Radiation by Fiona Rae

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Radiation: Big bang theory

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  • Hilary Stace,

    Rich - the book is much better (and doesn't have Hugh Grant in it). The boy is written as much more autistic than portrayed in the movie.

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    Modern Family is kinda awesome, the family really grow on you, but the best comedies on right now are Community and Parks & Recreation. If you're a torrenter and you're not watching them, you are WASTING YOUR LIFE.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    Well, that's the thing. He isn't really portrayed in the film as very autistic at all.

    He comes across in the film as (to quote wiki) 'introverted and eccentric'. He is bullied because of it.

    Hugh Grant 'help[s] Marcus to fit into the modern adolescent world by taking him shopping to buy shoes.' As a consequence of his newly found fashion sense, he becomes friends with the cool kids at school. All ends happily.

    Take home message: only by conforming can you be happy.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Take home message: only by conforming can you be happy.

    And hence we are surrounded by happy nonconformists. Perhaps that should have been a question? Where's that irony tag when you need it?

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    but the best comedies on right now are Community and Parks & Recreation. If you're a torrenter and you're not watching them, you are WASTING YOUR LIFE.

    But here's a public health warning: Stay away from the six episode first season of Parks and Recreation. The first three episodes are truly awful (and that's before you factor in the talent involved) and the rest are merely meh-some. Plenty of shows take some time for everyone to find their feet, but to say P&R went on a near vertical learning curve is not hyperbole.

    NBC's late night roster and management are utter messes, but along with Chuck (which is scoring pretty decent numbers after its miraculous return from the dead) they're also doing some damn fine sit-coms. US television being what it is, who want to bet they get screwed like a two-bob ho at the first opportunity?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Keir Leslie,

    The one character on BBT that really irritates he is Howard Wolowitz. As one of my favourite tele-bloggers, Alan Seppinwall, puts it: Howard is the one character you always end up laughing at rather than with. His relentless sleaziness and scary Jewish Momma also, to my taste, never seems to get on the right side of the line between comically cringe-inducing and outright creepy.

    Well, yeah. He's also probably the most realistic character on that show, & it's quite nice to see the stupid sexist side of nerdery get a sound thrashing every now and again.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Hugh Grant 'help[s] Marcus to fit into the modern adolescent world by taking him shopping to buy shoes.' As a consequence of his newly found fashion sense, he becomes friends with the cool kids at school. All ends happily.

    That's not even an accurate summation of the movie. His shoes get stolen by the other kids as soon as he wears them to school.

    It's his dorky attraction to the frightening, punk-y alternative girl and his performance with Hugh Grant that gets him ahead in life.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    It's his dorky attraction to the frightening, punk-y alternative girl and his performance with Hugh Grant that gets him ahead in life.

    Perhaps this is the message all these programmes are trying to express to the 'fringe' elements who didn't make the Cheerleading team, or first fifteen, and who sat in the lighting booth watching all the 'talent' do their thing, while wondering if you could get some pay back by putting the lights up on the wrong side of the stage.

    Speaking hypothetically, of course.

    What seems the moral of the story (s) is to not let your insecurities stop you from doing the things that make you feel insecure. Think I'll put that on a T-shirt.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    Upon reflection, I thought the message of About a Boy - which is even noted in voiceover at the end, IIRC - isn't about conforming per se, but about finding a group of people with whom you can coexist, and who you can turn to for help or friendship if you need it, rather than living in an isolated cocoon. Those people may also annoy the crap out of you, but it's better to have them than to have no one. (And Hugh Grant's shallow douchebag character actually learns to accept and love Marcus's dorkiness and his mother's hippyness, doesn't he? I mean, he's the one out there on stage playing Roberta Flack to a bunch of snarky teens.)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    it's quite nice to see the stupid sexist side of nerdery get a sound thrashing every now and again.

    Sure -- and Barney on How I Met Your Mother is a character I can find amusing on television, but would punch in the mouth if he was a real person. But there's a line between "stupid and sexist jerk gets his" and wondering why we haven't yet had the very episode where Penny slaps Howard with a non-molestation order. Or a baseball bat. Either works for me.

    And Hugh Grant's shallow douchebag character actually learns to accept and love Marcus's dorkiness and his mother's hippyness, doesn't he?

    From memory, he actually realises that Marcus' mother isn't suffering from "hippyness" but a serious mental illness that his bullshit is doing nothing to alleviate. It seems a British version of the Judd Apatow template where infantile man-child gets his head around the notion that there are other people in the world his actions effect, and grows up a bit. Which, in the great scheme of things, isn't exactly the most malignant message out there.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    (Yeah: I feel like this show is aimed at 30somethings, not young people.)

    There was this moment in the episode where they have a random jam session, and the song they're singing made me WTF because it was old when *I* was in my early teens - ten years ago - which means that it's a generation too old for today's high schoolers to be singing because they like it and know it. OTOH, I am out of touch enough with today's music that half the modern songs I first heard on Glee (cough Single Ladies cough), so.

