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Anti-Shur'tugal - Debate and Discussion
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| On the Folly of Trilogies: Part One |
[16 Dec 2009|08:29pm] |
On the Folly of Trilogies: Part One
In this two-part series, I will examine the place of the trilogy in fantasy fiction, and the problems that one faces when writing a trilogy, and what, in my opinion, is the best way to go about doing so.
( Read more... )
Tune in soon for Part Two, which unfortunately has been cancelled due to lack of interest. :P
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| Seasons in Eragon? |
[15 Dec 2009|03:02pm] |
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This is being done from memory of the books since I can't be arsed to re-read them (or, in the case of Brickinger, actually read the damn thing)
Are there even any seasons in Alawhatsit?
For that matter, are dragons reptiles and how do they deal with winter?
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| How To Use Mind Flayers |
[15 Dec 2009|06:33pm] |
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Saltwater - Julian Lennon |
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So, a while ago there was a conversation about Bella being psychic and nuts and Edward feeding off the misery she caused. That was a fun, fun discussion. At one point the subject turned to Illithid/Mind Flayers and I mentioned that they were great to use for psychological stuff, and mentioned the following story as my influence for how to use mind-bending creatures and foes, although I didn't have the link at the time.
http://www.gamejag.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=79106
Be warned, this is by no means a 'nice' story. It's quite frightening by the time its over. Nevertheless, I wanted to share it and maybe inspire someone else the way I was inspired.
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| The AS Site - A Proposal |
[15 Dec 2009|02:24am] |
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Hallo all!
So I was wondering, does anyone want the AS site back? Perhaps we could turn it into a general site about writing, along with being critical of crappy books? ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) predak123 proposed doing a podcast a while back on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) a_soc_k.
Because I've got about a gig of webspace and a domain name, with subdomains, that I am not really using for anything besides some image hosting and backups. And I'd be happy to shell it out for the site, with a subdomain.
My hosting allows me to install stuff like Word Press or other blogging software that'd make this easier.
And if anyone's kept the old articles (I know they're on archive.com), that'd be cool, too :)
So what do ya think, guys?
Although it occurs to me that perhaps the wiki has filled the hole left by the site...
ETA: Alright, I shall bring back the site. I've decided to use WordPress Multiuser, which I'm installing right now. It'll let everyone who wants to join have accounts (after you ask me) and posting access.
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| Paolini and Robert Jordan |
[14 Dec 2009|02:55pm] |
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I was on rinkworks and I read one of their Book-a-minutes of the Dragon Reborn and the ending went like this: Robert Jordan: Ha! Fooled you! That wasn't the real big-bad, now I can write forty more books
Now since book four of Eragon will be out sometime I got to wondering if Paolini will do what Jordan did?
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| Outdated speech. Where? And also a small diatribe on Eddies 'mind-reading'. |
[14 Dec 2009|04:12pm] |
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Top Gear themetune |
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It's been mentioned a bit that Edward 'retains some outdated speech from his human life'.
What I want to know is where? Where exactly do we see this apparent old-fashioned speech?
One more thing we are told but never shown. Like Edward and Bella's 'love'.
Anyway, on to the whole 'mind reading' thing.
Edward somehow has the magical ability to hear people's thoughts. Apart from it's complete randomness appearing in a vampire story I have no problem with that. What I do have the problem with is that, as far as we know from Midnight Sun, he hears people's thoughts as lines of text.
I mean, when you think about something normally you don't really think in lines of text. Occasionally I admit I do think in what would be text, but that's usually when I'm in 'Writer Mode' and trying to mentally go from the scene I can see in my head to something I can write down. But even that would be overlaid with pictures.
So how the hell do we go from complex, multilayered thought and emotion tied together to (for example) Jessica's thoughts about Bella; 'Of course she's already crushing on the Cullen's, fat lot of good it'll do her she's really not even pretty. I don't know why Eric is staring at her so much, or Mike'.
The only concession to anything more than a line of text is the term 'mental wince'.
*headdesk*
You know, if reading the first five pages of Midnight Sun (and I skipped four of those pages) has done anything for me it's made me think about why I like Jessica.
