#wh is more... personal? there is one main creator. these are His characters. its Their story. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

silver-wield · 4 months

Note

hmm in the premise that SE is definitely set out to be killing a non existent ship in the trilogy (preferably in part 2 already), I just don't understand how anyone can think the story would go astray from it's array of chekhov's guns. Tbh, when I first watched AC, as a kid, in my mind I just assumed tifa was his gf and z and a were like his comrades who died. The part where he called him "mother" did help tons for me to think of it this way. It was only after 15 years? That I discovered there was even a debate? So I spoiled myself and by the principles of storytelling, FF7 seems to have the trope of quite literally any amnesia tropy kdrama plot I've ever seen that also exist in jp media. Aka, anything that happened during his amnesia phase does not count after finding out who he is, because he was most party manipulated to not remember things by the narrative and its character. Mind you, this is just me spoiling myself for a small context of a game i haven't played yet and only have superficial understanding of the characters. Also, the part in lifestream really sells it lol, he gets himself back? Because he was false before? It's so weird why this is even confusing.

So, I had a conversation with my bro about this and he's a debater, I told everything about the "LTD" and it's a long talk but he says, it's a non-debate. Since cloti is sourced explicitly in the game and sources, answering cloud's feelings as the main question.. the ltd asks "what does he feel for a?" But the thing is, it can also be asked "what does he feel for z?" Easily can be romantic IF we base thier "logic" of ca on zack + cloud. Canon wise both are stated as friends to him. But romantic? For both, it LITERALLY doesn't exist. It's not as to make it vague per say, but that the writers, story, and characters have no idea that it's even needed to be answered. Aka it is by default platonic. Not vague, it's platonic as stated by canon sources as it's the only one that exists. The LTD is a cult like idea that continued to persist in the fandom of FF7. But never in the mind of it's creator. This is their mistake. They find this as an activity of the fandom, but reality is, it undermines their work greatly. Destroying all the characters, and story they've made and for what? Cheap pity fan service? That's lazy. This isn't a charm of the game, but a mistake of its delivery. I mean as evident as how many pitied tifa in AC. Essentially it's like 1+1=2 (canon) but someone says it's 3. In short it's BS, but a lot are biting on "maybe it is 3" and ignoring all the proof for the sake of negating. Hence a non-debate because canon has already won and will always win.

Now, I saw a zerith point out how they're so happy they're even getting anything. Tbh I found this strange, a good story would utilize the successful built up if zack and they are thank god. But why do I see this as a random person? And they don't? I feel there's trauma in this fandom, and I hate that for all of you and a story that has intense potential. Which leads me to a "funny" thought. It seems for so long, cas have been going on about their way to misinform everyone, thus encouraging incels, dudebros, bandwagoners alike. This does not seem to sit well with devs, I sure hope so. I feel like the fact that they've been this toxic, is the reason why SE is extra mean to them and is even planning to finally give them an answer to the "what does c feel for a?" After all these time? A question that was never important to begin with because it's already platonic by default but copers want more. It is because of this desire, most likely "he doesn't feel romantically inclinde, even if you as a player did, he does not, never will, never did" would be the answer. SE could have let them have their merry way, but they've been pos. So they made the compilation, imperfect, but there's Zack, now Zerith is coming around and with closure, Cloti is being emphasized. They added stuff for cloti and more important, reduced what was "theirs". Had cloud's mocap actor emphasize cloti and downplay ca. We even had a trailer quite literally exposing to the whole world how disgusting the idea of ca is, and if you liked it? Lol get help , your morals are astray. There's so much much more, and for some reason if this is successful, if SE actually gives a shit for art and not cheap money? Then lmao, cas made all of this happen just because they can't stop fcking things up. The existence of a problem, that needs to be fixed. Because of that, ZA will be pushed on their faces, and they will definitely not like CT more with all the sexual built up in part 1. I'm obviously joking to " thank them", of course, the devs who lost their patience are to be thanked as they've been inspired to take responsibility for their shortcomings as well. But yeah, if everyone understood OG on the get go? And AC didn't get much shit? Nobody pitied tifa? doubt we would be even getting this much content for cloti, maybe cloud, and quite especially tifa.

It's a strange journey, but I hope I'm right about them having integrity. I sure hope so. I hope they don't leave room for pity, I hope they are ruthless with it. I don't think I ship anyone but I am a sucker for a masterpiece, and I very much want this to be one.

