gdp's Comments

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'The Two Towers': Chapter 3

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:03:37 +0000

I really like it! It's cute, and I like the idea that the evil isn't inborn, that raised peacefully an orc is good. If inclined to bite things! I especially love Fnz naq Ebfvr'f acceptance at the end.

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Geeky Weekly Funtimez

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:40:16 +0000

That is HILARIOUS.

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Geeky Weekly Funtimez

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:39:27 +0000

A thought I had on the LOTR movies related to racism: It’s interesting all the discussion on Mark Reads of Tolkien’s imagining orcs as looking like debased Mongols, because after seeing the movie I wished it had made at least one of the main human groups be a different race. (There were so many characters in this made up world, and ALL of them were white?) And what occurred to me would have been perfect is if the Rohrrim had been based on the (obviously, beautiful and normal) Kazakh people, some of whom live in Mongolia. If you think about it, they have the right cultural characteristics: really good with horses and hawks, nomadic, and make really beautiful textiles the style of which could have been used by the set and costume designers. I know this would have been inaccurate to the book’s British-mythology-creating goal and probably most people who love the book would have hated such an enormous change (and I do love the actors they cast), but I think an argument could be made that it would have improved and enriched the film, to have more racial and cultural diversity. What do you guys think? Is that just completely off-base and silly, or do you think it could have worked?

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Geeky Weekly Funtimez

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:57:11 +0000

That's VERY interesting. As we read on, I hope you'll share more of your thoughts on the beauty of the narrative structure, because I love that kind of analysis.

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Geeky Weekly Funtimez

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:50:50 +0000

Sorry for the following Wall of Text - I'm mostly a lurker hear, but this discussion made me have All the Thoughts. I totally know what you mean about the ending, and in some moods I agree, but in thinking about it another way of interpreting it occurred to me: At the beginning of that last chapter, where she says "Reader, I married him," it sounds to me like Jane (and by extension, Bronte) is doing something she knows will be seen as controversial and somewhat transgressive. I mean, reading it now we may see it as, Oh dear, she's just going back to her man, but I think in the context of the culture then it may have come across as a woman doing what SHE wanted, following her desires rather than the rules of society that had dogged her from childhood. If you think about it, she's always wanting to be passionate and always being told that she must not be, that she'll go to hell, and the process of the novel is her searching for some place where she can be free from all those messages beating her down. She thinks she has found it with her cousins, but even that turns out to be a source of those same bindings (St John), trying to make her appropriately small. Rochester is the only person in the novel that speaks the same language as her, that she can really be herself with, so she chooses a life with him even though society didn't and doesn't approve, and even though there's some nasty baggage there. Would I make that choice? Nooooooooo. I would go live in town and attend the theater a lot and become a scholar/novelist/composer/patron of the arts. But I can see why she chooses as she does. TLDR: Definitely the story has MAJOR issues, (especially the racism, blech) and is guilty of starting a lot of unfortunate romance novel tropes, but I do think there's a somewhat of a proto-feminist message hidden in there, if you look at it from a certain direction.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'The Hobbit': Chapter 8

Wed, 2 Nov 2011 17:20:46 +0000

That sounds interesting - could you link to it?

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'The Hobbit': Chapter 4

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:01:05 +0000

What an interesting tidbit. I've never seen that book - is it worth checking out?

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Geeky Weekly Funtimez

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:46:35 +0000

Ooh, that's really nice - thanks for sharing! The lyrics really work for River's story.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'The Hobbit': Chapter 2

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:12:07 +0000

I LOVE these illustrations - these are the ones I grew up with, too, and I can completely relate to you not wanting to read any other edition. For me, at least, it almost wouldn't be The Hobbit without these illustrations. All the warm colors make it seem like such an appealing world, a place one would really want to visit. Thanks for posting them!

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Away from home

Wed, 8 Jun 2011 02:03:05 +0000

That would be SO COOL! I can't even imagine the amazingness that would ensue. Where did you read about it?

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : NuWho Series 6: Episode 5 - The Rebel Flesh

Tue, 24 May 2011 02:43:20 +0000

Thanks - that's good to know!

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : NuWho Series 6: Episode 5 - The Rebel Flesh

Mon, 23 May 2011 05:16:39 +0000

This is sort of off-topic, but Arctic_Hare, I have a question about Sandman, if you don’t mind taking the time to answer. (If you DO mind, please feel free to ignore and sorry for bothering you!) A lot of Sandman’s themes, like dream and myth, are right up my alley, so I’ve been thinking about reading it, but I have mixed feelings about Neil Gaiman’s work, and I’m not sure which part of the mix Sandman would fall into. I loved Neverwhere and The Doctor’s Wife and liked Coraline, but some of the themes that creep into his more adult work are very off-putting to me. Specifically, I don’t like reading the unsettling sexual material he sometimes includes – I gave up on American Gods after the scene in which the sex goddess pretending to be a prostitute absorbs her client, and I would gladly forget parts of “Snow, Glass, Apples” and “The Problem of Susan” if I could. Does Sandman delve into that sort of material? And if so, is it frequent or infrequent? Hope I’m not bugging you with this long question! (Oh, and thanks for being Vigilant Mod and deleting the rape joke - so nice to have a space free of that kind of non-humor!)

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : And we\'re back! (Also, Doctor Who: The Doctor\'s Wife)

Mon, 16 May 2011 20:03:48 +0000

Well...I've got to say that I only sort of connected to this episode the first time - I had issues with some of the characterization - but watched it again later that night and liked it a LOT better. So reversals/readjustments of opinion can sometimes happen!

