Reading/Watching Log #48

Well, there goes December along with 2019. I have another forthcoming post about the year planned, but for now I'll focus on my usual viewing/reading choices.

It was the year of Aladdin, as I ended up seeing four different versions of it, as well as the arrival of His Dark Materials on television (the final episodes have been released; I'll review them shortly).

There were plenty of books from my favourite authors which have been sitting in my TBR pile for a very long time, including Philip Pullman, Francis Hardinge and Leigh Bardugo, and plenty of mysteries starring plucky young women. I managed to finish a few (okay, two) of the shows that have been on my "finish what you started" list, and continued my viewing of Disney Princess films and Hitchcock's oeuvre.

It's also the year I've made some decisions about the sort of material I'll be consuming in the future... but we'll get to that in good time.

Women of the Year: A Retrospective 2019

In the middle of the year, I has planned to start this annual post by saying 2019 was the year of giving with one hand and taking with the other. Now I'm more inclined to say that 2019 was the year male writers took a long hard piss over the three most iconic female characters of the decade.

Granted, I haven't seen The Rise of Skywalker yet, though my friend was able to break it down for me in great detail, and I've spent the last few days fluctuating between "well that doesn't sound SO bad" and "for the love of God, what the FUCK??"

I was mostly saved by the fact that I have been steadily (even subconsciously) disengaging with Star Wars since The Last Jedi, and the final few trailers for The Rise of Skywalker pretty much sealed the deal. I'll watch it eventually (and perhaps even do a more in-depth review) but that'll be months from now, once the final shreds of investment are gone and the on-line fandom meltdowns have ceased.

But for now a part of me is genuinely hurting, knowing that the brave girl who once snatched a weapon out from under the man who tortured and terrorized her and used it to defend herself against him, is ultimately forced by the sequels to form a quasi-romantic attachment to that self-same man who has spent the better part of this trilogy violently assaulting her both physically and emotionally. It's pretty sick-inducing, even if she IS finally free of him by the end.

All I can do is walk away thinking that at least Rey got off lighter than Black Widow, who joined Gamora at the bottom of a cliff to save Jeremy Renner, or Daenerys Targaryen, who had to be put down like a dog because women can't handle power, strong emotions, heredity madness, or... I dunno, PMS? We may as well throw in ALL the misogynistic cliches.

As of now, I feel utterly wrung out by these big franchises and their complete inability to do right by their female characters. I'll have more to say (or rant) about later, but for now here are the runners-up for women of the month. Pickings were slim, I'm afraid.

The Best and Worst of the 2019 Christchurch Santa Parade

The Santa Parade is an annual event in Christchurch, and I don't think I've missed it once in the past five years. I used to go frequently as a child, and believe it or not, some of the floats I saw as a kid are still going strong all these years later. Now that's staying power!

And the truth is that I just LOVE parades. They were always my favourite part of visiting theme parks in Australia and America, though it's hard to say why exactly they're so appealing to me. Maybe the organized chaos, in which all manner of floats, characters, dancers, animals and miscellany march down a blocked-off street for the enjoyment of the masses.

But a parade that's run largely on volunteers is sure to have its ups and downs: things that are generally innovative and colourful, and things that... aren't so much.

Having taken my niece for the second time, here is the best and worst of the 2019 Christchurch Santa Parade...

His Dark Materials: The Lost Boy

There are actually two lost boys in this episode, though the fact the episode title only references one is a pretty damning indicator of the fact that neither has anything to do with the other.

Yes, this is the episode in which Will Parry, the trilogy's deuteragonist, is properly introduced - a whole book before he's due to turn up if you're reading your way through this story.

And honestly, I can understand why this decision was made. Given that they're working with child actors, it makes sense to get them into the proceedings early before their growth spurts start, and it's clear the screenwriter is trying to build up dual journeys taken by the two children, journeys that will culminate with their meeting in Cittàgazze.

(Of course, by that logic Will should have appeared from the very first episode, but there simply isn't enough material for that to have happened. In The Subtle Knife, he's met Lyra by the middle of the first chapter).

