Keri

Review: The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:18:33 GMT

6: The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher
(began: 12 Jan 2012; completed: 5 Feb 2012)

Non-fiction; linguistics (historical/evolutionary); pop-science

LibraryThing link

Review:
Guy Deutscher's the Unfolding of Language is an attempt to show how language can develop into a complex structure of grammar and morphology from a more-or-less simple Thing-word + Action-word beginning (or, as Deutscher refers to it in the book, from the "me Tarzan" stage). While not comprehensive of all possible variations in language or even all grammatical functions or types of sentences, the book does provide a template for how other complexities might develop beyond what Deutscher covers. As he says in the "small print" before really getting into this template, "the aim is only to suggest that it is possible, in principle, to understand how the whole edifice of complex grammar could have developed from a complex of much simpler principles. [...] The selection here must be highly selective, since it is impossible within one chapter to consider every single feature of even one language, let alone all languages" (p 224).

The book is arranged in 7 chapters, plus an introduction and epilogue. Each of the first 6 chapters focusses on a single concept and how that idea works with language. Some of the earliest sections cover more-or-less basic ideas that are found in lots of discussion of language evolution, such as erosion and back-formation. Chapter 4, "Metaphors", was one of the more interesting sections to me, as it discusses how fairly solid and "real" Thing-words and Action-words (Deutscher attempts to avoid using "noun" and "verb" when discussing roots) can grow to encompass abstract ideas such as prepositions. I suppose this is kind of obvious, but Deutscher approached it in a novel way for me, which provided words and clarity to concepts I had previously only vaguely recognized. These first chapters also look at how new words or grammatical structures form, specifically via Latin and French verb-forms, and the desire for patterns in language that might not actually exist, such as in Semitic verb templates, or even more familiar English plurals - "cherry" from the singular "cherise" or "pea" from "pease".

The final chapter of the book uses the concepts as described previously to show how a simple "me Tarzan" story with only Things and Actions ("Girl fruit pick mammoth see turn") can become a much more "natural" modern story ("A girl who was picking fruit one day suddenly heard some movement behind her. She turned around and saw a huge mammoth..."). While new concepts are broached (especially relative clauses, but also reflexive pronouns and sentence word order, amongst others), each has a grounding in one of the previous chapters. On the whole, Deutscher makes it very easy to follow how languages change.

While I found The Unfolding of Language to be interesting and very worth my time reading, I was a bit frustrated at the lack of references to the end notes within the text. It is a pop-linguistics book, so notations could be distracting to the reader, and footnotes might make it seem too academic, but there were many places where I wanted to read more, and had to flip back and forth to see if there was a note with citations - sometimes there was, and sometimes not. I was also a bit dismayed that Deutscher insisted in the introduction that he would not cover the debate about the innateness of language (he instead has a note on page 310 with further reading on the matter), yet does refer off-hand from time to time to the "natural" way of language. He specifically points to the "me first" concept when discussing sentence word-order, and states that it is perfectly natural for us to use "me" before anything else when speaking. While I can see this as being true, I was rather hoping that he would have provided citations to a study so that I could learn more about this, yet he doesn't. I think it is a very fascinating field of study, that of how culture and language influence how one thinks and perceives. (I have since learned that Deutscher tends to fall on the "innate" side of the argument, rather than the side that says culture/language is very influential, which is where I stand.)

I really find that The Unfolding of Language is a good companion to John McWhorter's The Power of Babel. While Deutscher's book looks at the complexities of grammar and morphology (with a focus on English and the languages that heavily influenced English, save for the chapter on Semitic verb templates), McWhorter's is more about the sheer variety of languages and how they can diverge or fall together (such as multiple languages in Africa reducing complexities and becoming Swahili as an all-purpose trading language, which then became a first-language in itself). These two books are pretty much on the same topic, but with two different perspectives. Thus, some of the items repeat (such as explanations about erosion and back-formation, or discussions of the natural patterns of languages simplifying and becoming more complex, or even why there seems to be less change in modern languages than in the past and why so many are dying out completely).

I received The Unfolding of Language via the SantaThing program in 2010 and am very grateful that I had a Secret Santa who could pick out an excellent evolutionary linguistics book for me.

Best Books Read in 2011 (Repost from LibraryThing)

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:20:30 GMT

1. Adios, Happy Homeland! by Ana Menéndez
2. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
3. The Arrival by Shaun Tan
4. Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses from Myth to Reality by Dr. Helen Scales
5. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Of all the books I read last year, these are the ones that continue to resonate with me, the ones that I still think about and feel like I've only just closed the back cover on.

Two are what you might call literary fiction, books that play with narrative and language. Two are non-fiction that really influenced how I view the world and have made me more aware of things around me. And finally there is the wordless graphic novel that does all of the above. It was difficult to order the last four (the Menéndez was easily my favorite book all year), and there were a few other contenders for books that I really love, but they just didn't have the staying power of these five.

Also: if there are any books in my list of Top 5 that I think you should read, they are Nothing to Envy and The Arrival. Maaaaaybe Poseidon's Steed, but it's not as much of a Y U NO READ IT RITE NAO sort of thing. I think Adios, Happy Homeland! and Swamplandia! have a more limited audience of who would enjoy them and everything. They're really really good (obv) but because of the way they play with language and are magial realism (and not-so-realism), I know they're not everyone's cuppa. I do adore them, though.

Manga I am reading: Sukimasuki by Unita Yumi

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:36:38 GMT

Here's where you can find it: http://stiletto-heels.ambrosialsky.net/projects/sukimasuki/

The title is katakana: スキマスキ (Also, this title has helped me learn THREE katakana characters - I always had trouble differentiating between マ and ア before, and I was never sure about ス. Of course everyone knows キ from reading enough stuff with doki-doki.)

The author UNITA Yumi is also the author of Usagi Drop plus many shorter works (I quite liked Nomino, which is a one chapter thing).

Okay. So. I'm skipping over many other things I've meant to talk about yet again, because I am so in love with Unita's book. I even added it to my LT catalogue, even though I try to resist adding manga I've read online to it. But I love this book so much that I would plunk down money for a copy on my bookshelf even in Japanese if I could afford it, so into my LT catalogue it goes. And a post about it on JF, too.

