#it was death in venice i thought it was meh

[theeflowerofcarnage]

yeah im never landscaping a 64x64 lot ever ever EVer again

[kats-kradle]

Have you watched A Haunting in Venice? If so, what did you think?

hello this seems as good a post as any to ease back onto tumblr with BOY OH BOY I DID SEE IT AND I HAD SOME THOUGHTS

(spoilers under cut)

I apologize in advance for the rambling nature of this response😂😂

I took my sister to see it a few weeks ago and we played a game where we made a tally mark every time we jumped (we both got 7). I was very pleased with the style of it because while it was advertised as kind of a horror movie Kenny boy toed the line between creepy mystery and pure horror and didn’t cross it which I appreciate. Once again the cinematography was STUNNING but the story was… lacking. I thought the characters were very interesting and somewhat underused, and the actress who played Mrs Oliver was somehow incapable of delivering exposition without being super super wooden about it. I did not see the plot twist of it being the mother coming, but the reveal was kind of disappointing to me? Even my sister pointed out that the reveal wasn’t as complex as most of Agatha Christie’s stories, which is probably because they didn’t actually follow one of her stories. I also really liked how it was kept ambiguous as to whether or not supernatural things were real. The scene where the father was taking a nap on the music room just made me start laughing because they made a big show of saying “oh this door is locked this is the only key there’s not other way in and this room is soundproof” like guys. There’s a murderer running around. Clearly this man is about to die😂😂😂😂 I did also really like how the movie delved into Poirot’s PTSD, but I’m disappointed that there was absolutely no mention of Bouc. He was a vital part to the other movies and it’s just sad to see him brushed under the rug like that.

I’ll have to watch it again to fully gather my thoughts on it, but overall it left a kind of “meh” taste to me. It was still enjoyable ofc because it was by Kenneth Branagh and that man is an artist. If I ranked the movies it would definitely be Murder on the Orient Express first for the cinematography, story, and music, A Haunting in Venice second for the better story, and Death on the Nile third for the weird plot choices and annoying music.

What did you think about it??

[thisblogisalsoboundforglory]

WHAT I HAVE BEEN READING LATELY

Kage Baker’s Company Series

In the Garden of Iden

Sky Coyote

Mendoza in Hollywood

The Graveyard Game

The Life of the World to Come

The Children of the Company

The Machine's Child

The Sons of Heaven

The Empress of Mars

Not Less than Gods

Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea

Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers

Gods and Pawns

In the Company of Thieves

Ø  Science Fiction written by a woman with Asperger’s. Wildly uneven. Main protagonist is female, but there are lots of POV characters, male and female.

Ø  Big ideas.

Ø  Lots of adventure, some action.

Ø   Small doses of humor.

 Neil Gaiman

Good Omens (with Sir Terry Pratchett)

Neverwhere

Stardust

American Gods

Anansi Boys

The Graveyard Book

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Ø  Neil’s books are a road trip with Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and a baggie full of sativa.

Ø  Ideas are incidental. The Milieu’s in charge.

Ø  Adventure happens whether you like it or not.

Ø   Cosmic humor. The joke’s on us.

 Connie Willis’s Oxford Time Travel Series

Firewatch

Doomsday Book

To Say Nothing of the Dog (and the novel that inspired it – Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat)

Blackout/All Clear

Assorted:

The Last of the Winnebagos

Ø  Connie loves her historical research. Blackout/All Clear actually lasts as long as the Blitz, but anything in the Oxford Time Travel series is worth reading. Doomsday Book reads like prophecy in retrospect.

Ø  One idea: Hi! This is the human condition! How fucking amazing is that?!?

Ø  Gut-punch adventure with extra consequences. Background action.

Ø   I’d have to say that Doomsday Book is the funniest book about the black death I’ve ever read, which isn’t saying much. To Say Nothing of the Dog is classic farce, though. Girl’s got range.

Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash (After the apocalypse, the world will be ruled by Home-Owners Associations. Be afraid.)

Cryptonomicon

Anathem

Seveneves

Ø  Neal writes big, undisciplined, unfocused books that keep unfolding in your mind for months after you’ve read them. He’s a very guy-type writer, in spite of a female protagonist or two. Seveneves, be warned, starts out brilliant and devolves into extreme meh.

Ø  Big. Fucking. Ideas.

Ø  Battles, crashes, fistfights, parachute jumps, nuclear powered motorcycles and extreme gardening action. Is there an MPAA acronym for that?

Ø   Humor dry enough to be garnished with two green olives on a stick.

  Christopher Moore

Pine Cove Series:

Practical Demonkeeping

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (Okay, yeah, Christmas. But Christmas with zombies, so that’s all right.)

Fluke (Not strictly Pine Cove, but in the same universe. Ever wonder why whales sing? They’re ordering Pastrami sandwiches. I’m not kidding.)

Death Merchant Chronicles:

A Dirty Job

Secondhand Souls (Best literary dogs this side of Jack London)

Coyote Blue (Kind of an outlier. Overlapping characters)

Shakespeare Series:

Fool

The Serpent of Venice

Shakespeare for Squirrels

Assorted:

Island of the Sequined Love Nun (Cargo cults with Pine Cove crossovers. I have a theory that the characters in this book are direct descendants of certain characters in Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.)

