(Untitled)

[vilajunkie]

Wow, it's been rather long since I last posted on here. I'm sorry about that. Well, I went on my trip to Disney World and I've been back for a couple weeks now. For the short time that I went there (3.5 days), I had a lot of fun and I went on practically every ride/show that I wanted to go on. The Enchanted Tiki Room is the only thing I really

Comments

[criminalize]

An A in life drawing? Damn, man. You must be an expert at drawing boobs now. :P

[vilajunkie]

Actually, I've seen more manbits than ladybits in this class so far. I'm constantly thinking "Bring on the boobies! Where are the boobies?" I'm more of an expert on drawing thighs and armpits really. That's the stuff we're getting graded on. Plus I have to know and label the major bones and muscle groups in the body. We're doing the facial muscles on Tuesday.

[vovat]

1. Patchwork Girl is probably my overall favorite as well, both in terms of characters and plot (although the fact that everything is resolved by Wizard ex machina rather than success on Ojo's own part is disappointing). The Woozy seems to be a definite fan favorite, although the original authors seemed to be rather dismissive of him. (In one of Thompson's rare mentions of the character, she has the Hungry Tiger claim that he's made of wood! She'd obviously re-read Patchwork a few years earlier when writing Ojo, so how hard would it have been to remember that the reason the Woozy was locked up in the first place was that he was eating bees?) And I also appreciate the vaudevillian humor and large role for Ruggedo in Tik-Tok2. It's true that there aren't too many direct references to Greek mythology in the Oz books. The mermaids and the Nome King's seven-headed dogs probably owe something to the Greek Tritons and Cerberus, respectively, but Baum does his own twist on them. That said, I don't think Greek mythological beings would

[vilajunkie]

1. When did you first start reading the Oz books?

2. What made you want to read the rest of the series, including the non-Baum books?

3. What is your favorite Discworld book?

4. If you could write a novel from one of your favorite series (Oz, Discworld, FF, etc.), what would it be about?

5. If you were told how the world could be saved, and the only way was by using four magic crystals, destroying one magic crystal, killing a mass murdering prince bent on collecting the power of the gods, etc., would you do it, or would you rather let someone more competent take care of business?

[vovat]

1. I was 11, and my dad gave me copies of the first two books.

2. I tend to be a completist, and since I liked the first two, it was pretty much inevitable that I'd read the others. I already knew there was more than one author involved, and my public library had Cowardly Lion, so I got started on Thompson before finishing with Baum.

3. I'd probably say Reaper Man, largely because it has some of the funniest conversations by the Unseen University faculty. Also, Death is one of my favorite Discworld characters, so that helps

[vilajunkie]

2. The closest library to me (out of the four I normally go to) has copies of all fourteen Baum books, Sea Fairies, Sky Island, Hidden Valley, and Merry-Go-Round. After those, I found the rest of the Oz-related Baum books and the Jack Snow and John R. Neill books. I'm only getting into the Thompson books now. So I guess you could say that I'm reading the series backwards--or sideways.

4. Unfortunately, I don't recognize any of the characters you're talking about.

5. If I had to pick a job class, I would be a thief. But a lot of those monsters would be extremely frightening and deadly in real life, so maybe I'll just stay home and not leave the local village.

Snow. Bleh.

[ozma914]

I've been thinking about this, and can't come up with a real favorite from among the Oz books. I liked the traveling exploration in "The Emerald City", although I always thought Ozma was wrong not to try harder to protect her country. I remember "The Road to Oz" scaring the heck out of me, and would count that along with "Dorothy and The Wizard" for being thrilling adventures -- both seem in retrospect to suffer from weak endings, but I didn't notice it as a kid. Perhaps my favorite is "Glinda of Oz", partially because Dorothy and Ozma are my two favorite characters, and it was great seeing them adventure together. Oh, what the heck -- I just can't decide.

Congrats on the great grades!

Re: Snow. Bleh.

[vilajunkie]

Thanks, Mark! And by the way, there's no reason to decide what book is best. They're all good in their own respects. I like it when the adventures have a purpose, when the adventures aren't just random wanderings. Which is probably why I enjoy the Baum and Snow books better than the Neill and Thompson books.

adventures with a purpose

[ozma914]

Agreed -- I like plot.

Re: Snow. Bleh.

[vovat]

I think Thompson's books were usually pretty strong on plot, but they meandered a lot before the characters reached their goals. None of her books were as plotless as Emerald City, but very few of them were as tightly plotted as Glinda, either. But there's usually an actual goal, and not just characters wandering around Oz. Neill, however, really had no idea how to come up with a plot. I like his books for their characters and some of the ideas, but he probably would have benefitted from a co-author (and I don't mean the editor who rewrote most of Wonder City).

[fuestjuki]

:O! This's you, Chris? I'm far too dense for my own good, not realizing that.

It's boring over there? But...but SNOW!

[vilajunkie]

It's no problem, FuFu. I know. Snow can be fun. But at first there was so much snow that even my college had a snow day, and now it's raining, so all th esnow is melting away. There haven't been too many good snowman-making days this year. Plus now that I'm "old", snow mostly involves shoveling it off my car rather than enjoying it. Don't you have snow by you?

[fuestjuki]

(Bwaha, uber late replies.)

XD Old. Pshaw. And hey, at least you got a car. In Houston, there is no spoon snow, sadly D: Wish there were sometimes. If you could kindly ship it by the bucketful...

[vilajunkie]

Why, how old are you? :P Yes, I technically have a car, but it's not really mine, I just drive it and pay for gas. I'm on my parents' insurance. And now there's absolutely no snow at all. Must be all that global warming I heard about...cuz, seriously, two years ago on this exact week, there were blizzards.