There sure are getting to be a lot of cats around here. The white one I mentioned several weeks ago finally let me pet him--he turned out to be a neighbour's cat, who told me a bit about him, but I've forgotten his name. Yesterday there was a grey, striped cat in the backyard, chewing on some flowers, and to-day a calico with collar trotted across the porch while I was making coffee. It's the first time I've seen a cat with a collar in a long time.
I watched the new Code Geass episode to-day, which wasn't bad really, but only in the world of anime could you have one episode involving characters fighting against each other in a bitter insurgency war, and in the very next episode feature the same characters in a screwball comedy plot involving a giant pizza. Code Geass really is a Saturday morning cartoon show for adults. This sure is a brave new world.
I want to respond to something in Caitlin's blog, which practically seems like a reply to my own post about "CONCERNING ATTRITION AND SEVERANCE";
And speaking of Sirenia Digest #29, my thanks to scarletboi for the exchange yesterday on "Concerning Attrition and Severance." One of my greatest fears about letting people read the piece was that it would be misinterpreted as mere "torture porn," that they would miss the Cosmicism that is critical to understanding the story's intent. He wrote, "I'm glad you chose to share it. It was graphic and horrific (in the original meaning) and brutal. But it was also beautifully written and deeply involving. To be honest, I probably shouldn't have read it until my current work is finished, because I have a feeling it's going to affect the mood of it...I understand the worry. The narration is indifferent enough to be almost clinical, academic. If it took more glee in the proceedings it might edge toward the torture-porn of Saw or Hostel. But I think it came across more elegantly than that, and I hope other readers pick up on the cues as well." Too which I can only add — me, too.
I confess I did misinterpret the story about the woman mutilating another woman for an audience, with special attention to nipples and vagina, as "torture porn". While I did think the language was beautiful, as usual for Caitlin, I did miss the flashing elegance cues that would elevate the story above the Hostel movies* in some particular way. I made the amateur mistake of appreciating it as a psychological profile of someone who's driven to torture people because of her insecurities, instead of the groovy vision of the cosmos it was apparently meant to be. Maybe I ought to have remembered that the "white woman" was also Jack the Ripper and Elizabeth Bathory, both of whom, I am sure, were perfectly elegant and sophisticated individuals. For my next faux pas, I'll be referring the Corleone family as gangsters.
*I'm a fan of the Hostel movies, remember. Here's my review of Hostel: Part II.
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