User talk:Geyser/Test2

Welcome to my collapsed moral universe

GC: HERE you find an m4a file of mine. As the title says, it has something to share with that sentence of yours: "Konoko: Welcome to my collapsed moral universe."

AF: Credit for that line goes to a book I recently read. It's titled: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, by former war correspondent Chris Hedges. Quite a remarkable statement on both modern society and the human condition, and short to boot, so it's worth checking out. I've been pulling a lot out of it lately, honestly.

Complementary reading/watching suggestions :

an interview with Chris Hedges : best read before or instead of WIAFTGUM (much shorter still, less "poetry" and pathos, and all the relevant points are there)
Every Five Seconds an Inkjet Printer Dies Somewhere : a short article trying to explain "pointless" massacres (running amok). A few considerations (primarily in the first half) are general enough to apply to war : public theater, some kind of heroism VS manifestation of evil (condemnation VS acceptance/glorification).
Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Two memorable quotes :
1. "Believe it or not, but under fire, Animal Mother can be a wonderful human being. All he needs is somebody throwing grenades at him 'til the end of his life."
2. and:
  - Git some! Git some! Git some, yeah, yeah, yeah! Anyone that runs, is a VC. Anyone that stands still, is a well-disciplined VC! You guys oughta do a story about me sometime!
  - Why should we do a story about you?
  - 'Cuz I'm so fuckin' good! I done got me 157 dead gooks killed. Plus 50 water buffalo too! Them's all confirmed!
  - Any women or children?
  - Sometimes!
  - How can you shoot women or children?
  - Easy! Ya just don't lead 'em so much! Ain't war hell?

geyser: Borrowing the first sentence of a narrative from an existing piece doesn't seem right. No matter how thoughtful and original a book is, you can't just go "pulling a lot out of it" ^^; So, verbatim or not verbatim?

AF: Not verbatim, different context, but probably recognizable. It works though.

geyser: If Konoko talks about her moral universe with as much distance as Hedges talks about his, doesn't that make her inconveniently lucid?; If she's spent 4 years rationalizing on her past and present, isn't she well-armed enough to face the future?

geyser: One thing to bear in mind about the medium is that unless you show Konoko talking, no one will know it's her.; In movies, the verbal message is complemented by the actual voice. Here, an off-panel monologue has the text as its only support.; That can be a drawback, but also a powerful means to achieve ambiguity. Does the narrator have to be Konoko? Food for thought...; For the same reason, androgynous characters work out nicely on paper : no disambiguation through voice.

geyser: Idea : Consider the scene as coming directly after the scene that marks the beginning of Avatar's new life... Avatar too had his "moral universe" shattered when the ACCs blew up.; Actually, the narrative of the story-so-far can be first-person and impersonal. If no specific information is provided, the reader assumes it's Avatar talking. The page/panel layout can then be minimalistic : fade to black, white text over black background, period.; When and if you "fade in" to a series of shots "starring" Konoko, there will be a sort of gradual transition from one narrator to the other. Not too intuitive, but worth the shot.

geyser: Another idea : if you want to show a desolated landscape (wasteland, destroyed ACCs, dead cities), you can introduce Konoko gliding over it rather than walking through it.; With her CHAPTER 07 . A FRIEND IN NEED glider. Reminiscent (of course) of Miyazaki's Nausicaä, but also of Lorraine Reyes McLees, whose homepage was named after Nausicaa's Mehve.

AF: As for Nausicaa, check out Miyazaki's comic as well if you can -- I liked it more, but it'll be harder (looks like I can order it online. geyser) (and more expensive (For 70 bucks. geyser)) to get ahold of.
geyser: I went to a rather large Miyazaki-Moebius exhibition (Flash site HERE) in Paris, (February/March 2005) : quite inspiring too.
GC: I Understand NAUSICAA a Bit More than I Did a Little While Ago (a long interview with Miyazaki about Nausicaä's universe and characters) (BTW, there's war in Nausicaä, too... geyser)

geyser: That gliding sequence can be a semi-flashback (day)dream of Mai's (the story would start when she wakes up). Thus some details can be surreal : her glider, for instance, can stay in the air for longer than "expected".; Landing at the end... or not. Also, the picture of destruction can be exaggerated, or echoing other post-apocalyptic references (e.g. in manga). Various dream-friendly artistic effects, too.; If the narrative covers the skipped period in time (e.g. four years), then you don't even need to put a note saying "FOUR YEARS LATER".; As for the smooth transition from one narrator to the other, Avatar's plane can be shown flying away into no man's land at first, shrink to a tiny winged speck in the distance, and then come back as a gliding Konoko.
geyser: As for the landscape over which she'd glide, I'd suggest a snow-covered wasteland (acid/toxic snow, anybody?). Then again, since a 4-year fast-forward is covered by the scene, different seasons can be pictured : spring/summer/autumn would be even closer to Nausicaä's universe (see Wilderness Preserve).; The time scale can thus be distorted, similarly to the way (day)dreams are experienced : the whole (day)dream/nightmare seems to be played back super-fast at the moment you wake up.