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Books and music make the world a better place. Not too bad at helping me avoid schoolwork, either. ^^ So now I ramble. This time I promise to try to not spend the whole time on Kushiel's Dart and mythology, though I can't garuntee anything. Oh, yeah. Social bloggage and general meme-following to be scattered within, as well. Organization makes everything so dull, don't you think? XD Recently I finished Fire and Hemlock, which, as is to be expected of DWJ, I loved. *sparkles* I loved the way it was told, with Polly remembering everything, and how everything builds from the (relatively) mundane to the fantastic without a clear break. I love how you can look back from the climax and understand how all these seemingly minor details were in fact significant. Unlike the way it was with Sophie, I don't idendify scarily well with Polly, but there are all these little details that are just exactly right, somehow - like the dynamics between the members of the quartet, or that wince-provoking way of putting down a book, or reading Lord of the Rings and having it invade everything you do and rereading it three times underneath your desk in math. Scenes in which Mr. Lynn (I can't think of him very well as Tom until you get to things in the end, somehow - even then, looking back at the beginning, he still seems like Mr. Lynn then and Tom later) and Polly discover their imaginings are true to eerie effect remind me of Sophie's World, in that the sense that something just went very wrong with the universe in a rather personal way. I need to reread the book, though. DWJ books always bear rereading, if only so that I can catch all the plot details that I didn't see coming and appreciate them in retropsect. ^^ And I'm usually so engrossed with the characters that I forget to look for The Hidden Plot until it's upon me, too. ^^ I love her endings to death, though. They're always not at all what I expected and still completely satisfying. Hemlocke dear, you need to tell me about your reading of Fire and Hemlock. I can... certainly see how it would be, er, an experience. *rereads that* That was amazingly not what I meant to say. Sorry; am tired. -_- On the Fangirl: ah, a topic I've been meaning to take up for somet time. Eve-chama basically said what I wanted to say, and since I rather suspect I am one of The Nice Ones who hates actually telling people when I think they're stupid, or rather even harboring suspicions that someone might be stupid, I won't go into too much detail - except, did we both go on a tour of blogland at the same time? Because both the fangirl thing and the HP fandom is scary as hell thing were topics I intended to write on. Well. I have very minimal experience and just about zero interaction with the collective HP fandom, and even though going blog- and lj-trawling makes me want to talk about how it demonstrates everything stupid about anime fandom and then some, and generally show off my undoubtedly great intelligence and aloofness from the petty things of fandom... well, that would be a self-defeating excercise. But, er, yeah. HP fandom scares me with how seriously it takes itself. Even those elements of it (and it seems to be a popular subset) who apparently pride themselves on being fashionably satirical of the rest still all... it's just a little frightening. Please feel free to hit me over the head with something until I regain sensiblity should I ever express a desire to become actively involved in it. But getting back to fangirlism, it is indeed one of those things which I can only complain about with a certain degree of hypocrisy. I sparkle. It is, indeed, something of a way of life. However, the full fangirl stereotype that is all to often shown accurate and that leaves me embarrassed to be associated with online anime fandom involves certain other elements. Foremost among these are an undying obsession with certain characters/pairings, focused usually on the most shallow of justifications for obsession (i.e. prettiness of object, coolness of, etc.), and to the point of complete irrationality and usually violence. That just... is stupid. So is the writing (including bloggage and similar methods of communication, not just fic-writing) style involving much punctuation, many misused/overused/unnecessary/obnoxious Japanese phrases, and little spelling. Just... ow. When you have a group of people among whom the way to be cool and popular is to display such overenthusiasm wildly, there's something wrong. Also a certain habits of having a muse, claiming something or other, making strange pairing and prefferably slashy jokes at all times, and whatever else the latest fad may be imply a distinct lack of independent thought. Not to say that all people who act like that are stupid, just that the accepted approach