nebroadwe | Entries tagged with quotable

Tom Hiddleston, of all people, has a piece in The Guardian's film blog defending the blockbuster superhero film as art, quoting Harold Pinter and displaying a not-inconsiderable understanding of the western literary tradition:

Superhero movies like Avengers Assemble should not be scorned

(Headline provided by the blog editor, obviously.) Hiddleston preaches to the choir of my f-list, of course, but the piece is worth reading. (Can you tell this man took a double first in classics from Cambridge? I think I'm in love ...)

Animi Motus enthralled
Locus AT THE LIBRARY!
Cantus Soundtrack from "Thor" (Patrick Doyle)

Sniggled from

metaquotes: The Ravenous Book-Eating Beast of Swindon.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Over at Making Light, Abi Sutherland is rewatching Babylon 5 and is moved to remark in a footnote:

My particular aim, back in the 1990's, was to grow up to be Susan Ivanova. Looking at the work I do now, I see that somewhere in the intervening years, I've pretty much achieved that. Now I can go on to my next goal, which is to grow up to be Cordelia Vorkosigan.

When I was younger, I wanted to grow up to be J.R.R. Tolkien, myself, but that didn't work. I'm not quite sure who I am now (so to speak) ... :-)

If you don't read

metaquotes, maybe you should start, just for this one about De'Ath and taxes. (Which I noticed because

ravensnow was telling me yesterday about a romance novel whose hero is named De'Ath and he's kind of a jerk, so the heroine shoots him, and then they get married. Edward Elric may have a point.)

Locus Here and now
Cantus "Taxman" (The Beatles)

Over at Making Light, guest bloggers Debra Doyle and James Macdonald are plugging their latest novel, Lincoln's Sword, by talking about how it came to be. They have the interesting idea that Civil War stories occupy a place in the civil mythology of the United States similar to the one the King Arthur cycles hold in Great Britain's. So when they sat down to explore that idea in writing, this was the actual first draft of an opening chapter that Macdonald came up with: ( Read more... )The actual novel is nothing like this, but as a lapsed medievalist, I sure wish it had been. I love stylistic pastiche; one reason I keep reading all those [Famous Pre-Twentieth-Century Novel] and [Unlikely SF/Horror Element] books is in hope that the author will manage a proper cod-[Pre-Twentieth-Century Novel] voice. As yet, I haven't found one that really does it, but I can't give up the quest.

Doyle and Macdonald's full post about the genesis of Lincoln's Sword is over here, for anyone interested. Share and enjoy!

Author

sarahtales likes some of the same books I do, it seems, including Megan Whalen Turner's Thief and sequels (latest installment due out this spring, huzzah!). This, she writes, is why:

GEN: There goes the Queen of Attolia, that hateful hellbeast. Hi, Attolia, I'm in your kingdom stealing your miracle stone.
ATTOLIA: I poisoned my fiance, you know. Why do you think it is a good idea to cross me?
GEN: I broke into your bedroom just to leave earrings by your bed. Mocking earrings.
ATTOLIA: I have hatched a cunning plan to catch you. And now I'm going to cut off your hand.
GEN: No, you're not; I am the hero of the story, and a master thief. There's no way - ow. OW.
ATTOLIA: Told you.
GEN: I am off to plot my revenge. It will involve kidnapping you and taking you away in a boat and threatening your life.
ATTOLIA: Well, crap.
GEN: Or ... we could get married.
ATTOLIA: Wut?
GEN: I love you! DID YOU LIKE MY EARRINGS. PLEASE SAY YES.
ATTOLIA: I cut off your hand.
VILLAIN: I have rescued you, Attolia. Are you not GRATEFUL?
ATTOLIA: So grateful! He is short and younger than me and missing a hand and crazy. By the way, do you like my new earrings?
VILLAIN: Very fetching!
ATTOLIA: They're a sign I'm going to doublecross you and marry Gen.
GEN: I'm so happy, my brilliantly deceitful love. As a wedding present to ourselves, shall I defeat all the troublesome nobles in your country by means of trickery, fashion, and brilliant swordplay?
ATTOLIA: Assuredly you may, my husband. Come visit me through our secret passageways and we'll do pillowplotting.
EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD: But ... she cut off your hand.
GEN AND ATTOLIA: Every relationship has problems. Don't be a hater.

Oh, and she also likes Pride and Prejudice, Cotillion, and Howl's Moving Castle, which makes me think I should take her recommendation of Margaret Mahy's Changeover seriously. It's been on my "hmm, people seem to think this is worth reading" list for years, but I hadn't gotten round to it yet. Now, perhaps ...

Cantus Theme from "Babylon 5" (Christopher Franke)

A friend from grad school who blogs as Doc Maureen expresses my opinion of the knitting fraternity:

People who knit astound me. I am astounded. They take two sticks and some string and wave them around and make CLOTHES. It’s like a miracle. Or magic, even, what with the waving around of sticks and all.

And now I imagine people walking down the crafting equivalent of Diagon Alley to a small, quiet shop where the needles choose the knitter ...

My nomination for best machine-translated sentence that mangles the syntax but probably preserves the sense, from an article about the premiere of the Tokyo Revelations OAV produced from CLAMP's Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga:

Finally, future intentions heard performers were "More sequels wants!" said the chorus.

Thus the Google translation. BabelFish's version is far less dynamic:

Lastly, as for the performers who inquire about the future enthusiasm, "Furthermore the continuation would like to do", that, in chorus, you talked.

For interested Japanophones, here's the original text:

最後に、今後の意気込みを聞かれた出演者たちは「さらに続編がやりたい」と、声をそろえて語った。

I was never that enamored of giant plush microbes -- something about a large, fuzzy Yersinia pestis or Streptococcus pyogenes winking cheerfully at me from shelf or bed just isn't very reassuring, which I believe to be the point of plushies. I may have to change my tune, however, after seeing this: ( Read more... )

Locus A very clean room
Cantus Hit the button and hear for yourself

As noted and quoted by the indefagitable bloggers of Making Light, writer John Barnes recently mused on colliding cultural approaches to security, Euripides's Trojan Women, and why writers aren't like politicians:

A hard-working, competent politician will open a can of worms only as a last resort, and then try to discard the bad worms, make the good worms line up straight, and ultimately put all the good worms back into a better can. A fiction writer who is serious about writing good fiction will open the same can just for the hell of it, with a joyous shout of "Wow! Cool! Worms!" in order to play with the worms, show the worms to friends, give the worms names, dress the worms up in costumes, attempt to interview the worms, and perhaps try to become a worm.

The whole essay is to be found here. Share and enjoy!

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Forsan et haec olim scripsisse iuvabit.

(With apologies to Publius Vergilius Maro)

Entries tagged with quotable

Fandom: In defense of superheroes

Random: And ere a man hath power to say, “Behold!” / The jaws of darkness do devour it up ...

Fandom: Faith manages

Random: Best Metaquote Ever!

Books: If only they had written that one ...

Books: One of my favorite love stories anatomized

Personal Note: Magic!

Random: So that's how you say it!

Random: Dancing Microbes

Random: Cans of Worms

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August 2014

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