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ronbegleyformayor · 4 years

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So this is going to be a long post—your question gets to the larger topic that is episode 100. Also to anyone reading this I would appreciate if you took a minute or two to read the whole thing—I purposefully waited a while to respond to this so my response would come across as measured as possible.

So anyone plugged into queer theory and media has probably heard of the term “bury your gays”. It’s a trope that goes at least as far back as lesbian pulp fiction novels from the early 20th century, and for a number of reasons that I’m not remotely qualified to comment on the trope has persisted into modern media. As the name implies, bury your gays is the implicit belief that for a story about gay people to end correctly, usually one or both members of a gay couple are killed before the it ends. Whether intentional or not, the trope is rooted in the idea that gay couples are not supposed to be together, that queer love is a temporary fantasy that must be righted by the end of the story. A weird kind of offshoot of this is the causing of gay characters to suffer through loneliness or separation from a partner, and it comes from the underlying idea that gay=alone. Frequently this manifests in queer characters feeling that they have to choose between family and friends and the “"gay lifestyle”“ when in reality those two things frequently are not mutually exclusive. A subset of this trope is featuring a gay character (or frequently the partner of a more-established gay character) as possessed by some form of “evil” to emphasize which side of the temptation is “correct” and which isn’t.

I’m guessing you can see what I’m teeing up here, so I’ll just add as a caveat that most writers (especially straight writers) do not necessarily agree with the homophobia behind these tropes, nor is it (usually) their intent to perpetuate negative stereotypes about gay people. That being said the legacy of this trope is alive in a lot of media, and intentional or not: gay people suffering is entrenched in how we think about writing them.

Now to be extra clear, I’m not (necessarily) saying this is what King Falls is doing. So far the writing of queer themes and homophobia has been nuanced and has avoided a lot of the pitfalls that have come to be expected, but I would also be lying if I didn’t say episode 100 didn’t rub me the wrong way, and for a couple of specific reasons, too.

For me what that boils down to is characterization and timing.

Let’s talk about characterization first.

Just think about this for a second: what do you know about Jack Wright? No really, can you name anything beyond the bare minimum of characteristics? He’s a journalist and radio host, has a belief in the paranormal, and loves Sammy. He has a sister and a fiancé, has black hair and brown eyes, and plays rugby. I can’t think of a single other concrete fact we’ve learned about him specifically, and being generous like less than half of the things on that list don’t directly have to do with Sammy. Now we could extrapolate bits of his personality based on the two very short clips we’ve ever heard of him and from what’s implied by Sammy and Lily, but that’s also kind of the point: everything we know about Jack Wright is almost exclusively based off his sister and his fiancé, both of whom are anything but unbiased. Did you notice how Lily trashed Sammy and Jack’s radio show in the first King Falls Chronicles but then went on to call Jack smart and prolific in his field like five minutes later? It’s a(n understandable) level of cognitive dissonance for someone who was going through the difficult process of grieving. Both Sammy and Lily are biased sources of information because both care very deeply for Jack. On it’s own that really isn’t a problem—in fact I would say it’s an opportunity for an interesting bit of narrative contrast between the perception of Jack and the reality of when we actually get to meet him.

That at least was my opinion.

Instead we have this ”“dark”“ version of Jack, a lover just out of reach who’s trying to tempt Sammy into leaving his family and friends for the “freedom” of the void. This is a situation that, if I’m being honest, has some homophobic tinges, and hearing the dialogue played out the way it was kind of made my stomach turn (and not in the fun, scared-to-death at 3AM way I’m used to).

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think this is what the writers were intending, nor do I think that there is anything necessarily wrong with having a normally good character occupy a “bad guy” role. When done correctly it can be interesting and compelling, and help tease out different aspects of a character or relationship dynamic. The issue isn’t that we’re seeing a “bad” version of Jack, the issue is that a. the specific wording of his interaction made my homophobia alarm bells go off, and more critically b. this “bad” version of of Jack is the only true version of him we know. Having him in a “bad” role outside his norm would be interesting if we actually had a real-time, in-person Jack with which to compare him. We might have a constructed idea of who he is from descriptions of biased sources close to him or tapes that are probably a decade old, but we only need to hear from this ”“shadow”“ Jack two more times and it’ll be more times than we’ve heard even recordings of the real Jack.

Emily, for example, had a baseline character established before her abduction. We got to know her as a character before she went missing, so when we eventually saw her as a different version of herself, we had a baseline understanding of how she typically acts in a situation, which is something we just don’t have with Jack.

Also, do you notice how Jack never directly spoke to Lily? He talked about her, but never to her, and can we take a moment to appreciate the gravity of that moment? Jack (or whatever was controlling him) had the opportunity to lure one of the four members of the "named” in the prophecy in the book, and instead of choosing his sister, the person he has known for his entire life and the only flesh and blood family with whom he’s in contact, and he chose to lure Sammy instead, to make Sammy choose between a gay relationship and the support system he’s built up.

Can you understand why this kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth? It feels a little like the “love the sinner” (Jack), hate the sin (being “bad”, trying to make Sammy have to decide between romance and a family), and that’s an adage that queer people tend to get tired of really quickly.

Again, because I really don’t want to be misunderstood, I don’t think this is what the writers intended; in fact I’m guessing the thought probably never even crossed their minds. But at the end of the day that’s kind of the point: if you’re going to make a show that subverts homophobic tropes (which I will readily say that they have done up until this point), you have to make sure not to accidentally fall into any of them yourself.

This leads me into my other issue with the episode: the timing.

My opinion toward the show right now would be considerably less harsh if this was not the last episode before a hiatus. I’m not saying the show can’t take breaks, but ending after this episode specifically? We are left with a very specific image of who Jack is, and exactly what kind of influence he has on Sammy. We’re left with the impression that Sammy has to choose between his found family and a gay relationship, and just to put icing on the cake we’re being told there is going to be another hiatus, prolonging the suffering of a character who has been through quite a lot already.

