trip digest

[fanbeatsman]

Hazel and I spent most of last week in London, because she had never really been and had a week of holiday to do something with. We stayed in a very pleasant little hotel, unremarkably comfortable, quiet, and friendly, probably a bit overpriced for what it was but well worth it for the location - about two minutes away from Covent Garden market,

Comments

[alienchrist]

Yeah, I could easily populate list with Stranger in Paradise, a comic where the characters are about 85% female (including an amazing 'hitwoman' character, among some, and tons of lesbians), though surprisingly written by a man (and one of my favorite damn things in the world, I own the entire series, though it is, at points, far from perfect plot and pacing wise), so decided to play by your rule and then got tripped up by comic series where people women might first appear in one comic but star in a spinoff, so I decided to count spinoffs as their own category. I also decided to discount anything I had to actually look up a character's name for.

I'm actually having a lot of fun with this meme!

[fanbeatsman]

Oh man, I'm not sure I'd even have got halfway if I'd discounted characters I couldn't properly remember the name of. I didn't use that as a limiting factor mostly because I really do (for some reason; my memory's freakishly good in most contexts) have an appalling memory when it comes to fiction, but I was conscious all the time that the fact that I had to scrabble for so many names probably was kind of telling

[alienchrist]

I'm one of those types that's a total trivia sponge, so I love showing off things I can list off arbitrarily like that. Though honestly, thinking of 100 characters for anything is a little bit challenging. It's just a high number and it's not the sort of thing that floats in your immediate consciousness.

That comic sounds pretty damn awesome.

It is. It's also home of one of my favorite male feminist characters - in that he is a kind and feeling individual and admired for those qualities by others, his Christian faith is not treated as a parody or disingenuous, and he's an Asian who is neither a doctor, computer geek nor some kind of zen master. He's also a strong individual who survived (and survives) some terrible abuse, which is not seen nearly enough in male characters in any proper context. In a lot of ways, he's more traditionally 'feminine' than many of the female characters in a way that balances out the cast very nicely

[galvani]

Your blog wants me to eat pizza.

I may have to eat pizza. How do they target the advertising on these things?

When I grow up I want to be Anissina von Karbelnikoff. Only with more cake and hats. But still with the science.

Sounds like a fun trip... I'm very jealous of you with the Legally Blonde. May have to persuade some cynical london friends to go see it with me. Long time no see, btw, how are you fixed for that tentative plan to visit at the end of Feb?

[fanbeatsman]

I made my own pizza the other day. And lo, it was good. Also fun, what with the kneading and the punching and the fascinated watching of the yeast; I think I could get into the habit of making bread-ly things.

I actually remembered Anissina via thinking of you :D

I am very disappointed that your London people are cynical about Legally Blonde. Doesn't everyone emerge from an English degree running screaming from Dead White Male canonical srs bsns texts and into the welcoming arms of glorious glorious camp pop culture?

I am definitely up for coming to see you; I'm in the later stages of a chunk of work that all needs to be cleared and done by March 5th, so I was thinking that weekend? Friday 5th until the Sunday, prob? If that works for you.

I have watched so much Star Wars over the last few weeks that I have taken to humming the Imperial March everywhere I go. By the time you see me, I may have permanently donned the Vader cape.

[galvani]

Making bread is incredibly therapeutic. Although the few times I've done it, mine has always ended up pretty dense. Apparently you can do it as a corporate team building day, based on the idea that you get to punch things, but in a creative rather than destructive way. And if that's not true and I just made it up, I think we should set up a business.

Tonight I am going to see 'the invention of love'. I'm looking forward to it, but the fact that I can get people to go see this but not legally blonde with me kinda sums up the fact that a) I need to get the hell out of Oxford and b) I REALLY miss you. I think you're the only person I know who would want to see both and consider them equally worthy of analysis

5th march is fine by me, assuming no inescapable last minute weekend work in the lab comes up. I think that's when Alice in Wonderland comes out, if you're interested? I want to see it, despite the Johnny Depp fatigue

DUM DUM DUM dum DA-DUM dum DA-DUM I look forward to seeing the cape...

[fanbeatsman]

Yay, I'd love to go see Alice with you. If nothing else, it'll be thesis-fuel (story mutation ftw) - also, I just imdbed it, and have discovered that Alan Rickman is voicing the caterpillar; HAPPY TIMES.

