Jonas David's Blog, page 69

Heroes without guns

Another mass shooting today, and the debate rages on. What do we do about it?

Every time this happens (which is almost literally every day) there are the same arguments, and in the past I’ve always ignored it, not wanting to get into debates with people who’s minds aren’t going to change. But I’ve decided to add my voice to the crowd now, at least so I can feel like I’m doing anything at all.

The evidence is right in our face. Look at Europe, look at Australia. Less guns clearly and unarguably equals less crime and violence, but people here in America refuse to accept it and thus, refuse to vote sensible, reasonable restrictions and regulations into place.

The belief is that the real culprit is actually the few gun regulations we do have, that if only people could carry guns everywhere, there would be a goodguy with a gun to shoot the badguys before they can do any harm.

This is such a childish way to view the world, that at first I thought it was rhetoric, but, I think people in America really believe this. They honestly and sincerely believe that there are good people at the scenes of these shootings, who just wished they could have saved the day, but couldn’t because their guns were at home locked in a safe because of these crazy regulations.

And it’s not their fault that they have this view of the world, it’s ours.

The problem is with our culture, and it is our fault as writers, directors, actors, and creators. It is us, who have rammed it into the brains of everyone who has ever watched a TV show or movie or read a crime novel or mystery–the hero solves their problems with a gun.

We need to change our culture before we can change our laws. When every day of their life, people watching TV or movies see the enemy thwarted by Joe Hero, who scoops up a gun at the last minute to shoot the villain in the head, how can they help but imagine such scenarios in the real world? How can they help but think, ‘if only a hero was there with a gun, just like in all the movies and stories and shows I watch.’ How can they help but think that what paltry gun control we do have, is only holding all those heroes back?

If we want our laws to change, then we need the perspective of the people to change. And that is, in part, up to us, as creators of entertainment. We need less movies and stories where every problem is solved by shooting it or blowing it up, and then any guilt or psychological after effects are just shrugged off the morning after. We need more stories that show the futility of an arms race, and the danger of a weapon in the wrong hands. And the repercussions of actually using that weapon, even if it is to save yourself or someone else.

Maybe if the next generation could grow up in a world where only the villain would try to shoot anyone–or even want to own a weapon–and heroes avoided deadly weapons and resisted until they were absolutely forced to use them, and then suffered consequences afterward. Then maybe we’d have a chance to get our gun problem under control.

So if you’re a writer, like me, don’t give your heroes guns anymore. Don’t have them kill people in ‘cool’ ways then shrug it off. Because that shouldn’t be something heroes do. It shouldn’t be something to look up to.

Let’s have some  heroes without guns for once.

 

 

 

Jessica Jones, the hero TV needed

Disclaimer: I do not read comics or care about super hero movies or shows in general, and had never heard of Jessica Jones before this show. 

Jessica Jones is another brilliant Netflix original. It’s a dark, exciting, interesting show about a private investigator with a painful past, and a sociopath who can control minds.

But–it’s actually about a woman who’s parents were killed in a car crash when she was young, who grew up in a foster home, who has never been close to anyone but her foster sister in her whole life, and constantly alienates herself from anyone she meets. And a man who holds onto a grudge from his childhood like it’s a life preserver and uses people like objects, living in a delusional world where they want him to do what he’s doing to them and where they like or even love him.

It’s a show about people, not powers. About characters, not costumes.

In fact, there are no costumes in the show. No ridiculous, forced reasoning for why the character would wear a costume, no awkward, forced ‘gee what should my super name be?’ scene, except a humorous one where Jessica is rolling her eyes at the entire idea. Even the villain, ‘Kilgrave’ gets mocked for his pseudonym. (Come on, kill grave? Why not murdercorpse?)

And guess what? In a shocking and refreshing twist, Jessica is not a piece of flesh, but a human woman who wears clothing that human women wear! There is not one scene with cleavage or leg. There is no forced excuses for her to get into a swimsuit or dress up in some lingerie to go ‘undercover’ or whatever, and again, no ridiculous costume (which is always 10 times more ridiculous for woman heroes).

And when I call Jessica a ‘hero’, I suppose I should just say protagonist. Because, although she can be said to be heroic, she is not a ‘hero’ in the way the word has come to mean in these blockbuster comic movies. She is not trying to save the world. She is trying to save herself, and the few people she cares about. In fact, that the world is not at stake is another refreshing difference in this show. The story stays focused on the characters and their immediate surroundings. It’s not ‘if I don’t stop Kilgrave, he’ll destroy the world!’ it’s ‘If I don’t stop Kilgrave, he’ll torture and kill me and my friends.’ Which is way more identifiable and scary.

I can just imagine, if this was made into one of those movies we see in the theaters every six months these days, Kilgrave would be waltzing into the White house, and making the president get on his knees, then the camera would pan out dramatically while he laughs a villain’s laugh. Instead we get a brilliant, human performance–a disturbing, damaged human, yes, but not a caricature. Not a mustache twirling cliche.

