media round-up: march
Apr. 3rd, 2022 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sidewaysRead
7. Merchanter's Luck, CJ Cherryh
DNF: The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
In someone else's hands, Merchanter's Luck would be all about the romance - the rogue and the businesswoman, trading slaps for kisses - but fortunately this is Cherryh, and after the initial framing what romance exists is just one string in the snarled skein of pressing narrative concerns, and so Luck is instead about grief and ambition, inter-class tensions, and gnarly space politics. Sandor Kreja spends 90% of the book in a state of absolute neurotic terror, so of course he grew on me quickly; Allison Reilly is enjoyably practical and, like most Cherryh women, bluntly confident in her strengths but willing to confront her failings. I wouldn't call it the tightest plot I've ever read, having wobbled a little uncertainly from A to Z, but it was a good ending: I was left curious about what would happen next for this seedling of a found family, yet emotionally content.
I picked up The Disordered Cosmos with the notion that it would be neat to actually understand some of the quantum physics so embedded in one of my favourite genres. Good science communication is a skill not widely possessed, and I respect that, and I respect that Dr Prescod-Weinstein clearly knows what she is talking about, but alas... I still do not. I'd say I'm simply not her audience, but I couldn't say who that audience is. She mentions that elementary particles have 'spin', and clarifies that this is nothing to do with a physical spinning motion as she presumably wouldn't need to for fellow physics graduates, but then doesn't explain what it is about and instead charges on to the next baffling factoid, leaving raw uninitiates like me in the cosmic dust. The social and race components of the books seemed equally uncertain in their readership: a chapter opened with "Black people are human and can feel pain", and while this is tragically still a necessary message for some, I cannot imagine they'd be anyone reading this book. There are still some interesting insights and gorgeous reflections in the pages, but I can't enthusiastically recommend it.
Watched
4. The Wire (s4)
5. Turning Red
6. Abbott Elementary
7. Hunter x Hunter (20 eps)
8. Parks & Rec (s1)
Rewatches: The BFG (1989), Red Vs Blue (s1-3 & 6-9)
The Wire's fourth season was one of its best if also one of its most heartbreaking - I stormed around feeling real anger for days after the finale, yet I couldn't find fault in the actual story. As always, the forward thinking system-breakers are allowed just enough rope to demonstrate to the audience what might be possible before they are strangled with it, and we are left to pick out what small victories we can from the remains. The shift to highlighting a new POV in the eternal drug war - that of the next generation, the children of the kingpins and addicts and social programs - was deftly done and carried almost entirely on the shoulders of a cast of stunningly engaging young actors. But by god that same talent made it a hard watch sometimes.
Turning Red, on the other hand, was extremely easy on the eyes! I've long lamented the passing of 2D in favour of 3D, so it's a serious relief to see the style evolving into something that tickles my brain in the same way. Every freeze-frame expression brought something new to giggle over. Souring the atmosphere some was, of course, the internet furore surrounding this film, largely from the crowd suggesting it wasn't relatable enough to be a rounded family film - which seemed bitterly funny to me, given it focused on a group of tight knit, pop-and-boy-obsessed girls who concoct wacky schemes and sneak out at night, which is the very same unrelatable Default Girl Experience that has been pushed at me for as long as I can remember. This film was by far one of the least grating renditions! But ah. Oh no. They mentioned other cultures and menstruation. Instant downfall.
Abbott Elementary's cast popped from the very first episode; the storylines not so much? It's not what I'd call especially sharp humour. That said, I feel like it was starting to find its feet somewhere around episode 6, the characters are starting to round out in interesting ways, and it's always nice to watch a sitcom where you don't feel endlessly braced for an ugly joke. (Though Ava's constant sexual harassment of Gregory being played for laughs is, ehhh, not my favourite.)
Parks & Rec is also doing okay at not making me cringe into the abyss with the exception of Tom's general existence. The first few episodes weren't especially fun, but once they swapped out 'small name, big ego' for 'small name, some ego, but mostly caffeinated hamster levels of well-intentioned passion' for their main character and similarly started building in likeable traits for the supporting cast, it grew on me fast.
