Summing up the past few weeks in fiction

[kattahj]

Catching Fire: Even better than the book, though I think my previous knowledge of the book enhanced the experience, which might be cheating. They managed to avoid the rehash and instead expand the universe. The casting is still great, even if Finnick doesn't quite have the sexual presence of the role (but then, he's not my physical type, which may

Comments

[nell65]

Nice to hear good things about the Catching Fire movie - I liked the book, really enjoyed the first book in the triology - HATED the third. I wonder if the movie 'verse will address some of the things that I hated about the way the political plot developed. -

I'm super bored with Neverland, even though Peter himself is engagingly awful (as Peter is supposed to be, IMO!). I feel like most of this back story could be done in Storybrooke, and with better B plots involving characters there I already care about.

Haven. Oh Haven. Loving the new season. LOVE that Duke accepted Audrey's choice and turned to Jennifer, not as a consolation, but because, hey, pretty girl, standing right here, who likes me - and isn't freaked out (too much) by the weirdness that is Haven! and all without being a pouty baby or trying to play spoiler.

If they kill Jennifer, though, I will be super pissed. William on the other hand, he can die in a fire.

[kattahj]

I liked the book, really enjoyed the first book in the triology - HATED the third.

The third was my favourite, because it allowed the revolution to be godawful and not just The Righteous Uprising. The narrative of the Bad King who needs to die and be replaced by Good isn't so dangerous in itself, but it tends to spill over in real life and that's when things get fucked up because reality isn't like that. So I really liked seeing a popular YA book addressing the fact that revolutions might be necessary but that doesn't make them pretty, or mean you want the same people in charge of the war and of the peace.

So if that stuff didn't work for you, it's probably best if you don't pay too much attention to my reviews, because we might see things very differently.

I feel like most of this back story could be done in Storybrooke, and with better B plots involving characters there I already care about.

I never really cared about any of the Storybrooke side characters except red and Granny, and Meghan Ory has another show, so...

LOVE that

[nell65]

It's not the politics - I'm a historian. I am fascinated by political scheming and the interplay of interests, goals, etc..., and yes, revolutions can be a messy messy business ... I just didn't believe in the political set up of the 'lost' district. I thought it was badly concieved. Which was a shame, because I thought the design of Panem iteslf and its tributary districts were well concieved. So I found everything after that irritating/frustrating.

I also thought that the book suffered a bit from Harry Potter syndrome, in that to maintain the tension, nobody told Katniss stuff she really needed to know soon enough, and for no reason I found persuasive. And I thought it had a bit of Buffy season six going on too. Depression was a perfectly valid reaction --- but, well, very dull to read/watch. I wanted Katniss to, well, grow up to be more like .... Sarah Connor. Damaged, but still punching back. So that dissapointed me too.

[kattahj]

Ah, okay. I'm not a historian, I'm a librarian/film theorist, so I thought of it more in the terms of how the story was structured and what it had to say. Which is also why I like what they did with Katniss; she was always shoehorned into some role or other, and "revolutionary hero" was one of those roles. It was never her choice to be one, and her one act of defiance (killing Coin) mirrors her acts of defiance in the previous books. Playing the game until the time comes when you can do one thing to change it, one minor thing that has massive repercussions.

People never did tell Katniss much, but I find it easier to take than in most such situations, because they never treated her as someone who should know things. She was always a poseable doll to them

[sakuracorr]

Jena Malone killed it! She really did. It was love. <3

Once Upon a Time seems like it doesn't know what it wants to do with itself much anymore, so it's fumbling about in the dark hoping it fumbles upon the answer. Though I wish I could read that article now, esp. since you linked it to the Tenth Doctor!

[kattahj]

I thought Jenna was particularly awesome because I first saw her in Saved! and the roles were so different.

I've always felt that OUAT was a bit hit-and-miss, don't know if it's more miss than it used to be... I'm not tempted to give it up again as I did in season 1, but that might for somewhat more shallow reasons.

I've thrown out those old magazines and it was in Swedish anyway, but basically it was standard teen mag stuff. The Wendies were the ones who were curling moms for their boyfriends, seeing to all their needs. And the Tinkerbells were the ones who were "one of the guys" and never got treated to anything romantic. (Pretty much the "friendzone" excuse for girls. I never said it was a good article!) And the Peter Pans were the selfish dudes who took for granted that they'd be given everything and never have to give anything in return

[minutia_r]

Shut the fuck up, Quentin.

Ha, this was the entirety of my reaction to The Magicians.

[kattahj]

I enjoyed the beginning, but then I started wondering how it could have been so lauded when it insists on mixing the most annoying bits of mainstream fiction with fantasy. It was quite a relief to read the review at BTJ (Swedish library service) where they called Quentin the whiniest fantasy protagonist since Miles Vorkosigan.

[minutia_r]

Hey, leave Miles out of this! Even at his youngest and most callow, he never thought Elena was a bitch for not sleeping with him.

Elsewhere on livejournal I saw someone summarize their reaction to The Magicians as: "There, there, Lev Grossman. I know you hated Harry Potter. Would you like a nice cup of tea?" Which is also fair, although they could have mentioned Narnia as well.

A lot of people hated this book! But I think the reason a lot of other people liked it is that your (and my) "most annoying bits of mainstream fiction" are another man's "things I like about mainstream fiction."

[kattahj]

Hey, leave Miles out of this! Even at his youngest and most callow, he never thought Elena was a bitch for not sleeping with him.

Fair enough. I've never even read those books, and from what I hear, Miles has a better reason to be whiny than Queentin does. (Quentin pretty much has none.)

Which is also fair, although they could have mentioned Narnia as well.

Yeah, the sendup to Narnia is blatant. Which, there's plenty that can be mocked about Narnia! Except he didn't seem to focus much on those points, rather targetting how silly and childish the entire concept was. So it seems like it would work best for people who think magical worlds are silly and childish, and who rather think getting excited about any world is silly and childish.

It reminded me of two things. One was a wry comment I think was written by Gun-Britt Sundström (I can't find it now) about how fiction is filled with "joyless drinking and joyless sex - the joylessness of it makes it extra literary, you see."

The other is this bit by Louis CK. Because, yeah. Boredom