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Taking a breather from book revisions and tv watching. More of one than the other. Guess which? Book revisions are hard right now - because I'm currently absurdly critical of my own writing. It's because I'm reading a well-written literary novel, Monsters of Templeton and am doing myself the disservice of comparing my own writing to it.
The opening or first paragraph from said novel: "The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass. It was one of those strange purple dawns that color July there, when the bowl made by the hills fills with a thick fog and even the songbirds sing timorously, unsure of day or night."
Opening paragraph from my poor belabored effort: "Caddy tottered at the rim of the subway platform and stared downwards at the narrow gully between the tracks where a solitary rat scurried, sniffing out crumbs. The name Caddy was short for Candace, which she despised, hence the Caddy. Even though Caddy sounded chirpier than she usually felt, one did not pick one’s own name. She blamed her mother, a frustrated English Lit professor, who had named her Caddy after a Faulkner character of the same name. Naming a daughter after a traumatized and suicidal character may not have been the best idea, although the fictional character’s life, as was the case with most fictional characters, was far more interesting than her own."
Sigh. Wales tells me not to worry so. She loves the way I write and thinks it is just fine and my own style. She doesn't want me to write like the "first" paragraph above. This in a nutshell may be one of the many reasons Wales's friendship is so precious to me, even if I don't always show it. We need a few cheerleaders in our lives after all, makes it easier to get to the tops of those craggy cliffs.
Yes, I know, part of my problem is I suffer from Miss Malprop syndrom. Miss Malprop was a character in The Importance of Being Earnest - I believe. Should google to be certain. Who made up words and often used the wrong word or wrong syntax. It is a family malady. My brother does it and my mother does it - as did my grandfather - a symptom of our mutual dyslexia. Highly annoying trait for a writer and one I continue to struggle with. Often I do not trust the beautiful words that wander off my fingers and onto the page, regardless of how pretty they sound. Since I am highly self-conscious of it, and annoyed by the fact that it often happens subsconsiously - so I don't always know - particularly when speaking, I tend to be a bit, shall we say, sensitive to criticism regarding it. I can't quite abide being corrected or criticized and will most often react rather immaturely by lashing out at the critic. You'd think the mere fact that I'm aware of this flaw in my nature would inspire me to change it, but it doesn't. Annoying that. What can I say I'm quirky. But those who are my friends appear to love me anyway. Those who don't...there's little one can do about that.
Quickly before bed, because did not intend to write any of the above - I always do this, write something I did not intend. Hence the title of the journal - spontaneous musings.
Anyhow...
*Was rather amused by my father's take on Mad Men which is not as my mother described it. I asked him how he was enjoying it? He replied that they had finished watching the first season DVD and rather liked it. He admitted to having troubles with it at first, because there weren't any characters he liked or cared about, that is until the very end, when Don Draper, the lead character, changes his mind and decides at the last minute to join his family for Thanksgiving, but alas is too late and they've left without him - so he is sitting on the steps all alone. My father felt sorry for him. My Dad said Mad Men makes him think of a comic strip or graphic novel - it is so perfectly drawn and painted. (I should state that amongst other things, my Dad is a frustrated cartoonist and used to draw cartoons and comic strips when he was younger.) It's very stylized. He also said that he entered the world of Madison Avenue, and interacted with Advertising and Marketing people in 1968 and the early 1970s. He did it in New York, when I was a baby. Used to go after hours to The Four Seasons - where the characters of Mad Men hung out. And every thing in that show, according to my Dad is EXACTLY like it was back then. People did drink constantly at work, they did smoke constantly. Women, Blacks, Jews were all treated that way. The ad industry was like that and the guys in it were like the people in Mad Men. The accuracy, according to my Dad, is spot on. It brought back memories. So apparently kidbro wasn't as far off base giving it to my Dad, as I thought.
*I'm watching How I Met Your Mother for one reason only. I am a Robin/Barney shipper. I adore Neil Patrick Harris - have a little crush on him actually. He's so adorable and hilarious as Barney. Much better than he was as Doogie Howser. So I watch it for him and try to ignore Alyson Hannigan and Ted who get on my nerves - except when they are interacting with Barney.
Barney and Robin are perfect together...and it's so angsty, because player Barney finally has found a woman he can't seduce, a gal who he loves, but can't have. (Yes, this is apparently a story kink of mine - an attractive, playboy guy who falls deeply for a girl who does not fall for his act and he can't have. It's why I loved Spuffy and why I love Blair/Chuck on Gossip Girl.)
*Picked up Buffy S8, issue 21, Harmonic Convergence - written by Jane Espenson. It's basically a joke-fest. Per usual, Espenson weilds her satiric wit - this time the target is the reality tv show industry. Can't say I blame her. I more or less share her sentiments towards that industry and the people who watch it. Also I did appreciate the sly and somewhat witty critique of Anderson Cooper. Jeanty actually did a pretty good replica of him - it actually looked a bit like Anderson Cooper. This is the idiot on CNN who was cracking me up on election night by stating how he kept trying to find ways for McCain to win, but there just was no way, no matter how many times he did the math.
