Dreams of loving kindness

I dreamed something kind of like St Trinians vs Zombies
but it was more like a horror convention used StT's as a venue and then turned out to be made of the ranks of the undead. Enough kinds to fill a video game.
So there was running and screaming and corridors full of zombie walking and the most horrifying school bathrooms ever. The usual.

But I defeated them without all the stab smash stuff this time.
I retreated to holy ground, that looking a lot like a lecture theatre that can project videos, and brought all my friends, and got a bit of meditation going. Probably with a dance soundtrack.
And then I started talking about love. Specifically, fan love.

Fan love is generous. Fan love shares. We like best when others love those we love. And when people show us their shiny, we can see how they love it too. And it's not just about the fictional stories. Those of us who follow certain people around the country, or indeed the world, get to know them a little at a time too. And it's not necessarily because they're unique unusual special people. I've seen some people at conventions dozens of times, and the more you know them, the more they're one of us. All the people I'm a fan of have in common is they were, at least once, involved in a story I really liked. Not even that actually, they might just be great con guests who only ever guested in shows I wouldn't watch for money. So they're just these almost random people. So why do I love them? Because I turned up with the attitude that I would love them, and I listened, and I loved them just a little then and just a little more for all the times I got to know them. They tell stories on themselves, they tell their most embarrassing moment, or the coolest thing that ever happened to them, or what it was like when they met the person they'd stand in line for. And we see they're flawed and human and happy and sad and loving just like the rest of us. It shines out of them. And they're just people, not especially beautiful or necessarily very skilled, they're people getting up and showing us they're people and we love them for it. And then we look around, at these other fans who love the people we love, and hey, more love for all of us! I mean, the guests we love best are the ones who are not so secretly One Of Us, fans. So then, we love other fans. And there's millions of us! That's a lot of love to go around.

And between us we can do great things. The charity work inspired by, carried out by, funded by fandom is spectacular. There's individual actors who most of the world have never heard of who have fanclubs that have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. There's people who spend their weekends in cosplay being jedi or daleks or whatever else caught their attention and they use it to collect for charities. And they keep doing it, for years, decades even. Acts of kindness on many scales are inspired by and done in the name of fan love.

Little by little, our stories, silly or escapist though they may be, inspire discussions, priorities, values, inspire people, and in splashes of light here and there they make the world a brighter place.

So my dream of an undead con was not defeated but was healed by the generous fan love, because we could share the stories, the ones that taught us how to get through or how to hold on or just that we are never, ever alone, and we could share the love. Bad magic hates the world? Meet the good kind that dreams a better one.

So I woke up full of this warm glow of loving kindness for all the world, or at least all the world that loves stories, and isn't that everyone once they find the right story? I woke up hours ago and I'm still full up of this. It's maybe like being high. I think I was meditating in my sleep a lot or something.

And, yeah, loving kindness needs practice, I need a run up to have this kind of mood and not the one inspired by the newspapers, but everyone needs practice, monks practice even, lots of hours of practice. So I'm not very good at it. *shrugs* It's a pretty good feeling once I get the right mind.

So I'm feeling pretty good about the world right now.

All y'all are awesome, you know?

X Men

I watched the first X Men movie.
It's sort of lifeless.
It's very earnest, and serious, and angsty, and then there's a bunch of fighting.
( Read more... )

I don't know, I keep poking at it to find whichever bit needed fixing, because it's just a big Could Do Better.
I realise The Avengers raised the bar, and with all the lead in movies changed the paradigm, there will be things possible now that wouldn't have worked for X Men, but it's just... unsatisfying, this movie.

I think if it was meant to be a chess match between Xavier and Magneto it almost worked but not quite, and if it was meant to be anything else it didn't work by a lot more. And I kept getting the feeling we were meant to care because they're the X Men and we're expected to know what that means. Like the movie didn't sell it because it doesn't think it has to. Not as cool as it could be.

Eh, still don't know which bit I weren't happy with.

I'll watch the second one.

X-Men 2 and 3

Okay, so, X-Men 2: Other than being completely distracted by the way that was clearly Methos being mind controlled by Stryker, that was... I think I liked? Stryker was an utter creep, but everyone made sense, and there was some emotion stuff going on there. It still ranged from angst to angst with a few different colors of angst, but it was there. The bit that didn't work for me was the 'love' stuff with Scott and Jean and Wolverine. I mean, she doesn't spend much time demonstrating her love for Scott. Or, you know, any. There's just smooches with Wolverine. And then angst.
It was almost a proper heroic story, saving the children and all, but there wasn't a good reason for why did Jean leave the plane, so it was kind of a dead of stupid.

X-Men 3 though... it's never a good sign when I can't remember the plot of something I know full well I've watched. There was absolutely nobody who didn't end that movie having been evil. ( Read more... )

Have I mentioned I hate when they skip the motivations and say 'she's crazy!' and it's sufficient for everyone to run screaming and then there's evil done? Danger to herself and others was even mentioned. Could we not have movies that mention that mentally ill people are more at risk of being VICTIMS of violence and not, aside from a tiny fraction of some specific diagnoses, actually more at risk of being violent? Seriously, in a movie about prejudice and a segment of the population the rest of the world hates and fears, could they possibly get real world prejudice shit less messed up? Except wait, it wasn't so much about prejudice, it was a lot more about how everyone is for reals evil. Really, what's the point?

And after that it's kind of redundant to mention how the gender stuff was messed up, but it really was. Especially since desire was in there with the grab bag of signs of evil. Look at the evil womens, all wanting things in public!

I think I really and sincerely hate this film.

Also I can't see the point of it.

I mean, superhero, right? Hero is right there in the name? Which of these were meant to be the hero?

Oh, hey, look, I found my review from last time I watched this. Here, I had all the same thoughts.
Next time I set out to watch X Men, I should just remember to look up what I thought the last two times.

Because I'm going to repress the plot again. I can tell. Already I had almost managed not to think about the ending.

Clue for the heroic: When someone is feeling suicidal, for any reason, even including the fear that they have hurt or will hurt people, you get them help. You do not help them do it.
Ever.
No exceptions.

*swears about movie a lot*




Okay, so, when trying to mush the movie 'verses together, I can live with the first two X Men films, but after the third there's nowhere to go.

Though it would explain why the Avengers have no mutant members. They'd probably got cure shot.