His Dark Materials: Armour

I'm a week behind, with another episode having already aired, but - Lee Scoresby has arrived! Iorek Byrnison has arrived! Serafina Pekkala... has been mentioned! Let's face it, things don't get cracking until these three turn up.

It opens with Lee and his daemon Hester singing with each other on his balloon, and it's just magical. Right there they manage to capture the bond between human and daemon in a way that the previous episodes just couldn't.

And without missing a beat, they dive straight into the exposition, which lands with a heavy clunk. You know, I think this scene will pretty much sum up the show in its entirety: moments of true transcendence side-by-side with leaden info-dumps.

But Lin Manuel Miranda has spoken about what a big fan he is of Pullman's trilogy, and he certainly brings an energy and liveliness to the project that's been missing so far. A bar scene has him fighting with locals while Hester shouts out advice and instructions (which again, portrays the human/daemon bond better than anything we've seen so far) and his motivation grants him a little subplot in which he goes searching for Iorek's armour (even if it doesn't go anywhere).

Though they're characterizing him as a bit more of a con-artist this time around, even a pick-pocket. Eh, I suppose it's not that much of a stretch from what appears in the book.

Woman of the Month: Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern

I very rarely chose a real woman to be my Woman of the Month, since this is blog is fundamentally about various films, books, television shows and games (see its name). But at the end of 2019, looking back across the course of the year, there's really no one else I'd rather talk about than New Zealand's Prime Minister: Jacinda Ardern.

I voted for Jacinda in the 2017 election, and was elated when she came out on top. She's currently the world's youngest female head of government, and New Zealand's first prime minister to be pregnant while in office.

Although her policies largely focus on child poverty, social inequality and the housing crisis, she's best known on the world stage as the woman who led us through the grief and horror of the Christchurch mosque shootings in March, and her political responses to the tragedy: refusing to speak the gunman's name out loud, personally offering condolences and support to the victims, introducing stricter gun laws, and co-chairing the Christchurch Call summit, which aims to hold tech companies more responsible for the ways in which hate and terrorism is promoted on social media sites.

For the record: she is not perfect. Nobody is. There are plenty of issues here in New Zealand that need attention she has not given them (namely the protests at Ihumātao, which aim to stop a housing development on Māori land) as well as a few ill-advised comments about religious freedom (which should be the freedom to worship in peace, NOT the freedom to persecute others). It's deeply important that political figures are not treated as flawless celebrities.

But she also manages to be openly compassionate and trustworthy in a way that so many politicians simply aren't, and I couldn't help but smile at the teenage girls I overheard at work after Ardern's speech in Hagley Park: "I heard Jacinda speak, and I feel so blessed."

It's been a tough year, not only for Christchurch, not only for New Zealand, but the entire world. Through it all I've been immensely grateful that a woman with intelligence, compassion and empathy has been in the driver's seat.

Reading/Watching Log #47

Finished a ton of stuff this November, though a lot of it was started in October (or earlier) and took a while to work through. But it's been a good month, with all my favourite subjects: girl detectives, eerie fairy tales, suspenseful thrillers, period dramas, and at least one Disney princess.

His Dark Materials: The Spies

This was very much a transition episode, moving Lyra from Mrs Coulter's sphere of influence to the safety of the gyptians (with the promise of the north on the horizon), but it also made me realize something about my reading experience with Philip Pullman's trilogy, and why I'm not totally blown away by this adaptation.

So much of the joy of reading Northern Lights is in the way Pullman tells the story, his choice of prose and careful parsing of information, and those are things that any television adaptation cannot hope to capture. More than that, my enjoyment of the books is an intellectual joy rather than an emotional one.

I don't have a vested interest in Lyra or any of her relationships, rather it was always the slow uncovering of the theological mysteries Pullman had woven and the rich settings in which it all took place that engrossed me. I'm re-reading the books for the first time in years, and I just want to pore over all the strange little details and clever turns of phrase.

It was in this episode, when I saw the gyptian canal boats which were just your standard canal boats that I realized this just isn't going to capture that indefinable aesthetic Pullman crafts.

