Spontaneous Musings

1. The Pitfall of Being a Fan of a Series of Books or of a writer, only to realize they are a complete asshole.

* I've spent more time this week than I wanted to ...thinking about JKR and the Harry Potter Fandom.

Wales stumbled onto JKR on Twitter via the NY Times. There was a fight with NY Times, who for reasons...had decided to JKR. This erupted into a fight on Twitter. Wales, not reading the article, dove in and said they should pick their battles and defend women's reproductive rights, and well when I tried to explain, she clarified that this including women who no longer had access to their reproductive organs. To which, I had to clarify further.
( explaining why JKR is a transphobic bitch to someone who is unfamiliar with her work and the fandom )

* Penguin Puffin is apparently publishing the works of Roald Dahl, who as you may or may not already know is an anti-semitic asshole or was one. ( Read more... )

* And..I found out Twitter that..Scott Adams the cartoonist/creator of Dilbert is a racist Trump Supporter - and 80 newspapers pulled his cartoon due to racist content.

[ETC: To clarify? He was dropped from newspapers because of a racist rant on Youtube, not because of his satirical cartoon. The racist rant kind of changed how everyone perceived the satire in his cartoon.

Adams rant can be found HERE - if you wish to see it for yourselves.

The majority of newspaper publishers (with the possible exception of the right wing publications) considered it a racist rant and kicked Adams to the curb. Newspapers have dropped dilbert comic strip after a racist rant by its creator.]

Sigh. Remember when Dilbert was cool and innocuous? I've admittedly not been following it since well the early 00s if that. I stopped reading the Sunday funnies sometime around 2008. [ ETC: Not because I disliked Dilbert - I just no longer read print newspapers. I get a digital version of the NY Times. I'm not reading any Sunday comics at the moment - haven't for the last IDK, ten years? ]

2. The Pitfalls of Being in a Long-Running Fandom - Star Wars

Star Wars has always been a dicey fandom to participate in, but that is most likely true of all fandoms? It was even dicey in the 1980s when it more or less began. (The first film came out in 1977, so technically 1977.)

Got into a lengthy discussion/debate on a friend's journal posting about Andor, which I enjoyed. But isn't for everyone. Unlike most of the Star Wars stuff - it's geared towards the over-twenty-five group. ( Read more... )

Star Wars is a long-running fandom. Roughly doing the math? It's about forty years old? (Let's see I saw it at 11 or 12, I'm fifty-five now, so about forty.) And like most long-running fandoms, there's disagreement over well everything. And so much of it has to do with when you entered the fandom (if you ever truly did?), and the degree to which you invested, why, etc. Also what you watched, what is canon, what is good, what isn't good, what works, what doesn't, what makes a true fan, etc. And people are fannish in different ways - which I keep trying to explain to folks.

Not everyone likes to interact with other fans, some people are private about it. (I know I am.) Nor do you have to see everything or read everything to be a fan of a series. People can pick and choose. Not everyone feels the need to be a completist.

There's this view in fandom that if you're not "fanatical" - you aren't a fan. Not true. There are degrees. For example, you can be a fan of Star Wars and dislike the films. There's enough content out there now, that you could just be a fan of the comic books and be fine.
( Read more... )

Comparing other long-running fandoms to Star Wars

The Buffy fandom had two problems, one is an asshole creator. At least George Lucas to date isn't an asshole. Although give it time, he's human, and from what I saw in the Industrial Light and Magic Documentary - could be a beast to work with. It took about twenty some years for all the dirt about Whedon to come out.

The other, like Star Wars, Buffy had content across multiple mediums. While lovely, it does pose issues with a fandom. The fandom fights over what is canon to the fandom - whenever you have multiple mediums. ( Read more... )

Doctor Who in Comparison to Star Wars

If Star Wars and Buffy are bad in this regard. Try Doctor Who. This is a 60 year old series. Worse, it's a 60 year series with large gaps between content, and different actors playing the lead role, different creators, different writers, and different companions. ( Read more... )

General Hospital - A Day-Time Soap Opera that is Celebrating it's 60th Anniversary next month, has the same problem.

60 years of a soap opera isn't going to be seen by everyone. It's impossible. Some fans may have seen all of it. Most will have seen sections. ( Read more... )

***

I can go on and on with examples. Star Trek has this problem, as does Battle Star Galatica (it has two competing versions), as does the Marvel Universe - the films vs the animation vs the comics canons. I am not a fan of the animated canon - the X-men, irritated me. I prefer the comics. But there are those who only saw the animated versions. Or only the movies.
Or only the television shows.