If this wasn’t the episode before a hiatus, I wouldn’t be as unhappy because we would have more immediate reactions to what had happened. We would have the four of them discussing it in detail. Maybe we even would have gotten a chance to hear Sammy himself say that this wasn’t Jack, and even get to hear more detail from him about who Jack is, if not what we heard. Maybe we would have actually gotten to see them get a step closer to getting Jack back instead of now knowing that the void has been opened, and we have to wait for another few months to see if the gay characters will ever get something even resembling a happy ending.

But we didn’t get any of that. Instead we got a cold, empty laugh that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since.

This isn’t to say that the show is headed in a bad direction. I think because this was not the intent that there is still plenty potential for things to stay on the rails. But what it looks like from here is that we are just continuing to prolong the suffering of the gay couple that sits at the emotional heart of the show’s main plotline. I’m just getting to a point where I’m starting to lose faith that we will see anything but it.

also huge thanks to @calebmichaels and @deputytroy. a lot of these points were the distillation of conversations between us, and if you think that I made a particularly interesting point at all in this post, it was probably their idea, not mine.

#kfam #king falls am #mine #wow that was a lot #also none of this is specifically directed at the person that sent me the anon #I just used your ask as a jumping-off point

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unhingedthinking · 5 years

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Unhinged Thinking’s Reading List for 2019

Because I’m currently re-shelving my book collections sans depression cleaning and also in preparation for the last few “Happy Christmas to me” presents coming Monday, I thought I’d post my 2019 reading list that I want (or need) to read this year.

This is sort of an accountability thing for me to check back to as I only read like four actual novels last year. In my defence I did read like 100 journal articles and several academic chapters in lieu of novels, but I want to tap back into that whole reading for pleasure thing.

Also because I feel like @lovelikesummer would love some unsolicited book recommendations to add to her ever growing list 😉.

I’m a little more diversified this year (there’s even multiple poetry collections on the list!), though it’s still predominantly queer, Australian and canon texts. Links to books are even included for ease if you want to join me in my reading choices :)

Queer Texts

The Monkey’s Mask - Dorothy Porter

A queer crime thriller written in the style of verse poetry. Porter wrote this when she was an in house author at CSU back in the early 1990s. It’s a really interesting bend on genre writing.

All Out: The No Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages - edited by Saundra Mitchell

Queer fairytales written by some of today’s most prolific young adult authors such as Mackenzi Lee and Shaun David Hutchinson

All of It Is You - Nico Tortorella

Queer poetry written by that guy from that show Younger. It’s been on my to read list since early last year, so excited to dig into this one.

This Monstrous Thing - Mackenzi Lee

A queer play on the codes and conventions of Frankenstein, set in the period as Mary Shelley’s classic is published. I got this one from @sanityiscracked for Christmas and I’m super excited to read it as it’s written by the same person who wrote The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue.

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy - Mackenzi Lee

This is the sequel to The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, which focuses on the sister of the original’s protagonist, who is a badass asexual scientist. Enough said.

Where the Trees Were - Inga Simpson

Australian indigenous novel that is more of an incidental queer text. I found this one from a list done by Readings and I was drawn to it because a) Aussie queer reads and b) it’s an indigenous text that isn’t set in post-colonial Australia. I’m looking forward to digging into this one to see if I can use it in a classroom context.

Heat and Light - Ellen van Neervan

A three part exploration in storytelling that is by one of the more prominent writers in Australian literature right now. It was shortlisted for the Stella Prize back in 2015, and won the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize.

General Fiction

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

The sister bought this for me for Christmas, and I’m intrigued as to its premise as it’s gotten some good recommendations in a lot of my circles.

The Wisdom Tree series - Nick Earls

This is a set of five novellas written by a Brisbane author that I got (and personally signed!) at state conference. He recently completed his PhD looking at the novella, and he’s really fun to listen to. The keynote that I got to listen to he outlined how he came to formulate and write each novella. Plus he introduced me to my new favourite ice cream, so that’s cool too.

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

This one’s off of the current senior text list, and I really want to dig into it as it seems right up my alley. It’s set in 1829 Iceland and based on a true story about a woman’s last days as she awaits her execution for her involvement in a double murder.

The White Earth- Andrew McGahan

Another one from the senior text list. The premise of the novel really grabbed me. It looks at (relatively) contemporary rural Australian life and the power of land and families.

1984 - George Orwell

Yes, I am a horrible person for not having read this one I know. I did in all earnest start this last year, but I got pulled away by about seven other reading commitments and never got back to it. But there is potential that I’ll be teaching it this year and I want to gun for that opportunity because I’m a massive Foucault nerd and any opportunity for me to teach impressionable children about disciplinary power, panopticism and the surveillance state I will take.

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino

This one’s been on my to read list for the better part of a decade, and I recently got a copy of it late last year. It explores different writing genres as you the reader tries to track down If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller.

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Another one that yes, I should have read by now but haven’t. This one I might also end up teaching, so it’s more of a “well it’s been on the list but not that high up so I might as well” for the year.

Non-fiction

Note to Self - Connor Franta

This was an impulse buy at the end of last year as I remember wanting to read it when it first came out. I still haven’t gotten around to reading his first book, but this one stood out to me as it’s like a part diary, part memoir, part creative expression book where he explores the concept of self and authenticity.

Poetry

Milk and Honey and The Sun and Her Flowers - Rupi Kaur

I’m trying to get into more poetry and Milk and Honey was a best-seller from last year that from the excerpts I read whilst in line buying some other books at the bookstore were really good, so I’ve got both of them to read this year.

