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ladybusinessSometimes dreams come true and Renay gets what she wants. Yes, it’s time for my mid-year thoughts about the books, TV and films I’ve taken in so far this year:
Books
So far in 2013 I’ve read 26 books. That’s quite a lot of books but looking at figures from the past few years it seems I’ve usually read more by July. I think the reason I’m reading less books this year is that I’m watching a lot more TV series (I’m actually watching live TV and burning through the box sets instead of letting them clutter up my shelves). I’m also writing a lot more this year. And I’m trying pull off a busy social summer. I love reading but all these other things make me happy too, especially the fact that I’m writing more this year, so I hope you’ll agree I’ve made a good trade off.
Here Come the Stats
So, what kind of books have I been reading this year and what types of authors have I been letting into my head?
Author categories
Out of those 26:
Female authors: 19
Male authors: 6
Books by male & female collaborators: 1
Yeeeeeaaaaahhhh! That’s some good news. I’m not sure what my F/M review stats are like this year, that’s probably one to check at the end of the year, but I’m happy with the gender balance of what I’m reading at least.
Just a note in case any feminists are now quietly despairing over the gender balance of their own reading: Please feel no shame! I have been a feminist for a long time but I wasn’t always such a female-focused fiction reader. Just a few years ago my reading gender balance looked more like a seesaw loaded down with books by dudes. It’s only after several years of actively working to readjust the gender balance of my reading stats that I’ve finally hit a stage where I end up reading more female than male authors without having to concentrate too hard on what I’m picking up. And I could easily, easily end up with a flipped gender balance again (I like historical novels about battles which are unfortunately largely centred on men; I like stories about sailors – lots of men in those). The gender balance of personal reading can be hard to push in a feminist direction especially if your favourite genres are heavily male dominated or if you are working hard at general life or if you have, I think like many women – including myself, learnt to associate male stories with something like comfort reading early on in life.
Anyway, as we shall soon see, while I may have read a high proportion of female authors my concentration has slipped this year when it comes to other areas of the reading balance.
Chromatic authors: 3 (including one co-written book – “Skim”)
See, I am personally not happy with this stat. I bought a lot of books by chromatic authors in 2012, and at the beginning of 2013 because I wanted to make a conscious effort to read and review more work by these authors. However, I haven’t managed it. I read an article a while ago that talked about the need for writers to actively decolonise their imaginations – to take time to really bang it into their skulls that the way history and society is sometimes presented in media isn’t the way it really was/is. The article (which I can’t find again – woe) posits that it’s only when they’ve successfully convinced their brains that writers can create stories which kick out the dominant, default idea that white, straight, males do all the things. I think I need to do something similar when it comes to reading chromatic authors. I need to spend a lot of time reminding myself that the books by chromatic authors that I have on hand are fun stories I wanted to read when I bought them; stories that are going to be great and interesting. I need to ignore the pressure of weird cultural ideas about difficulty and worthiness when I go to pick from my shelves. And I need to jot down disordered thoughts about these books after finishing them, the way I do soon after finishing other books, so I remember all the bits that excited me. This will help me to write a review later even if I can’t write one straight away. I predict I have a lot of fun reading times ahead of me in the next half of the year.
LGBTQ authors: 3
I don’t usually pay attention to this stat because it’s not always easy to know how an author identifies. However, this year three of the authors whose books I read in the first part of this year are clearly and publically identified as LGBTQ so I thought I might as well include it because again it shows an area of my personal reading balance that I need to work on. Please never stop recommending me great books that written by LGBTQ authors or that feature LGBTQ characters.
Book categories
Some unsurprising stats to follow:
Novels: 17
Short story collections: 1
Non-fiction: 1
Novella: 6
Graphic novel: 1
I just love novels ok? I do want to read more short story collections, especially as there are so many great ones coming out in the SFF genre right now, but I don’t own a lot of them; I find it difficult to read e-galleys of new titles and my library doesn’t have a big short story collection. I’d also like to read more non-fiction (goodness knows I own enough of the stuff) but to be honest non-fiction is tiring to read after a day at work. I’m just glad to have found some energy for reading and writing this year after a long period of being too tired to engage, so I’ll try to read a bit more non-fiction this year but I’m not going to frustrate myself by picking up non-fic at inopportune times just because I think I should try harder. I really want to read more novellas by the end of the year and more translated fiction (only three translated works read so far this year – again, woe) and I should hopefully manage to read more of the translated novellas scattered around my house now that I’m concentrating.
Stats – SFF Gender Breakdown
Or, what Renay is most interested in
SFF books: 13
By female authors: 11
By male authors: 2
Aces! I set out to read (and review – check back for those stats at the end of the year) more SFF, especially SF, by women than by men this year and I’m working towards my goal. Good job me *claps even though ‘self-applause is no applause’ apparently*.
