huinare: (l'exile)
At Jo Walton's LJ:
"Characters, Complicity and Caring: My Wiscon Speech"

With thanks to [livejournal.com profile] bunn for the heads up.

1. People have rec'd Walton's books to me before.  I need to get on that.

2. I quite enjoyed the whole thing, especially the part about actions scenes/jeopardy in a non-character-driven piece.
(You know when I usually go to the bathroom during a movie?  Long action scene.  Best time to go.  You won't miss a thing.  Whereas if I miss three minutes of intense, quiet dialogue and someone tells me I "didn't miss much," I know that person and I have irreconcilable views of the world.)

3. I liked the GRRM reference.  That's one of the things I find admirable in his work.

4. Estraven, okay?  Only fictional character I've ever wept buckets over.  I will never get over how intriguing and awesome and sad Estraven is.
huinare: (l'exile)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/jan/25/mckellen-stewart-godot-broadway
"Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart to reprise Godot roles on Broadway"

Gaaah.  I would give limbs I haven't even grown yet to see this.  Waiting for Godot has just become my new obsession, and with that casting--!
huinare: (writing!)
Thanks to Wheelrider's post, I went off on a tangent and found a couple links that were of amusement and interest to me, and hopefully to some of you.

Fantasy author Jim C. Hines took it upon himself to reproduce some of the anatomically questionable, physically torturous, and notably objectifying poses of female characters on a selection of sci-fi/fantasy book covers.  Except it's him instead of a non-existent woman of unlikely proportions:  "Striking a Pose (Women and Fantasy Covers)"

To address the righteous outcry of those pointing out that women aren't the only victims of objectification, Hines then tackled some men on book covers, concluding (aptly, I think) that yes, men are objectified, but not in the same way and not to the same extent: "Posing Like a Man"

It really does my dessicated heart good to see men defending "feminist" notions such as the respective portrayals of women and men in media, and their overt or covert implications.

huinare: (drama!)
Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] bunn, I derived a deal of amusement from this color survey conducted by the xkcd dude.

My favorite part were the color names some people came up with in their wisdom and/or despair (tall but worthwhile graphic under the cut):
"And every color illuminates.."  )

White if it had a wine spill on itself and let it dry for a few days and then tried to wash it but it just left that awful color that forever remains a reminder that grandma needs to be cut off after the third glass.

Day 3: Sanity lost, colors keep changing but they keep staying the same...keep seeing this green, this slightly different green, mocking me...studying me...this ms green...what do you want mr green.
huinare: (writing!)
"Misogyny isn't caused by male horniness."
I like this article because it addresses a few points I have strong opinions on myself.
I especially liked the author's inclusion of the Nice Guy trope.  Permit me to go off on a tangent about the Nice Guy that is not quite related to the author's point.  A guy who complains in the hearing of a woman that women don't really want Nice Guys (meaning, of course, himself) has just generalized and made insulting presuppositions about a member of the gender he supposedly wishes to attract; in thus doing, he actually is not coming of as a Nice Guy at all.  I've met a few Nice Guys, and they've been arrogant, condescending jerks.

Re: The True Size of Africa.
A response to that image of Africa with the US, China, about half of Europe, and other localities nestled inside it.
I appreciate the effort to educate people as to the actual relative sizes of places on earth, but I also fear that the way the "True Size of Africa" graphic is presented encourages the reactionary idea that (Caucasian) cartographers draw maps this way because of some subjective and ethnocentric way of weighing the importance of places.
The Mercator projection is the standard for most 2-dimensional maps.  The technique involves greater distortion the closer one moves toward the poles, thus land areas nearer the poles take on an exaggerated size.  Hence, let us be clear that the reason Europe and North America are enlarged on most maps is because they are further from the equator than Africa, which actually intersects it.
huinare: (Default)
I've been in new-to-me Tolkienish territory lately.  Can anybody point me to some good online resources on Rohan? 
I specifically need to know when their new year is, if such information exists.  I should learn more about Rohan in general though.

Instead I found and gawked at the French Republican Calendar, (calendrier républicain français) and now I'm out of time.
huinare: (paradise lost)
Happy Birthday, SWG!  (Or so my LJ homepage tells me today.)

Happy Stabbiversary, Caesar!
No seriously, watch that, it's an awesome musical number from Histeria.
Who remembers Histeria?!  Best show ever.
huinare: (curse)
For the most part, I have Other Things to Post About.  On the occasion that I do post something political or divisively ideological, I shall offer up this advisory:
1. I lean left. Very.
2. I don't keep this journal for the sake of arguments, which can be found in many places on the internet, so parties who feel they may wish to argue are advised to not click on my political cuts.

Thanks!

A response I find hilarious and germane. )

Films

Feb. 22nd, 2012 02:01 pm
huinare: (paradise lost)
Ah!  Voici une chose que je peux regarder/écouter pour practiquer ma français?!  *wince*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Reine_Soleil

"Fires in the Mirror." We watched about half of this in a class yesterday.  I found it quite riveting.  People should all watch this.  Anna Deavere Smith is an amazing actor.  She plays characters of sundry genders, races, and creeds here, all to excellent effect.  Woman's like a fricking chameleon.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106916/fullcredits#cast
huinare: (gethen)
One reason I sometimes support being "forced" to learn things--precondition being that one has gone into this with eyes open, such as my decision to finally get myself to college--is that one is subjected to ideas, knowledge and resources one may not have pursued on one's own.  I'm on my last year of general ed, and I find that I've benefited profoundly from literary, historical, and philosophical knowledge I might have missed out on if I'd been able to leap right into upper division science courses.

These short stories are awesome! very psychologically intricate, the first closing on possibly the most ironic line I've ever read, the second seeming to flirt with what I'd almost call Lovecraftian descriptions in terms of the creepy wallpaper.  Apparently both have film adaptations, which I want to get my hands on and watch and then rant about plot and character butchery.

"The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin, 1894.

"The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892.
  She sounds fascinating!  "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'  The Forerunner. 1913.
  (Trivia of personal note: her first husband's second wife was Grace Ellery Channing, the granddaughter of William Ellery Channing, a fellow referenced a good deal in my quasi-religious community.)
huinare: (i am the dragon!!)
if you haven't already caught this bit of Hobbity news, there has come to light a particularly noisome little film adaptation from the 1960's.

"We were well into the Hobbit screenplay when The Lord of The Rings came out in paperback editions. Having assumed there was only The Hobbit to contend with, and following Snyder's wish, we had taken some liberties with the story that a few years later would be grounds for burning at the stake."

This makes the Rankin-Bass version look like gold. Actually, I hold that the Rankin-Bass version does have its redeeming qualities. Of which this thing has none at all, unless it be the biggest, baddest crossbow EVER.
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 11:37 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios