Miles & Ben: "Dr. Linus"
So, here’s another “Lost” post for you which will probably include spoilers. If you’re not caught up with all the new episodes and don’t want anything ruined for you, go away now. 
I’ve been watching “Lost” since it first aired way back in 2004. I even liked the ’slow’ part of Season 3, especially the second time I watched it. In addition to watching the show and coming up with my own theories (most of which have been shot down mercilessly as more information is revealed) I’ve really enjoyed the online community of “Lost” fans. We’ve all shared theories, quandaries, our desire to know the truth and in general how much fun we’re having with the show.
But I have to say, I’m not enjoying “Lost” fans anymore. I try to go to the same places and read what people are saying but all the whining and bitching is really getting on my nerves. All these years I’ve continuously read “I trust the writers to know what they’re doing.”
Now, all I read is, “I want to know what everything means RIGHT NOW – and I mean everything. If they leave anything out, I’ll hate this show forever.”
For example, in this past week’s episode “Dr. Linus” (my favorite of the season so far, but that’s no surprise since I have a very unhealthy fascination with Benjamin Linus), there was a great bit where Miles mentions Nikki and Paulo and the fact that they have $8 million dollars worth of diamonds right there in their graves. I thought that was funny, totally in character for Miles and a nifty little shout-out to everyone’s least favorite Losties.
So, when I visit one of my favorite “Lost” chats/discussions, what do I read about this? “This is exactly the kind of “answers”/closure/filler that I don’t care about and wish they wouldn’t waste my time on.”
I guess fanboys/fangirls are the same no matter what they’re a fan of. So many of them just can’t stand it when something they care about goes in a direction they don’t want, or that it’s not moving fast enough – or slow enough – or it just isn’t right, dammit! “I want Green Lantern to have black hair, not brown hair. Now it’s all just ruined!”
And no, that’s not an exaggeration. I’ve read about these ‘fans’ who will totally abandon something they profess to love more than anything for something as simple as a bad costume.
This also brings to mind all those Hermione/Harry Potter shippers who had a hissy fit when Hermione and Ron got together instead and started demanding J.K. Rowling change her plot lines and APOLOGIZE to them for being wrong.
So, the point of my rant? Relax, people. Yeah, it’s important to you and that’s great but when you start laying claim to something you had no hand in creating, you really need to get over yourself.
Me, I do still have faith in the “Lost” writers and producers. We’re going to get the answers to the questions they want to answer. All the other stuff that they’re going to leave out? I’ll just decide for myself. That’s one of the advantages of unanswered questions in fiction – for those willing to fill in some of the blanks themselves, they get a wholly original story that no one else has. “Lost” is not my property, but I have my own, personal version of the story that no one else can have.
So, vacation’s over and now it’s back to the old grind. Le sigh.
And now, I finally have a book I want to write about that would have fit in perfectly with my Halloween theme last month but I didn’t want to read it back then. In fact, I had no interest in the book whatsoever.
I hadn’t even heard of Twilight by Stephanie Myer, or the three sequels, until I saw the trailer for the movie on the Apple site. I didn’t pay much attention even then because I’m not big on romance novels even if they do have a supernatural element. I had already seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, thank you very much and felt that a romance between vampire and human had already been done and, for the most part, done well. It didn’t even have a twist – it’s always the male who’s the vampire, and he’s always devastatingly handsome.
But, I saw my niece reading the book a few weeks ago. She’s 12, which is the target audience for these books. My niece can quite often be a little Princess but she normally has good taste in entertainment. Also, I have a penchant for good juvenile literature. (Juvenile in the true sense of the word – not as in immature and annoying.) I find that, in general, well written young adult and children’s books are less pretentious than most adult novels and therefore less insulting to my intelligence.
So, I picked up a cheap movie tie-in version of the book over vacation but didn’t start reading it until a few days ago. It didn’t take me long to finish.
