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OTA_SPACE


                                                   January  31, 2018
                                                   November 29, 2018


Exploring the space of decisions.
Making choices in the consumption
of art.

   In the manga the Genshiken,
   the college age otaku descend
   on a large doujinshi store in
   Akihabara, and discuss
   different *strategies*.

   Will you get a large number of      One character's strategy is to
   inexpensive titles, of a few of     completely ignore how much money
   the more elaborate ones?            he's spending, trusting that the
                                       money will come from somewhere
   Will you look for parodies of       e.g. his food budget.
   your favorite titles, will you
   follow particular "circles"             A hardcore otaku approach which is
   of creators?                            regarded with some respect, if not
                                           approval.

At the moment, I find myself                         OTAKU_REBELS
thinking about experiments in
strategy in choosing Korean
comedy-dramas.
                                        And there's always a decision that
                                        preceeded the decision at hand.
Frequently I just follow the
names of actors or actresses.           Art->Fiction->Video->Korean-> ...

    "What has Park Shin Hye             Then there's tracing a path of
     been doing lately?"                interests:

                                        Comics->
                                          Manga->
                                            Anime->
                                              Live Drama->
An obvious alternative                          Japanese->
though is to trace the                            Korean->
names of writers--

     At least, this is obvious to someone
     like myself, raised on Harlan Ellison's
     rants about the importance of the
     writers (such as himself, on the          Ellison often complained
     occasions when he could get himself to    about the idea that the
     write and not just posture about it).     director is critical, but
                                               if the director is
                                               choosing the scripts...

  So, that's another strategy:                     These things get
  Try following the names of                       complicated fast-- in any
  writers or directors.                            modern movie or television
                                                   show, the production of the
  I *have* tried                                   art is handled by an army.
  this several        But then, my experience
  times, but it in    with American and               It's very much a
  the world of        British television has          collaborative form-- an
  Korean drama it     been that checking the          actor may seem brilliant,
  rarely seems to     writers often helps make        but that could be
  work...             sense of variations in          (partly) the result of
                      quality: in the good            the writer providing
  SHUT_UP_FLOWER      episodes of a series,           brilliant lines or it
                      the same names recur.           could be the result of a
                                                      director providing
                                                      guidance, demanding
                     (July 2024)                      retakes when needed.
            But there is KES,
            the Hong Sisters,
            and...

                   LEE_SOO_YEON


   Still another strategy:

   Searches of keywords in         One of the odder lines
   titles (let's see, how          I followed was looking
   about ones with "ghost"         at series with the name
   in the name?).                  "Kim" in the title:

           OH_MY_GHOST
                                              "What's the matter with
                                               Secretary Kim",
   Still a third is "word of mouth",
   recommendations of friends-- a              "Chief Kim"
   friend of Dangerbaby in Bali
   was interested to hear we'd                                     
   been watching Korean drama, and       Another of Dangerbaby's        
   she recommended a very popular        friends from the Kimono        
   one from 2016:                        de Jack group recommended      
                                         "Lover From Another Star".     
       GOBLIN                                                                 
                                         MY_LOVE_FROM_ANOTHER_STAR                   
                                                    
                                         
   A approach, looking through people's
   favorites in the reddit group "kdrama".          A combination of
                                                    /r/kdrama buzz and the
                                                    writer/director strategy
   The "krama" group tends to focus on recent       had me tracing a line
   releases, which can be a strategy of it's        from "Goblin" back to
   own... sometimes these days I skim through       "Descendents of the Sun"
   the lists of current releases, sometimes         and forward to "Mister
   watching them in something like real time,       Sunshine".
   waiting a week for the next episode.
                                                    Those are from a
      "Gangnam Beauty"                              writer-director team
                                                    with some serious
      "Beauty Inside"                               budget clout.. they
                                                    now regularly do
           But then, "Beauty Inside"                series with the
           was also tracing the name                production quality of
           of an actor Lee Min-Ki who               major movie releases.
           played a similar part in
           "Because This Is My First                    The writer:
           Life".                                       Kim Eun-Sook
                                                        aka KES, and
           You could call this hybrid approach          the director:
           still another strategy-- look for            Lee Eung-Bok
           over-determined connections, names
           that keep coming up when you look
           in different ways.










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