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First Post!

I got myself an Internet Connection at home two weeks ago. Sify Broadband – which was too slow, so on Friday I switched to Beam Cable. 850 Rs per month for unlimited access, fairly decent. Speeds are much much faster than those I got with Sify, which was 600 Rs per month.

However, immediately after the cable guy came over and changed the IP settings and created the new login, the computer crashed. I am running Win2k SP4, and everytime I booted up, a blue screen would come up, showing some .sys file that failed during boot, and the computer would restart. Things would work perfectly if I removed the network cable. Tried messing around with the network card, moving it to a different PCI slot and reinstalling drivers, none of which worked. Went to sleep pretty puzzled, and mighty sozzled.

Yesterday morning, I woke up, and remembered I had a personal firewall running, with its settings tuned to allow certain start-up events and disallowing others. Started computer with network cable detached, uninstalled firewall, restarted, reconnected cable. Voila, works perfectly now.

So there you have it. My First Post from home. Hoo-ah!

The first DVD set of Rurouni Kenshin arrived on Friday, too, so no more cursing Customs and the Postal Service. Watched the first episode that night. Very cool, in fact better than what I had expected it to be. Just the right mixture of humour and action. And I saw a volume of Ken Akamatsu’s Nagima at Walden yesterday, for 426 Rs.  Also a graphic novel version of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, by Peter Kuper, an irregular Mad artist. Prices are pretty high for both, so still undecided about whether or not I should buy them.

A Little X-Rave:
Generally, I stay away from X-Men. With the exception of Ultimate X-Men, I find the X-Universe very convoluted and badly-written, with too many characters that grimace and clench their teeth and do cool things just because they look cool.

In recent times, there has been a buzz about Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men, and how his knockdown approach to the X-Story alienated many hardcore fans because of the changes he brought about, and of course, the general vein of weirdness running through the entire series. Now, Grant Morrison is a guy who falls squarely into the category of fans-turned-writers who create comics as an extension of their own interests. He is a practicising Magician, much like Alan Moore, and claims to have been abducted by aliens during a trip to, of all places, Kathmandu, though I personally think that was just an acid trip or something. He also claimed to increase sales of his Vertigo series Invisibles by organising a mass-masturbatory experiment among its readers.

Yesterday, I sat and read the first fourteen issues of Morrison’s X-Men run, and boy oh boy, was it fun or what! The Cyclops-Jean Grey equation is handled pretty well, Wolverine has, after a long long time, ceased sounding idiotic, the Beast reveals facts about his orientation, th island of Genosha, a mutant sanctuary, is annhilated by the sentinels. And homo sapiens is about to be extinct in four generations. Plus a load of interesting new mutants – a new attitude-throwing Angel, the trying-to-fly-but-can’t Beak, and my personal favourite, the Stepford Cuckoos, five telekinetic proteges of Emma Frost who think dirty and sound angelic.

The cycle was brilliant, with over-the-top cliffhangers and plot resolutions that only Morrison can think of. ( I mean it. Maybe Moore, Gaiman et al would come close, though) One issue involves Jean Grey and Emma Frost’s exploration of a comatose Professor Xavier’s mind. No words, except in one panel, the very last, that comes with a revelation, one that has been hinted at throughout the 22 pages, and you’re kind of expecting it, but it’s still shocking to see Jean actually say it out aloud.

Cool, cool reading.

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40 thoughts on “First Post!”

      • Yes, after all he only came with the theory of natural of selection, which is the fabric of life itself.Nothing important.So hollywood has no obligation not to come up with bastardised versions of evolutionary “theory”.

        Reply

        • Er, Hollywood?

          Nothing Evolutionary-related to the X-men. They were just superheroes whose origins Stan Lee was too lazy to create all by himself. So he conveniently brought about the idea of a Mutant gene and all, and allowed himself to create superheroes by the dozen.

          Reply

            • No, I am saying that the concept behind the X-Men has mostly nothing to do with Darwin. It was something born out of laziness, that’s all, not hardcore scientific principles.

            • Yes, but it pains me to imagine that kids are going to grow up with their first notions(and many times last notions) of evolution based on such “laziness”.It precipitates plebianism.

            • Ah. I would think all kids have mandatory science classes upto the tenth standard, and an explanation of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution would be part of the curriculum. (At least it was, back when I was in school)

              Personally, I found words like “mutation” and “evolution” much easier to digest in school, presumably because I had encountered them before, in the pages of Marvel.

              Out of curiousity: why exactly do you feel that the concept of X-Men have violated Darwin’s theories? Would be glad to get an indepth reply. :)

            • I would think all kids have mandatory science classes upto the tenth standard, and an explanation of Charles Darwin’s

              Most people mug it up and throw it up.They don’t get it.

              Personally, I found words like “mutation” and “evolution” much easier to digest in school, presumably because I had encountered them before, in the pages of Marvel

              Have you ever considered that the same might not be the case with less intelligent mortals?

              Out of curiousity: why exactly do you feel that the concept of X-Men have violated Darwin’s theories? Would be glad to get an indepth reply. :)

              It is misleading to potray mutations giving people the ability to breathe fire or freeze stuff.Mutation is not supernatural magic.Most kids look at that and go “wow!” and never understand things any better.


            • Most people mug it up and throw it up.They don’t get it.

              Have you ever considered that the same might not be the case with less intelligent mortals?

              Well, I do not follow the line of conversation here. You say that people, or more clearly, “less intelligent people”, even when they learn about Darwin and evolution in science class, do not “learn”, they mug it all up. IMHO, such people wouldn’t read comics for anything other than the sheer joy of seeing colourfully-garbed people beat each other up. Even if I follow Charles Darwin’s theories to the exact letter, and come up with a believable, intelligent sci-fi comicbook series that discourses on human evolution and genetics, how many people would “learn”?

              Let’s face it, if someone’s not interested, you can’t expect him/her to learn about something – unless it pays their bills or gives them good grades, in which case mug-theory comes into the picture.

              That said, I perfectly agree that it is misleading to portray mutations giving people hypernormal abilities. But hey, that’s entertainment. The X-men series is built on a simple premise – what if due to something, human beings started changing and became “different”, in this case, gaining a specific power? How would homo sapiens and homo superior interact? Fear, mistrust,outright hostility, the capacity to exploit the minority race before they begin the process of dominating the now-master species. Would there be factions within the homo superior themselves, some wanting to utilise their powers for mutual good, and others seeking to use it to further their own goals?

              This can be treated in two ways. You look at the word “mutant” and say “Faugh! A Travesty to Scientific Principles”. But look at the potential for story in the setup, it’s a classic case of minority vs. majority, Us vs Them. This is what appeals to the base reader of X-Men ( those not looking for fights and more fights and wolverine saying “bub” every other minute ) Agreed, the treatment depends on the skill of the writer/artist handling the comicbook, but the spirit of the X-men ( which I felt Grant Morrison was adept in bringing out) is this, and not about leaving us to figure out violations of real-world principles.

              Think about it. :)

            • Darwin’s books weren’t comic books, they were theories. The theories comprise of imaginations of various kinds, none, even remotely artistic. If Darwin would have written a comic book, it would have flopped because, it would have been objective with some intellectual and highly possible theories. And the artwork, anatomy, outlines, life like, tabulated, block diagrams or charted out. So, predictable that comic book readers would have rejected it out of boredom.

              X-Men has a wild premise. Things that can only be imagined and are least likely to occur.

              That’s exactly why textbooks, Scientific treatise & comic books fall under different categories. Any comparison between these genres, is foolish. Any argument based on such ideas, is foolish. Any comparison between Darwin’s theory and X-men, is foolish

              You mean Plebeianism? Plebeian taste? Common? Commonly, people will read and appreciate a theory like that of Darwins. Commonly, people will call X-Men an insult to Darwin’s theory.

              In my opinion, comparison with Darwin’s theory is an insult to X-Men and the comic world.

              End of story.

            • So, predictable that comic book readers would have rejected it out of boredom.

              Predictable?Predictable?I’m sorry, I know this is irrelevant to our discussion, but I must remind that Darwin shocked most people.

              As far as comic book goes, I am not saying coming up with something like X-men is wrong, but I just find it revolting.It is not as though intelligent science fiction does not exist.

              But no, I’m not calling for a ban on X-men.I just feel it’s too stupid, even for a comic book.

