(no subject)

[salinea]

Spent a lot of the two days before reading those books I found. Not so much childhood books in fact. That's The amulet of Samarkand and The eye of the golem by Jonathan Stroud. Nice little story, pretty grim humour and dark outlook. Modern world with magic twist, but every magicians are able to do magic only because of the spirits they summon and bind to them. The narrator is one of those djinni, and he's got the sense of humour to be expected with that. The other character is a young (12 in the first novel, 14 in the second) magician who summons him. He's not exactly a nice guy, either, though he's faintly better that most magicians (read, most of them are insanely proud, greedy, powerhungry and distrustable) Anyway, nice little plot, not too convulated but well told. I look forward finishing the second and getting the third (which i don't think is out yet)
the third english bookstore in Paris didn't have Howl's Moving Castle either. Librarians are stupid and makes no prevision. Bah, I say.
However that library had some Barbra Hambly books I was looking for (historical crime novels about a free black man and doctor in New Orlean during the 19th. I read one before which was very good) so i still got to spend much money, hoorah !
then I went to see a movie, alone, which is something I hadn't done in a long time and which I did on a strange impulse. T'was a Chilian movie called Machuca and was pretty good (but not very happy with happening in 73 when the Junta took power)

On to fandom stuff :


from sakanagi

For each of your fandoms, name

1. A character you absolutely worship
2. A character you like
3. A character you could give or take
4. A character you don't really care for
5. A character you'd like to spork

X/1999

1. Karen
2. Sorata
3. Kusanagi
4. Daisuke, Hinoto, Kanoe
5. Seishirou ^_^ that'll teach him to be stupid. Okay, no, not really. I don't hate anybody in that serie, sorry.

Yami no Matsuei

1. Tatsumi, Tsuzuki !
2. Watari
3. Terazuma
4. The chicken things
5. hmmm, nope. None.

Card Captor Sakura
1. Touya !
2. Syaoran
3. Sakura
4. Sakura's school friends
5. Keroberos

Fruit Basket
1. Shigure, Momiji, Hiro, Rinne...
2. Hatsuharu, Yuki, Kyou, Ayame...
3. Hatori
4. Ritsu, Tohru
5. hmm... no one.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
1. Kurogane
2. Fye
3. Syaoran
4. Sakura
5. Mokona

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1. Spike, Faith, Dawn
2. Willow, Tara, Anya, Giles
3. Buffy
4. Riley
5. Xander. Oh wait, someone did that for me :3

A song of ice and fire
1. Arya, Sansa, Jaime, Tyrion, Sandor
2. Daenarys, Bran, Davos, Brienne, Littlefinguers
3. Jon, Theon
4. Catelyn, Cersei
5. Stannis *sporks!sporks!spork!*


~ Scan my interest list and pick out the one that seems the most odd/interesting to you.
~ I’ll explain it.
~ Then you post this in your journal so other people can ask you about your interests.

and... One of the best conversation I had about X/1999

Comments

[halcyon-libra.livejournal.com]

What is "zelazny"? :3

And ooh, I'll have to scan that conversation later. Randomly, I really like that girl's fics too.

[elihice.livejournal.com]

Even if I think I'll going to have rocks trown at me for not knowing this... explain what is Rocky Horror Picture Show

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Zelazny is a SF and fantasy writer. Not a very recent one, but not extremely old either.
One of his main work is the Cycle of Amber (ten books that starts with "9 princes of Amber") which says that every many worlds of the multiverse are all shadow of the one true world, the city of Amber. The princes of Amber are a very dysfunctionnal and machiavelic family that spends a lot of its time waggling intrigues against one each other. I read it a long time ago, and that universe made a very striking impression on me.
Zelazny got many other great books for which he often take inspiration from mythology. Such as "Lord of Light" (Hindouism and Buddhism), "Creatures of Light and Darkness" (Egyptian) for exemple. All are not so good, but it's often fun ("October Night Dream" was especially extremely funny), sometimes delirious and with good adventure. And cool trickster like heros.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

