This and that

[cleolinda]

Working on FOTR in 15M. I will listen to "Cool Rider" if it'll help me get the job done (and it will. Vladimir will know what I'm talking about). I have no pride.

Two truths and a lie: The lie is that my second cousin roomed with Julia Roberts. She actually roomed with Sandra Bullock.

Yet another stolen POA in 15M. I'm not giving out the link because I don't want a pile-on, but--I just totally don't understand. Why would you post the whole thing in your journal without so much as a "Hey, I didn't write this"? I'm not real keen on people "posting [unlocked] copies for themselves in their journals" (especially since the m15m comm is currently unlocked and there's a permanent archive/backup at Fiction Alley) but at least make it clear that's what you're doing.

I guess I'm going to watch Legend of Earthsea tonight, if only because I've always been curious about the Earthsea books but never actually read them. Also, I like Shawn Ashmore. Also-also, it's better than working. (Shhhh. I didn't say that.)

I like my little hamster-wheel mood icon.


ETA: I just accidentally posted the m15m fundraiser entry to this journal instead. I are teh smart.

Comments

[katla-asriel.livejournal.com]

Why would you post the whole thing in your journal without so much as a "Hey, I didn't write this"?

Hmm. That's a good question. I guess people want to be considered awesome at movie parodies, so they just take your movie parody awesomeness and plagirise it as their own - which is NOT COOL.

I mean, really. Whenever people do that it makes me sick. How hard is it to write "(Movie) In Fifteen Minutes, By Cleolinda Jones?" See, I just did, and my fingers didn't catch on fire or something.

I'm awful sorry 'bout that. I hope people stop being such asshats and learn how to write "By Cleolinda Jones" whenever they do that, at least.

[elbales]

I like my little hamster-wheel mood icon.

It's verrah cute.

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

I'm so terrified to watch that miniseries. I'm going to avoid it until I hear from another Le Guin fan that it was any decent.

[kjmatthews.livejournal.com]

I know the Earthsea books are supposed to be all critically acclaimed and whatnot, but I was not much impressed by them. As a longtime reader of fantasy I felt there were better uses of my time, and the books are mercifully short (you would probably read them in a day or less). However, the concept of Earthsea always seemed like a lot of wasted potential, and I would expect some cool visual things to happen. Is this on tv? What station? Despite my professed disappointment I may tune in as well. Anything is better than more grad school applications.

ps: I hear that The Left Hand of Darkness is LeGuin's her real achievement, though I have never read it myself. The concept seems interesting enough to be magnificent or magnificently dull.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's on the Sci-Fi Channel tonight. 7 pm, I think.

[shanisasha.livejournal.com]

Left Hand of Darkness owns.

Some of her short stories are really good as well. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is the one I remember the most.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Now, I did read that story, and it still kind of haunts me.

[shanisasha.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it? First short story that made me cry. Granted, I was 19 and hormonal at the time.

[sunshine95.livejournal.com]

That short story is amazing. One of the best short stories I've read, ever.

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

From what my husband told me, LeGuin HATES the miniseries because she wasn't consulted, *at all*. I'm still recording it, tho.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh God. That's sort of a writer's worst nightmare right there.

Still, my theory on books-to-movies is this: No book has ever been hurt by having a movie made of it. If people love the movie, they all go buy and read the book. If people hate the movie, they hear that the book was better, and... they all go buy and read the book. Really, aside from the disappointment of the film itself, it's a no-lose situation for a writer. Particularly if they pay her a lot of money. : D

[http://users.livejournal.com/lorien__/]

the tolkien family didn't approve of the movies and yet they made a shit load of money cause of it... i know a lot of people that started reading the book when the rumours started and a whole lot of people that started after seein the movie...

*shuts up now*

[yarha.livejournal.com]

What if someone made a movie of m15m? And then, you know, someone wrote a parody of it. :)

Yarha, And So Ad Infinitum

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I do not doubt for a moment that someone will eventually approach me with that idea, and that it will be terrible, and that I will take the money anyway and laugh all the way to the bank.

[yarha.livejournal.com]

Yay! You've learned a valuable life-lesson! Grab the money and run like a bunny!

Yarha, Bets Rabbits Don't Carry Much Cash, Though

[kjmatthews.livejournal.com]

Ugh. While consulting the writer is not always a good thing, it is almost never a bad thing. Except, for example, when the writer is dead.

PS Love to the name, heinous_bitca. Any Buffy quote is an A+ in my book.

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

Partly from Buffy, and partly from the movie "Ten Things I Hate About You." :)

[lizzyrose89.livejournal.com]

Left Hand of Darkness is also great. I really enjoyed reading it, but then I had to write an essay comparing it to another book, which kinda took the fun out of it. It's a really thought-provoking book.

[violetsocks.livejournal.com]

I read the first two Earthsea books a few years ago. They were pretty good, especially the first one. They aren't particularly long, either.

Random thing: There is a part in the first one when he's in a boat held together only by magic, and he magicks the holes so that he can't see them. This past semester, when I was reading The Tempest and Prospero mentioned that the boat he and Miranda were shipped off in was a poor excuse for a boat, I had to stop and stare at the book for a good 20 minutes before I could figure out why I had deja vu. And, um, this proves that I have no long term memory.

[shanisasha.livejournal.com]

READ THEM!


