Few people realize that man has already attained immortality; it's merely been abused, forgotten, and renamed Writing. -Brian Egan

Friday, December 25, 2009

As for Why I Use an Ekans

I think I owe the Waichowsky brothers a good deal of money for their movie Speed Racer. Not that I pirated it or anything—just that I never saw it in theatres and, well, I’ve watched the DVD more times than a DVD probably should be watched. I like to keep some sort of track of how often I’ve seen my favorite films. For the shock value, I guess, when I tell my friends. It’s not as if I sit around all day and watch movies though. It’s just that I, instead of going to theatres, renting other movies, or buying new ones, am often quite content to see the same four or five films over and over again.

I’ve seen Serenity over twenty times (my estimate is twenty-one), Batman Begins around fifteen, and Speed Racer, well, I must be nearing fifteen with that film as well.

There’s a common theme here. Take Serenity: space cowboy Malcolm Reynolds, while harboring fugitives from the oppressive Alliance, stumbles on a truth so earthshattering that it threatens to topple the entire regime. He—although a bandit, smuggler, and thief by day—risks life, limb, and crew in the service of broadcasting this revelation. At any time he could have sold out Simon and River, the two fugitives, but he does not. In the face of all that feels right, he does instead what is right. (Not to moralize the film for you. The film does that for itself.) Batman Begins is the story of vigilante justice, as is Speed Racer to some degree. They’re all about overcoming. Perseverance. Integrity.

Lofty words that operate on a much smaller scale here in the real world.

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Me: you know, I've still never been to a college party

John: heh, you're gonna haveta fix that someday
it's something one should experience, even if one doesn't enjoy it

Me: wtf are you saying

John: what I mean? (and meaning what I say?)

Me: I don't understand
wait, do poker parties count?
there was on occasion loud music and alcohol

John: >_>

Me: what do you want/expect from me?

John: dancing, alcohol, girls
poker is allowed if you have to drink after losing a hand

Me: but the only drink I like is whisky
and nobody keeps that laying around

John: haha, you're like an old english gentleman
don't get me wrong, beer sucks ass. Don't think I'll ever enjoy that drink.

Me: anyway, I'm in no position to even be invited to parties
I have no community through which I might access such things

John: you'd be surprised

Me: and all this before the consideration of whether or not I'd want to

John: yup
simply acknowledging the possibility

Me: I find possibility to be irrelevant of late

John: of late?

Me: yeah
I am here
stuff is there:
irrelevant

John: huh?

Me: I have enough to worry about without chasing the shadows of ghosts of constructs that I’m not interested in to start with

John: ghosts? Constructs? Dude, I know you're a creative writing major but seriously?

Me: I'm speaking about the relativity of existence

---

At its heart, Speed Racer is a movie about three things; doing what you love, doing what’s right, and never giving up. Bright colors, quirky editing, and dramatic lighting, in defiance of convention, come standard.

---

When I was younger, I wanted to be a computer programmer. To my child’s mind, it sounded like the ultimate job—computers were at that time already integral components of pretty much everything, so the job market would be easy to slide into. Plus, I was pretty sure that programming computers paid well.

I wrote an exploratory paper about the work of a programmer in a paper for my eighth grade English paper. I discovered why computer programmers are paid so well. Their job is boring and tedious, and I would never make it.

Mr. Jones introduced me, effectively, to the world of science. Seemingly more amenable than computer programming, it held my interest until the first quarter of college, where a difficult calculus class showed me that I would never be happy there either.

---

John: I'm still a bit confused as to your reasons. You want to experience college, yeah?

Me: beats me
what's college?

John: good question
only one way to find out though
and it's not second hand

Me: that's a fallacy
x exists
let's experience x, it must be fun

John: yeah, I know, I know
how about this then, writers draw from experience

Me: but not specific experience

John: nope

Me: if that were the case, all writing would be the same
would you like me to write a vampire novel too?

John: YES!

Me: why would I write about something I have nothing to say about?

John: oh, vampires are simply an embellishment of many human things
lust, sin, using people
...bats
all of which can be found at any good party =P

Me: but they are not the only embellishment of human things
they are only one

John: but you're avoiding my main point

Me: you're discarding my retort

John: I mean, if you honestly don't want the experience, far be it from me to say you should have it

Me: what is the experience? I'm not trying to be existential
i mean, let's define what I'm passing up on

John: why, the quintessential college party!

Me: what is it?
beyond names
beyond categories
what am I missing out on?

John: hard to say in words

---

Sometimes when I fantasize about having children, I wonder if it’s not just because I want to be around people who understand me.

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In biblical times, the transformation from boy to man took place quickly, culminating in five quick social steps that facilitated the transformation. In modern times, capitalist media has encouraged if not created a stage of life in between—we call this stage adolescence. In it, we have been convinced that we are defined (passive voice) by what we consume as opposed to what we produce. I consume the heroes of movies and produce none of my own heroics.

But at the same time, I consume food and produce something decidedly less than foodlike.

---

Me: dude, fuck zubat, seriously

John: fuckin' zubat.
can't do shit

Me: tell that to my ekans
he's the one getting destroyed by a zubat less than half his level
Christ

John: why would you use an ekans?

Me: for fun

John: even arbok isn't so good

Me: you'd never guess it but using unconvential pokemon makes the game much more interesting

John: I see

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