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Dec. 18th, 2015 09:32 pmTomorrow off to visit my aging parents for Xmas. And get away from the hustle, bustle and frenetic activity that is NYC. Now that my office has moved to Madison Avenue and is no longer located in Jamaica, Queens - I'm dealing with the frenetic activity on a daily basis. It is an adjustment.
Also, now, once again in my working life, I have easy access to shopping - lots of it. Book stores, clothing stores, food stores...discovered a gluten free french bakery. Damn place is dangerous for my dietary needs and my pocketbook. It's also crowded.
* Star Wars reviews are beginning to pop up on flist. I loved one..."I was going to wait and see it, but decided I had to see it now or risk getting spoiled on the net" - in other words, this way, I can spoil everyone else and have my review in your head, hee, hee, hee.
And I made the mistake of reading below the cut and got the big character death spoiler, dang it...albeit, it was predictable, when I think about it, and I'm not unhappy about it. But I stopped right there. Almost got spoiled on something far worse... And I wisely didn't continue reading. Also, I don't think I'm going to agree with the reviewer's perspective on the films. (The reviewer loved the prequels, I found prequels disappointing, boring and lackluster, with little to recommend them. Actually the prequels just about killed my interest in the franchise. In part because I'd been look forward to them for years...and was disappointed in how badly Lucas botched the whole thing. Let's face it while Lucas is a master at world-building and mythology, he sucks at dialogue, plot and character development. And I care more about the latter than the former. Folks who care more about the former, probably loved the prequels, folks who care more about the latter, most likely didn't.)
I think how you come at Star Wars - has a lot to do with when you saw the films. And the type of story that grabs you by the gut.
MD has no interest in Star Wars -- she saw the films as an adult, and after the prequels.
I saw them when I was 10 or 11 years of age in 1977, when the movie first came out. Actually we were amongst the first people to see it in our neighborhood. I remember my father driving two hours out to see it at movie theater in Pennsylvania. That Christmas - we got all the action figures. And I think we saw the film more than once. When Empire came out - we saw it in a huge theater as well, this time in Kansas City. I read the book first. Actually I read the novelizations of Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi. Also various books between the movies by other writers. I've seen the original films at least ten times. And at least twice in the theaters. I even had the radio play. I was once upon a time, a die-hard fan. (And yes, I saw all the films, including the prequels in the theater.)
My favorite is Empire Strikes Back.
And yes, favorite character ended up being Han Solo, mainly because Harrison Ford was the only actor of the three who could carry a film - helped greatly by the fact that Lucas clearly was thinking of Ford when he was creating the role. Ford was Lucas' carpenter, a good friend, and had been in American Graffiti. He was helping Lucas audition people - by reading the Han role in many of the auditions. And notably would comment at various points - "George, people don't talk like this. We need to change this line." Fisher isn't much of an actress - her strength is in writing, and Hamill's in voice work. Ford was an actor prior to the Star Wars series - he had been cast in a few Coppola films and in Graffiti.
The other big thing about Star Wars - from my perspective -- is prior to Star Wars, I viewed all sci-fi as scary or horror with monsters. Not fun. There was no sci-fi for kids. (Doctor really wasn't available on PBS at this point -- I don't think I saw an episode of it until after Star Wars came out.) My idea of science fiction was Space 1999 or Star Trek - which, scary. Or Lost in Space -- scary. Actually Lost in Space may be the American equivalent of Doctor Who, it had a creepy Dalek shaped robot too. So too me, sci-fi equaled scary aliens invading, monsters, etc. I was 11.
Then up popped Star Wars - which was this cool hybrid of a 1940s cliff-hanger/American Western/World War II film. I loved watching those old movies with my Dad on Saturday nights. It was fun. Complete with Banter, fun robots, everything. Blew my mind. Also changed how I perceived sci-fi. After Star Wars - I sought out sci-fi.
Again, it is worth noting that I was little girl and eleven years of age. At the time my favorite character was Luke. I changed my mind when I turned 14 - and decided it was Han Solo. Leia...I liked, but...she wasn't written well. Lucas didn't know what to do with strong female characters.
So..am I looking forward to the Force Awakens? Yes, but not in a fannish way. I'm weirdly ambivalent.
Possibly because..of the prequels, which disappointed me. And the realization that the writers will undoubtedly go in a direction different than what I'd imagined as a child. But my interest is definitely sparked now by the spoilers I gleaned from the review I partially read. There was one spoiler in particular that makes me very interested in the movie -- more so than I was originally.
Sometimes spoilers have that effect -- they make you more interested in seeing something than you might have been otherwise.
That's the twist spoilerphobes don't know about. It's why I sought them out in Buffy -- and often the spoiler would spark my interest in the series or keep me watching. The can have the opposite effect as well, kill your interest in the story. That has happened as well. There are some things -- if you can't spoiled on, you can't watch or apprecitate fully - mainly because they are all about the twist.
(Not a good thing.) If your story is all about the twist - and no one who has read it can read it again or discuss it without ruining it for the next person -- the story has a fatal flaw in it.
