Caitlín R. Kiernan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greygirlbeast) wrote2010-07-08 12:49 pm
greygirlbeast) wrote2010-07-08 12:49 pm
"There's a dark time; this is a dark life."
My last entry before Readercon 21.
The past two days have been hell here in Providence. The temperature hit 101F on Tuesday (a record for the date), and wasn't much better yesterday. We've had to stay out of the House as much as possible, trying to stay cool. It is an old house, this House, and it is made to hold in heat in cold winters. It also holds it in during summers. Which is usually okay, unless we get these heatwaves. Dr. Muñoz could not even begin to keep up. Yesterday, it was 93F in the cool part of the House for much of the day. But last night the fever broke, and we have a reprieve until sometime next week, when the heat is supposed to return. At least we get three nights of AC at the hotel.
Here's an update regarding The Ammonite Violin & Others: The book came back from the printer, but there was a problem with the dust jackets, so subpress had to send the books back to the printer to have the dust jackets redone. This has created a delay in shipment of the books to those who've preordered them. This part is fairly straightforward and has not caused me to gnash my teeth. However, Amazon.com, in it's infinite lack of wisdom, sent out email to those who preordered via Amazon, stating that the book was "out of stock," and asking people if they wished to cancel their orders. Apparently, from what I've been told (and my information may be in error), Amazon will cancel the preorder unless you reply to this email, telling them not to do so. None of it makes much sense to me. The books have not shipped from the publisher, so there's no way they can be "out of stock" at Amazon, given they've not yet been in stock at Amazon. Also, I heard a rumor the book was sold out, and that's not true, either. Only the limited edition is sold out (and it has been for months). As to when you can expect to get your copy, Bill at subpress says, "Ammonite should be done next Monday or Tuesday, when they've been rejacketed."
So. Apologies for the delay, but the books should go out in another couple of weeks, I'd think (regardless of what Amazon might say to the contrary). This is one reason it's always a good thing to order directly from subpress.
---
The heat has been so bad I didn't even make the hair appointment on Tuesday, so everyone who makes Readercon will be blessed with the sight of my shaggy greying mop. Maybe this will spur me to just let it grow out, and accept the grey. Which is something I should have done years ago.
My thanks to Geoffrey (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
readingthedark), who made the drive down from Framingham on Monday evening. It was good to have company and conversation.
Tuesday, trying to escape the heat, we headed for the theater. We took in two matinées. First, M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender and then Lee Unkrich's Toy Story 3. The latter is probably one of the best films of the summer. The former, alas, is not. But it also wasn't even half as awful as most of the critics are making it out to be. The plot was not "incomprehensible," for example. The plot was very simple and straightforward. The Last Airbender is a painfully mediocre movie, that's true, and I do not expect painfully mediocre movies from Shyamalan. I know this cuts against the grain, how it's been cool to hate Shyamalan since...I don't know...since at least Signals, but I have adored all of his films except the also painfully mediocre The Happening (2008). As for The Last Airbender, I thought it was a gorgeous film, and, as a children's film, it worked in a sloppy sort of way. I even enjoyed the last third quite a bit. But yeah, the acting was consistently stiff and heavy-handed (even with people like Cliff Curtis, who I know can act), which likely means the direction was off. The screenplay was flat and unremarkable. As for the charges that the casting is racist, again, I don't see a problem of the magnitude reviewers have indicated. I noticed only three white actors cast in roles that seemed to require non-white actors (admittedly, two of these were main characters): Nicola Peltz (Katara), Jackson Rathbone (Sokka), and Katharine Houghton (Katara's grandmother). How you get three Caucasians in a village full of people who seem to be Inuit, I don't know. Yes, the roles were inexplicably miscast, but when almost everyone else in the film isn't white, I hardly see how this qualifies as a massive "racefail" (gods, I hate that silly compounderation). The Last Airbender isn't a particularly good film, and it's a strange move for Shyamalan, who I would think would be trying to get back on track with the sorts of film's he does best. But it's also not nearly as bad as I'd expected it to be. Then again, I never cared for the animated series. Maybe my reaction would have been different if I were a fan.
Also, can we all please stop with the idiotic 3-D soon?
I'd say more, but it's beginning to get hot in the office, so I'm going to wrap this up. Perhaps I'll see you this weekend at Readercon. Perhaps I won't. No, I won't be twatting from the con. I will be unplugged. Next entry, Monday morning.
The past two days have been hell here in Providence. The temperature hit 101F on Tuesday (a record for the date), and wasn't much better yesterday. We've had to stay out of the House as much as possible, trying to stay cool. It is an old house, this House, and it is made to hold in heat in cold winters. It also holds it in during summers. Which is usually okay, unless we get these heatwaves. Dr. Muñoz could not even begin to keep up. Yesterday, it was 93F in the cool part of the House for much of the day. But last night the fever broke, and we have a reprieve until sometime next week, when the heat is supposed to return. At least we get three nights of AC at the hotel.
