[Hi guys I guess it has been a tiny little HOLY SHIT THOSE LAST TWO POSTS WERE IN MARCH??!!!?!?!?!?! I’m so sorry I was sure it was June at the latest… anyway here are 2k+ words about my anxiety meds, including some slight NSFW/TMI information. Have fun.]
Day I
I went by the pharmacy on the way home from the psychiatrist and picked up my escitalopram (aka Cipralex aka Lexapro): twenty-eight tiny pills, each containing 10 mg escitalopram oxalate. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that at least regarding their contents, they were also vegan – no lactose. (Strictly speaking, no medication is vegan, since animal testing is to be expected, and I’d grudgingly make an exception even for lactose-containing medication for lack of alternatives, but I’m still glad it’s not necessary.)
Mad Max Fury Road is full of names: weird, inventive, evocative names. But it also uses them brilliantly. There’s so much information packed into what names are spoken, when and how.
Names and titles are a
classic way of revealing hierarchy. Joe is named repeatedly, and each time it
shows his relationship with the person naming him. Nux’s “Immortan! Immortan
Joe!” is all about his godlike status. The Organic Mechanic’s “Joe” is deliberately
casual, not actively disrespectful but certainly not worshipful.
Then there’s
the ongoing tension in what Joe calls Angharad: “Splendid” most of the time,
reverting to her proper name at moments of stress, when he really needs her to
listen. In the canyon scene, he goes from “Splendid, that’s my child, my property” when he’s trying to rebuke her to “Angharad! Get out!” when he realises she’s at risk of hitting the rock. It’s implied that she rejects “Splendid” – certainly the other wives
only ever call her Angharad. (More generally, the wives use each other’s names simply, to get each other’s attention: I don’t get any sense of hierarchy from it.)
On screen, Furiosa explicitly uses names to form connections. When she asks for
Max’s name, it’s a deliberate attempt to achieve emotional engagement, because
she needs him on side. And it’s rare for her: not only does she not name the wives, she doesn’t use the war rig crew’s names,
either. In a movie that keeps its dialogue sparse, every word counts – and every omitted word counts, too.
Within the Citadel hierarchy,
war boys don’t get named by anyone but each other. “I’ve got a war boy, running
on empty,” says the Organic Mechanic. An imperator later uses exactly the
same phrasing to introduce Nux to Joe: “I’ve got a war boy, says he
was on the war rig”. It suggests that, from the top of the Citadel hierarchy,
war boys are seen as interchangeable.
One describes Nux as if he were a machine; the other – “says he was on the war rig” – implies his lower status, framing his evidence as hearsay.
It’s clearly a huge honour for Joe to ask
Nux his name. It’s also the only time we see a Citadel full-life acknowledge a
war boy’s name.
War boys in this film
are both abusers and victims – terribly fragile, desperate for attention from
the powerful class that exploits and uses them, not questioning its
values. They go unnamed by their superiors, but they name each other as
often as possible: “Morsov!” “Slit, what’s happening?” Though Nux shouts “Crew,
out of the way!” at Ace – maybe they don’t know names beyond their own crews,
or maybe he just doesn’t recognise Ace from behind.
They use names to
encourage each other. Just look at the way they all shout Morsov’s name before
witnessing him. “Witness me” is a plea for affirmation: see what I’m
doing, make it mean something. Witnessing is an act of performative masculinity – I liked @bookishandi‘s post on witnessing Nux’s death. But it’s also framed as an act of mutual support
(which I think is why it’s taken off so much in fandom). Morsov’s death – which is really the viewer’s
introduction to “witnessing” as a concept – is part of a scene that shows
us the war rig crew working smoothly together.
The exception is Slit,
who tries to undermine his colleagues instead, shouting “Mediocre,
Morsov!” rather than “witness”, or telling Nux that Joe wasn’t looking at
him, “He was scanning the horizon”. And of course Slit is the most
insecure of the lot, begging for any scrap of attention: “I got the
blood bag’s boot! Take me, I got his boot!”
Imperators, and others
from the Citadel’s powerful classes, are clearly known by their names. “Furiosa,
she took a lot of stuff from Immortan Joe”, for instance. There’s no sense that
war boys give this recognition to anyone not at the top of that hierarchy. The war boy who
tells Nux about Furiosa talks about the wives as things
– “stuff”, “prize breeders”. Nux’s own reaction to the wives
– “so shiny, so chrome” – sees them as objects rather than people. And of
course he goes on calling Max “blood bag”, even when he thinks they’re on
the same side. It’s not a conscoius insult; it clearly doesn’t occur to him that Max
might mind – any more than Nux minded the way the Organic Mechanic or the imperator talked about him.
Then there’s the scene when Furiosa greets the Vuvalini. Here’s what she says:
“I am one of the Vuvalini, the Many
Mothers. My initiate mother was K.T. Concannon. I am the daughter of Mary
Jobassa. My clan was Swaddle Dog.”
This is a speech proving her identity, but how she does it is so revealing. She doesn’t
use her own name at all. Instead, it’s all about a web of relationships, of
connections, the ways in which she belongs. (She’s also proving that she belongs by demonstrating knowledge of Vuvalini society.) She lists her initiate mother
before her birth mother – her place in the community before her lineage. Her
tenses are interesting, too. Her clan was
Swaddle Dog – she’s left, the clan may no longer exist, she’s talking about the
past. But when she talks about being Vuvalini, it’s “I am”. Even though she’s asking for recognition, it
has none of the war boys’ neediness – she’s naming what she is, how she chooses
to see herself. She’s not seeking approval or affirmation.
And though the
Vuvalini team work is smooth, they do it without shouting
names – to the point where most of the Vuvalini characters don’t have names at
all (which is very unhelpful for fandom, George). Citadel naming is intensely
hierarchical, about who does, and doesn’t, get respect. Vuvalini naming is
about community, identities built up through choices and relationships.
Of course, the film’s most powerful naming scene has nothing to do with the Citadel or the Vuvalini: it’s Max telling Furiosa his name. (OH MY HEART.) It’s the conclusion of Max’s emotional arc, his return to being a human being: accepting a name, accepting his own identity. Crucially, he accepts it by sharing it. Throughout the film, names are meaningful because they’re how people connect with each other. In the “My name is Max” scene, we see Max choosing to do that. Engage to heal.
seebs is wandering around with a tiny syringe of insulin, looking for molly. she’s started hiding at cat-stab o’clock because she knows what’s coming. if i could talk to a cat for thirty seconds i would explain that the needle stickins are saving her precious wee life. poor button, she just doesn’t know.
Image of Seebs, according to Catte Authorities.
more like
friendly, but not to be trusted due to enthusiasm and pointiness
…make treat time?
treats many treats many pets at stab o’clock, then stealthy stab then more treats?
i believe this is the plan, but apparently hiding in kiddo’s room is more fun than treats.
Make pretend stab time where treats and visible syringe, and then sometimes also stab? (Not *too* promising with fixed stabbing time, I guess, but it might help some anyway.) Look into medical training using a cooperation signal? I know there’s lots of training videos for dogs on Youtube that should also work with cats (and do work on eg tigers in zoos).
Long story fucking short, my best friend and I have been discussing representation of women & men as good friends in media with nothing romantic. Whereas they are just friends, no sexual tension, & don’t end up dating.
So far we have:
Olivia & Elliot from SVU (yes you could make a case they don’t meet our criteria but we think they do).
Judy & Nick from Zootopia
Rosa & Jake from Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Moana & Maui from Moana
Ralph & Vanellope from Wreck it Ralph
Sometimes in the comics Steve Trevor & Diana. Wonder Woman.
Abby & Gibbs on NCIS.
Any other examples you all can think of? Can be on tv, books, movies, comics, etc.
Reid and Emily from Criminal Minds. (Also Reid and Garcia) Bull and Marissa from Bull. Eleanor and Jason from The Good Place. Luke and Serene from In Other Lands. Emma Frost and Hank McCoy, the X-Men.
Douglas and Carolyn from Cabin Pressure.
Rebecca and Doc Soto from Alcatraz.
Raven and Cyborg from Teen Titans.
Sophie and the BFG from the BFG.
Kitty and Bartimaeus from the Bartimaeus Trilogy (it’s debatable whether you can really call Bart male, but…)
Sylvie and Professor Fangl from The Great Good Thing.
Elinor (not Marianne) and Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility.
Kaine and Emil from the original NieR.
Max and Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road
George and Annie from Being Human
Josh and Claire from Please Like Me used to date but remain good friends afterwards
Omphaloskeptomai 