X, among other things

Home was...home. Good and bad. I think the weekend got off on a rather bad footing and that threw the mood. Had a great sleep the first night and miserable sleep the second and that threw me as well.

Picked up Neuromancer by William Gibson. It's considered to be the beginning of the Cyberpunk sub-genre. Also found and read Cyberpunk which it turns out is a short story that's available on the web. Both of these are old 80s classics and like the movies of the time feel a bit cheesy. Cyberpunk moreso then Neuromancer. Both attach a lot of significance to RAM and ROM in ways that makes no sense. It feels like they are throwing out big terms to make it feel more futuristic but since they used real terms their futuristic outlook gets burned 20 years down the road. Wonder if all science fiction is slotted for that. War of the Worlds certainly isn't very scary to our modern technology unless retold. Neuromancer also hurt itself a bit with a sex scene very early on that could of course develop into something else but felt idiotically gratuitous to the wrong kind of people. But it was written in the 80s so go figure. The plot itself has not developed very far so I am withholding judgement. I'll also grant that just because it set the foundation of the genre doesn't mean that it was the best story ever to come out from it.

Moving on, at home I also picked up half the anime "X" (quotes mine). Was kind of skeptical about it but I've been wanting to branch my interests out beyond what is on TV and I had read a little about it online. I've watched through all the episodes (before you all die of shock it's less the 6 hours of show and I had all Saturday/Sunday nights to watch). I was busy doing homework throughout though so I am going to re-watch more slowly to pay better attention. Thoughts just far: some Biblical imagery, I've read that it is a take on Revelations and the two characters could in theory be construed in a very odd way as Christ/Anti-Christ. This isn't a new thing in anime so it doesn't bother me a terrible lot. I haven't really read Revelations so it just seems like plot to me. The plot itself starts off kind of slowly and is very very confusing. There are almost too many main characters and halfway through the series I hardly know any of the characters by name. Some of them have already started dying so I won't get a chance to learn their names! (Part of the reason I am going to re-watch.) On the more positive side: the voice actors are made up of a bunch of folks I am familiar with so while I can't keep track of the character's names I can easily and readily identify them. The musical theme if rather repetitive is also very enjoyable so I look forward to the listening aspect of the show. The art is well done and realistic. This is a serious show so it never waxes into the silliness some other shows I've seen do.

Well, that's probably a long enough ramble for all of you especially since most people who read this probably care very little about science fiction (especially cyberpunk) or anime (especially any anime) I suppose this was a rather useless post. Sorry, better find yourself something good to be interested in like science fiction and/or anime :D