While you've had many comment-worthy posts, this is the first one in a few weeks where LJ has actually let me comment, so...
Thanks for the two-finger story! I will be updating my rude gestures accordingly, as the story is too good to waste.
Also, I cannot wait for Korean Fingersmith. It's one of my favourite non-George-Eliot novels and I trust this to be a decent treatment, while being different enough from the source that it won't interfere with my mental picture of the book.
Are most of your favourite novels from George Eliot then?
Nice avatar. I love Friz Lang's "M".
I'm glad I explained the two-finger gesture explanation clearly. It's really weird when I see Americans using it as a peace symbol, completely oblivious that they've got it the wrong way around. (If putting one finger down would change the peace gesture into flipping the bird, I'd consider it to be the wrong way around. Seriously, if the direction doesn't matter, how come Americans never flip the bird the wrong way around?)
Anyway, do try to comment more often. Are you sure you were signed in? (Probably were, but that's the best advice I can think of.)
It was apparently a bug in LJ that a few people experienced!
They are. I like many authors, but so far I just can't find a match for her deep understanding of how humans work, nor for her moral imagination and generosity.
She apparently was a little unimpressed by the idea of a protagonist as a proxy for the reader and was constantly working to undermine the reader's desire to identify and "side" with a particular person, and to strengthen the reader's ability to look instead at an issue/society from all sides with empathy and clarity. For me, this has been so fresh and such difficult work that I keep coming back to her books as if for lessons.
But back to the obscene gestures.
using it as a peace symbol, completely oblivious that they've got it the wrong way aroundI guess it's that very reversal which signals an intentional difference in what is being communicated
( ... )
Y'know, I'd never really thought of M as a horror movie.
I've actually discovered that I have a habit of falling asleep through silent movies, so if movies get too old I often have an issue with them for that reason. However, one other movie which kind of has horror tropes in it which I really DID like was Hitchcock's "The Lodger". It's the only silent movie which hasn't made me want to go to sleep.
I don't know if the 50s counts as 'early' horror, but I'm very fond of "House of Wax" with Vincent Price. And of course, there's the original Godzilla (or "Gojira").
When I see top-film lists for 2010, I always feel the need to check to see if Winter's Bone is on them. I was delighted to see it at the head of your list, where it would also sit on mine. I loved your write-up of it. I put off seeing it for a long time, because every time I read about it, it was all, "Drugs. Missing dad. Meth. Girl finding dad. Seedy underbelly of meth world which girl enters to find missing dad," which sounds like two hours of my life I don't want to give up. I finally read something about it so enticing that I pushed past the crappy Netflix summary and...wow, what a movie. It's stuck with me ever since. It's shamefully underseen, outside of movie buffs. Any time I talk about it, I want to watch it again.
Anyway. I wanted to share your movie appreciation for a moment.
Yeah, Winter's Bone keeps getting brought up as a reason why the Oscars shouldn't have so many Best Picture nominations, which is just insane to me. Winter's Bone is edgier and grittier than most Oscar-nominated movies these days and, like you, I thought it was the best film of the year.
When it comes to top ten lists, it's often hard to pick between them. I've got to say, my number 10 on the 2010 list "A Town Called Panic" is absolutely brilliant. It's a stop-motion animation from the same people who did "Ernest and Celestine" from this list.
Comments 6
Thanks for the two-finger story! I will be updating my rude gestures accordingly, as the story is too good to waste.
Also, I cannot wait for Korean Fingersmith. It's one of my favourite non-George-Eliot novels and I trust this to be a decent treatment, while being different enough from the source that it won't interfere with my mental picture of the book.
Reply
Are most of your favourite novels from George Eliot then?
Nice avatar. I love Friz Lang's "M".
I'm glad I explained the two-finger gesture explanation clearly. It's really weird when I see Americans using it as a peace symbol, completely oblivious that they've got it the wrong way around. (If putting one finger down would change the peace gesture into flipping the bird, I'd consider it to be the wrong way around. Seriously, if the direction doesn't matter, how come Americans never flip the bird the wrong way around?)
Anyway, do try to comment more often. Are you sure you were signed in? (Probably were, but that's the best advice I can think of.)
Reply
They are. I like many authors, but so far I just can't find a match for her deep understanding of how humans work, nor for her moral imagination and generosity.
She apparently was a little unimpressed by the idea of a protagonist as a proxy for the reader and was constantly working to undermine the reader's desire to identify and "side" with a particular person, and to strengthen the reader's ability to look instead at an issue/society from all sides with empathy and clarity. For me, this has been so fresh and such difficult work that I keep coming back to her books as if for lessons.
But back to the obscene gestures.
using it as a peace symbol, completely oblivious that they've got it the wrong way aroundI guess it's that very reversal which signals an intentional difference in what is being communicated ( ... )
Reply
I've actually discovered that I have a habit of falling asleep through silent movies, so if movies get too old I often have an issue with them for that reason. However, one other movie which kind of has horror tropes in it which I really DID like was Hitchcock's "The Lodger". It's the only silent movie which hasn't made me want to go to sleep.
I don't know if the 50s counts as 'early' horror, but I'm very fond of "House of Wax" with Vincent Price. And of course, there's the original Godzilla (or "Gojira").
Reply
Anyway. I wanted to share your movie appreciation for a moment.
Reply
When it comes to top ten lists, it's often hard to pick between them. I've got to say, my number 10 on the 2010 list "A Town Called Panic" is absolutely brilliant. It's a stop-motion animation from the same people who did "Ernest and Celestine" from this list.
Reply
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