The Storyrain Blog

No spoilers beyond what you get in a preview or blurb.

Snowpiercer
I saw Snowpiercer with an excited crowd of Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow attendees. We’d all ridden on the Hill Country Flyer steam train (I was in the Silver Pine car and my seat mates turned out to be very fun young women, one of them friends with Genevieve Valentine, whose new book I actually happened to be reading at the time, more about, below*) to the screening site in Burnet.

One of the coolest things about seeing the movie this way, besides the very gracious, funny, and informative presence of director Bong Joon Ho for Q&A, was the way the outdoors managed to augment the film at key moments, with a brief cooling and rise of the wind, a well-timed blowing of train horn, the arc of stars above as the night darkened.

As for the movie, despite the presence of some fairly large and hard to swallow world building and narrative leaps, I very much enjoyed it and was thoroughly engaged throughout. The world of the train is fantastic, and the performances are all around extremely fine--the presence of the two main protagonists from The Host very welcome. The entitled vs. marginalized/have vs. have-nots/grueling struggle with violent, psychopathic social injustice embodied in the film is one that easily finds traction for me, but it’s also one I think Bong Joon Ho dramatizes to devastating effect.


*The Girls at the Kingfisher Club
Very much enjoyed this, and read it compulsively fast. The Twelve Princesses is beautifully transposed to prohibition era New York. It's one of the more compelling fairy tale on its own, but The Girls at the Kingfisher Club makes something much darker, realer, and emotionally truthful of it. It rings true the way the best fairy tales do, while also being historical fiction with a PBS/BBC-like quality costume drama factor.


Child of a Hidden Sea
Just out, this is the first book in A.M. Dellamonica’s Stormwrack series, a very different feeling kind of portal fantasy set, largely, in an age-of-sail world somewhat like ours might be, someday--but then again, not. The world building, on an environmental, natural world scale, is phenomenal, detailed, and endlessly interesting; the magic system, deeply entwined with an equally complex and well-articulated legal system, reveals a great deal about the world and the many cultures inhabiting it. There’s swashbuckling adventure, moral quandaries, and a lot of fun.

(Full disclosure, the author is one of my dearest friends, and I read early drafts of this book, and the next in the series, a while back. The world and its characters have stayed with me, vivid and loved.) 

...Witchhunters! So, I went to see a matinee of this yesterday at the Ritz (a nice 35 minute walk from my loft). No, of course, it's not a good movie (I'd say it isn't aiming for good). It's tongue-in-cheek, silly, over-the-top gory, ridiculous. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Exactly the escapism I was looking for. Cause it's also Gemma Atherton and Jeremy the arms Renner being sweetly profane and lovely while kicking ridiculous evil witch ass in the woods. It's forming a little alternative family of witch hunters ridiculous. It's fun. The jokes aren't subtle, but they're delivered in good humor. Did I mention the arms? And the pretty? And Gemma Atherton kicking ass but being also kind and compassionate? 

For me, the very definition of popcorn movie. (For the record, though, I had a salt caramel milkshake.) 

A brief word on the first installment of The Hobbit, in response to the negative reviews...look, it was never going to be minimalist, lean and mean, with a modern, post-modern, or post-post-modern sensibility or edge. It's not urban fantasy. It's old school, epic, nature fantasy. And it's a little more whimsical and unironic than even the Lord of the Rings trilogy, because it's set in an earlier Middle Earth, when the return of the great darkness is only a rumor and a rumble and dead hedgehogs in the wood. While it's not strictly true to the source material of the book, it's quite true to the spirit of epic nature-based fantasy, and to the the world created by Jackson's first three films. If you're not the type to like overlarge speedy rabbits pulling sleds or giant eagles or dwarf singing, well, it's not a movie for you.

Personally, despite the length, I was enjoying Jackson's Middle Earth, and the characters, so much, that as I felt the end approaching I wished it would go on. Old school nature fantasy--and Tolkein--is long-winded and full of rich detail. In this case, the detail and rambling voice are worth it, because they're full of heart and sap. I'll gladly sit through another bunch of hours of adventures there.

For the record, I don't lack critical faculty; I sighed all the way through The Phantom Menace--it was a mess, and pointless, and did not succeed as the epic, thrilling science fantasy adventure it set out to be. Ditto Prometheus. But The Hobbit is not that kind of mess; it succeeds at what it set out to be quite admirably--and beautifully. It's just that what it set out to be is not everyone's cup of tea. It's not based on a Raymond Carver story, people. It's not the least bit interested in being modern or minimalist or edgy and ironic.

I may see it again.

First, sale! Pleased to say that my story "Boneshadow" will appear in the second issue of the very cool Phantom Drift.
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Second, more stuff about the Avengers...this pair of articles looks at the treatment of Black Widow in both the movie and by major critics in their reviews of it.

This article is just right on the money.

This one has some interesting points (it goes into some consideration of other things, like the HBO show Girls, and kind of explains why that show doesn't work for me--I'm not a fan of cringe humor, of any stripe, I guess). (Myself, I don't agree with this article about replacing Ruffalo or Johansen.)

