First I'll so an update on the not-so-fun stuff. My new computer from Vizio has yet to appear even though I received an email from them on the fourth of this month indicating it had been sent. I have called and was promised a return call within forty-eight hours and that was more than forty-eight hours ago. I've been using my father's computer in the living room for the majority of my internet stuffs and writing. Today I got my mom's wireless keyboard to work for my old laptop (you know, the one missing the 'F' key) and have been using that today. I did manage to get some writing done at the library but then after we came home I started my period and pretty much curled up into a little ball of misery. Meds, heating pad on high, and nap. Repeat. And now I'm feeling a bit better.
The other thing that's not-so-fun is that I have to get my hotel accommodations figured out for Boston for Hannah, Eileen, and myself and there's a special rate for Solstice people... a rate that I'm not getting for some reason. I called and was promised that I would receive an email within 72 hours giving me the reduced rate or giving me a counter offer rate. As it stands right now I'm stuck with a rate of $199 a night and that doesn't include tax or parking. That's bullshit. This promised turn around time was promised much longer than 72 hours ago. So that means I have two places to call tomorrow. I'm not happy about this but I suppose that's what being an adult is all about - calling people when you don't want to and being generally disappointed afterwards. Being an adult sucks.
Something a bit more fun is that last night we had a surprise retirement party for the Assistant Manager at the bra store. The party was held at the the Manager's house and she cooked homemade lasagna for everyone. It was a great party but also a little sad. We're all really going to miss the Assistant Manager. She's been there over twenty years and has been a wonderful presence on the floor as well as behind the scenes in the office. The Manager made a toast to her and it was beautiful and tearful. We drank, we ate, we had delicious cake! I learned that I may be allergic to alcohol. I drank almost a whole bottle of wine and while I did feel a nice warm buzz, I felt something else too! I felt itching in the soles of my feet and in the palms of my hands. And eyes even went itchy and got all fuzzy. This happened the last time I drank too and I was positively miserable from the itching of my feet. I drank hard cider not too long ago and it didn't seem to affect me in a negative way aside from some heartburn but the last two times I've really consumed a large amount of alcohol this has happened so... I'm not sure what that means or if the alcohol is even to blame. Could be a spice, who knows. But I do know it sucks. Just like being an adult sucks.
You know what doesn't suck though? Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) definitely doesn't suck. It's an anime that Hannah and I binged watched the last couple of nights. We watched fourteen bloody episodes and can't wait to finish it. It's really exciting and like most dystopian art pieces, it shows the delicate balance of the outside and inside threats. The characters are amazing, too. And the animation when they are in battle and using their omnidirectional gear is stellar! The premise of the story is that giant humanoid beings appeared suddenly on earth and pretty much ate humanity to near extinction. Humans are now hidden behind giant walls that keep the huge predators out but as with every perfect system, it fails. It's pretty intense to watch giant human faces munching down on any little human they can get their hands on. What's even worse is that the giants (so called Titans in the anime) don't even require food to survive. They are eating us just for fun. Pretty shitty, huh? I love it! After I finish more work on Death Man, Hannah and I are going to binge through and finish the series and then start watching Blue Exorcist.
This next residency I have to teach an hour long lecture on the things I learned while writing my critical thesis. It's all about dystopian world building and I would like to share with you, because I can, the class description that I recently had to turn in for the director of our program.
Dystopian World Building and Other Disasters“People ask me whether I feel any hope for the future. I want to say to you: Yes, I do. I absolutely do. Not hope for the human race; we’re screwed. But I feel tremendous hope for the Insect Overlords who shall succeed us as masters of the Earth.” ― M.T. AndersonWhat’s the difference between a dystopian world and a ‘normal’ one? How does one create that difference through narrative voice? In this class we’ll explore dystopian world building by breaking it down into key elements. I’ll be drawing heavily from M.T. Anderson’s Feed to demonstrate how narrative voice can create a fully realized dystopian backdrop without muddying up the story with extraneous information.Suggested Reading: Feed by M.T. Anderson, The Road by Cormac McCarthySuggested Viewing: Equilibrium, WALL-E, District 13, Repo! The Genetic OperaQuestions: In Feed (and other dystopian movies and books) what is at stake when a character resists the controlling element? What does the phrase ‘make the strange familiar and the familiar strange’ mean to you?
You know, I'm not sure there's been much in history that hasn't been dystopia. Wherever there's civilization there's dystopia. Nature shows us that the more sophisticated an organism is, the more law is in force to keep it from falling into chaos. Societies are collective organisms. The bigger they are, the fewer freedoms are afforded the individual. And isn't it strange and amusing that the thing that causes a cancer in an individual also describes the fighter against the system: free radicals.
ReplyDeleteThat's why it's so easy and necessary to draw from real life when writing a dystopia *nods* and it's important because people (especially people in developed countries or who are living in some sort of luxury) forget that while we are safe and loved, there are places where children are forced to become soldiers and places were women are raped and beaten if they talk back to a man. And if they talk back to the really wrong man they are executed. That's why dystopia is so important - because it truly captures the suffering that we so often forget or ignore. :(
DeleteI just wonder how much awareness the wealthy and privileged have regarding human suffering and despair. The paranoiac in me says "yes, they know damn right well", and they cultivate the world as an economy-driven, globalized social structure. As my son pointed out when he was only 19, " How do you fight an economy?" It astonished me to hear someone that young pare it down so cleanly.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I put myself in the shoes of someone with money, power, and privilege and asked myself what I would do in their shoes if I were confronted with a mass of demonstrators. What if I were responsible for making decisions that affected thousands, tens of thousands, or more? Because each member of a society remains a unique individual regardless of that society's size, the demands and complaints would be impossible to address and resolve to the satisfaction of the many, much less all of them. Because the person with power is still only human, they can only do the best a human can do with what they have. Faced with their own limitations and lots of restless, picketing natives, they are going to throw them a pacifier to distract and appease and then they will do what most humans do as often as they're able: what they want to do.