cosmic_llin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cosmic_llin) wrote2012-02-08 09:36 pm
cosmic_llin) wrote2012-02-08 09:36 pm
Big Long LJ Post of All the Things
So, I seem to have quite a lot to say at the moment on a variety of topics...
So, I've been to the theatre a bunch in the last couple of months, which is exciting! Cara and I went to see A Round-Heeled Woman (twice! The second time with Hannah and Andrew and for cheap on special offer!) and it was terrific. Sharon Gless starred and she was absolutely wonderful. Obviously we're stalking the stars of Cagney and Lacey because we also saw Tyne Daly play Maria Callas in Master Class, which was just incredible. I actually held my breath for large parts of it. She just has this amazing presence that makes you not want to take your eyes off her for a moment.
We saw an adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle at the Southwark Playhouse that did some interesting things but ultimately wasn't that great. They had a mostly bare stage and filled it with projections, which looked exciting and worked really well, but the was much too short to fully explore the plot and characters, and the woman playing the witch was hamming it up like she was in panto. The guy playing Howl was pretty good although his interpretation of the character was quite far from how I imagined him.
Spamalot was exciting! Bonnie Langford was terrific, it really is a great part for her. We saw the touring version, and having been to see it on the West End it was a bit of a shock how scaled down it was. It was still a very enjoyable show but I'd have loved to see Bonnie especially do it with the larger ensemble and the huge dance numbers.
Also, the Lashings of Ginger Beer panto - hilarious, fun, welcoming, adorable, and fabulous! Seriously it was one of the warm fuzzies-est theatrical experiences I've had in a while. I'm not even saying that because someone I know was in it. ;D
I'd been really enjoying the series up to Unity, as I mentioned a few posts ago, but from there it seemed to go downhill. I was really excited for Worlds of Deep Space Nine, but I found it overall pretty disappointing.
I really liked Cardassia - it was great to get a story from Keiko's point of view and see how she deals with a crisis, and also I'm happy that they prioritised her career for a while. I was just getting really into it when it ended - too short! I could have read a full-length novel quite happily.
Andor was ok but I'm just not that interested in Shar as a character, although I enjoyed the insight into Andorian culture. I found the Shar/Prynn relationship kind of forced, not to mention the fact that apparently it's fine and normal for her to be coming on strong when his marriage just broke up, hmmm.
Trill was ok, I liked the main story but I was annoyed that Julian and Ezri broke up. Not that I necessarily think they'd be forever, but I found it a bit contrived and sudden.
Bajor, I didn't like the style much, and I thought Rena was a wet hen, and her romance with Jake was stupid.
What they did with Ferenginar annoyed me - it just seems such a waste when you have this exciting new world order where suddenly women are allowed to leave the house on their own and have jobs and be in charge of their own destinies, and then to do an entire story about how Rom may or may not have broken a contract. Apart from Ishka who's awesome and pretty much a fixture, the only Ferengi woman we really see at all is completely passive and doesn't even seem aware of what's going on around her. There's mention of another female character who sounds potentially interesting, but she never even actually appears and is reduced to a footnote in the main plot. There are so many more exciting stories they could have done here, I don't understand why this is what they came up with. Having said that I didn't hate it or anything, I just thought it was kind of boring.
The Dominion one irritated me too, but there was nothing really wrong with the writing, I just didn't really like the idea of the Founder god, and of the changelings all just running away at the end. It seemed like to pat a solution to all the conflicts.
Warpath was ok, I guess.
Which leaves Fearful Symmetry. There are so many things that annoyed and squicked me about this book, I hardly know where to start. First of all, Iliana Ghemor. Way to take a mysterious and intriguing character and give her an entire life story based on her being manipulated and controlled by men and basically losing her entire personality in the process. Culminating in the delightful 'fifteen years in Dukat's violent drug rape dungeon' section. Yeuucch. Considering the place that the plot needed her to be in didn't even involve Dukat, I have no idea why this had to happen, narratively speaking.
On the subject of Dukat, um... where was he in this book? Because the character they kept calling Dukat wasn't him. Or at least, I didn't recognise Dukat in him. I can concede that he might rape someone, because he has that sort on narcissistic personality that makes him feel justified in whatever he does - even though canon has demonstrated again and again that he prefers to use charm and manipulation to get what he wants and genuinely seems to want approval, including from Kira. But no reason is every really given for his fixation with Kira/Iliana, at a point before he even really knows her. And I find this hard to square with his relationship in canon with the real Kira.
