![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Jul. 11th, 2005 10:11 pm
i must bitch, and i must rave
Fantastic Four annoyed me. How are these people superheroes? Bleh. They don't even *save* anyone!
30 Days - Straight Guy living in the Gay, Gay, GAY Castro district - I wanted to whack Straight Guy over the head with a brick; he was so stupid. Do you tell everyone you meet that you think they're the equivalent of murderers, but hey, as long as you don't touch me, it's ok? Especially veterans? Ugh. To his credit, he did wise up a little, but not until Day 29.
I've been following the forums a little over this show, and while most people are able to have rational discussions (I am incapable of having rational discussions about intolerant people, so I don't participate), I find the whining by the red-state, conservative contingent really, really aggravating. "Why don't they do a show where they send an atheist/liberal/leftist [apparently all these are interchangeable] to live with a conservative Christian?" Because they DO IT EVERY DAMN DAY! "I think Morgan Spurlock has an agenda! He's trying to impose his view on me! He thinks all red-staters are ignorant, backwards hicks!" Um, Morgan is FROM WEST VIRGINIA! If anything, I think he's way too nice, especially to people like Fred Phelps. Boohoo, he's trying to convince you to be more tolerant. You want to be stupid, watch Fox.
Anyway, I'm done ranting.
I just finished His Dark Materials, the trilogy by Philip Pullman. These books blew me away, like no other book has done in years. He rewrote Paradise Lost! (And by default, the story of Genesis.) I love these books, and am surprised that they haven't been banned yet, considering how much fuss has been made over Harry Potter and witchcraft. (J.K. Rowling, you wish you wrote like Pullman.) These books are like crack - I couldn't put them down, even at work, because I absolutely had to know how it ended. I described it to people as kind of like an "atheist Narnia", but that's not really true. It has other worlds, and it deals with faith, and the possibility of a vulnerable God (hmm...maybe I can somehow tie this to my reading Killing the Buddha, but I am not writing a paper, so whatever) who can be killed. I loved the protagonists - headstrong Lyra and the determined Will, and the premise of the books shocked me, because it turned Paradise Lost upside-down and made "God", or "the Authority" the bad guy, but then, I couldn't tell, and the protagonists couldn't tell who was "good" or "evil" for most of the books. These books contained some of the richest and most complex characters I'd come across in years.
Other good things include: really exciting fights, a great quest story, gay(!) angels, Mrs. Coulter (one of the best-written female characters, who you can never figure out), interesting world-building, and the religious stuff is very, very convincing.
The books are aimed at a young adult audience, and it makes me wonder whether the kids will *get it*, or have everything fly over their heads. I actually read the Chronicles of Narnia a while back, and really liked it, but I don't think I love it. The last book - I wish I could pretend didn't exist, because why am I supposed to feel glad that they all died?
Anyway, I'll try to find some stuff tomorrow to link to; it's time to sleep for me.
30 Days - Straight Guy living in the Gay, Gay, GAY Castro district - I wanted to whack Straight Guy over the head with a brick; he was so stupid. Do you tell everyone you meet that you think they're the equivalent of murderers, but hey, as long as you don't touch me, it's ok? Especially veterans? Ugh. To his credit, he did wise up a little, but not until Day 29.
I've been following the forums a little over this show, and while most people are able to have rational discussions (I am incapable of having rational discussions about intolerant people, so I don't participate), I find the whining by the red-state, conservative contingent really, really aggravating. "Why don't they do a show where they send an atheist/liberal/leftist [apparently all these are interchangeable] to live with a conservative Christian?" Because they DO IT EVERY DAMN DAY! "I think Morgan Spurlock has an agenda! He's trying to impose his view on me! He thinks all red-staters are ignorant, backwards hicks!" Um, Morgan is FROM WEST VIRGINIA! If anything, I think he's way too nice, especially to people like Fred Phelps. Boohoo, he's trying to convince you to be more tolerant. You want to be stupid, watch Fox.
Anyway, I'm done ranting.
I just finished His Dark Materials, the trilogy by Philip Pullman. These books blew me away, like no other book has done in years. He rewrote Paradise Lost! (And by default, the story of Genesis.) I love these books, and am surprised that they haven't been banned yet, considering how much fuss has been made over Harry Potter and witchcraft. (J.K. Rowling, you wish you wrote like Pullman.) These books are like crack - I couldn't put them down, even at work, because I absolutely had to know how it ended. I described it to people as kind of like an "atheist Narnia", but that's not really true. It has other worlds, and it deals with faith, and the possibility of a vulnerable God (hmm...maybe I can somehow tie this to my reading Killing the Buddha, but I am not writing a paper, so whatever) who can be killed. I loved the protagonists - headstrong Lyra and the determined Will, and the premise of the books shocked me, because it turned Paradise Lost upside-down and made "God", or "the Authority" the bad guy, but then, I couldn't tell, and the protagonists couldn't tell who was "good" or "evil" for most of the books. These books contained some of the richest and most complex characters I'd come across in years.
Other good things include: really exciting fights, a great quest story, gay(!) angels, Mrs. Coulter (one of the best-written female characters, who you can never figure out), interesting world-building, and the religious stuff is very, very convincing.
The books are aimed at a young adult audience, and it makes me wonder whether the kids will *get it*, or have everything fly over their heads. I actually read the Chronicles of Narnia a while back, and really liked it, but I don't think I love it. The last book - I wish I could pretend didn't exist, because why am I supposed to feel glad that they all died?
Anyway, I'll try to find some stuff tomorrow to link to; it's time to sleep for me.
Tags: