Restoration Teleportation

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Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

http://31.media.tumblr.com/16be15d24755 ... o1_500.jpg
"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26

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Restoration: the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.
Teleportation: transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them.

:)
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by steyn »

Is this a question or a statement? :coy

But yeah, Kurt's teleportation has no effect on his body's construction during the actual event. However current teleportation technology is nothing like actual teleportation, it's basically copying the info of an object, sending the info through to the target location and reconstructing the object using the info, thereby having now two versions of the object. That would actually be restoration teleportation, because the teleported object could be restored.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

[quote="steyn"]Is this a question or a statement? :coy

i don't know
is there another option?
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

However current teleportation technology is nothing like actual teleportation, it's basically copying the info of an object, sending the info through to the target location and reconstructing the object using the info, thereby having now two versions of the object. That would actually be restoration teleportation, because the teleported object could be restored.
Image
Very well put.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

I don't even know where i am right now
all of a sudden i'm in a galaxy far far away, two decades in the past of a far gone future, is that the guy who plays Professor X playing Picard or is that the guy who played Picard playing Professor X as Picard - and what does this have to do with 3-D printing technology...this is the Beyonder or some skrull trick!

i need a restorative teleportation...(this worked once)
http://www.uncannyxmen.net/images/chara ... wler47.jpg

;)
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

What series is that from?

Is....is that GREG LAND?! I will break him! WITH MY PINKY! Image
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

It's from X-Men Secret Invasion http://marvel.wikia.com/Secret_Invasion:_X-Men_Vol_1
Mike Carey writer
(not very appealing art by) Cary Nord and Ma Sepulveda

it's a series I only skimmed through for the Nightcrawler faith bits...

Holideck! Simulate 'tea with Wharf' - training sequence 33.33 'engage the ingrained stereotypical depiction of racial ethnicity in sci-fi, fantasy and the comic arts'

It's sad really. The whole X saga is about confronting hate, prejudice and the societal virus of bigotry; yet...the X books themselves have done so little in curing this ailment.

When I think about the vanity and ill-wrought legacy, despite and maybe even because of the 'good' intentions that seek to break this inexorable bane it makes me frustrated.
Especially the horrible treatment of indigenous characters! Claremont has been a bigtime offender in this area, just like that movie Avatar - he set out to break the mold and do something good...but wound up just reinforcing the same ol' Pocahontas, 'crying Indian', noble savage thing. Dani Moonstar, Forge, Naze, Jame Proudstar... ugh! Just bad! Like those big blue beautiful aliens who gotta be saved by a 'white man' who they make their 'new' leader...why not call him Captain John Smith?

So I turn to Wharf and I say
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” ― Martin Luther King Jr

And pray he doesn't rip me apart.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

ugh! Just bad! Like those big blue beautiful aliens who gotta be saved by a 'white man' who they make their 'new' leader...why not call him Captain John Smith?
to be fair, Picard never liked being anything other than an emissary and introducer to the Federation. He wanted to meet new species, not make them his own. And offer them the Federation. No warfare, no conquering. Hostile species aside, though he always strove (and often succeeded) in finding an escape that was peaceful and non-lethal.

ANYWAYS :offtopic

what I will say is that Nightcrawler and the X-Books cannot be held responsible for changing the hearts and minds of people across the world but they can make a dent and I think, for what it's worth, they have.

As for teleportation -- we understand he teleports through a world and comes out back in ours, is that how Pixie's teleportation works? And Blink uses those crystals, is that more like the teleporting beam from star trek? Dilythium crystals? No... no one got that joke? :crickets

The sad fact is the logic of his teleportation (and current technology) is a total of zilch. It makes no sense other than to assume it's a vaccuum/black hole thing-- in which case he's not really teleporting, he's using dimensional rifts in time and space to pop out in other places in our current present and --

OH MY GOD NIGHTCRAWLER IS A TARDIS!
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

Ult_Sm86 wrote:what I will say is that Nightcrawler and the X-Books cannot be held responsible for changing the hearts and minds of people across the world but they can make a dent and I think, for what it's worth, they have.
Why can't they be held responsible for changing hearts and minds of people across the world? That's what art does!

Yes! X-Books have made a dent! And some writers have made serious breakthroughs! For me it works best when its not a forced aspect of the story...but exists within the astounding diversity of the individuals within any given x-family. Their ability to be a cohesive whole that does not diminish the sum parts or force any one true path upon its members...X books have had periods when this is done incredibly and I believe transcendentally.

One really great example of X-books getting this right is the 'Trial of Magneto' way back in UXM 200 - nothing gets resolved, nothing is figured out...Xavier binds Magneto to a conscience that embodies a psychological reconciliation that is not attained but is born...that's what hope and change is, to me, its a new horizon that hadn't been available before - it's a new hope - or what Peter Parker might call...the sorta good that follows the really bad. It's progress. Its that little new good that can only come from facing the impossibly bad.

X-books have certainly made a massive dent, an imperfect but resounding revolution in the hearts of anybody who cares about the title...the message of hope eternal that resonates in the X-Men is real...and a major ingredient that message is the struggle of a truly diverse family to find accord and fight for a better world...together...and in that very struggle, there is an expansion of being that is able to contain more without conforming anyone...in fact, the very expansive growth requires the unique diversity of its sustaining parts. This can be done better than it has been done. It has to be. It will be. I have hope.

Jason Aaron...he's a good example of a writer who HAS faced and challenged himself to be humble and brave and make a change in the status quo. What he did in Scalped is transcendent and I believe no matter what he's doing now, the spirit and vision he gained in doing that important work is carried through.

So, yea, I'm sad to see him leaving x-Books...
and yea, i'm worried that Claremont is a man of great heart, a man who really broke a lot of barriers and made something essential and right at a time when nothing else like it existed...but he's got these tendencies to over-do and stereotype that sometimes undermine his very aspirations...but again, i have hope.

i have no idea how we got here or what the 'hard' science of Kurt's teleportation is
he says himself though...it's "intuitive" - "elusive" - "instinctual" - i love the speculative interpretations you offer ;) but i'm no scientist, don't have the IQ I suppose, yet I believe there's a special magic in everybody...an elusive instinct, a sixth sense that makes each of us a fifth element - as essential as the given four to the wonderousness all of life :)
Kurt BAMFS - it's just something he does...a miraculous thing! (but what IT is to me is hope where there is none...magic...transport...sanctuary and more) it's one of those deals that comes with great responsibility...which if not striven for - absolutely corrupts! We all got this same deal...right?