Academic Literature

The History of Sexuality Vols. 2 & 3 - Michel Foucault

The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir

Towards Queer Thriving - Adam J. Greteman

Undoing Gender - Judith Butler

There will undoubtedly be far more academic literature that I will end up reading this year, but these are the main ones that I want to make sure that I read for my studies (and general personal interest).

Aaand that’s it for the baseline reads. There’s others on my list, but these are the ones that I want to get through this year

#unhingedthinking #reading recs

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headlesssamurai · 6 years

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Have you seen Altered Carbon? If so, what do to think of it?

Alright, I finally bucked up enough courage to do another honest, non-sarcastic, write-up for a piece of media. Just been somewhat bitterly reluctant to voice my true opinions on fiction, or anything else really, since it seems like lots of folks are quite intensely engaged in violent uproars of one kind or another. No need to add more noise to the feedback loop, if you know what I mean.

But you’re, like, one of a dozen or so dudes who asked me about this series. So I reckoned I’d write it up for you, it being such a popular subject and all. I’d also like to thank you for your curiosity. It’s pretty damn humbling to know anybody cares enough about what I think to even ask after my thoughts. I’ll make sure to offer a notary warning before I spill any spoilers.

I became acquainted with Richard K. Morgan’s Kovacs-verse a few years back, but accidentally read one of the protagonist’s later adventures before backtracking to the original novel. I found it to be a respectably well-written futuristic detective story in the grand tradition of vintage writers like Robert B. Parker, even if including the predictably pornographic sex scenes in the grand tradition of modern urban sci-fi/fantasy writers like Laurell K. Hamilton (maybe the ‘K’ middle initial is a code for graphic sex content). In preparation for watching the new Netflix series, I re-read Morgan’s Altered Carbon to refresh my knowledge of the future he created.

Now, I’d like to say I’m a prolific reader of novelized fiction and other books, but I’m not one of those “hardcore” purists who always cries “the book was better” while pounding my fist on the podium. Thus in my effort to avoid any such farcical nonsense, I’m going to sort of examine both the book and the Netflix series of Altered Carbon at once, and write about what I enjoy and dislike about both versions, instead of directly comparing them.

I’ve grown so cynical with modern film and TV, I tend to unintentionally generate lists of what I think they’ll change about a book’s story once they adapt it, and what they’ll add and leave out. Usually, these lists are fairly accurate. Game of Thrones, for instance: how depressing it is to be absolutely correct some times. Not that the books were much better, but a pinecone up the ass doesn’t make a kick in the nuts feel any better.

A lot of people would describe Altered Carbon as having cyberpunk vibes, and this is true, but I believe it fits more comfortably into the realm of biopunk than anything else. If you’re not familiar with the concepts herein, Altered Carbon involves a distant future in which humanity has colonized the stars over many generations using sleeper ships, and with a little help from recovered alien star-maps, but has not achieved faster-than-light interstellar travel. The central technology in this universe is the cortical stack, a type of neural backup which allows a person’s consciousness to be digitally stored in a “disc” and uploaded into a new body if they die.

The new bodies are referred to as sleeves, and the filthy rich clone themselves so their sleeves are all identical and genetically enhanced, but most common folk have to accept whatever body is available or is covered by their insurance, or even a synthetic sleeve (which in the novel is a cheap and distasteful thing, but in the series synthetics seem to have superpowers). People can only travel quickly to other star systems in the settled worlds (known as the Protectorate) by transmitting their stored consciousness into another cortical stack on their planet of destination and uploading into a new sleeve there (a process called needlecasting), but physically transporting anything still takes a really long time for ships to travel across the vast distance of space.

Straight out of the gate, this concept does not appeal to me at all. If there’s anything that drains your story of tension and thrills, it’s got to be the idea that everyone lives forever. The way the universe is constructed however, it ends up making the story far more interesting than what I had anticipated. Not everyone can afford to live forever, first of all, since re-sleeving can be an extremely expensive undertaking, and even those who have the money rarely feel the desire to live more than two lifetimes. Additionally there are complications which can arise, such as personality fragging, a type of insanity which occurs when a person is sleeved in one too many different bodies throughout their life.

Certain religious groups also vehemently resist re-sleeving, and for law enforcement various lengthy sentences of storage without the possibility to re-sleeve are the primary means of punishment for most crimes. There are even interesting concepts like criminals who copy their consciousness into several cortical stacks at once, making them difficult to apprehend once and for all. Other criminals and intelligence operatives also utilize virtuality to torture people in a digital environment, allowing them to subject victims to days or even months of agony which equates to only a few hours in real-time. Real death can also still occur, if the individual’s cortical stack is badly damaged or destroyed.

The actual plot involves a former soldier named Takeshi Kovacs, who is paroled early from a criminal sentence and re-sleeved by a rich tycoon who offers to exonerate Kovacs of his crimes if he can solve a murder. While reluctant to work for some rich asshole, Kovacs is almost instantly attacked by mercenaries which makes him curious enough to take the case. Kovacs then works to investigate the purported crime while getting himself into a bit of trouble with the locals, and trying to deal with extreme trauma from his combat experiences.

It’s surprising that in the case of Altered Carbon I was entirely incorrect in everything I thought the producers might add/change/amputate from the original story. I also could not have predicted what they decided to add and how they decided to change certain elements from the story of Morgan’s novel. I believe the series they crafted from his story is competently scripted, very well cast, doesn’t waste too much time with any silly subplots, and is generally a well-paced, adult-themed sci-fi story. Altered Carbon really wants to take itself seriously, in the same vein as things like SyFy’s praiseworthy diamond The Expanse, but its unique setting gets a little too bogged down in conventional tropes for my liking. Gratuitous T&A (as well as other, less commonly exploited extremities) and generous helpings of the fuck-words do not an edgy and intense sci-fi experience make. Good but not great, would be my general assessment of the series.

