Lessons in Alternative Lterature-by CCS on Influence

Muahahaha...yes my friends, it's the almighty 5337 CARD CAPTOR SAKURA! I've decided to finally let loose, go stark raving bonkers and adorn this blog with what could probably not be a more incongruous backdrop. I mean, you'd probably expect someone with such a blog to StArT TyPiNg LyK DiS. BuT I DoWaN bCoS dEn SOOOOOOO HaRd to ReaD, So I SToP LIAOZZZZ, k3K3???

Because lets face it-Card Captor Sakura was targeted at girls probably no older than 13 who are gullible enough to lap it all up and adorn their blogs with similar skins and go DIE SAKURA SYAORAN IS MINEzzZ (or perhaps Yukito, Lyn? =P)!!! So sue me for having pursued this series with undying passion for the past 2 years or more, and unabashedly proclaiming that it has played a major role in the nurturing my passion for not just anime but also Science, all forms of Literature, Music and more. Seriously crazy the amount of influence one single anime could have on a person's life. They obviously weren't joking in GP lessons about the power of the mass media.

Though it's ironic my tendency to overanalyze CCS led to my gradual depreciation of the original anime. In all honesty, on a scale of 10 I think it deserves no more than 7.5. Cheap marketing techs like coincidental Christmas birthdays and annoyingly overused clichés make the show lose its value if you rip it down to such intricate details as I have. Though its drawings were nice and most of its songs mind-blowing, the storyline was just cheap. Perhaps what keeps my interest is the toying with ideas on that fanfic I'm working on. CCS seems to have had this certain allure that grabs me. I have not been able to identify it and at any rate it still seems very much there.

But perhaps unbeknownst to the 12 year olds who've sworn their hearts to all them Bishounens might be CCS's darker side. According to Wilkipedia , due in part to its animation, CCS also has a wide fanbase in the internet, particularly in the Yaoi, Yuri (gay and lesbian) and Lolicon (sexual/erotic representations of underage girls) fandom. A link to the definition for Lolicon is also given there, accompanied by a picture that is thankfully enough not too explicit.

I'm not surprised of the existence of CCS Yaoi and Yuri. I'd known about how many like to think that Tomoyo likes Sakura and how Touya likes Yukito in such a sense. I was first introduced to the idea when I saw it on the message board http://www.sakuramb.com/. It shocked me outta my skin when I saw it and what followed was an animated debate with me opposing both notions, and almost everyone who came opposing me. I doubt I convinced anyone in the end but they in turn failed in convincing me. The end result was a sorta compromise that everyone was entitled to their own opinion before some technical fault happened to the board and it temporarily shut down.

http://www.sakuramb.com/ is up again. CCS, however, has been reduced to a little corner and is rarely talked about. Some of its regulars are people who would openly give the thumbs up for porn, and self-proclaimed homophobes are immediately subjected to a torrent of insults about being prejudiced. I can live with homosexuality but porn!? NO WAY. I gave a post slamming it (see here).The dude who rebutted me seemed to take it as a personal attack, which it seriously wasn't. However, since to date I got the last word, I suppose that means they'd accepted my view for now.

And even the people who watch porn are against sexual abuse of children, I'd probably be even more so. So my knee-jerk reaction to CCS being attributed to Lolicon sectors of fandom was understandably "How DARE you defame CCS like that!!!" I shouldn't have been surprised either however. My apologies Sakura, I'm gonna ditch political correctness from now on. Look at how long their skirts are. Even Tomoyo's costume designs reveal surprising amounts of leg. Though the boys are properly dressed, the girls' costumes aren't likely to have been an accident. Tomoyo I had more faith in you, you know! LOL, of course how she thinks is controlled by CLAMP, but tell me-is this a causative agent of a Japanese society that is often associated with Hentai and short skirts or is it a by-product of it? In other words, which came first-the chicken or the egg?