I also hate the idea (although this has cropped up in other books too) that it was only because of Dukat's behind-the-scenes protection that Kira made it through the Occupation. Way to cheapen her sacrifices. And I honestly don't believe that he would be keeping that close an eye on her, just because she happened to be related to one of his presumably several comfort women over the years.
Which leads me to something else that bugged me, Dukat's scheming and plotting here. I mean, Dukat is canonically a schemer and plotter, but he's unsuccessful as often as he's successful, while this book has him orchestrating complex long-term plans and basically running the entire Occupation like some omniscient puppet master. I believe he's that sneaky and manipulative, but I don't believe he's that smart.
In addition to all that, I thought the plot was just... preposterous, and not in the good way. The bracelet thing is a stupid MacGuffin and I can't be bothered with all the parallel universes palaver (although I enjoy seeing the Mirror Universe usually). Aargh. I just really dislike this book.
I'm reading The Soul Key for closure but I'm really not enjoying it.
I am so enjoying Huge. I'm genuinely upset that there are only ten episodes altogether, it deserves so much more. It does such a good job of portraying really genuine and realistic teenagers. And it does so in such a sympathetic and non-judgmental way. Like, often the characters act unkindly or thoughtlessly towards one another, but in every case you can trace the line right back to the bad moment or insecurity or mistake that hurt them, and that led to their hurting someone else.
There's not a single character in it I don't like, except maybe Shay, and I'll be surprised if she isn't fleshed out at least a little by the end. Also a revelation, Gina Torres as Dr Rand. I'm so used to her being a badass - who knew she could be so vulnerable, awkward, dorky... and it's so interesting to see the kids keep on perceiving her as an in-control authority figure when we know that she's struggling with a lot of issues of her own, not unrelated to some of the stuff the kids are going through.
Plus there's a character who is asexual, and it's not a big deal, and a character who might possibly be genderqueer, or who at the very least isn't interested in conforming to conventional notions of masculinity. And it's just adorable. I really can't recommend it highly enough. I've watched six episodes so far and there's only been one scene that I disapproved of, in an episode that was the weakest of the bunch so far but still had lots of wonderful moments.
Can't remember if I talked about this already, but lately I feel like I've entered a new stage, sadness-and-anger-wise. It's like, for the last few years, since Mum's diagnosis and then since we stopped talking, there's been this constant undercurrent of 'ohfuckohfuckIhavetodosomethingwhat'sgoingtohappenaaaaaaargh' and even after she died that didn't go away. But now it seems to have. I still get sad, but most of the time I feel normal. Which is not something I've experienced in a few years. I'm appreciating it. It's relaxing.
Writing-wise, I'm having a very productive few weeks. I'm at the stage with the second draft of my novel where I can see it really all coming together as a whole story, and it's exciting. I'm writing every day in my lunch break, I don't want this feeling to go away.
What else? I'm enjoying the vicarious fun of Cleo and Andrew (and Hannah and Kirstie but less, I think) watching DS9 for the first time. Cara and I are going to Paris for our third anniversary next week and I'm quite excited! We had a second Day of Vids which was fun and awesome.
In less happy news, I have to have a tooth out. Well, they said maybe root canal but it's £200 on the NHS and they said it might well have to come out anyway, and it's my back molar anyway so I figured I'd pay £40 and just get it out since it's caused me nothing but hassle.
Hmm, I don't want to end on that note. What else? Ooh, had a lovely couple of days in Wales this last weekend - Cara and I went for my cousin's baby's christening. I always quite like chapel stuff even though I don't really do that any more. Also we spent a lovely evening catching up with Jess, and another wedding planning with my sister, which was really nice!
OK, that might be it for now... various fandomy posts to follow...
So, I've been to the theatre a bunch in the last couple of months, which is exciting! Cara and I went to see A Round-Heeled Woman (twice! The second time with Hannah and Andrew and for cheap on special offer!) and it was terrific. Sharon Gless starred and she was absolutely wonderful. Obviously we're stalking the stars of Cagney and Lacey because we also saw Tyne Daly play Maria Callas in Master Class, which was just incredible. I actually held my breath for large parts of it. She just has this amazing presence that makes you not want to take your eyes off her for a moment.
We saw an adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle at the Southwark Playhouse that did some interesting things but ultimately wasn't that great. They had a mostly bare stage and filled it with projections, which looked exciting and worked really well, but the was much too short to fully explore the plot and characters, and the woman playing the witch was hamming it up like she was in panto. The guy playing Howl was pretty good although his interpretation of the character was quite far from how I imagined him.