"The hanged man", is it a reference to the Tarot card, to Subaru, or both?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You really don't know ? whoaw.
Well, the Rocky Horror Picture show started its carreer as a musical I believe. However, it was eventually adapted as a movie in the ending 70's. That movie was.... well, pretty bad, all things considered. It's a SF cheesy movie parody, and succeeds in making not a lot of sense, and having some real cheesy dialogue. The music however is pretty good. (Besides can you pass the opportunity of seeing Susan Sarandon singing "touchietouchietouche me I want to be touched" in underwears ?)
Anyway, the real fun thing about RHPS is seeing it with a live performance at the same time. For some reasons those things started out at the time, and now, all throught the world, the movies are still projected with a small cast playing each character from the movie, interracting with the film (such a throwing lines that casts the dialogue in new light) and making cheap and lewd jokes. usually the audience is supposed to participate as well (can involve throwing water and dancing etc.) It's mythic for that reason. And err... it's one of the thing you have to see to understand, I'm afraid. I you wanna check it out and are lucky you can try to find on the net one production they organized for a recent anniversary of the movie in which Amber Benson (Tara in Buffy) and Anthony Steward Head (Giles in Buffy) were singing two of the songs. ASH looked GREAT in corset, high heels and fishnets ! (most of the cast ends up in that costume at the end of the movie. It's great ^^)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

To the tarot. I'm a big tarot geek, and the hanged man was always my favourite tarot card, the one I identify with most (and that a long time before I read X ^^)
For me it symbolizes the ultimate type of freedom. The one that comes from who you are. It's also goes with my Odin fangirling ^^

[ariseishirou.livejournal.com]

What or who is 'tyranael'?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Tyrannael is a serie of 5 books written by your compatriote the wonderful Elizabeth Vornarburg, which I consider as the best SF writer in the french language. (I think she also wrote some books in english, but I have no idea if the Tyrannael ones were ever translated)
It's about a colony of humans settling on a new planet which used to be inhabited by aliens but isn't anymore. There's a strange phenomenon happening on this planet called the Sea which will kill many people, and then slowly awake psychic gifts in the human population.
The serie encompasses a long time of the history of the planet. Think Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover serie, except much more well written and with a constant level of quality.

[su-chan.livejournal.com]

What is 'left hand of darness'?¿ XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

One of my all time favourite SF book. Left Hand of Darkness was written by Ursula K. Leguin, and is about one single envoy sent on a cold planet to make contact between the population and a federation of planets (but faster than light travel is impossible, only instant communication is possible thanks to the ansible (the word now widespread in sf was invented in this book, and as an anagram of lesbian)) called the Ekumen. One main particularity of this planet is that the people who live there have no gender. they are effectively "neutral" most of the time, until once a month, when they enter "kemmer" and take the role of one sex and are basically hormonaly "in heat".
Anyway, the book is interesting for many reasons. It's the story of someone discovering, being immersed into a culture and a society which is much alien to him (Leguin is the daughter of an anthropologue, and it shows) and it also wonders about the role of genders and everything that goes with it in a society. It's also, in a strange and very subtle way, a love story. There's also quite a few taoist references. Heavily reccomended.
The title comes from a quick poem quoted at one point in the story :

Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death,
together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way.

which I always thought suited SeishirouxSubaru very well ^_^

[su-chan.livejournal.com]

Sounds very interesting, I would like to read it, the poem _suits_ SeixSub too perfectly O_O;;

[sakanagi.livejournal.com]

Okay...who is Walter Jon Williams?

