To wrap up that episode, I did not replace the power supply box.
Applying a technique developed by the first colonizers of this country, and which remained and got stronger throughout the last five centuries, I managed to make it relatively usable again. To such end, I needed only a scrap of paper, a screwdriver, tweezers, and brute force. The box's fan has been running silently (as much as possible for its model) ever since. It is, however, obviously damaged - and not by my hand, mind you. It is factual that it overheated at one point. The smell of rubber sometimes shows up. And taking into account I can remember having no more than ten headaches in my entire life, I would say it is not a coincidence that I had four since the last post.
The last post, long ago. Long ago, for a number of reasons. I have time to write. I had things to write about. Events I could describe, but felt no need to. Things that happened, out of which I could derive a text, and then I did not want to write it (out of fear? shame? sadness?). Finally, things I thought. These are the fun things to write about.
I faced a problem on those things: an excess of trust in the readers' knowledge and ability to see the point. I will exemplify.
Recently I was thinking of the weigth given to an author (or artist) in the US and in Japan. This sentence means nothing, so let me explain. Ranma 1/2 is next to endless, but it is Rumiko Takahashi's only, end of story. Dragon Ball is another entity kept alive forever, but it is Akira Toriyama's. These two authors have other stories. Those two stories, even when taken over by other artists, keep the same focus, same style. Then there is Wolverine. I have no idea who created him, but that is unimportant. Visiting a friend who knows that kind of thing, I was presented to a number of different Wolverines. "This is John Doe's Wolverine", "That one I'm not sure, but the style looks like Peter Duh's", "This Wolverine is Newman Nyo's". Forgive me for coming up with the stupid names.
Point is, Japanese characters are smaller than the artists, while American characters, with one or two notable exceptions, are much bigger than their artists. I could make a parallel with James Bond here to illustrate it further and bring it beyond the comics and animation universe (although Bond is British, but spare me of the unnecessary detalism). "Do you think Pierce Brosnan's Bond is as good as Sean Connery's?" "Not sure, I liked Roger Moore's better."
I would also have to open an exception in Japanese characters for possible doujinshi. However, these doujinshi are often drawn in the original style of the characters they portray (Ranma and Akane always look Rumiko Takahashi's, no matter what); when they are not, the author of said doujinshi are never as praised as the original artists (nor could they, given the level, or rating, of this kind of publication). Furthermore, doujinshi are not official, while in Wolverine's case all artists are published under the same label.
See, I wrote three paragraphs to explain that point, and I did it very poorly and very briefly to my taste. My worry is that I would probably be stating the obvious - because I believe the readers' (my readers, at least) have this information I use to back up my points with. So all that I felt necessary to write was the point itself. Had I written it, this journal would be filled with posts that would be no longer than this:
Artists in Japan are bigger than their characters; in the United States, characters are bigger than the artists.
Period.
The three paragraphs I wrote on it up there would be left out. The possible cultural analysis (ie, in the US artists become simple work-for-hire, not creators; the product has priority over the process of invention) would also be left out. "The readers can think it up for themselves, I am sure." Is it not a beauty, how many different pathways one little affirmation can branch into? I wanted to let the readers choose their own roads instead of writing about one or two and proving my points.
But, really, what would be the point of writing one little line like that? If I had a classroom before me, I could propose that as a theme for analysis, and we could debate on its many branches for a week. That would be grand. But here I have no such thing. It would be a little affirmation lost in the middle of bigger texts and other little affirmations with no solidity to them. That is excess of themes. Counter-productive, not what I wanted.
(Besides, thinking up a quote from somewhere for posts that consist of one line was just very impractical.)
This way, then, not wanting to write too much on one subject, and not wanting to write too little on many subjects, I wrote nothing at all for a long time.
And I honestly see no need to conclude this post.
End of story.