And all the things in the books that ended up being important that the movie people shrugged off and now have to account for or just flail about dealing with.
Which is where I think WB and the franchise in general went wrong by starting the movies BEFORE the freaking series was finished. How could Steve Kloves have known that S.P.E.W. was going to end up being the crux for Ron and Hermione? Hell, Jo worked really closely on the screenplays and didn't (AFAIK) push to have things like that in. I know that by waiting, we would maybe not have had the actors we do, but I think it might have done the franchise a solid to have waited.
That all being said, WHY NOT NOVEMBER PLZKTHX!
My little moment will be Harry's birthday kiss and Newborn Teddy.
I need to rewatch HBP again.
I just read The Windup Girl, and for you cyberpunk fans who are looking for updated cyberpunk, here it is.
I really really enjoyed this book. The worldbuilding was just fantastic - you could tell he'd really done his research.
I don't know that I want a sequel, exactly, but I'd love to read other books set in that universe. (Say, set in Japan or India instead of Thailand.)
I don't know that I want a sequel, exactly, but I'd love to read other books set in that universe.
It looks like he's written a few short stories in the same world, but set in NYC and the American Southwest and cetera. I'll be ordering that as soon as I have book money again.
The Windup Girl
made me think that the steampunk gestalt right now isn't just about looking to the past, to a time when you could figure out how things work, take them apart, and repair them yourself...it's also about preparing for a future that's post-Peak Oil and necessarily more DIY.
I'm rereading the Emily of New Moon series now. Every time I read these, I struck by just how many characters in these books have psychological problems. And they're not played for laughs or as "local color" like I've seen similar characters in other kids' books of the period. The one that always gives me the most, "Whoa, really?" reaction is Teddy's mother. She's totally possessive about Teddy, and gets incredibly jealous of anyone or anything that she thinks Teddy might like more than her. Teddy mentions that he doesn't play with his pets much in front of her anymore, because she killed two cats that she thought he loved too much. Parts of these books are presented in an almost fantasy-like way, but most of the scenes with Teddy's mother are done really realistically -- like this is just another part of the everyday troubles. I really can't think of any other kids' book from that period that deals with mental illness in this way.
This genre that started with Pride and "Prejudice and Zombies" has really taken over. I've seen just about every possible permutation and yesterday I saw "Paul is Undead". oy
I saw "Android Kareninna" at Powell's, which at least made me laugh.
I thought it was an amusing idea when they first started coming out, but now ... "Android Karenina", Queen Victoria as a ... demon hunter? Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter (soon to be a movie, I understand), a prequel to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", "Little Women and Werewolves", "Shakespear Undead", all kinds of mixtures of classic books/historical characters combined with various paranormals. I think it's gotten to be a bit much.
