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[LordSlowpoke]

the value is low, but the dividends are high?

where's the point market i need to make some very important barter

[kaenneth]

You are a unique and special individual, just like everyone else.

[misko27]

I tend to prefer WW1 military histories (like Lawrence) over WW2 military histories, because WW1 has more of a "This was a terrible tragedy for everyone", while WW2 has the tinge of "Roh roh roh, Fight da Nazis, go USA, go Allies!"

The civilian side, on the other hand... Well, I think that's fairly obvious. :/

Probably because there was a better case to be made that WW2 was more or less about good guys fighting bad guys and the good guys won (though there's many, many, holes to be pocked in that argument).
Whereas WW1 was basically imperialism vs imperialism. What's more the entire thing may have mostly been a bit of an accident.

I'm a bit late to the party here, but All Quiet on the Western Front is absolutely beautiful.

Oh, and WW2 had no "good guys". It had the "evil fuckers" and the "slightly less evil fuckers". The Lawful Good vs. Lawful Evil spin that history has been papered over with is about as accurate as the idea that the U.S. beat Germany single-handedly, with a tiny bit of help from their stout but ineffectual British allies.

I'm the latest of all, but that is pretty much the case. We've pretty much all be Grey mostly, Nazis were that one special case that is actually over the worlds moral event horizon. I've been watching a documentary on Stalin (Russia's War: Blood upon the snow) and it's clear that only person who could possibly match Stalin's evil, blow for blow, was Hitler. Even people who had suffered under Stalin welcomed him after the Nazis were pushed back. WW2 was a special moment in history, where the worst possible humans took over a country and made it strong, and unleashed their darkest fantasies. There is a moment where they are describing retreating Nazis detonating supplies, bridges, a scorched earth policy harsher then the Russians and less effective, and the narrator says "Hitler believes his people have failed his vision, and this is his last act of revenge on his own people."

WW1 was just a example of a really, really bad time to have a war. After Machine Guns were invented, before effective means and strategies to defeat or destroy them. WW2 had advanced tanks, air power, anti-machine gun infantry, etc. However, it's also strategy, after all, the Germans went around the Maginot line, and never even really succeeded in attacking it, the French Civilian leaders had to tell them to surrender.

You are a unique and special individual, just like everyone else.

No, you are the most unique and special person.

[Vector]

Fuck yeah Attack on Titan.

If anyone is looking for a horrible monster-fix, as I had been until just now, it carries a pretty high recommendation.

[pisskop]

You are a unique and special individual, just like everyone else.

No, you are the most unique and special person.

When everyone is special, nobody is.

Next time a hipster gets all up in your face about his hipster cred, and how you are mainstream scum, remind him that it's mainstream to be not mainstream.

[Solifuge]

Fuck yeah Attack on Titan.

If anyone is looking for a horrible monster-fix, as I had been until just now, it carries a pretty high recommendation.

I got my hands on the subtitled version a while ago, but haven't sat down to watch it yet. If it's that good, I might have to start.

In other happies, I am finally sitting down, after sanitizing and fixing the crap out of the new place. Also, I have 5 raw carrots, and a big old cup of mango black tea. Oh how I have missed you, good food!

[SalmonGod]

Attack on Titan!  Keep going!  The story gets so wtf insane, and the clues just keep building up that there is some serious existential horror behind everything that's going on.

[Vector]

Fuck yeah Attack on Titan.

If anyone is looking for a horrible monster-fix, as I had been until just now, it carries a pretty high recommendation.

I got my hands on the subtitled version a while ago, but haven't sat down to watch it yet. If it's that good, I might have to start.

I haven't seen much more than the first episode yet, but

a. Novel art direction that isn't too disturbingly experimental
b. New spins on familiar plot structuring/scene setups suggest that things will be good
c. Monsters that made me reflexively hiss "yessssssssss" when I saw them
d. Homage to the "Eva takes its first step and a telephone booth shatters" scene
e. HORRIBLE MONSTROSITIES that will provide excellent nightmare fuel

So yeah, it's kind of got what I like.


Feeling a lot better.  I've got The Red Shoes, Gojira, and The Cabin in the Woods out of the library, too, which is awesome because I've got like three amazing horror/awfulness films to watch, and I'm thinking about getting the other Guillermo del Toro movies out of the library in the next while.  Haven't even seen Hellboy or anything.

:3

Actually, I really do feel much better.  I'm going to go get the other two items on today's to-do list done!  That being, ah, making my bed and tidying my room, LOL >_>

[Putnam]

serious existential horror behind everything

Perfect, I need more ontological mystery in my fiction.

[Mr Space Cat]

Anyone just starting Attack on Titan should brace themselves for plot twists, plot twists, twists in the plot, and boiled potatoes. Shit gets intense, and it's awesome.

[XXSockXX]

... and I'm thinking about getting the other Guillermo del Toro movies out of the library in the next while.  Haven't even seen Hellboy or anything.

In case you haven't seen it, watch Pan's Labyrinth. It's awesome and you'll understand why the movie snobs are less enthusiastic about Pacific Rim.

