Guilty Pleasures, Books, and other ramblings..

[shadowkat]

Finished Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons finally. Very good book. Surprisingly good. Also surprisingly literary in places, more so actually than most fantasy and sci-fi novels. All sorts of references in this one to classical and modern poetry, the Wizard of OZ, the Greek and Roman myths, and religious doctrine. Two major doctrines are examined: the Hebrew or Old Testament story about Abraham's sacrifice of Issac - and whether this was in obediance to god, out of love for god, or in fact out of love for the child and the ultimate test of God. Will God prove itself to be worthy of my devotion and trust by preventing me from sacrificing the one thing I love most? The sacred trust and love between father and child. (in this case father and daughter). And how that trust and love expands to include God or our view of God. Interesting exploration of that trope, haven't seen it examined quite that way before. The writer also explores the concept that the deaths in the 20th century (ie. the Holocaust, etc) were parents sacrificing themselves in lieu of their children. The other doctrine examined is the Christian view of redemption through pain - the tree of thorns, the cruciform, the resurrection. Can we really be redeemed through pain? Is empathy with others pain - the source? Or is it really something greater and more complex - love? As if this wasn't enough - we add the religion of science, man as god, or machine as god - the idea that if god does not exist, we ourselves become god or can aspire to it. The view of technology becoming the ultimate intelligence. And the pitfalls of that conceit. The pitfalls of depending on technology for everything of allowing oneself to hardwired to all information, 24/7. What happens if you give yourself completely over to art or to escaspism? Very interesting couple of books. Simmons won the Hugo a few years back for the first one: Hyperion

Now I struggle with what to read next. Tried reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson on the train again - but it put me to sleep. I think my mood resists the prose right now - it's either too close to my current state of being or too far removed, not sure which. Or I'm just burnt on the whole computer/internet story trope.

Am considering giving Terry Prachett's book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents a whirl. Having never read Prachett, we'll see if this works. Also flirting with George RR Martin's "A Game of Thrones" (which I kept picking up only to be thwarted by the book club in the past, book club is no longer a threat now that it has collasped in on itself) or China Melville's Perdido Street Station. Whatever I pick has got to entertain me on my airplane trip to Hilton Head on the 25th. (It is highly unlikely I'll be finished before then, takes me a long time to read a book.)

Continuing with my guilty pleasures...I picked up my favorite fluff magazine, Entertainment Weekly.

Discovered Sarah Michelle Gellar's next role is in the film adaptation of The Girl's Guide to Hunting & Fishing, one of the chick-lit books I've managed to avoid. The columnist annoyed me slightly by stating "Gellar finally breaks out of the cult and kiddie roles and gets a real flesh and blood book editor who thinks life is getting better when she falls for a much older man."
Course shouldn't be surprised since columnist started out by stating this was one of her favorite books. The reason our culture is doomed is the columnists have marketing and communications degrees, not English Lit or Philosophy degrees. Ahem. Two things - one the characters in chick-lit are not real flesh and blood characters but shallow overly romanticized working gals (sorry, but the publishing world isn't that fun and glamourous people), these are contemporary romances after all. Two - she falls for a much older guy...this doesn't sound like much of a stretch for Gellar, as anyone who has watched BTVS should know. Maybe they should hire Marsters. Boreanze or Anthony Stewart Head for the male lead. Oh and after much prayer and meditation, Ann Rice has decided to pen the story of Jesus. Because no one has ever really told the story of Christ from his point of view and in his own words before. (I suppose St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John don't count? Not to mention countless others.) Sorry Anne, while I enjoyed your first four vampire books, I got lost in the drunken orgy of purple prose that made up Violin. But I doubt you'll miss me - apparently writing about God is the trend right now and people like your books.

While reading Entertainment Weekly - I realize a few things, while I do watch a few of the shows that the majority of Americans appear to be watching, I'm not watching them for the same reasons nor am as entertained by them. I did not think this was the best season ever on Gilmore Girls (enjoyed last season more actually) nor did Rory and Logan turn me on. I'm not crazy about Patrick Dempsey and fail to see the appeal of a good looking guy with 0 personality or character development. He just wanders around Grey's Anatomy being dreamy and quite dull. I can watch the Bachelor for that, which I don't. My interest in Lost is not in figuring out the mystery (I have low expectations in that regard, TV always disappoints - with the exception of a few shows), but in what happens to these characters and whether I'll get a little more insight into them. I watch shows for characters. Not plots. Not themes. Not morales. Characters and emotional resonance from them. Period. Same thing with reading fic or stories - if your characters don't resonate for me, if I don't care about them on some level, you've lost me.

