(no subject)
Wow, a few minutes to sit down and still be awake enough to think. Probably because Trevor is sick. :P Not very- he's got a headache, sore throat, and low-grade fever, and I'm 90% sure it's just a virus. I hope so, anyway. If it was something an antibiotic would take care of, he would have spiked a higher fever by now. And now we're sitting and watching the movie version of Les Mis. (Which sounds crazy, but my kids have discovered the musical soundtrack. Toby actually ended up reading the abridged version, and we're on a Les Mis kick. I figured the movie might help Trevor have the slightest idea of what the heck is going on. If he isn't bored out of his mind- I can't tell.) But the singing in the movie does suffer a bit when watching within 24 hours of listening to the soundtrack.
Other fannish stuff...
Much to my sadness, I don't seem to be participating much anymore. I tried to do shipswap, and I even got a good prompt, but I just couldn't manage to write anything. I wanted to do remix, but I was afraid I'd have to default again. And when I looked at the signups... the two people who'd signed up with BSG were people that I'd remixed before, one several times. Which, I love their writing, but I don't think they've written much new in that fandom, and given that I've already done it several times...
I also am not running bsg_remix this year. I just can't get motivated. If anyone wants to run it, please, let me know- you are more than welcome to do so!!!! I just can't manage it.
Also, my computer is dying, and the kids' computer doesn't have Office on it yet. :P So writing is difficult based on that.
I haven't been keeping up with much in terms of media. I haven't made it to see the new Avengers movie- I wanted to, and was going to take Toby, but then he got in big trouble for lying, and part of his punishment was no Avengers at the movie theater. Which worked well- he was NOT happy about that- but it does mean I don't get to see it. (There's not a whole lot of other time.) Needless to say, haven't seen Mad Max either.
I have been watching Game of Thrones. Yes, I do get a little tired of it being "who's going to get raped this week?", but I'm still intrigued enough to watch. I really loved Dany and Tyrion finally meeting and talking last week, and I can't wait to see where that plotline goes. I like Dany, but I feel like her plotline has gotten down in the books. (Hell, I feel like the books have gotten bogged down in the books.) The show's touched on a lot of Dany's mistakes very well, and now we're moving on. Thank you.
I would like Ramsey off my screen. I've never been into Theon's storyline- torture's a big squick of mine- and if you're not into torture or Ramsey's sadistic nature, there's not a lot else going on there. The actor is doing a fine job- it's not his fault- but his character just is not interesting to me. I am interested to see how Sansa can make use of Theon and where that has potential to go.
The Wall interests me more than it does in the book. Although I would very, very much like fic where Edd is Bronn's little brother please. Although I don't read much GoT fic, but hey. It would be interesting, and the actors look a lot alike. Which is probably the most novel or interesting thing I have to say about GoT.
Even reading has slowed down. I'm finally reading Battle Royale, because I wanted to see just how similar it is to the Hunger Games. I do love The Hunger Games, and I've been enjoying Battle Royale very much. My personal thoughts:
1.) It is entirely possible that Suzanne Collins had never heard of Battle Royale. Lots of people haven't, especially in her age group. I'd heard of it, but never all that much before The Hunger Games came out. I think a lot of accusers overestimate Battle Royale's popularity among the general public.
2.) The premise is very similar, yes. But the thing is, I do believe that the idea of putting kids in a gladiator-style death match is something Suzanne Collins could come up with independent of Koushun Takami. And once you have the idea of the kid death match, a lot of the other similarities that people cite follow organically, either because they make sense from the set up (different effectivenesses of weapons, "arenas", alliances, a sadistic villain, etc.) or from the fact that they're books and story-telling tropes or devices (a boy and a girl escape, a romance between them, someone to explain the rules to the kids (and thereby explaining the rules to the audience), the death count (again, to explain it to the audience), etc.)
3.) The focus of the books is very, very different. Tamaki takes a group of kids that all know each other and focuses on how this horrific situation changes and affects the relationships between them. Since Shuya knows all of these kids (and since other POVs are utilized), we get ideas of what they were like, how in character their behavior seems to him, and how this battle changes them. The Hunger Games is far more about the societies that condone and endure the Games, and a commentary on violence in our media. (And any article that cites Battle Royale as the better book/movie because of the gorier, more explicit violence has immediately missed the point of BOTH books.) Plus, the Hunger Games extends to Catching Fire and Mockingjay, which extend well beyond Battle Royale.