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal (So I have a favorite first-century wonder rabbi. Who doesn’t?)

Sacre Bleu

Noir

Ø  Not for the squeamish, the easily offended, or those who can’t lovingly embrace the fact that the human species is pretty much a bunch of idiots snatching at moments of grace.

Ø  No big ideas whatever. Barely any half-baked notions.

Ø  Enthusiastic geek adventure. Action as a last resort.

Ø   Nonstop funny from beginning to end.

 Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London Series

Rivers of London

Moon Over Soho

Whispers Under Ground

Broken Homes

Foxglove Summer

The Hanging Tree

The Furthest Station

Lies Sleeping

The October Man

False Value

Tales From the Folly

Ø  Lean, self-deprecating police procedurals disguised as fantasy novels. Excellent writing.

Ø  These will not expand your mind. They might expand your Latin vocabulary.

Ø  Crisply described action, judiciously used. Whodunnit adventure. It’s all about good storytelling.

Ø  Generous servings of sly humor. Aaronovitch is a geek culture blueblood who drops so many inside jokes, there are websites devoted to indexing them.

  John Scalzi

Old Man’s War Series:

Old Man’s War

Questions for a Soldier

The Ghost Brigades

The Sagan Diary

The Last Colony

Zoe’s Tale

After the Coup

The Human Division

The End of All Things

Ø  Star Trek with realpolitik instead of optimism.

Ø  The Big Idea is that there’s nothing new under the sun. Nor over it.

Ø  Action-adventure final frontier saga with high stakes.

Ø  It’s funny when the characters are being funny, and precisely to the same degree that the character is funny.

Assorted:

The Dispatcher

Murder by Other Means

Redshirts (Star Trek, sideways, with occasional optimism)

Ø  Scalzi abandons (or skewers) his space-opera tendencies with these three little gems of speculative fiction. Scalzi’s gift is patience. He lets the scenario unfold like a striptease.

Ø  What-if thought experiments that jolt the brain like espresso shots.

Ø  Action/misadventure as necessary to accomplish the psychological special effects.

Ø  Redshirts is satire, so the humor is built-in, but it’s buried in the mix.

  David Wong/Jason Pargin

John Dies at the End

This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It

What the Hell Did I Just Read?

Ø  Pargin clearly starts his novels with a handful of arresting scenes and images, then looses the characters on an unsuspecting world to wander wither they will.

Ø  Ideas aren’t as big or obvious as Heinlein, but they are there to challenge all your assumptions in the same way that Heinlein’s were.

Ø  Classic action/adventure for anyone raised on Scooby-Doo.

Ø  Occasional gusts of humor in a climate that’s predominantly tongue-in-cheek.

 Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St. Mary’s Series

Just One Damned Thing After Another

The Very First Damned Thing

A Symphony of Echoes

When a Child is Born*

A Second Chance

Roman Holiday*

A Trail Through Time

Christmas Present*

No Time Like the Past

What Could Possible Go Wrong?

Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings*

Lies, Damned Lies and History

The Great St Mary’s Day Out*

My Name is Markham*

And the Rest is History

A Perfect Storm*

Christmas Past*

An Argumentation of Historians

The Battersea Barricades*

The Steam Pump Jump*

And Now for Something Completely Different*

Hope for the Best

When Did You Last See Your Father?*

Why Is Nothing Ever Simple*

Plan For The Worst

The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

Ø  The * denotes a short story or novella. Okay, try to imagine Indiana Jones as a smartassed redheaded woman with a time machine and a merry band of full contact historians. I love history, and I especially love history narrated by a woman who can kick T. Rex ass.

Ø  The ideas are toys, not themes. Soapy in spots.

Ø  Action! Adventure! More action! More adventure! Tea break. Action again!

Ø  Big, squishy dollops of snort-worthy stuff.

 Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell Series

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

A Monstrous Regiment of Women

A Letter of Mary

The Moor

Jerusalem

Justice Hall

The Game

Locked Rooms

The Language of Bees

The God of the Hive

Beekeeping for Beginners

Pirate King

Garment of Shadows

Dreaming Spies

The Marriage of Mary Russell

The Murder of Mary Russell

Mary Russell's War And Other Stories of Suspense

Island of the Mad

Riviera Gold

The Art of Detection (Strictly speaking, this is in the action!lesbian Detective Kate Martinelli series, but it crosses over to the Sherlock Holmes genre. If you’ve ever wondered how Holmes would deal with the transgendered, this is the book.)

Ø  Sherlock Holmes retires to Sussex, keeps bees, marries a nice Jewish girl who is smarter than he is and less than half his age and he’s mentored since she was fifteen in an extremely problematic power dynamic relationship that should repulse me but doesn’t, somehow, because this is the best Sherlock Holmes pastiche out there. Mary should have been a rabbi, but it is 1920, so she learns martial arts and becomes an international detective instead. Guest appearances by Conan Doyle, Kimball O’Hara, T.E. Lawrence, Cole Porter, and the Oxford Comma.

Ø  Nothing mind-expanding here, unless the levels of meta present in a fictional world that is about how the fictional world might not be as fictional as you thought come as a surprise to anyone in the era of tie-in books, films, tv, interactive social media and RPGs.

