Well, that was a thoroughly unpleasant experience
I have nodded off once or twice since my previous entry, but on the whole I’m surprised with how well I’ve done. Except that ‘well’ probably isn’t the best word. One of the few benefits of putting myself through this is that I should get to bed at a reasonable time, meaning I will force myself into a pattern of normality for a few days at least. It kind of negates the point if I’m still arsing around by the following midnight. Not that midnight is especially late, but I may need quite a lot of sleep after this.
I fell to sleep watching a programme about Hiroshima, which I was actually finding pretty traumatic. I think this unsettled me, because I woke up again a short while later with it on my mind, and wandered through to the living room before fully regaining consciousness, which in this instance was to the sound of Alex telling me that I was being weirder than usual. I should probably ask him what the hell it was I was talking about at some point, but at the time I didn’t really have the necessary strength or mental grasp of the situation to investigate things further. I think I was saying something about explosions. When I returned to my room I discovered that Aliens was on, which I decided to watch despite its failings, as I’d gone to the trouble of watching the original last week (or whenever it was shown). The sequel is definitely the inferior of the two, but I don’t exactly hate it, and it had been a while. So when it finishes (the finale is rapidly approaching) I will hopefully finally get around to going to bed properly and getting a good ten-or-so hours’ sleep. I need it. I’m feeling quite rotten at the moment. Not so much tired, just . . . uncomfortable.
Yeah, Aliens’ special effects extravaganza is impressive enough, but it completely misses what made the original interesting: the relatively naturalistic and gritty style (if I’m not mistaken, there’s no music except in the opening and closing titles), and the sense of increasing isolation (what with being stranded on a spacecraft with rapidly diminishing company, save of course for the alien itself). Not that I believe that sequels should be carbon copies of the originals ( anything but); merely that in this case the sequel is, if anything, something of a step backwards. All this said, it does seem to have contributed a lot to popular culture in the way of inspiration – in the last ten minutes alone I noticed a couple of moments which were almost definitely the sole point of reference for two of the scenes in an otherwise quite dissimilar pair (even the media are different: one is a film, whereas the other is a computer game). It’s evidently found its way into the collective consciousness, perhaps even more so than Alien (I would say that only the chest-burster scene from that is really well-known), and for this it can be commended.
I’ve often wondered why I have any interest at all in the Alien series. They’re hardly my usual viewing, and I wouldn’t say that I’m a particular fan of any of them. I suppose I hit the nail on the head in the previous paragraph: it’s the variety between the episodes. It is, to my knowledge, quite unusual to have a series of such disparate components. What ultimately ties the films together is not their director, nor is it their style – it’s the core characters alone. This might not sound so notable – surely continuing the story was what sequels are always about – but the franchise nature of this series is, to my knowledge, quite unusual. Perhaps it’s just an exhibition of greed, but since I haven’t paid a penny for any of my viewings, that needn’t worry me. I find it interesting to see how different people try to make the world their own in much the same way that I find the idea of remixing quite intriguing, despite the fact that remixes actually tend to be fairly unimaginative and pointless (I’m much more interested in those that aren’t, mind). I think I like the idea of collaborative creativity. The combined efforts of artists (I use the term in a loose sense) have a tendency of attracting my attention, be it music, film, literature, or whatever.
That’s enough meaningless introspection for the time being, I think. The film finished some time ago, and I have no intention of watching highlights of the Ashes coverage. So until next time, remember not to eat what you find in ashtrays.
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I fell to sleep watching a programme about Hiroshima, which I was actually finding pretty traumatic. I think this unsettled me, because I woke up again a short while later with it on my mind, and wandered through to the living room before fully regaining consciousness, which in this instance was to the sound of Alex telling me that I was being weirder than usual. I should probably ask him what the hell it was I was talking about at some point, but at the time I didn’t really have the necessary strength or mental grasp of the situation to investigate things further. I think I was saying something about explosions. When I returned to my room I discovered that Aliens was on, which I decided to watch despite its failings, as I’d gone to the trouble of watching the original last week (or whenever it was shown). The sequel is definitely the inferior of the two, but I don’t exactly hate it, and it had been a while. So when it finishes (the finale is rapidly approaching) I will hopefully finally get around to going to bed properly and getting a good ten-or-so hours’ sleep. I need it. I’m feeling quite rotten at the moment. Not so much tired, just . . . uncomfortable.
Yeah, Aliens’ special effects extravaganza is impressive enough, but it completely misses what made the original interesting: the relatively naturalistic and gritty style (if I’m not mistaken, there’s no music except in the opening and closing titles), and the sense of increasing isolation (what with being stranded on a spacecraft with rapidly diminishing company, save of course for the alien itself). Not that I believe that sequels should be carbon copies of the originals ( anything but); merely that in this case the sequel is, if anything, something of a step backwards. All this said, it does seem to have contributed a lot to popular culture in the way of inspiration – in the last ten minutes alone I noticed a couple of moments which were almost definitely the sole point of reference for two of the scenes in an otherwise quite dissimilar pair (even the media are different: one is a film, whereas the other is a computer game). It’s evidently found its way into the collective consciousness, perhaps even more so than Alien (I would say that only the chest-burster scene from that is really well-known), and for this it can be commended.
I’ve often wondered why I have any interest at all in the Alien series. They’re hardly my usual viewing, and I wouldn’t say that I’m a particular fan of any of them. I suppose I hit the nail on the head in the previous paragraph: it’s the variety between the episodes. It is, to my knowledge, quite unusual to have a series of such disparate components. What ultimately ties the films together is not their director, nor is it their style – it’s the core characters alone. This might not sound so notable – surely continuing the story was what sequels are always about – but the franchise nature of this series is, to my knowledge, quite unusual. Perhaps it’s just an exhibition of greed, but since I haven’t paid a penny for any of my viewings, that needn’t worry me. I find it interesting to see how different people try to make the world their own in much the same way that I find the idea of remixing quite intriguing, despite the fact that remixes actually tend to be fairly unimaginative and pointless (I’m much more interested in those that aren’t, mind). I think I like the idea of collaborative creativity. The combined efforts of artists (I use the term in a loose sense) have a tendency of attracting my attention, be it music, film, literature, or whatever.
That’s enough meaningless introspection for the time being, I think. The film finished some time ago, and I have no intention of watching highlights of the Ashes coverage. So until next time, remember not to eat what you find in ashtrays.
[Show more]
posted at 01:04
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