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tilbageidanmark · 1 year ago

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Movies I watched this Week # 145 (Year 3/Week 41):

The Axe, a French thriller by Costa-Gavras, about a laid-off executive at a large paper manufacturing firm, who fruitlessly tries for 2 years to find another new job. Eventually he becomes desperate enough that he starts killing his job competitors. A bit like Walter White, it's a roundabout critique of turbo-capitalism and corporate greed, served under a facade of black humor. 6/10.

🍿

Javier Barden x2:

🍿 Another biting anti-corporate comedy, the Spanish The good boss, a week in the life of Anton Chigurh as a charismatic factory owner. Like a benevolent father to his employees, he seems helpful and understanding - as long as it suits his very self-centered needs. Manipulative and Machiavellian, it's hard to take your eyes off him. 9/10.

🍿 Only my 4th Michael Mann movie, the King of LA crime city at night, the terrific thriller Collateral. A west-coast 'Taxi Driver' action thriller, with Tom Cruise as a killing Terminator, that like a bunny, dosen't stop. It starts with a quiet, beautiful prelude at the cab, and ends, after a long action-adventure, with the same couple who survived a long, bloody adventure, walking the streets at dawn, and [like the end of 'Midnight Run'] can't find a cab to take them home. 8/10.

🍿

Bekas ("Up and away"), my first Kurdish film from Iraq [actually, it’s a Swedish production, directed by an Iraqi-born Swedish director]. Beautifully set in yellow tint in bare desert landscapes, it's about 2 young brothers, orphans with nobody to care for them. After seeing a Superman movie in the poor village where they live, they decide to travel to America and meet their hero. (Photo Above).

The trailer doesn’t represent its simple mood. 7/10.

🍿

The mirror, my 4th unique meta-film by prosecuted Iranian director Jafar Panahi, about a little girl trying to find her way home. Mina is a second grader whose mom didn't pick her up from school, so she takes off on a scary journey through the dangerous, chaotic streets of Tehran (3 accidents are seen in the background).

But in the exact middle of this sweet, empathetic kid-film, the little girl is heard saying 'I don't want to to be in this movie any more', and the second half follows her clandestinely from across the streets, as she's supposedly no longer play-acting. The distinction between reality and make-belief is blurred and kept unexplained.

100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

🍿

"Haider, that burrito wouldn't budge"

Haider, an interesting 3 hours Indian adaptation of 'Hamlet', the director's 3rd part of a Shakespeare trilogy (After Macbeth and Othello). Set on the background of the modern day conflict in Kashmir, it's filled with cinematic anachronisms like Kalashnikov battles in snowy graveyards, and queen Gertrude strapping a belt of hand granades and suicide kills herself. Poetic and rich, it uses dozens of beautiful locations to tell the Oedipal story of murder and revenge.

Unfortunately, there are only a couple of song/dance numbers, the gravediggers scene, and the Nightingale Bismil dance.

🍿

2 with Adèle Exarchopoulos:

🍿 My 4th gay drama by Ira Sachs, Passages, his latest and the least enjoyable of them. A love triangle between a married male couple in Paris, one of whom falls in love with Adèle Exarchopoulos. But this small 'unconventional wrinkle' didn't elevate the flat narrative. Especially when the main character was such a flawed, vain and unsympathetic man. 3/10.

🍿 In Zero Fucks Given she brilliantly plays a young stewardess at a low-fare carrier based in the Canary Island. After the death of her mother in a car accident, her life is rudderless, emotionally stunted, hard. Like the cinematic style of the story, episodic, sporadic, without relief. 8/10.

🍿

“...Love is a most reckless thing…”

Another subversive Douglas Sirk melodrama, There's always tomorrow. Gender roles at the heart of American conformism of the 1950's. A toy manufacturer who feels unloved and un-appreciated by his middle-class family, meets a woman from his past. But no impropriety must disturb society's natural order; Even his children know that. 7/10.

🍿

2 Danish thrillers+ 2 delightful bonuses:

🍿 The Keeper of Lost Causes, my second of the Danish detective series about 'Department 'Q', which deals with "cold" homicide cases (after 'A conspiracy of faith'). Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares are the detectives demoted to work out of the basement in the typically-engaging Nordic Noir. Unfortunately, the story turns into horror when a sadistic psychopath kidnaps a woman and keeps her locked in a pressure chamber. 5/10.