generally makes one appear like the online otakuish equivalent of teenybopper. An approach to talking to people who share interests with you that involves you all acting like mindless and particularly ditzy herd animals leaves, in my opinion, something to be desired. In this case, I agree with Sakura-san - it's embarassing to be associated with that, and I occasionally worry that I'm going to fall into or have already fallen into the same thing. And, obviously, I am justified in feeling morally superior because I sparkle and symbolism and allusion and understanding and character, rather than appearance. Though it is sometimes true that it's much more effective, when in the right company to just give up describing in precise detail what, exactly, was so wonderful and just squeal. It saves time. XD But I find a balance to be more satisfying (it's all about the balance. Tranquility, I say! XD). Hm, what was that other point? Oh yes, having a life is good. Again, moderation. (Mr. Epicurius, you are my hero. *does tranquility dance*) Yay, it's pretty and cool and whee! But no, it is not the extent of life. Besides, it's so much more fun to have somewhat more substantial and relevant to Actual Life things to think about, because then you can mix them all up. Even from a purely fannish standpoint, I find that creativity is more forthcoming when one is consuming all sorts of things. Could you have much of a writing style if you only looked at fic? Not so, because even assuming you have basic knowledge of the language of your choice and can thus eschew the prevalent lack of grammar and spelling (say I, who rely entirely on instinct for my grammar as I have had zero actual training in it and learned the few rules I know either from my obsessive parents or backwards from learning French), your grasp of style will come entirely from people who, while some of them are certainly good writers, more are passable to mediochre, and in all likelihood none are on 'classic' level. Not going to go into what-is-a-classic debate, as we had far too much of that in AP Lit already, but you know, there are at least some standards, oddly as they may or may not have been applied. Er. The point here was, in both writing and art, it is much harder to develop into a really good writer or artist without outside influence. Anime art isn't exactly the epitome of anatomical accuracy, and much of it not even of perfectly applied stylization. (see: RG Veda CLAMP versus, say, Chobits CLAMP. Or better yet, early X versus recent X. Not that I don't love the angular style of early X, but the 'martini glass' approach to the male figure is not exactly my favourite, either.) That slash generator thing is pure genius. XD XD My favourite pairing thus far is definitely this: Vicious was at a L'arc~en~Ciel concert when he decided to seduce Aragorn. So he showed him some magic tricks and then... bondage. Ow, my brains. Although, also pretty good: Muraki was visiting a soapland when he ran into Clow Reed. So he slinked up in a seductive manner and dressed him up in pretty clothes and gave him a kitten. Endless entertainment! I am in need of a Halloween costume. *ponders* Cait has suggested Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, which would be appropriate and I could do, but I don't really like the costume all that much, although I do like Sally. *shrugs* Was going to do an elf, but it transpires that my mother returned that pretty cream shirt that I half got her to buy so I could borrow it for elven things, so I'd have to make a jacket /and/ a shirt, so probably too much work. ^^ 'm a lazy bum, I admit it, but jackets can be done without sleeves or with very loose ones, whereas shirts are a huge pain. I could do the standard witch, which might be kind of fun as it would largely involve buying cheap black cloth and gause and draping and tattering it appropriately, as well as fun with dramatic makeup. XD *ponders* Vampire might do, as it would also mainly involve semi-skanky black and red clothes, makeup, and teeth. I could ask my friend for help with the teeth; she's found some rather good ones, but I think they're expensive. *ponders more* Ooh. Maybe I could be one of those white-faced dolls. Too bad I don't have a dress that's sufficently ornate and Victorian. -_-; Could possibly, were I to make a quick poufy under-shirt and buy strips of red silk and wide gold-brocade ribbon, fake an Italian renaisance style dress. I use that term to apply to a particular style that I imagine to be Italian rennaisance, but am not actually sure of its accuracy. ^^ Hmm, possiblities there. Anyway, I've got a philosophy paper to write - only a draft, so not too bad, but still, must be at least... some length. And I procrastinate horribly with papers. >_> So will continue with the books I wanted to babble about later, I think.
