Don't Even Ask

[the_gneech]

Work somehow manages to continue to get worse; I'm not going to talk about it more than that, tho, or I'll be ranting all night.

Instead, I'm going to talk about "Yu-Yu Hakusho," an anime series that Laurie received an episode of on CD-ROM with her most recent issue of "Cinescape." It's okay. Nothing really special from what I saw, but something struck me about it: it's almost the perfect adolescent male angst-trip -- which makes sense, given that's exactly who its target audience is.

Hero is a misunderstood kid in school, who disses authority, gets in fights a lot (but is so tough that he wins them all easily), makes lots of withering comments and gets in trouble a lot, but secretly has a heart of gold. When he's unexpectedly killed saving a kid who was about to be hit by a car, he's given the rare chance to undergo "an ordeal" to earn back his life. He isn't interested at first, but then he attends his own wake and discovers that all these people he thought hated him, actually loved him and are horribly saddened that he died, so he changes his mind. Thus, he's given all sorts of ghostly powers and sent off to fight against evil in the spirit world.

I had lots of fantasies along these lines when I was in high school; I imagine most of my friends did, too. It was interesting to look back at that from the distance of 15 years later. Adolescence is a mightily traumatizing thing to go through at the time, but all the troubles that bothered me so much then, seem like so many small potatoes now. I can only imagine what I'll be facing in the future to make my current difficulties seem trivial. Frankly, the idea scares me.

It's fascinating, tho, the inflation of life. It's sorta like D&D, where you start out ganging up on pesty goblins and end up slaying dragons and battling demigods ... small challenges give you the strength to take on slightly larger challenges, which then give you the strength to take on still larger challenges, and so on ... every victory has two important aspects: the culmination of your advancement so far, and setting the stage for what you'll do next.

Or, in the words of Machiavelli, "that which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger."

That's sorta how I look at the job situation right now, actually. It sure is making a strong bid for being "that which kills me," tho. Speaking of which, I need to get up at 3:45 a.m. to go in tomorrow. Guess I better go to bed, huh?

-The Gneech

Comments

[nekomimikun.livejournal.com]

The ironic thing is, the guy who created Yuu Yuu Hakusho abruptly ended the series and had a hiatus due to the intensive stress levels. Talk about struggles.
Anyway, Yuu Yuu Hakusho is shown on Saturday nights on Cartoon Network.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Heh. :) How very apropos! -TG

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

I saw the first episode and, like, the 4th episode on Cartoon network. I kinda like it. Out of the Saturday night line up of Adult Swim, I like that and Pilot candidate, even if I can't watch them on account of I'm gaming instead. -Frisk o

[nekomimikun.livejournal.com]

I like Pilot Candidate. Too bad you're missing it.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Don't have cable. Spokane Local Networks don't have good programming. VHS for me!

Or, in the words of Machiavelli, "that which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger."

Is that the source? I always thought it was the secret motto of the USMC.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

The quote is attributed to philosopher Fredrich Nietche, a fact of which our own Gneechie is very much aware.

Niccolo Machievelli, the person to whom he gave this attribution, is known to you, as you are a student of history. It is perhaps something he could have said -- although he would have been likely to substitute "the State" for "me".

For others, Machievelli was a proponent of governance by any means necessary, and his ideas of what were necessary are considered today to be very politically incorrect. He wrote extensively on this topic, and was the consultant to rulers of the time, particularly in Italy and France as I recall.

To this day, convoluted political intrigue is called "Machievellian", and this term has also been used to describe any twisted, evil scheme or plot. I suspect that The Gneech had this sense in mind, referring to his own troubles in the corporate world and elsewhere.

===|==============/ Level Head

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

L_H, not to be picky, but isn't the generally accepted spelling of the philosopher's name "Nietzsche"? I could be completely in error, but that is how it has stuck in *my* mind...

Maybe research is in order.

Re:

[level-head.livejournal.com]

You are correct, of course. Sloppy work on my part. And the spelling, of course, is germane. ;)

===|==============/ Level Head

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Haven't studied Niccolo much. I didn't enjoy my Ren-Ref prof very much, so I didn't work very hard in that class. He failed to challenge me, and I felt very patronized. The main grade in the class came from how well we could BS and piss each other off.

But from what I *DO* know, he wasn't a very nice guy.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Machiavelli, Nietzsche, whichever. :) They're not that different. ;) -TG

[spikedpunch.livejournal.com]

I saw Yu-Yu Hakusho some time ago thru one of my old anime subtitling underground connections. It was ok.

But if you want to talk about angst, look at Evangelion... yeesshh.....

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd much rather find some light-hearted but still cool action adventure... -TG

[tygermoonfoxx.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a piece of anime I would want to check out. I'm an anime collector and it's relatively rare to see something squarely aimed at the young males that's done seriously (ie: NOT Dragonball Z-ish, though I love the series). Thanks!