Hunter x Hunter is a renowned shounen series, and yet it took me 20 episodes to realise it was an extremely shounen series, which is to say the plot really only existed to link fight sequences together, and also most of the worldbuilding is ridiculous. Probably would have liked it just fine as a kid. As an adult there are still elements I appreciate, and the friendship between Gon and Killua is genuinely sweet, but I don't think I have a 160 episode commitment in me.
I rewatched RvB after realising that it's been long enough that I can't remember every fine detail - now oof, there's some cringy humour. Which is a shame, because when it's not leaning into the dude-bro jokes there are some truly next level witticisms, and despite everything I still feel very fondly towards this cast of characters and their weirdass shenanigans. Season 6 is still the highlight, and season 9 is still where my interest starts to terminally flag as the plot holes widen into abyssal plunges and the story shapes itself spine-crackingly around opportunities to insert 10 minute long fight scenes. A quick Google shows they're on season 18 now. Dear god. No.
The old BFG movie is all on YouTube! Good memories.
Played
Red Dead Redemption 2 (in progress)
BOY was there a learning curve involved in this one. Rockstar have created one of the most overwhelmingly immersive games I've personally experienced, and with it came a confusing string of button and trigger combos as it forced me to micromanage everything from hunting to horse care to personal grooming to my character's weight. (I gave up and Arthur is just permanently underfed. Sorry bud.) I'm not sure it's altogether in the game's favour that for the first week or so I had to sit there with my phone next to me, ready to wearily search "how the HELL does x mechanic work" every fifteen minutes or so - but I have to admit that once I'd gotten over this initial hump, it became very fun.
RDR2 offers one of the most alive virtual worlds I've ever wandered around in, and as an animal nut their attention to detail is genuinely astounding. I might expect it to come at the expense of the plot, but instead each relevant mission has been fresh and interesting. Heck, the side missions are fresh and interesting! It's still frustrating every time I fudge something because I hit the wrong button, pull my gun out in the middle of a saloon, and everyone IMMEDIATELY loses their tiny digital minds... but overall it's extremely worth one's while if they have the mental RAM to dedicate to learning all the goldang controls. Also, if they have the time to lose to it - I'm not even halfway and it has been, uh, too many hours.
I may be occasionally using it as a nighthorse simulator. Don't judge me.
7. Merchanter's Luck, CJ Cherryh
DNF: The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
In someone else's hands, Merchanter's Luck would be all about the romance - the rogue and the businesswoman, trading slaps for kisses - but fortunately this is Cherryh, and after the initial framing what romance exists is just one string in the snarled skein of pressing narrative concerns, and so Luck is instead about grief and ambition, inter-class tensions, and gnarly space politics. Sandor Kreja spends 90% of the book in a state of absolute neurotic terror, so of course he grew on me quickly; Allison Reilly is enjoyably practical and, like most Cherryh women, bluntly confident in her strengths but willing to confront her failings. I wouldn't call it the tightest plot I've ever read, having wobbled a little uncertainly from A to Z, but it was a good ending: I was left curious about what would happen next for this seedling of a found family, yet emotionally content.
I picked up The Disordered Cosmos with the notion that it would be neat to actually understand some of the quantum physics so embedded in one of my favourite genres. Good science communication is a skill not widely possessed, and I respect that, and I respect that Dr Prescod-Weinstein clearly knows what she is talking about, but alas... I still do not. I'd say I'm simply not her audience, but I couldn't say who that audience is. She mentions that elementary particles have 'spin', and clarifies that this is nothing to do with a physical spinning motion as she presumably wouldn't need to for fellow physics graduates, but then doesn't explain what it is about and instead charges on to the next baffling factoid, leaving raw uninitiates like me in the cosmic dust. The social and race components of the books seemed equally uncertain in their readership: a chapter opened with "Black people are human and can feel pain", and while this is tragically still a necessary message for some, I cannot imagine they'd be anyone reading this book. There are still some interesting insights and gorgeous reflections in the pages, but I can't enthusiastically recommend it.