Because, you guys, I love it that much. I was an English major, so I of course had to learn a lot about literary techniques and to learn to recognize them and stuff, and a lot of manga are like pop novels that don't really bother to try that much. (Particularly the shoujo, which I've been reading way too much of lately.) But Sukimasuki! It didn't ignore literary techniques! Maybe it's not a masterpiece work or an award winner or anything, but does it matter if it won my heart? (that was totally sappy)

So here is the spoiler-free review I posted to manga-updates and LibraryThing. Plus a brief summary.

Summary: Heisaku is doing double time - during the day he works and at night he's a student at an art college, studying architecture. He has a fascination with gaps and empty spaces, which leads him to endless staring at the window across from his bedroom, which usually has the curtains pulled almost-but-not-quite shut. With the light on in the room, he can see just a little bit through the gap, but not much, and it's fascinating. In that opposite room is Fumio, a girl about Heisaku's age. She is also fascinated watching the goings on in the room across from hers - but Heisaku keeps his curtains wide open, and she tends to watch through the zoom-lens on her camera. One day, the two happen to meet. Neither realizes the other is also watching through the window.

Review:
This manga became a favorite of mine from the first chapter. I already love Unita's way of drawing hands and facial expressions (omg, the hands are amazing - actually, the entire style is just fantastic), so I was predisposed to enjoy this book if only because of the art. But the story!

Wow, the story is crafted really well. It's all about "looking through the gaps" or "looking through a lens", as shown through the two main characters, Heisaku (who watches his neighbor Fumio through the gap in her curtain, and likes to look through spaces or gaps in other things as well) and Fumio (who does photography, and mostly watches Heisaku through her camera lens from her room). So not only do we get the story about how they move from using these barriers to watch each other to actually entering each other's spaces, but these barriers and gaps appear everywhere. It's a visual motif, with the favorite meeting places having lots of vertical bars or windows, and it's a story motif as well. The reader is never able to fully know anything about any character, even the primary ones - what we do learn is like bits and pieces from a slide projector. Of course as the pov character, more is known about Heisaku than anyone else, but it's a slice-of-life story that doesn't give us a lot of background information, except what comes out in the dialogue. It's very tightly constructed, the story. As a result, even when we learn big information about a character, we're always left with the feeling that there's more to the story and what we've seen isn't as it seems at all.

The length of the story and the way it wraps up with a very ambiguous ending also matches that motif of "watching through the gaps". It's slice of life, so of course there's a feeling like that, but the shortness and abruptness amplifies the feeling. It's like when you're on a train and have just left one tunnel and are about to enter another - suddenly you see this panorama of cityscape or landscape or whatever out the windows, vibrant and expansive, and then just as suddenly you're thrust into the next tunnel without getting a really full view of what you'd past, and no longer able to go back to fill in the gaps that you missed. We don't know much, if anything, about Heisaku or his friends or Fumio before the story begins, and there are no signs at all about what happens after the story ends. We've seen this one instant, this period of several weeks, and that's it. But there doesn't need to be any more - even if the ending is ambiguous about what happens to the characters (is it a metaphor? is it literal?), the story that was meant to be told has been done and there's no more to say about it. Besides which, the ambiguity only emphasizes the "through the gaps" thing.

I guess it's probably clear that I love this manga. It's a slice-of-life character study, not really a romance at all, and has not only beautiful art but a tightly crafted story. It's one of my top recommendations for people looking for something that rises above the ordinary.

So, that's that. It's another incentive to learn to read Japanese, because I want to be able to enjoy this story whenever I like, without having to rely on my computer for the digital scans and translations. I don't think it'll be licensed in the US any time soon.

(I feel like a bit of a dork for saying I want to learn Japanese for such a reason, but is it really a bad reason? I already have the ability to read French, and it's not like Japanese is the only foreign language I want to learn - it's on a list of like eight others, because I think languages are awesome, and I've already been interested in it for a long time, because of the grammar, and it seems less frustrating for me than a tonal language like Mandarin Chinese (which I'm also into)).

Books I Am Reading: Calamity Jack by Shannon and Dean Hale

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:36:41 GMT

I need to write about the anime series Sasameki Koto and Sora no Woto, but I haven't really felt that I have to time to focus on a post. So busy trying to keep afloat with (or procrastinate on) my school work.

Here is a review I wrote for Shannon Hale's graphic novel Calamity Jack. It is a sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge and co-written with her husband Dean Hale. It's illustrated by Nathan Hale (who is unrelated).

This review is copied from LibraryThing. (link)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Rapunzel's Revenge, so I was looking forward to the sequel from the Hale trio. According to the final pages of the preceding book, Calamity Jack would focus on Rapunzel's partner and love interest Jack's story.

But the first few pages gave me such an intense feeling of dislike and trepidation for the rest of the book that I couldn't really enjoy it. See, the main character Jack is apparently supposed to be American Indian. From the setting, I figure his hometown of Shyport is meant to be somewhere around Kansas City, just a little bit West, but not so far as to be the Wild West, where Rapunzel's Revenge occurred. Of course, these settings are filtered through a fantasy/steampunk lens, where magic and pixies and giants are all normal creatures. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that technically, Jack and his family aren't American Indian, because Americans and Indians and whatnot just don't exist in this universe. In the first book, there wasn't really a strong indication of what his heritage is supposed to be - at least, it wasn't terribly obvious to me. He has darker skin than Punzie, but everyone in the stories has varying skintones, and he could have been any kind of Wild West figure with darker skin and black hair.

But in Calamity Jack, starting on the very second page of story, it's inescapable that he's meant to be American Indian. And the way he and his family are represented just did not work for me. He's a trickster, petty thief character, and his family live in a tenement. The first person he injures because of his tricks? is a white boy with blonde hair. Jack's dearest belongings in the story are a fringed, bear-hide jacket that belonged to his father and a close-fitting choker-style necklace apparently made of bone strips that belonged to his grandfather. Even considering the Fantasy/Steampunk Wild West setting, it feels so stereotypical and unimaginative — I suppose that maybe that's why I was so disappointed in it, and dislike the backstory so much.

