Puel Hath No Fury

Oh look I’m writing a freaking essay about Harry Potter, it’s like I’m fifteen...

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:00:21 -0400

Oh look I’m writing a freaking essay about Harry Potter, it’s like I’m fifteen again. But, for once, not in a bad way.

Tale of Two Cities?

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:35:20 -0400

Justifiably a classic, though dear lord I wish Dickens weren’t paid by the word. And Sydney Carton made me cry.

Soulless by Gail Carriger?

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:26:56 -0400

It’s exactly what it bills itself as, and it’s a lot of fun. I wouldn’t call it a must-read, but I had a good time reading it, and if Victorian urban-fantasy-with-steampunk-in is your thing, it’s worth checking out.

Perdido Street Station (I saw you talking about this book on Twitter yesterday and yeah wow it was the beginning of my journey to complete "lolnope" in regards to China Mieville.)

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:22:34 -0400

Here’s the thing: Perdido Street Station does a lot I admire. The worldbuilding is fascinating and vivid, the prose is gorgeous, and though the plot’s not the focus of the story, really, it’s solid enough that I was compelled to read on. It started slow and it took me a while to read the first hundred-ish pages, but after that I was blazing through it.

AND THEN. THAT. FUCKING. ENDING. (Spoilers follow.)

I hate Mieville’s endings in general, but Perdido Street Station’s is nothing but a giant Diabolus Ex Machina what-a-tweest! grimdark piece of shit that serves as a giant middle finger to the reader. Worse, the vehicle of said grimdarkness is violence done unto women’s bodies and minds, the repercussions of which never get fucking addressed in the text because they’re there to remind us that this is a terrible world where nobody gets a happy ending. What happens with Lin, a pretty fucking cool character who literally gets her mind taken from her so that the protagonist feels bad, is awful enough. What happens with Yagharek and the female garuda takes the fucking cake.

OH, YOU LIKED THIS CHARACTER, YOU THOUGHT HE WAS SYMPATHETIC, WELL HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HIM NOW, AREN’T I CLEVER. No, China Mieville. No you’re really not. Because you literally drop that revelation on the reader in the last thirty pages, out of pretty much fucking nowhere, and none of the characters have any narrative space to process it, or grapple with it, or do anything other than deliver hamfisted proclamations about how Rape Is Bad Mmkay. Yes. We know that. And using it as a plot device to make your story that much ~edgier is lazy shorthanded writing that reduces female characters to traumaprops.

So yeah. The ending soured the rest of the book for me, and while I haven’t had as averse of a reaction to Mieville’s other endings, I do consistently dislike them. And it’s incredibly disappointing because there’s enough to like that you hope he’ll be able to follow through, but nope.

/insert obvious question about Harry Potter

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:35:28 -0400

I fully acknowledge and recognize its flaws, and looking back on the series as an adult, there’s a lot of stuff I :/ at, but it was such a formative influence on me as a kid that I’m almost incapable of looking at it semi-objectively as a work of literature instead of as this giant part of my development.

And the Marauders are my soul creatures forever, you can’t take that from me.

give me a book title!

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:23:30 -0400

skalja:

haven’t heard of it | will check it out | will not read it | haven’t read it yet | didn’t like it | it was okay | a must read | this book is my life | LIFERUINER

What the hey, I could do with a mindless get-to-know-me meme tonight.

Sure! (I also reserve the right to add other categories.)

My ask.

I seem to have gotten a surge of followers lately, so for all you new folks: hi! I’m Puel. I...

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:32:27 -0400

I seem to have gotten a surge of followers lately, so for all you new folks: hi! I’m Puel. I am a fairly domesticated and somewhat reclusive fannish creature, not initially native to New York City but introduced into that habitat at an impressionable age. I have, in spite of some family members’ predictions to the contrary, managed to achieve Real Live Adulthood. This means that I remember to eat things that aren’t cereal and cookie dough, mostly manage not to swear at work, and have to do my own laundry.

I used to write a whole lot of fic, though I’ve slowed down on that front for the past couple of years. You can find the most complete and organized archive here, though my recent work’s mostly on AO3 and my fic tag. I still take fic requests sometimes, and you can always leave prompts in my ask if you’re so inclined. I also babble about headcanons a lot to anyone who’ll listen, because if there’s one thing I never run out of, it’s thoughts on fictional characters.