I find it's not even the punching of the dough that is most satisfying, but the odd whistling noise it makes when the air comes out. It's like the death-wheeze of the yeast.

Today I watched one of the worst films it has ever been my misfortune to sit through, all in the name of research. In the animated film The Clone Wars, the Powers That Be behind the Star Wars franchise for some reason decided it would be a good idea to take a character who, no matter how shitty Hayden Christensen's acting may be and how daft the script is, is a) a formidable pop culture icon, and b) developed in a remarkably tight and well-constructed character arc from cute baby Anakin to LORD VADER, and write him into a story that involves him utterly implausibly spending hours engaging in vapid trailer-oriented banter with and ultimately learning to ~trust~

[cosmiko_ling]

Went to the Natural History Museum when I was in London too and loved it~

Go read/watch One Piece! I can guarantee that you'll add at least 2 awesome female characters to your list. Japanese manga/anime about pirates. There aren't many females, but the few there are are super awesome! Not necessarily strongest physically, but winning in intelligence/ resilience/ maturity (well, the boys are idiots XD). They're survivors.

I love Death Note's Misa too. Is it something unusual? Well, I think she's an interesting character. And, how many people, selfish humans that we are, can truly say that they can love someone the way she does, without regard for even their own life. I agree with Rem (was it Rem who said it?) that despite the countless people she killed, she was in a way, still innocent.

I'm pretty sure Ace Attorney Investigations will add more cool female characters to that list too~ :P

[fanbeatsman]

The person I took this meme from in the first place was actually talking about the One Piece characters on it :D The pair of you are making a convincing recommendation, haha. I do enjoy things so much more when their women are awesome, and although I'm not quite at the point of feeling utterly fed up of men's stories, I am feeling an urge to say more often, no, look, you know what, if your work doesn't have time for its female characters then I don't have time for it.

I've always got the feeling that fandom hates Misa, though I could be wrong - and I mean, I can't say I like her a huge amount myself, but I do think she's an incredibly interesting, surprisingly well-developed, and very real-feeling character; I buy Misa, I believe that she could exist, and I do feel for her.

I'm loving AAI so far! I'm only about halfway through the second case, though, so haven't met many of the new characters yet. I really like what they've done with Edgeworth, Gumshoe and Franziska, though, so far.

[dybji]

Aw, it sounds like an awesome week. <3 Glad you had fun!

I can make sense of visual art when I can translate it into words and concepts, but I'm a bit lost on the actual visual level itself, if that makes sense.

A world of sense. *nods* I've been slowly immersing myself more in classical music and ballet and kabuki and such this year, and I've realized that, intellectually, I'm just at a loss in it. My comprehension, my analysis, my close readings - my literacy in general - just isn't there for it, because they simply don't depend on words or even linear ideas. It's a whole nother navigation style to learn.

"Ponyo" was wonderful, I agree. <3 I actually very much liked "Where the Wild Things Are", but I a) hadn't grown up with the book, and while I'd read it (in college for class), and loved it, I loved it in the way we love great books that get us when we can finally appreciate them but after the time when they'd grab us by the heart and become parts of us, so I was totally willing to see what they'd do with a film; and b) I

posted this in the wrong place at first, fail

[fanbeatsman]

I love getting long comments! <3 You should never worry about verbosity with me, haha

Ahaha, you have no idea how many times I've done that

[dybji]

I think I wound up so word-literate (and word-dependent) for much the same reasons: implicit and explicit training, absolutely. But I also think it's because I actively bought into that training, so to speak: read like a loony, blathered about books nonstop, worked really hard at being able to word things properly so my babble would be a little more comprehensible, and, now, consciously seeking out a degree in the subject.

So I think a lot of that was deliberately engaging the resources I could find because of interest as a child, and then continuing to do so to the point where by now it's just a natural part of who I am. Lots of my friends were/are art students, and it was fascinating to me listening to the way they engaged with the exact same things I did, and how it was so differently informed. When I throw myself back to when I was in elementary and reading books way beyond my comprehension level, the thing that always surprises me is that iirc I didn't actually understand what I was reading, and I was totally okay with that. I'm

[trenchkamen]

Fandom misogyny is ridiculous. Seriously. I can only imagine the discussion fail.

My friends did a set to that "Gay or European?" song at Y-con; it involved Klavier, enough said.