Spamalot was exciting! Bonnie Langford was terrific, it really is a great part for her. We saw the touring version, and having been to see it on the West End it was a bit of a shock how scaled down it was. It was still a very enjoyable show but I'd have loved to see Bonnie especially do it with the larger ensemble and the huge dance numbers.
Also, the Lashings of Ginger Beer panto - hilarious, fun, welcoming, adorable, and fabulous! Seriously it was one of the warm fuzzies-est theatrical experiences I've had in a while. I'm not even saying that because someone I know was in it. ;D
I'd been really enjoying the series up to Unity, as I mentioned a few posts ago, but from there it seemed to go downhill. I was really excited for Worlds of Deep Space Nine, but I found it overall pretty disappointing.
I really liked Cardassia - it was great to get a story from Keiko's point of view and see how she deals with a crisis, and also I'm happy that they prioritised her career for a while. I was just getting really into it when it ended - too short! I could have read a full-length novel quite happily.
Andor was ok but I'm just not that interested in Shar as a character, although I enjoyed the insight into Andorian culture. I found the Shar/Prynn relationship kind of forced, not to mention the fact that apparently it's fine and normal for her to be coming on strong when his marriage just broke up, hmmm.
Trill was ok, I liked the main story but I was annoyed that Julian and Ezri broke up. Not that I necessarily think they'd be forever, but I found it a bit contrived and sudden.
Bajor, I didn't like the style much, and I thought Rena was a wet hen, and her romance with Jake was stupid.
What they did with Ferenginar annoyed me - it just seems such a waste when you have this exciting new world order where suddenly women are allowed to leave the house on their own and have jobs and be in charge of their own destinies, and then to do an entire story about how Rom may or may not have broken a contract. Apart from Ishka who's awesome and pretty much a fixture, the only Ferengi woman we really see at all is completely passive and doesn't even seem aware of what's going on around her. There's mention of another female character who sounds potentially interesting, but she never even actually appears and is reduced to a footnote in the main plot. There are so many more exciting stories they could have done here, I don't understand why this is what they came up with. Having said that I didn't hate it or anything, I just thought it was kind of boring.
The Dominion one irritated me too, but there was nothing really wrong with the writing, I just didn't really like the idea of the Founder god, and of the changelings all just running away at the end. It seemed like to pat a solution to all the conflicts.
Warpath was ok, I guess.
Which leaves Fearful Symmetry. There are so many things that annoyed and squicked me about this book, I hardly know where to start. First of all, Iliana Ghemor. Way to take a mysterious and intriguing character and give her an entire life story based on her being manipulated and controlled by men and basically losing her entire personality in the process. Culminating in the delightful 'fifteen years in Dukat's violent drug rape dungeon' section. Yeuucch. Considering the place that the plot needed her to be in didn't even involve Dukat, I have no idea why this had to happen, narratively speaking.
On the subject of Dukat, um... where was he in this book? Because the character they kept calling Dukat wasn't him. Or at least, I didn't recognise Dukat in him. I can concede that he might rape someone, because he has that sort on narcissistic personality that makes him feel justified in whatever he does - even though canon has demonstrated again and again that he prefers to use charm and manipulation to get what he wants and genuinely seems to want approval, including from Kira. But no reason is every really given for his fixation with Kira/Iliana, at a point before he even really knows her. And I find this hard to square with his relationship in canon with the real Kira.
I also hate the idea (although this has cropped up in other books too) that it was only because of Dukat's behind-the-scenes protection that Kira made it through the Occupation. Way to cheapen her sacrifices. And I honestly don't believe that he would be keeping that close an eye on her, just because she happened to be related to one of his presumably several comfort women over the years.
Which leads me to something else that bugged me, Dukat's scheming and plotting here. I mean, Dukat is canonically a schemer and plotter, but he's unsuccessful as often as he's successful, while this book has him orchestrating complex long-term plans and basically running the entire Occupation like some omniscient puppet master. I believe he's that sneaky and manipulative, but I don't believe he's that smart.
In addition to all that, I thought the plot was just... preposterous, and not in the good way. The bracelet thing is a stupid MacGuffin and I can't be bothered with all the parallel universes palaver (although I enjoy seeing the Mirror Universe usually). Aargh. I just really dislike this book.
I'm reading The Soul Key for closure but I'm really not enjoying it.
I am so enjoying Huge. I'm genuinely upset that there are only ten episodes altogether, it deserves so much more. It does such a good job of portraying really genuine and realistic teenagers. And it does so in such a sympathetic and non-judgmental way. Like, often the characters act unkindly or thoughtlessly towards one another, but in every case you can trace the line right back to the bad moment or insecurity or mistake that hurt them, and that led to their hurting someone else.
There's not a single character in it I don't like, except maybe Shay, and I'll be surprised if she isn't fleshed out at least a little by the end. Also a revelation, Gina Torres as Dr Rand. I'm so used to her being a badass - who knew she could be so vulnerable, awkward, dorky... and it's so interesting to see the kids keep on perceiving her as an in-control authority figure when we know that she's struggling with a lot of issues of her own, not unrelated to some of the stuff the kids are going through.
Plus there's a character who is asexual, and it's not a big deal, and a character who might possibly be genderqueer, or who at the very least isn't interested in conforming to conventional notions of masculinity. And it's just adorable. I really can't recommend it highly enough. I've watched six episodes so far and there's only been one scene that I disapproved of, in an episode that was the weakest of the bunch so far but still had lots of wonderful moments.
Can't remember if I talked about this already, but lately I feel like I've entered a new stage, sadness-and-anger-wise. It's like, for the last few years, since Mum's diagnosis and then since we stopped talking, there's been this constant undercurrent of 'ohfuckohfuckIhavetodosomethingwhat'sgoingtohappenaaaaaaargh' and even after she died that didn't go away. But now it seems to have. I still get sad, but most of the time I feel normal. Which is not something I've experienced in a few years. I'm appreciating it. It's relaxing.
Writing-wise, I'm having a very productive few weeks. I'm at the stage with the second draft of my novel where I can see it really all coming together as a whole story, and it's exciting. I'm writing every day in my lunch break, I don't want this feeling to go away.
What else? I'm enjoying the vicarious fun of Cleo and Andrew (and Hannah and Kirstie but less, I think) watching DS9 for the first time. Cara and I are going to Paris for our third anniversary next week and I'm quite excited! We had a second Day of Vids which was fun and awesome.
In less happy news, I have to have a tooth out. Well, they said maybe root canal but it's £200 on the NHS and they said it might well have to come out anyway, and it's my back molar anyway so I figured I'd pay £40 and just get it out since it's caused me nothing but hassle.
Hmm, I don't want to end on that note. What else? Ooh, had a lovely couple of days in Wales this last weekend - Cara and I went for my cousin's baby's christening. I always quite like chapel stuff even though I don't really do that any more. Also we spent a lovely evening catching up with Jess, and another wedding planning with my sister, which was really nice!
OK, that might be it for now... various fandomy posts to follow...
no subject
:D
And you know how excited I am about your writingses. Go you!
...and now it's back to Sickbay for me...
no subject
I might send you some soon if you have time/energy for reading? I send you all the good mojo!!
no subject
I would be DELIGHTED (note big loud letters) to read your smithings. You can even be-geas me with the B-word if you like. Bring it on! :D
no subject
it was only because of Dukat's behind-the-scenes protection that Kira made it through the Occupation.
And it went positively frakking nuclear up in this piece. I am speechless. Like, I got so angry I had to apologize to the cat. AAAAAGH.
But big yay for you and the normalfeeling and the writingtimes and your CRAZYFABULOUS novel and three-years-and-Paris and all these wonderful things. ♥
no subject
Yeah, good, eh? ;D
no subject
ME TOO. I really wish there had been some build up for it in the previous books, but no, it was just all weird and sudden. Also, it felt a bit disappointingly heteronormative to me, which was a shame given how pleased I'd been about how Shar's relationship with Anichent had been portrayed. :( And I think not liking such a major thing about it put me off the rest of the book a bit: I was more annoyed by the neatness of the ending than I might otherwise have been. Haven't had time to start the next ones yet, but am bracing myself... (I'm sad that Fearful Symmetry is enraging, as the cover is so pretty. *is shallow*)
HUGE YAY. I have so many things I want to say but I can't remember which ones are spoilers! /o\ So for now I will just go "yes! this!" to everything you have said. Especially about how sympathetic and realistic all the characters are. It's just beautiful.
Also, ♥!
no subject
Oh god, seriously, I'm not sure you should even read Fearful Symmetry unless you really care about completeness. And yeah, it is a shame, the cover had such promise! And I really think there could have been an excellent Kira and Iliana story. Sadly this was not it.
no subject
Oh no! I do care about completeness, alas. Maybe I could just skim it? D:
no subject
no subject