🍿 Hærværk ("Vandalism"), a faithful adaptation of Tom Kristensen's classic novel about a 1920's newspaperman who self-destruct. Like 'Druk', and 'Under the volcano', 'Days of wine and roses', etc. it's a senseless and tedious descent into the depth of desperation and self-loathing.

🍿 Dexter Gordon playing in Montmartre Copenhagen and Oscar Peterson Trio with Guest Dexter Gordon, both from 1969. Montmarte was the heart of European jazz world at that time. Perfections!

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The Trotsky, a very thin Canadian comedy about a 17-year-old student who believes that he’s the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky, so he starts agitating for a Russian-style revolution at his Jewish Montreal high-school. This joke premise is quickly exhausted, and the class struggle aspect is played for laughs. Small roles for 'Lee Donowitz' Saul Rubinek and 'Megan Draper' Jessica Paré. One plus for a dream sequence that replays the baby carriage scene from 'Battleship Potemkin'.

🍿

The Burial, a David and Goliath legal drama about a flamboyant Johnnie Cochran-style lawyer who takes a case from small-time funeral home director Tommy Lee Jones, and - Surprise, motherfuckers! - wins big against an evil corporation. Old cliches of black identity, southern graciousness and old racism tropes makes this a shallow and forgettable effort. That that's even before they get into the second half of the movie, which they spend in trial; I can't stand fake courtroom dramatizations. 2/10.

🍿

Chantilly Bridge is a chick-flick TV movie that is apparently a continuation of a previous story from 20-30 years ago. This ensemble piece of all-female older actresses cast about long-term friendship, an all-talking"Big chill" for women. It doesn't have a Wikipedia page yet, but glowing IMDb reviews. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish it.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

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uncannyarcade · 2 years ago

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Snowycemeterygender, Snocemigender, or Snowcemic: A Xenogender that is connected to the imagery or feeling of being in a cemetery or graveyard while it is snowing or from when it has snowed. It can feel cold, dreary, unreal and/or peaceful. It can also be a locogender, biogender, or even a scenegender.

#mogai coining #xeno coining #locogender #snowy cemetery gender #xenogender #snowy graveyard gender

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kcrabb88 · 5 years ago

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What if Raoul de Chagny was a woman? A series featuring the major events (and a few things in-between) from the Phantom of the Opera, with a gender-bent, lesbian Raoul (and a bisexual Christine). ALW based, with Leroux elements.

 Scene 8: Christine and Philippe worry for Raoul’s safety. As anxiety mounts, Raoul and Christine lose themselves in each other. Christine goes to see her father, looking for a way to move past her old teacher and the grief that has long kept her in the shadows.

 Except, someone’s waiting for her, and that someone has been watching.

 (Or The Graveyard, pt. 1).

 She gazes around at the silent stones marking the dead and steps inside, making for the simple tombstone near the front of the cemetery, Gustave Daae etched into cold marble. She kneels in the snowy grass, putting down the flowers and running her fingers across her beloved father’s name. It should be warm because he was warm, but graves are not warm things, even if her memories are nothing but. It’s strange, how graveyards are such quiet, cold places, when the people they’re meant to memorialize were so full of life.

“Hello, Papa,” she whispers. “I need your help.”

Part 12 of She Was Bound to Love You

#She Was Bound to Love You #My fic #Here we go!! I'm proud of this I think I expanded my new horizons #raoul-de-chagny #Christine-daae #Phantom of the Opera

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archivist-bones · 5 years ago

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❝ cause we live in a house of mirrors / we see our fears and everything ❞

𝖖 𝖚 𝖔 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

“To abstain from politics is, in itself, a political attitude.” - Simone de Beauvoir, Prime of Life

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” - Abraham Lincoln

“The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over.” - Toni Morrison, Sula

“Take your foot out of the graveyard, they are busy being dead.” - Anne Sexton, A Curse Against Elegies

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bare to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“I can, with one squinted eye, take it all as a blessing.” - Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor

“And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed.” - Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger

𝖇 𝖆 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈

NAME: Amelia Susan Bones NICKNAMES: Amy, chicken little [ Edgar, Gideon ], bossy Bones, bubala [ sweetie, dear, used by Amelia’s maternal grandparents ], little Susie [ used by her paternal grandparents ]. AGE: 23 BIRTHDAY: December 28th, 1957 GENDER: Cisfemale PRONOUNS: She/her

