awwww...
Someone stop me before I get into the habit of just ranting and not doing anything... productive. Meh, I'll try to finish something tomorrow before my band concert if my mom's not home to bother me.
Anyways, another rant on books or more specifically, the two I just read: Howl's Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones) and Goose Chase (Patrica Kindl).
HMC was... enjoyable. I sort of liked the Miyazaki version better since he made the characters a tad bit more realistic and connected some parts together while scraping the really off ones. I like Miyazaki movies because the villains are people too. They aren't "EVUL". Sadly, the Witch of the Waste was purely evil and remained that way until her death.
However, it had some redeeming points that weren't adapted to the movie. The knob with black dial didn't lead to Howl's memory, but to present-day (80's when the book was published) England. Wales to be precise. But I think it could have been dealt with a little differently. It was fine, but something seemed... hmm. I don't know, but there could have been improvement of some sort. It was sort of out of pitch; it's hard to describe.
Another thing I liked was how Sophie kept remarking that there was an unwritten rule that all the fame and adventure goes to the youngest. That and she frequently brought up that it was because she was the eldest that everything always went wrong.
Hmm... I think those were the big two. There were other differences but they didn't impact me as much. Sophie's two sisters got a bigger part in the story. Sophie had her own gift that included being able to speak things to life. Wizard Sulliman and Howl's teacher were two separate people. There was no war going on. The missing prince was actually the King's brother. Sophie's step-mother, Fanny, had a slightly bigger and slightly nicer part in the story. Howl never turned into a bird-thing. After Howl's hair turned red, he dyed it black on purpose several days later because of the death of his teacher.
Yeah... Lots of differences and a lot I didn't mention.
I think I read this in ninth grade and fairly enjoyed it. It was still okay when I read it today... until I got to the end. The end killed me. Look, there goes my soul.
Basically, the premise of the story is that a orphaned goose girl gets a visit from a "mysterious old woman". Goose girl is nice and gets three gifts: sparkly beauty, gold dust for dandruff, and diamonds for tears. Of course, this causes her more trouble than help and soon she's imprisoned in a tower until she agrees to marry either the dull-witted prince of Dorloo or the evil king of Gilboa. Her geese try and help her escape and things get even more hectic.
It's meant to be humorous, almost a parody on fairy tales... So why did it have to go and screw up the ending? She could have just been common born. The geese could have just been naturally intelligent. But nooooo, she just happens to be the youngest of thirteen and actually royalty. (The evil king took her family's throne fourteen years ago.) The geese were actually all her older sisters and they changed back in the last chapter or so.
It wasn't quite Dukes Ate Mackinaw, but it was close. (BTW midnight-mind, if you finish that book I gave you, the sequel is the one that contains the "Dukes Ate Mackinaw" thing.)
But what really got me, REALLY REALLY got to me, was the fact that throughout the whole book there were hints that she was royalty, but it wasn't until the last few pages that it was explained in like a four page summary of her whole history and how her family got to where she was at the beginning of the book. It took me all my strength not to hurl the book away in disgust. Since there were only two pages left, I thought I could handle it.
Redeeming features? The stupid prince turned out not to be quite so stupid, though still rather dull in my terms of characters. I'm going to rant about this later. It's a rule in that world, that enchanted things are very vain and if you sweet talk them then they'll generally do what you want. This became both a hinderance and a help. And lastly, because she was the youngest, the main character had to give up the crown jewels she had collected throughout the course of the story to the oldest who was rightfully queen.
So yeah. How my reading tastes change in two years.
Okay, so I mentioned how the prince was stupid, but not so stupid, right? Well, because I had read this book only two years ago, I remembered certain things. Like a few pages in, I had the vague impression that the geese were really her sisters although I couldn't remember whether they were royalty or not. And during the beginning/middle of the book, I remembered that the prince wasn't as stupid as the main character thought he was. My mistake was that I falsely remembered that he was acting stupid the entire time in order to make the evil king think he was less of a threat.
Later on in the book he explained that something he did was to protect the main girl from the king... and he did get a bit smarter, but it was nothing to the degree in which I thought he was going to redeem himself.
So now I want to make a short story like that. Something where a naive girl is forced into a political match and believes her husband-to-be is incredibly stupid. But he just acts that way in public so spies will think he's less of a threat to the ruler at the time, who the not-so-stupid guy is planning to overthrow. Of course he can't tell this to his wife to be because not only does he not trust her, but they've never been together in private.
I don't know whether she's going to try to run away and therefore almost screw up his plans somehow, or do something else that puts him in the same jeopardizing position. But whatever it is, I want to write a scene where the naive but pretty, brave, resourceful, did I mention pretty, intelligent, strong-minded, pretty female protagonist has a "Oh crap did I screw up" moment. And then she has to deal with the consequences and work to put things on track again.
