Casualty of War
This weekend saw a Battle Royale of epic proportions, I mean the stuff of legends, we’re talking Lord of the Rings the final assault on Minas Tirith. Okay, relatively small scale, but certainly no less emotion, and barely less carnage.
I’ve tried to remain objective (though some don’t want to let me be Switzerland), not as a matter of principle, but because a bold idea was proffered, and I thought it would be a tragic shame to lose hold of that idea just because it was framed in a harsh criticism of a film made by two women I absolutely adore. But as I learned with some of the old Allen Marshall battles back on Machinima.com, some people can strip away the ad hominem from both sides to get to the idea at the core… and some people cannot. And in fact, some people consider it a grave disloyalty to engage in verbal judo which deflects personal attacks as powerless and reveals … oh, I don’t know how the analogy works. It’s like distilling water from piss. Some people can appreciate the fact that distillation is a purification process which removes toxins and leaves behind pure water… and some people can’t get past the fact that “Hey, mofo, that was once piss!”
Sorry for the mixed metaphors, but today, the judo just wasn’t cutting it; apparently it wasn’t conceived with multiple opponents in mind. I didn’t expect a shoe to be flung at the back of my head… back there are where I thought I left my friends. Here I was, attempting to focus on the positives, to {metaphor switchback} extract the water from the piss, and apparently my doing so was, to some, akin to complimenting Hitler’s shoeshine.
So now I found myself in the awkward position of having to turn around and fight a friend. And so I did. And it sucks. It felt just like a “You can’t break up with me, because you know what, I’m breaking up with you!” moment, which feels just as icky and lame today as it did when I left high school sixteen years ago.
And I’m sure the flames will follow, as will more nasty blogs, maybe even ostracization from a little forum I really love, and if she works hard enough at drumming up sympathy, I might even end up losing more friends than just her over this. And that will be sad, and probably deserved, as I too stooped to engage in the pissing of motor oil… and we all know there’s little to no water in that.
But you know what casualty of this war I mourn for the most? The idea, the challenge put forth which was, in essence, “Ladies of machinima, let’s do better.” Better implies an object… but better than who? Us men, of course. Even a passing glance through the history of machinima shows a medium massively dominated by soldiers shooting aliens, soldiers shooting soldiers, soldiers making wisecracks and then shooting soldiers and or aliens, … That is our legacy, men. It’s what a cursory exam of the medium reveals to neophytes and press personnel, often to our chagrin. Is it ALL the films out there? NO. Are there really good films which involve soldiers and warfare? OMG, ABSOLUTELY! But are the predominant machinima themes (historically) essentially mindless ultraviolent cartoons? YES.
But things they are a changin’. Big time. I don’t even need to list examples; if you’ve paid any attention to machinima’s evolution in the past five years, you have your own list. One still has to do a bit of hunting to find the really compelling stuff - hell, even the really well made mindless ultraviolent cartoons aren’t an easy find. But the point is, things are evolving. Some of that evolution, no doubt about it in my mind, has to do with the greater and greater participation of women as machinima audience. As surely as conduct in the men’s locker room is quite different from that of those same boys out in the school halls where the girls are, the “ahem, there’s girls present, grow up a bit, dude” gene was in us back then and remains in us now. So that’s got to be part of it.
A huge part of it is the different material being created in machinima by the girls (women) themselves. As surely as little girls and little boys tend to gravitate toward different toys and different styles of play, big boys and big girls come at machinima with radically different starting points for their material.
Some of it, though, is just natural progression, the same one that the history of cinema itself went through over a hundred years ago. The more we do this stuff, the more possibilities we see, the more daring we get with our ideas, the more willing we are to tackle the unconventional.
Look at The Beatles. Look at the plastic Pop King stuff of 1965 and prior, and then listen to their evolution through Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s, The White Album, and culminating in Abbey Road. The longer they were at their craft, the more they experimented and let their sound and lyrics venture into new territory.
This progressive trend can be observed in most machinima makers who have been at it for some time, too. Look at Friedrich Kirshner, Britannica Dreams, Mu Productions, Strange Company, Binary Picture Show, JayDee… the list goes on and on. In the works of each of these filmmakers, there is a clearly discernable evolution taking place, not just in technical standards, but also in subject matter, in originality, in custom content, in standards as relates to copyrighted material, and in IDEAS.