Let’s Play Favourites
I predict that it’s going to be exceptionally difficult to pick my end of year favourites in 2013. I’m having a great reading year even if the number of books I’ve read so far is low. Thanks authors. Thanks friends who recommend things :D I still want to give this mid-year favourite’s thing a go though, even if decisions are hard. Here are some of the books that I’ve read so far this year that I think are worth your time:
"The Killing Moon" by N K Jemisin: This novel felt so original to me and reminded me how much I love SFF influenced by Ancient Eygpt. You guessed it - I re-watched some “Stargate” after reading Jemisin’s novel.
"Fair Play" by Tove Jansson: Jansson writes about a quiet domestic romance between two female artists. Her prose is so spare and beautiful. And she has such great insight into the challenges of creating art. Ohhhh - <3
"Maurice" by E M Forster: I wish this were SFF in some way so I could yammer on about how Renay should read it. If you’re ever in the mood for a historical fling Renay then this is a wonderful book made all the more emotional by the author’s personal history. There are boys kissing boys and everything works out ok in the end.
"The Scorpio Races" by Maggie Steifvater: No one is surprised. Killer horses, island settings and quiet characters float my boat – news at ten.
"Railsea" by China Miéville: Again, obvious.
"Zoo City" by Lauren Beukes: The third recommendation from Renay to appear on this list I think. I love the combination of crime and SFF and welcome all recommendations of books that mash the two together.
"The Eloquence of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery: Just lovely, lovely, lovely. Smart and sweet and then so sad at the end. Actually, I was not a hug fan of the ending (I think I feel the way Jenny felt about the ending of “Looper”, that it was not the real ending) but I enjoyed the rest of the book.
"God’s War" by Kameron Hurley: Renay, Philip and I talked a lot about this one. Listen to the podcast to hear more (yes, I am very subtle).
"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson – This horror classic is creepy and so intricately well- written. Everyone who has ever said anything complimentary about this novel is right. That means Ana was right yet again! Read it for the family relationships even if the horror tag doesn’t appeal to you.
"Jezebel" by Irène Némirovsky – Another addition to my list of ‘Books I have loved that feature complicated women’. The protagonist is terrible but by the end of the book it’s clear that society is just as bad. If you’ve ever railed against the unreasonable beauty standards society imposes on women this book might work for you.
I don’t think these choices will be a surprise to many people – sorry to be so boring/bombarding my Twitter friends with screaming book love.
Film
During the first part of 2013, I made use of our family’s Love Film account to catch up on everything I missed at the cinema in 2012. I finally saw "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and I really wanted to write lots of words about it but at this point I’m pretty sure I would fuck up due to a lack of knowledge. Instead, I bought "New Orleans" by Sherri L Smith of "Flygirl" fame, "Wading Home" by Rosalyn Storey and series one of "Treme" to try to find out a bit more about New Orleans and to help me clarify some feelings about the film.
I also watched lots of SFF animation – "Despicable Me" (surprisingly adorbs), "A Monster in Paris", "The Brave" (which I enjoyed so much, even though its world was very standard, stereotypical fantasy Scotland) and "Wreck-it Ralph" (yay to the nostalgic feelings it provoked, boo to the damselling rescue of the action heroine).
And obviously I wrote all the words about "Looper". Oh you glorious messed up original work how I adore you.
Up until a couple of weeks ago I’d only seen three SFF films in the cinema this year: "Star Trek Into Darkness", "The Hobbit" and “The Host” which shows that I am obviously making good financial decisions. “The Host” was some terri-bad schlocky action/romance with body colonising horror thrown in which is all I asked of it, so I’ve no quarrel with it at all. Hot boys – check. Cool story about aliens – check. The other two however… eh.
Look, I’m convinced that one day I will finally click with a LotR/Hobbit film and I will be in for either the films or the books, which is why I try to read LotR every year and why I’m sticking with Jackson’s films, but there’s no getting away from the fact that I found "The Hobbit - completely unnecessary subtitle, the first" was a slog. It was not at all the enjoyable adventure quest I anticipated and that makes me sad because it seems like "The Hobbit" was made for me. I love all the travelling and eating parts of quest stories - I am that weirdo who wanted more travelling, eating and talking in "The Thief" - but about an hour into Part One of The Never Ending Journey I realised that Jackson’s franchise would forever frustrate my hopes. I like the fandom far better than the canon and that’s unusual for me. Send me all the Bilbo/Thorin or Kili/Fili that you’ve got, just don’t ask me to try the film again.
As for "Star Trek Into Darkness"… I need some people to come talk with me about this film. I was never a trekkie growing up but I have seen a large amount of Star Trek episodes (mostly out of order) and I’ve seen several of the films. There is no Janeaway film so I’m never going to be totally happy with the old canon but that doesn’t stop me from being a HUGE fan of the Piccard era films. Patrick Stewart is perfection. And having *feelings* about old Trek means I have what are probably stupid *feelings* about the rebooted franchise.
