bunch of random media things
First thing: I have been trying to do a personal tumblr again. I'm not sure if I'll stick with it, but I do enjoy looking at pictures. If we haven't connected on there yet, let me know your tumblr (mine is just neveralarch).
Second thing: I have been consuming media this summer! It's nice.
Still watching FMA! It is good, and keeps subverting my expectations, because I know how the story goes and IT'S NOT GOING THERE. Reserving final judgment until I finish the series - I'm at like episode 41 right now.
Next - I saw The Lion in Winter with my mom and brother, and OH MY GOD
Like, surprise, a critically acclaimed classic movie is really good. But it was really good! I mean, it did drag for me sometimes (especially when I realized that even though the stakes were high, it was stuck in that historical fiction spot where nothing can really change because all of the big things happen like 1-2 years later). But overall, really wonderful dialogue and delicious vicious bickering. I love bickering. Henry/Eleanor immediately plugged into the 'couple who can't decide whether to kill each other or make out' hole in my brain, haha.
Also felt very vindicated during the scenes where everyone was hiding in Philip's room, because I said something like 'is Richard supposed to have all of this sexual tension with Philip?' My brother was with me on this, but my mom was like 'I don't know, I'm not seeing it,' and THEN Richard said 'don't you love me?' or similar, AND THEN Philip pulled him over to his bed, AND AND THEN it could have all been subtext but it wassssn't, they made that shit explicit and I had spotted that fraught undertone like a champ.
Anyway, that's the kind of attitude that I bring to watching critically acclaimed classic movies. It was good.
Finally! I have blown through books two and three of the Matthew Swift series. I think there are a couple people on my flist who are fans? I can't remember.
I'm really enjoying them - I had to take a break from reading The Neon Court so that I could order The Minority Council, haha. Catherine Webb/Kate Griffin is SUCH A GOOD WRITER, and I find myself jumping up to read lines aloud and going back over scenes to make sure I haven't missed anything and generally being angry about the fact that she is like five years older than me and brilliant and has about 14 books out.
I do feel a bit conflicted about her writing - I'm not quite sure about the way she describes people of color as opposed to white people, and she has a bad tendency to kill off her female characters. But then again, she has a bad tendency of killing off EVERYONE, EVERYONE WHO I LIKE OR DON'T LIKE, I think there are literally four or five characters left standing from the first book now that I've finished the third, and I'm not optimistic about their chances in the fourth book. And I'm really glad that she has so many characters of color, and she keeps introducing more (and more women), so - I dunno. I'm bad at spotting problems in things that I like.
And there are a lot of things that I like here. Matthew Swift is rad, and I love the way Griffin writes his narration, because it forces you to pay attention to even the tiniest most ignorable pieces of writing (pronouns) in order to figure out what's going on. I am a sucker for identity issues, and these books are full of them. And PENNY NGWENYA, she is so awesome and totally not what I was expecting. I don't really expect most of the things that these books come up with (except for the deaths, I guess, I am learning). And of course the magic system is really fascinating and INTUITIVE. I can understand it at a very visceral level whereas the whole D&D magic system is much more of a mental effort.
So, yes. I am enjoying consuming all of this media.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/64958.html. Comment wherever you want.
Second thing: I have been consuming media this summer! It's nice.
Still watching FMA! It is good, and keeps subverting my expectations, because I know how the story goes and IT'S NOT GOING THERE. Reserving final judgment until I finish the series - I'm at like episode 41 right now.
Next - I saw The Lion in Winter with my mom and brother, and OH MY GOD
Like, surprise, a critically acclaimed classic movie is really good. But it was really good! I mean, it did drag for me sometimes (especially when I realized that even though the stakes were high, it was stuck in that historical fiction spot where nothing can really change because all of the big things happen like 1-2 years later). But overall, really wonderful dialogue and delicious vicious bickering. I love bickering. Henry/Eleanor immediately plugged into the 'couple who can't decide whether to kill each other or make out' hole in my brain, haha.
Also felt very vindicated during the scenes where everyone was hiding in Philip's room, because I said something like 'is Richard supposed to have all of this sexual tension with Philip?' My brother was with me on this, but my mom was like 'I don't know, I'm not seeing it,' and THEN Richard said 'don't you love me?' or similar, AND THEN Philip pulled him over to his bed, AND AND THEN it could have all been subtext but it wassssn't, they made that shit explicit and I had spotted that fraught undertone like a champ.
Anyway, that's the kind of attitude that I bring to watching critically acclaimed classic movies. It was good.
Finally! I have blown through books two and three of the Matthew Swift series. I think there are a couple people on my flist who are fans? I can't remember.
I'm really enjoying them - I had to take a break from reading The Neon Court so that I could order The Minority Council, haha. Catherine Webb/Kate Griffin is SUCH A GOOD WRITER, and I find myself jumping up to read lines aloud and going back over scenes to make sure I haven't missed anything and generally being angry about the fact that she is like five years older than me and brilliant and has about 14 books out.
I do feel a bit conflicted about her writing - I'm not quite sure about the way she describes people of color as opposed to white people, and she has a bad tendency to kill off her female characters. But then again, she has a bad tendency of killing off EVERYONE, EVERYONE WHO I LIKE OR DON'T LIKE, I think there are literally four or five characters left standing from the first book now that I've finished the third, and I'm not optimistic about their chances in the fourth book. And I'm really glad that she has so many characters of color, and she keeps introducing more (and more women), so - I dunno. I'm bad at spotting problems in things that I like.
And there are a lot of things that I like here. Matthew Swift is rad, and I love the way Griffin writes his narration, because it forces you to pay attention to even the tiniest most ignorable pieces of writing (pronouns) in order to figure out what's going on. I am a sucker for identity issues, and these books are full of them. And PENNY NGWENYA, she is so awesome and totally not what I was expecting. I don't really expect most of the things that these books come up with (except for the deaths, I guess, I am learning). And of course the magic system is really fascinating and INTUITIVE. I can understand it at a very visceral level whereas the whole D&D magic system is much more of a mental effort.
So, yes. I am enjoying consuming all of this media.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/64958.html. Comment wherever you want.