Did a bit more writing tonight. But not as much as I hoped. Instead of coming home and writing, I fixed dinner, then binged - four brownies and three scoops of Dove's caramel pecan ice cream, after which I felt gross and bloated. Ugh.
Why?Why?Why? Did the same thing yesterday. And could not get to sleep as a result of the frigging sugar high. Same deal now. And blasted tired. Wrote about a paragraph if that, mostly just fine tuning. Filling in descriptive gaps here and there. Most of the night I spent vegging in front of tv, eating,
and thumbing through magazines, note not really reading as scanning, I rarely read magazines - they are made for scanning: ET, New York, and Money. New York warned of a Real Estate Market Crash (yes! Please!), while Money stated it was unlikely to happen and don't worry (Ugh!). ET had long articles on Star Wars (which I doubt is fantastic, but hopefully will be better than the first two - Lucas wrote the script, so let's face it - it's not going to have stellar dialogue. I love Natalie Portman's comment about what she thinks of Lucas' dialogue writing skills: "I take the Fifth. Let's face it he's not Shakespeare." LOL!), one on Crash (which I really want to see), and a few others I can't remember at the moment. But no Stephen King column. I love those columns - they are basically rambles and go nowhere, but that's why I love them.

Okay must go to bed...

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Not much of a fan of the actress, to be honest, myself. Sort of ambivalent about her. While I consider her to be the most talented of the mid-90's TV actresses - ie. Neve Campbell, Alyssa Milano, Shannon Dougherty, Jennifer Love Hewitt, etc - she's still fairly limited.
I've seen her in lots of roles - the best by far was Buffy. The others?
Cruel Intentions, Simple Irrestible (which reminds me a great deal of her role in Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing), Harvard Girl (also not a teen), I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, Scooby Doo (the first one, which seriously stunk), and All My Children. The actress has enough range to have a B movie career - which she's had up to this point.

Is Girl's Guide the breakout movie role? Doubt it. Trendy. But hardly innovative or interesting. Too similar to the movies Reese Witherspoon,
Renee Zellwiger, Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock, Ashely Judd, Julia Roberts, and Kate Hudson have grown bored with, outgrown and moved on from - each now doing far more complex and true flesh/blood roles. Only question is - has the audience moved on as well? Not clear. The last few movies in this vein have not done that well. Hollywood keeps trying to revive the romantic comedy and keeps failing miserably.

The movie's success depends on three factors, which Gellar unfortunately has little control over: Script, Director, and Distributor (Marketing). Also Leading Man. You get a hot leading man a la Hugh Jackman, or Hugh Grant or someone in that vein? Maybe. If they
get someone like Freddie Prince Jr, Marc Blucas, Michael Vartan,
or Justin Timberlake...watch it die. These things depend as much on the guy involved as the gal.

Truth is - with this industry? I wouldn't count on much until we see trailers for the movie on TV or in the theaters. Deals fall through all the time. The acting profession? Unpredictable.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

The writer also explores the concept that the deaths in the 20th century (ie. the Holocaust, etc) were parents sacrificing themselves in lieu of their children.

Hmm, interesting: on the other hand, a lot of the stuff that came out of the First World War, at least in the European context, seems to me to have explicitly or as a subtext the feeling that it had been about sacrifice of the best and brightest of a generation by its fathers. One of Kipling's most poignant 'Epitaphs from the War' addresses this theme: he had pulled strings so that his extremely myopic son could get a commission - and his son was killed.

And Duh! to the suggestion you quote about chick-lit being about 'flesh and blood people' This person obviously never caught SMG being the Merteuil-equivalent in Cruel Intentions, either.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I had difficulties with the author's logic on this one.
The other bits he examined not so much. But his view that most of the 20th century was about parents sacrificing themselves for their children rung false for me - if anything a saw it as a combo of both.

Clearly the writer never caught Harvard Man or Simply Irrestible either. Understandable since both bombed. But they were in a similar vein. Basically it just signals that Gellar is attempting mainstream movies again.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Dan Simmons is a great author!

Have you read "Ilium"? If not give it a try. It's refreshing and full of references too (Homer of course, but also Shakespeare and Proust!).

I read his famous "Clarion Comfort" a few months ago too and loved it! Simmons completely reexamines the Myth of vampires in a very orginal way.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Is empathy with others pain - the source?

I'm intrigued by the heretical view of the Crucifixion that sees it as God finally achieving full empathy with his creation by experiencing fear/suffering/death.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh it's more complicated than that. Can't really go too far into detail without spoiling the story - because that's part of the puzzle.