davetheanalyzer

I think I’m finally on the mend with my cold. I still cough a bit but it’s softer and far less often. It took forever to get the meds I needed and it turned out the usual combo to kill my persistent cough wasn’t working, so my lung doctor prescribed me with cefuroxime and prednisone instead. I’ll be done with the last of my prednisone in a couple days. This had thrown off my sleep schedule big time, even leading me to sleeping through most of Thanksgiving where I was also ill after eating a wrong combination of foods. Due to all these factors, I haven’t written in over a month. Having a break was nice but I’m itching to get back to writing. I had just gotten going with We Will Hold On Forever rewrites and will be writing my original story a bit more often. Oh well, that can be rectified by making up those missed days.

I saw the Shape of Water, after hearing about it for years as a answer to “The Creature of the Black Lagoon” and the many jokes about human-fish romance. Maybe it was how I saw it in 5 minute bites but I couldn’t connect to it. I was expecting more romance scenes between our lead Eliza Esposito and the Asset but a lot of it was also about her and the lives of other characters in her life, from those also marginalized to those involved in the height of cold war politics.

I did like that it was the marginalized and the secret Russian agent who banded together to rescue the Asset, who was captured and tortured. I know Del Toro wrote this partly to capture the feeling of being an immigrant in America. At least it ended happily with the hint Eliza might have been related to the Asset’s species. The qualifiers are there is period-accurate racism, sexism, ableism, including a anti-Southeast Asian slur; there’s a general character portrayed by a bigoted actor; sexual harassment; graphic violence, including bitten off limbs, gunshots, stabbing, slicing, and torture; and a cat being eaten. Even if it didn’t grab me, I can see why it resonated with others, so feel free to see it if it sounds up your alley.

That’s all for now. I hope the ceasefire in Gaza gets extended and all those imprisoned get free. Until the end of the year, see you!