Telling Stories, Favorite Classic Novel, Favorite Childhood Television Show

1.Last night attended a soulful sundown at my church - the topic was telling stories. During the evening, that's what we did - one gal read from the classic 1001 Arabian Nights - about the daughter of the Grand Bazarre who chooses to enter into a deadly marriage with a sultan in order to save 100s of women's lives. The sultan who had been horribly betrayed by his first wife and was forced to kill her, hardens his heart, and decides all women are scum deep down. So he marries a young girl each day, and the next morning has her strangled, so she can not live to betray him. Along comes the daughter of the Grand Bazarre, who requests to be the next woman to be sacrificed to the Sultan - she has an idea, she will tell him a story every night to save her life and the lives of all her sisters. She leaves each story hanging with a cliff-hanger. She asks her sister to help her - requesting that her sister stay with her the night before she is killed, and that her sister wake her up before each dawn to tell her one last story. So her sister tells her the story, that she tells the sultan the next night...but leaves the ending hanging so he can't kill her without also losing the ending of the story. This goes on for 1001 Nights...until on the very last night, the sultan falls in love with the story-teller. The other tales, or memorable ones...were Michael Chabon's children's book about a boy who tells himself stories about being a superhero. In the boy's mind he's Awesome Man. And the one told to me by a guy who joined us later in the evening, a somewhat comical tale he made up as he went along...about a talking squirrle named Horace, and a bunch of dead ghosts in a graveyard. At the end I was reminded of something, I'd forgotten, how vital stories are to me. I don't know why I forgot. I always seem to have one in my head. We all tell stories in some way or other. It's how we learn. It's how we survive, by the telling of them.

2. Day 10 – Favorite classic book

I don't know. There's been so many. Half I can't even remember. Sometimes I think this should be entitled the memorable book meme.

* In plays? My favorite Shakespeare Play? Midsummer Night's Dream - mainly because if done well, it's hilarious. And it does play with gender a bit. Shakespeare liked to play with gender roles. Possibly because he had to use male actors for all the roles at the time.
Also have an odd fondness for Moliere's The Misanthrope.

* Classic Literature? Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - again for the wit. Austen at her best was quite witty. And rather good at making fun of British society and conventional values. I found the male writers of the same time period to be rather dreary and lacking in wit. Richardson's Clarissa is an example. Les Liasions Dangereux was slightly better.

* Semi-Contemporary Lit or pre 1950s? The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - the book we were made to read in high school, yet don't quite understand until later. It's odd how well I remember that book, even though I read it over 20 years ago. It stays ingrained in my mind. Particularly the haunting ending...about the man who tried to recreate himself so that he would fit into a world that wasn't what he thought it was. A book that acts as a critique of the leisure class. It's slyly witty in places and painfully moving in others.

* Contemporary Classical Literature? Hmmm...I'm going with Toni Morrison's Beloved, which is a classic in my opinion. It's a haunting tale about slavery and how the stain of it taints all the survivors and haunts them. Beautifully told...it's not a story that can leave you.

( the rest of the days )

3. Day 13 - Favorite childhood show

Oh there were several and it does depend on the age I was at the time. The earliest was a cartoon entitled Kimba the White Lion - which I only have the vaguest of memories of - it was the show I loved at the age of 6. That was shortly followed by H.R Pufnstuff. And briefly the 1960s and 70s Batman TV Series created by Bob Kane.

But the honor really goes to...The Monkees - which was also in some ways my first fandom. I was obsessed with The Monkees between the ages of 7-9 years of age.

The Monkees for people who may never have heard of it - was a loosely dramatized series of music videos about a rock band that was in turn loosely based on the Beatles. Except they only had one British singer (Davy Jones), everyone else was American. The series copied was inspired by the Beatles music videos and films. Watching the Monkees was a bit like watching a sort of watered down version of some of the Beatles more surreal music films - such as Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band or The Mystical Magical Mystery Tour. I rather loved the series, because much like Kimba and HR Puff n Stuff - I made up my own stories based on it. It gave my imagination characters to make up stories about and I filled in the gaps left out. In short I was able to create my own tv show in my head. (This actually may explain my obsession with Buffy - which provided some of the same opportunities, and why as good as The Wire and Breaking Bad and other shows of that ilk are...I can't quite get obsessed with them. There's nothing really to play around with.)

I remember my parents punishing me for things by refusing to let me watch the Monkees...and how upset I was about that. Also, how I raced home from school to see the Brady Bunch episode where Marsha meets Davy Jones of the Monkees...who was my favorite. I adored him. Remember I was little at the time, and so was he. Very appealing actor to little kids.

