![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Something in the water?
Is there something in the water today? People completely unrelated to each other on my LJ friendslist and random mailing lists have spontaneously broken out in discussion of LeGuin's Tehanu and the show and movie of Wild Wild West.*
Oh, and while I'm working on art show stuff, the Travel Channel is on, running a story on catacombs of the world and the narrator is mispronouncing it as "cata cooooms" EVERY SINGLE TIME, which is driving me crazy.
* In one case, resurrecting a years-old argument about the movie, which runs more-or-less thusly:
"I can't accept Will Smith as West, because a black man would not have been employed as a Pinkerton (Secret Service agent/whatever he was) in that day and age."
"So ... you can't accept a black man as Agent West because it's historically inaccurate, but you can accept GIANT MECHANICAL FIREBALL-THROWING SPIDERS?"
Oh, and while I'm working on art show stuff, the Travel Channel is on, running a story on catacombs of the world and the narrator is mispronouncing it as "cata cooooms" EVERY SINGLE TIME, which is driving me crazy.
* In one case, resurrecting a years-old argument about the movie, which runs more-or-less thusly:
"I can't accept Will Smith as West, because a black man would not have been employed as a Pinkerton (Secret Service agent/whatever he was) in that day and age."
"So ... you can't accept a black man as Agent West because it's historically inaccurate, but you can accept GIANT MECHANICAL FIREBALL-THROWING SPIDERS?"
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I have no idea what's spiking Tehanu.
no subject
no subject
Machines which walk at high speed with steam-era materials drive me up the wall.
I liked the movie, but they still drove me up the wall.
no subject
no subject
So basically, we had to take either the complete rejection of everything we know about human nature and the period, or the steampunk. Since the steampunk "fits" better in the period since its structurally correct to the period, the black Pinkerton is the one that sticks out.
no subject
I also disagree that an audience can accept only one major break from reality (and what constitutes "major" and what "incidentals" is also a matter of individual opinion.) The entire series Samurai Champloo is a mix of correct period detail and all different sorts of wild anachronisms, and audiences seem to have either accepted it as a whole, or disliked the series as a whole.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Weird...
no subject
no subject
We're much more forgiving of license taken with technology in a given era because it could have happened with only a little imagination (and most of us don't have the grounding in the sciences to weigh it's likelihood). Conversely, we measure the possibility of a black man in the role of trusted confidant to the president in a societal context, which we understand much more intimately (or think we do.)
and let's face it, there's no 'holy shit! that was cool!' element to Will Smith being West.
no subject
I have your cheque, I just need to find a plain envelope. What happens if I send it in an envelope with the university letterhead? :p
no subject
no subject
no subject
Could you direct me towards this conversation? I am very bored.