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May. 18th, 2022 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatHmm..I'm scrolling through my correspondence list again, and...
1. Discovered that Victorian mystery novel romance that I read several years back and actually remember, The Essex Serpent has been turned into a miniseries on Apple TV, starring Clare Danes, Tom Hiddleston, and Frank Dillane.
I may have to watch that after I finish watching Star Trek: Discovery.
2. Also, I discovered via Twitter that Stephen Moffat's take on "The Time Traveler's Wife" on HBO Max did not go over well with the critics. What worked on Doctor Who, does not work ahem elsewhere. In Doctor Who, the time traveling Doctor runs into River Song out of sequence, meeting her as an adult, then as a child. Same with Amy in a way. This works in Doctor Who for a couple reasons - mainly though, because the Doctor isn't really seen as "sexual" in the series. Nor do we ever see them kissing or having sex.
Plus it's a given that he's a time traveling alien.
Time Traveler's Wife has Henry's wife first meeting him as a grown naked man, when she's about eight years of age. And she goes to get him clothes, and no one asks any questions. In the film version - this was about five to ten minutes of screen time, in the HBO version it's apparently an entire episode - which is kind of Skeevy. Particularly when Henry is kind of hot, and portrayed to be very sexual. So the chemistry is off.
The fact that the writer is oblivious to this and lacks nuance - makes it worse.
The Guardian Review - Far Too Much Ick Factor To be Truly Great
Salon's review: The Time Traveler's Wife can't quite get past the ick factor...or would be a mess in any era
On Twitter - the reviewer stated that the production value is rather cheap, the wigs bad, and the direction off - considering the talent behind it.
I think the problematic nature of the story was easier to hand-wave in both the movie and the book, although I did not like the movie and couldn't get into the book. My mother despised the book. I have issues with the time travel aspect - it doesn't work. And I didn't think the book worked. The problem with time travel in novels - is it is linear, because we think linearally, but time isn't linear in reality or scientifically. We can't understand it. Star Trek and Marvel, and possibly DC are the only ones that I've seen handle it well on a science level - showing how traveling in time results in a temporal distortion or parallel universe. They are the only ones who delve into the science of it - everything else kind of romanticizes it or uses it as a gimmick. (I'm on the fence regarding Terminator.)
I'm still curious, so may try it - after I finish Discovery.
3. Smart Bitches provided an interesting link to a movie starring Emma Thompson on Hulu, about an older woman who hires a giglio or male escort to have sex with her - because she's never really had it and would like to experience it.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, kind of reminds me of American Gigilio, except, Richard Gere was hotter.
Mother was into art house films in the 70s, and told me about Diary of a Mad Housewife with Frank Lagenella (who she adored and saw on stage as Dracula), and we saw again with Albert Finny in a Russian Play that I can't remember the name of. Also, American Gigilio.
4. And yet another Kindle Daily Deal advertised on Smart Bitches attracted my attention...
Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim is $2.99 and another KDD! This YA fantasy was featured on Cover Awe and was marketed as Mulan meets Project Runway. Which HELLO!
Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.
Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.
And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.
Steeped in Chinese culture, sizzling with forbidden romance, and shimmering with magic, this young adult fantasy is pitch-perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas or Renée Ahdieh
Meanwhile, I entered a giveaway for T Kinfisher's Nettle & Bone, on Good Reads.
Meanwhile, I've decided to stick with Sarah Maas's Throne of Glass series. I'm on book one. She got the idea for it from Cinderella of all things. What sparked it was this: she felt the music when Cinderella runs down the palace stairs was rather dark and foreboding, and she wondered what if Cinderella was an assassin who made an attempt on the Prince's life and escaped - why would she do that and what would bring her there to do it?
My difficulty with it is the whole age thing - I think the lead character should be older, all the characters should be. Although it's admittedly easier to write them younger - I get that, and there's a broader audience for the younger character.
In mine, they are older - my difficulty with my novel is I suck at naming things. I should do what my sister-in-law's father did when he hunted her name - go to a library or book store and open a book of names and randomly pick them.
At any rate, I'm sticking with Throne of Glass - because it doesn't require much concentration. It's easy to read in other words, and I don't have to focus that hard. No complex description and the dialogue is fairly simple, no dialect. That's probably why its so popular, now that I think about it.
People don't like to work that hard to read stuff. And I'm reading it solely on my commute or before bed.
Meanwhile, I keep buying Regency romance novels and fantasy novels on sale on the Kindle. Everything is below $2. I've spent about $10 on ten books. LOL!
1. Discovered that Victorian mystery novel romance that I read several years back and actually remember, The Essex Serpent has been turned into a miniseries on Apple TV, starring Clare Danes, Tom Hiddleston, and Frank Dillane.