None of the devs have ever thought about that ship, and even when asked point blank Nojima was all "idk" and had to come up with something on the spot but even that was negative because he stated Aerith cares more about the planet than she would Cloud

Which is obvious from how she has zero respect for him

#ship war #for the fandom

5 notes · View notes

anhed-nia · 4 years

Text

BLOGTOBER 10/17/2020: SPOOKIES

What do we watch, when we watch movies? This question was sparked by my SOV experience with the very different, and differently interesting BLOODY MUSCLE BODYBUILDER FROM HELL and HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5. Within the Shot On Video category, one can find inventive homemade features that are driven entirely by blood, sweat, and the creators' feeling of personal satisfaction. The results are sometimes fascinating, in their total alienation from the conventions and techniques of mainstream filmmaking, and after all, one rarely sees anything whose primary motivation is passion, here in the late stages of capitalism. But, all this talk about what goes on behind the camera points to a discrepancy in how we consume different kinds of production. The typical mode of consumption is internal to the movie: What happens in it? Do you relate to the characters? Are you able to suspend your disbelief, to experience the story on a vicarious level? One hardly needs to come up with examples of films that invite this style of viewing. Alternatively, we can experience the movie as a record of a time and place in which real people defied conventions and sometimes broke laws in order to produce a work of art. SOV production is usually viewed through this lens, where the primary interest is not the illusory content, but the filmmakers' sheer determination to create. We find some overlap in movies like EVIL DEAD, which simultaneously presents a terrifying narrative, and evidence of what a truly driven team can create without the aid of a studio, or any real money to speak of. See also, Larry Cohen's New York City-based horror films, in which a compelling drama with great acting can exist side by side with phony but beautiful effects, and exciting stories of stolen footage that would be dangerous or impossible to attempt today. I'm thinking about these different modes of consumption now because I just watched SPOOKIES, a legitimately cursed-seeming film whose harrowing production history has superseded whatever people think about what it shows on the screen. The lovingly composed blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome includes a feature-length documentary that attempts to explain the making of the film--which is accompanied by its own feature length commentary track by documentarists Michael Gingold and Glen Baisley. The very existence of this artifact suggests a lot about the nature of this movie, in and of itself. The truth behind its existence is as funny as it is tragic.

I'm not going to do a whole breakdown of the tortured origins of SPOOKIES, which is much better told by the aforementioned documentary. To summarize: Once upon a time in the mid 1980s, filmmakers Brendan Faulkner, Thomas Doran and Frank Farel conspired to make a fun, flamboyant rubber monsterpiece called TWISTED SOULS. It was wild, ridiculous, and transparently fake-looking, but it was loved by its hard-working creators; as a viewer, that soulful sense of joy can rescue many a "bad" movie from its various foibles. Then, inevitably, sleazoid producer Michael Lee stepped in--a man who thought you could cut random frames out of the middle of scenes to improve a movie's pace--and ruined it with extreme prejudice. Carefully crafted special effects sequences were cut, relatively functional scenes were re-edited into oblivion, and the seeds of hatred were sown between the filmmakers and the producer. Ultimately, everyone who once cared for TWISTED SOULS was forced to abandon ship, and first time director Eugenie Joseph stepped in to help mutilate the picture beyond all recognition. Thus SPOOKIES was born, a mangled, unloved mutation that would curse many of its original parents to unemployability. For the audience, it is intriguingly insane, often insulting, and hard to tear your eyes off of--but in spite of whatever actually wound up on the screen, it's impossible to forget its horrifying origin story as it unspools.

As far as what's on the screen goes: A group of "friends", including a middle-aged businessman and his wife, a vinyl-clad punk rock bully and his moll, two new wave-y in-betweeners, and...a guy with a hand puppet are somehow all leaving the same party, and all ready to break into a vacant funeral home for their afterparty. Well, this happens after a 13 year old runaway inexplicably wanders in to a "birthday party" in there, that looks like it was thrown for him by Pennywise, and he has the nerve to act surprised when he is attacked by a severed head and a piratey-looking cat-man who straight up purrs and meows throughout the picture. Anyway, separately of that, which is unrelated to anything, the island of misfit friends finds a nearly unrecognizable "ouija board" in the old dark house. Actually this thing is kind of fun-looking, having been made by one of the fun-havers on the production before the day that fun died, and I wonder if anyone has considered trying to make a real board game out of it...but I digress. Naturally, the board unleashes evil forces, including a zombie uprising in the cemetery outside, a plague of Ghoulie-like ankle-biters, an evil asian spider-lady (accompanied by kyoto flutes), muck-men that fart prodigiously until they melt in a puddle of wine (?), and uh...I know I'm forgetting stuff. One of the reasons I'm forgetting is because of this whole side story about a tuxedo-wearing vampire in the basement (or somewhere?) who has entrapped a beautiful young bride by cursing her with immortality. That part is a little confusing, not only because it doesn't intersect with the rest of the movie, but because sometimes it seems contemporary--as the bride struggles to survive the zombie plague--and sometimes it seems like a flashback, as our heroes find what looks like the mummified corpse of the dracula guy, complete with his signet ring. So, I don't know what to tell you really. Those are just some of the things that happen in the movie.

