My friend Shane started watching “Elite” and has been sending me Marco Polo messages about it.
This is cause for celebration.
Continue reading “THINGS THAT BRING ME JOY: “Elite” Season Three”
Tag: angst
Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Fall 2019 TBR
Here I go participating in Top Ten Tuesday at the last second.
I hate to be left out. Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Fall 2019 TBR”
The Lover Book Tag: Round 4
Don’t act so surprised. Continue reading “The Lover Book Tag: Round 4”
The Cliché Book Tag
Today’s featured image was taken at my college honors convocation. Continue reading “The Cliché Book Tag”
R.I.P. It or Ship It: Round 15
FINAL ROUND!!
For round 15, I picked
Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars
and
Cress Darnell from The Lunar Chronicles
Background
Anakin Skywalker feels very attacked right now because EVERYONE KEEPS TREATING HIM LIKE A CHILD. Thought to be the Chosen One, Anakin excels in acting rashly and crying about it later. His flirting skills need WORK.
Forced out of Lunar society, Cress Darnell spent most of her youth on a satellite hacking Earth’s security feed. Easily impressed, Cress swoons over scoundrels and expresses delight in mundane things like sand. Her flirting skills, along with her life skills, do not exist. Girl is DUMB.
The Couple
Alas, Anakin’s hatred for sand might keep these two apart.
I find it hard to ship someone as unlikable as Anakin. Who wouldn’t be disillusioned by all that child murder? Or, you know…regular murder?
But come on. These two have plenty in common, including childhood enslavement and a love of space travel.
Sure, there are things to dislike about this pairing. Rage. Jealousy. A disturbing height difference.
And, yes, the character Cress fears most is an angry giant with murderous instincts…which pretty much describes Anakin.
Know what? I don’t care.
At least this dynamic is interesting.
At least there’s contrast.
IT’S NOT TILNEY AND LUPIN. THAT’S ALL I CARE ABOUT.
This is the final round and I’m calling it.
Verdict: SHIP IT
R.I.P It or Ship It: Round 4
For round 4, I picked
Roger Davis from RENT
and
Queen Amidala from Star Wars
Background
If Roger Davis isn’t singing about his problems, he’s running away. Granted, he has depression, something I’ve only recently been able to appreciate. He sulks in his apartment. He worries about his lifespan. He picks out melodies on his untuned guitar. His most unforgivable sin results when he mocks his roommate Mark after the funeral of a mutual friend. Mark wishes all his friends would stop dying; Roger spits, “POOR BABY,” and moves to Santa Fe, leaving his best friend and his dying girlfriend behind.
Naboo elected Queen Amidala when she was 14 years old for unknown reasons. While on the throne, Amidala navigated a siege, political intimidation, and a planet-wide war. She frequently switched places with one of her handmaidens, claiming safety concerns, though one suspects she just liked doing it.
The Couple
I’m not even going to fight for this one.
Roger’s depression has him resigned to death. He can’t confront intimacy – he can barely leave the house!
Queen Amidala would not have time for that. She is running a PLANET. Her people are under SIEGE. What would taking care of an emotionally volatile man do to her political career?
Verdict: R.I.P. IT
TERRIBLE PROSE TUESDAY: Shilling
Because of life changes, my own lack of planning, and an unreliable webcam, I’m going to transition out of doing videos for Terrible Prose Tuesday. This will undoubtedly mean shorter passages, but to be honest, it will be a lot easier and possibly more entertaining. If a passage is particularly terrible, I might still do a dramatic reading, but only as a bonus.
Blugh.
Not a fan of characters with no self-esteem.
In this book, the protagonist’s issues with her family are only touched on, never explored. I don’t get a good sense of how their actions affect her self-esteem, so when other characters go out of their way to praise her talent, beauty, kindness, etc., it feels unnecessary and unwarranted.
Come on. She’s the most talented, most inspiring, most wonderful person the other characters know? Tack on “most godly,” “most beautiful,” and “most intelligent,” and you have Josh Harris’ dream girl.
The EXTREME modesty is annoying, too, i.e. “What? No, I’m awful.”
Not cute, honey. Just take the compliment.
I understand the purpose of this is to make her more sympathetic. It would be harder to like someone who was perfect and insufferable. That can get annoying really fast. But it doesn’t work to make her perfect and give the other characters nothing to do other than tell the protagonist how great she is. When so many characters feel the need to assure me of the protagonist’s greatness and I don’t buy it, that tells me the author hasn’t done enough to substantiate those claims.
