The concept, I mean. According to Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth there are these stages the hero passes through as part of that big uber-story where the hero has a thousand faces (and one of them is Luke Skywalker).

I was thinking about this concept this week because I finally saw The Hobbit and really enjoyed it. I've been resenting the fact ( Read more... )

So! My thoughts on Peeta in Hunger Games. because he can be a controversial character. There's no getting around the inequality of the situation: the Games give Peeta the opportunity to not only be alone with Katniss, but play out a romance. While Katniss is forced into playing that role with him. The difference being that she never wanted it ( Read more... )

I saw The Hunger Games last night and thought it was...okay. In general I thought the beginning part was stronger, before they got to the games. After that there were a number of things that didn't seem to translate so well on screen. Sticking in my thoughts under the cut, both on the books and the movies. Spoilers for the movie, and possibly for ( Read more... )

Why is she still writing about it?

So I had an awesome weekend in Vail at Sirens, which was even better than I expected. I came back all excited about women in fantasy and with a long reading list that should keep me happily busy for weeks or months. (Just finished The Thief.) So don't ask me why I suddenly have something more to say about X-Men: ( Read more... )

I've been having this ongoing conversation about Inception recently--yeah, I know, a year too late. But it got brought up again! It was the standard convo about whether it's a dream or not, and my position is always: could be. But it got me thinking about the compulsion to have a set narrative for a story that doesn't want to have one. ( Spoilers inside for Inception and Mulholland Drive. )

This is kind of a silly post? But I read something on tumblr about the movie Grease and it was something it seems like I've heard in different forms for a while, and it made me want to spit some things out about that movie. And why shouldn't I write random meta about a movie from 1978 really? So... ( Grease is the word, but what is it about? )

Sorry, more X-Men thoughts. People keep having cool things to say about the movie, I can't help it! This is partly related to an exchange in my last entry about how we get more of a sense in the movie why people go with Magneto than we do why people stay with Charles, and also related to some comments I've read where people just don't get why ( Read more... )

Oh, X Men: First Class, for all your flaws, you are just a goldmine for meta! I've been so enjoying a million conversations, and a lot of perspectives have been covered elsewhere, but there's one element I have seen talked about where nobody mentioned the main factor in my own reading, so here it is. This is about the whole Charles/Raven ( Read more... )

Just saw X-Men and oh my god, how slashy was that movie? I can't even imagine what people must be doing with Charles/Erik. So smart. So tragic! ( My scattered thoughts under here, some spoilers )

Today I had one of those thoughts that's kind of stating the obvious so there's little need to write it down, but it was in response to many people implying it wasn't true so I'm writing it down. It has to do with female characters. ( Or rather, the perfect female character. )