𝖋 𝖆 𝖒 𝖎 𝖑 𝖞

MOTHER: Esther Bones née Levy [ 52, muggleborn ] FATHER: Edwin Bones [ 54, pureblood ] SIBLINGS: Edgar Bones, Gideon Bones [ deceased ]

𝖕 𝖍 𝖞 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈 𝖆 𝖑 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖇𝖚𝖙𝖊𝖘

FACE CLAIM: Maude Apatow BUILD: Amelia is 5′4 and slender, moving into a “waif-like” territory. HAIR: Long, pin straight without any intervention. Amelia either pulls it back in a bun for work or curls it to have loose waves. HAIR COLOR: Brunette EYE COLOR: Brown SKIN COLOR: Caucasian DOMINANT HAND: Right-handed ANOMALIES: A deep scar on Amelia’s left knee from childhood. She had been riding her bike, hit some rocks, and fell off. Gideon had to carry her all the way home as she sobbed. SCENT: Rose and bergamot perfume. Freshly pressed laundry. ACCENT: Normal English accent for a girl from Devon, England but Amelia has a rich vocabulary. Sometimes making her sound a little snobby, especially when she’s trying to explain something to you. ALLERGIES: Nickel jewelry, discovered when she was twelve and got a severe rash from a necklace she’d gotten on a shopping trip with her mother. DISORDERS: Amelia has always been a little anxious and worrisome but after Gideon’s death it has been a lot worse. She’s suffering from a lot of grief, depression, making her much more reckless and less likely to think through the repercussions of her actions. FASHION: Neat and bookish but stylish all the same. Feminine blouses, thick sweaters over collared shirts, pencil skirts and low heels with stockings. Looking professional helps Amelia feel more confident and prepared to face the day. When she’s at home or working on something, she’ll dress more comfortably, in jeans and t-shirts. NERVOUS TICS: When Amelia is nervous, embarrassed, or afraid she’s in trouble, she hates looking people in the eye. Embarrassed by her own emotions and fearful that she might have disappointed someone. She also will compulsively push her hair behind her ear, over and over, if it’s down and she’s feeling nervous. QUIRKS: Do not leave your muggle pens unattended with Amelia, the only thing she would never feel guilty about taking. She’s liable to chew on them when she’s studying or working [you won’t want them back ].

𝖑 𝖎 𝖋 𝖊 𝖘 𝖙 𝖞 𝖑 𝖊

RESIDES: Moving between London and Ottery St. Catchpole BORN: Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon, England RAISED: Born and raised in good ole Ottery PETS: A 2½ year old male ragamuffin cat named Humphrey

CAREER: Archivist, Department of Magical Law Enforcement EXPERIENCE: Amelia’s father worked for the ministry and would often take his tiny daughter along with him while her brothers stayed home with their mother. Edwin Bones is a man very interested in politics himself so it was natural for daddy’s little girl to pick up on that as well. Amelia was well known at the ministry before even getting a position there, volunteering in her father’s department during summer breaks. EMPLOYER: Ministry of Magic

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Amelia is aligned with the Order. The Bones children were raised to be forward-thinking and accepting of others. Amelia might seem a little uptight but she’s open-minded and empathetic. She believes in advocating for fair treatment of all people and social services for the less fortunate. BELIEFS: Amelia is a feminist and would probably be considered a democratic socialist. Her mother’s family are Jewish. Amelia considers it ethnically a part of her identity but is not religious. MISDEMEANORS: None FELONIES: None DRUGS: No SMOKES: No [ yes, she’s a goody goody ] ALCOHOL: Occasionally Amelia enjoys firewhisky or a pint on a night out but she is a notorious light weight. DIET: Amelia eats well most days but has a real sweet tooth and prefers desserts over everything. She’s notorious for forgetting to eat or knowingly skipping lunch when she’s distracted or obsessively working on something. She also doesn’t eat when she’s anxious or feeling depressed.