Sophie stepped out onto the road: 08:17 p.m., Thursday, October 24, 2002 Whenever I think life sucks, I should just remind myself that it could be worse: at least I am no longer a sophomore. This is not intended as a derogatory comment on the nature of sophomores so much as, given the general tendancy of everyone to angst and everyone to hate everyone else, I'm glad I'm not. XD Yes. Although right about now I'm having much, much guilt about not going to set build for One Axe. *guilts* Because I didn't go during the two half homecoming weeks, and I didn't go today... which only makes nearly two weeks of not going, but still! I should be building, and using my nonexistant skills for some greater good, or something. Arg. It's just a little annoying because I do, in fact, have no skills whatsoever when it comes to build - cannot saw with most tools, am horrible at screwing (please ignore that), no idea about design beyond very general sorts of things. >_> Blarg. It is still stupid of me not to go. Just lacking in motivation, is all. I should stay after tomorrow. *nodnod* Cait took what is in all honesty the scariest picture of me I have ever seen. Seriously. Scaaary. o.o There's a link to it, along with a bunch of other pictures from homecoming, including some of Kim and Ki-chan here. The picture of which I speak may be found here. Behold, wonder, and ph33r. Die, Paradise Lost allusion log. Die. It seems I was wrong and when Phèdre said House of Minos, she meant House of Minos, of Crete and the Minotaur and such, not something else pretending to be the House of Minos. And apparently, in not!Crete, Theseus' (who gets to keep his real name) slaying of the Minotaur was badly recieved by the earth mother who goes by the name of Dia here, and the whole thing with Ariadne and Phaedra and destroying Theseus' son was in revenge for it. In this version Phaedra also apparently offered herself to appease Dia, so the name is all fun and multilayered. And then it seems the god Zagreus, whom I'm betting is Dionysius as he gives gifts of 'inspiration and madness' and took Ariadne, was the one who gave the house of Minos forgiveness afterwards. Don't quite understand why, but hey. And there's fun stuff with the mother goddess and Zagreus being represented by a sheaf of wheat and grape vines, which reminds me of the, what were they called, Eleusinian mysteries? The ones with Demeter and a death-and-resurrection religion, that were eventually replaced with a similar thing revolving around Dionysius, those. Makes me happy. XD I'm fighting the urge to redesign this page. Well, not so much fighting as considering but realizing I have neither time nor inspiration. Speaking of layouting, though, I finished layout for that Noir page I keep messing around with - screencap at DA. Help would be appreciated. ^^
Sophie stepped out onto the road: 11:31 p.m., Monday, October 21, 2002 I just remembered what I was going to say! A while back Tin was posting about Phèdre's name-source, I seem to remember. There's this lovely bit in Kushiel's Chosen that I just got to that I'm fairly sure is referencing Theseus' acceptance of Oedipus and Heracles after their respective crimes. Phèdre and someone, either Cecilie or Thelesis, are discussing Joscelin's interest in the Yeshuite religion, how it promises forgiveness for sins, and then the person to whom Phèdre's talking says something about how in the Greek myths (excuse my not using whatever they call the Greeks in Kushiel-book-land) this one house is supposed to be able to offer a similar forgiveness from blood-guilt ever since the time one of their lords redeemed, or something, someone guilty of something really bad. As if this is not referenceful enough, Phèdre then thinks about how she already knows this story as her name's history is tied to the aforementioned lord. So I'm thinking Phaedra wife of Theseus it is. It's funny how the Yeshuites have all these medieval-Jewish cultural things going on, but with an 'and oh Yeshua is the Messiah [or however they misspelled that to change it around]' tacked on the end. -_-; Plus, I seem to remember a reference in Phèdre's thoughts towards the end of Dart that seemed like it was comparing