Going surreal: Haruhi 14

July 3rd, 2009

So the third Endless Eight arc episode of Haruhi didn’t bring the story to an end -funnily enough, I started reading the novel as the new season was being aired (I didn’t intend to, I didn’t even knew that it was going to be aired) so I’m already spoiled- to an arc that was a mere short story, bundled in one single light novel with other 2 stories (one of them being the Day of Sagittarius one)

Haruhi

Now, of course, the decent thing to do would be to continue repeating the same stuff, with those small variations, for like twelve or so episodes. I’m serious! Unless you go now and make it really surreal and irrational, it’s a disaster, becuase there is no reason whatsoever to keep repeating it. We’ve already got the message, that it’s a time loop, and if they wanted to show that Kyon and the others are becoming more and more aware of it, they could show it in one episode: just fast forward the same scenes and show it. As simple as that.

So unless they really fix it by making it so surreal that it becomes awesome, Haruhi (2009 version) is quite doomed. If they are going to use at least 4 episodes for this arc, I suppose there will be only one further arc, which is a waste. It’s not like they’re even short on material from the novels to justify this, unless they want to keep producing Haruhi seasons in 2012, 2015, 2018, 2021, etc, until we all have become old, watching K-On with teary eyes remembering our youth, and still waiting for the new season of Haruhi.

Wait, that would indeed be surreal. Go, Kyoani!

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Bamboo Blade

July 2nd, 2009

Since I hardly have any readers to begin with, I think I’ll discuss here anime/manga, etcinstead of having a blog apart. If someone like Josep doesn’t like it, don’t read it. Go and watch your beloved 24, Josep ¬¬

Anyway, Bamboo Blade was one of the first animes I started watching in January 2008. My guess is that I must have seen in some blog some good review about it, because it’s not like I knew anything about kendo or was interested in something like that.

In fact it wasn’t until later that I discovered that it is in fact quite a remarkable work. At first, I remember reading that some bloggers had mistaken it, during these season previews they do, with your generic harem anime. At the time, of course, I didn’t get it.

But it’s not only that. What I’ve come to like is the fact that it has quite a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. It’s high-school kendo, after all, not WWII. What I mean is that it never falls into the typical sports shounen manga where losing is such a drama and the opponents are all evil. I remember, even back then, being inexperienced, that I found this scene quite remarkable.

They had just competed against another school, and they were watching the fight between Tama and Ishibashi (the senpai of Tama’s teacher). Well, instead of hating each other -for what reason? it’s fucking high-school and it’s some girls you’ve just met, who you can’t have a grudge against for any reason - like it happens in so many manga, the girls were actually friendly to each other, with Kirino offering them some tea (yes, for some reason Kirino is always able to make some tea there, something like Mikuru). Of course, it doesn’t mean they have to always be friendly, like it happened in the tournament with that cheater who injured Tama so she couldn’t win. It just means that it’s something they usually do for fun, not such a big deal.

It’s also not the case that they have to get stronger for every match, until reaching ridiculous levels.

The characters are also interesting and it has actual character development. Some people seem to sometimes mistake character development with revealing details about characters every now and then. Character development is supposed to be about characters actually changing, not about us discovering more about them.

Tama, for example, begins as a shy, introverted girl who through the influence of the other members of the Kendobu opens up a little. She even gets a part-time job (she’s gotten farther than me already!) and is more ready to even teach about kendo to complete strangers from another school.

Miyamiya is also a nice example. She becomes nicer and friendlier as time progresses (although she’s still an S) and starts enjoying kendo.

And, of course, Dan-kun seems to get smaller and rounder every day -that’s character development too, right?-

It’s also quite a plus that matches aren’t dragged for long, unlike many others in the genre.

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Bamboo Blade was, also, the first manga I wanted to follow after the anime ended to know what happens next. I got soon after the anime ended volume 8, but in the end it turned out that the anime had diverged so much from the manga (since volume 8 hadn’t even been published when the anime was running) that I had to wait until very recently to get all 10 volumes and read it through to make sense of it.

