Thousand Year Drama Part 1: Satoshi Kon

Welcome to my first post of the Thousand Year Drama! I hope you enjoyed watching Millennium Actress! If you haven’t yet, that’s fine, because this week, before we jump into the movies and it’s greatness, we going to explore it’s creator. Satoshi Kon. But I highly suggest you watch the film before the next post and on, as those will be rife with spoilers. But for now, let’s talk about the man himself!

Part 1: Satoshi Kon

I am a HUGE fan of Satoshi Kon, he’s my favorite director of all time (though Brad Bird is pretty close). If this series goes well, and I enjoy it, I might do the same for some of his other works! And boy, would I have a lot more to talk about. But I’m getting on a rabbit trail here.

So, who is Satoshi Kon? Let’s start at the beginning.

Satoshi Kon was born October 12th, 1963, in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan. Growing up, Satoshi Kon had three major influences. Katsuhiro Otomo, who would later mentor him, Yasutaka Tsutsui, whose book he would later adapt, and western movies, which he would later influence. In 1982 he attended Musashino (not the Shirobako studio... sadly) Art University with the hopes of being an illustrator.

In 1984 Kon wrote his first short story, a manga called ‘Toriko’ (Not the Toriko you are thinking of), which won the runner-up award in the 10th Annual Tetsuya Chiba Awards held by Young Magazine (Kodansha). Kon then found work as an assistant for Katsuhiro Otomo, and actually worked on the Akira manga with Otomo. Kon continued his work, he released a six-chapter manga called Kaikisen, or Tropic of the Sea, and wrote the script for Otomo’s World Apartment Horror, which he later adapted back into manga.

Kon worked on a myriad of other films, including Roujin-Z, Kanojo no Omoide, and Patlabor 2: The Movie, he then teamed up with Mamoru Oshii (of Ghost in the Shell fame) for Seraphim: 266613336 Wings, a manga that was sadly never finished. He also directed the fifth OVA in the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and wrote the script for Memories’ Magnetic Rose.

The final chapter of Kon’s rise to fame was during the 90’s. Kon began serializing his own manga, Opus, but before he could finish, the comic magazine it ran in was cancelled, and Kon was too busy with another project to finish it personally. That project was his first feature film, Perfect Blue, in 1997. This is where Satoshi Kon really became a household name. Perfect Blue took the world by storm. One of the few films since Ghost in the Shell and Akira to really take hold in the USA. Kon continued his successes, following up with my personal favorite, Millennium Actress (which, of course, is an amazing film), and then Tokyo Godfathers. At this point, Kon had yet to release a bad movie.

Kon then made Paranoia Agent, a 13 episode anime that was basically just all the leftover ideas after making the previous three films. And, in 2006, Kon’s fourth film, Paprika was released. The most beautiful and confusing Kon film, it inspired the 2010 movie Inception (who am I kidding, Inception is a rip-off).

In 2007 we got Ohayo, a one minute short film about waking up. Which is the last completed Kon film today.  And then, on the day of August 24th 2010, five years ago, while working on his fifth film, The Dream Machine, Kon died of Pancreatic cancer.

That was it, Satoshi Kon, was finished. As fans, our only hope is that one day his last film will be finished. But until then, Kon directed only four films.

But enough about how depressing it is to be a fan of Kon. Let’s discuss what makes Kon unique. Satoshi Kon was known for two major things. The blending of two realities, and his seamless transitions. Let’s discuss the first one. Kon absolutely loved this concept. It can be seen in almost everything he’s ever been involved with.

Tropic of the Sea: Myth vs. Reality

Opus: Fiction vs. Reality

Magnetic Rose: Holograms vs. Reality

Perfect Blue: Onstage vs. Reality

Millennium Actress: Memories vs. Reality

Tokyo Godfathers: Coincidence vs. Reality [Annotation: Will make a video about this eventually]

Paranoia Agent: Paranoia vs. Reality

Paprika: Dreams vs. Reality

Unfortunately, we don’t know enough about The Dream Machine to know what realities would have been explored, but, this is Kon we are talking about, so it was definitely going to be addressed within the film. Heck, Tokyo Godfathers was his attempt at trying something different, and he still couldn’t avoid it! [A topic for a later series]

The last thing Satoshi Kon was known for, was his seamless transitions. Now, I am even more unqualified to talk about this than anything else. So I’m going to leave that to our Highlight. Speaking of Highlight...

