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Catching up, clearing out - books, movies, comics and books
Righto, here are some things I have meant to mention over the past month or so but let slip away for various reasons. If you do not happen to enjoy reading my rambling self-indulgent thoughts on storyish things, now is your chance to escape.
We start dully, with my acquisition of The Children of Hurin, which I did not even know was happening until suddenly people were reading it. At least one review has complained of extensive prefaces and numerous footnotes where they wish for story; I do not expect to be bothered by that. This is a story which was never finished and the history of a tale's composition is so far always fascinating to me.
I also - there was a birthday related coupon involved - acquired a copy of The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds. So far I have nearly every story he has published, the last few yet to be read. Naturally I am looking forward to reading them. Would you believe it is difficult to talk about books one has not yet read? It is so.
Although those were all the books I was budgeted for that day, I found myself enchanted with a surprise volume of Edgar Allan Poe's work. The cover was beautiful, the pages with gilt edges. It even had a little fabric bookmark installed. And it was only $20 (this is cheap for a hardcover, the price of a paperback. were Poe in copyright this would have costed no less than $32 [regular hardback price] or even $40 or more). But I was strong and left the store without it. Besides, this was Angus & Robertson and I am supposed to be boycotting them (A&R gift vouchers are not accepted at Galaxy, I suspect).
Ha! I went back and bought it less than a week later. What was most frustrating was that, little more than a year previous, I had asked at this same store for a volume of Poe's work to give to a friend for her birthday and they told me they had none. She enjoyed 'The Raven' enough to photocopy it from a library book, you see.
Although I had really spent more money than I should have, the next week I visited Borders to collect the latest Discworld novel, Making Money. Some of you may not be surprised that I would do so. Regardless, Borders sneakily provided me with a pair of discount vouchers, one of which required phoning them and completing a customer satisfaction survey. Cheaper books, I am bribed.
At first I thought this cover garish, moreso than most Discworld books, until I saw the cover people in the U.S.A. are tricked into buying and remembered my good fortune.
Phase one complete. Phase two of my plans for the day involved toddling over to the cinema and seeing Stardust. It was amusing to see cardboard displays already going up for the next Neil Gaiman-involved film, Beowulf [trailer etc. here - why does he do the Sparta thing?].
That was fun. It was a delight to see what I call 'real magic' on screen. The Lord of the Rings is not very magical, really, and what there is, is subtle to the point of near invisibility (the wizard duel at the beginning was an extravagant addition). But that is a different movie. This one was very fairy tale which is just as well since that is what it is supposed to be. Not sure what to say other than it was a standard feeling plot of destined youth coming of age and romance, executed charmingly. The happy ending was reportedly added for the film.
I remember reading before seeing it that the portrayal of women was not good. I think I have to agree. The female characters in the story seem to only exist and have motivations in relation to the male characters. Except for the witches, I suppose, who have the motive of stealing youth and power from a younger woman. I don't know if that counts as use of a trope or a stereotype or both.
There was indeed as reported a male character transformed into a woman. The source I heard this from seemed pleased that he was given a larger role and more lines. I was less pleased because the one line he was given in female form used a male voice for comedic effect.
I was rather confused about whether the pirate captain was meant to be gay or a crossdresser or transsexual but perhaps it does not matter. I think on balance I liked that but there was always doubt in my mind that the filmmakers had gay confused with crossdresser/wants to be a woman/does not matter.
This seems pretty negative, I think, but I enjoyed it.
There was a preview for The Golden Compass before the film. It seemed fairly deviating from the story and not so interesting but possibly that is because it has been a while since I read it and also that I grow less fond of the story as time passes.
Lately I have been reading/catching up on a few webcomics I had bookmarked. Still on 'A'. I thought Altermeta and thought it had plenty of potential. Good art, distinct characters and better written than the past few comics I have been reading. Unfortunately it seemed unable to hold a plot for more than a few strips before degenerating into wild confusion interspersed with lots of filler.
Seems like there was a long hiatus too, after which the comic was rebooted with a new storyline. That one has barely started with very infrequent updates so I do not know how good it is yet, but my initial impressions are the original plot was better.
Many of you have probably noticed the next comic I went on to read was Arthur, King of Time and Space (AKOTAS for short). The plot, simply(?), is that when Arthur drew forth the Sword in the Stone, Excalibur's magic was so great as to make him King Arthur in all dimensions and times, so now the strip semi-frequently jumps between arcs. It is all explained rather directly in the first few strips.
Also, here are Paul Gadzikowski's own words from the Cast/FAQ page:
The main arcs are the fairytale arc, a basically faithful retelling of the story, the contemporary arc in which Arthur and co. live in the modern day and attend school as teenagers and the space arc, in which Arthur is captain of the High Kingship Excalibur. There are other arcs, like the one in which they take the place of the characters of M*A*S*H (::love::) and the Western arc which is, well, a Western.
It seems fairly metafictional, with some of the characters having their own webcomics (in the contemporary arc), jokes which span multiple arcs or require foreknowledge to be funny (or knowledge of the other arcs, which is usually denied to the characters themselves). Frequently the characters step out from the comic to address the readers on some topic or acknowledge deviations from the original myths.
