#sheer homophobia to remove it from netflix

[efadefoks]

normal people, watching for the 1st time: oh this is such a sad scene

me, deranged, traumatized by 17th rewatch: omg they are so beautiful here

[astramachina]

For those of you who've been following me for a while now, there's a good chance you got to experience my journey reading the Remembrance of Earth's Past series last year. I loved Three-Body Problem, but The Dark Forest and Death's End were like pulling teeth. Both books had their very very good moments, but getting through them was a tedious experience I considered giving up on on multiple occasions. I will give it to Cixin Liu tho, I needed to know how the series ended and that alone was the sole reason I pushed towards the finish line. Any author that can make me tough out bad writing for the sake of seeing the end deserves some kind of award (and he won a ton anyway, so).

I approached the Netflix series with zero expectations given their propensity for shitty adaptations (One Piece notwithstanding), but after watching the first episode I was left cautiously optimistic.

Having watched all 8 episode I'm still unsure how to feel about it. I spent most of the series hitting pause to rant at my roommate about it, both positively and negatively.

I had many issues with the books, but some of the more obvious ones came from a writing standpoint. I love hard sci-fi. I could not excuse the sheer length of those final two books. The atrocious treatment of women as objects to romance and use as bartering for the main character. The abysmal MCs (specifically Luo Ji) that made me want to yell to the high heavens due to annoying they were. The lack of human connection between characters.

For books so steeped in sociopolitical and ethical commentaries, the flagrant misogyny and homophobia was eye-rolling. And not even in a "This is Bad" sort of way, just in a "This is So Fucking Boring" kind of way. I cannot speak for the author's biases, because the contents of a book in no way reflects the views of an author or their character.

Where the books shone the brightest were during the battle scenes, the looming dread, genuinely horrific thought experiments.

And, surprisingly? It feels like the people at Netflix thought the same.

I've never watched Game of Thrones but I understood why people were against it from the get-go. That, along with the whole "whitewashing" thing which I consider to be interesting. For starters, you're using whitewashed wrong. Yes, they moved the central story from China to England which was... a fascinating choice, but of the core five (that quickly became the core four), only two of them are white. I'm not saying it was okay for a western adaptation to take a cast and further diversify it, I'm just saying that that's not whitewashing.

That aside, I did like some of the choices that were made from a narrative standpoint. Reshuffling and streamlining events, for one. Removing the whole plot line about Luo Ji hunting down a woman who he invented in his head in order to marry her? I'm not entirely sold on the idea of taking core events and divvying them up between four different people, but I do understand what they're trying to do.

The book series failed at crafting believable and impactful relationships between its human characters, which made the narrative feel hollow and one-dimensional. This adaptation aimed to change this by slapping a band-aid over the issue. Like I said, I'm still unsure of how I feel about this.

A lot of unnecessary stuffing was removed to make a suitable run time, and I say unnecessary because there's really no scenes that are making me go "oh, I wish this had been included". Was some stuff rushed? Yes. The passage of time could have been outlined a little better, but that's a small nitpick on my end.

The scale of things was toned down, and I don't think Netflix has the capability (or budget) to tackle space battles.

Honestly? I don't really see this getting a second season for a variety of reasons, and I'd be okay with that.

It was an "okay" watch, in the end.

Tho, I'm still flabbergasted by the random "gory scary jumpscare" scenes????? Where did those come from??? I don't remember anything like that being in the books but, you know. I've read a lot more books since finishing these, so.

[bellarosestudyblr]

Anne of the Island - L.M. Montgomery

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This was the 111th book I read this year, and the third in the Anne of Green Gables series. I read the previous two books earlier in the year, as well as Montgomery’s lesser known work, Emily of New Moon.

Montgomery’s books always leave me wanting more. Anne only seemed to be a child for a short time, before growing up, studying and becoming an adult far removed from the whimsical and unconventional child she was in the first book. In this foray we follow Anne as she attends a four-year college to achieve a BA degree. In a mere 220 pages, we cover four years of Anne’s life. Anne completes her degree; makes friends and moves into a home with them, recieves five marriage proposals, sees Diana marry, and returns home multiple times for visits. This book, at times, felt like a short overview of a larger work, or a series of tableaus, rather than a novel in itself. Interestingly, there are few mentions of Anne studying and we do not see her attend classes.

At times, everything felt far too convenient. Anne and Gilbert are both awarded top grades and scholarships, Anne gets her short stories published to critical acclaim, Anne manages to secure her dream apartment on the richest street in the city despite having little money, and Gilbert’s love affair that sees Anne jealous for much of the book is revealed to be a performative hoax so they may end up happily engaged by the end of it.

Another issue I had is Anne and Marilla’s neglect of Dora while Davey recieves all the attention. I understand Dora exists merely to juxtapose Davey’s bad behaviour with her own angelic personality, but it becomes tiresome. While Anne sees much of herself in Davey’s sheer disregard for societal convention, his questioning nature, and his perchant for getting himself into trouble, I do not believe she would push Dora away as she does, given her own history of neglect and abuse.

This brings me to my final point: Anne’s out-of-character behaviour. Anne, the girl who made friends with flowers and trees, and who named a lake because it was beautiful, is now happy to kill an innocent cat because it’s presence in the house becomes annoying. This marked a change in Anne, from the free-spirited young girl we first met, to an adult who secures a sensible job teaching, ensures her adopted siblings behave in a way that is proper, and rejects small and insignificant things — like that cat — that she would have once adored and doted on.

Irregardless of my criticism, I still want to know what becomes of Anne, so I will continue with the series.

Over the years, many film adaptations of Anne of Green Gables have been made. One recent example is Anne with an E a joint CBC and Netflix venture. I watched and enjoyed this series, despite the deviation from the source material. I believe these changes were made to appeal to, and educate, a modern day audience. Topics like racism, indigenous integration schools and homophobia that are not present in the book, are discussed in the series at length. Anne argues against discrimination and points out the ridiculousness of judging others based on skin colour or orientation, and thus shows her willingness to go against the grain to support what she feels is right, irregardless of what others may think of her. So while the issues Anne faces are different in the series, fundamentally, she remains the same character Montgomery developed a century ago.

A few interesting facts:

Emily of New Moon was developed after Montgomery entered a lengthy battle over withheld royalties from the Anne series, with her previous publishing company, L.C. Page & Company. Emily was to replace Anne, and hence they are similar characters and similar stories. Louis Page, the owner and known menace of the company, defrauded Montgomery out of thousands, taking all but 7cents in the dollar for every Anne book that was sold. Believing she would back down rather than go head to head against a millionaire in court, Page was astonished when Montgomery did not. The courts eventually sided with Montgomery, but Page continued an unsuccessful smear campaign against her until his death. Seeing how terrible a man he was, no one wanted to publish with him. He eventually lost all his clients, and his business. Montgomery waited over ten years, but she stood up for what she was rightfully owed and eventually received her money.

Montgomery was a prolific writer, publishing 20 novels, a biography, a collection of poetry and over 500 short stories during her lifetime. Often drawing from her own experiences. She said Emily was the character most similar to herself.