Lennan's Journal and Sketchblog

So, I saw this movie Sunday since I was kicked out of the house for 3 hours while people looked at it (yeah, I'm being deliberately coy in case people who “shouldn't be reading this” are reading it). So with this unprecedented amount of free time, I went to the movies, which I haven't done...in a very long time. I think the last time I went to the theaters was in the UK to watch Narnia? Or the last LOTR movie? Has is seriously been that long? But anyways.

( Where I write lots of spoilers about James Cameron's Avatar )

Originally, I was simply going to write about Otomen, particularly in light of a review that I had read, but when I found this in Slate the other day, I felt I had to mention it. The two subjects are in a way related.

( Cut for length )

I have a subscription to Bessatsu Hana to Yume magazine. I finally broke down when I got sick of waiting a year or more for tankoban of Boku wo Tsutsumu Tsuki no Hikari to come out. I did however make certain that it was worth the relatively hefty sum to get this shipped to me. So I think this would make me ahead of most reviewers and certainly of the review that I'm going to talk about.

Otomen, which is published by Viz over here was reviewed in a negatively positive way, it's not exactly the review I read...I read it in a different location but the content is the same. I recognized the parts that really struck me.

This review made me wonder if we weren't just missing the forest for the trees, since we (Westerners) are programmed by feminism to look at the extremes of gender stereotypes and critique them, especially if they disadvantage women. I'm also wondering at the accuracy of the reviewer's statement that this manga may be implying that only a man can make a perfect woman. If you look at Ryou in that light, then it can equally be interpreted that only a woman can be the perfect man. Isn't that equally offensive to men? Both characters give off the impression that they are the "perfect man/woman", but inside their "perfection" is set in the body of the opposite gender. But I think even from the start, it's clear that while Asuka is girly inside, Ryou is manly inside. The real critique should be like Oyceter's review, where she wishes there was more Ryou screen time (and more other non-traditional women). So maybe the real point is that men and women as a whole both exhibit masculine and feminine stereotypical traits, unless you're the extreme example of Asuka and Ryou, and the old manga stand-by of "be true to yourself". I have a hard time believing that Asuka and Ryou are more than fantastical constructs and the vehicle for the romance, the minor and background characters are more interesting gender role meta than the main characters, if you're really looking for that.

( Cut for length and spoilers. )

Well, since I've been trying out the new Dreamwidth website (my DM account is here for blogging and the like, I've taken the time to decide how I'm going to be using my journals, both LJ and DM. From this point forward, I've decided that all of my posts before this one, save a feedback post will be friends locked (obviously, this will not affect anyone on my friend's list). This is because I'm not very comfortable having personal aspects of my life out for all and sundry to see. My opinions on books and art are an entirely different matter.

I've decided that from here on out, most of what I post will be art related and literature related in the form of impressions of that which I've read and various other things. Personal posts (whatever they may be, considering that I've not been inclined to post really personal posts in latter years) and things pertaining to my never-ending story in my stupid world, that I don't want completely public, will be friends-locked. My goal is to try to post more to write about books I've read. I want to get back into the groove of being able to write like that seeing how I miss analyzing texts. Other things I would like to post here are art dumps, making this a sort of sketch/criticism blog. Hopefully, I'll be better about posting since I have a stated goal about it rather than a hotch-potch of various things that float into my mind.

All of my posts will be cross-posted to Livejournal.

After spending a long day reading about Yeats and realizing that I won't be able to use most of my books because they'd be useful for the next Yeats essay, I wasted some time in Painter trying to paint a background which ended up irritating me so I decided to can it and plan to do it in PS. Then I drew this in Open Canvas. . which is much easier to draw in than either PS or Painter. I wanted to take some good advice so I colored it; the "foreground" of said picture drawn in OC, in massive wrist killing detail cel-style I guess.

It will be posted with the background when I get the background done.
The question that arises from this: Will I be masochistic enough to actually color a whole comic like this?