I should state that I've never been particularly fond of Harmony as a character. I find her a bit of a one-note character or joke. Also a bit on the offensive side. She's the type of girl I always wanted to slap really really hard and repeatedly - which may explain why I enjoyed seeing the crap get beaten out of her on occassion - somewhat cathartic, regardless of who was doing it. So, I can't really bring myself to feel much sympathy for her. The only time I sort of liked her was in the Angel S5 episode Harm's Way. She wasn't bad in Angel. In Buffy - she always set my teeth on edge. I think her sort of character almost works better in a noir story - as a femme fatale type. At any rate, this story basically proved that Angel and Buffy were idiots for not staking her ass a long time ago, when they had ample opportunity. I can see why Angel never did, but why on earth didn't Buffy? That never made much sense.
But, Espenson is actually pretty good at writing her and here, she does a good job with sight gags. There's a rather funny bit with Dawn, Xander, Willow, a book, and another horse - that made me laugh out loud and had no dialogue - it's reminiscent of the asburdist sight humor in sections of HIM in season 7 - also written in part by Espenson. Espenson is a master of the absurdist sight gag. The "Why Do Slayers Hate America" gag on the front cover by the way is not Espenson but rather Georges Jeanty. He's responsible for that one and yes, I think he probably knows the background of it - since he's an internet geek. I didn't know the background of that joke nor had I ever heard of it - until![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
liz_marcs wrote a post on it in her journal. Rather informative and quite funny. This is one issue where Jeanty's cover is actually better than Chen's and I picked it over Chen's.
Also Jeanty's art is getting better, I can actually tell Harmony and Buffy apart. I also recognized Andrew, go figure.
The story is progressing nicely - in more or less the direction I thought it was going. I know what Whedon is doing and the whole thematic arc he's building towards and has, ahem, become somewhat annoyingly obsessed with of late. Part of me, obviously likes it, or I wouldn't still be reading the comics and/or anything else Whedon is doing. The other is a tad irritated by it and keeps wishing he'd focus more on well the things I want to know about.
The normal dissonance between a reader's wants and an author's desires. Sometimes the two converge - which is what happened to me when I was watching the series - my wants converged with Whedon's & Company's, but they are a bit dissonant at the moment, not entirely, just a bit. Apparently I'm in the minority, AGAIN, so ...whatever. (According to the comic book shop owner - Buffy is doing great sales wise, Angel makes about half of what Buffy does, and the Spike comics half of what Angel makes. Also Lynch is not as popular as the other writers. Damn. Stupid fandom. You're supposed to like the same things I like!!! Which no doubt means there were probably a lot of people jumping for joy over this and last weeks issues, while I was sort of ...meh, that's okay, its interesting I guess.)
Okay, shower and bed. Dammit.
The opening or first paragraph from said novel: "The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass. It was one of those strange purple dawns that color July there, when the bowl made by the hills fills with a thick fog and even the songbirds sing timorously, unsure of day or night."
Opening paragraph from my poor belabored effort: "Caddy tottered at the rim of the subway platform and stared downwards at the narrow gully between the tracks where a solitary rat scurried, sniffing out crumbs. The name Caddy was short for Candace, which she despised, hence the Caddy. Even though Caddy sounded chirpier than she usually felt, one did not pick one’s own name. She blamed her mother, a frustrated English Lit professor, who had named her Caddy after a Faulkner character of the same name. Naming a daughter after a traumatized and suicidal character may not have been the best idea, although the fictional character’s life, as was the case with most fictional characters, was far more interesting than her own."
Sigh. Wales tells me not to worry so. She loves the way I write and thinks it is just fine and my own style. She doesn't want me to write like the "first" paragraph above. This in a nutshell may be one of the many reasons Wales's friendship is so precious to me, even if I don't always show it. We need a few cheerleaders in our lives after all, makes it easier to get to the tops of those craggy cliffs.
Yes, I know, part of my problem is I suffer from Miss Malprop syndrom. Miss Malprop was a character in The Importance of Being Earnest - I believe. Should google to be certain. Who made up words and often used the wrong word or wrong syntax. It is a family malady. My brother does it and my mother does it - as did my grandfather - a symptom of our mutual dyslexia. Highly annoying trait for a writer and one I continue to struggle with. Often I do not trust the beautiful words that wander off my fingers and onto the page, regardless of how pretty they sound. Since I am highly self-conscious of it, and annoyed by the fact that it often happens subsconsiously - so I don't always know - particularly when speaking, I tend to be a bit, shall we say, sensitive to criticism regarding it. I can't quite abide being corrected or criticized and will most often react rather immaturely by lashing out at the critic. You'd think the mere fact that I'm aware of this flaw in my nature would inspire me to change it, but it doesn't. Annoying that. What can I say I'm quirky. But those who are my friends appear to love me anyway. Those who don't...there's little one can do about that.
Quickly before bed, because did not intend to write any of the above - I always do this, write something I did not intend. Hence the title of the journal - spontaneous musings.
Anyhow...
