Heart of Darkness discussion

[Gomess]

Because if she was a real girl I'd probably try to bang her.

10 Ego Puff Points to the first person who draws a picture of me and O6 on a double date with Daria and Jane. Naturally the boys will be represented by Kenta and.. uh.. whichever of my avatars has been most memorable.

This was always my problem, see. G, you've read my old stuff. It could be funny or badass or even, when I tried hard, sad and meaningful but 90% of the time I had no idea what was going onto the page before I started, and that's where I failed.

You had a knack for creating atmosphere, but you're right, there never seemed to be a definite *goal* for the plot. As you say, character and concept are but halves of the whole, and neither should be given anymore credence than the other. My favourite stories balance the two, anyway, and that's what I try to do when I write; whether it's fact or fiction. I think this whole "balancing" obsession of mine probably comes from being raised on mostly Eastern philosophies, particularly Buddhism. It just seems healthy to me, to have a bit of everything for everyone.

DAMN COMMIES!

(Speaking of, how much of my shit have you heard?)

C'mon, I'm not on the internet long enough to listen to songs... Ok, I'll give it a go when I find time and start a WHOLE thread to give my thoughts on it. Happy? =3

[Onslaught Six]

Because if she was a real girl I'd probably try to bang her.

10 Ego Puff Points to the first person who draws a picture of me and O6 on a double date with Daria and Jane. Naturally the boys will be represented by Kenta and.. uh.. whichever of my avatars has been most memorable.

Ahahaha oh God yes. Ego Puff Points, man, back in the day...

This was always my problem, see. G, you've read my old stuff. It could be funny or badass or even, when I tried hard, sad and meaningful but 90% of the time I had no idea what was going onto the page before I started, and that's where I failed.

You had a knack for creating atmosphere, but you're right, there never seemed to be a definite *goal* for the plot. As you say, character and concept are but halves of the whole, and neither should be given anymore credence than the other. My favourite stories balance the two, anyway, and that's what I try to do when I write; whether it's fact or fiction. I think this whole "balancing" obsession of mine probably comes from being raised on mostly Eastern philosophies, particularly Buddhism. It just seems healthy to me, to have a bit of everything for everyone.

DAMN COMMIES![/quote]

Well, there you go. Middle ground!

(Speaking of, how much of my shit have you heard?)

C'mon, I'm not on the internet long enough to listen to songs... Ok, I'll give it a go when I find time and start a WHOLE thread to give my thoughts on it. Happy? =3[/quote]

You could just download it and put it on your fancy iPodphone or whatever the fuck the kids use these days.

[Dominic]

I would also cite Daria as a case of character driven fiction as it's very much about her and her view of the world that provides the plot for most of the episodes.

But, as you said, the point of the show is to provide an outsider's commentary. The commentator need not be likeable though. And, Daria is defines so as to make her a useful commentator.

But in my opinion, being able to communicate life experience is more important than having lived a range of it, when it comes to fiction.

The less one has lived, the less they are typically able to communicate. And, if a person is just sitting there, telling me what happened and then what else happened, I get fucking bored. I could care less that there were two World Wars. Tell me why they were important, and avoid bromides about how awful the holocaust was. This is a big part of why I do not bother with local news. It consists of breathless histrionics, but little explanation for why something matters is offered. (I take no pleasure in various misfortunes. But, I am not going to trouble myself with every little detail of an event unless I see some value in it.)

In terms of fiction, a recounting of events has even less value than a recounting of real events unless the author is actuall saying/arguing something with that recounting.

To be fair, Rorschach is meant to be a Question riff.

Moore changed all of the Watchmen substantially from their Charlton templates though. And, either way, Moore did not intend Rorschach to be seen as a hero.

And isn't that all anyone asks? The themes are brought up and the questions are raised, which is good enough for me I guess.

I usually want an answer offered. (I consider it kind of weasely to dodge a question. Even "I do not know" is a better answer than nothing.) I give Roche and Roberts a pass on it here, simply by virtue of the fact that they handled the question in a balanced enough way. The only clear monster in LSotW is Overlord. Even if Roche thinks that Impactor was out of line, Impactor does not come across as being that bad a guy. (I also find it interesting that Prowl, the de facto bad guy in some of Roche's other writing, wanted Impactor to tone it down as well, if for a sensible reason.)


Dom
-will laugh at magazines at the supermarket checkout though.

[Shockwave]

I would also cite Daria as a case of character driven fiction as it's very much about her and her view of the world that provides the plot for most of the episodes.

But, as you said, the point of the show is to provide an outsider's commentary. The commentator need not be likeable though. And, Daria is defines so as to make her a useful commentator.

Dude, what is it with the likeable thing? Nobody here was saying that she's likeable. At least not in the conventional sense. She's likeable in the sense that we enjoy watching her be cynical but she's not well liked within her own context. Which again is the point. We like her because she's unlikeable.

[Dominic]

O6 was complaining about her being unlikable.

Dom
-long week.

[Onslaught Six]

For entirely irrational reasons! And, to be fair, she actually is relatively likeable in the first few seasons--she's the protagonist, after all. It's only after she gets in a relationship that suddenly she starts acting out of character and bitchy.

[Gomess]

Maybe Mike Judge has Chris-chan esque issues.

[Dominic]

Why does a protagonist have to be good/likeable. Look at "The Stranger" or "Black Adder".

Maybe the idea was that being in a relationship changed her?


Dom
-HoD #3 next week!

[Onslaught Six]

A bit. And she did admit she was wrong by the end of the episode. But I can't help but feel those later seasons simply didn't fit into the same feel as the earlier ones.

[Shockwave]

I gotta get this at some point. You know what else was a good show on MTV? Undergrads. That show was hilarious. I especially love the episode where the RA for the computer geek agreed to change the schools mascot to the Decepticons.