The Bog of Lost Scholars

25 February 2007

Brief Praise of a Good Movie, and Long Rant on a Bad One

Filed under: Film and Media — Castiron @ 13:10

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yes, I’m slow about getting around to seeing movies, even movies that all my friends say are fabulous. The cheap DVD in Target finally convinced me, and I’m glad I did. The movie is gorgeous; the actors are subtle and powerful; the fight scenes are delightfully over-the-top; it’s a tragedy that Sophocles would be proud of. And it has strong women with swords. I loved it.

Alas, I can’t say the same for the Alfonso Cuaron version of A Little Princess, which I bought because it was in a bargain set with The Secret Garden.

(Spoilers ahoy!)

Of course there are always changes that a filmmaker has to make when converting a book to a movie. And sometimes there are changes that the filmmaker makes for artistic reasons, to make us see the story from a different angle or to explain a character’s behavior in a way that the book glosses over, or to make it easier for a modern audience to understand the characters’ actions. When these work, they add greatly to the viewer’s appreciation of the original text; for example, Ang Lee’s version of Sense and Sensibility made me really believe that Marianne could ultimately be happy with Colonel Brandon, in a way that the book didn’t.

But after a certain point, the story’s so changed that it might as well lose the name of the original book.

I can somewhat buy setting A Little Princess in WWI instead of twenty to forty years earlier. I can buy putting Miss Minchin’s school in NYC rather than London. Portraying Becky as a black servant rather than as a lower-class white servant is easier for an American audience to understand quickly; we don’t grok the British class system, but we grok race.

But damn it, CAPTAIN CREWE DIES IN THE BOOK.

I wouldn’t be half as annoyed with this movie if the neighbor’s son had survived while attempting to rescue Captain Crewe, and Crewe had asked him with his dying breath to look after his little girl. That would at least have been true to the spirit of the book, even if not quite what happened. But to have Captain Crewe survive amnesiac? Some kid is going to be very shocked when they read the real thing.

Folks, children may not be orphaned as often today as they were a hundred years ago, but it still happens, especially to kids of soldiers. Might as well be honest about that fact in a movie.

Also, I found Sara’s behavior in the movie decidedly less princess-like than in the book. That bit with the soot? Nope. That “curse” on Lavinia? Nope. Sara Crewe in the book was the master of Miss Manners’ dictum that the best revenge is to act like your foe’s deeds had no effect on you. Sara in the movie doesn’t nearly meet that standard.

Fortunately I didn’t spend good money on this movie. I bought this DVD for The Secret Garden on the flip side, which still has its flaws but is overall true to the book. A Little Princess was just added baggage that I can ignore.

19 February 2007

Process vs. Product

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 19:47

The question of “process vs. product” comes up regularly on knitting blogs, most recently on Wendy Knits in her article Speed Kills. (As an aside, I’ve never especially worried about my knitting speed. Mine is just right, as far as I’m concerned; as for the speed at which I finish projects, I’m well aware that it’s a matter of how often I have needles in hand, rather than how quickly I make stitches.)

Of course, most people are motivated by both. There are, I suspect, very few pure process knitters, who are happy just knitting random shapes to see what the yarn will do and who don’t care if they get something useable out of it. There are likely also very few pure product knitters, grinding through because they want that hand-knitted sweater or shawl even though they don’t necessarily care for the process. Usually, however, one or the other predominates. If you actually enjoy swatching, you’re probably a process knitter. If you frequently make small projects or items with bulky yarn so you can finish faster, you’re probably a product knitter.

In knitting, I’m pretty balanced between the two, falling slightly on the product side. I love knitting; I find it endlessly entertaining to watch yarn turn into fabric, to see a sock or sweater appear on the needles, to watch colors or patterns take their places. But I’m not just doing it for the sake of knitting; I’m doing it so I can have the pleasure of the process AND a specific item when I’m done.

With other crafts, though, the balance changes. When it comes to sewing or quilting, I’m extremely product-oriented. I don’t enjoy sewing nearly as much as I enjoy knitting; I’m sewing because I want a unique or better-fitting garment, or because I want a beautiful and colorful quilt from fabrics that mean something to me. Cross-stitch and needlepoint also lean toward product — I enjoy seeing the pattern emerge from x’s of random colors, but I started the project because I love the image and want to hang it up in my house. (This is probably one reason I’m stalled on the crane needlepoint — I’m not enthused about having it on my wall, so I can’t get the oomph to do those last few stitches.)

Bobbin lace, on the other hand, is very much a process craft. I have no need for lace, but I find it extremely satisfying to flick the bobbins around. I’ll steal fifteen minutes out of my day to stand in front of my bobbin lace pillow and work an inch; I won’t do the same for sewing unless I really need the results.

