I always wanted to smack Harriet and tell her to get over her ruined self.
Zoe: We're getting him back. Jayne: What are we gonna do, clone him?
'War Stories'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Connie Neil - Aug 05, 2011 9:35:59 am PDT #15861 of 28293
brillig
Consuela - Aug 05, 2011 9:37:48 am PDT #15862 of 28293
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
I feel bad for the Department of Mysteries. The DA totally destroyed, like, hundreds of prophecies! What if they were important?!
But prophecies are... I was going to claim that they were useless, except in HP, the existence of the prophecy was in fact what gave rise to the fulfillment of the prophecy. Which is also what happened in Oedipus. So perhaps the point of prophecies is to be self-fulfilling.
That said, I don't think that storing them away secretly (where only those who are mentioned in them can find out what they say) is a particularly useful thing to do. Would it have made a difference if Voldemort knew the second half of Harry's prophecy? Not really, because he knew enough to want to kill Harry. I don't think it would have changed what he did.
I kind of prefer prophecies that are just hanging out there and nobody really knows what they mean until after they're fulfilled, like Burnham Wood to Dunsinane, or No Mortal Man May Kill Me. Eowyn didn't know about the prophecy, after all.
DavidS - Aug 05, 2011 11:06:33 am PDT #15863 of 28293
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Thinking about it, I'm wondering what the metaphorical function of a prophecy is. It's not just a narrative trope, but stands for The Knowledge Whose Meaning Is Just Out of Grasp. In a way it's sort of crystalizing the narrative process which is driven by What Happens Next. The prophecy is sort of the plot development just over the horizon.
Ginger - Aug 05, 2011 5:02:12 pm PDT #15864 of 28293
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Terrance Rafferty, who does a terrible job of writing about sf in the NY Times, writes about the state of zombie literature [link] I don't think he read the right books, which is par for the course.
Also, everyone knows zombies arose in response to Fox News.
Gris - Aug 06, 2011 4:48:12 am PDT #15865 of 28293
Hey. New board.
My friend's book is in that! That being The Reapers are the Angels.
zuisa - Aug 06, 2011 12:03:21 pm PDT #15866 of 28293
call me jacki; zuisa is an internet nick from ancient times =)
Before I went to go work on the ship, my friend gave me her copy of A Soldier of the Great War to borrow, as I'd liked Winter's Tale so much. I didn't have a lot of time to read on the ship, and it was a LOT of book to get through, so it didn't become a top priority.
I finally finished it! I didn't love it quite as much as I loved Winter's Tale, but wow, Mark Helprin can certainly tell a story.
Has anyone else read it?
Volans - Aug 08, 2011 5:09:37 am PDT #15867 of 28293
move out and draw fire
Also, everyone knows zombies arose in response to Fox News.
I hadn't really thought about it like that, but you're right!
sumi - Aug 08, 2011 1:13:19 pm PDT #15868 of 28293
Art Crawl!!!
Real life places that inspired literary classics.
Steph L. - Aug 08, 2011 1:17:46 pm PDT #15869 of 28293
I look more rad than Lutheranism
That's cool! I admit, though, that I was hoping for a real-life Manderley.
Polter-Cow - Aug 08, 2011 1:25:36 pm PDT #15870 of 28293
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Wow, the end of OOTP is such a clusterfuck. It's like ten pages of Dumbledore saying HOLY SHIT I FUCKED UP I'M SORRY DUDE.