Moving past the bits that made me feel uncomfortable and upset with one of my favourite authors, the rest of the story was quite good, though the art sometimes had what is referred to on the Internet as a "QUALITY" look, especially in the occasional strangely malformed faces.

I guess the story is a pretty typical "little guy saves the town from fat and overbearing autocrat" sort of thing. Blunderboar is the richest dude in town, who happens to be a giant, and he always makes Jack's mom (the town baker) make special bread for him, but never pays. And then one day as he's leaving the bakery, he doesn't duck and knocks out a chunk of wall over the door, then refuses to do anything about it. Jack, petty thief and trickster extraordinaire, swears he'll find a way to take care of things and with his pixie compatriot Prudence works out a plan to get to Blunderboar's floating penthouse to steal some money for repairs.

Things go wrong with a magical beanstalk and golden goose, and Jack runs out of town to avoid certain death, only to met up with Rapunzel. When they return to Shyport together, Blunderboar has become the only guy in town, and it's partly thanks to his taking care of giant Ant-People who keep invading and destroying things. Also: Jack is #1 most wanted and should be fearing for his life (again). You can probably figure out what happens from here, though the details are fun to see. For example, there is a newspaper man named Freddie Sparksmith who is trying to convince everyone that Blunderboar is up to no good. Freddie is one of those goofy hero characters, the kind who mean well and want to save the world, but aren't exactly the brightest lightbulb. I love Freddie - he's easily my favorite character in either of the books.

Despite being able to predict how the story would go, the exact details surprised me, and like I said, it was fun to read. There were a few twists I really didn't expect at all, which was great, because twists in fairy tale plots are usually pretty predictable.

As with Rapunzel's Revenge, the setting is outstanding, and there are references to Jabberwocks and Bandersnatches, which I loved.

So, altogether, it's not really a bad book. It's quite good. But I just can't get over the disappointment and dislike I have for Jack's background story. It just feels wrong and uncomfortable, and the fact that he's trying to be on the straight-and-narrow for redhead Rapunzel (whom he loves and adores) just... it doesn't quite work for me. At least this treatment of an American Indian character isn't as bad as Stephenie Meyer's.

Books I Am Reading: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:43:42 GMT

I read Stardust ages ago and enjoyed it. But it was ages ago, like 2003 or 2004?, and I hardly remembered anything about it, except the Market every 9 years in Wall and the snowdrop at the beginning and the shop girl who is a bird and a guy (the same one who bought the snowdrop is how I remembered it) goes searching for a star who is actually a beautiful girl.

Lately, I'd been feeling like I ought to reread the book, for lots of reasons, and then lo and behold, my Secret Santa on LibraryThing picked it out for me. :)

So I've been reading it this last month, only it's been going slowly because instead of spending free time reading it, I've been reading manga or watching anime or playing KoL.

Right now, I've just reached chapter 6, and the star has run away from whatshisname the hero of the story, and he has been riding with Lord Primus on the coach for a little bit. I was wanting to talk about some things in the book, but to be honest, I've forgotten most of those things.

I do love the narration voice, though. It's very nice, kind of like a bedtime story. I also love that I can recognize bits and pieces of old fairy tales popping up in the course of the plot, like the lady in the scarlet kirtle. I don't really remember what that story was (and wasn't originally green, not red?), but it does seem familiar in that way. Also, the girl who is a bird and also a shop girl seems awfully familiar, but then again, maybe this is just a skill Gaiman has at echoing fairy tales.

Mostly, though, Stardust is better than I remembered it being. I've enjoyed the five minutes here and there that I've been able to sit and read it (mostly when I'm not at home with internet to distract me). I totally can't remember how it ends at all, except I think the main guy ends up marrying the star instead of Victoria? not really sure. So I'm looking forward to seeing how it all ties up.

Also from LibraryThing, I got a Member Giveaway book this week. It's called Thérése et Pierrette à l'École des Saints-Anges by Michel Tremblay. It's French, of course, and appears to be from a series of novels. I put my name in for the lottery because I want more French books to keep my comprehension skills up, and also I love series books, and this looks promising.

It's not very high on my to-read list, though. Ahead of it are The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya (which I've already read the fan translation for, but I got the Yen Press edition in November) and She by H. Rider Haggard, and some Eliza Haywood novellas I didn't get around to during my English women lit class. There are others, but these are the three that I think of the most.

In fact, I should probably write about the manga I've read before I forget that, too, and only have the nagging memory that I wanted to. I've been reading a lot of shoujo lately because, and I dunno why, I've been wanting romance stories. They're not entirely satisfying, which is kind of frustrating, and they're a little bit WTF, so I do want to write about that before long.

Anime I am watching: Various

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:54:45 GMT

I have a free trial account at CrunchyRoll, and I've been using it today. The streaming isn't nearly as bad as I expected, possibly because of the premium trial, possibly because I turned off almost everything except FF?

1. Chu-Bra
I viewed this one mostly to test the streaming capabilities, since it's new and so far only available to paid accounts. Also, I was all "what the fuck" at the synopsis and wondered how it would be done. Turns out I was right, and it was a pretty awful episode, without any promise for getting better, because the whole premise of the series is pretty bad. There wasn't even much that was particularly cute about it, or appealing, or questions unanswered to make me want to see just one more episode, like with Kanamemo. Because, basically, just like that one, Chu-Bra is a fanservice-oriented show without much else going for it. It's pantsu pantsu pantsu with 12-year-old girls and big boobs and moe character designs.

This first episode was plotted around the first days at a new school and getting to know the other kids and how one girl, the new student rep actually, isn't normal. There's a huge focus by the other kids (and the camera angles) on the fact that she wears "adult" underwear. She's obsessed with nice underthings, apparently, and it was obvious to me from the beginning that she's probably doing wearability tests for the designer or something, but of course the other kids think she's doing paid dating. And we're treated to shots of her feeling up another girl's boobs, and also another girl's ass, and also panty shots and cleavage everywhere you turn.

I like ero stuff sometimes, but not in this pandering sort of "everything you see is ero" sort of way. I'm also not crazy about it when linked to twelve-year-old girls in a story that won't let you forget their age, especially. So, really, I guess this show just isn't for me, and that's fine, and I knew that going in.

