scans_daily | Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

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In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than me.

In the UK, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II celebrates an unprecedented seventy years on the throne and as Head of State. Opinions differ on the Monarchy, but her staying power is impressive.

Also in the UK, our esteemed Prime Minister reacted to the release of papers saying that he and his Ministers had behaved improperly... by proposing to rewrite the rules so that Ministers who had behaved improperly would not be expected to be fired if caught and it is deemed a minor case by... the Prime Minister.... Not sure that's the lesson we were hoping he might learn, but the lack of surrpise is palpable.

Oh, and touting the suggestion that Brexit means the UK would not triumphantly "allow" imperial measurements to be used in shops... despite the fact we were never banned from using imperial measurements, it's just most people have now grown up with metric (or are able to handle both systems) making this perhaps the most blatant bit of nostalgia power distraction in... well, ~~weeks~~ days for this bunch.

The Star Wars Celebration happened over the past weekend, with many a tit-bit dropped, but most of the trailers and panels not being released to the general public. I can see the desire to make the events there exclusive, but given the past couple of years, one might have hoped they'd embrace the more open approach. Oh well... at least we had the first two episodes of "Obi-Wan Kenobi"! and a trailer for Rogue One prequel "Andor"

The Simpsons had Hugh Jackman as guest star in their season finale "Poorhouse Rock", which is basically a deconstruction of late stage Western capitalism and the demise of the middle class in musical form.

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From:

leahandillyana

On May 23th, Maja Lidia Kossakowska died in a house fire. I’ve written about her importance as an author for development of girly nerdy spaces in Poland earlier: https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/9661497.html That said, while I wouldn’t wish such terrible death to anyone, I didn’t really like her works. I find her best when she was imitating a better writer. Sadness, the only short story in Blood Ties collection I actually liked, was good because was a homage to Bradbury’s writings, and I liked it because my interpretation of the tale was probably opposite of intended, as a metaphor of the Polish colonisation of the Kresy region. Red Horde was a good story because it was almost a carbon copy of Star Wars original trilogy with Yakut mythological paint over and delightfully creepy and scary antagonists. However, the twist ending, while giving much depth to the story, was downright offensive given that the author was not Yakut and… goddamn, it’s hard to express my dissatisfaction without spoiling the whole thing. In Noon Mare we have a modern retread of Heart of Darkness with supernatural events added in, a cliched western, an isekai tale that has an atypical protagonist but otherwise follows the conventions of the genre, and a haunted psychiatric hospital tale, that while being non-innovative is still a decent story, the only one I liked in the collection. Her other stories read like something written by a particularly talented incel. The narrative is so good, but the stories are all about macho men fighting to death to protect one thing or the other. I cannot say anything about the author, but her narratives consistently hate on women and girls (I cannot remember any female character described in positive terms, even the not!Leia is mostly a subject of mockery), any races other than white (to an extreme and downright unnecessary degree), and any “modern” ideas, from atheism through veganism to queer rights. I have to say, had I read Red Horde before Russian invasion of Ukraine, I would have been so pissed off. Furthermore, Kossakowska liked to take elements from “exotic” cultures without fully understanding them, which is literary cultural apropriation much more distinct than what people are arguing about on English social media. Yakut culture is not Like That, Japanese culture is not Like That, Melanesian cultures are not Like That, and African cultures are definitely not Like That. Kossakowska liked to present herself as a well-read person, but in the end she knew very little outside of Euro-American literary world.
On a funnier and brighter side, a herd of cattle escaped recently and is wrecking havoc in a rural region of Poland, led by a tonne weighting bull who attacked a tractor to protect his family and friends. Go cattle, go!
The Owl House aired its second season finale, and even though it was intense, I still believe the series would have worked better as a movie. Seriously, most anime movies I watched had more going on in 90 odd minutes than TOH in 40 episodes. I liked the inspiration they took from the Centaurworld in portrayal of the villain, and I absolutely adored how the new villain turned out to be like. Disney has a tendency to portraying chaotic reality warpers as the final bosses to be killed to imprisoned forever, but this character for me reads like a child who is not intentionally malicious and has to be taught compassion rather than be killed or imprisoned again. Queer romance is appreciated, but the story moves on so slowly I couldn’t enjoy it the way I normally would.
During this month, I’ve read Nubia Coronation Special, DC vs Vampires, and Legion of X. I more or less liked all of these comics. Damian Wayne is one of my favourite characters and I love how he is portrayed in the elseworld series. Both Vampires and Nubia series have an unusual amount of compassion towards traditionally mishandled characters, which I appreciate greatly. I also loved the storytelling depth in Legion of X and Blindfold finally coming back. I’m still waiting for Batman Annual and DC Pride Special, both published today. For non-comics, I was re-reading Kossakowska’s books, about which I talked on the top of the comment. Unfortunately, they all seem worse upon rereading. Out of curiosity I also picked up sever supernatural nonfiction books from my town library, and unfortunately the most recent of them are from the 90s, so the “mysteries” they are dedicated to have mostly been solved already.
I am writing about Chinese cuisines and dishes and it makes me hungry. Shame I don’t have access to anything I’ve been reading about.

From:

iamrman

Thanks for reminding me about the DC Pride Special. I will keep an eye out for it.

Bringing the crack since December 2003

Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

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