When the first film came out I was excited to see a new incarnation of Star Trek. And I wasn’t totally disappointed by the reboot. Although I do think they should probably have got a Scottish actor to play Scotty instead of just asking Simon Pegg to do an accent I still like a lot of the casting. I think the new films are a good actiony time which is all I really want sometimes. And I will take all the bonus male friendship storylines and on screen Uhura you can throw at me. I’m even down for parts of the nostalgia (future Spock!).
At the same time, I’m kind of sad that Trek got rebooted instead of advanced. I understand that reboots are about bringing new audiences to beloved old sources and I embrace reboot culture but Trek is a franchise that has always previously pulled new audiences in by keeping the old concept in place but making the people and generations responding to the old concept totally new. . Its TV version didn’t spend time looking back, dwelling on the initial days of Kirk and Spock, it invented new characters and sent them on new adventures. Yes, some of these characters had familiar shapes (is it Spock or is it Data) but nevertheless they were new characters and the program was always trying to move forward and build new on to old. Trek is an easy idea to make anew without alienating fresh audiences, so that’s what has always been done in the past and up to a point that worked out well. That all kind of stops with this particular incarnation of the franchise which is a straight reboot of original canon involving the return of original characters. I don’t know… making a nostalgic project about a franchise that has always been pushing forward just feels weird to me I guess – like a very sad manifestation of re-tread culture.
Also, Trek is about the future and it seems to me that it has consistently been a piece of media interested in creating a vision of the future by genuinely trying to move forward inventively. It moved forward in terms of representation (black captain, female captain, disabled main character, Asian female science officer – all things that Star Trek gave us) surpassing a lot of the SF coming out around it. And it’s really annoying to see a rebooted nostalgic version made in our time that seems uninterested in pushing the boundaries of representation further than the quite progressive original. Yes, Star Trek was relatively progressive for its time but this is 2013 and it’s kind of tragic that just replicating the progressiveness of the 70s still looks kinda progressive (although not revolutionary) in cinema today and that the people working on the franchise didn’t seem to realise how tragic this straight re-imagining would be. The newest reboot addition, STID, isn’t even as progressive as 70s Trek in some ways (womanising Kirk who watches a woman change when she asks him not to - dislike). Come on!
In other ways I think it is adorable. Bones/Kirk! Then I remember that their decisions about Khan are baffling. Between this and finding out that Cumberbatch is to play Julian Assange I seriously wonder what he and his team want his career to reflect. Perhaps this is another instance where I like the fandom more than the canon? Who knows – feelings are hard.
2013 was looking pretty grim for new releases. Then, last week I had a surprise cinema movie marathon. I wanted to see the only showing of "Much Ado About Nothing" at my local cinema (yep that’s right just the one showing and that came out a month after release – I wept a little while reading those listings). I was going alone (a new cinema experience for me) and because of things I knew I’d have a long wait around until the showing. Luckily this was the week "Pacific Rim" came out. Quick summary because Renay and I have podcasting plans – I think this is the first SFF film I’ve seen in the cinema since “Thor” that made me full on happy. "Pacific Rim" as its stuff like all films but if you’re looking for a fun SFF romp where “romp” isn’t code for “starring casually offensive dudebros” then give this film your money. It is fun, it is ridiculous in places, it is moving in others and I will throw this fan-vid at you as a further attempt to convince you. Go. Go! GO!
So, then I still had some time and I checked out "World War Z" which I found scary but also standard and disappointing. In between the jumpy bits I just kept thinking about “I am Legend” and how I would love to see “Feed” adapted for film. Should have seen “Monster University” instead maybe? I can absolutely see how this story would make an interesting book though – don’t worry Renay, I still have plans to read it.
And then came the main event – Joss Whedon’s "Much Ado About Nothing" which again I have a lot of thoughts about and will talk about at length later. Just, this is my play – I claim it. My top five people from the cast were Amy Acker (who was genuinely perfection – I would love to see her in theatre or in another film where she is the star), Alexis Denishoff, Nathan Fillion (predictable choices for Whedon fan I know), Ricki Lindhome and Reed Diamond. I liked the film overall. There’s some fantastic comic acting in there. Did I mention that Amy Acker is fabulous? Really, the nuance she gave to her lines and the little actions she did around them made the film for me. She was so in her character and so expressive. She and Alexis Dennishoff had the chemistry I’ve been dreaming they’d have. And I might even watch it again just to see Fillion and Lenk’s double act.
So, that’s a lot of words about films. The only big SFF release I think I’m really excited about now is “The World’s End” and I can’t think of any films outside the genre that I’m interested in seeing at the cinema. Anyone got any good recommendations?
TV
I watched a lot of TV this year as per usual. A quick list with quick thoughts for speed:
SFF (series completed)
"Legend of Korra" (S1) – Yippee, Ana and I talked about this plenty and I would like the second series very soon please.