Don’t get me wrong here, Altered Carbon is plenty intense, even thrilling at certain points, but a somewhat bland smattering of writers and directors, thrown into the recipe with a few others who are brilliant geniuses, create a mixed bag of stylistic choices which don’t always fit together very well. So you’re often left with an unusually faithful adaptation of a badass novel, wonderfully enhanced in certain aspects, but grotesquely mutated in others, and some of the conflicting storytelling elements feel hurriedly stitched together. A Patchwork Man of a story, rather than prime quality tank flesh. None of Altered Carbon’s flaws are crippling however, and all-told I’d say the series is eminently watchable and very worth your while if you enjoy futuristic sci-fi stories.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

First the good news. This series stars an extremely talented cast of performers who own their roles with wonderful conviction, and very convincing poise.

Joel Kinnaman has been on my good side since he appeared in The Killing, and even his unfortunate role in the Robocop reboot didn’t water down my appreciation for him. I feel like his role as the newly sleeved Takeshi Kovacs was perfectly cast. Martha Higareda is just a little too cute to be such a badass, but she winds up playing Detective Ortega to that strong female archetype in a far less sensational and much more casual way than what you might expect from the modern trends of scripting for such characters. Though quite the opposite of Higareda in terms of the role she plays, Renée Elise Goldsberry brims with charisma as Quellcrist Falconer, a sort of futuristic Che Guevara if he had also practiced Zen and gong fu, and was a woman. Chris Collins is also incredibly memorable as Kovacs’ A.I. hotel manager Poe.

Ato Essandoh as Vernon Elliott became one of my favorite characters as the series goes on, and though I wasn’t totally sold on the arc of her character Hayley Law as Elliott’s daughter Lizzie completed a very nice trifecta of beautiful lead women who just happen to be racially diverse. The third of these ladies, of course, is Dichen Lachman who I’ve got to say delivers probably the most convincing and most nuanced performance in the entire series, having to run a wild labyrinth of different emotional expressions which all feel very genuine. As was the case with Sylvia Hoeks as Luv in Blade Runner: 2049, Dichen Lachman as Rei hooked me instantly and woudn’t let go. Maybe I just got a thing for sociopathic women or something.

There are also a few minor roles worth mentioning, Marlene Forte does a great job as the overbearing mother of detective Ortega, which again felt very genuine and not forced, Tamara Taylor as ambitious sleazy attorney Oumou Prescott gave me chills with her smug smile (again perfect casting), Kristin Lehman and James Purefoy seem a perfectly matched pair of megalomaniacs, Byron Mann and Will Yun Lee kick ass portraying Kovacs at very different stages of his troubled life, and there is some terrifically believable acting on the parts of child actors Morgan Gao and Riley Lai Nelet.

All that being said, not everything the actors are given to do is particularly well-written, in my humble opinion.

Takeshi Kovacs is something called an Envoy, a type of specially trained soldier who is mentally conditioned to be hyper-aware at all times, integrate and adapt to new environments and circumstances, and even manipulate his own bodily chemistry, allowing him to eliminate the pain threshold, instantly recover from debilitating drugs, and avoid lingering trauma from torture. The Envoys were created to help the Protectorate put-down political dissidents and rebels, which were running rampant throughout the settled worlds at the time of the Envoy Program’s inception. Many of these rebels often followed the outlawed “Quellist” writings of an infamously respected revolutionary leader called Quellcrist Falconer who fought, and lost, against the Protectorate hundreds of years before the time of the novel (and long before Kovacs was born). When she was born, Quellcrist Falconer, like Kovacs, also happened to be from Harlan’s World. In the novel, this reputation causes Harlan’s World to be viewed as a backwater source of rogues and misfits by citizens of more civilized worlds (which is fair, since it’s described by Kovacs as being overrun by crime syndicates and swamp gangs). But even compared to Harlan’s World, Earth is considered a polluted over-populated shit hole.

In the novel he was trained by the somewhat fascist forces of the Protectorate, and the Envoy Corps was an elite black ops group who could be transmitted to any planet and topple the regime in less time than it would take a massive army to win a single battle. In the series, Kovacs is just a random soldier burn during the time of the Quellist revolution, but Envoys were created and trained by revolutionary leader Quellcrist Falconer to combat the very fascist forces of the Protectorate, whom were too used to conventional warfare to properly adapt to Quell’s asymmetrical tactics.

The problem for me, with this particular change in the writing, is that much of the details have been glossed over. I never got a sense of how Quell was able to so efficiently condition her soldiers into such a formidable force, nor did her portrayal emphasize her military acumen in this manner very convincingly. Quell’s character is certainly charismatic and sympathetic to the audience, but I find it much easier to accept that Envoys are the product of sociopathic, strict, and brutal military conditioning than to grasp the concept that a fairly undisciplined group of freedom fighters were able to develop such a sophisticated method of training. If Quell’s rebels were portrayed differently, it might be easier to accept, but in the series they seem more like hippies with guns than hardened elite warriors.

This is one of my only major gripes with the series as a whole, and it wouldn’t even be that big of a deal to me if it didn’t play such a large role in the plot and arc of Kovacs as a character. I didn’t like the way it changed his backstory either.

