Vampires, demons, same difference
Feb. 26th, 2002 01:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2All of my friends (including anyone likely to read this) are Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanatics. When they talk about the show, it's like being the only sane person in a room full of pod-people. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I'm able to borrow all of season 1 on dvd (from Kristin) and finally figure out who Zander is, or whatever.
I watched the first two episodes last night, and will watch another episode or two in a few minutes. The funny thing is, I don't know why I've never watched this show before. I mean, I work nights, but that's only been for the last 2 years, and the show's been around longer than that. And anyway if I *REALLY* wanted to watch a given show, I could set my vcr to record it. But I never bother to do that sort of thing.
My open-ended multi-anime crossover story, Muyami Academy, which I've been working on (off and on) for the last several years, basically revolves around demon-killing. Two of the four series I borrowed from right off the bat were "Devil Hunter Yohko" (Mamano Hunter Yohko) and "Inu-Yasha". Devil Hunter Yohko -- well, the concept is extremely similar to Buffy, in that a young high school girl inherits the position of Devil Hunter and must go around killing demons. Inu-Yasha is the story of a high school girl who spends part of her time in the 14th century (roughly) where she helps a half-human half-demon named Inu-Yasha (demon-dog) kill demons and retrieve shards of the Shikon jewel, an item of power. Although she's not officially a slayer or devil hunter, she IS apparently the reincarnation of a priestess from that time who fought demons.
So I'm writing this massive story about high school kids who fight demons, among other things. You'd think I'd have started watching Buffy sooner. Oh well. ^_^
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Another thing I did yesterday and today was read further into Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I like J K Rowling's stories a lot, she's good with characterization and very good with plot, I'm always kept guessing, but I want to go off on one of the things she does that is really annoying me.
According to the way her world works, witches and wizards and magical creatures (dragons, goblins, etc.) coexist in our world with normal people, and normal people never notice. Spells are cast on the "muggles" to make them forget what they've seen. Places like Hogwart's, the school Harry attends, are not in some other dimension, they are here in this world, but all of the protection spells and magic somehow keep normals from ever noticing them or finding anything out.
Okay, I can deal with that I suppose.
So wizards and witches live among us. In the first book, before Harry knows about his magical background, he meets a witch or a wizard here or there, on the street or in a store. But at the same time, all of these magical people somehow know NOTHING about the normal people that they see around them. One student's father is very keen on studying "muggles", and fascinated by devices like television and radio, and yet he can never even remember how to say "electricity" correctly. Wizards, even kids, don't know how to work a telephone, don't know how the mail system works, don't know anything about normal governments and institutions, non-magical sports, or even how people normally dress. In the book I'm reading now, wizards who are trying to look normal do things like wear nothing but a kilt and poncho, or a woman's dressing gown.
Rowling uses all of this mostly for comedic effect, but it's really pushing my suspension of disbelief past the breaking point. You're telling me that a magical people live right next door to non-magical neighbors, or at least walks the streets past normal people, and they never notice, at least on a basic level, how people dress? You expect me to believe that every kid born into a magical family never listens to modern music, doesn't pay attention to television or movies, and has never considered wearing a pair of jeans?
I find it hard to believe (impossible, actually) that the world of magic is so amazingly wonderful that no magical kid would ever find rock music interesting, would never watch Star Wars, would find science fiction completely worthless, would never show interest in basketball or tennis, would consider computers, the internet, and computer games a complete waste of time... etc. etc. And adult wizards or witches, whether they have to deal with normals on a regular basis or not, none of them watch CNN or read a "muggle" newspaper? I mean, if you're a wizard living in Afghanistan, isn't a war going to disrupt your life in some way? Wouldn't you at least want to know about it?
I just can't see how magical people can coexist with non-magical people, and know nothing about them.
Then, in the fourth book, we have the Quidditch World Cup (this is the most popular sport among magic folk -- pretty much the only sport they know of at all). And -- wonder of wonders -- the national teams are based on modern nations, with modern national flags... why would magical people pay any attention to muggle political boundaries? They don't pay attention to anything else normal people do.
I don't know, that's just my personal pet peeve about Rowling's universe. If you want to say that hundreds of thousands of magical people (not to mention tons of magical creatures, etc) live among us, fine. If you want to say that nobody notices because they use magic to hide things or wipe people's memories, fine. But you can't expect me to believe that the majority of magical people are completely clueless about the most basic things in non-magical life. Even if you're doing that for comic effect, it's beyond stupid. Even for a children's series.