"The Vampire Diaries" (S3) – This was the year I did episode recaps and it will probably be the only year I ever do episode recaps because turns out they take so much work. Just in case anyone is still unclear – Delena no, Forwood forever and Jeremy/everyone.
"The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (S1) – Loooooved iiiiit. I have a review coming up soon.
Other
"The Fall" – If you’re a fan of serial killer stories you should absolutely check this one out. Gillian Anderson is going to try and catch her a murderer while busting all the male chops and sexing.
"Parks and Recreation" (S1 - S5) - I don't even know what you're doing if you own a TV and haven't watched this. It's so funny and nice. Ana and I have plans to discuss it, possibly all in CAPS.
Series in progress (mixed)
"The Returned" (S1) – Everyone needs to get on watching this French drama which is sort of about zombies and sort of about resurrection. Some of it is so weird (OMG the psychic connection sex) but it is very pretty and thought provoking
"Once Upon a Time" (S2) – Everything is getting weird and my only canon ship is on the rocks. Clare assures me it will be fine though so I’m just clinging to the driftwood right now.
"Hannibal" (S1) – Which I wrote quite a bit about after four episodes. I have some episodes to catch up on but frankly I’m afraid to because no one will #HelpWillGraham.
"The Mindy Project" (S1) – A great addition to the confused single girl canon. I was bowled over by the pilot which I thought did a pilot's actual job (explain what your program will be about) instead of doing what a lot of pilots do now (set up a cliffhanger). I do sometimes wish Mindy did more doctoring. I also wish there was more Gwen and less Jeremy. And I really wish Danny would stop telling Mindy how to dress even though I still ship Danny/Mindy. Mostly though it's a fun program which I think could get better in a second series.
"Nashville" (S1) – Eventually I will finish this and write about it because I really love the program and its songs.
"The Americans" (S1) – I’m not very far into this but I like it a bunch although the spy plots often don’t make a lot of sense to me. I totally ship me some spy/FBI action but I also like the in canon relationship between Philip and Elizabeth.
"Nikita" (S1) – This is like someone took Alias and deliberately re-wrote it to add diversity and more female friendships but remove the SFF plot. No, seriously, there are so many similarities. Someone just wanted “Alias” with an Asian lead and women taking down the system so they made it which is awesome.
"The White Queen" – After a shaky start this glossy historical has mostly won me over with its hot men and concentration on female characters. I’m not down with the female magic controlling the kingdom side of things but I really like all the women (except Edward’s mother – boooo).
Like Renay, I also failed at catching up on "Dr Who". My plan now is to finish watching the most recent series by the time the anniversary episode airs in November, but I’m not that excited. I almost feel like I could just spend time looking at all the Dr Who crossovers being proposed on Tumblr without feeling like I’m missing anything. Dr Who can be wedged into any fandom because it’s got time travel and the results are generally very, very cute. Also, people seem to have decided that the anniversary episode means we need more anguished Who gifs of companion/Dr splits – unnecessary and mean :P These are balanced out with an upsurge of lovely real life gifs from actors that work on Who though so I suppose I forgive the internet.
That’s my 2013 media experience so far. Shall we meet up again at the end of the year for a look at those review stats? I promise to bring gingerbread coffee.
Books
So far in 2013 I’ve read 26 books. That’s quite a lot of books but looking at figures from the past few years it seems I’ve usually read more by July. I think the reason I’m reading less books this year is that I’m watching a lot more TV series (I’m actually watching live TV and burning through the box sets instead of letting them clutter up my shelves). I’m also writing a lot more this year. And I’m trying pull off a busy social summer. I love reading but all these other things make me happy too, especially the fact that I’m writing more this year, so I hope you’ll agree I’ve made a good trade off.
Here Come the Stats
So, what kind of books have I been reading this year and what types of authors have I been letting into my head?
Author categories
Out of those 26:
Female authors: 19
Male authors: 6
Books by male & female collaborators: 1
Yeeeeeaaaaahhhh! That’s some good news. I’m not sure what my F/M review stats are like this year, that’s probably one to check at the end of the year, but I’m happy with the gender balance of what I’m reading at least.
Just a note in case any feminists are now quietly despairing over the gender balance of their own reading: Please feel no shame! I have been a feminist for a long time but I wasn’t always such a female-focused fiction reader. Just a few years ago my reading gender balance looked more like a seesaw loaded down with books by dudes. It’s only after several years of actively working to readjust the gender balance of my reading stats that I’ve finally hit a stage where I end up reading more female than male authors without having to concentrate too hard on what I’m picking up. And I could easily, easily end up with a flipped gender balance again (I like historical novels about battles which are unfortunately largely centred on men; I like stories about sailors – lots of men in those). The gender balance of personal reading can be hard to push in a feminist direction especially if your favourite genres are heavily male dominated or if you are working hard at general life or if you have, I think like many women – including myself, learnt to associate male stories with something like comfort reading early on in life.
