a comment on eternal’s “definitive piece on Honey and Clover”
_eternal, no hard feelings. I like you, I like your blog, I want to keep it that way.
First, for the unaware, direct your attention to A Thematic Analysis of Honey & Clover, a spoiler-ful post by our buddy eternal. For now let’s leave aside the fact that the ‘analysis’ doesn’t really focus on themes, and let’s examine the meaning of the word ‘analysis.’ First of all, a quote from the comments section, by the post author himself:
I know it sounds cliche, but I honestly think that the show itself wrote this blog post.
The nerve! (I’ll get back to this later. **)
Let me explain to you what an ‘analysis’ is: an analysis is a detailed examination of something, with scrutiny being the most important player. Now let me explain to you what a ‘reading’ is: a reading is what you get out of a work when you consume it.
Remember something called ‘book reports?’ Those things we did back in grade school, “read this book and write a page about it?” Yeah. Book reports involve consuming a work and then translating your reading of that work onto a sheet of paper.
Analysis is more than that, eternal.
I appreciated your book report on Honey & Clover.
I’m going to go write an essay.
** And now for the final blow, going back to the quote of eternal’s. Breaking news: analysis doesn’t write itself. If your post writes itself, then it’s just the stuff you’re taking away from the show at first glance. If you’re getting anywhere deeper than the surface of the show, you’re putting in some effort. Your book report is only as valuable as the depth of your reading, and your reading isn’t deep if your book report wrote itself.
I’ll say this right now: a post that merely summarizes the characters and their struggles, employing such beautiful turns of speech as “it’s as simple as that,” can never be the definitive piece on any work.
Sorry, eternal, the objection wrote itself.
And now a promise, lest I seem too much the angry troll: expect at least two posts coming in the not-too-distant future, one on an assortment of smiles, insert songs, hard-boiled eggs, and honey sandwiches, and the other on Morita Shinobu and how his backstory episode is a useless piece of tripe.
IKnight 3:01 am on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
I.A. Richards just kicked in, yo.
Baka-Raptor 5:34 am on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
“Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it.”
I don’t see the word “scrutiny” anywhere in there.
otou-san 7:16 am on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
Relevant to my interests since I just finished the first series for the first time. A quick read tells me you’re somewhat right. But the conclusions at the end are well thought-out and cover a few of the key points. I think you’re being a little overly harsh when you say “definitive” because that’s not Eternal’s choice of words.
I found it to be one of the more excellent things I’ve seen, pretty high up in its genre (if not the top), but I plowed through it so fast without any trace of note-taking that I feel unqualified to make more than a cursory “analysis.”
I could manage a decent post or two (and will try) but my problem is that there is just a lot of material. Eternal’s only problem in this case is he mentions a lot of the questions and themes inherent without expounding on them in great detail, but that would probably take even more long blog posts.
I await your posts, because it really is easy to say “ur doing it wrong” even if you have an inkling of why, but a lot harder to distill those vague ideas into coherent thoughts and write them down.
summer 7:37 am on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
Not relevant to my interests. Waambulance anyone?
Pointless arguing on the internet is pointless and just ruins everyone’s enjoyment of the show (if at all). So someone on the internet enjoys a series, cool, who cares what he thinks about each character? How about getting back to doing something a bit worthwhile, like finishing the novel?
lolikitsune 10:00 am on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
@Baka-Raptor: okay, you’re just being a dipshit, bro. -_-;
@otou-san: yes certainly, H&C is amazing. It might be my favorite anime ever if I weren’t so enchanted by the magic that is Aria.
As for using the word “definitive” (a word used by one of the comment leavers), it seemed apt to me. Did you read the comments on that post? In ghostlightning’s words, it’s a bunch of jizz. Everyone’s just lathering it on, “omg eternal this post is amazing.” It was kinda gross tbh.
