Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Skip Ender's Game: A Short Essay on Why Orson Scott Card Views not on Religious Grounds but as Member of NOM should be Enough to Boycott his Movie

First Edition, Hard Cover (1985)
Tampa, (Fl) --- Is not that is not OK to read anything from Orson Scott Card because he is a Latter Day Saint and also Stephanie Meyer the author of Twilight who is also a Mormon should be banned from writing because her books are awful.

But, while both writers are just on some level mediocre; Meyer for just butchering the vampire genre, Card is just mediocre for just given pseudo-scientific views about the LGTBQ community, climate change as well intelligent design as if they were ultimate truths. Those are three reasons that show how mediocre someone as a writer can be but overall as a person and a leader of interest in the spotlight who is also a member of the board  of the virulent National Organization  for Marriage. 

Orson Scott Card
Then there's the dychotomy where religion is mixed in a blend of politics and public spotlight; where Card had played with his fame in the worst way possible because some of his body of work had been superb such as the dystopic future of Ender's Game but yet his novels such as Songmaster and Hamlet's Father have cruel depiction of unreal characteristics of the Gay and Lesbian communities.

Card itself has given his point of views in such an outdated way that is just sad to hear that his comment match much as Reverend Jerry Falwell views on LGTBQ community, but Card himself has expressed that people attacking his point of views had attacked free speech but is not an attack of free speech when the giver has delivered a hate speech and tried to hide it between the parameters of the First Amendment in order to do what he wants.

If we go on his ender's game I could dare - to say that all Later Day Saints are a bunch of quakers who think themselves as the chosen people and hate everyone who are not on their social circle - But, Card's views towards on politics, civil rights as well science don't reflect an aspect of the cultural aspects of LDS's as a collective and I would be implying a hate speech on an specific group much as Card did without any knowledge about their history as well their individual backgrounds.

The point with Card's conflict runs toward the National Organization for Marriage point of views as a hate group and the relation of the group to the Latter Day Saints Church as the church being a major sponsor of NOM. The inconvenience with the Mormon Church on the United States spotlight quote the church as many other Christian groups that manage homosexuality as a problem that needs to get "fixed" without even realizing that the policies as well the doctrines have to be updated in order to be inclusive to possible new parishioners who are seeking for a safe-heaven.


NOM Logo
Then there are so many public image strikes that the church essentially PR got destroyed because of the initiative supports to fight to maintain DOMA and Prop 8, which they lost and they didn't show any grace, specially with Prop 8. As NOM co-founder said on her blog "it was a disgrace" but the disgrace relies on the organization violent message to equality which Orson Scott Card supports.


That's the problem with Orson Scott, his image is in not the best frame at the moment after all the remarks he had made and the ones he keeps making. One aspect is to attack a person under his system of beliefs then the other is to receive an attack and having to tolerate the person who has insulted you without any possibilities to defend yourself. Then there is the problem with the people you surround with which they can create a negative influence around your persona.

What to do.? Separating yourself and trying to amend the mistakes is almost an impossible task when you think you are right, but yet in the case of Card people will see him just as another representative of a church that had suffered too much damage to their image because of the political lobby they represent on keeping America on another era that is no longer valid.

So if there is a ground to boycott Ender's Game not as a final product of entertainment but from a perspective that the idea was penned and the movie co-produced by a man who knows no better towards love but only hate.    

Monday, July 8, 2013

The Simplicity Kitsch of Bob's Burger: A Short Essay of Old School Television in Contemporary Times

Louise Belcher 
Tampa, (Fl) -- There is something honest and beautiful about Bob's Burger - it reminds me of the late 1990's cartoons on the animation almost on the time period where King of the Hill made his debut -, yet the show use a similar equation that The Simpsons had on the early years before Homer went D'oh! and Lisa went Gaga.