Now I’m reading volume 9, and I really like the almost parodic tone that it sometimes can get without falling into unreal satire. I loved it when there was a match between Azuma and some girl from another high school where Kojiro’s senpai also works, and while showing the action, the captions accompanying them, instead of showing what she’s thinking, or comments about the fight in general, rather discussed the bread of the school’s cafeteria. Clearly a parody of the gender; instead of dramatizing, discussing the bread during 3 or 4 pages! Just brilliant.

Bamboo Blade is the case where you can get interested in something such as kendo -I had no idea what it was and now at least I know the basics of it!- thanks to a good story that makes it intertaining. It never gets too serious, and that’s something I usually enjoy. I may watch from time to time some shows that aren’t like that, but I mainly enjoy this kind of stuff, perhaps because I myself don’t usually take life too seriously. People who, for example, are so serious and obsessed about politics tend to piss me off.

dsc08830

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Idealist bread

June 23rd, 2009

Perhaps because I love food, one of the things that really makes me angry is middle-class idealism about food, what they call traditional food.

Are they aware that it would just be impossible to keep our current standard of life while producing food in a traditional, non industrial way? Aren’t they aware, in fact, that the population would starve?

Take bread. Some people -say, my parents- complain about the bad quality of bread compared to bread in their youth (in Spain, bread is extremely popular and eaten with all meals). But, ironically (to not call it hypocrisy), people complained a lot when bread prices rose some years ago.

Aren’t they aware that if it was done in a traditional way prices would rise exponentially?

Seriously, what pisses me off is that the middle classes are so idealist when many of them usually have, in fact, a better academic background, so they should be able to check whether what they claim is actually reasonable or not.

Take the bread example. Right now it’s at around 35 cents per baguette here. Let’s imagine a bakery with 5 employees, with a salary of 1000 € every month. That makes it 5000 € every month, and, if there are, let’s say, 22 working days, around 230 € every day. Add electricity, rental, etc, costs and it would not be surprising if costs rose to 400 € every day, and not taking into account other expenses such as repayment of loans.

Now, let’s say each baghette costs 5 cents to make and they sell them at 15 cents. From here, we know that they’ll need to make 4000 baguettes every day just to cover expenses, so more would be needed to actually make a profit.

(Logic: 400 / 0.10 = 4000; 4000 cost 5 cents to make = 200 €;  that’s what it costs to make 4000 baguettes; at 15 cents, 4000 would make 600 €, that is, fixed expenses of 400 + 200 = 600. We wouldn’t lose or win anything)

Just tell me how you would be able to make, let’s say, 6000 baguettes in a few hours without machinery and non-traditional methods.

Of course, let’s say we follow the traditional method and hire 20 people, but each can only make 100 baguettes every morning. The salary expenses would be of around 1000 € every morning, add other expenses, 1200 €. Of course, each baguette would cost more to make, so le’t say it was 20 cents. From here, we know that we will produce 2000 baguettes every morning at the cost of each 20 cents. That means 400 € and in sum expenses of 1600 € every day. Since we have made 2000 baguettes -our beautiful and picturesque traditional method doesn’t allow more-, we have to sell them at 1 € at least to make some profit.

Now, since at shops they sell them at a higher price, let’s say it was 1.3 €. That would mean an increase of 371%.

Although it’s a quite rudimentary calculation, I think it proves the point. It’s not feasable, never, to go back to some kind of semi-industrial (which doesn’t even imply healthier) production of foodstuffs. Just imagine, a pizza costing 2 € at a supermarket might cost, what, 6, 8, 10 euros the traditional way? Instead of spending on food 100 € every week, you’d spend 400 or 600 €?

There is no way, I repeat, no way of going back to anything of that sort. Fortunately, by the way. Because bread costs 0.35 € instead of 1.3 €, we can use the money that we save to, for example, have access to the Internet.

Actually, middle classes, it is the fact that things aren’t traditional anymore that allow you to, in fact, be middle classes. Or do you want to actually kill the goose that lays golden eggs?