And that's okay. The books are unique in ways that are so difficult to describe (not helped by the fact they were incredibly formative texts for me) that I knew going in that I should just enjoy the ride.

International Men's Day: Top Ten Favourite Male Characters

It's International Men's Day, and I've decided to celebrate by showcasing some of my favourite male characters.

What they all have in common is a deep sense of kindness and compassion for others - which unfortunately, are traits that are not only in short supply these days, but often looked upon with contempt and ridicule. I'm reminded of a line spoken by Naomi Watt's character in The Painted Veil in which she scoffs: "As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue," and looking around at the type of men that fandom usually stan for, it's not hard to see her point.

Or as Simone Weil wisely put it: “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”

That assertion is up for debate, but an unfortunate side-effect of the assumption it raises is that heroic fictional characters, those who try to make the world a better place either through small acts of kindness or great feats of derring-do, are often dismissed as uninteresting, whereas those who commit themselves to violence, hatred and destruction are considered as sympathetic as they are fascinating.

Putting aside fandom's preferences, because YES I KNOW it's just fiction and shipping isn't morality, I still want to draw attention to the portrayals of good men in our media. Because simply put, I like seeing depictions of gentleness, compassion and empathy in any type of human, and it's Hercule Poirot who put it best in Evil Under the Sun: "To count - to really and truly to count - a [person] must have goodness or brains."

So these are some of my favourite male characters, not because they're morally compromised, or conflicted, or have sad backstories that justify their serial killing - but because they're fundamentally good people, and no less interesting because of it.

His Dark Materials: The Idea of North

The second episode of His Dark Materials covers a lot less ground than the first one, basically covering just one chapter of the book (whereas the last episode managed four). Yet for all of that, it makes the most of the power plays between Lyra and Mrs Coulter in the latter's opulent apartment, and adds strands of its own in subplots concerning Magisterium agents and the gyptians.

But though it was nice to slow down and delve into the complexities of Mrs Coulter, I'm a little unsure about the original scenes that fill in a few gaps which Philip Pullman had no interest in exploring. I recall an interview from him years ago in which he said "only tell the reader what they need to know", which accounts for great swathes of material throughout the trilogy that goes entirely unexplained.

In this current clime of over-explaining everything, in which every character has a backstory, every plot-hole must be plugged, and everything eventually ends up in a comprehensive encyclopedia published by the author, it's quite astonishing to read Pullman's trilogy and only get the bare essentials of what you need to know. If it's not essential to the story, it remains a tantalizing mystery.

How he managed to pull this off without seeming lazy or slapdash is a feat in itself, but it's part of where the trilogy gets its power: knowing that there are things forever beyond our ken.

Links and Updates

We're heading into the final stretch of 2019, so what's the horizon for the end of the year?

His Dark Materials: Lyra's Jordan

I have been awaiting this show for a very long time, since reading the books for the first time when I was thirteen, watching the disaster of a movie when I was twenty three, and hearing news of the BBC adaptation just a couple of years ago.

This story has been in my life for the greater part of it, from the way it changed my perception of how fantasy could be written when I was a teenager, to writing my thesis on its use of theology and religious dogma when I was at university.

And though I don't think anything could quite compare to the reading experience of the book and the way it gradually unspools its myriad of ideas and the scope of its world-building, I'm looking forward to a faithful and imaginative adaptation that hits all the major story beats of Pullman's original work, while giving itself some room to delve into the spaces that were left for further development or exploration.

I haven't done episode-by-episode reviews for a long time, but I'm going to make the effort for His Dark Materials. Just be aware that this will be full of SPOILERS, not just for the show but all three of the books, as I'm curious as to how this season will set-up or foreshadow the characters and events to come.

Woman of the Month: Jessie

Jessie from Toy Story 

I've worked my way through the Toy Story franchise this year (I'm settling down to watch the fourth film tonight), and throughout it all I kept a particularly close eye on the character of Jessie.

For a long time she was the most recognizable female character in the entire Pixar canon, a studio which has never been hugely interested in stories about women and to date has only featured three female protagonists across twenty-one movies.

