http://therem.net/blog/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.51 ? Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://therem.net/blog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://therem.net/blog/ http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=111 Avatar in 3-D on New Year’s Eve. My expectations were very low as I walked into the theater. Pre-release interviews and pieces like this one by Annalee Newitz gave me the impression that the movie was a science fictional version of Dances with Wolves, a futuristic tale of noble savages and the white man who “goes native” to save them because they can’t save themselves. Grr. I’m also a CGI skeptic, and thought that the effects might irritate me with their blatant fakeness or creep me out by falling into the “uncanny valley”.

My reaction was a lot more complex. There are serious problems with the depiction of the Na’vi, the world building, the dialog and the characterization, but I still found the film to be both thought-provoking and occasionally moving. Spoilers below the jump.To start with the bad, the racial hinkiness is just as objectionable as reports made it out to be. The Na’vi are clearly based on a mixture of Native American, African and Indonesian tribes, without even a token attempt at respecting the cultures referenced or depicting them as realistically complex. (One of the creators admitted that because the Na’vi aren’t technically human, they felt they didn’t have to worry about “political correctness” and could depict them as Edgar Rice Burroughs might have in Tarzan.) They also seem kind of dumb. The humans have had a base on the planet for years, and it is implied that there have been clashes in the past, but the Na’vi don’t believe until the tanks are practically on top of their Hometree that they are in grave danger and have to run away. Once the conflict has escalated, they are helpless until Jake Sully comes to lead them. To be fair, he does bring along some human allies, military equipment and knowledge of tactics, but it just isn’t plausible how quickly he is accepted as the leader of the clan, even by Tsu’Tey, who is next in line for chief. Being able to ride a giant bird is cool, but come on. Jake’s specialness seems to boil down to the same old “what these people need is a honky” trope (with some fantastical “destiny” sprinkled on top). And his rallying cry of, “This is OUR land!” is positively cringe-inducing. The guy has been there what… three months? How does that make him a righteous native who can speak for the whole tribe? Frickin’ poser.

The larger ecosystem is pretty lame, too. As I watched, I could easily translate each animal encountered into an existing or extinct species on Earth. Banshee = pterodactyl. Thanator = panther. Direhorse = …horse. (The sound effects for these were ridiculous. They sounded just like Earth horses!) Those plants that disappear into the ground when touched = sleeping grass, a.k.a. “touch me not”. (I saw some of these when I was in Hawai’i. They are fun to poke!) The list goes on. This is not what I would call world building. It’s slapping a disguise on top of the familiar to make it seem “exotic” but not unnerving in the way the truly alien would be. The worst instance of this is, of course, the Na’vi themselves. Not only are they completely humanoid, but their body plan (4 limbs, 2 eyes) doesn’t even match the other vertebrates on the planet (6 limbs, 4 eyes)! Does evolution not work on Pandora? Did the Na’vi come from somewhere else? And what’s up with those gravity-defying mountains, anyway?

Who knows? I’m pretty sure the real answer is that Cameron wanted everything to be “relatable” and/or “cool” rather than scientific and confusing. A wise choice from a money-making standpoint, but praiseworthy? No. And not really science fiction, either.

However, there was a lot more to the movie. I am really intrigued by cyborgs and mind transfer stories because they’re a great way to explore questions of identity, and the avatar concept provides a lot to think about. Unfortunately, most of it is in the category of Unanswered Questions and Missed Opportunities, but my mind was still a little blown by the scene near the end when Neytiri encounters Jake Sully’s human body for the first time. His avatar body is lying outside mere feet away, unconscious because Jake has crawled out of his pod, desperate for air. Neytiri attaches the oxygen mask, Jake is saved just in time, and as she looms over him we see how huge she is compared to him. Wow. How weird must it be for her to know that this puny alien body produced the mind of the person she loves? And how strange it must be for him to see his lover through a different set of eyes, not metaphorically, but literally!

Even more mind-blowing is the fact that Jake goes on to permanently transfer his consciousness into his avatar and kill his human body. This is an important difference from movies like Dances with Wolves, in which the protagonist can return to the privileged world he came from if he really wants to. Jake not only looks inhuman, he can’t even survive in human-breathable atmosphere. He has chosen sides in the most final way possible.

