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petroniaHalfway through book 7. I think I'm starting to fangirl Kagetora. >_> I do like the deadly calm intelligent manipulative types like Takahashi Ryousuke. And the scene with Touyama Yasuhide freaked me out, because I'm a weenie and always fall for the sudden-reflection-in-bathroom-mirror schtick in horror films, and it's all the more unnerving when you turn around and there's no one actually behind you... The Yasuhide plot thread is revealing of Kagetora's character, actually, just as the Maiko one is revealing of Naoe's. As Chiaki puts it, you need a special kind of balls to play murdered Duncan and turn victimhood into an instrument of terror: iron nerves and a paradoxical lack of mercy, if you're not in fact a vengeful ghost. There's something unpleasant about it, but "guilt-tripping" is too mild and everyday to be meaningful in this context. After all, thanks to MoB's specialised setup Kagetora is literally murdered Duncan to Yasuhide (there must be a noh theatre equiv, eh), and not far from it to Ujiteru and Naoe. And Duncan's ghost may well only exist in Macbeth's head. Chiaki's take on it is that Kagetora doesn't really hate or want revenge on anyone; he's acting, putting on a Shakespearean play, unwilling to give up the material or moral advantage of being the victim. Which in and of itself is something that clicks right into place, when one finds out about the rape in book 9.
The "victim's advantage" is one of MoB's most complex and central themes, and hard to wrap one's mind around because - well, because it raises thorny ethical issues for one, chief of which being "How justified is Naoe in resenting Kagetora's victimhood?" - but also I think because it's something that simply doesn't come up very much in this sort of storyline. In a fantasy novel one expects the villains to hurt people and not feel sorry for it, or if they feel sorry to angst prettily about means and ends, not to go mad with guilt and terror à la Macbeth; furthermore one expects the victims to be saintly and forgive, or to train themselves for ten years before coming down the mountain to take revenge. ^^;
***
I don't spend all my time reading Mirage of Blaze. No, seriously. Last night, for instance, I went to my office Christmas party. Had chicken tikka, lots of shrimp and Oishii Sushi's famed yin-yang maki roll (yin is tuna, yang is salmon, the dots in the center are made out of chive). And about six vodka drinks. And two glasses of red. Suck it up, for I continue to be hangover-immune, although a more precise way of putting that would be to say I continue to be drunkenness-immune. Was buzzed enough not to mind the stupid team games they always make you play at these events, though: in fact I sang.
On the first day of production QA gave to me
A software they said was bug-free
On the second day of production QA gave to me
Two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
On the third day of production QA gave to me
Three test track logs, two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
On the fourth day of production QA gave to me
Four server errors, three test track logs, two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
On the fifth day of production [name of CEO] gave to me, FIVE NEW ENHANCEMENTS!
Four server errors, three test track logs, two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
Sorry, that's probably not even funny to anyone who doesn't work in a dot-com, is it? Great party, all the same. Music was all over the map, the DJ played a lot of eighties, some house, some reggae. As it is a dress-code-what-is-this-thing -you-call-dress-code sort of workplace my mother was wondering why I insisted on putting together a nice outfit - and in fact a lot of the programmers did show up in their daily polo shirts and khakis - but I reiterate for those who haven't heard that my company is full of REALLY HOT BABES. Prolly not so good to make spurious jokes about hiring practice but it's to the point I'm flattered to have made the cut. XD;;; Certainly one feels obliged to make an effort to hold one's own on the dancefloor.
The "victim's advantage" is one of MoB's most complex and central themes, and hard to wrap one's mind around because - well, because it raises thorny ethical issues for one, chief of which being "How justified is Naoe in resenting Kagetora's victimhood?" - but also I think because it's something that simply doesn't come up very much in this sort of storyline. In a fantasy novel one expects the villains to hurt people and not feel sorry for it, or if they feel sorry to angst prettily about means and ends, not to go mad with guilt and terror à la Macbeth; furthermore one expects the victims to be saintly and forgive, or to train themselves for ten years before coming down the mountain to take revenge. ^^;
***
I don't spend all my time reading Mirage of Blaze. No, seriously. Last night, for instance, I went to my office Christmas party. Had chicken tikka, lots of shrimp and Oishii Sushi's famed yin-yang maki roll (yin is tuna, yang is salmon, the dots in the center are made out of chive). And about six vodka drinks. And two glasses of red. Suck it up, for I continue to be hangover-immune, although a more precise way of putting that would be to say I continue to be drunkenness-immune. Was buzzed enough not to mind the stupid team games they always make you play at these events, though: in fact I sang.
On the first day of production QA gave to me
A software they said was bug-free
On the second day of production QA gave to me
Two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
On the third day of production QA gave to me
Three test track logs, two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
On the fourth day of production QA gave to me
Four server errors, three test track logs, two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
On the fifth day of production [name of CEO] gave to me, FIVE NEW ENHANCEMENTS!
Four server errors, three test track logs, two failed items and a software they said was bug-free
Sorry, that's probably not even funny to anyone who doesn't work in a dot-com, is it? Great party, all the same. Music was all over the map, the DJ played a lot of eighties, some house, some reggae. As it is a dress-code-what-is-this-thing -you-call-dress-code sort of workplace my mother was wondering why I insisted on putting together a nice outfit - and in fact a lot of the programmers did show up in their daily polo shirts and khakis - but I reiterate for those who haven't heard that my company is full of REALLY HOT BABES. Prolly not so good to make spurious jokes about hiring practice but it's to the point I'm flattered to have made the cut. XD;;; Certainly one feels obliged to make an effort to hold one's own on the dancefloor.