A good story should be able to be read multiple times, each time giving the reader or viewer a new layer. It shouldn't matter too much if they are spoiled on it. Then again, I guess it depends on what the purpose of the story is? Sometimes the point is to surprise. And it is not expected to read or seen again.
Also, now, once again in my working life, I have easy access to shopping - lots of it. Book stores, clothing stores, food stores...discovered a gluten free french bakery. Damn place is dangerous for my dietary needs and my pocketbook. It's also crowded.
* Star Wars reviews are beginning to pop up on flist. I loved one..."I was going to wait and see it, but decided I had to see it now or risk getting spoiled on the net" - in other words, this way, I can spoil everyone else and have my review in your head, hee, hee, hee.
And I made the mistake of reading below the cut and got the big character death spoiler, dang it...albeit, it was predictable, when I think about it, and I'm not unhappy about it. But I stopped right there. Almost got spoiled on something far worse... And I wisely didn't continue reading. Also, I don't think I'm going to agree with the reviewer's perspective on the films. (The reviewer loved the prequels, I found prequels disappointing, boring and lackluster, with little to recommend them. Actually the prequels just about killed my interest in the franchise. In part because I'd been look forward to them for years...and was disappointed in how badly Lucas botched the whole thing. Let's face it while Lucas is a master at world-building and mythology, he sucks at dialogue, plot and character development. And I care more about the latter than the former. Folks who care more about the former, probably loved the prequels, folks who care more about the latter, most likely didn't.)
I think how you come at Star Wars - has a lot to do with when you saw the films. And the type of story that grabs you by the gut.
MD has no interest in Star Wars -- she saw the films as an adult, and after the prequels.
I saw them when I was 10 or 11 years of age in 1977, when the movie first came out. Actually we were amongst the first people to see it in our neighborhood. I remember my father driving two hours out to see it at movie theater in Pennsylvania. That Christmas - we got all the action figures. And I think we saw the film more than once. When Empire came out - we saw it in a huge theater as well, this time in Kansas City. I read the book first. Actually I read the novelizations of Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi. Also various books between the movies by other writers. I've seen the original films at least ten times. And at least twice in the theaters. I even had the radio play. I was once upon a time, a die-hard fan. (And yes, I saw all the films, including the prequels in the theater.)
My favorite is Empire Strikes Back.
And yes, favorite character ended up being Han Solo, mainly because Harrison Ford was the only actor of the three who could carry a film - helped greatly by the fact that Lucas clearly was thinking of Ford when he was creating the role. Ford was Lucas' carpenter, a good friend, and had been in American Graffiti. He was helping Lucas audition people - by reading the Han role in many of the auditions. And notably would comment at various points - "George, people don't talk like this. We need to change this line." Fisher isn't much of an actress - her strength is in writing, and Hamill's in voice work. Ford was an actor prior to the Star Wars series - he had been cast in a few Coppola films and in Graffiti.
The other big thing about Star Wars - from my perspective -- is prior to Star Wars, I viewed all sci-fi as scary or horror with monsters. Not fun. There was no sci-fi for kids. (Doctor really wasn't available on PBS at this point -- I don't think I saw an episode of it until after Star Wars came out.) My idea of science fiction was Space 1999 or Star Trek - which, scary. Or Lost in Space -- scary. Actually Lost in Space may be the American equivalent of Doctor Who, it had a creepy Dalek shaped robot too. So too me, sci-fi equaled scary aliens invading, monsters, etc. I was 11.
Then up popped Star Wars - which was this cool hybrid of a 1940s cliff-hanger/American Western/World War II film. I loved watching those old movies with my Dad on Saturday nights. It was fun. Complete with Banter, fun robots, everything. Blew my mind. Also changed how I perceived sci-fi. After Star Wars - I sought out sci-fi.
Again, it is worth noting that I was little girl and eleven years of age. At the time my favorite character was Luke. I changed my mind when I turned 14 - and decided it was Han Solo. Leia...I liked, but...she wasn't written well. Lucas didn't know what to do with strong female characters.
So..am I looking forward to the Force Awakens? Yes, but not in a fannish way. I'm weirdly ambivalent.
Possibly because..of the prequels, which disappointed me. And the realization that the writers will undoubtedly go in a direction different than what I'd imagined as a child. But my interest is definitely sparked now by the spoilers I gleaned from the review I partially read. There was one spoiler in particular that makes me very interested in the movie -- more so than I was originally.
Sometimes spoilers have that effect -- they make you more interested in seeing something than you might have been otherwise.
That's the twist spoilerphobes don't know about. It's why I sought them out in Buffy -- and often the spoiler would spark my interest in the series or keep me watching. The can have the opposite effect as well, kill your interest in the story. That has happened as well. There are some things -- if you can't spoiled on, you can't watch or apprecitate fully - mainly because they are all about the twist.
(Not a good thing.) If your story is all about the twist - and no one who has read it can read it again or discuss it without ruining it for the next person -- the story has a fatal flaw in it.
A good story should be able to be read multiple times, each time giving the reader or viewer a new layer. It shouldn't matter too much if they are spoiled on it. Then again, I guess it depends on what the purpose of the story is? Sometimes the point is to surprise. And it is not expected to read or seen again.