Tabula Rasa lj

I don't post much about what I've been reading, but here's some quick highlights from the last fortnight:

They Hunger, by Scott Nicholson: For those wondering about the use of MySpace, I bought this novel solely because the author turned up in my friend's list, and it looked fun. It was too; I'm not entirely sure it arrived anywhere, but it was fairly trippy on the way, with lots of texture and some distinctly weird vampires.

Blaze, by Richard Bachman: This novel had its faults, and Stephen King more or less lists them in his foreword. It doesn't break a lot of new ground, but I enjoyed it a lot.

(In related news, I hear they're considering filming The Long Walk. The result should be terrifying -- even if not, this is the best of the Bachman books, for anyone wanting to give them a go.)

Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill: This had a lot of excellent stuff in it, and I can see why it has caused a stir. I do think the characterisation gets a bit sloppy at times, which is a bit sad because the detail upon which it builds is great.

(I'm not sure I blogged it at the time, but there was an article about Joe in the NY Times a while ago. The description of Stephen King's kids playing the Call of Cthulhu RPG was heart-warming. "Joe was always dungeon master. You had sanity points, and it was like, if you encountered Yog-Sothoth one too many times, you were crazy. You could only have so many adventures, and then you had to have a new character, and I thought that was brilliant.")

Hellblazer: The Red Right Hand, by Denise Mina: Denise's run on Hellblazer was a strange one. Interesting things are happening, but working out precisely what is often tricky. It gets clearer towards the end, but remains arrhythmical and odd. (DC's decision to release the trade collections out of order -- over-lapping this story with the end of Carey's run -- really didn't help.)

Crossing Midnight, by Mike Carey: I seem to be reading a lot of Carey recently, and he can juggle both street level and high-magic mythos adeptly. This comic, in which he tackles Japanese spirits, seems a bit slow to me, but has definite highlights. I'd be more tempted to buy his novels if they weren't about yet another bloody supernatural detective. Speaking of which:

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher: 100 pages in, and it hasn't really grabbed me as yet. But there are funny bits (for better or worse), and it makes an interesting comparison with the show. The actual magic is interesting, and if he can pull a coherent background out of all these unsubtle elements, he'll be doing well.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling: Yeah, I already talked about this one. On reflection, my feeling that she passed over too much stuff, in her determined drive to the final battle, has only strengthened. Hermione's big moment and the consequences of all those unforgivable curses flying about, for two.

Unsettled Places, by George Morgan. OK, this is mainly for completion, as you're probably not too interested in Aboriginal urbanisation. But I did like this quote: "While most of their male colleagues were off conducting hairy-chested feats of ethnography in remote areas, women broke the new ground of urban anthropology".

Otherwise, I can report The Fly commentary is very good thus far, and we've decided Dead Zone S4 is our next slab-o'-tv to get through.

The book is done.

Is good.

( A few brief comments, including (oblique) spoilers )

In other news, we were going to watch a movie after dinner, to catch up on our ever burgeoning DVD collection. But Kyla has finished Temeraire #1 -- she recommends it highly -- and grabbed Deathly Hallows. From the occasional strangled cries, I suspect I am alone.

Cataloguing away... Actually, the main reason I'm doing this is because my writing tutor is missing in action this week. Hopefully he will surface shortly.

Finished David Langford's The End of Harry Potter? yesterday. I thought that one would be useful for reminding myself of the myriad details without getting into into too much geeky or academic fluff, and it mostly succeeds. I already knew a lot, mostly by poking around MuggleNet or Rowling's FAQ over the years (not fan fiction, I hasten to add*) but the summary was useful.

Will Deathly Hallows itself work out? I think it will depend on her keeping on top of the detail -- which she has pretty much shown she can do -- and bringing out enough new stuff so that it's not just a matter of ticking off boxes (or horcruxes). I didn't like Half-Blood Prince so much, but it certainly shows she has a plan.

