random unconnected thoughts i had tonight

[lapsedmodernist]

1) the last day that i was in mexico i got this weird false deja-vou to L.A., or rather what my life in L.A. could have been like had i embraced the sea/seabreeze/sun ethos. but then, of course, that would not have been me, that would have been somebody else.

2) i don't like the fact that i still remember my ex-boyfriend's phone number, but there is nothing i can do about that, i suppose.

3) circumstances are very important to maintaining resolutions unless you get off on nietzschean tests of self-will, and that's your meta category that dictates your actions in every situation.

Comments

on bullies

[(Anonymous)]

sure, it's off topic, but i can't agree with what you wrote about a connection between shrub and buffy's speech. keep in mind that dubya is fundamentally a coward. this is a guy who hid in the texas air force to avoid being drafted during the vietnam war (and then went AWOL for over a year, as reported during the campaign by the boston globe). it's also a guy who mocked a woman that he was about to have executed (and did) when she pleaded for her life. and he mocked her on nat'l tv ("larry king"). not to mention he executed more people than any other governor in history (over 190). thank you, texas "justice". and now with the Distraction (AKA, the "war" with iraq -- pay no attention to anything else they're failing at disasterously), you see that he takes on someone that he doesn't think can so much as bloody his nose. it's the basic reason any bully picks on a smaller kid. (notice how oj simpson didn't attack another big football player? he attacked someone who was too small to fight back.)

now, compare this arrogance and cowardliness with buffy's speech about how she and her friends weren't ready, but that didn't matter, they didn't have a choice. fighting back when you don't know that you can win and that you're afraid you'll lose is the opposite of what dubya is doing. (contrast what he is doing in iraq with what he is doing with north korea -- someone who *could* bloody his nose).

on yet another unrelated note, you might be right that this is the final season. whedon and co. might be taking a page from lord of the rings --
when the ring is destroyed, not only does the supernatural evil disappear from the world, but also the supernatural good that fought it. similarly,
destroy the "first" evil, and you destroy both the things that need slaying and the things that need to slay it. so, buffy could return to being a non-slayer, wrapping up the show. stay tuned...

-mjm

Re: on bullies

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

i don't think that the character of buffy is like dubya. i am just saying that the speech she delivered at the end of "bring on the night" resonates with a lot of the warmongering propaganda going on in the gov't right now, in terms of positioning, and phrasing. the text exists in a context and i watch it as such, i don't mean to be all baudrillardian and say that there is no difference between news and entertainment and that it's all intertextual, but at the same time buffy, esp. as a show that has always had a social commentary aspect is part of the larger discourse that is going on today. so no, i am not saying buffy is like dubya. but i have a hard time reading the plot development of CoW getting blown up (a very unusual mode of death on buffy, and never before perpetrated by the villains, if i remember correctly the only other two instances of shit getting blown up was in Innocence when buffy headed to the mall with a grenade launcher, and in Graduation Day when the high school got blown up. but we've never had an evil that blows shit up)followed by buffy's speech about how they just became and army and wherever the enemy is they are going to find them and cut their heart out etc. etc. with very familiar-sounding rhetoric. she concludes by saying there is only one thing stronger than evil and that's "us". or, in capital letters, US. okay, that last one might be a stretch but i think i am right about the rest, and i sincerely hope that joss whedon is going somewhere intelligent and subversive with it.

Re: on bullies

[(Anonymous)]

ok. we'll see how it goes (of course -- what other choice do we have? :)

btw, why didn't buffy just grab the "first evil" and drag him out of the hole in the ground and let him burn up in the light of the sun? i mean, besides the fact that there wouldn't be any more reason for the season? :)

-mjm

Re: on bullies

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

the ubervamp isn't the first evil; it's one of its aides. buffy could have killed him and not defeated the first evil. in fact, i am sure she will figure out the way to kill them before the big showoff at the end of the season. rememebr, the first evil itself cannot take corporeal form, it can only manifest as ghosts of people who have died.
and buffy was disoriented and the ubervamp was as strong if not stronger than her, i guess that's why she did not pull it out. also, staking it did not work, so maybe she was not sure sun would kill it... but probably she was just scared and taken aback when she climbed out of that hole...also that gave her a reason to deliver the dubya speech.

Re: on bullies

[(Anonymous)]

oh. i have *so* much to learn about buffy-dom.