Recent stuff I've seen and read
A little post of things I have read and seen lately:
Forever, by Maggie Stiefvater.
I started reading Forever only a couple of days before an employee at Swedish zoo Kolmården was killed by wolves, so that was a weird disconnect to have, reading the book.
It's only a year or two since I read the first two books, but I discovered that I had forgotten nearly everything, up to and including the names of the characters. Hence, a lot of my reactions were "Oh, right!" as I recalled yet another forgotten item.
The only character who instantly came rushing back to me when I saw her chapter heading was Isabel, and I was most pleased to regain that memory. Though I of course remembered the existance of Sam and Grace, it took me much longer to recall all the details - and I feel that this is a problem with those two in general. While they're certainly nice, likeable characters, and I don't want to bash them in any way, they're just not memorable. Sam has the sensitive artist boy going for him, at least, while Grace almost entirely lacks any defining characteristics. (Or else they're all in the first two books and I can't remember them.) I had a niggling feeling that the author might kill off a main character towards the end of the book, and the thought didn't really bother me - not until it seemed that it might be Cole.
Because Cole and Isabel are, of course, a very different couple, starting with how they don't even like each other half the time. Isabel doesn't much like anyone - she's prickly, arrogant, frank to the point of cruelty, and by far my favourite character in the series. I love how the similarities between her and her father are made absolutely overt. Tom Culpeper is cast as the main villain, and having Isabel as both his foe and a chip of the old block serves to make her more complex, and also to humanize him. We are reminded that he is, after all, a father who has just lost his son and believes that the wolves are to blame, that his bullheaded determination could actually be a positive if it weren't so misguided.
Cole is equally arrogant, a rock-star and a would-be scientist, intelligent, self-destructive, cynical, and roughly on the same page as Isabel. Both of them get along with Sam and Grace better than they get along with each other (because Sam and Grace are a lot easier to get along with), but they grok each other on an entirely different level, and theirs is, ultimately, the story I got invested in. Which makes the afterword's comment, about how a love like Sam and Grace's is completely possible, seem quite funny, since my parents have more sparks flying than Sam and Grace.
I see I ended up bashing them after all. Damn it. I'll buy them dinner and make it up to them. (Isabel and Cole are not invited - I don't trust them not to get drunk and puke in the sofa.)
***
I have also watched all of The Big Bang Theory, which remains a source of great nerdish joy, even though the gender sterotypes quite often are facepalm-worthy. (Which, considering that Chuck Lorre also unleashed Two and a Half Men into the world, isn't that strange.)
I have grown to care about all the characters, even Howard, who improved greatly in the later seasons. I like that, when the other characters went "Haha, your wife will earn more money than you!" he was ultimately okay with that, even with the idea of being the primary caretaker of future children. Bravo, Howard.
I also like that the presence of Bernadette meant that we got a more nuanced portrayal of his mother (still without seeing her). It was more acknowledged, as time went on, that anyone would be shrill after having to wait on Howard hand and foot.
Though I think for me, the most interesting of the mothers (and still admitting that the show's portrayal of mothers is a bit Not Good) is Sheldon's. As Sheldon puts it, "She is a kind, loving, religiously fanatical right-wing Texan with a slightly out-of-scale head and a mild Dr. Pepper addiction." It's not very common for TV moms or for religious characters to be simultaneously so sweet and caring, and so fundamentally wrong. It makes her quite a joy to watch. (I'm not nuts about the way her casual racism was handled, though, where she got to say a number of racist things and then the others would go "um, no." It felt a bit like "tee-hee, that's racist!" It's different with Howard and Raj, because it's clear that they do care a lot about each other, so any misstep is more easily forgiven.)
Also, since the show has quite a bit of gay innuendo without daring to actually go there, I have to ask, where's the slash? I haven't been able to dig much out of ao3, now that the filters are off. Amy needs a girlfriend yesterday. While I'm appreciative of the fact that Sheldon's asexuality is consistent throughout the series, it leaves Amy so very sexually frustrated, and while that might be presented as a hilarious situation I don't find it to be one. I'm sure if Penny got drunk and ended up in bed with her, she'd regret it afterwards, but it could still happen. Or there's always Lakshmi. Or Leslie Winkle, even, who I'm sure would be equal-opportunity when it comes to curing her itch. Get on it!
