Lounge Dragons
Lounge Dragons
20641
THREADID
60
POSTS
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The large television in the Chapterhouse lounge is on with the sound muted. Teodor, in his cassock, sits on the couch. A 3 inch binder is open in his lap, the tv remote in one hand and a pen in the other. On the screen an anime show is playing, depicting teenage girls in school girls outfits fighting off a large, spined, worm like creature with katanas. The monk periodically presses pause on the remote, freezing the action and scribbles notes on a page and then presses play again.
Bigpaw
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Aileen usually conducted her daily meditation at her pool, but it so happened that today she wanted a change of pace. Also, she hoped maybe to get some time to have a closer look at the Chapterhouse library. She parked in front of the entrance, and got out of her car wearing casual clothes. In her bag, she had a notebook, a pen, and her phone, nothing else.
Entering the house proper, the Mekhet heard the sound of the TV playing in the lounge, and headed there. She had to at least pay her respects to any Dragon in attendance. What she saw puzzled her immensely, but what could she do ?
Good evening, Slave Raluca.
On a subconscious level Teo heard the front door but was engrossed in his research. At Aileen's greeting, the Dragon paused the show and turned. "Slave McFarlane! Good evening." He then closes the bind and puts it on the couch along with his pen and remote. "I apologize I was engrossed in my notes. I hope your night has been productive and pleasant so far?" Alone with the apparently exceedingly quite Shadow, Teo hoped he had a chance to crack the mystery around her and draw something out of her.
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Aileen's night had been mostly uneventful so far, which was not productive, but much more pleasant as far as she was concerned.
My night had been pleasant so far, and I had hoped to make it productive from now on. Thank you for asking, sir.
She looked at the notes the monk had been taking, as well at the paused screen with a quizzical look on her face. She resisted the urge to pry any further though.
Raluca catches the young woman's expression and smiles a little ruefully. "Wonderful. Perhaps you would like to join me?" he motions to the couch. "On the advice of Suppliant Villiers I have been begun an investigation of the graphic art medium. More specifically, comics. Which has brought me to the rather fascination interconnected Asian genres of 'Manga' and 'Anime.'" He waves a hand at the screen. "From an artistic and cultural point of very they are quite interesting. I have just broken the surface of my study and already I have found a wide range philosophical and cultural dichotomies with in the dialogue and text. And the art..well..." he pauses, waving at the TV. "I am eager to begin experimenting with the style soon."
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While Aileen was dowright brilliant if it came to it, she had never turned her intellect to such studies, nor had she planned to. She was about to excuse herself, when she realized how rude it would be toward Slave Raluca, and decided to at least make a fair attempt at it.
Graphic arts ? Well... I've learned a bit about Turner, or Dali, but comics and manga... did she say as she sat on the couch.
She looked at the monk with a rather dubious face when he talked about philosophical and cultural dichotomies, but with a gesture of her hand bade him continue.
He could see the doubt, at first glance the hyper-sexualized young women and extensive violence seemed rather shallow; born of repressed desire and an urban life free of conflict. However looking deeper there was a great deal packed into the genre, intentionally or unintentionally.
"Turner and Dali? Dali as in the Salvidor Dali? And Turner?" he asks curiously. If she did indeed mean that Dali he would make a note to him to the his research at a later time.
He wags a finger and smiles warmly. "Allow me to guess that you think these two genres do not hold all that much of the intellect." He gestures at the screen. One of the female characters is frozen mid leap, sword up raised, impossibly small cloths straining against the extremely uncharacteristically Japanese propotions of the figure.
"But let us consider the heroines of this film. They reject the patriarchal norms of Japanese society by their challenging of male authority and their extensive martial training. In addition the lead heroine holds position of sexual dominance over the lead hero, who instead is weak, helpless figure who attempts to fight off her advances with embarrassment and fits of hysterics. In addition to the fear of female advances, the character is made in such way as he tends toward the androgynous and dressed in...not homosexual....what is the English....dandy. Yes, dresses dandy. However at the same time the monsters and shadowy government officials attempt to subdue and dominate the heroines both sexual and mentally. So sense of fear and emasculation of the male is shown while the subjugation of the female is portrayed as natural and important to the state." This of course was also reflected in the several manga examples he had found online using the city library computer. There also were tantalizing exhibitions of occultism in what he had seen.
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I know of no other Dali, but I'm not well-versed in such things, I've got to admit ? did Aileen reply to the monk, but it was as much a question about his purpose when asking about it.
When Teodor went on with a lengthy explanation of the interest to be found in such shows, her face was still rather blank. Only the last sentence did trigger some interest for the young Mekhet.
"SO sense of fear and emasculation of the male is shown while the subjugation of the female is portrayed as natural and important to the state" She thought about it a short while, and nodded.
I am willing to admit that when you look past the crude images, the underlying thematics of the displays are somewhat unexpected, and can prove to be enlightening in a way. But it is only psychoanalysis applied to widely popular, and thus representative, mortal shows. Nothing of interest for us... did she counter.
Teo nods as Aileen confirms her statement that she meant Salvidor Dali. He waits and listens with interest as the Slave digested what he had to say and presents her view on the subject.
"I would agree and disagree with you. The genre showcases changes in Japanese culture which do not directly affect us as kindred. They do show the change in Japanese culture in the wake of the second world war. I have not done a proper survey of pre-defeat fiction however as a broad generalization these themes," he waves at the screen "are not present."
He reaches down and picks up his binder and starts flipping through pages. "However another theme I have stumbled across relates to the interaction of 'man and machine,' One title the shop owner mentioned..ehm..here we are, Ghost in the Shell. Machine consciousness. Also several serial titles involve with human memories and consciousness uploaded to computers. This touches upon growing field of Transhumanism which will have a great impact kindred." Teo reigns himself in as he realizes he starting a tangent. "Well, I am getting ahead of myself with all that. For the time being I am focusing on the low hanging cultural themes. Once I have laid them down I can move higher into the branches, to continue the metaphor." he chuckles.
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The slight stress on the word change in the other Dragon's sentence made Aileen wonder if this couldn't be construed as an extreme of the Dragon's Tail.
If you were to wonder about those underlying themes, you might want to study the disproportionate eyes of those characters, if it is a recurring feature. did she mention as she looked at the frozen picture on the screen.
Prying her memories, she recalled one or two shows of her youth, and quickly compared them to the one on the screen. Also, all heroes are always kid, young and pure.
There are low hanging cultural themes aplenty. When do you stop looking ?
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Dragons and Computers
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