I love the Earthsea books. Especially the Tombs of Atuan. Got my hands on the first two by sheer dumb luck when I was 15 (long story short, monthly book buying trip, I got bored, picked out two random books, happened to be A Wizard from Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan). Ended in a mad search for the third book (The Farthest Shore) when I got totally hooked on them.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Please, skip the miniseries and just read the books. They're short! LeGuin hates what they did to her story, and everyone who's seen it so far says it's full of pretty people and scenery, but utterly dreadful.

[shanisasha.livejournal.com]

...Thank you for confirming my greatest fear. *dejected*

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

OK... so now I really want to know the story behind the Arabian prince proposing to your mom and where are the jewels?!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It was when she was in college at the University of Alabama, and she went out with him because he was new or an exchange student or something, you know, just to be nice, and he proposes with this case of--I'd have to ask her what, but it was definitely jewels, probably some diamonds, very expensive stuff--and she was just like, "WHOA WHOA WHOOOOOA." I mean, not only did she not know the guy at all, hardly, but she was like, "Yeah, that's nice and all, but I was NOT going to go join a harem or something. Thanks." So she turned him down--gently, but firmly. I don't know if anyone else took him up on it.

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty cool story to have in your family history! I'm glad she said no though, because otherwise we wouldn't have The Wondrous Cleo to bring joy to our days. And I am having One of The Worst Days Evaaaaar. *sigh*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Awww! *pat*

[sinca.livejournal.com]

I totally was singing "We're Gonna Score (Tonight)" in my head all this morning. It helped me get through work for sure.

[elbales]

Oh, hey, Cleo:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/13/DDG79AA71B1.DTL

The linked story is about the Parents Television Council.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Jesus--thanks for the link.

[elbales]

You're welcome.

[lizzyrose89.livejournal.com]

The Earthsea books are a serious Must Read. They're fab! Never seen the filum (is it a film? or what?), so can't comment. But READ THE BOOKS. They are great!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think it's a two-part miniseries on the Sci-Fi Channel. (Actually, no one's seen it--tonight's the premiere.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/lorien__/]

i usually just post snippets and a link to m15m... ;) and i added them to memomries ;)

i also use that piece on the bridge with harry and lupin in POA as a signature with a link to the community... :)

*i'm a good girl i am*

Lorien__
cheerleader and nutcase

[yarha.livejournal.com]

Oh, geez, I read the Earthsea trilogy so long ago. From my vague recollection, it seemed..bland. It failed to warp a wrinkle in my brain, which, alas, is prune-like these days in its wrinkletude.

Yarha, Head Cheese or Something

[cellardoor28.livejournal.com]

DAMMIT, now i have cool rider stuck in my head.

im blaming you :p

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Just from reading the synopsis, it's obvious that the Earthsea miniseries is only vaguely based on the books-- the plot is completely different and about a third of the characters in the miniseries are not in the books.

I think the books are among the best fantasy novels ever written-- in my series of posts outlining my recommendations of representative and excellent novels one could read to get a sense of what modern (post-Tolkien) fantasy is like, I put them first on the list of "high fantasy:"

"A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin.

This is a touchstone book for the genre, and a must-read. Le Guin wondered what wizards were like before they became old and wise and grey-bearded, and so created the first of a long line of literary schools for young wizards. However, a book less like Harry Potter cannot be imagined. It’s serious in tone, stunningly well written in a deceptively simple style, often epic, occasionally whimsical, sometimes terrifying.

Magic in Earthsea is based on names: to know the true name of a thing or person is to have power over it. This is a brilliant metaphor for the power of words, and writing, and art. It reminds me of Georgia O’Keefe saying that God told her that if she could paint a mountain, she could have it. Le Guin’s tale of an arrogant young wizard and his strange quest—chased by and chasing a thing with no name— reads as fresh and new now as if it hadn’t had a thousand imitators.

There are sequels. The Tombs of Atuan is as good as Wizard; The Farthest Shore is not quite up to that standard. Tehanu and its sequels were written much later and represent a rethinking of the earlier novels; if the portrayal of women and women’s magic bothers you in those, you should definitely read the later ones."

My complete set of posts are here, under "Rachel's Essential Very Modern Fantasy Lists":

http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=rachelmanija&keyword=Fantasy&filter=all

Streamofconsciousnessomg

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I actually like Sandra Bullock.
Although not as much as I used to.

But anyway, your hamster mood thing got me thinking about the mood set I'ma gonna create now that I have a paid account; hundreds of furry moody chinchillas! And that got me thinking how I always call one of my chinchillas (Rogue) Squishy, and that got me wondering where "Squishy" came from in terms of you calling Vladimir that. I think you explained it once before, but...I forget :)

I thought I'd better explain where the question was coming from...but now that I look at it, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
Apparently my sanity is still hiding until after finals.

Re: Streamofconsciousnessomg

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

S'aright. It comes from Finding Nemo and Dory--"You will be mine, and you will be my squishy."

Re: Streamofconsciousnessomg

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Well, that explains it!
Yet another movie I need to put on my, "See After Finals" list!

It does make me giggle, though, that every time I call Rogue my Squishy I then think of LiveJournal and you two.

[myriad69.livejournal.com]

"Cool Rider"? As in Michelle Pfeffier straddling a ladder?

*worships you even more omg*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhh yeah. That was my most favoritest movie ever when I was six.

[myriad69.livejournal.com]

I so own that.

And uh, I had the soundtrack at one point.

*sings REPRODUCTION at the top of her lungs*

[greeneyedtengu.livejournal.com]

I have but one thing to say about Earthsea. And that's "Shire.... Bagginssss..."

*snerk* Annoyed the hells out of my mum for saying that anytime the Gibbeth was on.