FerretBrain - Recent Comments

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Arthur B on A Successful Audition for the Darwin Award at 15:50 on 15-08-2018 - link
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that true of a lot of social commentary in fiction? I mean, that it shines a light on a particular problem without really pointing towards potential solutions? It seems a fairly common phenomenon to me.

Agreed, and to be honest neither fictional nor non-fictional statements need propose a solution to be valid. I don't need to propose a potential solution to homophobia to point out that Orson Scott Card is a homophobe, for instance.
Robinson L on A Successful Audition for the Darwin Award at 15:00 on 15-08-2018 - link
apart from that, and, y’know, the whole foot thing, Aoyama is none the worse for wear

Doesn't that invalidate him being a candidate for a Darwin Award?

Also, do you think you could edit the footnotes to make them links. It would aid readability, and I'm pretty sure it's in the HTML guide for articles.

I don't have any comments on the actual movie, as it's so far removed from my interests. *shrug*

I've always laughed at the things that happened to me, because, again, that makes them easier to deal with, and I'd always thought that, because I was a straight, cis guy, whatever had happened to me couldn't possibly measure up to what women or trans people face on a daily basis. And it doesn't. But after talking with friends and family, I realize it does matter, and I can't just keep laughing it off. Just because a disease isn't cancer or AIDS doesn't mean it isn't fatal if left untreated. And I need to treat this.

Oh, wow. I'm so glad this conversation led to such a positive revelation for you, and you're absolutely right. A couple months ago, I saw something reposted on Facebook, originally from a counselor who's worked with survivors of severe trauma, extreme childhood abuse and the like, and noting that even they are quick to say, "there are other people who have it worse than me." The originally poster's point is that everybody downplays their own woundness in contrast to someone else's experience, and even if the contrast is true, that doesn't mean you don't also need help and healing. Your disease analogy reminds me of a similar comparison I came up with a few years ago, about medical patients, one with severe burns, and multiple broken and fractured bones, and the other with a broken arm. Sure, the former has it worse off and should probably get higher priority in treatment, but that doesn't negate the latter's need for help and healing also.

ironically enough, an internet-based mask let me open up and deal with a deep-rooted issue in my life.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a fairly common experience for people dealing with some heavy shit online? Isn't the anonymity one of the major contributing factors to many people's ability to process issues of trauma, sexual orientation, gender identity, mental illness and a host of other taboo/stigmatized subjects? Doesn't strike me as particularly ironic at all.

In any case, I'm so glad your participation on the site, and this conversation in particular, helped you come to this realization and start working on getting yourself the help you need. I know it's been a while (chronically behind on articles, me), and you're still working out the employment situation, but I hope you've managed some progress here, too.

This film seems more focused on making patriarchally-insulated men as scared as women are when it comes to dating, and it stops at that point, rather than going on to make the male audience think about how to change this patriarchal system.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that true of a lot of social commentary in fiction? I mean, that it shines a light on a particular problem without really pointing towards potential solutions? It seems a fairly common phenomenon to me.
Ichneumon on J.K. Rowling's Naked Lunch at 03:36 on 10-08-2018 - link Reading through this now and quite enjoying it.

I will say that I think Rowling's models for Owen Quine as a literary figure might be even more esoteric and particular than Burroughs. The dense, outlandish allegorical mode which Quine writes in reminds me a lot of the early period works of John Barth, particularly in The Sotweed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy, albeit with the ostentatiousness of his extremely self-referential mid-period works like LETTERS. Meanwhile, his described prose style and career progression remind me more of the late great John Hawkes: The Gothic, hyper-detailed, hallucinatory descriptive style; the penchant for sexually extravagant and extremely grotesque images and ideas; and most of all, his increasingly inaccessible and self-indugent novels (that nonetheless kept getting published). Both Barth and Hawkes were leading lights of the postmodernists and influential professors of literature, although both are little imitated due to their difficulty and eccentricity of style. Barth's later work is apparently much more accessible, and his first two novels (The Floating Opera and The End of the Road, respectively a comedy and a tragedy on the same themes) are considered classics; Hawkes' work remains somewhat obscure—perhaps better known for bringing Angela Carter onto the staff at Brown University—although his work has something of a cult following (particularly The Lime Twig) and, for the record, what I've read of it is actually quite intriguing and, yes, trippy as *fuck.*
Ichneumon on These moths really weren't necessary at 06:47 on 08-08-2018 - link Hmmm.

Looking back on my prior comments after having read The Scar and loved it (while acknowledging that it does have its faults and weird aspects), I really do wonder how I’d feel about Perdido Street Station. To be frank, I can see many of the issues you have with this novel reflected in that one, and... wasn’t bothered by them at all? Your description does suggest a rougher work, maybe Miéville feeling out the tack he wanted to take with these novels, but there’s a lot there I’m sure you’d take umbrage with that I actually adored. It’s certainly an acquired taste, however, and not exactly subtle thematically speaking.
Raymond H on Hammer Rides Out at 07:28 on 07-08-2018 - link I watched The Devil Rides Out today, and I wanted to find something to say that you haven't already written for this article, but sadly I have nothing (You stole all my snide remarks man! Man!). I will say though that as frustrated as I was with Rex, and as often as I found myself thinking "Why are you even here, Rex?" throughout the film, I realized eventually that he's kind of a narrative necessity, because if the Duc really is as skilled and knowledgeable as he claims and consistently demonstrates throughout the story, really the only possible way there could be any conflict at all is if some idiot whom the Duc keeps having to save makes all the stupid, conflict-driving mistakes for him. Anyways, fun movie, wish I could read more of Wheatley's stuff. Even if it might prove indigestible at parts, the sheer fun and adventure I felt from Devil will hopefully make the fibrous bits sweeter. Also, yes, the ending was very silly, but then again, I've had worse.
Ichneumon on For the Rest of Their Lives at 09:02 on 04-08-2018 - link While I am generally not a huge fan of this kind of horror novel—The Grin of the Dark and My Work is Not Yet Done are more my speed in their unrelenting paranoia and cosmic pessimism—I must say that Campbell does not disappoint in terms of characterisation or plot intricacy, and the final image manages to capture a truly haunting sense of cosmic awe and, dare I say it, something of the divine without the dogmatic baggage.
Robinson L on Why Perfect Blue is Terrifying: An Addendum at 00:00 on 03-08-2018 - link
As I understand it that's actually a goof in the English dub

That also explains how I missed it. I can't remember why, anymore, because it goes against my general preference and tendencies, but the one time I saw Perfect Blue I watched the original Japanese audio track with subtitles, which evidently didn't have that one.
Robinson L on Jim Jarmusch Via Germany, Part 2 at 22:36 on 02-08-2018 - link Okay, been a little while, but I'm finally ready to follow up on some comments, starting with this one.

And while no-one would fault you for assigning finite purposes to inanimate objects, you should be careful not to extrapolate that mindset further to living beings.

Oh, sure. I wasn't disputing your larger point. More along the lines of taking issue with your choice of metaphor, because, again, my understanding is that apart from its primary purpose, a sword is way less useful for any other task than tools made for that task. I probably could have gotten behind a metaphor revolving around a battleaxe or a bow and arrow a lot more easily.

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