Thursday, 31 May 2018
Wednesday, 23 May 2018
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Infinite Diversity, Finite Combinations BONUS POST
Kirk's grasp of probability is interrogated in my most pointless IDFC post yet.
Sunday, 13 May 2018
Fear Of The Known or Why We Must Not All Ignore "We All Ignore The Pit"
Anyone who's a fan of horror stories and isn't regularly checking out The Magnus Archives is making a big mistake. It's a weekly horror anthology series that eventually turns out to be building to something rather more than it initially appears.
At present, the show stands at 100 episodes, with a remarkably high level of quality control given they've all be written by the same person. Almost every story comes in at or above the level of "good", and occasionally Johnny Sims absolutely smashes one out of the park.
For all that I love the show, though, I've not actually written anything about it. Sims' bite-size tales of unsettling goings on are generally much easier to appreciate than they are to analyse. Episode 97, released a couple of months ago, was very much an exception. That episode, entitled "We All Ignore The Pit", was so fabulously chewy I ended up writing an entire essay about it, which I've reproduced below. Naturally, spoilers abound for the episode in question. There's nothing below that would spoil more than that episode itself, however, so if you want to read the essay to get a sense of the sort of thing the show does, then you can be confident that 99% of the currently available material will remain able to surprise you.
At present, the show stands at 100 episodes, with a remarkably high level of quality control given they've all be written by the same person. Almost every story comes in at or above the level of "good", and occasionally Johnny Sims absolutely smashes one out of the park.
For all that I love the show, though, I've not actually written anything about it. Sims' bite-size tales of unsettling goings on are generally much easier to appreciate than they are to analyse. Episode 97, released a couple of months ago, was very much an exception. That episode, entitled "We All Ignore The Pit", was so fabulously chewy I ended up writing an entire essay about it, which I've reproduced below. Naturally, spoilers abound for the episode in question. There's nothing below that would spoil more than that episode itself, however, so if you want to read the essay to get a sense of the sort of thing the show does, then you can be confident that 99% of the currently available material will remain able to surprise you.
Friday, 11 May 2018
Infinite Diversity, Finite Combinations 2.1.11
This week we reach the episode where everyone realised Trek was about to shrink into nothingness, and had absolutely no idea what to actually do about it.
Saturday, 5 May 2018
Tuesday, 1 May 2018
Thanos Made No Reasonable Points
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| A post in which I get oddly serious about a film that could easily have been subtitled "Bruised Bollockman And The Genestealer Infestation" |
Arguments along those lines are not necessarily a bad thing. Ultron, for instance, absolutely had a point, one so strong Age of Ultron had to have him attempt genocide simply to hide the fact that his criticism of the Avengers as enforcers for a grotesque status quo could be safely forgotten.
It doesn't track from this that every villain has at least something of a case, though. This should be obvious enough from the horrifying crypto-fascist (heavy on the fascist, light on the cryto-) defences of the Empire/First Order that keep popping up following the return of Star Wars to our cinemas. And while we might want to quibble over the respective degrees to which they reveal horrifying politics on the part of those making the argument, putting forward the case that Thanos was right is, at least, equally ridiculous as saying maybe the Death Star counts as economic stimulus.
Avengers: Infinity War spoilers below.
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