Of course, the Earth of Avatar doesn’t sound like a place anyone would want to return to. This brings me to the other big thing I liked about the movie: its tree-hugging soul. About two-thirds of the way through the movie, Jake utters the most memorable sentence in the film: “They killed their mother.” By “they” he means the humans, the rapacious people he has already dissociated himself from, and “their mother” is Earth -- technically not yet dead, but apparently too far gone to save. Several reviews I have read have complained that the movie is simplistic and preachy on the subject of environmentalism. I suppose that is a matter of perspective. As I see it, Avatar is a science fiction story (actually more of a science fantasy, but let’s ignore that for now), and a time honored function of science fiction is to posit “if this goes on” scenarios to help us think about what we are doing right now. Unless they are foaming at the mouth crazy people, even militant capitalists have to admit at this point that humans have the power to trash the Earth’s ecosystems. The question is whether and/or how we will. Avatar doesn’t get into any of the details of what happened to Earth (though it’s a safe bet that strip mining was involved), it simply posits that it’s been ruined in order to contrast it to Pandora, a planet whose inhabitants -- plant, animal, and humanoid -- interact in a balance that is mediated by a higher power with the ability to smite when necessary. On the one hand, this is an obvious wish fulfillment fantasy: if only we had a strict planet-sized parent to mind us and let us know when we are going wrong! On the other, it’s a sobering reminder: in reality, we don’t, and no one seems to be at the wheel. How can we keep things from going to hell in a hand basket here on Earth?

Preachy or not, if this movie gets its audiences thinking about that question, I’ll be happy.

And about those effects? They won me over. Maybe the uncanny valley wasn’t as much of an issue because the characters being animated weren’t human, but the motion capture and CGI are very well done regardless. The 3-D was cool in a whiz bang kind of way, but I don’t think it really contributed to the story. I’ll be fine rewatching in 2-D.

In sum, Avatar is an interesting and worthwhile movie. Not good, exactly, but rich in theme and implication and things to talk about. I recommend it.

tags: Avatar]]> Film and TV http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=111 Sun, 3 Jan 2010 21:11:57 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=110
And yet... if there is one thing I have learned this decade, it's that life is chock full of data of all kinds. At some point, you have to decide what you are going to focus on, because you just can't comprehend it all. And savoring the positives is healthier emotionally than dwelling on the negatives. New-Age-y platitude? Yep, but also true.

Putting on the rose-tinted glasses, I see that the past ten years had some serious good in them, too. I got my driver's license at age 31, ushering in a new era of mobility and independence. Several trips to Europe expanded my mind. I got a well-paying job with a non-profit company whose work I truly believe in. I had quality time with both my parents before they died. I bought a house that I love. The art of television truly matured and gave me some of my favorite shows ever: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, Firefly, Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica, Fullmetal Alchemist, The Wire, and Mad Men. Social networking on Facebook and Twitter revolutionized my internet experience and reconnected me with many old friends. My ties to the world of feminist science fiction grew stronger, WisCon became my spiritual home, and I even got published. Connections with old and new friends and family delighted and supported me through hard times. And last but not least in this hardly-exhaustive list: Obama was elected president. That alone could restore one's faith in a just universe.

As the new year and a new decade approach, I am feeling hopeful. Goodbye 2009, hello future!]]> Slice of Life http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=110 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:58:46 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=109
Joan Marie Brunelle Dawley, 76, died Friday, Dec. 12, 2008 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH.

She was born May 25, 1932, in Montpelier, VT, the daughter of Edward Brunelle and Dorothy (Dunton) Brunelle.

She married George Siekierski in 1951. They lived in Montpelier, VT; New Haven, CT; and West Springfield, MA and had a son, Keith. They divorced in 1962 after a period of separation.

For several years she was a reporter for the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus, writing human interest stories. There she met Lee Dawley, originally of Gowanda, NY; they married in 1963. After their move to S. Ryegate in 1964, she worked at the Caledonian Record in St. Johnsbury and the Orange County Council of Social Agencies. Lee was stricken with multiple sclerosis in the late 1970s, and as his condition worsened she spent more time tending to him. From 1985-2004, caring for him was her sole occupation.

Always an advocate of higher education, she was late to attend college herself. She studied at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT from 1976-1980, first focusing on the visual arts before pursuing a B.A. in Philosophy. She went on to a four-year graduate program at the State University of New York at Albany; she received her Masters in Philosophy in 1990. Studies in linguistics also led her to summer programs at Ohio Northern University in Ada, OH and Kossuth Lajos Tudományegyetem in Debrecen, Hungary. Her engagement with ideas was lifelong, and she continued to read in history, philosophy, and neuroscience until her final hospitalization.