Fandomwise, I seem to have fallen back into the land of videogames — my main squeezes these days are Dangan Ronpa/SDR2, Fateverse, Sengoku Basara, and Suikoden, though a lot of other stuff crops up here.

My about page has more details, if you’re curious, and I just put up a tags page to help you (and me) navigate some of my less-obvious tags.

So yeah! It’s cool to see new faces around, direct any questions to the askbox, and if you get me started on a) Elizabethan drama b) fictional characters who make terrible life choices c) community-based art practices or d) my fiancee, good luck getting me to shut up.

Puel out.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS: A Rurouni Kenshin Graphics Challenge | ✖...

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:57:47 -0400

THE JOURNEY BEGINS: A Rurouni Kenshin Graphics Challenge | ✖ » 4: Favorite Genre

↳ Manga

reginasworld: New York’s Secret: City Hall subway station The...

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:54:27 -0400

reginasworld:

New York’s Secret: City Hall subway station

The station has been closed to the public since 1945 as it was deemed too unsafe for use, but apparently, commuters in the know can see the station without getting off on the 6 Train.

hatchuu: by 2222222222

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:31:05 -0400

hatchuu:

by 2222222222

mechanicalbreeding: ほとんどメカニックと王女

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:31:05 -0400

mechanicalbreeding:

ほとんどメカニックと王女

doppelgangersinlove replied to your post: I think a cop just asked me out because I told...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:06:35 -0400

doppelgangersinlove replied to your post: I think a cop just asked me out because I told him…

I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE ENGAGED. CONGRATS

YEAH FOR AROUND A YEAR AND A HALF NOW

THE WEDDING WILL HAPPEN EVENTUALLY

EVENTUALLY

wizzard890 replied to your post: I think a cop just asked me out because I told him…

You’re a seriously in-demand young lady, what can you say~

I was initially going to reply “at least he has good taste” but I realized that makes it sound like I’m talking about me and no, I mean he has good taste in games, Chrono Trigger is fuckin sweet

daikonpan replied to your post: I think a cop just asked me out because I told him…

that. is definitely a thing.

JRPGS: BUILDING PARTIES SINCE 1987ish

I think a cop just asked me out because I told him I didn’t hear the burglary taking place in...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:40:05 -0400

I think a cop just asked me out because I told him I didn’t hear the burglary taking place in the apartment around the corner because I was playing Chrono Trigger.

I can’t decide if this says good or bad things about our law enforcement.

mvtk42: This is such a wonderful character: well-rounded, determined, realistic, and strong. ◡‿◡✿ I...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:22:49 -0400

mvtk42:

This is such a wonderful character: well-rounded, determined, realistic, and strong. ◡‿◡✿

I want to see what it takes to break them. ⊙‿⊙✿

tainaka: by YU＠絶テン原稿

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:52:10 -0400

tainaka:

by YU＠絶テン原稿

tohsakasakura: 士郎さんと桜ちゃんの結婚式のはなし | 鈴子 [pixiv] The Story of...

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:06:46 -0400

tohsakasakura:

士郎さんと桜ちゃんの結婚式のはなし | 鈴子 [pixiv]

The Story of Sakura-chan’s and Shirou’s Wedding.

Hi, Internet.

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:24:52 -0400

mithingthepoint and I have officially been together for half a decade today, and we will be together for many more years to come.

I love you, honey. Let’s get married. Oh wait, we already decided to do that.

airspaniel: gmbeowulf: As much as I keep seeing the “Oh, JJ...

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:56:45 -0400

airspaniel:

gmbeowulf:

As much as I keep seeing the “Oh, JJ Abrams is so terrible! He’s murdering Star Trek! He doesn’t understand it!” pearl-clutching…did you folks actually see the reboot? It was a good movie that you didn’t have to be a Trek fan—or an expert on twenty+ years of continuity—to enjoy. That’s what you need to do to revitalize a franchise. You need to make something that appeals to new fans, not the ever-shrinking base of old fans. That’s why comic books are such a goddamn mess: They keep forgetting that you need to appeal to someone other than 50-year-old fanboys.

And temporal paradoxes aside: New Trek doesn’t make old Trek go away. The shows, movies, novels and comics all still exist. Heck, they’re still publishing new novels for the old series. If you don’t like the new stuff, it doesn’t hurt the old stuff. Enjoy what you like, ignore what you don’t. Just like D&D 4E didn’t cause the 3.5E books to evaporate, new stories you don’t like don’t make the good old ones go away.

