Author Topic: PC116: Paper Cuts Scissors  (Read 24834 times)

Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #25 on: August 09, 2010, 08:20:49 PM
If anyone is interested in a rather darker take on the whole going-in-and-out of books, you might try Cornelia Funke's Inkheart and its sequels.  I started in on listening to the 2nd one (Inkspell, narrated by Brandon Fraser, who is an interesting and energetic reader) today.

Interestingly, this story didn't make me think of Inkheart, despite the similarity of the fantasy device, because they're so far apart in tone and theme.

I didn't see the movie of the first book (which didn't do particularly well, despite starring Fraser), so I can't compare.  I enjoyed the book itself, though, so if you saw the movie and didn't like it, you might try the book.  It has, after all, been translated into 37 languages (including English) from the original German.

(The translation I heard was quite well done, too: it didn't feel like a translation, as so many do, somehow.)

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


baker8680

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Reply #26 on: August 10, 2010, 02:29:47 AM
I didn't read nearly this much into her choice of characters and I would bet that she probably didn't intend us to. It did remind me very much of that dichotomy of pessimistic vs. optimistic personalities and how they each approach the world (him with fear and her with assurance).  I also found the whole idea of immortality in books interesting although she did not approach it directly it is definitely their.  It reminds me a bit of one of my favorite podcastle stories (mr. Penumbra's twenty four hour bookstore).  This is one I'll save.



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Reply #27 on: August 10, 2010, 03:49:38 AM
I don't have much to say about this one (I enjoyed it a great deal, but I don't have much in the way of meaningful positive feedback) but I'd like to say that I didn't perceive any political subtext at all.  And I've been known to imagine political/social commentary where the author has sworn there was none intended.

Maybe it was a mistake for the author to include John Galt, since I'm guessing he triggered a lot of people's politics sensors.  But for me he was just a character from a well-known book.  Nothing more.

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Wilson Fowlie

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Reply #28 on: August 10, 2010, 04:24:48 AM
Maybe it was a mistake for the author to include John Galt, since I'm guessing he triggered a lot of people's politics sensors.  But for me he was just a character from a well-known book.  Nothing more.

Heck, for me, Philistine that I am, he wasn't even that!  :)

"People commonly use the word 'procrastination' to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working." - Paul Graham


Anarkey

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Reply #29 on: August 10, 2010, 11:27:12 AM
I didn't read nearly this much into her choice of characters and I would bet that she probably didn't intend us to. It did remind me very much of that dichotomy of pessimistic vs. optimistic personalities and how they each approach the world (him with fear and her with assurance).  I also found the whole idea of immortality in books interesting although she did not approach it directly it is definitely their.  It reminds me a bit of one of my favorite podcastle stories (mr. Penumbra's twenty four hour bookstore).  This is one I'll save.

Not that we wouldn't claim Mr. Penumbra's Twenty Four Hour Bookstore, because it was a damn good story, but that actually ran on Escapepod.  Credit where credit is due, and so on.

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Unblinking

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Reply #30 on: August 10, 2010, 01:42:31 PM
I didn't see any political subtext here, myself, which is the reason why I haven't chipped in about it.



kibitzer

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Reply #31 on: August 11, 2010, 03:11:43 AM
I can't believe we got all the way down here in this thread, and no-one's yet mentioned Jasper Fforde. Thursday Next? Anyone? Anyone?

Oh well, find out about The Seven Wonders of Swindon instead.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2010, 03:08:24 AM by kibitzer »



Scattercat

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Reply #32 on: August 11, 2010, 05:20:42 AM
Fanfiction about fanfiction...  I think one more level of meta and the whole thing collapses on itself like a souffle.  Possibly gravitons are involved. 



stePH

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Reply #33 on: August 17, 2010, 02:35:48 PM
I can't believe we got all the way down here in this thread, and no-one's yet mentioned Jasper Fforde. Thursday Next? Anyone? Anyone?

I don't know what a Jasper Fforde is. I did spot John Constantine, and recognized one other character described but not named... but have forgotten who. Would have to listen again to remember.

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Talia

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Reply #34 on: August 17, 2010, 02:43:09 PM
I can't believe we got all the way down here in this thread, and no-one's yet mentioned Jasper Fforde. Thursday Next? Anyone? Anyone?

I don't know what a Jasper Fforde is. I did spot John Constantine, and recognized one other character described but not named... but have forgotten who. Would have to listen again to remember.

Jasper Fforde is an author. Or a misspelled car dealership. I'm not sure which.



stePH

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Reply #35 on: August 17, 2010, 04:45:26 PM
Jasper Fforde is an author. Or a misspelled car dealership. I'm not sure which.

I always wanted to see a Ford dealership owned and run by a Mr. Harrison, so the business could be called "Harrison Ford".

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Listener

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Reply #36 on: August 17, 2010, 04:48:50 PM
Jasper Fforde is an author. Or a misspelled car dealership. I'm not sure which.

I always wanted to see a Ford dealership owned and run by a Mr. Harrison, so the business could be called "Harrison Ford".

The Googles doth provide: http://harrisonfordmercury.dealerconnection.com/?lang=en

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Talia

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Reply #37 on: August 17, 2010, 05:15:38 PM
Jasper Fforde is an author. Or a misspelled car dealership. I'm not sure which.

I always wanted to see a Ford dealership owned and run by a Mr. Harrison, so the business could be called "Harrison Ford".

