Fannish Items of Interest

[calliopes_pen]

I had been considering watching Eastwick. However, after reading the reactions on my friends list, and this Io9 recap, I think I’ll pass on this one. Even if Jaime Ray Newman (from Eureka) is in it.

Television Without Pity tells Joss Whedon’s best episodes—from all his shows. whedonesque discusses it here, also linking to a similar list from EW.com.

Apparently, someone wrote to The Wall Street Journal asking for help, because their 13 year old nephew liked science fiction. They wanted advice on how to make him stop reading it. Luckily, they were given advice on other science fiction authors to let him try. Thankfully, nobody around me ever cared that I loved science fiction or fantasy or horror novels, so long as I was reading.

When I was in 10th grade, my math teacher saw me reading The Hobbit. He asked me if I liked science fiction or fantasy, and I said yes. He took me into a closet in the back of the room one day before class—filled to the brim with boxes of science fiction books. He told me to take what I wanted if it was out of print, and if it wasn’t, write down the titles and track them down.

From Cracked: 7 Vampires Around the World Worse Than The Ones In Twilight. I know that with #4—The Krasue—there are a few horror movies from Thailand about it. Never actually watched them, but I know of them.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds like a pretty awesome teacher. Most of my teachers were reasonably happy to see me reading, although in one particular case there was one book that caused me no end of grief in Jr. High. Neuromancer, by William Gibson. It has exactly one fairly graphic sex scene in the book. By some astonishing coincidence (probably because whoever owned the book before me, it was used, kept going back to it), any time anybody ever picked up the book and opened it to a random page, it was that scene. I'd actually grabbed the book out of people's hands when they started turning the pages because I knew what was coming. Luckily, the only time a teacher actually managed to read it he was pretty cool about it.

Not completely related, but I walk by a high school on my way to work (although very very early in the morning). Last year, I made a habit of taking some of my surplus Sf/Fantasy books - either duplicates I'd somehow gained, or ones I considered a little too immature to be keeping (like the TSR fantasy novels... not the big main ones, which I usually kept, but the piles upon piles of tie ins that I accumulated while I was big into them - most could be read on their own and I enjoyed them at the time but there was nothing I could see myself ever reading again), and at least once a week, along somewhere near the school route, I'd drop off one of the books somewhere out of the way, but visible, and dry (like inside a little phone alcove, or on the sidewalk under a small train-bridge).

I don't know for sure if somebody actually took them or if a garbageman or something just picked them up and threw them out, but I like to imagine that some geeky kid or kids found them and gave them a good home.

[veracity]

I have to admit, the description of Eastwick makes me WANT to watch the show. See, I loved the cheesy movie. I loved the not-so-fleshed out female characters. The cheesy as all get out scenes. Let's be real: the town of Eastwick from the movie was way more Gilmore Girls *before* the show was even an idea. I'm not expecting some Lost-mired show. I don't expect some mind-blowing award-winning show.

Sometimes you just gotta have a lot of fun, especially considering it's not some drivel reality show where some person dates 16 women or men to find their OTLOFTS (One True Love of the Season).

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Why the hell would anyone (a) write to the Wall Street Journal for advice about their kid's reading (what's the matter with going to the librarian? Who is actually QUALIFIED to give such advice), and (b) want to stop their kid from reading? Who cares WHAT they're reading (so long as it's not porn!), so long as they're reading!

Sheesh!

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Reading should be encouraged. However, I remember a kid I used to babysit when I was a kid myself. He read all the Star Trek (the original series) novels that were out there. That he read was wonderful. That he was convinced they were non-fiction was not.

[calliopes_pen]

Wow. How old was he at the time? I'm just...picturing a 10 year old going around and actually asking people if he could meet Spock, since he had read such interesting things about him.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

That's just about how it was. And very weird, because he otherwise seemed like an intelligent 10 year old.