I haven't posted in awhile.

I watched Succession. I have deep, messy feelings and am not ready to talk about it yet. I mean, it was very well done, but my feelings are deep and messy.

I'm really enjoying the change in weather here. It feels like spring, finally.

 I had a dream last night based on Death Note. In my dream I made the trade for the shinigami eyes, but when I try to see people's names my vision was blurred, and when I tried to write names down my handwriting was awkward and slow and I missed letters.

(Why I was so eager to kill people in the first place I am not sure)

Waking up, I wondered how the notebook would work for someone like myself who has difficulty recognizing faces. Would it be harder to kill?

I finally read the entire manga of Death Note. Some thoughts on the differences from the anime - although some of these changes are clearly different because of different translation rather than because of differences between manga and anime:

• In the anime I watched, Ryuzaki just calls Light "Light". In the manga, he initially calls him Light-Kun and then switches to Yagami-Kun (in contrast to Light's father, who is Yagami-San). I'm really not informed enough about Japanese culture to explain the differences, but the context gives me enough information to follow the story.

• I miss L quipping "that would be dark" (as he does in the anime) when Misa is talking about how sad she would be if she didn't have Light. In the manga he just says "that's right", no pun. I don't know if this is the translation or an actual change between manga and anime.

• A difference between manga and anime that was definitely a not a translation was the scene between L and Light in the rain and the follow-up scene of them drying off. I was surprised to find that this was unique to anime.

On a somewhat related note, I'm really not happy with the portrayal of female characters. I do kind of like Misa Amane, but she's the most prominent female character and is a pretty but not-too-bright model who is motivated entirely by her love for Light. Kiyomi Takada, another prominent, is described as stupid despite her good grades and is also strongly motivated by wanting to be Light's romantic partner. Naomi Misora and Halle Lidner have potential, but don't get a lot of time spent on them. Maybe one of L's heirs could have been female?

Speaking of L's heirs, I do think the story lost something when L died. It had been the L and Light show, and Near (and Mello) just didn’t have the same relationship with Light. Nor did they have any relationship that we saw with L. There's a short sequel story included in this version of the manga that reveals Near and Mello had all of one conversation with their mentor. I had figured L was a hands-off mentor, but that was even more less interaction than I would have thought. Anyway, I do think it was brave to kill L, but I just couldn't get invested in the rivalry between Mello and Near in the way I did in the rivalry between L and Light.

I finally decided to watch the Beatles' movie Magical Mystery Tour. As promised, it is weird and pointless. I actually think that its biggest issue so far is that the Beatles or their characters in the movie barely interact with each other. They have all this great chemistry, and so far (haven't quite finished watching it yet) the movie hasn't made any use of it.

I'm reading The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found by Mary Beard, one of my favorite classic scholars. So far it's not about the eruption itself, just what we know about Pompeii prior to the eruption.

I'm also reading the Death Note manga. I started it years ago, but never finished it. More recently I watched the entire anime a couple of times. Now I have returned to the manga and am very much enjoying it.

I'm reading a book of Emily Dickinson. I'm not a very big poetry person - I don't know why, because I love song lyrics. But Emily's poems are short and sweet and have a lot of words. I don't know if I love them, but I definitely like them.

I'm watching The Last Jedi, the middle movie of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. I liked the first movie, but this one is kind of dragging for me.

I'm listening to the podcast You're Wrong About - their episode on Santa Claus. I hadn't really thought about the relationship between Santa Claus, who has a factory where toys are created, and the industrial revolution.

You know, Joss Whedon was the showrunner on Buffy for years, and even after he was no longer showrunner he continued to have a lot of influence. And of course he was he was also one of the showrunners on Angel.

But I'm still amazed how many fans can say with absolute confidence, "This plot point happened because Joss Whedon felt this way". Like, how do you even know?

1. Billy Maximoff/William Kaplan is that rare example of a male character who is a successor to a female character. Two in fact: The Scarlet Witch and Agatha. It is nice to see.

2. I don't usually consider myself a big fan of time travel stories, but I really liked Death's Hand in Mine. I also remember really liking the Doctor Who episode Blink, so maybe I am not so much opposed to time travel stories as to certain clichés.

Well, that was a horrendous week. Not only politically but also with work and family stuff.

So, the media I have been consuming:

I'm reading a biography of Thomas Edison: Edison by Edmund Morris. It's an interesting book because it is written backwards: Each section details a decade of Edison's life, and Morris starts with the final decade and works his way back. The verdict's out on whether this will be too confusing, but I do appreciate the fact that the top of the page displays the current year. I wish more history books did that.

I'm watching and enjoying Agatha All Along. I may have more thoughts once it ends.

The podcast I listen to, You're Wrong About, has an episode on Elizabeth Báthory. It's a historical episode and I am really enjoying it.

Five icons from the final episode of the The Haunting of Hill House

Feel free to take, just comment and credit.


( Five Icons )

I don't have a lot of sympathy for Kaylee when Simon says she is "the only girl in the world", because honestly, I think her interest is just as shallow. She likes him, why? Because he's young, and cute, and a doctor? She's right to call him on his classism, but I don’t think she loves him deeply for himself.