[wingblossom.livejournal.com]

What's 'giraudoux'?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Walter Jon Williams is (like many other of my interest as you might have noticed by now ;)) a Science Fiction writer. He's a pretty recent one, and decent in many genres from space op to cyberpunk. He got on my interest list because he wrote one very crackful book called "Aritoi" about a society ruled by people having a natural or artificial multiple personnality syndrom. Basically those people's syndroms, plus the cybertechnology to have data space for the personnalities, allow them to multitask and be very talented and able in many ways. i found the idea very fresh and original (not to mention crackful) and was enthousiasmed with this writer ever since. ^_^

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Jean Gireaudoux is a French playwriter of the middle of the 20th century. He's famous for such plays as Ondine, La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu, or Electre. Along with other playwriter of his time such as Cocteau and Anhouil he mixed classical mythologies with fresh, modern writing and often achronological details. I love him because he writes in a lovely, lovely way (it's almost better to read than to watch) and is eminently quotable. (one of the line in Electre "On dirait des mouches" inspired Sartre's "Les Mouches")

One of my favourite is also from Electre : "C'est une entreprise d'amour, la cruauté... je veux dire la Tragédie."
(It's a work of love, cruaulty... I mean Tragedy)

[kakushi-miko.livejournal.com]

what is "uchrony"?

[wingblossom.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! That sounds really interesting. Are there any (good) English translations that you know of? 'Cos I have to check out his writing now. :D

[sakanagi.livejournal.com]

I think I'll look out for that book. It sounds good. ^^

*sporking Stannis*

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

*sporking*sporking*sporking Stannis as well! ( though I would sort of trade Catelyn with Littlefinger and I would also spork Theon. Sam OTOH would be mentioned on the adore part)

I am with you about Xander as well - just been watching again season 3, finished seeing disc 4, and wow, is Consequences awful or what? hammy and so argh, pompous, even season 3 got some duds I guess.

About Amulet of Samarkand, book karma is a weird thing, I got it right here, a library loan of the pt translation, I mean to read it as soon as finish Carroll´s Sleeping in Flame. Glad to know you enjoyed it.

*going to sneak at the interest list now, note to self to copy that meme*

Dogly men?

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

Dogly men? My mind is making up all these scenarios...

And the other spike, cowboy bepop? ( The library one cowboy bepop dvd, so only seen the 4 episodes on it)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

An Uchrony is a story (most often belonging to the genre of science fiction) built upon the question "What if"
Most often Uchrony pick an event in History, and imagine how things could have gone if things would have gone differently. For exemple two famous Uchronies "Fatherland" (don't know the author) and "High Castle's Master" by Philip K. Dick imagine a world in which the WWII was won by the Nazis. A more recent work by Kim Stanley Robinsonn, "The Year of Salt and Rice" is based on the fact the Black Death was even more deadly than it was, leading to a world dominated by the eastern cultures.
Sometimes the divergent event is emphasied by the text, sometimes it's more implicit and we just have the description of a world which is different from ours in some small or big aspects.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Not that I know of, since I read it in French... but he's pretty famous so there's some chance he was translated.
I hope his writing's skill stand to translations !

Re: *sporking Stannis*

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Hehe... I'm sort of fond of Theon in a pitying him way. And Littlefinguer... I almost see him as a tragic character, and he's too good a villain, not to mention too damn smart for me to dislike him.

I don't think Consequences was that dull... I mean, it wasn't the highlight of S3, but as a key episodes in the storyline I thought was pretty effective.

Yay for synchronicity ! I finished the second book now, which I found even more bitter than the first but quite interesting. Hope the third volumes gets out quickly ^^

Re: Dogly men?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Dogly Man... well, you know how much I don't like dogs ? However I seem to often like male characters in fiction who are somehow associated with dogs.
The first one of them was Haplo from the Deathgate cycle by Weis&Hickman. He was one of my first litterary crush and I simply adored him ^^ As you might remember the guy's soul took the form of a dog.
Then there's Sandor, which I also love a great deal
Third one's Shigure from Fruit Basket, born under the sign of the Dog and who thanks to a curse plaguing his family, shapechanges into that animal when hugged by a member of the opposite sex, who is without a doubt my favourite character of that serie (with many adorable characters).
I'm tempted to add Tsuzuki from Yami No Matsuei to the list, but he's not so much link to the dog (he's got puppy ears and tail in the manga when he's trying to be cute and beg his colleague for something, more often than not sweets ^^)
If I liked Harry Potter better, I would claim Sirius Black, but I just don't like him that much. (though he's fun, and was one of my favourite character of the lot)
and... damn, I was sure there was another one but now I don't remember who it was.

