Reading/Watching Log #71

This month was all about spies and espionage, which not only meant three James Bond films, but also two television shows – one for adults and one for children – that first aired back in 2001, which I’m shocked to say was twenty years ago.

I also found out that three similarly-themed children’s books from various series I’ve read in the past have all released new instalments... pretty much at the same time! Enola Holmes, Wells and Wong and Sophie and Lil have all had unexpected continuations of their stories when I assumed they had come to a close. So that was a nice surprise.

And some Alex Rider, because you can’t have a spy-themed month without him.

Meta: The Problem With Witches

Yikes, it’s been dead around here, but real life has an annoying way of cutting into one’s blog-time. Have some random musings on witches in pop-culture...

This post doesn’t have any sort of profound conclusions to be drawn from it, rather it’s more of a series of observations that I noticed while knee-deep in my October viewing of witch-related media.

Woman of the Month: Jennifer Pierce

Jennifer Pierce from Black Lightning 

I know you’re all surprised that of the two Pierce sisters, I’m going with Jennifer instead of Anissa as November’s Woman of the Month. After all, Anissa is the fierce, ass-kicking lesbian who embraces her preternatural abilities and goes out to fight crime every night. Jennifer... is a teenage girl who mostly just wants to be left alone.

And yet, as I make my way through the four seasons of Black Lightning, I find myself relating more to Jen. Even without the eventual lightning powers, the show gives her an interesting setup: as the daughter of the high school principal, she’s a target of attention and speculation (anathema to a teenage girl) that culminates in her getting the nickname “Queen of Garfield.”

On top of that, she’s shouldering her parents’ expectations that she’ll behave as a model student, setting an example for her peers. Most teenagers go through their rebellious phase, but Jennifer is living under too close a scrutiny for her to try anything too drastic.

When her abilities do start to kick in, she’s more realistically reticent about them than her older sister. In her eyes, they’re just another thing in her life that separates her from her friends and classmates, though she’s also concerned about the biological and ethical implications: how are they affecting her body? Will they prevent her from having children one day? Does this mean she’s morally obligated to join the family business of crime-fighting?

It’s an angle that’s not usually taken in superhero dramas, in which most protagonists can’t wait to get out there and start beating up bank robbers. That Jennifer’s arc takes a longer route through the metaphorical forest makes it all the more rewarding when she finally dons the suit – and even then, she’s still in the midst of figuring things out.

As I’m currently at the halfway point of season three, I’ve yet to find out if there are going to be any changes to the timeline post-Crisis, or how the situation with Odell (a sinister government agent manipulating her for his own ends) will resolve itself. But China Anne McClain nails the teenage girl vibe: somewhere between having a deep emotional investment in the world around her, and no small degree of pertness when it comes to getting her own way.

Reading/Watching Log #70

This is the spooky season, so obviously we’re dealing with witches. It was an easy enough theme to pick for the month, and it provided me with a wealth of material to choose from: modern witches, old school witches, monstrous witches, superhero witches – but mostly nineties witches.

It was actually fascinating to watch the progression of how witchcraft has been perceived by humankind across the decades, from the servants of a male devil, to enigmatic (though not unwelcome) seductresses, to glamourous evil-fighters with an empowerment angle. The subject also brought into stark relief the way in which women and power are portrayed across the media landscape, and it’s been fascinating to see how it changes across the years – or in many cases, doesn’t change.

I won’t delve too deeply into it now, though there’s enough content here for me to write a whole other post about the topic and how it’s been received by increasingly feminist-leaning audiences, for good or bad. Stay tuned.

Review: The Craft and The Craft Legacy

SPOILERS FOR BOTH MOVIES

If you were an adolescent girl who came of age in the nineties, then it’s safe to assume you went through a witch phase. I’m not entirely sure what it was about that specific decade that kickstarted such a heightened interest in witchcraft, but it gave us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Practical Magic and The Craft, as well as a range of paperbacks ranging in quality from L.J. Smith’s The Secret Circle to Cate Tiernan’s Sweep, Silver Ravenwolf’s Witches' Chillers to Isobel Bird’s Circle of Three. Even Hocus Pocus.

Okay, so a few of those were technically released in the very early noughts, but nearly all of these properties have had a long shelf-life. Most of them are now considered cult classics, and since then there have been two prequels to Practical Magic, a short-lived television adaptation of The Secret Circle, Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a reboot to Charmed with a race-lifted cast, and again – even Hocus Pocus has a sequel coming out.

Then there’s what we’re here to talk about today: The Craft Legacy, the 2020 sequel to the original Craft film.

Released in 1996, The Craft is one of those rare examples of a cult classic that was reasonably well-received by critics and a box-office success at the time of its release. In fact, you could make a case for it being the source of the nineties witch-craze, particularly when it comes to the subgenre’s modern connotations with sisterhood and girl-power.

Of course, that subtext was always there to some extent, as it’s impossible to extract the subject of witchcraft from that of a. womankind, b. the wielding of power, and c. the societal fear of combining those two things: women with power. From the term “witch” naturally emerges themes of persecution and ostracization from society, particularly the subjugation of women at the hands of the patriarchy across the course of human history.

Links and Updates

It’s the season of the witch, which means that my Tumblr dashboard is filled with photos and images of autumn, despite the fact that here in New Zealand, we’re heading into summer.

The spectre of Covid-19 is still hanging over all of us, and much of the team spirit that defined our first experience with the pandemic last year is on the wane. The anti-vaxxer crowd are making their voices heard, and plenty of selfish assholes are flouting lockdown rules in order to exercise their right to “freedom”, even though their behaviour is only going to limit freedom in the long run.

If there was any justice in the world, they’d be the ones that catch the Delta strain and spend the next few weeks gasping for breath, though they’ll probably just pass it on to others. What I wouldn’t give to see a certain religious leader/nutter hooked up to a ventilator.

But I got my second jab this morning from a walk-in centre so I can tick that off my to-do list. And there’s some interesting stuff coming up...

Standing Tall #31

I haven’t done one of these in a while!

This giraffe, called The Best of Times, was one of the best sculptures on display. It was beautifully located outside Riccarton House, which is a heritage site comprised of two of the earliest buildings constructed by European settlers in Christchurch, and a native bush area containing kahikatea trees up to six hundred years old. It’s also where my uncle and aunt got married, though that’s neither here nor there.

Sponsored by Kidicorp (a childcare organization) the artist is Penny Cameron, herself a preschool teacher. According to my guidebook, it took over 170 hours to create, with thousands of pieces of coloured tile making up the mosaic surface of the giraffe, portraying a variety of places, seasons and activities to be found in Christchurch. I can see depictions of the Chinese lantern festival, the daffodils at the Botanic Gardens, and the Ferrier Fountains outside the Town Hall to identify but three.

I ended up visiting this one twice, as Riccarton House and its weekend markets are one of my favourite places to visit at the best of times (see what I did there?) and it was ultimately one of the most popular giraffes put to auction.