Saturday, February 11, 2006

First blog post!!
So: a belated thank you to the folks who happened to enjoy the Jigoku Shoujo piece. Really, that article is something very modest: it doesn't even attempt to describe how power functions in the show in a systematic way, only to note that it's there and to give voice to how it gets covered over by very different questions. This is not to say that the article isn't still far more difficult than the vast majority of writing on anime, somewhat sadly so (as that speaks to how shallow most of the talk on the subject tends to be). It's very flawed, I know, most of that stemming from my attempt to make a century and a half's worth of the (mostly academic) critique of power (something which I'm not completely familiar with myself!) easily comprehensible without becoming dishonest. "Were I a better writer..." I can always say, but I did what I could, and I'm glad it seems to have been generally enjoyed.

I really wish people wrote more deeply about this stuff. Now, I hope not to seem immodest here, even if I remain somewhat of an elitist: if the conversation on the topic is so immensely shallow that a third-rate writer like myself seems to be working at the furthest reaches of the discussion, I would hope that that would be taken as an indication that we as a whole should be considering the topic (anime) with more attention than we have been, rather than as simply a motive for ascribing to me either talent or academic obscurantism. If elitism amounts to demanding better from people who are intimately familiar with the material at hand and frequently very good with their writing, in other words demanding better from those who can do better, then I suppose the glove fits. Folks, I think it's very possible for us to start writing things that amount to more than just reviews or comparisons to other stories or essentially op/ed pieces: it's high time for us to start thinking about anime.

Anyways, the Jigoku Shoujo thing was a walk in the park: it's not that deep of a show, really, although it offers up plenty of food for thought. Right now I'm trying something that's much more difficult, both to write and (I assume) to read: I'm working on a reading of Saikano, which should hopefully be done by March at the latest. The sheer depth of the show is driving me bonkers, as it's so full of things to write about that I hardly know where to start. The article is going well, though (if slowly); I have a suspicion, though I have no way to confirm it, that when finished this is probably going to be the most pretentious thing ever written in English about anime. Maybe I can make myself a t-shirt to that effect (so if you see someone walking down the street wearing an "I wrote the most pretentious anime article of all time" shirt, you'll know who it is).
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