Now I love Pixar films as much as the next person, but there's certainly room for improvement on that front, especially in the wake of the John Lasseter debacle. But for what it's worth, the likes of Dory, Helen Parr, Merida and Atta ensure that there's at least quality over quantity when it comes to the array of female characters Pixar has provided.

As a child watching Toy Story 2, I can't say I was overly fond of Jessie: she was so brash and boisterous - everything I wasn't, and therefore couldn't relate to. As an adult, I find her so much more endearing precisely because of the manic energy infused in her by the animators and Joan Cusack's vocal performance.

As Tom Hanks once put it: “no small amount of enthusiasm comes out of her,” and it's still a rare thing to see a female character who allowed to be so loud. Like, EXTREMELY loud.

She makes up a crucial part of Toy Story 2 considering the montage of her life with Emily ends up being the most emotional sequence of the entire film, and she provides further insight into the harrowing risks of being a toy when we learn the reason for her panic attacks. Imagine being a sentient toy that's stuck in storage for years... after being abandoned by the one person you love the most.

Sadly, Toy Story 3 relegates her to more of a supporting player. She gets a few good lines, as when she stands up to Lotso, yet she's reduced to a distressed damsel at one point for the sake of a gag (Spanish-mode Buzz rescues her dramatically).

It's not until Toy Story: Tale of Terror, the 2014 Halloween Special, that she finally gets some focus, in a story that tackles her traumatic history and crippling claustrophobia. After Bonnie and her mother stop at a roadside motel for the night, Jessie and the other toys take the opportunity to explore. But there's a strange creature at loose in the building, and when Woody is captured, sold on-line and packaged for delivery, it's only Jessie that can rescue him in a nice bit of role reversal from Toy Story 2.

That her usual confidence co-exists with a terror of abandonment and enclosed spaces is a great basis for a character, and here she's given the chance to face her fears by allowing herself to be shut in a box so that she might get to Woody, before using her wits and agility to expose the criminal scheming of the motel manager. As becomes her mantra in this episode: "Jessie never gives up, Jessie finds a way."

Is it a little frustrating that she had to wait until a twenty minute holiday special before getting a story that centred on her? Sure. But tonight I'll find out what Toy Story 4 has in store for her...

Reading/Watching Log #46

This month I was all over the place: starting shows and then getting distracted, making leeway on my TBR pile and then bringing more stuff home from the library, and generally just working very haphazardly through everything. But there was some good stuff here this month, especially the long-awaited release of Carnival Row and The Dark Crystal prequel, both of which were on my radar, and neither of which disappointed.

I also rediscovered a pulp fiction trilogy from Caroline B. Cooney that I hadn't read since adolescence and held up surprisingly well, a new trilogy from How To Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell, and the latest (at least until this month) from Philip Pullman, which I've been looking forward to for SO long.

It was also the month of Aladdin, in what was already the year of Aladdin.

A pretty good month of material all things considered!

Review: Toy Story 3

Perhaps the smartest thing Pixar ever did when it came to the continuation of the Toy Story franchise was to wait. Wait eleven years in fact.

At the conclusion of Toy Story 2, it would seem the story had run its course, for if the first movie was Buzz coming to terms with his identity crisis, then the sequel did the same for Woody. In those final moments, the two friends are at peace with each other and their joint purpose in life. One day Andy would no longer need them, but that day was not today, and it was enough to simply enjoy his childhood while it lasted.

But then… that day did come. And it came in real time. Those who watched Toy Story as kids were now at the end of their adolescence, and it was time to leave their childhoods behind. The third instalment and culmination of the franchise was therefore perfectly primed to make a potent statement on the passage of time, the inevitability of growing up, and the putting away of childish things… if Pixar could pull it off.

Well, of course they could. Just as the sequel was built heavily on the ideas and themes established in the original, Toy Story 3 had the advantage of expanding on everything the first two films had set up for it, as well as an obvious built-in premise: Andy finally outgrows his toys.