2. Time of Eve
This one was another test, because I was having trouble getting the flash player to work (turns out that turning off "allow 3rd party content" in order to block viruses and stealth downloads? yeah, that keeps CR from streaming videos for me) and wanted to see if it was because of new series or old ones, too, and this was the most appealing of the older ones.

Two plotty things that will, without fail, make me interested in a story: time travel and the philosophical aspects of AI/androids/cyborgs. A third one is unreliable narrators, but that's more narrative than plot and, well, yeah. I wasn't even entirely aware of the android/cyborg thing until I saw Time of Eve today, but then I thought about it, and I realized that I've actually seen or read a lot of things that discuss whether or not they can truly have motions and free thought if they're created beings, and what that means about the nature of humanity. I think one of the crucial points here is the idea that humans are somehow more than just animals, that there is an existence beyond, like a soul or whatever. I'm of the opinion that sufficiently advanced AI is no different from human brains, but I don't really believe in souls or anything. Even android bodies are comparable to human bodies, though the lifespan may be shorter or there may be different types of mechanical failures or dementia.

Anyway. The point is: Time of Eve really hit one of my buttons, and it was good. The animation and scenery were beautiful, and even the camera pans and zooms that were more obviously CG were just lovely. (I hate it when the animation gets that too-artificial sleek CG look in parts when there rest of it has more of a hand-drawn feel, even if the whole thing was done with CG.) The music, too, was perfect, and I loved the way different motifs appeared, like the view of the cafe's sign with the little chime of background music, or the movement of the close-up of the main character's television moving backwards (zooming out) over the couch (where his sister was often lying) and table to see him sitting there (or not). There were a lot of repeated camera movements, actually, or pauses on particular props or pieces of scenery, but it felt more like motifs or echoes than lazy animation. I dunno, I liked it, is what I'm trying to get at.

I hope that another set of episodes is produced, since there are so far only six at fifteen minutes each, so it's really more like a movie that was cut up and streamed on the web with long intervals between each part. I really like the world, and the tension amongst the population about "androidholics" and people who can only think of androids as useful machines, and the Ethics Committee that wants to make sure that androids can't be mistaken for human, even though in this universe, the AI is sufficiently advanced that the primary difference is their body type and the way they are born. They're kind of like Chii from Chobits, but without the need for cable up-links or the funny ears. I guess Time of Eve is kind of like what would happen if the Chobits project was a success and all androids were like Chii, with the advanced learning mechanisms and the ability to have emotion (which I conjecture is part of becoming self-aware).

There's a lot more I could say about the series, but I'm having trouble making words for it, at least words that fit into sentences and make sense, so I'll just leave it as how much I love it. I'd like to get it on DVD, I think.

3. Durarara!!
I have seen the first episode now. I was caught by the character designs a couple weeks ago and decided that I wanted to see at least the first episode. Discussion at animesuki and also the fact that gg are excited about the series only increased my interest. (I know that gg are known as trolls, but trolls amuse me, and I like their subs and their stated translation ideals. I even like the commercials. And they did Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (and Goku and Zoku, no?) so there's that. Anyway, they said "Durarara!! looks fantastic" and I said "well, I'll check it out, then." )

So far, I like what I see. The art is definitely appealing, and I like the music, and the characters themselves are great. I'm not entirely sure about the primary plot, but since this was mainly an episode about "let's meet some of the main characters", there wasn't a lot of plot to deal with yet. I was pretty blindsided by the fantasy element of the headless motorcycle rider, though. I really wasn't expecting her to actually be headless. Also, I think it's great that she's a she. Dunno why, but when I hear about headless riders (like in scary stories and stuff), I always expect them to be male-bodied.

4. Bleach
Episodes 3 and 4 were available through On Demand, so they're the ones I saw. I mentioned it the other day, but I don't remember if I talked about it much. Mostly, I was all "man, I remember how the beginning of Bleach was awesome, and I loved Kubo Tite's style and the characters and it was funny, but then it turned into a dick contest without any other real plot" and whaddyaknow, these episodes I saw were what reminded me of that. The first one was the one where Ichigo saves Orihime from her brother-the-hollow, the second was the one where Chad has the bird that is also the soul of a boy. Really, though, Bleach was way better before it turned into the series of dick contests, even if there were hints of it all along. (I mean, honestly, who didn't read/hear about how Ichigo's sword was enormous and bigger than anyone expected, only he didn't know how to use it, and not snicker because it was like they were discussing his penis? Especially when it turns out that Ichigo is a virgin? Yeah...)

I've known for ages that the current state of Bleach isn't something I care for, but I didn't realize how much potential it had in the beginning, not until I decided to get me some basic anime-culture knowledge and read the manga, so I would know what everyone else was referring to. And then I was like "wow, this is actually kind of good?" At least, until I got to the second arc, at which point I was like "dear lord, I need someone to get me an abridged version of this shit, without the power ups and chapter upon chapter of fighting - only the important plotty bits, please, and stuff with Ichigo's dad or Kon, because lolololol."

(I think Isshin Kurosake has one of the greatest character-types ever. I love that archetype whenever it appears, really. He's even better in Bleach where everyone is running around all srs-faced and "my sword is better than your sword" and blah blah fishcakes, because he lacks a srs-face and doesn't care about sword sizes, and he wears amazing clothes.)

Okay, that's it for now. I just started Sasameki Koto and I'm thinking of watching Aoi Bungako soon, too, plus Bakemonogatari, but it's getting late and I need to play my KoL turns before rollover. (frig, only an hour and a half left. lag is going to be awful.)

Anime I am watching: Shakugan no Shana, part 2

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:58:08 GMT

I have finished through episode 15 of Shakugan no Shana now. I've been watching one or two episodes each evening when I get home from work and am too exhausted to do much more than that.

I've also seen two episodes of Bleach this week (#3 and #4 - those are the ones that were available through On Demand) and have downloaded the first episode of Durarara! and the first two episodes of Bakemonogatari to watch later. I'm kind of annoyed that Crunchyroll has picked up So Ra No Wo To, because my connection doesn't like streaming video. It's a pain in the ass to watch even simple YouTube vids. I don't know if it's because I'm using up too much memory on my laptop, or if it's just that my DSL is crappy for streaming video, but it sucks. I tried watching a few episodes of xxxHolic from Funi's streaming site, and it kept skipping or stopping every minute or so, which drove me crazy. So I stopped trying to watch it that way and have had to be content with watching it via On Demand.

