shadowkat | (no subject)

It's February already? And I managed to have an uneventful January. Here's hoping the trend continues.

Apparently no one is immune from the fear of losing bits of their jobs. So while the government touts that the employment rate is at an all time high, the news is kind of poking holes in that assessment.

I'm annoyed Diana Mitford Mosely and Oswald Mosely didn't die horribly in their forties. But alas, they lived to old age, and Oswald only died of Parkinsons. Diana, a fascist to her death, died peacefully in Paris in 2003. I wonder if they ever redeemed themselves? It doesn't appear likely.
[I'm watching Peaky Blinders who is utilizing real life historical villains as well, villains. Tommy (the anti-hero gangster) went outside and fired a machine gun after eating with them. My thoughts exactly.]

***

Was thinking about unlikable authors and their works. I have the ability for the most part to handwave the author and focus on the work. In fact I often forget the author exists. Nor do I care to know that they do. I'll even forget their name.

What book are you reading?

"Within these Wicked Walls."

Whose it by?

No clue.

See? And as far as I know that a decent author and not a nefarious one.

I'm a novelist and a writer, and I don't think the author matters all that much. The story does. The author is just a conduit for the story to come out, nothing more than that. It's why I don't really care that much if I meet authors or get books signed by them, although I have. I have two signed by Salman Rushdie, one by Denis Lehane. And I think a few others here and there. (I live in Brooklyn and went to book fairs back in the day.)

I'm stating this by way of introduction on books by nefarious writers... that well, I still love the books and often have forgotten about the writer. JKR is of course difficult to forget. Honestly, some people need to stay away from social media - it brings out the worst in them. But I enjoyed the Harry Potter books and the world. I still kind of do.

On the other hand, I've never made it through anything written by Orson Scott Card. Virgina Woolf annoys me.

***

AH, friend from college or college-buddy, tried to foist her collection of Douglas Preston paperbacks onto me. But I refused. She's cleaning out her house of books. Which is nice, but I have a one-bedroom apartment - and do not need twenty some books that I'll never read - added to the thousand some that I already own and haven't read.

Also I don't like Douglas Preston (the writer of Relic, and other horror detective novels). I know, I read Relic for a book club once. But I decided not to tell her that. Instead, I said no, and then mercilessly dumped the entirety of my 2022 on her head. I did warn her ahead of time - "Read at your own risk. You've been warned." Also she did ask how my year went. (Note - never a good idea.)

I have a feeling I won't get a response in a while?

To be fair, regardless of the subject, AH doesn't tend to write frequently. We send each other long emails like letters. She writes me. I immediately respond. She will respond about six-eight months later. She was like this with letters too. I'd get letter from her - after I'd given up and written her off. Also it would be as if I'd never sent the previous letter.

Or I'll write. Three months later she responds.

I'm amazed she can find the email to respond to it. (Maybe she has a better spam filter. I don't think she's on gmail.) If I waited that long - it would be lost into the ether. (Keith (the guy who designed Gmail) did not create the best spam filter in the world. Yes, from hereon out, I will blame all my email woes on poor Keith. I can't get rid of the damn political spam, or the rest for that matter. I have over 2,000 unread emails as a result. I miss letters. Now I just get junk mail. Evil marketing people.]

I'd say the letter correspondence was better. But at least with email - she can't send my emails back to me in the post. She did that to me once - sent me all the letters that I sent to her. (Folks? Don't do that. It's rude. Just throw them out if you don't want to keep them - don't send them back to the writer. If the writer wanted to keep a copy of their letter or postcard, they'd have made a copy of it.)

***

I was in a good mood this morning, then my co-workers irritated me. It happens. Tomorrow I will stick to my cubicle and not socialize with the blasted co-workers. I can actually do this without too much trouble. Plug in ear phones, and disappear. Also it's going to be frigid tomorrow - so with any luck - a lot of them will call in a personal day, sick day or just be out. I'm not afraid of frigid temperatures - I have a long coat, boots, cords, hat, and I lived in Kansas for 17 years - it had temperatures 30 degrees below 0 with windchill, and two feet of snow - this is nothing. New Yorkers are weather wimps.

Also the commute was longer than usual on the way home. The train got stuck in the tunnel before East New York. It was due to a sick passenger on the train ahead of us, which they had to remove from the station. Removing a sick passenger from a train or the tracks, pretty sure it was the train, because tracks would be worse - is a complicated and time consuming endeavor. It involves the police, the EMTS and Fire department. They all have to get there. And then remove them. Being NYC, getting anywhere takes a lot of time. So we sat there for about twenty-thirty minutes (at least I think it was twenty to thirty minutes, I slept through most of it, or rather dozed off, woke noticed we'd not moved, dozed off again.)
So, I think it was a sick passenger - it was impossible to hear them even without my earphones and I was half-asleep anyhow. (I listen to music the entire commute and all day long.)

So, I left the office at 4pm, got on the train at 4:14pm, got to Brooklyn at 4:54pm got to the subway by 4:58 pm. Got on the subway at 5:05 pm. Got home around 6pm. (I went grocery shopping at the fruit, dairy products, and vegetable (and chocolate) store. ) So in actuality I got to my neighborhood at 5:40 pm. On said commute there were people with bicycles. The train has huge ones. I've even seen motorcyles, I kid you not, on the train. How they get away with it - I've no idead. I swear bicyclists have become the bane of every pedestrian and commuters existence. They take up space or a menace. One or the other. The damn things are a bigger nuisance than motor vehicles - at least motor vehicles stay on streets and parking lots - they don't jump aboard trains and subways or speed along sidewalks and pedestrian walkways.

***

Making my way through Peaky Blinders. But I will state that the earlier seasons are the best. The last two seasons are a bit bleak and the villain in them...frustrating.

In other, unrelated pop culture news, cjl posted about James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC lineup, so I looked up the article, it's HERE

Superman, Batman and two Green Lanterns will feature prominently in the newly reimagined DC Universe, a shared, overarching storyline blending films, television, animation, games, and more, all under the watchful eyes of DC Studios presidents James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Monday, the pair spoke to a room of journalists on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, CA to reveal the (likely) first 10 projects in the first part of a two-chapter, 8-10 year overarching storyline. The first part of chapter one—of which these new movies and TV shows make up—is being referred to as “Gods and Monsters” and it officially kicks off July 11, 2025 with Superman: Legacy, a brand new live-action Superman film, after which all DC content will take place in the same canon. (DC content that’s not part of the DCU will be labeled “Elseworlds.”)

There will also be a Green Lantern TV show called Lanterns, a Booster Gold show, a Swamp Thing movie, Supergirl, Amazons—oh, and a new Batman movie. Inspired by Grant Morrison’s popular run, The Brave and the Bold will feature both Bruce Wayne as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin. But those are just a few examples of what’s coming. Click through to read about all 10 projects, with quotes from Gunn and Safran, or click below to jump ahead.

Creature Commandos (An animated HBO Max show)
Waller (A live-action HBO Max show)
Superman: Legacy (Theatrical film)
Lanterns (A live-action HBO Max show)
The Authority (Theatrical film)
Paradise Lost (A live-action HBO Max show)
The Brave and the Bold (Theatrical film)
Booster Gold (A live-action HBO Max show)
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (Theatrical film)
Swamp Thing (Theatrical film)

Snyder fans were unsurprisingly upset, (livid actually) and went nuts on the internet. They've been upset since Snyder was fired and Whedon took over. And are rather toxic. Also they are always upset. Snyder, may be a nice enough guy, but his take on the verse is ahem...a bit dark and somewhat fascist. He may have the darkest and most fascist Superman that I've seen. I mean you know there's a problem, when Superman is darker than Batman. Snyder clearly read the Frank Miller Dark Knight
Returns novels and took them to heart.

IDK. I saw Snyder's films and they were controversial. I liked them well enough, as did many of my co-workers, but I know a lot of folks who hated them including my brother - who has issues with Snyder. (See how I react to writers at the start of this post - I do not care. I forget about them. I care only about the story. The writer for the most part ceases to exist for me. As does the director. My brother does care. We are very different people.)

I don't know how I feel about James Gunn, who is also controversial. There are people who hate Guardians of the Galaxy. I liked Guardians of the Galaxy. Suicide Squad gave me a headache, but that's neither here nor there.

I'm curious at the Superman reboot. Considering they were going to have a Black Superman and have Ta-Nehsi Coates write it. Now it's Gunn writing and directing it. And hmmm. Not quite as interesting. Just don't hire Chris Pratt to play Superman, Gunn. Superman should not be a Pratt. (Pun intended).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is definitely weird to return someone's letters. I have procrastinated on replying to things before but like you, if I waited that long, I would probably lose track of the email too (or forget).

I saw Man of Steel but not Batman vs Superman (after watching Captain America: Civil War, I was no in mood to see more heroes fight each other) and then the Snyder cut of the Justice League. In comparison to the Reeve movies, I can see how it would be darker but I didn't think it was that bad. Maybe because I didn't see BvS? Before they changed their mind on Cavill and the direction, they did seemed like they were heading on a lighter direction. My belief was that the Black Superman was a separate project. I read a rumor that Supergirl is supposed to be a darker interpretation though but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Fortunately, since they do want it to be a "younger" Superman (I'm guessing mid-late twenties), Chris Pratt is too old. He's a couple of years older than Henry Cavill.