Joscelin and whatshisname, male variant on the Amazon queen's name, in any event Theseus' son by said Amazon queen and he whom Phaedra loved. Thanks for the help with Hyacinth, Belle and Eve dears. I'm thinking that, however, Hyacinth-myth is probably not the source of Kushiel-Hyacinthe. Well. I suppose he is kind of sort of sacrificed, but... you know, not. The reason the myth didn't occur to me was I had 'hyacith girl' stuck in my head, so stories about prettyboys were not coming up. ^^ I wish we got to study the Wasteland in school. Well, maybe I don't. -_-; But it would be something. As it is I just get to eventually connect every discussion back to something Eliot, thus amusing my teacher to no end. I'm telling you, that story just reinforces my dislike for Aphrodite. She's so petty and jealous. Oh no, one young man doesn't care about women, and likes Artemis not Aphrodite! Gasp shock horror, time to go ruin some random other person's life; that'll teach him! Stupid Aphrodite. >_> If you ask me, that's just more of an argument to worship Artemis in the first place. Then again the copy of Golden Bough that I got my hands on while 'working on a lit project' says Artemis had a hanging-people sacrifice going on, so maybe not. *shrugs* Then again, it kind of seems like if you go back far enough everyone had some bloody sacrifice being made to them anyway. Go figure. Thus far, Chosen is quite good, though Phèdre's style of talking comes across as a bit more stilted to me - she uses 'twas and 'tis at every opportunity, which I think should be used sparingly if at all. Her voice is already leaning on the formal side, but mostly it works just fine. Just... bits have been standing out at me. I think I'm adopting her 'well and so' phrase, though. XD I like. Oh yes, and fun with not!Venice and those layered Italian rennaisance dresses. Favrielle, the seamstress Phèdre employs in the city, has a fashion sense that agrees with me quite well - dark red silk, black veil, scarlet ribbons, simple and flowing lines. yum. ^.^ I pay way too much attention to the dress side of these things, I'm thinking. But that Joscelin pic has yet to be drawn, although I did consult my friend who has knowledge of weapons and armour about how she thought the vambraces and daggers would work, so at least that's settled. She's a fun person to have around when, say, watching Fellowship, because she'll happily spend as much time sparkling at the pretty, detailed leatherwork and pretty fabrics and weapon design as I will, even if she won't appreciate the finer points of movie!Gondorian style and how it was derived. My current theory is the wing motif from the crown, stars and tree from the crests of Aragorn and Minas Tirith, mixed well and with a dash of Assyrian style for the feathered patterns. Though the architecture is another matter entirely, and not to be fully considered before I see Osgiliath... Now excuse me while I wander off in a daze of geekiness.
Sophie stepped out onto the road: 12:19 a.m., Saturday, October 19, 2002 d00d. Apparently I have a fan. A "fan # 1!!!!!" at that. XD This being a random person who emailed me about font stuff. But still. I feel so special. XD I'm still on a Friday high, can you tell? XD Possibly by the extreme over use of the XD face? *falls over, to avoid XDing again* I had homecoming pep rally - which, at my gloriously nerdy school, usually has very little to do with football and lots to do with class spirit [yay seniors!] and this time had even less, as the game itself was effectively cancelled as a result of this sniper-paranoia. I don't know how much all you not DC area people hear about it, but everyone around here is all panicy. Today when we were Starbucksing after school one of the guys who works there came and shooed us all indoors again. Rather stupid, but hey. Will attempt not to gripe about it too much. But... yeah. Hyper is me. Also very highschoolish-feeling is me, as I keep thinking about homecoming. o.o At least I don't all the time. Jae, I think I fixed the html weirdness. Thanks for the notice - I also tend to be a bit anal about having perfect code, so it's appreciated. ^^ I think I left out a > in the title link.
