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Sep. 29th, 2017 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Hmmm, remember when I was talking about the book that I'm writing...and how in the book the Aliens do DNA or gene splicing to create a hybrid race or species? (ie. Earther's get spliced with Alien DNA? ) Well, apparently someone else came up with the idea in Spliced about young people who decide to splice their DNA with animal DNA, and the impact it has on the world. Although this writer went in an interesting and somewhat X-men route with it.
Unfortunately when I tried the excerpt, the style is too "Ready Player Now" for my taste. I like the idea but the way it's written feels very YA, which doesn't work for me.
That's actually been my difficulty with a lot of sci-fi books. I liked Anne Leckie's ideas, just couldn't get past her bland writing style, and somewhat confusing use of personal pronouns. There's a way you can do it without being gimmicky and confusing, I know I'm doing it in a book that I'm writing. (I read on subways, people, with lots of conversations in multiple languages surrounding me. It's gotten worse. Used to be easier. Or I'm just getting older. Possibly both? I think it's the advent of cell phones or smartphones, which are far noiser than books and magazines. Now I get to hear people's personal and private conversations with their phones...it's as if I'm constantly stuck in someone's phone booth. I miss the days in which wifi and cell access was not possible on the trains.)
2. Reviews of Gifted and Inhumans --Yikes.. no one appears to like the Inhumans. I have it recorded, will let you know. Yet, in stark contrast, everyone appears to like The Gifted. (It did have the better trailer. You can tell a lot from a trailer. If you can't hobble together a good, rather spoiler free trailer, your movie or show is doomed.)
Two quibbles with the reviews?
* Iron Fist wasn't THAT bad. (It actually held my attention longer than Luke Cage did. But that may be because I've seen more black exploitation/drug dealing drama's (actually I think just about every drama with mainly a black cast has to do with drugs or crime - Empire, Atlanta, Star, Power, The Wire, How to Get Away with Murder, and now Luke Cage. This is not a fair representation of reality. 98% of black Americans, believe it or not, are not criminals, drug dealers, incarcerated or involved with it in any way. While Iron Fist dealt with Asian Martial Arts, which I've seen far less of and while it too is somewhat of a racial stereotype, not quite as annoying to me. Mainly because I haven't watched that much of it.) I also held my attention longer than any episode of Marvel Agents of Shield, Supergirl, The Flash, DC Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, or Gotham has.
That said...yes, it paled in comparison to Defenders, Daredevil and JJ.
And I'm apparently in the minority in not being overly impressed by either Luke Cage or The Punisher (I liked Electra better than the Punisher).
YMMV
* The writer clearly has not read Marvel X-Men Comics, because he thinks the Gifted doesn't focus on any of the characters from the comics. Wrong. It does. Polaris, Blink, Thunderbird, and the other one, are all from the X-men comic verse. The only new ones are the kids. The Struckers are also from the X-men verse. So many of these television reviewers have no knowledge of the comics.
3. Unexpected cost of the new A/C has set me back in my furniture budget. I'd intended to get two more items for apartment. But most hold off...due to unexpected expenditure. Damn A/C.
As I continued to flesh out the world in which the story would take place, I quickly realized that the central premise—young people getting spliced and becoming chimeras—would have an impact on the world in which it took place, and would provoke a reaction from that world. Looking at the world around me – even back in the quaint, naïve days of a year or two ago – I knew that reaction would not be entirely pretty, and that the bigotry and intolerance I saw wouldn’t likely have disappeared by the time Spliced takes place (although, to be honest, I had hoped it wouldn’t have gotten so much worse so quickly).
That reaction became the final major component of the premise of Spliced—a religious and political backlash of intolerance against chimeras that coalesces around a law—The Genetic Heritage Act—that defines anyone whose DNA is not 100 percent human as no longer legally a person. It’s a stupid law, written by ignorant people, but with devastating effect. And as we’ve seen too many times in human history, when people define other people as less than human, it opens the door for wrongdoings of the most horrific kind.
Unfortunately when I tried the excerpt, the style is too "Ready Player Now" for my taste. I like the idea but the way it's written feels very YA, which doesn't work for me.