I watched the first two episodes last night, and will watch another episode or two in a few minutes. The funny thing is, I don't know why I've never watched this show before. I mean, I work nights, but that's only been for the last 2 years, and the show's been around longer than that. And anyway if I *REALLY* wanted to watch a given show, I could set my vcr to record it. But I never bother to do that sort of thing.
My open-ended multi-anime crossover story, Muyami Academy, which I've been working on (off and on) for the last several years, basically revolves around demon-killing. Two of the four series I borrowed from right off the bat were "Devil Hunter Yohko" (Mamano Hunter Yohko) and "Inu-Yasha". Devil Hunter Yohko -- well, the concept is extremely similar to Buffy, in that a young high school girl inherits the position of Devil Hunter and must go around killing demons. Inu-Yasha is the story of a high school girl who spends part of her time in the 14th century (roughly) where she helps a half-human half-demon named Inu-Yasha (demon-dog) kill demons and retrieve shards of the Shikon jewel, an item of power. Although she's not officially a slayer or devil hunter, she IS apparently the reincarnation of a priestess from that time who fought demons.
So I'm writing this massive story about high school kids who fight demons, among other things. You'd think I'd have started watching Buffy sooner. Oh well. ^_^
-----------
Another thing I did yesterday and today was read further into Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I like J K Rowling's stories a lot, she's good with characterization and very good with plot, I'm always kept guessing, but I want to go off on one of the things she does that is really annoying me.
According to the way her world works, witches and wizards and magical creatures (dragons, goblins, etc.) coexist in our world with normal people, and normal people never notice. Spells are cast on the "muggles" to make them forget what they've seen. Places like Hogwart's, the school Harry attends, are not in some other dimension, they are here in this world, but all of the protection spells and magic somehow keep normals from ever noticing them or finding anything out.
Okay, I can deal with that I suppose.
So wizards and witches live among us. In the first book, before Harry knows about his magical background, he meets a witch or a wizard here or there, on the street or in a store. But at the same time, all of these magical people somehow know NOTHING about the normal people that they see around them. One student's father is very keen on studying "muggles", and fascinated by devices like television and radio, and yet he can never even remember how to say "electricity" correctly. Wizards, even kids, don't know how to work a telephone, don't know how the mail system works, don't know anything about normal governments and institutions, non-magical sports, or even how people normally dress. In the book I'm reading now, wizards who are trying to look normal do things like wear nothing but a kilt and poncho, or a woman's dressing gown.
Rowling uses all of this mostly for comedic effect, but it's really pushing my suspension of disbelief past the breaking point. You're telling me that a magical people live right next door to non-magical neighbors, or at least walks the streets past normal people, and they never notice, at least on a basic level, how people dress? You expect me to believe that every kid born into a magical family never listens to modern music, doesn't pay attention to television or movies, and has never considered wearing a pair of jeans?
I find it hard to believe (impossible, actually) that the world of magic is so amazingly wonderful that no magical kid would ever find rock music interesting, would never watch Star Wars, would find science fiction completely worthless, would never show interest in basketball or tennis, would consider computers, the internet, and computer games a complete waste of time... etc. etc. And adult wizards or witches, whether they have to deal with normals on a regular basis or not, none of them watch CNN or read a "muggle" newspaper? I mean, if you're a wizard living in Afghanistan, isn't a war going to disrupt your life in some way? Wouldn't you at least want to know about it?
I just can't see how magical people can coexist with non-magical people, and know nothing about them.
Then, in the fourth book, we have the Quidditch World Cup (this is the most popular sport among magic folk -- pretty much the only sport they know of at all). And -- wonder of wonders -- the national teams are based on modern nations, with modern national flags... why would magical people pay any attention to muggle political boundaries? They don't pay attention to anything else normal people do.
I don't know, that's just my personal pet peeve about Rowling's universe. If you want to say that hundreds of thousands of magical people (not to mention tons of magical creatures, etc) live among us, fine. If you want to say that nobody notices because they use magic to hide things or wipe people's memories, fine. But you can't expect me to believe that the majority of magical people are completely clueless about the most basic things in non-magical life. Even if you're doing that for comic effect, it's beyond stupid. Even for a children's series.