I won’t say that it’s classic literature but it does strike a chord and I can certainly see why so many girls are going nuts over it. Boys may like it too, but all the stuff I see online (mostly on Facebook) are girls spouting their love of Edward Cullen and their admiration or jealousy or downright hatred of Bella Swan. I haven’t heard much from the young male population at all and since it is primarily a romance novel, I don’t expect to.
In a nutshell, the story is about Bella Swan, a high school junior, who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington (which I found out today from NPR is a real town) so that she could avoid being dragged around the country with her mother and new step-father who is a minor league ball player. She moves in with her father, Charlie, who is the local Sheriff, and resigns herself to a few years of a gray, boring life. The school is un-challenging, the weather is almost always damp and cloudy and she continuously longs for the sun.
Always underestimating herself, Bella is surprised to find that she is becoming quite popular. I thought this was one of the things that Myer handled extremely well. Bella’s reactions to the new people she meets are never mean spirited but they are honest and she consciously realizes that diplomacy is very important in a town as small of Forks. She never compromises her integrity or beliefs, but she is very aware that her actions or inactions could cause her to be an outcast and while she could definitely deal with that, she’s normal enough to not want to be an outsider.
Not everyone is as welcoming to Bella as the rest of the school. One young man in particular, Edward Cullen, seems enraged that she exists at all. She ends up having to share a table with him in Biology and on her first day, he keeps himself as far away from her as possible and anytime she happens to glance at him he’s glaring at her as if he wishes she were dead or, more specifically, that he could kill her.
Anyone who has any familiarity with romance stories at all knows where this is going and it doesn’t take long for Bella to become infatuated and figure out that Edward is a vampire. There’s nothing really new here but it’s written well and the characters are developed well enough that you like them and care about what happens to them even if they aren’t wholly original. It was good enough that I plan to read the sequels in what is now called the Twilight Saga.
I don’t recommend the book if you don’t have patience for reading young adult novels. The characters act like teenagers, albeit mature and level-headed teenagers, but their logic is often flawed and the undying love between the two main characters may make some readers gag a bit. This is especially true if you’re over the age of 21 and know that your first love is very rarely your true love. Unless things change drastically in the sequels, Bella and Edward will be one of those rare couples.
If you’d rather skip the book and just see the movie, it opens Friday, November 21st and stars Kristen Stewart as Bella and Robert Pattinson as Edward and is directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
I hate public censorship so this is a good week to read all those books that have been attacked and threatened with censorship. It’s Banned Books week and while there are books out there that everyone knows has been censored, there are tons that make you wonder what these people were thinking when they tried to ban the book.
Here’s a short list of banned books from the past and the reasons why they were pulled from the shelves.
Go read a banned book today!
The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer is now online! It’s pretty damn spooky. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was a trailer for a horror movie. Steak sauce!
Embedded video removed – it messed up my template.
CLICK HERE to see the video. (Don’t worry – it’s just puppets)
I’ve been tagged by DKM. I don’t normally do Memes, but this one’s a bit different so I thought I’d participate.
The rules are:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
I just got the new Stephen King Book Duma Key which is sitting here next to my desk, so here it goes:
“The sea oats belong, but the rest of that shit has no business growing witout irrigation. Somebody better investigate, that’s what I think.”
“My daughter and I went exploring one day.”
I’m a big Stephen King fan. It was kind of unavoidable growing up in my house. My mother was a fan before most of the world knew King’s name.
This past week I finally got a copy of two of his newer releases, Duma Key and Blaze. Duma Key was written by Stephen King. Blaze was written back in 1973 by his alter-ego, Richard Bachman.
I haven’t read every Bachman book, but every one I have read I really, really like. Even though ‘Stephen King’ seeps through sometimes, they really do feel like they’re written by someone else. As much as I love Stephen King, I think I like Richard Bachman better. of course, his output wasn’t nearly as prolific as King’s, so there was less chance of hitting sour notes (*cough* Tommyknockers *cough*). So, I chose to read Blaze first.
