#which is why when the problems she's been repressing surface again ITS HUGE

[blazethecheeto]

DON'T LEAVE THIS IN THE TAGS HELLO

the sad part is they brought up such amazing plot points for caitlin after s4 and THAT'S WHEN SHE JUST STARTED TO...NOT BE IMPORTANT TO THE SHOW???

ugh i forgot about the blood on her hands, which reminds me about amunet and how frost was working for her in s3-s4 time skip.

like hey do you know how absolutely incredible an episode would have been about them navigating the criminal world together? because by this point frost was her protector but caitlin tried so hard to push her away. so imagine while frost is on a particularly gritty job, in a fight or talking to amunet about a deal, and caitlin just fronts unexpectedly.

and she sees the blood on her hands. she was working as a bartender one moment, and woke up surrounded by gang members. she would have been terrified. she would have been confused.

i mean the amount of times that could have happened, OR the opposite. she fronts right after the danger. she doesn't know why she feels sore. she doesn't know what frost has done. she doesn't know frost is doing it FOR them.

the guilt and fear cait must have felt, because she was alone and she thought she would be forever.

anyway that's just one example of my brain going into overdrive whenever i think of potential caitlin plots and it makes me so sad and makes me wanna write fanfiction lol

hey hi this might just be my obsession with her but hey. what happened to caitlin's screentime. i miss her. i miss when she had relevant plot and the writers cared about her and didn't just show up to say some science exposition then disappear for another two episodes.

i thought she was one of the main characters. LIKE SHE IS. it just feels like they forgot almost every plot point they have with her until the next caitlin centric episode. whcih gets more and more sparse each season.

s6 was actually brutal, she had virtually no screentime or episodes, it was all about frost, which i get that they wanted to do something different, but caitlin shouldn't have been completely pushed aside. like, i feel like after s4, they didn't know what to do with caitlin. if she doesn't have a love interest or her storyline with frost, they have no idea what to do with her plot.

so they don't include her at all.

WHICH PISSES ME OFF? BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH. SO MUCH POTENTIAL FOR CAITLIN STORYLINES THAT DON'T INCLUDE FROST.

those brief, beautiful moments where she gets a chance to shine or have her angst, like when the flashbacks showed her getting fucking run over??? by her dad?? which she repressed for 20 years??? and that's not good plot material for the writers??

in 7x08, when caitlin just breaks down because she doesn't want to live a life without frost?? 2x22 when caitlin thinks she sees jay everywhere and is terrified?

they have an actual goldmine of a character with built-up plot and lore and angst and personality and she's literally my favourite flash character ever and they just. push her aside.

they have deleted scenes of really good caitlin stuff with danielle acting her ass off and they just scrap it because hey we actually wanna see more of another wells or cecile or allegra or whoever they decide to focus on today :3

guys i promised myself this wouldn't be an anti-flash rant, istg im just so sad. i love caitlin. i love frost. i love their storylines.

it just sucks the show doesn't seem to think they matter.

[trishyeves]

Episode 4-Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Oh boy, we are back into the Ranma Rewatch and this time it’s the fourth episode, titled “Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another”. That is definitely the kind of title I remember more from this show: incredibly long and silly. I love it in any series where the titles are like half-formed sentences. As for what I’m expecting in this episode...I honestly don’t really remember. We’re already reaching the edges of my memory, so I look forward to seeing it with fresh eyes.

Yeah, I had pretty much forgotten about most of the stuff that happened in this episode, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The episode starts with Ranma having a bad dream about Kuno professing his love and asking him out. After waking up in a cold sweat, Ranma takes a bath and shenanigans happen.

There’s some cute banter between Ranma and Akane on the way to school, then a threepeat of the fight against all the guys trying to ask her out. Kuno makes an appearance at the end again, but this time he’d taken out in one combined hit from both Ranma and Akane. He’s tended to in the nurse’s office afterwards by Nabiki, who finds out from his sleep talking that he’s fallen in love with ‘the pigtailed girl’ in addition to Akane, and feels conflicted over who he should choose.

Seeing an opportunity, Nabiki abuses the fact that apparently Ranma is a heavy sleeper to activate his curse as he sleeps, takes a bunch of sexy pics, then turns him back, all without him ever waking up. Not too long later, she gets a surprise message from Kuno, asking to meet up.