Here's an update regarding The Ammonite Violin & Others: The book came back from the printer, but there was a problem with the dust jackets, so subpress had to send the books back to the printer to have the dust jackets redone. This has created a delay in shipment of the books to those who've preordered them. This part is fairly straightforward and has not caused me to gnash my teeth. However, Amazon.com, in it's infinite lack of wisdom, sent out email to those who preordered via Amazon, stating that the book was "out of stock," and asking people if they wished to cancel their orders. Apparently, from what I've been told (and my information may be in error), Amazon will cancel the preorder unless you reply to this email, telling them not to do so. None of it makes much sense to me. The books have not shipped from the publisher, so there's no way they can be "out of stock" at Amazon, given they've not yet been in stock at Amazon. Also, I heard a rumor the book was sold out, and that's not true, either. Only the limited edition is sold out (and it has been for months). As to when you can expect to get your copy, Bill at subpress says, "Ammonite should be done next Monday or Tuesday, when they've been rejacketed."
So. Apologies for the delay, but the books should go out in another couple of weeks, I'd think (regardless of what Amazon might say to the contrary). This is one reason it's always a good thing to order directly from subpress.
---
The heat has been so bad I didn't even make the hair appointment on Tuesday, so everyone who makes Readercon will be blessed with the sight of my shaggy greying mop. Maybe this will spur me to just let it grow out, and accept the grey. Which is something I should have done years ago.
My thanks to Geoffrey (
readingthedark), who made the drive down from Framingham on Monday evening. It was good to have company and conversation.Tuesday, trying to escape the heat, we headed for the theater. We took in two matinées. First, M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender and then Lee Unkrich's Toy Story 3. The latter is probably one of the best films of the summer. The former, alas, is not. But it also wasn't even half as awful as most of the critics are making it out to be. The plot was not "incomprehensible," for example. The plot was very simple and straightforward. The Last Airbender is a painfully mediocre movie, that's true, and I do not expect painfully mediocre movies from Shyamalan. I know this cuts against the grain, how it's been cool to hate Shyamalan since...I don't know...since at least Signals, but I have adored all of his films except the also painfully mediocre The Happening (2008). As for The Last Airbender, I thought it was a gorgeous film, and, as a children's film, it worked in a sloppy sort of way. I even enjoyed the last third quite a bit. But yeah, the acting was consistently stiff and heavy-handed (even with people like Cliff Curtis, who I know can act), which likely means the direction was off. The screenplay was flat and unremarkable. As for the charges that the casting is racist, again, I don't see a problem of the magnitude reviewers have indicated. I noticed only three white actors cast in roles that seemed to require non-white actors (admittedly, two of these were main characters): Nicola Peltz (Katara), Jackson Rathbone (Sokka), and Katharine Houghton (Katara's grandmother). How you get three Caucasians in a village full of people who seem to be Inuit, I don't know. Yes, the roles were inexplicably miscast, but when almost everyone else in the film isn't white, I hardly see how this qualifies as a massive "racefail" (gods, I hate that silly compounderation). The Last Airbender isn't a particularly good film, and it's a strange move for Shyamalan, who I would think would be trying to get back on track with the sorts of film's he does best. But it's also not nearly as bad as I'd expected it to be. Then again, I never cared for the animated series. Maybe my reaction would have been different if I were a fan.
Also, can we all please stop with the idiotic 3-D soon?
I'd say more, but it's beginning to get hot in the office, so I'm going to wrap this up. Perhaps I'll see you this weekend at Readercon. Perhaps I won't. No, I won't be twatting from the con. I will be unplugged. Next entry, Monday morning.
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Sounds about right.
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But sadly yes what a botched job. This could have been so much more and wasn't.
I have to say the miscasting bothered me. It wasn't so much the race thing, though that didn't help, it was that most of the casting was so thoroughly wrong. Whether or not you were a fan of the show you have to admit that it had a definite flavor to it. Shyamalan seems to have missed, or more likely, chosen to ignore this. That is where he fails. He has messed with the chemistry to much. Producing something that feels alien and hollow to the fan base this movie was made for.
Don't get me started on the dialog and the acting either. ugh...
Sounds like I should see Toy Story 3 though.
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Hence I said "animated series."
It wasn't so much the race thing, though that didn't help, it was that most of the casting was so thoroughly wrong.
I thought Aang worked, but that was about it.
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I agree Aang was the only one who was close. It was probably the writing more than anything that spoiled that role. Aang is still a kid in the show and acts accordingly. That joy and innocence was completely lost in the movie. This is going to completely destroy the 'hero's journey' Aang is on. A great deal of the plot in the show is about growing up and Aang in the movie already acts like a middle aged man.
Oh and one thing that really disappointed me was the omission of Katara's struggle against sexism. In the original story line she has to fight to be accepted as a water bending student. Girls are not normally accepted for training. This was an important part of her characters development early on. Removing it leaves the character quite flat.
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Aang in the movie already acts like a middle aged man.
I didn't think so, but....
