Posts Tagged ‘northrop frye’

Five rules of funny molestation

By Pontifus on 10 August 2009 | Anime, Art and Culture, Literature, Manga | 15 Comments

Alright, that's sort of awesome.

In real life, molestation isn’t funny, so don’t think I’m condoning your trip to Japan whereupon you will hit the subways, so to speak. But in anime and manga, sexual molestation is used in service of humor as often as it’s an agent of personal horror, and there seems to exist an unspoken code governing the line between the two.

Don’t think this is all about cultural implications, either. Such narrative machinations as humor can be deliciously structural. Not that the examples I look at here are off the social hook, per se, but we’ll look at that on a case-by-case basis.

(Edit 9/8 — Let this comment serve as a brief addendum in answer to those parts of this post that weren’t thought through as well as perhaps they should’ve been.)

Of Diebuster, structure, and the parents of gods

By Pontifus on 4 June 2009 | Anime, Literature | 14 Comments

Breaking into the super robot genre has proven difficult for me, so I asked the wise OGT to point me toward a few shows that might help. Among other things, he recommended Gunbuster (aka Top wo Nerae!) — you may already know this, given all the fanboying I did over the show and its sequel. Gunbuster was probably just the sort of thing I needed, tempered as it is by enough drama and pain to sustain my interest through the genuinely awesome moments, which I can in fact enjoy on the level of genuine awesome if I stay interested long enough.

Diebuster, though.

You want to put it into words. You really try. But the last episode explodes your mind, and you’re left with assorted pieces, slightly charred, floating through space. You could leave it at that, but these pieces practically beg to be reassembled, and I’m nothing if not tenacious when it comes to weaving my webs.

Clannadstrophe

By Pontifus on 13 March 2009 | Anime | 14 Comments

As the twenty-second episode of ~After Story~ puttered to a halt, I hung my head in shame — shame for my falling for it at least partially and being sort of happy in the end, but mostly shame for KyoAni for doing exactly what I thought they’d do.

Adventures in Criticism pt 5

By Cuchlann on 10 March 2009 | Anime, Art and Culture, Internet, Light Novels, Manga | 13 Comments

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We’re nearing the last leg of Northrop Frye’s first essay in Anatomy of Criticism; this time we’re tackling the section called “Thematic Modes.” 

Adventures in Criticism, pt. 4

By Cuchlann on 9 March 2009 | Anime, Art and Culture | 8 Comments

 

You knew she'd show up eventually.

You knew she'd show up eventually.

After over two months away — two months of thesis writing and so on — my Adventures in Criticism return.  If you recall from last time, we tackled Frye’s first essay, the “Theory of Modes.”  Or rather, one third of it.  I’m going through the second third now.  

Adventures in Criticism pt. 3

By Cuchlann on 5 January 2009 | Anime, Art and Culture | 3 Comments

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There’s not much introduction to do.  Anatomy of Criticism, being a book, continues.  Here’s part one of my reading of the first essay, “Historical Criticism:  Theory of Modes.”  I’ve broken this up into two parts partly because I’m really tired and I’m not sure if I’m processing very well today, and partly because the essay is broken into sections on tragedy and comedy, making my tired-decision easier to make.

Adventures in Criticism pt. 2

By Cuchlann on 2 January 2009 | Art and Culture | 3 Comments
I will swiftly run out of images of girls reading, but for now...

I will swiftly run out of images of girls reading, but for now...

Part one of my grand adventure was a little strange.  After sleeping on it, I think it’s because I wussed out and posted before finishing the entire first section of the book.  I left you, the reader, with a partial view, much as Lenny Bruce was convicted of obscenity through a police officer’s report on his act; he protested vigorously that, to be fairly tried, the judge and jury needed to see his act directly, but his appeals were denied.  Frye, were he alive and Googling himself every few minutes, would likely protest in much the same way to my butchering of his “Polemical Introduction.”  Here’s part two of the introduction, wherein I finish it, find more that’s useful, get the seeds (already) of an anime post based on same, and find Frye apologizing for much of what seems strange.

Adventures in Criticism pt. 1

By Cuchlann on 2 January 2009 | Art and Culture | 11 Comments

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We’ve gotten increasingly critical here at Super Fanicom, which I think is no problem at all.  Though I do want to do an actual, you know, anime post pretty soon, to help cleanse the pallet a bit.  I’m afraid I can’t do that yet, though, and am even proposing starting a series of posts on theory.  In defense of this little project of mine, I think these will be relatively short.  Here’s the skinny:  I’m finally getting around to reading the whole of Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism.  I’ve read parts before now, but never the whole thing, or in anything approaching linear order.  I thought as I read I would post along with thoughts for each section.  This is the “Polemical Introduction,” pt. 1.