See, in the novel Kovacs is a former Envoy turned career criminal since Envoys are generally feared by everyone despite their having fought for the Protectorate, so they don’t have a lot of options and their skillset is only useful in a limited context. He’s haunted by his combat experiences, regrets his role in assisting the government in putting down various rebels, and has a cultural misunderstanding of Earth because he’s from Harlan’s World. His criminal ventures could be seen as his own personal revolution, and Kovacs has spent about a century in and out of storage since leaving the military, but has only been consciously alive for about forty years. He isn’t portrayed as a morally centered person, but he has his own system of honor, and he selfishly accepts Laurens Bancroft’s offer because it’s a way out of a lengthy sentence. This gives him a nice arc, because he slowly becomes more morally invested in what he’s doing as certain things come to light, and ultimately risks it all toward the end basically to avenge the death of a prostitute and save a single life, which is a nice shift in contrast from the Kovacs we see leave storage at the start of the book.

In the series Kovacs is a lovesick puppy dog, who misses his one true love. He’s a former Quell revolutionary who also became a career criminal, but the moment he got caught they put him in storage indefinitely, because he’s the last of the Envoys, the rest of which were mercilessly butchered by stormtroopers from the evil Protectorate which has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. When the series begins, he awakens 250 years after he was captured and he finds that the galaxy has become what he always feared, a one-percenter’s paradise ruled by the rich, where the poor are exploited and marginalized and everyone with even the slightest sense of prominence is an irredeemable asshole. Politics aside, this change makes his character arc far less interesting to me, because he doesn’t want to help Bancroft but his reluctance comes from a very different place than the book, and ultimately Kovacs accepts the offer not out of selfishness but because the ghost of his dead girlfriend tells him to.

This also deeply conflicts with the first time we’re introduced to Kovacs, in his usual East Asian sleeve on Harlan’s World where he speaks of caring only for “getting paid” and seems like a typical devil-may-care bad boy. Then when he’s talking to Bancroft, he tells the tycoon “Some things can’t be bought. Like me.” So which is it? Do you only care about getting paid, or can you not be bought? This makes for a somewhat confusing characterization of Kovacs, who one minute is murderously avenging himself upon psychotic bio-smugglers and claiming he cares for no one, only to turn around and behave like a typical romantic the next. It isn’t entirely jarring, but for me it hurt the dark tone and mature themes to discover the central core of the series is a centuries-old fairytale love story.

Sorry. I like fairytale love stories. But I also like darkly thematic dystopian science fiction, and in my opinion the two mix about as well as apple liqueur and olive oil.

This is all, however, as I said one off my only major gripes about the series. And even the sum of its parts aren’t badly executed. Like I said, Quell is charismatic, Kovacs is haunted, and all three actors (Kinnaman, Goldsberry, and Kim as Kovacs in his original sleeve) deliver convincing performances as well as share a great sense of chemistry, so the love story is believable at least. Visual effects and set design are also wonderful, and for such a high concept sci-fi setting it all feels very seamless. Dialogue is well-scripted as well, and most of Poe’s interactions with other characters are some of the best scenes. It’s also nice to see a series that exploits the naked female form to a fault, yet also makes a point to ensure you get just as much if not far more male nudity to surprisingly counterpoint its shamelessness. I haven’t seen this many swinging dicks since the last time I read YouTube comments. Just makes you feel better when the characters finally ride the stuffed unicorn, know what I mean?

Many of the minor roles from the novel are also modified to make certain characters more important, and some of their roles have been altered so that they are completely different people. Some of these changes work better than others. Rei, as Tak’s sister rather than just some asshole crime boss he once knew, was a change in the story that had the reverse effect of how I felt about the altered Kovacs/Envoy backstory. It makes Reileen a more interesting character than just the Big Bad you might expect in such a story, and causes her motivations, maniacal as they remain, to be far more empathic and invested in the events of the plot. In that light, they made the villain stand out as memorable among the bland villains we often get in movies and TV shows now, thanks to the K-Mart quality antagonists so popularized by the Marvel movies.

While certainly not perfect, Altered Carbon still manages to offer fans of science fiction a fascinating world populated by characters who are easy to give a damn about, and a galaxy spanning story of heartbreak, betrayal, and retribution. I personally wasn’t that big a fan of the romantic warrior monk stuff in this particular story, but that doesn’t mean it won’t appeal to others. There’s enough mystery here to keep you guessing, and enough solid dramatic force to keep us wanting more on its own merits, not by virtue of any stupid cliffhangers. Much of the visual style and action sequences are just icing on the cake, really. Though, I confess, I almost jizzed my pants when I got to see the Phillips Squeeze Gun in action. And there’s nothing quite like one of those sci-fi stories where someone picks up a samurai sword, let alone during the finale.

All told, I’d watch Altered Carbon again, and you should too. Regardless of whatever I say, or my own personal preferences, it deserves your attention. Because it may be adapted from a novel, but a least it’s trying to be something different than most of what’s out there right now, even if its poetic love story doesn’t want it to be. So, ignore cynical bastards like me, watch the damn show and decide for yourself.

侍 headless

#cut-rate journalism #biopunk #altered carbon #joel kinnaman #dichen lachman #martha higareda #renée elise goldsberry #science fiction #anonymeisters #curious people #stuff i write #tv shows #reviews #netflix #gif #takeshi kovacs #detective fiction

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izzyspussy · 7 years

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ALL 50 QUESTIONS BITCH

HECK

1: Age Group For fic tbh whatever, I know a lot of people in fandom are underage and are exploring and figuring out what they like, etc. Plus not all my stuff is explicit, and some of the stuff that is still isn’t porn so. As for original stuff that will likely all be explicit as well, so an adult market audience.

2: Genre Usually fantasy, sometimes science fiction.

3: Big Idea or Detail Oriented Outlining binch i cant outline for absolute shit. I guess big picture but like…. ?? the biggest possible picture, almost to the point of being useless lmfao. someone help me.

4: Line Editing or Plot Revision I prefer line editing for fics because I’m lazy and it’s for free, but overhaul type revision results in a better finished product so I use that for original stuff (and commissions).

