media round-up

[sideways]

It is getting dangerously close to a year since my last media round-up, so knocking out a few highlights.

• On the back of my mother's hands-clasped "please please you'll love it" begging I read Project Hail Mary over Christmas, and subsequently watched the movie during Easter. And I did really like it! It confirmed my suspicion that Andy Weir is not actually a very good writer - a suspicion then sealed in stone when he opened his big yap and honked out some downright comically blinkered views on the place of politics in sci-fi - but a good amount of charm battled through despite his best efforts.

• I sort of discovered I could acquire more anime DVDs than I even knew existed via eBay and, well... proud to say I now have my own copies of Wolf's Rain, Baccano, Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor, and Gundam 00. This last in particular was such a trip down ol' nostalgia lane it was a little overwhelming. "I'm looking forward to finding out whether this had as many interesting political points to make as I thought or whether I was just nineteen," I commented to some friends, and the answer turned out to be "yes".

• Also watched Paprika on Vesper's recommendation, and wow! Always delightful to experience a story that really gets dream logic. I had Paprika Parade on repeat for days afterwards.

• We also had a crack at Reanimal, in which the real villain was my GOD-AWFUL internet connection that caused me to drop out every half hour or so. The game has a very strong aesthetic atmosphere and some truly wonderful and spooky moments, but it's a bit short for the price-tag and I hold that it would have benefited from some tighter thematic editing. So it goes! I'm still interested to see what Tarsier does next.

• Lane and I have reunited to tackle Divinity: Original Sin: The First One: It's Origining time. I like to think my grasp of tactics has improved since I was last setting my own head on fire with distressing regularity, but Lane may disagree. We've so far made it past the first act and notable incidents include sort of unnecessarily murdering a couple of NPCs right out the gate, wheeze-laughing every time the companion with the dreadful southern accent utters the word "comrade", and slaughtering our way through a very long succession of goblins before realising there was probably an easier way to do this.

• Managed a strong start to the book-reading front this year. Our Wives Under the Sea was gorgeously written but a little thin on actual meat for my tastes; it felt like a short story stretched out to its very limits. The Lathe of Heaven was a hell of a ride; what I would have considered the ultimate chilling conclusion happened somewhere around the middle, leaving me with no choice but to follow along blindly into what happened next. The City of Last Chances was simply a slog; I clawed my way out the other end and do not intend to return.

Comments

[pauraque]

"Wild ride" wasn't usually Le Guin's style, but she sure made an exception for The Lathe of Heaven. It's really interesting how different it is from a lot of her books, while still hitting many of her favorite themes.

[sideways]

Oh interesting! I've only read Lathe and Left Hand so far (and Omelas, of course) so I don't know that I have an accurate measure of what's usual for her, haha.

[elperian]

Glad you liked Project Hail Mary! Did you ever read Weir's second book, Artemis? It's my favorite and features a lady smuggler on the moon :D

[sideways]

At the risk of being brutally honest... I just don't think I like Weir's writing style enough to pursue more of his books X3 C'est la vie. Hell yeah for lady moon smugglers though! Have you been following the RL Artemis mission?

[elperian]

Have you been following the RL Artemis mission?

Oh, absolutely! Every step of the way! I'm having a blast :D

[atamascolily]

I really love the Paprika opening!! I need to rewatch that movie and find the right song for a fanvid, too.

(also yay DVDs and physical media!!)

[sideways]

It's SO charming! And ooh yes I'd watch the hell out of a fanvid. What WOULD be a good song... Depends how you want to cut it, I suppose. Never Look Away by Vienna Teng? Drown Me by Junie & The Hut Friends? Afternoon Amnesiac by Winter People? Recurring Dream by Crowded House?

[atamascolily]

Okay! I'll take a listen and see what inspiration strikes! The nice part of movie fanvids is that there isn't as much material to sort through compared to long-running seris, so as long as I have a good idea of what I want to do, it goes pretty quickly.

[hokuton_punch]

Ahhhhh, The Lathe of Heaven is one of my favorite Le Guins! I'm glad you enjoyed it - it's so surreal and fascinating and makes for interesting crossovers/fusions...

[sideways]

It was definitely trippy! And fusions in what way - imagining people with dream powers, or imagining dream powers combining universes?

[hokuton_punch]

Either/both! ... admittedly I have only written two, but I like imagining some characters meeting George Orr and how they'd react to him. And while it would probably horrify Le Guin, Orr's dream powers could intersect very interestingly with Jjaro technology/the way the security officer changes timelines via dream levels in Marathon: Infinity...

[merit]

Paprika was such a wild trip. Such amazing, vivid, energetic animation!

[sideways]

The animation was SO nice. The detail in the parade alone is just, good lord, the dedication.

[i_wish_to_remain_nameless]

Yeah, The Lathe of Heaven just kind of keeps going doesn't it? I think that I know exactly the point that you're talking about in this post and there's several other points after that where I thought "okay surely this is the last big thing that's going to happen" and then things just kept happening.
I honestly didn't really mind though since I did like how thoroughly it explored its premise.

[sideways]

Absolutely not a complaint that it kept going - I was very impressed by that thoroughness. Always fun when a story "yep, that big obvious event happens... but what happens next?"