Posts by Lucy Stewart
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Hard News: A very roundabout review of…, in reply to TracyMac,
This doesn't negate the fact that the vast majority of SFF movies are retrograde and simplistic, although I suppose a lot of SFF novels are too ( Eragon and the Belgariad saga, anyone?)
The vast majority of any type of creative work is kind of meh, period, although SFF does translate badly to the big screen more often than most (I think largely because people think SFF and think SFX, rather than story. Which...misses the point, rather.) Regarding the novels, it's also worth remembering that Eragon was written by a fifteen-year-old and Eddings...well, there's no excuse for Eddings, really. Except that people like to hear the same stories over, and he perfected that. And made a lot of money doing it.
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Hard News: A very roundabout review of…, in reply to Islander,
Humans are an onward-going ever-flowing evolving meme-pool…I was truly horrified when people picked up on ‘blue’ as a colour for hominids(because I’d invented this blue peaceloving elsewhere tribe way back in 1987) – but hey, I knew about Krishna, *and* the “Blue Men of the Minch.”
Ken Catran had blue (and green and red) aliens (well, gengineered humans living on Mars), too, in his Deepwater Black and prequel series - which, funnily enough, also had very strong themes about pollution, environmental damage, and corporate control. These things circle around.
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Hard News: A very roundabout review of…, in reply to Matthew Reid,
It reads as if Asperger Sydrome is a defining feature, in the same way that you would say he is male and 15 years old. As opposed to Asperger Sydrome being something he has, as you would say if he had diabetes.
Russell may well have a different take on this, but I'd say that something like Asperger's, which helps shape one's worldview and way of thinking - even if the behaviours aren't obvious, the way of perceiving the world is still there - is something people are, far more than something they have. Take my brother-in-law's Asperger's away, and he would literally be a different person. Which is why a lot of teenagers/adults on the spectrum choose to identify as Aspies, and define people who aren't on the spectrum as "neurotypical".
Of course, this is complex, and people on the autistic spectrum, (and their parents) differ. But it's certainly not unusual for someone to identify, or be identified, as Asperger's.
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Hard News: A very roundabout review of…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
A far more likely possibility than those who habitually use such shoptalk walking the walk and producing a half-way watchable movie themselves.
...is that seriously a "If you don't write movies you're not allowed to complain about them?"
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Hard News: A very roundabout review of…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Which begs the most interesting question about Avatar -- did anyone in the largest media corporation on Earth actually read the parts of the script where the entire human race has become a genocidal military-industrial complex?
That would require them to understand the notion of "subtext". And if they acknowledged the existence of subtext, they'd have to listen when people complained about it. Much easier to pretend it doesn't exist.
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I feel so culturally left behind - I've spent this year catching up on things I didn't have the time/income/opportunity to see when they were actually new. Sherlock's the only one I can vouch for.
(OTOH, Iooking very much forward to trying all these things once I get through the backlog.)
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Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Angus Robertson,
It’s hard to forget the entire cold war, but it does appeared to have happened.
We are, you must remember, reaching the point where a significant number of adults do not remember the Cold War, because they weren't born or were too young to notice.
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Hard News: We are all twatcocks now…, in reply to Amy Gale,
Ok, seriously now NE-ers – shall we have a PAS holiday get-together?
We just bought a car yesterday. If you’re up for it, that is so on.
To be fair, if the weather in Amherst is anything like it has been in Pittsburgh, that is kind of nuts.
Oh, nothing like. Minimal snow, and the high was a balmy -7C today.
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Hard News: We are all twatcocks now…, in reply to Danielle,
Plus, Americans think you are nuts if you walk around hotels in bare feet
You think that's bad, try putting out the rubbish in bare feet and a t-shirt anytime after, ooh, Hallowe'en.
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Hard News: The next creative industry?, in reply to BenWilson,
I don’t think great developers are the most crucial part of cranking out successful games. It’s a full-court press, marketing figures highly, as does market research and a good business model. Most importantly, a good new idea/angle.
This, very much so. One gaming company trying to get off the ground in Christchurch had a game – which they put a great deal of effort, money, and some very bright developers into – which did pretty badly because they’d got so caught up in the awesome concept they hadn’t bothered to do much testing outside the company, and it played like shit. They didn’t notice because they’d all got used to the clunky controls during development (at least, that’s the theory.) This stuff is hard, and having good ideas and good people is really the smallest part of success.