HIGHLIGHT:

This weeks Highlight is Tony Zhou, from Every Frame A Painting’s video “Satoshi Kon - Editing Through Space and Time”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz49vQwSoTE

I absolutely adore this channel, and this video is one of his best. Tony does an amazing job going into the editing style of Satoshi Kon, a short and fantastic video. Link will be in the description along with the annotation on screen.

WARNING:

The next segment, FAVORITE MOMENTS, does have some spoilers for Millennium Actress, since this is the only episode without Spoilers in the main topic, I thought I’d mention it here.

FAVORITE MOMENTS:

My first favorite moment is Opening Credits in the first 2 minutes of the film. It does a great job of taking this empty space, the drive to Genei, and uses it as the opening credits. It also does quite a bit of foreshadowing. We see many bits from later on in the movie, including Chiyoko’s run to Hokkaido, the ending, and Manchuria, just to name a few. Seriously, the first three seconds of the Opening credits (when Genya rewinds the tape) covers every emotional moment in the movie. Giving you a heart attack of feels if you’ve seen the movie previously. All while giving us some amazing transitions.

And that’s it, next week we’ll actually dive into Millennium Actress. And I must say, I am super stoked to get this going. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will. See you next month!

Last Week I: Got First Place at a Tournament... and Last

Last week I went to a debate camp. A three day intensive camp preparing me for having to speak and argue in front of judges for sport. The first day consisted of writing an Affirmative case, the next we wrote our Negative, and the last day we held a single day tournament. To my surprise during the award ceremony (but not to you, because you read the title) I got first place! When checking my ballots afterwards I realized something else, I also got last place.

What do I mean by this? Well, there are two sections in this debate. Speaks, and overall. Speaks rank your delivery, rebuttal, arguments, organization, how you speak. Whereas overall is your win/loss ratio. I got first place in speaks, I had the best delivery, rebuttals, arguments, organization, for all intents and purposes I was the most persuasive person at this tournament. But my win/loss ratio was abysmal. Out of the six rounds I debated, I only won once. I only convinced 17% (rounded up) of my judges that I was right. But I was the most persuasive speaker? How did this happen?

Before I continue, I'd like to explain how these debates are judged. Me and one other person debate about a topic, and one person judges it. That person will give a score on their delivery, rebuttals, arguments, organization, their speaking ability. Then that person will give the win, based on who had the most convincing, persuasive arguments. So the very same people that said I was the more persuasive than my opponent (every single round) also said my case wasn't persuasive enough... what?

"Well ok," you might say, "You may have said your arguments the best, but that doesn't mean you had the best arguments. So you must have had the worst arguments, right?" "Fair point" I would respond, "But you have to keep in mind a few things."

You see, it doesn't quite work like that. First of all, the judges are told to judge by what they think is most persuasive, so calling my the more persuasive and voting against me is a direct contradiction. Furthermore, the speaks actually cover arguments as well. When checking my speaker points on the ballots, I realized that my argument specific speaks (Support and Refutation) were higher than my opponents... every single time. Finally, I've never, ever seen anything like this, usually speaks correspond with results. Of course some people speak better than others, but due to the very nature of this competition if you speak well you usually do well on a whole.

So what the heck happened? Well, it comes down to the judges. These judges usually don't know anything, they're mom or random people off the street. And when trained on how to judge, they are told to judge on whatever they think is most important. This can lead to some crazy (and out right wrong) decisions. For instance (this is less crazy), one girl I debated had tons (and I mean TONS) of evidence. So the judge said that while I was more convincing in most aspects, the evidence was for her most important, and therefor I lost. Another time I lost because the judge didn't like my tie as much as my opponents (I wish I was lying).

So the judge parameters are very subjective. To make matters worse, the judges aren't always the best listeners. As my debate coach said, "Expect your judge to ignore or not hear 20%-80% of whatever you say." This is another reason I lost, my judge either didn't hear, remember, or understand one of my points about the Negative's job, and gave me a loss because she thought I wasn't doing my job, which isn't true.

