The Antisocial Socialist

Warning! This is a very half-assed theory post about some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head lately and should not be taken as any more than that. It's punching up but since it has to do with public shaming, humiliation, and embarrassment, as well as discussions of transphobia and racism, I am putting it all under a cut in case that's a trigger for folks.

If you want to read about how I'm a good person, this isn't a post about that. And if you want a more deeply considered opinion from a smart person, check out ContraPoints' video about cringe, which a better blogger would have rewatched before wading back into this Discourse.

( brace yourself, discourse is coming )

Non-spoilery review:

The problem with Star Wars* as a franchise and this Star War in particular is that it attempts to marry fundamentally incompatible conceptions of duality in Eastern and Western philosophy. Balancing the Force makes sense if the Light Side and Dark Side are, respectively, order vs. chaos, or collective good vs. individual will. But not if they're good vs. evil or, in this case, Space Nazis vs. Not Space Nazis. Ironically this is the one thing the prequels did right.

But they didn't do that because you need to sell toys. Of Space Nazis.

* The movies. I know nothing about the EU or the video games or whatever.

 Is this a thing now? We post what we're reading on Wednesdays? Because I like that idea and two of you just posted about what you're reading and I only now noticed the pattern. In fairness a lot of the time I'm reading and posting half-awake. So.

Just finished: Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, which I'm still obsessed with. It's a magical boarding school (well, university) novel in the vein of The Magicians, if every professor in the school was Mayakovsky only less warm, and they never actually told you that you were learning magic. Our protagonist has plans of her own for her life that do not involve this, and she's dragged into her new world kicking and screaming, under threat of some mysterious harm befalling her family. I fell utterly for Sasha and the world as a whole. There are two other novels but they haven't been translated into English, and according to my friend are also hard to find in Russian. But they're apparently not about either Sasha or the school so I guess I can wait.

Currently reading: Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I've had a hold on this forever, as in since before it came out, but then a friend bought me a copy for my birthday so yay! It's supposed to be the African Game of Thrones, which, ish? In that it is a grimdark epic fantasy. Apparently he pitched it as such as a joke. But it is much more on the magical end of the fantasy spectrum, and tbh had me at "mud mermaids." It's about a tracker named Tracker and a shapeshifting hunter named Leopard who are recruited to search for a boy who disappeared three years earlier. The worldbuilding is just phenomenal, rich and detailed and imaginative, though I am halfway through and there haven't been mud mermaids yet.

Massive trigger warnings for both. If that's a thing for you, I can tell you.

Taking a break from updating my job application package to write about some more fun things, like the TV, movies, books, and music I have appreciated this year. Let's see how far I get.

Telly is the easiest to talk about because I'm a lazy bastard and I enjoy long-form narratives. In addition to things I've enjoyed in the past, like Game of Thrones, Orphan Black, and Peaky Blinders, here are some of the things that I got obsessive over this year.

Cleverman: The best show you've probably never heard of, unless you're Australian. Erroneously billed as an Aboriginal superhero show starring the whiny Nice Guy from Game of Thrones, it is actually a brilliant, subversive fantasy about racism, allyship, and indigenous identity. God, I made it sound boring and political, didn't I? It's very political, but it's also jam-packed with intriguing anti-heroes, redemption arcs, dystopian worldbuilding, and surprisingly decent special effects.

Black Sails: I just started watching it this year, although it's been going since 2014. I started watching it because it was apparently a decent pirate show with Anne Bonny as a major character, and I guess it's sort of marketed as a prequel to Treasure Island, but neither of those are things that I fell in love with. It's jaw-droppingly good. Michael Bay is the executive producer and this show singlehandedly makes everything he's done, including all the Transformers movies, okay, because it balances them out. It is as good as Transformers is bad; that's how good it is. Think of all the things we don't get to see often on television: intelligent, complex political maneuvering, well-written, complicated female antiheroes, queer characters, poly characters, lesbians who don't die horribly, anti-imperialism. I almost want to stop there because there are a whole bunch of reasons I like it that would give away critical plot points. Non-spoilery reason to watch it: Jack Rackham as a pirate Nick Cave—once you see it, you won't be able to un-see it. Season four airs soon and I'm a wee bit scared because the fates of most of my favourite characters are a foregone conclusion.

Class: I started watching this because, as a result of this being the Darkest Possible Timeline, there was no Doctor Who in 2016 other than the Christmas special. The trailers made it look like utter crap and no one was talking about it, but Peter Capaldi was in the first episode, so I gave it a whirl. It is 1000x better than the trailers would lead you to believe—hidden in the Monster of the Week premise is a surprisingly intelligent take on trauma, abuse, war, and genocide. The teacher character has to be one of my favourite fictional teachers and she is basically my Id that I shall carry around in my heart for particularly rough days at work. Also, joy of joys, there are no straight white guys in the main cast.

The Get Down: I'm not even sure why I started watching this. I'm not super into Baz Luhrmann but multiple people told me it was good, so I checked it out and then binge-watched it in like two days. It's a semi-fictional semi-musical about the birth of hip hop in New York, and the story and characters are so compelling that I ended up caring about disco. Disco. It's a story about how new art forms get made, and challenged, and co-opted. I take some issue with Luhrmann's editing choices; he needs a lighter hand, since the acting, music, and writing all really speak for themselves, but overall amazing.

Better Call Saul: The second season aired, and I'm pretty sure that it's ultimately going to be better than Breaking Bad. It's a smaller, quieter story, and again with a forgone conclusion, taking the comedic side character from Breaking Bad and giving him a backstory and inner life that is as wrenchingly tragic as it is darkly comedic.

Ash Vs. Evil Dead: I'm really shocked that like two people I know watch this. Didn't we all love Evil Dead? It's like that, only a little more heartwarming. Ash Williams is overweight, aging, and has done nothing meaningful with his life—except saving the world. Which he has done a lot. The second season sees much, much more Lucy Lawless, and also one of the grossest and funniest scenes I've ever witnessed on telly, which I watched with my hands over my eyes.

Black Mirror: I was into this show before it was cool. Thanks to #piggate, Netflix realized that Charlie Brooker was right about everything and revived the show for a third season. Aren't you glad David Cameron fucked a pig so that you could get quality TV? The best episode, of course, is San Junipero, which manages to do what Black Mirror does best—examine the societal impact of technology—while also making me cry like a wee girl.

Westworld: Yeah, everyone watched it. I also watched it. It was wonderful and gripping and upsetting and I can't believe we have to wait two years for another season, WTF?

The Magicians, Preacher, and Luke Cage: I can probably go on and on about why I loved these shows...or you can just read my reviews of each episode at terror_scifi.

What am I leaving out? What did you love this year?

My latest review, in which there is a threesome and a magic missile spell, is up! Gosh, I'm almost at the end of this thing: two more episodes to go.

In IRL news, ( talk about food/diet )

Tonight I'm hopefully going to see the Cure for free. They're playing not far from my house, at an expensive music festival that I have no desire to see, but apparently if you're outside the park, you can hear everything just fine. If we can't, or we get chase off, there's also the option of going for a pint. So, regardless, a win.

My review is up! If you want to talk about haunted houses, dead children, and the Dead Lesbians trope: over this way. Also there are adorable talking animals.

My latest review is up! It's of my favourite episode, so go check it out.

Coincidentally, it's up late because I was at the Historical Materialism conference all weekend. Had a great time, much of it spent hanging out with the Red Wedge people, but now I'm horribly tired and you would be amazed at just how much my email and laundry piles up when I have the audacity to be away from my computer for three whole days. To make matters extra fun, I have a grand total of one introvert night this week, the rest being consumed with various after school things that will no doubt leave me exhausted and behind on everything.

Ah well. The long weekend cometh. Thank fuck, because I haven't had a proper night's sleep for days and won't get one until then.

Review is up! Two words: Cancer Puppy.

My latest review is up. NGL, I am unreasonably happy with the gif I made at the end to sum up the whole series. So go check it out!

Also if anyone has feels and/or theories about the season finale, let's talk, because I can't wait however long to put up the review of that episode.

Heartbroken, like the rest of the internet. What more can be said?