beginning Black March
I usually would've gone to see a movie or something over the weekend, and I really do want to see The Lorax, but I'm abstaining from spending money on movies, music, books, and other similar media for the month of March (see: Black March).
It's not a very great sacrifice--not for me, anyway. I sort of cheated by stocking up on eBooks in February, and a few of those were free due to an expired copyright.
I finished reading Game of Thrones, which was almost exactly like the HBO series--so much so that it felt a bit like reading the director's cut of the series. Yes, I know the book came first; but what I'm saying is that the producers took very few liberties. Not a complaint, just an observation.
As for one with an expired copyright, I'm almost done with A Princess of Mars (the first book in the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, upon which the new film John Carter is based). Depiction of Mars aside, in a lot of little ways this material dates itself (anti-communism, bombast, unapologetic melodramatic chivalry). In other ways, it's ahead of its time, and extremely awkward being there. In the preface you can really sense how uncomfortable Burroughs was in approaching the sci-fi genre, even as pulp fiction. It reads as though he didn't trust people to get it or suspend their disbelief. That said, when he isn't bogged down with the technical details (most of which make little to no sense, anyway, so you sort of wish he'd let it go--Fine, John Carter is on Mars and alive and it just works. We believe you. Get on with it.), the action really never stops. It's one bad situation after another, lucky escapes, luckier displays of physical prowess, and a continuous quest for a princess for whom everyone on the planet is absurdly head-over-heels.
It's made me laugh a lot. And shake my head a lot. I mean, female objectification there is; but it was published in 1912, and it's pulp. Par for the course.
I'm guessing Disney will Disneyfy it. It has to be done, though. Most of the main characters wander around in near-nakedness, including John Carter.
It's not a very great sacrifice--not for me, anyway. I sort of cheated by stocking up on eBooks in February, and a few of those were free due to an expired copyright.
I finished reading Game of Thrones, which was almost exactly like the HBO series--so much so that it felt a bit like reading the director's cut of the series. Yes, I know the book came first; but what I'm saying is that the producers took very few liberties. Not a complaint, just an observation.
As for one with an expired copyright, I'm almost done with A Princess of Mars (the first book in the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, upon which the new film John Carter is based). Depiction of Mars aside, in a lot of little ways this material dates itself (anti-communism, bombast, unapologetic melodramatic chivalry). In other ways, it's ahead of its time, and extremely awkward being there. In the preface you can really sense how uncomfortable Burroughs was in approaching the sci-fi genre, even as pulp fiction. It reads as though he didn't trust people to get it or suspend their disbelief. That said, when he isn't bogged down with the technical details (most of which make little to no sense, anyway, so you sort of wish he'd let it go--Fine, John Carter is on Mars and alive and it just works. We believe you. Get on with it.), the action really never stops. It's one bad situation after another, lucky escapes, luckier displays of physical prowess, and a continuous quest for a princess for whom everyone on the planet is absurdly head-over-heels.
It's made me laugh a lot. And shake my head a lot. I mean, female objectification there is; but it was published in 1912, and it's pulp. Par for the course.
I'm guessing Disney will Disneyfy it. It has to be done, though. Most of the main characters wander around in near-nakedness, including John Carter.