Oh and one thing that really disappointed me was the omission of Katara's struggle against sexism. In the original story line she has to fight to be accepted as a water bending student. Girls are not normally accepted for training. This was an important part of her characters development early on.
Well, we did see that she'd been discouraged from bending. I expect this is one those things that happens because story has to be trimmed for movies (often at the cost of necessary character development).
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The animated series is an American product, not redubbed from Japan. The movie is supposed to be based on the series. Shyamalan claimed to be a fan. But, among other errors (some of which are certainly the normal fan reaction of "not the movie we wanted to see"), the movie changes the pronunciation of main character names? That's hard to explain.
(Edit: apologies to the above poster, who's right, but at least I use "anime" for animated and "manga" for drawn? oh well, not much of an "at least"...)
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If you love the Airbender anime, the movie is abominable. If you don’t care, the movie is merely “very bad.” (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/02/the-last-airbender-may-be-the-last-shyamalan/)
But it's okay, we weren't blaming you!
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3D varies so much, it's hard to tell whether to deliberately see a non-3D version. In "Last Airbender" it was also a post-production addition, and extra-bad accordingly. But I'd heard that it fit better in "Toy Story 3"? Or did you still find it bad there?
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I would hope, and even expect, that people who preordered the book would care enough (and be intelligent enough) to read Amazon's email closely enough to keep their order from being canceled.
Indeed.
3D varies so much, it's hard to tell whether to deliberately see a non-3D version. In "Last Airbender" it was also a post-production addition, and extra-bad accordingly. But I'd heard that it fit better in "Toy Story 3"? Or did you still find it bad there?
I cannot actually see 3-D, as I have no vision in my left eye. However, the way that cinematography gets skewed for movies that are intentionally 3-D, with all those things jumping out of the screen at you shots, it ruins films. 3-D is antithetical to good movie making. It didn't seem to hurt Toy Story too badly (though you could spot the gimmick shots).
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Hope you have a good time at the con, and the AC stays happy.
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Yeah. I should have said, my hair's not so much gone grey, as it's gone white.
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Thanks for the update on The Ammonite Violin, I was beginning to wonder what was up. Have fun at Readercon, I wish I was going.
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I wouldn't sweat the preorder/Amazon business. The people who were interested enough to preorder are, I'm willing to bet, less drooling jerks than Amazon are. They're not going to get spooked off and not buy the book because of Amazon's asshattery.
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And they used the original pronuciations of their names instead of the show's.
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Also, I wonder how much writing/rewriting he did this time; he usually rewrites a lot (it wasn't until the 10th draft of The Sixth Sense that he realized what was really up with Dr. Crowe, and he wrote more drafts after that). You might find interesting the book The Man Who Heard Voices: How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career On a Fairy Tale. It's about his process making Lady in the Water, which he also rewrote like mad before he shot it (and re-edited after a lot of people close to him had to tell him that they "didn't get it" at first). Reasonably detailed portrait of what Shyamalan is like, too. I reviewed it (http://chris-walsh.livejournal.com/710321.html).
I'm trying to have thoughts related to people's massively negative reactions to the casting, but I think I'd just start ranting. It bothers me that it seems that Shyamalan did try to be careful about casting (http://www.cinematical.com/2010/06/28/shyamalan-rants-about-airbender-and-racism/) (he's mentioned that he has enough clout to cast who he wants -- here is a more thorough transcript of what he said on the casting (http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/news/m-night-shyamalan-in-his-own-words-on-the-last-airbender-race-controversy-250610)), and he was casting with an eye to how he'd also cast a second and third film if they ever happen (that's his plan at least (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1643066/20100706/story.jhtml)), and still people got mad. It's like many people are saying, You didn't try hard enough! And I can get the annoyance that the hero is once again white and the villain once again isn't; I can sort of understand the reaction of Even someone not-white defaults to a white hero! But oy, this makes me tired. Welcome to America's favorite game, You Can't Win.
More trivia: Shyamalan originally pictured Cole from The Sixth Sense as being of Indian descent, but changed his mind because he felt Haley Joel Osment was the strongest of the kid actors he saw. (Are people going to get retroactively mad at him for that?)
hair! and amazon email...
"Hello from Amazon.com.
We're writing about the order you placed on April 15 2010. Unfortunately, we are unable to ship the item(s) as soon as we expected and need to provide you with a new estimate of when the item(s) may be delivered:
Caitlin R. Kiernan "The Ammonite Violin & Others"
Estimated arrival date: July 15 2010 - July 20 2010
We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this delay.
*****
WHY WAS MY ORDER DELAYED?
While we do our best to adhere to our delivery estimates, our inventory is constantly changing based on information we receive directly from our suppliers. Occasionally, unexpected fluctuations in supply, delays during shipping, or changes in release dates for new products will add time to our original delivery estimate."
...Also, just saying, as someone who has wanted white hair ever since she was a little girl and envied Amalthea in Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Unicorn," I say let the hair be awesome and grow it out :)