Mild-Manered Historian

Writing for truth, justice, and the American way

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@RoudanskAlamir I've never read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but the concept of line marriage from that book always seemed very Spartan/Plato's Republic to me.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

The entire idea of polygamy being "natural" comes entirely from medieval natural law theorists who believed that marriage and sex are only for children and, as such, having more wives means more children and, thus, polygamy is the most "natural" form of the institution.

[Coren ✒🎨 @CorenLaVolpe]

Healthly and equal harems are something that can only exist in fiction, humans irl are not naturally polygamous. Like that's not psychologically healthy for anyone, that's my gut feeling. But in fiction you can enjoy that kind of fantasy without all the awful parts.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@Glowsquid, Patrick McGoohan spy-fi is officially considered high art now.

https://t.co/DDFBCF552G

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@ag_gobby I guess for me, I just appreciate restraint, no matter the medium. Not that every movie or TV show has to exhibit it, but I think implication can often be more powerful.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

Half the appeal of the erotic (in film specifically) is the fact that you're withheld information. You want to see, but you also don't really want to see. You have a desire to see what you most desire hidden, because that makes it more desirable to see.

[Roudansk Alamir @RoudanskAlamir]

Like I don't think, for example, Noir would be nearly as artful as it is if all the innuendos and implications were replaced with gratuitous explicitness. That's a prime example of a genre where the art comes from what you don't see rather than what you do.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@RoudanskAlamir It's very much a binary spectrum, where each side blurs into the other and it can get hard to tell the closer you get to the middle. I think even then though, most people on here just deny that there is a spectrum at all and that everything is either one or the other.

[Roudansk Alamir @RoudanskAlamir]

Call me le enlightened centrists but I think it's possible and even normal to be fine with sex in stories especially as narrative tools without feeling the need to see all the explicit details. You gotta be intelligent about it lest you lapse into softcore porn.

[Roudansk Alamir @RoudanskAlamir]

"sex scenes" discourse will continue ad infinitum because both sides are incapable of distinguishing between tasteful eroticism and long drawn-out smut and/or exploitation and even then, it's one of those vague subjective "I know it when I see it" things.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@MercuryFalcon @ChadVision I mean, I technically have three hopes, but one of those hopes is the Fuma Conspiracy, which got distributed by Toho and Lupin Toho releases have historically been pretty dicey rights wise.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@CorenLaVolpe Like, I certainly think polygamy is natural for our fallen state, but I really don't think it's within the law of nature which God established in the beginning.

[Coren ✒🎨 @CorenLaVolpe]

Healthly and equal harems are something that can only exist in fiction, humans irl are not naturally polygamous. Like that's not psychologically healthy for anyone, that's my gut feeling. But in fiction you can enjoy that kind of fantasy without all the awful parts.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@LeProjetSerret I'm not gonna lie, I think the only adaptation of War of the Worlds that I like is the Orson Welles one. Like, none of the movie adaptations get across that existential fear that the original book had.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@yumejosheep I know DIC had a fairly strong relationship with TMS (through their Telecom branch) during the 80s, so that's the likliest candidate. Especially since the animation reminds me a lot of 90s Telecom work for stuff like AoStH and the Amblin Productions cartoons.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@WardenDean It's interesting that both OVAs Lupin had in the aughts were really experimental anniversary specials. Like, Return of Pycal pushes new tech (CGI, after effects, etc.) and the DVD format (aka secret endings) to their limit while also being a direct sequel to a Part 1 story.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@WardenDean I personally love it, but some of the avant-garde stuff can be a bit excessive without having a clear narrative or thematic reason. Like, I really couldn't tell you why the movie is told achronologically. (Outside of the director wanting to show off his skills, of course.)

[🦀 Kaniwaza 🦀 @kaniwazasan]

It's a middle ground. Some of it is purely aestheticism. Things he thinks looks interesting.

The things that have meaning are in a more specific context.

Everyone and their mother has discussed the Ultraman thing and the Gundam thing.

Yes, Evangelion is Anno's reframing of his own doubts, fears, and inability to find worth in himself from the struggles of his life and job through the lens of his more adult mind coaching his younger id into becoming Ultraman-Gundam.

These are not just because "They look cool," they're because Anno loves Ultraman and Gundam. They represent the joy in his life. His childhood ideals, that his adult self is going "Take those things and make a legacy like those." That's Gendo's role.

But he took more than aesthetics from Ultraman. His idealization of the very Catholic Tsuburaya was core to the creation because of the Catholic Guilt Complex. Everyone's laments and regrets fit the frame of Catholic guilt perfectly.

The more nuanced kabbalist imagery (besides Instrumentality/Tikkun Olam) was mostly for looks, but the Christian imagery is incredibly overt as Anno wanted to try and perceive his logic through the lens of religion to emulate Tsuburaya.

The Sefirot in the intro might not have much meaning, but every cross you see in the show has very intentional purpose.

That being said, Anno sees speculation as its own story to tell, making up narratives for behind the scenes documentaries and random interviews purely to tell their own little stories in the form of implication and inferring. So even all of what I said might simply be playing into his game!

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@RoudanskAlamir I've found that a lot of peoples' definition of moe on here is basically Potter Stewart's definition of obscenity: "I know it when I see it." Which means it's functionally useless if you're trying to have a conversation with them about its effect on the industry, etc.

[Mild-Manered Historian @shane42652]

@RoudanskAlamir This also explains animation reviews on the Internet. (Except, in the case of current Western animation, it almost is certainly true because the creators think the same way.)