She was predeceased by husband Lee Dawley, son Keith Siekierski, brother Philip Brunelle, and sister Kathleen Haggett. She is survived by brother Robert Brunelle (and wife Jackie) of S. Barre, VT; two daughters, Andrea Sharp (and husband Steve) of Essex Junction, VT and Janice Dawley of Burlington, VT; and son Hugh Dawley of Burlington, VT as well as several nieces and grandchildren.

A memorial ceremony will be held at 1:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall of the S. Ryegate Presbyterian Church on May 25, 2009. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the American Heart Association or the American Civil Liberties Union.

-----

The Times Argus created a guest book that anyone is free to sign. I was surprised to see that my mother's childhood friend Claire Buley signed it soon after it appeared, even though they hadn't been in touch in decades. That tells me that out of sight is not out of mind for a lot of people, and that each of us leaves an impression on the world as we pass through it. You are not forgotten, Mutti.]]> Slice of Life http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=109 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:33:24 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=108    

My mother died on Friday, December 12. She was 76 years old.

I've been working on an obituary over the past week and wondering how to distill her life and place in the world down to a single column in a newspaper. It's hard to do, so I ended up copying the structure of the obituary she wrote for Dad in 2004. Lots of names of relatives, educational milestones, jobs she held. Those are all meaningful, because they highlight things she valued: family, professional achievement, the life of the mind. But they only hint at some of her most characteristic traits -- her shyness, her tough-minded skepticism, her strong sense of humor, her imagination.

I loved her very much. I will miss her.]]> Slice of Life http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=108 Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:05:00 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=107 Robert Downey Jr.

It starts with a series of roles I saw him play in movies in the last couple of years. A Scanner Darkly (hilarious motor mouth double-crosser), Zodiac (drunken reporter sliding into the trash bin of life, delivers my favorite line of the movie to Jake Gyllenhaal: “You’re doing that thing, the thing we discussed, the thing I don't like, starts with an ‘L’ ” (i.e. looming). I remember quoting it for Art Sousa one day at work and him looking bemused), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (hapless petty thief drawn into a crime investigation in Hollywood; lots of back and forth funny banter with Val Kilmer, who plays a homosexual private detective nicknamed “Gay Perry”), then the biggie, Iron Man (I have a lot of misgivings about this movie. It is really violent and disturbing, the Afghanistan characters are simplistic to the point of stereotype, and the final battle between Iron Monger and Iron Man is a lame coda to the film. But… every moment Robert Downey Jr. is on the screen is redeemed for me by his light touch, line readings that are perfectly natural and funny and surprising in a genre that tends to sour brooding and leaden delivery. He’s not being ironic, either. It’s obvious he’s enjoying himself, that he loves the material). Tropic Thunder sort of an after thought. There is apparently a whole series of movies he’s done that focus on his powers of mimicry (Chaplin, Heart and Souls), and this is another in that vein. He is completely unrecognizable here, even apart from the “pigmentation procedure” (i.e. blackface), he speaks in a deeper voice than normal and enunciates in a bizarre faux-ghetto vocabulary and rhythm. The effect is striking, but not particularly worthy in itself. The one exception is the scene in which he pretends to be a Chinese rice farmer, speaking Chinese with a ghetto accent that even to me, almost completely ignorant of Chinese, sounds absurd and hilarious. The fact that the child drug lord he is talking to briefly seems to believe he really is Chinese proves to me that the “movie within a movie” is actually three levels down, that there is a movie within a movie within a movie. At the very least, his character has three levels. (“I’m the dude playin’ the dude, disguised as another dude!”) Talk about metafiction!Then there’s his life as a recovering addict. A few months ago I read an Entertainment Weekly interview with him, Ben Stiller and Jack Black. There was a question to all three of them about humiliating themselves in movies. Stiller and Black both said they don’t particularly enjoy it, but it is often warranted to get laughs. Downey said he likes it just by itself, and that he’s humiliated himself so much worse in his real life that it hardly registers when he’s doing it for work. A couple months later, he is chosen as EW’s “Entertainer of the Year” and appears on the cover of the magazine. The article inside mentions his consumption of Chinese herbs; the description of his pill popping comes across to me as compulsive, like a substitute for his old cocaine habit. The night after reading the article, I have a dream about him telling me, like he is delivering hard news, that he has started taking Remeron (an antidepressant I took for less than a week because it totally fucked me up and turned me into a zombie). I am upset and worried about him. In waking life, I read more about his personal history. Some details stick with me. He did various drugs (heroin, cocaine, alcohol in abundance) for at least 15 years and kept being checked in to rehab centers and arrested for possession. Some of the humiliating episodes he alluded to in EW include wandering in to the neighbors’ house and falling asleep in one of their beds, then being arrested; showing up late and addled to a meeting with a movie director with “a loaded shotgun in his car that he couldn’t explain”; being found wandering down a Los Angeles street barefoot while high on cocaine. During one of his criminal trials, he describes his experience of drugs as “like I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal.” Eventually he is thrown into prison for an entire year. Details aren’t clear (he doesn’t talk much about these experiences in interviews, and cancelled plans to write a memoir a couple of years ago), but he says that more than once he “woke up in a pool of [his] own blood” in jail. After being released, he is arrested a couple more times, and is kicked off the TV show Ally McBeal, even though his acting has gotten rave reviews and increased ratings for the show. His wife, Debra Falconer, leaves him, taking their son. The work situation is pretty dire. When he can get roles, a portion of his pay is often held back until shooting is complete because producers don’t trust him. He calls this period the “bottom” in terms of addiction. Then one day in 2003, while eating a cheeseburger at Burger King, he has an epiphany and decides that he’s done with the drugs and the drinking. Since then, he has slowly climbed out of the hole, playing well-reviewed supporting roles in a number of films on his way to leading roles in movies like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man. He has remarried to a woman, Susan Levin, he met while working on Gothika, and patched up relations with his ex-wife to the extent that he can now spend a lot of time with his son. In interviews, he doesn’t seem too sure that he won’t relapse; his comments are vague and confusing on this point. Maybe that’s just realism in someone who has fallen off the wagon so many times. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be consistently sober. (His parents were both countercultural types who initiated him into drug use before he was 10 years old.) But, five years on, he seems to be getting the hang of it. And the press loves him. It’s hard to resist the appeal of a redemption story, especially when the individual in question is funny, smart, and an undeniably great actor. Oh, and nice to look at, too. In November, he is #1 in Salon.com’s “Sexiest Man Living” feature (just ahead of Barack Obama).