Watched
4. The Wire (s4)
5. Turning Red
6. Abbott Elementary
7. Hunter x Hunter (20 eps)
8. Parks & Rec (s1)
Rewatches: The BFG (1989), Red Vs Blue (s1-3 & 6-9)
The Wire's fourth season was one of its best if also one of its most heartbreaking - I stormed around feeling real anger for days after the finale, yet I couldn't find fault in the actual story. As always, the forward thinking system-breakers are allowed just enough rope to demonstrate to the audience what might be possible before they are strangled with it, and we are left to pick out what small victories we can from the remains. The shift to highlighting a new POV in the eternal drug war - that of the next generation, the children of the kingpins and addicts and social programs - was deftly done and carried almost entirely on the shoulders of a cast of stunningly engaging young actors. But by god that same talent made it a hard watch sometimes.
Turning Red, on the other hand, was extremely easy on the eyes! I've long lamented the passing of 2D in favour of 3D, so it's a serious relief to see the style evolving into something that tickles my brain in the same way. Every freeze-frame expression brought something new to giggle over. Souring the atmosphere some was, of course, the internet furore surrounding this film, largely from the crowd suggesting it wasn't relatable enough to be a rounded family film - which seemed bitterly funny to me, given it focused on a group of tight knit, pop-and-boy-obsessed girls who concoct wacky schemes and sneak out at night, which is the very same unrelatable Default Girl Experience that has been pushed at me for as long as I can remember. This film was by far one of the least grating renditions! But ah. Oh no. They mentioned other cultures and menstruation. Instant downfall.
Abbott Elementary's cast popped from the very first episode; the storylines not so much? It's not what I'd call especially sharp humour. That said, I feel like it was starting to find its feet somewhere around episode 6, the characters are starting to round out in interesting ways, and it's always nice to watch a sitcom where you don't feel endlessly braced for an ugly joke. (Though Ava's constant sexual harassment of Gregory being played for laughs is, ehhh, not my favourite.)
Parks & Rec is also doing okay at not making me cringe into the abyss with the exception of Tom's general existence. The first few episodes weren't especially fun, but once they swapped out 'small name, big ego' for 'small name, some ego, but mostly caffeinated hamster levels of well-intentioned passion' for their main character and similarly started building in likeable traits for the supporting cast, it grew on me fast.
Hunter x Hunter is a renowned shounen series, and yet it took me 20 episodes to realise it was an extremely shounen series, which is to say the plot really only existed to link fight sequences together, and also most of the worldbuilding is ridiculous. Probably would have liked it just fine as a kid. As an adult there are still elements I appreciate, and the friendship between Gon and Killua is genuinely sweet, but I don't think I have a 160 episode commitment in me.
I rewatched RvB after realising that it's been long enough that I can't remember every fine detail - now oof, there's some cringy humour. Which is a shame, because when it's not leaning into the dude-bro jokes there are some truly next level witticisms, and despite everything I still feel very fondly towards this cast of characters and their weirdass shenanigans. Season 6 is still the highlight, and season 9 is still where my interest starts to terminally flag as the plot holes widen into abyssal plunges and the story shapes itself spine-crackingly around opportunities to insert 10 minute long fight scenes. A quick Google shows they're on season 18 now. Dear god. No.
The old BFG movie is all on YouTube! Good memories.
Played
Red Dead Redemption 2 (in progress)
BOY was there a learning curve involved in this one. Rockstar have created one of the most overwhelmingly immersive games I've personally experienced, and with it came a confusing string of button and trigger combos as it forced me to micromanage everything from hunting to horse care to personal grooming to my character's weight. (I gave up and Arthur is just permanently underfed. Sorry bud.) I'm not sure it's altogether in the game's favour that for the first week or so I had to sit there with my phone next to me, ready to wearily search "how the HELL does x mechanic work" every fifteen minutes or so - but I have to admit that once I'd gotten over this initial hump, it became very fun.
RDR2 offers one of the most alive virtual worlds I've ever wandered around in, and as an animal nut their attention to detail is genuinely astounding. I might expect it to come at the expense of the plot, but instead each relevant mission has been fresh and interesting. Heck, the side missions are fresh and interesting! It's still frustrating every time I fudge something because I hit the wrong button, pull my gun out in the middle of a saloon, and everyone IMMEDIATELY loses their tiny digital minds... but overall it's extremely worth one's while if they have the mental RAM to dedicate to learning all the goldang controls. Also, if they have the time to lose to it - I'm not even halfway and it has been, uh, too many hours.
I may be occasionally using it as a nighthorse simulator. Don't judge me.