But I'm talking about Shana in this post, so onwards.

I can't say that I've grown any fonder of the series, though I'm still intrigued enough to want to see how the story develops.

I'm still bored as anything with the action sequences. They feel like they're very poorly done, though I imagine that all the budget went to the effects. I dunno, maybe my expectations were too high? But it's really obvious that corners were cut in the animation - so many frames are repeats, and sooo often there isn't any animation at all, just a slow zoom in/out on a still frame, or not even that. It just feels really really bad, and I guess the fact that it IS something of an action series makes me less able to tolerate it, because I'm not really a fan of that genre. The parts I like best about Shana involve the relationships among the characters and the school scenes.

Also, the introduction of Margery Daw was just horrible. I couldn't stand her character design and the book was obnoxious, but it got toned down some when they switched to the "good" side. Another thing that was horrid but seems to have been toned down as the episodes progress: the prologues to each episode that were almost entirely summations of the previous ones. These are the recaps that show before the title card. I couldn't stand them, but lately they've been giving more new information.

Some positives: I loved the episode where the main cast went to the public pool park place, though I'm not sure it wasn't filler fan service. And I love the subplot with Margery Daw and the two boys. It's kind of cute, especially as it develops and we aren't forced to view as much of the bottle fairy antics. Also, the ed song is kind of nice. I also like that they established that somehow "Shana" is the nickname for Hirai, because the fact that Yuji called her that in class when everyone else called her Hirai or... Yoshiko was it? made me do a O.o face.

But I still can't shake the overwhelming feeling of "meh" with this series. I continue to watch because I don't want to go to bed too early, and risk not sleeping through the night, but I'm too tired to actually read or anything, and these 25 minute chunks are a good length. Also, I do want to know if Shana and Yuji ever do anything about their mutual attraction, though I kind of want the other girl to date him just because Shana's "urusai urusai urusai" is one of the most obnoxious things ever. And I want to know what is going to happen to Yuji because of his Mistes thing. And the minor plot with the siblings was just awful. I don't even want to remember it. It felt half-assed and the sound effects that accompanied their kissing made me feel ill (I have a Thing about mouth-noises. The noises that Kugumiya Rie makes whenever Shana or Taiga or Miki or whoever is eating also make me feel ill, even though they're not realistic at all).

Anyway, there are 9 episodes left, and then a handful of extras, and I can get them off my harddrive. I'm looking to watch Sasameki Koto next, and maybe I'll try Chu-Bra at CR while I have the free membership trial. Also maybe Kimi no Todoke? I'm reading the comic at MangaFox right now, and it's not bad.

Anime I am watching: So Ra No Wo To

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:36:38 GMT

Was checking ggkthx.org to see what they're up to and they decided to sub a totally new show this season - So Ra No Wo To ("Sky's Song"/"Song of the Skies"). (Totally new = original script, I mean) I clicked on the torrent link for the first episode without really thinking what I was doing, didn't consciously intend to download it, but I did, so I watched it.

It looks really nice! It's more moe, and it looks like it's a pink shoujo ghetto, but maybe not as mind-breaking as the last moe show I saw (Kanamemo!).

The main character, Kanata Sorami, has a dream of being a trumpeter for the military, I think? From the backstory so far, it looks like she was inspired by a military person who was also a trumpeter, so she wants to be like that girl. Kanata is another moe heroine like Yui or Kana, with a similar character design to both of them (shortish hair, barrettes on one side, about the same apparent (non-)age), and like them is an optimistic happy creature. This first episode is an introduction to her and her first assignment (1221 company, I think it is), which is in a town called Treize.

It was a bit confusing at first, because I couldn't figure out when or where the show is set, but it turns out it's a fantasy place, reminiscent of Europe around WW1. The town of Treize has the old European town feel, with stone buildings and walls and so on. It's located on cliffs, too, and the bridges shown are the aqueduct looking kind, with the arches. Also, everything written is written in French. But then you have Kanata (age unknown) in a military uniform (with fancy wristwatch) and a Japanese name, so I was like "where is this?" - not all the names are Japanese, incidentally.

It's also a bit confusing about Kanata being in the military, but her company looks so far to be quite small - maybe 6 girls. I wonder what kind of military this is, you know? and why they're doing the things they do. Maybe I'll find out, maybe it's just a plot device. Maybe it has to do with the giant dragon skeleton embedded in the wall of one of the cliffs, under the water. (Turns out the story about girls and the fire-dragon isn't just a story. Thus: fantasy setting.)

The art for this show is so far very very pretty. I'd even go so far as to say that there's some scenery porn going on, and dang do I love me some scenery porn. There's also some really pretty music, and I expect there to be even more, on account of the trumpet plot. The place where the girls live is called the Tower of the Hours or something like that, and I'm under the impression that they help keep the time for Seize, playing the trumpet at the start of day and maybe at other times? One of the background songs in this first episode had French lyrics, but it was pretty nonetheless. The opening song is also very pretty, though the ending one is kind of a generic sort of moe show thing, I guess.

I'm looking forward to the second episode next week.

Anime I am watching: Shakugan no Shana

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:33:52 GMT

Okay, now that I have something readable on my JF account (though by no means good - I got sleepy while looking at the source code to find all the CSS classes and ids and just made sure the posts were readable), lemme get to the important part of why I decided to treat myself to a fancy layout: I want to actually use this journal.

I want to talk about the animanga I've been consuming these last eight months, but I feel bad about putting it on LJ, because most of my flisters aren't interested. (Or they used to be, but have moved on, or whatever.) They seem to be bemused by my "new" interest, but I think many of those people don't realize that I used to watch anime at my best friend's house in middle school, and that my brother and I watched Toonami shows together in high school, and I used to watch the anime block of Adult Swim on a regular basis, beginning with their airings of Cowboy Bebop. (I even saw a sub version of Samurai Champloo *before* it got licensed/dubbed, or at least, before it was announced that it would be on AS.) So, no, it's not a new interest, it's just a rekindled one, because I realized that there are way more genres than I was exposed to in the past, and I'm more interested in the slice of life shows and romances than in those shounen ones. My interest had begun to wane as the stuff on AS repeated over and over again or else sucked, and then I stopped watching much tv, and also I wasn't tuned in quite enough to the internet to search it out.