He treats her to a meal, asking her the favor of delivering a cute doll he got as a present to its recipient: the pigtailed girl. Before addressing that idea, Nabiki tempts him with the sexy pictures of his new waifu, only letting him even see them if Kuno treats her to spaghetti. I thought that might be a dub change, but it’s not, either language they still go out for Italian pasta. She sells them to him for 1000 yen a pop, then asks if he’s giving up on Akane then. He clarifies that he intends to pursue them both, so Nabiki reveals there are Akane pictures available too. In exchange for free ice cream, and the same price per picture, she sells him those too.

Only with that done does she tell him how to get his present to the pigtailed girl: Ranma is the only way. She doesn’t explain why, but Kuno doesn’t dig too deeply into it. She couriers a letter to the titular protagonist, asking for a meet up, which Ranma goes to. Once it becomes clear exactly what Kuno is asking for, Ranma rebuffs him, saying he’ll never see his precious pigtailed girl ever again.

This threat becomes somewhat toothless when someone randomly dumping water out of their window activates Ranma’s curse, and Kuno quickly embraces the object of his affections. This hug becomes a little awkward when Nabiki appears and douses Ranma with hot water, and Kuno realizes who he is ‘now’ hugging. You might think this would mean he has some understanding of what’s going on, but Kuno’s immediate thought is that Ranma knows some vile sorcery.

When Nabiki realizes how dense Kuno really is, she decides to phrase it to him as Ranma ‘owning the pigtailed girl’s body and soul’, which is not technically a lie. That said, of course Kuno interprets that as meaning that somehow Ranma has the warrior woman he loves enslaved to him in some way, so a fight breaks out.

When Ranma sees the photos Kuno has on him, it distracts him enough to take a hit to the torso, just as Akane arrives. Just as Kuno starts getting serious, the air pressure from his piercing attacks alone strong enough to crack a statue apart, Ranma counteracts and wins, though it becomes clear his injury hurts like hell, even if he’s trying to ignore it.

And that’s it, no cliffhangers this time around. Now that Kuno’s love for Ranma’s alter ego has been established, the actual meat of what that means, namely how he sees them as two separate people and chases one while attacking the other, is what this episode works to make clear. It also sets up his and Nabiki’s dynamic more, but that’ll be something I talk about more in just a little bit.

There are two kind-of bigger things I want to pull out of this episode. First one being the dream sequence at the start. Now, I am fairly sure that whole bit is meant to be there for comedy, in a very ‘gay panic’ kind of way. Which honestly...does not play super well these days. Ranma’s terror at the dream, on a surface reading, has to do with him being super grossed out that some dude is in love with him.

Of course, there are other ways to read the scene as well. I’m sure some people might instead look at it as being less a nightmare and more like Ranma running away from his own possible attraction to another guy, and while that’s definitely possible, I didn’t really get that vibe at all. That said, if you did, rock on.

What I saw as more likely was a gender-based reading. Ranma is, more than anything else, freaked out by Kuno’s love declaration because it’s someone seeing him as something he’s not, a woman. Kuno isn’t interested in Ranma, he’s interested in a woman who doesn’t exist. Ranma has a lot of complicated feelings tied up in his masculinity, which his curse doesn’t exactly help with, and Kuno’s attraction to his cursed form just makes it all worse.

Speaking of attraction, let’s talk about Kuno. The fact that everyone calls his affections for two people at the same time ‘two timing’ is a bit vexing to me. As someone who has been in polyamorous relationships before, I can attest to the fact that liking more than one person at a time is totally okay, and if everyone involved is okay with it, dating multiple people is also okay.

That is kind of the problem though. Neither Akane or Ranma like Kuno, and neither is likely to want to date him, regardless of if he’s dating someone else at the time. Their problem with Kuno isn’t his dual attraction, it’s that they just plain don’t care for the guy. (And Ranma probably doesn’t swing that way, but he could be repressing it so what the hell do I know.) Even with that in mind, I still kind of roll my eyes at how Kuno ‘liking two girls’ is treated as a perversion. That just kinda sucks.

Last thing before the character spotlight I can think of is that I really liked the fight in this episode, the action was pretty good. ... Listen, I know that’s not exactly expert analysis, but it’s what I got.

I feel like covering Nabiki now is pretty much a no brainer. Of all the side characters introduced so far, she’s easily gotten the most shading, and this episode in particular develops her further for the audience. In terms of voice acting, she’s played in English by Angel Costain and in Japanese by Minami Takayama. Angela isn’t known for much else, which is quite a shame, because she’s pretty fantastic, in my personal opinion. Minami, on the other hand, has a pretty huge resume, and along with the voice actors for Akane, Ranma’s cursed form, Kasumi, and a character we haven’t met yet, was in a pop group called DoCo.

