Media musing...Storm of Swords (George RR Martin) and Mad Men

[shadowkat]

Rewatching an episode of Glee - actually just the musical numbers. Glee's a satire about high school glee clubs. To give it credit - in some respects it comes closest to what my high school experience was actually like, well except most of the kids are white. Midwestern Suburbia. Not known for its diverse racial population. Buffy, while the student body came closer to representing my high school experience, was nothing like it - of course the actors, much like those in Glee are not teenagers. See that is the problem with tv shows about High School - it really isn't about high school, it's about how the 30 something writers remember their high school experiences. And the cast is always at least ten years older than actual high school students. I think Claire Danes is the only exception - she was 16, I think, for My So Called Life. I could be wrong about that. Was a while ago. It's also the reason why they have to move the kids out of high school after about two - three years, because while you can pass for a teen at 25, you are sort of pushing it at 30. Although Henry Winkler almost pulled it off. And Luke Perry of 90210 fame came really close (he was playing a 19 year old at the ripe old age of 35. James Marsters eat your heart out. Perry had you beat by five years. He also got to play Buffy's bad boy geeky love interest in the movie - called "Pike", which oddly rhymes with Spike - Whedon apparently is as good at picking character names as I am. )


Trains are working again, well sort of. Depends on where you are going, I guess. One of the benefits of working for a railroad is you actually understand why the trains aren't working.
While they weren't - I took the long way to work via subway - which meant, instead of sleeping, I got to read. And must say, George RR Martin's Storm of Swords rocks!! It probably helps that I'm in the mood for an epic at the moment. Martin writes detailed epic fantasy. Rather like epics - they are all about the journey, have multiple characters, and the good guys and bad guys tend to be interchangeable. Also each character gets explored in detail. They aren't just archetypal exercises. Myths tend to get into archetypes and morality tales. Epics are bit more complicated. Not everyone's cup of tea, I know. At any rate - am in the mood for a good epic right now and Martin's Storm seems to be fitting the bill. When I finish it and the sequal Feast of Crows, he might actually get around to publishing Dance of Dragons. (I doubt it, Martin seems to be moving back into television writing after a 20 year hiatus. For those who don't already know this - George RR Martin was the producer of the Television Fantasy Series - Beauty and the Beast and a story editor for Twilight Zone. Now he's writing for the HBO series based on his books, Game of Thrones. (Which is tempting me into getting HBO, that and watching shows like Big Love and True Blood).

Can't decide which character I'm most interested in - in Storm. There's so many. Cleverly wicked and tormented Tyrion, the dwarf, beautiful Danerys - Queen of Dragons, Arya - the wolf girl, the tortured and twisted Jamie Lannister who is in love with his twin sister, Brianne - the female knight charged with safely returning him to his sister in exchange for two female hostages, silly Sansa who wishes for pretty things, or Jon Snow...the bastard king trekking the wild north on a secret quest. And Martin writes well. His vocabulary is terse yet textured. His dialogue fits each character to the extent that you can hear their voices in your head. And he, unlike several writers I've read of late, deftly manages the change in pov.

Epic fantasy at its best. It is a long book though - over 1000 pages in length. But unlike Stephen King's The Stand, it does not appear to meander quite so much and seems tighter in focus. Better edited. Of course it was published several years ago...but so was King's. The difference may well be Martin's editor was paying attention. Wish this was on the Kindle, I've gotten a few weird looks on subways and trains - possibly because it's not the Girl with the Dragoon Tattooo? I tend to be private about my reading and watching material - most people don't get it. Too far off the beaten path. And yes, I know - Martin's novels are best-sellers in the fantasy field.

Speaking of off the beaten path - watched this week's episode of Mad Men - was quite good. This season's Mad Men is far better than last season. I got a bit bored last season, it wasn't until the last four episodes that the series picked up steam. This season - it's great right out of the box. Someone stated in another thread online that Angel in an IDW cover drawing, reminded them of Don Draper. Yes. The characters are incredibly similar, with Vincent Karthesier - playing protegee in both dramas. And a beautiful, snarky, silly blond as the nasty ex. Both anti-hero bastards, that you sort of love to hate. Except, I think Jon Hamm is the better actor - he can be shockingly handsome and shockingly ugly at the same time. Plus his facial expressions are priceless. I'm guessing I'm the only one who sees the resemblance here? So never mind. This season is quite funny in places. In this week's episode, Don's new secretary, an woman old enough to well be Don's great grandmother - is torturing him by also being the world's worst secretary. He can't charm her. He can't abuse her. He can't deride her. She has power over him. It's precious. Don also figures out how to outmaneuver both the new client and the competition. He beats them at their own game. Mad Men makes me miss the days when women who had hour-glass figures, busts, curves, and wide hips were considered attractive. When did we move towards the adolescent boy/aneroxic girl look? The mid-seventies? I blame Diane Keaton and Woody Allen, personally. The sexism is made fun of as well. And I'm reminded of how much I dislike Betty, Don's incredibly shallow ex-wife. He deserves her, almost as much as she deserved him. Their poor daughter - who got caught "playing with herself" at a friends house, while her friend was asleep on the couch. She was masturbating to the Man From Uncle. LOL! Specifically IIliya Kuryikian, portrayed by a very young and very blond David McCallum with Robert Vaughn next to him. They were tied up in the scene. She's ten, so everyone of course was very upset about it. Betty - I don't do that, no one does that. Me to the tv set- Betty, honey, if you and Don were a little less repressed and actually did that more often, you wouldn't have been having affairs, and might, you know, actually stay married. Seriously, masturbation is healthier than adultery, less people get hurt.

Comments

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

I kind of envy that you're reading A Storm of Swords for the first time - when (I HOPEHOPEHOPE) the wait for book 5 won't be so long. I finished it in 2002 and then had to wait 3+ years for A Feast for Crows and then began the long, long wait for A Dance with Dragons.

On the other hand, I will never be really peeved with Martin because even if he never finishes this series, he gave me one of my favorite fictional characters ever (as well as maybe my favorite fictional pairing ever.) The aforementioned Jaime Lannister really shines in A Storm of Swords (I'm not sure where you are, but he has basically my favorite scene in fantasy literature in this book) ...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think Betty was conveniently forgetting her encounter with a washing machine in Season 1.

To give it credit - in some respects it comes closest to what my high school experience was actually like, well except most of the kids are white. Midwestern Suburbia. Not known for its diverse racial population. Buffy, while the student body came closer to representing my high school experience, was nothing like it - of course the actors, much like those in Glee are not teenagers.

From a Southern nowheresville perspective, the show I think of as being anywhere close to my high school experience is Friday Night Lights, which is actually relatively close for a tv show. That includes the current season because, like the show this last year, 70% of the student population was African-American.

[owenthurman.livejournal.com]

I like Glee, too. But I was Drama Club.

A few years ago my friends were making fun of my new haircut and how teenish I looked. I thought that was just fine. About half my age, but just fine.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

I hope Dance with Dragons is finally gonna get published, because the waiting really drags by now and I might have to read the previous books again to keep up.

I liked Storm of Swords and Feast for crows was also good, but he split it into POVs so in Feast some characters don't show at all, among them some of my favorites.

I'm looking forward to the show, the cast looks very promising.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I have very fond memories of UNCLE, prolly the first tv show I ever watched. Whoo boy - did I have the hots for Illiya! I remember everyone playing UNCLE on the playground at recess, talking to our pens.

Yes - I'm that old!