{"id":2943,"date":"2006-07-06T02:38:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-06T02:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=2943"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:25:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:25:32","slug":"random-giddiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=2943","title":{"rendered":"Random Giddiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Total timewaster: <a href=\"http:\/\/bluepyramid.org\/ia\/bquiz.htm\">A Fuse #8 Production<\/a> discovered this highly amusing and pointless book quiz. Which character are <i>you<\/i> most like? Just so you know&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bluepyramid.org\/ia\/tkamhl.jpg\" \/><br \/>I&#8217;m <i>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/i>!<br \/>by Harper Lee<\/p>\n<p><i>Perceived as a revolutionary and groundbreaking person, you have changed the minds of many people. While questioning the authority around you, you&#8217;ve also taken a significant amount of flack. But you&#8217;ve had the admirable guts to persevere. There&#8217;s a weird guy in the neighborhood using dubious means to protect you, but you&#8217;re pretty sure it&#8217;s worth it in the end. In the end, it remains unclear to you whether finches and mockingbirds get along in real life.<br \/><\/i><br \/>Take the <a href=\"http:\/\/bluepyramid.org\/ia\/bquiz.htm\">Book Quiz<\/a><br \/>at the <a href=\"http:\/\/bluepyramid.org\">Blue Pyramid<\/a>.Hm. This is actually kind of cool, in a no-that&#8217;s-only-me-in-my-dreams kind of way.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">~~~<\/div>\n<p>Last week&#8217;s big news was that &#8220;that Rowling woman&#8221; (as many writers call her, crossly) has <a href=\"http:\/\/books.guardian.co.uk\/harrypotter\/story\/0,,1806700,00.html\">announced that she&#8217;s going to kill off yet more characters.<\/a> Now, normally we all strive to keep this a Harry-free zone, but I have to say this: <em>That bites.<\/em> No, nothing to do with ye olde elusive kernel of hope. More to do with my original complaint about the entire series &#8212; is not <em>one adult <\/em>in the whole of England competent? Muggle or no, the whole of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hogwarts\">Hogwarts<\/a> Academy is surrounded by idiots. No wonder the children will never grow to adulthood, what&#8217;s the bloody <em>point!? <\/em>May as well die fighting &#8220;pure evil&#8221; (as per Rowling) than grow up to be vaguely menacing or well meaning but bumbling. The whole lot of them crosses my eyes. I read each episode faithfully, because I can rarely start a series without finishing it, but I wager there will never be another Harry novel as good as the first one&#8230; the cool-plot-twists-per-page gimmick is fighting mightily against solidly-character-driven-prose and winning, because the characters are just not as clearly defined anymore. As a reader, I feel really manipulated by the plot for some reason. Never mind &#8212; if announcing more deaths keeps Rowling readers riveted, it&#8217;s a great marketing ploy, and I wish her luck as she wrestles this huge beast to a conclusion&#8230; I just hope the books don&#8217;t keep getting longer!<\/p>\n<p>More YA Brit-Lit news is that the eagerly awaited <a href=\"www.philip-pullman.com\">Pullman<\/a> movies (well, eagerly awaited by <i>some<\/i>, you know how I am about movies vs. novels) will begin shooting on schedule. The <a href=\"http:\/\/books.guardian.co.uk\/news\/articles\/0,,1809554,00.html\">Guardian<\/a> reports that after technical difficulties and some casting about for cast members, they&#8217;ve found an unknown to play Lyra, and things are on a roll. Okay, if an adventure novel <em>has <\/em>to be made into a movie, <em>His Dark Materials<\/em> is actually a great choice.<\/p>\n<p>In other movie news, <a href=\"http:\/\/bookmoot.blogspot.com\/\">Bookmoot<\/a> reports that one of my fave old Sci-fi novels, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heinlein\">Robert Heinlen&#8217;s<\/a> <em>The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,<\/em> is also due to be made <a href=\"http:\/\/filmforce.ign.com\/articles\/642\/642251p1.html\">into a movie.<\/a> Heinlen, if you&#8217;ll recall, is famous for that YA novel which led to the horrible movie <em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Starship_Troopers\">Starship Troopers,<\/a><\/em> a fine example of why a novel sometimes should just be&#8230; a novel.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, some sad news: Awhile back I reported on some great new old fashioned sci-fi publishing going on. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baens-universe.com\/\">Jim Baen&#8217;s Universe<\/a> was going back to the old tried and true way of publishing science fiction &#8212; by giving unknown writers a chance. The L.A. Times reported today that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/printedition\/california\/la-me-baen4jul04,1,6374581.story?ctrack=1&amp;cset=true\">Baen<\/a> died of a massive stroke this past Wednesday. I understand that the magazine will carry on, as will his goals of reviving science fiction and fantasy as a vibrant and boundary-pushing genre, and opening the Web to ebooks and freebies. A man of grand ideas and fierce loyalties to his readers and writers at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webscription.net\/\">Baen Books<\/a>, Jim Baen&#8217;s point of view will surely be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Total timewaster: A Fuse #8 Production discovered this highly amusing and pointless book quiz. Which character are you most like? Just so you know&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-2943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-views"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3593,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943\/revisions\/3593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}