Satan From Orbit
Feb. 2nd, 2008 05:27 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/ posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bleachnessCruising along LJ today I saw a couple people wondering what the title of Kubo's latest chapter could possibly refer to.
Oooh, ooh! *raises hand* I know this one.
When I first read the title, I thought I know this song, isn't it HEAVY METAL? Nope, "Satan From Orbit" tunes didn't start spinning in this old head--and I know my 80s rock like I know my English lit sooooo it was Milton who I thought of next, because in Paradise Lost, Satan is the hero in a journey from Heaven to Hell. As a character Satan spends some time literally orbiting the planets and being snakey, a la Nnoitra (I know everyone's predicting a snake release from our dear Spoony but I honestly hope the guy's dead. If not, like I was telling a friend, his release could be anything from an egg-timer to a SOUP LADLE. No telling with Kubo these days).
I mention Milton not just because I'm on a literary nerd buzz since the call for fandom papers from Transformative Works and Cultures but because Kubo-sensei really is playing hardball with the religious imagery. Paradise Lost is a satirical work full of religious motifs and Satan is its sympathetic protagonist. Yeah, Satan.....
Kenpachi? Nnoitra? Now which one could be Satan? Milton's Satan is the literary forerunner of the Byronic hero--the original "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" type. His story frames the issues of free will, predestination, and what's WRONG with the universe.
I dunno. I was reminded of Aizen's complaint that the throne in heaven had been empty for too long. Milton's Heaven, like Kubo's Soul Society, is a strict hierarchal government, while Hell, not unlike Hueco Mundo, is a place where rebels rule.
As it happens, my husband is on a Milton kick at the moment (he's teaching Hobbes--Milton's Paradise Lost is supposed to be critique of Hobbes' Leviathan). Honest to G-D, there was a print-out article in the house recently called "Satan From Orbit" that I remembered seeing next to Max's motorcycle magazines. After I realized that Bleach was long past the Grimmjow fight and I didn't need to be looking up old glam-rock lyrics anymore, I just HAD to have this essay. It wasn't around. I googled for it and when I asked the husband for his log-in identification to the Milton Quarterly, he said, "don't tell me.... this has something to do with Bleach?"
Yeah.
Maybe I need a vacation more than Kubo does.
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Date: 2008-02-03 12:43 am (UTC)He could also be a rice spoon, which is kind of like a ladle, but flatter.
But unless Noitra suddenly rambles on about the injustices of the world, or Kenpachi decides to switch sides because it's more fun, I don't think either of them would fit the role of Satan.
Paradise Lost seems to have themes I'd enjoy reading and will probably read someday, just the fact it's a poem on the scale of Beowulf puts me off. But aren't you alsways looking for ways to try and get your husband into Bleach?
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:59 am (UTC)A whale? The teeth? I don't get it....
The rice cooker release would be great. I'd love to be the one who called that!
Could be anything. We were dead sure Szayel was going to be a spider but he turned out to be a Venus flytrap.
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Date: 2008-02-03 05:02 am (UTC)I would have a giggle fit if not only Noitra's release was a rice spoon, but a bright orange one at that. Or something other fancy colour.
But orange would get the biggest giggles from me.
I thought Szayel was just some type of butterfly...
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:11 pm (UTC)Orange has been done. No orange so soon after Leroux....
unless Kubo wants to match hair colors or something! LOL, I would like Nnoitra releasing into a platinum blonde!
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Date: 2008-02-03 01:29 am (UTC)I saw your post for the fandom papers, I am tempted. I've never submitted to a peer-reviewed journal before.
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:57 am (UTC)Do eeeet. I'll help.
At the moment I'm thinking it's going to be harder to get into TWC than into the Milton Quarterly.
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Date: 2008-02-03 01:32 am (UTC)Linkage of Bleach and Milton? Suddenly, I want Kubo Tite to be MY boyfriend, too, and I'm a straight male!
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:47 am (UTC)Let us do the dance of the English nerds!
I'm not ENTIRELY certain that Kubo is a straight male, so maybe you've got a better shot at a long-term relationship with him than I do!
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Date: 2008-02-03 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 03:54 am (UTC)Ohhhhh, I suddenly crave BACKSTORY about Nnoi and Szayel. If Nnoi turns out to be the Serpent and Szayel is Teh Jesus, I wonder how that relationship really played. Kubo gave us so little--I'm not straight at all on why Szayel wanted to help Nnoi. What did he get in return exactly?
Okay, now I'm craving Szayel fanfic. More than the noodles in the photo of your dinner.
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Date: 2008-02-03 02:45 am (UTC)Your husband RULZ!!! XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
That comment killed me xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD He knows yoy pretty well xDDDDD, I would like to read that PARADISE LOST, it reminds me that series of Neil Gaiman: "Lucyfer" **_** It sounds so interesting! And like a person without religion, well I love to read about those two point of views: Satan and God
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:45 am (UTC)It's a damn long poem, but yeah it's pretty interesting. If I can tell Max I got people to read Milton, then maybe I can make him read Bleach!
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Date: 2008-02-03 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 06:42 am (UTC)Actually, I'm really fond of stories like this.
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 03:43 am (UTC)*bows*
You are correct, have some pocky!