It makes navigating these fandoms dicey at best. And is among the many reasons I've often been leery of joining them.

It's late. Off to bed. [Sorry for the typos and leaving you with a rough draft of this post. I edited, so should be better now.]

I got bored of archiving finally - although did make it up through 2009.

Me: We saw a ton of movies between 2004-2009.
Wales: Did we? What movies?
Me: Weirdly I can't remember them or the names, will have to look them up again. I swear my brain is a sieve...ah, Waitress, Notes on a Scandel, the Pervert's Guide to Cinema (yes that's actually a movie).
Wales: Ah, I used to be alive. I used to do things. Thanks for reminding me.( Read more... )

[There's now a lot, maybe too many, movie reviews in my archive now. I think they may out do the Buffy meta...which is saying something. Although most folks are reading and liking the unedited fanfic that I wrote. This is why I stopped caring what people think of my writing. It's all subjective anyhow.]

As you can see I'm in a snarky mood of late. Also a touch depressed. It's gloomy, although the sun did peak out once or twice this weekend, and we saw a touch of blue, and a few pretty sunsets. I don't expect to see one tonight - but you never know. Humid, but otherwise mild - all things considered.

Niece sent me photos of the Canary Islands. (It looks like a California Beach, specifically one in San Diego, with a lot of sand, not much in the way of foliage, although a lot in the mountains. Also reminds me a little of Turkey. I liked Costa Rica and Hilton Head better, to be honest. This is good - I should be discouraged from wanting to visit the Canary Islands.)
Bro made it safely to Milan - and now has to take two trains (with luggage) to get to Florence. I do not feel sorry for him - that's just poor planning on his part. I'd have plotted to stay one night in Milan, get past the jet-lag, and then jump to Florence, mother and I assumed that was what he was doing - mainly because how we travel. My brother, not so much.

***

Enuf of the boring stuff ...television:

1. Obiwan Kenobi aka Ben and Leia:

This feels like a kids show.
( Read more... )

4. Stranger Things S4 - this actually works without having a clear memory of the former seasons. I wasn't sure at first, but it does. They do a good job of catching us up a bit. It was filmed over a year ago. Biggest take away from the first episode - was whoa, the kids sprouted up and have grown big time. Also, while the girls look more or less the same, the boys look entirely different, except for Jonathan and Steve, who were older to begin with.

They've also made the teen D&D players to be a bit on the creepy side - while they weren't as kids.

Joyce, aka Winona Ryder's character, is starting to annoy me. Hopefully this is a first episode thing?

Oh, and guess who is back? Yep Mathew Modine and Paul Glazer.

5. The Offer - dramatization of the Making of the Godfather. Watching this thing makes me wonder how the Godfather ever got made. Seriously it had more obstacles in its way. For one thing the Italians hated the book and were actively boycotting the movie. Okay, the Italians in my opinion are a bit on the sensitive side. The mafia, comically - I might add, goes ape shit over the film - going so far as to threaten the film makers. Bob Evans gets a dead rat put in his hotel bed. Al Ruddy has his car window shot out (while he's in it) and is taken in a car for a meeting. Sinatra shuts down their efforts to get Vic Damone to play Johnny Fontana (the Sinatra stand in). Sinatra also took the book personally.
( Read more... )

6. Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore...

I tried to watch this..

Mother: How is it?
ME: I'm pretty much lost and close to giving up. I can't remember the first two films at all. And am thinking I may have to re-watch them.

It's also an overly dark film - so hard to watch unless, it's night and all the lights are off.
( Read more... )

***

Coming soon...

Tonight Dark Winds adapted from the Tony Hillerman Detective Joe Leaphorn Series (the Navajho detectives). This has George RR Martin, Robert Redford, and Hillerman's Daughter behind it, although someone else is show-running and writing. It has been adapted previously for a PBS series, and a couple of movies (none of which were stellar, although I liked the PBS series).

The two people I know that would love this the most - are either dead, or demented. So it's somewhat painful. I told mother about it, but I'm not sure she can watch - since her mother and my father loved the mysteries.

It's on at 9pm on AMC. Between airings of Die Hard with a Vengeance.