Maybe some of us even BAMF - maybe some of us CHANGE THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE WORLD!!!
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Jason Aaron...he's a good example of a writer who HAS faced and challenged himself to be humble and brave and make a change in the status quo. What he did in Scalped is transcendent and I believe no matter what he's doing now, the spirit and vision he gained in doing that important work is carried through.
I would argue an X-Writer who is not a white male might bring a whole new aspect to the title. While I appreciate Aaron's campiness and fun attitude, I think he's done zero in that regard for equality and acceptance. Brian Wood, on the other hand, has gone leaps and bounds and if you're not reading adjectiveless X-Men (XX-Men for those who are aware of the all female team it consists of) then I would highly suggest you pick it up.

I would like to see some non-white writers get a chance at these books, don't know of any off the top of my head that have actually written for X-Men before.
i love the speculative interpretations you offer ;) but i'm no scientist, don't have the IQ I suppose, yet I believe there's a special magic in everybody...an elusive instinct, a sixth sense that makes each of us a fifth element - as essential as the given four to the wonderousness all of life
a part of Kurt's lore that has always bothered me is that he's a mutant -- a scientifically proven anomoly that occurs during evolution -- and they make him magic based, and even worse -- mystically religious based. That part has always irked me and while I appreciate his return and Jason Aaron's bravado... I'm secretly waiting for the revelation that neither of the two places the X-Men have visited in this series, thus far, are actually heaven OR hell.
That would be very ... Spawn... and I'm not a big fan of Spawn.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

Ah, but Aaron DOES accomplish much by making race and ethnicity a 'non-issue' just a reality of a team and a school and a common purpose...I mean his W&XM is the 'dream' - while Scott's team is the 'awakening' right? For me, the dream doesn't sleep...and making a nightmare out things doesn't mean you're awake. See what Aaron did was use the inherent diversity of the X-family and make it a part of an identity rather than the focus of adversity. We get to read a diverse group living and encountering their world together. It's the whole power of creation vs. the force of will thing. The one thing WILL can never do is create...yet when creative power is at work...it transcends will. Alone, will can destroy...but it can't create.

I have not read Wood's X-Men yet but I have read what you and others have written about it here and it sounds way better than I would've thought it would be - initially I hated the premise - but your praise makes it well worth giving it a try

To me, it doesn't matter if Kurt's a mutant, a demon gone rogue-saint or a hybrid - i love his uniqueness and how his faith in himself really is the only foundation he can draw from...he gets NO other wellspring, no answer to the 'who am i' question - he must venture forth without that - such a brave dude. it's why he's my favorite.
Ult_Sm86 wrote:That would be very ... Spawn... and I'm not a big fan of Spawn.
that would be bad...very bad...and very Spawn...of which I am most decidedly NOT a fan...
it won't go there...no need to...oh i hope it doesn't go there...
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Wahnsinn »

I'll help with the science! Physics is not my strong point, so I may muck up the jargon a little. ;)
Kurt's teleportation is more like traveling through a wormhole, and the wormhole, in the case of his ability, is the Brimstone Dimension (thanks to Austen). His mutation allows him access to that dimension for the purpose of rapidly traveling from one space to another. The "bamf" is the filling of the vacuum left by the tunnel entrance/exit created, and it can displace liquids and gasses but not solids. The purple wisps are escaping bits of the atmosphere from the Brimstone dimension. The reason Kurt appears to always be in shadow (when artists can be bothered to remember he's supposed to be) is ambient light being absorbed into the access point that constantly surrounds him but is closed until he teleports.

I really hope they one day reveal (again) that Azazel is not, in fact, a demon but an extremely old mutant sorcerer who plays at being one because he's a narcissistic megalomaniac. :smirk

On the subject of breaking the white sausage fest, a couple female writers have managed to get in on X-titles in recent years. There was Majorie Liu on X-23 and Astonishing, and Kathryn Immonen is bridging the short gap between lead writers on Amazing. Alas, the Big Two simply don't employ that many writers of color. :\
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

That's right! I'm fairly certain she's Asian of some kind... I know she speaks fluent Chinese but she studied Asian cultures in college. She is a beautiful, brilliant, talented writer. Looking at her creds, you'd have no idea she was actually a comic book writer but she's in fact a novelist, graphic novel author, paranormal/romance specialist, and she also majored in some kind of pharmacology/biology thing. She's AMAZING. One of my all time favorite X-Writers! I can't believe I forgot her!
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

Wahnsinn wrote:Kurt's teleportation is more like traveling through a wormhole, and the wormhole, in the case of his ability, is the Brimstone Dimension (thanks to Austen). His mutation allows him access to that dimension for the purpose of rapidly traveling from one space to another. The "bamf" is the filling of the vacuum left by the tunnel entrance/exit created, and it can displace liquids and gasses but not solids. The purple wisps are escaping bits of the atmosphere from the Brimstone dimension. The reason Kurt appears to always be in shadow (when artists can be bothered to remember he's supposed to be) is ambient light being absorbed into the access point that constantly surrounds him but is closed until he teleports.
Ah ha Wahnsinn, meine freundin, wonderfully done! The 'ambient light' of the permeable constancy - the ever open gate that is Kurt Wagner - a man who in body is both shadow and radiant sky - in spirit both dashing Casanova and selfless Saint - in blood both fiery misfit and unwavering friend - in mind both precisely calculating and brilliantly imaginative - in principal both fiercely independent and ingeniously diplomatic! A man and a mutant. A beautiful demon. A wingless An crobat of the trapeze. An empathic fifth elemental with a sixth sublimating sense like a medicine smoke - a Brimstone amethyst sanctuary for hope...and the sword-tipped defiance of despair!

His 'power' is his 'poetry' of being.
It's a manifestation of who he is - the Nightcrawler: divinely gifted in a dream to David Cockrum in the midst of a tempest - Kurt was spirited through the flume of the south Pacific's Typhon Alley - into being.


