So, for the last... four-six months, I was teh suck at blogging. I'm going to try to rectify that, for a reason I'll explain later, when I'm done talking about other things.
Let's begin with the small things first.
One of the reasons I stopped blogging was because somehow, my archive pages were infected with a Trojan. I still have no idea how it happened, and I think I've solved the problem by rebuilding all the pages, but you've been given fair warning. I've refused to upgrade my edition of MT because I didn't like the early versions of MT3, but since my last visit to the official website a month or so ago, I've been won over again. So I'll try to upgrade my software sometime in the future, as well, and hopefully the Trojan problem will never happen again.
I really need a new blog layout. This standard one is starting to get on my nerves. I'm trying to decide between the first castle from the Howl's Moving Castle movie or the band D, since they've since supplanted Miyavi in my musical affections. (MYV☆POPS was teh suck.)
Yay for Howl's Moving Castle, in general! Today on the bus on the way back to school, I read the novel, which I bought yesterday at Borders. It's a lot different from the moobie. o_o; While I think Miyazaki did a much better job envisioning the characters and concepts (Calcifer cuteness! Castle-y wonderfulness! Sophie-older-younger interestingness!) the book was much more coherent and better at explaining things. Until the end, when neither the book (Howl and Sophie falling in love? Sure, it's great, but I couldn't figure out how one was supposed to see that coming!) nor movie (Haha, Turniphead is a prince! Let's end the war!) was really good at tying up loose ends in an explicable manner.
But the big point of all this was to tell Erin that she should be very pleased because I've been thinking very hard about GitS:SAC. (Yes, "git's-sack" is how I'll pronounce it!)
I'm still working on the idea of "stand alone complex" meaning "copies without an original." It seems to me that "sac" essentially means that the same concept or meme can arise in multiple entities at the same time with no interaction between the entities. If that's the case, then "copies without an original" is entirely misleading. My understanding of "sac" postulates the existence of "multiple originals (whose identicality to each other can be debated) which then can be copied/transmitted." Because my idea and "copies without an original" don't agree at all, I think I'm still not getting the GitS:SAC concept of "sac". I'm definitely going to have to reread the Wikipedia entries for Stand Alone Complex, second-order simulacra, and meme again. The second-order simulacra and meme are interesting things, even if they're not central to the understanding of "sac".
Is the Chief the Laughing Man? I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. There may or may not exist a Laughing Man (after all, it never named itself), which may or may not be just a bunch of copies, and yet one has managed to take human form? What's going on at the Health Ministry, where everyone acts so strangely?! Argh!
I'm also thinking about the idea of external memory. I'm still not sure that that is in terms of GitS:SAC, but I remembering reading somewhere online that the Major doesn't like keepsakes because it would be possible for someone to "reconstruct" her based on the things she might keep around. Just earlier today, I threw out the little City Museum of New York because it seemed like garbage, but I realized that if I have that around, I'll be able to remember so many things surrounding my visit to the museum just by looking at it. (I'm going to fish it out of the trash.) I try not to be too sentimental, but the packrat sentimentalist in me just can't bear to throw the bazillions of knick-knacks I've acquired over the years. When I think or see those little things, I can remember so many other things, events, feelings, and thoughts that otherwise I easily forget. In that sense, those items are my external memory.
Of course, this has to do with my blog revival. This is a valuable thing for remembering. (The entries are pretty simple-minded, and the infomation and linked memories are sometimes embarrassing, but those things are worth remembering, I think.)
Posted by amoeboid at September 3, 2006 9:11 PM=D Yay for blog revival~
I think the whole Laughing Man plot is one of the best antagonists in an anime series I've seen.
And yeah, I prefered the book over the movie, mostly due to Howl's characterization. He was so much more flat in the movie, but then "colorful" certainly comes to mind for Howl. Movie!Calcifer was very cute though.
Posted by: Erin-chan at September 4, 2006 6:51 AMI'm still oohing and aahing over that literature-tastic episode of Gits-sac. I went and skimmed through Catcher in the Rye to find that line circling his head, but I also found out that "The Laughing Man" is the title of a short story, also by J.D. Salinger. The series took a leap from 'nifty' to 'really interesting' for me ^____^.
Posted by: Benjbunj at September 4, 2006 1:31 PMI went and skimmed through The Catcher in the Rye last night to find that passage surrounding the Laughing Man's head, and picked up a bunch of other interesting stuff along the way. I can't believe I never noticed the "phonie" thing! Both Holden Caufield and the Laughing Man's chief antagonists are the "phonies" out there. Huh. Plus, I guess the hat and baseball glove with a passage written on it should have been a big giveaway. A short story by JD Salinger is called "The Laughing Man," and now I really want to read that. I think we can safely guess that the Laughing Man is a dead American author, at this point :P
The series just took a huge leap from "nifty" to "engaging." It's literatastic!