Month: July 2013

by Doctor Science

Pacific Rim hasn’t done as well in the US as had been hoped (for a nearly-$200-million movie), though it’s racking up enough bucks internationally that there will be a sequel. I think its comparative failure here was because the marketing was wrong.

The marketing, and the reviews, said that Pacific Rim is “by fanboys, for fanboys”. But let me tell you, I know a LOT of fangirls, and we have fallen for this movie hook, line and sinker.

At least in the US, the marketing tagline for Pacific Rim was “To Fight Monsters, We Created Monsters”. And this is what the trailers showed: giant invading alien monsters, battled by equally giant robots, controlled by square-jawed men. I was *deeply* unimpressed with the first trailer I saw, and wrote the movie off as “another take on Transformers, probably based on a comic or video game I’ve never heard of. Boring, loud, sausagefest, skipable.”

But this isn’t what the movie is about. It’s not about how “we created monsters” or “we made giant scary robots, powered by men.” The *point* of Pacific Rim, at least as far as the fangirls (and similar) are concerned, is we fight giant aliens with giant robots powered by our soulbonds. What’s driving the robots (“Jaegers”) isn’t “a man” or even “a human being”, it’s a relationship.

Cut for massive, total spoilers for the film.

Read more

by liberal japonicus

In a recent thread, the subject of East Asian relations in general and Japanese-Korean relations in particular came up and I suggested that the relationship problems have much deeper roots than is often imagined by Westerners. I may have suggested that I would write a post detailing the evidence for my assertions. As you can tell from the title, this post is probably not that one, but it will probably be as close as you get. I'm also ready to post this now that dr ngo is on the field, backing me up so as to stop those ground balls that go thru between my legs because I didn't get my glove down.

More below the fold if you want to ignore this and treat it like an open thread.

Read more

by Doctor Science

Andrew Sullivan has been having a discussion about suicide. He quotes Clancy Martin:

“[E]very suicide’s an asshole,” wrote Mary Karr, in a poem about [David Foster] Wallace’s death. “There is a good reason I am not/ God, for I would cruelly smite the self-smitten.” Suicide, seen as among the most selfish of acts, pushes a button in us that even murder doesn’t.

I have repeatedly heard grieving people rage at the selfishness of a suicidal love one, how the person would never do that if they actually cared about their family and friends.

Speaking as someone who’s been depressed to the point of suicide (though fortunately never consciously attempted), this is bunk. When you’re that depressed, it feels as though everything you do or touch is horrible, and that your continued existence will be a burden to your family. You really, truly believe that they will be better off without you.

Now you may say, “but how could they believe that?!? They’d
have
to
be
crazy …
oh.”

Well, DUH. Depression doesn’t involve just a disorder of emotion, it involves disordered thoughts, as well. The most prominent of these thoughts is hopelessness, that there is no way out.

Discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation under the cut

Read more