BAMF like the curl of an incoming wave
bamf like the breath of thunder
Wahnsinn wrote:On the subject of breaking the white sausage fest, a couple female writers have managed to get in on X-titles in recent years. There was Majorie Liu on X-23 and Astonishing, and Kathryn Immonen is bridging the short gap between lead writers on Amazing. Alas, the Big Two simply don't employ that many writers of color.
who knows...
sometimes i think it's like this because 'we' the buyers haven't challenged the 'big two' enough
other times i think it's because deep down, immediate cultural representation always lags way behind the familiar comforts of what folks are 'used' to...
sometimes you can open a cage door and a perfectly healthy bird won't fly out...
it's crazy the things we can get used to...the things we willfully accept and even cling to

THIS WILL CHANGE! Because WE have changed... even if we don't want to see or admit it yet...or haven't figured out how to express who 'we' are in comic books- it wouldn't hurt to talk openly about why comics have had such a hard time with this...and what comics may be doing to actually exacerbate the intolerance to change. i gotta believe that there are a lot of people with good intentions who'd like to challenge the editorial mandates maybe even collectively and say - yea, but, we have to do better.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Wahnsinn »

sungila wrote:A wingless An crobat of the trapeze. An empathic fifth elemental with a sixth sublimating sense like a medicine smoke - a Brimstone amethyst sanctuary for hope...and the sword-tipped defiance of despair!
If you wanna be geektastic about it, we all have more than five senses. The ones we're taught as kids are the obvious, big ones. The true number may be up around twenty-one. My least favorite has to be itch. :P

Kurt is supposed to have limited subconscious spacial awareness along with superhuman agility and reflexes as part of his power set. I'd say those are a combination of enhanced proprioception (body part location), equilibrioception (balance and body movement), and magnetoception (direction through magnetic fields), and muscle tension.

Thus endeth today's science lesson. :LOL
who knows...
sometimes i think it's like this because 'we' the buyers haven't challenged the 'big two' enough
other times i think it's because deep down, immediate cultural representation always lags way behind the familiar comforts of what folks are 'used' to...
sometimes you can open a cage door and a perfectly healthy bird won't fly out...
it's crazy the things we can get used to...the things we willfully accept and even cling to

THIS WILL CHANGE! Because WE have changed... even if we don't want to see or admit it yet...or haven't figured out how to express who 'we' are in comic books- it wouldn't hurt to talk openly about why comics have had such a hard time with this...and what comics may be doing to actually exacerbate the intolerance to change. i gotta believe that there are a lot of people with good intentions who'd like to challenge the editorial mandates maybe even collectively and say - yea, but, we have to do better.
For all the progress we've made, we are still a tribal species. I was reading an article that mentioned networking as part of the problem for minorities in comics. A good portion of that is done in social gatherings, and I don't think it's any secret that people tend to gravitate toward their own. Most people who walk into a room full of strangers of a race not their own will struggle to insert themselves into the ongoing activities and conversations, even if they're totally welcome to do so. So, where are all the writers of color and women? Trying to work up the courage to jump into the sea of white sausage. :eek
There's demographics to consider as well. How many female and minority writers are trying to get into comics in the first place? The companies can't hire people who aren't there.

On the sales side, there's the issue of audience balance. When looking at the American market (which is always the focus of sales figures), most minority racial groups cannot be relied on to maintain the sales of a related minority character. If the audience is even close to the same balance of the general population, a black character can only hope to draw a maximum of 13% of the audience on race alone. When the bestselling comic there is can barely hold sales above 100k, that's a cancellation-worthy 13k at either of the Big Two. That book needs to pull another 10k to be considered safe, so the character also needs to appeal to audience members of other races.

Now, what's the real audience balance? DC's Nielsen survey is the only concrete thing we really have to go on at this point, and it paints the average comic book reader as a 35-year-old male. Given the demographics of the US, he's probably white. That matches my experience from my years frequently visiting comic shops from 1995 until I moved in 2008. I can count on one hand the number of minorities I encountered while including myself and the staff, and the two shops I visited weekly during the last several years were located on the border of a predominantly black city. There were maybe 10 women, including myself, non-regulars, and shop co-owners. That makes women and non-whites such a tiny minority as to be inconsequential to direct sales. If that's indicative of the larger picture, is it really any wonder that white male characters still dominate the format?

Then, there are matters of tradition and so on, but I've rambled enough. :X
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

Wahnsinn wrote:f you wanna be geektastic about it, we all have more than five senses. The ones we're taught as kids are the obvious, big ones. The true number may be up around twenty-one. My least favorite has to be itch. :P

Kurt is supposed to have limited subconscious spacial awareness along with superhuman agility and reflexes as part of his power set. I'd say those are a combination of enhanced proprioception (body part location), equilibrioception (balance and body movement), and magnetoception (direction through magnetic fields), and muscle tension.

Thus endeth today's science lesson. :LOL
At least 21! I consider our basic senses to be like primary colors that functionally do not exist apart from one another. These colors or senses are continuously combining both within our cognitive cellular ‘body’ and beyond – with the vast wheeling spectrums of colors and senses ‘outside’ ourselves that are not apart from what and who we are. Poet Li Young Lee once said “Our bodies look solid, but they aren't. We're like a fountain. A fountain of water looks solid, but you can put your fingers right through it. Our bodies look like things, but there's no thingness to them.”

When I speak of Kurt’s (or anybody’s) ‘sixth sense’ – I am speaking of a metaphysical capacity by which a person ‘sublimates’ or diffuses the basic five that associate with the ‘primary self’ into a more actual ‘non-self’ coexistence with a galactic creationary force . The ‘practice’ or ‘pathway’ or ‘special power’ here, the thing that everybody can do, but few develop transcendentally is EMPATHY…or more accurately empathetic kinesthesia by which one’s sense of contained movement and presence in space/time maintains a fluid permeable state. For Kurt, that state manifests itself into a mutant or mystical ‘ambient light’ – the shadowy violet signature of a streaming fountain – he is a gateway. He is an empath. His most essential ‘power-set’ is a human gift…extraordinary, yes, but human.
To me, the best artists who draw Nightcrawler, either intuitively or purposely give us a picture of this. The primary colors of blue, red and yellow river within the banks of black and white and where we are accustomed to shadow giving way – it encroaches – where light bends where we’re accustomed to it standing fast…and the purple or violet that is always there (subconsciously) bursts and breathes in flashes when he ports…when the ‘gate’ is officially open!
But more importantly, it is his personality, his character as elicited through the integrity of his actions that present this ‘sixth sense’ and maintain Kurt as a Krishna, an avatar of humanity’s endowed oceanic oneness with creation, a blue light like sky and water…a universal solvent of goodness. An open door where there is no door.
Wahnsinn wrote:That makes women and non-whites such a tiny minority as to be inconsequential to direct sales. If that's indicative of the larger picture, is it really any wonder that white male characters still dominate the format?
No, no it's no surprise. There's only been one race and sex that actually went ahead proclaimed "we are made in God's image" and that was the white male. This 'image' has been acculturated as 'THE' dominate 'image' in modern societal depictions of 'ourselves.' It isn't a 'true' image and never was. Yet, because of the stories we tell and repeat (even the language we use) - because of centuries of this recitation it is very difficult not to reiterate the old standards thus reestablishing the status quo if inequality and prejudice.

The solution is Nightcrawler. The solution has always been with us. It's the blue elf. It's the angel. It's the animistic goddess. The nymph. It's the androgyny of Coyote, Krishna, Dionysus, Iktomi and the immemorial shapeshiffting star jaunting inter-dimensional heroes/heroines through the ages.

In the modern context it's the X-Men minus the forced stereotypes...it's the 'everybody' team made-up of a collective of one-of-a-kind utterly gifted men, women, adults and children all working, striving, struggling and persevering as a fluid whole. I think that comic books are one of the greatest possible means for 'telling our story' - the immediate and transcendent code of our interbeing! Just keep writing, keep drawing, keep expanding, keep encouraging the cracks in the wall where the light moves through to open wider and breathe...keep mixing the palate, keep the brushes wet and the canvas wide - preserve the traditions that facilitate progress and growth...keep connected to the well that is nurturing but be brave and bold in how we chose to steer those forces and be aware of what we put into those streams for the future generations.

Comic Books and movies. They're pretty incredible accomplishments. They're 'the word' the 'cave drawing' the 'book' and the 'utterance' - but they're also so much more. Sure we're an imperfect species doing our best within imperfect societal structures - but the imperfections fit because in those very spots where we converge, those conflicts...that's where we 'emerge' - where the circle slips through the square and continuance abounds! Comics are movies on the page - making them more intimate than the screen can ever be. Our own hands reel the frames...we are the soundtrack and cinematography...we are the quickening silver that animates those pictures.

To me, Comic Books are one of greatest gifts the American crock-pot has served to the universe. It's a new bread for the breaking, a universal grain to sustain us...I think comics always need to innovate, burn spent fields and break new ground - and as long as WE do it TOGETHER - that 'together' will be what is sewn - and the harvest will serve to strengthen that WE.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Wahnsinn »

One of these days, I'll be able to decipher your most poetic posts. Today is not one of those days. I is a wee bit confuzzled. :LOL
sungila wrote:At least 21! I consider our basic senses to be like primary colors that functionally do not exist apart from one another.
Well, you have to remember that it's possible to lose a single sense. Each thing labeled a sense has its own sensor(s). Sight has the eyes, and they'll work quite fine without functioning ears. I know someone who has no sense of smell, and I often wonder what food tastes like to him because those senses are strongly linked. It is possible for a person to lose the sense of proprioception, and that's really one of the worst things that can happen. Imagine not being able to tell where your body parts are without looking directly at them. :shocked
When I speak of Kurt’s (or anybody’s) ‘sixth sense’ – I am speaking of a metaphysical capacity by which a person ‘sublimates’ or diffuses the basic five that associate with the ‘primary self’ into a more actual ‘non-self’ coexistence with a galactic creationary force . The ‘practice’ or ‘pathway’ or ‘special power’ here, the thing that everybody can do, but few develop transcendentally is EMPATHY…or more accurately empathetic kinesthesia by which one’s sense of contained movement and presence in space/time maintains a fluid permeable state.

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here. Kinesthesia is basically the combo of proprioception and equilibrioception. Empathy is the ability to identify with or vicariously experience the thoughts and feelings of others, and everybody has that; however, psychopaths do not use it automatically due to differences in brain structure and function. Empathetic kinesthesia sounds like the sense of being able to identify with or vicariously experience the physical movements and balance of another. Is that what you mean?
No, no it's no surprise. There's only been one race and sex that actually went ahead proclaimed "we are made in God's image" and that was the white male.
Nah, that's just the group that's come to power in such a way that they could reinforce their idea of it into the modern era. That proclamation is probably as old as religion itself. We're an egotistic sort. ;)
This 'image' has been acculturated as 'THE' dominate 'image' in modern societal depictions of 'ourselves.' It isn't a 'true' image and never was. Yet, because of the stories we tell and repeat (even the language we use) - because of centuries of this recitation it is very difficult not to reiterate the old standards thus reestablishing the status quo if inequality and prejudice.
Well, sure. We can't exactly expect white dudes not to present the image with which they're most familiar, though. They can most easily identify with characters like themselves, so they create characters like themselves to be enjoyed by people like themselves. This kind of thing was a non-issue before colonization and eventually globalization. Each group had its own mythology back in the day, but everybody's all mixed up now. Since white men spread their image all over the world and became the dominant group in what is arguably the most powerful society, all of humanity is also expected to adapt to that image because it is what has become standard.
The solution is Nightcrawler.
The funny part is that he's also, in a way, part of the problem. If it weren't for his outward mutation, he'd be a white dude, as has been shown in a couple stories. That's what the circus audience assumed him to be under his nonexistent costume during his time as an acrobat. When he used to run around with an image inducer, he made himself look like a white dude. He could have been any race, but he went with the one he would've been if he hadn't been born blue.
In the modern context it's the X-Men minus the forced stereotypes...it's the 'everybody' team made-up of a collective of one-of-a-kind utterly gifted men, women, adults and children all working, striving, struggling and persevering as a fluid whole.
Yes, but how do we eliminate those stereotypes? How many writers can do authentic versions of every culture? I can't really fault white male American writers for wanting to write white male Americans most of the time. It's the one thing they know they can do without offending anyone. The same is true for any other race-gender-nationality combo. In these more sensitive days, there's always that fear of turning a character who isn't like you into an offensive stereotype. It doesn't help any when the classic depiction of a character you've been hired to write is built on stereotypes. Nightcrawler's background has enough of them: the Frankenstein-era torch-wielding mob, an adopted mother who's a gypsy sorceress working at a circus, etc. Avoiding stereotypes is a challenging thing in a medium that's so heavily entrenched in its own stereotype-laden history.
To me, Comic Books are one of greatest gifts the American crock-pot has served to the universe. It's a new bread for the breaking, a universal grain to sustain us...I think comics always need to innovate, burn spent fields and break new ground - and as long as WE do it TOGETHER - that 'together' will be what is sewn - and the harvest will serve to strengthen that WE.
Right now, American comics need to do something to stay alive. There aren't enough of us buying them, and the numbers make it look like there are fewer of us every month. :(
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Right now, American comics need to do something to stay alive. There aren't enough of us buying them, and the numbers make it look like there are fewer of us every month.
That's a very pessimistic and honestly, rather baseless assumption. Posted numbers from Diamond aside (which is never the best estimate as anyone in Marvel/DC/Image constantly say online), there is a professed knowledge in this debate that we don't actually have.

How and why comics sell is very much an inside-baseball debate. There are hundreds of dozens of nuances and bits of sales data we are not privy too. Disney is the owner of Marvel and they make plenty of money off ticket, toy, and attraction sales as well as other paraphanalia to continue the great comics they do.

I would attribute this reason (though it's just my opinion) as to why Marvel has been so experimental with titles and artists and why there has been a successful movement into the "independent"-feel of their comics, where as DC is stuck in their BIG-2 SUPER HERO-esque stories. DC however is owned by WB and if you think DVD sales, toy sales, and so on and so forth of those awesome action figures (which are way better than Marvel's more often), than you're not really taking into full account everything that a comic company is nowadays.

Yes, I think it's a safe assumption that more of us could and should be buying... but their prices prevent an easy-to-go-to access but keep in mind kids aren't going to the corner store and dropping a quarter (and then getting change!) for their comics anymore. I see people now and they're dropping 32$ for like 6 or 7 books and then on top of that they're not kids anymore so the general motion of comics has moved away from younger audiences. Not just because comics didn't want to be seen as immature anymore but because the audience grew up and so did the social sub-culture. I mean... again, it's a very inside baseball conjecture on my behalf, but I think it's safe to assume comics are doing just fine for where they are right now.

There's never been a better time to be into comics. And I am including the Golden Age and Silver Age. Many professional comic reviewers and notorious collectors have called these last 4 years the Second Golden Age of Comics.

And I agree.
ANYWAYS :offtopic

My true concern with teleporting is... will Kurt come back a stronger teleporter after this? Would be nice to have some revised stats for some Marvel games, LOL!
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

:( Oh no, dum dum dum...the thing every poet most fears...the ever-daunting reality check. Hmmm, well let's see if I can conjure any sense out of that stream-of-consciousness post.
Wahnsinn wrote:One of these days, I'll be able to decipher your most poetic posts. Today is not one of those days. I is a wee bit confuzzled


Who me? Uh oh :oops All right Wahnsinn did you wake up on the logical side of the bed today? Or did I not even wake-up? Let's see...
Wahnsinn wrote:ell, you have to remember that it's possible to lose a single sense. Each thing labeled a sense has its own sensor(s).
Yes, true, but if you peel off the labels, open all the canisters and heap them on a table would anybody be able to definitively sort the infinite array of dynamic strands into whole self-sustaining 'things'...no way!
Psychology is forever trying to make divisions, make laws and answers for the indivisible ether mystery of consciousness. It used to be fact that the brain's functions could be split in half. Right side and left side. People were actually labeled "right" or "left" depending on their tendencies...now, the whole thing has been 'debunked' but most folks still adhere to this 'science' of the mind.

Life is synergy ebbing and flowing from one moment to the next. Sensory experience is also memory experience is also intuitive perception is also informed by belief, emotion, weather, physical conditions, climate etc. etc. and on and on. Sometimes we must close our eyes in order to truly see. We smell or listen for what's there and 'see' it when we 'know'. I actually think that sensory perception is more a function of outside than it is inside...i actually think that 'we' exist as part of collective 'experience' and that our 'self' perceptions are 'there' as 'motivators' to act...or (not)act - as it may be - in accordance with the collective whole. Our 'sixth' sense is actually our true sense and memory of 'being' both spiritually and corporeally cosmically entwined with all-creation.

Our skin...that wonderful organ...is permeable. That's astounding! It reaches out and in simultaneously whether we think it or not. We don't see or imagine we see how everything is one...we hear it, we smell it, we taste it...but we don't see it and therefore we condition both ourselves and one another to take out containers, make labels and warehouse the ether of existence as if we could possibly micromanage the infinite!

But we gotta eat. We gotta get to work and pay the bills. So we adhere. But ever in that adherence we are unbound.

Nope...i guess that's not any less confuzzeling...but in that there's reality! It IS mystery! Carl Jung once said "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." So we kindle...but the 'light' is not 'ours' only the 'kindling' is ours...the light is not what we make...it is what we sustain...and as we know...without the light...there is no darkness...for there is no contrast...

I am now utterly confused myself! I have accomplished nothing! But I'm pretty sure I'm on to something...onto something...which is the truest state of being...not here, not there...but 'onto'
Wahnsinn wrote: Empathetic kinesthesia sounds like the sense of being able to identify with or vicariously experience the physical movements and balance of another. Is that what you mean?
YES! In a way...
What I mean is that if you are able to 'transport' or 'teleport' another person...it doesn't just happen when you BAMF...but all the time!
You said this yourself...that breathing portal-ic light that IS Kurt - the way he is absorbed into shadow...like he is part shadow...meaning...he is part of the 'other' and 'all'
By way of empathy...his mood, cognition, awareness and perception is bouncing like a Judo-master's - that's why he's the guy who always 'appears' when one of the teammates is in emotional distress...
The world is shifting never stable...when he 'ports he can't just go to where 'a place was' he must go to where it 'will be' - THUS, when he transports another - he must not transport just who he is touching...but the touch itself, and the fragment of an instant that is the current of time! How could he do this? How? Empathetic Kinesthesia! Right?
Wahnsinn wrote:Nah, that's just the group that's come to power in such a way that they could reinforce their idea of it into the modern era. That proclamation is probably as old as religion itself. We're an egotistic sort.
Really? That phrase isn't very old. I don't think most religions even had an 'image' of 'one true' God. Egoism is just a philosophy...just another religion...maybe even a product of that proclamation.
Wahnsinn wrote: The funny part is that he's also, in a way, part of the problem. If it weren't for his outward mutation, he'd be a white dude, as has been shown in a couple stories. That's what the circus audience assumed him to be under his nonexistent costume during his time as an acrobat. When he used to run around with an image inducer, he made himself look like a white dude. He could have been any race, but he went with the one he would've been if he hadn't been born blue.
I don't buy it Wahnsinn. He made himself look like Errol Flynn because he was a kid...and that was his hero...and because the girl he wanted to date Amanda was white...i don't think he used the image inducer to do anything but try and be 'cool' and 'to fit in.' He had an isolated life, never walked down a street, let alone a New York City street freely.