Ø  If these two geniuses can’t catch the bad guys with their dazzling brilliance, they will happily kick some ass. Adventure takes center stage and the action sequences are especially creative.

Ø  Amusement is afoot.

 Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next Series

The Eyre Affair

Lost in a Good Book

The Well of Lost Plots

Something Rotten

First Among Sequels

One of Our Thursdays is Missing

The Woman Who Died a Lot

Ø  In a world where Librarians are revered and Shakespeare is more popular than the Beatles, someone has to facilitate the weekly anger-management sessions for the characters of Wuthering Heights, if only to keep them from killing each other before the novel actually ends. That someone is Thursday Next – Literature Cop.

Ø  Mind-bending enough to give Noam Chomsky material for another hundred years.

Ø  Adventure aplenty. Action? Even the punctuation will try to kill you.

Ø  This is a frolicsome look at humorous situations filled with funny people. Pretty much a full house in the laugh department.

 Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series/City Watch Arc

Guards! Guards!

Men at Arms

Feet of Clay

Jingo

The Fifth Elephant

Night Watch

Thud!

Snuff

Raising Steam

Ø  If this were a game of CLUE, the answer would be Niccolo Machiavelli in Narnia with a Monty Python. Everything you think you know about books with dragons and trolls and dwarves and wizards is expertly ripped to shreds and reassembled as social satire that can save your soul, even if it turns out you don’t really have one. Do not be fooled by the Tolkien chassis – there’s a Vonnegut-class engine at work.

Ø  Caution: Ideas in the Mirror Universe May be Larger Than They Appear

Ø  The City Watch arc has plenty of thrilling action sequences. Some other of the fifty-million Discworld novels have less. Every one of them is nonstop adventure. Most of the adventure, however, takes the form of characters desperately trying to avoid thrilling action sequences.

Ø  Funny? Even though I’ve read every book in the series at least ten times, I still have to make sure I have cold packs on hand in case I laugh so hard I rupture something.

[nerdtrash-iteration]

(Re)watching Doctor Who: series 5

Okay so this was the last full series of Doctor Who I saw before I stopped watching. I didn’t remember much from then when I recently rewatched it, so I was close to watching it with fresh eyes. And wow do I appreciate it a lot more now. I was very attached to the RTD era, which was why I was so reluctant to accept anything else. But Doctor Who is all about change. So if I couldn’t accept that, it might not have been the show for me. The Doctor wasn’t just Nine and Ten, he has been plenty of others before and this is just his latest incarnation. His next phase in growing up. I’m a lot more on board now. Let’s jump into it. Series 5 (Eleventh Doctor) 5.1: The Eleventh Hour I loved this opening so much. The whole tone, the storyline, the music especially Amy’s theme are on point. Just a really solid opening to a new era of the show. Establishing the whimsical fairy tale feeling.

5.2: The Beast Below Ehhhh is how I feel on this episode. It isn’t bad though. I love the image of Amy floating outside the TARDIS. Liz X is cool, although I kinda doubt the British monarchy will last that long. I really liked how the Doctor realised she was way older than she claimed, by noting her mask was an antique but also perfectly shaped to her face. I thought the Forget/Protest method of of voting was pretty cool. But the overall story was meh to me. Wasn’t into the setting or the Smilers.

5.3: Victory of the Daleks I am biased against this episode as I am decidedly not a fan of Dalek stories most of the time. And yeah too many things just feel silly to me here. Of course Winston Churchill would be romanticised in a BBC programme but it felt very propaganda-y. I liked the Doctor getting angry at the Daleks, and how his position as their enemy was so tied to their identity. But the ending feels really weak. I really hate the re-occurring plot device of “Oh we thought we got rid of all the Daleks, but these few survived”, like fuck off. The twist on their android scientist (”You didn’t build us, we built you”) was kinda cool but again felt really eh in its resolution. And I really hate how the Daleks are defeated at the end. I can suspend my disbelief a lot in Doctor Who, but how the hell were these 1940s Spitfires able to easily fly in SPACE? 5.4 + 5.5: The Time of Angels + Flesh and Stone I really like this story. I love the twist at the end of the first half. I originally didn’t like the “image of an angel becomes itself an angel” thing, but it kinda fits with them in that their image is their defense mechanism. I really like the interactions between the Doctor and Amy here. River and Father Octavian are pretty good too. I think the crack is used really well here and is really unnerving. I don’t even mind the ending. Yeah the angels probably would have been defeated without the Doctor but the gang didn’t know that going in. I think the angels using Bob’s voice and snapping necks is a bit too silly for me. Also I really don’t like that they just show the angels moving. But a decent suspenseful story overall. Also I’m not a massive fan of Amy trying to jump the Doctor, but it does feel believable to me given her history with him.

5.6: The Vampires of Venice I am mostly personally disappointed that there were no real vampires in this. I find the insistence that everything must just be aliens very frustrating. Why can’t there just be vampires, werewolves and ghosts in Doctor Who? You can still have a sci-fi twist to them. I just don’t see why vampires can’t be another race on Earth with humans, like the Silurians. Anyway it’s a pretty forgettable episode to me. I do like the opening interactions with Rory. I also like the ending conversation between the Doctor and the main antagonist. Just overall eh to me.

