creative stuff on my radar

[rm]

Trailer for Closer: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/closer/video/closer_trailer_high.asx
This is like the movie I don't want to be excited about or interested in, on any level. Because first, it's the sort of thing that could, and maybe even should, suck, and won't because it's Mike Nichols and a good cast. So smarter, and more stylish than it deserves to be right off the bat. Secondly, every time I've seen the trailer, aside from being blown away by a couple of lines in it, I flash back very strongly to a conversation Michael and I once had in a sushi bar, about how much love he had to go around but not in any unfucked up poly sense of the word. But in a, he was incompetant and I should accept that with all my love and generosity because he was like Bill fucking Clinton. As the film says, if you believe in love at first sight, you never stop looking. See the little twist of my lips right now? Yeah. My lot in life may be many things, but it's not to be patient with the really crass and boring foibles of other people. Sexual fidelity doesn't hold much fascination for me other than as a creative device, but how people express their need for change, how they treat the things they are weary of, and the degree to which they can see a value in something even if it doesn't have a specific value for them -- these are measures of good grace and respect, and that's surely something I wish I had known sooner.

Anyway... Meanwhile... Mists of Avalon -- I'm on page 160, and I don't remember hating Every. Single. Character. from the first time I read it. Igraine is a hateful, shallow representation of everything I never wish to be. Vivaine is a hubristic nut. Morgaine is too desperate for obedience to anything. Morgause is the most boring Slytherin alive, and Lancelet needs a good smack (and I had forgotten that business with his real name being Galahad in this book, which isn't just confusing, but makes for some interesting analysis when compared with more traditional versions of the myth). Anyway... aaaaaargh! Lots of interesting stuff though about appearance and how it correlates to happens to people in the end (and not the obvious thing about Morgaine being small and dark, it's something weirder I've noticed)... I don't want to go on in more detail about it until I've finished it, on the odd chance I'm not remembering something right, but dear me, this book is screwy.

Is there any movie out this weekend I want to see? No. Grrr. Should see I, Robot and The Village, but it's hard to care.

Comments

[ex-mijra932.livejournal.com]

That's why I didn't like that book when I'd first read it--I hated every single character. Dear God.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It also occurs to me that at 14 I identified with Morgaine because Igraine reminds me of my mom (I've been told flat out that in all disagreements with my father, she will always take his side, because he's her husband. I'm often not sure what I am other than the proof of her marriage).

It's all rather unattractive.

[ex-mijra932.livejournal.com]

In a twisted way, that almost makes sense. Strange reasoning, though, and a very bad place to put a daughter. ...the proof of her marriage (!)

Very unattractive.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

When I went to view the trailer, my AVG freaked and said it contained a trojan. Ack.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Eeeek, that's weird.... I mean... Sony Pictures! ETF?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I didn't have a problem going to the site and looking around for the movie, but for some reason the direct link went somewhere bad. I had the same thing happen the other day when I went looking for the Douglas Adams movie trailer.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Maybe something in your software is freaking out at something movie trailers online are doing now? I dunno. It seems odd. but then what doesn't?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I don't know. Whatever it was came up on the list of known trojans.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Now that's freaky.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's something called rico.exe and it looks like it fucks with media player and image files.

Mists of Avalon

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

Moi,aussi!
I loved the plot and concept, and wanted to smack the characters clear into TH White-land.

No movies to see!

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

How is that possible? It is unlikely that I even can make it out to every film on my must see list-

Garden State- looks incredible, plus I find Zach Braff fascinating.
Intimate Strangers- French film about a woman who mistakingly sits down and tells her story to an accountant who she believed was a therapist.
Open Water- looks creepy and wonderfully suspenseful.
I've heard really good things about Maria Full of Grace, which apparently is less depressing and more empowering and uplifting than my impression from the preview.
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman- come on, who doesn't want to watch Zatoichi kick ass with big swords?