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* I should probably remind myself on occasion that fan fiction isn't just a quivering mass of interchangeable sex (ahem), but likewise I'm not sure why I would need to.

I see Greater Union has a great Contact Us page. It doesn't allow you to send your comment without choosing a sub-topic, but none of the topics available actually have sub-topics... Cuts down on the complaints, no doubt.

(Yes, I ordered some tickets on-line. Yes, I think this is an entirely stupid endeavour for most cinema screenings.

Yes, it is the movie you probably think. Sorry.)

So, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Not sure it scans real well, but it's interesting.

As for whether the book will be any good, all I have to go on is the fact I've liked the odd-numbered ones better than the even-numbers, which augers well for #7. And though I like a good tragic ending as much (and probably more) than the next guy, I don't think she'll kill Harry, all the little hints notwithstanding. (Staving off the final answer to that question before reading the ending itself will require some discipline, luck, and good security measures, I suspect.)

I drive a student I'm supervising to the station most days, and there can be some strange and wonderful conversations on the way. Yesterday I was called upon to explain the entirety of Harry Potter based on his watching the second half of Prisoner of Azkaban on telly (I've previously had to do the same with Lord of the Rings). I'm not sure I was up to the task, but it was interesting to try.

(And, just between you and me, I think the trailer for Order of the Phoenix looks pretty fine — especially those wizards zooming down the Thames outside the Houses of Parliament.)

Meanwhile, I've been in to town to my Secret Cabal meeting (my first in ages), this one in regard to creating your own Virtual Exhibition of NSW Art Gallery paintings which seems a pretty funky idea. And I'll be back again this evening for J-Horror at the Japanese film festival.

Now, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there's an unfilmable book for you. I don't think it even has a central throughline to be extracted.

After watching Prisoner of Azkaban, I said that we'd just seen the one and only good Harry Potter movie. After Goblet of Fire, I think I've now been proved right — but Mike Newell does give it a damn good try.

The problem is the same as the first two: there's just no room to breathe. The characters don't have time to come out — Fleur and Krum barely have a line each. Which is a shame because what is in there is a really good adaptation of the book (in the case of the maze, perhaps even an improvement) in that it managed to pare everything down to the essential throughline. Hermione vs Rita would have been nice (SPEW... maybe), but I don't think they missed anything essential. Whether it's possible to follow that throughline without knowing the book is debatable, but at the very least you'd have to know the first three movies really well.

So the plot's good, it just needed an extra hour or so spent upon it (here's hoping for a good DVD release!)

The movie looks fairly stylish as well, not that (to belabour the point) there was enough time to admire it. Alfonso Cuarón's vision remains the definitive Hogwarts.

What about number 5? There will be no falling back on flash bang wizardry to pull The Order of the Phoenix off, that's going to live or die on its characterisation. More death, a lot more creepiness and the politics of dissent. I'm wishing them luck.

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Meanwhile, some more random notes about Goblet: Go Neville! For all we said about characterisation, Kyla points out this is possibly to first movie in which Dumbledore actually has a character. All the kids in the audience laughed at 'piss off', which I'm not sure was the intended reaction. But I suspect more than a few had some measure of trauma by the end, for better or worse.

Now for the geekiness: of all the bits they left in, I'm curious about the veritaserum. It hardly seemed necessary to the plot, and raises all those problems about the wizarding legal procedure (Rowling has said that it's not admissable, which almost makes sense, and is certainly in keeping with that particular convoluted and hidebound culture). However, I'm wondering if its inclusion here is necessary to foreshadow book (or rather film) seven.

It should also be mentioned, if I failed to do so, that there are some really cool things therein. Go and see it y'all.

There's an interesting article on darkening children's entertainment in the SMH: A Twist in the Tale. Of course, it must be said that I'm interested for my own sake, not the kiddies. I know my nephews aren't happy at being denied the opportunity to watch Revenge of the Sith, though perhaps they will appreciate it more when they do get the chance.