This was an impending reality that was discussed throughout Toy Story 2, largely through conversations between Woody and the Prospector, with the latter’s secret agenda leading him to stoke the former’s fear of change and rejection. “Do you really think Andy is going to take you to college?” he asks at one point, a question that’s unexpectedly answered eleven years later.

Um, yes actually.

Xena Warrior Princess: A Necessary Evil, A Day in the Life, For Him the Bell Tolls

For our next lot of episodes, we have the final episode of the quasi-trilogy, which wasn’t so much a three-part story as three separate adventures that managed to run-on from each other’s conclusion.

Along with the end of Melinda Clarke’s psychotic (and fun) turn as Amazon Velasca, we’ve got a fan favourite that brings Xena and Gabrielle’s Sapphic subtext to the foreground, and a fairly ho-hum comedic episode that once more combines Joxer’s buffoonery with a love potion.

Woman of the Month: Victoria Everglot

Victoria Everglot from Corpse Bride

It’s October, and that requires an appropriately themed Woman of the Month. As it happens, this is the third consecutive year in which a stop-motion heroine has featured, and not entirely by design. There’s just something about those movies that’s inherently spooky.

But I always try to make a point of revisiting my favourite spooky stories in the Halloween season, and this year was Corpse Bride – nowhere near as beloved as Coraline or The Nightmare Before Christmas, but with its own macabre charm.

You may be surprised that I’m going with Victoria instead of Emily, the titular corpse bride, but that’s only because I don’t think Victoria gets enough credit. She’s meek and quiet where Emily is vivacious and passionate, and the film genuinely keeps you in suspense over who Victor will eventually marry – especially when the story makes a point of Emily sharing Victor’s skill at the piano (performing a sweet duet with him), whereas Victoria has never been allowed to touch any instrument in her life.

And yet Victoria is a great example of how a female character can be innately passive and yet still have sweetness, dignity and strength in abundance. And when Victor finds her after accidentally committing himself to Emily, she grabs the sheets off her bed, turns them into a rope, and abseils off her balcony in the pouring rain to seek out help from the bishop.

Granted, this is her sole moment of agency, and it ends with said bishop dragging her home with the admonishment: “you should be at home, prostrate with grief.” Whether it’s being described by her parents as having “a face like an otter in disgrace”, used as a pawn to replenish their depleted fortunes, or getting held hostage by the film’s villain, Victoria isn’t allowed to control the narrative in any way.

Heck, it’s Emily herself who finally gives up her claim on Victor, realizing that she’s wrong to come between Victor and his living bride.

Yet there’s a moment at the beginning of the film, when Victor is struggling with his vows, in which Victoria silently reaches out and lights the candle he’s accidentally extinguished. It’s such a sweet moment of solidarity and sympathy towards someone who is clearly burdened by the expectations put upon him, and it’s this that makes Victoria special. You don’t have to sword fight or play piano or partake in witty repartee to be worthy of love – just be kind.

Reading/Watching Log #45

Wow, I got through a LOT of stuff this month. I’m not entirely sure how, but September ended up being extremely bountiful. I saw Miss Saigon for the first time a couple of days ago (mixed feelings), bid farewell to Killjoys, delved deeper into my Treat Yo Self reading pile, saw the latest in my Disney Princess rewatch, and started to get into some Dark Crystal supplementary material to go with the Netflix prequel. And more – so much more.

Standing Tall #26

So in the Souvenir Guide this giraffe is referred to as a “wild card”, which makes sense considering it’s the only interactive one. It’s essentially a three-dimensional blackboard, and came complete with a box of chalk so that passers-by could add their own drawings, doodles, names or dedications. As you can see, by the time we got there is was already covered from head to hoof.

The only permanent markings were a tic-tac-toe board on the back, a necklace of primary shapes around the neck and a few decorations on the head, which you can barely see amongst all the chalk scribbles – though I suppose we have to give artist Hayden Graham for them?

For Fun was situated outside Christchurch’s South Library, which allowed for a large foot-count of children and their artistic talent – though when I saw this giraffe again at the Russley Golf Course (where they gathered all the sculptures after January 24th of 2015) it had been wiped clean.

