Valve-release

I worry about being too Pollyannaish about COVID-19 because I have been overly optimistic about events in the past and yes, that does appear to be a serious illness which looks set to kill many thousands of people more. And I'm mostly telling people don't worry so much, this is not the end of the world, your concern and precautions should be only what you will be taking with regards the flu.

But I do believe that, and I don't encounter worries that invite a more moderated response. Instead it's all "they shouldn't be allowed to come here" and "I'm scared to go out because there's lots of Asian tourists in this town". So I feel like there's no room for being measured or talking about research and details, or anything really, aside from trying to beat back misinformation and racism.

Coarse and rough

Although I haven't seen them, it thrills me that there are so many different adaptations and attempted adaptations of Dune they are referred to by the names of the people behind them. I feel like this forces us to treat them as interpretations and not force any single one to bear the burden of being the definitive version.

It won't happen, but I'd love to see a profusion of such alternate takes on adapted and reimagined stories from other sources too, and blunt singularity away. Of course I would love to see numerous new stories too and that's one reason it won't be happening soon, with not enough resources made available to support both. Although I think tepid franchising and restrictive copyright and licensing are the bigger obstacles there, adapting text to film does seem to be in a boom at the moment. Every year I worry that's about to burst, and nearly as much that the adaptations we get are unsatisfactory.

No pleasing, for now.