Or maybe, like me, they'll think the whole movie was pretty dumb from the get-go, 'dark and emotional' regardless.

Most of there other examples don't do much for me either. Apparently I have seen Shrek, but I really don't know why (maybe I was drugged, it would explain the hazy memories). Haven't seen The Invincibles, and the case of A Series of Unfortunate Events I read the books instead (or listened to the first few, to be more accurate).

I'm not sure where Wizard People Dear Reader fits into all this, but it was interesting. It is an 'alternate soundtrack' to the first HP movie, and (it seemed to me) an attempt to recast it as a William S Burroughs story. Perhaps it didn't sustain itself through the whole thing, but it did build up momentum, and contained some very funny moments.

I haven't seen anyone talk about this, but I suspect if you have a PAL version of the movie, it won't work, due to the timing difference (the dreaded 4% speed-up). Another reason I'm happy we went for the Canadian edition. Some of the best bits in WPDR do depend upon some fairly exact correspondence between sound and picture, which is tricky enough anyway.

In the meantime, there's another interesting Herald article decrying the 'internet addiction' scare. It has some good points, but since I personally think I spend too much time on-line myself, I'll jump out now.

Dave McKean on directing Harry Potter:

"I still can't understand why nobody's realized that the 'H.P.' in 'H.P. Lovecraft' actually stands for Harry Potter! I realize there's a lot of documented evidence that suggests it might be Howard Phillips Lovecraft or something equally bank-managerish, but that's true only in the factual sense of the word. So my vote is for the ratings to go up as Harry gets older, so when he's 18, I'd let all that psycho sexual energy that's boiling away behind those prismatic portals he wears over his eyes VOMIT out into the sluices of Hogwarts. That scar in his head splits open, and all the bile and spite that's been seething away behind those endless pages of nice magicians and their nice little spells THRUSTS forth, Cthulhu-like, in fully engorged Cronenbergian ecstatic slug-fingers ... or not."

I'd watch that too.

Speaking of links, you may remember my previous attempt to link HP and Nikita. Well at least I'm not the only one. Whilst looking up the ever-charming children's show The Little Vampire on IMDB (for this discussion here) it recommended La Femme Nikita as a similar title).

I suspect this means zip (how do they come up with those recommendations anyway?), but helps raise two points. I had a friend who once told me he deplored adults dragging their childhood favourites into their own realm: psycho-sexual fairy tales, Miller's Dark Knight and America McGee's Alice for example. He reckons it degrades the original and snatches it from the hands of modern kids. There is the related problem of taking adult properties and infantilising them (Cthulhu plushes making a good example).

I don't know. It seems a bit of a false dichotomy to me, since you can find richness and depth at both ends of the spectrum. Sometimes you can preserve and enhance that by recasting it for a different audience, and sometimes you can't. Sometimes adding sex, violence and bad language can be as contrived as ignoring it in the first place. Also, this whole thing about action figures and plushes really doesn't do anything for me anyway (but, ahem).

Meanwhile, Harry Potter is pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, and doing a pretty good job of it.

Secondly, The Little Vampire joins Eagle of the Ninth as series I'd definitely buy on DVD, to see if they were as good as I remember.

...and a gaggle of visiting girls who line up like so many Madelines, only to break ranks like La Femme Nikita.
—Goblet of Fire review, NYTimes

Hogwarts as Section One (or rather, the unnamed government agency from the original movie, which I'm sure is what she's referring to, 'Madeline' notwithstanding). I'd watch that.

Well, I'm going to watch it anyway. Goblet of Fire is looking to be very cool.

We were off to Sin City tonight, but judging by the occasional giggles laughter escaping from the loungeroom, I think Harry Potter is going to win out.