See, it was nothing as dirty as you thought ;)

Re: Dogly men?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Ooops, and the other spike is a reference to Buffy's Spike actually. Because several time i was mentionning him, and people thought I meant the one in Cowboy Bebop... well, I just wanted a clever thing to put on my interest ;)

Inu Yasha dogly?

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

Inu Yasha? He counts as dogly?

And come on, you are just on denial about liking dogs ;) I can show you some of The Really Cute One puppy pics if you want to be converted ;)

Re: Inu Yasha dogly?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* He definitly does, but I don't like him that much ;)
Hey, in Ranma, my favourite character was Ryoga, but I'm not a pig person either XD

... denial... right that must be it *thinks about her evening and the very annoying dog that was in the restaurant that kept barking very loudly* Bah ! any mammal looks cute when it's young. Especially in a picture that does not include every thing bothersome and pesky about taking care of an animal. Not a good way to rate it.

Re: *sporking Stannis*

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

Theon I really loathe, so am hoping for horrible things to happen to him. In fact I got a bet pending if GRRM redeems him or not in AFFC ( or possibly ADWD, it is an old old bet).... LF sure he is a good villain, but I am a romantic, evil villains can be likeable till characters I like get killed or destruction gets too massive.

About Consequences, I agree it was not that it was dull, it just seemed so hammy, a bit heavy-handed and a bit too pompous on dialogue and the way the characters relate to each other. Really did not like it - but more comments as I see the rest of season 3.

And about Amulet, thanks for the feedback, it sounds good! But why do we get addicted on series still not completed?

Re: Inu Yasha dogly?

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

Agreed, dogs are like people, some people are just awful ;)

I got to present you to the Really Cute One in person then - fun thing about dogs is they are not perfect or perfectly behaved, but that is life and makes the sweet, loving, funny, interesting things they choose to do just more interesting :) Plus with dogs, dogs have a gift for joy, for happiness, for taking the moment, and they can be very open and exhuberant about it, at the total animal happiness of chasing a ball or swimming in the ocean, or resting in the sun which can make observers part of it as well.

Re: *sporking Stannis*

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Hehe... I still hope Theon might be redeemed, but it definitly could go the other way entirely.

I don't really blame characters for the bad they do to characters I love, strangely enough. I do it if it's contrary to their own nature. I hate Stannis because he killed his brother and is hypocrital. And I feel very uneasy about Tyrion since he killed his father and Shae - t'wasn't an act worthy of him.

Well, at least there's only one book left for this one serie ! And as to why... because it allows for much discussion and speculation in between books ? Without series, fandom wouldn't be the place it is ^^

Re: *sporking Stannis*

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

I do it if it's contrary to their own nature. I hate Stannis because he killed his brother and is hypocrital.

Not sure I get it, Stannis´ nature is hypocritical, it´s justifying what he wants as being right and he deserving it. Not sure Theon is any better or LF even.

Without series, fandom wouldn't be the place it is ^^

Not sure I am really part of fandom ;) Though ASOIAF might have dragged me into it, it´s just one of those series you gotta TALK about it ;)

[kakushi-miko.livejournal.com]

cool! so could 1984 and Brave New World be uchronies (even though they're not really science fiction)?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Actually, both Brave New World and 1984 definitly ARE science fiction. And they are Distopia not uchrony. There's no retroactive shift, they're pure "let imagine the worst nightmarish future we could basing on some trends of current societies"
(Distopia being the opposite of an Utopia)

[kakushi-miko.livejournal.com]

hmm interesting! i've always thought that science fiction involved aliens or supernatural powers or something out of the ordinary like that, but that's probably the stereotypical sci-fi? ^^;