Sunday, March 15, 2015

Study Notes: Mar 8-14, 2015: "How long until North Korea collapses?" &c

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 
Homework for the future:

"A Non-Biblical Dating for the Jaredite Migration"
  • "Mormon writers have simply carted in the guesses that (1) The 'great tower' mentioned in Ether is the Tower of Babel, as if there were no other towers in human history." The author tries to make the case that the confounding of the people's language at "the Tower" is not to be confused with the confounding of the people's language at the Tower of Babel, but I'm not buying it so much. 
  • "The correct account [of the Tower]... was apparently taken by the Jaredites from the Great Tower, and thus the plea that their language be not confounded was solved in the same manner that it was with Lehi and the Brass Plates..." 
  • "The Jaredites migrated no later than 11,000 years Before Present (BP), during the end of 'the Wisconsin' Ice Age; possibly as early as 250,000 BP (!)... Maybe 50,000 BP, just for a nice round date?"
  • "Whenever they came, the people endured storms and floods, a clearly different geography with many lakes, and brought records of an even more ancient race of men 'of reknown' [sic], long since destroyed."
  • "Ice Age climate changes probably wiped out the Jaredites, or at least precipitated their fall." 
  • "Now, if you read the account from Amaleki concerning the finding of Coriantumr by the people of Zarahemla, you'll note that the Jaredite (a descendant of the Brother of Jared) lived with them for 'nine moons'. I have guessed in an Abriding Works essay that this phrase suggests he fathered a daughter here, thus extending the line of the Brother of Jared into the line of Zedekiah (said to descend from David), and then into the line of Mosiah (and Joseph)."
  • And then some other peculiar ideas are made, which make neither sense nor good story fodder. 
  • "Yet, I think probably Coriantumr lived for a very long time. Maybe he's still alive, even; yet to receive his long deserved burial? Attempts to give him the usual 70 years, and so to stretch the Jaredite society down to 560 BC are needless, and based mostly on the belief in the Bible, [and] some concern to appear biologically reasonable; while not realizing that three others (perhaps wrongly called 'Nephites') were granted lives durable enough to last many centuries." 
  • So, um... Er... And that's about all I have to say about this. I thought it'd at least have neat ideas for worldbuilding or something, but nope. 

"Prophets, Kings, and Swords"
  • "This lack of knowledge concerning the sword's possible pre-Laban origin is not surprising, for Lehi, prior to obtaining the 'plates of brass,' appears either to have been unaware that he descended from Joseph of Egypt (1 Nephi 5:14), or else to have had no documentation other than oral tradition."
  • "It is interesting to learn that, according to Jewish tradition, the antediluvian patriarch Methuselah slew myriads of demons with a 'wonderful sword,' a weapon Abraham is said to have inherited, by which he 'conquered the kings... Esau thus received it, as heirloom, from Isaac, since he was the first-born. This sword passed to Jacob when he purchased the birth-right.' This miraculous sword of Methuselah, described as being 'more [precious] than money,' was not the only treasure secured by Jacob from Esau. A special rod, known later as the 'rod of Aaron,' was also procured by Jacob, who eventually 'bequeathed it to his favorite son Joseph.' [brackets original]"
  • "Accounts of swords (herev or hereb) as emblems of sacred kingship and authority are prevalent in antiquity. Semitic nations such as the Babylonians and Assyrians venerated particular swords. Tiglath-Pileser I, one of Israel's conquerors, dedicated his 'copper lightning flash' as 'a trophy of victory, in a chapel built on the ruins of one of the vanquished cities.' The Assyrian god Ramman is also frequently represented on monuments as armed with a 'two-bladed flaming sword.'"
  • "The ancient Scythian people worshipped [sic?] an iron scimitar, to which they offered yearly sacrifices of cattle and horses, while the Japanese revered a mirror, sword, and jewel as the regalia inherited from the ancestral sun goddess, Amaterasu, 'Heaving Shining.' Among the Germanic tribes of Northern Europe, swords were higly valued as treasure and were transmitted through successive generations. The Anglo-Saxon tale of Beowulf speaks of that warrior's gomele lafe, or 'ancient heirloom,' an iron sword inherited 'from long ago,' while the English king Aethelstan, in his will dated from 1015, bequeathed a sword to his brother Edmund, reputedly owned by old King Offa who lived some two hundred years previously." 
  • "According to medieval tradition, the famed Germanic hero Siegfried, of the Niebelungenlied, obtained a certain sword which enabled him 'by ancient law' to acquire 'the rights of the first born.' Often such inherited swords were buried or 'stored for another generation, to be given to a descendant for a further lifetime of use.' The Pandyan prince, Kumara Kampana, before going into battle against the Muslims, was given a 'divine sword' by a goddess, while another sacred weapon came into the possession of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar, where the blade was 'handed down from generation to generation.'" 