Sophie stepped out onto the road: 11:46 p.m., Friday, October 18, 2002 Four-day weekends are happiness. At least, they help quite a bit. This time, we got off Monday for Columbus Day and Tuesday was the PSATs being administered to sophomores and juniors, so seniors didn't even have classes. Think of the gloating opportunities this presents. ^-^ This weekend I availed myself of my recently amassed collection of books I haven't read yet, and now bring you the report. Don't you feel special? Winamp says red-gray vaguely nihilistic Seishirou skin to 'Be a man' from Mulan, which song I always associate with extreme fruitiness. -_-; Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled bloggage. First book to talk about is American Gods, which I finished on Sunday. I'm not sure if that's funny or what. I did, however, think it was a little odd that the major-monotheistic-religion gods were completely left out. Maybe they're so... unincarnate, I guess, that they wouldn't really play into the scenario. I was v. impressed with the plot weaving, as just about everything ended up being a plot thread, all of which were tangled together and then explained in a most satisfactory way. I am somewhat less impressed, or better to say unclear, on the pointfulness (I'm sure there's an actual literary term for that, but literary terms and I do not get along well. -_-;) Hmm. It's hard to describe. I think there's a certain element of human whatsit trumps god-ness, which is of course highly logical if the gods are defined by human belief. Which, now that I think of it, is very uncartesian, as this definitely involves gods with power over humans being created by human imagination and thus coming from humans, although this may perhaps be resolved by considering that the gods do not in fact have any power over a human unless said human should make it be so. *shrugs* But anyway, the whole human fate being left back in the hands of humans in the dramatic final death, or at least running out or something similar, of magic, is so very done. XD The Dark is Rising books are a perfect example, as are the Prydain books - Lloyd Alexander, anyone read those? His Dark Materials has a similar ending note, as well, and it's relatively prevalent. American Gods isn't anywhere near as blatant as that; I just caught a bit of similar feeling towards the end, although the gods certainly still exist. But that seems like a rather poor conclusion after all the trouble. *ponders* Hm. Maybe it has to do with the coin tricks and the crooked game thing. That's obviously important. The whole not looking at the hand that actually has the coin in it, and all, besides the proliferance of coins in important bits. Oh, speaking of which, the scene in which Zorya P-something pulls the moon from the sky and it ends up as a silver liberty dollar made me go *sparkle* with significance. XD Especially in conjunction with Wednesday and Shadow's conversation about Liberty being only something built on death, decieving people into thinking, er, happy thoughts, instead of noticing the bad stuff. Excuse my lack of eloquence, please. -_-; Now this seems to be key, also, noticing the number of times Shadow did something relatively stupid and insisted on going through with it despite apparent badness only to have it end up being what he thought was the right thing anyway. The other thing I'd like to trace is the grifts, so to speak. I'm not quite sure what the feeling towards that is in the end. Hmmm. I like how I could ramble forever and not come to any conclusions at all. It's so much fun. ^^ On a somewhat more reviewlike note, American Gods is much interestingness. I could, indeed, sit around thinking about it for ages. The constant mythological allusions make me happy, too. ^^ Also of note is the... mm, refusal to ignore the ickier side of the gods, in fact the way that side is drawn out to explain them more. It's veiwed in a way v. reminiscent of Hero With a Thousand Faces, in that the destruction-sacrifice side is always present with the less disturbing sides. I'm still not sure what I think of that, but hey. Nice to see my favourite confusing archetypes so nicely presented. Then on Monday I read Fire and Hemlock. ^^ Reading in a good chair while drinking tea is obviously what Monday holidays were meant for. In summary, Fire and Hemlock = v. v. good. *sparkles* I've been going around plugging it to everyone - I think I persuaded Ki-chan to read it by pointing out that Thomas Lynn is a cellist. XD Seriously, though. This is a wonderful example of a DWJ plot - I sort of knew something was going on, but not any real details, and everything seemed more or less realistic until quite near the end. And once again she draws on stuff with which I am vaguely familiar, which makes me happy. Oh, I found another Donne reference in Howl t'other day, while poking around in my lit book: "Busy old fool, unruly Sun"... That line always stuck in my mind for some reason. But hey, if Howl can mangle Hamlet he can certainly mangle Donne. ^^ Anyway. I vaguely remembered the story of Tam Lin from the Sevenwaters books, of all things. Not that the idea of holding on to someone no matter what to keep them from the scary fairy woman isn't most familiar, anyway, but I can't remember where. ^^ I rather like Polly, too. In the case of Sophie, I was so much like her that that skewed my reading a bit. I liked Polly all along, but did not feel a deep connection to her until I got the part about reading Lord of the Rings for the fourth time under the desk in math. -_-; But... hm. Will have to reread the ending, as I definitely didn't follow it all the first time. Mr. Lynn is v. sparkleworthy; I love how his and Polly's relationship develops. That he's a cellist in a quartet doesn't hurt, either. All in all, I loved it and shall have to read it again very soon. I finished Mixed Magics at some point this weekend, too, though I was reading it a story at a time so I don't quite remember. I think my delusion about there being theater involved came from a misreading of 'The Sage of Theare'. XD Whee. I be stupid.
Someone, tell me - what's with the hyacinths? They're haunting me! *flails* First Kushiel-Hyacinthe, then something in a poem in lit that caused us to look up the myth for Hyacinth (beautiful youth loved and accidentally killed by Apollo), then I remember something from T.S. Eliot, or maybe not - hyacinth girl? I am so confused. x_x Next reading projects planned are Kushiel's Chosen, more Paradise Lost for school, possibly more Democracy in America although I imagine that will go rather slowly, and maybe Good Omens, though I've already read that. Ah, so many books~! On to social bloggage. First, to interject a random factlet (I think ^^): according to nausica.net, Howl is going to be made by Studio Ghibli but not Miyazaki himself, alas. From here. I'm sure it will still be well done, but I wish he was doing it... Ekai, but I hope it gets better... Getting depressed in the middle of school is most certainly Not Fun. *worries* Uploaded that Ginny-Tomoyo pic I may or may not have mentioned a while ago... it's not all that great, and badly scanned, but is nevertheless available here. Kim-chan, your new link, while not quite as amusing as that of Ki-chan, is still... rather. o.o Oh well, at least reading certain writing patters makes me feel all mature and stuff. XD Speaking of which, it's really funny whenever someone (usually someone new, usually on an ml) acts in such a way that it's very apparent both that they're a hyperactive fangirl of the middle school age range and that they think they're fooling someone into thinking otherwise. Censored cursing is one of the funniest, although maybe much fangirl Japanese is even more so. Although this leads me to wonder if excessive convolution of sentences and a certain cynicism isn't the following stage, or something. XD I finally joined the Yukiru ML that Sakura-san links, so be proud of me. One of these days I'll quit lurking, though first should see what group policies are on introductions... anyway, I usually feel it's better to make an introdution with gifts in hand, so perhaps should wait until I finish something furuba first. Hmm. Anyway, off to
Sophie stepped out onto the road: 11:07 p.m., Tuesday, October 15, 2002 Several of the more interesting search terms produced by this blog include 'the big book of winged prettyboys' (I wish XD), 'movie assassin cats wallpaper' (I really wonder what they were looking for), 'Sai x Kaede fic' (funny, never thought of that), and someone looking for Elladan and Elrohir fic in German. Straaange. Sakura-san, the new Absinthe-archive is pretty! Ooh, and new pictures for me to look at. *stares* I'm so horribly envious. XD So I'm reading Paradise Lost for my lit allusion project, which is great because it doesn't go a page at a time without some Greek/biblical reference, usually much less, and I've wanted to read it for ages anyway. My conclusion, thus far, is that Satan needs to not call his highest-ranking minion a cherub. o.o I know, angel ranks are weird, but still. He could probably also get away with talking a bit less. And what's with this Beelzebub being a different demon from Satan? Confusion. For a while there I thought Satan was talking to himself. Which would be just fine (thought thinking itself, right? XD) but given the nature of the conversation, would imply a certain multiplicity of personalities. I don't think I want to think about a ruler of hell with multiple personalities. x_x I think now is a good time to start rereading Good Omens, don't you? *falls over* I'm in about the right frame of mind (read: crackheaded) already. Actually, I started reading American Gods t'other day. It is much interestingness. I am, of course, far too easily amused by weird jokes that depend on mythology to make sense (Mr. Wed.: Thunder? Thor? Thursday? Get it? me: hahahaha! XD XD) And the eye, and the spear wound! Of course, they do kind of explain Odin's whole one-eyed spear-wounded hanged thing at one point. I'm waiting for the ravens still, though. XD I would have been more annoyed by the disturbing sex scenes except I just finished Kushiel's Dart, so. ^^ On a somewhat more serious consideration, though, I still think it's interesting. Pointful, one might say. Well, we'll see where the point goes, if it goes anywhere. I look forward to it. And, of course, the story's interesting too. Must borrow more Neil Gaiman books from Meg whenever I finish what I have now... I checked out half my library's Diana Wynne Jones section while I was at the library getting American Gods and Milton as well. In this case, that would be Mixed Magics, a book of short Chrestomanci-world(s) stories, which I look forward to because more Chrestomanci is always a good thing and I think one of them has to do with theater (or perhaps I'm just delusional?), Fire and Hemlock which I keep hearing even better than usual, for a DWJ, things about, and A Tale of Time City, which I feel I should read if only for the butter pies. Speaking of butter pies, I drew a picture. While it does not directly involve butter pies, it does involve Tomoyo sparkling at Ginny, Eriol leering, and Malfoy going o.o; Which thoughts are connected by way of Jae, hence the... ah, thing. Remind me not to talk when I have had actual sleep; it goes to my head and makes me all even-less-coherent-than-usual. But I will scan it at some point. AB Calc, being a total non-class (and this, kids, is a function! amazing!) tends to lend itself to weird pictures. I have a half-finished sketch of Tomoyo and Juri having tea in my notebook somewhere, as well as some Kushiel chibis. Joscelin chibifies particularly well. Then again, Joscelin does everything well. At least I think so. XD And I have Kushiel's Chosen from Ki-chan, but I shouldn't start reading at least until I finish American Gods, but I have Democracy in America in my backpack too... *flails* So many books! Ah, I am a happy person. Or would be, if I had time to read them all. Meg and I had a fun discussion about infinity and God today in philosophy. It happened because the class was having an argument about whether one could think without having sense perceptions (I don't see why not, but then it's not something you could prove by experience either way) and at the same time it occured to us that a mind, disconnected from all sense perceptions and always having been that way, would, should it in fact think, have nothing to think about but itself, and would then be thought thinking thought, Aristotle's god. At which point, we went 'd0000d' and weren't sure what, if anything, we'd just concluded. But hey. Then later on we were arguing whether something infinite would be able to grasp the concept of infinity - I'm not sure, because you could say that infinite should be able to do anything, but then you could say, but not things that are logically contradictory and claim grasping the concept of infinity as counter to the definition of infinity. So... meh. But philosophy is still such a fun class. Every so often I realize that I'm taking government and lit and philosophy classes, and it makes me very happy. Then I realize lit is thus far mainly a stupid waste of time (though Conrad was fun), and am somewhat less happy. But still.
Sophie stepped out onto the road: 08:25 p.m., Wednesday, October 9, 2002 Spirited Away is an amazing movie. I mean... wow. Everything is so pretty! And such a cool plot/concept/world, and all the funny bits (the three heads! and the rat/birdthing! and the sootballs! XD XD), and the hero journey stuff, and Haku (ahhh, Haku~!), and his dragon form, and the No Face, and the shadow people on the train, and... everything. *falls over* I want to see it again. Now. o.o Unfortunately it'll be out of theaters by next weekend... It occurs to me that tranquil is a good word for this film. The train ride was just brilliant, and I'm not entirely sure why. But it was. Meg was nearly crying at the beauty of the one scene where she's walking on the water towards the train, and it's all sky and water and a little girl in the middle. I would have, but I was too busy staring. And No Face makes me want to not analyze his Deep Symbolic Meaning, just let it be, which... takes something. That entire evening, though... it reminded me a little of certain evenings two years (and it really is two years, I even believe it when I say so) ago when I was all caught up in little troubles and everything seemed so confused and important at the same time. And that was sort of bad, because I know I don't want to be all... teen-angst-stupid like that again, but I miss, a little bit, the good parts. I mean, there were bits of real conversation that trickled through, meaning even. I miss that. It's funny, how you can talk to someone so much about nothing at all, and then in three minutes of night say something that gives it purpose. I wish it were easier. And besides, romantic problems are so much FUN. When they're not mine, I mean - those are inevitably icky and troublesome and just shouldn't happen until I meet a kind, wise dragon-boy who can help me face myself and grow up. XD But... yeah. Bad memories, but ones I don't want to lose at the same time. *shrugs* Obviously, this is the best time to rewatch Utena! I think so. x_x Don't you? It seems like every time I turn around these days I'm discovering someone else who read some book or books I loved when I was younger. XD Or now, as the case may be. It makes me happy.
Sophie stepped out onto the road: 11:48 p.m., Saturday, October 5, 2002 |
layout "He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." archive who currently
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