That's actually been my difficulty with a lot of sci-fi books. I liked Anne Leckie's ideas, just couldn't get past her bland writing style, and somewhat confusing use of personal pronouns. There's a way you can do it without being gimmicky and confusing, I know I'm doing it in a book that I'm writing. (I read on subways, people, with lots of conversations in multiple languages surrounding me. It's gotten worse. Used to be easier. Or I'm just getting older. Possibly both? I think it's the advent of cell phones or smartphones, which are far noiser than books and magazines. Now I get to hear people's personal and private conversations with their phones...it's as if I'm constantly stuck in someone's phone booth. I miss the days in which wifi and cell access was not possible on the trains.)
2. Reviews of Gifted and Inhumans --Yikes.. no one appears to like the Inhumans. I have it recorded, will let you know. Yet, in stark contrast, everyone appears to like The Gifted. (It did have the better trailer. You can tell a lot from a trailer. If you can't hobble together a good, rather spoiler free trailer, your movie or show is doomed.)
Two quibbles with the reviews?
* Iron Fist wasn't THAT bad. (It actually held my attention longer than Luke Cage did. But that may be because I've seen more black exploitation/drug dealing drama's (actually I think just about every drama with mainly a black cast has to do with drugs or crime - Empire, Atlanta, Star, Power, The Wire, How to Get Away with Murder, and now Luke Cage. This is not a fair representation of reality. 98% of black Americans, believe it or not, are not criminals, drug dealers, incarcerated or involved with it in any way. While Iron Fist dealt with Asian Martial Arts, which I've seen far less of and while it too is somewhat of a racial stereotype, not quite as annoying to me. Mainly because I haven't watched that much of it.) I also held my attention longer than any episode of Marvel Agents of Shield, Supergirl, The Flash, DC Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, or Gotham has.
That said...yes, it paled in comparison to Defenders, Daredevil and JJ.
And I'm apparently in the minority in not being overly impressed by either Luke Cage or The Punisher (I liked Electra better than the Punisher).
YMMV
* The writer clearly has not read Marvel X-Men Comics, because he thinks the Gifted doesn't focus on any of the characters from the comics. Wrong. It does. Polaris, Blink, Thunderbird, and the other one, are all from the X-men comic verse. The only new ones are the kids. The Struckers are also from the X-men verse. So many of these television reviewers have no knowledge of the comics.
3. Unexpected cost of the new A/C has set me back in my furniture budget. I'd intended to get two more items for apartment. But most hold off...due to unexpected expenditure. Damn A/C.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-30 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-30 01:05 pm (UTC)I wonder sometimes if the entertainment is merely a reflection of it or just adds to it?
Was thinking about it related to another topic - this morning as I showered and got dressed. Why do so many highly rated drama programs show black Americans in gangs, doing drugs, etc? ( Empire, Star, Atlanta, Power, Luke Cage, The Wire). Is this a true reflection of society aka indictment, or is it merely furthering bias, stereotype and prejudice based on race?
Why add to that negative view? What if anything is positively furthered by that negative representation?
Now, if the series is well-written, acted, and directed like say The Wire, with a diversified cast, and no real villains or heroes on either side, then I think it does help reflect on society, and does further things in a positive manner -- making the viewer think and reflect.
But if it is poorly written, poorly acted, and basically little more than a breezy show like say the Inhumans (which I haven't seen) -- then no, I think it doesn't help at all, and promotes more bias and hate, as opposed to promoting reflection.
Thought about this when I was watching Buffy and say Charmed. I did see both.
And both were very violent, and very similar in some respects. But of the two, I think Buffy fell in the first category -- reflection, and promoting thought, while the other was bubblegum and stuck to the bottom of one's shoe, with little progressive or helpful results. Which is among the many reasons I gave up on Charmed and continued with Buffy.
I think artists do, to a degree, have a responsibility, but even more so do distributors who choose what art to promote and distribute. If you choose to distribute something that adds to the violence and hate and bias in the world and even promotes it...without bringing it into question, then...