So at least half of my losses weren't fair, were wrong. Does that mean I blame my judges? Well, kinda. It goes like this, this activity has two possible goals, competition, or education. If our goal is competition, I have every right to be furious with every single judge that has every judged me wrong (that is A LOT of people), but that isn't the goal. The goal is for me to learn, how to speak, how to debate, how to deal with idiot judges.

In life our 'judges' (whoever that might be) will almost always have a biased viewed. Or will determine the win based on stupid criteria. This program, frustrating as it may be, is preparing me for what life'll be like.

That said, if anyone gives me a loss because of my tie again, I'll ronpa the hell out of them! (http://kissmanga.com/Manga/Gakkyuu-Houtei)

-The Madman

Today I: Started and Announced a Project

I am about to embark on a HUGE journey. A journey I don’t think I’m really worthy to take. But I’m going to anyway. You see, deep in the recesses of nerdom, in geeky pastimes. There exists a story, a story that far surpasses anything else. Here, in the attic of dorkdom, lies a movie, a very odd movie. Everything from it’s soundtrack, to it’s ending, to it’s presentation, to it’s reception. But I believe this is a masterful movie. A movie that any fan of storytelling should see, and own. This movie, is Millennium Actress.

Let’s back up a second, what is Millennium Actress? Who made it? Why is it special? This posts’s purpose is to answer these questions, convince you to watch the film, and introduce my series of posts fully devoted to this movie. So let’s start with the basic information.

What is Millennium Actress? Millennium Actress is a 2001 Japanese animated movie by Madhouse, and directed by Satoshi Kon.

Well, ok, but what is Millennium Actress about? The basic synopsis is this: “A documentary director and his cameraman interview a former movie star about her life.”

Wow, that sounds boring, so why is this film so special? Well, Millennium Actress is a simple film. It has a simple cast, simple premise, simple story, with simple visuals. What makes this movie so impactful is how much meaning and how many themes are packed into this story. And, of course, how this story is presented.

I’ve gotta be honest, I am incredibly biased, regarding this movie. This movie is my absolute favorite movie of all time, I believe it to be the best film I have ever seen. I know, I know, big words. But it’s my hope to prove my thoughts about this to you in the rest of the video series. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Should you watch this film? Maybe because is the greatest single piece of art every to have put upon this earth? In my opinion... of course. Especially if you want to read the posts about it, which are coming, because I’m going to break down anything and everything in this film. We will be swimming in spoilers. It goes without saying that I adore this film, and will show it to anyone willing to listen to my ranting.

Speaking of my ranting, why am I ranting about this film in the first place? Because I feel like this film is criminally underrated. Which is odd, especially when you look at the critical ratings. So let’s first look at my favorite sites when it comes to anime reviews.

First we have THEManime.org, these guys have great informative and objective reviews. This is a site I highly respect and recommend. And, THEManime gush about this film. Giving it a 5/5, and calling it “One of the best anime of all time,”

Nihon Reviews, another great site. Gives this movie a 10/10, calling it “As good as it gets.” Saying, “For those craving a touching, poignant and moving anime, Millennium Actress is sure to satisfy that wish. With powerful emotion and genuine drama, Millennium Actress will take your breath away.”

And finally, thepantslessanimeblogger.com gives the most negative review out of the three, giving it a 9/10, and saying, “A great story of love told in a great cinematic masterpiece.”

However, Millennium Actress has extended far beyond just anime-centric reviewers.

The NY Times Magazine, while not providing a score, speaks highly of the film, saying, “To watch 'Millennium Actress' is to witness one cinematic medium celebrating another, an expression of movie love that is wonderfully eccentric and deeply affecting.”

Millennium Actress ranges anywhere from 50 to 35 on top animated films lists on IMDb. And has a 92% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Millennium Actress received the Grand Prize in the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, tying with Spirited Away. Additionally, it won the awards of Best Animation Film and Fantasia Ground-Breaker at the 2001 Fantasia Film Festival. It was awarded the Feature Film Award at the 8th Animation Kobe. The movie took home the prestigious Ofuji Noburo Award at the 2002 Mainichi Film Awards, and was honored with the Orient Express Award at the 2001 Festival de Cine de Sitges in Spain. The film was nominated for four Annie Awards in 2004, including Outstanding Direction and Writing. It was also promoted by its studio as a contender for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it was not nominated.

