This and that...and the other thing...
May. 28th, 2024 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Hmmm, having thought about it? I agree with this review of RT Davies' Doctor Who Episode 73 Yards or as Brevoort aptly describes it - the Twilight Zone Episode of the series.
He's right the story collapses in on itself at the end. It makes no sense that everyone runs in disgust from the older version of Ruby. And when the two meet up, the whole story is unraveled.
He calls it - a Bridge too far, when the writer goes a touch too far and can't explain the story and uses "magic" as a quick explanation.
My own take? I found it intriguing up to the point the Prime Minister reacts to the woman, gesturing to Ruby, but after that point it kind of fizzled out. I wasn't sure why people were running away from the woman in fear, or how the woman convinced the PM candidate to give up. It felt very Twilight Zone meets Black Mirror to me - but seemed to not quick stick the landing - and took the easy way out.
There was a lot I liked about the episode - the Welsh Folklore is a quick grab for me. (Although I never saw anything close to that when I wandered about Wales in the 1980s collecting lore, and it was pretty developed back then.) I also rather like Ruby, even though the character reminds me a little too much of Clara in some respects. The actress is doing a marvelous job. Missed the Doctor, more than I expected. The horror trope - of Ruby never being able to get close, and those who do abandon her and everyone, was creepy. But I'm not sure it was wise to leave it unexplained?
2. Two cyclists tried to run me over on the sidewalk. They were grown men, joyriding on the sidewalk very fast. And they yelled at me for walking on it and not jumping out of their way, forcing them to swerve. I was burdened with groceries and minding my own business walking along a sidewalk in Ditmas, Brooklyn - which is residential area.
"Watch where you're going, BITCH!" they said. Thirty-something men.
ME: Sidewalk is for pedestrians, you nitwits. Street is for cyclists. You should be in the street not the sidewalk. My safety takes precedence over yours.
They didn't hear me, they were going too fast, and a ways a head. I'm hoping the elderly couple that I'd passed earlier, along with the young man, were okay. They were facing in the opposite direction. I'm also rooting for a car to run them over either driving into its driveway or when they dart across the street.
Cyclists have become a menace in NYC. I've started rooting for the motor vehicles to crash into them. They don't follow the rules, nor believe the rules of the road pertain to them.
3. I'm not sure what to make of my A/C - every once and a while it has a crackling sound. As if there's something in it? But it goes away and isn't constant. I do not want to get a new A/C - it's working fine otherwise. Or seems to be. Although when Wales visited on Sunday, she kept asking for a fan. I was fine. She made the same complaint over Christmas.
4. I've been watching Bodkin on Netflix...it kind of put me to sleep this evening. It's supposed to be a satire on podcasts (I don't listen to any so have no clue), and a mystery. The mystery is more interesting, and I like Dove, but the other characters are kind of ho hum or annoying. I don't know if I'll stick with it.
5. Books...
* Been listening to Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie which is basically about a sentient ship that has broken off into ancillary parts, and we're following one of the adjacent parts - who is in a human. The human is actually AI in a corpse, with no memory of its previous life.
As AI and an Ancillary of a ship - it has no real sense of gender, nor does it's ruling group or creator, the alien or non-human Imperial Radch who is kind of ambivalent in regards to gender. They refer to pretty much everyone as she, including themselves. It's confusing, but the voices the narrator uses helps distinguish the characters for the most part.
There's flashbacks, which is also confusing. This is an ambitious space opera. We have flashbacks, the point of view is AI, and similar sounding names. Plus no gender. Requires some work from the listener and reader, if you aren't a contextual listener or reader - in that you figure out stuff via the context of the story, don't require everything to be explained, and don't care that much about details - this will work for you. If not? I don't know. I'm a contextual listener and reader - so it's working for me, I can follow it well enough, and I'm curious.
* Gave away Yellowface - it's Wales book now. I bought it for her. She loves this type of thing. I do not. We don't necessarily have the same tastes, but I know what she likes. (I buy to others tastes not my own, when I get them gifts. I do at times try what they like to figure out why they like it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)
It's a biting satire, with an unreliable and unlikable narrator - and basically a horror story about a lonely struggling writer in the publishing industry. Two hundred pages in - I hated the author. Not the narrator, who I felt kind of sorry for although I thought she was entitled and whiny as all get out, but the woman writing the book. And gave up, because I didn't want to hate the author - since I would like to at some point read her science fiction/fantasy novels - of which I am in possession of two. The Poppy War (e-books) and Babel (audio).
Traditionally published writers can be annoyingly whiny. (I was happier when I was oblivious to their woes and just read their books. Thank you internet.) I've chosen not to rate it or provide a review in Good Reads, mainly because I couldn't finish it. Also it has enough reviews, it doesn't need mine.
* Still working on Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies - it's slow going. I think it's the writing style that's putting me off - it's a bit too formal for my taste or has a kind of prim Victorian tone, that doesn't work for me?