Kurt is a race unto himself. We all are really. Ethnicity washes out upstream and downstream. I'm actually surprised you'd even argue that Kurt in any way contributes to the problem. More than any character, it's Kurt, who embodies the struggle to find accord, bridge gaps and sustain hope through the most difficult and impossible conflicts.
Wahnsinn wrote:Yes, but how do we eliminate those stereotypes? How many writers can do authentic versions of every culture? I can't really fault white male American writers for wanting to write white male Americans most of the time. It's the one thing they know they can do without offending anyone. The same is true for any other race-gender-nationality combo. In these more sensitive days, there's always that fear of turning a character who isn't like you into an offensive stereotype. It doesn't help any when the classic depiction of a character you've been hired to write is built on stereotypes. Nightcrawler's background has enough of them: the Frankenstein-era torch-wielding mob, an adopted mother who's a gypsy sorceress working at a circus, etc. Avoiding stereotypes is a challenging thing in a medium that's so heavily entrenched in its own stereotype-laden history.
Very well put Wahnsinn. You certainly have helped me confront my own failures in handling this conundrum. Every writer has to step back and look at what they're doing. In the thick of things it's hard not to do what Kurt did with his image inducer - it's hard not to click a button and veil oneself in the most comfortable armor - it's that damn ego! ;)
One of the things about your writing that I really admire is the way you bring a fresh perspective to the x family by bringing in an 'outsider' and having the reader experience her unbiased interactions with the 'team.' Of course, I especially like that it's Kurt who understands her feelings - empathizes with the 'outsider' and patiently provides her an unconditional safe harbor in which to settle and simply 'be' (in fact) he's the first person ever to do this for her...and I love that! That to me is who Kurt is and why I just don't buy that he's part of the problem

Over on the CBR forum site there are sooooo many Nightcrawler haters that obsess about him being a sexist, misogynistic externalization of Claremont's 'knight in shining armor' philanderer - an irrepressible flirt with a prehensile penis - blah, blah, blah...

Yea sure, he's a flirt...but who isn't in the X-books? Everybody is! It's part of the deal... and to me, Kurt has actually been one of most harmless, playful and dare I say 'gentlemanly' participates in sexually charged soap opera.
Anybody who care to should head over to the CBR site and take a look. I had no idea anybody could 'hate' Kurt so much. But be prepared, don't waste too much time, most of the stuff posted is just misplaced hate, apathy and venom...smart as it may appear, it's mostly just hurtful diatribes...and it actually is depressing...and sad...
sungila wrote:Right now, American comics need to do something to stay alive. There aren't enough of us buying them, and the numbers make it look like there are fewer of us every month
:(

It's true. I do think the best way to support comic books is to head down to your nearest comic shop and start a folder - hopefully with a young'in. The other day a kid walked by me with a Spider-Man winter cap. I asked him if he was excited about Peter Parker coming back and he gave me a blank look and I immediately understood...ah ha, it's the movie...or the cartoon...not the comic...
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

BRAVO! :D

sungila wrote:There's never been a better time to be into comics. And I am including the Golden Age and Silver Age. Many professional comic reviewers and notorious collectors have called these last 4 years the Second Golden Age of Comics.

And I agree.
Ult_Sm86 wrote:My true concern with teleporting is... will Kurt come back a stronger teleporter after this?
Jaunting out of death would suggest stronger teleporting prowess :)
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Wahnsinn »

Ult_Sm86 wrote:That's a very pessimistic and honestly, rather baseless assumption. Posted numbers from Diamond aside (which is never the best estimate as anyone in Marvel/DC/Image constantly say online), there is a professed knowledge in this debate that we don't actually have.
Pessimistic? Try realistic. We fans have to look at the evidence we have, limited though it may be. I don't give a furry rat's butt about the PR machine because it will never tell us anything but what it wants us to hear, and it sure as heck doesn't want us to hear anything negative.

Overall direct sales today are no better than they were in 1999. Remember also that the numbers we see are how many copies are shipped to retailers and not the number retailers manage to unload onto customers. Event titles, which typically sell the best, often did not sell through at the shops I frequented. It's disturbing to me how many copies of two-month-old books are still on the shelves when I've returned for visits over the years, particularly because I know these people struggle to break even much of the time. The industry isn't, and hasn't been, healthy for years. That's the impression I get from every shop I've visited, and those are the people best able to make an assessment. It's an industry selling 300,000 units, on an extremely good day with a pile of variants, to a population of 317,000,000. For sales like that, you're usually looking at single customers buying multiple issues. Comic buyers are a tiny, aging minority.

You mention everything but comics when citing what keeps comics afloat. I don't know about DC, but I can tell you for a fact that Marvel titles that do not pay for themselves are canceled. This is something I've seen people inside the company say in public. With the exception of adaptations and the kids line, titles that drop below 20k on Diamond's reported sales get relaunched ('cause that's their thing now) or canceled. So, how much do we really think digital sales are helping here when a it's that easy to rely on the print sale numbers from one region to determine whether a book will be allowed to continue?
Yes, I think it's a safe assumption that more of us could and should be buying... but their prices prevent an easy-to-go-to access but keep in mind kids aren't going to the corner store and dropping a quarter (and then getting change!) for their comics anymore.

True, and it doesn't help that comics are no longer sold at the corner store. My husband and I drop a ridiculous amount of money on comics monthly. Luckily, we can afford it. I wouldn't have been able to get into the hobby if prices in 1995 were what they are today. What kid wants to burn their $20 on five comics that will net them an hour or so of entertainment when they could spend the same amount on a game, a couple movies, or a novel that will get them 6+ hours? :X

This is our "New Golden Age"? Batman sold nearly 900k in 1966 and is currently barely hanging on above 100k after a reboot. Excuse me for finding that somewhat depressing. One can talk about how great today's comics are all day long, but that's not going to matter if they don't sell. I wish things were better than they are, but I see no value in pretending. I love the format and want to see it thrive. That won't happen if we fans stick our heads in the sand.
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sungila wrote::( Oh no, dum dum dum...the thing every poet most fears...the ever-daunting reality check. Hmmm, well let's see if I can conjure any sense out of that stream-of-consciousness post.
I kinda got famous for them among my friends. ;)
Yes, true, but if you peel off the labels, open all the canisters and heap them on a table would anybody be able to definitively sort the infinite array of dynamic strands into whole self-sustaining 'things'...no way!
Oh, this is pure neurology. We keep figuring out how the senses work, and that they're far more detailed than we thought. Itch and pain, for example, were thought to be part of the sense of touch. They aren't. They have their own sensors. A little bit of sideways wiring gets stuff mixed up and can cause synesthesia. A person with that may see red when they hear the note A, for example.
I actually think that sensory perception is more a function of outside than it is inside...i actually think that 'we' exist as part of collective 'experience' and that our 'self' perceptions are 'there' as 'motivators' to act...or (not)act - as it may be - in accordance with the collective whole. Our 'sixth' sense is actually our true sense and memory of 'being' both spiritually and corporeally cosmically entwined with all-creation.
Well, sensory perception does require something to perceive; after all, you can't know what apples taste like without ever having tasted one. In that way, I see where you're coming from with tying it into memory and calling it "a function of outside." I don't really do the collective consciousness thing because it seems, to me, too much like us anthropomorphizing the universe to make it like us. That's not to say humans are the only things with consciousness, but we do like to project our image onto other things. On the idea of being connected to the universe, though, I'm totally with you. We are flecks of paint on that glorious canvas. :)
Our skin...that wonderful organ...is permeable. That's astounding!
It's not so surprising that our skin is permeable. We, like everything else, are mostly empty space. That's the crazy thing: things look solid when they aren't. We see so very little of what is because of our sensory limitations, but those limitations probably help keep us sane. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to see every color, smell every smell, or hear every sound. It would be incredibly overwhelming. :shocked
I am now utterly confused myself! I have accomplished nothing! But I'm pretty sure I'm on to something...onto something...which is the truest state of being...not here, not there...but 'onto'