*Was rather amused by my father's take on Mad Men which is not as my mother described it. I asked him how he was enjoying it? He replied that they had finished watching the first season DVD and rather liked it. He admitted to having troubles with it at first, because there weren't any characters he liked or cared about, that is until the very end, when Don Draper, the lead character, changes his mind and decides at the last minute to join his family for Thanksgiving, but alas is too late and they've left without him - so he is sitting on the steps all alone. My father felt sorry for him. My Dad said Mad Men makes him think of a comic strip or graphic novel - it is so perfectly drawn and painted. (I should state that amongst other things, my Dad is a frustrated cartoonist and used to draw cartoons and comic strips when he was younger.) It's very stylized. He also said that he entered the world of Madison Avenue, and interacted with Advertising and Marketing people in 1968 and the early 1970s. He did it in New York, when I was a baby. Used to go after hours to The Four Seasons - where the characters of Mad Men hung out. And every thing in that show, according to my Dad is EXACTLY like it was back then. People did drink constantly at work, they did smoke constantly. Women, Blacks, Jews were all treated that way. The ad industry was like that and the guys in it were like the people in Mad Men. The accuracy, according to my Dad, is spot on. It brought back memories. So apparently kidbro wasn't as far off base giving it to my Dad, as I thought.
*I'm watching How I Met Your Mother for one reason only. I am a Robin/Barney shipper. I adore Neil Patrick Harris - have a little crush on him actually. He's so adorable and hilarious as Barney. Much better than he was as Doogie Howser. So I watch it for him and try to ignore Alyson Hannigan and Ted who get on my nerves - except when they are interacting with Barney.
Barney and Robin are perfect together...and it's so angsty, because player Barney finally has found a woman he can't seduce, a gal who he loves, but can't have. (Yes, this is apparently a story kink of mine - an attractive, playboy guy who falls deeply for a girl who does not fall for his act and he can't have. It's why I loved Spuffy and why I love Blair/Chuck on Gossip Girl.)
*Picked up Buffy S8, issue 21, Harmonic Convergence - written by Jane Espenson. It's basically a joke-fest. Per usual, Espenson weilds her satiric wit - this time the target is the reality tv show industry. Can't say I blame her. I more or less share her sentiments towards that industry and the people who watch it. Also I did appreciate the sly and somewhat witty critique of Anderson Cooper. Jeanty actually did a pretty good replica of him - it actually looked a bit like Anderson Cooper. This is the idiot on CNN who was cracking me up on election night by stating how he kept trying to find ways for McCain to win, but there just was no way, no matter how many times he did the math.
I should state that I've never been particularly fond of Harmony as a character. I find her a bit of a one-note character or joke. Also a bit on the offensive side. She's the type of girl I always wanted to slap really really hard and repeatedly - which may explain why I enjoyed seeing the crap get beaten out of her on occassion - somewhat cathartic, regardless of who was doing it. So, I can't really bring myself to feel much sympathy for her. The only time I sort of liked her was in the Angel S5 episode Harm's Way. She wasn't bad in Angel. In Buffy - she always set my teeth on edge. I think her sort of character almost works better in a noir story - as a femme fatale type. At any rate, this story basically proved that Angel and Buffy were idiots for not staking her ass a long time ago, when they had ample opportunity. I can see why Angel never did, but why on earth didn't Buffy? That never made much sense.
But, Espenson is actually pretty good at writing her and here, she does a good job with sight gags. There's a rather funny bit with Dawn, Xander, Willow, a book, and another horse - that made me laugh out loud and had no dialogue - it's reminiscent of the asburdist sight humor in sections of HIM in season 7 - also written in part by Espenson. Espenson is a master of the absurdist sight gag. The "Why Do Slayers Hate America" gag on the front cover by the way is not Espenson but rather Georges Jeanty. He's responsible for that one and yes, I think he probably knows the background of it - since he's an internet geek. I didn't know the background of that joke nor had I ever heard of it - until
liz_marcs wrote a post on it in her journal. Rather informative and quite funny. This is one issue where Jeanty's cover is actually better than Chen's and I picked it over Chen's.Also Jeanty's art is getting better, I can actually tell Harmony and Buffy apart. I also recognized Andrew, go figure.
The story is progressing nicely - in more or less the direction I thought it was going. I know what Whedon is doing and the whole thematic arc he's building towards and has, ahem, become somewhat annoyingly obsessed with of late. Part of me, obviously likes it, or I wouldn't still be reading the comics and/or anything else Whedon is doing. The other is a tad irritated by it and keeps wishing he'd focus more on well the things I want to know about.
The normal dissonance between a reader's wants and an author's desires. Sometimes the two converge - which is what happened to me when I was watching the series - my wants converged with Whedon's & Company's, but they are a bit dissonant at the moment, not entirely, just a bit. Apparently I'm in the minority, AGAIN, so ...whatever. (According to the comic book shop owner - Buffy is doing great sales wise, Angel makes about half of what Buffy does, and the Spike comics half of what Angel makes. Also Lynch is not as popular as the other writers. Damn. Stupid fandom. You're supposed to like the same things I like!!! Which no doubt means there were probably a lot of people jumping for joy over this and last weeks issues, while I was sort of ...meh, that's okay, its interesting I guess.)
Okay, shower and bed. Dammit.
