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dangermousieAnyone know any delightful, juicy Veronica Mars spoilers? Please? Also, I've missed a week and a half worth of entries which is way too many for me ever to catch up. So if there is anything you think I'll especially like, please point me :)
Just realized that Battlestar Galactica starts this friday. I am afraid I squealed when I saw that. Bought the 2.0 DVDs and delighted with the abundance of podcasts and deleted scenes (though mysteriously none for Pegasus). Fun thing was, ended up talking about BSG at the checkout line both with the clerk (who told me he preferred Trek) and the guy in front of me who said he loved Six (heee) and was thinking of becoming a professional wrestler. Yeah.
Quite interesting. And so many of them. My favorites were:
1. Dee and Lee's kickboxing match. They do have good chemistry and I love how Dee is so clearly flustered by Lee's proximity (who wouldn't be) while he is much less so. I could definitely see the potential of Lee/Dee despite my K/L tendencies. She is so overwhelmingly sane and he needs someone like her, while I could see her being attracted to him because I think she understands what wavelength he is on, and admires him for the qualities he actually possesses as opposed to loving him despite them (Adama) or regardless of them (Kara). So yeah, count me in as interested in L/D, though I can't see any relationship for Lee achieving the same levels of glorious complexity as whatever he has with Kara due to their inescapable, messy shared history. Any woman who gets Lee and is not Kara better learn to share. Ooooh, idea for a fic.
2. Kara's nightmare in the Cylon infirmary with Anders grabbing her and telling her he wants his baby. Yes, she is definitely no mother and I thought this illustrated her phobias nicely.
3. Kara knocking over the votive candles and then painstakingly righting them again. And Kara praying to the deities.
4. Billy (who I fear is not long for this world) is an atheist. This so much fits and explains why he is willing to do what he is willing to do and not more, not less.
5. Baltar snarking to Six when Adama is back on his feet and how pleased she is when he differentiates between "us" (6 and him) and "them" (everyone else). The man really reminds me of Smeagol.
6. Adama and Apollo having that halting conversation on Kobol. And Kara coming up with the joke about "support group for insubordinate officers" and both of them grin. Kara is the glue that holds Adamas together.
7. Despite the bad make-up, Tigh and Adama reminescing about the first Cylon War in flashback.
8. Meyer and Zarek talking, Seriously, OTP.
9. Chief picking up the phone to talk to Sharon. And her telling him it's because he is ashamed he still loved "her" (i.e. the Other Sharon). And him hanging up.
10. Chief's interaction and break-down with Cally. "This I understand." How much do I love Tyrol.
I also saw the 4+ minute preview of second half. I was especially intrigued by Sharon's comments to Adama about whether mankind ever thought why it deserved to survive and maybe it didn't. What (besides the attempted rape) made her so uncompromisingly open and bleak? Seeing her try to break the glass in the cell also has me worried for my favorite Cylon. Then there is Gina who wants to die. Horrifying. And Lee, Lee who clearly almost dies. Starbuck telling Cain she almost always gets what she wants while that is so bitterly untrue (she thinks she is such a fuck up) and it's clear she knows it by the look on her face. Adama being so tender with Roslin. I can't wait.
I am reading The Secret History of Pink Carnation, a novel that is a take-tribute to both The Scarlet Pimpernel and Georgette Heyer. It's not nearly as good as either, but it's not a bad read. The framing story has a grad student researching the mysterious fighter of the French during Napoleonic era known as "The Pink Carnation" whose identity has never been revealed by going through papers of Lord Richard Selwick, a successor to the retired Pimpernel, known as the Purple Gentian. The real story of the novel is of course the story of the Purple Gentian, his spying activities and his interest in one Amy Belcourt (who has a severe obsession with Purple Gentian but isn't much interested in Lord Richard) and other various romps. Yes, we do learn the Pink Carnation's identity.
By reading the book you can tell the author (Laura Willig) has read her Heyer as there are slight touches of Heyer-aspiration throughut (including a secondary character having grey eyes, so beloved of Heyer). She seems to be going for a touch of Sylvester and Phoebe of Heyer's beyond delightful Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle with a little bit of Richard and Pen from The Corinthian or maybe even Horry and Marcus of A Convenient Marriage (the twist is of course that ACC owes a debt to Pimpernel). But alas, she isn't as sharp a writer as Heyer, and while I like Richard, Amy, and a bunch of secondary characters very well, they are no Heyer couples I mentioned, all wit and sense of ridiculous and a certain upperclass unconscious arrogance. Especially with someone like Miss Gwen, I think Willig tried too hard.