Anyway, as we shall soon see, while I may have read a high proportion of female authors my concentration has slipped this year when it comes to other areas of the reading balance.
Chromatic authors: 3 (including one co-written book – “Skim”)
See, I am personally not happy with this stat. I bought a lot of books by chromatic authors in 2012, and at the beginning of 2013 because I wanted to make a conscious effort to read and review more work by these authors. However, I haven’t managed it. I read an article a while ago that talked about the need for writers to actively decolonise their imaginations – to take time to really bang it into their skulls that the way history and society is sometimes presented in media isn’t the way it really was/is. The article (which I can’t find again – woe) posits that it’s only when they’ve successfully convinced their brains that writers can create stories which kick out the dominant, default idea that white, straight, males do all the things. I think I need to do something similar when it comes to reading chromatic authors. I need to spend a lot of time reminding myself that the books by chromatic authors that I have on hand are fun stories I wanted to read when I bought them; stories that are going to be great and interesting. I need to ignore the pressure of weird cultural ideas about difficulty and worthiness when I go to pick from my shelves. And I need to jot down disordered thoughts about these books after finishing them, the way I do soon after finishing other books, so I remember all the bits that excited me. This will help me to write a review later even if I can’t write one straight away. I predict I have a lot of fun reading times ahead of me in the next half of the year.
LGBTQ authors: 3
I don’t usually pay attention to this stat because it’s not always easy to know how an author identifies. However, this year three of the authors whose books I read in the first part of this year are clearly and publically identified as LGBTQ so I thought I might as well include it because again it shows an area of my personal reading balance that I need to work on. Please never stop recommending me great books that written by LGBTQ authors or that feature LGBTQ characters.
Book categories
Some unsurprising stats to follow:
Novels: 17
Short story collections: 1
Non-fiction: 1
Novella: 6
Graphic novel: 1
I just love novels ok? I do want to read more short story collections, especially as there are so many great ones coming out in the SFF genre right now, but I don’t own a lot of them; I find it difficult to read e-galleys of new titles and my library doesn’t have a big short story collection. I’d also like to read more non-fiction (goodness knows I own enough of the stuff) but to be honest non-fiction is tiring to read after a day at work. I’m just glad to have found some energy for reading and writing this year after a long period of being too tired to engage, so I’ll try to read a bit more non-fiction this year but I’m not going to frustrate myself by picking up non-fic at inopportune times just because I think I should try harder. I really want to read more novellas by the end of the year and more translated fiction (only three translated works read so far this year – again, woe) and I should hopefully manage to read more of the translated novellas scattered around my house now that I’m concentrating.
Stats – SFF Gender Breakdown
Or, what Renay is most interested in
SFF books: 13
By female authors: 11
By male authors: 2
Aces! I set out to read (and review – check back for those stats at the end of the year) more SFF, especially SF, by women than by men this year and I’m working towards my goal. Good job me *claps even though ‘self-applause is no applause’ apparently*.
Let’s Play Favourites
I predict that it’s going to be exceptionally difficult to pick my end of year favourites in 2013. I’m having a great reading year even if the number of books I’ve read so far is low. Thanks authors. Thanks friends who recommend things :D I still want to give this mid-year favourite’s thing a go though, even if decisions are hard. Here are some of the books that I’ve read so far this year that I think are worth your time:
"The Killing Moon" by N K Jemisin: This novel felt so original to me and reminded me how much I love SFF influenced by Ancient Eygpt. You guessed it - I re-watched some “Stargate” after reading Jemisin’s novel.
"Fair Play" by Tove Jansson: Jansson writes about a quiet domestic romance between two female artists. Her prose is so spare and beautiful. And she has such great insight into the challenges of creating art. Ohhhh - <3
"Maurice" by E M Forster: I wish this were SFF in some way so I could yammer on about how Renay should read it. If you’re ever in the mood for a historical fling Renay then this is a wonderful book made all the more emotional by the author’s personal history. There are boys kissing boys and everything works out ok in the end.
"The Scorpio Races" by Maggie Steifvater: No one is surprised. Killer horses, island settings and quiet characters float my boat – news at ten.
"Railsea" by China Miéville: Again, obvious.
"Zoo City" by Lauren Beukes: The third recommendation from Renay to appear on this list I think. I love the combination of crime and SFF and welcome all recommendations of books that mash the two together.
"The Eloquence of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery: Just lovely, lovely, lovely. Smart and sweet and then so sad at the end. Actually, I was not a hug fan of the ending (I think I feel the way Jenny felt about the ending of “Looper”, that it was not the real ending) but I enjoyed the rest of the book.
"God’s War" by Kameron Hurley: Renay, Philip and I talked a lot about this one. Listen to the podcast to hear more (yes, I am very subtle).
