Resistance is Futile Meme
Nov. 30th, 2009 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mechanosapienceStep 1. Leave a comment saying, "Resistance is futile."
Step 2. I respond by asking 5 questions to satisfy my own curiosity.
Step 3. Update your journal with the answer to my questions.
Step 4. Include an explanation of this meme in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
As a note, the questions were asked over a month ago, and I've just gotten around to answering them.
From![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
box_in_the_box:
1. Watchmen is obviously one of your fandoms. Explain its appeal to you.
I don’t usually put much thought into what I like about a given fandom, but here goes. I’ve always been interested in comics, but have always been intimidated by the amount of canon there is. Thus, I tend to restrict myself to limited series like Sandman or V for Vendetta that don’t have the weight of decades of canon, though I occasionally make exceptions for things like Red Son or Dark Knight Returns; comics that work as stand-alone pieces.
I’m incredibly fond of perversion and subversion. It actually explains a lot about me, from my sexuality to my taste in just about all forms of media. I like seeing tropes that are so ingrained in comics that even I know about them get twisted and warped. When I think of comics and superheroes, my mind tends to gravitate toward the Silver Age, so I like seeing characters that have serious personality flaws and don’t help little old ladies cross the street. I guess that’s kind of weird, given my dislike for grimdark.
I love detailed settings. World-building is my favorite part of writing and it goes pretty far in explaining my fondness for fantasy. I love the degree to which the world of Watchmen looks like a real world with superheroes influencing politics, pop culture, and society the way phenomena of similar magnitude do in the real world.
2. How would you sum up your personal politics?
In short, I am a technocrat. I think that any problem can be solved with sufficient ingenuity and resources. I think that the problem of governance is just another problem, and that those with the proper training, qualifications, and skills are the best to deal with these problems. I think that those with power are morally obligated to look after those without, and that it is the duty of authority figures to do their jobs to the best of their ability. I have no tolerance for corruption and little patience for politics. I think it is the government’s job to look after the needs of the citizens, and I have what might be considered a generous definition of what that entails. I am a liberal who briefly flirted with libertarianism, but now generally think the federal government is usually more qualified than state or local governments to deal with major issues because the federal government has greater resources and more talent at its disposal. Also, ever notice that the areas that are so gung-ho about local government tend to have incompetent local government that is more than happy to throw its citizens to the wolves, leaving the federal government to pick up the pieces? I honestly think America would be in a better place if the Confederacy had been allowed to secede. If the southern states were left to their own devices, they’d be a third world country. I think many aspects of conservatism are pure greed and corruption beneath a hardly-present veneer of respectability and virtue. On the other hand, I have little patience for the post-60’s form of needlessly iconoclastic liberalism that is so very prevalent at the university I attend. Authority is not inherently evil. The problem is that many of the people who have authority are corrupt. Corruption should be rooted out at the first sign, but it should not be presumed.
3. What draws you toward other LJ users (such as me) enough to friend them?
Well, that’s an interesting question, since you’re the only LJ-friend I have whom I don’t already know IRL. As such, I can’t really say in general what causes me to do this, but I can explain why I friended you.
I first discovered your LJ from ontd_p and from my girlfriend, who follows your LJ. I suspect people tend to react to you (assuming you are similar IRL as online) by either taking a shine to you or disliking you immediately. I went with the former, since I find your contributions to ontd_p and your LJ presence in general to be lulzy in the best sense of the word. I also see enough similarities between us and see enough traits that I could see emulating that I sort of unconsciously place you in the older brother category, which sounds really weird, I know. I swear I’m not a stalker.
4. Since it's nearing Halloween, what movies scare you most?
God, it’s been forever since I saw a movie that genuinely scared me. The only ones I distinctly recall are Jurassic Park and The Rescuers (yes, the Disney movie).
I remember when I first saw Jurassic Park, I was fascinated yet terrified by the notion of science recreating extinct species, to the point where a child therapist misinterpreted this as paranoid delusions. I was primarily excited by this possibility. Then there’s the scene in the kitchen near the end, where the kids are being hunted by theDeinonychusesVelociraptors. They spend the entire movie, from the first scene at the paleontological dig onwards, talking about how Velociraptors are such terrifyingly intelligent and effective hunters, and then there are two kids, just like me, quarry to these ultimate hunters, who will do their damnedest to messily kill and devour them.
There’s just one scene from The Rescuers that scared me, when they throw the heroine down into the tidal cave and refuse to bring her back up until she retrieves a gem the size of her fist. Most viscerally frightening for me as a child was the part where she finds the gem… lodged inside a human skull. I had a major phobia of dead bodies, particularly skeletons, as a kid. My uncle had this candle that was a damn realistic looking skull that he got while in the Navy, and my cousins loved to torment me with it. Anyway, the gem is revealed when the heroine shines a light at the skull, and the gem lights up, dramatically outlining the skull. Scary as shit! But on a subtler level, there’s also the child-abuse angle that is played throughout the whole movie, but comes to a climax at this point. The cave the heroine is in is rapidly filling with water, and if she doesn’t find the gem in time, her “guardians” are more than content to let her drown. As someone who had more experience with domestic abuse as a kid than desirable, this profoundly shook me.
5. What types of characters do you wish there were more of in fiction?
An interesting question; one that is probably more interesting than my answer, since I am unaccustomed to pondering my fandoms in a meta sense. With the prelude out of the way, I’d like to see more characters that are of marginalized/minority groups without being defined solely by that one aspect of their identity. I’d like to see more superheroes of color who have a schtick that has nothing to do with their ethnicity. I’d like to see atheists who aren’t Straw Vulcans. I’d like to see more strong female characters in the mold of Clytemnestra and Medea (Greek mythology is one of my fandoms). I’d like to see writers relying less on stereotypes and actually coming up with complex, multidimensional characters.