You’re right, that you didn’t have to be a Trek fan to enjoy the 2009 reboot. It was highly accessible to the non-fan moviegoing public, and perfectly standalone. But it was ALSO enjoyable to those of us who ARE Trek fans. The characters had been slightly reimagined, but you could still see the core of who they were, and it was very true to the source. It was respectful to the source, and the direction and actors all seemed to make choices that were born out of homage, out of love for this iconic property that not only transcended what film and television can do, but also brought the worlds of science fiction and science fact together in a world changing and unprecedented way. This respect was evident not only in the performances we saw on screen, but also throughout the production process, even into the casting (George Takei being consulted on John Cho’s casting, for example).

But Star Trek Into Darkness seems to have been made by a different team altogether. All issue of spoilers aside, the way that Abrams has conducted himself in the press junket for the sequel is dismissive at best, and outright offensive at worst. And he doesn’t seem to care. His philosophy seems to be “fuck you, got mine,” at every turn. From the initial secrecy marketing (not to mention the deep fuckery it conceals) to the stupid-ass insulting bullshit like this that he spouts in interviews, it is transparently obvious that Abrams a) does not know a thing about Star Trek, b) does not care to, and c) does not give a shit about the people who do.

This feels like a betrayal to those of us who watched the first movie and loved it. To find out that it was apparently so apt and so loving by accident is, in a lot of ways, worse than if the 2009 movie had been shitty to begin with. If it had been shitty, oh well, it was a long shot anyway. But for it to be good, and then to spend four years building hopes and expectations that we could have that again, only to piss in the fans’ face… that hurts, man.

It’s not about what makes a good reboot, or the fact that bad new stories don’t erase old good ones, because you’re right. They don’t. However, bad new stories made deliberately in the image of good old ones with no respect nor consideration of the source material might as well not even bother with the source at all. And if you go into an interview to promote your project and openly and insultingly admit to not liking the thing that it’s based on, then I have to conclude that you are a fucking sack of horse shit hack dickface motherfucker who is everything wrong with Hollywood.

Why was the tech in Madoka's world so advanced?

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:31:57 -0400

thesixpennybook:

turdlewexler:

gaobibaituo:

grajing:

Super misandrist and very spoilery speculation under the cut.

Read More

REALLY INTERESTING FOOD FOR THOUGHT

#PMMM #HM #I NEED TURDLE TO MAKE SENSE OF THIS

I disagree with the assertion? It’s an interesting idea, but Madoka’s first world is supposed to be our world.

Like:

Yes, that girl could have theoretically leveled Dachau but that’s not what happened in history? And you could suppose Madoka’s world is an alternate universe of our own, but then why use prominent female historic figures to represent Magical Girls? (Anne Frank, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, etc.)

That said, I just don’t view Madoka in the same light re: why Japan looks the way it does. I don’t think it’s a worldbuilding choice to make Madoka’s surroundings look “better” but empty, I think that’s an aesthetic narrative choice.

It’s valid to see it differently but I took the backdrop to not be “The world looks nicer because girls who become witches can kill hundreds or thousands of people innocent or otherwise.” but uh, something a little different? The screenshot they used is a great example of the art direction I was picking up on:

If you can’t make it out, that thing above the bar is The Creation of Adam:

Which was great because it’s reflecting what Madoka is essentially doing - to become God and recreate the universe.

But beyond that I took it to be a more aesthetic feel as to the quality of despair and hopelessness of the world despite there being many good things about it. It’s a dysutopia created from real life — all they did was sharpen the contrast levels. The streets and highways are perfect, the school looks like a large empty sky scraper. It’s all glass and steel, but no real human touch. It’s “perfect”.

Too perfect.

It’s a bit uncanny valley. It’s minimalist and eerie once we get past the initial beginning episodes. There aren’t really people around. Madoka’s mom has a decent job that pays her well and uh, I don’t know how expensive living in Japan is, but four people living on one salary isn’t unheard of or impossible? I didn’t see the massive house as symbolic of like “Yay witches kill people” but more like the only thing that is really of any worth in this massive house is the family. In this huge desolate landscape, the only things that break up the despair and emptiness are the people and their relationships to each other.

ex:

It’s a really interesting thought but I’m guessing the artistic direction was solely to emphasize how terrible the Magical Girl/Witch world (our world) was. The world itself is so filmsy that it bends around the people within it (Sayaka here. Both for angle/perspective and tone).