5: With or Without Deadlines With deadlines, definitely. I can crank out 1k in an hour if I have a deadline, but without one it can take me 2 years to write just as much (see: Zwangsneurose, started the second I got home from seeing The Winter Soldier, still not finished, word count at ~800 lmfao).

6: The Biggest Compliment I love it when people mention details that they noticed! Or if god forbid I was funny once.

7: Current WIP Length I have 12 fic WIPs right now and the longest one is 7.7k. I have 4 original WIPs right now, but they are all in development stages, with no word count yet.

8: Author Comparison Goal @neil-gaiman 110%. He is my ultimate goals and a huge inspiration, not to mention just a plain cool guy. I also would love to be compared to Rick Riordan or Gillian Flynn.

9: Biggest Struggle Foreshadowing probably. I sort of wing it as I’m writing, and I can’t do a very good outline like I said, so it’s tough to get good hints and clues as to what’s coming. That’s part of the reason my originals are taking so much development (not just because I have to fill in all the worldbuilding that is already mostly done for fic).

10: Brainstorming With Others or Alone I like to do a bit of both. I really appreciate input, plus talking things out can really get the creative ball rolling. But I like to get into Deep Shit on my own too, especially with worldbuilding. I’ll always share with others though, even the stuff I wanted to come up with all on my lonesome.

11: Characters Based on Real People I’m sure there are aspects of people I know, and of myself, in every character I create, and likely even in characters that have already been created. What you know will always leak into your writing. However, I don’t usually base a character fully (or purposefully) around one real person. I do namesakes though, but they’re almost never modeled after that person, it’s just a shoutout to someone I find inspiring in some way.

12: Writing Space Clean or Cluttered cluttered af binch u been here & seen it smh make me drag myself in front of everyone……

13: Character Driven or Plot Driven Always character driven!! what kinda question

14: Favorite Writing Related Quote “Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which sometimes pay the rent.” - guess who lmao

15: My Characters in Someone Else’s World I would transport my characters into (brace yourselves for a shock lol jk) American Gods, primarily so that they could get some good old fashioned “help” from the Big Guys.

16: Movie or TV Show Well two of them have pretty finite endings. The romance legend could be a tv show but with a limited amount of renewal, ala A:TLA (but I’d like it better as a graphic novel). The vampire tragedy has a very finite ending so that would make a better movie. And the witch noir and girl gang are both a bit neverending-WIP-ish so they’d make pretty good shows.

17: Soundtracks Yes! They help keep me focused and writing in a cohesive tone when I have to leave and come back. Y’all can listen to the playlist I have for witch noir here. Eventually I’ll split it up for character and/or scene mood, and I might add some scene suitable ambient noise tracks too.

18: One Song to Sum It Up witch noir - Temptress, S.J. Tucker romance legend - Take Me to Church, Neon Jungle vampire tragedy - Bodies, Celia Pavey girl gang - Weapon, Bastille & Angel Haze & FUGZ & Braque

19: Me There or Characters Here …me there, I guess? In the romance legend, vampire tragedy, and girl gang not anything would really be different, but in the witch noir I’d probably have inherited some sweet powers. Not many of my characters are very friendly tho lmao.

20: Most Wanted Adaptation Probably (a piece of) the witch noir. It’d be neat to actually see all those neat film noir lighting tricks.

21: Finish Uh. I finish one shot porn a lot? lmao. Other than that, damn… no.

22: Made Myself Cry lol yah

23: Proud or Anxious usually I’m more proud, but sometimes when it’s something that’s very deeply personal or controversial I can get anxious.

24: When Did I Become a Writer tbh sometimes I think I came out the womb that way. I don’t remember not being a writer, and I know I had legit novel ideas as early as like 3rd grade, and was making shit up with pretty words even earlier.

25: Must Reads in My Genre three guesses what i’m bout to say y’all. Literally anything by Gaiman. Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart series. Any Pratchett. Donna Gillespe fucked me up with The Light Bearer. Bear Daughter by Judith Berman (although that is kind of a tough read, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for everyone).

26: My Genre Needs More… Diversity in general, specifically more people of color, queer people, and people with disabilities (that aren’t magically erased). Also in my opinion there needs to be more things in between grimdark and go-lucky fairytale.

27: Inspiration Source History, anthropology, and pseudoscience.

28: Character Naming Stress from 1-10 Probably about a 2 or a 3. I use behindthename.com which can be searched for meanings, sound patterns, usage, and origin, and has a handy “name themes” search algorithm. I also recently found the legit U.S. census thanks to @peppersandcats helping me out with search terms, and that can be sorted by ethnicity, gender, time period, and geographical location. So I’ve got names pretty well covered!

29: Underwrite or Overwrite First Drafts It could go either way, but generally speaking unless I have a word limit I usually like to add more during editing. Except when something is confusing or too complicated, then I’ll cut it.

30: Calming or Stressing Not really either tbh. I enjoy it a lot, but it’s mostly exciting! Not calming or stressful, but either a fun adventure or a challenging puzzle.

31: Favorite Trope Tough to pick just one tbh. I love tropes when they are done “right”. Even tropes done classically can be great (as long as they’re not -phobic of some sort), but I especially love when they are done satirically or inverted.

32: Backstories for Side Characters Guilty af. Even characters that might not even make it into the finished book have backstories, personalities, and quirks.

33: Characterize Before Writing or Develop with The Story A little bit of both. I like to have a solid character to work with at the beginning, but for in-text character development I like to let that unfold with the plot and the other characters.

34: Old Writing in One Word Prolific

35: Villains or Heroes I like them both pretty well, but my favorite characters of all time are always a little ambiguous so if I had to pick just one kind that’s what I’d go with.

36: B&W Morality No way! I live in the gray area.