Some people like this a lot, and have supported its ascendance to cult status, which is a huge relief when you know what everyone went through to make this movie, only to have it ripped away from them and used against them. I found SPOOKIES a little hard to take, for all the reasons that the cast and crew express in the documentary. It holds a certain amount of visual fascination, whatever you think of it; something of its original creativity remains evident in the movie's colorful, exaggerated look, and its steady parade of unconvincing but inventive creature effects. But then, you have to deal with the farting muck-men. What was once a scene of terror starring REGULAR muck-men, that sounded incredibly laborious to pull off, became a scene of confusing "comedy" when producer Michael Lee insisted that the creatures be accompanied by a barrage of scatalogical noises. Apparently this was Lee's dream come true, as a guy who insisted everyone pull his finger all the time, and who once tried to call the movie "BOWEL ERUPTOR". But, of all the deformations SPOOKIES endured, the fart sounds dealt a mortal injury to the filmmakers' feelings, and even without knowing that, it's hard to enjoy yourself while that's happening.

Actually, all the farts forced me to ask myself: Is this...a comedy? Like for real, as its main thing? As the movie slogged on, I had to decide that it wasn't, but I was distracted by the notion for around 40 minutes. I was only released from this nagging suspicion when the bride makes her long marathon run through throngs of slavering zombies who swarm her, grope her, and tear off her clothes, before she narrowly escapes to an even worse fate. The lengthy scene is strangely gripping, and sleazy for a movie that sometimes feels like low rent children's entertainment. Part of the sequence’s success lies in its simplicity; it is unburdened by the convoluted complications of the rest of the movie, whose esoteric parts never fall together, so it seems to take on a sustained, intensifying focus. The action itself is unnerving, as the delicate and frankly gorgeous Maria Pechuka is molested and stripped nearly-bare by her undead bachelors, running from one drooling mob to another as the horde nearly engulfs her time and again. Actually, it feels a lot like a certain genre of SOV production in which, for the right price, any old creepy nerd can pay a small crew-for-hire to tape a version of his private fantasy, whether it's women being consumed by slime, or women being consumed by quicksand, or...generally, women being consumed by something. I wish I could describe this form of production in more specific or official terms, because I genuinely think it's wonderful that people do this. Anyway, Pechuka's interminable zombie run feels a little like that, and a little like a grim italian gutmuncher, and a little like an actual nightmare. Perhaps it only stands out against its dubious surroundings, but I kind of love it--and I'm happy to love it, because apparently the late Ms. Pechuka truly loved making SPOOKIES, and wanted other people to love it, too.

Which brings me to the uncomfortable place where I land with this movie. On the one hand...I think it's bad. It's so incoherent, and so insists on its impoverished form of comedy, that it's hard to be as charmed by it as I am by plenty of FX-heavy, no-budget oddities. Perhaps the lingering odor of misery drowns out the sweet joy that the crew once felt in the early days of creation--which is still evident, somehow, in its zany special effects, created by the likes of Gabe Bartalos and other folks whose work you definitely already know and love. But I feel ambivalent, about all of this. On the one hand, I can be a snob, and shit on people for failing to make a movie that meets conventional standards of success. On the other hand, I can be a DIFFERENT kind of snob--a more voyeuristic or even sadistic one--and celebrate the painful failures that produced a movie that is most interesting for its tormented history and its amusing ineptitude. I'm not really sure where I would prefer to settle with SPOOKIES, and movies like it. (As if anything is really "like" SPOOKIES) With all that said, I was left with one soothing thought by castmember Anthony Valbiro in the documentary. At some point, he tells us how ROSEMARY'S BABY is his personal cinematic comfort food; he can put it on at night, after an exhausting day, and drift to sleep, enveloped in its warm, glowing aura. He then says that he hopes there are people out there for whom his movie serves that same purpose, that some of us can have our "milk and cookies moment" with SPOOKIES. Honestly, I choke up just thinking about that.

#blogtober #2020 #spookies #horror #supernatural #vampire #zombie #creature feature #old dark house #cursed film #thomas doran #frank farel #eugenie joseph #michael lee #vipco #twisted souls #brendan faulkner #maria pechuka

12 notes · View notes

2003daredevil · 3 years

Text

Now that I've been Around and watched some more of J*ss wh*don's works I think rather conclusively that a problem he has as a writer is just not being nice. I was thinking about magical girl animes vs. Buffy and one of the things I noticed is like he's really made Buffy isolated and the intent im sure is to emphasize how independent and Strong (tm) she is but something present in magical girl animes is the heroine is never alone. She always gets a squad of other girls who also have powers to stand with her. The empowerment and the friendship go hand in hand. But no Buffy is the One girl in all the world. I think men love the individualistic nature of chosen one narratives because it makes the chosen boy That much more strong looking but the truth is that its an unkind thing to do. Sure Willow picks up magic (which eventually corrupts her) and Xander and Anya aren't completely useless but it almost felt to me like they avoided letting Xander fight for fear he'd steal Buffy's spotlight merely by being in it with her. The only other slayers get corrupted or die. And in the (original) end when shes given a sister she dies for her as her duty. I saw a lot of parallels to Scott from teen wolf kept wanting the Scooby gang to at some point become like Scott's pack, a fighting team fueled by the power of their friendship but no, consistently Buffy was never...given that. It's an unkind thing. Another very big thing J*ss likes to do is sacrifice a main character. He did it with Coulson in the Avengers, Doyle in Angel, and doing it to Tara is the biggest reason I dropped off of Buffy. Oz wasnt technically killed but he basically was. I geg writers killing off characters sometimes but doing that purely for sadistic pleasure, I'm just gonna come out right and say it, is NOT good writing. Creating endearing characters with a lot of potential just to kill them is a great way to make your audience feel sad and alienated and robbed for absolutely no reason and above all its just...mean. And it hurts the story. Regardless of whether the plan is to bring them back somehow or not it's just not a respectful way to deal with characters. Remember how he implied Xander's family was abusive and alcoholic? And Willow's narcisistic mom? I know I jumped off after 5 seasons but that should have been enough time to get into that, to develop them. Instead they remained a certain amount of flat so Buffy can take on another angst plot. If If Buffy had been given the kindness of companionship, if characters like Doyle or Oz were given a chance to have their own arcs and bloom instead of being angst fodder for the protagonist who ALREADY has plenty to angst over, if heroes were not forbidden from love just to milk the angst, these stories would be better. Not saying that you can't do dark angsty stuff with your characters but if you want the audience to feel fulfilled try treating them like people you actually care about. Or maybe that's the issue, the crossover into his personal life as someone who does in fact treat people around him poorly. I dont know. I'm just pissed I was foolish enough to end up caring more than the creator Again.