I read the introduction this morning and a couple of things really disturbed me. First, the front page that lists other books by Richard Bachman. There was one glaring omission. And then, in the introduction by Stephen King, that omission is mentioned but dismissed as a mistake!
I know why he feels the way he does about Rage. I suppose if something I wrote influenced someone to commit violent acts, I wouldn’t look so kindly on that work either. However, I personally think Rage is one of the best things he ever wrote. It just so happens that I’m not a disturbed, anti-social human who reads it and thinks, “Hey, I sympathize with this character (which I do) therefore, I should try to emulate him and do exactly what he does.”
The book is no longer in print.
I don’t like censorship. I don’t like limiting freedoms because of the stupidity of others. I choose to wear my seatbelt – but I don’t think it should be required for anyone over 18. I personally don’t like guns, but I also don’t have a problem if an adult who can prove they’re responsible with firearms has one. This list could go on and on, but I think I’ve made my point.
It all reminds me of when I was a kid. I loved bottle rockets, but when I was around 8 or so I leaned over the bottle – right after my dad told me not to. I was therefore banned from bottle rockets for a very long time. When I was finally allowed to shoot them again, I never – ever- leaned over the bottle again. My parents made my safety their responsibility, and no one else’s. Most of my friend’s parents seemed to parent in this same manner as well.
So, why is it, that my generation is raising a mess of spoiled, pampered, ‘nothing is your fault, dear – it’s society’s’ assholes? I’ve met some exceptions, certainly, but for the most part, the next generation is a bunch of passing-the-buck jerks!
I have yet to figure out when and why this mental shift happened. Was it a ‘I want to be friends with my kids because I personally thought my parents were tyrants’ attitude? Or were we raised by parents who were too lenient as well and we just continued this trend?
Ugh. I could continue to bitch about today’s kids, but I suppose I should stop. I mean, I’m only 35. What am I going to be like when I’m 60? Hee hee.
We don’t have cable – haven’t since we moved from Florida. Except for Turner Classic Movies, we haven’t really missed it much, either. I mean, sure, we sometimes wish we had The SciFi channel to watch “Battlestar Galactica” and BBC America to watch “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood,” but if we really want to see something we’ll get it on DVD. And believe me, it’s so much better watching TV without the commercials – as long as everyone’s getting their fair share from the sale of DVDs (writers, directors, etc. – hint, hint you greedy producers.)
Anyways, I just found myself wishing we had cable so that we could get HBO. Why, you ask, would I want that? Is there some hip, new, edgy series about to premiere?
Nope – a mini-series about John Adams.
A few years ago I saw 1776 (yes, the musical – which is a damn fine movie, no matter what you think, Doug). It got me interested in John Adams. In all of my history classes (and I minored in college) I don’t remember hearing about John Adams – just the usual suspects – Jefferson, Washington, etc. etc. From what I gathered from 1776, Adams seemed to be pretty damn important in that whole Independence thingy.
So, I went out and got David McCoullough’s book (pulitzer prize winning, even) and I loved it. Adams became one of my heroes, despite the repugnant Sedition Act. As an added consequence, Thomas Jefferson was roughly pushed off his pedestal and while I still admire Benjamin Franklin, I don’t think he was as wonderful as he’s usually portrayed.
But then again, I’ve always been rather prudish about how one conducts themselves in public and especially in their work. I’m one of ‘those’ that gets annoyed when someone brings their kid/spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend/etc. to work.
But I digress. No doubt this mini-series will make it to DVD and I’ll be at least renting it. I’m glad they didn’t cast some stud to play Adams as Hollywood usually does. Paul Giametti is a fine actor and I’m sure he’ll do great in the part. Let’s just hope Laura Linney, who is playing Abigail Adams, is just as good.
Which Early 19th Century Literary Heroine Are You?
You are Jane Eyre, from Charlotte Bronte’s excellent book of the same name. Jane might not be pretty, but she is dedicated and determined to make her own way in the world. she is confident and smart, and doesn’t let the world get her down, even though it tries a lot.
5% of people had this result.
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