So, why do I believe this film to be ‘criminally underrated’? The problem is, while this movie is a critics favorite, nobody else has really seen it. This movie is oft compared to Spirited Away, because they were released the same year, and tied for the Grand Prize as mentioned earlier. But if you were to go on the street, far more people would know Spirited Away than Millennium Actress. Millennium Actress just isn’t popular.

And there is a good reason for that. Millennium Actress is... kinda confusing. Not like, Inception “Dream within a dream within a dream within a dream” confusing, but in order to really appreciate the film, you have to think about it. It is my belief that American movies do too much ‘hand-holding’, we Americans are used to being spoon fed information. Millennium Actress does not do this, and it has turned people off because of that.

There is also the problem of the presentation, Millennium Actress is unique, to say the least. It is not a straightforward story, not in the way it’s presented to us anyway. And while that gives Satoshi Kon miles of space and plenty of freedom to pack in all these amazing layers of character development and storytelling, I have had a few people dislike this film because it ‘didn’t make sense.’ This is the film’s, only real flaw. The fact that this film isn’t all that accessible, not the good, juicy stuff anyway.

And, that’s kinda why I’m doing this. There is so much to be uncovered in Millennium Actress, the movie is a goldmine of storytelling.

So in this series, each post I will cover a main theme or aspect of the movie, rant about how amazing it is, highlight another analysis usually on the same topic. And at the end of every episode, I’m going to point out a favorite moment of the movie in chronological order. So as we progress through this series, it’ll feel like we are progressing through the movie once more!

So that's my what I'm going to cover, this is how I'll do it:

Every month, starting the 24th of August, I’m going to post one of these articles by myself. The date every article comes out on will have meaning. The first one is coming August 24th because that’s the 5 anniversary of Satoshi Kon’s death. The other articles will come out, on his birthday, or release date of one of his movies. If I enjoy this enough, I might do other films and stuff, but that’s at least a year away. So... expect that!

EDIT: Link to the first post!

- The Madman

Yesterday I: Listened to the Real Life Account of Martians

Yep, Martians attacked earth, for real. At least... if you talk to the one million* people who thought so on October 30th, 1938. This story is a little infamous (and a lot exaggerated), but it goes like this. On October 30th, 1938, The CBS and Orson Welles aired a radio drama adaptation of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (Did they wish upon a Well/Welles??? Eh? Eh? ... I'll see myself out now...) And due to how convincing the first half was, it scared a lot of people. Perhaps... even one million (actually, not one million. Article about it here: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2013/10/orson_welles_war_of_the_worlds_panic_myth_the_infamous_radio_broadcast_did.2.html), even getting sued by a woman for causing her "nervous shock." So why was that? And how did it effect the Radio Drama scene?

First of all, if you haven't listened to it, do so, right now. It's worth the one hour long runtime I'll wait. (Download it here: https://archive.org/details/OrsonWellesMrBruns) You back yet? Good. Anyway, the magic of the first half is entirely due to how it's presented. It opens up with some credits, "The following is a drama brought to you by CBS and Orson Welles." But the rest is presented entirely as if it were real news. It starts with a music program interrupted by some breaking news. We then hear from announcers, bulletins, interviews, and eyewitness accounts. If you were to first tune in after the initial credits, you'd think this was real news. The sound design is fantastic, sound completely realistic (as realistic as we'd think Martians would sound like anyway), no Wilhelm screams here folks. The very fact that it was presented as far from a story is what made the story engaging.

Even myself, a guy whose familiar with the story, heard the credits, is from far in the future, sitting in a car listening to this downloaded from my phone, was immersed in the story. My favorite moment by far [Spoilers, you disobedient, disembodied, faceless readers] is on the bomber plane. We hear the heat ray in the distance, the engines going out, and the crew decided to crash into the Martian. I could hear the determined, scared quiver of the pilot as he told us. I heard the plane zoom downward, the noises from below getting louder. And the we the first split second of a crash before it cuts out. Silence for a moment, as we reflect on what just happened, and as the radio cuts back to the announcer. I was totally hooks at this point. [Spoilers have finished, but you should have listened to me you know.]