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| Fallen: the latest Twilight ripoff |
[13 Dec 2009|09:56pm] |
i am so irritated right now. this sack of turds masquerading as a book has been OPTIONED BY DISNEYYYY.
it barely has an average of 3 stars on amazon and plz go read some of the reviews~! seriously!
http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Lauren-Kate/dp/0385738935/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260769670&sr=8-1
and check this out:
http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/blog/2009/06/13/lauren-kates-fallen-series-acquired-by-random-house-childrens-books/
"Random House Children’s Books has acquired the first four titles in the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. The deal, made with sister company Random House Inc in New York, was for a major six figure sum. The books will be rushed into production, with the first title published this winter on both sides of the Atlantic.
Featuring angels and menacing demons, FALLEN will appeal to the Stephenie Meyer generation.
Fantasy Book Review interviewed Lauren Kate in November 2009
Fantasy Book Review has now read and reviewed Fallen. It looks like it is going to be a massive hit both here and States side, to read the review click here.
Annie Eaton, Publisher at RHCB comments, ‘I am extremely excited about the potential for this new series, which is a delicious mix of temptation, impossible love and the supernatural. No teenage girl will be able to resist the handsome and tormented Daniel.’
17 year old Lucinda falls in love with a gorgeous and highly intelligent boy Daniel at their reform school. But then she discovers Daniel is a fallen angel, cursed, destined neither to ascend to Heaven or descend to Hell, and tormented by love. The two realise that they have spent their lifetimes finding and losing one another, and face the final challenge to keep evil forces at bay and seek redemption for all.
RHCB is planning an aggressive marketing and publicity campaign in the UK to launch the series which will be published in December 2009.
Lauren Kate is finishing her MA in Creative Writing at the University of California."
aggressive marketing and publicity campaign??? seriously FUCK YOU GUYS! it's a damn crappy book!!! you're gonna FORCE US to like it??
here's another one:
http://io9.com/5360906/could-angels-be-the-new-vampires
"Bad-boy angels are the new hotties. Like modern vampires, they can be gorgeous, immortal and otherworldly heartthrobs, unlike, say, zombies. "With all that rotting-off, they're not very sexy," said Justin Chanda, v-p and publisher of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, who calls angels "safe gothic" and "romantic.""
angels are the new vampires? seriously? like a bunch of suits in a boardroom sat down and decided this?? what happened to letting the readers decide???
oh and the disney announcement:
http://cine101.com/?p=12599
ARRRGHHHHH
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| Eragon- Beneath the Book's Skin |
[13 Dec 2009|12:45pm] |
It's an idea I've been bandying around for a while. Eragon has long been described as a patchwork quilt of other fantasy books, and I wanted to show that in a visual form.
So, without further ado, the more honest cover of Eragon.
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| You couldn't think of anything better to do? |
[13 Dec 2009|01:38am] |
So I was killing time on facebook with this survey application. It asks you random questions and when you answer them your friends get to check them out. My latest question was "If you had only six months to live, what would you do first?"
Off to the right of the screen was everyone else's answer to the current question. I saw one answer in particular that caught my eye and I clicked on the girl's list of questions. Check out what she said.
Edit: You may have to click the image twice to zoom in enough to read her response.
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| Open Letter to Christopher Paolini |
[12 Dec 2009|03:22pm] |
... in which I express my desire for That Guy to get some education.
Dear Mr. Paolini,
Sigh. How to begin? Your books have become a sore point on the internet. Some love them, some hate them, some are indifferent and want to stop hearing about them, and some (like me) would like to see an editing eye turned to them.
( Hurrah for education! )
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| "You're just jealous because you've not been published..." |
[12 Dec 2009|04:34pm] |
What is the validity of this statement?
When "authors" like Gloria Tesch can go out and self-publish any piece of text they like, provided mummy and daddy have enough money or know the right people, can it really be said anyone is jealous of that?
Has the ability to self-publish any old piece of unoriginal, poorly-written crap diminished the value of professionally-published popular works of fiction?
Has the success of certain unnamed authors *cough, Meyers, cough*, regardless of the quality of their work, reduced the respect of publishing houses and desire of aspiring authors to publish works of fiction?