I think Avengers is structured so that Black Widow is central to the film's motion; I also think Scarlett Johansen's performance was so quiet that this slips by a lot of people. I'm of two minds as to whether that's a plus or a minus. But I actually think it was purposeful and that Joss pulled off a subtle bit of sleight of hand with this movie (which is why I'm kind of obsessed fascinated). Rather than being up in umbrage about a girl sullying their action superness, Black Widow's centrality to the clockwork of the film slid right by a lot of critics and viewers, never really standing out to their conscious minds that it even happened. But it did, and maybe it got into the collective subconsciousness, snuck behind the wall on the tide of the movie's awesome--right into that sanctum where the real superheroes have always been men and women are just sexy decoration.

It's no accident that the non-super powered heroes on the team, Black Widow and Hawkeye--and Ironman, who without his suit is still pretty human--are the emotional heart of the movie's action and arc. And Banner, who is human when not hulk, is a close second. There's not really that much emotional arc for Thor or Captain America, one of whom never was and one of whom truly is no longer human.

Yes, I am waxing slightly academic on a super hero movie.

So there's this movie Chronicle opening soon, in which, once again, "highschoolers" means boys. Characters with the interesting plot line means male characters. It's always about the boys. *yawn*

Just yawn.

I know you're all dying to know if was cupcakes, cocktails, or what for the birthday weekend, but first, wow, the Facebook HBs, thank you everyone! That is kind of an amazing phenom, the flood of bday wishes via FB.

So, there were both cupcakes and cocktails, also some good productive writing time, BBQ at a new place in my neighborhood, some thrift storing, farmers market, swimming and lolling in the shade of a towering pecan tree, and a movie, Attack the Block, which, as many have said, really is fantastic. One line review: excellent blend of a B movie with a Minette Walters mystery, specifically Acid Row, with humor and awesomeness in abundance.

All in all, an excellent birthday weekend.

Back to dayjobbing today, with lots to do both here and for upcoming trip to Maine, plus, as always, fiction to write.

Also, got sched for ArmadilloCon at the end of the month and, yay! looks great. Will post closer to the con.

Slightly off sched for having a ready-for-first-readers draft of Deep Terrain done by, eep, Friday, the end of the Clarion West Write-a-thon, but am close, and still writing the words. Four more days to sponsor! The race is on.

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Watched Push over the weekend, a 2009 SF movie that disappeared pretty quickly and was, I think, pretty underrated. The plot is a little hoinky, but the movie is rich with atmosphere and character love--and the two main female characters have definite aspects of awesome realness. They're not sex-ified, they're just as human as the male characters, and one of them is played by Dakota Fanning. It also plays out and with its SF concepts intelligently and interestingly.

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If you want to graze for your next novel read, the free ebook sampler, OPENING ACTS, Twenty-five First Chapters from Twenty-five Writers - a free ebook to download, isn't a bad way to go. It's twenty-five first chapters of current science fiction and fantasy novels from a whole bunch of very fine writers. eta: I've removed the link for now, but will update when it seems to be working; also with different e-book format specific links when they're live.

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Alas poor LJ? Are these more attacks, or what?

Or, Why those of you who didn't like it are wrong.

It's because of this: the female hero, one not sexualized at all for the male gaze, not conceived of or presented as a male wet dream--as compared to, say, the upcoming film Sucker Punch, in which the young women all look like male wet dreams (it's a young woman's inner fantasy world and that's how she chooses to look? yeah, right), or, basically, almost any other major Hollywood film that even comes close to presenting us with a female hero at all.

It's because the idea that to be interesting and worth our time, a young woman character must be cast in a sexually attractive context is a crock of hooey that nevertheless underpins virtually all representations of heroic female characters. And women are just as prey as men to this expectation, because, hey, we all imbibe at the same media fount growing up.

And I contend that one reason (aside from the heavy twee-ness--arguably entirely appropriate to the subject matter--and the lamentable dancing bit at the end) a fair number of critics (especially from within the SF/F genre) didn't really appreciate Alice in Wonderland, is that this Alice is not presented as at all sexually provacative. Her clothing is either ridiculous, too big, too small (but not in a provacative way) or, toward the end, sober and serious, the lounging togs of a young hero, not a sex kitten ingenue. And, then, of course, armor. (Which, frankly, was swoon-inducing for me, so perhaps I undermine my whole argument...)

But, the point is, your lack of interest in her as a main character, and your lack of love for the film--yes you--is a serious failing, is a mistake, is not good.

Not good at all.

Because? We need more alternatives to the kind of female hero we are most often and generally presented with, when we are presented with her at all.

Day five and it's time for zombie laughs. Our next two movies:

Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland

Not sure there's much to say about these. Over the top black comedy silliness and fun. Shaun of the Dead is happily British and awesomely funny. Zombieland is mucho Norte Americano and lots of fun. Both movies are funny and dark with much over the top zombie violence but with gooey hearts of sweet caramel. Sort of.

Today's bonus, the zombie apocalypse, Teddy bear style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61RJGQcG_sM&feature=share