Aizen and Itachi are great examples of Satan-heroes. But because their creators don't mean for them to be the GOOD GUYS doesn't mean that Kubo and Kishimoto don't mean them to be sympathetic ( and sexy!) . Satan steals the show in Paradise Lost, and it's been since the romantic poets (William Blake said Milton was on Satan's side and didn't know it) to Stanley Fish that Satan's been getting all the attention.
Evil is glamorous. Ichigo is Ichigo. There's just so much more to write about when writing about Szayel, Spoony, and the other bad dudes who seem bad to bone but whose actions can influence good or aid and abet the good guys (Mayuri saves the day! Kenpachi kills EVERYBODY--END OF STORY!)
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Date: 2008-02-04 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 04:33 am (UTC)I got too excited for my own good at the thought of doing research for a paper to submit to TWC. My husband just sort of rolled his eyes at me and asked if this was what my parents intended for me to do with myself after all the money they've plunked down edumacating me...
Ironically though, HM is very hierarchal, and even more so now with Aizen ranking his platoons.
And, I would not be surprised if the title of Satan is double-sworded. At first I assumed Kenpachi because he is shown to be a bit crazed, a bit bored, and always lurking about for a challenge. But KT is rather good at being poetic and using words poignantly, so I think the title might mean to describe both fighters and the situation itself. Perhaps even foreshadow the outcome itself?--highlight the gray areas?
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:16 pm (UTC)See, Aizen tried to reconstruct SS in HM down to the number of captains but now he's letting the Espada tear into one another in a survival of the fittest.
Wonder what he's up to.
The Arrancar are all going to turn on his ass and dethrone this despot. I want Grimmjow KING of HM when this is all said and done.
Husbands. <.< Write your paper. Some husbands wish they could submit their ramblings to THE FOOTBALL QUARTERLY, I bet.
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Date: 2008-02-03 06:17 am (UTC)Also, this is a battle between two monsters, and the bigger baddie is going to win. And Satan's one bad dude, so ergo Kenpachi is Satan here.
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:19 pm (UTC)I'm still holding out for Yachiru fighting. How COOL would it be if Yachiru stepped in to avenge Kenpachi after he's fallen (she wouldn't step in before--the 11th division code)and started dragging Nnoitra around like a little pull-toy.
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Date: 2008-02-03 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 07:21 am (UTC)There are so many similarities between the two when you stop and think about it.
1) Both arrogant brutes relying on leader of the pack, survival of the fittest mentality. Though I don't see Kenpachi jumping into the middle of someone elses battle to claim a kill. (Even though he did step in the fight for Ichigo it's more of a savior/ hero role than Noitra's bloodlust & glory motivation.)
2) Neither of the two can get cut/ killed. Ok, in reality that's not quite true. But both of them are so impervious that they each make the claim that they can't be injured.
3) Then there's Kenpachi's eye-patch vs. Noitra's missing eye. Yes we know K really has an eye, but on the surface, first glance it appears to represent a missing eye. And N's missing eye and K's eye-patch are not handicaps or sources of weaknesses which on average people they would be. In fact they are the opposite, they are strengths.
Ok, enough of my late night ramblings. I'll probably read this tomorrow and think boy did I really get this all wrong! :)
There's just no way Noitra can be dead yet. Not when Kenpachi's eyepatch just came off! And N's empty eye socket brings to mind bleached (no pun intended) skulls with snakes slithering through the eye holes. Though my vote is for a spork release! You know the plastic spoon/fork combo they put in cafeteria's. :P
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:16 pm (UTC)If a little trident pops out of his spoonhead, I will choke myself laughing!
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Date: 2008-02-04 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 03:01 am (UTC)True story...many, many years ago...I once saw one kid(A) piss another kid(B) off so much that he(B) chased him(A) around the cafeteria with a spork. I nearly died laughing when he(b) stabbed him(a) in the back with it! But it worked spork boy didn't get picked on again.
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Date: 2008-02-03 07:09 pm (UTC)In the battle, Satan and Michael exchange threats, Satan boasting: "Nor think thou with wind / Of airy threats to awe whom yet with deeds / Thou canst not." ("You can't cut me," anyone?) Satan has been pushed back before by a blow from Abdiel, but it didn't manage to cut him. Michael proceeds to cut through Satan's sword and slice him through the right side: "Then Satan first knew pain." I'm probably way overanalyzing, but that sounds like Nnoitra and Kenpachi all over. If the analysis is correct, the Nnoitra fans should rejoice--Satan is gravely injured and humiliated, but not killed, at the close of this encounter.
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Date: 2008-02-03 07:14 pm (UTC)okay I'll shut up now I swear
Date: 2008-02-03 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 01:10 am (UTC)I don't read that deep into this fight, I just see a big guy with a sharp pointy thing hitting another guy with a sharp pointy thing.
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Date: 2008-02-04 01:19 am (UTC)Yep, I think that's what Kubo was going for--POINTY THING BATTLE!
He sure loves his chapter titles though. "Crossing the Rubicon" indeed.
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Date: 2008-02-04 04:08 am (UTC)I've summed up Bleach to my non-anime watching friends as "LET'S ALL KILL GHOSTS WITH SWORDS"-show before. ;)
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Date: 2008-02-04 07:22 am (UTC)XDDDDDDD
what my brother says to me on a daily basis.
but your hubby has such luff for you<33
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Date: 2008-02-04 11:25 pm (UTC)