#long post/#rorshachs journal #bringing steve back in ww84 was just a NICE thing to do and it pays off because we now get the resolution of his arc #we get to see what he can do with diana working as a team #we get to discuss the implications of his sacrifice #patty jenkins respected steve trevor and it shows

1 note · View note

nadziejastar · 5 years

Note

It really bothers me that the "Axel the assassin" angle has been quietly gone. In CoM he was deadly, KH2 goes so far as to call his underlings Assassins, in Days you can make the argument that he's going out of his way to not let the kids know about that side of him, but by the time of KH3 he's completely lost any sense of danger and is instead the comic relief.

Ugh, I hate it too. Everything about Axel suggested that he had a horribly tragic backstory, along with Isa. Axel’s been reduced to comic relief now. What a crock. Talk about character assassination. No pun intended. He was the only one along with Isa who was recompleted with the black coat on. And he can still use the corridors of darkness as a human. But not just use them. This is important: He can create them.

Riku: I’ll open a path!

Mickey: You don’t belong in the dark realm anymore, Riku.

Riku couldn’t do this after getting rid of Xehanort’s Heartless.

Ienzo: There’s no place that he could go now that he’s human. He has no means of leaving this world.

Mickey: The dark corridors—

Ienzo: Are beyond his faculties and mine now.

And in KH3, when everyone is looking for Even, Ienzo says that they can’t use the corridors of darkness anymore, either. They could only do it as Nobodies. So, it’s not a technology thing. Apparently it’s extremely rare for regular people to have the ability to create these corridors. What made Lea so special? Sadly, I highly doubt this will ever come up again.

My choice to befriend darkness here in the midst of nothingness was a sound one. The moment I stared straight ahead with a calm heart, neither rejecting darkness nor fearing it, I gained a newfound power. A superhuman power—the power of darkness. It is likely Xehanort and the others were enraptured by this power, eventually becoming its prisoners. I do not intend to allow my heart to be devoured by the darkness, as they did, of course. With this new power, I uncovered a “corridor of darkness” that connects the realm of nothingness to the outside world. While it is still difficult to come and go as I please, my banishment is now a thing of the past.

DiZ learned how to use the corridors when he was trapped in the Realm of Darkness. He calmly accepted the darkness without fear, and then gained the ability.

Riku: No vessel, no help from the Heartless… So tell me, how’d you get here?

Beast: I simply believed. Nothing more to it. When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again no matter what the cost. I believed I would find her. So, here I am. She must be here. I will have her back!

Then there was the Beast. He used a corridor due to his desire to find Belle.

Nomura: There is one more method, the use of the “Dark Corridor”. There are those who are on a fallen path, essentially not being on the path they should be. Only those who can be said to have a Dark existence or an In-between existence can make these doorways. On rare occasion those with particularly strong feelings or hatred, such as the case with Beast and DiZ and perhaps others like them can open these paths. However you must be careful when coming into contact with such darkness. As such, if you use these paths too often you will be completely swallowed by darkness. Sora has used these paths several times before, but the degree of frequency hasn’t allowed the darkness to stain his heart, so you can think of the influential power of darkness as being dependent upon the strength of the persons heart.

But Nomura specifies that it’s strong feelings of hatred that open these paths.

The distant days spent in that beautiful paradise are an illusion to me now. How long have I been here, banished to the realm of nothingness? It is only by relying upon my anger and hatred that I have been able to retain my sense of self here where all existence is nullified. My heart is being overcome with hatred toward my apprentices, possessed by the darkness, and with the anger I feel for stupidly allowing myself to be betrayed. Is this darkness, eating away at my heart? I cannot continue to idle away my time here. What are Xehanort and the others attempting to do? I must unravel the mystery of these Ansem’s Reports, intercept my apprentices, and defeat them. That is my mission…the only way to repay the world for my sins.

