Quick Thoughts: I Capture The Castle

I can't believe this book is out of print. It belongs in that canon of delightful romantic girl heroine-narratives that include Anne Shirley and Ella of "Ella Enchanted" and Elizabeth Bennett and all the rest. If I were an writer, this is the kind of story I would have wanted to write. I may train myself to read Paradise Lost and the Economist and endlessly repetitive sociology papers, but books like "I Capture the Castle" will always draw out my core and be as addictive as crack. I could hardly believe it when I started reading it - it was practically manufactured just for me or: Further Proof That Period Romance Is Better.

Precocious, winning, and feisty heroine - check off with Cassandra Mortmain. Interesting side characters like the devoted diva-ish stepmother Topaz or the awesome little brother with maddeningly blunt observations - check. Angst. Entanglements. Beautiful rambling countryside and ruined castles. Dramatic plot devices that manage to downplay their dreariness while keeping you fully invested, though that owes mainly to Cassandra's delightful POV. Also........really hot intelligent romantic foils, twists, and surprisingly intellectual whiffs. That last one is new; I wish I had read this when I was younger.

As soon as I finished the book, I remembered that there had been some sort of movie adaptation, and god it would be thrilling to see it onscreen. It was on Youtube, thank the lord, but it was DREADFUL. Stale and angsty and uneven acting, though it had guilty-pleasure potential. "This isn't how I imagined the book to be" is an annoying and lame complaint, I find, but in this case, I thought that they really had not done justice to the book's wit and charm. The book is still primarily a comedy, albeit with some very serious moments, but the movie was trying soooo hard to be a romantic drama. Actually, scratch that. It had no idea what it wanted to be. Coming-of-age quirky comedy or wistful loss of innocence. There was some serious tonal contradiction.

I wasn't a fan of the casting either, though geez, Henry Cavill was fine as fuck. It was the first time I ever sat back and thought, "Oh. God. This guy's looks are truly ridiculous. There is no way anyone mortal looks like this. No wonder he keeps getting comparisons to Greek gods." And I know that Romola Garai is the go-to girl for Spirited & Precocious (she was brilliant in the 2009 "Emma" in what was in my opinion the best embodiment of an Austen novel ever) but I think that all the characters were slightly off-kilter in this one. I guess I'll just have to wait for PBS to inevitably re-make this.

Random Observations from A Tale of Ice And Fire

Observations on A Song of Ice and Fire - massive, careless spoilers. As in literally, I just talk liberally about all four books, so yeah, stay away if you haven't read the books.

#1. Is Arya a "psychotic?" (No)

"'Is there gold in the village?' she shouted as she drove the blade up through his back. 'Is there silver? Gems?' She stabbed twice more. 'Is there food? Where is Lord Beric?' She was on top of him by then, still stabbing. 'Where did he go? How many men were with him? How many knights? How many bowmen? How many? How many? How many? How many? How many? How many? Is there gold in the village?'" - A Storm of Swords

Weirdly enough, I always connect Arya's journey to two Christian Bale movies: Empire of the Sun and Batman Begins.

Arya is a hardened, devastated, bitter, vengeful 11-year-old girl who has killed more people than most people twice her age, but she's not a psychopath; psychopathic tendencies are mostly innate, but she's purely a product of her environment. She isn't Sansa, who's coping with her best attributes - charm, tractability, meekness - she's discovered the power of brute force, and she's made the journey from willful little girl to a brutal, realistic war survivor. Complete with John Malkovich character.

And as someone whose world has been destroyed through murder and injustice - her father executed with a lie, her mother and brother slaughtered without honor or mercy - she's the classic self-appointed vigilante who regards the world around her as a place without honor or justice. The justice system is broken in her eyes, and it can no longer be relied on after failing her and her family so utterly. Naturally, she pursues her own unique brand of justice instead. She still has honor, certainly, but it fits the dog-eat-dog style of her environment, more anarchic than the genteel form of honor that undid her family. She learns this lesson much more quickly than Cat, who if you notice, also turns to a ruthless style of justice after her world collapses. In fact, Catelyn has arguably further gone than Arya, considering the fact that Catelyn is a fully-grown woman and has rejected a lifetime of principles. Arya can also be compared to Sansa, who is also learning to survive the hard way, albeit with different skills suited to her environment. Arya's irrevocably changed by her experiences, as any war survivor may be, perhaps damaged, but she isn't lost, by a long shot. I can't wait to see how her story turns out.

#2: Why are all the Tully children so inept?

