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Sep. 13th, 2018 09:46 pm1. Great American Read -- this is a PBS show about a 100 books that people around the country voted as the best American Books, now they review each book, people vote, until one book is selected by everyone as the best book.
Great American Read List of Books
While I do not agree in selecting the "best" loved novel -- I consider this subjective and impossible, and somewhat insulting to the books. Because books are their own things, not comparable, and each it's own separate unique island in of itself. It would be akin to deciding which body of land or human is best == there is not such thing. Or which cloud. Or star. Or piece of sand.
BUT...
It is introducing me to books that I hadn't considered. Already bought:
* Siddertha by Herman Hesse
* When Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
* Another Country by James Baldwin
And flirting with Bless Me, Ultima.
I ignoring the rest of it though. Because, to be honest? I don't have a best loved novel or book. I can't choose between them...it would be like choosing between children or pets or flowers or trees.
I can't. I just can't.
2. Great British Baking Show or Bake-Off - S8 -- I really enjoyed this season. The challenges were more innovative and far harder than previous challenges. And the bakers more competitive in some respects. Less emphasis on decorative cakes.
Also the hosts were fun, and adorable. Prue a nice counter-point to Paul Hollywood, also I think they got along better. Mary Berry didn't appear to like Paul very much and it showed.
I was pleasantly surprised.
3. Conversations about a soap
Soap fan: Sonny is a mobster and what he did was wrong and against the law.
Me: It's a soap opera with an anti-hero protagonist. IRL - sure, Sonny is bad news and should go to jail. But not in a soap opera where he's the main character or major protagonist. Or the heroes are hitmen, spies and mobsters.
Soap fan: They will connect Sonny to the crime with finger prints on the gun, when it is found in the building with the skeleton.
Me: After 25 years?
Soap fan: They can do some astonishing things with DNA and fingerprints now.
Me: They aren't advanced enough to recreate prints that have been washed away by the elements and eroded by cold, dirt, and contaminated. I mean, I know for a fact that it is really hard to get fingerprints from metal, and that is why they put guns in plastic bags fast. Please. But again soap opera, so I'll handwave. Soaps defy logic.
[So too do soap fans.]
Soaps get a bad rap because the writers write what amounts to AU fanfic about their favs, after getting hired. Sometimes it follows canon closely, but often not. Sort of like serial comics actually -- which also are like fanfic. Sometimes it follows the canon closely, most of the time...not so much. Ret-cons abound. As do weird revisions of history. Previously evil characters become good (they were evil because of a brain tumor) or that was just their evil twin or they were possessed. While Good characters can flip and become evil...for some of the same reasons. Anything goes in a soap opera. They are as a result impossible to predict and sort of fun.
It does explain why non-canonical or AU fanfic never bothered me that much. I'm willing to hand-wave a lot, as long as the characters are explored in new and interesting ways. And the story hits one of my story kinks, doesn't offend me, or unnecessarily frustrate. Also it helps if they do not kill off a favorite character.
Soap fan: (reacting to a shipper combo name like Jasam = Jason/Sam)When did people start abbreviating names or shortening these names? What's up with that? I don't get it. Maybe I should find two names and make up my own combo. LOL!
Me: Since the 1990s, I think. Brangelina? Brad/Angelina Jolie. They take the first one-three letters one characters first name and blend it with their romantic love interest's first name (usually the whole name or the last part of it.) Trick is that it has to sound nice and be unique, and obvious as a ship -- not confused with another word. Buffy + Spike = Spuffy. Can't be Bike. Or Carly + Sonny = Carson. It can't be Sarly. Or Jason + Sam = Jasam, not Sason.
Once again, it occurs to me that most people don't think the way I do.
Great American Read List of Books
While I do not agree in selecting the "best" loved novel -- I consider this subjective and impossible, and somewhat insulting to the books. Because books are their own things, not comparable, and each it's own separate unique island in of itself. It would be akin to deciding which body of land or human is best == there is not such thing. Or which cloud. Or star. Or piece of sand.
BUT...
It is introducing me to books that I hadn't considered. Already bought:
* Siddertha by Herman Hesse
* When Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
* Another Country by James Baldwin
And flirting with Bless Me, Ultima.
I ignoring the rest of it though. Because, to be honest? I don't have a best loved novel or book. I can't choose between them...it would be like choosing between children or pets or flowers or trees.
I can't. I just can't.
2. Great British Baking Show or Bake-Off - S8 -- I really enjoyed this season. The challenges were more innovative and far harder than previous challenges. And the bakers more competitive in some respects. Less emphasis on decorative cakes.
Also the hosts were fun, and adorable. Prue a nice counter-point to Paul Hollywood, also I think they got along better. Mary Berry didn't appear to like Paul very much and it showed.
I was pleasantly surprised.
3. Conversations about a soap
Soap fan: Sonny is a mobster and what he did was wrong and against the law.
Me: It's a soap opera with an anti-hero protagonist. IRL - sure, Sonny is bad news and should go to jail. But not in a soap opera where he's the main character or major protagonist. Or the heroes are hitmen, spies and mobsters.
Soap fan: They will connect Sonny to the crime with finger prints on the gun, when it is found in the building with the skeleton.
Me: After 25 years?
Soap fan: They can do some astonishing things with DNA and fingerprints now.
Me: They aren't advanced enough to recreate prints that have been washed away by the elements and eroded by cold, dirt, and contaminated. I mean, I know for a fact that it is really hard to get fingerprints from metal, and that is why they put guns in plastic bags fast. Please. But again soap opera, so I'll handwave. Soaps defy logic.
[So too do soap fans.]
Soaps get a bad rap because the writers write what amounts to AU fanfic about their favs, after getting hired. Sometimes it follows canon closely, but often not. Sort of like serial comics actually -- which also are like fanfic. Sometimes it follows the canon closely, most of the time...not so much. Ret-cons abound. As do weird revisions of history. Previously evil characters become good (they were evil because of a brain tumor) or that was just their evil twin or they were possessed. While Good characters can flip and become evil...for some of the same reasons. Anything goes in a soap opera. They are as a result impossible to predict and sort of fun.
It does explain why non-canonical or AU fanfic never bothered me that much. I'm willing to hand-wave a lot, as long as the characters are explored in new and interesting ways. And the story hits one of my story kinks, doesn't offend me, or unnecessarily frustrate. Also it helps if they do not kill off a favorite character.
Soap fan: (reacting to a shipper combo name like Jasam = Jason/Sam)When did people start abbreviating names or shortening these names? What's up with that? I don't get it. Maybe I should find two names and make up my own combo. LOL!
Me: Since the 1990s, I think. Brangelina? Brad/Angelina Jolie. They take the first one-three letters one characters first name and blend it with their romantic love interest's first name (usually the whole name or the last part of it.) Trick is that it has to sound nice and be unique, and obvious as a ship -- not confused with another word. Buffy + Spike = Spuffy. Can't be Bike. Or Carly + Sonny = Carson. It can't be Sarly. Or Jason + Sam = Jasam, not Sason.
Once again, it occurs to me that most people don't think the way I do.