LANGUAGES: English, German, French, Hebrew

PHOBIAS: Failure, pain, grief, torture HOBBIES: Biking, reading, embroidery [ though she’s not very good at it ] TRAITS: { + }: Empathetic, steadfast, analytical, perspicacious, ambitious { - }: Headstrong, overbearing, critical, obsessive, anxious

𝖋 𝖆 𝖛 𝖔 𝖗 𝖎 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

LOCATION: The garden in her childhood home, the archives of the ministry. At Hogwarts, Amelia’s favorite places were the library or McGonagall’s classroom when it was empty. SPORTS TEAM: Holyhead Harpies GAME: A girl in her year at Hogwarts introduced Amelia to Clue one snowy night in her second year, it quickly became a favorite. MUSIC: The Clash and David Bowie [ Joe Strummer is the only man for her ] MOVIES: Funny Girl FOOD: Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. BEVERAGE: Espresso, specifically a cortado. Amelia would never turn down a nice butterbeer either. COLOR: Blue

𝖒 𝖆 𝖌 𝖎 𝖈

ALUMNI HOUSE: Ravenclaw WAND (length, flexibility, wood, & core): 10½”, willow wood, unicorn hair, quite flexible AMORTENTIA: Espresso, mother’s perfume, toffee, fresh parchment, challah bread PATRONUS: Magpie BOGGART: Dead loved ones, Lord Voldemort

𝖈 𝖍 𝖆 𝖗 𝖆 𝖈 𝖙 𝖊 𝖗

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Lawful Good MBTI: INFJ MBTI ROLE: The Advocate ENNEAGRAM: Type 1 ENNEAGRAM ROLE: The Perfectionist TEMPERAMENT: Melancholic WESTERN ZODIAC: Capricorn CHINESE ZODIAC: Rooster PRIMAL SIGN: Bee TAROT CARD: Justice, The High Priestess, Queen of Wands TV TROPES: Beware the Nice Ones, Action Girl, Reasonable Authority Figure, Academic Alpha Bitch, Wise Beyond Their Years, Go-Getter Girl, Lawful Good SONGS:

Au Revoir Simone - Stay Golden » I’m feeling better every day / And emptiness still leaves a space

Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - You Are What You Love » The heart attacks I’m convinced I have / Every morning upon waking

The Big Moon - Your Light » I wanna speak but I’m wondering how / And I wonder since when was my voice a foreign object in my mouth

Beabadoobee - If You Want To » Experience is nothing compared to / The nights I’m always up so late

Kacey Musgraves - Good Ol’ Boys Club » Never been too good at just goin’ along / Guess I’ve always kind of been for the underdog

Marina - Can’t Pin Me Down » Do you think I’m stuck-up / ‘Cause I’m always picking fights

Joy Williams - Speaking A Dead Language » And somewhere in all the talking / The meaning faded out

IDEOLOGIES:

Amelia always hated using in quills in school, much preferring muggle pens. When twenty pages deep in a paper about the applications of the veritaserum when you have no interest in potions, saving time is key.

Amelia very much believes in the old adage, you can sleep when you’re dead. Not really a night owl or a morning person, she’s caught somewhere in between where she basically shirks sleep until it overtakes her.

Amelia would take a cup of coffee over tea any day.

Amelia is wholly convinced that David Bowie is a wizard, don’t fight her on this. She’s got a theory.

Amelia hopes that the Order can make a difference but is concerned that they will be overpowered. She wholeheartedly believes that it is better to do something than stand aside and do nothing. This viewpoint extends to her interest in ministry politics.

#❝ i’m feeling better every day ❞ — about #dulcetask

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obscurehistoricalinterests · 5 years ago

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Repossessing the Body: Transgressive Desire in “Carmilla” and “Dracula” (IV)

By Elizabeth Signorotti (1996)

Part I - Part II - Part III

Thesis: Carmilla is a story of female empowerment, and Dracula is a patriarchal response to it.

Repossessing the Body: Transgressive Desire in “Carmilla” and “Dracula” (part IV)

Stoker’s familiarity with Le Fanu’s vampire tale is certain. Farson claims that Stoker was “absorbed in the vampirism in ‘Carmilla,’ published two years after he left Trinity” but more convincing evidence is found in the original first chapter of Dracula, which Stoker deleted when his publisher requested that he shorten the book to reduce printing costs. In this section, he alludes to “Carmilla.” At the opening of this chapter, Jonathan Harker loses his way as he sets out for Castle Dracula on Walpurgis Nacht, a night “when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked, when all evil things of earth and air and water held revel.” A shaft of moonlight reveals he is in an overgrown graveyard with a great, snowy-white marble tomb before him.