ANYWAY. More about the stuff I've seen before later.

Right now, I want to talk about what I'm watching at the moment.

With Funimation On Demand: Black Cat, xxxHolic, Fruits Basket, Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino.
Downloaded from bakaBT: Windy Tales, Shakugan no Shana.

Actually, I just want to talk about Shana. (And also: omg I adore the GG series. Everyone was like "omgz Il teatrino sux so much" but on a tv with a dub? it's not bad at all. I raed as much of the manga as was scanlated between the first and second series, so maybe that helps me)

Sooo... one of the first anime series I saw this year was Toradora!. I forget why I decided to watch it, and I wish I could remember what made me look at it. I think I must have been looking for stuff about Inukami! and people spoke of the tsundereness of Taiga and the tsundereness of Youko? Or maybe it was just a new upload to BakaBT and I happened to see it. I dunno. Point is that I really enjoyed it and in reading blog and forum posts about it, I was introduced to Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima, because of Shana and Louise and Taiga all being tsunderes with similar character designs, and also based on light novels. For whatever reason, I set them aside as maybe-I'll-watch-someday, but didn't really care to move them up my Want to Watch list. And then I saw reviews and one of them (I forget which) was consistently spoken of as less than good, especially compared to the light novel. And then I mostly forgot about them.

Until I started following Haruhi stuff. And it turns out that Noizi Itou did the illustrations for Shana, too, and I remembered everyone talking about it, and with a new external hdd for giftmas, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

I've seen the first two episodes now, and I just don't know about it. I hope it gets better, because it's driving me crazy. There's an interesting premise, definitely, but the production feels kind of shoddy and Saturday-morning-cartoonish, you know?

My first complaint is the whole deal with the Guze or whatthefuckever they're called removing peoples' existences. That first episode drove me crazy, because it just didn't make sense, the way it was explained, and the necessity of Torches. It was like... how is it that a Torch makes the removal of an existence any less critical if they're still around filling in, but little more than zombies? (This is how whatsherface Harai? was) Won't people think "hey, this person is acting strangely" and then poof they're gone... what about all their things? if it was a parent of children who no longer exists, what happens to the little kids now that mom or dad, presumably their primary caregiver, is gone? does someone step in to take care of them? does the kid's existence also get erased, because how does the kid exist if the parent never existed (which is what removal of existence presumably is). I don't know why my thoughts about this got caught on parents of young children especially, but it did. I guess for older kids or adult children, they're always living on their own in anime anyway. And if a kid gets un-existed, it's a different kind of impact.

At least part of what was bothering me about this was cleared up in the second episode: Harai-san or whatever her name is was being forgotten by the people around her, even as she stood there. This helped me accept the use of Torches, I guess because it's not dissimilar to the Notice-Me-Not class of spells from Harry Potter (dang did I used to read a lot of HP fic), and similar things in other fantasy stories I've read, like the Pellinor ones, or some McKinley novels.

Another thing that bugs me: the focus on Shana's pendant every time the one dude talks. His identity is apparently supposed to be a mystery yet, and he's also Shana's...guide? or mentor? or something, but is it absolutely necessary to flash to the pendant or have her hold it up every time he speaks? After the first two times, I figured out where the voice was coming from, and didn't need the visual cue. That seriously felt so much like the kinds of cheap tricks you find in Saturday Morning Cartoons, I swear.

The animation of the fight scenes in the first episode also felt pretty cheap. (And it kept repeating over and over, what a weird use of flashbacks/forwards to introduce the story. I'm not sure it was entirely effective.) It reminded me a lot of the really QUALITY stuff in Inukami! (which I admit to adoring even though it obviously didn't have a very large budget (because they spent it all on the cherry blossom episode. and also probably in paying people to put up with the muscle-man ecchi jokes) and the pacing was a bit off, without any real closure at the end)

Also: the opening sequence so far is kind of awful.

BUT. I do like the premise of the story, and I am intrigued by the mystery about the Mistas and why the hero dude can be so aware of his status as a Torch, now that it's been brought to his attention, and why his personality is so strong, even though he's a Torch. And I wonder when it was the Guze-whatsit ate him. Also, the bad guy who apparently will get a bigger appearance in episode three, I'm curious about him (and also: why is his voice so familiar? I swear his seiyuu uses similar cadences as Ono Daisuke as Koizumi Itsuki, but it can't be the same seiyuu) (speaking of, Shana is voiced by Kugimiya Rie, right? after hearing her in Toradora! and Kanamemo, I feel like that must be her. I should check ANN for these things)

I'll watch a few more episodes to see how it goes. Hopefully it will improve, but I'm feeling a lot the way I did with K-On! and Hidamari Sketch, where I was intrigued, and liked bits, but ultimately felt overwhelmingly "meh" about the whole thing. (However, K-On! fell on the positive side of 'meh' and I saw it all the way through, whereas I gave up on Hidamari Sketch after four episodes. Also, the way Shaft animated it gave me horrible headaches, and the pacing was too difficult for me. I wonder, though, if maybe that was partly the fault of the encode I saw, and maybe another one would be easier on my eyes, and thus I'd be better able to enjoy the pacing.)

Yesterday also I saw The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (uhm, Toki wa Kakaru Shoujo? I think?) and omg in love. What a beautiful movie. I really like the art style used, especially in the eyes. And the pacing was perfect, the kind I like best (I'm a huge fan of slower slice-of-life stuff - my other favorite besides Inukami! and Zetsubou Sensei is ARIA after all, and I'm also really enjoying Windy Tales)

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:26:16 GMT

I want to make an awesome Matoi Tsunetsuki layout for my JF. It would be really easy to do by editing the Bloggish CSS, right?

