Author Topic: PC120: Some Zombie Contingency Plans  (Read 41667 times)

Unblinking

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Reply #50 on: September 09, 2010, 01:23:14 PM
This didn't fit the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in my mind.  To me, those are always about the irrational life-loving weird female who suddenly invades the life of a boring overly-rational man, wacky hijinx ensue and he falls madly in love, rediscovers a zest for life before they inevitably discover that she's got her own emotional baggage hidden behind the carefree facade.

The only example of this that I've seen (that I can think of anyway) is the movie Something Wild, and you've just summarized it flawlessly.

"500 Days of Summer"
"Jersey Girl"

Those are good examples.  Also:
Dharma and Greg
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
Yes Man

When most people point out a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, it's a criticism of a bad plot trait.  For me, that's not necessarily the case, 3 of those above movies are on my top list of favorite movies--I tend to like the Manic Pixie Dream Girl character, even while realizing that it can be overused.  The part that makes each one interesting is how they differ from each other, and since the character is always one who prides herself on being different, there are always some variations.

Also, part of my like for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is that Zooey Deschanel, my Hollywood girlfriend, has had quite a few of the roles, including 2 of those listed above in the lead female role, as well as playing a similar role in a secondary character in other movies like Failure to Launch.



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Reply #51 on: September 09, 2010, 03:19:25 PM
"500 Days of Summer"
"Jersey Girl"

Jersey Girl? I don't see it. Especially not the "she's got her own emotional baggage" part.

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Reply #52 on: September 09, 2010, 04:30:37 PM
I've got to agree with stePH on this one. It's been a while since I've seen it, but Jersey Girl doesn't quite match my definition of the trope. (FWIW, I don't see Carly in this story as one either, but to each their own.) What I've read of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Ramona Flowers defines this trope - but I could be wrong. Unfortunately, I haven't finished reading it or seen it   :'(

I do agree with Unblinking re: Manic Pixie Dream Girl is not necessarily a bad thing. But it certainly can be, especially when it's not done well. (That movie with Keannu Reeves and Charlzie Theron? The one that Al Pacino was not in? Ugh...)


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Reply #53 on: September 09, 2010, 05:20:51 PM
"500 Days of Summer"
"Jersey Girl"

Jersey Girl? I don't see it. Especially not the "she's got her own emotional baggage" part.

It's been long enough since I saw that one that I just gave the benefit of the doubt.  I don't remember much about it.  Other than that the father-daughter re-enactment of Sweeney Todd was frigging awesome.  Especially since I'd never heard of Sweeney Todd at the time.

But I'd stand by all the others that we've listed as Manic Pixe Dream Girls.

What I've read of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Ramona Flowers defines this trope - but I could be wrong. Unfortunately, I haven't finished reading it or seen it   :'(

I haven't read it (something which I must remedy), but in the movie she very much fit the bill.



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Reply #54 on: September 09, 2010, 06:28:43 PM
...the father-daughter re-enactment of Sweeney Todd [in Jersey Girl] was frigging awesome. 

The only worthy part of the film, IMO.

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Reply #55 on: September 09, 2010, 08:15:46 PM
Anyone else find their mind wandering into zombie contingency plans at odd moments since hearing this?

Nope, just me then...

I did link the random, free, mindless taking of a picture and the taking of the child - Bret Easton Ellis came to mind rather than the Cat Bin Lady, but I actually prefer that image now.



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Reply #56 on: September 09, 2010, 11:41:25 PM
What I've read of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Ramona Flowers defines this trope - but I could be wrong.

A near perfect personification of the trope, in fact, but since the whole of Scott Pilgrim is in a sort of heightened pseudo-adolescent emotional bright-colors bright-lights world, it works fine in the context.  Everything is either perfect or a disaster, all molehills are mountains and all brief respites Shangri-la, etc.



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Reply #57 on: September 10, 2010, 03:51:06 AM
What I've read of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Ramona Flowers defines this trope - but I could be wrong.

A near perfect personification of the trope, in fact, but since the whole of Scott Pilgrim is in a sort of heightened pseudo-adolescent emotional bright-colors bright-lights world, it works fine in the context.  Everything is either perfect or a disaster, all molehills are mountains and all brief respites Shangri-la, etc.

Right. And just to be clear, I didn't mean that in a negative way. I'm all for tropes that are well-executed.


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Reply #58 on: September 10, 2010, 06:29:43 PM
"500 Days of Summer"
"Jersey Girl"

Jersey Girl? I don't see it. Especially not the "she's got her own emotional baggage" part.

I meant that Natalie Portman/Zach Braff movie that took place in Jersey. Garden State. that's the one.

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Reply #59 on: September 10, 2010, 08:41:07 PM
"500 Days of Summer"
"Jersey Girl"

Jersey Girl? I don't see it. Especially not the "she's got her own emotional baggage" part.

I meant that Natalie Portman/Zach Braff movie that took place in Jersey. Garden State. that's the one.

That makes a lot more sense. Including the never really explained but mind-boggling hole that pushed that movie into the fantasy genre. Also Frodo's needlessly undercover gig.

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Schreiber

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Reply #60 on: September 12, 2010, 03:51:19 PM
Isn't this the second time this summer that Wolverine has made an appearance on PodCastle?



blueeyeddevil

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Reply #61 on: September 13, 2010, 11:17:07 AM
Isn't this the second time this summer that Wolverine has made an appearance on PodCastle?

Third, if you count a double appearance (once in a dress) in the first story for the Borderlands of fantasy.

So...Wolverine is the hidden core of the Fantasy zeitgeist?

I can actually come up with arguments for this...





