Harry Potter Sucks (not really).
After I did that last trailerdump, Apple released something like twenty-three new trailers in as many hours. So I'm going to dump a few more:
Get Smart
Gone Baby Gone*
Ghosts of Cite Soleil
Death At a Funeral**
Charlie Bartlett
3:10 to Yuma
Rocket Science
The King of Kong
... and a better quality No Country for Old Men
* I like Casey Affleck and Dennis Lehane, and Ben Affleck was great last time he was behind the lens.
** Alan Tudyk. Nuff said.
I'm really not sure what it is I want to sit and write about next. I suppose, at this point, I should be going back and reworking things that I've already written. There are a bunch of them (something like eight or nine short stories, and one short play). And most of the things I want to write are going to take a while.
Read, if you can, The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler (otherwise known as Lemony Snicket). It's his first novel, and a very dark, funny, tricky look at high school. I suspect that, on occasion, Handler simply channeled some people I know in writing it. I suspect that people I know are being channeled a lot. I also wear a tinfoil helmet, and fear the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.
(I only just watched Twelve Monkeys the other day; I don't know what took me so long. See it, if you haven't, and watch it again if you have.)
I've gone bargain bin diving at Chapters, recently, which is a little like going to a used bookstore, but all the books are new and there aren't as many of them. I've found a couple of great little things, though - Cory Doctorrow and Jonathan Lethem and China Mieville. (Incidentally, China Mieville's new book, Un Lun Dun is out - has been for half a year, actually, and I missed it somehow - and further proves that he is smarter and more talented than we are, as he has illustrated the whole thing in addition to writing it. If you haven't read Mieville, go find Perdido Street Station. He's a monster.)
Further along the vein of great writers, you can read the first chapter of Warren Ellis's first novel Crooked Little Vein here. If you're not familiar with Ellis's writing, a warning: the first sentence involves rat urine and it generally goes downhill from there, in terms of filth. Really good though, can't wait for the book.
I made a slightly controversial statement on Friday that went something like this:
"I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
"Yeah."
"J.K. Rowling is a terrible writer."
"..."
This is a feeling I've had for some time, but I haven't really voiced it or justified it till recently. Allow me, first, to elaborate, before you start clawing for my eyes. In Hearts in Atlantis (the book, which is good, not the movie, which is trash), Stephen King (via the character Ted Brautigan) makes a statement about literature that I think is actually a very simple and accurate measure of quality. It goes like this. "Some books have good stories, but bad writing, and some books have good writing and bad stories. And the books that have good stories and good writing are the great ones." It's something that I've applied to many of the books I've read since. Salem's Lot, one of King's own, for instance, has a great deal of remarkable writing and a mostly worthless story. Everfree, the last of Nick Sagan's Idlewild trilogy, is a very intelligent, layered story that is often ill-served by rushed and shallow writing (a shame, really, as the first two books are wonderfully written, and there are moments of splendour in the third). Basically, he's saying that there's a difference between Story (the plot, the characters, the themes) and Writing (the mechanics and poetics of the words on the page).
Harry Potter demonstrates, above anything else, Rowling's remarkable talent for storycraft, and her ability to shape memorable, compelling characters. But the writing...
I'd like to amend my earlier statement, actually. Rowling's not a terrible writer. She is a completely unremarkable writer, with moments of brilliance and moments of abhorrence. And I'm aware that the novels are "written for children", which is no excuse. Coraline is written for children. So are The Hobbit, and Narnia, and Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan.
That being said, I'm rushing through the fifth and sixth books in anticipation of the seventh, which I am going to find and read as quickly and quietly as I can.
As a moment of Zen, please read.
Get Smart
Gone Baby Gone*
Ghosts of Cite Soleil
Death At a Funeral**
Charlie Bartlett
3:10 to Yuma
Rocket Science
The King of Kong
... and a better quality No Country for Old Men
* I like Casey Affleck and Dennis Lehane, and Ben Affleck was great last time he was behind the lens.
** Alan Tudyk. Nuff said.
I'm really not sure what it is I want to sit and write about next. I suppose, at this point, I should be going back and reworking things that I've already written. There are a bunch of them (something like eight or nine short stories, and one short play). And most of the things I want to write are going to take a while.
Read, if you can, The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler (otherwise known as Lemony Snicket). It's his first novel, and a very dark, funny, tricky look at high school. I suspect that, on occasion, Handler simply channeled some people I know in writing it. I suspect that people I know are being channeled a lot. I also wear a tinfoil helmet, and fear the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.
(I only just watched Twelve Monkeys the other day; I don't know what took me so long. See it, if you haven't, and watch it again if you have.)
I've gone bargain bin diving at Chapters, recently, which is a little like going to a used bookstore, but all the books are new and there aren't as many of them. I've found a couple of great little things, though - Cory Doctorrow and Jonathan Lethem and China Mieville. (Incidentally, China Mieville's new book, Un Lun Dun is out - has been for half a year, actually, and I missed it somehow - and further proves that he is smarter and more talented than we are, as he has illustrated the whole thing in addition to writing it. If you haven't read Mieville, go find Perdido Street Station. He's a monster.)
Further along the vein of great writers, you can read the first chapter of Warren Ellis's first novel Crooked Little Vein here. If you're not familiar with Ellis's writing, a warning: the first sentence involves rat urine and it generally goes downhill from there, in terms of filth. Really good though, can't wait for the book.
I made a slightly controversial statement on Friday that went something like this:
"I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
"Yeah."
"J.K. Rowling is a terrible writer."
"..."
This is a feeling I've had for some time, but I haven't really voiced it or justified it till recently. Allow me, first, to elaborate, before you start clawing for my eyes. In Hearts in Atlantis (the book, which is good, not the movie, which is trash), Stephen King (via the character Ted Brautigan) makes a statement about literature that I think is actually a very simple and accurate measure of quality. It goes like this. "Some books have good stories, but bad writing, and some books have good writing and bad stories. And the books that have good stories and good writing are the great ones." It's something that I've applied to many of the books I've read since. Salem's Lot, one of King's own, for instance, has a great deal of remarkable writing and a mostly worthless story. Everfree, the last of Nick Sagan's Idlewild trilogy, is a very intelligent, layered story that is often ill-served by rushed and shallow writing (a shame, really, as the first two books are wonderfully written, and there are moments of splendour in the third). Basically, he's saying that there's a difference between Story (the plot, the characters, the themes) and Writing (the mechanics and poetics of the words on the page).
Harry Potter demonstrates, above anything else, Rowling's remarkable talent for storycraft, and her ability to shape memorable, compelling characters. But the writing...
I'd like to amend my earlier statement, actually. Rowling's not a terrible writer. She is a completely unremarkable writer, with moments of brilliance and moments of abhorrence. And I'm aware that the novels are "written for children", which is no excuse. Coraline is written for children. So are The Hobbit, and Narnia, and Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan.
That being said, I'm rushing through the fifth and sixth books in anticipation of the seventh, which I am going to find and read as quickly and quietly as I can.
As a moment of Zen, please read.
posted by jeereg at
11:50 PM
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