Riefenstahl uses spectators often to capture the belief others appear to have; peer pressuring the viewer by suggesting emotion rather than demanding or reenacting a belief. While the most memorable scenes from Triumph of the Will may be the ones that make use of the cast of thousands, the more interesting ones are those of individuals. Crowds, even when unified can be overwhelming, but one person placed to the side and somewhat obscured in shadow captures the viewers own face-in-the-crowd and creates instant empathy.[15] The technique--closeups of reactions in succession juxtaposed with some apparently greater force--is effective at producing a variety of reactions especially when it is difficult for a viewer to grasp the enormity of the situation.

The Nazis have the sense of totality and dominance that is difficult to craft an objective response to. This difficulty is perhaps why Triumph of the Will is not a popular movie to discuss even though its theoretical approach to the difficulty of presenting Nazis is perfect. It seems a tasteless comparison to make, but the similarities between the construction of these shots from Triumph of the Will and those of Schindler’s List would emphasize the indelible mark Riefenstahl’s work has had on an effective presentation of the Nazis if nothing else. The following four shots from Steven Spielberg’s magnum opus similarly depict a response to an event the audience may not be able to empathize with (the arrival and conflagration of Nazis) with an image the audience can immediately judge (the boy’s face or the family at dinner).[16] These particular shots make the events of the movie more moving because they demand the involvement of the audience and heighten certain features and feelings by connecting the common with the extreme.

It is little surprise considering the line between the extreme and the personal that one film that draws most heavily on the style of Triumph of the Will is Star Wars. A movie like Star Wars has to walk the line between the grandiose themes of galactic strife and memorable characters that the audience likes.[17] Thus, at the end of his movie George Lucas copies almost directly from Triumph of the Will to play up the accomplishments of his characters. Not only are the images similar, as the scene from Star Wars progresses the similarities grow and Lucas uses the juxtaposition of the mass of people with the individual responses in the situation to present his characters as consistently a possible; after being overwhelmed by the scale of the initial shots, Lucas reminds the viewer of the endearing traits of the characters by returning, as Riefenstahl would, to the their closeups and idiosyncratic gestures--Han Solo winks, Luke Skywalker smiles at R2-D2--making them comparatively normal heroes despite the galaxy far, far away they come from.

Leni Riefenstahl holds a very peculiar place in cinema because of technical capabilities as compared with her prevailing politics. In her life Leni Riefenstahl generated a gregarious personality to redirect questions meant to target her background as a prominent propagandist for a superlatively destructive regime.[18] But the theoretical strengths of Riefenstahl’s work are not without their tact and artistry, though they are ultimately peculiar to a genre of filmmaking. Triumph of the Will in particular grapples with the difficulties of presenting a regime in many ways so ridiculous that the film required constant returns to personal reactions to create a synthesis of sentiments which could connect the viewer to the action. These techniques which Riefenstahl used to their highest effect in her propaganda films ultimately have left their mark on film history as effective methods of creating emotional involvement in extreme situations. Her methods have a level of ubiquity in that they appear in a variety of contexts as directors present the horrors of the holocaust or the heroics of space aliens. Riefenstahl is not a director who comes out absolved having done art for art’s sake, rather she is a director to be highly regarded in that she made such effective use of techniques which innate to the persuasive aspects of all film media.

Footnotes

Steven Bach, "The Puzzle of Leni Riefenstahl," The Wilson Quarterly 26.4 (2002).

Susan Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism," Movies and Methods, ed. Bill Nichols, vol. 1 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975) 32.

Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism," 36.

Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism," 34.

Linda Schulte-Sasse, "Leni Riefenstahl's Feature Films and the Question of a Fascist Aesthetic," Cultural Critique.18 (1991): 126.

Sontag does absolutely understand the principles of fascist aesthetics. She eloquently describes them thus: “More generally, they flow from (and justify) a preoccupation with situations of control, submissive behavior, extravagant effort, and the endurance of pain; they endorse two seemingly opposite states, egomania and servitude. The relations of domination and enslavement take the form of a characteristic pageantry: the massing of groups of people; the turning of people into things; the multiplication or replication of things; and the grouping of people/things around an all-powerful, hypnotic leader-figure or force. The fascist dramaturgy centers on the orgiastic transactions between mighty forces and their puppets, uniformly garbed and shown in ever swelling numbers. Its choreography alternates between ceaseless motion and a congealed, static, ‘virile’ posing. Fascist art glorifies surrender, it exalts mindlessness, it glamorizes death.” Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism," 40.

The Battleship Potempkin, dir. Sergie Eisenstein, Goskino, 1925.

Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism," 34.

Schulte-Sasse, "Leni Riefenstahl's Feature Films and the Question of a Fascist Aesthetic," 124.

Schulte-Sasse, "Leni Riefenstahl's Feature Films and the Question of a Fascist Aesthetic," 142.

In retrospect, Sontag’s greatest misconception about Riefenstahl’s films is that “they are not really important in the history of cinema as an art form.” Though Sontag was writing in 1975, before the most prominent examples of Riefenstahl homage--Star Wars (1977) and The Lion King (1994) come to mind--as a theoretician she should have been able to recognize as Schulte-Sasse did the singular nature of Riefenstahl’s films. Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism," 42.

Olympia, dir. Leni Riefenstahl, Tobis, 1938.

Schulte-Sasse, "Leni Riefenstahl's Feature Films and the Question of a Fascist Aesthetic," 142.

Triumph of the Will, dir. Leni Riefenstahl, Universum Film AG, 1935.

The frame on this page is a most subdued version of the closeup response. While Leni Riefenstahl is far from the first director to use an extreme closeup to convey emotion, she may use this kind of shot more effectively than many other directors. Shots that may only last for an instant in Triumph of the Will are considered for their effect on a spectrum from the bombastic to this subtle response. In this shot the girl is the subject, her smile something that the viewer is supposed to reciprocate but her proximity to the swastika is likewise vital; the girl is anonymous but she can still be this close to the symbol of the party. Triumph of the Will, dir. Riefenstahl.

Schindler's List, dir. Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures, 1993.

Star Wars, dir. George Lucas, 20th Century Fox, 1977.

Bach, "The Puzzle of Leni Riefenstahl."

Annotated Bibliography

Bach, Steven. "The Puzzle of Leni Riefenstahl." The Wilson Quarterly 26.4 (2002): 43-46.

This brief study of Riefenstahl late in her life is much more a work consulted than cited. It provided examples of Riefenstahl’s unique aversions to questions about her early work. Ultimately a colorful study.

The Battleship Potempkin. Dir. Eisenstein, Sergie. Jacob Bliokh. 1925.

A noted propagandist film from one of cinema’s foremost theoreticians. The Battleship Potempkin provides a vital contrast in styles between those of the Nazis and the Soviets. Sontag makes similar parallels though with different directors and works.

Star Wars. Dir. Lucas, George. Gary Kurtz. 1977.

Significant in its homage use of World War II battle photography. Early in his career Lucas used a variety of fundamental cinematic tools to create a variety of feelings and memorable characters. This movie draws directly from Triumph of the Will.

Olympia. Dir. Riefenstahl, Leni. Leni Riefenstahl. 1938.

One of Riefenstahl’s most well known films. Originally shot in 1936 at the Berlin Olympics, Olympia is a two part film that recorded the games themselves primarily though the Nazis are obviously a subject too. Olympia has had long lasting effects on sport photography with some archetypal shots still appearing in contemporary movies and sports coverage.

Triumph of the Will. Dir. ---. Leni Riefenstahl. 1935.

This is the fundamental Nazi propaganda piece. The imagery from this film is something in the collective memory of anyone who has seen footage of the Nazis or any totalitarian regime as the angles and techniques are at this point the standard in presentation of such subject matter. Triumph of the Will was once a staple of German theaters during the War; today it is banned in Germany.

Schulte-Sasse, Linda. "Leni Riefenstahl's Feature Films and the Question of a Fascist Aesthetic." Cultural Critique.18 (1991): 123-48.

Schulte-Sasse provides a necessary relief from Sontag’s ultimately dismissive seminal work. Schulte-Sasse allows for reasonable analysis to be made about fascist films by recognizing the leaps they make between some conflicting and always extreme subject matter.

Sontag, Susan. "Fascinating Fascism." Movies and Methods. Ed. Bill Nichols. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.

In many respects the seminal work on Riefenstahl’s films. Sontag really seeks to dispel any belief that Riefenstahl has significance to film today because of the context she worked in. However Sontag was writing prior to the examples which seem most relevant in suggesting otherwise.

Schindler's List. Dir. Spielberg, Steven. Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen and Branko Lustig. 1993.

Critically acclaimed Schindler’s List is something of antithesis to Riefenstahl’s work. Nevertheless, Spielberg’s film is based on a keen knowledge of the holocaust and is effective because he presents such a variety of details and subtleties. Schindler’s List is so effective for similar reason’s to Triumph of the Will.

#Leni Riefenstahl #Triumph of the Will #AP European History #Propaganda

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