jhameia | From nolan

Drop me a comment and I will give you 3 interests on your list, and 3 of your icons, for you to explain.

Sandman

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I first knew about Sandman in a Wizard Magazine, which had a picture of Morpheus (the Sandman) sitting on a cliff with his sister, Death, standing behind him. I knew that it was a series, but in general, I never bought comics because they just came up with more and more stories, and I didn't know any reliable comic dealer who could guarantee me getting every single issue every month. So, rather than go through a ton of agony wondering what happened next, I just didn't bother.

I picked up Sandman at Odyssey-2000 a couple of years ago, attracted by the abstract art on the cover. I know, I know, I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I flipped through the first few pages and I was pretty much hooked.

On a purely technical basis, Sandman is a beautifully woven story - it's filled with mythical allusions, sometimes even creating them for the purpose of the book. The characters are beautifully created and the range of characterization extensive - each member of the Endless are all completely different, and you don't feel that they're written by the same person.

The reason why I decided to invest in this is because the series has ended. I hate buying comics constantly, so it's nice to know there's a beginning and an ending to a story. I feel that stories which have beginning and endings, even with immortal characters, are better constructed. It's presumptuous, but it's almost on par with Shakespeare's technique.

Of course, reading it makes me sad now, because I know the ending and every reading gives me a better insight of all the clues that lead to the ending. It's still a wonderfully crafted story, with some important life lessons.

Orientalism

The term "orientalism" comes from Edward Said's book of the same name. Basically, the term refers to the attitude of Europeans which assume that people from the Orient are exotic, uncivilized and are both subjects of admiration and of help. It's problematic in that the resultant attitude is that Orientals are deeply admired as aesthetic objects, but not really respected as real equals.

I came across this term in my Feminism and Orientalism class, which discusses current attitudes regarding the Mid-East, particularly with the foray into Afghanistan and the "liberation" of women wearing the burqa. I come from a culture where wearing the headscarf is a normal thing to do, and I've never seen it as any form of oppression. It's just as annoying to see women insist on wearing the headscarf as if it's the only valid way of living as it is to see women insist that wearing less clothes to the point of obscenity is a right to be taken as far as possible.

The globalization phenomenom forces us to look at how we view each other's cultures, and how we view cross-culturalism - Orientalism and its sibling, Occidentalism - in order to see how we can intergrate ourselves with each other and still retain our identities.

Orientalism began with the explorations into Turkey and the like, and a huge fascination with the idea of the harem - books were written by men who hadn't even stepped into one, and no one really knew what went on in them (stereotypes comprise of sex-starved women just waiting to clamber onto their "master" or meek slave girls who sit around being dolls) until an European woman, Grace Ellison, actually went in and lived in a harem for a few weeks and wrote a comparative treatise. It wasn't received very well, of course, because it debunks a lot of exotic ideas that Europeans had at the time.

I began reading more on the harem culture, and as always, it gets my gears going and I can't help but feel that like marriage, the harem is an institution built on economic reasons. But that's another rant.

Mallorean

The Mallorean is a series of five books written by David Eddings, a writer in the fantasy genre. It's a sequel to the five-book series the Belgariad, which I found to be a very tongue-in-cheek sort of epic fantasy that takes all sorts of fantasy cliches and messes around with them.

The charm of the Belgariad and Eddings' humour in general is that it's almost satirical to throw in the mundane everyday things like taking a bath and family spats into such a big epic fantasy story. It's totally tripe, but it still makes me laugh.

I actually began with Polgara the Sorceress which is really the last book in the series that Eddings wrote - it's the twelfth book and follows Belgarath the Sorcerer - the proper order would be:
Belgariad - Mallorean - Belgarath (picking up where the Mallorean ends and goes to the very very beginning, way before the Belgariad) - Polgara (which, story-wise, always picks up from Belgarath and tells Pol's side of the story).

The beautiful thing about these prequels is that it DOESN'T tell you anything about how the first two series progressed, and really sets up the stories beautifully. There're a lot of aphorisms which sum up human nature and life in this, and it was incredibly helpful in making me grow the hell up and think.

The Mallorean is quite interesting in its difference from the Belgariad. In the Belgariad, Garion and Ce'Nedra, two protagonists, are adolescents growing up in dangerous times. It's almost a coming-of-age story where they learn right from wrong, what their limits are, who's there for them, how to trust, how to learn and live, and to stand up and face their own destiny.

The Mallorean picks up on them when they've grown up, are living together as husband and wife, king and queen, and are adults. It's interesting to see how all these adults function together because they have idiosyncrasies that almost make them look childish. I guess that if you don't have dangerous quirks that put people in danger, you look childish and aren't taken seriously, but I LOVE it! It goes to show that people don't HAVE to be dark and mysterious in order to have power. Sure, they have to learn how to be discreet when they should be, and not to brag and show off, but there's a disarming honesty about the story in that everyone better damn well communicate properly, and say what they mean, or else they just end up hurting a lot of people.

In this series too, a lot of people who'd be considered enemies come over to the "good side", but it's clear to see that there're selfish motives involved, but there's something about each character which is endearing enough that the others put their differences aside and learn to trust.

Icons:
Call to arms

I had gone to an exhibition of Auguste Rodin's work and I remember being struck by the sculpture "Call To Arms," which is that of an angel screaming, with her arms outstretched and her wings bent at an awkward angle and a soldier falling off her lap.

The details of my falling in love with it can be found here and I'm still struck by it whenever I see it. I'm hoping to get a copy of it someday, and I chose it as an icon to represent how angry I feel whenever I post a rant.

Joline

nolan_ash and I used to be members on a RPG that was quite successful in its own right in that we created really fun characters, and I enjoyed the process of creation, re-invention and drawing from different aspects in order to make something new.

Joline Dowell is one of those characters out of the RPG that I'm still very attached to. The picture I used to represent her is Ruka from book #5 of Yami no Matsuei, Tsuzuki's other self in Hakushaku's novel. I love her sweet attitude, and I like how she's represented: she wears simple peasant clothes most of the time, which is a welcome change from skimpy clothes. I like tht expression in the icon: it's a kind of "hi! I like being me" sort of smile.

I use this icon whenever I'm feeling very contented with myself and whimsical.

Illuminated

This is a cropped pic from a larger pic, in which Elie and I are toasting what appears to be two little cups of light. They're actually candle-holders and we really liked the image that it created in the camera.

I use this picture whenever I'm not in a bad mood, and have been doing some thinking.