There is also a touch of Elizabeth Peters as she tries to make Lord Richard a bit Ramsesian. The scene with Amy and Richard's mother rescuing Richard from a wannabe torture scene definitely remind me of Nefret and Amelia coming to Ramses' rescue in He Shall Thunder in the Sky, but while Ramses really comes across as high-strung intellectual firmly controlling his emotions to the point it's unhealthy and who is greatly competent as a spy, Richard doesn't really do nearly as much for me. Plus, Nefret and Ramses finally making up after 4(!!!) books is one of my favorite Amelia Peabody series scenes ever, and nothing Amy and Richard do inspired the same level of interest.
I think where she differs most from Heyer is that Heyer's strength was to create an utterly vivid real world universe of its own, somewhat alien to us with its complicated rules, and maybe not reality but a complete world nontheless. Willig doesn't have that. Nor does she have the painstaking attention to detail. She mentions Keats and Wordworth way too early, she makes a big deal of a 5 year old boy being in petticoats (come on, clothes were the same for infants of both genders, no big deal) and considering she is writing in a world where Pimpernel is real, she makes the mistake of having him retire on having his identity discovered, unlike in the Orczy books, where he retires only after the end of the Revolution, because his interest is in saving innocents and not spying or similar.
Of course, the biggest difference from the Orczy book is the sense of overwhelming frustrated passion. When I first stumbled on the book as a teenager of 14, I loved the clever escapes and the description of society but that is not what captured me. It was Sir Percy and Marguerite's dysfunctional marriage that grabbed me. When you are 14 and you read a scene where a man is cold and unyielding to a woman and won't let his walls down but when she leaves he kisses the ballustrade on which her hand rested because he cannot control his anguished passion any more, it is strong stuff. Strong men brought low by love is hot stuff. So are men who can't stop loving even if they don't trust. There is a reason I was never able to dislike the truly hideous name of Percy ever since.
I have seen a number of Pimpernel adaptations. At one point I was crazy for the Broadway play with Douglas Sills. I really hated the Richard E. Grant version which had nothing in common with the story but the name (and Grant dashing? In another life perhaps). My favorite is the 1982 adaptation with Anthony Andrews (who was totally brilliant as the charming, gay, doomed Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited) as the perfect Pimpernel with his mix of affectation, idealism and passion, Jane Seymour beautiful as head-strong Marguerite who is so confused by her husband and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin, Pimpy's nemesis. I especially love the wedding and reception scene, where Percy sees all his love and hopes and trust fall apart and has to keep dancing and smiling with unconscious of it all Marguerite. And the scene with Percy and Marguerite in the jail where they finally fall into each other's arms (the movie mashes together two Pimpernel novels).
I also like the 1930s version with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. Leslie Howard has all the intellectuallism and athletic elegance and the veneer of artificiality and Merle is surreally beautiful. People who've only seen Howard as Ashley in Gone With The Wind and don't get why he was a big deal in 1930s should watch him in this, and in Pygmalion where he made a brilliant Higgins and in The Petrified Forest where he plays an intellectual ennui-d with life who falls for the lonely, deprived waitress played by Bette Davis. Interestingly enough, this Scarlet Pimpernel version was the favorite movie of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis in a number of hair-raising and dangerous operations. Unfortunately, Raoul's ending wasn't nowhere as happy as Sir Percy's. He managed to survive uncaught and unmasked by the Nazis only to be captured by the Soviets who took him probably because they didn't know who he was. Of course, once caught, he couldn't be let go and efforts by international community and the Jews he rescued to locate him were unsuccessful. He died in the Soviet labor camps which is truly horrible.
Just realized that Battlestar Galactica starts this friday. I am afraid I squealed when I saw that. Bought the 2.0 DVDs and delighted with the abundance of podcasts and deleted scenes (though mysteriously none for Pegasus). Fun thing was, ended up talking about BSG at the checkout line both with the clerk (who told me he preferred Trek) and the guy in front of me who said he loved Six (heee) and was thinking of becoming a professional wrestler. Yeah.
Quite interesting. And so many of them. My favorites were:
1. Dee and Lee's kickboxing match. They do have good chemistry and I love how Dee is so clearly flustered by Lee's proximity (who wouldn't be) while he is much less so. I could definitely see the potential of Lee/Dee despite my K/L tendencies. She is so overwhelmingly sane and he needs someone like her, while I could see her being attracted to him because I think she understands what wavelength he is on, and admires him for the qualities he actually possesses as opposed to loving him despite them (Adama) or regardless of them (Kara). So yeah, count me in as interested in L/D, though I can't see any relationship for Lee achieving the same levels of glorious complexity as whatever he has with Kara due to their inescapable, messy shared history. Any woman who gets Lee and is not Kara better learn to share. Ooooh, idea for a fic.