Step 2. I respond by asking 5 questions to satisfy my own curiosity.
Step 3. Update your journal with the answer to my questions.
Step 4. Include an explanation of this meme in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
As a note, the questions were asked over a month ago, and I've just gotten around to answering them.
From
box_in_the_box:1. Watchmen is obviously one of your fandoms. Explain its appeal to you.
I don’t usually put much thought into what I like about a given fandom, but here goes. I’ve always been interested in comics, but have always been intimidated by the amount of canon there is. Thus, I tend to restrict myself to limited series like Sandman or V for Vendetta that don’t have the weight of decades of canon, though I occasionally make exceptions for things like Red Son or Dark Knight Returns; comics that work as stand-alone pieces.
I’m incredibly fond of perversion and subversion. It actually explains a lot about me, from my sexuality to my taste in just about all forms of media. I like seeing tropes that are so ingrained in comics that even I know about them get twisted and warped. When I think of comics and superheroes, my mind tends to gravitate toward the Silver Age, so I like seeing characters that have serious personality flaws and don’t help little old ladies cross the street. I guess that’s kind of weird, given my dislike for grimdark.
I love detailed settings. World-building is my favorite part of writing and it goes pretty far in explaining my fondness for fantasy. I love the degree to which the world of Watchmen looks like a real world with superheroes influencing politics, pop culture, and society the way phenomena of similar magnitude do in the real world.
2. How would you sum up your personal politics?
In short, I am a technocrat. I think that any problem can be solved with sufficient ingenuity and resources. I think that the problem of governance is just another problem, and that those with the proper training, qualifications, and skills are the best to deal with these problems. I think that those with power are morally obligated to look after those without, and that it is the duty of authority figures to do their jobs to the best of their ability. I have no tolerance for corruption and little patience for politics. I think it is the government’s job to look after the needs of the citizens, and I have what might be considered a generous definition of what that entails. I am a liberal who briefly flirted with libertarianism, but now generally think the federal government is usually more qualified than state or local governments to deal with major issues because the federal government has greater resources and more talent at its disposal. Also, ever notice that the areas that are so gung-ho about local government tend to have incompetent local government that is more than happy to throw its citizens to the wolves, leaving the federal government to pick up the pieces? I honestly think America would be in a better place if the Confederacy had been allowed to secede. If the southern states were left to their own devices, they’d be a third world country. I think many aspects of conservatism are pure greed and corruption beneath a hardly-present veneer of respectability and virtue. On the other hand, I have little patience for the post-60’s form of needlessly iconoclastic liberalism that is so very prevalent at the university I attend. Authority is not inherently evil. The problem is that many of the people who have authority are corrupt. Corruption should be rooted out at the first sign, but it should not be presumed.
3. What draws you toward other LJ users (such as me) enough to friend them?
Well, that’s an interesting question, since you’re the only LJ-friend I have whom I don’t already know IRL. As such, I can’t really say in general what causes me to do this, but I can explain why I friended you.
I first discovered your LJ from ontd_p and from my girlfriend, who follows your LJ. I suspect people tend to react to you (assuming you are similar IRL as online) by either taking a shine to you or disliking you immediately. I went with the former, since I find your contributions to ontd_p and your LJ presence in general to be lulzy in the best sense of the word. I also see enough similarities between us and see enough traits that I could see emulating that I sort of unconsciously place you in the older brother category, which sounds really weird, I know. I swear I’m not a stalker.
4. Since it's nearing Halloween, what movies scare you most?
God, it’s been forever since I saw a movie that genuinely scared me. The only ones I distinctly recall are Jurassic Park and The Rescuers (yes, the Disney movie).
I remember when I first saw Jurassic Park, I was fascinated yet terrified by the notion of science recreating extinct species, to the point where a child therapist misinterpreted this as paranoid delusions. I was primarily excited by this possibility. Then there’s the scene in the kitchen near the end, where the kids are being hunted by the
There’s just one scene from The Rescuers that scared me, when they throw the heroine down into the tidal cave and refuse to bring her back up until she retrieves a gem the size of her fist. Most viscerally frightening for me as a child was the part where she finds the gem… lodged inside a human skull. I had a major phobia of dead bodies, particularly skeletons, as a kid. My uncle had this candle that was a damn realistic looking skull that he got while in the Navy, and my cousins loved to torment me with it. Anyway, the gem is revealed when the heroine shines a light at the skull, and the gem lights up, dramatically outlining the skull. Scary as shit! But on a subtler level, there’s also the child-abuse angle that is played throughout the whole movie, but comes to a climax at this point. The cave the heroine is in is rapidly filling with water, and if she doesn’t find the gem in time, her “guardians” are more than content to let her drown. As someone who had more experience with domestic abuse as a kid than desirable, this profoundly shook me.
5. What types of characters do you wish there were more of in fiction?
An interesting question; one that is probably more interesting than my answer, since I am unaccustomed to pondering my fandoms in a meta sense. With the prelude out of the way, I’d like to see more characters that are of marginalized/minority groups without being defined solely by that one aspect of their identity. I’d like to see more superheroes of color who have a schtick that has nothing to do with their ethnicity. I’d like to see atheists who aren’t Straw Vulcans. I’d like to see more strong female characters in the mold of Clytemnestra and Medea (Greek mythology is one of my fandoms). I’d like to see writers relying less on stereotypes and actually coming up with complex, multidimensional characters.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 03:54 am (UTC)