I may have to watch that after I finish watching Star Trek: Discovery.
2. Also, I discovered via Twitter that Stephen Moffat's take on "The Time Traveler's Wife" on HBO Max did not go over well with the critics. What worked on Doctor Who, does not work ahem elsewhere. In Doctor Who, the time traveling Doctor runs into River Song out of sequence, meeting her as an adult, then as a child. Same with Amy in a way. This works in Doctor Who for a couple reasons - mainly though, because the Doctor isn't really seen as "sexual" in the series. Nor do we ever see them kissing or having sex.
Plus it's a given that he's a time traveling alien.
Time Traveler's Wife has Henry's wife first meeting him as a grown naked man, when she's about eight years of age. And she goes to get him clothes, and no one asks any questions. In the film version - this was about five to ten minutes of screen time, in the HBO version it's apparently an entire episode - which is kind of Skeevy. Particularly when Henry is kind of hot, and portrayed to be very sexual. So the chemistry is off.
The fact that the writer is oblivious to this and lacks nuance - makes it worse.
The Guardian Review - Far Too Much Ick Factor To be Truly Great
Salon's review: The Time Traveler's Wife can't quite get past the ick factor...or would be a mess in any era
On Twitter - the reviewer stated that the production value is rather cheap, the wigs bad, and the direction off - considering the talent behind it.
I think the problematic nature of the story was easier to hand-wave in both the movie and the book, although I did not like the movie and couldn't get into the book. My mother despised the book. I have issues with the time travel aspect - it doesn't work. And I didn't think the book worked. The problem with time travel in novels - is it is linear, because we think linearally, but time isn't linear in reality or scientifically. We can't understand it. Star Trek and Marvel, and possibly DC are the only ones that I've seen handle it well on a science level - showing how traveling in time results in a temporal distortion or parallel universe. They are the only ones who delve into the science of it - everything else kind of romanticizes it or uses it as a gimmick. (I'm on the fence regarding Terminator.)
I'm still curious, so may try it - after I finish Discovery.
3. Smart Bitches provided an interesting link to a movie starring Emma Thompson on Hulu, about an older woman who hires a giglio or male escort to have sex with her - because she's never really had it and would like to experience it.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, kind of reminds me of American Gigilio, except, Richard Gere was hotter.
Mother was into art house films in the 70s, and told me about Diary of a Mad Housewife with Frank Lagenella (who she adored and saw on stage as Dracula), and we saw again with Albert Finny in a Russian Play that I can't remember the name of. Also, American Gigilio.
4. And yet another Kindle Daily Deal advertised on Smart Bitches attracted my attention...
Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim is $2.99 and another KDD! This YA fantasy was featured on Cover Awe and was marketed as Mulan meets Project Runway. Which HELLO!
Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.
Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.
And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.
Steeped in Chinese culture, sizzling with forbidden romance, and shimmering with magic, this young adult fantasy is pitch-perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas or Renée Ahdieh
Meanwhile, I entered a giveaway for T Kinfisher's Nettle & Bone, on Good Reads.
Meanwhile, I've decided to stick with Sarah Maas's Throne of Glass series. I'm on book one. She got the idea for it from Cinderella of all things. What sparked it was this: she felt the music when Cinderella runs down the palace stairs was rather dark and foreboding, and she wondered what if Cinderella was an assassin who made an attempt on the Prince's life and escaped - why would she do that and what would bring her there to do it?
My difficulty with it is the whole age thing - I think the lead character should be older, all the characters should be. Although it's admittedly easier to write them younger - I get that, and there's a broader audience for the younger character.
In mine, they are older - my difficulty with my novel is I suck at naming things. I should do what my sister-in-law's father did when he hunted her name - go to a library or book store and open a book of names and randomly pick them.
At any rate, I'm sticking with Throne of Glass - because it doesn't require much concentration. It's easy to read in other words, and I don't have to focus that hard. No complex description and the dialogue is fairly simple, no dialect. That's probably why its so popular, now that I think about it.
People don't like to work that hard to read stuff. And I'm reading it solely on my commute or before bed.
Meanwhile, I keep buying Regency romance novels and fantasy novels on sale on the Kindle. Everything is below $2. I've spent about $10 on ten books. LOL!
no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-19 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-20 12:20 pm (UTC)I may try the series - but mainly out of curiosity, I like Moffat's dialgoue and the lead is the same guy who played Sydney Parker. (Although the Twitter reviewer felt he'd taken a huge step down from Sandition.). Don't know yet - still need to get through all the Trek series, and then Essex Serpent on Apple TV.