Over 20 years later, I actually met Jones in person, and a friend got his autograph for me on a Beatles Ed Sullivan DVD. This was back in 2003. He looked good back then. And he's about five foot or four foot nine. He told us that he had started out as a jockey then switched to acting - at the interview, but I don't see that information anywhere else online, so maybe he was pulling our legs. Lovely man.

After that...there were two other childhood series I became briefly obsessed with:

* Battle of the Planets - yes, I had a thing for cult Japanese anime as a kid.

*The original version of BattleStar Galatica - which I watched live in 1978 and was in love with, again, at the age of 12. It was a great show for kids, not too scary (like Space 1999, Doctor Who, and Star Trek) yet still gripping.

( the rest of the days )

What makes a character a favorite or memorable and least favorite book

Smash has actually gotten better or this week's episode was better. That said, it's odd...they've shifted the themes of the female centric musicals from how women are preyed upon and victimized by men to how women manipulate and prey upon men. Gender wars continue to be front and center in TV pop culture.

I'm a day or two behind on the tv and book memes so have to catch up.

1. Book Meme: Day 11 – A book you hated

Ever read a book that you want to throw across the room or light a match to? Or hunt down the writer and strangle them for writing this crap? If you read enough books in enough varied genres and categories...it is bound to happen. Particularly if you belong to book groups that appear to be very good at locating books you are bound to hate with a passion and be forced to discuss with ahem, people who loved them.

American Psycho is my pick - I actually did not mind Bret Easten Ellis' writing prior to American Psycho. Found it to be rather innocuous (which apparently is my favorite word this week since I keep using it) and at times a good critique of 1980s angst. But American Psycho changed all that. It started out well enough - brilliant critique of 1980s and 1990s consumerism, and a satire on the shallow and superficial desires of Wall Street, only to slide downhill into a weird and somewhat sickening commentary on the writers own blatant misogynistic urges. In short, it became serial killer/rapist porn. The rape scenes became more and more outlandish and sickening and misogynistic as the book went on... Don't ask.

It's odd because the movie was actually pretty good, of course it was directed by a woman, and the satire was kept, while the blatant misogyny was either ruthlessly mocked or removed.

( the rest of the days )

2. TV MEME: Day 14 - Favorite male character

Still Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For an essay explaining why? Go here:

Trigger, Chip and Souls - Trading Clothes and Ringing Pavlov's Bell - a Meta on Spike

Admittedly a difficult character to ship in the Buffy fandom. There were people who loved him that violently Disagreed with me and people who hated him who violently disagreed with me. Honestly why they cared what I thought always bewildered me.

At any rate, I loved the character because of his contradictions and the writers inability to agree on what to do with him. His arc was brilliant in spite of the writing, which in retrospect was rather sloppy - in part because the writers vehemently disagreed on who the character was, his backstory, and where to go with him. Run into a fan - any fan, and you are bound to get a different interpretation. Also Spike was one of those wild-card characters that threatened to upend the story and the universe because the character just refused to comply with the rules of verse. Vampires aren't supposed to want to be good and go after a soul to prove their love - but he did. Vampires are supposed to want to destroy the world and return it to hell and the old ones, Spike rather liked the world and had no interest in that. Not that he was Mr. Nice guy, he liked the rough and tumble, a bit of pillaging...amongst other things. The tough guy with the poet beneath the surface, people who disliked the character pooh-poohed him as being little more than a time-worn cliche or bad-boyfriend trope, those who loved the character saw him as the existentialist hero or wild-card trickster. There were fans who preferred him evil and fun as opposed to muzzled and whipped fool for love, while others preferred him complicated and liked the additional layers along with the ambiguity. I don't think there was any character that was fought over more than Spike, to the point that fans who were ambivalent and tired of the fights - wrote snarky guides about how to evade or navigate the Spike Wars.

Like I said, a fun but difficult and at times exhausting, not to mention frustrating character to ship in a complicated global fandom.

Almost every time I posted on the character or discussed him - I'd end up eventually in a heated debate over him. Not helped by the varied takes by both writers and actors on the character, even the actor who portrayed him had contradictory takes on his character and was not quite sure what to make of him - not unlike the creators. This was a character who had managed to step outside of the box. To leap outside of his creators heads. And I personally, found that not only fascinating but magical. Mileage varies on this of course - and I've fought people over the years regarding what I've said here - as well.

The debates waned as time wore on and people grew tired, including me, of having the same pointless battles over and over again. Occasionally I'd get into a new debate with new fans...but rarely. Most of the new fans are comics fans and well, I no longer discuss nor read the comics.

The best characters...I often think...are the ones that you can have heated and lengthy debates over. The ones that you can't? Are less real somehow. It's like the story of the Velvteen Rabit - how the more times you play with the stuffed animal, the more real it becomes? I think the characters that resonate the most are the ones whose actions can be interpreted more than one way. Who people hate, love to hate, love to love, and feel strongly about. Those are the characters that are real to us and are memorable.