DiZ wanted revenge, and the Beast wanted to murder anyone who took Belle. It’s all consistent with Lea being a subject on the experiments of the darkness of the heart. He’s a very unique person to be able to create the corridors of darkness. Being recompleted didn’t instantly get rid of his hatred.

Lea: You know what? I’ll bring ‘em back myself.

Ienzo: Huh? How, exactly?

Lea: Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?

He was feeling enough hatred at this moment to open a corridor. He must have been feeling like the Beast. He wanted Isa back, like the Beast wanted Belle. But not just that. He would murder anyone in his way. His intentions on bringing Braig back were probably not so nice. So why does he have so much hatred compared to the other members? Well, here’s a passage from the KH2 novel. It’s after Sora leaves the castle during the 1000 Heartless fight.

Just after Sora and his friends rushed outside because of the noise…a man in a black cloak stole into the empty computer lab.

The screen displayed a picture of a man with a white beard.

Axel quietly pushed back his hood, revealing a shock of bright red hair. He squinted, leaning closer to peer at the screen.

But there was something else that grabbed his attention more than the man in the picture—something about the computer system itself.

The interface looked familiar. It was a lot like the one the computers in the organization headquarters used. That wasn’t the only thing giving Axel déjà vu. He stared at the screen…

He recognizes the computer from the data Twilight Town.

“…What are you doing here?” said a voice behind him. Axel spun around to find another man in black standing there. Seeing that Axel was ready to fight, the newcomer pushed his hood back and shifted his shoulders.

“Ansem… Oh, Riku, it’s you.” Axel breathed a sigh of relief, recognizing the face. “Don’t scare me like that, okay? I got people after me, y’know.”

“Well, if so, you should be a little more cautious.” Riku pulled up his hood again and went to join Axel in front of the computer. “You’re weak anyway,” he added, and a small laugh escaped him.

“Wh— Hey, I just let my guard down for—”

“So this is Ansem’s computer?” Riku interrupted Axel’s protest.

“Who’s the man in this picture?”

“Beats me.” Axel shrugged.

Hold up. Axel doesn’t recognize Ansem the Wise?

“…I thought someone in the organization would be more help.”

“I’m not in the organization!” Ignoring Axel, Riku began typing on the keyboard, and the screen displayed some data about the man. It seemed Sora and the others had left the information unlocked.

How were you an apprentice if you don’t even recognize Ansem the Wise?

“…Ansem? …That’s the real Ansem?” Riku murmured, reading the text above the picture. Beside him, Axel stayed quiet. A little while back, when he and Riku had exchanged information, they’d both come to understand that the man who called himself Ansem had only stolen Ansem’s name.

And he only found out recently from Riku that Xehanort wasn’t really Ansem? People just dismiss it and say the novels aren’t canon, but I don’t think that’s a satisfactory explanation at all. They do deviate from the games, sure. Axel and Riku are working behind the scenes in the KH2 novel. But the story only deviates in ways that enhance canon.

Like, in the KH2 novels Namine can tell that Axel has a heart. Axel is way more important and has more interaction with the good guys, and his relationship with Saix got more focus than it did in KH2. Stuff like that. The writer was obviously told the whole story ahead of time, and wrote the novels to be consistent with that. If Lea was envisioned as an apprentice, surely the writer would have known that as well. She was one of the main scenario writers for Days. She basically created Xion. Of course she’d know if Lea was an apprentice.

“Oh!” Axel blurted.

“What is it?”

“I remember now! The screen looks like that computer in Twilight Town!” he exclaimed with certainty. The details of the system interface were the same. The one in Twilight Town had seemed more advanced, though. As if this one was its predecessor.

“It has the same layout and the functions. That computer was managing Twilight Town, and this one is managing Hollow Bastion. Both of these systems were developed for town administration. There’s no way anyone else could’ve designed this. It has to mean they both have the same creator.” As Axel rushed to explain, Riku only kept staring silently at the computer.

“…So where did the real Ansem go?” Axel said finally.

“There is one person whose true identity we don’t know,” Riku muttered. At that, Axel looked up from the screen, meeting Riku’s eyes.

They’re talking about DiZ. Axel doesn’t seem to know anything about Ansem the Wise. But he does know about using the dark corridors—the D.T.D.

#kh meta #kh axel #kh lea #kh ansem

11 notes · View notes

theisaacnewton101 · 6 years

Text

Midterm Essay #1: “I’m posting it online because I feel like it, GOD”

Prodigal Summer is an interesting novel written by Barbara Kingsolver that examines the relationship between man and nature in a rural farming community. This story follows three drastically different characters with their own unique relationship to the environment. These three develop their understanding of the environment and learn ways that they take better care of it. This essay will focus on Garnett Walker, a stubborn old man who feuds with his ecocentric neighbor. In this novel, Garnett’s character is meant to represent the standard anthropocentric worldview.

Anthropocentrism is the idea that the world is man-centered. In terms of the environment, it means that man is top dog, ergo the environment should submit to man’s whim. This is seen everywhere in modern culture, with deforestation and pollution running rampant. Capitalism takes center stage in Western culture; nature and the environment are just tools now used to make money. Killing the planet doesn’t matter as long as money is being made, but how did we get to this worldview?

