Speedrunning Literacy With Lime

jesus christ the tumblr app is incredibly bad to use. reviewing the things i read/watch to trick my brain into understanding them better.

[limeblogging]

god do you all fucking live like this. i downloaded the app so i could write while im out and this is genuinely the worst app ive ever had on my phone. i cant even edit my profile properly. hell, im sorry. i didnt know. i would have just made a sideblog on my laptop.

anyway my goals are to read something every night and watch a movie every week. its hard to find time to play games aside from dating sims at the moment and i review those separately so no goal posts there.

[limeblogging]

Oh yeah, I watched Iron Lung a couple weeks ago. I forgot to write about it. Spoilers for Iron Lung (movie). And probably the game too.

I liked it a lot, I thought the atmosphere was really well done and Mark's acting was good but not particularly standout. I saw him in Edge of Sleep before this, and I feel like he shines better in something like that where he can interact with other characters directly. A single character bottle film feels like a pretty hard shot for a debut, especially with him both directing and starring. It was good, but there are things about it that could have been better.

The plot and character details that were added for the movie were very interesting, I like how much it added while still leaving a lot of mystery. In the original game, you essentially don't get any answers. The movie managed to add more information while still leaving the important things nebulous, which I think is a success. Simon (The Convict) having a backstory hinted at is fun, but I think the suggestion that he wasn't actually at fault for his crime was a missed opportunity. Him being innocent or guilty doesn't change how fucked up it was for them to put him down there, and I feel like it removes a layer of moral ambiguity for him to basically just be a well-meaning guy forced into a shitty situation. I would like to see how it plays out with him actually being a violent criminal but still maintaining the same level of sympathy for him.

The writing of the movie is a bit too on the nose at times, particularly in the beginning. The pacing has some issues, too. The first 30-45 minutes plays out basically like the game, and I kept having the urge to check my watch. I wondered at some point how they were going to drag it out to 2 hours. But once you hit the main divergence point, things really do pick up.

My theater had some sound issues, and it was difficult to make out some things that were said near the end. Mark's already spoken about those issues, though, and it seems likely it was a matter of the theater just not setting things up right. Mine seems to have basically added him to the lineup last minute.

Overall I would consider it a success. It's not the kind of movie that's going to stick with you forever, and I have a suspicion anyone who came in completely blind might have a worse time. But it was a decent movie, and Mark's success with financing and selling it to this extent is a huge win for indie film-makers across the board. I hope he gets even richer and makes even more cool shit just because he wants to.

[limeblogging]

I have to write a gyaru character for a project I'm on, but I don't know much about gyarus. So I read a few comics from a list of manga with gyaru characters as the focus.

Gal x Gal Yuri - read all of it! Gyaru Gohan - read 1 chapter Anjou the Mischievous Gal - read 2 volumes

- Gal x Gal Yuri -

It was really short, so it wasn't exactly hard to read it all. I had seen panels from this one on twitter, but I didn't realize there wasn't much more to it besides what was being posted right now.

It was very cute, and I like the characters a lot. In terms of helping me understand the character type, I think this was the best. That's partially due to a lack of substance, though. The scenes are very simple and straight-forward, and I don't feel like the characters have much depth to them.

The art style is very cute, and I like the amount of time dedicated to their interests and hobbies. It's nice sometimes to read a romance that's quiet and sweet without all the drama common to the genre. (Even if I do love drama.)

- Gyaru Gohan -

This one sucked bad, so I didn't continue it. I like Miku's character design a lot though, she's very cute.

- Anjou the Mischievous Gal -

I have mixed feelings about this one. For starters, the level of sexualization is extreme. Pretty much all of the humor in what I've read so far is just either her sexually harassing him or him seeing her and getting flustered by her looks. I don't really mind sexualization in romance manga, but they are high schoolers, so it's a little off putting.