So I haven't totally finished Battle Royale (although I can guess a lot and yes I've taken a peek at the ending), but I'm enjoying it a lot, and I find it to be a very different story from The Hunger Games. Did Suzanne Collins rip off BR? I'm going to say no, I believe her that she came up with the idea independently. Regardless, she certainly developed it from a very, very different angle, and once you get past the initial similarities in premise, the stories really don't share that much in common.
Not much else, really. It's been quiet, but in a good way. Busy, but good. Hope everyone else is having a good one!
Other fannish stuff...
Much to my sadness, I don't seem to be participating much anymore. I tried to do shipswap, and I even got a good prompt, but I just couldn't manage to write anything. I wanted to do remix, but I was afraid I'd have to default again. And when I looked at the signups... the two people who'd signed up with BSG were people that I'd remixed before, one several times. Which, I love their writing, but I don't think they've written much new in that fandom, and given that I've already done it several times...
I also am not running bsg_remix this year. I just can't get motivated. If anyone wants to run it, please, let me know- you are more than welcome to do so!!!! I just can't manage it.
Also, my computer is dying, and the kids' computer doesn't have Office on it yet. :P So writing is difficult based on that.
I haven't been keeping up with much in terms of media. I haven't made it to see the new Avengers movie- I wanted to, and was going to take Toby, but then he got in big trouble for lying, and part of his punishment was no Avengers at the movie theater. Which worked well- he was NOT happy about that- but it does mean I don't get to see it. (There's not a whole lot of other time.) Needless to say, haven't seen Mad Max either.
I have been watching Game of Thrones. Yes, I do get a little tired of it being "who's going to get raped this week?", but I'm still intrigued enough to watch. I really loved Dany and Tyrion finally meeting and talking last week, and I can't wait to see where that plotline goes. I like Dany, but I feel like her plotline has gotten down in the books. (Hell, I feel like the books have gotten bogged down in the books.) The show's touched on a lot of Dany's mistakes very well, and now we're moving on. Thank you.
I would like Ramsey off my screen. I've never been into Theon's storyline- torture's a big squick of mine- and if you're not into torture or Ramsey's sadistic nature, there's not a lot else going on there. The actor is doing a fine job- it's not his fault- but his character just is not interesting to me. I am interested to see how Sansa can make use of Theon and where that has potential to go.
The Wall interests me more than it does in the book. Although I would very, very much like fic where Edd is Bronn's little brother please. Although I don't read much GoT fic, but hey. It would be interesting, and the actors look a lot alike. Which is probably the most novel or interesting thing I have to say about GoT.
Even reading has slowed down. I'm finally reading Battle Royale, because I wanted to see just how similar it is to the Hunger Games. I do love The Hunger Games, and I've been enjoying Battle Royale very much. My personal thoughts:
1.) It is entirely possible that Suzanne Collins had never heard of Battle Royale. Lots of people haven't, especially in her age group. I'd heard of it, but never all that much before The Hunger Games came out. I think a lot of accusers overestimate Battle Royale's popularity among the general public.
2.) The premise is very similar, yes. But the thing is, I do believe that the idea of putting kids in a gladiator-style death match is something Suzanne Collins could come up with independent of Koushun Takami. And once you have the idea of the kid death match, a lot of the other similarities that people cite follow organically, either because they make sense from the set up (different effectivenesses of weapons, "arenas", alliances, a sadistic villain, etc.) or from the fact that they're books and story-telling tropes or devices (a boy and a girl escape, a romance between them, someone to explain the rules to the kids (and thereby explaining the rules to the audience), the death count (again, to explain it to the audience), etc.)
3.) The focus of the books is very, very different. Tamaki takes a group of kids that all know each other and focuses on how this horrific situation changes and affects the relationships between them. Since Shuya knows all of these kids (and since other POVs are utilized), we get ideas of what they were like, how in character their behavior seems to him, and how this battle changes them. The Hunger Games is far more about the societies that condone and endure the Games, and a commentary on violence in our media. (And any article that cites Battle Royale as the better book/movie because of the gorier, more explicit violence has immediately missed the point of BOTH books.) Plus, the Hunger Games extends to Catching Fire and Mockingjay, which extend well beyond Battle Royale.
So I haven't totally finished Battle Royale (although I can guess a lot and yes I've taken a peek at the ending), but I'm enjoying it a lot, and I find it to be a very different story from The Hunger Games. Did Suzanne Collins rip off BR? I'm going to say no, I believe her that she came up with the idea independently. Regardless, she certainly developed it from a very, very different angle, and once you get past the initial similarities in premise, the stories really don't share that much in common.
Not much else, really. It's been quiet, but in a good way. Busy, but good. Hope everyone else is having a good one!