SO WHY ISN'T IT WORKING FOR ME >:O

This is the CSS I've pasted in, because I wanted to do just a little bit at a time because it's been ages and ages since I've done a layout. But it's having absolutely no effect and it's making me really annoyed.

body {
background:url(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j53/bumble_bea/matoibg.png) fixed bottom left no-repeat #690752;
margin-left:225px;
margin-right:30px;
}

Naturally, once I put it into this entry with the appropriate style=text/css tags and hit "preview" the preview page came up with it looking exactly like I wanted it to. So why isn't my layout editor cooperating? Is it because JF just doesn't support it? Is it because my account is a wonky class? (In order to get one, I paid for a year or something, but I haven't paid for it since then, but I still have 500 icon spaces and so on.)

GRRR.

ETA: AHAHAHA. Apparently the cache just needed to be updated or something. After I posted this, the CSS loaded just fine. YAY. Now to get the journal posts looking right...

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:17:51 GMT

I just finished reading JOHN HODGMAN's newest book MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE this afternoon.

Allow me to say that it is piss-in-your-pants hilarious. Or maybe not hilarious? I don't know, but it's exactly the type of humour that keeps me in stitches. You know, lots of deadpan language stuff, and puns. The running gags of "literally*" and the other one of "bullroar" instead of "bullshit" to keep the language clean (while meanwhile using 'shit' or 'fucking' quite regularly) absolutely delighted me.

Also, there were any number of literary allusions as well as pop culture allusions and I'm sure that I didn't catch all of them.

I really like the way Hodgman starts off with a rather mundane idea, then grows it until it's completely absurd and perhaps even suggesting mental imbalance? when taken out of context. But within the context of the list or anecdote or whatever, it's utterly logical and oh my it's just like Renfield's Madman Logic from Dracula. But anyway.

There were a few things that didn't entirely work for me - some of the anecdotes were a little too long without reprieve by lists or tables, which was one of the things I loved about Areas of My Expertise. I mean, the mole-manic stuff was funny, but it felt a little forced in places, like Hodgman was trying to make sure he hit the 366 page count. Likewise, I liked the millionaire minor television celebrity persona used as a character in the book (think of how Colbert the actor/comedian plays Colbert the right-wing pundit), but the egoism of this character (many, many self-references and tangents to talk about himself) started to become wearisome by the end of the book. That said, the outlandish aspects of the character (such as his Upper West Side Observatory, or his Zeppelin) were fantastic.

I guess what I'm saying is that this book doesn't follow the "almanac" format quite so closely as the first one, which is occasionally detrimental to the humour. I find that rather than reading it all in one go, it was better to read a section or two at a time, so as not to be overloaded by the whole thing. I suppose it's rather like savouring a particularly sumptuous chocolate cake by cutting a small piece for dessert for a week rather than eating the whole thing for supper.

Amongst the things I particularly enjoyed were the daily "this day in history" notes at the top of each page. I was caught up in the weather feud between Richmond and Minneapolis and wondered what strange precipitation would show up next. The notes about the Yale Feline Research had me in stitches. And the section about Coulton, the feral man, was absolutely fantastic (it was referenced in one of the Yale Feline Research notes, too, which literally* slayed me). Oh, and that reminds me of another fantastic point of the book: it's done up as a second volume of a three volume work, with Areas of My Expertise as the first. So the page numbers continue from the first book and there are references and notes pointing to the first book. For example, in the section about Coulton's cat-killing ways, a note instructs the reader to the read about that story in the first book.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book (a little bit at a time) and I am so very glad that I purchased it and it's sitting next to the first one on my bookshelf (hopefully they do not spawn and create a blackhole! I actually do not keep my hardback and paperback copies of Areas of My Expertise together, due to the recommendation not to). If you're not a fan of Hodgman, or you didn't particularly care for Areas of My Expertise (or else you found it pretentious or too long or whatever), then you're likely not to enjoy More Information Than You Require, since it really is very much "MORE." But if you love Hodgman and can't get enough of him? This is definitely worth your time.

*not literally

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 03:03:28 GMT

Given my love of Hodgman and my love of the sections on hoboes in the book containing COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE, is it any wonder that my favorite American Girl is Kit, who spent a summer with hobos?

I shall think on this a while.

EXCERPTS FROM THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 02:59:59 GMT

(subject text taken from a comic by David Rees, viewable at http://www.areasofmyexpertise.com)

I was going to share these with sophysduckling in a comment in her journal, but I ended up quoting so much that I'm posting it here to link her to. I only pulled some of the easiest quotables (ie: shorter bits, since some of them are rather long if you want to understand the whole thing) that I thought she would like best, of anything I could quote.

But! The book is really awesome, and everyone should check behind the cut to see what kind of things are in it!

PS: I paraphrased or left sentences out in many places, but did not always indicate this. However, I believe that I have cited everything fairly well, according to MLA, which I never remember as clearly as I'd like. I can never remember how to format the citations. Oh well.

From an earlyish page:

A NOTE ON ORGANIZATION
I wish to reassure the modern reader that this book meets your requirements. It is composed of 55 discrete articles, tables, and figures, and like almanacs and experimental Latin American novels of old, you are encouraged to read them in any order, skipping them as you please, and following narrative threads of your own weaving. The footnotes will only point out the most obvious thematic echoes and authorial redundancies.
That said, all effort has been made to provide a satisfying experience to the old-fashioned reader who chooses to read from start to finish. For example, the pages have been numbered in the order in which they appear, they have also been fashioned out of light paper for easy turning by frail hands. Good luck, old-timer. I hope you enjoy yourself.
A NOTE ON SPORTS
Please note that there are only two references to sports in this book. They are on pages 71 and 95, and both are appropriately dismissive. If you wish for sports information, might I kindly refer you to every other aspect of our culture?

