HUZZAH!

[cleolinda]

One final thought on The Seeker, if only because I finally thought of a way to summarize my problem with the movie: It's not the presence of changes that made the movie bad. It's that the kind of changes they made indicate that they're not good filmmakers in the first place, or (at the very least) not the right filmmakers for the project. Someone who genuinely thinks that "Googling light and dark" or "buying a Sign from a mall kiosk" is a good idea is probably not going to make a very good movie, is all I'm saying. Look at my other pet example, Stardust : a number of changes were made, but they indicated an understanding of what people want from and enjoy in a movie (example: a less bittersweet ending. And subverting fantasy tropes with anticlimax is great and all, but in a movie, you really do need some kind of showdown with the witch) while keeping as much of the original story as possible. I'm not saying it was a perfect movie, but (in my opinion) the people involved seemed to both 1) like the original material and 2) know what they were doing. Whereas the Dark Is Rising people complained (with reason!) that the original book was very internal and introspective--but rather than find a way to translate those scenes into action, they had Will running around a mall. A MALL. Here's what malls and Googling gets you: Ben Stiller's grown-up comedy ''The Heartbreak Kid'' flops. Buried in the article: "The Kingdom held strong at No. 3 with $9.3 mil and Resident Evil: Extinction stayed alive in fourth place with $4.3 mil, while the fantasy flick The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (No. 5) flopped with a mere $3.7 mil." There's a lesson here. I just hope the studio figures out what it is.

Meanwhile, I spent yesterday reading Alcott's Rose in Bloom for fun (it's one of those favorite books I tend to go back to just for comfort, although you definitely have to suspend a modern perspective, or you'll start screaming when [spoilers?]one character gives up a career for The Man She Loves, and another dies for the Horrible Sin of Stumbling Home Drunk on New Year's Day) and a ton of documents at victorianlondon.org--I don't know why I ever doubt that that site will have exactly what I need, because it solved several problems I was having with hotel dining, dinner parties, servant duties, and Death in the Household, as one helpful article was called.

Two requests and a bunch of linkspam from y'all, from the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse that is my inbox:

Fromstarlady42: "Cleo, if you get a chance, could you pimp http://www.asbrand.com/? This is a friend of mine who is trying to navigate the nightmare that is the US government's permanent resident (green card) process for his wife and daughter. All the details are on his site -- they've been jerked around by the bureaucracy several times already, and are running out of time and money. Any help would be greatly appreciated."

From golden_d: "I was wondering if you might be interested in Operation Find Don for your linkspam? Don appears most importantly in this essay written by Sarah Bunting of TWOP fame in mid-September 2001. It's the kind of thing that could really use some plugging. Thanks!" I actually want to say that I've linked to OFD before--way, way back in the day when Sars first posted about it. And she still hasn't found the guy? Wow.

From etherealshores: "Miss Cleo! I have found the most amazing Halloween-type music ever: www.noxarcana.com. Seriously, check these guys out. They are amazing."

From bandersnatch42: "Did you see Viggo Mortenson's surprise cameo on The Colbert Report? It was made of awesome."

From elendiari22: "I have a steampunk book I thought I'd recommend to you: The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray. It's set in Victorian-esque London and it's really creepy and riveting."

From maetang: "No human sacrifice in term time, please. Glen David Gold on the impishness that inspired his novel Carter Beats the Devil."

From edda: "DID YOU KNOW THERE'S SUCH A THING AS A GOBLIN SHARK? BECAUSE THERE IS. Because I HAD to Google them from that link you gave me. Holy effin' snotballs, I'm gonna have nightmares now."

From rahrahmah: How to Write a Book. "Do not postpone other projects so that you can focus on the current one. It’s better to spread yourself so thin that you produce an evenly distributed amount of complete crap.... If you’ve gotten this far without a single technical foul-up, now’s a good time to download something viral.... If one of your cowriters is something of an optimist, shit in his hat."


Hmm. I think I'll save the linkspam proper for later, rather than overwhelm everyone now.

Comments

[mwestbelle.livejournal.com]

I definitely second the recommendation of "The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray." Really cool book, with some very interesting side characters.

[girlalmighty]

Eee, Rose in Bloom! I haven't read that in forever, but I remember loving it. And I have these vague memories involving a vacation, a barn and golden piles of hay with frolicking in the forest during the second book - Eight Cousins, I think? Good times.

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

Rose in Bloom is the sequel to Eight Cousins. :-) Both are made of awesome. Even if Alcott had to kill off poor Charlie just to outline the evils of demon liquor.