The writing of the show is fresh even if it has been seen many times in the past and with today's competition as Family Guy (as well other 3 Seth McFarland clones) and with The Simpsons itself; because, the show has what the others left behind many years ago in order to keep the audience; but, Bob's Burger follow more the vein of King of the Hill on the writing rather than other shows of nuclear dysfunctional families as it appeals to a more mature audience without using an overly impact of slapstick comedy.

The family dynamic between the Belchers reflect the early dynamics of The Simpsons as an incompetent father tried to focus on gaining respect of his children while them only paid attention to their mother. The show shows a problematic in today's world due the rise on the price of living and many families being separated in order to keep their houses as well pay for their children's education they nucleus of an unity has been broken but beside that the intrusion of multimedia and "celebrities" advertisements in the homes of families due the use of different technologies had created a new generation of children that are far more knowledgeable on certain topics but yet more naive due the world problems because of their ego centrism and their perspective that everything has to be given "now" to them without any effort.

Probably Bob's Burger will bring back the essences of Animation Domination and will put the most established shows in an order that their scripts will improve to attract again a demographic of adults who are tired of trying to find a fresh block aimed to adults that don't include traces of child thematic's on the story-line.

When The Simpson's started on 1989 as an independent show from The Tracy Ulmann Show, the cartoon essentially defined what is adult animation today. Back on season 1 the show focused more on the family dynamics as well their interaction around their town, Springfield. Bob's Burgers follow on certain extent that concept but also dangles on the shenanigans of the family without making them extremely unrealistic (quoting The Simpson's, the Brazil episode) but yet making them lovable as people can relate to the Belcher family as the lovable losers they are.

Maybe with today's television we'll need to see more scripted shows that focus on actual events as well a fairly realistic approach of characters in comparison with today's world instead of showing a megalomaniac 1 year old who can speak and has an infatuation with a dog while they travel around time and space (we can leave that to all the "bear" fanatics of Dr. Who across the world) but writers can find inspiration on the mundane without going in the absurd but yet maybe in the kitsch.  

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Daria: The Last Cartoon of Generation X

Daria Logo
Tampa, (Fl) --- As a member of the so called Generation X, the last generation that mixed the voice of non-conformity with the use of technology to express their non-conformity before they became hipsters and yuppies and raid into the conformity of the modern corporate world, they were much as me, a group of idealistic people who tried to change the world and eventually just gave up in their vast majority.

When the world of the generations was changing along came MTV Daria's; the last cartoon of a generation that wasn't keen to technologies and was more outspoken, which makes me wonder if in a hypothetical example Daria would turn out to be much as the rest of her generation,? and would lost her focus in life to become a writer.

The world of Daria wasn't far away from reality (except from that musical episode), a misunderstood teenage girl with a high IQ but yet extremely asocial to almost anyone else even among her family, but showing rare exceptions to one of her aunts and her father. Her best friend Jane who was much a young Bohemian who was as smart as Daria but yet not as solid to her cause; Daria's sister Quinn who was an insecure teenager fearful of rejection because as her sister she had some degree of intelligence but opted to hide it in order to fit in with the popular cliques and the list goes and goes.

The beauty of Daria is that is classic timeless piece of media, as the content is fresh and funny even almost a decade and a year later after the show ended in 2002; the show itself could follow a revival and find a new legion of fans but yet a follow up movie regards what happened with Lawndale wouldn't be a bad idea but yet if the show would be as fresh as it was on his prime is highly improbable, because today's generation is more self-centered than the one of a decade ago.

One sociological aspect of Daria is handling of alienation from part of society without gambling with sociopathic behaviors (even if they can be used to scared one or two individuals for your own amusement) but the topic of alienation is not exactly related to Daria herself as every single character face desolation and alienation in their own way.

Helen being scared of intimacy, Quinn fearful of being alone because of her "brains", Jake being fearful of interacting with other humans and being fearful of being rejected because of his neurosis but yet none of the characters seems to keep a healthy relationship between themselves because at the end they are full of themselves.

Probably Daria as a show projected what MTV become and was, as well what the future generations after the Generation X turned out to be, a bunch of individuals who don't give a crap about anything beyond their cellphones.