In terms of acting, they both play her fairly similarly. A normal girl at first glance, but with quite the amount of dry wit and sarcasm lying beneath that surface. The main difference I’ve seen so far is that Angela seems to have more mirth to her performance, while Minami’s is a bit more deadpan. Both are good, though I definitely prefer the english performance so far.

But what is Nabiki actually like? Well, of the three Tendo siblings, Nabiki hides who she is more than the others. For the first few episodes, she comes across as a fairly unassuming character, most known for her occasional snark. But this episode is where we get to see her primary character trait: greed. Nabiki is quite happy to take advantage of Ranma’s curse to make money, though how far she’s willing to go for the yen hasn’t really been made clear.

It is worth noting that, while her pictures of Ranma were very sexy and revealing, her pictures of Akane were just of her working out and stuff, far less of an invasion of her sister’s privacy. Does she have better respect for family than the freeloaders who live with them? That’s to be seen.

Another big character trait we’ve gotten so far is her...friendship? Sure, let’s go with that, her friendship with Kuno. Always happy to try and pop his inflated ego with her sharp wit, they have a good comedy routine going. At the same time, she does seem to legitimately be there for him, since she was taking care of him after he got knocked out. They get shipped a lot, which I definitely see the appeal of, but part of me just kind of likes the idea that they’ve just known each other for a long time, and they just kind of have a thing going. Not that any kind of friendship they may have is coming close to stopping her from bilking him from as much money and free food as she can. Of course, Kuno is quite rich, so he can afford it.

Some people have described Nabiki as a villain, but I wouldn’t really agree with that. What she is, is someone happy to create conflict. She’s a fun addition to the cast, and I can’t think of any time in my previous watch-throughs where I got tired of her being there. (Which is not something I can say about every character in this series.)

Now it’s time to rank the episodes once again. Of the four episodes so far, I can immediately say this one is in the top half. I enjoyed Nabiki’s antics and the marital arts quite a bit, but I don’t think it’s quite as strong as the second episode. So far, that means the rankings are:

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Will next week’s episode be just as entertaining? Well, I don’t know, but from what I remember about episode 5, “Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart”, I don’t think that will be the case. See you then!

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 4-Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Oh boy, we are back into the Ranma Rewatch and this time it’s the fourth episode, titled “Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another”. That is definitely the kind of title I remember more from this show: incredibly long and silly. I love it in any series where the titles are like half-formed sentences. As for what I’m expecting in this episode...I honestly don’t really remember. We’re already reaching the edges of my memory, so I look forward to seeing it with fresh eyes

Yeah, I had pretty much forgotten about most of the stuff that happened in this episode, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The episode starts with Ranma having a bad dream about Kuno professing his love and asking him out. After waking up in a cold sweat, Ranma takes a bath and shenanigans happen.

There’s some cute banter between Ranma and Akane on the way to school, then a threepeat of the fight against all the guys trying to ask her out. Kuno makes an appearance at the end again, but this time he’d taken out in one combined hit from both Ranma and Akane. He’s tended to in the nurse’s office afterwards by Nabiki, who finds out from his sleep talking that he’s fallen in love with ‘the pigtailed girl’ in addition to Akane, and feels conflicted over who he should choose.

Seeing an opportunity, Nabiki abuses the fact that apparently Ranma is a heavy sleeper to activate his curse as he sleeps, takes a bunch of sexy pics, then turns him back, all without him ever waking up. Not too long later, she gets a surprise message from Kuno, asking to meet up.

He treats her to a meal, asking her the favor of delivering a cute doll he got as a present to its recipient: the pigtailed girl. Before addressing that idea, Nabiki tempts him with the sexy pictures of his new waifu, only letting him even see them if Kuno treats her to spaghetti. I thought that might be a dub change, but it’s not, either language they still go out for Italian pasta. She sells them to him for 1000 yen a pop, then asks if he’s giving up on Akane then. He clarifies that he intends to pursue them both, so Nabiki reveals there are Akane pictures available too. In exchange for free ice cream, and the same price per picture, she sells him those too.

Only with that done does she tell him how to get his present to the pigtailed girl: Ranma is the only way. She doesn’t explain why, but Kuno doesn’t dig too deeply into it. She couriers a letter to the titular protagonist, asking for a meet up, which Ranma goes to. Once it becomes clear exactly what Kuno is asking for, Ranma rebuffs him, saying he’ll never see his precious pigtailed girl ever again.

This threat becomes somewhat toothless when someone randomly dumping water out of their window activates Ranma’s curse, and Kuno quickly embraces the object of his affections. This hug becomes a little awkward when Nabiki appears and douses Ranma with hot water, and Kuno realizes who he is ‘now’ hugging. You might think this would mean he has some understanding of what’s going on, but Kuno’s immediate thought is that Ranma knows some vile sorcery.

When Nabiki realizes how dense Kuno really is, she decides to phrase it to him as Ranma ‘owning the pigtailed girl’s body and soul’, which is not technically a lie. That said, of course Kuno interprets that as meaning that somehow Ranma has the warrior woman he loves enslaved to him in some way, so a fight breaks out.

When Ranma sees the photos Kuno has on him, it distracts him enough to take a hit to the torso, just as Akane arrives. Just as Kuno starts getting serious, the air pressure from his piercing attacks alone strong enough to crack a statue apart, Ranma counteracts and wins, though it becomes clear his injury hurts like hell, even if he’s trying to ignore it.

And that’s it, no cliffhangers this time around. Now that Kuno’s love for Ranma’s alter ego has been established, the actual meat of what that means, namely how he sees them as two separate people and chases one while attacking the other, is what this episode works to make clear. It also sets up his and Nabiki’s dynamic more, but that’ll be something I talk about more in just a little bit.

There are two kind-of bigger things I want to pull out of this episode. First one being the dream sequence at the start. Now, I am fairly sure that whole bit is meant to be there for comedy, in a very ‘gay panic’ kind of way. Which honestly...does not play super well these days. Ranma’s terror at the dream, on a surface reading, has to do with him being super grossed out that some dude is in love with him.

Of course, there are other ways to read the scene as well. I’m sure some people might instead look at it as being less a nightmare and more like Ranma running away from his own possible attraction to another guy, and while that’s definitely possible, I didn’t really get that vibe at all. That said, if you did, rock on.

What I saw as more likely was a gender-based reading. Ranma is, more than anything else, freaked out by Kuno’s love declaration because it’s someone seeing him as something he’s not, a woman. Kuno isn’t interested in Ranma, he’s interested in a woman who doesn’t exist. Ranma has a lot of complicated feelings tied up in his masculinity, which his curse doesn’t exactly help with, and Kuno’s attraction to his cursed form just makes it all worse.

Speaking of attraction, let’s talk about Kuno. The fact that everyone calls his affections for two people at the same time ‘two timing’ is a bit vexing to me. As someone who has been in polyamorous relationships before, I can attest to the fact that liking more than one person at a time is totally okay, and if everyone involved is okay with it, dating multiple people is also okay.

That is kind of the problem though. Neither Akane or Ranma like Kuno, and neither is likely to want to date him, regardless of if he’s dating someone else at the time. Their problem with Kuno isn’t his dual attraction, it’s that they just plain don’t care for the guy. (And Ranma probably doesn’t swing that way, but he could be repressing it so what the hell do I know.) Even with that in mind, I still kind of roll my eyes at how Kuno ‘liking two girls’ is treated as a perversion. That just kinda sucks.

Last thing before the character spotlight I can think of is that I really liked the fight in this episode, the action was pretty good. ... Listen, I know that’s not exactly expert analysis, but it’s what I got.

I feel like covering Nabiki now is pretty much a no brainer. Of all the side characters introduced so far, she’s easily gotten the most shading, and this episode in particular develops her further for the audience. In terms of voice acting, she’s played in English by Angel Costain and in Japanese by Minami Takayama. Angela isn’t known for much else, which is quite a shame, because she’s pretty fantastic, in my personal opinion. Minami, on the other hand, has a pretty huge resume, and along with the voice actors for Akane, Ranma’s cursed form, Kasumi, and a character we haven’t met yet, was in a pop group called DoCo.

In terms of acting, they both play her fairly similarly. A normal girl at first glance, but with quite the amount of dry wit and sarcasm lying beneath that surface. The main difference I’ve seen so far is that Angela seems to have more mirth to her performance, while Minami’s is a bit more deadpan. Both are good, though I definitely prefer the english performance so far.

