That my blog title may be a euphemism for a less than family friend activity. Let me state for the record that I took it from the Angel episode, "Not Fade Away."
Thank you.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
My first blog post ever.
Hello, and welcome to Slaying the Dragons. A personal blog in which I talk and muse and generally rant about gaming, comics, gaming, gaming and more gaming. Also, if you're expecting me to be funny, or insightful, I apologize, but I sincerely doubt I will be. Ever. At all.
So today, I'm going to start off with a rant. Of sorts. More of a rubbed wrong sort of thing. And it's going to be about the new DC comics line. If you don't want to hear about it, now's the time to exit stage left (Chased by a bear).
A while ago, I was pointed out to a blog of a young lady complaining about the change to Batgirl, with the coming New 52. She was upset at the fact that Barbara Gordon was going to be back to Batgirl. Now, apparently, this blogger was someone with automotive difficulties (Sort of like myself actually, more on that below), and she believed that Barbara Gordon as Oracle was a great inspiration to all like herself.
Personally, I hated it. It felt like a cop out. Ignore the fact that Killing Joke was not supposed to be canon, or that they live in a world where cybernetic reconstruction not only exists, can amplify the human body's capacities in ways we can barely hope for in the real world. The issue I have is that Ms. Gordon used her disability as a crutch. She had to have been, she refused help to correct her spinal injury, when it was offered, giving a pathetically whiny excuse about not wanting to be 'special'. And yet, there she goes, being 'special' by virtue of her computer skills. I think she was scared to be 'Batgirl' because she could get hurt.
Now, before anyone rolls their eyes about how a non-crippled person not 'getting it', I'm going to give a little background. I am suffering from something called Ankylosing Spondylistis (not sure I'm spelling it right, but...), in essence (or so I've been told) my spine is fusing together. What it means for me, is that I can't sleep more than 5-6 hours a night (And that's mostly interrupted by waking and having to change position), I can't sit for more than 3 hours tops, and I can't walk for more than 20 minutes, and not without my cane or walker. And better yet, there is no pattern. There are days I can't dress myself, because I can't sit up, others I can't sleep because it's either walk or sit. I'm not even 40 yet. Worse? There's no cure, and it will only get worse, to the point where I'll be nearly folded in half, with a cane or a wheelchair. So yes, I understand what it's like, and unlike Ms. Gordon, I am in constant pain. It's life, it happens, I deal with it, and I try to be better than I am now. Because the only way to go, in my opinion is up.
However, Oracle is not going 'up'. She's not striving to be better than what she is, she's sticking to her misery because, unlike me, she has options other than a $1,500 monthly injection treatment that only slows the pain down. To stick in that wheelchair felt like a spit in the face to people like me. If someone had come up to me and said, "Sir, because you're you (or whatever), we're going to offer you a medical procedure that will permanently correct your issue. However, it'll only work for you, no one else. And it'll cost you nothing, because you, sir, are you."
I would immediately offer my first born (if I had one) to this person. To be able to run, and swim, and walk for hours again? To actually get a full night's sleep and able to hold down a job, like everyone else? To be able to try and be more than what I am now? SIGN ME UP, BABY! I don't want to be like this. I don't want to find ways of doing things I've always done, in less efficient, often more painful ways. I don't want to be this damn bored, because my physiology has decided to give up on me. Well, I haven't. And even fictional characters should not, especially in a fictional universe where they can have whatever issue they have corrected!
And that, ladies and mostly gentlemen, is my 'rant' such as it is. Maybe you'll agree, maybe you don't. All I ask, is that you be polite as to why.
So today, I'm going to start off with a rant. Of sorts. More of a rubbed wrong sort of thing. And it's going to be about the new DC comics line. If you don't want to hear about it, now's the time to exit stage left (Chased by a bear).
A while ago, I was pointed out to a blog of a young lady complaining about the change to Batgirl, with the coming New 52. She was upset at the fact that Barbara Gordon was going to be back to Batgirl. Now, apparently, this blogger was someone with automotive difficulties (Sort of like myself actually, more on that below), and she believed that Barbara Gordon as Oracle was a great inspiration to all like herself.
Personally, I hated it. It felt like a cop out. Ignore the fact that Killing Joke was not supposed to be canon, or that they live in a world where cybernetic reconstruction not only exists, can amplify the human body's capacities in ways we can barely hope for in the real world. The issue I have is that Ms. Gordon used her disability as a crutch. She had to have been, she refused help to correct her spinal injury, when it was offered, giving a pathetically whiny excuse about not wanting to be 'special'. And yet, there she goes, being 'special' by virtue of her computer skills. I think she was scared to be 'Batgirl' because she could get hurt.
Now, before anyone rolls their eyes about how a non-crippled person not 'getting it', I'm going to give a little background. I am suffering from something called Ankylosing Spondylistis (not sure I'm spelling it right, but...), in essence (or so I've been told) my spine is fusing together. What it means for me, is that I can't sleep more than 5-6 hours a night (And that's mostly interrupted by waking and having to change position), I can't sit for more than 3 hours tops, and I can't walk for more than 20 minutes, and not without my cane or walker. And better yet, there is no pattern. There are days I can't dress myself, because I can't sit up, others I can't sleep because it's either walk or sit. I'm not even 40 yet. Worse? There's no cure, and it will only get worse, to the point where I'll be nearly folded in half, with a cane or a wheelchair. So yes, I understand what it's like, and unlike Ms. Gordon, I am in constant pain. It's life, it happens, I deal with it, and I try to be better than I am now. Because the only way to go, in my opinion is up.
However, Oracle is not going 'up'. She's not striving to be better than what she is, she's sticking to her misery because, unlike me, she has options other than a $1,500 monthly injection treatment that only slows the pain down. To stick in that wheelchair felt like a spit in the face to people like me. If someone had come up to me and said, "Sir, because you're you (or whatever), we're going to offer you a medical procedure that will permanently correct your issue. However, it'll only work for you, no one else. And it'll cost you nothing, because you, sir, are you."
I would immediately offer my first born (if I had one) to this person. To be able to run, and swim, and walk for hours again? To actually get a full night's sleep and able to hold down a job, like everyone else? To be able to try and be more than what I am now? SIGN ME UP, BABY! I don't want to be like this. I don't want to find ways of doing things I've always done, in less efficient, often more painful ways. I don't want to be this damn bored, because my physiology has decided to give up on me. Well, I haven't. And even fictional characters should not, especially in a fictional universe where they can have whatever issue they have corrected!
And that, ladies and mostly gentlemen, is my 'rant' such as it is. Maybe you'll agree, maybe you don't. All I ask, is that you be polite as to why.
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