The writing and the characters themselves are very good, and I like the dynamic between them. It seems like a really interesting story, and I believe in the romance a lot more than I do in a lot of similar stories. Pacing-wise, it seems like even though they like each other from the start it's gonna be a real slow burn. In the two volumes I read, I don't think they made much emotional progress at all -- though there were some good moments of character development.

The art is fantastic. I love the style, it's so detailed and it stands out, especially in the way character faces and expressions are drawn. I love Anjou's character design so much, too.

I learnt basically nothing about gyarus from this, but it was a fun read.

✨ 🌺 💗 🌺 ✨

If you read this, suggest more gyaru manga. I may not have found anything I'm gonna follow through with, but I like that they were all a little different from what I usually read.

[limeblogging]

Watched Nosferatu (2024). All I knew about this movie in advance was that a lot of people tweeted about not understanding what was going on when it came out. Having finally watched it, I kind of see where they were coming from.

The events of the movie were not hard to follow. It's actually fairly straightforward. But all the same, this was a very strange movie that i think could have benefitted from a bit of clarity when it came to characters and motivations.

I haven't watched the original Nosferatu, or read Dracula (I have watched the 1992 movie. I think.) You don't need to in order to understand what's happening. The characters, however, are never really properly introduced. Ellen's backstory being drip fed is fine -- better, in fact, than getting it all at once -- but there is a middle ground between getting a character bio and knowing nothing about her for so long. Thomas, too, more or less gets nothing. He's just the husband, and kind of shitty at it. Their relationship does not appear to be very good, even though we're told meeting him helped Ellen's mental health issues.

The relationship between the two couples, too, is glossed over. They're friends. Who is? Thomas and Friedrich? Ellen and Anna? Both pairs have some connection, but Thomas and Friedrich seem surface level and Friedrich clearly hates Ellen. The women are close, but I can't for the life of me tell why. Based on their interactions I wondered if they were sisters, but Ellen is almost certainly an only child. I think it would have helped substantially if it were made a little clear who these people are to Ellen before she's shunted off to their care. We're meant to believe Ellen loves Anna, enough for her loss to be substantial. But the movie simply doesn't show it.

Friedrich is actually the most interesting character of the 4, though that's mostly by virtue of being an asshole. His motivations are clear and the tension inherent in him clearly not caring enough about Ellen for protecting her to be worth disrupting his family adds something that the movie was strongly lacking in other character interactions.

Aside from the main cast, though, there are other strong characters. Orlok himself is fantastic; the slow deliberate way of speaking adds an aura of intimidation to him, and the fact that we never properly see his face in the light (until the end, anyway) is a strong choice. Professor von Franz was great too, and I always love to see Willem Dafoe in a role. Von Franz is also possibly the only male character in the movie who isn't kind of a piece of shit? And you can really tell that for some reason he thinks Ellen dying is like an act of feminism somehow. He's a little confused but he's got the spirit.

On the topic of feminism, it's kind of a mixed bag. There are only two (2!) adult women in the movie, Ellen and Anna. Anna is barely a character, and then she dies. Ellen is a well developed character, but she spends most of the movie (and most of her life) with absolutely zero agency. Her one action of change is a significant one, but it also straight up kills her. But the intent is clearly there. They're not shying away from portraying the ways she suffers from misogyny, and her choice to kill Nosferatu by renewing her pledge to him is definitely portrayed as something along the lines of her methodology proving better/more successful than Thomas's "burn it to the ground and stake him" plan. But the rest of the movie just doesn't do it justice.

The death is beautiful, though. So much of the movie is staged incredibly and gorgeous to watch. The death scene alone almost justifies the whole movie for me; it's quiet, peaceful. There's something tender to it, in the way there's no struggle as he lets her draw him back to her even though it's killing him. This scene being the first time we properly see Orlok, not obscured by shadow or his badass costuming, makes it feel mundane; like he's just a normal guy. Genuinely moving sequence.

Did von Franz steal her fucking cat?