Anthropocentrism has been deeply rooted in society since the advent of Christianity. Prior to Christianity, many religions incorporated animism: the idea that nature and wildlife have spirit. This principle created a greater respect for the environment, as man would have to appease nature before taking the materials they needed for building or survival. Man would not take to excess in fear of angering the spirits, so they only took what they needed; it was sustainable, and man could coexist with nature pleasantly. Christianity, on the other hand, had no concept of animism. The Christian God created the planet for man; man was made in his own image, paralleling man to the creator, giving him an inherent superiority over nature. “Man shares, in great measure, God’s transcendence of nature. Christianity, in absolute contrast to ancient paganism and Asia’s religions, not only established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it is God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper ends” (White Jr., 407). The Christian God told man that he created the world for him; go forth and name the animals, eat the fruit, use the materials given to you for whatever you like. In effect, the environment was created for man, and he is free to exploit it. This ideology placed man at the top of the food chain and removed the spirituality from the environment, which effectually removed the inhibition to exploit the environment. Christianity spread over the world like wildfire during the colonial era and set its ideals deep within society. Even as man moved away from religion, the ideology still remained ingrained into society.

Another anthropocentric idea ingrained in Western culture is that nature is feminine in concept and is therefore subservient and passive. The dualism between masculinity and femininity places men in the active role and females in the passive role. This makes men the dominant within the dualism, which also places man over nature. Within the gendered depictions of nature, there exist two sides: “a kindly beneficent female who provided for the needs of mankind in an ordered, planned universe” and “wild and uncontrollable nature that could render violence, storms, droughts, and general chaos” (Merchant, 10). Obviously, the latter half of nature was an issue; man was dominant, so something more powerful and violent than man would need to be subdued to retain the hierarchy. In order for man and nature to coexist, nature must submit to man. Grasslands were turned into fields, forests were chopped down to make room for development, and deep wounds were carved into the planet to mine for minerals. This new perception was necessary for society to grow, for as long as man is perceived as dominant and the earth is perceived as passive, there’s no moral issue with exploiting the planet. In the need to subdue the planet, man has made many a tool to make it more convenient to forcefully suppress the planet. From plows and machinery to pesticides and chemicals, man has made it easier to keep the wild in line. Areas of wild that still exist today are marketed as tourist attractions, surrounded by high fences and civilization.

So how does this relate to Prodigal Summer? Well, as Garnett is meant to represent the standard anthropocentric worldview, these ideas are deeply ingrained within him. As we begin Garnett’s story, we find that he is a sad old man who misses his wife. Still following the male and female dualism, he believes that she was his “anchor,” holding him to his house. However, the main conflict in his story arc comes from his neighbor, Nannie Rawley. Nannie is an active old woman who will voice her opinions and advocate for the preservation of nature. She believes that wildlife should be able to run its course without human interference, as she believes interference will make things worse. These ideas are drastically different to the ideas Garnett has about women. She is active, as opposed to passive, and she vouches against the domination of nature. The first conflict between these two is illustrated within the book, immediately pitting them against each other with their conflicting ideals. Garnett notices a sign on his property, “his roadside, two hundred feet over his property line,” proclaiming his field “to be a ‘NO SPRAY ZONE.’ As if all a person had to do to rule the world was concoct a fool set of opinions and paint them on a three by three square of plywood” (Kingsolver, 84). This passage sets Nannie up as an obstacle to Garnett; she plays the active role by placing a sign onto his property in order to protect her orchard from pesticides. This example shows a woman defying gender roles, and Garnett struggles to accept these ideas.

Religion also plays an important part in Garnett’s character. Garnett sees Nannie as a godless old woman because she acts differently than how he expects a Christian woman to behave. Even in the Bible, the woman is portrayed as passive; Eve was created from Adam. This creates a precedence that man is again superior to women. After seeing Nannie in a store talking about setting free endangered lizards, Garnett wrote a letter to Nannie:

Or are we to think of ourselves as keepers and guardians of the earth, as God instructed us to do in Genesis 1:27–30, “So God created man in his own image, … and God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it! … Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree-yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth’”–such as salamanders, Miss Rawley—“‘wherein there is life, I have given every green earth for meat’; and so it was so.” If the Holy Bible is to be believed, we must view God’s creatures as gifts to his favored children and use them for our own purposes, even if this occasionally causes this one or that one to go extinct after a while (Kingsolver, 186).