At first I thought the art rather bad but have come to appreciate it quite a bit and now rather like it. It is definitely this comic's style. Also rather impressive that it is updated seven days a week and has not missed a single update since beginning in 2004.
Now is the time to jump on board - there are another 23 years of AKOTAS to come! Heh. I do happen to find it rather brilliantly funny on the daily gag front, although there are also a fair few jokes I do not get. Usually, I think, because of the age difference between myself and Paul Gadzikowski.
It is also engrossing on the ongoing plot level, plus I find myself learning more about Arthurian myths in the processing, so that I now am seeing much more clearly what people mean when they were saying Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time contained strong elements drawn from these sources. Plus where many other fantasy stories draw from.
Now that I am caught up with Arthur, King of Time and Space I have after a break moved on to the next comic on my list, Avalon. Too early to give thoughts on yet, but a weekdaily archive extending back to 1999 is quite daunting, even if there was a break at some point.
Remember those Borders vouchers I mentioned earlier? Today fell in the narrow window in which one of those could be redeemed, so after our library excursion (more about that in a different post maybe, although perhaps not as it was not interesting in a way that carries well secondhand) I stopped by to see what I could find.
I wanted to make get books I would otherwise want but pass over for being too expensive. I considered an omnibus of Joe Haldeman's Forever novels (beautifully covered in red), a volume of all Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, an omnibus of Stephen Donaldson's Mordant's Need, or Watchmen, but those did not seem quite sufficient (or were cheap enough not to merit special consideration). Also considered a signed and numbered hardcover of Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing and rough-cut hardback omnibuses of Terry Brooks' Heritage of Shannara or Voyage of the Jerle Shannara but I already have less fancy copies of those and in the later case at least I considered it only for the fanciness.
Ah, this is turning into third rate book porn. Anyway, what I went with was a copy of George R. R. Martin's Dreamsongs (a collection of his short fiction and, I think essays) and a copy of Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.
I did look around for and find a copy of Elements of Style as recommended to me by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaoticset but not anything writing-helpful recommended by coniferous_you, alas. Perhaps another time when I have not broked myself. I also searched out Borders' supply of journals since soltice has gotten me into paper journaling. Unfortunately what they had was almost all too small and filled with wide-spaced lines which reminded me of primary school. I may have to go with unlined paper in future.
And that I think is that.
We start dully, with my acquisition of The Children of Hurin, which I did not even know was happening until suddenly people were reading it. At least one review has complained of extensive prefaces and numerous footnotes where they wish for story; I do not expect to be bothered by that. This is a story which was never finished and the history of a tale's composition is so far always fascinating to me.
I also - there was a birthday related coupon involved - acquired a copy of The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds. So far I have nearly every story he has published, the last few yet to be read. Naturally I am looking forward to reading them. Would you believe it is difficult to talk about books one has not yet read? It is so.
Although those were all the books I was budgeted for that day, I found myself enchanted with a surprise volume of Edgar Allan Poe's work. The cover was beautiful, the pages with gilt edges. It even had a little fabric bookmark installed. And it was only $20 (this is cheap for a hardcover, the price of a paperback. were Poe in copyright this would have costed no less than $32 [regular hardback price] or even $40 or more). But I was strong and left the store without it. Besides, this was Angus & Robertson and I am supposed to be boycotting them (A&R gift vouchers are not accepted at Galaxy, I suspect).
Ha! I went back and bought it less than a week later. What was most frustrating was that, little more than a year previous, I had asked at this same store for a volume of Poe's work to give to a friend for her birthday and they told me they had none. She enjoyed 'The Raven' enough to photocopy it from a library book, you see.
Although I had really spent more money than I should have, the next week I visited Borders to collect the latest Discworld novel, Making Money. Some of you may not be surprised that I would do so. Regardless, Borders sneakily provided me with a pair of discount vouchers, one of which required phoning them and completing a customer satisfaction survey. Cheaper books, I am bribed.
At first I thought this cover garish, moreso than most Discworld books, until I saw the cover people in the U.S.A. are tricked into buying and remembered my good fortune.
Phase one complete. Phase two of my plans for the day involved toddling over to the cinema and seeing Stardust. It was amusing to see cardboard displays already going up for the next Neil Gaiman-involved film, Beowulf [trailer etc. here - why does he do the Sparta thing?].
That was fun. It was a delight to see what I call 'real magic' on screen. The Lord of the Rings is not very magical, really, and what there is, is subtle to the point of near invisibility (the wizard duel at the beginning was an extravagant addition). But that is a different movie. This one was very fairy tale which is just as well since that is what it is supposed to be. Not sure what to say other than it was a standard feeling plot of destined youth coming of age and romance, executed charmingly. The happy ending was reportedly added for the film.
I remember reading before seeing it that the portrayal of women was not good. I think I have to agree. The female characters in the story seem to only exist and have motivations in relation to the male characters. Except for the witches, I suppose, who have the motive of stealing youth and power from a younger woman. I don't know if that counts as use of a trope or a stereotype or both.
