IntenseDebate - David de Beer

14 years ago @ David de Beer - 10 Things you didn't k... · 0 replies · +1 points

they have some really oddball things on TEDvideos,don't remember how I found this one but it did hold my attention all the way.
Glad you enjoyed it,

14 years ago @ David de Beer - The Goodkind appeal · 0 replies · +1 points

I watched parts of it. It's...ok. Quite a bit different from the book that I've seen and basically typical television. It appears to be popular, although I lost interest after a couple of episodes.

Am much more interested in the HBO production of George Martin's A Game of Thrones

14 years ago @ David de Beer - The Goodkind appeal · 0 replies · +1 points

Hey Len, long time:)

I'll second your endorsement of Gemmell's Rigante novels, thoroughly enjoyed them. The Troy trilogy is sitting on top of my stack of to be read books, as soon as I ever get time to do so.

Goodkind...somewhere along the line it just fizzled. As you said, after a while you just begin to lose faith in the characters. I blame it on the increasingly superman theme that Richard was getting into -- there was nothing he could not do. He just became ever more superhuman and lost the human aspects that made him so appealing to begin with.

14 years ago @ David de Beer - The Goodkind appeal · 0 replies · +1 points

it kind of amuses me that you hated it so much since somehow I really thought it would be up your alley:D

yeah, I do think sometimes people focus too much on what's wrong with stuff that's popular (get me started on The Matrix and I'll never stop, for example..), but the fact is these books and movies must do something right or they wouldn't mean so much pleasure to so many people. And the usual saying people are so fond of, "well, it just proves that shit sells and people can't appreciate quality," is, I'm sorry, an answer I don't think is accurate at all.
besides, finding fault is easy; discerning what's working and why is more interesting and more insightful into people's psyches.
imo:)

14 years ago @ David de Beer - The Goodkind appeal · 1 reply · +1 points

had a bit of a thought about this today and oddly what occurred to me was LOTR, the scene where the two hobbits get Treebeard and the Ents to move against Isengard.
Now, true, the hobbits themselves were powerless to act againt Saruman, and initially Treebeard refused. What the hobbits could and did do, though, was to persuade the ones with the power -- the Ents -- to move and take action.

So, that's another form of competence as well -- not necessarily to act directly, if you are powerless to do so, but to act according to your ability and have an indirect impact.

What it seems to me is that far too often we like to celebrate the obvious heroic and miss the little heroics, and they can be just as important.

14 years ago @ David de Beer - The Goodkind appeal · 0 replies · +1 points

haha, I think I told you before but I quite enjoyed the chicken episode!

I think this is just the umpteenth book which proves the Law of Highlander which people ignore time after time after time:
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!

eh, I'd heard he had a new book but I just don't care. I take it you've seen the trailer?

14 years ago @ David de Beer - The Goodkind appeal · 0 replies · +1 points

I see what you're saying and agree to some degree -- there is definitely such a thing as being powerless or unable to prevent bad things. However, it's also true that being competent alone isn't enough. We see this in the world all the time where those who can and have the power to act simply don't.

14 years ago @ David de Beer - The Goodkind appeal · 0 replies · +1 points

interestingly, I've observed that what many writers themselves view as bad writing is often deemed very accessible and comfortable to readers and major houses may conceivably place more of a priority on that, and selling more books.

The Mord-Sith were fantastic, I'll agree to that. Again, though, only in the beginning. Later on it just...fizzled and became weird.

14 years ago @ David de Beer - Middle Grade Fiction · 0 replies · +1 points

ah, it does. I couldnt figure out (and the wording isn't all that obvious) whether MG is an older or younger audience than YA. ta for the help:)

14 years ago @ David de Beer - Middle Grade Fiction · 0 replies · +1 points

Golden Compass and Northern Lights are the same book/story yes:)

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