days and days

[jazzfish]

On the other hand, I had a fairly nice weekend. Satyrday we slept late and went to ABG, which was small and quiet and fun.

Sunday we got up, gathered jmax315 and elf, and headed out for a pilgrimage to Green Valley Book Fair. The trip was pretty much uneventful except for a run-in with a car having a run-in with a rogue trash can, and the conversation was excellent. I could probably come up with three people I'd rather be stuck in a car with for four hours, but it would take a great deal of thought.

My acquisitions this time were split pretty evenly between YA and F/SF. Notable books include China Miéville's Un Lun Dun, because I'm told I ought to give him another chance after King Rat, Kristin Cashore's Graceling, which I've been looking at for months now, Mike Resnick's Kirinyaga, because I randomly got the sequel in a Subterranean Press grab-bag a few months ago, and talking elf into picking up both Pat Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles and Ursula Le Guin's Annals of the Western Shore (Gifts etc), because they are awesome, though in very different ways.

Started reading Graceling on the way back. It reminds me a little of Gifts, in a good way, if the protagonist had been damaged more by outside forces and less by his own fears.

Afterwards uilos and I said goodbye to the other two and headed up to Silver Spring to see Carancho, an Argentine film that Robin Laws described as "Bringing Out the Dead meets Michael Clayton." Ambulances and ambulance-chasers and accidents and not-so-accidental accidents and lots of money. Brutal (one scene with a sledgehammer had about three seconds of "they can't possibly" before they did), and, as uilos observed, when people got beat up they looked like they'd gotten beaten up. Which happened often enough to be worth commenting on. Very much worth watching. It was emotionally intense pretty much all the way through, which is a neat trick.

And probably some of what contributed to my having something of a meltdown when I got home. Oh well. Today, as they say, is another day. Has been another day. Whatever.

Happy Canucksgiving / Coming-Out Day / Dread Pirate Roberts Day to you all.

Comments

[chaobell]

one scene with a sledgehammer had about three seconds of "they can't possibly" before they did

Okay. Just this? Just this right here? Is enough to make me make the face in my icon. Because the first thing I thought of was the scene with a sledgehammer from Misery. And the second thing I though of was that this scene with a sledgehammer was probably worse.

[notyourwendy]

I haven't seen Misery, but my thought at the sledehammer scene was 'they can't possibly show that, they're going to cut away' and then they didn't. It was absolutely brutal. Hell, most of the movie was emotionally and physically brutal and they didn't pull away for any of that impact.

[jazzfish]

But not horrific, which is kind of interesting. Just... very emotional.

(Hug.)

[jazzfish]

Hm. It's... differently brutal. Knee instead of ankle, so out of context it's worse.

The thing about the scene in Misery is, it's about power and control, it's a lot more horrifying in context. In Carancho it's not played as horror. It's not a power-trip, it's just something that both of these guys have to do. (It's a setup so one of them can collect insurance money after he gets hit by a car.) It's maybe even more shocking because of that, and because it's so unexpected.

Speaking from a cool detached critical perspective, it's a neat contrast between 'horror' and ... and I don't even know what, emotional brutality. It uses the same kind of action to play on completely different emotions.

[jadelennox]

I've only read Un Lun Dun of all his books, but I quite liked it. I'm told by other people who read his books that it's the only one I would enjoy, so.

I'm looking forward to hear what you have to say about Graceling.

[jazzfish]

I'm sufficiently intrigued by Un Lun Dun to give it a try, since people tell me I should read his stuff. In retrospect my main problem with King Rat was the same as with Trash Sex Magic: the problem isn't solved by the characters. (The Big Bad defeats himself through overconfidence.) (I had other problems as well, but that one giant (to my mind) structural flaw overshadowed all the rest of them.)

So far Graceling is quite good but Katsa feels more ... in touch with herself? than I'd expect. Like she's damaged /and/ letting herself recognise what she's doing to deal with it.

[vond.net]

The City & The City was good, I don't think I ever actually put that up anywhere. I am scared to read the other Miéville stuff though (well, Un Lun Dun is probably fine).

[rbandrews]

Last movie I saw in a theater was The Social Network. Nobody got sledgehammered. Arguably some people deserved it, but...

Although last weekend I did watch Die Hard With a Vengeance. Very non-graphic though, and actually pretty funny.

[jazzfish]

That's the thing, Carancho ... I want to say "it wasn't all that graphic!" which isn't quite true, it's just differently graphic. In Hollywood people get beat up and it looks awful, and then five minutes later they're totally cleaned up and all. In this the beating-up was kind of vicious but not terribly bloodandguts, but people /look/ like they've been beat up afterwards.

[absolutliz.livejournal.com]

This is why I try to watch stuff that's pleasantly entertaining, movie-wise. I don't need any help melting down. I do that quite enough on my own, thank you.

[jazzfish]

heh. Fair enough. I wasn't really expecting it to be quite /that/ intense, in the ways it was, and I do enjoy a good catharsis once in awhile.

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

I got about 30 pages into Un Lun Dun before throwing it across the room. What a piece of crap. And I loved King Rat.