Having seen all the above films...I'd say that Captain America: Civil War is a bit more nuanced and has a more interesting plot than well the other ones. Batman vs. Superman - the conflict is basically, you destroyed Gotham chasing your bad guys, I'm going to end you - then the big bad monster shows up and takes out everyone with Lex Luther's help - until Wonder Woman saves the day. Also got a bit heavy handed on the mother issues - Batman forgives Superman and starts trying to save him after he discovers his mother is in danger. It was fun (the extended version makes more sense and is actually better), but not exactly memorable. Snyder is a painter - he likes to paint the screen. Dialogue isn't his thing.

It's in the comparison to the comics, mainly, Snyder went a bit too noir with Superman, and focused more on his alien-ness than on the Clark side, while the comics (for the most part - not all of them), the cartoons, and everything done previously (there's a lot of Superman films out there), focused on his humanity and the Clark side. As did all the television series - from Smallville to Superman & Lois.
Cavill's Superman was kind of remote. Unless you are a fan of Cavill - it didn't work for a lot of people.
Also the film stock was rather dark and gray.

Supergirl would be darker? How odd.

Black Superman may be an Elseworlds project?

I too can take a long time to respond to a letter. I do manage to keep track of them though and am currently not much behind.

In E TN they are weather wimps too. (-: I used to laugh about it with a friend who'd lived in Chicago. (I'd previously lived in Boston.)

I have yet to see even the Snyder Justice League movie but I plan to out of curiosity. Guardians of the Galaxy never much annoyed me though, seemed pleasant, light fare, though I'm blissfully ignorant of any relevant background.

The Moseleys were unrepentant Fascists to the end.
However, I will cut Diana a tiny bit of slack as, from my recollection of either Nancy the novelist's bio, or the group one of the sisters, she was really good during Nancy's final illness, when they were both living in Paris. Given that Nancy had grassed her up to the Govt at the outbreak of WW2 as deeply politically suspect and Diana ended up in Holloway prison with a very small baby, maybe that counts towards a redemptive arc?

Maybe? It depends on why she was helping her sister - I guess? It's hard to know what she was like other than being a fascist. Since people are more than one thing.

Peaky Blinders' writer is not being kind to them at all. They are both portrayed as pretty nasty.

It does seem rude to do it for no reason, but I'd actually find it quite useful to have all my old letters back! Though I suspect they might be cringe-inducing.

It's not as lovely as you think. She sent them. I threw them out.

I like Harry Potter and I feel like I can separate that from JKR's current politics. OTOH, I only ever read Ender's Game (and was not all that impressed) before I learned more about OSC. I've since refused to read anything else by him. Maybe that would have been different if I had really liked Ender's Game, but the fact that I didn't made things easier.

I could never get into Enders Game. A lot of folks on the ATBTVS board loved it, but the appeal was completely lost on me. I even tried the movie and couldn't get into it.

I thought Ender's Game started off fairly well, but petered out at the end. Don't think it matched the hype at all.

Considering how much stuff is getting jettisoned (even after the fact!) I have to wonder how much of that DC lineup will end up actually being completed and released.

Good point. Marvel had to jettison some things - the employees protested the work load and schedule. The top guys announce these ambitious schedules - but at the end of the day, they aren't the folks tasked with getting them done.

I wrote long, funny, chatty letters to friends and family the years I was away in college. I would love to have them back, just to see them again, to remember what I was like at twenty.

She sent them. I threw them out. Trust me on this - memory lies.

Amazed she can find the email to respond to it. (Maybe she has a better spam filter. I don't think she's on gmail.)
Late comment, but I remembered this (and the weirdness of sending letters back!). However I came across these gmail hacks and wondered if they might be useful for you.

(It's possible I get spam in my gmail, but it vanishes into the different tabs and I never see them. Occasionally I go in and mass delete a bunch.)

Thank you. I've tried it. We'll see. Part of my problem is I'm subscribed to the NY Times. And it's cluttering my email. But this may get rid of the political promotional spam.

Do you use the different tabs? If so, if you want to send NYT emails to a different tabs, just pick one up (click and drag) and put it into the tab you want. A message will pop up to say 'Do this will all future messages from xxx' (or something like that) just click yes and they'll all arrive there in future, rather than clutter up your main inbox.

I also use the labels and archive a lot. Gmail is very useful, but you have to put in the work. *g*

Yep. Damn Keith. (I now have the name of Gmail's creator.)