(Hodgman, John. The Areas of My Expertise p21. E.P. Dutton, NYC, 2005.</i>)

Table of Contents
Title Page
Good Evening
A Note on Organization
A Note on Sports
Table of Contents
Table of Tables
Table of Figures
What Will Happen in the Future
--(including: On Actuaries and Their Tattoos)
Information You Will Find Useful in the Present
--(including: How to Write a Book: The Fifty-Five Dramatic Situations; A Clarification Regarding the Dramatic Situation in Which Humans Fight Animals; Basics of Snow and Ice Warfare; Hints on Building Snow Forts; Diversions for the Asthmatic Child Who Cannot Play in the Snow)
What You Did Not Know About the Past
-- (including: History's Worst Men's Haircuts; A Brief Time Line of the Lobster in America; Prohibition-Era Euphemisms for Alcohol; Some Prophets Who Were Not Actuaries)
What You Did Not Know About Hoboes
Futher Information You Can Use Today
-- (inclding: Short Words for Use on Submarines to Preserve Oxygen; Secrets of Yale University; Debated Planets; The States, Their Nicknames and Mottoes, and Other Facts Critical to Safe Travel)
There Is More to the Past Than You Thought
-- (including: Nine Presidents Who Had Hooks for Hands; Colonial Jobs Involving Eels)
Good Morning
A Special Bonus Excerpt From My Next Book
Table of Tables
Table of Figures

(Hodgman, John. The Areas of My Expertise p23-27. E.P. Dutton, NYC, 2005.</i>)

I tried to quote the most amusing article names in each topic for you. Also, at the beginning of each topic, there is a chart of Lycanthropic Transformation Timetables.

I like the "Jokes That Have Never Produced Laughter," because, of course, as soon as I read one, I snicker at how awful and unfunny it is. Example:

A priest, a rabbi, and a nonreligious person are flying across the Atlantic Ocean, all for different reasons. There is engine trouble, and one of the wings catches on fire. The plane starts to go down. Luckily, there are enough parachutes for everyone. Evacuation is orderly.

(ibid. p. 57)

Also, "Famous Novels That Were Not Originally Published as Books" (having chosen the ones that I think will amuse you best):

-- Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar: woven into a carpet that could be read from any direction.
-- Dubliners by James Joyce: initially telegraphed as the last message from the Titanic. (Technically, this was a series of linked short stories, the last entitled "Please Save Us From Drowning.")
-- Sesslyu by Knut Nims: actually composed of the words of Ulysses arranged backward. Nims never bothered to write it out this way, instead claming that whenever Ulysses was read backward, it was officially his work, and he deserved a royalty.

(ibid. pp 74-75)

Aaaand! "Secrets of Yale University":

-- Yale was built by Elihu Yale with his own hands out of mud. (Somewhat true).
-- The world is secretly controlled by Skull and Bones. (Not true at all. NOT AT ALL.)
... And it is also true that Skull and Bones was originally chartered by the Illuminati and Knights Templar in order to infiltrate the Secret World Government at Yale's New Haven campus. But having failed to make any progress in this goal, the Bonesmen now focus almost exclusively on tending to the pterodactyls on their private island and on ritual masturbation.
-- Yale enforces its will on the world via a capella singing groups. (Absolutely true.)
-- The first submarine was invented at Yale and still patrols its underwater canals. (True.)
-- The Whiffenpoofs stole the Hope Diamond and presented it to Dick Cavett when they were guests on his television program in 1970. (False.)
It was the crystal skull of Alexander Hamilton.
-- Every year one student is randomly assigned to live in an extremely luxurious room made of solid gold. (True.)
-- Yale is the seat of the Secret World Government. (True.)
There is no Secret World Government

(ibid. pp 145-147)

"Debated Planets" includes MARS: Probably a government conspiracy; MERCURY: Zero axial tilt? Please. Most agree that this is either a space station or a self-aware supercomputer.

(ibid. p 148)

FAST FACTS ABOUT PHILADELPHIA:
-- The word "Philadelphia," from the Greek, literally means "Pennsylvania."
-- It has the highest number, per capita, of Benjamin Franklin impersonaters in the country.
-- Someday all of the Benjamin Franklin impersonators will fight all of the Mark Twain impersonators, flooding valleys and destroying whole towns in their wake, until nothing is left.
-- Harrison Ford lives here and protects Amish children.
-- Bryn Mawr Colllege, a small but esteemed school of witchcraft and wizardry in the city's western suburbs, is somtimes visible by day.
-- Philadelphia is at the cutting edge of some of ttoday's most exciting new developments in sandwich technology. The sandwiches here are so large and complex and sublime that they contain whole philosophies. Some have the complete oral tradition of several ancient cultures hidden within the roll alone.
-- Philadelphia was one of the thirteen East Coast cities called "home" by Edgar Allan Poe, and it was here that he hosted the first of his many Christmas Literary Extravaganzas. Held in 1839, it was, by contemporary accounts, a grand affair, involving feats of literary memorization and drunken sword canery, and a chorus line of murderous orangutans. Poe was dressed as Santa Claus, but at this point in his career this was hardly unusual. After reciting "Tamerlane," he famously brought out his child bride Virginia and seated her on his lap. "What would you like from Santa this year?" he asked. And she replied, "The modern detective story." And so he invented it then and there, writing "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" using only a checkerboard, a bottle of brandy, and a map of Paris. At this point, the police chased Poe back to Baltimore.

(ibid. pp 186-187)

"Little-Known Laws of Two American Communities"
The first bit is about Concord, Massachusetts, which, of course, is Thoreau's homebase (so to speak). I believe Emerson was from the area, too? At any rate, I'm going to quote some of the bits from this section:

-- It is illegal for an unmarried man to keep a journal about his experiences in the woods around the pond.
-- Providing inspiration to self-appointed liberators of India, whether now or in the future, is forbidden.
-- Civil disobedience shall be punished by clubbing.
-- Any prosperous person giving pies to person living in cabins by the pond shall also be clubbed.
-- Tell none about the clubbings.

(ibid. pp 213-214)

PS AGAIN: MY ICON IS FROM THE SECTION ON HOBOES, SPECIFICALLY THE SECTION ON HOBO SIGNS. WHEN YOU SEE AN UPPERCASE H SURROUNDED BY 16 RAYS, USUALLY WRITTEN WITH CHALK, IT INDICATES "IT IS TIME FOR HOBOES TO TAKE OVER THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT." OR, AS I PUT IT, "TIME FOR THE HOBO REVOLUTION!"

(PS #3: This post was copied from my LJ so that I could share it with everyone on JF without having to look up the link all the time.)