He’s got a big vocabulary. So do I. I’ve experienced often enough the fact that people assume that this implies intelligence far beyond what actually exists. Now I have evidence: this book, which I’m reading because of a recommendation saying it was quite profound, so far is nothing much except him long-windedly laying out postulates and concluding that as there are no moral absolutes which can be derived from scratch, everything is terrible.

Again: I’m currently only partway into the book. Still, unless he comes out with something astonishing before the conclusion, I’ll be vindicated in my prediction that this book is little more than overrated crap.

What?

Most rap is the singer bragging about their accomplishments. The most frequently bragged about accomplishments:

• The ability to compose verse on the fly.
• The ability to seduce women with the aid of said verse
• Proficiency with a weapon

Cyrano was accomplished in all of this, before the year 1900.

It is a very fun book, though not one it’s really possible to take seriously. The Brian Hooker translation wonderfully captures the spirit of the verse; I recommend it.

Working on this has been an education. I’ve written before, but only short fiction and nonfiction, not comedy scripts. I’ve shot video before, but only in webcam/home movie contexts. I’ve never even attempted to edit video before. All I bring to the table is an active mind, a powerful computer, and a borrowed camcorder that was on the low end of the scale a decade ago.

Actually, those may well turn out to be sufficient. The basic plan was to take five times as much footage as would end up in the final cut, and spend five times as much time editing as filming; so far that’s proving an effective strategy. Still, I can’t help but sense that unless I pull several more all-nighters working on it, this thing isn’t going to be good enough.

As for what I learned today in particular, there are two major points. The first is that even though this ancient video device claims to have native support in Windows 7, it simply doesn’t appear when plugged in. It’s a good thing I have a spare old XP box lying around, or the editing process would be even more painful. Also, while transcribing these digital video cassettes is at least easier than working with analog, they still have a major drawback in comparison to solid-state storage: they only transfer their bits at 1x speed, meaning that every hour of video takes an hour to transcribe before I can begin editing. It’s an anomaly in a world in which everything else digital happens at some high multiple of realtime.

If only I got paid overtime, I could double my salary. At least I can probably show the Army that they’ve got a bargain in me.

[edit 20100531:2152]

Ok, so the actual numbers worked out like this: 2 hours filming to produce 1 hour film. 15 hours of editing later, I managed to complete this 8 minute first draft. Submitted it to the XO for review, and he said that with this quality, the maximum length should be 5 minutes. So: this draft is guaranteed to contain rare material not contained in the final release! I’ll put the final version up when it’s done; the challenge is to use the cutting to improve the overall quality.

[edit 20100531:2250]

Oh yes: I don’t expect this to be comprehensible, let alone amusing, to anyone who isn’t already familiar with the outgoing commander of 2-2 ASLT. 90% of this is in-jokes.

[edit 20100601:0437]

Final cut. If it’s not down to five minutes exactly, it’s at least less than six; it would have been very difficult to remove much else without gutting it. Enjoy!

Left the theater, got the speech that’s becoming creepily familiar. “You’re a great guy and I’ve enjoyed our dates, but I don’t see us having any romantic potential.” She was having more trouble making the speech than I was receiving it. I made a joke, left her laughing. Then we studiously got into separate subway cars for the 90 minute ride home.

I’m kind, polite, respectful by default. It’s not too much effort on my part to be attentive, even witty. However, I just have not got the hang of being sexy. The the eerie similarities of the last few breakup speeches suggest that it is an essential quality.

Some stories are great because of the tremendous imagination of the author. Some are great because of the engaging tone and style in which they are written. This book is great because every word intensifies a single emotion: despair. Not one is wasted or counterproductive.

I like to think of myself, in general, as a happy nihlist. There’s no inherent meaning or purpose in life, but that doesn’t prevent me from enjoying myself in the meantime. This book is the story of a nation forced to the same outlook.

I loved it. You may not have the same reaction, but you will absolutely react to it in some way. It is worth reading for that alone.

Nevil Shute, On the Beach (Amazon)

Speaking of CGI, Deus Ex managed to startle me with the poorness of its graphics. It’s easy to forget how much progress a decade means in computer gaming until you go back and look at what was once state of the art. Aside from a somewhat idiosyncratic control scheme, though, it remains a great game.

Bakemonogatari breaks that convention. Surrealism is the near side of the spectrum it explores. Actually, this series makes something of a point of sending up conventions; from embedding a pun in the name (bakemono = monster; monogatari = story) to the unique cinematography, it’s difficult to come up with points of similarity to other series at all, let alone examples of conventionalism.

Perhaps the most similar show to Bakemonogatari is Serial Experiments LAIN. Whereas that show subverted the cyberpunk genre to talk about solipsism, this one subverts the horror genre to talk about figuring out what it means to be in love. The staff of the two shows appear to be disjoint sets, but in several areas they made very similar choices: both use looping, monotonous visuals as a stylistic effect, both only really make sense after viewing the whole thing and thinking a bit. Both use non sequiter and static scenes to set a tone. Stylistically, the biggest difference is that Bakemonogatari is more stylized about it all. Given that LAIN came out a decade prior and pioneered these style choices, that is acceptable.

This is not a series for anyone who wants to watch something brainless and engaging; it fails to match either of those descriptions. For anyone willing to put in the mental effort, though, this is a rewarding show.

Genre: nonviolent (except sometimes) textual (presented in animated form) monster story
Emotion: unexpected immersion
BTFS: .85

As odd as that all sounds, it’s kind of compelling. The subject matter and manner of presentation prevent it from ever approaching anything as pedestrian as mainstream sensibilities, but it’s the most appealing introduction to the subject that I’ve ever come across.

I’d recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind seeing something unlike any movie they’ve ever watched in a theater. It’s available free and legal at its website: http://sitasingstheblues.com/

As light reading to relax between chapters of Anna, I’ve read two series of five books each. Both are military science fiction detailing the career of a prodigy who, despite challenges and setbacks, defeats in detail a serious threat to all of human civilization.

I accuse neither author of being underambitious.

The Jason Wander series by Robert Buettner isn’t actually very good. Buettner has a set narrative formula which he sticks to rigidly, a boring enemy, a failure to research whether his proposed technology is even plausible, and a fanboy’s view of the US military. I do not recommend this series; I only finished it because I’d bought the series complete and I don’t fail to read books that I’ve already bought.

The Vatta’s War series by Elizabeth Moon is much better. Moon is a much better author: she develops strong narrative arcs both within each book and across the entire series, only rarely stretches suspension of disbelief, and generally tells the story well. I have only three real gripes with this series. First, the entire series hinges on a promising cadet being ejected from a military academy on entirely specious grounds: she’d attempted to help an underclassman she’d been assigned to mentor in a way which backfired an a manner impossible for her to predict. Given the intelligence and competence of the academy’s commandant and staff through the rest of the series, this is hard to explain. Second, a minor romantic subplot from the third book is magnified clumsily by the fifth into the capstone of the book, with the implication that vast personal accomplishment and professional achievement don’t matter unless there is also some idealized lust-fueled pure love thrown into the mix. Finally, the major enemy of the series, like Jaws, only rarely actually appears. A little more information about how they achieved prominence and wealth enough to threaten civilization would have been nice. Still, overall, this was a satisfying series even if it did not quite reach excellence.

Anna Karenina still shows signs of being a masterpiece, which really shouldn’t be surprising.