one little story

[kaigou]

Come to think of it, there are little stories in everything, aren't there, if you think about little stories as containing advice (that may or may not have use in the real world, or your world) that was considered useful to someone, somewhere.

Like for instance, the fact that my sibling and I both wear watches with the face on the inside of our wrist (that is, not the back of the hand). I rarely wear a watch these days, but I wore one regularly for years, and face was inside the wrist. The reason isn't only because that's the way our father always wore his watch -- our mother wears her as most people do, on the non-writing hand with the dial-face across the back of the wrist -- but because of why our father wears his watch as he does.

When he was fresh out of OCS, one of the upper-level officers on base was a veteran of the Korean conflict, and had spent significant on the front lines. He gave my father the advice to wear his watch on the inside because that way, when you go to check the time, you're flipping your hand outward (from palm sideways to palm up) -- and it won't catch a reflection from the sun to alert any enemies. Although my father never saw frontline time in Vietnam, he still took the advice to heart and ever after, wore his watch with the dial-face on the inside of his wrist. (It had saved that officer's life several times, and as an officer in wartime himself, my dad said he saw no reason to tempt fate.)

Try it: with your hand at your side, raise your arm like you're going to check your watch, and notice how the swing of arm + dial-face means any light would hit the dial-face and create a quick glare, and glare is the indication of reflection. Do it again, but this time check as though you're looking at the inside of your wrist, and there's no glare. (When I spent hours on the water, this also incidentally saved me from repeatedly flashing sun in my stroke's eyes.)

It's possible that most advanced watches these days come with some kind of anti-glare that prevents such reflection, and maybe eventually there'd be no reason at all to care one way or another whether the dial-face is inside, outside, or upside-down. It'd become a little story with no apparent usefulness other than trivia about my father's former commanding officer, but it's a military-style little story all the same.

Honestly, when you start thinking in terms of little stories, you realize they're everywhere. Chimamanda Adichie warns against the 'danger of the single story' (link goes to video of Adichie's speech; if you haven't watched it, you should) and I think an unseen damage in the single story is that its creation is simultaneously a destruction of the little stories.

More shortly, once I finish watching Skycrawlers and manage to figure out why Japanese animators are so freaking fascinated with emmelman turns.

Comments

[ramenkuri.livejournal.com]

fascinating.

Oh, I do hope you feel like analyzing Sky Crawlers. I found some discussion online that was helpful but it's still quite the puzzling yet fascinating movie for me. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

[kaigou]

The frustrating part about Sky Crawlers is that it's based on one book out of a four or five book series (none of which, IIRC, have been translated into english) -- so it's like it starts the story but then... doesn't keep going. That means it doesn't really have any solid resolution, not in the sense of what we'd expect from a standalone movie. As for the rest of it, well... it's a lot of the same tropes as what you can find in Last Exile, or even Battle Royale -- the notion of war as entertainment, and breeding/creating humans solely for the purposes of other people's entertainment.

[rogue53]

And I wear mine the same way because my mom taught me to take pulses and with it on the inside, you're holding your arm correctly. So, another little story!

[kaigou]

Ahah! Nurse-heritage instead of military-heritage!

[fairjennet.livejournal.com]

Huh. My grandfather was a WWII vet, and he wore his watch the same way. He never would tell me why.

[kaigou]

Hmmm. Makes you wonder what story is hiding in there -- though your history is like many people I know (including my own family) where the experiences of war were never discussed upon returning home. Not that I want to know all the ins and outs of such a horrific experience, but still, sometimes I wish I knew at least a little, to better understand what family members went through.

[l-clausewitz.livejournal.com]

Funny. Back when I wore a watch regularly (i.e. before I lost it), I usually wore it on my belt because that way I didn't have to take it off every time I washed my hands and forearms in the ritual ablutions before a daily prayer. Pretty handy for a Muslim. Very few people do it even here, though; I've only ever met two guys who have the same habit.

BTW, I think you meant the Immelmann in that last sentence. I don't know why either; maybe it's one of the maneuvers that can be most easily made into a visual spectacle on a screen with limited dimensions?

[kaigou]

Sounds to me that what you need is a POCKETWATCH. With cover! That hangs on a chain, and you pull it out, flip it open, and tuck it away. Very stylish, but then you'd need a fancy coat to go with it. How're your tailoring skills these days?

emmelman, immelman, doh. I think you're right about the visual spectacle, although it cracks me up, seeing how it's a move you can't really do once you get up to jet-speed, at least not for any use in a dog fight -- the g-forces are too severe at jet-speed. Though I did once spend half a day in a field in Sweden watching a jet do practice maneuvers overhead -- including barrel rolls, severe climbs, and other crazy maneuvers, including multiple sonic booms. (My sister and I are such geeks: every sonic boom made us do little cheers in between taking pictures, and I'm quite certain the pilot hung around longer just to show off.)