Edit: in fact as someone has pointed out to me, not only would prices drastically rise because of the use of non-industrial methods which make it more expensive to produce, but also there would be a further increase since a non-industrial, traditional production would lead to a smaller supply of goods into the market which would mean a rise of prices because of a supply far lower than the demand

Posted in Criticism, Society | 1 Comment »

Real-time processing

June 18th, 2009

One of the most useful concepts that I’ve learnt this year to understand the way language learners actually speak  is that of online processing, coming from the so-called cognitive linguistics.

Using a computer metaphor, it would be like a CPU. When a task requires too much processing -because we haven’t mastered that language or that area of a language-, it puts a strain on our brain, and, becuase there is no more processing capacity left, we may not be able to speak at a level matching our actual knowledge.

Of course, the situation or, for example, if you are shy, may make you make mistakes that, if you were given time to analyze, you would never make because your knowledge doesn’t allow that.

This has actually made me understand something that happened a few years ago. When I visited London with a few friends, it was their first time there. One of my friends volunteered to order some food at a McDonalds at Victoria Station. When he tried to do so, he seemed to have trouble and asked for “hamburguesa”, in Spanish. The guy was like “What language is that?”. In the end I had to do it.

In fact, although my friend’s level is elementary at best (after 12 years learning English at school with Spain’s excellent education system and its proud culture of laziness), I’m aware that his knowledge would have actually allowed him to order a hamburger.

Under the scope of cognitivist linguistics, what happened is clear: processing overload. He isn’t in fact shy, but at any rate it was probably the first time in his life interacting with someone in English, so he wasn’t able to process in real time what was needed and fell back on Spanish, even being perfectly aware that it was wrong.

If we consider that the more we get used to a language, the less (conscious) processing is needed, it’s also useful to note something that I’ve often experienced.

In fact, right now I’m watching episode 10 of Hatsukoi Limited, without subs. Whenever I watch anime without subs, my processing needs rise, and I’ve noticed that I often can’t watch, concentrating on the Japanese being spoken, an episode in one go. Probably due to fatigue. Just as a CPU heats up when it’s being used at full capacity, we experience mental fatigue when using our brains. That would explain why I can even concentrate on doing other things while watching subbed anime (although English isn’t my 1st language, I don’t experience any kind of overload), but I need to concentrate a lot when watching raw anime.

This is, in fact, interesting when it comes to language learning. Not only because it emphasizes real-time processing training so we can use the target language with more ease, but also because, unlike other approaches, this one is actually implying the need to acquire knowledge, not just habits or routines. Without the knowledge, there’s nothing to process. There go the ‘modern’ methods that try to do away without teaching grammar or formal properties of a language.

Posted in Linguistics | 1 Comment »

OS for the mentally handicapped

June 17th, 2009

My mother’s laptop came with Windows Vista and I don’t feel like going through the trouble of installing XP.

Anyway, at least I found out how to deactivate this shitty feature. I mean, is Vista aimed at mentally handicapped children?

Whenever I clicked on a program, willing to, surprise! execute said program, a window would appear telling me it’s very dangerous and it could lead to the extinction of polar bears, a nuclear detonation or Obama’s impeachment.

I mean, is this program for retarded people or what? If I double-click somewhere, it means I want to open/execute that thing, whether it’s dangerous (if you are a little intelligent about from where and how you get your programs, that may be a 1 out of 100000 chance) or not. Why do they assume:

a) If I’m trying to execute a program, having to say that I want to execute the program again may deter me from executing the program I wanted to execute in the first place

b) All programs must be dangerous. A computer is used to execute programs. That’s all there is about it. That’s the only function a computer has. Thats, like my friend Josep has just put it when I told him about it as I was writing this, if whenever you wanted to start your car it asked you if you are sure you wanna drive, since you could have an accident, etc

Posted in Computers, Rant | No Comments »

The flow of history

June 16th, 2009

Some scientists claim that the polar bear is an animal in transition - it’s in the middle of evolving into a sea animal.

Of course, it’s only a hypothesis, but let’s say it was true.

For most people, the polar bear, the panda or any kind of spider is a ‘finished’ product. We don’t concieve them as being in transition -although they are always in transition, with evolution at work-.

I think that’s at least partly becuase our conception of the world as quite static, and, especially, that we believe our times to be, somehow, exceptional.

