George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
The things you lean on / are things that don't last
User ID: 107
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Shouldn't that be あんど
but I am sensing a whooshing sound going past my ears here.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
As a Kansai resident I will say it does not code feminine here, though I can't speak for all of Japan obviously. Men routinely use わ in Kansai dialect, which is in general considered a rougher way of speaking than Kanto ben.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
I laughed out loud at this, thanks. Nothing moves the literary soul quite as deeply as thoughts written in all caps.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
I wouldn't discount the possibility that even now he has somewhere an alt that will pick up his ball and keep running for the goal. I do not write this based on some knowledge of his character, just that this is a time-worn strategy of many who get banned.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Fixed. Apologies.
who may or may not have been a prostitute
I found Giuffre more sympathetic than, say, Maria Farmer, who seems a little crazy (but at least said No to Maxwell). I also think it's clear from Giuffre's own barely readable biography that she was definitely whoring herself out from a very young age, well before Maxwell marked her for Epstein. Now did she have a terrible home life? It certainly seems so. But Epstein didn't make her a prostitute. That she happened to be working at Mar-A-Lago was an absolute fluke. It's also clear she ran the game as far as she could until she felt she was fed up with it, at which point she bailed to Thailand on Epstein's coin and decided to run for it. It's a compelling dramatic story but the narrative (now set in stone after her death) that she was always Epstein's victim leaves out a lot of her own really shitty choices. I do feel bad for her, but hers is a tragedy in the Greek drama sense --her determination, her ability to push through and survive, ended up leading to the life that destroyed her.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
As a fan of Andor, I would suggest that one of the reasons it got produced is that in some ways it checks all the appropriate boxes: There is a female character (more than one) in fairly big, plot-driving roles. The eponymous character is a man of Mexican heritage. In the show he, as a child, was adopted by a white woman (Petunia Dudley from the Harry Potter films, amusingly) whose own husband was a black man (who has only a very small role before he is basically written out of the storyline.) There is a lesbian couple. An Indian woman who is also an assassin. Many, many of the progressive boxes are ticked--but not at the expense of a story. And that story, which drives two seasons, is compelling. White men are not all seen as bumbling, or evil, or both (though there are both bumbling and evil white men in the show.) One of the most complex characters is, arguably throughout his whole character arc, a white dude whose story is so believable it could be a documentary. You don't have 115 lb. females flipping 250 lb. men through plate glass windows, though true enough the cast is quite diverse.
Yet it works. (At least for me.) Seen from one perspective, the rebellion against the Empire (what drove the first films in 1977) can now be seen as "Le Resistance" à la the Force Awakens trilogy. The Empire is Trumpism. But this is a facile reading. Big government of any sort (including one run by democrats) can just as easily be substituted for the Empire. I know people on both sides of the political spectrum who like the series, both having very different reads on it. And this is what filmed entertainment (it's not a film, after all, it's a TV series) should be. Political, sure, but not propagandistic. The moral messages are complex. Nothing is a clear cut-out for current events unless you really, really stretch. Yes the show does present some behavior some might find grating as unquestionably normal (pre-marital sex, etc.) But it does have a moral core, which I mean in the John Gardner sense.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
I've seen the film twice and I am not sure characterizing it as selling Sapir-Whorf (soft or hard) is entirely accurate--is at least not what I'd get out of it, or did get out of it. Admittedly I did not read the novella, so maybe there's something more obvious there that was removed or de-emphasized by Villaneuve. I dislike at least the hard version of Sapir-Whorf as well (to say I dislike it means I simply don't buy it--the hard version of course the suggestion that language determines thought, that some thoughts simply cannot be held in the mind in certain languages--one of the common weapons in the arsenal against the supposed linguistic imperialism of, say, English) but the soft version (e.g. that a language one speaks/reads/thinks in at least influences their thoughts or their thought patterns) is to me self-evident. You, as a multilingual, must have some thoughts on this as well?
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
I don't know of any outcry of anyone "upset" as such, because many of the yokozuna of the past have been not-fully-Japanese, but I think after such a spell of Mongolian powerhouses (Asashoryu, Hakuho, Harumafuji, Kakuryu, Terunofuji, etc.) having a Japanese yokozuna brings in fans who like to root for a wrestler who is fully Japanese (though he sucked this last basho as I'm sure you are aware).
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
I went through a phase in the Asashoryu years where I kept a log each basho, bought a book on moves, and would attend every year the March basho in Osaka. I've been many times. Great fun; I usually imbibe on these days and am well into my cups by the last bout at 6.
This and that occured, and all the wrestlers I used to follow are now either ringside judges or back to Mongolia. I once shook Ama's hand (he would later be Harumafuji) in a back alley in Tokyo day before his match. He was with two very large tsukebito (lower ranked wrestlers who are essentially lackeys) leaning up against a massive obsidian SUV that looked as if it could carry a black Op wet team into the PM's office. Anyway he lost the next day (so much for my handshake being lucky.)
It's rumored to be a world of hookers and gangsters, hardcore tradition mixed with courtesy, violence, extortion, and quietly ignored prostitution. That said many top wrestlers end up marrying announcers, actresses, or models and retire to a life of television guest spots, reasonable dieting, and possibly a position as a stable oyakata.
The Freakonomics guys were insistent that at least during the era they were doing their data collection there were (to them) clear cases of fraud (in this case match throwing). A sumotori must have a winning record to avoid demotion, which means 8/15 by the final day at least. It is my understanding that they analyzed many bouts and cases where wrestlers just happened to win on days when it was do or die were statistically improbable unless something was awry. Combine this with the reality that it's man-to-man, and no one can get inside the head of either wrestler, and matches can be over in a few seconds. I personally suspect it's happened, but isn't commonplace, particularly now.