No, the king he wants to overthrow is not "EVUL". No, the not-so-stupid guy is not "EVUL" either. Since this idea sprung from the twisted memory of a book that was sorely disappointed by its actual plot about four hours ago, I still haven't worked out all the kinks. I like it though. ^_^
Anyways, another rant on books or more specifically, the two I just read: Howl's Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones) and Goose Chase (Patrica Kindl).
HMC was... enjoyable. I sort of liked the Miyazaki version better since he made the characters a tad bit more realistic and connected some parts together while scraping the really off ones. I like Miyazaki movies because the villains are people too. They aren't "EVUL". Sadly, the Witch of the Waste was purely evil and remained that way until her death.
However, it had some redeeming points that weren't adapted to the movie. The knob with black dial didn't lead to Howl's memory, but to present-day (80's when the book was published) England. Wales to be precise. But I think it could have been dealt with a little differently. It was fine, but something seemed... hmm. I don't know, but there could have been improvement of some sort. It was sort of out of pitch; it's hard to describe.
Another thing I liked was how Sophie kept remarking that there was an unwritten rule that all the fame and adventure goes to the youngest. That and she frequently brought up that it was because she was the eldest that everything always went wrong.
Hmm... I think those were the big two. There were other differences but they didn't impact me as much. Sophie's two sisters got a bigger part in the story. Sophie had her own gift that included being able to speak things to life. Wizard Sulliman and Howl's teacher were two separate people. There was no war going on. The missing prince was actually the King's brother. Sophie's step-mother, Fanny, had a slightly bigger and slightly nicer part in the story. Howl never turned into a bird-thing. After Howl's hair turned red, he dyed it black on purpose several days later because of the death of his teacher.
Yeah... Lots of differences and a lot I didn't mention.
I think I read this in ninth grade and fairly enjoyed it. It was still okay when I read it today... until I got to the end. The end killed me. Look, there goes my soul.
Basically, the premise of the story is that a orphaned goose girl gets a visit from a "mysterious old woman". Goose girl is nice and gets three gifts: sparkly beauty, gold dust for dandruff, and diamonds for tears. Of course, this causes her more trouble than help and soon she's imprisoned in a tower until she agrees to marry either the dull-witted prince of Dorloo or the evil king of Gilboa. Her geese try and help her escape and things get even more hectic.
It's meant to be humorous, almost a parody on fairy tales... So why did it have to go and screw up the ending? She could have just been common born. The geese could have just been naturally intelligent. But nooooo, she just happens to be the youngest of thirteen and actually royalty. (The evil king took her family's throne fourteen years ago.) The geese were actually all her older sisters and they changed back in the last chapter or so.
It wasn't quite Dukes Ate Mackinaw, but it was close. (BTW midnight-mind, if you finish that book I gave you, the sequel is the one that contains the "Dukes Ate Mackinaw" thing.)
But what really got me, REALLY REALLY got to me, was the fact that throughout the whole book there were hints that she was royalty, but it wasn't until the last few pages that it was explained in like a four page summary of her whole history and how her family got to where she was at the beginning of the book. It took me all my strength not to hurl the book away in disgust. Since there were only two pages left, I thought I could handle it.
Redeeming features? The stupid prince turned out not to be quite so stupid, though still rather dull in my terms of characters. I'm going to rant about this later. It's a rule in that world, that enchanted things are very vain and if you sweet talk them then they'll generally do what you want. This became both a hinderance and a help. And lastly, because she was the youngest, the main character had to give up the crown jewels she had collected throughout the course of the story to the oldest who was rightfully queen.
So yeah. How my reading tastes change in two years.
Okay, so I mentioned how the prince was stupid, but not so stupid, right? Well, because I had read this book only two years ago, I remembered certain things. Like a few pages in, I had the vague impression that the geese were really her sisters although I couldn't remember whether they were royalty or not. And during the beginning/middle of the book, I remembered that the prince wasn't as stupid as the main character thought he was. My mistake was that I falsely remembered that he was acting stupid the entire time in order to make the evil king think he was less of a threat.
Later on in the book he explained that something he did was to protect the main girl from the king... and he did get a bit smarter, but it was nothing to the degree in which I thought he was going to redeem himself.
So now I want to make a short story like that. Something where a naive girl is forced into a political match and believes her husband-to-be is incredibly stupid. But he just acts that way in public so spies will think he's less of a threat to the ruler at the time, who the not-so-stupid guy is planning to overthrow. Of course he can't tell this to his wife to be because not only does he not trust her, but they've never been together in private.
I don't know whether she's going to try to run away and therefore almost screw up his plans somehow, or do something else that puts him in the same jeopardizing position. But whatever it is, I want to write a scene where the naive but pretty, brave, resourceful, did I mention pretty, intelligent, strong-minded, pretty female protagonist has a "Oh crap did I screw up" moment. And then she has to deal with the consequences and work to put things on track again.
No, the king he wants to overthrow is not "EVUL". No, the not-so-stupid guy is not "EVUL" either. Since this idea sprung from the twisted memory of a book that was sorely disappointed by its actual plot about four hours ago, I still haven't worked out all the kinks. I like it though. ^_^