Quick Note to Self

[handful_ofdust]

The fun thing about today's 'Net-enabled hive-mind is that you can use other people's reactions to make decisions like: "Ah, I see that now Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay is out, the Powers That Be have dropped The Hunger Games to ten bucks as a cheap gateway drug. Are the other books worth it, after that? No? Okay: Hunger Games alone it will be."

Because I can easily make that choice, since an open-ended story that doesn't end on a total cliffhanger (Gemma Files, I'm lookin' at you!) allows for me to make up whatever eventual conclusion I want, without having to see the actual conclusion spelled out for me. Sort of like how I can still enjoy The Matrix (or, indeed, The Matrix: Reloaded, if I'm feeling silly).

In other news, I don't much care about the whole LJ/Facebook thing. I messed with my settings some and feel fairly secure, to the extent you can feel secure about anything. Dreamwidth remains not a place I want to frequent. Worst-case scenario, I'll go to Blogger for everything or stop blogging generally, which would probably be best for my output. Yet seems unlikely.;)

Anyhoo. Today the fridge supposedly arrives, so I must run to the CIBC and get a new debit card, because mine has finally worn down to the point where it won't work anymore. This caused much embarrassment at Starbuck's yesterday, a state of affairs I don't feel like repeating.

Comments

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Also, re: traumatic/bleak/depressing in the Collins books - yeah, Nathan Bransford wrote a post inspired by that on the subject of "violence in children's literature" and whether there's a line. A fair amount of people said that the trilogy got too violent for them and they had to stop. Which... whatever. I'm personally in favor of traumatizing children. ;)

[greyorm.livejournal.com]

You know, I think just growing up traumatizes children. I certainly seem to remember it being that way. (And need we even mention junior high/high school? I mean, if someone wants to discuss trauma to children, let's start there...)

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the whole realizing-your-own-mortality thing. And I sure didn't need to read a fucking book to do that.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a feeling that a lot of parents who want to protect children from traumatic literature also believe that their children will be completely well-adjusted in junior high/high school.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Does it surprise you that I agree?;) My favourite C.S. Lewis book remains The Magician's Nephew, because it features Jadis, Charn, and Polly.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I love The Magician's Nephew (that and Silver Chair are my favorites). Although I failed to read Horse and His Boy (boredom) and The Last Battle (dismay... I got too old for it, or something. I never liked Aslan though, so I clearly fail as a Narnian.)

[sovay]

The Last Battle (dismay... I got too old for it, or something. I never liked Aslan though, so I clearly fail as a Narnian.)

No, The Last Battle is just not a very good book. I don't think it's impossible to outgrow because I don't think there's a single age it works for; it's bad sledgehammer theology and the world suffers as a consequence. The actual apocalypse of Narnia is neat. Everything else, DIAF.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I remember skipping to the end and reading the whole "yay we're dead" scene - that's when the dismay came in - but I also remember the point I stopped reading was when Puzzle was being dressed up as the False Aslan. I never fucking got what was so great about Aslan. Whenever he showed up in the other books I was like, "oh, maaaaan." I also rooted for the White Witch, esp. when played by Tilda Swinton. Clearly I'm a Satanist or something.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Jadist? Charnist?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Jadist conveniently rhymes with Sadist.

That's all I got.

[sovay]

Jadist? Charnist?

Jadist.

[sovay]

My favourite C.S. Lewis book remains The Magician's Nephew, because it features Jadis, Charn, and Polly.

I don't know when The Magician's Nephew became my favorite of the Chronicles of Narnia—it was a toss-up between The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair when I was younger—but however it happened, it definitely is.