August 5 on Netflix ---Neil Gaiman's Sandman - which according to Gaiman goes up to Dollhouse in the comics. Or that's how far they filmed for the first season.

I'm looking forward to this - the creator was hands on in regards to casting, production and to some lesser degree writing. He was more hands on than he was with American Gods. Actually his involvement was kind of similar to how he was involved with Good Omens.

If you don't like Gaiman - you'll probably skip. But must viewing for Gaiman fans. (I have a love/hate relationship with Gaiman - I actually prefer his comics and graphic novels to his written novels, with the exception of Ocean at the End of the Lane - which is just brilliant.)

***

Found this courtesy of John Scalzi's blog:

Entitled Binging with Babbish, where the chef makes various foods from television series and movies to see if they taste good and can be made in reality.

Below is the Harry Potter Special.




ETA - Rachel's English Trifle from Friends...he makes it the way she did, bleargh, then tries to make an edible version:

Just finished marathoning Terriers - which was bloody brilliant, and will most likely be canceled after this year. Brilliant tv shows that thrill me tend to get canceled (not always, but quite often), while tv shows that put me to sleep stay on forever and a day (*cough*Hawaii50*cough*). Which basically goes to show you that my taste and the general mainstream American public's aren't exactly in sync 85% of the time.

Speaking of being in sync...did see the Harry Potter flick today, after church. Yes, I realize I'm behind everyone else online - who basically saw it when it first came out - ie. opening weekend. (Which begs the question - Do you guys like crowds?) The theater wasn't crowded at all today. But after looking at the audience, mostly kids with cell phones, I opted for the first row of the bleacher seats - granted the screen was a bit bigger from that position than I'm used to, but the cell phones were blessedly behind me along with the heads. It wasn't always like this - by the way. In the 1970s-1990s - it was actually pleasant to see a movie. People might chat a bit, or crunch on their nachos...but outside of that? They were fairly polite. Now? They text on their cell phones, check the time on their cell phones, check for messages, and kick the seats in front of them. Sigh. Folks? Seriously? Turn off your cell phone before a movie starts and keep it off. And yes, that includes texting, twittering, and anything else. Turning a cell phone on in a movie theater is like shining a flashlight and blinding everyone behind and beside you. Turn it off! If you can't handle doing that? Don't go to a movie theater to see a movie. Stay home. It's not tv that ruined movies for me, it's cell phones. Cell phones have turned ordinarily nice people into rude assholes.

But, thankfully, the cell nitwits did not ruin this movie for me. Because I sat in front of them.
The movie was quite enjoyable. Better paced than the book. Although I kept waiting for the scene that had the letter regarding Snape's undying love for Lily Potter...until I realized, no, that was in another book. My problem with Harry Potter is I can never remember when certain things happened. Not the major events, the more minor character moments. Did the Snape back-story happen in Half-blood Prince? Or was that truncated - ie, left out of the film version of Half-Blood Prince? Oh well, should be happy that I remember it all - considering I only read the books once.

What works so well in these films is the brilliant casting choices. Bill Nighy as The Minister of Magic (the good one), Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, Ralph Fiennes as Voldmort, Helena Bonheme-Carter as Bellatrix Black, and the list of A-list British Theater and Film Thespians goes on.
Plus the actors cast as Harry, Hermoine, and Ron are fantastic. Considering they had relatively little acting background prior to being cast in these roles in the beginning - that's rather amazing.

In some respects - I like the films better than the books, or rather the latter ones - which were less interested in duplicating everything in the books to the exact detail. JK Rowlings - god love her, overwrites. And needs an editor. But all writers do. The publishing industry just has gotten quite lax in that area of late. It's not that books used to be written better than the ones out now, it's that they had better editors.
( reviews of Harry Potter and Terriers )

Off to bed.

My public service to the people on my flist who are involved in the creation of fan websites and want to potentially publish the material from those websites in book form.

Apparently JKR is suing someone who has decided to publish the things on his HP website in book form and one of the posters at fandom lawyers has decided to do an in depth legal analysis on the topic.

http://rubymiene.livejournal.com/68538.html

[Difficult week. So not worth going into. Work is making me crazy again, enough said.

If you don't happen to read Harry Potter - please skip the following message}

As anyone who has read Harry Potter probably already knows, unless you happen to live beneath a rock, the last book in the Harry Potter series is due to come out on July 20th or thereabouts. When it does - there will no doubt be a race amongst everyone on the net to see who can finish and post on the thing first. Last round someone did it in under two hours - which was a record for a book that is close to 900 pages in length.

