It's been quite an eventful fortnight or so, isn't it? Here in Singapore, we have events involving guys from both ends of the political divide. Further away from home but closer to the globe, we have the fallout caused by the Barbie movie and 1975 pulling off its very own 1945. Someone mentioned 1975's Oppenheimer as a "white saviour complex". I've already spoken my piece on the messiah complex issue, so I won't repeat myself like a burung kakak tua. However, that moment reminded me of three scenes in FF14 where the Dark Knight job questline is concerned and possibly the most heartbreaking part of Heavensward MSQ.
At the same time, I decided to add some guitarwork done by Soken "he doesn't own SoftBank" Masayoshi since Matty "people are probably calling him a heel now" Healy can play the guitar.
Barbie and A Requiem From Winter Past
It's weird to see what a single blockbuster movie can do for my motivation. So long story short, Barbie has managed to nuke the box office like an Oppenheimer. At the same time, however, criticism came up through the likes of Ben "Jewish, but not from Nebraska" Shapiro and Piers "leftists are probably calling him a piehole now" Morgan. I don't like what I'm seeing here. The attitude displayed reminded me why I was right in saying I'd take my work to Japan if I wanted to get it published. It's not about the argument. It's the attitude. While one may say the other side shouldn't flare up, the question is whether one thing should justify another.
Of course, this comes to the question of storytelling. I didn't watch the movie, and I don't intend to. If there's a movie worth my time in the cinema, it'd be Miyazaki "not from Miyazaki" Hayao's latest work. While it'd only be fair to see The Boy and the Heron to be aired in Singapore, I understand that the world isn't always fair. It's possible the argument of merit would win. But the argument of pragmatism may well be stronger.
Now back to the Barbie (not to be confused with the Malay word for swine). I did go through some of the stuff being said about the portrayal of Ken. For others like me, it can be a legitimate source of depression because it makes one wonder if Alexander Anderson has officially become the monster Alucard is. While I won't recommend Hellsing to others if they can't handle it, the story and characters strongly resemble our world today. To put it in a juvenile manner, it's 404 God Not Found. Thankfully, my mental fortitude is closer to Emiya Kiritsugu than the average Singaporean.
Personally, I don't like the idea of me entering a meltdown. I've seen that happening to others from the left and right. At best, it's not pretty. At worst, it's hypocritical. I don't know how many political pundits can be storytellers, but I know I'm one myself. I mean being a storyteller instead of a political pundit. I don't do the latter because I don't want to die early.
This comes to me looking back at how I did Chapter 2. If others have a problem with what I write, that's because my storytelling brain functions like a Japanese.
It's okay if I'm Japanese. The problem is, I'm not Japanese unless proven otherwise. But facial features-wise, I don't look Chinese. I look more like a Japanese, although I can't say how much. My nose actually looks like a weird mix of Asian and Caucasian if you're to ask me, while my oval facial shape could either resemble a Japanese or Slav. As for my lip volume, I used to think it didn't look Japanese until I noticed it looked similar to a Japanese Youtuber named Shogo. And no, my facial features look nothing like my parents or relatives. My sister is the one who looked the part, not me.
I will only send my work to a local publisher if there's a market for local dark fantasy writers. That genre is exclusively for foreigners. As for the West, I don't want to choose between headbutting the publisher and bending over backwards. The only place for me to go is Japan. But it's not as if my biological dad is a big name in Japan and that he's prepared to acknowledge me in the near future. That'd be weirder than a Japanese guy learning Chinese despite having no use for it in future endeavours (I don't want to speculate whether such a person exists).
Closer to what I'm writing, I'm planning specific naming changes. The places in Hallenia would have a more robust Greek feel. To do this, I had to google Greek city names, both major and minor. Whether I will add a Roman touch remains to be seen due to actual history. As for the characters' names, I may consider whether I can create a closer Anglo-Greek feel. Yes, I know that sounds as weird as the idea of me getting a girlfriend.
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