"Here's One Genre That Could Replace Post-Apocalyptic Stories"
  • "We're in the middle of a huge boom in post-apocalyptic storytelling, including some of the most acclaimed novels and some of the biggest media properties. Will the apocalypse ever stop? What could replace it? Here's one idea: Instead of the apocalypse, maybe we can stat writing about colonizing other worlds, which is much the same experience." 
  • "A post-apocalyptic world contains the remnants of our post-industrial grandeur, and all of the cultural references still apply, but in a lot of ways it's like a world that's gone backwards in time, into a less civilized age."
  • "At a certain point, though, all post-apocalyptic stories share a few characteristics... There's a certain grimness, and a sad resignation that we were doomed to fall apart one way or the other." 
  • "The good news is, a story of colonizing another world can include pretty much all of the stuff that you'll find in a post-apocalyptic story: 1) People who began in 'our' near future, or their descendants, are finding themselves in a barren, inhospitable world. 2) Maybe there's some advanced technology that came from Earth, but spare parts are going to be hard to come by, and when things break they're gone for good. 3) The advanced, prosperous life on Earth is just a memory, and instead, the colonists are going to have to rough it. 4) Terraforming a new planet, the hard way, is probably going to have a lot in common with reclaiming Earth after a major disaster. 5) Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and all of the cozy assumptions people made on Earth will get tossed out and trampled on." 
  • "The story of colonizing and terraforming a new planet, like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books or a few others, could be a new way to explore a lot of the same ideas that authors say they're getting at in post-apocalyptic stories. Only, without quite the same feeling that humans are completely doomed to self-destruct." 

"Noah's Ark is a Sustainable Floating City for a Post-Apocalyptic World"
  • "Aleksander Joksimovic and Jelena Nikolic envisioned a modern and sustainable ark capable of supporting all life in the event of a natural disaster. Their innovative water world would support life on terraced fields, grow food, collect rainwater, generate its own power and is engineered to withstand all forms of water-based disasters." 
  • "Noah's Ark is a series of terraced rings with deep underwater towers that act as ballasts to increase stability. Multiple arks could also be connected together in a network through underwater cables." 
  • "Solar, wind and ocean energy are harvested to generate power for the floating city, while rainwater is collected from all the surfaces for use within. Underwater turbines could capture tidal energy and all of the surfaces would be covered in artificial coral to encourage sea life. The sides of these artificial islands are tall enough to protect the interiors from severe storms or tsunamis. In the event of a major storm or impending disasters, the inhabitants can retreat to air-filled bubbles inside the depths of the islands for protection. Each ark features residences, offices, farmland, animal preserves, energy generation capabilities, and recreational spaces." 