[limeblogging]

I don't intend to properly review every manga I read, because there's a lot that I start and don't ever come back to, but i read the first 24 chapters of Sugar Girl Drip. Spoilers for the first 3 chapters, up to the Incident.

It's a really sweet read. It tackles some heavy topics, and the fact that both Aki and Marie are abuse victims is shown pretty much immediately. The big inciting incident comes when Marie kills Aki's abuser, and they two of them dispose of the body. The majority of the story afterwards is the two of them healing together and growing closer.

Most of the tension comes from the fear that what happened will come out and they'll face consequences for it. However, it doesn't ever really feel like it's a genuine possibility. The couple times someone does have suspicion, it's dealt with fairly quickly. As of where I left off, the truth may have come out -- but the girls are so far removed from the situation that I can't imagine it will actually hurt them. Despite the concept, there's not much conflict and the story is surprisingly fluffy.

That's not a bad thing. I think a lot of manga with this concept would be darker from start to finish. Instead, the focus is on the romance and seeing the girls mature together. It is nice to see Aki start to act on her own, and see Marie find a balance between the persona she puts on and her true self.

It's probably not one I'll read serially, but I look forward to coming back to it when there's more out and reading the rest.

[limeblogging]

my first book of the year is the great gatsby, which im reading for the first time having never done so in school. i tried a few years back but found it inescapably dull and stopped.

i wont lie, i had to force myself to read a chapter a day for a good few nights. its a slow start, and the characters you begin with are just not the least bit compelling.

and then the romantic nonsense started and I finished the book the same night.

the book definitely has its flaws -- theres a whole scene thats just nick listing names of people who've come to Gatsby's parties -- but it handles emotion fluidly and grippingly. the way it got me so in tune with how the characters felt that i had sympathy for all of them by the end (including the objectively terrible ones. which to be clear is most of them.) i kind of can't help loving it.

nick as a character falls so heavily into the background he nearly ceases to exist, presenting himself as not much more than a narrator, which frustrated me immensely while reading, but the way in which that ceases to be the case justified it for me a little bit. i think theres a better way to write it, but i enjoyed it by the end anyway.

a major effect of it, though, is that at parts it makes the glowing way gatsby comes off feel like fact, rather than a description of him from someone already affected. i came into the book knowing nick has feelings for gatsby, but i didn't actually believe it until the last words he speaks to him. there is something beautiful in that moment, of seeing him write "i disapproved of him the whole time" and suddenly understanding he doesn't quite mean that the way it sounds.

for the rest of the book after Gatsby's death (short as that is), nick is an active character in a way i think he tried not to be beforehand. wolfshiem says something to him to the effect of "we need to learn to show friendship while they are alive", and i think thats more or less the point of it. nick is in mourning and desperately trying to find friends post mortem for a man he said one nice thing to. would it have changed anything, if they had been closer? of course not. but i hope its a lesson that sticks with him.

anyway, the way gatsby was presented while alive really is infectious. im a big fan of pining. the fact that you can see how clearly gatsby is idolizing the idea of daisy but still believe in his feelings all the same is really good.

the tragedy is in the fact that well never know if he could have moved on from it. given how completely unsurprising his death ended being, though, i doubt it. i keep thinking back to him describing his time in the military. "i tried very hard to die." i feel like you can pretty easily guess by the time nick and gatsby say goodbye that gatsby will not be there when he returns, one way or another.

i feel like jordan deserved a little better from the story. shes got bad luck getting involved with a narrator who simply does not care to say much about her. i thought the one scene narrated by her (retold by nick) was very fun to read, and id read the whole book like that.

deeply disappointed that myrtles death ended up the way it did, because i kind of thought shed at least try to kill someone first. what it does for tom and gatsbys stories is good, narratively speaking, but what about hers? and we dont see daisy again, so we dont really even get the consequence of what she did.

anyway. good read, beyond the rough start. i kind of want to reread it again now having a better understanding of the characters going in.