Oh won't you tell me how to get, how to get to Something-or-other st?
Heh. Discussion about superhero movies cropped up on yesterday's entry after Seraph said he didn't like Hellboy. Some interesting stuff, but I think I mostly agree with Jarratt, all superhero movies are not the same, and should not be considered in the same way. Of course, that might not be what he meant when I think about it. I just know that he and I are about the only people who liked The Hulk so I'll stick with that.
Today is sunny and yesterday was warm and I think spring might actually be on the way. It wasn't pitch black when I drove home last night, I think the days might be getting longer again. Hooray!
I am getting to the end of my Civ3 game. I think I will win by score, as no matter how much I bribe the Mayans they hate me, so I can't win by diplomacy. Also the Vikings dislike me cause of that war I had with them where I took five of their cities and heaps of slave workers. Yeah. I wanna finish the game but I won't get a chance tonight since my gaming Boyz are coming around.
I am really enjoying Speaker for the Dead. I think it's a really good extrapolation from Ender's Game. I mean progression not extrapolation, really. Anyway. It's cool. I like the way the most important things in the story are the people and the relationships and the mysteries, not the cool science. I especially like the bit where Ender does some faster-than-light travel and they explain it by saying that nobody knows how it works.
Awesome.
The thing that normally turns me off sci-fi is the excessive descriptions of made-up-science which is both boring and wanky. I can't cope with the Anne Maccaffrey dragon books for a similar reason: far too much time spent describing how the Pern society works and the politics and everything. I can understand why she writes it. (She made up a whole world and it's neat that she figured out all this stuff about it.) I can also understand why that would appeal to a bunch of people. (We think Pern is neat and we want to live there.) But for me it's annoying and self-indulgent writing. I'd rather read something with a good story.
OK, I know I'm being harsh but the one Pern book I read really pissed me off. *shudders at the thought*.
J.K. Rowling invented a whole world and society that has heaps of detail but she doesn't waffle on and on about it. You get hints of the level of detail through what people say and especially scenes like Harry visiting the ministry of magic. You can see that there's other things going on but nothing is said that doesn't need to be for the story.
Phew.
Ok, please don't scream at me if you're an Anne Maccaffrey fan. This is just how *I* feel. It doesn't really mean anything.
Posted by jenni at August 10, 2004 01:48 PM