Related to this is the conception that some event or the other changes history. No, no event ever changes history. All events shape history. Not even that. History is a construct after all. All they may change is our feeble predictions about the future.

This happens because we tend to actually believe that our present is somehow static and that it’s excpetional. People writing about future geopolitical scenarios 20 years ago always took into account the Soviet Union. How could it be otherwise? Around 2 or 3 years later the Soviet Union was no more. Someone writing about such scenarios 10 years ago wouldn’t have taken Russia much into account. However, today, it’s again being taken into account as it becomes an oil power.

Take 9/11. Did it change history? Obviously, no. Unless Bin Laden and his cronies are actually time travellers and came back in time and did something that hand’t been done before. History isn’t a river that flows following a predictable path, it can’t be altered.

And, also related to 9/11. It’s said to be the most important event in our (shockingly young) century. As usual, we believe what happens in our times to be exceptional, special. How can’t anything that is happening today not be special? I mean, I’m living it. The same must have thought those hapless soldiers that fought and died, for example, during the last hours of WWII. Actually, nobody cared. Peace had already be decided and nothing impotant was a stake. Or what about the soldiers who fought a diversionary attack during any operation during history? It’s always seen as secondary. Hell, they must have said, what’s so secondary about being under heavy fire with people being killed all around me in our funny little diversionary attack?

I don’t know if that will come to be true. It’s too early to say. Tomorrow, or even today, something may happen that may alter any of our expectations. But it’s been almost 10 years since 9/11 and I can tell one thing, it’s impact hasn’t been that great. And this coming from someone living in the suburbs of a city whose trains were bombed by islamic terrorists, with 200 something deaths; trains that my mother takes every day, that I take once in a while.

But all in all, 9/11 hasn’t, so far, because, as I said, I can’t predict the future, seen to have changed much our lives. Apart from ridiculous ritualistic security procedures at airports, it didn’t have much of an impact. Even the Iraq war didn’t scalate into anything.

At around the same time as 9/11, the Internet was taking off. So far, and unless/until something related to 9/11 happens that actually affects society more profoundly, I think that the early 21 century event that has affected society the most is, undoubtedly, the Internet.

We have a great insight into today because we are living the present. Let’s just think about our daily lives. Has 9/11 altered much your daily life? Do you do things you didn’t do before becuase of 9/11?

And the Internet? And still, more time is, I think, needed, but the potential it has is very great so it wouldn’t be surprising if it was something that is considered, in the future, an extremely important event.

Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that tomorrow our Great Leader President may press the button and really affect in a nice way our life and our predictions.

Posted in History, Philosophy, Society | No Comments »

Chicken or the egg

June 11th, 2009

This is something I had wanted to write about for a long time, but I’m glad I postponed it because now I think I have a clearer picture about it.

First of all, for those who watch anime, how many animes out there feature drugs? I’m not by a long chalk someone with that much experience, but out of the probably more than 70 shows that I’ve watched so far, I only remember one brief glimpse in Clannad, when implying that Yoshino Yuusuke, the ex-rock star, had been taking drugs during his fall.

In this entry it might become clear I’m not in favor of drugs, but since this isn’t about whether they are good or bad, it should be OK. This is rather, about whether teaching kids about drugs, sex, etc., actually accomplishes what those who favor such education say will accomplish or rather if it works the other way around and has the opposite effect.

But let’s begin with the anime thingy. Anime seems to hardly ever mention drugs. Alcohol can be esaily present, and sexual themes of all kinds, even in shows for young kids, are quite usual. I mean, they don’t seem to shy away from this stuff, from pantsu/breasts to all sorts of fetishes, the list not being by any means complete, rape, tentacle rape, loli, bondage, incest, etc, etc.

Ok, but to drugs. Why are they not present? It’s funny to find out that Japan is one of the first world countries with the lowest drug abuse in the world, although it obviously exists, and some say it’s increasing but it’s still lower than any country in Europe or in the US.

At the same, time, we find that the media seem not to protray it with such profusion as it is here.

The first logical conclusion is, since the drug abuse in Japan is low, it’s not such an important part of reality as it is here in the West (notice, from now on, West will mean the US and Europe). That is, a production such as anime usually will reflect its reality. That’s why there are, obviously, no bunkasai in your typical American movie for teenagers but no high-school anime (that is, 90% of them) can, I think, go by without the compulsory bunkasai, as it can’t do without its compulsory beach/onsen scene.

However, does fiction just reflect reality? Apart from the fact that science fiction doesn’t (although it’s greatly influenced by its background, undoubtedly), rather than reality being reflected, the culture is reflected, including myths, prejudices, etc. For example, in both the West and Japan, probably in the whole world, it is believed that cold weather causes colds, so it’s represented as such in all kinds of movies, books, etc. However, scientifically speaking, cold weather causes, as it’s obvious, no viral diseases whatsoever. It’s not reality, but that culture’s belief.

But, whether it represents reality as such, or, rather, the set of beliefs of a culture, many tend to think that not only fiction, but also news, reports, etc., tend to represent reality and nothing else.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. All those productions also influence people, in other words, not only do they (attempt to) portray reality; they are also creating reality.

When you see in a Simpsons episode that Lisa gets stuck in a refrigerator and catches a cold, it’s not only reflecting a belief, it’s also reinforcing it.

Take the typical anime stock character: the desperate unmarried woman in her late 20s or in her 30s.

Is it reflecting reality? Probably, but in Japan marriages are increasingly ocurring at a later age, similar to the West and any other developed society with people pursuing careers, etc, so it’s likely that their prominence in anime (and, I assume, other kinds of fiction in Japan) is once again cultural, but that’s not the point.

The point is that by showing that, they are also creating reality. Japanese people who know reality, that is, that it’s more and more common for people to remain unmarried for a long time, are also confronted with that, which obviously can make them see reality from another perspective.

In sum, anything, from fiction to news, not only is reporting what reality is like, it’s also creating reality. Drug abuse in American shows is not only reflecting a reality, it’s also informing people about drugs, making them aware of their existance when many people migh thave not even known about them, at least in such detail, becuase in their daily lives they aren’t involved with them.

From here, we can ask several questions.

Kids are given nowadays lots of details about drugs, which I don’t remember being given when I was their age. Will that make them more conscious against taking drugs, or, rather, more knowledgeable about them and therefore more eager to take them? Maybe not knowing much about them will make them appear too threatening and, above all, not part of their daily reality and experience? When we don’t know about something, we tend to fear and avoid it.

That in anime (notice, anime is not only meant for children) drugs are hardly ever present means that it’s just reflecting Japan’s reality, or rather is it also creating that reality by not making drugs something so familiar that it becomes part of your daily experience?

Are those who plan these things aware of it? Can’t it be like a teasing game? I tease you about it, but I tell you not to take drugs. French philosopher Foucault mentions something similar about sex during the 19th century - although in theory it was something to be avoided, they actually where obsessed about sex, always trying to describe new paraphilias or to know more about it, or to talk -in indirect ways- more about it. Just like that, it can be the case that those who are, in theory, against drugs and want to educate kids about it are actually teasing them and deriving some kind of pleasure from it.

Once at high school we had a debate about whether drugs should be legal or not. Why does a debate about whether tobacco should be unbanned in public spaces less likely to be held?

The same could apply to, for example, sex ed. To what extent (I’m not making any judgement about teenage sex, by the way, I’m talking thinking about the objectives of sex ed alone), is it accomplishing what educators say it will accomplish? Or could it be they aren’t actually even interested in that but rather derive pleasure from talking to kids about it?

Posted in Anime, Philosophy, Society | 1 Comment »

My proud collection

June 8th, 2009

To take a breather now that I’m in the middle of exams, here’s a look at some of the books that make up my proud Japanese-related stuff collection.