"How long until North Korea collapses?"
  • Inae Hyun: "Although people previously relied on government supplies to get by, to survive they're now increasingly left to their own devices." 
  • Inae Hyun: "Today even government officials are not as loyal as they once were. In fact, some of these officials now think that the North Korean regime has no future, meaning they care more about increasing their income over caring for their country. Yet, they do not dare to try and change the regime because of the still heavy government surveillance." 
  • Inae Hyun: "We can only expect a military coup caused by instability among the top elites to create a major change." 
  • Soon-Kyung Hong: "North Korea's international isolation will be intensified. So in order to resolve this, some attempts toward economic reform will be inevitable in North Korea." 
  • Sung-Ha Joo: "What could cause a collapse of Kim Jong Un's regime? For me, only an assassination-- or the central government losing control due to a rapid expansion of market activity." 
  • Jimin Kang: "South Korean and foreign culture is currently all the rage in North Korea-- so much that they are even now instructors that teach K-Pop dance moves in the DPRK. South Korean dramas and foreign music were popular when I was there in 2005, but at that time they were enjoyed in a culture of oppression and pressure. However, these days the younger generations pursue and lead the cultural wave. Younger people want foreign culture as they are dissatisfied with the current leader." 
  • Sung-Guk Choi: "Back in the 1980's the basic idea of buying and selling was limited mainly to older women who went out to the market area. During the 1990's there were a few smart people involved in the market, but their presence was not much welcomed by North Korean society. However, during the Arduous March (the economic crisis in North Korea from 1994 to 1998) people were forced to look for their own means of production. Today, it is clear that commerce has become the principal income for smart people. This means that more than ever before, North Koreans are prioritizing their own wealth over national duty." 
  • Sung-Guk Choi: Widespread use of text messages among North Korean youth is creating and spreading new culture. South Korea's propaganda broadcasting and TV soap operas were good enough to agitate North Koreans and make them favor-- and even believe in a capitalist way of life." 

"You Don't Have to Read That Text Tonight"
  • "One of the big parts of being a critic of media is paying attention."
  • ""It's listening to Sweet Home Alabama and noting the fact that A. a whole verse of the song is spent whining about a Neil Young song criticizing Jim Crow laws and segregation, B. Lynyrd Skynyrd's reply is "A Southern Man don't need him [i,e. Young] around, anyhow,' which as burns go barely rates as Brush With A Birthday Candle, and C. the song is therefore both absolutely racist and absolutely laughable. Like, this isn't rocket science. It's literally just listening to the lyrics and saying, oh, wait, these lyrics consist of words that have actual meanings." 
  • "The song [Roxanne] has a pretty straightforward narrative. The speaker falls in love with a prostitute (a worker in the 'red light' district, in the song's terms) and vows to save her from her degrading work. She no longer has to sell her body, he's here to save her! Aww. How sweet... The song is actually really about female disempowerment and male jealousy. Listen closely to the lyrics again-- there's a decidedly controlling and demanding bent to the speaker's ostensibly romantic and heroic arguments..."
  • "The last line [of the second verse] is interesting to me because of the moral judgment it places upon Roxanne. She is described as an amoral being, and her actions are met with disapproval. If we take it one step further, the speaker is asserting Roxanne's ability to make a moral decision, but [her] choice not to. This can mean one of two things: Either Roxanne is in a position where economically and socially she is choosing sex work rather than being forced into it, and the speaker is commenting upon that and disapproving... Or the speaker is just kind of self-righteously asserting that Roxanne is lacking in morals when really she is lacking in economic or physical autonomy. [ellipsis original]"
  • "Neither of these options really endears me to the speaker, but the second one is actually pretty vile, if you think about it. We've had centuries worth of this sort of moral judgment, generally entailing all sorts of pearl-clutching about 'fallen women,' while no one makes a move to actually alter the conditions under which lower-class women worked and often suffered." 
  • "The fact that the song is entirely from the male perspective, and about the male's desires and experiences, is very telling. It suggests that the female experience is subordinate to the male experience." 
  • "Much of Theory simply consists of treating media like one half of a dialogue."
  • "You can actually stop and ponder what you're chewing, and make judgments about whether or not it's really healthy to be eating today's fifth bowl of caramel-coated whale blubber." 

"The Girls Who Walk Away From Kyubee"

