While I like the idea in this comic, and may even give it a go some time, the sheer evilness of the ending is just awesome.
End Post
Writing time: 1 minute
Time since last post: 8 days (I was surprised)
Current media: None
Showing posts with label Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comics. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The sin of self righteousness
Yesterday morning I watched the movie Death Note. It's based on a manga series and was one of the most popular Japanese movies released last year.
The story is another illustration of how power and the belief in the rightness of ones cause can lead one into the path of evil. The story starts with a university student finding a notebook that when you write someone's name in it they will soon die. The student starts using it to kill criminals who appear to have evaded justice.
Now I can't say I don't enjoy vigilantism. I'm a big fan of Batman, who is nothing if not a vigilante. In fact, most comic book heroes are vigilantes. However, the student takes things a step further. The police notice the pattern in the killing and start investigating the person behind the deaths.
The start of this investigation involved a press conference in which a spokesman announces to the world that the police are hunter the killer. Angered by the idea that the police are hunting them, the student uses the book to kill the spokesman. As it turns out, the spokesman was a criminal sentenced to death, but that does not change the intention of the students actions.
This is just the start of the students self serving actions to get away from the investigators and follow his own plans. His schemes to thwart the investigators includes killing numerous investigators, and at the end of the movie in a scheme to infiltrate the investigation he sets up an elaborate situation that ends with the killing of his girlfriend.
While you can have a certain amount of respect for the student for his cunning and clever schemes, but his actions are nothing but reprehensible. And the justification for his actions is that he has a plan to make the world a better place that has no crime. This sort of self justification is dangerous as it allows the believer to justify nearly any action, no matter how despicable. No matter what the situation, no matter what the cause, there are some actions that cannot be justified, and no ends that justifies the means.
I'm not sure if I'll watch the second movie that concludes the story, I probably will, but mostly because I hope that the student gets caught and dealt with in an appropriate means.
End Post
Writing time: 23 minutes
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: Absolute Power 2x05
The story is another illustration of how power and the belief in the rightness of ones cause can lead one into the path of evil. The story starts with a university student finding a notebook that when you write someone's name in it they will soon die. The student starts using it to kill criminals who appear to have evaded justice.
Now I can't say I don't enjoy vigilantism. I'm a big fan of Batman, who is nothing if not a vigilante. In fact, most comic book heroes are vigilantes. However, the student takes things a step further. The police notice the pattern in the killing and start investigating the person behind the deaths.
The start of this investigation involved a press conference in which a spokesman announces to the world that the police are hunter the killer. Angered by the idea that the police are hunting them, the student uses the book to kill the spokesman. As it turns out, the spokesman was a criminal sentenced to death, but that does not change the intention of the students actions.
This is just the start of the students self serving actions to get away from the investigators and follow his own plans. His schemes to thwart the investigators includes killing numerous investigators, and at the end of the movie in a scheme to infiltrate the investigation he sets up an elaborate situation that ends with the killing of his girlfriend.
While you can have a certain amount of respect for the student for his cunning and clever schemes, but his actions are nothing but reprehensible. And the justification for his actions is that he has a plan to make the world a better place that has no crime. This sort of self justification is dangerous as it allows the believer to justify nearly any action, no matter how despicable. No matter what the situation, no matter what the cause, there are some actions that cannot be justified, and no ends that justifies the means.
I'm not sure if I'll watch the second movie that concludes the story, I probably will, but mostly because I hope that the student gets caught and dealt with in an appropriate means.
End Post
Writing time: 23 minutes
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: Absolute Power 2x05
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
A Smaller God
Story telling has always included gods. And for their parts, gods have always had stories. The Greek, Norse and Celtic all have their stories. The Judeo-Christian god has the Torah, the Bible and the Koran telling his story.
And since gods are such well known and impressive characters, writers have included them in their own stories. Douglas Adams' "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" deals with what life is like for the Norse gods in the modern day. Other novels look at similar themes with other gods. Robert Rankin's "Waiting for Goldaming" is about someone investigating the death of God.
One writer who has freely incorporated gods into his stories is Neil Gaiman. "American Gods" is all about gods. In The Sandman, a number of gods from various pantheons are encountered. And this brings me to the actual purpose of this writing. In The Sandman, one particular mythos is singled out as being different. In the Brief Lives arc, Gaiman describes the life cycle of gods. They are born in the dreams of men, move into the waking world, as belief wanes they return to dreams and eventually move onto realms about which the only thing known is that there is no return. It is possible to avoid this fate by ensuring that belief, no matter how little endures. Pharamond achieves this by becoming the embodiment of transportation, something that will never go away. Ishtar, a Babylonian love goddess ekes out a meager existence working at a strip club. The Japanese gods incorporate everything from Marilyn Monroe to astronauts into their pantheon so that there's always something in there being worshipped by people.