It's easier to understand the lack of slash for Raj (though really, show, he needs a proper love interest too, of either sex), because the most natural pairing for him is with Howard, and Howard is taken. Even so, I'd expect more of it to show up. Certainly more than Sheldon/Penny, which seems to be all over the place and which I just don't get on any level.
So, you know, if you have any fics to rec (preferably fem- or boyslash, but any fics, really), please bring them along!
***
Latest thing I saw was Captain America yesterday, which, okay, it's not the film's fault. In retrospect, it obviously had to be an origin story, and CA's origins are in the 1940s. It's just that what I wanted to see was Steve trying to make sense of 21st century life, and so I got a bit disappointed.
It could of course be argued that the fish out of water storyline was all over Thor, and that I should really be satisfied with that. But 1) when it comes to these kinds of storylines (if well done), too much is not enough for me, and 2) their situation isn't really the same. Thor is trying to get back to his own world = comedy. Steve knows that his world is irrevocably lost to him = tragedy. I mean, it could still be funny, but it has an undertone of tragedy that, for me, could make a difference.
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's cliché, but I don't think that "fighting a deformed Germanic megalomaniac who's worse than Hitler" is any less clichéd. I quite liked the first half of the film, but I have to admit, by the time we got to the showdown I was busy reading articles in other windows. Showdowns are boring.
Seriously, I need to find some genre of film which gets me all the weird superpower/alien/fantasy/spy/whatever stuff but spares me the action scenes. TV usually manages just fine - due to smaller budgets, I suppose - but films can't seem to help throwing money at the screen in the form of pointless battles.
Also, I need fish out of water fics for Steve. I've read
musesfool's Six Meetings Before Lunch, which is Steve and Thor experiencing New York together, and it was lovely, but if you know more like that, it'd be nice.
It's funny, I've now seen four Avenger movies, and the only one I enjoyed all the way through was Thor, and yet I keep wanting fic, and mostly for the other characters.
Although I must admit that my favourite Avengers fic so far is a Thor fic, namely astolat's Moral of the Story, which is the filthiest version of the Trym myth I ever saw, to hilarious effect, especially since Thor has no idea that his values are not human values. (Her Hug Therapy uses the same values dissonance, also to great effect.)
...This brought to mind a work story, but since I habitually flock those I'll save it for a later post.
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/580927.html and has
comments there.
Forever, by Maggie Stiefvater.
I started reading Forever only a couple of days before an employee at Swedish zoo Kolmården was killed by wolves, so that was a weird disconnect to have, reading the book.
It's only a year or two since I read the first two books, but I discovered that I had forgotten nearly everything, up to and including the names of the characters. Hence, a lot of my reactions were "Oh, right!" as I recalled yet another forgotten item.
The only character who instantly came rushing back to me when I saw her chapter heading was Isabel, and I was most pleased to regain that memory. Though I of course remembered the existance of Sam and Grace, it took me much longer to recall all the details - and I feel that this is a problem with those two in general. While they're certainly nice, likeable characters, and I don't want to bash them in any way, they're just not memorable. Sam has the sensitive artist boy going for him, at least, while Grace almost entirely lacks any defining characteristics. (Or else they're all in the first two books and I can't remember them.) I had a niggling feeling that the author might kill off a main character towards the end of the book, and the thought didn't really bother me - not until it seemed that it might be Cole.
Because Cole and Isabel are, of course, a very different couple, starting with how they don't even like each other half the time. Isabel doesn't much like anyone - she's prickly, arrogant, frank to the point of cruelty, and by far my favourite character in the series. I love how the similarities between her and her father are made absolutely overt. Tom Culpeper is cast as the main villain, and having Isabel as both his foe and a chip of the old block serves to make her more complex, and also to humanize him. We are reminded that he is, after all, a father who has just lost his son and believes that the wolves are to blame, that his bullheaded determination could actually be a positive if it weren't so misguided.
Cole is equally arrogant, a rock-star and a would-be scientist, intelligent, self-destructive, cynical, and roughly on the same page as Isabel. Both of them get along with Sam and Grace better than they get along with each other (because Sam and Grace are a lot easier to get along with), but they grok each other on an entirely different level, and theirs is, ultimately, the story I got invested in. Which makes the afterword's comment, about how a love like Sam and Grace's is completely possible, seem quite funny, since my parents have more sparks flying than Sam and Grace.
I see I ended up bashing them after all. Damn it. I'll buy them dinner and make it up to them. (Isabel and Cole are not invited - I don't trust them not to get drunk and puke in the sofa.)
