From the beginning of the book:
Taking advantage of the unthinkability of their atrocities:
"the very immensity of the crimes guarantees that the murderers who proclaim their innocence with all manner of lies will be more readily believed than the victims who tell the truth."
Weder dem Vergangenen anheimfallen noch dem Zukünftigen. Es kommt darauf an, ganz gegenwärtig zu sein. - Karl Jaspers
("Neither the past nor succumb to the Future . It is important to be completely present")
Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.
No paradox of contemporary politics is filled with more poignant irony, than the discrepancy between the efforts of well meaning idealists who stubbornly insist on regarding as "inalienable' those human rights which are enjoyed only by the citizens of the most prosperous and civilized countries, and the situation of the rightless themselves.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
summer activity 3
finished: a Natural History of Dragons: SUPER FUN book, I can really relate to it, though sometimes it takes a while for the characterization to come through. Still, I'm looking forward to the next few books. I'm looking forward to see Isabella grow to a tough old lady.
Transmetropolitan #1,2: holyyyy shiet why did I not read this before? I don't even know, I knew about it for a long time but somehow did not read it. I absolutely love it! Spider Jerusalem is probably one of the few characters that I would say is True Chaotic done right. I'm not such a fan of the second book, mostly because of how the wife and Channon are treated. With Channon I'm still holding hope she will come back and go back to being a rounded character, because in book 2 literally all she does is be sad that her boyfriend dumped her to have sex with robots. As for the wife, I was actually expecting her to be more of a mythical creature rather than see what she was really like. I guess it makes sense for such a person to be married to Spider, but I liked it better when she was shrouded in mystery. Maybe I'm not being fair, since she is just as destructive and rude as Spider, the only difference is her motivation is hate for him and his motivation is hate for society. The other thing that made me uncomfortable was the the whole emasculation of the police dog thing. Maybe what made me uncomfortable about book 2 overall was the reinforcement of heteronormative people and relationships. Book 1 was a lot more vague about relationships in the future, but book 2 stamps it firmly that all the main characters are straight cis people (though background characters are shown to be queer, most prominently gay and asexual). There's more books to go, so there's still space to be derivative. Still, it was a bit sad seeing Spider hitting on all the attractive women he met. The plus side was that most of those women were professionals (in fact I cannot think of professional male characters except for the editor and the president right now) so good points for that.
Noooot sure what to think about the assistant-turned-porn-star-against-her-will storyline. I thought it was implied that this future is a lot more sexually liberated (so being a porn star would not necessarily be a bad thing to be recognized for). Also that changing your appearance through plastic surgery was stupidly easy (so if it bothered her that people recognized her on the street, she could change face?). But maybe what I find most unbelievable is that a sex tape of a teenager (she was 16) went viral enough to ruin her life. How did the porn purveyors do that legally?? Are the no laws protecting minors in the future? Are there no laws about privacy or libel or releasing content without the permission or consent of the party in it? Her video might be viral on illegal sites but she specifically says that her video is available on retail, and I just wonder how??
I don't blame her for hating Spider, but it kinda baffles me how she's angrier with him than the people who literally exploited her for money. Spider comes off as awful callous about her situation, but I guess that's to be expected.
reading: We (by Yevgeny Zamyatin): the introduction was full of spoilers, fuck that. I was not expecting the book to be from a perspective of someone who LOVES the OneState, so that was interesting twist. It's kinda crudely written, but maybe that's keeping in the theme that the author is someone who thinks emotions are mental illness. I want to see where it goes.
watched: Chappie: I loved it! Definitely not as cliche as it appears that's going to be. By a bizarre coincidence I discovered Die Antwoord right before, which Im sure affected my liking of the movie. Ninja and Yolandi are fucking insane characters and I'm still really on the fence about them and their music. At least they don't fail to be entertaining.
Edge of Tomorrow: also a surprising good one. I was really afraid the main female character was going to be thrown by the wayside, but fortunately she did not; though I still think she did not get to be a full character the way Tom Cruise was. At least she was somewhat rounded, though not fully.
playing: Catherine: omg this is so much fun but the storyline is so messed up
Final Fantasy Tactics a2: its whole sin is that it's NOT final fantasy tactics advance. Right now I'm grinding my characters until I get to the point where dying in the main storyline is not an option. Something seems to be missing...experience points? Loot? I'm not fully connecting to my clan
Transmetropolitan #1,2: holyyyy shiet why did I not read this before? I don't even know, I knew about it for a long time but somehow did not read it. I absolutely love it! Spider Jerusalem is probably one of the few characters that I would say is True Chaotic done right. I'm not such a fan of the second book, mostly because of how the wife and Channon are treated. With Channon I'm still holding hope she will come back and go back to being a rounded character, because in book 2 literally all she does is be sad that her boyfriend dumped her to have sex with robots. As for the wife, I was actually expecting her to be more of a mythical creature rather than see what she was really like. I guess it makes sense for such a person to be married to Spider, but I liked it better when she was shrouded in mystery. Maybe I'm not being fair, since she is just as destructive and rude as Spider, the only difference is her motivation is hate for him and his motivation is hate for society. The other thing that made me uncomfortable was the the whole emasculation of the police dog thing. Maybe what made me uncomfortable about book 2 overall was the reinforcement of heteronormative people and relationships. Book 1 was a lot more vague about relationships in the future, but book 2 stamps it firmly that all the main characters are straight cis people (though background characters are shown to be queer, most prominently gay and asexual). There's more books to go, so there's still space to be derivative. Still, it was a bit sad seeing Spider hitting on all the attractive women he met. The plus side was that most of those women were professionals (in fact I cannot think of professional male characters except for the editor and the president right now) so good points for that.
Noooot sure what to think about the assistant-turned-porn-star-against-her-will storyline. I thought it was implied that this future is a lot more sexually liberated (so being a porn star would not necessarily be a bad thing to be recognized for). Also that changing your appearance through plastic surgery was stupidly easy (so if it bothered her that people recognized her on the street, she could change face?). But maybe what I find most unbelievable is that a sex tape of a teenager (she was 16) went viral enough to ruin her life. How did the porn purveyors do that legally?? Are the no laws protecting minors in the future? Are there no laws about privacy or libel or releasing content without the permission or consent of the party in it? Her video might be viral on illegal sites but she specifically says that her video is available on retail, and I just wonder how??
I don't blame her for hating Spider, but it kinda baffles me how she's angrier with him than the people who literally exploited her for money. Spider comes off as awful callous about her situation, but I guess that's to be expected.
reading: We (by Yevgeny Zamyatin): the introduction was full of spoilers, fuck that. I was not expecting the book to be from a perspective of someone who LOVES the OneState, so that was interesting twist. It's kinda crudely written, but maybe that's keeping in the theme that the author is someone who thinks emotions are mental illness. I want to see where it goes.
watched: Chappie: I loved it! Definitely not as cliche as it appears that's going to be. By a bizarre coincidence I discovered Die Antwoord right before, which Im sure affected my liking of the movie. Ninja and Yolandi are fucking insane characters and I'm still really on the fence about them and their music. At least they don't fail to be entertaining.
Edge of Tomorrow: also a surprising good one. I was really afraid the main female character was going to be thrown by the wayside, but fortunately she did not; though I still think she did not get to be a full character the way Tom Cruise was. At least she was somewhat rounded, though not fully.
playing: Catherine: omg this is so much fun but the storyline is so messed up
Final Fantasy Tactics a2: its whole sin is that it's NOT final fantasy tactics advance. Right now I'm grinding my characters until I get to the point where dying in the main storyline is not an option. Something seems to be missing...experience points? Loot? I'm not fully connecting to my clan
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