"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson – This horror classic is creepy and so intricately well- written. Everyone who has ever said anything complimentary about this novel is right. That means Ana was right yet again! Read it for the family relationships even if the horror tag doesn’t appeal to you.
"Jezebel" by Irène Némirovsky – Another addition to my list of ‘Books I have loved that feature complicated women’. The protagonist is terrible but by the end of the book it’s clear that society is just as bad. If you’ve ever railed against the unreasonable beauty standards society imposes on women this book might work for you.
I don’t think these choices will be a surprise to many people – sorry to be so boring/bombarding my Twitter friends with screaming book love.
Film
During the first part of 2013, I made use of our family’s Love Film account to catch up on everything I missed at the cinema in 2012. I finally saw "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and I really wanted to write lots of words about it but at this point I’m pretty sure I would fuck up due to a lack of knowledge. Instead, I bought "New Orleans" by Sherri L Smith of "Flygirl" fame, "Wading Home" by Rosalyn Storey and series one of "Treme" to try to find out a bit more about New Orleans and to help me clarify some feelings about the film.
I also watched lots of SFF animation – "Despicable Me" (surprisingly adorbs), "A Monster in Paris", "The Brave" (which I enjoyed so much, even though its world was very standard, stereotypical fantasy Scotland) and "Wreck-it Ralph" (yay to the nostalgic feelings it provoked, boo to the damselling rescue of the action heroine).
And obviously I wrote all the words about "Looper". Oh you glorious messed up original work how I adore you.
Up until a couple of weeks ago I’d only seen three SFF films in the cinema this year: "Star Trek Into Darkness", "The Hobbit" and “The Host” which shows that I am obviously making good financial decisions. “The Host” was some terri-bad schlocky action/romance with body colonising horror thrown in which is all I asked of it, so I’ve no quarrel with it at all. Hot boys – check. Cool story about aliens – check. The other two however… eh.
Look, I’m convinced that one day I will finally click with a LotR/Hobbit film and I will be in for either the films or the books, which is why I try to read LotR every year and why I’m sticking with Jackson’s films, but there’s no getting away from the fact that I found "The Hobbit - completely unnecessary subtitle, the first" was a slog. It was not at all the enjoyable adventure quest I anticipated and that makes me sad because it seems like "The Hobbit" was made for me. I love all the travelling and eating parts of quest stories - I am that weirdo who wanted more travelling, eating and talking in "The Thief" - but about an hour into Part One of The Never Ending Journey I realised that Jackson’s franchise would forever frustrate my hopes. I like the fandom far better than the canon and that’s unusual for me. Send me all the Bilbo/Thorin or Kili/Fili that you’ve got, just don’t ask me to try the film again.
As for "Star Trek Into Darkness"… I need some people to come talk with me about this film. I was never a trekkie growing up but I have seen a large amount of Star Trek episodes (mostly out of order) and I’ve seen several of the films. There is no Janeaway film so I’m never going to be totally happy with the old canon but that doesn’t stop me from being a HUGE fan of the Piccard era films. Patrick Stewart is perfection. And having *feelings* about old Trek means I have what are probably stupid *feelings* about the rebooted franchise.
When the first film came out I was excited to see a new incarnation of Star Trek. And I wasn’t totally disappointed by the reboot. Although I do think they should probably have got a Scottish actor to play Scotty instead of just asking Simon Pegg to do an accent I still like a lot of the casting. I think the new films are a good actiony time which is all I really want sometimes. And I will take all the bonus male friendship storylines and on screen Uhura you can throw at me. I’m even down for parts of the nostalgia (future Spock!).
At the same time, I’m kind of sad that Trek got rebooted instead of advanced. I understand that reboots are about bringing new audiences to beloved old sources and I embrace reboot culture but Trek is a franchise that has always previously pulled new audiences in by keeping the old concept in place but making the people and generations responding to the old concept totally new. . Its TV version didn’t spend time looking back, dwelling on the initial days of Kirk and Spock, it invented new characters and sent them on new adventures. Yes, some of these characters had familiar shapes (is it Spock or is it Data) but nevertheless they were new characters and the program was always trying to move forward and build new on to old. Trek is an easy idea to make anew without alienating fresh audiences, so that’s what has always been done in the past and up to a point that worked out well. That all kind of stops with this particular incarnation of the franchise which is a straight reboot of original canon involving the return of original characters. I don’t know… making a nostalgic project about a franchise that has always been pushing forward just feels weird to me I guess – like a very sad manifestation of re-tread culture.
