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| Even though I've only had it for a year, I'm officially abandoning this Xanga.
I don't use it anymore and I just don't care.
For now, just go to my new blog: http://lunaticlovers.blogspot.com
See ya.
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| Okay, BFFT has been started: http://badfanfictheater.blogspot.com
Now, the review I promised:
As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan
A review by Millionaire Waltz
1 star
Do you fear for the future of our planet? Did you tear up while watching An Inconvinent Truth? Do you take every tip to conserve energy and resources to heart? Well, if you answered yes to all three of those questions, then I have just the book for you!
As the World Burns (from here on, AtWB), is a graphic novel. And not just any graphic novel. Oh no. This is a graphic novel filled with crazy. Not "lol random" crazy. It's "Jesus shit, what the fuck is wrong with these people?" crazy.
"But, Millionaire!" you ask "Aren't you worried about the fate of our planet? What's wrong with learning how to stop global warming?"
There's nothing wrong with learning how to conserve energy or how to use less resources. There is something wrong, however, when you feel that the only way to stop pollution once and for all is to completely dismantle society as we know it and go back to being hunter-gatherers.
Yes, you heard me, folks. That is exactly what Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan believe. That if we completely destroy civilization and start over from scratch, the world's pollution will go down and all will be sunshine and rainbow farts. But, then, this is a book review and not the start to a debate.
AtWB is a story about two young ladies, Kranti and Bananabelle. Our heroines are very much into saving the earth. However, they have different ideas of how to do so. Bananabelle will listen to any tip on how to conserve and preserve. She likes to spread the news to Kranti and Bunnista, a one-eyed rabbit. But, Kranti and Bunnista have other ideas.
See, Kranti, Bunnista, and Bananabelle are characters from Stephanie McMillan's daily comic strip "Minimum Security". MS is basically AtWB Lite, with McMillan spouting off her radical views with cutesy (read: badly-drawn) cartoon characters. Kranti is basically McMillan's Mary Sue self-insertion, with Bunnista as an extension. Everyone else is either the "unenlightened" masses or terrible, evil, big-corporation meanie-heads.
So, anyway, the plot isn't just about Kranti and Bunnista harassing Bananabelle for her "unenlightened" views. It also has aliens. See, the aliens want to consume all living things on Earth. They plan to do this by giving the world's leaders their [the aliens'] waste product, gold. Since, you know, us capitalist pigs love gold oh-so-very much. The aliens manage to convince the President (who is absolutely nothing like Bush, no sir!) to allow them to eat the planet's inhabitants in exchange for gold, while two terrible capitalist poopy-heads try to scam the world into increasing their profits while the citizens of AMERIKKKA think they're saving the world. Oh, and there's a hippy who likes to talk to foxes.
So, as I mentioned, AtWB has some pretty radical views in it. Yes, so radical that we get four pages of animals telling our heroines what humanity should stop doing. It starts out reasonable, with things I can agree with. Things like stop building so many buildings and ruining the homes of wildlife and to stop exploiting animals and plants. Oh, and releasing toxic chemicals into the air and water.
But then, it goes into crazy territory. Some highlights:
-Tear down every single dam. You know, who cares about the people who live near rivers? They can drown! They're taking up resources anyway!
-Stop making drugs and motor oil. Yeah, because people with diseases don't need treatment!
-Stop industrial production entirely.
-Get rid of all pavement!
-Stop commercial fishing businesses, because people should fish for themselves.
-Stop the military from using toxic weapons and disband the militaries of the world.
-Stop stealing the land of the Native Americans, since they're one with nature and deserve it more than we greedy capitalists do.
-Oh, and things like art and literature and entertainment? We don't need that! They're just a product of our destructive society and we should abandon everything so we can live in harmony with nature, like our ancestors did.
Throughout the book, we also get examples of what our horrible, terrible civilization wants us to do, but won't mean shit in the future. Like use energy-saving lightbulbs or recycling. No, they just create more waste and the earth will be doomed anyway!
Oh, by the way, I mentioned stuff about McMillan, but nothing about Derrick Jensen, the other writer. Jensen has written books, such as A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe that are critical of today's society. I admit, I have not read his books before, and, after reading AtWB, I don't think I'd want to.
So, my verdict? Stay away from this book unless you need a laugh. It's preachy, with horrible artwork. The back cover says it's a satire, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was a satire of both capitalists and people like McMillan and Jensen.
Well, I admit, the book wasn't completely bad (hence the one star). The Bunny Terrorist Holding Camp was silly and I can get behind some views. However, I do not condone their belief that destroying everything will make the world right again. That is my biggest problem. It's very disturbing when people who want a safe, harmonious world for everyone also want to kill and destroy many people just so they can get that safe world.
By the way, the book costs $14.99 and wasn't printed on recycled paper.
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| Yeah, I've been busy lately, so I can't update as often (which, wasn't much, anyway).
Anyway, I have a new book review (I'll post it here later) and I'll be starting a new blog, Bad FanFiction Theater.
Check back soon!
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| Yeah, it's been a while. I keep forgetting to post a new entry or I'm too busy.
Anyhoo, I submitted my application to Penn State, so I'll hopefully be accepted. I also submitted an application to Borders.
uh...not much else.
Ja ne.
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| So, I haven't been to Veoh in a while.
For those who don't know, Veoh is a site like YouTube, only you can upload videos that are as long as you want.
Anyway, I decide to see what new horror movies the people on my subscription lists have uploaded. Imagine my surprise when it turns out almost all of them had to remove their videos. Why? Because people were threatening to close their accounts if they kept their movies online.
Now, the movies they uploaded aren't even new, like Saw (blech) or Hostel (bleh). They're older, more obscure movies from the 70s and 80s. So, why should anyone care? It's nearly impossible to find Bad Ronald or Mortuary on DVD these days. Not even Netflix has them! Why should we care if someone uploads a 30-year-old almost unknown movie for free on the internet!?
The people who threatened the users on Veoh sited the current writers' strike as a reason. But, those writers care more about their current projects. I doubt any one of them is going to care about a movie that they wrote 30 years ago that made almost no money and was only released on VHS in the 80s. The writers today want DVD and internet revenues. And by internet, I doubt they mean sites like Veoh and YouTube. They mean sites like the iTunes store.
Trying to find old horror movies online has become ridiculous. Now I have to search torrent sites just to see if some caring person uploaded Cheerleader Camp.
This is all fucking stupid.
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