Short skirts notwithstanding, CCS is the picture of innocence. There aren't any bad guys or displays of evil. Even the antagonists (who aren't "bad" here) perform their deeds with motives often related to virtues such as love and duty. And in the end, everyone lives happily ever after. Not all anime may be as feel-good as CCS, but I think many of them-or at least many of CLAMP's are drawn in similar ways-IE with similar clothing. And Clamp's popularity is by no means small. It's the classic influence by mass media scenario-people see extreme violence, people try it out for themselves. Except this time, the violence is replaced by skimpy clothing and its something hidden beneath layer upon layer of wooly feel-good themes that does not make it very easily detectable.

The beauty of anime is its ability to hide a million and one complex themes, both good and bad, within the innocent facade of animation. The average Hollywood cartoon is straightforwardly simple-it's either 101% kiddy like Toy Story or slightly more- like Batman or Spider Man cartoons, which have a bit more violence, but neither of which appeared as a cartoon on the silver screen. Thus kids, perhaps even ill-informed parents as well, have in their mind that cartoons are good and suitable. It's this mindset that's likely to make them accept everything they see in innocent anime/cartoons and if normal films can exert such influences what more cartoons? So young Japanese girls start wearing short skirts and come to forums and people start telling them that porn is OK and that homophobes are idiots. Not all forums are like Sakura MB and exert age restrictions on unsuitable content. Like those will work that well-but at least they try. But in any case, it's up to you to imagine what happens when they don't.

It was just one innocent-looking anime, but while it brought out the best in me, it could also have brought out the worst in others. Just fascinating that a single show could hold so much. Alternative Literature-perhaps that's what keeps me coming back to CCS in hopes for more. I think I've totally drained this anime of its literary juices though. Try giving me one of those CCS quizzes and tell me to assume the persona of Sakura/Tomoyo/Eriol etc. I can assure you that I can do it with my eyes shut and get the exact same response you requested for. LOL...it doesn't seem that CCS upped their linguistic skills much. I think in terms of the general CCS fan base, the area that CCS helped them in is IT. Many CCS/anime fans make absolutely breathtaking web layouts. Obviously not me though. =X

Anyway, cheers all-to the anime that started it all, and a very happy 2005 for everyone in advance!!!

Christmas mini-post

Arrgh...no time to do that other Alternative Literature post again. Com's not been avaliable much recently. Anyway, I think I wasn't in time for posting before Singapore's Christmas ended. Stupid time difference. LOL, anyway here's to a belated Happy Christmas to everyone out there, but in particular the following 2 people.

-Yukito Tsukishiro of Card Captor Sakura, whose birthday somewhat sorta coincidentally happens to fall on Christmas Day!!! Aww.....

-Teo Zi Cheng, ex CHS clssmate currently in VJC, whose birthday happens to fall on Christmas day too!!! Was his birthday rigged? Hmm...

A very happy birthday to you 2 as well!!!

Am feeling particularly retarded now. That's what happens when you abstain from Singapore's crazy education system...

More lessons by X on Human Worth

Right! Finally get the computer to myself. Yet even so I'm typing in the dark because my cousin's sleeping on the bed behind me. But who cares, I'm bored and if I don't get this in soon I never will.

Let me first address Vhemt's stand-the statement I ended my previous post with. You may have seen Strider's comments (see his site http://www.estelazure.blogspot.com/ for more) on how this is an unfair comparison-true, I'd say. But there is anther point Vhemt seems to have conveniently left out-that you WILL have SOME control over what your child turns out. And as a parent, YOU are the one to make sure that when your family has a child, you do NOT have it when both of you are 16+ and that when you have it, you ARE ready for the responsibilities that comes with the hectic task of bringing a new life into this world, need not have a foolproof formula on how to turn your child into the next Nobel Prize-winning president, but at least are willing to put in as much effort into it necessary so that he gets as close to that pinnacle of success as he can. Sure, it'd be well unfair for one to blame parents for people turning out as criminals, but don’t you think they’d have some control over their child's morals? It'd be easy enough for a parent to say oh, my son turned out bad because fate/genes (their genes)/etc made it so. But to follow the first rule of "Highly Effective Teens" by Sean Covey, YOU are the force, and should be willing to do as main things as possible in your circle of control (upbringing) to nullify those that are in your circle of no control (child’s innate character etc.) In other words, to use Vhemt’s statement as a reason for not having children is A DELEGATION OF PARENTAL DUTY.