David Tennant as the villain in this is amazing. I was worried he would be too likable, but no, he is not in the least. He is a creepy, yet believable person. Because the way he talks and the things he says are all too familiar, from rapists, rape apologists, and other abusers and manipulators in our society today. But beneath it all you can see that he is a frightened child throwing a fit when he can’t have what he wants, and such power in the hands of a person like that, is nothing short of terrifying.

There is so much good about this show, I just can’t recommend it enough. It is an adult show, so don’t let the Marvel logo fool you. It is all adult themes, and there is some gruesome violence. But the story too is adult. In that it is developed and mature and thoughtful and deep and interesting and poignant and all the things so many of these flash-bang comic movies and shows are not.

Watch it!

 

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Alien worlds in our own backyard

I watched this TED talk the other day and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It is exciting to think of so much unknown still in our world, even if I myself will likely never do any of the discovering.

There are millions of miles of unexplored caves beneath us. Untouched by humanity. What kinds of creatures might we find in these isolated environments? What strange evolutionary paths might they have taken?

Knowing that we don’t have to leave our planet to find the unknown is inspiring, and in another life I could imagine myself snooping through caves looking for strange creatures. Such adventures are not nearly as inaccessible for the average person as space exploration is.

Check out the video, and maybe go check out a cave!

Word A Day: Antipharmic

Time for another word, lets see what the old dice roll has for us today:

Antipharmic

 Definition: Antidotal; alexipharmi

Seems like I get a lot of ‘a’ words. I wonder if there are more ‘a’ words than other words in the English language, maybe something like Benford’s law, but for letters.

This is another truly new word for me, and though I can see the definition means antidotal, such as a cure to poison, it made me think of people who are anti-pharmaceutical, such as people who believe that vacations will kill you, or people who think doctors are evil.

I think no matter how far we advance, or how great education becomes, there will always be conspiracy theorists, and science deniers. Their numbers may shrink, but they’ll always be there.

It is just a part of being human, I think, to want to come up with reasons for the horrible things that happen in life and the world, other than ‘sometimes bad things happen to good people’. Small groups of people deny the holocaust, thinking it was too horrible to be real. A few people think the 9/11 attacks were faked or rigged somehow, because they are just too awful to process. And some people who get sick think that maybe the doctors or the medicine itself is causing the disease, because they need to find some villain other than nature to blame.

These people will always exist, I’m sure, but my hope is that in the future they will have a less harmful effect on the rest of society.

Maybe in the future the most crazy fringe group will be people who think the common cold is spread by the government to keep us down.

Wouldn’t that be nice!

Dead Snow

I watched this zombie movie on Halloween and was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a stupid gorefest with maybe a couple laughs, and what I got was actually a well crafted monster movie.

One thing that a lot of these type movies don’t understand is that if you play your hand too early, the audience is gunna be bored for the rest of the movie. This one does it right by having a slow buildup, and making you wait until nearly an hour into the movie to get a clear picture of what is going on.

This may make the film sound boring, but it definitely is not. It builds up, letting you get to know the characters, and when the action hits it hits hard and fast.

In case you didn’t already know, this movie is about Nazi zombies in the woods. Your typical ‘college students go to a cabin to die’ story, but it somehow felt fresh. Maybe because it was so well written and well paced for a movie of this kind. Do be warned though, it is in Norwegian, with English subtitles.

There were some very clear nods to the Evil Dead movies, but this is definitely its own film. I enjoyed it a lot, and I laughed and cringed more than a few times.

If you like zombies, comedy horror, and lots of blood, you’re gunna have a good time!

The Hunger Games

I watched this teen thriller, and was at once impressed and annoyed. I thought the actors all did a great job, and the movie was well made and good quality. On the other  hand, it was in desperate need of some editing, and there were several things that made me irritated.

In a battle royal type scenario, two tributes are taken from each of 12 districts in this future dystopian world, and all are forced to fight until only one remains. I’m not sure what the purpose of this is, but its been going on for 70 years and is a popular spectacle… or maybe its not, and causes riots. I’m not sure.

The first hour of the movie is spent establishing that Katniss knows how to use a bow, and showing her wearing pretty clothes. When we finally get to the action I was impressed they managed to get away with wht they did while still having a PG13 rating. Children murdering each other is not usually something you see so front and center.

Over all this was a good action movie, which I thought would have been better if 20 or 30 minutes was trimmed out of the beginning and used instead to make the motivations of the people in charge more clear.

Things that annoyed me: Spoilers:

These are minor things but are so common and annoying in all kinds of movies and books, that I thought I should mention them.

At one point Katniss is chased up a tree by a group who has teamed up to kill her. They decide to wait down below for her to come down, and eventually they all fall asleep. Katniss wakes up before them, and sees another girl in another tree across from her. The girl waves, then points up at a giant nest of mutant killer bees that Katniss hadn’t notices after an entire night up in the tree with it. Then after only getting a blank stare in return, the girl makes elaborate miming motions to explain to Katniss that she should cut the branch so that the bee hive will drop on the kids waiting to kill her below.

