Thursday, November 13, 2008

New Watchmen Trailer...

So there is apparently a new Watchmen trailer.



I hope I'm wrong but it looks like this is going to be really awful.

The comic.. ahem... graphic novel is so celebrated because while it tells a really good story about superheroes, it also quietly (and not so quietly) subverts every single trope of the superhero genre. The comic version of Watchmen is more about the characters and the world they live in than super cool fight scenes in slow motion. On a deeper level, it was written as a critique of superhero comics. Literally everything from the characterization of the heroes to the physical layout of the panels is some sort of meta-commentary. I really recommend the comic, its complex and requires a few readings to really absorb, but its well worth it.

The movie... well lets just say that whoever decided to make this an action story with slow motion fight scenes and cool costumes completely and utterly missed the point. As I said, I really hope I'm wrong about this, but it seems like the only good thing about the movie is that it'll cause more people to read the book.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Budget Cuts... continued

Apparently we don't have to print out homework or anything anymore... not sure where I'm going to print out exams though. Printing them at the library seems like a bad idea.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Great Job Stony Brook

State budget cuts to have begun trickling down to individual academic departments at Stony Brook. The psychology department is dealing with this by cutting travel funds, slashing copy machine quotas, and eliminating the printer in the graduate student computer lab. No word yet if we'll be asked not attend conferences, make less copies, or read less articles... but somehow I doubt it.