37: Advice Have fun! Be proud of yourself for what you come up with and celebrate your creativity even if you think it doesn’t compare with other writers. The happier you are to create, the more creative you’ll get. Also, like with any other kind of art, pick a couple role models to emulate and that will help you develop your own solid style.

38: Advice I Fail At The first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. I spend too long line editing while I’m writing my first draft and that makes it a lot harder to finish anything.

39: Importance of Positive Reinforcement I’d say reasonably important. Definitely helpful. But I know I’ll keep writing even without it.

40: Question for Favorite Author How much difference is there between how his creation is in his head versus how it came out in the words, and does he ever think about rewriting things that are long finished?

41: Distracting to Read While Writing Actually, no. Reading other comparable works helps keep me motivated, inspired, and focused.

42: Motivated or Discouraged by Critiques Tbh I don’t think I have ever received a real in-depth critique so I’m not certain? I’ve had idle “I liked this, but I didn’t like/understand that” type of feedback, and that has usually been pretty helpful and appreciated. If nothing else it lets me know what parts of the story might not be as accessible to an audience.

43: Protagonists in My Likeness Yes, there’s a little of me in very many of my protagonists, and often even in fic characters that I write. But, like with other real people, they’re not usually modeled after me, we just have some stuff in common because I leak over into them (and sometimes they leak over into me) when I’m writing them.

44: Choosing An Idea This is something I struggle with, really. My process is usually to try writing a bit of it, and if I hate it it’s probably not viable.

45: Harder or Easier While Stressed It’s usually a harder to write when I’m stressed, and what I do manage to write doesn’t have as much quality.

46: Sort Protagonists !!! There are too many!! these are just the Big Ones (so far) in witch noir Gryffindor - toots, eddie, maddie, anca, seth Hufflepuff - lily, charisma, s.j., angel, iris Ravenclaw - fred, ariel, dido, father piero Slytherin - evelyn, jessica, sloan, clara-claudia, aixa

47: Five Year Goal Hopefully I will have fucking finished something. Maybe published? Or maybe getting my manuscript looked at. (I have a humble-ish time frame, I think. Writing is a lot of work, and five years is a lot less time than it sounds like.)

48: Co-Writing I’m a huge control freak, so probably not. At least not with original characters. Maybe for fic tho, because that can be much lower stakes lmao.

49: Fast or Slow When I’m in The Zone I speed thru, but it can take me a while to get started and I come up on blocks pretty often so I’m a slow finisher.

50: Worldbuilding or Characters Shit man, that’s a tough choice. I guess characters? I don’t know.

#ask meme #writing stuff #jack chats #kelsie #writing process #jack facts #jesus this took me like an hour smh #lovemea-malia #hc

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mhsn033 · 4 years

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Anthony Horowitz: ‘I feel the need to do the unexpected’

Image copyright Jack Lawson

Creator Anthony Horowitz talks mercurial, very mercurial. Phrases sprint from his mouth in a straggle against an imaginary stopwatch.

Judging by his bibliography, it have to no longer be a shock. Ideas clearly come thick and fleet to Horowitz and force his world.

He is now no longer most attention-grabbing prolific, along with his works numbering extra than 50, nonetheless additionally varied.

He is written a pair of books for childhood and younger adults, including his Alex Rider tales (now being dramatised on Prime Video), alongside grownup fiction. And he is tackled correct about each genre.

Additionally on the CV is writing for cinema and TV, including episodes of Midsomer Murders and Poirot, and he is the creator of Foyle’s Battle, Collision, Injustice and New Blood.

This trade has earned Horowitz an OBE nonetheless arguably created something of a conundrum – correct where to attract him on book place or library cupboards?

“Maybe or now no longer it’s executed me no correct form in the sense that is or now no longer it’s more uncomplicated to categorise or pigeonhole a creator and know precisely where to gather them. You perceive, let’s yell, precisely what to predict from a Stephen King,” he acknowledges.

“Nonetheless I do not buy when ideas come into my head. And I really beget lots – all very various. I’ve had an belief for a literary new for 10 years and it correct might per chance per chance per chance also merely now no longer gallop away. I will likely fall flat on my face.

Image copyright Getty Photography

Image caption Anthony Horowitz has a legion of younger fans

“All I’m in a position to assemble is write the guidelines and assume in them and now no longer apprehension regarding the rest. I love each ingredient of writing. Or now no longer it’s totality. That is all there might per chance be. Upright me and the web page and nothing else.”

For his most trendy work he is in the realm of the abolish mystery, which he first entered in 2017 with Magpie Murders – a devilishly complicated whodunnit inner a whodunnit.

Sure, he’d written crime tales for TV and two Sherlock Holmes books commissioned by the Conan Doyle estate nonetheless Magpie Murders became once the predominant abolish new from his dangle creativeness.

It launched us to editor Susan Ryeland, her frightful, easiest-selling crime creator Alan Conway and his Poirotesque 1950s non-public detective Atticus Pund.

Image copyright Getty Photography

Image caption Anthony Horowitz got an OBE in 2014 for companies to literature

Many of the radical narrates essentially the most trendy Conway/Pund mystery, a double abolish case situation on the neatly-trodden floor of a sleepy village. Nonetheless when the memoir involves a tantalising unfinished halt, or now no longer it’s Susan who finds herself investigating a abolish – and narrowly swerving her dangle death.

It became once a easiest-vendor and opinions had been generally favourable.

Writing in the Guardian, Alison Flood acknowledged: “Horowitz peppers his pages with clues and purple herrings aplenty… the memoir takes a whereas to acquire going… Nonetheless once it does, here’s a fiendishly plotted crime new, with a unbelievable twist.”