As a scientist who sees, and has been involved with, publications that take a year to write and go through peer review, but that were built on maybe five years of continuing research, all for that single, three page (or less!) publication in Nature or Science (the premier science journals, for the non-scientists in the crowd), and then sees the effortless fame achieved by people like Meyers and Paolini, who seem to have gone from concept to product in a year, never went through peer review (because you can't tell me their editors count, what with the quality of the product) and think of themselves as excellent - well, frankly, it makes me sick (and I don't even have a desire to publish a book!).
So how do you aspiring authors here at AS feel about the authors who cheat the system, as it were, and skate through the publishing process to fame and fortune (I mean, the answer if pretty clear, but if you could elaborate incorporating opinions on the previous four questions, that'd be great)?
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| New Cracked.com Article |
[09 Dec 2009|11:08pm] |
http://www.cracked.com/article/230_if-new-moon-was-10-times-shorter-100-times-more-honest/
If New Moon Was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest.
I don't know if anyone else has posted about this yet. I haven't seen anything on AS about it. Anyway...
My favourite quotes:
ROBERT PATTINSON Don't worry Kristen, I will protect you by hurling you against a wall and into a glass table! KRISTEN STEWART My hero! (bleeds profusely)
TAYLOR LAUTNER (points to abs)
GIRLS IN AUDIENCE (swooning) No wonder boys hate Twilight! Nobody can be as perfect as Edward! BOYS IN AUDIENCE Are you kidding? We love Twilight! It teaches the next generation of women that, the worse their men treat them, the more in love they should be. GIRLS IN AUDIENCE You're right! Want to buy me another movie ticket? BOYS IN AUDIENCE Buy your own goddamn ticket you stupid cunt. WOMEN IN AUDIENCE (swoon) END
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| Re: What's the point? |
[09 Dec 2009|07:00am] |
Since the original entry is being screened for what could be the opposite opinion, here's a thread where Freedom of Speech is respected. Original entry:
clibanarius
[ mood | contemplative ]
[ music | I have no idea ]
Seriously, what is the point? You guys could bash and denigrate Paolini (The purpose was to critisize the books in the first place) for all eternity and it wouldn't change a thing.
Paolini's probably counting his fortune and thinking: "I'll bet that on some Live Journal Community, they hate me, guess what? I don't care."
. . . Assuming of course he even knows this community exists.
--
well, paolini would be greatly ignorant and/or sheltered indeed if he never noticed us (something which I doubt). While many of our recent posts have been a personal jab (or ones that stabbed his non-existent proffesionalism), I can safely state that the reason for this is simple: Paolini writes with the amazing speed of a paralized worm, and if we can't dump coal to this community's furnace, we'd have to dump scraps.
There are still more serious posts here, some critisizing characterization or in-story logic and consistency, it's just that we don't have enough material (books, interviews) to justify more critical posts.
But hey, if you feel that this is all useless because paolini doesn't read it (which would be funny), there are a lot of other people reading this, and they're learning a lot. I know I did.
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| What's the point? |
[08 Dec 2009|08:07am] |
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I have no idea |
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Seriously, what is the point? You guys could bash and denigrate Paolini (The purpose was to critisize the books in the first place) for all eternity and it wouldn't change a thing.
Paolini's probably counting his fortune and thinking: "I'll bet that on some Live Journal Community, they hate me, guess what? I don't care."
. . . Assuming of course he even knows this community exists.
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| T.T. |
[06 Dec 2009|07:54pm] |
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mood |
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 -.- |
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I stumbled upon this on a D.Gray-Man LJ:
Twilight, dubbed in Japanese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XopZWkkZNnQ
I hate you Twilight. I really do. And of all the seiyuu, why did they choose Takahiro Sakurai? And for those who don't know, he did Cloud in FFVII, Kanda Yuu in DGM, Suzuku in Code Geass, Kira in Bleach...uh, Jenos in Black Cat, and a number of other animes/games that. He's one of the few actors/VA I actually like...
However, this is probably the only way I'll ever stand Twilight. It honestly sounds better in Japanese. To paraphrase the poster on DGM, Pattison (and I don't care if I'm spelling this wrong) does not deserve to be voiced by Sakurai. Not the least bit.
Edit: Locked to "Members" by accident.
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