Catelyn is a well-intentioned and intelligent, but she is the mother of all trainwrecks, being truly her husband's wife. She seizes Tyrion Lannister on the road without giving a modicum to the thought that it's not the best idea to kidnap the son of the oh, MOST POWERFUL HOUSE in the seven kingdoms. I know you're pissed off about your son, but how about a little consulting or even restraining oneself from making spur-of-the-moment decisions that will obviously have powerful reverberations? Ultimately, Catelyn does everything out of love for her children, but these acts have a habit of having a worse effect on her family than anything else. Also frees her worst enemy, Jaime Lannister, during a moment of extreme vulnerability, which is the dumbest fucking idea in the entire world, even for a woman who is mourning for her murdered sons. Did she honestly, honestly believe that he would even have it in his power to return her girls to her? I respect Catelyn and her late fate in the books is kind of awesome, but she is such a naive and reckless dumbass. Seriously.

Lysa is in plain terms, utterly batshit. She's a simpering, inept, deluded weakling who is arguably much to blame for the War of the Five Kings, and all for a man who has clearly only loved her sister, and does not give a flying fuck for her. Lysa's many notable acts, all of them crazier than the last, include, 1) being infatuated with said man and persisting in the facade of his love, though she has always known that he doesn't care for her. Evidence: When Robert Baratheon accidentally uttered the name of his true love "Lyanna" while lying with Cersei, it killed any possibility of love or affection in their relationship. The same thing happened to Lysa, more or less, only it had the opposite effect. 2) poisoning her husband on the command of her lover, and pinning the blame on others, planting suspicions that trigger a freaking war 3) continuing to breastfeed her child even though he's already EIGHT FUCKING YEARS OLD 4) refusing to aid her own family despite the immense resources and arsenal at her command, for pretty much no reason at all. This one pissed me off the most, because it doesn't really matter what deranged crap she gets up to in her home, but this had the most dire impact. It is really not okay to stay neutral and stay lalalalala when your only sister's children are lost, missing, captured or dead, and the rest of your family is getting massacred and their cause going the same way. What the fuck do you do in your spare time, anyway? Oh yeah, 5) stalking your loveless husband and trying to push your 13-year-old niece, who is as far as you know, possibly the only remaining blood relative you have in the world - off a castle because you saw your husband give her a kiss in the garden.

Edmure Tully

Also a royal screw-up. A screwup in the battlefield (you know you can't do anything right when you end up apologizing to your sixteen-year-old nephew and promising to make amends), whines entirely way too much in a period of warfare (nobody gives a shit who you marry), complains about everyone else, makes inept threats (next time for starters, try NOT being in a bathtub when you threaten to kill a dude), falls for Jamie Lannister's entirely raw deal. Edmure, do you really think that your worthless life is worth your family's ancient stronghold and the sacrifice of your badass uncle, who is one of the greatest characters in the series as well as the only Tully that's not a complete inept fool? Use your brains. They can't kill your unborn child because it's half-Frey and the only heir to a powerful house, and it would serve the Freys better off alive than dead, and you'll have to spend the rest of your life as a Lannister servant anyway. YOU WITLESS COWARD. Even some of the things he does that's entirely not his fault - like bedding your new bride while her brothers are butchering your relatives downstairs - is indicative of his general cluelessness and futility.

So Edmure is more or less slave to his greatest enemy, Catelyn is undead, Lysa is murdered by her own husband, and justifiably so. Brindyn "Blackfish" Tully, their aged, formidable uncle who is possibly the only character in the series that possesses both deadly good sense and unshakeable loyalty and honor, is on the run thanks to his useless nephew.

Forget it. I was all for the Starks/Tullys but the latter house really doesn't deserve to survive, to an extent. There's the good-hearted loveable fool, like an 11-year-old Neville Longbottom, and then there's the really really exasperatingly stupid gobsmacking incompetent fool of questionable morality that makes you go, "eh, probably would be more beneficial to evolution if they're just all wiped out, anyway."

Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire

I've seen all episodes so far in Game of Thrones and I've read three of the books and spoiled all of them beforehand on Wikipedia. I couldn't resist.

I love it. It's everything I've always loved in big, sprawling epics; the political intrigue and machinery and intricate plotting and ruthless scheming, huge battles without the boring details, exhilarating twists and breathless tension and a mad, mad pace.

I read somewhere that George RR Martin used to be a tv writer, and it certainly seems like that in his books - he's no Tolkien, whose painstaking and near-obsessive attention to detail has so far derailed me from finishing the The Two Towers (I promised myself to read all three LOTR books this summer, but it's just....difficult to get through without my eyes glazing over, to be perfectly honest). The suspense and building up of scenes are perfect, and though the writing is occasionally cheesy and inelegant, it's just such a good story.

Martin based the stories off the War of Roses (Lancasters and Yorks = Lannisters and Starks, though the similarities mostly end there) and other major feuds in English history. And it certainly feels like it. The absolutely fascinating dynamics between the different noble houses and the scheming towards the throne is uncannily representative of medieval English politics - the persistent threat of rebellion and chaos always hanging overhead; the (at times literal) backstabbing and allegiances switching in the blink of an eye, an entire war ended by a single sword or orchestrated by a few letters, the power struggles, the greed and inevitable desperation - I just love it.

And the characters! I wouldn't say that the characters are especially outstanding - sometimes they seem to meld with one another - but the humanity is so present and the drama so compelling that you're glued to the characters at all times. I became emotionally invested in most of the characters' fates - and boy, are there many of them - it took me a long time to actually put everything together and remember everyone's names, even - and the emotional stakes feel real and utterly convincing. The backstories and flashbacks are as fascinating as the present, and everything intertwines - weaving past, present, characters a thousand leagues apart to predecessors a century before - beautifully. Even reading the thing on Wikipedia was enthralling and exhilarating.

And Christ, is Martin BRUTAL with them. This isn't Harry Potter or LOTR or Narnia, where aside from a few token minor characters' death, everyone else's safety is pretty much guaranteed and you basically have to root for them. It's a war, plain and simple, and a POV character may be wiped out ruthlessly without warning. They're the source of most of the WTF moments in the books, and have simultaneously pushed away and attracted readers. One of my favorite bloggers stopped halfway through the third book after one after reading one particularly infamous chapter, claiming that said part was nothing short of a "violent act against the reader". It's pretty incredible testament to Martin's emotional efficiency, though, to have readers to be so affected by a fictional character's fate that countless readers have either set aside the books or at least paused, either because they needed to recover from the emotional toll or were disenchanted. No death is senseless or gratuitous, in my opinion. You always, always see the core of it - you can trace the origin of the character's downfall, you see cause and consequence reverberate and the clues are right there, mapped out in the chapters. You understand why this person died, and how it will impact others or shift the course of the game. It's brilliant, really.

Me, I'm a sucker for anything that draws me emotionally, and it's most impressive of all when it can hurt me. This is particularly hard with fantasy. Not even the deaths in Harry Potter affected me or surprised me; I loved all the characters, but they were still so removed. Usually, when a major character is wiped out, I actually don't care that much, but Martin is so vivid and sick that I consider it a great privilege to actually feel so much over a character's death.

But IMO, I think the first thing to understand in the books is that death is one of the major characters in the book. I think Martin effectively conjures up the atmosphere of the Middle Ages - why the fleeting chance of glory is so sweet, why anyone would welcome the chance to go to war to certain death. Death is always around the corner for every character, whether it's a peasant boy senselessly executed for no purpose at all, a musician who becomes a nobleman's scapegoat, a king's throat slit. The knowledge that "winter is coming" - the grim, endlessly repeated motto of the Starks - is a given. Living in constant fear is the only rational state of being. Whenever my mind drifted away from the books (and that happened very rarely), all I could think of was Hobbes' "life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". That's the essence of this cold, cruel, epic world of Martin's. You can't figure out what's worse, battling the wild elements in the bleak and solitary, ice-strewn land of the North, or caught in the political webs of the South. Each is just as unpredictable and unfeeling, and murderous as the other.

Still, I got to the certain part where my blogger stopped reading, though, and I almost cried. I had known about it beforehand, but when I read it, I was so affected that I actually fell into a deep melancholic state afterwards. The nature of the tragedy echoed the deaths of other historical characters that had possessed me as a kid, like the story of Lady Jane Grey or Richard III - the themes and details of their downfalls were beyond the average deaths; the way they died, and why, is simply unforgettable. I couldn't get it out of my mind, and it broke my heart. I'll talk about it in some other post. Oh, and the rest of the time I was just consumed with the desire for all-out revenge for certain characters.

The fifth book comes on July 12th. Can't wait.

Oh, and the series are badass too. The actors are sublime and everything feels in-place and nothing cheesy. Tasteful - not emotionally absent like Boardwalk Empire or silly and exasperating like True Blood. Unlike True Blood, GOT actually reveals answers (Martin's also great at that - the answers are often unexpected and surprise you, but you actually get real, concrete answers to the plots and whodunnits. No existential angst here). Speaking of which, I'll probably start watching True Blood again, but if someone asked me what had happened in the last three seasons, I'd have to admit that I don't have a fucking clue. That show is SO incoherent.

