My Love-Fest with TV II

Defiance
Synopsis: an American science fiction television series, with a massively multiplayer online game video game tied into the series, Defiance is set in the near future, where aliens known collectively as Votans have come to Earth seeking a new home after their star system was destroyed in a stellar collision. Defiance stars Jaime Murray and Tony Curran as Stahma Tarr and Datak Tarr: the Castithan power couple, Julie Benz as Amanda Rosewater: the newly appointed mayor of Defiance, Grant Bowler as Joshua Nolan: the local lawman, Stephanie Leonidas as Irisa Nyira: Nolan’s alien adopted daughter, Graham Greene as Rafe McCawley: the owner of the largest mine in the territory, and Mia Kirshner as Kenya: Amanda's sister and the proprietress of Need and Want brothel. Defiance premiered April 15, 2013 on US’ Syfy and Canada’s Showcase, April 16 on Brazil’s, France’s, United Kingdom’s, Ireland’s, Germany’s, Spain’s Syfy, April 18 on Australia’s SF, May 5 on Portugal’s TVSeries, and May 14 on Turkey’s Sinema TV.

A Visit to Apollo: through my brother's lens

Last month, my brother, Atilola Olubela, underwent his first excursion to Apollo, Makoko, Lagos and has this to share:

March 3, 2013 was a remarkable day that called for deeper reflection, I had no wedding and event to cover and decided to be a part of "The Silent Majority Project" exhibition by one of Nigeria's finest documentary photographer, Mr Adolphus Opara, organised by Goethe-Institut Lagos. This became my first visit to the acclaimed and highly Makoko, sort by both local and international artists. I have always seen Makoko in paintings, photographs and the regular panoramic view from the third-main land bridge, I had always wondered what world would be out there. The closest experience I ever had to this visit was the BBC documentary "Welcome To Lagos", which was a heart-wrenching one ... hmmm! The Ojota episode was also touching. Seriously, my heart has always skipped since this experience. Makoko, a world contrast of Venice, a crude cosmopolitan and a reclaimed city whose foundation is a composite of waste in all forms. This a glimpse through my lens during the short visit. Painful, I was unable to take pictures of the interior settlements.

Holden Caulfield, an anti-educational teenager in J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

     Holden Caulfield, the 17-year-old protagonist of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, is anti-education. He has been expelled from different schools. He is seen to have no drive and no goal to pursue; just a wanderer trying to find himself. He does not make any effort to pass his courses. In Pencey Prep, he had carried over five subjects which of course, he fails except English in which he passes because he “didn’t have to do any work in English at all hardly, except write compositions once in a while” and it is pretty obvious that it takes him little effort and time to write as seen in Stradlater’s composition episode (10).

A Storify of My Experimental Writing

Continuation of my current writing saga! Click "read more" to see the other slideshows.

Continuation of the Experimental Writing

Nine months after my last tweet, I can finally put this up and continue my unnamed tweetstory. If you remember, I was tweeting the tweetstory while taking night classes. Things happened one after the other and I stopped tweeting for a couple weeks. By the time I was ready to, it seemed quite an effort to scroll down to find where I stopped, blog it and continue tweeting. So, I decided to wait for the promised archive which I didn't get until a few days ago. If you're just starting, you need to start here first before reading this installment.

Ona walks to the precinct. She walks towards her desk. She sits down, pulls a drawer open, she pulls out a yellow manila file.
— oluwa-is-involved (@olubela) May 26, 2012

"The Captain wants to see you" Casey walks from the coffee stand, her hands in her pocket.
— oluwa-is-involved (@olubela) May 26, 2012

"Thanks," Ona stands up and walks towards the Captain's office.
— oluwa-is-involved (@olubela) May 26, 2012

Naturalism in “Eveline”

    Naturalism emphasizes the effects of environmental and social circumstances on people’s actions and behaviors. “Eveline,” a short story by James Joyce about a young lady who is torn between her duty to her family and her desire for escape, is filled with naturalist elements such as third-person point of view narration, lack of choice due to social or environmental constraint, and reacts against sentimental romantic literature.
    “Eveline” is initially narrated from a detached third person point of view which transitions into Eveline’s point of view. In the second paragraph, the narrator presents readers with the events occurring outside the window Eveline is leaning on: “few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home, she heard his footstep clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards crunching on the cider path before the new red houses.”

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Although Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier is a story about infidelity and betrayal, it is also about the mind frame of Dowell, the narrator. This is evident in the narrative style Ford uses. Dowell’s disorganized tale shows that he has lost his sense of reason and order, and is quite confused. His confusion can be attributed to the realization of his wife adultery and the circumstances of his discovery. Therefore, the story is about two set of crisis: the characters’ lives and Dowell’s psychological state. And to understand the crisis in the characters’ life, you have to understand the confusion in Dowell’s mentality.

Virginia Woolf is quoted in Ian Watt’s “Impressionism and Symbolism in Ford, Conrad, Crane”:

“if we "look within" ourselves, we see "a myriad impressions" quite unrelated to anything that goes on in such fiction; and if we could express "this unknown and "uncircumscribed spirit" of life freely, "there would be no plot, no comedy. No tragedy, no love interest or catastrophe in the accepted style.... Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.” (Watt 255-56)

We Are Nigerians - Journey to Amalgamation Documentary

Obi Asika tweeted this video a while ago. The documentary is too powerful to not have its history lesson written out. So, I spent three hours transcribing its message. I hope you read and share this post or the video itself. It is important that we learn our past in order to craft out the future we dream, seek, and criticize our leaders about.  Next year, it will be a hundred years since the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Nigeria into one country. Was it worth it or was it a mistake?

 

My New and Concurrent Love-Fest with TV

Lost Girl

Synopsis: This Canadian science fiction beauty and my current obsession tells the tale of supernatural seductress succubus Bo, who feeds off both people’s sexual energy and life force (chi), and her various friends in the fae community. The series basically runs around Bo’s search for her identity – for she had been abandoned at birth by her biological parents and her foster parents/experiences were not  exactly poster board material –, ability control, and her hero ego – she has this constant ache to help both humans and fae. Fae are supernatural beings with extraordinary powers predating the rise of humans who usually keep themselves hidden, and have worked hard to make humanity believe that they are just myths.

Feminism in Angela Carter’s “The Magic Toyshop”

     In The Magic Toyshop, Angela Carter tells of scenarios of how and why women can tend to be dependent on men. In doing so, she explores the subjectivity, victimization  and sexuality of women. Melanie’s reliance on her father, Uncle Philip, and possibly Finn, is reminiscent of the women in her life and suggestive of the societal values of her time.
     In the beginning, the reader experiences Melanie discovery of herself – as a creation made of flesh and blood -, and as a sexual being (1). She imagines herself as a nude model for Lautrec and sees her self-worth in the appreciating gaze of a man and not in her own mental prowess.