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May. 26th, 2010 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nigeltdeIn an attempt to think and write more about the vast quantities of media I consume, I am going to attempt to think and write more &c- &c-.... So apologies in advance for increased levels of noise and constant levels of readability.
Luther S01E01
For a few moments in this episode the camera hovers behind Luther's set shoulders and bobbing head as he strides purposefully into the next set-up and the empathic drive of those moments is very compelling; he is a driven and unrelenting and furious man and it is easy to get caught up in his mission.
But he's walking towards his ex-wife's office whereupon he bullies her colleagues and emotionally blackmails her. I'm willing to watch the magnificent and solemn Idris Elba as a cog in a system that rips the heart out of a city, but I don't know if I'm willing to watch him as another iteration of Genius McCopFace whose manufactured psychological darkness partly consists of him behaving abusively and violently towards his ex wife.
In fact the best reason to watch this episode is to revel in Ruth Wilsons's sociopathic, curl-lipped nemisis and the interplay between her and Luther; the philosophical blocks of their opposition are a little overtly laid but still it's sharp and at least tries to be smart.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Mote In God's Eye
The awesome title is the best thing about this book and I spent a lot of time actively resenting it. I don't read very much classic hard sci-fi so I can't really compare it to its contemporaries but the moments of slap-in-the-face sexism of this novel demonstrate a significant paucity of imagination borne out by the difficulty the authors have in imagining a non-cisgendered other or the structure of human politics 1000 years in the future. And it is, of course, terrifically, wincingly dated. And hell, The Stainless Steel Rat has more interesting things to say about interstellar war.
It's not the worst thing I've ever read and there are a few cool ideas in the Motie casts -- especially the Mediators -- but Left Hand of Darkness does similar and far, far better work when when it comes to imagining the alien.
Luther S01E01
For a few moments in this episode the camera hovers behind Luther's set shoulders and bobbing head as he strides purposefully into the next set-up and the empathic drive of those moments is very compelling; he is a driven and unrelenting and furious man and it is easy to get caught up in his mission.
But he's walking towards his ex-wife's office whereupon he bullies her colleagues and emotionally blackmails her. I'm willing to watch the magnificent and solemn Idris Elba as a cog in a system that rips the heart out of a city, but I don't know if I'm willing to watch him as another iteration of Genius McCopFace whose manufactured psychological darkness partly consists of him behaving abusively and violently towards his ex wife.
In fact the best reason to watch this episode is to revel in Ruth Wilsons's sociopathic, curl-lipped nemisis and the interplay between her and Luther; the philosophical blocks of their opposition are a little overtly laid but still it's sharp and at least tries to be smart.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Mote In God's Eye
The awesome title is the best thing about this book and I spent a lot of time actively resenting it. I don't read very much classic hard sci-fi so I can't really compare it to its contemporaries but the moments of slap-in-the-face sexism of this novel demonstrate a significant paucity of imagination borne out by the difficulty the authors have in imagining a non-cisgendered other or the structure of human politics 1000 years in the future. And it is, of course, terrifically, wincingly dated. And hell, The Stainless Steel Rat has more interesting things to say about interstellar war.
It's not the worst thing I've ever read and there are a few cool ideas in the Motie casts -- especially the Mediators -- but Left Hand of Darkness does similar and far, far better work when when it comes to imagining the alien.