Now I do not think there is anything wrong with this at all. It signifies that you know that a baby isn't just for Christmas. So what if one of our main instincts is to reproduce? Some of us have brains and you probably do. After all, as many parenting magazines would proclaim, motherhood ain't for wimps. Your parents probably had a right job to make you clever enough to be able to read and understand this, and giving you an internet and computer at your disposal as well at that! Not everyone will have the physical, emotional and temporal resources necessary to raise a child even to such a level and if you don't, do us a favour and don’t and let those who can and want to take over-for now.

On to the case of the Humboat Squid. Let us first examine how a typical animal would behave if placed in the fishermen’s position. It needs food, so it hunts-except the fishermen would hunt for cash. The squid are probably the most profitable to catch-large creatures with lots of expensive meat that is a delicacy in Japan so the animal bends over backwards to try to catch them. And this, my friends, is where the dividing line seems to be drawn.

The average animal, possessing the strength and agility of humans, would probably find the Humboats impossible to catch. Thus they either turn to another source for prey and leave the Humboats alone. Humans, however, have their defining weapon with them-their intelligence. They invent jigs-a brutal fishing method that makes the catching of them deadly efficient, and the story thus turns out as it is today.

You would by now have realized how the behaviour of a human is so similar to that of a normal animal. It would be unfair to blame the fishermen for hunting the Humboats to the best of their ability, yet say a lion hunting a deer is OK. The fishermen behaved exactly how their instincts told them to behave and any other animal would have behaved in the same way. There’s valuable prey, you try your best to catch it. Except the fishermen would prove more capable because they could invent jigs and thus be able to catch them more efficiently. This will reveal 2 main issues.

First, we realize how similar man is to animals. The immediate reaction to this is that it's a cynical view point that states that man is a lowly, animalistic life form. Whether or not this is true is now irrelevant, because I am going to ask you-why this assumption? Are you saying that all non-humans are lowly life forms? Seriously now, why all this prejudice against animals? From your backyard in your own little dog, at the zoo with monkeys that learn sign language or even with the normally surprisingly intelligent Humboats, animals aren't all as such! In other words, it doesn't seem that much degrading to realize that one’s behaviour is similar to an animal. The desire to thrive is not animalistic-it's motivation. Following intelligent instincts is not animalistic-it's intuition and from what I hear women find it a most useful tool. Neither is the desire to try your best to stay ahead-that's common sense! I mean, no one will deliberately lose in the Olympic Games, is (s)he?

OK, moving on. Just saw Ms Beautifuk's post on the tagboard made some time back, which alerted me to the fact that Vhemt's claim actually des not revolve around the well-being of the environment, since cancer and rape of human beings isn't the earth's business. However, I still feel that the same arguement applies-people want to get ahead, become comfortable etc, they bend over backwards to do that. Only thing that stops other animals from acting the same way is their limited intelligence, which brings me to my second point.

The fact that humans are the smartest creatures to walk this earth is exactly what has caused the environmental destruction. Perhaps Spider Man's cliched "With great power comes great responsibility" would come to mind here. We have a obligation to preserve the earth and the excuse that we are following our instinicts when we destroy it does not apply because we are well aware of this destruction. So as prevously established the smallest daily action further accentuates the fact that this responsibility has been delegated by many.

Vhemt's option of human extinction seems much like a suicide note by some frivolus teenager- "Oh, I am so damned the world has no use for me so farewell!" You nut-that's an even further delegation of your responsibility! Unless you're convinced you are unable to nurture your child into an environmentally-conscious indvidual, that is obviously still not an excuse. It is the humans' very intelligence that causes them(us?) to be in the best position to help with environmental restoration.

So I think its important to remember here what is within our circle of control. Idiotic and selfish corporate bigshots who dump toxic waste into oceans are not. Unfortunate it is that a few of them are all it takes to make an entire company of people guilty. The way you nurture your children and the time that you choose to have them, however, are, so control them wisely.

A 17 year old tallking about family planning and nurturing of children-now that IS weird!!!

A lesson in Alternative Literature-by X on human worth

My mock exams are finally over. Chemistry was boring as usual, Biology was interestingly hard, Maths was just plain annoying, but English Lit was seriously fun! Anyway, the computer room in my school is finally available, so here's the article I wrote. This is the factual evidence-as to how I respond to this I will talk about another time, the post is already ridiculously long.

The thing that got me thinking was the anime movie X. Though it may seem draggy at times, that was probably because it failed in its primary motive-getting you to think, to ponder the storyline and ideas it introduces. This, along with a handful of other techniques, help make the anime a thinking one. If you are one who always thinks about what you are watching you will find this anime quite appealing. It was also a real eye-opener, its using of these techniques making it an excellent case study for Alternative Literature. Violence, for example, was used quite effectively; skillfully manipulating emotions with it to exacerbate the sense of sheer waste and suffering that was the central idea of the anime as a whole. I feel, however, that there are too few issues raised to make this anime "good" solely because of its intellectual worth.

The storyline in X is a simple one-there are 2 sides-the dragons of earth, dedicated to the purification of earth through the purging of mankind, and the dragons of heaven, dedicated to stopping the former from accomplishing their objective. It is thus easy to draw a line between the 2, separating them entirely with the dragons of heaven being "good" and the dragons of earth being "bad". An issue raised here, though, is that if this is really fair.

It is easy enough to separate the 2 as such in the film, as certain things that are done in the movie are quite able to make you feel as such. The protagonist, Kamui Shirou, for example, joins the Dragons of Heaven. Furthermore, we are also shown the argument of the Dragons of Heaven first, thus giving their case added "clout" in a viewer’s eyes. Even without these techniques, it is still easy to make such a distinction. After all, killing of all humans!? So much death and destruction! Of course that’s bad!

But is it? Yesterday, I watched a documentary about "killer squid". The species examined in particular was a certain species called the Humboat, whose main dwelling place is a sea off the Mexican coast. Fishermen there fear the creature more than sharks and tell stories about how many have met a horribly grisly fate under this "sea monster" It has also been known to exhibit cannibalism, painting a picture of it being a lethal, remorseless killing machine that eats anything that moves.

The documentary, however, continues to say how the Humboat is fished extensively and in an extremely violent, similarly grisly way called jigging. When the squid was observed away from the threat of being jigged by fishermen in their natural habitat (supposedly for the 1st time) though, the divers observed them to be peaceful, playful creatures that exhibited astounding intelligence-quite unlike the picture the fishermen painted. What thus emerges is that the squid’s viciousness is thus a defensive reaction to being overfished, which you have to admit makes sense. In other words, humans are the ones that made the squid turn violent.

All this devaluation of human beings could not have come at a more appropriate time. Ms Beautifuk's and Fr0's blogs also offer ocassionally the flip side of the story, and I have even seen an organization- www.vhemt.org -with the motto "May we live long and die out". It advocates humans to stop having children on similar grounds.

"Because after all, your next child has a higher probability of becoming a serial rapist than finding a cure for AIDS or cancer."

So what do you all think? Tag tag tag!!!

Marriage?

Very nice story-akin to the type you find on Friendster Bulletin Boards, but infinitely more well-written. Read it!

http://ehran.blogspot.com/2004/11/marriage.html

Couples

FINALLY managed to decipher computer language and learn myself how to attach links!Seriously pissed at the school computers now though. I craft an article, upload it to my mail so I can round it off at home, and am later told the uploaded file has a virus!!! It had better still be there when I get back! Let's talk about something else now...