* People online still think that GRR Martin will finish his Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) series. It's not happening. Not only is he well into his seventies by now, he also wrote himself into a corner, and the series wrapped up in a controversial manner (half the viewers loved it, half despised it (some to the degree they wanted to hunt down the writers and lynch them - which is going a bit far in my opinion? Folks at the end of the day, it's just a television series, you'll survive) and none the twain shall meet). I remember thinking when I read the last published novel in the series to date (Dance of Dragons) - oh you wrote yourself into a corner, didn't you? I'm not sure you can get out of that? (From how they concluded the series, and what I've read, he couldn't without a lot of magical tinkering which didn't quite make sense.)
It happens with serial writers - serial writing is hard. The writer often gets bored. Or they lose track of the story. And if they haven't outlined or plotted it all out ahead of time - they are unlikely to keep track of the plot. And Martin made it more difficult for himself (albeit more interesting) by adding about a hundred new point of view characters to the mix. I was losing track of the POV characters and where they all were in the story, I can only imagine how the writer felt.
Martin also said (or social media thinks he said it, he could have been misquoted, it happens more often than one might think) - that people who adapt books think they have ownership - they don't, and 99% of the time the adaptation is nowhere near as good as the book.
He should know better - having done his own adaptations. Most recently the Tony Hillerman novels. I like what John Le Carre said on the topic - which is that an adaptation is another person's/artist's interpretation of his work and he's curious to see how differently they interpreted the story from him. He'd rather it be different than lock step and barrel so to speak, because it makes it more interesting and a new work of art. But once he sells the rights to someone to adapt, or puts the book out there for others to interact with - it's no longer really his, it's theirs.
I agree with that. And adaptations aren't better or worse than the original, just different. Martin helped adapt Game of Thrones, he was an executive producer and consultant, he aided in casting, and he wrote episodes. He's being disingenuous stating otherwise.
* With a credit - got King of Diamonds for my next audible read. It's a non-fiction account of a jewel thief in Dallas Texas during the 1960s, written by a journalist who was following the case a the time. It's about $21.98 normally, but I got it free with a credit. (I'm a subscriber to audible.)
He's right the story collapses in on itself at the end. It makes no sense that everyone runs in disgust from the older version of Ruby. And when the two meet up, the whole story is unraveled.
He calls it - a Bridge too far, when the writer goes a touch too far and can't explain the story and uses "magic" as a quick explanation.
My own take? I found it intriguing up to the point the Prime Minister reacts to the woman, gesturing to Ruby, but after that point it kind of fizzled out. I wasn't sure why people were running away from the woman in fear, or how the woman convinced the PM candidate to give up. It felt very Twilight Zone meets Black Mirror to me - but seemed to not quick stick the landing - and took the easy way out.
There was a lot I liked about the episode - the Welsh Folklore is a quick grab for me. (Although I never saw anything close to that when I wandered about Wales in the 1980s collecting lore, and it was pretty developed back then.) I also rather like Ruby, even though the character reminds me a little too much of Clara in some respects. The actress is doing a marvelous job. Missed the Doctor, more than I expected. The horror trope - of Ruby never being able to get close, and those who do abandon her and everyone, was creepy. But I'm not sure it was wise to leave it unexplained?
2. Two cyclists tried to run me over on the sidewalk. They were grown men, joyriding on the sidewalk very fast. And they yelled at me for walking on it and not jumping out of their way, forcing them to swerve. I was burdened with groceries and minding my own business walking along a sidewalk in Ditmas, Brooklyn - which is residential area.
"Watch where you're going, BITCH!" they said. Thirty-something men.
ME: Sidewalk is for pedestrians, you nitwits. Street is for cyclists. You should be in the street not the sidewalk. My safety takes precedence over yours.
They didn't hear me, they were going too fast, and a ways a head. I'm hoping the elderly couple that I'd passed earlier, along with the young man, were okay. They were facing in the opposite direction. I'm also rooting for a car to run them over either driving into its driveway or when they dart across the street.
Cyclists have become a menace in NYC. I've started rooting for the motor vehicles to crash into them. They don't follow the rules, nor believe the rules of the road pertain to them.
3. I'm not sure what to make of my A/C - every once and a while it has a crackling sound. As if there's something in it? But it goes away and isn't constant. I do not want to get a new A/C - it's working fine otherwise. Or seems to be. Although when Wales visited on Sunday, she kept asking for a fan. I was fine. She made the same complaint over Christmas.
4. I've been watching Bodkin on Netflix...it kind of put me to sleep this evening. It's supposed to be a satire on podcasts (I don't listen to any so have no clue), and a mystery. The mystery is more interesting, and I like Dove, but the other characters are kind of ho hum or annoying. I don't know if I'll stick with it.
5. Books...
* Been listening to Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie which is basically about a sentient ship that has broken off into ancillary parts, and we're following one of the adjacent parts - who is in a human. The human is actually AI in a corpse, with no memory of its previous life.
As AI and an Ancillary of a ship - it has no real sense of gender, nor does it's ruling group or creator, the alien or non-human Imperial Radch who is kind of ambivalent in regards to gender. They refer to pretty much everyone as she, including themselves. It's confusing, but the voices the narrator uses helps distinguish the characters for the most part.
There's flashbacks, which is also confusing. This is an ambitious space opera. We have flashbacks, the point of view is AI, and similar sounding names. Plus no gender. Requires some work from the listener and reader, if you aren't a contextual listener or reader - in that you figure out stuff via the context of the story, don't require everything to be explained, and don't care that much about details - this will work for you. If not? I don't know. I'm a contextual listener and reader - so it's working for me, I can follow it well enough, and I'm curious.
* Gave away Yellowface - it's Wales book now. I bought it for her. She loves this type of thing. I do not. We don't necessarily have the same tastes, but I know what she likes. (I buy to others tastes not my own, when I get them gifts. I do at times try what they like to figure out why they like it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)
It's a biting satire, with an unreliable and unlikable narrator - and basically a horror story about a lonely struggling writer in the publishing industry. Two hundred pages in - I hated the author. Not the narrator, who I felt kind of sorry for although I thought she was entitled and whiny as all get out, but the woman writing the book. And gave up, because I didn't want to hate the author - since I would like to at some point read her science fiction/fantasy novels - of which I am in possession of two. The Poppy War (e-books) and Babel (audio).
Traditionally published writers can be annoyingly whiny. (I was happier when I was oblivious to their woes and just read their books. Thank you internet.) I've chosen not to rate it or provide a review in Good Reads, mainly because I couldn't finish it. Also it has enough reviews, it doesn't need mine.
* Still working on Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies - it's slow going. I think it's the writing style that's putting me off - it's a bit too formal for my taste or has a kind of prim Victorian tone, that doesn't work for me?
* People online still think that GRR Martin will finish his Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) series. It's not happening. Not only is he well into his seventies by now, he also wrote himself into a corner, and the series wrapped up in a controversial manner (half the viewers loved it, half despised it (some to the degree they wanted to hunt down the writers and lynch them - which is going a bit far in my opinion? Folks at the end of the day, it's just a television series, you'll survive) and none the twain shall meet). I remember thinking when I read the last published novel in the series to date (Dance of Dragons) - oh you wrote yourself into a corner, didn't you? I'm not sure you can get out of that? (From how they concluded the series, and what I've read, he couldn't without a lot of magical tinkering which didn't quite make sense.)
It happens with serial writers - serial writing is hard. The writer often gets bored. Or they lose track of the story. And if they haven't outlined or plotted it all out ahead of time - they are unlikely to keep track of the plot. And Martin made it more difficult for himself (albeit more interesting) by adding about a hundred new point of view characters to the mix. I was losing track of the POV characters and where they all were in the story, I can only imagine how the writer felt.
Martin also said (or social media thinks he said it, he could have been misquoted, it happens more often than one might think) - that people who adapt books think they have ownership - they don't, and 99% of the time the adaptation is nowhere near as good as the book.
He should know better - having done his own adaptations. Most recently the Tony Hillerman novels. I like what John Le Carre said on the topic - which is that an adaptation is another person's/artist's interpretation of his work and he's curious to see how differently they interpreted the story from him. He'd rather it be different than lock step and barrel so to speak, because it makes it more interesting and a new work of art. But once he sells the rights to someone to adapt, or puts the book out there for others to interact with - it's no longer really his, it's theirs.
I agree with that. And adaptations aren't better or worse than the original, just different. Martin helped adapt Game of Thrones, he was an executive producer and consultant, he aided in casting, and he wrote episodes. He's being disingenuous stating otherwise.
* With a credit - got King of Diamonds for my next audible read. It's a non-fiction account of a jewel thief in Dallas Texas during the 1960s, written by a journalist who was following the case a the time. It's about $21.98 normally, but I got it free with a credit. (I'm a subscriber to audible.)
no subject
Date: 2024-05-29 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-29 01:15 pm (UTC)*"Now" meaning the last time I saw the numbers which might have been year ago.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-29 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-29 09:08 pm (UTC)Have you seen this suggestion re. Dr Who - I like it! https://www.tumblr.com/becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys/751670894612611072/would-love-your-opinion-of-the-newest-episode-of?source=share
no subject
Date: 2024-05-29 10:10 pm (UTC)I collected a lot of stories about them - back in the 1980s, although they didn't call them gwllys.
They just said the hag or witch in the well. And if you get too close - they put a curse on you and make you sick or something. It was so long ago, that I barely remember it.
I rather found that person's description of the episode enlightening and made me like it all the more. She's right the Welsh are often given the short end of the stick in the UK. And lumped in with Ireland or Scotland Celts, when they are very different, and also a separate country from England.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-30 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-30 05:14 pm (UTC)Tardis was caught like the Doctor in the frozen timeline? I think that was her explanation. The episode admittedly had holes in it, that type of horror kind of does...unanswered creepy ones.