For me? Spike was one of those characters. What were yours?

( the rest of the days )

Books you no longer love and favorite female character - Aeryn Sun, Farscape.

1. I am rapidly becoming an obsessed Once Upon a Time fan. Although I'm not sure I can stomach another fandom. Not up to the shipping wars and fan fights - neither have the time, energy or stomach for them. Feel much the same way about the crazy Game of Thrones fandom. Will stay safe and sound with my pals on lj, thank you very much. One crazy fandom per lifetime is enough for me.

Just re-watched the pilot of ONCE and was surprised at the tiny details. The closeup on her driver's license - Massachusttes plates. And the closeup on Gold's store. Wonderfully meaty episode upon re-watch, saw all sorts of new things - such as how important stories are - how they create who we are. Henry has turned himself and his biological Mom into heroes through his book, while his adoptive Mom is the evil Queen. And his shrink is Jimney Cricket. And he retreats to a wooden castle in a playground from the White Fortress that is his current home.
And his biological Mom's superpower is I can tell if anyone is lying to me. Plus her job? Finding deadbeat husbands/fathers and bringing them in after they've skipped bail. Which if you have seen Talhassee and Manhattan - has an interesting resonance.

The shows that I become obsessed with hit my story kinks. They don't have to be well written to do this. It's how they tell the tale and how they hit the kinks that matters.

2.Book Meme Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore

Since I'll most likely skip tomorrow, will do the book meme from heck today again.

This is hard. I don't generally re-read books and tend to forget a lot of them. The books of my youth that I adored such as Dune and The Hobbit - I'm somewhat ambivalent about now. Same with CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. Then there was The Anne McCaffrey Dragon Rider series - adored those, not so much now. Would never re-read them.
Or better yet...Anne Rice's Vampire Lestate Series - I loved those books and now have no idea what I saw in them. All the other books I've mentioned - I understand why I fell in love with them, and I can see myself re-reading at some point. But what I ever saw in Anne Rice, I've no clue.

I was in my 20s, between undergrad and law school, working at a dead end retail job. (So if you are currently in your 20s working dead end retail job and depressed? It's temporary and there's hope. I got out, so can you. And there was no internet back then. So I was worse off than you are. Although everything's relative I suppose.) At any rate - I got obsessed with Anne Rice's vampire books - started with Interview with a Vampire, then made it all the way to The Body Thief before I gave up. I did pick up the graphic novel versions - yes, I was that obsessed. And eventually saw the truly horrid Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise film adaptation of the first book, and then the later, weirdly surreal adaptation of the third, Queen of the Damned - which was in some respects my favorite of the series at that time.
Now I look back at the series and books and think - what were you thinking? They are so overwritten and melodramatic and whiny. But they fit my mood and I adored them at the time.

( rest of the days )

3.Day 15 - Favorite female character

Aeryn Sun in Farscape - small surprise here. She's the female version of the Spike character.

A character who hides behind bravado. Who is not what she seems. And has an amazing arc.
She's also a subversion of traditional gender roles. She is a pilot, a fighter, a lover, a friend, and finally a mother. And she never really compromises herself - not completely, she changes and grows, but she doesn't give up who she is.

I adored her. I loved her outfits. Black leather and red. I loved the fact that she disliked to wear dresses or skirts and preferred pants. That she was a kick-ass fighter. And tough as nails. I fell in love with John Crichton when she fell in love with him.

And I liked her moral dilemmas...and her struggles. Aeryn Sun is one of those characters who jumped out of the box, who you wanted to play with in your head. And amongst the few I considered writing fanfic on. The only other female character I liked was possibly Buffy, and only in the latter seasons of that series. Aeryn I loved all the way through Farscape.

Here's a couple of vids of Aeryn...to explain my love:
( vids on Aeryn Sun )

( rest of the days )

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Just found out from EW that the BBC miniseries Parade's End is coming to HBO on Feb 26th as a miniseries. Three days. So I get to watch what my flist was talking about last fall - finally. Will let you know what I think - probably should start with the caveat that historicals aren't really my genre. I'm more critical of them for one thing. And I don't like focusing on the past that much. That's not to say I don't read or watch them. I read and watch everything. I'm the polar opposite of the culture vulture/culture snob. I'm the culture junkie. It's not a good thing. ;-)

Tv is getting crowded again. I can't watch it all. May skip the Oscars. Don't really care who wins...stopped caring about the Oscars after Titantic won.

But I do have predictions:
( Read more... )

Rained most of today. So stayed in. Watched tv. Played on Lj, perhaps more than I should.
Yes, I know, what happened to that New Year's resolution? Daydreamed. And picked up contacts.
Personal life is rather uninteresting at the moment, so see no reason to bore you all with it.