mostly Australian
May. 29th, 2016 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heliopausaI'm envious of those Australians who will be at home this week to see the first episodes of the new show Cleverman. It does look like it could be a bit tough, i.e. with depictions of violence - I usually steer away from such. (Here's the youtube trailer - it's a bit over two minutes long.)
Still, I'd like to see it; it'll be the first big Aboriginal-led futureish dystopian fantasy action show (and heavy on the social commentary) on television. Though it's not true, as is asserted in this Guardian article, that this'll be the first Aboriginal superhero; I remember the AIDS-inspired Condoman - don't be shame, be game! - even if no-one else does.
If anyone sees it, I'd love to hear what you think.
Two cheerful pieces of environmental news - from the giant karri forests of Pemberton, WA, and
from the tiny wastewater treatment plant in Jamestown, SA.
One pleasant indicator of social change, perhaps: a clue in the Friday crossword this week was She classifies Chinese religion, not film.
(The answer was taxonomist; the X was part of a larger pan-crossword clue.)
True, as a clue it's not especially exciting, but what I thought was pleasant was to see "she" used to mean "ordinary human", and not meaning something different from the default male.
War & Peace is back - I'm pushing determinedly for the end now, since the friend I was reading it with most unfairly gallopped ahead while I was away doing other things. I've just finished about the battle of Borodino, and everything has ramped up about 150% from the first part of the book. There is a stunning scene before the battle where Prince Andrei, half-repelled and half-fascinated, watches soldiers bathing in a wayside pool, their white bodies jostling and flopping against each other in the rusty water, which replays again in the battle (like two swimmers that cling together and choke each other, as Shakespeare says).
And the battle itself - where Tolstoy takes time off from the story to set the historians straight, and theories of war and reiteration of his position that wars are not in the control of any commander, that control is a delusion, and an absolute demolition of Napoleon ... It's truly brilliant stuff. And for me was made even more gripping by my total ignorance of the outcome of the battle - I knew the name, but had no idea how it was going to end. I knew about Napoleon's retreat, but this particular battle - nope, no idea. But now of course I do, thanks to brilliant Tolstoy!
He even manages to write a woman (briefly) as a real human being - where he has Marya's legs getting tangled in her long dress when she's walking agitatedly, and trying to think how to handle the threat of the approaching French, and a groundswell of what feels like revolution among the estate's peasants. But it's the whole depiction of war, of its chaos and uselessness, and the arguments about what is needed to actually win a battle... wow! Is this thing set for study at serious military academies? It should be.
Still, I'd like to see it; it'll be the first big Aboriginal-led futureish dystopian fantasy action show (and heavy on the social commentary) on television. Though it's not true, as is asserted in this Guardian article, that this'll be the first Aboriginal superhero; I remember the AIDS-inspired Condoman - don't be shame, be game! - even if no-one else does.
If anyone sees it, I'd love to hear what you think.
Two cheerful pieces of environmental news - from the giant karri forests of Pemberton, WA, and
from the tiny wastewater treatment plant in Jamestown, SA.
One pleasant indicator of social change, perhaps: a clue in the Friday crossword this week was She classifies Chinese religion, not film.
(The answer was taxonomist; the X was part of a larger pan-crossword clue.)
True, as a clue it's not especially exciting, but what I thought was pleasant was to see "she" used to mean "ordinary human", and not meaning something different from the default male.
War & Peace is back - I'm pushing determinedly for the end now, since the friend I was reading it with most unfairly gallopped ahead while I was away doing other things. I've just finished about the battle of Borodino, and everything has ramped up about 150% from the first part of the book. There is a stunning scene before the battle where Prince Andrei, half-repelled and half-fascinated, watches soldiers bathing in a wayside pool, their white bodies jostling and flopping against each other in the rusty water, which replays again in the battle (like two swimmers that cling together and choke each other, as Shakespeare says).
And the battle itself - where Tolstoy takes time off from the story to set the historians straight, and theories of war and reiteration of his position that wars are not in the control of any commander, that control is a delusion, and an absolute demolition of Napoleon ... It's truly brilliant stuff. And for me was made even more gripping by my total ignorance of the outcome of the battle - I knew the name, but had no idea how it was going to end. I knew about Napoleon's retreat, but this particular battle - nope, no idea. But now of course I do, thanks to brilliant Tolstoy!
He even manages to write a woman (briefly) as a real human being - where he has Marya's legs getting tangled in her long dress when she's walking agitatedly, and trying to think how to handle the threat of the approaching French, and a groundswell of what feels like revolution among the estate's peasants. But it's the whole depiction of war, of its chaos and uselessness, and the arguments about what is needed to actually win a battle... wow! Is this thing set for study at serious military academies? It should be.