The story felt very real to me. Yes, the old, poorly aged, poorly acted, radio broadcast about aliens invading earth felt real. A sense of panic slowly grew, every moment I was more and more scared. And every moment I loved this broadcast more and more.

But then, the second half started. the entire perspective shifted. It went from a radio broadcast station airing any news it could get to a guy (previously introduced) writing in his journal. The continuity was destroyed, even though the perspective shifted to a character we've heard a lot of before and picked up almost right after, if felt like a whole new story. All of the sudden our main character is giving Shakespearean monologues about his identity, and the fate of the human race. Days go by in minutes, whereas in the first half every second felt precious.

And the way it ended [Spoilers] felt really anticlimactic, Richard was just like, "Oh yeah, by the way the Martians are all dead, so... there's that." And while that was tied in with how humans were defenseless, while the most insignificant beings stopped the Martians was cool and all. But it almost felt out of place. [Spoilers/]

So, yeah, the second half kinda killed it for me. In fact, if you just chop off the entire second half, this would rise into my favorites list. I don't quite have Top-Favorite-Radio-Broadcasts, but it'd be on something.

And the reason the first half was so powerful was solely because of the way it was presented. I'm a sucker for immersive stuff like that, when a book has notes scrawled in the margin, or comics use the panel borders as psychical objects (like stepping over, or leaning over). Orson Welles' War of the World Radio Broadcast did something magical, actually took advantage of it's medium. It did it so well that when CBS was sued do to shock, the FCC ruled that Radio Dramas cannot use news flashes as a storytelling method. Because it conflicts with the actual new flashes. The story got in the way of the news. Which means that we will never get anything like War of the Worlds again.

Because radio also doubles as a news source, it can never take full advantage of itself as a storytelling medium. So what does that mean for other mediums like it? What does that mean for TV?

...

...

...

Oh sorry, I got  caught up on reading articles about how fake reality TV is. Did you know even Extreme Makeover: House Edition and Pawn Stars is fake??? My heart is broken. But different time, different story. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, um, ahem. Somethin', somethin', TV will never reach it's true potential. But come on, it doesn't really matter, TV's gonna die out anyway. (thanks streaming services!)

-The Madman

*Not true

Today I: Watched the Greatest Movie of All Time (According to Sight and Sound)

Yep, today marks a momentous occasion for me, I watched the Alfred Hitchcock film "Vertigo." And it was... eh? [Warning: The following contains slight thematic spoilers for the 1958 classic 'Vertigo', you have been warned. (But really, you should have already watched it, it's worth the two hours it asks)]

Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie, I very much enjoyed it, but it didn't seem Greatest-Movie-of-All-Time material to me. In fact it turns out that I had really missed the point of the movie. It wasn't until I read a review (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-vertigo-1958) that I realized what a major theme of the movie was, falling in love with the image of a woman. That Scottie didn't fall in love with Madeline, but rather her image. I was shocked when I had read this, looking back I saw all the signs, it was obvious, yet I was oblivious during the duration of the film.

Why did I miss this? What does that mean? Did I only experience a fraction of what the film had to offer? Whose fault was it that I missed it? The movie's or mine own? What are the impacts of that answer on the business of storytelling (something I am vested in)? These questions rattled through my head for the next couple hours.

Well, those couple hours are over, and I'd like to dump my thought smoothie into this blog post, and see where it goes. I have a feeling this'll be long, so buckle up (Yay for cliches!).

First I'm going to cover the job of themes in a story. Then how stories can convey their themes. Finally answering the question, "Whose fault is it when the theme is missed?" Which is definitely going to swerve into a rant about my favorite storytelling medium. But we're not there yet so let's focus on the first point to cover.

Why do we have themes in a story? What function do they serve? In order to answer these questions, we need to ask ourselves the purpose of a story. "Clearly stories are entertainment!" You may cry out, and you are indeed correct, dear faceless reader. Though partially. Stories these days are, for the most part, just for entertainment. That's why comedies are so prevalent today... sadly (I'll get into my disdain of comedies in a later post). But this was not always the case, no, it used to be the opposite. Think about Aesop's fables, or the parables of Jesus, even some Greek Myths. What do the all have in common? A lesson.

