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Jun. 10th, 2019 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Was trying to watch another episode of Sabrina but my Netflix went out on me. Then my internet went out (even though it said it was working fine) and apparently my phone went out as well...I know this because my mother called my cell phone to inform me that my phone wasn't working. She also wanted to tell me about a friend of hers who recently died that had worked for 32 years at the organization I'm currently working at. (It's a major state transportation agency that is high profile, so I can't really talk about it freely online.) My mother reminds of her mother -- she likes to tell me all about people who have recently died.
Regarding Sabrina -- S2 is reminding me of S1, it starts out well enough, then gets wrapped up in teen romantic angst, and I get bored. There's a love triangle or quadrangle forming, and eh, Sabrina loses me whenever it does this.
2. I realized today that I have issues with religion in stories. Currently reading The Widows of Malabar Hill, and in the novel, the protagonist flashs back to her bad marriage -- where she was forced to go into seclusion whenever she had her period by her overtly religious and superstitious mother-in-law. This was apparently a practice among the older Parsi sects. The seclusion is a small dirty room, where she isn't permitted to wash or see anyone, and is uncleaned. It's small and tiny, with little air or light, just a cot, a chamber pot, and clothes to change. I read it and was horrified, but not surprised. This was also a practice among orthodox Jews, Amish, Orthodox Catholics and various other religious sects.
Religion has historically been biased against gender. And I often do not see much connection between religious and spiritual. You can be spiritual and not have a religious practice, and you can be religious and not be spiritual. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand. Actually, they seldom do.
I have issues with religion. But my grandmother's attitude towards it -- you practice whatever you wish, no issues with that, as long as you don't impose it on me or expect me to do it.
The Widows of Malabar is interesting, it's an anti-romance, feminist murder mystery in India between 1916-1921. I'd say men aren't portrayed well in it -- but the protagonist's father is a kind man who helps the protagonist get away from her abusive husband and his family via the Calcutta Court system.
It does make me angry though. I wanted to kick people while reading the last chapter. Had all sorts of nasty fantasies about punching the protagonist's evil mother-in-law.
3. The problem with long-running serialized dramas whether in comic book or television format (and by long-running, I mean over 50 years or more and no, Doctor Who does not count, it took lengthy breaks and time outs), is that often the plots sort of zig-zag. The fun part is I have no idea what they will do next and have a blast trying to figure it out. The not so fun part is sometimes what I've figured out is more interesting than whatever they've come up with and I get frustrated. The opposite happens as well -- when they do exactly what I figured out, and it's quite brilliant, or they do something from left field and I think, whoa...okay, that weirdly works, didn't see that and didn't think it would, but it does.
Right now, I'm dealing with two long-running serials -- one on TV and one in comics and I'm not sure what either is about to do. They are both always on the verge of jumping the proverbial shark, yet somehow save themselves at the last minute. It's a marvel to watch. And they weirdly make their ret-cons and stories work.
Otherwise, I'd have given up on them. Well that and I like the characters and the character arcs...and the characters still fascinate me. I'm willing to handwave a lot if I like a character arc.
They are also the only things I tend to hunt spoilers for.
Regarding Sabrina -- S2 is reminding me of S1, it starts out well enough, then gets wrapped up in teen romantic angst, and I get bored. There's a love triangle or quadrangle forming, and eh, Sabrina loses me whenever it does this.
2. I realized today that I have issues with religion in stories. Currently reading The Widows of Malabar Hill, and in the novel, the protagonist flashs back to her bad marriage -- where she was forced to go into seclusion whenever she had her period by her overtly religious and superstitious mother-in-law. This was apparently a practice among the older Parsi sects. The seclusion is a small dirty room, where she isn't permitted to wash or see anyone, and is uncleaned. It's small and tiny, with little air or light, just a cot, a chamber pot, and clothes to change. I read it and was horrified, but not surprised. This was also a practice among orthodox Jews, Amish, Orthodox Catholics and various other religious sects.
Religion has historically been biased against gender. And I often do not see much connection between religious and spiritual. You can be spiritual and not have a religious practice, and you can be religious and not be spiritual. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand. Actually, they seldom do.
I have issues with religion. But my grandmother's attitude towards it -- you practice whatever you wish, no issues with that, as long as you don't impose it on me or expect me to do it.
The Widows of Malabar is interesting, it's an anti-romance, feminist murder mystery in India between 1916-1921. I'd say men aren't portrayed well in it -- but the protagonist's father is a kind man who helps the protagonist get away from her abusive husband and his family via the Calcutta Court system.
It does make me angry though. I wanted to kick people while reading the last chapter. Had all sorts of nasty fantasies about punching the protagonist's evil mother-in-law.
3. The problem with long-running serialized dramas whether in comic book or television format (and by long-running, I mean over 50 years or more and no, Doctor Who does not count, it took lengthy breaks and time outs), is that often the plots sort of zig-zag. The fun part is I have no idea what they will do next and have a blast trying to figure it out. The not so fun part is sometimes what I've figured out is more interesting than whatever they've come up with and I get frustrated. The opposite happens as well -- when they do exactly what I figured out, and it's quite brilliant, or they do something from left field and I think, whoa...okay, that weirdly works, didn't see that and didn't think it would, but it does.
Right now, I'm dealing with two long-running serials -- one on TV and one in comics and I'm not sure what either is about to do. They are both always on the verge of jumping the proverbial shark, yet somehow save themselves at the last minute. It's a marvel to watch. And they weirdly make their ret-cons and stories work.
Otherwise, I'd have given up on them. Well that and I like the characters and the character arcs...and the characters still fascinate me. I'm willing to handwave a lot if I like a character arc.
They are also the only things I tend to hunt spoilers for.
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Date: 2019-06-11 10:39 am (UTC)As for long series, X-Files was like that for me. I took to ignoring the mythology arc completely because it just made no damn sense. But I loved the stand alone episodes and the shorter arcs.
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Date: 2019-06-11 12:23 pm (UTC)It's funny, I don't mind spiritual topics, but religious practices make me crazy. Like I love religious symbols used in books, because they are cool. But dogmatic practices make me want to smack people.
Same. The mythology I actually love, along with religious symbols, mysticism, and spirituality. But religious practices/rituals - particularly the dogmatic ones -- make me want to run screaming in the opposite direction and/or smack people upside the head.
It's the difficulty I have with organized religion -- I want the spirituality and community, but I don't want the rest. The moment the organization dives towards the so-called religious practices...I get annoyed and start moving away. I am not a person who likes being "told" what to do or how to live or how to be.
As for long series, X-Files was like that for me. I took to ignoring the mythology arc completely because it just made no damn sense. But I loved the stand alone episodes and the shorter arcs.
Nods...I was like that with X-Files as well. I loved the stand-a-alones. (Which is odd, because I usually hate stand-a-alones but that show had some really good stand-a-alone episodes). Also the shorter arcs worked well. But the rest of it? Ugh. I just ignored and jumped out whenever they focused too much on it.