I suppose there’s some metaphor there about the impermanence of art, though it seemed a shame to lose all that work.

Meta: Why Aladdin and Jasmine are the Best Disney Power Couple

In hindsight it seems sad and strange that I picked Princess Jasmine to be March's Woman of the Month, Disney's first and only Middle Eastern Princess, knowing what happened in Christchurch just a few weeks later.

Aladdin came in for its fair share of criticism when it was first released, from its cartoonish portrayal of a fantasy Arabian city, to the ethnically-coded features of Jafar, to the infamous: "it's barbaric, but hey, it's home" lyric (the original lead-in to this was: “where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face…”)

A few "praise Allahs" and "salaams" are scattered throughout, and yet the tone is so intrinsically American and its narrative so Western that it can barely be described as a Middle Eastern tale at all. Disney took an aesthetic (or rather, the parts of it that were recognizable to Western audiences: the minarets, the harem girls, the turbans and scimitars – regardless of their authenticity) and wrapped it gauzily around a Disney tale of heroism, romance and believing in yourself.

The critique is out there, and it’s worth reading.

And yet despite the Disneyfication of the original Aladdin story, however much they diluted the culture upon which the film draws its inspiration, it nevertheless contains two likeable, relatable, three-dimensional leads – who happen to be Middle Eastern.

And though that fact may seem like a tiny drop in the ocean of the relentless awfulness in the world right now, this year it's been a balm. I saw the stage show in February for my birthday, re-watched the original animated film with my Disney-deprived friend a couple of weeks ago, and will probably see the live-action version when it's out on DVD later this year. From start to finish, and on so many levels, it's a great story.

So, I'm gonna talk about it some more. Specifically, why I think Aladdin and Jasmine are the best Disney power couple. Because what's the point of having your own blog if you can't go deep down the rabbit hole of your own incredibly specific interests? 

Woman of the Month: Artemis Crock

Artemis Crock from Young Justice

You guys know I’m a sucker for strong exteriors hiding vulnerable gooey centres, and there are few female characters out there that embody this better than Artemis from Young Justice. Granted, she’s certainly more spikes and sarcasm than nurture and niceness, but the show makes an interesting creative decision in that her attitude isn’t depicted as cool and edgy, but rather a little off-putting and detrimental to the team.

Not completely, but enough so there’s a bit of tension when she first joins the Young Justice ranks. She immediately butts heads with Wally, makes several inappropriate comments regarding Connor’s attractiveness, and isn’t particularly interested in following Aqualad’s rules (or anyone else’s). It was a clever way of feeding into the storyline of a potential spy within the group (her being the obvious contender), but also her growth into a more trusting, well-rounded person.

The first sign of her inner turmoil was when the team ends up stranded in the desert without their memories (long story), during which she gives a weary sigh and passes the whole thing off as an elaborate test concocted by her father. Then she casually tells Wally: “he probably wants me to kill you.” Yikes!

Turns out that her father and her sister are supervillains, which in turns leads to the role she takes in season two’s long-con: posing as a double-agent in disguise. Her fraught upbringing gives her an edge in this type of high stress undercover work, and for a few episodes she’s trying to keep several balls in the air regarding who knows her identity, who’s in on her faked death, and what the mission requires of her.

I recall some minor controversy back in the day when it came to Artemis’s ethnicity, as many couldn’t get their heads round the fact she was half-Vietnamese and a natural blonde. Show-runner Greg Weisman clarified the situation, divulging that Artemis’s design was based on a real person: Hanah Cook, the mixed-race daughter of one of the show’s directors/animators… who is in fact a natural blonde. Just the fact that Artemis’s design had to be backed up with “proof” of an Asian woman’s ability to have fair hair is sad, but it’s also an interesting behind-the-scenes tidbit that's worth sharing.

After the premature cancellation of Young Justice after its second season, it was a dream come true to learn that it would return for a third (and fourth), with all the original cast and crew members. I haven’t yet had a chance to settle in and binge-watch it to completion, but it’s at the top of my To Do list – and will probably warrant a blogpost all its own.