Stories were used as a means of conveying a lesson. Aesop teaches us the consequences of lying (Boy who cried wolf) or to always try your best (Tortoise and the Hare). Jesus would talk about the importance of action compared to intent (Matthew 21:28-32), and while his other stories are more Christianity specific (every other parable ever), the purpose of his stories were to teach. While the Greek myths taught you to... fear the gods (and their stupidity)?

Since then stories have very much evolved, up or down I don't know, but it has changed for sure. Themes, and morals are the fossils of that era, the tailbones of storytelling. All stories have them, even children movies! (Though the most common, arguably only, one is the importance of family.)

So how do movies convey these morals? Well, it all depends, mostly on how subtle the story wants to be. Some blatantly tell you (NOT advised) while others give you enough hints and clues to put it together yourself.

So, when there are too little clues, and the audience doesn't get it, whose fault is it? Well, it can't always be the story's fault, otherwise every story would have to spell it out. You have to let the audience think at least a little bit. But you can't go over your audiences head either.

(Warning: The following line of logic assumes some people are smarter than others. Sorry Declaration of Independence, I guess not all people are equal, at least in that regard)

The harder it is for your audience to piece it together, the smaller the amount of them will appreciate it. The easier it is for your audience to piece it together, the less rewarding it is for those who do. The goal of every story is to find that perfect medium. And the greatest movie of all time should have found that medium. It should have given the greatest possible number of people the greatest possible thematic reward.

But Vertigo, the supposed greatest film of all time, the one that should be able to have it's cake and eat it to, the film that apparently has the best of both worlds, failed to reach me on a thematic level. It wasn't until I was point blank told the themes in this movie that I realized it's thematic weight.

So who's fault is it? Mine? Or Vertigo's? Not the movie, according to many people (mostly critics). So am I stupid? I'm certainly not stupid, I'm actually quite smart, at least that's what my mother tells me (but if I trusted everything she said I'd think I was the smartest, most handsome, most humble being to walk this earth. Hey, I can't blame her for loving her handiwork). But I have watched movies with more complex themes, yet I didn't have any trouble with them. I should be able to handle movies harder than Vertigo... so why couldn't I?

I think it's due to the medium the story was told in. This next whole section is going to be entirely subjective but hear me out. But in order for you to understand it I need to admit something. So people trying to figure out my identity (like I'd ever be that popular) get your pencils ready. I am an Anime-Snob.

Not just a weaboo who like Chinese cartoons, I judge people who watch the stupid ones. "You like Naruto? I'm afraid we cannot be friends any longer." "Attack on Titan is your favorite anime? And to think I trusted your opinion on things..." I'm kind of an elitist prick. But that's because I've seen what animation has to offer in storytelling, and I can't handle anything less than that now.

The reason I bring it up is because I think Vertigo would have been a better movie if animated. No, scratch that. The themes found in Vertigo would be better conveyed through animation. My reasoning behind this is still underdeveloped, but it goes something like this.

In animation specifically, everything is done in thought. When using an actors performance to achieve an emotion in animation, the artist makes sure that the expression can elicit that emotion. While an actor tries to do this as well, it's hard to see your own face, and then objectively tell whether that's sad looking or not.

Like I said, my thoughts are under-cooked, perhaps I'll come back to this topic when I'm more confident, but for now that's all I have.

Next on my watch list... Citizen Kane, or Ant-Man, I haven't decided yet.

-The Madman

Today I: Was Forced to Mow a Rapist's Lawn

Sorry, I lied, I'm new to the whole click-bait article spiel. I *technically* volunteered to, and he's a former rapist, a much better guy. But it does make me think about mistakes, second chances, and the media.

It's no secret that we humans make lots of mistakes, some of us are mistakes (if you know what I'm saying...), yet many people's lives are ruined because of them. Like Ashley Payne, she was a high school teacher, but was promptly fired when one of her Facebook posts contained a picture of her drinking alcohol. (http://mashable.com/2011/06/16/weinergate-social-media-job-loss/)

Ash (c-can I call you that?) lost her job because of a simple mistake. We all make mistakes, yet punish others severely for making them.