But what is Nabiki actually like? Well, of the three Tendo siblings, Nabiki hides who she is more than the others. For the first few episodes, she comes across as a fairly unassuming character, most known for her occasional snark. But this episode is where we get to see her primary character trait: greed. Nabiki is quite happy to take advantage of Ranma’s curse to make money, though how far she’s willing to go for the yen hasn’t really been made clear.

It is worth noting that, while her pictures of Ranma were very sexy and revealing, her pictures of Akane were just of her working out and stuff, far less of an invasion of her sister’s privacy. Does she have better respect for family than the freeloaders who live with them? That’s to be seen.

Another big character trait we’ve gotten so far is her...friendship? Sure, let’s go with that, her friendship with Kuno. Always happy to try and pop his inflated ego with her sharp wit, they have a good comedy routine going. At the same time, she does seem to legitimately be there for him, since she was taking care of him after he got knocked out. They get shipped a lot, which I definitely see the appeal of, but part of me just kind of likes the idea that they’ve just known each other for a long time, and they just kind of have a thing going. Not that any kind of friendship they may have is coming close to stopping her from bilking him from as much money and free food as she can. Of course, Kuno is quite rich, so he can afford it.

Some people have described Nabiki as a villain, but I wouldn’t really agree with that. What she is, is someone happy to create conflict. She’s a fun addition to the cast, and I can’t think of any time in my previous watch-throughs where I got tired of her being there. (Which is not something I can say about every character in this series.)

Now it’s time to rank the episodes once again. Of the four episodes so far, I can immediately say this one is in the top half. I enjoyed Nabiki’s antics and the marital arts quite a bit, but I don’t think it’s quite as strong as the second episode. So far, that means the rankings are:

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another Episode 1: Here’s Ranma Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Will next week’s episode be just as entertaining? Well, I don’t know, but from what I remember about episode 5, “Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart”, I don’t think that will be the case. See you then!

[thisisnotdrbattista-blog]

Essay III: Get Out

For my third critical analysis essay on horror, I chose the contemporary movie, Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele. Horror is a broad spectrum, and the most effective pieces of horror find their success in playing off the insecurities of their audience.  This movie was considered a huge hit in its genre, and has such a unique and captivating story.  Get Out uses race and cultural differences to uncover the social failings of a society and to entertain at the same time. Using references from literary studies on the uncanny, zombies, and much more, this essay is going to take a deeper look into the power of genre and the cultural significance of this movie.

The first connection I was able to make to the coursework when watching this film was the similarity between the Haitian Zombie, and the way that the Armitage’s were able to create their own zombie slaves, if you will, through hypnosis. David Inglis provides a great definition of the zombie in his chapter Putting the Undead to Work: “The fear that is embodied in the Haitian figure of the zombie is not the Euro American one of the dead returning to visit a cannibalistic holocaust on the living, but rather involves dread of the body snatcher –the zombie master- who takes the living body and destroys the soul within it, creating a living dead being who endlessly obeys his will” (p. 42).  I think the term “body snatcher” can be easily applied to the work that the Armitage family was doing.  A perfect example would be the opening scene where the son throws a black man in the trunk of his car, who shows back up later at the garden party, but this time he does not seem to have his soul.  Following the same type of mentality as the witch doctor from White Zombie, the Armitage family is making slaves out of people, through hypnosis and surgery instead of magic, and selling them off as their own labor force.  

Another connection I made after watching the movie was the sunken place (Chris’ hypnotized state) and the subconscious, to Freud’s ideas on the uncanny.  Freud gives an insightful explanation on the relationship between human consciousness and the uncanny: “If this really is the secret nature of the uncanny, we can understand why German usage allows the familiar to switch to its opposite, the uncanny, for this uncanny element is actually nothing new or strange, but something that was long familiar to the psyche and was estranged from it only through being repressed” (pg. 148). Exploiting Chris’ subconscious by bringing up the topic of his mother’s death, she is able to repress the part of his brain that makes him Chris.  After the initial hypnosis, she almost has complete control over him with her teacup. We see throughout the film that these people with someone else in their mind controlling their body and consciousness are brought to the surface when exposed to a camera flash.  Meaning there is some hope for these people that have been turned, but we also see that the man taken over by the grandfather kills himself as soon as he is freed from the distressing situation of living his life as a spectator.

