thisbluespirit (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisbluespirit) wrote2015-10-23 05:22 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote2015-10-23 05:22 pm
Entry tags:
Various Things
1. One of the joys of Yuletide is stumbling over things you never knew about before. One this year that amused me muchly was the music video of Shakespeare's Sister's Stay. Now, this is a song that I recorded off the radio when I was a teenager (onto a tape, I'm a historical thingumy) and I was always fascinated by it - I reasoned that it was all one voice and maybe some fairy queen who seemed nice but wasn't (a la some Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer thing, because I had been reading Fire and Hemlock by that point), but NO. That is not what it is about!
As it turns out, voice one is a woman trying to get her dying boyfriend to stay with her and voice 2 is Death. Who in this wears a sparkly catsuit and does an outrageous dance because... er... um... it's an 80s music video? My favourite bit is Death's eye-roll at the end because, frankly someone's who's been doing a sparkly OTT catsuit dance like that has no grounds on which to eye-roll at people. Oh, and for some reason, it all seems to be happening in space because why not?
Anyway, I'm grateful to the requester because otherwise I would never have watched that and my life would have been the poorer for it.
2. Talking of amusing vids, it's been at least a year or two since I mentioned that Julius Caesar Poker Face vid, and every so often a person just needs to remind themselves that it exists and laugh themselves silly at the combination of Richard Pasco and David Collings and their ridiculously opposite faces set to appropriate-inappropriate pop music. Do not worry if you do not like Julius Caesar, 1970s BBC theatricality, Lady Gaga, or Brutus/Cassius. None of those things should come between you and it:
3. And now for something completely different, because otherwise I'll forget again, I wrote some more![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
runaway_tales:
Two in the same AU timeline:
Double Cross (PG, 4367 words. Edward Iveson, Julia Graves, Rudy Graves.) Julia’s having nothing but trouble with men – her brother seems to be in danger and Mr Iveson’s trying to buy her off with sandwiches…
Not Just a Passing Phase (PG, 5262 words. Edward Iveson, Julia Graves, Rudy Graves, Elizabeth Long.) The last thing Julia wants is for Mr Iveson to be lying dead in her kitchen with her brother to blame for it…
Faulty Connections (All ages, 1176 words. Anna, Liesa.) Liesa and Anna have the opposite problem when it comes to family.
As it turns out, voice one is a woman trying to get her dying boyfriend to stay with her and voice 2 is Death. Who in this wears a sparkly catsuit and does an outrageous dance because... er... um... it's an 80s music video? My favourite bit is Death's eye-roll at the end because, frankly someone's who's been doing a sparkly OTT catsuit dance like that has no grounds on which to eye-roll at people. Oh, and for some reason, it all seems to be happening in space because why not?
Anyway, I'm grateful to the requester because otherwise I would never have watched that and my life would have been the poorer for it.
2. Talking of amusing vids, it's been at least a year or two since I mentioned that Julius Caesar Poker Face vid, and every so often a person just needs to remind themselves that it exists and laugh themselves silly at the combination of Richard Pasco and David Collings and their ridiculously opposite faces set to appropriate-inappropriate pop music. Do not worry if you do not like Julius Caesar, 1970s BBC theatricality, Lady Gaga, or Brutus/Cassius. None of those things should come between you and it:
3. And now for something completely different, because otherwise I'll forget again, I wrote some more
runaway_tales:Two in the same AU timeline:
Double Cross (PG, 4367 words. Edward Iveson, Julia Graves, Rudy Graves.) Julia’s having nothing but trouble with men – her brother seems to be in danger and Mr Iveson’s trying to buy her off with sandwiches…
Not Just a Passing Phase (PG, 5262 words. Edward Iveson, Julia Graves, Rudy Graves, Elizabeth Long.) The last thing Julia wants is for Mr Iveson to be lying dead in her kitchen with her brother to blame for it…
Faulty Connections (All ages, 1176 words. Anna, Liesa.) Liesa and Anna have the opposite problem when it comes to family.
no subject
I really still love her as an author, as you can tell - in my ways she formed a lot of who I am and how I think and was very light made me laugh at the same time. I never seem to get on as well with her adult novels (the Derkolm books and the Magids) but I love most of her YA stuff so much. (I bounce hard off the Dalemark Quartet, but a lot of people love those. She's always so different that I think most DWJ fans have at least one of her novels that happens with - and it's F&H for a lot of people.)