Within this letter, Garnett shows that he doesn’t much understand the environment, for he only knows of his anthropocentric worldview where God made him king. When an animal goes extinct (or reaches the brink of extinction), there are very large effects that make their way up the food chain. It’s like the butterfly effect, something small and insignificant could have devastating effects that we don’t foresee. The extinction of a salamander could cause an overabundance of insects or plant life that would normally be eaten by the salamander. Alternatively, the birds and turtles that preyed on this salamander could struggle to find food and begin to die off. Garnett doesn’t think about these things, though, because he carries his Christian ideology with him, wherein it proclaims that destroying the environment is fine for it is yours. Nannie is able to expertly refute this, also by using the Bible. She states that gluttony is a sin, and “thou shalt not kill,” arguing that the Bible does not vouch for dominance over the environment, but to coexist with it, and to not harvest to excess. She also argues that God made plant life with the animals in mind as well, interpreting the passage Garnett outlined as creating food for them, too. Again, as the woman shows him a different worldview that refutes his own, he goes into a tizzy and begins writing back an angry letter.

To finally end the arc between these two, Garnett and Nannie have a discussion. A tree falls onto Garnett’s property, so he goes over to her property to talk to her about it. However, Nannie has something she’d like to talk about as well: Garnett is spraying weed killer himself. She finally explains why she thinks weed killer is counterproductive by way of the Volterra Principle. “Predator bugs don’t reproduce so fast, as a rule. But see, that works out right in nature because one predator eats a world of pest bugs in its life. The plant eaters have to go faster just to hold their ground. They’re in balance with each other” (Kingsolver, 275). By spraying his land, both insect populations are reset to zero, which gives the pest bugs the upper hand as they reproduce faster. Garnett believes this to be true, and from there, their relationship improves to where it is at the end of the book. Nannie is able to make Garnett see the error in his ways, which is to say that it is possible to overturn our anthropocentric thinking. By a woman showing a man that he was wrong, it shifts the power balance within the dualism back to equal, which in turn places the earth back on equal footing with man.

In conclusion, Garnett Walker is a grumpy old man who was able to change his thinking with the help of his pushy neighbor. Garnett was set to represent the anthropocentric view that man holds as a whole; the advent of Christianity and the inherent male to female dualism ingrained in society holds man over the earth, free to exploit it for his own gain. When Nannie was able to convince him to change his thinking, it symbolized challenging the anthropocentric thinking of society, which would in turn help save the world.

Kingsolver, B. (2000). Prodigal Summer. London: Faber and Faber.

Merchant, C. (2008). Nature as Female. In The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (p. 10). San Francisco, CA: HarperOne.

White, L., Jr. (2008). Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis. In American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (p. 407). Toronto, ON: Penguin Random House Canada.

#ILS2215BattistaWinter2018

2 notes · View notes

wanderingfan · 6 years

Text

Things I Enjoyed This Week

Hello Again. Hope you’re having a good weekend! Here’s some things I watched/listened/obsessed over this week. This week I’m going to try to be a little more thorough on what each piece of content contains this time.

Main Fixation

Banana Fish

This is going to be here for the next 30 weeks and I don’t know what to tell you. Oh wait I do have something to say that I probably can’t sneak into the Eiji and Ash post I’m doing (hopefully it’ll be done by Tuesday.)

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT HOW HORRENDOUS OF A POKER FACE EIJI HAS WHEN TALKING TO IBE.

“Oh, I will,” he says casually with his eyes bulging out of his sockets. I loved Eiji in the manga and I’m loving Eiji in the anime and frames like this really say a thousand words about him. I have a more depressing image that also says a thousand words but I’ll put that on a solo post later tomorrow.

Videos

Cooking With Twinkies! by brutalmoose

contains food products including sweets such as twinkies, ice cream and cookies, condiments, cooked and uncooked sausage and hot dogs, as well as a man cooking and eating said food.

Brutalmoose’s videos are always a treat to see, whether he’s making frozen dinners, cooking weird recipes, watching old tv or television movies, or playing far off video games. This one is him dressed in a mustard twinkie suit making food...using twinkies. The art is in the editing hon. And by that I mean it’s odd.

Down the Rabbit Hole by Fredrik Knudsen

contains disturbing information regarding things ranging from cult-like activity to mental illness to online abuse to attempted murder and suicide. viewer discretion is advised.

Hey hi I accidentally binge-watched this whole playlist. It’s documentary-like video series describing strange, often disturbing events ranging from events involving content creators to historical events like the plague. What makes this series work I think is how the narrator acts completely separate from the events, only giving information in order to allow you to draw your own conclusion.

Arthur Games #2! by PeanutButterGamer

contain bits of video made to make Arthur and its characters disturbing. some edits are disjointed and a little off-putting

Another video that relies on odd editing. These videos range from funny to slightly surreal. It’s about Arthur games...based on Arthur. The only episode I remember watching of Arthur is the one where he broke a glass bird by accident, and then one where his sister wanted to wish on a shooting star...I don't know I put in here because I watched it okay?

Examining the Yaoi BL Genre by GoatJesus

contains discussion of sexual assault, homophobia and sexism along with showing episodes that include sexual assault.

I almost removed this because there are some opinions GoatJesus has that I heavily disagree with. However when it comes to this video in particular GoatJesus is very on point, so I feel like since I keep running into posts declaring they hate Yaoi (sometimes while putting any content with seemingly non-straight undertones into that category,) and then others justifying their love of Yaoi (but not...real LGDTQ+ people and the stories they write cough cough) by declaring some nonsensical reasoning like yaoi was before gay culture (which is...uhuh. sure. okay.) I think it’s important to have more videos like this that are clear and honest on how they feel about this topic.

