Tag: writernotwaiting

We’ve been discussing Nietzsche in class and I have to ask a potentially rude question: are you fascinated by him bc you like his ideas, or are you fascinated by him in an I-can’t-look-away-from-this-five-car-three-horse-train-wreck?

Which text(s) of Nietzsche’s were you reading?

I like many of his ideas, though of course not all. What I dealt with in my dissertation was mostly his views on epistemology and the philosophy of science, and there’s a lot of good stuff there. Even some of his most apparently appalling ideas (such as the noble vs. slave morality stuff) can’t be dismissed out of hand when you think about them the way he did: from the perspective of someone who took a very long view of history and the history of philosophy. Philosophers aren’t only worth engaging with if you think they were right about everything; they’re worth engaging with if they pose a serious challenge to the things you had taken for granted.

Few modern philosophers have been misinterpreted as badly and as widely as Nietzsche. Some of that was deliberate distortion on the part of his Nazi sister (whose German-nationalist and antisemitic ideas he repudiated in print while he was still capable of doing so); some of it is a consequence of his intentionally esoteric writing style. That’s not to say that his ideas aren’t radical and potentially dangerous if understood correctly; they are. Just maybe not in the obvious way.

writernotwaiting replied to your post “To all the people saying “the Russo brothers and Markus & McFeely are…”

I really have to disagree with you on The Winter Soldier. I still think it’s the best of the run in terms of tight plotting and attention to character and relationships. Loki is still my favorite character, but WS is the best scripted of the MCU.

@writernotwaiting, how recently have you rewatched The Winter Soldier? I watched it just a few weeks ago as part of my pre-Infinity War review of the MCU and I was underwhelmed. The banter between Steve and Sam was fun, but I found myself getting bored during the action sequences and kind of confused by the twists and turns of the plot (it didn’t help that I was a bit distracted by liveblogging my viewing experience on Tumblr).

As you can see in my eventual ranking, I put it pretty low. Of course, as my ranking also indicates, I still think Joss Whedon is a good writer of plot and yes, even character, even if he does fall into some problematic tropes involving the treatment of female characters. (But then, so do Markus & McFeely – Sharon Carter, anyone? and their serial fridging habit?) Whedon can turn a line of dialogue better than anyone else the MCU has ever hired. But I also think Thor, Iron Man, and The Avengers are more elegantly plotted than TWS, and Black Panther does a better job of balancing plot, character, humor, and deeper moral issues. Maybe it’s ultimately just a matter of taste.

ok, so you’re gonna laugh when I say this, but the first thing I remember when I think of your fics is Loki getting stoned on the balcony and talking to Thor about midgardian philosophy. I just love that image, and if I were an artist, I would totally pull out my colored pencils to render that scene in all its glory.

Thanks! Haha, yeah, that seems to be my most memorable bit… I think it’s especially weird that such a goofy starting idea ended up kicking off what’s mostly not a humorous series.

@seidrade may be working on illustrating that… in any case, they already did a magnificent painting of Loki wearing 1920s clothing and smoking a joint.