Also, Trek is about the future and it seems to me that it has consistently been a piece of media interested in creating a vision of the future by genuinely trying to move forward inventively. It moved forward in terms of representation (black captain, female captain, disabled main character, Asian female science officer – all things that Star Trek gave us) surpassing a lot of the SF coming out around it. And it’s really annoying to see a rebooted nostalgic version made in our time that seems uninterested in pushing the boundaries of representation further than the quite progressive original. Yes, Star Trek was relatively progressive for its time but this is 2013 and it’s kind of tragic that just replicating the progressiveness of the 70s still looks kinda progressive (although not revolutionary) in cinema today and that the people working on the franchise didn’t seem to realise how tragic this straight re-imagining would be. The newest reboot addition, STID, isn’t even as progressive as 70s Trek in some ways (womanising Kirk who watches a woman change when she asks him not to - dislike). Come on!
In other ways I think it is adorable. Bones/Kirk! Then I remember that their decisions about Khan are baffling. Between this and finding out that Cumberbatch is to play Julian Assange I seriously wonder what he and his team want his career to reflect. Perhaps this is another instance where I like the fandom more than the canon? Who knows – feelings are hard.
2013 was looking pretty grim for new releases. Then, last week I had a surprise cinema movie marathon. I wanted to see the only showing of "Much Ado About Nothing" at my local cinema (yep that’s right just the one showing and that came out a month after release – I wept a little while reading those listings). I was going alone (a new cinema experience for me) and because of things I knew I’d have a long wait around until the showing. Luckily this was the week "Pacific Rim" came out. Quick summary because Renay and I have podcasting plans – I think this is the first SFF film I’ve seen in the cinema since “Thor” that made me full on happy. "Pacific Rim" as its stuff like all films but if you’re looking for a fun SFF romp where “romp” isn’t code for “starring casually offensive dudebros” then give this film your money. It is fun, it is ridiculous in places, it is moving in others and I will throw this fan-vid at you as a further attempt to convince you. Go. Go! GO!
So, then I still had some time and I checked out "World War Z" which I found scary but also standard and disappointing. In between the jumpy bits I just kept thinking about “I am Legend” and how I would love to see “Feed” adapted for film. Should have seen “Monster University” instead maybe? I can absolutely see how this story would make an interesting book though – don’t worry Renay, I still have plans to read it.
And then came the main event – Joss Whedon’s "Much Ado About Nothing" which again I have a lot of thoughts about and will talk about at length later. Just, this is my play – I claim it. My top five people from the cast were Amy Acker (who was genuinely perfection – I would love to see her in theatre or in another film where she is the star), Alexis Denishoff, Nathan Fillion (predictable choices for Whedon fan I know), Ricki Lindhome and Reed Diamond. I liked the film overall. There’s some fantastic comic acting in there. Did I mention that Amy Acker is fabulous? Really, the nuance she gave to her lines and the little actions she did around them made the film for me. She was so in her character and so expressive. She and Alexis Dennishoff had the chemistry I’ve been dreaming they’d have. And I might even watch it again just to see Fillion and Lenk’s double act.
So, that’s a lot of words about films. The only big SFF release I think I’m really excited about now is “The World’s End” and I can’t think of any films outside the genre that I’m interested in seeing at the cinema. Anyone got any good recommendations?
TV
I watched a lot of TV this year as per usual. A quick list with quick thoughts for speed:
SFF (series completed)
"Legend of Korra" (S1) – Yippee, Ana and I talked about this plenty and I would like the second series very soon please.
"The Vampire Diaries" (S3) – This was the year I did episode recaps and it will probably be the only year I ever do episode recaps because turns out they take so much work. Just in case anyone is still unclear – Delena no, Forwood forever and Jeremy/everyone.
"The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (S1) – Loooooved iiiiit. I have a review coming up soon.
Other
"The Fall" – If you’re a fan of serial killer stories you should absolutely check this one out. Gillian Anderson is going to try and catch her a murderer while busting all the male chops and sexing.
"Parks and Recreation" (S1 - S5) - I don't even know what you're doing if you own a TV and haven't watched this. It's so funny and nice. Ana and I have plans to discuss it, possibly all in CAPS.
Series in progress (mixed)
"The Returned" (S1) – Everyone needs to get on watching this French drama which is sort of about zombies and sort of about resurrection. Some of it is so weird (OMG the psychic connection sex) but it is very pretty and thought provoking
"Once Upon a Time" (S2) – Everything is getting weird and my only canon ship is on the rocks. Clare assures me it will be fine though so I’m just clinging to the driftwood right now.
"Hannibal" (S1) – Which I wrote quite a bit about after four episodes. I have some episodes to catch up on but frankly I’m afraid to because no one will #HelpWillGraham.
"The Mindy Project" (S1) – A great addition to the confused single girl canon. I was bowled over by the pilot which I thought did a pilot's actual job (explain what your program will be about) instead of doing what a lot of pilots do now (set up a cliffhanger). I do sometimes wish Mindy did more doctoring. I also wish there was more Gwen and less Jeremy. And I really wish Danny would stop telling Mindy how to dress even though I still ship Danny/Mindy. Mostly though it's a fun program which I think could get better in a second series.
