WORD OF THE DAY! 8/7/14!

JON TRON- TITENIC?

hamartia [hah-mahr-tee-uh]

noun

1. The tragic flaw that inevitably leads to the downfall of a person or enterprise.

EX. The hamartia of the RMS Titanic, in a cosmic sense, was to declare the ship "unsinkable". In Greek tragedy, such hubris tempts the gods to intervene in order to teach the mortals a lesson in humility. And yet, in a tragedy of such titanic proportion, the causes of the outcome are not as simple as the tempestuous whims of some envious deity; the ship wasn't constructed well enough, the crew did not see the iceberg until it was too late, the passengers were packed away improperly and there were too many souls on boards and too few lifeboats, and so on and so forth, until all of the variables added up to a formula for disaster. It is unlikely that we will ever know why such a foul fate befell the ship on its maiden voyage, but we can learn from the mistakes identified.

And then there are the various craptastic unofficial software made to ride the coat tails of James Cameron's mega-successful Titanic film; their tragedy is that somebody thought they could make a fun game based on a romantic disaster film based on a real-life tragedy. I dunno if the gods came together to punish those game designers, but it is a comforting thought to imagine their wrath coming down upon their heads.

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/12/12.

partheogenesis [par-thuh-noh-jen-uh-sis]
noun
1. Development of an egg without fertilization.
2. Mythology. Human birth without sex; virgin birth.
3. Mythology. Creation of new life from a single individual or being without sex.

EX. Much like the parthenogenesis of Athena from the head of Zeus, the greatest stories ever told through anime have been born from the head of the Japanese Disney, Hayao Miyazaki. Yet, much like Athena's birth being partly from the result of a prophecy foretold by Zeus's first concubine/wire Metis, so too are the idea of Miyazaki born from a mix of his own personal experiences, philosophies, and mythology from all over the world.

Many of the young strong female characters in Miyazaki's works are based on real people and fictional archetypes, like his friend's daughter on whom he based Sen and like Russian mythology's Baba Yaga on whom he based Yubaba & Zeniba from Spirited Away (2001). In Porco Rosso (1992), the protagonist is an exaggerated satire of Miyazaki himself and the story briefly touches on themes of facism, which were once part of Miyazaki's political life. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Princess Mononoke (1997) drew upon his strong belief in natural conservation.

These examples are just a few and it becomes clear through studying any artists works that nothing is original, but that doesn't mean that it can't be unique, inspiring, and enchanting; three adjectives that fit the works of this titan of story-telling through animation.

WEEKLY ROUND-UP 9/25-10/1 2011

WEEKLY ROUND-UP:

Chimera Week

7. WORD OF THE DAY. 9/27/11 Diabolic, Diabolical, Insurmountable

This picture combines elements of the two most infamous fantasy universes of all time and pits the wizard of one story against the diabolical obstacle of another. Every time I see Gandalf face off against the Balrog, I shiver and replacing him with Yoda is a brilliant bit of fanart creativity. This also helped mark the continuation of my less essay styled Word of the Day articles that free up some time in a school schedule that is driving me nuts.

6. WORD OF THE DAY 9/29/11 Livid

5. MUSICAL MONDAY: CONAN THE BARBARIAN

Conan the Barbarian (1986) is one of my favorite films, but I hadn't seen it until last year. Why did I decide to check out the film that I (for some odd reason, being a fan of Schwarzenegger and sword & sorcery) had no interest in before last year? The Kaplan Bros. made an incredible musical medley of the soundtrack with Conan singing over it on youtube. I rented it and fell in love with the film and the soundtrack- which is my favorite film soundtrack (as of right now).

4. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE KILL IT WITH FIRE. THE WICKER MAN (2006)

I finally reviewed the Cage film I had planned to review for a few weeks. I'm on a bit of a Nic Cage kick...so maybe I'll review Drive Angry for this week.

3. STUFF I THINK ABOUT. FAT 1

Got a little emo on my stuff I think about this week but, honestly, I think it was tongue and cheek enough to be amusing and maybe a little touching. I hope. If not, tell me? Tell me if it came of a little too "How could this happen to me? I made no mistakes." Etc.

2. HISTORY'S BIGGEST BADASSES #1 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

I got to talk about one of history's biggest and most controversial badasses. I am a huge history nerd, though I prefer content over exact dates/names, and love to tell a ridiculous but true story.

1. SCI-FI FANTASY FRIDAY! ACTION SOCIETY #4 LUCIUS

The fourth chapter in my serial style novel. This week I introduced an even more fantastic character and forced all of the other characters introduced into one room. Finally, we understand why they've been brought to Doktham and can see that we won't be leaving the dark depths of the Underwold for a good long time. On the note of Lucius, this character is far more dubious than the other heroes introduced so far and I hope I got his perverse observations across nicely. This chapter is dedicated to my friend Zach Stanifer, who has played Lucius in my main campaign for nearly a year.

Word of the Day. 10/1/11

Word of the Day

chimera [ki-meer-uh, kahy-mer-uh]

noun

1. (usually, or if capitalized) a mythological fire-breathing monster composed of the head of a lion, a goat's body and tail of a serpent, often ending in a snake head.

2. any monster made of disparate parts.

3. a horrible and/or unreal creature of the imagination

EX. Neptune wiped the sea foam from his beard and, as they hit the shores of Ithica, the bearataur rose from the sand. The grizzly chimera raised its abominable mace in its claws and charged at Korbo with a roar made up of all the roars ever roared.