And his world view: he says he is no longer a liberal after his experience in prison. He doesn’t exactly say what he is instead. Conservative? Republican? I am disturbed at the thought. One of his best friends is Mel Gibson, he of The Passion of the Christ and the anti-Semitic comments after being arrested for DUI. Yet Downey describes himself as a “Jew-Bu”, a term I thought he made up until I read it in the NY Times (11/29/08, “A Link Based on Culture and, Now, Terrorism” about the sympathetic connection of Indians and Jews). It’s hard to imagine a Republican Jewish Buddhist. But then I realize that his political opinions are kind of beside the point; as a convicted felon, he can’t vote. Ouch.

Why does it matter, anyway? When I identify with someone strongly, there’s a desire to see a perfect reflection of myself, to paint my story completely onto the canvas of another person. Taking it too far is an illusion, though, a folly. It’s about what I need and want, not about the reality of another person’s life. This past year has been rough. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety and thought patterns that have seemed at times impossible to break out of. Not addiction, technically (though my regular use of alcohol sometimes worries me), but similar in its hold over everyday life. I have often felt trapped and like I can’t climb out of the dreary trench I’m in, even though it’s crucial to my own well being to do so.

Earlier this week, I watched the final episode of The Wire, and burst into tears more than once afterward thinking about the character Bubs, who after years of addiction finally quits drugs for good. He’s tried multiple times before and always relapsed, so his sister (his one remaining family member) doesn’t trust him any more. She lets him sleep in her basement, but keeps the door to the upstairs locked so he can’t get in and steal her stuff to pay for drugs. This goes on for months and months while Bubs is working in a soup kitchen, meeting regularly with his sponsor in recovery, and just keeping on one day at a time, grimly holding temptation at bay. One of my favorite scenes from season 5 has no words, it’s just Bubs, alone in the soup kitchen, leaning over a sink and scrubbing a seemingly endless succession of pots and pans. It’s boring, nearly thankless work, but meaningful if you look at it in the right way. (A Buddhist saying: “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.”) At the end of the season, after his story has been featured in the paper, he is finally invited back into his sister’s house. The precious payoff for months of persistence and lonely struggle. But it’s not free sailing from here. The temptation will always be hanging.

