Media roundup
There is a new Vorkosiverse novella coming! About Ekaterin -- "The Flowers of Vashnoi". Which, on the one hand, is not what I most wan to see in this universe (that would be Galeni, Gregor, and Ivan dealing with fatherhood please!), but I am still delighted by the fact of more Vorkosiverse.
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33. Paper Girls, vol.1 (Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff ( Read more... )
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33. Paper Girls, vol.1 (Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff ( Read more... )
Comments 47
I haven't watched The Shape of Water yet but I have to admit I'm not such a big fan of del Toro's films either - the only one I really like is Crimson Peak ... probably because it's so Gothic! Pan's Labyrinth? Don't get me started ...
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I saw the trailer for Pan's Labyrinth way back when, and that was plenty to convince me I didn't want to watch it. Crimson Peak looked a little more interesting, but Gothic is really not my genre, so I made no effort to seek it out, though I'd probably watch it idly if it was playing on a screen in front of me.
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Tom Hiddlestone, though... Decisions, decisions!
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There are also several novellas and short stories set in the same universe, collected in various ways, some with unrelated characters, some interwoven with characters from the trilogy.
I just learned the other day that a book collecting all the Earthsea stories is coming out later this year (1000 pages!), although I'm definitely not spending $60 on it ( ... )
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The fingore scenes were the wooooorst. Ugh I felt so sick watching them D: M< mother was similarly shocked and I said, well, it was rated R, and she just said "I thought that was for the implied fish sex!". She really had some issues with that, I think :'D
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On the other hand, the entire thing is being told to us by the painter, so it's not even clear if most of it happened the way we hear it. The happy ending in particular seems like him trying to fix the story to himself
Hmm, I hadn't thought of the implications of this beyond the constructed nature of the narrative in general, but... hm, OK. I guess at root, I just don't care enough about the story to spend more time thinking about it, so the nuances are lost on me.
One thing that surprised me was that the sign language wasn't even used more in communication between the creature and Eliza - did he learn anything beyond egg and you/me at all? Yeah, same, and you and I are not the only people who had that complaint. I mean, I realize there was a time skip and stuff, but by the end, we didn't see any evidence that he's learned much else beyond ( ... )
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You can watch PL and cut out all supernatural elements and what you get is a war story, but you can't cut out the fantastical elements from SoW
That's a good point. Like, I actually like magical realism as a genre, but I think where it works for me best if precisely as you say -- where it's an echo or counterpoint to something else, whereas here it just felt a little bit flat? one-dimensional? lacking in nuance, in any case, I though.
The other movie people have compared SoW to a lot is Amélie, bizarrely enough
Ha, I never would've thought of that comparison, but I can kind of see a similar vibe in the oddly charming daily life aspects? Like the lab stuff and espionage and torture were very much at odds, but the cozier moments (which I liked best) did have something in common with Amelie (which is a movie I like a lot).
so seeing it done so half-heartedly in SoW was a bit disheartening.I liked it ( ... )
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Lol I think the same thing as you as to why they can't just hire Russian actors. Especially in minor roles. But this is probably one of those things that would only bother Russian speakers. The time I was most bothered by something like this was actually in my favorite (original) Star Trek movie, the 4th one, where there was this running joke with Chekhov looking for the "wessel" and confusing all the 20th century people. It really irritated me because there is no "w" sound in Russian!! So the whole joke was especially annoying to me. Now that I think about it, it would have pleased me if the joke was about his intonation being off so he could say something like "vyesil" and that would be equally as confusing. At least Anton Yelchin was a native Russian-speaker so he could fake a good Russian accent, but now he's passed : (.
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But this is probably one of those things that would only bother Russian speakers.Yeah, probably... But I almost feel like at this point it's easier to find a Russian actor for a minor role than have to have a non-Russian-speaker stumble around with Russian dialogue? Even if nobody cares, that's still extra effort for the actor (they probably at least try to approximate pronunciation? I assume?), and my guess is that emoting is harder when you're speaking what sounds like gibberish to yourself? IDK ( ... )
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Yeah, that was a rather odd choice! (I've actually never watched the original Trek -- I'm kind of allergic to William Shatner's face :P
Oh no! Ok Shatner himself is kind of annoying, and Kirk is definitely the most annoying Trek Captain, but back then he was incredibly hot IMO XD. Also Nimoy wasn't so bad looking either. I never watched much of anything in the series because 60s-80s sci fi shows have a lot of elements that I'm really not fond of, but I did enjoy the majority of the movies.
-- but I've heard about the "wessels" and it's really silly ("vyesil" would've been much more logical!) -- but I can kiiiinda hand-wave it for myself, because I have seen Russians (myself included, sometimes) get confused when having to alternate sounds that don't exist in Russian but exist in English with the closest Russian sounds. I mean something like the word "thousands" -- my father often says "thouthandth" instead, because he's focused so hard on getting that initial ( ... )
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but back then he was incredibly hot IMO XD. Also Nimoy wasn't so bad looking either.
Haha! I'm OK with young William Shatner's looks as long as I don't have to watch him act :) But the weird thing is that I find Chris Pine in Kirk mode way hotter than Chris Pine in any other role (or out of character), even though he looks a LOT like Shatner in that role. What makes the difference, I don't know!
I do like Nimoy, though, no argument there :)
I confess I haven't watched ANY Trek beyond the reboot movies, so all I know is through fannish osmosis and, like, Tumblr gifs. It's one of those canons too sprawling and daunting for me to get into at this late date, like Doctor Who or superhero comics... :P
I think some people have a hard time identifying it as Russian as it doesn't sound like a stereotypical Russian accent. It's always cute when random strangers tell her "you have such a pretty voice! Is your accent French?" lol. No one has ever guessed Russian.My mother ( ... )
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