The gadfly who has brought down the wrath of the machinima community: what, when we distill the water from the piss, was she calling for? She was expressing the desire for a decisive and revolutionary leap forward. The call was borne of impatience with the slow and natural curve of evolution (or its pendulum swing, if you will), and its water was carried in some stank-ass urine, no question about it. Never mind the complete and utter idiocy that followed, from her and her commenters and her detractors… and earlier today, me. Regardless, the IDEA of an X-Men kind of evolutionary leap is inspiring. And I find it tragic that we will very likely pass over the idea as the ravings of an insecure agenda-driven psycho bitch (a characterization I refuse to accept, btw).
To ignore the notion of separating the idea from the progenitor is the same as refusing to acknowledge that some of our most compelling philosophical ideas came from madmen. The babayaga blogger is not mad, by the way, she’s just unconcerned with who she offends. And isn’t it interesting how we celebrate these people with a gift for biting cruelty as heroes when they use their superpowers for our own causes, yet banish them like Frankenstein’s monster when they don’t?
As for the public stoning of someone who dares to assert that a component of piss is water… well, I’m all out of metaphors to account for that. I guess I didn’t think I was the only one around here who was really f’ing thirsty.
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Oh boy. The waters we sometimes find ourselves wading in sometimes is aboil.
I’m new to the medium, but have been playing a fairly aggressive game of catch up since I started clicking my way around my Vegas console and I was hoping to share some observations from a naive Sims2 Mach-er (there must be a better phrase) on my blog.
Here is what I have observed, nothing profound or of particular insight. But sometimes articulating the common establishes a shared starting point.
Machinima keeps itself in a cocoon by preserving the early triumphs as lasting triumphs, creating a cannon that should (at this early stage) be solluable and breachable. Something better will always be a click or a rendering delay away.
Directors and toilers aren’t buffered from criticism by material success or mass approval. The kindergartners can bully the sixth-graders. And the sixth-graders can rally in their cocoon and bully back. Not a good scenario when artistic temperments are in play.
So developed a perfect tempest when critic and creator met one another in a schoolyard.
It’s too early in this little world of Ours to start picking off or on the little guy or gal, cause we ain’t even in middle school yet.
Comment by todnyc28 — June 12, 2006 @ 1:52 pm
I am drawn to the tagline of your blog…
Comment by hathead — June 12, 2006 @ 7:15 pm
It really saddens me, Phil, that you think there’s a possibility (I’m assuming you’re either referring to the mprem/Machinima Talk forums, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) of ostracisation. from a forum you enjoy and that “she” would drum up sympathy. After reading your blog entry, Kheri’s response was “Overman, doesn’t know us very well, does he?”. Kheri offered an apology on the mprem comment thread and at the end of that comment, she even said it was “business as usual”. Nothing has changed, you are as welcome on our forum, as the day you joined. The exchange on mprem yesterday was unnecessary and it’s a pity that you both couldn’t have sorted out the difference of opinion in pms. I speak for both of us when I say that a difference of opinion isn’t going to get in the way of our friendship, no matter how bad it appeared
As for your entry today, I would like to respond. Babayaga’s comments were not “a harsh criticism of a film made by two women”, it was snide and unnecessary and the entry that followed, was riddled with personal attacks.Where was the critique, where was the constructive criticism? I don’t believe any constructive debate on the “challenge” her posts may or may not have brought forth, could have been discussed properly in that hostile and biased environment. If you truly want to debate the issues, why not start a discussion on a public forum?( which in my opinion is a far better place for it than a blog.).
“The gadfly who has brought down the wrath of the machinima community”, the response she got was hardly surprising. The fashion in which she was dishing it out, I’m surprised she couldn’t take it. Despite what she claimed, Dxvid or I are not in the habit of censoring or moderating anyone’s posts willy-nilly, she had the perfect opportunity to express her views on mprem and she instead decided to insult the forum. So, I’m not really sure where you’re coming from on this blog entry when you say the challenge of her posts are a “casualty of this war”. Kheri and I would have been more than happy to discuss the topic on mprem and still would. As for the “public stoning” that’s just nonsense. All I have to say to that, is I’d suggest you re-read her blog entries if they hadn’t been deleted or edited, if you want to read attacks akin to a public stoning.