    She's not the neighbour, is she? I saw only one episode of BBT, where she threw a birthday party, and she was the only one in the show that appeared to have half a functioning brain.

    Yes and no. She's certainly often depicted as having more real-life skills than the boys, including in areas like putting furniture together, which I thoroughly approve of. My main problem is actually with Lesley-the-Female-Geek, because a) she's the only one, b) she, even more than Leonard, is written inconsistently for plot, and c) Wiki tells me they dropped her as a main character because they couldn't find enough good material for her, which tells me a lot more about the writers than the character.

    Basically, the show tends to make the geek/normal divide *also* a male/female divide, by virtue of Penny being the Normal One and the geeks all being guys, and it bugs the hell out of me because it's gender essentialist and wrong and gah. And I know it's only a sitcom, etc, but when it's one of the few shows on TV with characters I really, really identify with, so I reserve the right to complain.

    Well, yeah. He's also probably the most realistic character on that show, & it's quite nice to see the stupid sexist side of nerdery get a sound thrashing every now and again.

    I read an essay not so long ago which was called something like "Why Women And Gays Have Ruined Sci-Fi" (only the barest of paraphrasings). The thesis was essentially that men like adventure and science and interesting things, and women and gays like to talk about their feeeeeeeelings, and modern sci-fi had too many feeeeeeelings, because of the women and the gays, and not enough manly car chases. And yes, it was entirely serious.

    Howard is that guy.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    first heard on Glee (cough Single Ladies cough)

    That was the song on the radio that made me change stations every time - until after I saw it on Glee.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    first heard on Glee (cough Single Ladies cough)

    Fortunately for all of humanity Sony has removed the mash up of Single Ladies with the Birdy Song over-dub from YouTube. Otherwise I'd be posting that right about ..... here >>>

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    the mash up of Single Ladies with the Birdy Song

    Glorious! Also, <obligatory Kanye joke>.

    That was the song on the radio that made me change stations every time

    But... I think it's awesome. It's 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' levels of catchy! (I think 'Crazy in Love' is her high point, though.)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    Birdy Song over-dub from YouTube. Otherwise I'd be posting that right about ..... here >>>

    roflnui

    which caused me to have to explain why I was laughing to my workmates

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Phew! So my distraction from Lucy's "Why Women And Gays Have Ruined Sci-Fi" worked.

    D'oh!

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I read an essay not so long ago which was called something like "Why Women And Gays Have Ruined Sci-Fi"

    Chris Trotter is branching out, then?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    first heard on Glee (cough Single Ladies cough)

    I had to look that up.

    I couldn't stop thinking "those three women don't appear to have human hips and waists".

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Phew! So my distraction from Lucy's "Why Women And Gays Have Ruined Sci-Fi" worked.

    I'd just like to take a moment to disassociate myself from any implication that I approve, endorse, condone, or otherwise am willing to be placed in the same room as this work.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    those three women don't appear to have human hips and waists

    It's clear that Beyonce is not actually human at all:

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    I'd just like to take a moment to disassociate myself from any implication that I approve, endorse, condone, or otherwise am willing to be placed in the same room as this work.

    I think that was well understood, or at least assumed on my part. My concern was the potential for another descent into a cluster of Sci-Fi anti-matter. And since Kyle is here, if you could position the Death Star, it may come in handy once the Klingon Deniers Association gets wind of it.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    I read an essay not so long ago which was called something like "Why Women And Gays Have Ruined Sci-Fi" (only the barest of paraphrasings). The thesis was essentially that men like adventure and science and interesting things, and women and gays like to talk about their feeeeeeeelings, and modern sci-fi had too many feeeeeeelings, because of the women and the gays, and not enough manly car chases. And yes, it was entirely serious.

    Ah, yes... I read that too. "Waaah, the bitches are getting estrogen and emotions all over our nice clean genre". You also had the list of gender traitors like Ronald Moore and Russell T. Davies (who can't help himself because he's a lady-boy). It would be kind of funny if it wasn't so persistent.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    I think that was well understood, or at least assumed on my part. My concern was the potential for another descent into a cluster of Sci-Fi anti-matter. And since Kyle is here, if you could position the Death Star, it may come in handy once the Klingon Deniers Association gets wind of it.

    Fair enough, your wayward use of the possessive just made me want to be clear on the subject.

    If Kyle brings the Death Star, I'll bring the pony.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    It's clear that Beyonce is not actually human at all

    Apparently there are also rules about the two sides of her top not joining together above her navel.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Alan Perrott,

    not wanting to interrupt, but it's rather amusing to see a pendantic discussion on sci-fi characterisation and the rights and wrongs on various depictions of geekery as related to the real world while also confessing to having no idea about recent Beyonce singles...

    I can't tell which one's the pot and which one's the kettle.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 438 posts Report Reply

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