Month: June 2017

Another symptom of the demise of class politics in Australia.

Another symptom of the demise of class politics in Australia.

Originally shared by Jeff Zahari

“When a report emerged claiming widespread dysfunction and depravity on a mass scale across indigenous communities, it was seized upon not only by Howard as a pre-election ploy, as it was narrowly seen at the time, but across the political spectrum as a laboratory experiment on a grand scale for more far-reaching changes in welfare.”

http://www.pipingshrike.com/2017/06/no-apology.html

A post in which I earnestly critique a kids cartoon series.

A post in which I earnestly critique a kids cartoon series.

Season 1 of the Legend of Korra was so reactionary that I gave up on the whole series.

Republic City desperately needed a revolution(1) but all they could provide was the usual masked villain to beguile the normies(2). An oligarchy of Benders, no matter wise and benevolent, didn’t strike me as much of an improvement over the imperial fascism of the old Fire Nation.

There original series was good. It’s hard to see Korra in the same light despite having had the same writers.

(1) as does Gotham City in another fictional universe

(2) this is so typical of the superhero genre and is very evident here as well.

Originally shared by Michael Chui

Finally finished watching The Legend of Korra. It is excellent. If I must rank them, I’d still place the original first, largely because it’s more coherent. That lack of coherence isn’t entirely the fault of the writers: it’s my understanding that Korra Season 1 suffered from being unclear as to the future of the franchise.

And frankly, an overarching save-the-world story would have been aping the original too much anyways: one of the chief problems I had with Season 1, and which stopped me from really pursuing 2-4 when they came out, was how badly it suffered from fan service.

I’m also not a fan of how much they used caricature to describe the romantic relationships, even in the abstract, but I’ll concede that one, there probably wasn’t a way to do it that I would’ve liked; and two, I’m probably not the best judge of that.

What i do appreciate is that it improved across all four seasons. Season 1 is, in my mind, unquestionably the weakest. Season 2, by the same measure, has too much cackling villainy and cosmic superpowers for me to actually like it for itself. They both had their strong points. Season 1 introduced us to Republic City and the reality of a new generation, and Season 2’s history lesson was a beautiful touch. But Zaheer stole the show in Season 3, and Season 4 was put together pretty near perfectly.

There are other things that Aang did better than Korra, like giving all the side characters real arcs. The entire timeline could have been meaningfully retold from the perspective of Katara, for instance, and virtually every recurring character had major revelations and moments of deep personal crisis, resolved by real choice and (usually) growth on their parts. In Korra, while Bolin stretches towards it, ultimately, the trio don’t meaningfully grow over the course of the series. (It is also possible I’ve simply forgotten the details of their stories all packed into Season 1.) Asami and Varrick edge towards it, but I didn’t find it convincing enough to call it really present.

All in all, I’m happy I decided to watch it and appreciate the setting’s growth. At this point, my recommendation doesn’t mean much since everyone who intended to see it already has, and I doubt anyone will be convinced otherwise by me.

I remain an extremely strong advocate that people show Aang to their kids when they’re old enough to engage with stories from beginning to end, with the caveat that if you’re not familiar with the series, you should watch as much of it as you can with them and understand that it’s fundamentally a story about a bunch of kids literally fighting a war, and the horror that entails, and remains entirely suitable for them.

Korra is probably more suitable for teenagers, but I have a difficult time putting a finger on exactly when is appropriate. I want to push it backwards for the sake of letting them get a taste of young love before they’re exposed to the caricatures, but I think it’d be easy for teenagers to read the shenanigans as somewhat obtuse and personally offensive. It’s a good series for showing that being incredibly powerful isn’t remotely a win button for problems and situations and recognizing the complex web of causes that they can have, at the political or the personal level, so it’s not bad as a reference point for when you need to struggle to explain something real.

Anyways, that’s it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1695360/

Not that many people are on the right of economic issues.

Not that many people are on the right of economic issues. There’s certainly a symmetry on the social identity topics of the day but it seems to me that the billionaires have done a great job pushing the economic centre way to the right of the bulk of the electorate. The libertarian corner (socially liberal fiscally conservative) is basically empty. (Source Jonathan Chait, nymag)