***
I have also watched all of The Big Bang Theory, which remains a source of great nerdish joy, even though the gender sterotypes quite often are facepalm-worthy. (Which, considering that Chuck Lorre also unleashed Two and a Half Men into the world, isn't that strange.)
I have grown to care about all the characters, even Howard, who improved greatly in the later seasons. I like that, when the other characters went "Haha, your wife will earn more money than you!" he was ultimately okay with that, even with the idea of being the primary caretaker of future children. Bravo, Howard.
I also like that the presence of Bernadette meant that we got a more nuanced portrayal of his mother (still without seeing her). It was more acknowledged, as time went on, that anyone would be shrill after having to wait on Howard hand and foot.
Though I think for me, the most interesting of the mothers (and still admitting that the show's portrayal of mothers is a bit Not Good) is Sheldon's. As Sheldon puts it, "She is a kind, loving, religiously fanatical right-wing Texan with a slightly out-of-scale head and a mild Dr. Pepper addiction." It's not very common for TV moms or for religious characters to be simultaneously so sweet and caring, and so fundamentally wrong. It makes her quite a joy to watch. (I'm not nuts about the way her casual racism was handled, though, where she got to say a number of racist things and then the others would go "um, no." It felt a bit like "tee-hee, that's racist!" It's different with Howard and Raj, because it's clear that they do care a lot about each other, so any misstep is more easily forgiven.)
Also, since the show has quite a bit of gay innuendo without daring to actually go there, I have to ask, where's the slash? I haven't been able to dig much out of ao3, now that the filters are off. Amy needs a girlfriend yesterday. While I'm appreciative of the fact that Sheldon's asexuality is consistent throughout the series, it leaves Amy so very sexually frustrated, and while that might be presented as a hilarious situation I don't find it to be one. I'm sure if Penny got drunk and ended up in bed with her, she'd regret it afterwards, but it could still happen. Or there's always Lakshmi. Or Leslie Winkle, even, who I'm sure would be equal-opportunity when it comes to curing her itch. Get on it!
It's easier to understand the lack of slash for Raj (though really, show, he needs a proper love interest too, of either sex), because the most natural pairing for him is with Howard, and Howard is taken. Even so, I'd expect more of it to show up. Certainly more than Sheldon/Penny, which seems to be all over the place and which I just don't get on any level.
So, you know, if you have any fics to rec (preferably fem- or boyslash, but any fics, really), please bring them along!
***
Latest thing I saw was Captain America yesterday, which, okay, it's not the film's fault. In retrospect, it obviously had to be an origin story, and CA's origins are in the 1940s. It's just that what I wanted to see was Steve trying to make sense of 21st century life, and so I got a bit disappointed.
It could of course be argued that the fish out of water storyline was all over Thor, and that I should really be satisfied with that. But 1) when it comes to these kinds of storylines (if well done), too much is not enough for me, and 2) their situation isn't really the same. Thor is trying to get back to his own world = comedy. Steve knows that his world is irrevocably lost to him = tragedy. I mean, it could still be funny, but it has an undertone of tragedy that, for me, could make a difference.
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's cliché, but I don't think that "fighting a deformed Germanic megalomaniac who's worse than Hitler" is any less clichéd. I quite liked the first half of the film, but I have to admit, by the time we got to the showdown I was busy reading articles in other windows. Showdowns are boring.
Seriously, I need to find some genre of film which gets me all the weird superpower/alien/fantasy/spy/whatever stuff but spares me the action scenes. TV usually manages just fine - due to smaller budgets, I suppose - but films can't seem to help throwing money at the screen in the form of pointless battles.
Also, I need fish out of water fics for Steve. I've read
musesfool's Six Meetings Before Lunch, which is Steve and Thor experiencing New York together, and it was lovely, but if you know more like that, it'd be nice.
It's funny, I've now seen four Avenger movies, and the only one I enjoyed all the way through was Thor, and yet I keep wanting fic, and mostly for the other characters.
Although I must admit that my favourite Avengers fic so far is a Thor fic, namely astolat's Moral of the Story, which is the filthiest version of the Trym myth I ever saw, to hilarious effect, especially since Thor has no idea that his values are not human values. (Her Hug Therapy uses the same values dissonance, also to great effect.)
...This brought to mind a work story, but since I habitually flock those I'll save it for a later post.
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/580927.html and has
comments there.