5.7: Amy’s Choice I really like a lot about this episode. I love stories set in dreams and that tie into the psyche of certain characters. I really like that this more or less puts the Doctor/Amy/Rory love triangle to bed. HOWEVER. I am really not happy with how the resolution is framed. That Amy willing to risk killing herself in response to Rory’s “death” is framed as romantic and a positive development of their relationship. Suicide should never be framed in this romantic light. But a decent story overall, was happy to revisit it.

5.8 + 5.9: The Hungry Earth + Cold Blood I thought I would be really bored with revisiting this story but I ended up really liking it. I liked some of the guest cast, particularly the scientists. I thought Amy disappearing into the Earth in the first half was genuinely scary. I really like a lot about the Silurians, but I did find one detail slightly off. The scientist Silurian admits to kidnapping human children to study them and the Doctor is just like “Omg that’s so cool”, like NO it isn’t!!! I also really like how the hostage situation was handled and resolved. And Rory’s first true death was really a gut-punch, especially Amy forgetting him :( 5.10: Vincent and the Doctor I knew I would enjoy revisiting this episode and I certainly did. Not a fan of the monster but I adore all the interactions with the Doctor, Amy and Vincent. Especially when the night sky transforms into Starry Night. Also the ending is heart-breaking :( 5.11: The Lodger It feels weird watching this episode given what we know about its writer Gareth Roberts. But I have to admit it is a well-written episode. I really like the tone of the story and Craig and his ordinary life being the focus. I’m noticing the perception filter gets used a lot more in Doctor Who, maybe a bit too much. But I’ll allow it here.  Overall a very charming story. 5.12 + 5.13: The Pandorica Opens + The Big Bang I think this might be my favourite series finale of the show???? I absolutely love the twist of the first half. I really like how it all gets resolved in the second half. It’s not too contrived at this point and I do like how the cracks are explained. Love having Rory back. Also even if this finale is a bit far-fetched with its plot, it still wins me over emotionally. Especially the Doctor revisiting past memories: “You won’t need your imaginary friend anymore”. There are so many heart-breaking lines like that.

Overall I enjoyed series 5 much more on a rewatch. Some dodgy episodes but mostly some really engaging stories. Also Matt Smith’s hair looks in the best in this series to me.

[littlefoxesonthehillside]

Random Qs

When was the last time you cried?

Today.  

Have you ever faked sick?

Yes.  

What was the last lie you said?

That I had errands to run.  

Have you ever cried during a movie?

Yes.  

Have you ever danced in the rain?

No.  

Have you ever been drunk?

Yes. 

Do you smoke?

No.

Have you ever been in a car accident?

Yes.  

How old were you when you recieved your first kiss?

23.  

Who was your first kiss?

Some guy I met on Grindr.

Have you ever had an online relationship?

Yes.  

Have you ever been rejected by a crush?

No.  

What is your favourite sport to play?

Basketball.  

Have you ever made a prank phone call?

No.  

Have you ever said "I Love you" and not meant it?

No.  

Is there anything that you have done that you regret?

Yes.  

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Normal. ��

What is your political persuassion?

Liberal.  

Do you believe in g-d?

No.  

Do you believe in love at first sight?

No.  

Do you believe in karma?

No.  

Who was your first crush?

One of my classmates.  

Who do yo uhave a crush on?

Define crush.  

How would you describe yourself?

Awkward, depressive wreck.  

What are you afraid of?

Everything.  

Are you religious?

No.  

What does your screen name mean?

It means I have a soft spot for puns, the work of Lillian Hellman, and Malvina Reynolds music.

What person do you trust the most?

Hmmm.  

Who was your first boyfriend/girlfriend?

Nice try.  

What is the best compliment you have ever recieved?

People keep complimenting my hair lately.  That’s pretty nice, I suppose.

What is the meanest thing anyone has said about you?

That I need to be on medication. The person who said this to me has been on meds for a chemical imbalance, by the way.

What is the longest crush/relationship you have had?

I don’t really have relationships.  

What is your greatest strength?

I like soup.  

What is your greatest weakness?

Too many to count.  

What is your perfect pizza?

Ones that are meat-free.  

What is your first thought when waking up in the morning?

Oh no.  

What is your first thought before you go to bed?

Oh no.  

What college do you want to go to?

I’m through with college.  

Do you get along with your family?

Sometimes.  

Do you play any instruments?

No.  

What kind of music do you like?

All kinds.  

Would you ever get a tattoo?

Never say never.  

How many piercings do you have?

Zero.  

Who makes you laugh?

Being tickled.  

Who would you want to be tied to for 24hours?

Someone that doesn’t weigh very much. 

Have you ever seen a dead body?

Yes.  

Do you have a celebrity crush?

Sure.  

What is one thing scientists should invent?

Cure for cancer.  

Have you ever broken a bone?

My pinky toe.  

What happens after you die?

Nothing.  

Do you watch or read the news?

Yes.  

What stereotype would you label yourself as being?

I’m just me.  

Would your friends agree with that stereotypic label?

Sure, why not.  

If yo ucould change your name, what would you change it to?

Ice cream.  

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go

Four years ago.  

If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change?

My weight.  

Have you ever gone skinny dipping?

Yes.  

Would you ever lie to someone to make them feel good about themselves?

Sure.  That’s called motivation and building self-esteem for people who are down.

What do you want your friends to think about you?

That I’m a decent person.  

HAve you ever bitten someone?

No. Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever stolen anything?

No.  

Do you make wishes on shooting stars?

No.  

If you could go back and change one day, what would it be?

July 11, 2020.  

Do you remember your dreams?

Sometimes.  

Have you ever been in love?

No.  

Are you a morning person or a night person?

Night person. That’s why I’m filling this stupid quiz out.  

Do you have any phobias?

Fear of birds.  

Have you ever been to the hospital (other then birth?

Not for myself. I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals with others, though.  

How many screen names do you have?

Three on Tumblr.  

Do any medical problems run in your family?

Vertigo and heart problems.  

Have anyone ever been disowned from your family?

Yes.  

Have you ever had a nightmare?

Constantly.  

Do you say meaner things to your friends or your enemies?

I don’t have any enemies, so I guess my friends.  

Have you ever cheated on your bf/gf?

No.  

Have you ever laughed so hard you peed in your pants?

A little, maybe.  

Have you ever written a love letter?

No.  

Have you ever attempted suicide?

No.  

Do you prefer boxers or briefs?

Boxer briefs.  

Have you ever been in a fistfight?

No.  

Do you have any hidden talents?

If I do, I must be hiding them from myself.  

What is one thing you want me to know about you?

I don’t like mustard.  

Do you usually prefer books or movies?

Movies.  

Who is your favourite person to talk to?

 My uncle.

Would you ever have sex before marriage?

I have and I will again. In fact, I don’t even know if I want marriage.  

Who do you talk to most on the phone?

My grandma.  

Do you prefer british or american spelling of words?

American.  

Have you ever gotten detention?

No.  

How do you vent your anger?

Sobbing.  

Have you ever been on a diet?

Yes.  

Would you ever date someone younger than you? Older than you?

No to the first and yes to the second. In fact, I prefer older.  

Is your best friend a virgin?

No.  

Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness?

Not by a medical professional.  

Have you ever cut yourself on purpose?

No.  

Have you ever wanted to murder someone?

No.  

Have you ever hated someone?

Yes.  

Do you prefer talking on the phone or online?

Phone.  

Do you consider yourself popular?

No.  

Would you ever tell the person you have a crush on that you like them?

Sure.  

Have you ever had a crush on an enemy?

No.  

Have you ever had a crush on a best friend?

Sort of.  

What is your favourite book?

Death in Venice.  

Do you have a collection of anything?

DVDs and Blu-rays.  

Are you happy with the person you are becoming?

I could definitely use some improvement.  

Are you a different person now then you were 5 years ago?

Almost definitely.  

What do you see yourself as being in 5 years from now?

I don’t.  

Are you happy with the life you have?

Meh.

[inhalingwords]

Monthly Wrap Up || September 2017

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare || The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare || Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare || Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare || Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Anti-Semitism abounds in this play that has left me quite conflicted. While I love the queer subtext, the female characters, and the poetry of the language, the central plot and the already-mentioned anti-Semitism have left me quite cold.

The Merchant is a play about capital, money-lending and debt; Bassanio, an upwardly mobile young Venetian, needs money in order to woo a young heiress, Portia, so he borrows money from the Jewish moneylender Shylock with his friend Antonio as the loan’s guarantor. Things get complicated after Antonio can’t repay the loan -- and the circumstances are further complicated by the fact that Antonio has frequently treated Shylock with anti-Semitic contempt (which do not a gracious moneylender make).

While reading, I couldn’t quite make myself care about the central concerns about money nor Bassanio’s wooing of Portia, but I did rather enjoy the theme of difference and opposites, and the general feel of ambivalence that the play is full of. I’m excited to check out some modern adaptations and see how they have treated and contextualised the play.

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Merry Wives is definitely not going to linger in my mind as a work of genius, mostly because I found Falstaff a pretty unbearable and obnoxious character tbh, but thankfully, since it’s a comedic play all about duping and making fun off Falstaff, I found myself being reluctantly charmed by this farce of a play. And, of course, there are some pretty badass female characters at the centre of the action of this play, and that’s exactly the kind of stuff I'm all about. So, really, a huge thumbs up to Merry Wives, 10/10, would recommend.

If you want to read/see a play all about two witty women getting one over on a gross, lecherous (old) dudebro, this is the play for you!

Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

I read Merry Wives before I started on the Henry IV plays and let me just tell you: it was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Legitimately, I’m not even kidding. The reason being that Merry Wives honestly made me kinda hate Falstaff (maybe not hate, but definitely dislike), and if there’s one thing anyone can tell you about the Henriad (but which everyone failed to mention to me!), is that Falstaff is apparently the (in)famous star(?) of the Henry plays.

Thankfully, there’s still a lot more going on besides Falstaff bumbling around. Highlights include: the beautiful structure of all the contrasting characters and high/low plots, Hotspur, language as a central theme, “I do; I will”, Hal as a grey character (the conflict of him being simultaneously both more and less than you want him to be), Falstaff’s rant about honour (”What is honour? a word. What is that word honour? air. A trim reckoning!--Who hath it? he that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no.”).

Final verdict: def not my fave play, didn’t hate either -- despite some shining moments of brilliance, kinda meh.

Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare

I’ve read Much Ado previously (and greatly enjoyed it, despite the cuckold humour this play is absolutely rife with), which is why I bought the Arden Shakespeare edition so I could reread the play and get to know more about the cultural context of and the scholarly debate/analysis around it.

Much Ado is best known for its witty pair of lovers -- Beatrice and Benedick -- who fill the action with delightful sparring with words, and, I have to admit, they’re one of the biggest draws for me too. But what they often upstage is the more central plot surrounding Hero, her virginity/”purity”, and her public shaming (by her husband-to-be Claudio). I have a lot of thoughts about it and how the play serves as this look into some harmful gender roles/stereotypes, making way for the eventual subversion of them (slightly problematised e.g. by the fact that Claudio and Hero end up marrying each other in the end -- though I also have many thoughts on that, for and against...). All of this makes for an endlessly fascinating play to me, one I will probably continue to come back to. (And I def need to check out some stage/film versions!)

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

The first part in the saga of the glorified camping trip! This one was another reread for me, and I loved every minute of it.

I started rereading this because I was sick and confined to bed and I needed something to tide me over, and I thought LotR might do the trick. High fantasy, a linguists’s wet dream, familiar story and characters, the struggles of the good fight against the evil... the perfect escape from the real world and an effective antidote to sickness!

I love stories about quests and adventures, and while I’ve seen and heard many people say they’ve been bored to death while reading LotR by the many digressions and tangents in the form of nature descriptions, “unnecessary” songs, and the like, I fucking love them. There’s nothing I adore more than super descriptive books, my soul feeds on words/poetry/songs, and nature is near and dear to my heart ♥

I’m excited to continue rediscovering this adventure in The Two Towers (which I’ve actually already started).

[cosmic-moose]

Notes on day 3: Last night I had tea and biscuits and watched “Arrival” to wind down. It was so cliched and somehow managed to just barely scratch the surface of every film genre without really developing any characters or plot-line… I guess the appeal was dependent on the “surprise twist” at the end. Meh. And I originally thought it had such potential! But with that being said there are so many awesome new movies up on Netflix this month! Yay!!!

Anyway!

I woke up early and did some reading as it was so rainy! The book I’m reading, Carter & Lovecraft, started out as a really interesting crime novel kind of mystery, but now it’s becoming more fantasy and sci-if, I will have to see where it goes. I can imagine it will go somewhere down the Stephen King/Lovecraft road… but the writing isn’t as good. Anyway, it wasn’t worth making the trek anywhere in such a downpour. Then I napped from 12-1:30 and left for the museums at 2.

I went to the Museo Galileo which was AMAZING and not flushed with tourists at all. It was a history/natural sciences museum that had everything from Gelileo’s telescopes and writing to his preserved fingers and teeth. (Like a hilariously ironic reliquary). There was also everything from instruments used extensively in the developments of the fields of mathematics and physics to the development of time pieces to biological microscopes to medical tools of different eras. It was great, incredible, any one interested in science, history, philosophy should go.

I went to casa di Dante afterwards, which was cool to see but rather underwhelming in terms of the museum. Apparently, however, this is the first time that the version of his death mask has been shown to the public. It was also cool to see someone of the early copies of his famous comedy.

Finally I walked to the duomo and saw the cathedral, which was gorgeous. The sun came out just in time for photos and to see the stained glass. Then I went through il grande museo duomo and the museo de l'opera di duomo. They were interesting, mostly filled with copies, although some relics and paintings and carvings etc. were legit and quite gorgeous, if all very religiously oriented. Then of course there is the history of the duomo, which I loved reading about and hearing about.

I have been charged for water TWICE now in restaurants and I am so confused. This never happened to me in England or France? Apparently tap water is not a thing here, what a WASTE of fucking plastic. 😒😒😒 I’ve been eating fruit and light fare I’ve bought in markets (cheaper than restaurants, which are way too pricey) for breakfast/lunch. Then I go out to dinner. Only 2 nights out so far, and one place has been great while the one tonight was BAD BAD BAD.

Crimes of the place I went to tonight for dinner: Served me water in a wine glass? Bread was white and hard and boring? The variation of penne in red sauce was SOGGY and bland, how hard is it to fuck up pasta, in Italy? One of the table legs was off so every time I put down my glass on the right side of the table, the table wobbled to the side? My bill came to €12 which is ridiculous because Noodles and Co in Pittsburgh charges less and frankly, is more tasty? I was pretty damn mad, but I went home to have tea and biscuits.

Tomorrow I go back to the Duomo to climb the dome and the tower! After I will get lunch or dinner with my brother and if it’s warmer, hopefully gelato! I can’t wait to try it. ☺ I am considering seeing my friend in Paris because the weather here right now is so bad! And I miss speaking French. I keep finding myself slipping into French here. But perhaps my brother will be game to go to Milan or Venice instead. We will see!

Photos from top left to right: Place where I had dinner tonight (blah) Front of the cathedral The dome and the moon, from a rooftop Dante’s home Galileo’s fingers and tooth Armillary sphere (1500s) by santucci

[meekhistorygeek]

I don’t normally make movie review posts, but I watched Spider-man: Far From Home on my birthday a couple days ago, and I have some thoughts...

Spoilers beneath the cut.