[girlalmighty]

See, there we go - proof positive it's been forever! Now I want to go reread them again, though.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I was kind of indignant the first time I read the book that she killed Charlie--not because I particularly liked him, but because it was sad after knowing what he was like as a boy in Eight Cousins. But by the end of the book, I was glad that he was romantically out of the way for Mac's sake who was so totally destined for Rose from the moment she started taking care of him in Eight Cousins.

[londonsparrow.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'd forgotten the terrible nature of Charlie's descent! Mainly because when I used to read this book I'd skip around to the parts featuring Mac, because I love, love Mac and always did since Eight Cousins where he worries about Rose during her Deathly Illness after ice-skating or whatever. And Victorian boys with glasses = win.

[therecklesslady.livejournal.com]

Eight Cousins/Rose in Bloom are my absolute favorite Alcott books- though I can never explain to people why (as soon as I bring up the whole cousin-marrying bit, people can't see why they're awesome.)

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

Ordered Alaizabel Cray from the library because it sounds awesome, and I need a break from Les Miserables.

Die, DiR. Die painfully, and may unworthy careers die with you.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

I dunno why, but the Viggo link isn't working.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUTgAzpKihY

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh Rose in Bloom

I dearly love the Incredible Shame of One Night's Revelry. You'd think he'd gone to Vegas, boinked Britney on the dance floor, then did lines of coke on the counter in the police station.

I still love LMA - you just utterly cannot read it while holding any kind of feminist perspective. The ironic thing is that some of the things she advocated then were deemed feminist - in the prequel to RIB, she has the temerity to suggest that women should *gasp* NOT WEAR CORSETS! And she puts Rose in a "Bloomer Suit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_dress_reform#The_bloomer_suit)" to the horror of the aunts.

Have you read "An Old-Fashioned Girl"?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I know, it's so crazy--Alcott was actually a good bit feminist in her own time. It's just trying to read it as a modern feminist that it becomes maddening. I try to cut her slack, though--yeah, she has Phebe give up her career, but at the same time, she makes Rose so unusually independent and (somewhat) athletic and "strong-minded" (horrors!) and unwilling to settle for less, and it's SO refreshing compared to something like The Wide, Wide World. And there's the horribly stereotyped Fun See... who gets to marry Annabel. I don't know, it's this weird mix of progressive-in-her-time and offensive-in-ours. So I guess I try to read it in the spirit it was written, just to block out the guilt.

I actually love Eight Cousins as well, but Rose in Bloom (which I only discovered a few years ago, and downloaded from Project Gutenberg) may have become my new favorite because of the romance. I love Mac, what can I say. I'm also the girl who picks up Jane Eyre just to reread the angsty Rochester parts occasionally, so... there you are.

(I have the e-book of An Old-Fashioned Girl but I haven't read it yet. Is it connected to any of her other books? I'm also dying to find a more comprehensive collection of her blood-and-thunder stories than the one I have--Behind a Mask, which only has four stories in it. I read a fantastic old book from the UAB library that had tons, but I can't remember the title or find anything comparable. Do you know of a good one?)

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I love Mac, too. The geekboy wins the girl! So rare!

And yes - Rose is atypical. The horror of her not wanting to "preserve the money"!

OMG I totally forgot about Fun See. And his father. And how they think Anabelle will be eating puppies and laugh about it.

And of course, the fact that Phebe is allowed to study at ALL, when she should totally have been left as the poor little match servant girl, not elevated to Rose's status - the class assumptions, etc. That kind of thing is in Lucy Maud Montgomery's works, as well - the horror of a 'foundling' marrying into good blood, etc. I have to remind myself that they assumed back then that "blood will tell" and that the child of a thief will be a thief, etc.

Old-fashioned Girl is self-contained.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ah, new characters! (To me, anyway.)

And I did figure out the name of the book I read--it was Louisa May Alcott Unmasked, although Amazon only has it secondhand through outside sellers now. And the cover is tacky. But for $2, what more can you possibly ask for?

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Lemme know what you think about Old Fashioned Girl! I'd be interested in your view :D

Hey, a $2 book is NEVER a bad thing. (Says she who often will go to one second-hand vendor a buy a bunch of 25 cent books just to make the order amount = the shipping cost :D)

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Alcott aside from Little Women, but I wonder if the need to take account of her audience's views might not have prevented her from taking it in a more feminist direction than she did.

[bibliotech.livejournal.com]

An Old-Fashioned Girl was one of my all-time favourite books growing up. god, I need another copy of it, I've read two to pieces already.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I have a 1918 copy :D

[bibliotech.livejournal.com]

I'm getting this urge to hunt down all my old childhood favourites!

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I have all of mine on a bookshelf - several books circa turn of the century (the PAST century), with lovely etchings and color plates. *clings*

[piratesorka.livejournal.com]

Gheeze, between the two of you I now have to Begin a Great Search for the Books of Childhood.

