Stooge

Technically this is not bio, fiction, review, or observation about my chosen fields, and thus outside what this site's about. However, as I am the sole writer and editor of this site (God help me), I get to say what goes on and what doesn't. So bear with me.

As I'm working on an essay a few nights back (relatively speaking), my attention is drawn to a commercial for a Three Stooges DVD. I'm thinking that it's going to be about the new colorized version, but nopers. Just digitally remaster. All your favorites. You know the pitch.

I'm not really listening at that point, so when it happen, I'm caught off guard. The narrator says something to the effect of "Laugh again with these forefathers of comedy." And bang, I'm incensed. I can't believe any one could be so stupid.

I mean, I like the Stooges about as well as anyone. They're no Marx Brothers. Or Burns and Allen. Or Abbott and Costello. Or Charlie Chaplin. Or Harold Lloyd. Or Buster Keaton. Or W. C. Fields. Or Paulie Shore.

(Psych! Just seeing if you're paying attention buh-dee! Everyone knows that Paulie Shore's not a comedian.)

The Stooges were adapt in slapstick and had some of the best puns out there. Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe indeed! Playful violence, playful stories.

But the forefathers of comedy? Please! Any five year old can tell you this isn't the case!

There's ony three of them, after all.

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

Notation - Half a Year

Just a little note to myself - You've kept this journal/blog for a half of a year, Cullen. Good Job!

Okay, back to work...

Sora no daikaijû Radon/Rodan - Review

At first all Shigeru Kawamura has to worry about if creeping floors in his mine at Kitamatsu. Then some of the miners turn up missing. And then some of them turn up dead. The townsfolk believe that one of the miners has turned psycho, but the truth is far more bizarre. They have dug too deep and disturbed a nest of prehistoric insects.

The military, guided by Shigeru, enter the mine. A confrontation insures between insect and man that leaves Shigeru trapped inside with the monsters.

It is then that he learns what trouble really is

Some very minor spoilers over the end here. I doubt it's enough to ruin the movie, or, really, worth mentioning, but I thought I'd give a heads up just in case.

Of the Toho Kaiju I do have my favorite, and it's not Godzilla. Oh, I love Godzilla to death, as my capsule reviews might well indicate. But I've always been partial to Rodan. Especially in San daikaiju: Chikyu saidai no kessen/Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster, where there are scenes where he appears damn sly.

Okay, so it probably just me. Can I help having an over-active imagination?

Rodan's initial film, Sora no daikaiju Radon/Rodan, is, no doubt, the Kaiju's shining hour, and even here he has to share it with another monster. Of course the other monster is a nice morsel compared to him, but still a lot of running time is taken up by the grubs.

Like Gojira/Godzilla before it, Sora no daikaiju Radon is unlike any of its American competition. There are questionable plot points here and there (like why Shigeru and his lady love are present at the end), but the good parts outweigh the bad. If you're a fan of the Kaiju at all, you should get a kick out of this film.

All images are from Rodan and belong to Toho

Psychic Archetype Addendum - Deus Ex and Sisyphus

So Beckoning Chasm mentions Minority Report (the source not the movie) in the comments of the earlier post and I decide it's past time to read the story. I've read very little Phillip K. Dick's stuff, after all. The experience would broaden me. A quick stop at the library, or, failing there, Barnes and Noble, and I'd have what I need.

Only, as I went about my day today, it occurred to me that the movie Minority Report really doesn't fit any of my Archetypes. I supposed it could be placed as an Aversion Therapist, but that didn't feel right. The Aversion Therapist would be those who disbelieved in psychics, and that wasn't the case here.

Cassandra and Anti-Cassandra can't be right; both need the Psychic to be the protagonist, and that's wrong here. Same holds true for the X-man Wannabe.

The In Passing Prophet I didn't even consider, for obvious reasons.

By this point, I was coming up with other stories like Minority Report that didn't fit my little Archetypes. Worse, I remembered Paycheck, which, while not really a story of Psychic phenomena, comes awfully close in the course of the story. (And is another one from Phillip K. Dick! Is the man plotting my ruin from Beyond the Grave?)

All of this could mean only one thing: I missed an Archetype. Or two.

So we have this addendum. If more on the subject comes to me, I'll do it again.

And probably will once I get to Minority Report the story... Curse that Phillip K. Dick!

And so, without further ado, the two new Psychic Archetypes.

---

Deus Ex

Of the two new ones, this one should be the easiest to cover. The Deus Ex has the Protagonist given a set of instructions or items that will help them in future. It's the reverse of In Passing Prophet, as it is the story rather than an element of the story.

To a degree, this can be a bit of a cheat unless done right. Hence the reference to Deus ex Machina.

Paycheck could be considered a Deus Ex.

---

Sisyphus

Sisyphus at first seems to be an odd choice for an Archetype. His life story has nothing to do prophetic visions or the like. In fact, the man was a monster, plain and simple.

But he was also a trickster, one who out-thought the Gods themselves, if only for a brief while. When he was, at last, forced to account for his misdeeds, Sisyphus was set to a single task: rolling a boulder to the top of a hill. But before he ever could, that boulder slipped from his grasp and he'd have to start all over again.