Current process:

  • Some progress on the bobbin lace piece.
  • Finished the knitting on the Sparkles shawl; halfway through the fringe knotting and trying to figure out where I got off by one stitch in unravelling the fringe.
  • Cuffs are done on my son’s mittens.
  • Up to the ribbing on the Bearfoot socks; still not sure I like short-row heels, but we’ll see.
  • Slight progress on the Aran sleeves.
  • A couple rows on the Mesa shawl; need to fix a glitch.
  • A few stitches on the Fantasy sampler.
  • Started a pair of socks from Knit Picks Dancing, color Square Dance.
  • Started a tank from Katia Irina.

14 February 2007

A Cheesy Poem

Filed under: Publishing and Writing — Castiron @ 01:10

In Response to Omar

Perhaps some chips and salsa, not the bread;
Unless they’ve made a fresh batch at the store,
and if the butter’s soft enough to spread.
Some chicken wrapped in corn tortillas, or
Some fries, some cheese, a bowl of soup;
A piece of toast. A salad would suffice;
Or I could cook some of that ugly goop
from greens and peanut butter. Water, ice;
A glass of beer — the good stuff, not the lite;
Perhaps agave lime beer for a change;
Or cola, tea, or even, red or white,
That wine; a common meal, or one that’s strange:

I’ll take whatever’s on the table now –
But always thou, and thou, and ever thou.

13 February 2007

Recent Reading: Kinsale and Crusie

Filed under: The Castiron Reading Journal — Castiron @ 08:02

Laura Kinsale, Flowers from the Storm. This one’s been on my Alexlit recs for lo these many years, and after repeatedly reading praise of Kinsale’s works, this one in particular, I finally got around to checking it out.

The praise is justified. The book is a historical romance between a duke who has a stroke and becomes aphasic and a Quaker woman who helps to rehabilitate him. The characters are well-drawn; the plot is thick and twisty; the steam setting is quite high. It’s an amazing, amazing book….

…and yet, the end falls a little flat for me. Something about Maddy’s decision in the climactic scene rings wrong to what I’ve seen of her, and I’m not sure why, but it made me downgrade it from a Fabulous! to just Excellent. That said, it’s still well worth reading.

Jennifer Crusie, Crazy for You. In fanfic circles, there’s a recurring debate on warning labels — what should you warn for in a fic, and are you the author really obligated to inform readers in advance that this story contains rape/character death/original characters/slash/poor grammar/goat sodomy/professional wrestling? And one counter-argument that’s often raised is that we don’t expect published books to have warnings; if you’re squicked by a particular topic, you can darn well avoid a book until you’ve gotten confirmation from a review that it doesn’t contain your squick.

So here’s a warning for this book: If you have ever had a really creepy ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend, one who didn’t get that you two were separate individuals rather than you being a clone of them, one who ignored you when you said “I want to break up”, this book may squick you. (Then again, you may find it cathartic.)

It’s a funny book with a lot of fun characters and a really sweet central romance, but it was obvious to me from the moment he appeared that one character was a real creep, and I’ve dated someone on that particular scale of creepy. I ended up skipping or skimming all the scenes from that character’s viewpoint, and his general presence and actions made the book much less enjoyable for me.

12 February 2007

Sundry Thoughts

Filed under: Random Ramblings — Castiron @ 23:27

1. Which is larger — a metric buttload or an imperial buttload?

2. I’ve realized that it doesn’t bother me that my home state is ranked stingiest in certain areas of government social spending. What bothers me is that it’s ranked worst in various measures of quality of life, for which more government social spending is one possible solution. For example, if this state was ranked lowest in amount spent by government on medical care for pregnant women, but also had the lowest frequency of stillbirths and preterm babies, I’d be quite happy with that. It’s when we have the least spending on prenatal care and the highest frequency of pregnancy problems that I start scratching my head; clearly non-governmental sources aren’t doing the job either.

3. One thing I never see mentioned when people talk about living wills and medical powers of attorney and advance directives: If you’re a woman of childbearing age who has any reason to believe you’re fertile, shouldn’t you say in your advance directive what you want done in case you’re pregnant at the time you become incapacitated? (abort, let fetus come to term, keep your brain-dead body on life support until the child can be delivered, turn you off whether or not the kid’s cooked) ETA: For that matter, given that there exist scumwads who rape incapacitated women in hospitals and nursing homes, it’d be wise to also state what you want done if you’re impregnated AFTER you become incapacitated.)

4. How much is one oodle?

6 February 2007

Craft Update: A Hat

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 09:02

The hat is done. It’s a smidge too big for my son, too short for my boyfriend, and the wrong color for me. So I’ll hang on to it and see how it fits the little guy next year. But I got the most important piece of data — what this yarn’s going to do when it goes through the laundry. So I’ll be starting the mittens soon.

In other knitting: The Bearfoot socks are almost ready for heels; I’m going to try short row heels and see how they turn out. I dragged the cable sweater to the surface, knit a couple more rows on the body, and figured out what I’m doing for the sleeves and started them. I’ve found a construction method in Gibson-Roberts, Knitting the Old Way that I’m going to try — the shaped saddle shoulders. I knit at least four rows on the Sparkles shawl on the bus; the rows are noticeably shorter, and getting more so.

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