Impelled by some sort of fascination, I approached the sepulchre to see what it was, and why such a thing stood alone in such a place. I walked around it, and read, over the Doric door, in German:

Countess Dolingen of Gratz

In Styria

Sought and Found Death

1801

On the top of the tomb, seemingly driven through the solid marble - for the structure was composed of a few vast blocks of stone - was a great iron spike or stake. On going to the back, I saw, graven in great Russian letters: ‘The dead travel fast.’

The reference to Styria recalls the Austrian setting of “Carmilla” and invites comparison between the two vampire tales. Whereas “Carmilla” abolishes male rights over women, Dracula reasserts those rights. This is indeed the key distinction between Dracula and “Carmilla,” one that Stoker apparently had in mind from the opening -albeit deleted- chapter of this book.

Stoker’s overriding concern in Dracula is the threat of rampant female sexual desire. Senf rightly points out that this ancient, aristocratic vampire who prays on the wives and fiancees of England’s working class reveals, among other things, the “power that negative social values from the past often have over the present.” As Troy Boone further concludes, the novel suggests that “a new understanding of sexuality and decay is necessary for any attempt to attain social order and growth” and that “for all its apparent ‘reification’ of dominant political beliefs, [Stoker’s text] exposes the dangers of failing to challenge their authority.” Both Senf and Boone present valid arguments, but, like other readings in Dracula’s critical legacy, theirs fail to emphasize the degree to which Stoker responds to the threat of female sexuality in Dracula. In Stoker’s text Dracula - and Dracula’s sense of sexuality- actually dominates very few of the scenes, whereas the sexually-charged female vampires - those at Castle Dracula, Lucy and Mina- receive most of Stoker’s attention.

For his first “experiment” in Dracula, Stoker presents the problem of Lucy’s sexual aggressiveness, a problem to which he ultimately provides a violent solution. Although Lucy’s sexuality does not become rabid until her vampiric possession, Stoker presents her from the beginning as exhibiting personality traits potentially dangerous in women. In a letter to Mina, Lucy asks, “why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her?” Her wishing for the right to have more than one sexual partner -a reality for males such as Stoker himself- makes her a threat to established gender roles. Stoker feels obliged to inform the reader that her wishes were unseemly when, in the same passage, she again asks Mina, “why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?” Lucy serves as Stoker’s paradigm of woman-gone-wrong and predictably suffers from it.

In his attempt to redress Carmilla’s defiant behavior, Stoker imbues Lucy with Carmillaesque qualities. Her sleepwalking, which indicates a propensity towards vampirism in Dracula, first occurs in her childhood, just as Carmilla first visits and “infects: Laura during her childhood. In both works, the tendency towards socially aberrant behavior arises in early childhood, but while Carmilla’s and Laura’s behavior remains unrestrained, Lucy’s is eventually checked. Stoker also suggests that Lucy has lesbian tendencies. In a letter to Mina she says, “I wish I were with you, dear, sitting by the fire undressing, as we used to sit; and I would try to tell you what I feel. I do not know how I am writing this even to you. I am afraid to stop, or I should tear up the letter, and I don’t want to stop, for I do so want to tell you all.” Lucy’s wish to share her secrets while undressing suggests her desire to reveal “what is more properly concealed,” something she knows is “wrong.” The men in the text can control Lucy and Mina’s homosocial relationship as long as they both remain accessible; they cannot, however, control what Lucy presumably has in mind.

As if to temper her questionable behavior, Stoker denies Lucy her inheritance rights and places her firmly within the male-governed kinship system. Lucy’s mother, who controls the Westenra estate after her husband’s death, dies shortly before Lucy’s marriage to Arthur Holmwood. Mrs. Westenra, Dr. Seward tells us, “had for some time expected sudden death from her heart, and had put her affairs in absolute order... with the exception of a certain entailed property of Lucy’s father which now, in default of direct issue, went back to a distant branch of the family, the whole estate, real and personal, was left absolutely to Arthur Holmwood.” Separating Lucy from her inheritance fictionally and historically positions her in a “long tradition in which women do not inherit.” Even before Lucy’s wedding, Mrs. Westenra (whose role is the “corrected” equivalent of Carmilla’s subversive mother) ensures Lucy’s total dependence on her future husband. If her daughter had any wild ideas about being financially independent in marriage, she has permanently disabled her.