Or maybe we think too much? :D
YES! In a way...
What I mean is that if you are able to 'transport' or 'teleport' another person...it doesn't just happen when you BAMF...but all the time!
You said this yourself...that breathing portal-ic light that IS Kurt - the way he is absorbed into shadow...like he is part shadow...meaning...he is part of the 'other' and 'all'
I don't think I quite said that. It's not that he is the portal but that he's surrounded by the portal. It bends the light that tries to reach him, leaving him permanently cast in darkness. My, that sounds bleak, doesn't it? See, you're so much better at the poetic language.
The world is shifting never stable...when he 'ports he can't just go to where 'a place was' he must go to where it 'will be' - THUS, when he transports another - he must not transport just who he is touching...but the touch itself, and the fragment of an instant that is the current of time! How could he do this? How? Empathetic Kinesthesia! Right?
Nah, bad comic book physics. :toothy
I don't think empathetic kinesthesia would do that because it doesn't really apply to location so much as bodily awareness, so it wouldn't extend beyond him understanding the movements of his passenger. Time still passes, but he travels really fast. Actually, it might be better to say the portal--fun t-shirt alert!--greatly shortens the distance because he maintains his momentum. If teleporting sped him through the Brimstone Dimension, he'd have to exit faster than he entered unless there's some kind of automatic slowing property and sustain massive amounts of bodily damage on the way unless he has a mutation to withstand it. Obviously, his passengers wouldn't have such a mutation, so it'd be less a way to transport people than to kill them. (I am vastly over-thinking this, aren't I?)
Really? That phrase isn't very old. I don't think most religions even had an 'image' of 'one true' God. Egoism is just a philosophy...just another religion...maybe even a product of that proclamation.
Unless 4000 years isn't very old, we're dealing with different ideas of old. ;)
The idea contained in Genesis 1:27 is probably older than the culture that wrote it down. Granted, that was written in Hebrew, but it's precisely where the biggest religions in the world today get the idea. There were also the ancient Egyptians for whom the pharaoh was a son of Ra on Earth until Akhenaten came along and set up monotheism under the Aten sometime around 1353 BCE. A number of old cultures viewed their rulers as representatives or descendants of their gods. The idea of humans being reflective of gods is likely as old as written history, if not older. I'd say the wording is backwards to make us feel special.
I don't buy it Wahnsinn. He made himself look like Errol Flynn because he was a kid...and that was his hero...and because the girl he wanted to date Amanda was white...i don't think he used the image inducer to do anything but try and be 'cool' and 'to fit in.' He had an isolated life, never walked down a street, let alone a New York City street freely.
Exactly. He chose the image that would make him fit in with the dominant group. It's totally understandable because who would want to face a bunch of appearance-based difficulties when given the choice to take the easy road? It also made him easier to write. If he'd been, say, Vietnamese and chose to look it, his experience would have been much different. His background would also have been considerably different. It would have been much more work for white dudes to write than a European.
Kurt is a race unto himself. We all are really. Ethnicity washes out upstream and downstream. I'm actually surprised you'd even argue that Kurt in any way contributes to the problem. More than any character, it's Kurt, who embodies the struggle to find accord, bridge gaps and sustain hope through the most difficult and impossible conflicts.
Yes, after he ditched the image inducer. That was a refreshing change, seeing him be himself and be comfortable with it. It's one of his greatest strengths as a character. That's the kind of thing from which weirdos like myself can draw inspiration. That was a far better message than having him change his appearance completely to not only blend in with the "normals" but to blend in with the most privileged group.
One of the things about your writing that I really admire is the way you bring a fresh perspective to the x family by bringing in an 'outsider' and having the reader experience her unbiased interactions with the 'team.' Of course, I especially like that it's Kurt who understands her feelings - empathizes with the 'outsider' and patiently provides her an unconditional safe harbor in which to settle and simply 'be' (in fact) he's the first person ever to do this for her...and I love that! That to me is who Kurt is and why I just don't buy that he's part of the problem
Aw, thanks! ^_^
I don't think he was ever a big, obvious part of the problem. That sits more on a subliminal level when delving deep into the issues of race in comics. His positive qualities are what really take center stage. He's all heart, and in a world like that, somebody needs to be.
Over on the CBR forum site there are sooooo many Nightcrawler haters that obsess about him being a sexist, misogynistic externalization of Claremont's 'knight in shining armor' philanderer - an irrepressible flirt with a prehensile penis - blah, blah, blah...
Prehensile penis? :naughty
The internet can be such a grumpy place. Of course, some of those people might be trolling fans like ourselves, but some of them are probably serious. They may well even have some valid points, but why focus on all the flaws? I, like you, think Kurt is a positive character overall.
It's true. I do think the best way to support comic books is to head down to your nearest comic shop and start a folder - hopefully with a young'in. The other day a kid walked by me with a Spider-Man winter cap. I asked him if he was excited about Peter Parker coming back and he gave me a blank look and I immediately understood...ah ha, it's the movie...or the cartoon...not the comic...
Y'know, I sometimes think about when I'll let my incubating son read today's comics. Because the general audience has aged, mainstream comics aren't as kid-friendly as they used to be. The vocabulary of older comics could sometimes be a little advanced (not that that's a bad thing), but the content was usually something you wouldn't feel uncomfortable handing to a 10-year-old. Some of the stuff put out in the last several years might give a kid that age nightmares.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

So, how much do we really think digital sales are helping here when a it's that easy to rely on the print sale numbers from one region to determine whether a book will be allowed to continue?
Please don't tell me you're blaming digital comics. Digital comics might be one of the best things to ever happen to comics.
Mark Waid's Thrillbent digital comics line is revolutionary.

