Iron Man, 3/5 monads:

Iron Man is probably the best and most accurate transfer of comic to film of any comic-book movie to-date. Its script follows worn, familiar cadences and the plot arc of its hero--in which a successful inventor and weapons dealer discovers that maybe weapons development isn't the purely humanitarian endeavor he thought it was--is just about the right level of profundity for me-at-thirteen. This is, in my opinion, a completely authentic reproduction of the level of quality of the majority of Marvel comics, and certainly Iron Man, who was never one of my favorites. But the extra time and attention that a feature-length film gets made this formula unusually well-crafted. Its familiar tropes just work a little bit better here than they do in most comic-book movies. In fact, the whole thing felt like a genre getting really comfortable with itself: no, this isn't their bid for Oscar glory. (They tried that with Hulk, a substantial movie by Ang Lee that alienated everyone but me and the Onion AV Club.) But this is the first movie I've seen that is almost devoid of any personal, artistic directorial flair (unlike Spider-Man) that's also... pretty good.

If Marvel can duplicate that in expanding Iron Man's world (his character begs to be in collaboration... there's just not that much room to explore with him) as they clearly intend to do (stay through the credits... ALWAYS stay through the credits), I think they will richly deserve the success they get.

Seven Samurai, 5/5 monads:

Oh, hey, someone else watched Seven Samurai for the first time and thought it kicked ass. ALERT THE PRESSES. Yes, I'm late to the party. Very, very late. But, still: it's a delight to watch such a wonderful film for the first time. I didn't realize, of course, that it was over three hours long when I picked it for Koine: this was the first time we didn't have time for a discussion. But it was wonderful to sit in a room full of people, all of us enthralled by the flickering grey light that recreated for us that fascinating, beautiful village with its seven guests.

Permalink | Comments (4)

Doug Kmiec, a pro-life Roman Catholic, reaffirms and explains his support of Barack Obama. Among other thoughts that seem, to me, to be sound: "I believe that my faith calls upon me at this time to focus on new efforts and untried paths to reduce abortion practice in America."

Also: I like Catholic Online's favicon.

Permalink | Comments (1)

Mirabai's new mix, which you should all have been informed of by this feed, is something to write home about. Just the right combination of songs that impress upon one the eclectic tastes of the mixer, songs of delightful novelty, and songs that are simply beautiful. My own current mix manages to turn a bunch of my favorite songs into a jarring and uncomfortable whole. Time to begin a new one.

Permalink | Comments (9)

In fact, I really don't know what to make of it: apparently, wearing shoes isn't good for you. It disrupts the natural muscular and biomechanical rhythms we've already got built within us and makes us walk in ways that are bad for our joints and muscles. (Actually, the phenomenological description of walking in the article, as an immediate response to the ground producing what we feel as balance, is pretty good.) Add this to the list of things like grains, petroleum, and even the combination of the two through which modern science is now vindicating nature and critiquing sometimes very basic and certainly widespread instances of human contrivance. Now, in itself, that's really not too surprising; science has, after all, been pointing out errors in our contrivance for some time, telling us for instance that bathing is in fact not unhealthy and that lead-based medicines are (although the last lesson hasn't always stuck). I guess what has struck me over the two years or so is how modern science is now describing--or at least having certain findings publicized--how very basic parts of modern civilization are inherently contrary to human biological pr planet-wide climatological processes. Using contrivance to make our lives easier in the short term turns out to have destructive or at least limiting long-term consequences.

Continue reading “Not that I necessarily agree with this...” »

Permalink | Comments (45)

I'm sick of it, Andrew. I haven't had time to read or watch Wright's comments in full, but the ones Mr. Sullivan quotes are clearly within the sphere of opinions that could be held by good people, by people with arguments, people whose arguments--even if wrong--might actually improve the world if we had the kind of society that could deal with consideration of them. I fear that the main thing Sullivan--and so many others--are reacting to is that they cannot tolerate a world without heroes and villains. All victims must be unequivocally righteous; all villains must be unequivocally repudiated. American public will is like aggressive chemotherapy: we care little for the wholesale destruction of healthy humanity if it's anywhere near something we deem a cancer.