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Reply #62 on: September 13, 2010, 03:00:17 PM
He's the best at what he does. But what he does isn't very grounded in reality...



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Reply #63 on: September 13, 2010, 03:41:24 PM
Maybe next year we can have Wolverine Month?


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Reply #64 on: September 13, 2010, 08:19:48 PM
I think we all have those crazy zombie contingency plans.  Actually, I have my own plan.  I'm a Romero nut who really loved Night of the Living Dead.  You watch enough zombie movies, you have to have a zombie contingecy plan.  I'd hide the family in the attic and go get adecent RV, like the one in Zombieland, then I'd pick them up and head west.  Rural places would be the best places.  But I don't think I'd kidnap some kid.

I hope this story doesn't make people with contingecy plans all seem like dangerous wackos.  Unless they have iceberg contogency plans.  Those guys are way out there;-)



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Reply #65 on: September 13, 2010, 09:37:55 PM
Unless they have iceberg contogency plans.  Those guys are way out there;-)

Just you wait. When they iceburgs come, we'll see who has the last laugh...

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Reply #66 on: September 14, 2010, 09:03:10 AM
I loved this story.

I loved the ending.

I loved the "painting".

I don't think that soap went to prison for stealing art.  I don't think there is a painting.  I see the painting as a metaphor for that dark, fuzzy, misaligned part of his soul that he can't grasp, and he certainly can't get others to grasp.  Perhaps his sister keeping the painting for two years is simply an allusion to her keeping some foul secret of his, or knowing more about him than anyone else.

I think that he went to prison for kidnapping and killing children (if he went to prison at all).  Asking about a "zombie contingency plan" is simply a way of testing out what is someones best defense when people like Soap come around.

Soap lied to every single person and every single moment, so I found stealing the child at the end a very plausible part of his character.

On a different note:  I think this was more of a psuedopod story, although, i suppose if I had been expecting horror, the O-Henry ending wouldn't have been so fantastic.

Thanks again!

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Reply #67 on: September 14, 2010, 09:35:15 AM
what's an O-Henry ending?


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Reply #68 on: September 14, 2010, 06:42:31 PM
I may be mis-representing the spelling, but it was a genre of short stories from the turn of the century that would have a weird twist in the last sentence or two - would really come out of left field to the reader, but wasn't so far gone that it wasn't plausable.

I learned that they were called oh O-Henry stories because the author (and perhaps subsequent copycat authors) would publish them under the name O. Henry, but also because the twist at the end was meant to solicit an "oh, Henry!" response; the turn of the century equivalent to "WTF?"

The Gift of the Magi is one, and I think the Lottery might be another (at least of the genre, if not the original author)

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Reply #69 on: September 14, 2010, 08:12:32 PM
This wasn't really an O. Henry ending.  O. Henry specialized in ironic twists, like a woman selling her hair to buy a chain for her husband's watch and her husband selling his watch to buy combs for his wife's lovely hair, or a character claiming they will die when the last leaf falls from the tree in their yard and their painter neighbor painting a leaf onto the side of the house where the invalid can see it from their window and thus keeping them alive, or a man stealing money bit by bit from the bank where he works and hiding it in a hole in the wall only to find that the shopkeeper on the other side of the hole has been finding mysterious free money in her cabinets for years.  This wasn't an ironic twist ending; it was just a sharp veer to the left.



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Reply #70 on: September 14, 2010, 08:13:06 PM
"The Lottery" is Shirley Jackson.  I guess if twist endings make a story an "O. Henry" story, it could be considered one, but the tone is very dissimilar from O. Henry's gentle (if somewhat wry) tales (he's kind of like Damon Runyan but less broad) - he wrote about a broad range of classes in America, and served a jail sentence early in his life.

"The Cop and the Anthem" by O. Henry made quite an impression on me as a kid, as did "The Last Leaf" and "The Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen".  "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of Red Chief" are probably his most familiar stories (they used to make kids read them in school, and it's a sad day if that isn't done anymore as O. Henry is a perfect way to get kids to love short fiction).

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry), his pseudonym was constructed for ease of rememberance for readers, although Guy Davenport posits that its a reduction of "Ohio Penetentiary", where he first started writing.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2010, 08:14:52 PM by Sgarre1 »



kibitzer

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Reply #71 on: September 14, 2010, 10:16:09 PM
I may be mis-representing the spelling, but it was a genre of short stories from the turn of the century that would have a weird twist in the last sentence or two - would really come out of left field to the reader, but wasn't so far gone that it wasn't plausable.

Gotcha. Thanks for the definition.


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Reply #72 on: September 15, 2010, 12:14:14 AM
The jail sentence was a real touchstone for him, really, even if it wasn't exactly hard time for hard crimes, per se.  His writing reflected a lot of "we're all just people" and "everybody makes mistakes" themes.



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Reply #73 on: September 15, 2010, 02:06:27 PM
"The Cop and the Anthem" by O. Henry made quite an impression on me as a kid, as did "The Last Leaf" and "The Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen".  "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Ransom of Red Chief" are probably his most familiar stories (they used to make kids read them in school, and it's a sad day if that isn't done anymore as O. Henry is a perfect way to get kids to love short fiction).

I don't think I'm familiar with the others, but The Ransom of Red Chief was filmed as one of those Saturday Morning Specials programs when I was a kid.  I haven't read it, but I thought the show version was pretty funny.



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Reply #74 on: September 28, 2010, 01:14:11 AM
Outstanding reading by Norm Sherman. I enjoyed how the story and dialog progressed, and the clever lines like "drop a weasel in it". But like most everyone else here I was lost by the ending. And without an ending I can understand I cannot add this to my favorites, but I really loved the story and narration right up to the ending.