A few days ago for the first time (well, maybe the second or third, but my memory's bad) I wandered over to the LJ of
anaxila's S.O., kjv31, and discovered that he's an artist, which I hadn't been aware of, because apparently the earth rotates around me to the exclusion of all other details. (Which is why this whole power outage thing--so not important.*) His illustrations are way cool. I'm not too familiar with the X-Men universe, as I didn't grow up on comic books the way a lot of people I know did--I've seen the movies and that's about it--but I love the AU take on Jean Grey as a woman of size. Curvy babes galore. I recommend that people go check it out. Pet a fanboy today!Which reminds me that I also wanted to rec posts from
anaxila herself, who came across one of those literary twists on the RPF discussion, namely a transcribed speech and an essay from Guy Gavriel Kay on the ethical questions of using real people in fictional works, and the tensions surrounding privacy and the public gaze in our culture. The first post, Ethics and privacy in fictionalizing real people, has a link to Kay's talk, and its follow-up has a link to his essay. Fascinating musings that everyone should go read. I thought this was a cool quote from his speech:In Jewish rabbinical law the notion of protection from 'the unwanted gaze' was enshrined, to such a degree that not only was it prohibited to look from one's window into the home of another, it was prohibited to build a window where someone might apprehend they could be overlooked in private space. The anxiety that one might be seen was judged worth assuaging by that society. In translation, the core passage reads as follows, and this, too, I offer as an epigraph to my remarks: 'Even the smallest intrusion into private space by the unwanted gaze causes damage, because the injury caused by seeing cannot be measured.'I didn't know that, but my gut agrees (even if my head entertains a more nuanced range of thoughts), which is probably why I often find reality TV--which he goes on to talk about--so disturbing, even if there is consent from the subjects being observed--they know they're being watched, but do they know *how* they're being watched? Plus, this reminds me of the whole issue of public surveillance. Occasionally an article will pop up talking about the gradual saturation of the urban landscape with suveillance cameras that watch our every move when we're unaware--e.g., law enforcement cameras at intersections to capture traffic violations, or of course in airports, where your government might be using facial recognition systems to try and identify terrorists. Then there are nanny-cams and those little transmitters that they want to stick on prescription drugs, which aren't cameras but are just as creepingly disturbing.
But all this aside, I finally watched another ep of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy last night--in a probably vain attempt to stay au courant--and liked it. It was cute. Must try to watch more, nourish tiny shred of trendiness.
And must watch Equilibrium again tonight. My god...my god, that movie. I can't stop thinking about it.
(* Steve Martin says: This is irony.)