            • Darwin shocked people ages ago. Comparing a sane theory as Darwin’s to an insane idea of Stan Lee’s is unwarranted. It’s plain that you do not appreciate Comic world. Fine. Just stop at that. Leave those two genres as they are and don’t mix up related facts & fiction. You are too sane for comics and crazy ideas. But, it does not give you the license to draw ridiculous comparisons either. There is no scope for a discussion here.

              You find it revoltin? Who wants to know? Beatzo? I? Someone else? I think not!

              Had I not said end of story before? I repeat that again & I mean it this time too.

  2. 2 + 2 = …

    increase sales of his Vertigo series Invisibles by organising a mass-masturbatory experiment among its readers.
    +
    Yesterday, I sat and read the first fourteen issues of Morrison’s X-Men run, and boy oh boy, was it fun or what!
    =
    ?

    umm….or what?

    Reply

    • Re: 2 + 2 = …

      MegaFun!

      Dude, you’re in Japan. Check out a movie called Ichi The Killer by Takashi Miike. Supposed to be da bomb when it comes to onscreen violins. :-D

      Reply

  6. Rurouni Kenshin! I haven’t seen that anime in ages…actually, I’ve only seen a dozen or so of the anime episodes, but I got hooked into the manga by reading translations and read a few volumes of that. I’d definitely say that the artwork & storyline of the manga are superior, but the anime was also fun, too, from what I saw (despite occasional filler episodes). Hope you’re enjoying it! (How much do you have?)

    Reply

    • Well, the DVD set comprises all 94 episodes – my completist soul couldn’t resist buying the lot at one go. I watched the first two so far, and they are superb.

      Right now, I am busy watching Cowboy Bebop in it’s entirety. :)

      Reply

  7. Mix and Comix

    Yo Honey,

    Learning all about automobiles…

    and Spwan’s great… oh the powers that be between heaven and earth, the Avengers rock, So does Thor in his own mini series…

    SO much to talk about…Whern??? Where???

    Love

    Priyanka

    Reply

  8. Years and years ago, I was a fan of all the X-titles. There was a time I loved “The X-Men”, back when the writers examined the ideas of some “normals” being pro-mutant, some anti-, and some ambivalent. There was humor, there was examination and development of character, and there was lots of coolness. I also liked “The New Mutants”, for the more-innocent look at kids growing up with powers, in that same world. “Excalibur” was also great, for its retaining of humor, as the other titles descended into “war, war, war”, as well as having several of my favorite characters.

    I pretty much gave up on all of them, though, shortly after Cable arrived. I don’t know if it was the character who set things off, or just the fact that he was the most noticeable addition/change, as the tone of all of the titles changed, but it just got too painful to read and follow them. Artistically, it was often just the characters posing. Story-wise, it was just war and writers reaching for more people to war against. Character-wise, it was like the writers searched the archives for each individual character’s most two-dimensional incarnation, then used all of them. Bleh.

    I have heard that a few of the new issues are decent, especially the work Joss Whedon (creator and co-writer of “Buffy”, “Angel”, and “Firefly”) has been doing, but, between lack of finances and lack of hope for the titles, I haven’t tried’em out…

    Reply

    • Artistically, it was often just the characters posing.

      Very true. I was fortunate enough to read the X-men in perfect order, started off with British reprints of issues 1-50 or thereabouts. The last one I remembered reading was somewhere around issue 172, in around 1984 ( India has this weird system by which you get comics about 4-5 years late, so I read #172 in 1990 or so) And then X-Men just stopped coming here, until about 7 years later, when I discover that the characters have been mauled beyond recognition. After that, I would just pick’em up on and off, until Ultimate X-Men started gettng reprinted here.

      I do think you should read Morrison’s run on New X-Men. Very exhilarating, I assure you.

      Reply

  9. Ra’s Al Ghul

    Tell me all ye know about Ra’s Al GHul… on second thoughts… should I surf the net???

    ANd you have lost considerably by not conferring to my demands, you beatzo… No Sandman Paperbax for you. Dare anyone challenge the queries of Morgan Le Fay, the Fairest Queen of Fairy Land…

    ANyways…

    1. Avengers are cool, so the JLA-Batman thing…Have to read more about Scarlet Witch and WOner Woman…

    2. Spawn rules…

    3. Sandman… hehe…

    4. Sin City awaited

    Done?

    Sanket

    Reply

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