Which brings us to the term. A Sisyphus story has the Protagonist struggling against a prediction he or she knows will come to pass. The film Minority Report fits this idea, as far as I can see.

Psychic Archetypes

And now for something completely different: Psychic Archetypes in Fantastic Fiction. I will once again steal from Stephen King's Tarot idea. He didn't complain last time... Of course, he doesn't know I'm stealing it, either.

In writing this, I've discovered that giving mild spoilers towards several stories endings is unavoidable. I've tried to limit things to a vagueness (Good ending/bad ending) that should preserve some of the joy in reading, but I didn't think I could publish this without some sort of warning. Also, some of the links I give lead to more detailed spoilers. Be warned.

And now, without further ado...

---

Aversion Therapist

In which the protagonists try to prove that a given prophecy is a fraud, to various degrees of effect. Most Ordinary stories use this particular archetype. When they succeed, they fall into the Ordinary category. When they fail, they are in the Fantastic.

Cornell Woolrich's novel Night has a Thousand Eyes falls into the Aversion archetype.

---

Cassandra and Anti-Cassandra

In which no one believes the psychic's predictions, and, when they do, they tend to ostracize the person. The main character in this type of story is always the psychic.

This is by far the most common of Psychic story, stemming from the mythic Cassandra herself. As with the myth, these stories have a tendency to end badly.

Stories that could be considered Cassandra stories include Stephen King's novel The Dead Zone.

The reverse of this would be Anti-Cassandra, in which the psychic doesn't believe his or her own prediction. Again, the main character is always the psychic, and the results are usually not happy.

This particular story is fairly rare. The only example I can think of is Daphne du Maurier's "Don't Look Back."

---

In Passing Prophet

Stories that feature prophecy as a portion of the tale but not the main focus. The final volume of Lloyd Alexander's the Chronicles of Prydain, The High King, deals with a prophecy, but the fulfillment or prevention of the prophecy does not concern the characters.

---

X-man Wannabe

In which the psychic uses his gifts to solve other people's problems. This is done as a rule in conjunction with the police, or some other official body.

This is different from Cassandra as that people, more often than not, believe in his gift. The series Dead Zone could be considered an X-man Wannabe.

---

Last note: When this first went up it contained a ton of spelling goofs, which is inexcusable with how long I had to work on it. I find that I also dread it grammarically, but so far I see no problems.

I apologizes for the errors and won't lie to you. They are going to happen again. I'll try to avoid it, but it's inevitable.

Oh Power Girl!

I have no idea why I like Power Girl. None at all.

I hadn't even heard of her before this year. Part of this was because she is a DC character and I've been big on Marvel for a long time. Even when I did dabble in that part of comicdom, I stuck with my main man Batman. Power Girl hangs with this group called the JSA, and sometimes, the Birds of Prey. My path didn't cross with her once.

And yet, now I can't get enough of her. I've been hunting up information on her past, what she's doing, contemplating drawing sketches. It's depressing, it's sad.

It's comic nerd love.

I'm so embarrassed.

I wasn't like this in my younger days. As a kid I watched Wonder Woman (even had a comic) and the Bionic Woman (even had a comic). When Spider-woman had her cartoon I watched that (and, natch, had a comic or two). Outside of that I was only interested in Spider-man and the Hulk.

As a young teen, my interest grew to a degree. I liked Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Black Cat, Dagger, and, of course, She-Hulk. However, only when they appeared in Spider-man. I never went seeking them out. I never developed a desire to write stories about their super heroic adventures.Power Girl, now. Power Girl's different.

I don't know why I started looking up information on her. I remember the first picture I saw her in, though. The one at right. And I'm certain that it isn't the standard male reason for interest in her character, either. Although, as I have read, Power Girl's... assets have always been one of her big claims to fame.

It was just the dialogue, I guess. A sort of innocence despite the more than a little revealing costume. Like she didn't know quite how stunning she was.

As I've found out, this was a bit of mischaracterization. In truth Power Girl is well aware of her body and the effect it had on the common man. And responds in a depressingly stereotypical display of anger at the rudeness her beauty brings out.

Still, there is potential with the character, especially when you considerer that, when she first appeared, she was an alternate universe version of Supergirl. I keep seeing her as a tom girl Supergirl to the reap one's more straight laced, more Superman-like character.

I realize, of course, that there is a new Supergirl comic out there. And, no doubt, she won't be as straight-laced as she was, nor will Power Girl lose the more annoying bits of her character, although from what little I've seen of her more recent appearances, she seems more my speed of attitude. However, no matter what is going on for her or what will become of her character, I can't help but think of stories for her.

So along with my own various works, I'm thinking up Power Girl stories. As well as Spider-man stories. And Doctor Who Stories. And Godzilla stories.

(Especially Spider-man/Power Girl crossovers.... And... And... And this is all too sad.)

Power Girl and her likeness all belong to DC

Image

And things are back to normal. And after all that work learning Rebus!

But for how long, he wonders. How long? The fortunes of the computer user hing upon the whim of the Computer Gods. Sooner or later something is BOUND to go HORRIBLY WRONG.

Oh well. Worry about it when it comes.

We now return to the usual stuff and nonsense.

+++++We%seee the path two future+++++ ordernoW!+++++