Howl's Moving Castle, though, is mainly just being subversive about fairy/folk tale tropes and turning them on their heads, filled with awkward and flawed people - it's one of her most fun. But I know someone else who loves the film who just hated the book because the characters were so different. (And, hearing that, and loving the book, I suspect I'd therefore get annoyed at the film, even though I know it's supposed to be quite good in its own right.)
no subject
Complex isn't an issue. I was tested as reading at "college level" when I was 12, and have never stopped being a voracious reader. Dark might be more of an issue. I've just recently been discussing in my own journal with a friend how I tend to prefer stories that have if not a "happily ever after" end at least a hopeful end.
...adult readers can sometimes bounce hard off the child-adult romance in it.
Thanks. I can be sensitive to age differences in romance, but they aren't an automatic deal breaker. It's very much a combination of how the age differences are presented, and the romance itself is handled.
Howl's Moving Castle, though, is mainly just being subversive about fairy/folk tale tropes and turning them on their heads...
I suppose I should ask the basic question, "Do the books a) have female protagonists, who b) save male protagonists?" In Tam Lin proper Janet saves Tam Lin from the Fairy Queen, and in the film version of Howl's Moving Castle Sophie saves Howl by getting his heart back to him. I love fairy/folk tales, but not in the "Prince rescues princess" way people think of them from watching Disney films that seem to work that way. I like the stories where the girl rescues the guy, whether it's Tam Lin, the Beast, or the Frog Prince getting rescued. I have realized that I love the Disney versions of The Little Mermaid and Rapunzel because in those stories they have the protagonists rescue each other.
no subject
And, in answer to your question, oh yes! Sophie saves Howl in the same way, and Polly is the protagonist of Fire & Hemlock and tries to take her cue from Janet. DWJ is not much for the prince rescues princess sort of story. Those two both have a girl rescues boy theme (although mostly in her books, people have to rescue themselves, with some help, often by growing to realise the true nature of people close to them who aren't treating them well).
no subject
F&H does have a hopeful end...
Cool. That sounds good to me.
I just thought that if you didn't know much about it, it was worth saying that it has a lot of complex, messed relationships under the light surface of it.
I appreciate it. I mean, for example, while I was happy the first time I ran across a writer with a story about a teenage girl who was cutting, it wasn't because I thought of it as a sexy kink. I appreciated an adult exploring the behavior in a serious way, and not treating the girl as nothing but a freak. Complex, messed relationships aren't pretty, but if they're done well they seem very real.
And, in answer to your question, oh yes! Sophie saves Howl in the same way, and Polly is the protagonist of Fire & Hemlock and tries to take her cue from Janet.
Yay! That sounds very good to me.
DWJ is not much for the prince rescues princess sort of story.
Understood. I like a balance best, which is why I was pleased to realize that a couple of my favorite Disney animated fairy tales have it, but if it's going to be lopsided I prefer it if the girls rescue the boys.
Those two both have a girl rescues boy theme...
Keeping them firmly on my "To Read" list.
...although mostly in her books, people have to rescue themselves...
While I'm certainly not opposed to people having to rescue themselves, it tends to feel rather... lonely to me. I mean I like the mutual rescuing because it clearly says, "These people aren't alone. They have someone willing to rescue them." I mean I'm not the most Christian of human beings, but I do like the quote, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. When two characters are willing to risk everything for each other and live to tell the tale that makes me very very happy.
no subject
I know what you mean. I'd agree, and I think maybe I just put it badly. There are usually a group of people who all end up coming together to fix stuff in her books (though it varies, it's not so, really in F&F and Howl), but it is frequently a theme that the protagonist has to come to a place where they realise they need rescuing and once they have often already hold some of the key to that themselves, but other people need to help them realise that (and then help them, generally). Cat and Gwendolen in Charmed Life are a good example of that, but it is something that comes up a lot. Her books certainly don't feel lonely - there are often a whole group of people coming together to sort things. Anyway, she's a very interesting and fun writer. I enjoy a lot of her YA standalones, the Howl series and the Chrestomanci series and am less keen for some reason on her adult books and her more straight out fantasy world settings. The Tough Guide To Fantasyland is also completely priceless, especially if you've ever read any 80s/90s fantasy!