Art by @oregaihanboshi

Featured art: “Magical Girl Natsuki Is Here to Deliver Cupcakes” by @oregaihanboshi.

Return of the Tropical Pedo Beams

In a recent post, I made the argument that artistic works should be judged, either morally or artistically, on their own merits and not on the reputation of the artist. reply to a recent post, a reader has made the following comment:

Y’know it’s also worth mentioning the same arguments people make about buying American apply here. For example, you limit your consumption to domestic goods only, you’ll never get a Lamborghini or a Rolex … or in this case Polanski’s Chinatown. How can you limit yourself like that? But I’m sitting here now and thinking about it, and it occurs to me the same problem sets in with both scenarios.

Choose to sacrifice for quality over principle, fast forward a couple decades and what have we got? No wholesome mainstream entertainment, no US manufactured goods, and yet no Lamborghinis or Chinatowns. All of our consumer goods are crappy and made by communists, and all of our books and movies are crappy and made by creeps and pederasts. Meanwhile both the American workers and Christian authors are on unemployment.

Maybe the real problem here is the Darwinism of the almighty dollar.

My initial reaction is to suggest that this is a false analogy. One question is ethical (how are artistic works to be judged?) and the other is economical. In both cases, the average consumer can’t be expected to vet the issues in question. Most people do not pay attention to where there goods come from, and most do not investigate the personal lives of the writers they read or the directors whose movies they watch. Nor am I convinced they should be expected to; indeed, before they days of the internet, such vetting was in many cases difficult if not impossible.

Traditionally, protecting locally manufactured goods has largely been the domain of governments, which have exacted tariffs or limited trade. Dealing with artists’ criminal behavior, like anyone else’s criminal behavior, has usually fallen to the same authority. I’m not convinced this is the wrong way to do things: In the latter case, the alternative is mob justice. In the former, I’m not sure home-grown efforts to buy local make a significant difference in the long run.

I might add, too, that protecting the populace from smut has also traditionally fallen to the government, but only partly. Only gradually did the United States decide that pornography was protected by the First Amendment (which, as written, was clearly not intended for such a purpose). This has been a disaster.

Tropical Pedo Beams, or, The Danger of Roman Polanski

I recently came across a thoughtful and challenging essay entitled “Slippery-slopism and False Gods” by Paul Lucas. I will summarize his thinking in order to make my own comments, but I am unlikely to do him justice, so I invite you to read his own words.

The case he makes is that it is morally wrong to consume the art of morally depraved artists both because this gives the artist further financial support to practice his depravity, and because that depravity is almost certainly injected, perhaps in a subtle fashion, into the artist’s work.

That is an extremely brief summary; if you are inclined to dismiss that out of hand, I again urge you to read the original.

Lucas makes his case well, using Roman Polanski as a concrete example. Polanski committed a variety of vile acts, including drugging and raping a thirteen-year-old girl, before he escaped justice. He also regularly got standing ovations and spirited defenses from Hollywood types—the same Hollywood types who would later, hypocritically, throw Harvey Weinstein under the bus when they realized which way the wind was blowing.

Lucas argues that defending the art of a wicked artist leads inevitably to defending the wickedness of the artist himself, hence the “slippery-slopism” in the title of his essay.

Continue reading “Tropical Pedo Beams, or, The Danger of Roman Polanski”

Update on ‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’

I’ve received some images indicating the progress on the cover art for Dead to Rites, the next volume in the Jake and the Dynamo series.

I don’t think it would be any of my business to give details, but the talented artist doing the work has encountered a lot of problems in the process, almost as if some unseen power doesn’t want the book published. (I say that because I ran into strange trouble of my own while writing it.)

Anyway, things are moving along even if more slowly than I would have preferred. I have received a few images of the art, but post only the one here, as I figure I shouldn’t spoil it.

Anyway, Pretty Dynamo is still looking good. I absolutely love this interpretation of her outfit.

Art

Featured image: The White Devil by DreamEater Merry.

My Little Girl Is All Grown Up

Roffles Lowell, the interior illustrator of the Jake and the Dynamo series, recently sent me this sketch. For the second book, Dead to Rites, he is planning to update the design of Magical Girl Pretty Dynamo to match the version that Lee Madison used on the cover of the first volume.

I have no strong opinions on Dynamo’s design myself. I’m just thrilled to see other people’s imaginings of her. That being said, I do rather like this updated version. I was quite impressed with Madison’s design to begin with, and I think Lowell’s version gives her a sort of spunky, whimsical character. In my head, I’ve always seen Dynamo (unlike her counterpart Dana) as a tomboy, the kind of girl who usually has a smudge of dirt on her face and who tries to make her voice sound lower than it really is. To me, this redesign conveys that impression.

Art by DelianaM

Featured image: “Miraculous” by DelianaM.

Art by Lighane

Featured image: “Magical Girl OC” by Lighane

I am still out and about on my Christmas vacation, though I will be returning home shortly after the start of the new year, and then I’ll be able to return to more substantial posting. In the meanwhile, I’m still working my way through polishing and updates for the blog, including structured data and microdata for all the posts.

#aaaaaahhhhhhttttt

The art posted here comes from Shen YH, who has created a watercolor-like art imagining Made in Abyss as a video game. I’m not sure what the purpose is behind this, but if it’s concept art for an actual game, that would be awesome.

These images apparently imagine Reg, the robot boy, as the player character, and depict him in some of the most iconic scenes from the TV series, now with health bars and maps and such.

Reg faces a monster in the Goblet of Giants

Reg faces a white whistle in the base camp of the second layer

Reg fights corpse weepers attacking Riko

Reg and Riko overlook a chasm

Reg hides from a lurking monster

Brief Update (and art by SushiyamaArt)

Featured image: “Miraculous Ladybug” by SushiyamaArt.

I was going to write the review for Made in Abyss this afternoon, but I instead volunteered to put up Christmas decorations at a church, which I thought would take an hour and instead took all day.

This morning, I was making good progress on Jake and the Dynamo, so I’m going to spend my evening going back to that instead of writing a review I wouldn’t get finished tonight anyway.

In other news, I notice the third season of Miraculous Ladybug has got started. I know the first episode has aired, but I’m not quite sure if it’s available in English yet.

I haven’t even seen season 2 yet. I feel like I’m really behind on the shows I want to watch and discuss—but then again, I’m trying to finish a second novel over here, so I can’t watch TV all the time.

By the way, my plan for publication goes like this: I want to get volume 2 of Jake and the Dynamo out, and my plan after that is to put out volume 1 of Rag & Muffin, which needs heavy editing but is entirely drafted. I haven’t thought ahead beyond that. I may or may not also have a short story in an anthology in the near future.