I’ve wondered before how anyone manages to get over an addiction. It’s easy for people who have never heard the siren song of drugs to be dismissive of anyone who falls prey to it. I guess I believe that for some individuals there is a physical component, something that makes them more susceptible to addiction, but I’m not a big believer in the medical model of alcoholism, for example. I’ve seen too many times how people (including me) get entrained into habits of thought that can be nearly impossible to break out of. For most, these habits don’t involve drugs that make it difficult for them to sustain long term relationships or keep a job, but they can be destructive nonetheless. Anxiety and depression are not directly caused by circumstances; they result from the ingrained thought patterns and reactivity a person applies to the circumstances. These can’t just be wished away, although being aware of the patterns is a first big step to breaking out of them. The road to recovery can be really long and made longer by backtracking and repeated failures. The trick is to never give up. Too many people never even realize they have a problem, and just blindly continue living lives of quiet desperation. And a lot who realize they do have a problem never really get past it. Someone who knows their life is fucked up and manages to really change it in a fundamental way is a hero to me.

Thom Yorke of Radiohead once said, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men… true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Stories (fictional or real life) about that process, that are honest about the difficulties, the often non-linear progression, the lack of glamor, have a lot of meaning for me right now. When that gritty reality is layered onto a series of artistic achievements that have moved and delighted me on their own, it’s even more resonant. So Robert Downey Jr has become a part of my personal story, one of the multitudes of possible mes, a cautionary and inspiring figure, my own Person of the Year.

tags: Robert Downey Jr, addiction, depression, The Wire]]> Slice of Life http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=107 Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:09:09 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=106

tags: Obama, Election]]> Politics http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=106 Sat, 8 Nov 2008 19:05:04 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=105
The other big day trip so far was to the Polynesian Cultural Center just north of us in Laie. It was a total tourist trap, complete with staffers who took photos of each group to be sold later at $18 a pop, some sketchily differentiated "island" areas with timed programming of music and dance, an Imax theater, a buffet-style luau, and a final stage show titled "Horizons" that had some cool fire-juggling at the end. The weirdest thing about the place is that it is owned and operated by Brigham Young University -- a Mormon college with 95% Mormon students. Being a skeptical person, I kept wondering what religious agenda the place was trying to promote, but I never identified anything. It just seemed like a money-making venture.

The rest of our time has been spent in Honolulu at the zoo or various restaurants, hiking, swimming in the deliciously warm ocean at the beach, and driving on roads with names like "Kamehameha", "Likelike" and "Kalanianaole". It's all starting to seem normal. Nice!

I hope to post at least one more dispatch before we leave next week. In the mean time, check out the new Hawaii photo album in my gallery.

tags: Hawaii]]> Slice of Life http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=105 Tue, 5 Aug 2008 19:05:14 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=104 Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It is hilarious, in the vein of silly superhero creations like The Tick and Mystery Men, but with Sondheim-esque compositions! It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion! It was independently produced by Joss and his relations! It is the future of entertainment financing and distribution!

No joke, I watched it five times already (via iTunes download, because the demand caused the free web site to crash). You will love it. Go see.

And that's not the half of it! I still have a new Hellboy movie to watch; the Batman movie comes out in a few days; the X-Files movie premiers July 25; and my birthday follows two days later. And then I'm going to Hawaii for two weeks. My head asplode. Yay!

tags: Dr. Horrible]]> Film and TV http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=104 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:49:23 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=103 Making Light that Thomas M. Disch, the author of 334 and On Wings of Song -- two of the best works of SF I've ever read -- killed himself two days ago. Damn. Fucking damn it. Yes, he was a bastard sometimes, particularly lately, but he wrote some amazing stuff that spoke of a larger spirit and artistic sensibility than most people ever know. I wish he had had a better life.

ETA: NY Times Obituary

tags: Thomas M. Disch]]> Literature http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=103 Sun, 6 Jul 2008 20:27:54 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=102 Feminist SF -- The Blog! Go there if you're interested in up to the minute reports.

tags: WisCon 32]]> Fandom http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=102 Sat, 24 May 2008 21:28:08 -0400