The main point though is that people came first and that they formed their gods in their image. Only one mythos is excepted from this rule. And not surprisingly it's the Judeo-Christian mythos. First, it is stated that his home realm, called the Silver City, is explicitly separate from the rest of the universe. This is not just the material universe, but non-material parts as well, such the Dreaming and Hell. This separates it from every other realm in the Sandman universe, such as the realms of Fairie, Asgard, Destiny's Garden and others. The Sandman, during The Wake arc, states that there is a power above the Endless, although does not explicitly name that power or link it to the God of the Silver City.
Second, the Silver City, God and the angels all existed before the rest of creation. The short story Murder Mystery (not a Sandman story, but set in the same universe) is set in this before time, when the angels are helping God in designing his universe, although given how events play out, it is clear that this is just another stage in God's design, and needs to be gone through to ensure that the creation works out right, by making Lucifer into who he is destined to be.
The spin off series Lucifer, while not being written by Gaiman, continues this them of God being the overall creator of everything, and other gods being part of that creation. When God leaves, everything falls apart, including the realms of other gods.
So God is treated differently to other gods. This is not surprising given that he is the divinity of the western worlds dominant religions, while other gods are not held with such reverence by modern readers. Part of it is surely not wanting to antagonise the reader. Few gods in the Sandman are shown as unflawed beings. The gods lie, manipulate, bribe, scheme and more, while God sits above it all, watching his creation.
That was pretty much my point. God gets treated differently to all the other gods. Not the most significant of thoughts, but it is interesting to note that a difference is present, and it is a major difference in the nature of and significance of the being known as God.
End Post
Writing time: 6 hours, 10 minutes (I did leave the house for a few hours to play some chess, take about 4 hours off of that at least in reality)
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: iTunes party shuffle
And since gods are such well known and impressive characters, writers have included them in their own stories. Douglas Adams' "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" deals with what life is like for the Norse gods in the modern day. Other novels look at similar themes with other gods. Robert Rankin's "Waiting for Goldaming" is about someone investigating the death of God.
One writer who has freely incorporated gods into his stories is Neil Gaiman. "American Gods" is all about gods. In The Sandman, a number of gods from various pantheons are encountered. And this brings me to the actual purpose of this writing. In The Sandman, one particular mythos is singled out as being different. In the Brief Lives arc, Gaiman describes the life cycle of gods. They are born in the dreams of men, move into the waking world, as belief wanes they return to dreams and eventually move onto realms about which the only thing known is that there is no return. It is possible to avoid this fate by ensuring that belief, no matter how little endures. Pharamond achieves this by becoming the embodiment of transportation, something that will never go away. Ishtar, a Babylonian love goddess ekes out a meager existence working at a strip club. The Japanese gods incorporate everything from Marilyn Monroe to astronauts into their pantheon so that there's always something in there being worshipped by people.
The main point though is that people came first and that they formed their gods in their image. Only one mythos is excepted from this rule. And not surprisingly it's the Judeo-Christian mythos. First, it is stated that his home realm, called the Silver City, is explicitly separate from the rest of the universe. This is not just the material universe, but non-material parts as well, such the Dreaming and Hell. This separates it from every other realm in the Sandman universe, such as the realms of Fairie, Asgard, Destiny's Garden and others. The Sandman, during The Wake arc, states that there is a power above the Endless, although does not explicitly name that power or link it to the God of the Silver City.
Second, the Silver City, God and the angels all existed before the rest of creation. The short story Murder Mystery (not a Sandman story, but set in the same universe) is set in this before time, when the angels are helping God in designing his universe, although given how events play out, it is clear that this is just another stage in God's design, and needs to be gone through to ensure that the creation works out right, by making Lucifer into who he is destined to be.
The spin off series Lucifer, while not being written by Gaiman, continues this them of God being the overall creator of everything, and other gods being part of that creation. When God leaves, everything falls apart, including the realms of other gods.
So God is treated differently to other gods. This is not surprising given that he is the divinity of the western worlds dominant religions, while other gods are not held with such reverence by modern readers. Part of it is surely not wanting to antagonise the reader. Few gods in the Sandman are shown as unflawed beings. The gods lie, manipulate, bribe, scheme and more, while God sits above it all, watching his creation.
