Judging from the lack of responses from last Tuesday's blog, I am going to assume that no one watches TV anymore. Either that, or I am incredibly boring, and I try not to think of myself that way.
I've checked out a few books from the library. I like to read, but lately I've been in a rut. Most of the series I have enjoyed in the past are all finished up and so I am branching out into new series to start. I've been dipping my toes a bit in the "Forgotten Realms" series, and the first book I read was okay, but kind of a chore to get into. The second is more tedious to get involved in than the first. I decided to get the second book because I figured the first was just kind of an opening, something that "had to be done" in order to move on to the next book. You know, kind of how The Empire Strikes Back was loads better than A New Hope, only because they got all the baselines established in ANH and didn't have to waste time introducing characters central to the plotline.
Anyway, my point is this: I checked out the second book like 2 weeks ago, and I am barely pushing the halfway mark. I ordered the 3rd, only because I thought there would be a wait, but it came much quicker than anticipated. I've also gotten No Apology again because I didn't get to finish it the first time I checked it out, but that is also probably going to have to be returned before I can read it due to this second book. And Decision Points will be coming any day now, and not to mention the next "Robert Jordan" book is ordered, but may take a while before I can pick it up. To sum it all up, I am in a rut for reading, which is highly unusual, and I don't like it.
Chuck was excellent this week, which I think was the last episode in the "front 13", which makes it interesting to see how things will go for the "back 11". I swore up and down all week that this whole "mission to restore the intersect" was just a setup, but I guess it really happened and I was all wrong. Which, consequently is highly unusual, but I don't mind it so much in this manner.
And what is it with Blu-Ray movies? Why do they have to cost $40 for a new movie? Um, yeah, not gonna pay that, not even for the highly desirable and delicious Inception (December 7th, y'all).
Tried to get my buds together for a little Goldeneye:Source tonight, but that kind of fell through... so that was not cool.
I just got some new board games, so that might be a topic of conversation in the near-ish future.
Board games! Yay!
ReplyDeleteOkay, Kenneth, I can already tell it’s going to be difficult for me to make a lot of meaningful input to your blog conversation because based on what you’ve written it doesn’t seem like we have a lot of overlap in terms of our tastes in books, television, etc. However, you did make one statement: “The Empire Strikes Back was loads better than A New Hope only because they got all the baselines established in ANH and didn't have to waste time introducing characters central to the plotline.” I have a few points of discussion to make on this.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is true that A New Hope wastes a lot of time, it doesn’t waste it on character introduction. In a sense it wastes it on the complete lack thereof. Character introduction, followed ideally by character development, provides a rich experience for the audience and is never a waste of time. Two droids wandering around the desert for 25 minutes, however, would hardly qualify as this. Now, if the current fiction series you are reading has become, as you put it, “a chore to get into,” then my advice would be to trade it for one of the many series out there in which the characters are established in a more engaging style, of which I’m sure there are many. After all, it’s not as if the characters have to be established at the beginning and then the plot can start. On the contrary, the plot itself should be enough to establish the characters, gradually, continually, dynamically, and perpetually.
Anyway, back to what I was saying, Empire Strikes Back is certainly the best Star Wars movie. In fact, I would say that it’s the ONLY GOOD Star Wars movie. I would furthermore goes as far as to say that the other movies (especially Return of the Jedi) are downright unwatchable. But not Empire, which I’m proud to own and consider one of my all-time favorite films. Why? Three reasons. First, the music. John Williams’ music, to be fair, has its moments in the other films too, but only in Empire is it a thoroughly sophisticated masterpiece. The music transforms what the movie is about (lightsabers, wookies) into what the movie means on a deeper lever, which is a feat. Second, and this one is mostly a gripe, but Empire seems to be the only one which isn’t too heavily polluted at some point by either bad puppetry or bad CGI. And Thirdly, Empire is a shining example of good story architecture, and by this I mean it has an distinct beginning, middle, and end. In the beginning everyone is on the ice planet, the middle they split up for the Jedi training/asteroid field battle, and in the end they reunite in the cloud city. Three exact places; three exact times. This is so basic, and yet so effective. Maybe the authors of those books you are laboring to read have overlooked this simple rule.