There's currently an ethnically Japanese yokozuna (the highest rank) which has been rare since the Takanohana days (lots of Mongolian or Pacific Islander guys) and that generates local interest. Though alas, young people are often disinterested in this traditional sport and focus more on soccer, volleyball, basketball, or even judo. It doesn't help that not just any kid can do sumo or even play around at it. You have to be big, and the professional guys are packing away food and booze in impressive proportions.
There are other more culture warry scandals but this isn't the thread for it.
edit: typos
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Not to derail this but I had thought you had Crohn's, not UC. Of the two, UC seems preferable (in that it does not run the length of the digestive tract) but of course both seem extremely uncomfortable. I'm continually amazed at the US healthcare system and I think one of the many benefits of living in Japan is this kind of situation. I could probably get a colonoscopy in less than a week if I needed to, and would be charged a few hundred bucks at most after insurance. In any case you have my sympathies.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Kind of you to say, thanks.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
I love this site.
I don't contribute even remotely the same level of thoughtful and well-considered effortposts that many do, I disagree with shit tons of bad takes (that are almost always well-argued) and in some cases I just nod with awe at not only the intellect (by which I mean an ability to read, remember, and consolidate massive amounts of text, both discrete and historical) on display here at times. Fuck the haters.
Thanks to all for making my online experience richer, regardless of the timbre of your political sensitivities and whether they skew differently from my own.
Also happy birthday to that one Mottizen (you know who you are)!
Great write-up. Thanks for putting in the considerable amount of time it must have taken. I read Mere Christianity many years ago a few times along with whatever else was in the small box set. The Abolition of Man, The Problem of Pain, and I think Screwtape Letters, and eventually A Grief Observed, and all were extremely readable in a way I have often wished other writers, more prone to a desire to be clever or profound, would mimic. Now I feel like I should read them again.
Edit: Or, perhaps, listen
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Indeed. I suppose I'm just averse to talking behind backs, as it were. A lesson learned the hard way, along with "do what you say you're going to do." (Which is irrelevant here but a lesson I learned nonetheless.)
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
My assumption. Bad form to hit at someone not present to defend himself.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
My assumption
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
I felt like this was an allusion to something I didn't understand.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
My follow up comment would simply be "I am appalled that you sat through the plant-fucking thing three times."
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki. Slowly getting out there.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Headland helmed The Acolyte, which I have never seen and can't judge, but as you say that show was cancelled after its first season. She is hardly representative of the entire franchise.
I'm not sure what your definition of "a bad person" is when you relegate Kennedy to that position. She worked with Steven Spielberg on many of the classic films of my youth, including Close Encounters, E.T., and the original Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Just as an aside, your evisceration of the most recent film is I believe overly negative. I saw it and enjoyed it. It was clearly Ford's film from start to finish, he was never "outdone" by Waller-Bridge [whose relative beauty I might also disagree with you on], they brought back the very welcome Karen Allen--and John Rhys-Davies--from the first film, and generally Dial of Destiny was one of the best in the series apart from the first. As well, the vast majority of any action done by "80-year old" Ford was when he was young. The de-aging was the best on this film of any I've ever seen. Having said this, you are of course free to dislike the film as much as you like.)
Back to Kennedy: I completely agree with you that she has made some fairly disastrous decisions when it comes to the new-and-enlightened Star Wars films. The disappointment comes on two levels: 1) Woke nonsense that you so accurately pinpoint in your parent post and 2) so many had such high hopes after a general disappointment in Lucas's decisions about storyline in the prequels--this disappointment is less noticeable now, a barely passing odor in the air, as so many rageposting now cut their teeth on the prequels and see those films (and not the OT) as the best Star Wars. For a while, and maybe even now on reddit, you could/can generate many upvotes for yourself by asking "Wasn't Han actually an abuser showcasing toxic masculinity?" The younger fanbase is not what the older fanbase used to be.
I am not familiar with The Despot of Antrim that you mention in your last paragraph, but that's just because i'm pretty out-of-touch.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
Your quote tags are screwy.
People invent all sorts of words all the time to set people apart and set up tribes. I agree this is true. I don't find it particularly helpful, pro social, or compelling to use terms like quadroon. You do, presumably.
My saying the terms are useful to you is antagonistic (to say nothing of unnecessarily) exactly how? I don't see it. Please mod report me if you think I've breached the spirit of the Motte, and let the cards fall where they may.
I don't care if you use the terms you've suggested, and only commented at all because I occasionally read things here and wish to push back that I personally don't see the world as some see it. However, I long ago learned that arguing online with certain viewpoints is utterly pointless. And I'm not at all interested in banging my head against a wall to try and change your mind.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
5mo ago
So if I'm getting this straight, a person with a 'weird life,' as you're terming it, isn't capable of making good art? And being a "pariah" in high school is an explanation of Kathleen Kennedy's bad choices in making executive decisions regarding Star Wars? This seems like a very superficial, even adolescent take. Kennedy has, I agree, made a lot of poorly considered decisions, but they were probably driven by her personal sincerely held views. But let's not forget that she was in the same position when she greenlit both Rogue One and later Andor, which in my view rank with the first two OT films. And both contain strong female characters.
The issue isn't "feisty women" in film. Strong women are neither a myth nor something new in cinema. The issue is bad writing and caving in to unrealistic progressive norms, making women into stereotypes of men rather than writing them realistically--the points you made in your main post were rather more compelling than what you're suggesting here.
Patmos is off the beaten path, accessible by ferry, and for me at least had some religious significance. The small shrine of St John is pretty touristy, or seemed so 35 years ago. Of course I'm not sure how the recent fires have affected the island.
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