The Capitulations of Time and Memory

“M. de Nemours thought he would die of sorrow in the presence of the woman who brought him this message. He begged her twenty times to go back to Mme de Cleves and contrive for him to see her, but the woman told him that Mme de Cleves had no only forbidden her to bring any message from him, but even to report their conversation. So, at last, the prince had to depart, as overwhelmed with grief as any man can be when he has lost all hope of seeing again a person whom he loves with the strongest, most natural, and legitimate passion that has ever been. Yet he was still not finally discouraged, and did all that might persuade her to alter her mind. At length, when many years had passed, time and absence assuaged his pain and extinguished his feelings. Mme de Cleves lived in a manner suggesting that she would never relent. For a part of the year she stayed in the convent, and the remainder at home; but in seclusion and in holier occupations than those of the strictest religious order; her and life, which was somewhat brief, left inimitable examples of virtuous conduct.”

- ending of The Princess De Cleves

2010 Movies.....

Nothing on this list matches the excitement I had for 2009, when the trifecta of Where the Wild Things On, Bright Star, and Public Enemies had me foaming at the mouth at the mere mention or sneak preview of said movies, but I did garner up some anticipation for some new movies (some that have already been released) that I'd really like to see.

In no particular order:

Eat Pray Love

It doesn't seem like a terribly great movie, but c'mon. If there's anything I have a weakness, nay, an indulgence for, it's bohemian-chic journeys featuring sad, beautiful, wealthy people finding the meaning life through great food, sunshine, linen dresses, and rumpled lovers (James Franco and Javier Bardem, the latter who also starred in my sun-porn favorite of 2008: Vicky Cristina Barcelona). It looks like fun.

Greenberg

It's gotten so much buzz and controversy (Armand White anyone?) but the reviews that were good impressed me, since it seems incredibly hard to make a movie about a disaffected, cynical midlife-crisis without coming off as incredibly self-indulgent or annoying. And I'm so intrigued about Greta Gerwig. A brand-new American actress with the full package? YES PLEASE. How long since we've had one of those?

The Kids Are All Right

Interested, due to buzz about Julianne Moore and Annette Bening. Heard it's funny and engaging. More than enough these days.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Cue fangirl excitement. My devotion to Harry Potter has been off the charts over the past few months, since I'm discovering that less and less kids are reading Harry Potter nowadays. It truly, truly makes me sick and frightened at the thought of Twilight becoming more popular than J.K. Rowling's hilarious, imaginative, cross-generational (and hugely educational) baby as the years go on. Harry Potter truly made our generation as awesome as it is now. We grew up with the three main characters as our role models - compassion from Harry, uber-wit from Ron, and academic overachievement (but also grounded and wise!) from Hermione. The series emphasized friendship and kindness as the transcendent powers in addition to courage and cleverness. Not to toot my own horn, but everyone I know who grew up with the books can be counted on to be pretty cool, nice, snarky people. I can say with all my heart that these books had a truly transformative effect on us.

And the generation after us got Edward and Miley Cyrus. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. No wonder they suck.

True Grit

No, I have not seen the original (I will, I will). Yes, I am compelled by the combination of Matt Damon, Joel and Ethan Coen, Jeff Bridges, and other similarly chill and awesome-in-real-life-as-well-as-onscreen folks.

Leaves of Grass

Thanks, Roger Ebert. Crossing my fingers in hopes that it will signal Norton's grand return to the screen and another long-deserved Oscar nom. He is truly the finest actor of his generation.

Tree of Life

Fine! I have only seen one Terrence Malick movie (actually two - I also remember watching A Thin Red Line but the only thing I remembered was being startled by George Clooney's minimal role near the end, so it doesn't count) but The New World was so special and any Malick movie is an event, so count me in.

The Grand Master

Tony Leung, Wong Kar-Wai. DO I NEED TO GO ON?

The Tempest

So my sweetie Ben Whishaw rocks the shit out of Shakespeare and poetry, so I imagine this won't be a departure from his most lauded work. Plus I just enjoy Julie Taymor, Shakespeare, and Helen Mirren in general.

The Rum Diary

I'm up for any Johnny Depp movie that doesn't involve Tim Burton.

"I'll tell you a terrible secret — Are you listening to me? There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady."

Today, the author of my favorite book "Franny and Zooey", passed away. I once fantasized of striking up a letter correspondence with him. It's very hard to let go of a 90+ year old man when he is and forever will be, immortalized as the _______ youth (it's very hard to describe Holden with justice - youth always seemed to be Salinger's most treasured attribute - I always thought that he was kind of the Scott Fitzgerald/JM Barrie of his time) who resonated with so many generations of petulant, idealistic iconoclasts. (If you think of it, wasn't Holden the predecessor to everything, from Travis Bickle to Igby? Maybe that's a little too egotistic). I know this is rambling, but this is.....well, this is JD Salinger. 

Most upsettingly, none of my friends seem to give a fuck, other than an "aww...that's horrible." S has found my depression a tad bit confusing.