2. Kara's nightmare in the Cylon infirmary with Anders grabbing her and telling her he wants his baby. Yes, she is definitely no mother and I thought this illustrated her phobias nicely.
3. Kara knocking over the votive candles and then painstakingly righting them again. And Kara praying to the deities.
4. Billy (who I fear is not long for this world) is an atheist. This so much fits and explains why he is willing to do what he is willing to do and not more, not less.
5. Baltar snarking to Six when Adama is back on his feet and how pleased she is when he differentiates between "us" (6 and him) and "them" (everyone else). The man really reminds me of Smeagol.
6. Adama and Apollo having that halting conversation on Kobol. And Kara coming up with the joke about "support group for insubordinate officers" and both of them grin. Kara is the glue that holds Adamas together.
7. Despite the bad make-up, Tigh and Adama reminescing about the first Cylon War in flashback.
8. Meyer and Zarek talking, Seriously, OTP.
9. Chief picking up the phone to talk to Sharon. And her telling him it's because he is ashamed he still loved "her" (i.e. the Other Sharon). And him hanging up.
10. Chief's interaction and break-down with Cally. "This I understand." How much do I love Tyrol.
I also saw the 4+ minute preview of second half. I was especially intrigued by Sharon's comments to Adama about whether mankind ever thought why it deserved to survive and maybe it didn't. What (besides the attempted rape) made her so uncompromisingly open and bleak? Seeing her try to break the glass in the cell also has me worried for my favorite Cylon. Then there is Gina who wants to die. Horrifying. And Lee, Lee who clearly almost dies. Starbuck telling Cain she almost always gets what she wants while that is so bitterly untrue (she thinks she is such a fuck up) and it's clear she knows it by the look on her face. Adama being so tender with Roslin. I can't wait.
I am reading The Secret History of Pink Carnation, a novel that is a take-tribute to both The Scarlet Pimpernel and Georgette Heyer. It's not nearly as good as either, but it's not a bad read. The framing story has a grad student researching the mysterious fighter of the French during Napoleonic era known as "The Pink Carnation" whose identity has never been revealed by going through papers of Lord Richard Selwick, a successor to the retired Pimpernel, known as the Purple Gentian. The real story of the novel is of course the story of the Purple Gentian, his spying activities and his interest in one Amy Belcourt (who has a severe obsession with Purple Gentian but isn't much interested in Lord Richard) and other various romps. Yes, we do learn the Pink Carnation's identity.
By reading the book you can tell the author (Laura Willig) has read her Heyer as there are slight touches of Heyer-aspiration throughut (including a secondary character having grey eyes, so beloved of Heyer). She seems to be going for a touch of Sylvester and Phoebe of Heyer's beyond delightful Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle with a little bit of Richard and Pen from The Corinthian or maybe even Horry and Marcus of A Convenient Marriage (the twist is of course that ACC owes a debt to Pimpernel). But alas, she isn't as sharp a writer as Heyer, and while I like Richard, Amy, and a bunch of secondary characters very well, they are no Heyer couples I mentioned, all wit and sense of ridiculous and a certain upperclass unconscious arrogance. Especially with someone like Miss Gwen, I think Willig tried too hard.
There is also a touch of Elizabeth Peters as she tries to make Lord Richard a bit Ramsesian. The scene with Amy and Richard's mother rescuing Richard from a wannabe torture scene definitely remind me of Nefret and Amelia coming to Ramses' rescue in He Shall Thunder in the Sky, but while Ramses really comes across as high-strung intellectual firmly controlling his emotions to the point it's unhealthy and who is greatly competent as a spy, Richard doesn't really do nearly as much for me. Plus, Nefret and Ramses finally making up after 4(!!!) books is one of my favorite Amelia Peabody series scenes ever, and nothing Amy and Richard do inspired the same level of interest.
I think where she differs most from Heyer is that Heyer's strength was to create an utterly vivid real world universe of its own, somewhat alien to us with its complicated rules, and maybe not reality but a complete world nontheless. Willig doesn't have that. Nor does she have the painstaking attention to detail. She mentions Keats and Wordworth way too early, she makes a big deal of a 5 year old boy being in petticoats (come on, clothes were the same for infants of both genders, no big deal) and considering she is writing in a world where Pimpernel is real, she makes the mistake of having him retire on having his identity discovered, unlike in the Orczy books, where he retires only after the end of the Revolution, because his interest is in saving innocents and not spying or similar.
