tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post7150713346963971107..comments2024-03-24T00:16:17.304-07:00Comments on Storming the Ivory Tower: The Girls Who Walk Away From KyubeeSam Keeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00863236889998956170noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-17360701303186668942013-08-13T00:15:51.972-07:002013-08-13T00:15:51.972-07:00"But one story has more lesbian schoolgirls a..."But one story has more lesbian schoolgirls and therefore is infinitely superior."<br /><br />Bless you.<br /><br />Urobuchi Gen (the writer behind Madoka for who doesn't know) loves this theme allright. In Fate/Zero, there are lengthy sections dedicated to the problem of the suffering of the minority for the good of a majority (and an entire section dedicated to straight out logically demonstrate how fucked up that logic is). That show has some excellent moments, though the ending is kind of bad (since it needs to fulfill its role as a prequel to Fate Stay/Night, which is not nearly as good). I also hear that Psycho Pass has a similar theme. Suisei no Gargantia is not entirely Gen's work, and even though it hosts the seeds of the problem, it never really delves deep in the question.<br /><br />Besides that, I feel that this kind of ties in with another problem that I really hold dear: the fact that our society assumes man to be necessarily 'egoistic', and all altruism to be either helplessness, silliness, or belonging to the realm of utopia and dream. I think that's at least part of why we think a 'happy' society to be impossible, and why we're fascinated by deconstructions and darker and edgier rewritings of bright worlds: because we don't want to admit that there's even just a glimpse of truth in those worlds which suggest that happiness could be ours were we to care a bit more about each other and the well being of everyone else. In a sense, maybe be enjoy deface what causes us shame.Simonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00269789379747065457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-55767170993841202252013-07-31T13:49:29.778-07:002013-07-31T13:49:29.778-07:00After reading "The Ones Who Walk Away From Om...After reading "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" I was angry as hell. First of all because I *can* imagine perfect civilizations without the need for a child being tortured and second of all since the only options the story presented were accepting or moving away. Where's the third option: rescuing the freakin' child, consequences be damned?<br /><br />But then your article made it all okay. You showed the third option. Madoka's option. Screw the rules I'll fix things.<br /><br />I'm not an artist myself, but I think artists can show not just how fucked up the world is, but also that there's a way out. <br /><br />"Whatsherface"<br /><br />And I must admit I laughed harder at this than I probably should.Yxoquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01728852618699602516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-25205537685184752122013-07-31T11:51:01.019-07:002013-07-31T11:51:01.019-07:00Your essay reminded me of one of Zizek's, wher...Your essay reminded me of one of Zizek's, wherein he argued (for similar reasons) that Christianity is inherently communistic (... which is standard Zizek fare, and makes sense when he explains it). Specifically, he thinks that "turning the other cheek" is an inherently transgressive act because it breaks the economic model of morality (as epitomized by karma, wherein good deeds and bad deeds are calculated on some kind of cosmic spreadsheet at the end of each life, and the remaining debt is turned into bad luck). Somehow, he managed to completely miss that idea (stopping the wheel of karma) in Buddhism.<br /><br />Of course, the problem with systematically transgressive acts (and, for that matter, with deconstructions) is that some people won't comprehend them (and, in fact, without analysis of the type you are doing, they are not even visible). There's always somebody who claims to be Buddhist and then goes on acting like karma is inescapable, just like there's always somebody who likes Evangelion because of the giant robot battles. Madoka can get away with a subtly transgressive act because she is a god, and can encode her subversive thoughts into the underlying nature of a new universe (which, in a sense, makes Madoka Magica's penultimate scene more meaningful and interesting than the similar sequence in Serial Experiments Lain); for the rest of us, even exposure will not work, and only living and breathing a world with such assumptions (say, reading a whole series of books set in the kind of world Madoka creates -- just as Heinlein readership essentially created a population of naive nationalist libertarians without ever being totally explicit about it) will cement the ideas.John Ohnohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11352441770252592928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-45832749805105326032013-07-30T20:56:02.138-07:002013-07-30T20:56:02.138-07:00Yeah, if you're going to watch it, you have to...Yeah, if you're going to watch it, you have to watch the whole thing. It starts out like pretty much any Magical Girl show, doing pretty much all the usual tropes and stuff. But then it changes. That's what the "deconstruction of the genre" thing is about. After, like, the 5th episode at most, you realize that things aren't one-dimensional, you've just been forced to view things from an absurdly skewed perspective.Mixter Casualhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06585844188470546859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-16644555209670863372013-07-30T18:26:20.551-07:002013-07-30T18:26:20.551-07:00I am pleased that someone take the time and wrote ...I am pleased that someone take the time and wrote about this masterpiece (Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica) ,with such detail and understanding because it certainly deserves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-22467854085531690522013-07-30T16:59:26.842-07:002013-07-30T16:59:26.842-07:00"some episodes..."
There's your pro..."some episodes..."<br /><br />There's your problem. You have to watch the whole show before you can judge it. It's only 13 episodes, get going!Arihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10603231078491787190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-69850015031267373472013-07-30T11:52:19.287-07:002013-07-30T11:52:19.287-07:00If anything, Homura, the dark-haired girl, is not ...If anything, Homura, the dark-haired girl, is not one-dimensional, literally. She traversed time and space for someone and is more than Hardboiled Serious Mcbadass.Vault Dwellerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05772907024142026035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-79898988733362576072013-07-29T19:44:01.996-07:002013-07-29T19:44:01.996-07:00I was psyched to see you'd written an article ...I was psyched to see you'd written an article about Omelas, which I read when I was little and have never forgotten. But then you said don't read it if you haven't seen MM, which I haven't. But then I decided to forge on anyway, spoilers be damned, since I already had a vague secondhand idea what was up with MM and I didn't think I was likely to watch it in any case.<br /><br />I feel like that was both the wrong and right decision. Wrong, because you've made MM sound pretty interesting and now I do want to see it. Right, because if it holds up to repeated viewing, does it matter if I know some of the things that happen? Spoilers shmohelers.<br /><br />One thing's for sure, I don't regret reading this article. I remembered vividly the moral dilemma that the child posed to the townsfolk when I, the reader, accepted the premise. But all this time I never realized that my acceptance of the premise was such a central question in the text. Why is it so hard to imagine a place like Omelas with no wretched child? I've got a lot to think about.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56230747868041478.post-42456300321101169212013-07-29T19:20:54.440-07:002013-07-29T19:20:54.440-07:00Just saw some episodes...
The town style and desi...Just saw some episodes...<br /><br />The town style and design is good,<br />but all the girls are one-dimensional, and the story is uninteresting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com