The Googles doth provide: http://harrisonfordmercury.dealerconnection.com/?lang=en

Awesome!



kibitzer

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Reply #38 on: August 18, 2010, 03:01:27 AM
The link I posted above is to the author Jasper Fforde's site -- not fanfic, Scattercat, not even close. He has plenty of these on his site; they're mostly references to things in his Thursday Next books. The improbably-named Thursday Next is a sort of literary detective, quiter literally literary because she operates in books, plays, etc. Quite funny and whimsical. Very British. The first book is called The Eyre Affair where Thursday must hide out in Wuthering Heights. Hijinks ensure.


DKT

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Reply #39 on: August 18, 2010, 03:15:29 AM
Kibitzer, I think Scattercat was commenting on the story, not your link  ;)

(I could be wrong).


kibitzer

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Reply #40 on: August 18, 2010, 03:17:28 AM
Kibitzer, I think Scattercat was commenting on the story, not your link  ;)

(I could be wrong).

That's OK -- so could I. I admit, I often, often get things wrong. :-)


Scattercat

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Reply #41 on: August 19, 2010, 03:36:14 AM
I was talking about the story, which was metafanfiction.  The link is borked for me, anyway.



kibitzer

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Reply #42 on: August 19, 2010, 06:42:27 AM
I was talking about the story, which was metafanfiction.  The link is borked for me, anyway.

Yup, my bad.


SGAcreative

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Reply #43 on: August 21, 2010, 07:09:21 AM
Well, I finally know how everybody else felt when we went to see "Shakespeare In Love," and I was the only one understood the reference to little John Webster torturing cats.  As a former English professor, I kept thinking, "Y'know, I really should've read that... and that... and that one, too."  Or just scratching my head as another reference sailed over it.

It did bug me a little that one of the first characters to be mentioned was Indiana Jones.  I mean, I know there's a series of media tie-in books about Dr. Jones, but I certainly associate him with video, not text, so he seemed like an odd choice to single out.

Nonetheless, a big, categorical yay for literary fan-fiction!  Especially when it's executed so well, and with at least a modicum of restraint.  (I know from experience, that's very, very hard.)



SGAcreative

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Reply #44 on: August 21, 2010, 07:34:08 AM


The Scarlet Pimpernel was probably the first "costumed adventurer", with secret identity and all that.
[/quote]

It's hard to say, remember that the first Pimpernel book was actually written in 1905, and The Pimpernel often went in disguise, but never really had a mask or anything like that. As such, he's much more in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, who obviously came first, I think the first 'masked adventurer'  would probably be Zorro 1919, (which ties into the whole significance of the Batman origin story, etc.)

[/quote]

While I'm outing myself as a recovering academic and a medieval scholar, let me suggest looking back at least another four hundred and fifty years for the origin of the masked superhero.  An entire literary tradition, most famously Le Morte d'Arthur (and book two of The Faerie Queene, for that matter) revolves around honorable, noble, aristocratic, superhuman heroes who routinely hide their identities behind masks (or to be more precise, visors), often disguise themselves as strangers or even as other heroes, and inspire lines of dialogue that can be translated as, "Who was that masked man?"

Batman may also have been inspired by 19th and early 20th century figures, but there's a reason he's dressed in armor and billed as the dark "knight."






stePH

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Reply #45 on: August 23, 2010, 01:27:02 AM
The link I posted above is to the author Jasper Fforde's site -- not fanfic, Scattercat, not even close. He has plenty of these on his site; they're mostly references to things in his Thursday Next books. The improbably-named Thursday Next is a sort of literary detective, quiter literally literary because she operates in books, plays, etc. Quite funny and whimsical. Very British. The first book is called The Eyre Affair where Thursday must hide out in Wuthering Heights. Hijinks ensure.

I just noticed last week, at work, that there's a copy of Lost in a Good Book in the kitchen/break room.

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kibitzer

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Reply #46 on: August 23, 2010, 02:38:53 AM
The link I posted above is to the author Jasper Fforde's site -- not fanfic, Scattercat, not even close. He has plenty of these on his site; they're mostly references to things in his Thursday Next books. The improbably-named Thursday Next is a sort of literary detective, quiter literally literary because she operates in books, plays, etc. Quite funny and whimsical. Very British. The first book is called The Eyre Affair where Thursday must hide out in Wuthering Heights. Hijinks ensure.

I just noticed last week, at work, that there's a copy of Lost in a Good Book in the kitchen/break room.

That one's quite good


gateaux

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Reply #47 on: August 23, 2010, 02:38:38 PM
This story was pretty engaging. I kind of wish the author had just stuck to classic literature references when the characters started coming alive, mostly because I felt slightly embarrassed that I knew more about the graphic novel references than some of the classics. Plus it just seemed weird, trying to imagine a drawing talking to a real person.
But the actual concept of the story was the best part; how many times have you read something and would give anything to dive into that reality? I nearly peed myself when Justin saw his girlfriend in a Hogwarts uniform - I would totally write myself into that series if I could. 



kibitzer

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Reply #48 on: August 24, 2010, 02:50:48 AM
...mostly because I felt slightly embarrassed that I knew more about the graphic novel references than some of the classics.

Nothing to be embarrassed by in my book.


LaShawn

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Reply #49 on: October 04, 2010, 03:47:16 PM
Interesting story about literature becoming fanfiction. I didn't catch many of the references, though. This might be one I have to read.

I found Justin to be quite an interesting character. Meta stuff aside, his view on books were new to me. At first, the way he acted, I almost thought that there was something a little off with him, that he had obsessive compulsive disorder or something like that. To see him grow throughout the story was a pleasure--in fact, I found myself caring less about the books coming to life as watching Justin struggle with being dumped.

The ending was absolutely beautiful. I too, got quite nervous when he got the scissors out, but what he did showed a leap of maturity that Linda was not capable of--but will now. At the same time, it was still a little disturbing. He *was* changing her, after all.

Really like to read this one again.

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