The Washington Times’ Muriel Dobbin wrote: “Mr Horowitz is now no longer a straightforward creator and here is no longer any simple mystery, nonetheless it completely is most horny to be taught and its conclusions by no intention disappoint. Maybe the proper downside is attempting to care for with the discipline which is like investigating a spider web.”

Horowitz is now revisiting Susan and Co in Moonflower Murders, one other riddle-encumbered abolish inner a abolish adventure. Nonetheless there is been lots of alternate.

Image copyright ITV/Shutterstock

Image caption Foyle’s Battle became once Anthony Horowitz’s creation

Susan is running a Cretan resort along with her fiancé and, with Conway needless, she believes he and Pund beget been banished from her life.

That is except two traffic beseech her to support gather their daughter and solve a abolish at their dangle Suffolk resort, believing the reply to each lies in a one amongst Conway’s early mysteries.

As with Magpie, readers are given the plump Pund memoir inner a memoir about Conway, each encased by the wider fable, so need their wits about them to withhold tabs on who’s who and what’s what.

Together with an additional, semi-metafictional, layer are the a pair of nods to real life – bright locations, americans and musings on literature and publishing.

Image copyright ITV/Shutterstock

Image caption Anthony Horowitz wrote several of the early episodes of Midsomer Murders

Or now no longer it’s an technique to storytelling that Horowitz himself chanced on checking out.

“It makes me drained correct remembering how complicated it became once to write. The fun of it’s a long way that it’s a long way like a Russian doll,” he says.

“I’ve been doing this [writing] for goodbye, I assemble really feel the necessity to experiment, downside myself to downside the reader, to assemble the sudden to alternate americans’s attitudes… I’m searching to give extra than a abolish mystery.”

What is familiar is the country village atmosphere for the crimes. Midsomer Murders has this correct down to a T, following the path forged by the legendary Agatha Christie.

“In a village everyone is conscious of everyone. So if one person has a secret, it in all fairness likely 5 various americans will tag it. Any person is murdered at breakfast everyone is conscious of by elevenses,” Horowitz says of the village’s charm for memoir-tellers.

“And villages beget an unchanging quality, which is extraordinarily priceless for crime writers, where knowledge takes time to come.”

In between the Susan Ryeland books, Horowitz wrote two various crime novels featuring the non-public investigator Daniel Hawthorne. But again, he twisted the genre by inserting himself into the predominant memoir, The Phrase is Assassinate, because the narrator.

Nonetheless quirky or dilapidated, crime thrillers remain constantly standard and topped essentially the easiest-selling class list in 2019, in step with the market tracker Nielsen.

A extra most trendy Nielsen survey showed two-thirds of these requested had turned extra to those tales all the intention by the pandemic.

Image copyright Getty Photography

Image caption Poirot celebrity David Suchet’s doctor father delivered the shrimp one Anthony

Horowitz says the genre “brings americans together in a in point of fact fleet and instantaneous intention”.

“Any person murders someone else so that you know from the starting put the stakes are very high and the sentiments are very serious… there is a without prolong enchantment.

“And in a droll intention, in a world where fact is laborious to pin down – false news, 24-hour news, politicians who’re frequently chanced on to beget been economical with the fact – a abolish mystery will provide you with absolute fact, a gratifying ending.

“They additionally begin a door into americans’s lives in a technique that no various fiction does. A detective and the reader growth by the e book shoulder-to-shoulder, they are united. You do no longer stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr Darcy or Dumbledore.”

Horowitz’s affiliation to abolish mystery started from his first breath as he became once brought into the realm by the renown gynaecologist Joseph Suchet – father of Poirot celebrity David.

“After I delivered my first Poirot script, I mentioned to David that his father had delivered me. It regarded a comely fit,” he says.

Image copyright Alamy

Image caption Anthony Horowitz in one amongst the interesting offices he is occupied over time

Alternatively, Horowitz says he is now no longer a abundant reader of Poirot’s creator Christie, describing her writing as “serviceable as antagonistic to inspirational”.

“Nonetheless I’m a abundant fan of her plotting and her genius for altering the system and she or he by no intention cheats on the reader.”

As for Conan Doyle, neatly then you’re talking, says Horowitz, who adds the offer to write his dangle Sherlock books became once too correct form to flip down.

“The Holmes-Watson relationship is so beguiling, how might per chance per chance per chance also I withstand sitting in the chair in the corner with these two men? Doyle is this kind of correct form creator that it became once additionally a possibility to gather my game, to write better and take a look at and write like him. He is had a abundant impact on my life and profession,” he explains.

Nonetheless, as an avid reader from childhood, Horowitz might per chance per chance per chance also yell the same about any preference of writers, and he reels off a checklist from Willard Designate to Anthony Trollope.

“I knew I needed to be a creator on the age of 10 when I wrote my first play. I’m in a position to aloof visualise my squidgy handwriting. I became once unhappy. I became once in a frightful college and books had been a lifeline,” he says.

“I aloof watch books as a lifeline in a world wherein I gather myself working out less, and that becomes evermore the case.

“They’re an straggle from actuality and without reference to how unhappy you might per chance per chance per chance also very neatly be, the 2nd you’re taking with a e book, all the pieces feels a shrimp better.”

Escaping from actuality has a bigger charm whenever you happen to retain in mind the holes wherein Horowitz has chanced on himself with some of his public feedback.

“In the last 10 years I’ve noticed that if I’m now no longer considerate in what I yell, I be taught issues that I desire I hadn’t acknowledged. Or now no longer it’s the realm we dwell in.”

As such, his books might per chance per chance per chance also merely now no longer be specializing in trendy complications, he says, adding, “I’m now no longer determined I really beget powerful to offer.

“I are searching to assemble something particular, to give americans pleasure and entertainment in a world wherein persons are, by and neatly-kept, moderately form – after they’re now no longer murdering each various.”

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz is on hand now.

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