Mark Waid went from being one of the loudest voices in the room against digital to fully embracing it because he knew it wasn't going to hurt the industry.

And I see your points and I realize you have your valid experiences for feeling the way you do about the things you say but... I can't help but think you're not being realistic you're still being pessimistic. Rather than say "but thankfully the industry is trying to grow and expand, keep up with the technology while keeping in print -- and their most successful books don't sell the same number but then again it's NOT the 70's --"... you say instead ... well everything you said.

I guess I gotta point out the times they are a-changin' and we are at a point where I feel using the standards of the 60's and 70's for comics sales in comparison to modern sales is outdated and results in people screaming for more of the stuff from their back-issues...

It's sorta like teleporting back to the past. All you're doing is making it harder to live through the present. Why not look to the future?
Image

Also...
Prehensile penis? :naughty
The internet can be such a grumpy place. Of course, some of those people might be trolling fans like ourselves, but some of them are probably serious. They may well even have some valid points, but why focus on all the flaws? I, like you, think Kurt is a positive character overall.
Wasn't that something Chuck Austen made a joke about here?! I would need some of the older people to reconfirm... It was probably in conversation with Bamfette.
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by Angelique »

sungila wrote:It's sad really. The whole X saga is about confronting hate, prejudice and the societal virus of bigotry; yet...the X books themselves have done so little in curing this ailment.

When I think about the vanity and ill-wrought legacy, despite and maybe even because of the 'good' intentions that seek to break this inexorable bane it makes me frustrated.
Especially the horrible treatment of indigenous characters! Claremont has been a bigtime offender in this area, just like that movie Avatar - he set out to break the mold and do something good...but wound up just reinforcing the same ol' Pocahontas, 'crying Indian', noble savage thing. Dani Moonstar, Forge, Naze, Jame Proudstar... ugh! Just bad!
Actually, the big reason John Proudstar was killed off was because Claremont could not- at the time- research the character and his Apache heritage enough to do him justice. He proceded with Forge, Dani Moonstar, etc., when he felt he could do a better job with them.There are a few other areas that were problematic that I attribute more to Len Wein's writing- ie, representing the overwhelmingly monotheist population of Kenya as practicing a very neo-pagan sort of religion that would accept Storm as a goddess. Claremont, in my opinion, did a little bit to fix that by making up a tribe or two that happened to be isolated from Christian, Muslim, and even montheistic animist traditions. As for representing rural Bavarians as superstitious, torch-wielding xenophobes, the original mob scene in Giant Size X-Men 1 was meant to be a tribute to the old Universal monster movies rather than representative of German people.

At any rate, it was all a whole lot better than the old lineup of four white, vaguely and blandly Protestant guys and a token girl.
sungila
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

So there I was offering a perfectly innocent philosophical non-topic topic that was whimsically wafting through my tiny little cloud of a mind - more a feeling than an idea... a good feeling that could be called...restoration. By way of teleportation...um, like Kurt giving me a eulogy and then BAMF landing me in a better and new place.

Then...I don't know what happened. I sorta did for a little while...but now I'm pretty sure I'm in an alternate universe and that some crosstime version of myself is where I was and I'm where he was...and started acting like him before realizing I'm me...

see what you guys did?

It's good though. I like this sort of challenge - it makes for an adventure.

Wahnsinn...I believe you have superhuman powers... I can't be sure what they are... but whatever you did to my brain, is not generally humanly possible. Maybe I'll thank you later - but first I have to recalibrate and see if I can walk a relatively straight line... or snap my fingers and WAKE UP! Maybe click my heels....nope...I'm still wonky...

UltSpidey! It wouldn't surprise me if Chuck Austen made that joke! That scallywag!

I don't want to talk about digital comics. I'm abstaining. I'm not gonna say anything. I got nothing to say about them.
Well one thing, this comic by my friend Josh Flanagan was awesome! http://www.jaflanagan.com/comic-book-work/career-move/

My opinion on that doesn't even count...i don't own an ipod, a tablet, a kindle or any of that...I just got my first laptop (and it's pretty cool - i admit)
but i actually run with a discman... and I'm pretty sure people think I'm a displaced time traveler from a bygone century... it does turn heads...so, I'm not agianst technology...I just tend to lag way behind it. If it ain't broke right?

Now where the heck am I?

Oh hey Angelique:
At any rate, it was all a whole lot better than the old lineup of four white, vaguely and blandly Protestant guys and a token girl.

You always bring incredible new insights. And yes, the new X-Men changed everything. Things did get a little better after the original Proudstar...but to be honest, maybe Claremont shouldn't have tried so hard. When I was a kid I loved Forge. I thought he was great, Dani Moonstar too...even Shaman from Alpha Flight... I think the Demon Bear Saga was my favorite thing for five years!


But I've lived a lot since then, I've made and continue to make lots of mistakes.
Now, I have a lot of indigenous friends, I've studied native cultures in college, I've worked and lived with native communities and I'm extra sensitive to how they're portrayed in media. Shit, my name is Lakota - it wasn't when I was kid - but it is now, and I guess I have a responsibility to the people that gave me that name and share their lives with me.
It's like this...Claremont and other writers sort of take the 'Indian' stereotype 'enhance' it and call it a superpower. They're always shouting 'Hokahey!" and staging totally bizarre 'Ghostdance' ceremonies...or, of course, talking with animals - calling people 'White Eyes' and you know. For what it's worth...Warpath and Dani Moonstar have grown up a lot and for many of my American Indian friends they're all-time favorites...but they remain merely the best of a mainstream with no good options.
It's such a hard thing to do. I think Claremont deserves a lot of credit for trying...for REALLY trying...absolutely we all need to do a better job at jaunting beyond stereotypes - it's something that seems so hard to fix. But there are people doing it! You know, the Indigenous Arts community actually spends a lot of time on this topic. It MATTERS to them. Here's a few links to some of what they're doing and speaking to:
http://indigenousnarrativescollective.com/
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/
THIS IS A MUST SEE:
http://www.visualnews.com/2013/07/16/co ... ional-art/
Last edited by sungila on Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sungila
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Re: Restoration Teleportation

Post by sungila »

PS: what exactly is a 'troll'

do they live in caves and occasionally eat their own?
what are they doing on web forums?


do i need to defend myself?

are they here now :surprise
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