Like it could very well be that Madoka’s mom was rich and her teacher was just that well paid or it could just as easily be “This is a bar with a printout of a wildly famous painting and the artists used blue and orange lighting to give us conflicting moods and a very basic over-used color palette to reinforce that. It’s warm (orange) but belied by an icy cool blue, which is unsettling.”

The place should feel warm (it’s a bar) but the mood is despair. Things should be perfect, but they’re horribly horribly wrong. IDK the bar doesn’t read “fancy” to me, because I’ve seen dozens of places like this. I don’t know if it reads expensive in Japan, or expensive because of the art, but it just looks like an empty, eerie bar. It’s not just not populated with creepy men, it’s not populated with anyone. People don’t exist. There’s no bar tender. There’s no other patrons. There’s literally two people sitting in an abandoned room with booze?

And I would argue that’s part of the artistic direction - the only people who are shown are the ones important to the story. Other people exist in this world, but they go unseen because essentially they are part of the scenery. The world continues to exist the way it does because they’re part of the structure in place. No one exists period, until they interact with the characters.

That’s intentional, I think. Sayaka sees these assholes on the train talking shit, and suddenly they exist to her, this young girl who admitted her life was basically perfect, there were no problems she needed a wish to take care of for herself, and that perhaps she was just that naive/immature. There was no self-awareness of the surrounding world until it directly confronts her. There’s other people a few times — usually ones who become victims, or briefly show up as backdrops to the main characters, but we all sort of look past them until they become important.

So the bar isn’t really empty, it’s metaphorically empty (I’m guessing). Japan isn’t really perfect and highly flawlessly advanced, it’s a metaphor for how a fourteen year old girl sees the world around her, which is basically perfect. And she says as much? I personally take that w/ a grain of salt. We’re seeing things that don’t really exist or work that way because the perspectives of the characters looks that way - the other people don’t matter so we don’t see them, the school feels perfect for the girls so it looks perfect, the icky stuff doesn’t exist on the train until it’s literally happening right there.

So maybe Madoka prevented girls from becoming witches who unleashed unholy shit on people but I didn’t get that from the story?? Bc Sayaka in theory still could have killed those dudes (an assumption, we got told what happened was intentionally ambiguous) but it wouldn’t have led to her becoming a witch.

Madoka’s new world is a new world order where girls can kill monsters and assholes and then die in blazes of glory instead of being broken and tormented by their attempts to fight back? Bc becoming a witch was 1.) very painful 2.) killing more than just assholes but absolutely everyone and 3.) there was no way of avoiding it unless you died beforehand.

So idk it’s a good thought! I just don’t construe any of it that way?

I really, really take issue with the idea that Madoka somehow ‘took away’ the righteous anger of the witches. Righteous anger is ultimately born out of hope and belief in something better, in justice- the witches are just rage and misery and despair with no direction. The witches aren’t the magical girls exploding in fury to right wrongs, they’re the girls collapsing inwards to a destructive parody of what they hoped for that sucks in and kills other people around them, and that represents a hollow shell of the vibrant person they once were. Hatred might be able to fuel destruction but all it creates is more hatred- all the witches did was kill bystanders and slowly destroy the magical girls. If a witch ‘levelled Dachau’ she’d kill thousands more of the camp’s victims than the Nazis murdering them.

Madoka didn’t make girls into pathetic silent martyrs, she helped them to retain their humanity in the face of overwhelming despair instead of giving in to empty rage that would have murdered innocents.

ohmygil: fleurdeliser: cheia: Safe abortions have always...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:51:47 -0400

ohmygil:

fleurdeliser:

cheia:

Safe abortions have always been available to the rich, Dan. You simply want to deny them to the poor, and if you succeed, poor woman will be forced to get them anyway. They’ll be forced into the alleys with hangers, plungers and vacuum cleaners, risking death or mutilation. But you’d like that, wouldn’t you, Dan? You sadistic, elitist, sexist, racist, anti-humanist pig!

Saturday Night Live 3x18

This aired in 1978. Thirty-five years later, it’s still a fucking ~debate.

the sad part is people don’t really remember this debate, they just remember the response that follows:

“Jane you ignorant slut!”