Avoidance

imitationeuropean:

I interrupt this blog for a moment of outrage.

Okay, maybe “outrage” is too strong a word, but when I saw the title of this New York Times opinion piece—“Adults Should Read Adult Books”—my first reaction was something like this. It’s no secret that I love young…

Yeah so anyways, I ended up commenting on this piece (in response to a comment which said “I’m sure this will be seen as elitist, but I think what makes people read children’s books is the same thing that makes them read Dan Brown, Dean Koontz and other really “popular” authors who write substandard fiction - laziness.”)  Here’s what I said (but do read the extensive and awesome criticism in the reblogged post).

This comment highlights precisely what is wrong with the above piece.  There is a difference between “bad” culture and “young-adult oriented” culture (let alone child-oriented culture).  Bad writing is bad writing, no matter for what age group - so what does the target audience matter?  Comparing Twilight to Harry Potter, or The His Dark Materials trilogy, or even the Chronicles of Narnia is just as bad as comparing The Da Vinci code to Sherlock Holmes. 

When I was growing up I was encouraged to read books that were well written and at my personal reading level - not just books that were written for my age group. 14 year-olds aren’t idiots, and even if they’re less interested in abstract or existential though (which I actually doubt), their reading level isn’t that much lower than yours - so what differentiates between bad young person literature and bad adult lit other than marketing?  Not much.

What differentiates well-written YA literature and adult literature?  Complex characters, themes and plots can exist in both, and they can be absent in both.  Jane Austen isn’t very metaphorical or metaphysical.  Boccaccio’s The Decameron is largely void of complex shades of good and evil.  Kazuo Ishiguro’s prose lacks brightness and momentum.  In contrast, Faulkner, Tolstoy and Shakespeare can be metaphysical, morally ambiguous and energetic. But so can authors who write YA books (Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, Garth Nix, Suzanne Collins, and Lemony Snicket, to name a few).

Also, to be honest, I felt like there was a lot of fantasy-hate in this article.  Liiiiike soooooo sorry you see fantasy as juvenile, asshole. :/

People I would like to see Punk’d (now that MTV has a new series):

1. Kanye West
2. Cee-Lo
3. Jon Hamm
4. Emma Watson
5. KANYE WEST
6. Robert Pattinson
7. Patricia Clarkson
8. James Franco
9. Aubrey Plaza
10. KANYE WEST

I recognize this is a highly improbable, almost impossible, list.  I just really want to see how these people act in real life.

Parenthood (the tv show) is so good and realistic (in its structure and acting etc) but it is so stressful I hate it.

malingos:

maiathebee:

Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - The New York Times Magazine

I mean like

I get where this shit is coming from

but to say that English is somehow a less sexist language simply because it is less EXPLICITLY gendered is 100% bullshit

This article at no point in time mentions sexism, at all.  It only talks about how gendered languages have specific rules requiring consideration of gender, and how that can illustrate the relationship between culture and language.  I chose that excerpt because I thought it was interesting how that could have implications on how one would de-gender language.  I’m not a linguist, so I don’t know a lot about this, but generally I would think it could much easier, if rarely actually done, to avoid gender implications in English (like, how you would give gender-neutral pronouns to an androgynous/transgender/any person if you were speaking French?).  In any case, it highlights how gendering functions differently in differently languages and the ties between language and outlook, even if you consider all languages effectively gendered.  It may be a limited generalization but I don’t think it’s bullshit, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the author developed/discussed these ideas more in depth in his (obviously lengthier) book. 

One of these days I will write a short essay on Jane Austen and/or Pride & Prejudice adaptations, because I have an excess of opinions about them and no one to listen but the internet.  For today, I’ll just talk about how I finally saw the 1940 adaptation all the way through, and I actually didn’t hate it. (there are spoilers)

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tk-the-tiger:

Top 3 moments - Disney Renaissance // POCAHONTAS

Every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name.

The character design for Pocahontas is probably my favorite of the Disney “princesses,”  followed closely by Snow White.  Pocahontas is beautiful, realistic (without being awkwardly animated), and still very interesting and distinctive.  The character design in Pocahontas (overall) is quite awesome.

I went to go see Thor yesterday, so here are some quick thoughts:

Things that worked against the movie:

1. The first 10/20 minutes, which felt pointless and boring and not like a proper superhero movie crescendo.

2. A (sort-of) villain who was 918391283949x more charismatic than the hero.

3. A hero whose character development relied strongly on a weakly developed romance.

antifemfemme:

I get it, you all think you’re hot shit. Whatever. But you can’t force me to find you attractive. I’ve been looking at all your blogs, and frankly, don’t flatter yourself. So far I haven’t found a single one of you attractive.

Seriously, y’all are gonna get butthurt because I have personal…

I’ll just take this moment to say, as a general statement not really related to this, that:  will everyone on tumblr with ~opinions stop being mad at other people for having ~opinions about said ~opinions?  People have just as much right to call you out for being a dick as you have the right to be dick.  Don’t troll if you don’t like it when you get hate. Not that I expect a NegativityTumblr to take a chill pill, but whatevaaaaaaaaa

Doctor Who thoughts 

Ok, so I need to get out these confusions/theories and then my Doctor Who reblogs will considerably decrease.  Probably. Maybe.  Who knows… anyways.  If you know things about Doctor Who and are so inclined, please read on and tell me if I’ve gone mad and don’t understand canon or something (because GASP I have not seen every episode evar, whatever)

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[My thoughts on Scream 4 - NO spoilers] I saw this last night and it was better than I thought it would be.  I mean, it wasn’t perfect, but it was really amazing (and since I’ve seen all the other 3, it was decidedly more predictable and less scary - not necessarily the ending, just most of the kills).  All of my friends loved the beginning, which was good but not my favorite part (although I love Kristen Bell).  I enjoyed that it took me until the end to absolutely love/believe it (Emma Roberts had a lot to do with that and there’s a scene that involves a broken mirror in which she convinced me that this movie was awesome).  Also Neve Campbell, as always, is fucking perfect.  Surprise(!), though, I fucking loved Hayden Panettiere/her character… Like, if she had been the only person to live and then carried the franchise on her own I might have been ok with it.  Also, Rory Culkin is adorable can he please be in more films kthnx.

(Source: undeadcritic)

My Top Ten Tumblrs: 

1. // landlessness - for its beautiful things
2. Chitwood & Hobbs - on how to make sports interesting
3. The Atlantic - the best of eclectic news
4. Kelsey // disparity - future vanity fair editor, yo
5. // charethcutestory - for excellent taste in television and otherwise
6. That’s What She Said - an enriching watering hole of rare quotations
7. // mmorrow - on how to extensively and impressively cap period pieces
8. Old Book Illustrations - to illustrate why I love pen and ink
9. Marya // oldfilmsflicker - for unfailingly perfect film coverage, old and new
10. // ladyballs- - for much snl-related gloriousness

Additionally Moddellove, Championhitler, Washington Post Style, NPR Fresh Air and Cations.