Jojo notes split off from previous entry

I realized I shouldn't spam people who just want to read fanfic with endless nattering, indecipherable notes, and the books I am reading for class...so of course I am spamming the flist with them instead, XD. Scroll past if you've seen this already.

Research: Victorian Ghost Stories. One thing you notice is that they tend to be written in the first person -- or else, like Kipling's, detached third. There's no limited third and barely any omniscient third. I think this is because in order for something to be truly frightening, it has to be outside the understanding of the reader. First-person keeps the reader's viewpoint confined while still giving a sense of "being there" but I actually thought the detached perspective Kipling used was scarier. When you can't see into anyone's head it's like peering into an alien landscape. Though really, as much as the writing this comes from the Menace of India thing he has going on, so I shouldn't praise him too much.

Anyway, what pulls you into the story with Kipling isn't the POV, but the way he describes the atmosphere -- you call feel the heat and humidity.

Why are my ideas for Jojo all so HARD.

Part 1: Victorian Ghost Story
Part 2 (aftermath): Kafka in Argentina
Part 2 (aftermath): Politics of Urban Redevelopment
Part 4: Bakemono Hijinx
Part 6: Existential Vignettes
Part 7: Cowboys vs. Indians...sort of. More like national myth-building. The Steel Ball Run (the race) is part of the American narrative of expansion, it's a statement that says that the United States now extends from one end of the continent to the other. It's like the transcontinental railroad (built in 1869; SBR is set in 1890), staking a claim to the land so that you can push the Indians off. What Araki does is tell the story of America the way American themselves tell it (for proof SEE POCOLOCO).

This kind of ties into:

( The End of Victory Culture, Tom Engelheart )

P.S. Tari, I just got your card! ^^; Or actually, I just found your card, in a pile with other unopened mail from before the holidays. OMG JONATHAN/DIO, YOU ARE AWESOME, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

New Double Feature Feature

Well, I guess this is sort of like a trial run. ^^; To test out how much bandwidth this uses, and whether DreamHost will let me get away with sharing movies on telophase's dime.

I pronounce Mondays: Double Feature Days! Two movies every Monday that I have arbitrarily decided have something in common.

This week: You need subtitles for the English.
Featuring: Snatch and Brick.

[edit: taken down]

Needing subtitles to watch Snatch is a sort of inside joke: you don't really need them. There are characters who talk fast and use a lot of slang, but they also tend to repeat themselves a lot. (Especially the narrator, who likes to hear himself talk -- it's a lot of action, a lot of flash, disguising a lack of power, because the characters who have power never repeat themselves.) Anyway this is a movie about a stolen diamond and how in crime, anything can happen.

Brick, on the other hand, is all about creating pace and atmosphere by cutting out like half the words in the script. ^^; the characters all talk in shorthand and use slang I don't think exists outside of this movie. Just like in high school!! This is a film about infiltrating a web of (high school) drug dealers to avenge your dead ex-girlfriend. Twisty, great art direction. I swear to God Brendon reminds me of an old boyfriend.

Too lazy to comment more. :p But on weeks where the movies are less well known, I promise to say more of actual substance.