Room Ruddy-Aggravating 2.0

[ricardo shillyshally]

I realise I hardly watch TV. A BB, FG, or new film, but it's because most output is predictable. What are the chances that BB will suddenly change direction! I think the idea of happy ending, disneyfication(love pissing off spellcheck!). It's just, as you know there's lots of bizarre incidents going on, an inconceivable weaving together of different threads, and destinies; and yet TV doesn't reflect life, it's a sort of candy coated facsimile.

[ricardo shillyshally]

I can see it reaching a place where only sure things, based on remakes, are financed. They'll make many different versions of the same ten films, another prequel, or sequel, or just using latest technology(CGI,3D,etc). I think internet creativity, independent of business, is only free place.

[Louise]

I can see it reaching a place where only sure things, based on remakes, are financed. They'll make many different versions of the same ten films, another prequel, or sequel, or just using latest technology

What I *don't* want to see is deceased actors being CGI-ed back to life. I already think it's disrespectful how the image of Marilyn Monroe, for example, gets used so much. Or, there was a vacuum commercial with Fred Aistaire, I think. That's tacky and kinda creepy.

Have you heard of this? Pop-star who doesn't actually exist:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...ation.html

[SpaceAnJL]

That is pure Gibson. 'idoru' is the book.

[ricardo shillyshally]

Yes that virtual pop star is scary. I can imagine the corporations; no real humans to have to deal with, no divas, no fade through ..................to scandal. Imagine CBS, no pesky $1M per show for actors. It's bizarre to see a combination of cultural philosophy and sci-fi happening around us!

[ricardo shillyshally]

I heard today, that a few large corporations have bought up all the Hollywood studios. They are turning programmes, and films, out like products; nothing offensive, or even challenging, in case it upsets foreign censors. Less dialogue, especially of clever kind. It's problematic to translate, literally and culturally. Both because 80% of market is now foreign. So CGI, violence and inanity okay.

[Louise]

Women's bodies are gross! The natural state of your body is animal-like and embarrassing! Spend time and money on our product or you're not attractive! The normal attributes of a healthy grown woman are unacceptable and you should change them!!!

Oh, fuck off.

[ricardo shillyshally]

Women's bodies do seem to be political and commercial battlegrounds. But there also seems to be a certain amount of hypocrisy, mainly by celebrity hopefuls. I'm sure men aren't far behind, especially in commercial possibilities. It's strange the idea of The Singularity, when humans and cybernetics combine, intrigues me, but silicon. It's interesting that what seems acceptable in: one state, one country, is the complete opposite of elsewhere, indicates control/manipulation maybe!

[Louise]

I might be getting too picky for my own good, with books. I haaaate flowery language or large amounts of description, and this makes me get bored quickly. If a book opens with a description of the weather or the landscape, that's Strike One, from me. This is why I have a problem with epic fantasy, even though I like it in theory.

Take a gander at this book: http://www.amazon.com/Better-Dead-Lily-H...B00C17RE3G

If it were up to me, I would cut the first three or four paragraphs. Where is the mothertrucking PLOT? Show me the plot. For the love of god, somebody rec me a fantasy or urban-fantasy or vaguely paranormal-themed novel that doesn't spend whole paragraphs blathering about the rain, the mountains, the sunlight, the shadows, or the sound of the heroine's heartbeat, or the way her breath feels inside her lungs.

"I turned up my collar against the rain as the skies darkened..." Noooooo, get to the point!!! The POINT, I tell you!!!! *screaming* Imagine zombies moaning "pllllooootttt" instead of "braaaainnss", and that's me, right now. "I could see my own breath against the windowpane..." "The evening sun fell across the floorboards..." Shut uppppp, who caaaaares, make something HAPPEN.



ETA: I know this post sounds pretty unhinged, so just to clarify, it's not *exposition* that I object to. I'm actually very patient with exposition, I actually enjoy it. What I dislike is *scenery* and set-dressing that does nothing to advance plot or characterization, and the type of tight first-person-limited POV in which everything is sensory description instead of information.

[SpaceAnJL]

This is an issue with the genre. In visual media, you can set atmosphere immediately, and it is easy to convey Gothic unease or the sheer difference of an environment. Text, you have to put some spade-work in. Especially if the setting is another world. 'London 1889' is excellent atmospheric shorthand, as is 'Rome in the time of Caesar' or 'Ancient Egypt' ( despite the fact that most of these will be inaccurate mental images fostered by said film industry, but.)