And instead of further complaints, I shall turn to my mail, which had a nice set of packages today. Australian comics for a start... including something called Fantastic Australian Heroes which I bought off eBay, not sure if it was the real thing or not (Bonzer doesn't list it, and google didn't help). Turns out it is (published in Marrackville, 1982, featuring art by Hal English), so there's a rarity for the gallery. Also, Jason Paulos' Hairbutt The Hippo Funnies, which is actually published by a PoD mob out of the States (but I think we can count that, regardless). I'm wondering if it is a methodology that will take off for other titles, though it seems to me it wouldn't work for most local titles without a local printer.

We also got the Pulp Fiction 10th anniversary release, to make up for the fact we hadn't bought any previous version (and this one was cheap. In DVDs, patience often pays off, if not always).

A quick summary, before I wade into the morass I assume my email has become.

Continuum 05: Despite reminding me why I don't like cons, it was fabulous. It also reminded me I had never actually been on a panel at an SF con before (whilst sitting next to Poppy Z and staring out at about 100 people). I just sort of assumed I had, I think.

Some photos, before I put up a proper gallery:

Me on the comics panel, with Grant Stone (just me).
Richard Harland's GOH speech continues (but doesn't end well).
Kyla at the Maskobalo (plus assorted others: 1 2 3).
Pick on someone your own size!

Half-Blood Prince: Problematic and unfocused, but nonetheless worth the read. As usual, Rowling's command of huge amounts of messy detail is great, but she seems much better conveying trauma than the softer emotions, which doesn't quite work here. The scorecard reads; pointed jabs at the coalition of the willing: several; Bewitched reference: only in my fevered little brain.

Geckoed from far too many people, a meme.

1. Total number of books I've owned:

Dunno. I do know I have 104 so-called Stephen King collectibles (which includes magazines and a car, and not the magazines I bought part-way through this meme), and 76 other tomes have also made it into my catalogue. I'd guess maybe 2000 all up, quasily arranged in all sorts of odd categories including 'weird medical references', bibles, Australian 'non-collectible' fiction (my definiton of collectible is somewhat broad), a veritable travel section, RPG books, RPG novels, a 1980s Britannica, my floating books of baby names, and more.

(Hmmm, I just noticed the question is asking about ones I used to own as well. There's probably a few hundred extra of them. Many were the Doctor Who books I sold a while ago (and then there are the ones that when missing...) Also, it should be noted the above refers to the accumulation of kylaw since we did merge and discard (some) duplicates, and we do shed some just by the by.)

2. The last book I bought:

The last book I received was in the post this evening, being a 1st edition Shining, plus a softcover Misery bought for esoteric reasons. The last one I paid for was a spiffy yet cheap Everything's Eventual. The last one I actually went into a shop and bought was Peter Carey's The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, at lunch today. (I also just received a whole heap of Aussie comics from Phase Two Comics, but that's a whole other topic.)

3. The last book I read:

That would be Leviathan 4: Cities, edited by Forrest Aguirre -- though it may not count considering I gave up on two of the stories (don't worry Ben, neither was yours). I'm currently reading, oh, let's see: The Raft, by Alan Mills, Daikaiju! by Hood & Pen, Black Juice by Margo Lanagan and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

I sort of answered this a short while ago, by pointing to this list: 10 Great Books. As I said at the time, it's a pretty old list, and you could take that answer to be a indication of the ennui and directionlessness I have found myself in of late. Or not. However, here are five great books I've read since:

Permutation City, by Greg Egan. There are few books that have engaged the programmer in me, and this is not only incredibly clever, but also emotionally engaging and often quite nasty. Greg Egan gets a bad rap when it's said he can only write hard science.

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden: I only got into this series after the last book came out, and then read them very quickly. It belongs to that category of young adult novels which has a emotional sweep comparable to many adult novels -- though since I read very little YA, it's a small category. Some of Christopher Pike's work also fits.

The Etched City by KJ Bishop: Yep, it's very good. I think structurally it could be improved, but it is nonetheless the best I've read in the so-called movement (though I can't complain about Perdido St Station, and I should undoubtedly get back to City of Saints and Madmen now I have more time than when I started it).

Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King. Although Steve did some fine stuff in the Dark Tower conclusion (and also missed some opportunities, I think), I reckon Hearts in Atlantis is his best book from the last decade, with a series of stories revolving around the hope and ultimate betrayal of the 1960s. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was also great (whilst the movie adaptation of Hearts in Atlantis didn't have a clue).

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by JK Rowling. I'd be lying if I didn't include this, though I know many here would look at it askance (to be polite). I also came into this series late, avoiding it for some 4 years, I think (so no first editions for me) but when I succumbed, I certainly did. They're exciting and clever and fun, with a dark undercurrent that has only gotten darker and creepier as the series has progressed.

It seems an unadventurous list, and I can't imagine I've converted anyone to anything (not that I even try any more), but there you have it. Oscar and Lucinda was going to be included, but didn't quite fit. I'm sure that sitting out there is the book that will reignite the excitement of the my reading (roleplaying/whatever) of the 90s, and with luck it might even be in the current voluminous 'to read' pile.

5. Tag five people and have them fill this out in their Ljs...

Nope. Oh, OK.

jack_ryder
jblum
jnassise (hi)
kateorman
shellshear

Apparently Kyla's ad debuted in Melbourne this week. We're not sure where, or what the final image looks like, but it's for Connex, is apparently in print media, and features her looking like a librarian (most likely unflatteringly).

Speaking of the city, we'll be down there for Continuum 3 in July, to see Neil, Poppy, Richard and anyone else we stumble across (not forgetting the nephews, of course).

Hmmm. I wonder if the sudden appearance of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the second day of the con was cause much chaos. Was it the Melbourne WorldCon where I saw panellists reading Order of the Phoenix on stage? It's all a blur.

We watched Alien Resurrection last night, to see if it had improved with age. The verdict being: not in the slightest. What a mishmash of style, theme and plot. They were presumably aiming for the sort of edgy whimsy which worked so well in Delicatessan and City of Lost Children, but ended up with tedium instead.

I know Joss Whedon passes the blame on to the rewrites, which may or may not be so (I'll leave that to someone who's read the original screenplay, which the recent release handily provides in a mostly unreadable format). I'm having trouble seeing how the elements could have worked, whatever their configration. It was full of characters who were so full of themselves they just didn't care about the aliens, and lots of self-consciously clever bits that were undermined by the vacuum of the background setting (three hours to Earth; an apparent lack of anyone else in the universe; a robot revolution that was so recent that Winona could access files on the mercenaries' mission, but which everyone has nonetheless forgotten, etc, etc)

There are some good bits -- mostly Ripley. Winona's character has potential she never quite achieved. But the movie's main sin was it forgot to make the aliens scary, and was thus rendered pointless.

(It also makes me reconsider my disappointment that Jeunet didn't accept the offer to direct Harry Potter #5. I think he could have done wonders with earlier movies, but I don't think Order of the Phoenix is quite the place for him.)

Careful analysis of yesterday's post may lead you to wonder how this fits in with my need for a productive week. Alas, watching the movie was an acknowledgement that I'm not going to write a giant monster story for Rob Hood's Daikaiju anthology. It will just have to be splendid without me (something I suspect it will have no trouble doing). I still have to keep my players (and maybe even myself) happy on the weekend, but I think that's in hand.

Harry haters, avert thine eyes.

This only got an honourable mention in the short list of the Half Blood Prince book cover competition, over at mugglenet. Which is probably good -- I suspect if they allowed people to vote for it, it would win by dint of splitting the opposition.

But this one is pretty funky.

Well, this is either a still from the new Harry Potter movie, or The Crow has a new-found love of pink sweaters.

We had our demonstration of my application this morning at work, for a small but select audience including the head of Corporate. As is the way of the universe, the first bug, which I'd never seen before, appeared in about 3 minutes. Something that worked yesterday didn't...

but overall it went pretty well.