"Nashville" (S1) – Eventually I will finish this and write about it because I really love the program and its songs.
"The Americans" (S1) – I’m not very far into this but I like it a bunch although the spy plots often don’t make a lot of sense to me. I totally ship me some spy/FBI action but I also like the in canon relationship between Philip and Elizabeth.
"Nikita" (S1) – This is like someone took Alias and deliberately re-wrote it to add diversity and more female friendships but remove the SFF plot. No, seriously, there are so many similarities. Someone just wanted “Alias” with an Asian lead and women taking down the system so they made it which is awesome.
"The White Queen" – After a shaky start this glossy historical has mostly won me over with its hot men and concentration on female characters. I’m not down with the female magic controlling the kingdom side of things but I really like all the women (except Edward’s mother – boooo).
Like Renay, I also failed at catching up on "Dr Who". My plan now is to finish watching the most recent series by the time the anniversary episode airs in November, but I’m not that excited. I almost feel like I could just spend time looking at all the Dr Who crossovers being proposed on Tumblr without feeling like I’m missing anything. Dr Who can be wedged into any fandom because it’s got time travel and the results are generally very, very cute. Also, people seem to have decided that the anniversary episode means we need more anguished Who gifs of companion/Dr splits – unnecessary and mean :P These are balanced out with an upsurge of lovely real life gifs from actors that work on Who though so I suppose I forgive the internet.
That’s my 2013 media experience so far. Shall we meet up again at the end of the year for a look at those review stats? I promise to bring gingerbread coffee.
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Date: 2013-07-29 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 05:45 pm (UTC)I like your thoughts on the Star Trek reboot. I think part of the dissonance with the reboot is has to do with J.J. Abrams's understanding of Star Trek -- which is to say, I'm pretty sure he's admitted in an interview that he doesn't like the original Star Trek and revamped the series to be more like Star Wars (at least in terms of philosophy and emotional structure). So he pretty much doesn't care too much about imitating the earlier Star Trek's progressiveness; he'd rather make action films that sell well :/ At least there's fandom?
Given how much you're already watching, I'm hesitant to suggest another TV show, but it's too good not to mention: if you get the chance you really, really should watch Orphan Black. Beyond having a fun (if sometimes predictable) scifi plot about clones, there are tons of female characters (admittedly, many of them played by Tatiana Maslany because, well, clones), three queer characters who get on-screen romances, and while there aren't a large number of characters of color, I think they do a good job of making the ones they have fully realized people instead of stereotypes. There are also only 10 episodes so far, so it wouldn't be too much of a time commitment.
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Date: 2013-07-29 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 10:25 pm (UTC)Be prepared for that moment when you realize that awesome scene you just watched between three amazing characters was actually Tatiana Maslany acting with herself. She seriously deserves so many awards.
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Date: 2013-07-29 06:59 pm (UTC)yes this is a perfect description of Parks and Rec! It's like the ultimate good hearted show.
The Mindy Project was really hit or miss for me, some episodes were great, some less so, but I'll probably keep watching anyway b/c my interest level definitely rose once Mindy and Danny actually got some nice shippy moments.
aw your description of Nikita, lol. I don't know if you'll go on to watch season 2, but I hope you do because it's my fave...so much good stuff. I feel like it's a show that has interesting ideas going on but is also a fun time. I also think they subvert certain expectations in the second season (like a sl will start and you'll be like nooo and then find out it doesn't go the traditional way) and the Nikita/Alex angst is delish.
I'll have to see if I can find the Returned!
I checked out "World War Z" which I found scary but also standard and disappointing.
I actually felt that it was a pretty good summer blockbuster, but no it's not terribly deep. I wasn't really a fan of the book, though, so I had that advantage of not being disappointed by changes. I feel so uninspired about going to the movies right now, like I sort of want to see The Conjuring but everything else feels like the same old crap. Excited for Elysium, though!
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Date: 2013-07-29 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 07:22 pm (UTC)I struggled with the format of the book, but I do understand why so many people love it.
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Date: 2013-07-29 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-30 12:36 am (UTC)Yeesh.
Pacific Rim is fantastic. I can't wait to hear your podcast thoughts on it.
Once Upon a Time will eventually give you back your canon ship. Just in its own special, poorly plotted way. Oh, Once.
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Date: 2013-07-30 02:22 am (UTC)Oh man, did you ever watch Treme? That is like the only show I ever had to stop watching because it was just too emotionally devastating, in a way I couldn't recover from.
I think I tried Nikita at a bad time, because I just didn't stick with it. But every time anyone talks about it, it sounds basically perfect.
*adds more books to my to-read list* Jezebel and The Killing Moon in particular, probably also Zoo City. Clearly I watch too much TV and do not read enough books!
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Date: 2013-07-30 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 04:01 am (UTC)