Done with Utena

[avram]

Whew! We just finished watching the last episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena. I’m exhausted. How long did that take us? Two years, maybe? Jeez!

Just as well, I guess, since it meant I got to see the last few episodes having recently read some Andrea Dworkin, which provides a surprisingly good perspective on it. Well, second-hand Dworkin, since I can’t really stand to read her actual writing. (I wonder what the effect would be on western culture if academic could learn to write in a style that ordinary people enjoyed reading.) But I can’t find the links I was looking at, so the rest of you are out of luck.

Now, where’d I put that copy of the Utena movie...?

Comments

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

Getting through Utena IS exhausting, and emotionally draining. The movie will make you woozy, it's more surreal than the TV series.

What did you think of it?

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Two years? Whippersnapper! I remember when we only had the first 13 episodes, on video, and we liked it!

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

mnemex and I have just started. We've seen the first 4 or 5 eps, I think -- up to the ball. How many eps are there? How many DVDs does that make? I've got this vague urge to run an Uktena game, but I think I should wait until either a) it passes or b) I get enough ideas to run something like it, but different enough that players can ring fun changes.

I think the premise makes perfect sense. I remember being asked some questions at Lunacon by someone doing some kind of survey or paper. She wanted to know whether I felt I was treated differently in fandom because I was a woman, and whether I had problems with the gender roles in fantasy and sf. This was years ago, in the 80s, I think -- back before the Escher Hilton. My comment was that while I didn't feel discriminated against, and didn't have problems with what I was reading, I did tend to identify with the male protagonists. I'd recently read Joy Chant's Red Moon and Black Mountain, and the only one to identify with was Oliver. It wasn't that the women were awful or unbelievable. Just that he was the one who got to do stuff and come of age in a very bittersweet way.