The term used to describe these people once they’ve been hypnotized is the “sunken place.”  Once put in this trance, Chris finds his existence to be as the passenger of his own life, he screams and struggles and gets no result or reaction from the people around him.  The sunken place is meant to represent the oppression of the system, and how minorities find themselves trapped, screaming as hard as they can without being able to get any sort of communication across.  Peele was trying to make a statement about the underrepresentation of black people in the horror genre, and how he was upset with the stereotype of them always being the first ones to die off.  Thinking about the film in that light, Peele really turns the tables around, by not only having the black protagonist survive, but having to murder his way out of the house to freedom.  

To bring this all back to the discussion of cultural significance, Get Out, tells a story of racism to a group of people that think racism is no longer a problem.  So what is it that makes this movie so powerful and such a good medium for a message that a nation desperately needs to hear?  Author Colin Dickey sheds some light on what separates good hauntings and horror from the sheep: “A paranormal event without a story is tenuous, fragile.  What makes it “real,” at least in a sense, is the story, the tale that grounds the event. The sense of the uncanny, of something not-quite-right, of things ever-so-slightly off, cries out for an explanation” (pg. 5).  Dickey explains to us that to deliver a message, especially to todays disconnected population, you have to ground the idea your trying to communicate with something that seems more interesting or entertaining to the masses.  Once you have captured their attention you are able to point out the reality and truth to them, the truth that they refuse to see by looking around.  Even genres of horror like the ghost hunters start off by establishing the history of the buildings they go through, as well as the tragic pasts of the ghosts they are trying to provoke.

Peele does an excellent job in Get Out of building suspense.  By creating those not-quite-right situations, as Dickey put it, he was able to use a realistic character.  Most horror films feature protagonists who are incredibly oblivious and don’t have the sense to pick up the phone and call the cops, or to get in the car and drive away. What is so brilliant about the suspense build up in Get Out, is that nothing too out of the ordinary happens that would make a rational person leave a girl he’s been dating for months, until its too late.

So what dose this movie say about our current situation as a nation? Looking at the bonus features on the film there was a Q&A panel with Jordan Peele and someone asked him about his favorite scene in the movie.  Peele responded, saying that he enjoyed the insecurities revealed in the garden party: “When you have older white people trying to connect with a younger black man the insecurities come out in a weird way.”  Watching the movie, you find out that the whole purpose of the garden party was for these people to evaluate the possibility of buying Chris at the auction, which only adds another theatrical layer to the racist situation on display. Every time Chris meets with a potential buyer they let out some awkward piece of conversation as their way of trying to connect with someone with racial and cultural differences.  All the other black people on the question panel agreed that this scene had a lot of truth behind it, and said that they do have to suffer through situations like this regularly

One of the biggest eye openers for me when I watched this movie is the character Rose.  She is a powerful persuader and a master of lies, and to me, she reveals the most about our culture’s divide when she tries to talk down Chris as a way to prove to him she and her family are not racist.  Rose will go on little tangents with Chris as her audience about her family having black servants, the way he was treated by a cop, or how her family and friends are just “so white.”  Hearing her overcompensate as a way to try and come off as sincere reminded me of the same thing I see on social media every day.  White people will see a video of police brutality on twitter and quote it with some witty caption and think that they have just made peace with the whole black community.  The way they go into great lengths online about civil rights and social responsibility reminded me of the same empty way that Rose would overcompensate so that her cover wouldn’t be blown.  I know that these people’s words are hallow because I spend time with them in real life and know for a fact that they are not actually doing anything to change the current situation, or to give up the privilege they’ve been born with.  

Overall, this movie is a great tribute to its genre and does a great job reflecting national anxieties and problematic attitudes.  Watching this movie again after in class discussions about zombies and Haitian culture, I was able to notice a lot of parallels between Get Out and movies like White Zombie.  A lot of the ideas and theories presented in Freud’s The Uncanny, are revealed in this film.  Peele does a great job of building suspense in this movie while delivering a powerful message at the same time, and I would recommend this movie to any fan of Horror.

Work Cited

“Putting the Undead to Work” David Inglis

“The Uncanny” Sigmund Freud

“Ghostland” Collin Dickey

[lorenzoandmaria-blog]

from maria // 042719

Hi there :) Before anything else — I’d like to ask if your schedule is free on May 11-12?