Todd, are you suggesting Babayaga was bullied by Kheri and myself or the machinima community? If I’ve misinterpreted your comments as wishy washy or riding the fence, then I apologise, but the metaphors are lost on me.
Comment by Michelle — June 13, 2006 @ 12:49 am
Why is my name bolded?
Comment by Allen Marshall — June 13, 2006 @ 6:01 am
You are my friend, Overman, but I’m afraid I can’t go with our on the “she’s really got a good idea, but she
isn’t poilite about saying it” idea with babayaga’s blog. My interpretation is closer to Michelle’s. Yes, if you peel away the attitude, the judgements on people and work she knows nothing about, her hubris in implying she’s a liberated woman and women who make “romance porn’ are not, he notion that she is somehow an expert in women’s machinima, personal attack, innuendo, lack of respect for people in the machinima community, self-aggrandisment, you might just find the tiny kernal of an idea worth discussion. I invited her to do that and you read the result. I don’t think her motive was to raise the level of women’s machinima so much as it was to call attention to herself, point fingers, bully and insult. The only thing she was trying to raise was her own profile in the community.
I respect your opinion, Overman, but I just don’t agree with you on this topic at all.
Comment by gToon — June 13, 2006 @ 1:05 pm
I can’t believe you people are still on this - lol.
Look, you injured and insulted gatekeepers to the *entire* “community” you so preciously guard. You are all masters of analysis (especially you gToon you’re an exquisite genius). Every theory you have about my evil if not diabolical motivations or me is 100% true and exactly as you describe it. You’re all keen observers of human nature, expertly sensible and wise in your appraisal of me and just about anyone else who has ever insulted you directly or indirectly (and has now earned a ‘bolded’ name - lol). Every single injured party here can claim the absolute moral high ground in this kafuffle, not only now but also in perpetuity… except me of course. I am dirt.
Now, can Overman’s blog return to its usual programming? I was just starting to get acquainted with his writings on the subject of machinima. Tks.
Comment by babayaga — June 13, 2006 @ 2:49 pm
You see what I mean, Phil? This is a person you feel is trying to “elevate” machinima artistry while reviling those who disagree with her?
As for you, Babs, I won’t continue our love dance here because this is Overman’s blog and, unlike you, I respect my friends. But if you’d care to come on over and post to mprem.com I’ll be happy to give you all you can handle. Remember, dear, “Elaborate or Forfeit -that’s how it works”.
Comment by gToon — June 13, 2006 @ 6:04 pm
I invited you to “elaborate or forfeit” with regards to discussing the *topic* of women & machinima. You couldn’t do it. All you wanted to do is what you’ve done here (drone on endlessly with moral indignation about how I’ve so ‘victimized’ you and your friends) and believe it or not, that’s not the topic. I get it, me = horrible reviler. That warrants no response from me, here or anywhere else.
Now, if you don’t stop repeatedly making threats about “giving me all I can handle” and other such posturing nonsense, I’m going to seriously think you’ve developed an obsession with me.
Comment by babayaga — June 13, 2006 @ 9:18 pm
http://www.mprem.com
Comment by gToon — June 14, 2006 @ 1:37 am
Allen, the bolded name is an artifact of my writing process; on long posts, I mark names / phrases in bold which I want to turn into links while I’m writing, and then go back and enter / look up the links all at once. But then I remembered you’d stopped bloggin, you crazy foo! So I just left you bolded.
I also use bold for emphasis occasionally, but prefer to link for emphasis rather than bold when possible. I’m an Everything2.com fan.
Thanks, everyone, for your honest replies. I’d want nothing less from you, whether we agree today or disagree.
Comment by overman — June 14, 2006 @ 3:27 pm
Ohhh, ok. Suppose I should call off the hitman before he gets on the plane.
Comment by Allen Marshall — June 15, 2006 @ 10:34 pm