My general thoughts on this movie are neither good nor bad, they’re just... meh. I didn’t know what I felt when I walked out of the theater. I didn’t really feel anything about this film. I thought, overall, the plot was good and the characters were entertaining to say the least. However, I didn’t have the rush of excitement and joy I felt after watching Homecoming. I didn’t want Homecoming to end, and I wanted there to be more. The sad part about watching this movie is that I did want this movie to end, it felt like it dragged on longer than it needed to, especially the drone fight. That’s really hard for me to say because I love Spider-man and I love Tom Holland as Spider-man, and I haven’t felt this way about a Spider-man film since the Amazing Spider-man 2. The only difference between those two films for me is that there were actually moments in this film I enjoyed watching, I.e. the Mysterio illusion sequence. (It was perfection, and all I wanted to see from this. I just wish that sort of thing continued throughout the story, and not for those two glorious moments.)

One of the things I didn’t like in this film was the romance. That could have been handled a lot better, especially between MJ and Peter. When did Peter start liking Michelle exactly? A slower progression might have been nice, and I know there was a time skip between Homecoming and Far From Home, and Peter could have developed feelings for her during that time, but I would have liked to see that development rather than just being told that it exists. People are saying that Tom and Zendaya have all this amazing chemistry, and they do, but in my opinion, that chemistry is in friendship only. That part at the beginning when Peter and Michelle were in Venice and talking about Italian words, that part was great, and it was believeable as a friendship. I wish that the writers would have kept the friendship aspect up, instead of pushing these two characters into a relationship so quickly. Peter Parker does not have to have a love interest in every Spider-man movie.

Let me talk about Michelle for a little bit. I don’t know how I feel about her. She’s not interesting to me. I guess she’s supposed to be a stand in for Mary Jane, but that’s all she is to me. She a poor representation of my favorite female fictional character, and that makes me very disappointed. Michelle has the same nickname, she shares the fact that she knows that Peter is Spider-man, and that’s about it when it comes to silimarities between comic MJ and her. In fact, Michelle is more similar to comic Gwen than comic MJ. Both Gwen and Michelle share the fact that they were both jerks to Peter because they liked him, they both have a fairly cute relationship with Peter (but that’s all that relationship is, cute, there’s nothing to ground that relationship), and she’s also incredibly smart but her character is dull. Comic MJ is much more interesting; she came from an abusive home, her mother died, her older sister hated her because she decided to leave to make something better for herself, she partied all the time as a defense mechanism against being alone, she figured out Peter was Spider-man and felt a connection with him because she wore a mask too. She was also respectful of Peter, never once did she act like a jerk to him to gain his attention (she had other ways of doing that), she was always playful, teasing, and confident in who she was and what she wanted. This is the character I want a proper depiction of in the movies. The only interpretations of this character that accurately represent Mary Jane Watson other than the comics are the Into the Spider-verse movie and the Spectacular Spider-man. Zendaya would make an amazing Mary Jane, and it’s a shame that’s not who she’s playing in the MCU.

Now that I got that out of the way, my other criticism of this movie is Mysterio. I wish Quentin and Peter had more screen time together so that way it would have been more devastating when he betrayed him. Think Spider-man PS4 and what they did with Doctor Octopus, that was a great betrayal arc. I also wish that it was just Quentin, rather than unnecessary side characters who helped him become Mysterio. And that scene where he’s explaining his plan and thanking everyone who helped was dumb and unnecessary. Don’t tell me what his plan is, show me. I also think the movie would have worked better with his comic book origin instead of the Tony Stark explanation we got. Quentin Beck was a special effects artist who wanted to be an actor, he’s a selfish, self-centered person who wants fame and the spotlight by any means necessary, even if that means becoming a super villain. That would have worked just as well if not better. That being said, I would have also loved to have seen more of Mysterio, the illusions were the best part of the movie! Jake Gyllenhall did an amazing job with what he was given though. I really like the chemistry that Jake and Tom display throughout the whole film.

I didn’t like that Aunt May is okay with Peter being Spider-man either. I wish we would have had a scene where they had a conversation that we got to witness to see her reaction to what her nephew had been doing for months. He’s risking his life every day, and it doesn’t seem like she cares. She doesn’t even try to talk him out of it? What if he dies again? Wouldn’t she be partially responsible for his death because she knew and she did nothing?

Now, some other things I liked in the movie. I liked seeing Peter get angry. All we’ve seen from Peter Parker thus far is him being happy go lucky, we’ve seen him sad, and we’ve seen him frustrated and confused, but never angry. Peter Parker in the comics has very little patience and has kind of a short fuse when it comes to certain things. So, I really enjoyed seeing him get angry, not just at Mysterio for tricking him, but also at himself because he made a mistake. I liked Betty and Ned, I thought they were hilarious together. Besides that, I already talked about the Mysterio illusion parts and Peter and Quentin’s screentime. That’s all I really enjoyed about this movie.

If I had to give this movie a score, I’d probably give it a 4/10? I don’t know. It pains me to score this so low, but I feel like a five is too high. Will I buy this movie on DVD, probably.

[itsathingandyoucandoit]

Books 2018

Well this is a thing that I do now. I read 82 books this year, though that counts a lot of short books of poetry. I am currently midway through Antonio Muñoz Molina’s Like a Fading Shadow (very good so far). I have no real organizing idea for 2018 so here we go by genre. 