Once Dracula kisses Lucy into sudden sexuality, she grows “voluptuous,” “savage,” “wanton,” and “diabolically sweet.” Dracula’s “authorizing kiss... triggers the release of the latent power and excites in [Lucy] a sexuality so mobile, so aggressive, that it thoroughly disrupts... [compartmentalized conceptions] of gender” (Craft 228). Dracula’s kiss enables women to become sexual penetrators. Using their sharp teeth to penetrate men, they reverse traditional gender roles and place men in the passive position customarily reserved for women. In “Carmilla” the penetration of female vampires - in effect, the female appropriation of the phallus - is seen as an act of empowerment; in Dracula, however, Lucy’s unmanageable sexual penetration is presented as inherently evil because it threatens fixed gender distinctions. In an attempt to cure Lucy of her reckless sexuality, Van Helsing and his crew of “brave men” perform massive blood transfusions on her. By having her drained blood replaced with a “brave man”s blood,” Lucy might survive. The act of transfusing blood, of penetrating Lucy’s body with the phallic needle and enabling the men to deposit their own fluids in her, conjures up images of gang rape. As Rubin stresses, “women [in some societies] are frequently kept in their place by gang rape when the ordinary mechanisms of masculine intimidation prove insufficient.” Ironically, Lucy’s wish to marry “as many [men] as want her” violently comes true. Each transfusion symbolizes a kind of ghastly marriage and prompts Van Helsing to fret that “this so sweet maid is a polyandrist.” Stoker gives Lucy what she wants and teaches her a lesson at the same time.

But the gang transfusions fail to cure Lucy’s sexual recalcitrance, prompting Van Helsing’s crew to attempt to mask her sexuality by surrounding her with pungent garlic flowers. While garlic plays a symbolic role in traditional vampire folklore, in Dracula its role is dual. More than just a traditional means of discouraging Dracula’s visits, the ability of garlic to disguise odors, especially body odors, suggests, as Alain Corbin argues in The Foul and the Fragrant, “a way of denying the sexual role of the sense of smell, or at least of shifting the field of olfactory stimulation and allusion.” Van Helsing and Dr. Seward saturate Lucy’s body and environs with garlic flowers not only to keep Dracula at bay but possibly to disguise the sexual odors her newly excited body exudes.

Lucy’s unresponsiveness to ordinary mechanisms of masculine intimidation while alive permits Van Helsing and company, after her death and resurrection as an Undead, to resort to the most violent means of correction available to them. Cora Kaplan argues that traditional fictional “punishment for female sexual transgressions... [is] the immediate loss of social status.” For Stoker, though, the traditional punishment is not severe enough to rectify Lucy’s transgressions. Instead, he employs vampire lore’s extreme phallic corrective: staking and beheading Lucy. In this scene, Stoker’s gang of brave, noble men carry candles dripping “sperm” (D 197) into Lucy’s tomb. Even more sexually alive in the coffin, Lucy’s “body shook and quivered and twisted in violent contortions.” But before she can perform any other sexually suggestive gyrations, Arthur, shining with “high duty” drove “deeper and deeper the mercy bearing stake” into her chest (D 216). This act of transfixation “cures: Lucy and returns her to the accepted role of sexually passive female. Arthur and his companions have repossessed the body, permanently fixing her in the “stabili[zed] distinctions of gender” (Craft 224) and the male system of alliance. Lucy’s sexuality is “corrected.”

Part V will be posted soon...

#carmilla #dracula #j sheridan le fanu #bram stoker #vampire #vampire mythos #feminism #empowerment #women #erasure #feminist reading

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fluffy-boops · 3 years ago

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Kingdom Rush: Target Demographic

Introduction

Kingdom Rush is a 2.5D real-time fantasy tower defense game set in the medieval era. At the end of every level you are given gems and stars based on your performance. The gems can be used to purchase single-use items that can help you such as bombs. You will also be given up to three stars based on how much health you have left. These can be used to permanently upgrade your towers and abilities (this can be reset if you want to try different upgrade combinations). Once the campaign has been completed, side-campaigns and an endless mode will be unlocked.

Target Demographic

Kingdom Rush targets teenagers to young adults. The visual and sound design are cartoon-like while the blood and violence is minimal. As a result of targeting a younger audience, they would also be less likely to be married or divorced. In terms of gender, I believe this game slightly leans more towards males due to its medieval and fantasy elements. It also targets anyone of any income level since it is free (although there are micro-transactions) and doesn’t require a high-end phone to play. I do not believe that occupation has any large significance because this game does not require any skills exclusive to an occupation.