There was indeed as reported a male character transformed into a woman. The source I heard this from seemed pleased that he was given a larger role and more lines. I was less pleased because the one line he was given in female form used a male voice for comedic effect.
I was rather confused about whether the pirate captain was meant to be gay or a crossdresser or transsexual but perhaps it does not matter. I think on balance I liked that but there was always doubt in my mind that the filmmakers had gay confused with crossdresser/wants to be a woman/does not matter.
This seems pretty negative, I think, but I enjoyed it.
There was a preview for The Golden Compass before the film. It seemed fairly deviating from the story and not so interesting but possibly that is because it has been a while since I read it and also that I grow less fond of the story as time passes.
Lately I have been reading/catching up on a few webcomics I had bookmarked. Still on 'A'. I thought Altermeta and thought it had plenty of potential. Good art, distinct characters and better written than the past few comics I have been reading. Unfortunately it seemed unable to hold a plot for more than a few strips before degenerating into wild confusion interspersed with lots of filler.
Seems like there was a long hiatus too, after which the comic was rebooted with a new storyline. That one has barely started with very infrequent updates so I do not know how good it is yet, but my initial impressions are the original plot was better.
Many of you have probably noticed the next comic I went on to read was Arthur, King of Time and Space (AKOTAS for short). The plot, simply(?), is that when Arthur drew forth the Sword in the Stone, Excalibur's magic was so great as to make him King Arthur in all dimensions and times, so now the strip semi-frequently jumps between arcs. It is all explained rather directly in the first few strips.
Also, here are Paul Gadzikowski's own words from the Cast/FAQ page:
What's in the future for Arthur, King of Time and Space? I intend to tell the story of King Arthur in real time in daily panel gags over twenty-five years, less as a novel than as a journal, as if it were Arthur drawing one of those cartoonist-and-his-pals webcomics. It's going to get more "adult-oriented" as it goes along, I do know that, and so do you if you know the legend. But not graphically so, as I don't need some parents' watch organization suing me because a fourth grader found graphic cartoon sex on my site while researching King Arthur for class. There's been some blood and language though.
The main arcs are the fairytale arc, a basically faithful retelling of the story, the contemporary arc in which Arthur and co. live in the modern day and attend school as teenagers and the space arc, in which Arthur is captain of the High Kingship Excalibur. There are other arcs, like the one in which they take the place of the characters of M*A*S*H (::love::) and the Western arc which is, well, a Western.
It seems fairly metafictional, with some of the characters having their own webcomics (in the contemporary arc), jokes which span multiple arcs or require foreknowledge to be funny (or knowledge of the other arcs, which is usually denied to the characters themselves). Frequently the characters step out from the comic to address the readers on some topic or acknowledge deviations from the original myths.
At first I thought the art rather bad but have come to appreciate it quite a bit and now rather like it. It is definitely this comic's style. Also rather impressive that it is updated seven days a week and has not missed a single update since beginning in 2004.
Now is the time to jump on board - there are another 23 years of AKOTAS to come! Heh. I do happen to find it rather brilliantly funny on the daily gag front, although there are also a fair few jokes I do not get. Usually, I think, because of the age difference between myself and Paul Gadzikowski.
It is also engrossing on the ongoing plot level, plus I find myself learning more about Arthurian myths in the processing, so that I now am seeing much more clearly what people mean when they were saying Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time contained strong elements drawn from these sources. Plus where many other fantasy stories draw from.
Now that I am caught up with Arthur, King of Time and Space I have after a break moved on to the next comic on my list, Avalon. Too early to give thoughts on yet, but a weekdaily archive extending back to 1999 is quite daunting, even if there was a break at some point.
Remember those Borders vouchers I mentioned earlier? Today fell in the narrow window in which one of those could be redeemed, so after our library excursion (more about that in a different post maybe, although perhaps not as it was not interesting in a way that carries well secondhand) I stopped by to see what I could find.
I wanted to make get books I would otherwise want but pass over for being too expensive. I considered an omnibus of Joe Haldeman's Forever novels (beautifully covered in red), a volume of all Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, an omnibus of Stephen Donaldson's Mordant's Need, or Watchmen, but those did not seem quite sufficient (or were cheap enough not to merit special consideration). Also considered a signed and numbered hardcover of Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing and rough-cut hardback omnibuses of Terry Brooks' Heritage of Shannara or Voyage of the Jerle Shannara but I already have less fancy copies of those and in the later case at least I considered it only for the fanciness.
Ah, this is turning into third rate book porn. Anyway, what I went with was a copy of George R. R. Martin's Dreamsongs (a collection of his short fiction and, I think essays) and a copy of Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.
I did look around for and find a copy of Elements of Style as recommended to me by
chaoticset but not anything writing-helpful recommended by coniferous_you, alas. Perhaps another time when I have not broked myself. I also searched out Borders' supply of journals since soltice has gotten me into paper journaling. Unfortunately what they had was almost all too small and filled with wide-spaced lines which reminded me of primary school. I may have to go with unlined paper in future.And that I think is that.
no subject
You are very read-y :D
I wish I had books to recommend :(