A number of Jonathan Coulton's better songs have the same phenomenon going on that I strongly associate with Greatest Hits-era Springsteen (particularly "Born to Run" and ESPECIALLY "Born in the USA"); they sound upbeat and positive and just generally rockin' if you don't listen very closely and just let the melody carry you away.

Then one day you actually pay close attention to the lyrics and realize, holy shit, this is pitch fuckin' black and a scathing indictment.

>>Well, that could be a great story.
>
>We'll have to disagree about this, I guess.

Well, Jaquemart essentially has that as it's central conceit, and was at least thought highly enough of by Phil that he yoinked (with permission) the shadow play choreography from it for Ohtori Academy Spring Semester Blues, back in the day.

It and SoS are the two grand Utena epics of the early oughts, and I've always thought of them as mirror images of each other; SoS has all the cool swordfights and heroics and larger-than-life awesomeness, and Jaquemart had all the existentialism and biting emotional issues and Anthy being weird and inhuman and Saionji slapping people.

But now I've digressed.

>I mean, I'm not
>necessarily a my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy when it comes to the
>arts, but, bleh.

Hmm. I'm gonna try and express my tastes without sounding braggy and holier than thou:

On my shelf next to me right now are a complete set of Atomic Robo GNs, well-thumbed. But next to them is an equally well-thumbed "Watchmen." Lying on it's side on top of them is a copy of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," which I just love to death, and on top of THAT is David Weber's "A Short, Victorious War," my favorite Honor Harrington novel.

The point is that, while I love me some pulp, I also love me some darkness. It's like, moral ambiguity? Questionable protagonists? Broken, wasted shells of human beings? Sign me up!

And then, when I'm done with that, I'll be equally thrilled to read a story about robots that bunch zombies. Punch them right in the head! Stupid zombies.

I may be strange.

-Merc
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