One thing I've noticed now that my long spate of ignoring TV is over is how much the medium relies on stereotypes. They're pervasive, filling almost every show from edge to edge. I must admit though, that where I've noticed it most is in Kung Fu based films and TV shows where Chinese and Asian actors are almost always superpowered with martial arts. It makes me think of the song Kung Fu Fighting, which came out in the 1970s when martial arts films became popular in western cinema and playgrounds filled up with kids aping what they'd seen on screen. Since that time, when Bruce Lee was the top name in such things, through Jackie Chan, Jet Lee, Chow Yun Fat and others (Michelle Yeoh, for example), this stereotype of the Asian guy who knows fifty ways to kill a man with his pinky finger has persisted. It clings on like a limpet and I can see that it's cool. I like watching martial arts fights, marvel at Wire Fu and Wuxia but at the same time, it leave me uneasy. In pa...
Posts
Title: Lucifer: The Infernal Comedy Publisher: DC Vertigo Writer: Dan Watters Artist: Max Fiumara, Sebastian Fiumara (cover by Jock) The third volume of Lucifer seems almost like it should be a strange event. Mike Carey's original run on the book ended with the title character flying off to explore other universes, if I recall correctly, never to return. Volume Two, by Holly Black was mostly set around a 'who killed God' murder mystery and now in Volume Three we find him in different circumstances, yet again. The only constants appear to be his status quo - the history from Sandman and the existence of Lux and Mazikeen (his bar and his right hand woman who may or may not be Hela from Norse mythology). It's best to treat these series as completely separate, I feel, despite the fact that they have the same central characters. With that out of the way, let's consider the book itself. The story is compelling, one part being set in a town where Lucifer, and a st...
So here we are again, standing on the outside, looking in. Twitter, of all things, seems to have kicked this bout of my extensionalist, ahem, Existentialist Crisis having an Existentialist Crisis. Partly its that sense of standing looking in at everyone else's perfect lives and careers when I'm still trying to work out what the hell I'm meant to be doing with mine. Like the spud in the cartoon, I'm wondering what my purpose is, and how I best achieve it. Even as I'm hoping it lies in writing and teaching, I'm forced to admit I honestly don't know. It isn't just that though, it's also the amount of certainty I see online, certainty that this group or that will save the day, that this politician or that policy maker will wave a magic wand and make things different. To be honest, most days I'm not even certain what I want for lunch, let alone what I want to be in life or who should be running the country. I feel the same way I did about t...
A few months have passed since the XR demonstrations and Greta Thunberg's visit to the UK. Let's take a moment to see if anything has actually changed. The answer seems, basically, to be no. As expected, as soon as things went back to normal, the issue was quietly dropped, presumably filed as 'unimportant', at least in comparison to Brexit and ensuring that Jeremy Corbyn never becomes Prime Minister (which I confess fills me with despair that grown adults are more concerned with making sure their team wins than in doing what's right for the country). Things seem to be the same and the new British government is sticking to the 2050 deadline for making changes that Theresa May laid down. In other words, the current crop of politicians have decided to do nothing while the world burns. I say this, not to be spiteful, but because what 2050 often means is that the can is being kicked down the road so that someone else can deal with it. This is despite polling that sugg...