Light novels:

Light Novels

Containing: 3 volumes of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (one of them was in my bag and I forgot to put it there); Toradora (hoping to someday complete the collection because most volumes of Toradora are not available in Japan at the moment, I hope they print more); Spice and Wolf (1 volume); Zero no Tsukaima (5 volumes) and Nogizaka Haruka no himitsu (3 volumes)

Manga (1st part)

Manga 1

Hayate no Gotoku (3 volumes, basically where the English scanlations stopped, around volume 13); Minami-ke (all 5 volumes so far published, waiting for volume 6 this month); Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei ( 5 volumes)

Manga (2nd part)

Manga 2

Lucky Star (3 volumes), Hyakko (1 volume), Hidamari Sketch (all 4 volumes so far published)

Light novels & Manga in German

In German

Maria Sama-ga miteru (5 volumes, all so far published in German so I’ll continue it in Japanese), Genshiken (7 volumes), Azumanga Daioh (3 volumes, the first volume, not in the picture, I have it in Japanese); Chobbits (2 volumes)

Manga in Chinese:

In Chinese

Skip-Beat (4 volumes) and Hyakko (2 volumes, 2 and 3, while volume 1 in Japanese)

In fact, these aren’t all I have, but others I keep in other places where it would have been more troublesome to take out. In fact I just now realized that for some reason I left out my Bamboo Blade collection (8 volumes), but well, too late for that.

Posted in Anime, Personal, manga | No Comments »

Swine flu and temporary contracts

June 7th, 2009

I just marvel at how stupidly careless people can be. More so, when it’s about their own benefit.

My cousin says that some coworkers of hers (she’s a nurse) are going on a trip to Mexico.

You know, it’s not about the infamous swine flu itself. It’s just a stupid panic created by the media. It’s just a fucking normal flu and we’re not gonna die. Well, it’s easier to die from media-induced brainlessness.

However, it’s not about the flu itself. It’s about the context.

They’re nurses. If they caught that flu, they’re gonna be removed from their posts at the hospital. In fact, that’ll probably happen the moment they come back from Mexico and sneeze or cough.

Plus, I assume they’re like my cousin - with a temporary contract. Of course, if you have to miss work for three or four weeks because you caught the inafmous flu, they’re not gonna renew it. And it’s now harder than ever to find a job.

Such is the stupidity of people, no wonder there’s this big crisis going on. Can’t just people think about the possible, even if not likely, consequences and weigh it up? I mean, if it’s either choosing another destination that is not being ridiculously monitored by the authorities or risking to endanger your job, even if only remotely likely.

Of course, the most likely thing to happen is they come back safe and sound, but still, I  at least would play it safe.

Posted in Society | No Comments »

Compulsory adulthood

June 5th, 2009

There’s this ex-classmate of mine with whom I hardly ever agree. But once she wrote that kids often behave like they do (i.e. getting drunk, unwanted pregnancies, etc) because this society forces them to become adults too early, and yet complaining when they do that. Well, I agree with her on that.

If we assume there ought to be a continuum from childhood to adulthood through adolescence, we could say that these days the continuum is disrupted.

Many teenagers, for example, are forced to live a semi-independent life with their parents away from home most of the time, often having to care after themselves or, even worse, care after their younger brothers, instead of actually being the ones being taken care after.

Or take movies and the like. We go, without there being hardly any continuum, from highly stereotypical, mushy shows for children to teenager movies that are full of reckless actions (also, by the way, often hihgly stereotypical): drugs, alcohol, sex

I decided to write about this after seeing something that is truly symbolic of all this. I noticed -it may have been there for eons, but I don’t go out so often as to be able to notice these things easily- today that one place where there used to be an arcade which now has been turned into a gambling place.

I must have been there, when I was around 12, a couple of times. Now, it’s gone and only adults can enter. It’s very symbolic. What is more or less an inoffensive place for teenagers to hang around playing some videogames, turned into a place (no minors allowed) for gambling. The continuum is completely disrupted.

Although undoubtedly -and here is where I start do disagree with my ex-classmate- this may be a crucial factor for this, it’s not the only one. Let’s not forget teenagers are individuals with their own personality and they’re the ones, at the end of the day, responsible for whatever reckless actions they may carry out. We can analyze these factors, but it’s not enough to shift the blame and, above all, resopnsability to something as abstract as society from the ones who end up actively, voluntarily and consciously doing that stuff.

Posted in Society | 1 Comment »

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