Thursday, December 03, 2009
I am so, so sleepy.
I spent about 6 hours today reading a measly 20+ pages of Azuma Hiroki on the "database model" of postmodernity and getting into time-consuming theoretical wrangles with him on what I thought to be his misreading of Baudrillard before realizing he meant something else. Shit. Was Azuma being unclear in his argument, or am I just getting dumber?
Then I rushed down to Somerset to meet Diana, MW and Calvin Xie for dinner and got lost once I stepped out of the new 313 Somerset, which just opened today. Orchard Road is starting to look very unfamiliar.
Nothing of great interest has been happening in my life, except, perhaps, for the fact that I watched 2012. Yes, the day I watch a Hollywood apocalyptic movie is the day the world comes to an end. I decided to sacrifice $7.50 for it because I'm working on apocalyptic narratives in Japanese shoujo manga for my thesis, and I need to have at least a rough idea what the Hollywood conventions of such narratives are.
Anyway, after watching the movie, I think I can summarize the essence of 2012 (and perhaps of other similar movies in the Hollywood tradition): lots of spectacular explosions (and I use the word with its full Debordian connotations); some guy makes some inspiring speech about 'humanity' (which is really a disguise for celebrating the GREATNESS OF AMERICA); an indirect nod in the direction of China's burgeoning technological power (but you're still going to be castrated so that you don't compete with the white hero who saves the day by undoing the mess he created himself); some minor characters die, major characters look sad for 5 seconds and start making out with someone else; hooray for (American) humanity, Africa is now free for you to colonize all over again.
kaoru said at 8:56 AM
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