Aesthetic/Game Pleasures

The aesthetics of this game would be challenge, submission, and fantasy. I believe this game can be both challenge and submission based on its difficulty levels and how many stars you are awarded at the end of each level. For someone who wants a simple game as a pastime, this can be played on an easy level without much care for how many stars are obtained. However, if you would like a challenge, increasing the difficulty and aiming for three stars (or even 20hp since you can still get three stars as long as you finish with at least 18hp) can definitely provide a different experience. Once the campaign is completed, an endless mode is unlocked to further test your skills. This game is also fantasy because of its fictional/mythological creatures such as goblins, wizards, the undead etc.

Personality Characteristics

Using Myers Briggs Personality Index, this game has a heavy weight on thinking in terms of decision making and introversion for where energy is channeled from. As for the others (taking in information and lifestyle/orientation to the external world), it is a blend from both sides.

This game is primarily strategy based; a key point in winning is knowing and predicting what type of enemies are coming, where they are coming from, and planting your buildings accordingly. This makes the game side with thinking instead of feeling on the personality index.

Being a single-player game with no online/global leaderboards, this game leans heavily on the introversion side. In my experience, a single round took about ten to thirty minutes with each round taking longer as I progressed through the campaign. This game does not interact with the outside world and can be relatively short without much commitment allowing introverts to recharge their energy.

Throughout the game when you unlock new creatures to fight and buildings to help you, you will be given a short notification telling you their pros and cons. The game also includes an encyclopedia to revisit the stats of these creatures and buildings. However, even though this information is given freely, there are so many different creatures and buildings it is near-impossible to memorize all of their stats. Luckily, given the environment of the level you are playing on, you can get a feel of what type of creatures will come your way. For example, if you are playing in a level that looks spooky with graveyards, you can expect creatures such as zombies and skeletons. In a snowy environment you can expect yetis, and in a grassy environment you can expect goblins and your typical soldiers.

There are also other hints that can help you such as creatures wearing armor indicating they are resistant to physical damage or flying creatures indicating certain buildings/soldiers can’t hit them. This blends both intuition, using “implied information” and sensing which uses clear instructions and common sense. While someone who is sensing may dislike unclear information, there are still aspects where common sense would play a role.

I believe Kingdom Rush leans more on the side of perceiving, but it does have some elements of judging. When starting the level you can see where enemies can come from and where you need to protect. This allows you to have an initial plan when setting up your defenses. If you have already played this level then you will be even better equipped as you will have more information on when/where certain enemies will come throughout the level thereby helping you further plan ahead. However, if this is your first time playing the level then being able to plan as the level progresses and adapt to it will be a lot more beneficial. Furthermore, multitasking can be beneficial if you want to make use of everything you have. For example, with gems you can purchase items to help you during a level such as bombs. If you use barracks you can also place them in a location where they can affect more than one lane so switching them instead of using two barracks is a potential strategy. You also have your hero which you can control. During all of this (especially during the later campaign levels) enemies can come from many different directions. Being able to manage all your assets while keeping an eye on the enemies can be a difficult multitasking job. Keeping track of your money to upgrade your buildings is especially important in the later levels when giant hoards start to come in and you need to make use of every coin you have.

Hardcore Vs. Casual

This can appeal to both although it would be more on the casual side. Generally, one round does not take a very long time. The controls for this game are not too complex, it only consists of tapping on your screen to place buildings or items. However, this game can still reach hardcore players because of its star rating system. For someone who may want to show off their skills, they can aim to achieve 3 stars or 20hp. There is also an endless mode for those who want to push themselves and show off how far they can get.

Primary Target Player Type

Using DGD1’s model, I believe the primary type is manager. This game is strategy based and there is no “right way” for winning a level. If you are not satisfied with how you performed the first time, you can always redo the level with a different strategy, with each play helping you learn something. Moreover, as you progress through the campaign (and even the side-campaigns afterwards), the difficulty slowly increases so you are constantly being challenged. Even if you feel like the game is too easy there are also three difficulty levels to choose from.

Conclusion

Overall, Kingdom Rush mainly targets teenagers to young adults looking for a relatively simple game based on strategy. Its medieval and fantasy themes may also turn a few heads. Additionally, being able to adapt and think on the spot will be really beneficial in completing a level. Replaying levels after learning when and where the enemies spawn can also help you if you want to challenge yourself for a better score.

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