Of course, the biggest difference from the Orczy book is the sense of overwhelming frustrated passion. When I first stumbled on the book as a teenager of 14, I loved the clever escapes and the description of society but that is not what captured me. It was Sir Percy and Marguerite's dysfunctional marriage that grabbed me. When you are 14 and you read a scene where a man is cold and unyielding to a woman and won't let his walls down but when she leaves he kisses the ballustrade on which her hand rested because he cannot control his anguished passion any more, it is strong stuff. Strong men brought low by love is hot stuff. So are men who can't stop loving even if they don't trust. There is a reason I was never able to dislike the truly hideous name of Percy ever since.
I have seen a number of Pimpernel adaptations. At one point I was crazy for the Broadway play with Douglas Sills. I really hated the Richard E. Grant version which had nothing in common with the story but the name (and Grant dashing? In another life perhaps). My favorite is the 1982 adaptation with Anthony Andrews (who was totally brilliant as the charming, gay, doomed Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited) as the perfect Pimpernel with his mix of affectation, idealism and passion, Jane Seymour beautiful as head-strong Marguerite who is so confused by her husband and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin, Pimpy's nemesis. I especially love the wedding and reception scene, where Percy sees all his love and hopes and trust fall apart and has to keep dancing and smiling with unconscious of it all Marguerite. And the scene with Percy and Marguerite in the jail where they finally fall into each other's arms (the movie mashes together two Pimpernel novels).
I also like the 1930s version with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. Leslie Howard has all the intellectuallism and athletic elegance and the veneer of artificiality and Merle is surreally beautiful. People who've only seen Howard as Ashley in Gone With The Wind and don't get why he was a big deal in 1930s should watch him in this, and in Pygmalion where he made a brilliant Higgins and in The Petrified Forest where he plays an intellectual ennui-d with life who falls for the lonely, deprived waitress played by Bette Davis. Interestingly enough, this Scarlet Pimpernel version was the favorite movie of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis in a number of hair-raising and dangerous operations. Unfortunately, Raoul's ending wasn't nowhere as happy as Sir Percy's. He managed to survive uncaught and unmasked by the Nazis only to be captured by the Soviets who took him probably because they didn't know who he was. Of course, once caught, he couldn't be let go and efforts by international community and the Jews he rescued to locate him were unsuccessful. He died in the Soviet labor camps which is truly horrible.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 07:45 pm (UTC)I'll have to check out that book though. I wasn't a fan of the A&E version of SP because the actors were just so wrong for the parts. The Jane Seymour version is the best I've seen yet, though I can't understand why no one has optioned a big screen version of the movie, seeing as how it works really well for that. Who would I cast for Percy? I haven't a clue, as he's a really hard part to envision a lot of people being perfect for. I think Adrien Brody would be a perfect Chauvlin though.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 09:32 pm (UTC)So do I. Have you ever read Lymond Chronicles? You might like.
actors were just so wrong for the parts.
Oh yes, yes, yes. I like Richard E. Grant but he was just so wrong for Percy. And whoever played Marguerite was even worse cast.
I can't understand why no one has optioned a big screen version of the movie, seeing as how it works really well for that.
Not since the 1930s at least, which is a shame. Hmmmm, now I am thinking of who will make a good Percy. Actually, I can see a Bollywood version easier than a Hollywood one.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 10:19 pm (UTC)Marguerite was HORRIBLY cast in the A&E version. She was too old, looked wrong, was too spunky and commanding, and couldn't convey any of the romantic angst she needed to. Marguerite needed to very pretty, late 20s, and brave yet not so much that she was really competent in any of the physical settings she was put in. If she were a little older I'd say Natalie Portman.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 10:23 pm (UTC)Yes he does. At least in my head. He is blond and blue eyed, has a certain icy elegance and sarcasm and high-strung emotions firmly in check. Yum.
If she were a little older I'd say Natalie Portman.
Yes, I think NP would be right if she were older. The same kind of dark beauty. The A&E Marguerite made me want to drown her.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 11:42 pm (UTC)Hmmmm, I really should watch BSG I think what with how half of my flist is all about it.
Erm, I've kind of spammed my journal since I got back but the part that might interest you is that I started posting my Inara fic (http://www.livejournal.com/users/femmenerd/38950.html#cutid1) and there's a Mal POV outtake from it here. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/femmenerd/38580.html#cutid1)
::is embarrassed about the self-pimp::
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Date: 2006-01-03 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
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