And there’s more wrong with the post than just that he mentions things without expounding on them. Well, ‘wrong.’ There’s nothing wrong with people posting whatever they want on their blogs in my opinion. But given its reception, I think there are problems with the post. Look at this: read Mayama’s page; replace every “Mayama” with “Yamada” and every “Rika” with “Mayama” and you pretty much have an accurate description of Yamada. That’s a sign that there’s some over-simplification happening…
Anyway, I don’t want to go off on this too long. I mostly made this post in order to force myself to follow up on it and write H&C posts. And for what it’s worth, I toned it down several times before publishing XD
@summer: I’m rolling on the floor laughing because you seem to think that finishing CCY17 is “worthwhile.” I appreciate it, though.
ghostlightning 11:24 am on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
So you’re going to be serious about writing actual analysis on H & C?
We’ll see, it’s not like you enjoy the benefit of the doubt from readers, but we’ll see when the posts do come out.
That said, you articulate some of the things that I feel about “A Thematic Analysis…” I think it’s a work of dedicated fanboying — which I of all people approve of! However, I do feel that the analysis itsel… I wanted more out of it. I think the subject matter yields more than what was written.
I think I shall write about H & C too, independent of your posts. With owen and otou-san fagging about it in parallel, I ended up starting my first rewatch of the show. I don’t think I’m up for a comprehensive analysis of the characters and the show though; there’s way too much going on that I’ll probably end up writing too long a post.
lolikitsune 11:27 am on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
I’m not up for a comprehensive anything. Like otou-san said, there’s too much. Anyway I’ve begun my post about the ending of H&C… tentatively title, “the tragedy of the passage of time.”
ETERNAL 2:34 pm on August 2, 2009 Permalink |
To be honest, I half-imagined some of these problems coming up while writing the post since that’s what being tl;dr and authoritative usually causes, but ignoring the miscellaneous ass-covering lines I threw in, I think your main problem is just that I didn’t do as good a job as I should have.
Like you said, there’s a lot of material. Too much. And even within the material, there’s a lot you can talk about: characters, themes, symbols, virtually everything else. It’s impractical to “analyze” a complete 36 episodes filled with content, especially when it’s being done in a blog post. And let’s not forget that I’m not trying to sell this thing as a novel; I write about stuff that I like with the guarantee that I’ll learn something from it and in the hopes that someone else will benefit from it. I’m not posing as Bateszi or Owen or something, writing meaningful posts in the name of “educating” the general public. (That’s not an insult to them and may or may not be 100% accurate, but you get the idea.)
That aside, I think that if you have more to add, then go for it. Especially if ghostlightning and otou-san join in, I’m sure you guys can illuminate things that I couldn’t. Remember, all I did was write a hell of a lot about my favourite anime, and I did it without mincing words: it’s just the positive reception that surprised me, and brought to light the flaws for the skeptics. I accept the flaws in the post and, like always, I don’t think of myself as a world-class writer when I don’t even have my high school diploma yet, but I don’t think I made any specific mistakes in writing it, either. I just didn’t do as good a job as another person might have.
lolikitsune 7:32 am on August 3, 2009 Permalink |
@ETERNAL: good response. Thank you, and I think we should all look forward to mike… and mike… and mike’s posts on H&C.
If there was a mistake you made (before the comments arrived), it was only in calling the post a thematic analysis. There’s nothing wrong with your content on its own. And yes, your writing is pretty damn good, especially for a high school student.
digitalboy 5:05 pm on August 3, 2009 Permalink |
God you could not be more of a fucking grammar nazi.
lolikitsune 5:58 pm on August 3, 2009 Permalink |
@digitalboy: grammar nazi? what the fuck does grammar have to do with -anything- on this page?
SAKI 7:43 pm on August 3, 2009 Permalink |
The dodgy windows and black… I mean, blue shirts on the page.
digitalboy 4:38 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink |
RIGHT VOCABULARY NAZI I AM SO FUCKING SORRY
lolikitsune 8:43 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink |
Thank you. :)
lelangir 5:18 pm on August 6, 2009 Permalink |
LK is just said because he’s a bit of a retard. But I still love him, that little retard of mine.
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moritheil 4:09 pm on September 19, 2009 Permalink |
YO DAWG, WE HEARD YOU LIKE ANALYSIS, SO WE DID ANALYSIS OF YO ANALYSIS SO YOU CAN ANALYZE WHILE YOU ANALYZE.
lolikitsune 8:44 pm on September 19, 2009 Permalink |
WHAT RLY?!