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E01 – The Impossible Astronaut

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:27:27 +0000

That's a really good point - that EVERYONE who travels with the Doctor ends up waiting for him. Hadn't thought about it like that, but it sure does follow that pattern a lot of the time, at least in NuWho (don't know the original series well enough to tell whether that happened then, as well). It's a troubling dynamic, but at least it's troubling across the board. (Except that he's more likely to get involved with women than with men, but that's just casting.)

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E01 – The Impossible Astronaut

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:55:55 +0000

Hooray! Yes, EXACTLY. This is how I’ve always seen River Song, too, which is why I was sad (reading the anti-River post) to think that she might not be a strong character. I especially like your paragraphs 2 and 5 because of your enumeration of all the ways that she IS independent. It’s so cool to see all these articulate defenses of her awesomeness. That speech of hers is still not my favorite part – I feel like it could have been better written, in ways that would neutralize some of the potentially problematic interpretations – but I don’t feel like it ruins her character anymore. The thing I like about everyone’s replies is that it shows that one can critically consider elements of a character’s portrayal without barreling right to the extreme position of thinking the whole thing is unsalvageable and guilty of Very Bad Things. Also, as echinodermata said, I love the last line of your post, and agree. They’d BETTER NOT get River Song wrong!

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E01 – The Impossible Astronaut

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:53:56 +0000

As others have said, this is great – a very thorough refutation of the article. I especially like what you said about the Doctor meeting River Song for the first time (I agree that there’s no way the Doctor would have overshared in that first meeting – just been impossibly charming, as he can’t help being), and about her summoning him. Oh, and you mentioned a spin-off -- wouldn't it be cool if they really did a River Song spin-off? Don’t really have anything else to say except Thanks and All The Upvotes!

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E01 – The Impossible Astronaut

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:32:26 +0000

Wow- I hadn’t thought of that. Yeah, that must have been awful, and would explain why she was feeling at a bit of a low ebb right then.

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E01 – The Impossible Astronaut

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:31:56 +0000

All this really makes sense! It's a good point about her being in prison - I hadn't remembered that. It makes sense that a prisoner would live for the times she get to leave prison and adventure with her lover/spouse/friend/whatever, who also happens to be the Doctor. (Side note: it must be extraordinarily hard for a roving adventurer like River Song to be in prison.) Also good point about us seeing her traveling backwards - it's good to keep that in mind. At some point when her story is done, I think it would be cool to watch all her episodes in HER order – see the story from her point of view. It's a relief to see that there are ways of looking at the character and that speech that don't deprive her of her awesome independence. Thanks!

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S06E01 – The Impossible Astronaut

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 04:04:07 +0000

So I have a question for people here on the spoiler blog. I hope this isn’t out of turn, but there are some articulate folks here whose opinions I value (and I've gotten the impression that there are quite a few River Song fans), so I’d love to hear people’s thoughts. Reading through the comments on Mark’s review of Impossible Astronaut, I came across this article in Karen’s comment, which talks about River Song and why the author of the post thinks she’s a problematic character: http://folklores.tumblr.com/post/4912435507/moffa... Now, I’ve always loved the character of River Song for (among other things) her independence and self-sufficiency – it always seemed to me that she loved the Doctor, but also had her own rich, interesting life, her own identity, and didn’t define herself by him. Especially with her murder of the Dalek, where she seemed to reject being classified as just a companion of the Doctor: “I’m River Song. Check your records again.” But as much as I don’t want to agree with the article, I think it makes some valid points. I didn’t like River saying in Impossible Astronaut that she lived for her meetings with the Doctor – I hate to think of River as swallowed up and dependent on love from another person – and as the article points out, the quote about not fearing anything but the moment when he wouldn’t know her is also problematic, since it threatens to recontextualize all her SITL/FOTD heroism into something much less noble and more selfish. At this point I’m really wishing those bits didn’t exist (which is a pity since most of the Eleven/River stuff in this episode is wonderful), and I’m feeling kind of betrayed by the weakened characterization of such an awesome character. But does it seem that way to you folks? I would love to hear other people’s impressions of that speech of River’s, and of the above article.

http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ : Mark Watches \'Avatar: The Last Airbender’: S01E04 – The Warriors of Kyoshi

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 06:08:21 +0000

That's really interesting! I had never really thought about it like that, but now you point it out, that is definitely one of the really cool things about River Song. Although I would like to add that it looks to me like as well as being performances, they’re performances that she really enjoys. In the spaceship scene, she looks like she’s having a ball acting the part of the intergalactic woman of mystery! And then, as you pointed out, she changes roles on a dime, and puts on appropriate clothing for adventuring in ruins. Thinking about this subject, I realized that I kind of do a toned-down version of that sort of performing in my own life. I’ll be showy one day, demure the next, and practical/appearance doesn’t matter the third day, depending on how I feel like interacting with the world, and I base certain outfits on favorite characters or scenarios (like "safari space opera dress" or "Maid Marion dress"), not because I'm slavishly copying what a character wears (I'm definitely not talking about cosplay), but because I wear clothing that reminds me slightly of a character when I want to feel like that character. Now that I think about it, I love River’s gleeful switching between female James Bond, soldier, cat burglar, Cleopatra, and a cross between Leia and Han Solo because it gives me encouragement that I can play with various ways of presenting myself without being pinned down to any of them.