And I still haven't seen The Village which is interesting to me for the very polar reviews it is getting. Most of the critics I trust say it is complete crap, but a few have named it among the best of the year. And Collateral is interesting because I hadn't realized it wasn't much of an action film but is mostly a conversation in a cab. Plus Cruise is playing against type as a villain.

But I will probably see Twilight Samurai today since it is at the dollar theater and that allows for at least one other film or maybe two this weekend.

Re: No movies to see!

[rm.livejournal.com]

You have a good point about Garden State.

I don't want to see Open Water at all. 1. It looks very creepy in a way I don't like. 2. I know way too much about an incident on which it was based. 3. Great movie idea, but *shudder*

I expect to loathe The Village and want to go entirely for the insideout dog factor, the pretty, and the fact that everyone tells me the score rocks.

Mists

[keith418.livejournal.com]

I read this book in the summer of 1986 and hated it. Since I had written a paper on the role of women in the French Reformation, I loathed the idea that Christianity offered nothing to women - which was the main theme of Marion Zimmer Badley's opus. The constant "men=bad, women=good" thing turned me off as well - the characters didn't have any complexity or depth. Shallow efforts to write off Christianity from a pagan perspective (or, really a neo-pagan perspective) are just as irritating as the reverse. I also think that particular novel has gone on to inspire a zillion shallow wiccans and neo-pagans and I shudder at the programming effect it has had on people.

T.H. White, on the other hand? Pure class.

On the movie front, I would prioritize Zack's Garden State over nearly ever other bad film out there.

Re: Mists

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm really reacting badly to the whole neo-pagan thing in it too -- it was useful to me when I was 14, and now I'm just like... grrrr... because despite repeated mentions of the God as well as the Goddess, it seems constantly as if the male aspect of the divine in the pagan world is only there because she couldn't find any way whatsoever to avoid it.

I don't think the book is women=good, men=bad -- only because everyone is coming off like a total moron so far, but we'll see where that goes.

It's interesting, as I've reread many many books that influenced me at a young age before, and while I've often had the experience of reasessing the quality of the writing, I've not ever been so put off by the emotional tone of a book in a reread.

Even Anne Rice, for all her crap that gets all over everything she's ever written -- I still find emotional resonance and good things in there.

Meanwhile, I'm all about stories that are tragic, where no one is wise or smart or likeable (Cyteen is a great example of a book lacking in particularly likeable characters) -- but yet even with that perspective and proclivity -- I still want to scream.

Also, ooo, Vivaine wears pants to ride. She's so tough! Christ, I don't care!

I Get Misty

[keith418.livejournal.com]

I guess my major frustration with Marion's opus is her lack of interest in paradox. Most great literature, for me anyway, plays with the ideas of contradictions and paradoxical situations. I don't think simple polemicists, like Marion, can ever get too far as artists because they are uncomfortable with paradox and contradictions. This means that a lot of "neo pagan" literature, in the end, is about as challenging as those stupid "Born Again" Christian novels - like the Left Behind series - or whatever.

On the other hand, T.H. White's novel seems to me to be very rich in these kinds of deep lessons - lessons and points that transcend, in many cases, the moral positions of the author. For example, I disagree with White’s assertion that "the ends never justify the means." But he was still able, for example, in his scenes with Merlin and the young Arthur, to perfectly capture the inherent quality of the teacher-student relationship.

My mom and I were once discussing the role of the minister in religious services. She, being a Quaker, thought that any religious leader was unnecessary. I pointed out, in response, that the minister's true role was to be like Merlin in The Once and Future King: they were there to plant seeds in the mind. While she still disagreed about the need, she saw my point clearly. Is there anything in Marion's book that lends itself to that sort of wider deployment of theme? I don't think so. Marion didn't have the depth White did.

Re: I Get Misty

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to get through the White book, although I've not tried in a very, very long time. Of course, several of my favourite books were unreadable for me on my first several attempts, mainly for stylistic reasons, so perhaps it's worth another attempt.