  • "Yes, the situation is absurd and comical, but one thing is undeniable: This is simply the reality in which Madoka lives. And it is completely frivolous." 
  • "The fact that the show remains in a realistic mode of staging emphasizes the fact that this is just what daily life is like for Madoka and her peers. There's no stylistic switch to indicate a change from the serious, plot-relevant parts of the show, and the frivolous, comic relief parts." 
  • "This may be simply my own miserablism dampening the proceedings, and maybe I'm just unduly affected by the rather grim mindset I was in while watching the series a second time, but I found the endless cuteness, the overwhelming prettiness, overwhelming and cloying. And part of the reason for that is that I had seen the graves upon which that cuteness was built." 
  • "The people that live in Madoka's world are the same as the people of Omelas-- living in bliss through the suffering of a few." 
  • "Kyubee's own reaction to Madoka's suffering is not the reaction of the people of Omelas-- it is not a reaction that acknowledges the suffering and responds-- it is a dispassionate response of a being that sees humans as tools or livestock-- a convenient power source." 
  • "Why do we find it so difficult to imagine a paradise without a dark halo? Why do we find it so hard to believe in goodness and peace? Why do we accept the 'treason of the artist?'"
  • "There's conflict and then there's conflict, you know? There's conflict in a Hayao Miyazaki film even if there isn't always a lot of suffering, per se... it's part of why his villains are often so much less villainous than you would perhaps expect if you've grown up on Disney films." 
  • "What both Madoka and LeGuin [sic] are getting at, I think, is that we have to be willing to directly confront our tendency to find darkness in light, both as philosophers and as artists. In fact, there is an inherent challenge within these stories to find more optimal solutions rather than simply accepting a tainted reality." 
  • "The relationship-- the love-- between Madoka and Homura is not incidental to the show's themes. In fact, it is Homura's agony-- her deliberate taking on of pain in order to support Madoka's paradise-- that allows us to see the horrible human consequence of the Faustian bargains made in the show." 
  • "There is acceptance of suffering as inevitable and ultimately, in some way, permissible." 
  • "It is, as I say, imperfect, but ultimately other characters are put in a reactive position to Homura's iterative actions as she continually attempts to a future in which Madoka is saved." 
  • "It is significant, then, that she never sees a possible victory beyond Madoka's personal salvation. This is why Homura, for all her power and autonomy within the various timelines, is ultimately still trapped. She willingly traps herself by accepting that her own suffering and the suffering of the other magical girls is inevitable. She is one of the Townsfolk-- or one of the traitor artists-- accepting that a paradise can only exist if someone, somewhere, pays a hideous price." 
  • "Madoka sees the Suffering Child and decides that such suffering, even for her own happiness, even for her own humanity and continued existence in this world, is unbearable. Madoka perceives the rules of Kyubee's game, and short circuits them. She does more than walk away from Omelas-- she rips out the foundations of the whole fucking city." 
  • "Remember that Le Guin is interested in pointing out the treason of artists-- the willingness of creators to accept evil as something that must exist for there to be beauty." 
  • Madoka: "If someone says it's wrong to have hope, then I'll tell them they're wrong, every single time." 
  • "The brilliance of this line comes from the fact that it is a logical 'If-Then' statement. If x, then y. And for Madoka, this statement is more than just a declaration or boast. It is literally a new law, written into the very fabric of the universe itself. She has reordered reality to make this refutation an inevitability. It is an inevitability that supplants the inevitability of wretchedness." 
  • "To some extent, I can't help but wonder if as an artist part of my own role in the world should be to take on Madoka's declaration and hold it close to my work and to my heart. There is certainly a role for deconstruction-- there is a purpose to the exposure of the Suffering Child, the exposure of wretchedness, the exposure of how people in our society are shut out and tormented and made to believe that brutality is the only law in the universe. But is it really enough to hold a mirror to society? At what point does the exposure of the wretched become to us, as it becomes to Homura, an inevitable damnation to be accepted, a burden that we take upon ourselves?" 
  • "Le Guin's story and this short, concise cartoon demand, ultimately, the same reflection from us as critics and artists. They demand that we ask ourselves whether or not we are among the ones who walk away from Omelas." 

Miscellaneous
  • Cory Doctorow, "Cold Equations and Moral Hazard": "Every time you hear that education is vital and taking care of the poor is our solemn duty, but we must all tighten in our belts while our lifeboat rocks in the middle of the precarious, crisis-torn economic seas, ask yourself whether the captain of our lifeboat had any role in the sinking of the ship." 
  • Cory Doctorow, "Cold Equations and Moral Hazard": "Stories about how we can't afford to hew to our values in time[s] of crisis are a handy addition to every authoritarian's playbook, a fine friend of plutocrats, and they reek of self-serving bullshit every time they're deployed." 
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