matril

I've discussed both here and on my other blog how Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale. I've written a gender-swapped version of it. It's my favorite Disney animated film. I've explored and analyzed every angle of it. So how can it be, as advertisements for the upcoming live action remake flood the Internet, that my primary response is grumbling annoyance?
( Read more... )

We were at the bookstore the other day (mostly to buy a DVD of The Princess and the Frog, because we liked it and we want to support classic hand-drawn fairy tale movies, by golly!) and Ryan saw the appallingly monolithic displays for Twilight merchandise. He kept pointing out the apple excitedly ("A-glottal stop-l! A-glottal stop-l!") And I kept replying, "Yes, Ryan, that's a poisoned apple." I suppose I was hoping someone would hear me and respond. :P

( And... )

Hooray! I don't have too much to say other than I'm obviously glad that the first movie got made all those years ago (and being in the middle of reading The Making of Star Wars, I'm well reminded that its successful making was far from a sure thing). I wasn't quite born in 1977, so I can't offer memories of its first appearing in theaters or anything. But I was born right in the middle of the whole original craze, and I remember that everyone knew what Star Wars was, and could reference Vader and Artoo and Chewbacca without batting an eye. What a great and lasting contribution to our culture. Also, it's just good old fun. I can enjoy it on an intelluctual level and explore all the deep meanings, but my two-year-old can imitate Vader's breathing and shout out characters' names with great gusto. Its appeal is so universal. Again, hooray for Star Wars!

( Thoughts about my novel, largely unrelated to the previous paragraph )

Attention all and any writers: Drop everything and go now to your nearest purveyor of movies and watch Stranger Than Fiction. It will make you laugh and possibly cry, and make you rethink the writing process in a profoundly new way.

Or not. Maybe it was just me. ;) I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. It really is about writing, and what makes a powerful story, and what has to be sacrificed to do it well. We don't go to the movies very often (last movie before this was Pirates: The Sequel) but this was well worth our money.

So last night while I was trying to fall asleep, and a plot bunny hopped up on the bed and sat on my head. It's still sitting there, so I suppose I'll be writing a new story pretty soon. Longer than drabble-length, but not quite a ponderous novel. And I stil have some drabble ideas left over from last month that I'll probably get around to. It's nice to get a little break from writinge every single day, but I really can't go too long without writing. :D

We took our kids to see Santa at the mall today. Luke squirmed and wouldn't sit still, but he was cheerful for the picture since it was taken quickly. Emma cried her little heart out. Not entirely unexpected - I was terrified by Santa when I was little. My parents will be amused by the picture; the crying girl will be quite familiar to them.

Sneak peek at the Order of the Phoenix movie tomorrow on ABC family...Really kind of silly to go nuts over it, since I'll see the movie all the way through in just a few months, and I can probably own the darn thing by this time next year....and yet, I see the commercials for it, and I turn into a giddy fangirl. ;P

My last post was excessively bitter, so it's high time I posted something pleasant. And I have good cause to be happy right now! A few months ago my husband urged me to send a copy of the first novel of my series-in-progress to someone in our church congregation who seemed like the sort who would enjoy reading it. She and her family were actually moving to another state, so even though I sent her a copy of the book it took a while for her to get through the business of settling into a new home, unpacking, etc. A few days ago she sent me an email saying that she was finally able to start my book, and would keep me posted. Now, this novel is over 300 pages - you could read it in a day or two, perhaps, but only if you did nothing but read. Lo and behold, today she sent me an email declaring that she had finished it! and couldn't put it down until she read the whole thing! She had very positive things to say about it, and not just generic gushing, but thoughtful comments that were oh-so-gratifying. I must confess I did a little happy dance, I was so excited.

Finding readers to comment on/critique my work is one step I've been trying to take as part of the eventual process of submitting it for pulication. And here I am...one step closer. Do I dare? It's not the end of the world if I get rejected; in fact, if I, a previously unpublished author, didn't get rejected by a handful of places at the start, maybe that would be a sign of the end of the world - it's certainly never happened before to any typical new author, after all. ;) And if there's any chance that eventually, someone would be interested and have it published - well, that's one childhood dream I would be overjoyed to see fulfilled.

:gulps: Or I could just keep working on the series for my own (and my family's) private reading and never, ever, ever do something daring.

Two quotations from two of my favorite storytellers:

"Being a pessimist doesn't seem to accomplish anything...if I wanted to change the world it was no use saying how awful our society is or how stupid. The way to make things progress is to point people in the right direction, to show how wonderful life can be. Tearing things down, being pessimistic makes people simply accept the conditions that prevail. Whereas if you give them hope and point them in the right direction, things are more likely to get better."
-George Lucas, interview in Once Upon a Galaxy: The Making of The Empire Strikes Back by Alan Arnold

"The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catstrophe, the sudden joyous 'turn'...is not essentially 'escapist,' nor 'fugitive.' In its fairy-tale -- or otherworld -- setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace, never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories"

Together, that pretty much sums up what I look for, morally, aesthetically and ethically, in a story. Every great story I've read has had that moment when darkness shadows the world and threatens everything of significance to the hero, and the hero turns about and triumphs against despair. To me, a happy ending, or in Tolkien's eloquent words, the Eucatastrophe, is absolutely essential to a great story, and it is neither naive nor contrived, if done right. It is the very existence of a powerful evil that makes the triumph of good so moving. That's why we needed Revenge of the Sith to make Return of the Jedi have so much meaning; that's why things are so bleak at the end of Half-Blood Prince. Assumling JKR follows the same prinicples, which seems to be a reasonable assumption so far, Book 7 will have the Eucatastrophe. In the end, optimism prevails. But it can't be simply sunny and cheerful throughout; that has no meaning. To say, "Yes, things are bleak, and yet I will not give up" is the core strength of every great hero.