At any rate, if I go on to read Wright's full remarks and the next line is something like, "All white people must die," I'll probably have some back-pedaling to do. But am I really, really expected to get furious at this man because he reiterated the accusation that America might have reaped what it sowed in 9/11? This is the opposite of justifying terrorism, or saying America "deserved" it; on the contrary, it's an unequivocal attack on terrorism of any kind.

I am a bit angry at Wright for not sitting down and being quiet. Some of us would really like this Obama guy to be President, okay?

Permalink | Comments (6)

It's a pleasure to be reminded, sometimes, that I'm named after an animal that really fucks up other animals' shit.

Permalink | Comments (16)

In response to a request from our esteemed colleague Robbie, I've created an RSS feed just for comments. (You can also find this by clicking on the RSS icon in your address bar.) Wonder no longer if I've waited six months to reply to something you wrote. Those who end up using this feed should feel free to let me know if any alterations would make it more usable.

I've also created a feed of all Monadological Muxtapes using the crazy Yahoo! Pipes. (Yahoo! Pipes is crazy fun to play around with, by the way.) It should let us keep track of when people are adding new music to their mixes, which I intend to do presently to test it. Keep me posted if you are not on here and would like to be.

Permalink | Comments (13)

Notes for a future entry. This article: Why Superman Will Always Suck.

Glad it was written: Superman needs to be talked about. Disagree for various reasons.

• Power given > power earned. Yes. Yes! How fundamentally human that is. We are powerful beyond imagining, with no idea why on earth we should have it, or how we could possibly merit it.

• Superman chooses vulnerability. Dispassion toward others would leave him invulnerable; concern for others makes him mortal. Superman doesn't need kryptonite to be defeatable, he just needs Lois, his parents, Jimmy, &c.

• Moral absolutism. Many interesting stories already written on this angle. Frank Miller often uses Superman as someone able to be made miserably complicit in the evil of others because of his sympathy, or moral simplicity. Makes him the perfect foil for Batman, who is cynical and pragmatic. But frightening. Superman's weakness is that he sees so clearly the way the world ought to be. Deeply sympathetic.

Permalink | Comments (17)

1. These are the muxtapes I have so far. Let me know if I'm missing any: Fafner, Amanda, Mike G., Grace, HB, Me.

2. I saw Planet B-Boy on Saturday. I may, at some point, try to better articulate why, but it was one of the most moving experiences I've had in recent memory. I'm not sure I can recommend it unequivocally as a movie; I think I liked it in the same way that I've heard friends claim to like movies about dancing. The dancing in this movie is like watching an hour-and-a-half explosion of what Hopkins's As Kingfishers Catch Fire is all about. Selves--goes itself, myself it speaks and spells / Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

3. I don't really understand why so many people feel comfortable dismissing Christopher Hitchens. I watched a debate between him and a Jewish rabbi, the latter of whom blithely dismissed Hitchens as "depressing". Christians regularly write off Hitchens with rhetorical ease by saying that Hitchens's version of religion is a straw man, or "not really what we mean by religion". That's a fine claim, but the unthreatened casualness of it strikes me as strange. Isn't it an important possibility that the insider's view, or even feeling of what a religion is might be importantly incorrect?

Continue reading “A Few Things” »

Permalink | Comments (23)

Sorry for the outage for all of yesterday of Monadology, the Green Room, and the Arrogant Emu. My host explains the down time here. Frankly, this is the first trouble of any kind I've had from them and am not particularly inclined to be angry; the world has dealt with worse things than a day's lack of Monadology. Still, to everyone who spent the day anxious and afraid, muttering, "Where is it? Where is it?" while wrapped in a blanket, my sincerest apologies.

Permalink | Comments (0)