The Shape of Ableism: How We Restrict Disabled and Disfigured Stories by The Princess and the Scrivener

contains discussion of mental and physical disabilities, ableism, prejudice, racism, sexism and how film portrays these topics with examples from The Elephant Man, Wonder, Me Before You, and The Shape of Water, among others.

The way Scrivener discusses topics and her response to “critical” comments speak to me on this personal level it’s like she’s in my head and now I weirded myself out so if you want to see a proper look at the mistreatment and lack of disabled casting in films check this one out.

Are Rules Made to Be Broken? | Philosophy Tube by Philosophy Tube

contains discussions on politics, activism, philosophy, racism and discriminatory laws

An quickie on why rules are made to be broken...not much else to say the title speaks for itself. Short and sweet.

So I Installed 30+ Mods Onto Darkest Dungeon... and VAMPYRBORNE by Indeimaus

contains video game blood, violence and murder. also swearing.

Whenever I’m interested in a game but don’t have a big wallet I usually look at a good playthrough of it. However ever since I discovered Indeimaus I suddenly can’t imagine going through 30+ hours of a playthrough unless its someone I really like, because Indeimaus usually makes a single video that chronicles his experience playing through the game.

Gator Ate My Camera! and BIG PIG PARTY! by Brave Wilderness

first video contains live gators in a feeding frenzy and raw meat. second video contains pigs, chickens, organic cake (safe for animals to eat), birthday décor and Coyote eating a piece of the cake after dropping it on the dirt.

PIG PARTY! GATOR PARTY! Brave Wilderness videos are always a nice treat to watch when I feel I stopped in my tracks. When I’m lying down not sleeping I usually watch some Brave Wilderness videos until I go to sleep. Coyote’s love for creatures big and small is infectious.

Power Rangers (2017) - Deep Dive by FilmJoy

contains people eating oreo cookies and watching a movie. people chatting and having a good time on a couch and pausing to talk in front of the camera. movies watching parts are set in black-and-white.

Deep Dive is a series that strives to see the joy in movies that are...not conventionally joyful. They’re great if you’re tired of reviews that are essentially “this movie SUCKS” for 15-30 minutes and instead want to see someone at least try to find the good in even things that are atrocious. This time though they watched a movie that was...kinda actually good? All of them are surprised by this.

Klonoa: The Saddest Game Ever Made (Analysis/Tribute) - ChaseFace ...by ChaseFace

contains story beats to the first klonoa game, which deals with destruction, loss, deceit, and other themes, but its not gory or “adult” in any capacity.

Wh-what? Why would I be sad about this game? I never played it! I have no reason to cry about this cutesy game about friendship and dreams. N-nope! D-didn’t cry at alllllllll-aaaaaaaaaagh *gross sobbing*

Podcasts

Waypoint - Captain Toad's Wild Ride and No Man's Guy

contains discussion on toxic behavior in gaming communities (including mention of a bomb threat to a game creator) and the culture and issues of gaming development and publishing, along with brief asides to politics.

This week Waypoint discuss how good Captain Toad is among other Switch Games, and then goes into a details discussion on what happened to No Man’s Sky, including the visceral reactions to it.

Oh No, Ross and Carrie! - Ross and Carrie Traverse Flat Earth (Part 7): The Jeran Campanella Interview

contains skepticism of modern science, religion (focusing on catholic,) atheism and the flat-earther movement

Ross and Carrie take a break from the out-of-body club to interview a flat-earther on his experience in becoming one.

Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 43: Davey Coolstool’s Math Poetry

contains a married couple being in love

Wonderful is a couple who used to do a Bachelor Podcast called Rose Buddies, but after the show got to a point where the couple decided they didn’t want to encourage anyone to watch the show they moved on to just a podcast talking about things they think are wonderful. Saccharine sweet and positive, will probably lull you to sleep.

The Worst Bestsellers - Episode 102 – Ramona and Her Mother

contains childhood nostalgia, memories, and family issues

The Worst Bestseller are ladies who go through...the worst bestsellers, from Warriors (LIES) to Fifty Shades of Grey. But PLOTWIST - They talk about a book they actually love this time with Ramona and Her Mother, which seems to understand the small struggles of being a young kid that are still applicable today as they were in the seventies.

Let's Fight a Boss - Ep 79: Willy-Banilly

contains swearing and some dark humor. also contain irish funeral arrangements.

A group of friend poke fun at each other while talking about what they watched/read, what they played, games news and emails. They’re usually two hours long but sometimes less or more depending on the topics. They can be very frank about what they like and dislike which might throw people off, but I respect them for still being good people. Its hard for me to get differing opinions that aren’t attached to more toxic behavior, so its nice to be able to enjoy a podcast that’s still respectful.

That’s it for this week. Take care!

#my stuff #things i enjoyed this week #banana fish #books #video games #food #podcasts

0 notes