Besides how odd it is that she didn’t notice that giant hive of killer bees, the real annoying thing about this scene is that the protagonist is being helped out of a tough situation instead of  persevering on her own merits. I know this scene was used as a way to introduce the Rue character, but they could have had her just point out the nest and Katniss, being the resourceful hero she is, know immediately the significance of it, instead of her just staring like a helpless child and having to be told in specific detail what to do.

Annoying scene number two happens near the climax of the film. Katniss is tackled and pinned to the ground by another kid, and a knife held to her throat. Then, in classic villain tradition, the other girl (I can’t remember her name) starts telling Katniss about how she killed Rue and is now going to kill her. While she is going on and on about how she’s going to kill Katniss, she is tackled and killed by another kid, who overheard her saying she’d killed Rue.

This is annoying because instead of our hero surviving on their own merit, because of skill or determination, she is only alive due to extreme luck. If that girl had decided to just cut her throat, she’d be dead. If that guy hadn’t overheard what was going on and decided to save her, she’d be dead. It’s not a very satisfying feeling when the story is only continuing because of a really good dice roll.

This scene could have been improved by having Katniss holding the knife at bay, struggling for control of it, while the other girl says how she killed Rue and will kill her.

End spoilers.

Anyway, it was a good movie overall, I might watch the other three.

Circle (2015)

This is a very low budget movie, and very interesting concept.

Like Twelve Angry Men or The Man from Earth, this movie takes place in a single few hours in a single room with the same characters. The difference being, in this one, it’s life or death for everyone.

Fifty or so people wake up in a dark room, standing in a circle facing each other. They are also standing within a circle of their own, which they soon find out if they step out of, they will die. Additionally, every 5 minutes or so, one of the people in the room is zapped by lightning that comes from a black sphere in the center of the room, and they die.

It isn’t long before the people realize they are able to secretly vote, with a vote only they can see, on who will die next.

And that is the entire movie. A room of 50  people slowly killing each other and arguing over who deserves to die next. With only 5 minutes to choose between deaths, their reasoning is all very surface level and really highlights the prejudices we all have, and the automatic judgments we place on people.

I really enjoyed this movie, and love seeing this kind of thing. The less money or means you have to make something creative, the more creative you are forced to actually be. This movie would simply never have been made by a big studio with lots of money, whether they thought it would sell or not, it just would never occur to them to make something so simple. With no explosions or sex or creepy aliens or jumpscares. All it had was conversations, and it kept me stuck to the screen through it all.

Where the movie lacked though, was the ending. I won’t spoil anything, but the ending–though a fine ending in principle–was poorly executed.  I found it to be very telling, in a ‘rub it in your face to be sure you get it’ kind of way, and was a bit off putting after the smart movie I’d just watched. Treating your audience like they’re dumb is never a good idea.

I recommend this to anyone who was a fan of 12 Angry Men, or Last Man on Earth, or anyone who is a fan of the party game Mafia or Werewolf, it was a very interesting and unique movie, and I think you’ll enjoy it!

Word A Day: Cleistogamy

It’s starting to seem like I should call this ‘word every other day’, but, onward regardless! Here is the next one:

cleis·tog·a·my

klīˈstäɡəmē/
noun


BOTANY







self-fertilization that occurs within a permanently closed flower.

A word I have never heard, in any form! Botany is neat, and biology of all kinds. I think in another life I could have been a biologist of some kind. Life is so interesting!

This first made me think of figs, because a fig is like a closed garden, the inside full of tiny flowers. But figs are not self fertilizing, they use the fig wasps that live inside them to get pollinated.

A look at wikipedia tells me that peanuts, peas and beans are most well known for being cleistogamous.

The advantage of this automatic self pollination, is that it is much more efficient. There is no need to expend energy on petals, nectar, or large amounts of pollen to attract bees or other winged creatures to get yourself fertilized. The downside, though, is that the lack of genetic diversity leads to slowed down evolution.

I wonder if humans will ever be able to asexually reproduce. I doubt it would ever be popular, as it is not very advantageous to genetics. But, maybe it will be possible for women someday to impregnate themselves, and give birth to a genetic clone.

Or maybe we’ll all shift to exogamy… and everyone will be born in tubes.

Word A Day: Allusive

Well, I’ve already missed a couple days. I’m determined not to go back to my old ways of only posting a couple times a month though!

al·lu·sive

əˈlo͞osiv/

adjective







(of a remark or reference) working by suggestion rather than explicit mention.

I like to be allusive in my writing. I also like reading allusive things. Directness and clarity are great too, but when you figure out something for yourself by picking up on subtle suggestions, it can be very satisfying. Or even if you don’t pick up on it, but once it is made clear you can realize all the places it was alluded to.

I think Gene Wolfe is especially good doing such things in his writing, and it is something he has inspired me to get better at.

Everyone on Earth, as well as all their pets, should read the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe.

I’m not alluding to anything here, just do it.