I organized the school strikes for the Philippines last 15th March (they were mostly just my friends from all over the archipelago so it was just a matter of contacting them and following up on the plans), and we’re planning to join the 2nd global strike again this 24th May. In line with that, we’ve been in close contact with Ate Bea from 350 and she’s been cooking up a training workshop on climate strikes and mobilizations for key youth organizers before the date of the 2nd global strike. To sum it all up: her proposal has recently just been approved by 350 Global, so now we’re putting together a list of youth organizers to fly into Manila for the training. Of course I put you in the list (your mob skills are admirable, and I’m pretty sure your organizing skills are far better). Would you be up for it, if ever? 

The workshop schedule will be May 11-12, but we’re flying people in by the afternoon/evening of the 10th. We’re flying back to our respective places on the afternoon of the 12th so we can make it back for the elections on the 13th. Sorry to dump this on you at short notice (!!!) but things were only finalized yesterday afternoon -- would need your response on this as soon as possible, though, so feel free to reply here or drop a quick message on my mobile once you finish reading this part :) You can message me at 0927 461 8620 (Sorry for the rush! Trying to keep my work, advocacy, and personal life in balance ) Anyway, hi again :) Just want to say -- thank you for writing me, by the way. Don’t know how else to say it, but our exchanges are one of the very few things I look forward to these days. I like leaving things unexplained, if only to have something to mull over for later, so I guess I’ve yet to get to the bottom of my current emotional turbulence. Wanted to respond a little bit earlier, but today was a little on the heavy side of things for me! Waking up to your greetings, life crisis, and the promise of a portrait in prose was honestly the only thing that got me through this day. So thank you, really I’m a pretty stubborn person, so I’m quite unsure if I’m glad to stumble upon someone whose persistence is at par with mine  Thank you for remarking yet again on my knack of evading questions -- not denying, but it’s mostly on the grounds of me not being able to go through the process of thinking it through yet (I have a lot of stuff put aside to think about for later, which I always convince myself I have the time to). When I do find the time to get thinking, words would get lost in the grey skies. It always ends up in frustration and/or a bit of self-loathing, which explains why I actively leave things behind and focus on what’s ahead instead. Am I speaking in riddles? I feel like you’ve been sharing a lot of good stuff with me but all I’ve done is go round and round with the same jumble of thoughts. My apologies. It’s the only way I can speak without, again, spilling my life all over the place (trust me, it isn’t deserving of what little time you can spare). But I guess if I have to give you a bit of context... I’m overly anxious about the interpersonal troubles within the advocacy -- we’re very close-knit, which adds to the frustration that this isn’t solving itself easily when the problems have been surface-level at most. But of course, being myself, I’ve been psychoanalyzing people and I’m aware it’s gone beyond superficial reasons now. I’m a pretty direct person when dealing with troubles, but I haven’t had the chance to voice out my concerns lately and find solutions, what with all the hectic schedules. It’s been almost a month of constant worry, blanking out, and going through other forms of anxiety. I’m so frustrated that I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of this. Apart from that, I’ve also just gotten out of a long-term, really toxic (and I don’t say that lightly) relationship, which largely explains why I was able to say I haven’t felt this peaceful in a long while (doesn’t mean I’m downright bereft of troubles, though!). It’s been almost two months since this happened, so I’m gonna answer the hanging question: yes, I am alright, and no, I’ve never been better. The relationship weighed me down for the past 3 years (we were together for 4, but I was actually happy in the first year of it) and I’ve seen the end coming for so long -- was probably only waiting for it to happen, actually. Would run out of things to describe the feeling, but it is freeing in so many ways. I haven’t looked back since, and my friends have been on cloud 9 the moment they knew I finally put my foot down. There’s usually a template of questions one asks to another who has just gone through a break up, so let me just put into writing that it’s completely unnecessary to dive into before you predictably contest my conviction :)) (how do I combat your stubbornness when I like seeing your persistence anyway?) I guess that’s where I end the context-giving I would apologize for the late response, but I echo your sentiments about writing for necessity. Our exchanges have been somehow therapeutic. I’m now finding the time to sit down and translate my thoughts into physical matter (that being in the form of these letters) at least once in a while, which is more than I’ve been doing for the past years. I’ve been swimming with my jumbled thoughts for so long -- maybe as a form of denial, since putting things into writing make it real. An excerpt from a 2017 journal entry: “Without physical proof of its existence, one can fool oneself into thinking pain is fleeting — easily blown away by other, more convenient forms of distraction. It is out of reach