[Sirus]

Regarding Attack on Titan stuff:

d. Homage to the "Eva takes its first step and a telephone booth shatters" scene

Hell yeah! I knew that couldn't just be my imagination, but even TVTropes seems to have missed that one. It's almost frame-for-frame perfect.

In unrelated happy news, today was unquestionably a good day. Got a nice early start on work, which is the only reason I'm posting at 7:30 in the evening instead of after midnight. Had a delicious turkey burger on a whole-wheat bun, with lettuce, onions, cheddar cheese, and some sort of chipotle sauce that gave everything just enough kick to be tasty without burning my tastebuds. Drove through some really awesome thunderstorms, which at two different points actually forced me to turn the wipers on full-tilt and still not keep up. Counted 12 clear, really amazing (and nearby) lightning bolts, the vast majority taking place directly in front of me for an impressive view. Improved at this strange and wonderful ability to shift gears without working the clutch. And now my work day is done at a decent hour and I can kick back until the morning.

Good day. Way better than the last few by a long shot.

[Vector]

Regarding Attack on Titan stuff:

d. Homage to the "Eva takes its first step and a telephone booth shatters" scene

Hell yeah! I knew that couldn't just be my imagination, but even TVTropes seems to have missed that one. It's almost frame-for-frame perfect.

I literally watch for it in every Giant Monster thing now

... and I'm thinking about getting the other Guillermo del Toro movies out of the library in the next while.  Haven't even seen Hellboy or anything.

In case you haven't seen it, watch Pan's Labyrinth. It's awesome and you'll understand why the movie snobs are less enthusiastic about Pacific Rim.

Not only have I seen it like 5 times, I also own the DVD and almost broke it off with an ex because he was too Hollywood/Spielberg-vanilla to enjoy it.  I have also lost friends over their Pacific Rim-snobbing--let me be clear, here.

Spoiler: Spoilery RANT RANT RANT (click to show/hide)

The movie snobs just think that the word "psychological" in "psychological horror" means a perfect execution of that sort of genre film is superior to a perfect execution of a "giant robot" or "kaijyu" genre film.  Because seriously, you may not like the genres, but he created a subtle and information-dense masterpiece by their standards and that should be recognized.  It's just that the way you pull information out of it, and the way you pull information out of a more Western-style movie, are very different things.

Like, is anyone talking about Raleigh's Japaneseification?  No, they aren't, and that's because they don't know the imitated genre well enough to be able to figure out just what the director was doing (he's not "characterless," he's performing a particular variety of Japanese heroism to a fucking T, which requires that he bury his personal identity in order to coalesce into the group identity), or why all those close-in camera shots are important and an aura of frazzled claustrophobia must be maintained for the film to work at all, or why you never have two people talking to each other without both being in the shot, or what the actual plot was, or hell, I'm guessing that they didn't even notice the shots of little-kid Mako that EXACTLY imitated THE famous anti-war photo from Vietnam and wonder why.  Why the subplot about the cartoonishly disabled scientists?  Why the Tale of Two Fathers?  Why isn't Hannibal Chau more menacing?  Why comedy at the times it was put in?  How does the movie frame "darkness" and "seriousness," and speak to these notions--sometimes in a way the viewers find inappropriate or unrealistic?

All of these questions are actually very thematically important!  They have important answers, and they aren't just "for comic relief" or "to create a system of foils!"  These are the questions that expose the foundation the film was built on!

All that character flatness they complain about is due to not noticing that, rather than establishing conflicts of desire, personal corruption, or civilization/savagery as is typical in Western cinema, the conflicts are developed around group identity, respect, and duty/obligation ("giri").  Mako cries not to show her weakness, but rather the strength of her character, her inner fire so strong that she can't keep face.  Hell, I'd be more than happy to bring in a famous essay, In Praise of Shadows, when discussing all those complaints about the lighting and so on, because the film is coming to all these issues from a totally different perspective.

And you know what?  I take absolutely no issue with people saying they dislike the film, but I expect those who say it's "not worthy of Guillermo del Toro" to at least understand what I'm speaking to above, and then judge it on those grounds.  I haven't found a single one yet, but I would love to talk it out with someone who did see things this way.  The thing is--the thing is that no one is even asking these questions from a position of good faith, to my understanding.

And that's why the snobs think it sucks.  Because they're asking the wrong questions of the film, and judging it from a different system than that for which it was constructed.  And then pretending that their ways of carrying meaning are the only valid ones.

I swear to you, it's a masterpiece.  Folks may not like it, but I could write essays on it forever.

SHRUG

But yeah, I know everyone's going to keep being wrong all over the internet about this, whatever

[Sirus]

Now I want to see Pacific Rim again just to look for a "footstep breaks phonebooth" scene

Plus, you know, it's a fun movie. Which is always a good reason to see it again.

[quinnr]

You are a unique and special individual, just like everyone else.

No, you are the most unique and special person.

When everyone is special, nobody is.

You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.