Comments | dawn_felagund: Once You Go Black.... (and other weekend antics)

dawn_felagund

Once You Go Black.... (and other weekend antics)

Feb 21, 2006 11:23

This was President's weekend, and so I didn't have to work yesterday. This weekend was simply wonderful, wonderful because I got everything pressing done that I needed to do and even had time for some idleness, to read and watch Olympic skating simply because I wanted to, not because I had to. I got a good deal of writing done too, in finishing the ( Read more... )

work, skating, daily life

Comments 33

tehta February 21 2006, 17:23:53 UTC

Do any of you find this, that the more you try to improve as a writer, the less you are entertained by the stories--books and movies--treasured by the general population?

Some of them, yes. But I think I am more entertained by the things I do like, so it evens out. There's so many books in the world...

dawn_felagund February 21 2006, 17:28:17 UTC

True. I've found my (few) authors and read them religiously...but sometimes I look back at the day when the latest Stephen King release was cause for unbridled celebration and I wasn't ashamed to declare, "Jurassic Park 3 was so cool!" and wonder if I will be so simply entertained again.

Of course, I was only 16 then...but everything still felt so new and so worthy of enthusiasm.

allie_meril February 21 2006, 17:59:21 UTC

It is no longer enough to simply be entertained.

OMG, Dawn. You want a really incredible movie? Rent Crash. Like, now. Leave work, abandon the warrents, and go watch that movie. (OK, I'm kidding! But rent it soon.) It's amazing. Words cannot describe.

but I've become a picky reader, and it is harder and harder to entertain me.

*sigh* I sympathize. I've become progressively more finicky. My current read-for-pleasure, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand, isn't satisfying me like The Mists of Avalon did.

And re: Harry Potter... Hm... Well, I'm a diehard fan (upon finishing HBP a couple weeks ago, I was in utter floods), and I love it, but I found myself incredulous at some scenes and words. And I'm no great writer by any stretch, so I have no right to criticize!

Do any of you find this, that the more you try to improve as a writer, the less you are entertained by the stories--books and movies--treasured by the general population?Well, for me, it isn't improvement as a writer (since I don't write that much), but as a reader of ( ... )

dawn_felagund February 21 2006, 19:47:53 UTC

OMG, Dawn. You want a really incredible movie? Rent Crash.

I own it! My husband bought it for me for Christmas after we watched in on On Demand one night. It's a great movie; one of my favorites from last year. :)

Well, I'm a diehard fan (upon finishing HBP a couple weeks ago, I was in utter floods), and I love it, but I found myself incredulous at some scenes and words. And I'm no great writer by any stretch, so I have no right to criticize!Incredulous as in liking them or not liking them ( ... )

allie_meril February 21 2006, 20:57:26 UTC

Incredulous as in liking them or not liking them?

Well, now that I think on it... Both senses of the word. There were parts that took my breath away, and parts that I simply stared, thinking, "...wtf?"

Secondly, you are an excellent writer, so I don't want to hear that bullocky from you. ;)

*blush* Thank you.

I love the premise of Harry Potter and books 3, 4, and 5 won my heart...but I was disappointed in 6.

It was kind of switched for me... but only a little. On reading HBP, I realized how suffocating OotP was. It was so long, and dark, and there was so little trust, and... it was kind of a rough read. It languished (as did Harry). Whereas HBP, on the other hand, was proactive, there was a sense of moving forward, and there was trust. Everyone was on the same page.

Of course, I acknowledge that part of that was the fact that I heard on the radio how it ended before reading it....OMG. That's terrible. What a snotty little brat (the radio kid ( ... )

isil_elensar February 21 2006, 21:55:36 UTC

*sigh* I sympathize. I've become progressively more finicky. My current read-for-pleasure, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand, isn't satisfying me like The Mists of Avalon did.

*waves hi for a quick butt-in*

It's weird, but I'm just the opposite here. I loved The Firebrand much more than I liked The Mists of Avalon. Granted, I own both, but between the two, I reach for The Firebrand. Miaybe because I read it first, and that's what introduced me to MZB, but I don't think that has too much impact on the fact that I like it more. Or maybe I'm just silly that way... ;-)

Thread 6

atanwende February 21 2006, 18:32:20 UTC

The more movies I watch, the fewer I remember fondly days after seeing them. I am becoming very picky about my movies, I know that much. It is no longer enough to simply be entertained.

*waves to you* Film student here. I cannot watch movies for fun anymore. Everytime I leave the theatre and my friends are like "Now that was a good movie!" I start picking it apart like "Eh well, the cutting wasn't quite awe-inspiring, the plot felt too constructed and the end was totally anti-climatic." Yes, that's me. But the more I like it when I am able to find a movie that manages to excite me. And yes, contrary to popular opinions, those exist. :-)

dawn_felagund February 21 2006, 19:50:22 UTC

I'm glad to know that I'm not alone. :)

I can't comment on the technical aspects of a film--like cutting--but I tend to be super critical about aspects related to the story. Especially characters. I tend to tear apart most movie characters for being too flat, shallow, uncomplicated, etc. It drives me nuts.

digdigil February 21 2006, 19:11:57 UTC

In your job you really must be happy for everything to work properly for you. Otherwise the stress will eat away at your body and your soul. Now about movies and books - OMG, yes! There is no way I can watch a run-of-the-mill movie ever again! I tend to look in the used-DVD store for some very unusual stuff. And most of the movies I like tend to be about WRITERS! LOL! So some of my recent favorite discoveries have been "Adaptation"(Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper), "A Life Less Ordinary"(Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz) and "Bad Education"(Gael Garcia Bernal). And I think I mentioned to you that I just saw "Match Point" (Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Emily Mortimer, Scarlett Johansen). Gods, what a great pot-boiler of a film! I LOVED it!!! I also picked up "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" which has a very 'cute' Hugo Weaving as a drag queen entertainer! What a funny, funny movie ( ... )

dawn_felagund February 21 2006, 19:55:24 UTC

I saw Adaptation and also liked it a lot. I've heard of--but never seen--the others, except for Priscilla, which I've never even heard of, but Elrond in drag?? I might have to check that out! :^D

I'm with you on the books. (And I'm so glad that you like Oryx and Crake! That's one of my favorites.) I've been reading mostly Joyce Carol Oates lately because I'm too lazy to find a new author and I like her stuff. Her style is dark and intriguing, and it's so easy to become thoroughly immersed in her stories. I'm reading Angel of Light right now and perusing a book of fantasy short stories.

And you're doing great in the RPG! I'm having great fun talking to an NPC that isn't played by me! I'm really interested to see where this whole deal with the parcel is going, although I have my suspicions.... ;)

ssotknapsack February 21 2006, 20:29:26 UTC

Then today, my dad calls me and asks me the weirdest question: Has Timbucktu changed to a "black" restaurant?

So I asked him what he meant, and he clarified that there were only five other "white" parties in the dining room beside us.

I will (perhaps ashamedly) admit that I noticed the "black Timbuktu" on Saturday night, simply because it was New To Me (tm). But I wouldn't say it bothered me (did dad say that?), and I certainly didn't count and go, "oh look, 12 n*ggers over there, 3 ch*nks, 2 sp*cs, and a partridge in a pear tree" like apparently father dearest did to arrive at his "5 white parties" statistic.

Then again, I can't really see why he'd bring it up, because there was nothing else different about the whole experience. It's not as if the restaurant went down the toilet with trashy black (or white!) people... it was the same quality as before. So I can't say I looked up from my noodles long enough to say, "omg, look at teh blackness." Interesting though.

Is it racist to simply notice such things though? Some would say ( ... )

dawn_felagund February 22 2006, 16:29:32 UTC

But I wouldn't say it bothered me (did dad say that?)

No...but the way I look at it is why ask such a question, knowing that (obviously) I could not possibly possess an answer? It was more or less a rhetorical question, which eliminates (to me) actually gaining some knowledge from asking it. (Like if he'd asked: "Did Timbucktu change owners?" I might have known the answer to that, and that seems a question that is asked for the purpose of gaining information.)

But since there is no such thing as a "black restaurant" then there's no way for me to answer whether or not Timbucktu has "become" one...which leads me to then ask, "Why ask such a question?"

To me, it says that he noticed and thought it worth bringing up multiple times. Now that's not something that you mention, imho, unless you're bothered by it. I'm interested to see the reaction I get the next time I suggest that we go there.

Is it racist to simply notice such things though? Some would say yes. :-/I wouldn't say no. If you walked into a room and everyone was wearing ( ... )