until it pins you down. It does not become the whole of you until it draws close enough to consume you.” Props to my 19-year old self for explaining it better (and more dramatically ) than I can now. I’ve also written a poem about lost thoughts — will definitely share once I remember where I have a copy of it  I go back to it once in a while since it resonates heavily with me despite the changing times. To answer your question, what keeps me going is my fierce belief in the future and the lack of fear of oblivion. The future exists beyond myself, anyway, and it’s the lack of fear that powers me through the impossibilities. What is there to lose, after all? Life is transient. If we do things right and create the spark the world needs, the flame will burn on without us. I assure you things haven’t arrived at a life-or-death situation yet, I just like being dramatic.  Pretty sure you get what I mean, though. Would like to hear updates about your confrontation with your boss if it happens! I’ve had my share of being under mushroom management. Hands down one of the worst experiences ever.  I’m still actively trying to repress memories up to this day. I'm a firm believer of good leadership, and stuff like that drains the life out of me. Let me know once you find the inuman place you’ve been looking for -- it’s becoming more apparent that drinking plays a huge role in your life, eh? When I’m sad, I listen to a lot of music to clear my head, read a few pages from books (can’t really find the time to finish one nowadays), and sleep. Talking to friends help, too. Just not really used to it for the most part, as I said I don’t like it when people fuss over me. Maybe this is why I’m more comfortable opening up to strangers, as there are limitations to your reactions and responses, unlike friends in close proximity with me. And maybe also just the general comfort of talking to a stranger who knows nothing about your life? The titles sound interesting -- might check them out in the unforeseeable future (time is always the question, isn’t it?). I’m still finishing a huge number of books I’ve been collecting in the recent months, all acquired from physical and online bookstores, secondhand shops, book fairs, and loaned/given to me by friends. Reading is one of the things I’m painfully trying to get back to, after the deluge of advocacy work that left me little to no time at all for (and have drained the life from) any personal interests. (Mindful) consumerism of books has been one of my coping mechanisms, a way to lull myself into a sense of connection into whatever life I had before the advocacy. The smell of the pages usually do the trick of transporting me back to younger years. That being said, I am falling back into reading and writing bit by bit, and our exchanges are helping me ease back into it. I’m looking forward to that portrait, too!  There’s nothing more interesting than reading about a life well-lived (that, and the fact that it’ll come from you). Advocacy work has also been a form of coping mechanism from the aforementioned toxic relationship, loneliness, and my search for purpose, I guess. One of the struggles I’ve always had was my burning passions lacking purpose and direction. I’ve been dancing, painting, taking photographs, writing poems & screenplays, making/directing films, and creating digital content for fun for years (couldn’t really do it all professionally since I’m stuck with reality and school work as a Psychology major), and the advocacy has been a really good outlet for these skills. For the first time I’ve felt like I wasn’t just throwing my art and thoughts into the void -- it actually helped change things. Helping out a cause and trying to make little changes in the world is pretty straightforward, if you ask me. I find it weird for people to try and find back stories. I probably have one if we really wanna flesh it out, but for the most part, I’m just a concerned human being with skills people can exploit, so I’d rather have it used for good causes. I think I’ve said enough for you to piece together my response to your question about how much of ourselves we should set aside for the “greater purpose”. I have zero fear of nonexistence, advocacy work has become my daily grind and coping mechanism, and I have nothing else to do with the skills I’m equipped with anyway. Your question warrants me to rethink these sacrificial tendencies, I guess? I’ve always wanted to pursue art professionally, but at this point, pursuing art outside of all this seems self-serving and vain. How do I invest many years of my life honing a skill or two, when it also means leaving behind campaigns that need urgent attention and action? I’m pretty sure it’s a choice I have to make, but I’m setting it aside for now. What do you think of it? And how much are you setting aside for all of this? It’s been a pleasure to write you. Rest assured that these exchanges aren’t merely one of my coping mechanisms, but one I genuinely enjoy taking part in  I’m skipping out on asking questions for now, so feel free to rant or be sad or write me anything under the sun. I’ve talked too much today, so allow me the pleasure of listening to your unbridled thoughts I hope my troubles haven’t spilled over to yours. If I can bottle up all the light, warmth, and sweetness from this smiling city and sugar town, I would gladly send them over to you. I hope your days are as bright as your smiles and as warm as your wishes. It would comfort me greatly to know you’re allowing yourself some respite after long hours of waking -- let the stars witness you dreaming. Good morning and good night