An Irrelevancy Arrived At Via Google

First noticed a few weeks ago that on the website of a POW-MIA organization is a review of a book about Soviet labor camps.

The accounts of punishment, torture, rape, enforced prostitution (which may be an extension of the same thing), self-mutilation when deranged, the ‘goners’ who were left to die of disease or starvation and the madness I leave to readers with the stomach to digest such details.

Not relevant in the scheme of wondering about Goners. But I had noticed it, of course, because I was searching for pages which include both “mia” and “goners” as terms. And certainly it seems to qualify as horrific.

Most People Don’t Get To See

“It’s not nihilistic, but there’s a very ugly side to humanity going on in it,” Whedon has said (mp3). “It takes place in the modern world, it’s just a part of the modern world most people don’t get to see.”

At this point I’m most interested to see just what Whedon means by this. That makes it sound like particular bits and pieces—”Will you notice her?”—may have more than a passing relation to some aspect of our world that most people ignore, and not necessarily to weird fantasy elements (although it may be that, too).

Given, for example, Whedon’s commitment to an organization such as Equality Now, I wonder how much of Goners‘ world might reflect societally- or culturally-neglected women or girls.

It Takes Place Now

Part of the aftermath of finally being able to register for an account on the Goners Movie Fan Forum, in fact, is the site you’re reading right now.

I’ve had a similar site, about a different movie, since sometime last year. Now, there’s this. And this requires just a couple of remarks, but not particularly interesting ones.

First, the strange-looking circular symbol which appears in the header graphic here is lifted from the splash page of the Joss Whedon’s Goners site. As of this particular moment, I do not believe anyone actually knows just what the symbol is meant to depict, or if it somehow (at least in the mind of its designer) is intended to graphically represent some aspect of the movie, or if it’s purely intended just to drive us all crazy.

I have nonetheless incorporated it into the design here. If nothing else, I’m drawn to the possibility that it could at least come to represent people like me, who — far too early to be considered normal — already are gearing up for the eventual Goners green-lighting.

Second, you might perhaps recognize that the woman in the header image in fact is someone from that other site, for another movie, which I mentioned above. That should not be taken to suggest that said person in any way is involved in Goners (although it has been suggested that she ought to be). It’s simply an image I used when trying to design this site, originally intended to be a placeholder, and it just sort of stuck.

Update: June’s redesign of this site has eliminated the first peculiar element originally discussed in this item.

Update: The second element eventually went away as well.