(no subject)

Someone please rescue me from exploring The Hathor Legacy's archives.  I am currently trapped in this post (regarding whether or not female audiences are "listened to") and the links in it to other articles.

A couple quotes:

When women dropped over half a billion to see Titanic, frequently citing Kate Winslet and/or her character as their reason (and the special effects in more than a few cases), it was dismissed as a fluke. The biggest gross-earner of all time, and we’re not allowed to learn anything from its success because it was just a fluke. And why was it a fluke? Uh, something about when it was released, and what else was out, and er, stuff. Conventional wisdom. Don’t question it.

On the DVD extras for Firefly, a Fox sci-fi series that was troubled from the get-go and cancelled after 15 episodes, Chris Buchanan (president of Mutant Enemy, creator Joss Whedon’s production company) said:

“The initial results - they made the network nervous. The men didn’t respond as strongly as they thought they would, and the women responded more strongly.”
 

But you know, back to Titanic for a moment.  Err...when it came out I was one of the masses of teenaged girls who were "ZOMG! Best romance ever!"  (leave me alone!)  And then I got over it and went into the seemingly-required "that movie and Leonardo DiCaprio suck and are overrated!" phase...and then I got over those.  Now I like it for Rose.  And the special effects.

BUT!  a spoilery question!

( Uhm...if you can be spoiled for Titanic? )

ETA:  This and a comment remind me of a thought I've had a few times but never put enormous thought into.  Does it seem to anyone else that attention to women and movies comes in waves?  Like, you have the 30s-50s, where parts of various movies-if not entire movies-seem to be specifically geared towards women, not just in terms of romance.  And then it's like studios went "Hey!  All women need is to have a woman there.  We'll just tuck her into the background and focus on the guys.  Who are more interesting anyway.  All women want is a romance anyway."  And then you get to Sci Fi and fantasy getting popular, and somebody notices "Hey!  I think some women like this stuff!"  and we get Heroines.  And then studios got deja vu and went "Hey!  All women need is to have a woman there.  We'll just tuck her into the background and focus on the guys.  Who are more interesting anyway.  All women want is a romance anyway." again.

Leia:  Politician, rebel, soldier, leader.  Dictates her own life and fate.  Says "stuff you" when men object.
Padme:  Politician, leader, sometime-fighter.  Starts awesome, ultimately reduced to a source of Anakin's angst.

Both spawned from the same brain, just a couple decades apart.

Mushishi Vol 3

This is a series that remains very enjoyable and interesting, but I have little to say about it. I also wish I were in the mood for it more often, as it really is something I need to be in the mood for to read. I wonder if that will still be true when I finally make it to the anime.

Somehow, there seemed to be less detailed descriptions of the mushi, but it’s been a while since I read the first two volumes, so I may have just built that up in my head.

( spoilers )

Her Majesty's Dog Vol 10

Mick Takeuchi, what’s with the near-shota cover there, huh? This isn’t that kind of manga! (Yeah yeah yeah…it’s meant to be more along the lines of “Bond villain with cat” or somesuch, but…

( spoilers )

manga: Genju no Seiza Vol 1-2

His entire life, Fuuto has been cursed to see ghosts and “auras,” resulting in his always having to transfer to new schools when people find out. Shortly after transferring to his 15th school, he gets harassed harassed by a large bird, and discovers a castle in the forest near the school. The castle is the home of Mayu, a stoic, paralyzed young woman with a mind like an encyclopedia, and her caretaker, Ichijo, a scientist who believes in the supernatural. Furthermore, the bird turns out to be Garuda, a guardian spirit whose true form is a man with the head of a bird. Garuda tells Fuuto that he is the current incarnation of the king of Dhalashar, and that he must return home to claim his throne from an impostor.

Fuuto, of course, doesn’t believe that, and tells Garuda to go away, but ends up both stuck with him, and trying to learn to use his powers responsibly. Garuda’s rival, Naga, sends assassins after Fuuto, but the first 2-a monkey spirit named Hanuman and a wolf spirit named Genro-end up switching sides. In addition, Mayu can see the spirits in their true forms, the only one other than Fuuto who can do so.

Unsurprisingly (it is by Matsuri Akino, after all) the mythology and the guardian spirits are the most interesting (and entertaining) things here. Fuuto is…likable but typical. Mayu, trying to learn to act like a normal girl for the first time, and only just stepping outside her sheltered castle, has a lot more going for her so far. In complete honesty, I kind of want Fuuto to stop complaining and go to Dhalashar already. I understand Akino abandoned the series a while back, so I’m assuming we never actually get a conclusion to to Fuuto’s stepping up to be king, and the struggle between him and the impostor. Which I want to read a lot more than I do Fuuto running around Japan and sending spirits to the afterlife. Hopefully, though, we do learn what Mayu’s deal is first. Not as fun as Petshop of Horrors or as cracktastic as Kamen Tantei, but still pretty enjoyable.

*blinks at solid walls of political posts*

So, is it over?  Can I poke my head out now?

(Am I the only one who wasn't really in either camp?  One was too conservative for me, the other not conservative enough.  Not to mention they both often seemed more interested in saying they had a point than the point itself.  Mind you, I don't think either would result in the downfall of the nation, either.)

ETA:  So many posts about celebrating in the streets and I have to drive home in an hour and twenty minutes.  *gets mildly concerned*  *lives close to college area*