Scipio

So last year, rather quietly, More4 showed Mark Cousins' documentary The Story of Film. It is probably one of the most complete, exhaustive and important studies on the history of film, and it's now out on dvd! (in the uk). It is seriously good, just fucking gorgeous to look at and with a narration crazily dense with information. It does a great job of making a cohesive whole out of the story, and in that, showing how under-represented aspects of the history of film are, like the actual beginnings of techniques like close ups or continuity editing, or that the beginnings of Hollywood (and all its first achievements) was pretty much dominated by women. If you are fucking remotely interested in film, try and get a copy. Soo, yeah. It's alright (getitbuyitgetitnowbuyit)

Is this the whole book? about 120 pages. It looks like you can get a pdf for free if it is. The site looks pretty legit.

I'lll leeve it upp their four prostaterity.

This is (partly) what I was saying! Do I really write that baldy I saw a small detail that I liked when watching some clips of the film on the youtubes, that I only noticed because I happened to randomly see the first clip about an hour before <40seconds in.In book talk, I've started A game of thrones, I had kind of hoped watching the television show would make it a bit quicker to read, but fucking hell there are soooo many names! It is silly.

I would argue that you do see this, you see the hundreds of marines get eaten up for a war that is only taking place to keep a system working. However, because Verhoeven is showing how fascism and fascist propaganda functions we have to want the troops to win, and he uses the techniques of propaganda to do so. There are moments when the film becomes overly goofy with its satire, primarily the news segments, these are there one because Verhoeven is a funny guy (and perhaps because after living with fascist propaganda he didn't want to make a deadly serious film, can't blame him for wanting to have some fun), and two, to allow us to compare them with the film as a whole.

It is good fun, but I would say that the more straight up satire, the obvious dialogue, the gore, is mostly there because Verhoeven is a goofy dude, and does like making fun films. However, the way in which it shows how a fascist state has to work on a technical level is fascinating, what contradictions they have to allow (say gender equality on some level), to provide a functioning system, or why fascism requires an enemy, and how much of it breaks down on meeting reality. (I have been told this is partly Heinlein, in that he actually had a fairly good understanding of his own ideology, tho Verhoeven sez he only read a quarter of the book before binning it.) The best stuff is in how it uses the style and construction of a propaganda film, right down to the hideously over lit world, without any of the story actually working in the same way as it. Comparing it to Why We Fight, or Trumps of the Will, is incredibly revealing. The interplay between the THIS IS SATIRE news clips and the actual narrative is part of this too, we laugh at the news saying 'their gonna fight-and win!' or whatever it is, because it's stupid, that's obviously propaganda, but when the characters in the film say that their going to win, with absolutely no evidence, why is that different? It's not, the whole thing is a construction. The film's gore comes into this, it very obviously introduces the idea of censorship in one of the news blasts, but relishes in blood and guts in other places, NPH calmly assault rifles the bug in a redonkulus jarring moment. Christ, this is such a fuckin brain dump, and I can't write for shit, and I haven't covered like a tenth of the stuff in the film. Starship Troopers is a pitch perfect examination of war propaganda by a guy who fucking knew it. I haven't seen 2 or 3, but looking at wiki Phil Tippett directed 2, who's worked with Verhoeven, maybe I'll check it out!

I finished Altered Carbon, I don't know if I got used to Agent Noir Hardboiled: Super Cop, as the main character, or it genuinely got better, but I sort of liked it in the end. Took a break in the middle of it to read Dubliners, christ i love short story collections. Got The Shock Doctrine and A Game of Thrones from the library today, and am eyeing them nervously. You are crazy, Verhoeven's Starship Troopers is excellent and fucking smart.

Can I get put on whatever list lets you build stuff? Mc name is ScipioAfro I had a poke around, are there any rules about building? Apart from don't ruin someone else's stuff can I just wander off into the wilderness and make a thing?

This is giving me methadone for my Thick of it addiction.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Scipio_Afro/ I've hoovered the thread, now I'm looking at screenshots. Also, is anyone playing European Escalation? is its worth making a thread for?

lUZ-e2SkeMI Yes, its a slow motion things happening video. BUT, it's not just people getting punched, they have actual cool things happening, and watching it in 1080 produces some straight up motherfucking beautiful images.

Has anyone managed to make decent use of the railway yet? It seem's like once you own all the needed provinces (because the ai never upgrades fast enough), you've sort of already won. Also, I've seen it appear on the battle screen a few times, does an actual train ever come along through the fight? CHOO CHOO.

Tristram Shandy is fantastic, and super fucking dirty!

Some other books in the same vain as this: Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things they don't tell you about Capitalism and Bad Samaritans David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism and The Enigma of Capital Andre Gunder Frank, ReORIENT Just finished Killing Hope, which if you ever want to get so angry and upset that you feel sick, is a great book! I'm currently reading Altered Carbon, and I'm sort of getting sick of the main character. It was recomended to me cos I love Iain M Banks, but man, I am fucking struggling. Has anyone finished and can say if it's worth pushing through?

There is so much happening in this, it's perfect.

Nothing doesn't have subtext, someone that has an interest in reading deeply is going to be able to read The Hunger Games and Invisible Cities and extract meaning out of both of them. Maybe it's taking it to far, but decades of critical thought is based on the fact that no text is dismissible, when you say your off to read '3,000 years of fiction ' your fucking covering your ears when Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari are talking to you.