Why are we such hypocrites? Why do we crucify people for making mistakes and turn a blind eye when we are at fault? It's because humans are selfish, a little pessimistic depiction of humanity sure, but I believe it to be true. We all strive for perfection, acting perfect, looking perfect, smelling perfect, being perfect. A mistake proves that you are imperfect. We don't want to admit to being an imperfect race, so we attempt to dehumanize those who've made mistakes. "Oh," we say, "That murderer? I'll never be like him, he's a monster."

Yet, when we're the one in trouble, we can't dehumanize ourselves, so instead we beg and plea for forgiveness. "It's just an honest mistake!" We cry out, again and again, while those around us grow taller and taller, more and more unforgiving, intense, scary. We realize that we are a monster. We're failures, an animal when compared to the perfect beings, human beings in society.

Yet, at these moments, either dehumanizing or being dehumanized, we fail to remember that we all make mistakes. As the famous pop culture philosopher Hannah Montana said, "Nobody's perfect." We are selfish beings, we don't forgive others, "It was her fault she did that, besides it doesn't affect me." And we seek forgiveness, "I didn't mean to! Surely everyone will forgive me! I mean, after all, its me!"

"That's not true at all!" You cry out at your screen, "I get forgiven all the time!" Yes, faceless blog reader, you do get forgiven. You get forgetten by friends, family, people you trust who also trust you. We happen to be a little less selfish, and more selfless when dealing with people we love and trust. "Oh," We say, "That isn't like him, it must be a simple mistake, I can overlook it. Besides, if I shun him it'll hurt his relationship with me. And he'll never forgive me if I make a mistake."

But when dealing with strangers, we are much crueler. When we see a thief on the news, we don't stop to think about his family, or how hard it'll be for him to build his life back again after prison. All we think is, "Thank goodness he's off the streets."

Celebrities comes as an interesting part of this. They're only kinda strangers, we don't know them but still care about how they turn out. We begin to grow affectionate in regards to them. But not to who they are, but who we think we are. And because we haven't heard of them making any mistakes, we assume they are perfect beings. And we love that about them. So when that celebrity inevitably makes a mistake, it shatters what we knew of them. They feel like someone else, an alien.

Perhaps the best possible example of this is Josh Duggar, and by extension the entire Duggar Family. We all assumed that the Duggar Family was a perfect family. They seemed like it, they were marketed as it. So when we found that that Josh Duggar is in fact not a perfect being, it kinda ruined everything. Even though, by the time we found out Josh has recovered. He took his second chance, he rebuilt his life, he was a new man. So we began dehumanizing him, and his family. "I always knew that family was sketchy." "Josh always looked like such a pervert." "Those parents are terrible! Forcing the girls to continue living with their attacker!" But that issue was over, the girls recovered, Josh recovered, the family had recovered.

It's a similar situation with the man whose lawn I mowed. I didn't find out that he had raped someone until after I knew him well. But I didn't insult him, I didn't dehumanize him, because I had seen that he wasn't like that anymore. And I forgave him. If only other people were more like me! (Aren't I humble?)

So, yeah, those are my thoughts. Raw and unfiltered. I don't know what you should make of it, that's up to you. But I don't care. Because I don't care about you.

-The Madman

P.S.: I made some mistakes in this post, can you find them? And will you forgive me?

Like... what even is this blog?

Hello, and welcome to the obligatory introduction post! This is the post where I introduce myself and this blog. So in order to make things easy for everyone as to the purpose of this blog I'll sum it up in one key phrase, the motto of this blog.

Ready?

Here goes.



I Don't Care About You.

That's it. No more, no less. This is my personal space, a diary of sorts. I'm writing this solely for therapeutic purposes, and nothing else. Now, you are more than welcome to read this, feel free. But due to the fact that this is my space, don't expect me to pander to readers or anything of the sort.

I'll post when I want to, of what I want to, for whatever length I want to. I don't have any clear goal or vision for this blog. It'll be just as crazy and scatterbrained as my own mind.

And due to the personal nature that may or may not come out during some posts, and details will change. Everything is a pseudonym.

And, um, that's it. I can't think of anything else to say. So, eh, see you later?

-The Madman