I don't understand this. What's so great about being able to read and comprehend an 800 and some page book in 2 hours flat? Who cares? IT can't be that enjoyable. It's over. Then what? Sure you can go back and re-read it - but it's not the same. Don't you want to savor it - the experience of reading it for the first time, seeing the story unfold?? Re-read paragraphs as they cross your eyes, laugh at the inside jokes and sly wit? (Which would be missed on a scan, one would think). Fall into the world? How can you if you sped through the thing? No wonder people re-read the books - they barely read the things the first round. And assuming you did get every nit and cranny, not just the general gist - it couldn't have been that good if you want to rip through the thing, scanning the words? Sorry, I just can't wrap my brain around the appeal of doing that. My Granny does or rather used to do the same thing - she read Gone With the Wind in 13 hours flat - it was over 1000 pages. She timed it. Uh. Okkkay. But couldn't for the life of her remember the details, just the gist. I mean - why does everything have to be a race? Or for that matter a competitive sport? Even reading a book? A book you claim to love no less? It's not like anyone is keeping score...

Personally? I prefer to read books at my own rather sluggish pace, devouring each word, re-reading the bits that make me laugh, pausing over them, maybe even reading them aloud to hear the words echo outside my brain, and letting myself escape if just for snippets of time into the world Rowlings or some other author creates. I might even pause and jump back a few pages, re-read a passage to see how it relates to the one I'm one. Ponder it.

Harry Potter - for me at least - recaptures the nostalgia of my childhood, when teachers read Ronald Dahl to me or I created my own fantasy stories. Rowlings reminds me a great deal of Dahl, except she's lighter in tone, and not as cruel. She seems somehow to like people more - which is odd considering she had a tougher time of it - a welfare mom struggling, while Dahl if I remember correctly was pretty well off and had married a fairly famous film actress - Patricia O'Neal. At any rate - I like to make the experience last as long as possible. I do not want to inhale the book in two hours or twenty four hours or a weekend or two days. I WANT TO TAKE MY TIME! Soo...while it may take some people two hours to read these books, it will take me a week or more.

Reading a good book, a book you love, is no different than eating a really good meal, drinking a lovely glass of wine or for that matter listening to a great piece of music - you don't speed through it - it gives you heartburn, you don't taste it. You sip. You fall back and listen, you chew and taste each morsel. If you speed through it, you barely experience it. It has no time to resonate. If you speed up a music track it becomes white noise. The notes are lost. It's like that old Simon and Garfunkle song - slow down, you move too fast, feeling groovy...

Sometimes I feel as if the world wants to move at the speed of light. Racing each other to the finish line. And I wonder what the rush is about? Is it the rush against mortality? Time? Probably. Everyone says the same thing over and over again - I don't have any time.
Truth is you do. You make time.

I love to while away a few hours in a book. To escape for snippets. To get away from the noise in my brain and in the world. Nothing compares to it.

So why would anyone want to sped up that experience?

To read more books? Is that it? Does it really matter how many you've read? Especially if you don't remember them that well? If you haven't taken the time to savor and enjoy them? If they don't satisfy? I mean, I get speed-reading for knowledge - I do that. I can read a ten page contract in about fifteen minutes. And flist? Very quickly. But a book? A novel?
For enjoyment?

Impatience?

Don't know... only word I can think of is well, shrug.

Long ago accepted the fact that not everyone experiences the world the same way. Once you accept that I think, it's easier to shrug off things people do that you just can't wrap your mind around.

Anywho - you are hereby on notice, flist - if you spoil me - by accident or intent, I will defriend you. No excuses. Got it? Good. Because I'll be damned if I have to stay off the net and lj until I finish reading the bloody thing.

Sigh.

Who am I kidding? I'll probably get spoiled by New York 1 or the little news tv in the elevator at work. Avoiding spoilers for Harry Potter or any pop culture phenomena is akin to attempting to avoid getting wet in the streets of NYC - it rains horizontally here, you can't avoid it. Might as well just shrug your shoulders and accept it.

Hmmm..there's something to be said for not liking the same thing everyone else does. Like the book I'm reading now, for instance - the fourth in the Kim Harrison Rachel Morgan Bounty Hunter series. Fantastic read. And no fears of being spoilt on future entries.
Sure there are people who like it, but not that many and they don't really talk about it.