I remember reading Eight Cousins and then Rose in Bloom they were my very first "real people" books that weren't about animals or fables. I adored them totally and I remember crying and crying over Poor Charlie.
Later on when I found out what "earbobs" were I was indignant that anyone would insist Rose give them up. I suspect however, that Alcott helped plant the begining of a budding feminist in me back in the early sixties before anyone else in my family even thought out of sync with the world and "womens's place"
I wonder if I will be charmed reading them again after all this time...

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Try and keep the historical perspective in mind when you do. Yes, she's conventional, when viewed today. But so many of the ideas were quite radical then. Not only that, but LMA trod a fine line with a lot of people because of her transcendentalist views, and she was trying hard to introduce that philosophy gently in her works.

[chaos-slave.livejournal.com]

Did you know that Birmingham is getting it's own Sci-fi convention next March?

http://portal.omegacon.us/index.php

I've kinda pimped you to the President of the organization by mailing him links to your journals because of your wonderful Movies in Fifteen Minutes.
He also said since I told him of what you do that they need judges for the independent films still. He would like to hear from you they are doing Boo at the Zoo or email him.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, fantastic! And it won't cost me a fortune to go since I live here! I've always wanted to go to a con! EEEEEE. I tell you what--email me at cleolinda at livejournal.com and tell me more, if you can--"Someone on Livejournal told me to email you" is going to be a bit awkward. : )

[chaos-slave.livejournal.com]

Woot!

[juushika.livejournal.com]

"...The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray. It's set in Victorian-esque London and it's really creepy and riveting."

Hehe. Riveting. Steampunk. I'm amused. ^_^

And also adding the book to my to-read list, if course.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heeee, I didn't even catch that.

[londonsparrow.livejournal.com]

The Colbert Report is like a self-contained universe that I want to live in and never leave...

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

HEY! GET OUT OF MY EMAIL!

none really

[weasleygurl28.livejournal.com]

OMG, I can't stop giggling over the pouty face part of your icon. Is this from Indiana Jones? Where did get the icon?

Re: none really

[weasleygurl28.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I meant where is the icon scene from, not the picture scene.

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

GLORIOSKY. I'm never going in the ocean again.

[arayuldaiel.livejournal.com]

Totally unrelated, but I love the new background, Cleo. :D

[sunihiroku.livejournal.com]

Ok, Miss Cleolinda, I have a bone to pick with you.

You mentioned a BPAL update in your LJ, I asked you about it, you gave me answers...

a little more than a month later, I'm a bona fide BPAL addict. Just bloody fantastic. :-P

OMG, I love this stuff. Yesterday, a lab order (Pirate Moon!), an eBay order, and a forum order all came in the mail for me. I about flipped when I came home from work, and spent the next few hours in ecstasy.

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of the Alcott book, so I've found a free copy online from manybooks.net and downloaded it :)

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who's a little surprised that Heartbreak Kid didn't at least have a good opening weekend?

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

"Pick up any book on your bookshelf, skim a few pages, and admit that it’s a terrible book… but better than anything you’ll ever write. Cry."

That's fantastic advice for ANY writer (or self-proclaimed "writer"), regardless of book deals or lack thereof. Especially for poets.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

I love Rose in Bloom and it's predecessor, dated as they are. And I will always love Uncle Alex for the way he comes in to Eight Cousins, steamrolls over The Aunts, and makes Rose healthy by giving her comfortable clothes and making her eat healthy food and run around the house. Heh.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

EDIT: Uncle ALEC. Durr. Also I've committed the dreaded "it's" sin. Damn it. I tend to do that when I'm tired. Pls to ignore, thx.

P.S. I've always had a bit of a crush on Mac. Probably because he's "young Uncle Alec." Come to think of it, I seem to recall thinking once that it's a wee bit kinky how Rose falls for Mac because he's the most like Alec...like she has a bit of a crush on her uncle. But then, who doesn't?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that Alec was originally in love with Rose's mother, "the other Rose," but she happened to love Rose's father (Alec's brother George?) instead. I think in one of the RIB scenes where Rose thinks about just going ahead and getting with Mac (who has just said that he would rather be single all his life like Alec than love anyone else), she thinks something along the line of, "She didn't have a dear lover like her mother, why shouldn't she go ahead and make him happy?"

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember that part. Probably part of why I had the impression that she kind of had a crush on her uncle/felt bad that her mother hadn't loved him or that he was alone.

I totally had a crush on him when I read the books, though, so he shouldn't feel too bad. ;)

P.S. Love the ghosty background!

[msilverstar]

HAH! The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (No. 5) flopped with a mere $3.7 mil

Crap seeks its own level?