Anyway I am mighty pleased to have managed to contact a fair few other Sec School classmates while on one of my sessions of blog browsing. I seem to like doing that, because blogs are windows to the soul, a way to ope up the infinite book of secrets that each and every one of us has. Am also discovering how everyone else has eveolved. Seems I'm not the only one to seems that has ditched me "secondary school self". Well after all I suppose now we are all in different environments, such evolution is justified. But anyway, welcome all of you to this me humble abode! For those that are still in the dark, I'm in London studying right now. WIll try to be back either next year CNY or the June hols. Will hope to see you all then!

Down to today's topic. Stop laughing already, this is not about me. Just happened to be a part of the following highly unique incident...

As I arrived at my school's common room today, I was greeted by Rutvi, a girl who appeared somewhat excited about something then. I held the following conversation with her...

Rutvi (Pointing at my other classmates): Did they tell you that I was going out with Umayr!?

Other classmates: Well she is!

R: No I'm not! I'm going out with the guy wearing the hat! (Points at another guy named Amar. He seemed to be wearing his cap in such a way that the rim partially covered his face, like some kind of Rock star guys who probably feels it gives them a sense of mystery.)
I'll prove it to you...(hugs Amar, then kisses him on his face, which he seems to return)

Others: Nonono! She's lying, she's lying!

R: Marcus what do you think?

Well the others had indeed told me about that story of Rutvi and Umayr, who is a good friend of mine here, thought they conveniently mixed up Umayr and Amar's names, saying that Umayr's name is pronunced like Amar because that's how Indians pronounce it. Out of boredom one day I asked Umayr about it and was told, with an interesting mixture of annoyed amusement, that it was otherwise, and so replied wth....

Me(Somewhat playfully): All I can say is that I think it's very easy to see in this college if someone's together or not...

R: THANK YOU!!! (Again she hugs Amar and they smother each other with a few more kisses)

Me: Yes, yes...very...marriage-like...

No one was listening now though, so, thoroughly amused, I shrugged and left.

Indeed it is altogether too easy to see if someone here is together or not. What I wonder though, is why in the world tell me this for!?

LOL, London-such an interesting place...

Destination Oxbridge?

Arrgh I hate Hate HATE the darn school coms here that actually have limited internet usage of 20400KB per day. Yes as you can see I even remember the quota because I always see it!! Darn it, sorry anyone who's been suddenly cut off when talking to me...well now you know the reason! But honestly, even YJC's computers were beter! And with the amounts you pay there, well I suppose you can't blame Mr Ganesh THAT much for dreaming up silly economy drives can you?

Anyway Mocks are approaching for me-they're something like prelims. The real thing is done in 6 separate modules-3 of which are done each year. If you read one of my previous entries you'll see what I thought about studying here and cheating. I don't know but as my dad says that ain't really the case. The reason about the comparatively easier papers here are because of the wider spread of abilities caused by London's much bigger population. And besides, the grade boundary for As here is at least 80% though it's sometimes determined by looking at a specific quantile of the overall country's final score-perhaps the top 80% or something?

*Following this paragraph is mindless crap. You have been forewarned.*
I don't know, have I really been so obsessed with failure? Perhaps the nagging fear of complacency or something that I won't "be the best" in Singapore or something? The teachers here once said that they want to prepare me for Oxbrige-that means either Oxford or Cambridge(Common enemy of Singaporean students and teachers alike!) University... Hmm...

Not too long ago typing that would have been a big no-no. I have been brought up such that I often hesitate to reveal much "personal info", the logic being that someone will most definitely have either something to say about it, or some way to use that information to your disadvantage in the near future.

Oxbridge? HAO LIAN AH!!! *Dreams me being squashed under a bus*

Ohh believe me my friends I too have often done that sort of thing myself... Where else might a bruised head get you???

Have I been making any sense at all? Perhaps it's a good thing, then, that I can't think of anything else to crap about now.

I will write about X soon, borrowed from Diyana Abbasali. Have been immensely fortunate enough to meet fellow Anime fan-WOOT! Am also reading this "Jing-King of Bandits" as well.

But you all enjoy your after-promo life. Will look forward to see you all soon!

BTW: Does anyone know how to Tag on Robin's blog?