That was pretty much my point. God gets treated differently to all the other gods. Not the most significant of thoughts, but it is interesting to note that a difference is present, and it is a major difference in the nature of and significance of the being known as God.
End Post
Writing time: 6 hours, 10 minutes (I did leave the house for a few hours to play some chess, take about 4 hours off of that at least in reality)
Time since last post: 5 days
Current media: iTunes party shuffle
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Ten years, web stuff and a new keyboard
Today I got a new keyboard and mouse. My main motivation for doing so was that I wanted a wireless keyboard, so that I can type without having to be right up at my desk. Right now, I'm leaning back in by chair with the keyboard in my lap. It also has lots of extra buttons to do things like close windows, start programs and control media. The media buttons work pretty well with I tunes, so that's good.
Going over the news at wikinews, I noticed that not only has it recently been the tenth anniversary of John Howard becoming PM, it's ten years since Bob Brown got elected to the senate. Bob is a leader within the Green movement, and certainly the preeminent Green in parliament, indeed for the first four years, the only Green. Since his election, the Greens have made gains at each subsequent election, and if they keep things going the way they have, look poised to replace the Democrats as the third party of Australian politics.
I think it's good to have more than just (effectively) two parties in the government. For some time, the Democrats were making an effort to fill that role, but given a rapid turnover of party leaders and other factors, have begun what seems to be a self destruct sequence. Thus, while I don't agree with all of the Greens policies, I look forward to them becoming a more significant factor in politics in the future.
Given my lack of work at the moment, I've been spending more time than usual on the web. For the past few days I've been reading Questionable Content. QC is a web comic about a few people, two of whom live together and seem to be interested in each other, but for various reasons don't act on it. It's a pretty good comic, and has also prompted some introspection. It's also made me think if the friend who showed it to me didn't have some sort of ulterior motive in doing so, as I can see certain parallels between some of the characters and certain facets of my own life.
I've also joined up to listal.com, a service that allows you to list all the media (books, cds, dvds, games) that you own, and lets you see what other people who have the same things you have also have. It also has forums and groups. I was quite disappointed to find out that my bookshelf, that on each shelf has books, then books in front of books, books on top of books and books on top of books in front of books, only actually holds about 230 books. It also allows you to see who your preferred authors, actors, directors, etc are by showing you who you have the most of in those various categories. It also allows you to enter items that you want. My main gripe against listal is that it focuses on the US and England media, so very little of the Australian books, and none of the region 4 dvds were recognized. While this mostly has to do with the fact that it rips most of the data from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, it is a bit frustrating.
End Post
writing time: 1 hour (includes a trip to the shops)
time since last post: 4 days
current media: You by VAST (iTunes on shuffle)
Going over the news at wikinews, I noticed that not only has it recently been the tenth anniversary of John Howard becoming PM, it's ten years since Bob Brown got elected to the senate. Bob is a leader within the Green movement, and certainly the preeminent Green in parliament, indeed for the first four years, the only Green. Since his election, the Greens have made gains at each subsequent election, and if they keep things going the way they have, look poised to replace the Democrats as the third party of Australian politics.
I think it's good to have more than just (effectively) two parties in the government. For some time, the Democrats were making an effort to fill that role, but given a rapid turnover of party leaders and other factors, have begun what seems to be a self destruct sequence. Thus, while I don't agree with all of the Greens policies, I look forward to them becoming a more significant factor in politics in the future.
Given my lack of work at the moment, I've been spending more time than usual on the web. For the past few days I've been reading Questionable Content. QC is a web comic about a few people, two of whom live together and seem to be interested in each other, but for various reasons don't act on it. It's a pretty good comic, and has also prompted some introspection. It's also made me think if the friend who showed it to me didn't have some sort of ulterior motive in doing so, as I can see certain parallels between some of the characters and certain facets of my own life.
I've also joined up to listal.com, a service that allows you to list all the media (books, cds, dvds, games) that you own, and lets you see what other people who have the same things you have also have. It also has forums and groups. I was quite disappointed to find out that my bookshelf, that on each shelf has books, then books in front of books, books on top of books and books on top of books in front of books, only actually holds about 230 books. It also allows you to see who your preferred authors, actors, directors, etc are by showing you who you have the most of in those various categories. It also allows you to enter items that you want. My main gripe against listal is that it focuses on the US and England media, so very little of the Australian books, and none of the region 4 dvds were recognized. While this mostly has to do with the fact that it rips most of the data from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, it is a bit frustrating.
End Post
writing time: 1 hour (includes a trip to the shops)
time since last post: 4 days
current media: You by VAST (iTunes on shuffle)
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