Novels

I finished Anna Karenina in January; as I said last year, a great lyrical realist novel. Other greats: Pnin (a re-read), Harry Mathews’s My Life in CIA (a re-read), Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy. I liked, though I did not quite know what to do with, Naipaul’s Enigma of Arrival. Also starred on my list, in roughly descending order of goodness: Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Hughes’s High Wind in Jamaica, Javier Marías’s Dark Back of Time, Jansson’s Summer Book, Donleavy’s Ginger Man, Moshfegh’s McGlue. Marilynne Robinson’s Home, after the greatness of Gilead, was a disappointment. Death in Venice (a re-read, though I first read it long ago) was also pretty meh.

Hugely hyped recent novels that did not do it for me: Ling Ma’s Severance (totally fine), Francis Spufford’s Golden Hill (again, fine, and I loved Red Plenty and wanted to love this), Andrew Greer’s Less (obviously terrible?).

I read some comic novels and remembered that it is a genre that simply does not work. Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members, Eileen Curtright’s Burned Bridges of Ward Nebraska -- both had some laughs, both unsatisfying novels. Southern & Hoffenberg’s Candy, more or less the same. I re-read Trillin’s Tepper Isn’t Going Out and, you know, it was fine. 

Poetry

I read Alice Oswald’s Memorial, which is the greatest. Also starred on my list in chronological order: Wilbur’s The Mind-Reader, Mark Waldron’s The Brand-New Dark, O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, Danez Smith’s Don’t Call Us Dead, Wallace Stevens’s The Rock, Oswald’s Falling Awake, W.C. Williams’s Asphodel, That Greeny Flower, Glück’s Faithful and Virtuous Night, A.E. Stallings’s Like. Berryman’s Dream Songs are a mess but enjoyable.

I read several volumes of Yeats that didn’t really do it for me; his high points are very high but there is a lot of hooey.

Classics & Classical Studies

See above re: Memorial. Also great was (Tyler Cowen’s book of the year) Emily Wilson’s Odyssey translation. Anne Carson’s Bakkhai didn’t do it for me but that is Euripides’s fault -- really, mine -- not Carson’s.

Richard Seaford’s Money and the Early Greek Mind is mind-bending, an absolute hoot, though speculative and you might be better off reading the first chapter and skipping the rest.

Burkert’s Homo Necans is less fun though fine.

Serious Nonfiction

I read two truly great (old) books of philosophy this year, Parfit’s Reasons and Persons (finally!) and Lakatos’s Proofs and Refutations. Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions is also a classic. Goffman’s Presentation of Self in Everyday Life can feel a little obvious but was fun.

Elaine Pagels’s The Gnostic Gospels was revelatory not so much for what the Nag Hammadi gospels contain (I feel like I am reasonably aware of the background environment of the early church) but for Pagels’s argument that religious beliefs that enable institution-building are the ones that allow a religion to survive as a church rather than die out as a sect. Sounds sort of obvious but it is a Realpolitik of religion that I just hadn’t thought about.

Very bad but famous: Manchester’s World Lit Only By Fire. He just makes stuff up! Also quite bad is Ian Bogost’s Alien Phenomenology, which was disappointing because it sounds like it should be good. I am not sure if it counts as “serious” but Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which smart people have earnestly recommended to me, is just, come on man, come on.

Business & Economics

I re-read Diary of a Very Bad Year, by Keith Gessen and a hedge fund manager known to me, which is one of the best business books even if it is not a strictly helpful guide to the financial crisis. It just conveys the feeling of working at a high level in financial markets better than any other book I know.

Also good: Adam Tooze’s Crashed, Dan Davies’s Lying for Money, Sarah Kessler’s Gigged. I finally read, and really liked, Bob Ellickson’s Order Without Law, though the first part (cattle rancher gossip) is way more fun than the second (lite game theory). Randall Wray’s Why Minsky Matters is a good introduction to Keynes, MMT and I guess Minsky. Warsh’s Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations is a weirdly soothing long intellectual history of modern economics, very worth reading. Perfectly serviceable: Bad Blood, Billion Dollar Whale, Oller’s White Shoe (which, sadly, is a history of business and politics in the early 20th century more than it is an actual institutional history of the rise of white-shoe law firms). Andrew Lo’s Adaptive Markets is weirdly bad.

Miscellaneous

I re-read Edward Gorey’s Amphigorey which is of course great. Norman Podhoretz’s Making It is a guilty pleasure, but hugely pleasurable. Simonson’s A Proper Drink is sort of a dull book but has good cocktail recipes and is a chronology/hagiography of a subculture that I am interested in, so I enjoyed it.

Plays: McDonagh’s Hangmen, Butterworth’s Jerusalem, both enjoyable but sort of strenuous.

Top 10???

1. Memorial

2. Odyssey

3. Reasons & Persons

4. Anna Karenina

5. Pnin

6. Proofs and Refutations

7. Outline / Transit / Kudos 

8. Diary of a Very Bad Year

9. My Life in CIA

10. Money and the Early Greek Mind

Of course of those only Kudos and Wilson’s Odyssey were published in 2018, and the Odyssey is not exactly a new book, so this is not a great year-end list, oh well.