Links post

[brigdh]

The citynextdoor challenge for December is "Postcard to Myself": write a story, any fandom, set in a city you've never been to but have always loved. More details here. Since clearly a community all about the love for cities appeals to me, you might want to consider joining the community even if you don't write something this month.

Speaking of cities, the creators of Gankutsuou (that unbelievably gorgeous retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo) are producing a new retelling of Romeo and Juliet, and the trailer's up for viewing. There's swordfighting and girls dressed as boys, and kissing while falling, and the whole story of Romeo and Juliet- you know how I adore the play- but most of all, god, look at Verona! The crumbling buildings packed in and threaded past by narrow alleys, that juxtaposition of ruins and ancient carvings and shiny-new constructions...! I cannot wait until this comes out. I wonder what they've done with Mercutio; I use his icon in celebration, because I have to hope that my beloved crazy character gets a major part.

Stop over at fst and vote for your top 20 soundtracks of the last two years. Or make a soundtrack; December is amnesty month, so any challenge from the past year is fair game. I've got a few I'm considering myself, but I feel that I should point out that there is a request for a Richard/Alec soundtrack, and not even from me. Someone should do that. Nudge, nudge.

Speaking of Swordspoint, there's a line where Alec mocks a bookseller by saying he sells books by the foot for decorations. I thought this was a joke, but Yahoo news is here to dispell all of my illusions, as apparently books intended to look pretty and not be read is the hot gift this season. And they're actually sold by the foot. Yahoo: making you hate humanity, one day at a time.

Literate Heart by ranalore. PG, Hisoka/Tsuzuki, mmmmmmm. Lovely.

The Death of the Swordsman by rm. PG, character death, Richard/Alec. It will make you cry, but oh, it's wonderful anyway.

Comments

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Romeo and Juliet could only be improved by the addition of flying horses and floating cities and sword duels and falling while kissing. I'm sure Shakespeare is turning in his grave, cursing the lack of FX in the Elizabethan age to fulfill his visions of floating cities. ;)

I can understand the idea of spending extra on pretty packaging*, or even picking up books for the pretty pictures and a subject you always meant to learn more about anyway. But just for decorative purposes and to gain status points? That's alien to my worldview, and meeting such a person would be a true encounter with the Other.

*I've got a (faux?) leatherbound volume of Shakespeare's tragedies, even though I already have a paperback copy. It was shiny! And a combination of the lure of books, the tourist inclination to buy mementos, and a bargain at $15 when cardboard hardcovers cost more. The paper is just so creamy, and the font is so crisp. Incidentally, it's stuffed into the farthest corner of my bookcase. I would so fail at appearing cerebral or whatever it is, because my paperback horror novels are more prominent.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm now entranced by the idea of Shakespeare using all our modern techniques- not just FX, but a soundtrack! Different shades of lighting, a color scheme, close-ups and editing and all those neat little details.

But just for decorative purposes and to gain status points?

Yeah, I think that's another part of what bugs me so much about the article. There's this idea that there is some sort of worth or prestige associated with owning old books, but apparently not enough to actually bothering reading them. Which is just so very stupid and lazy; you'd be exposed the first time anyone asked about the books on your shelves (which I think would happen. I certainly like to look at what books other people have, and ask them about their favorites, or what they thought about one I've read myself), and then you'd look utterly ridiculous.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

Well, with all the modern remakes of Shakespeare, maybe we do know what he would have done with modern techniques: several Romeo and Juliets, and O (or whatever the high school basketball version of Othello was called), She's the Man is based on Twelfth Night, and others I can't think of. I have a fondness for Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet, because it moves like a music video, and kept the original language.

I'm not sure why owning old books nowadays would get you status points. (I could understand it if this was a century or two back, when only the affluent could afford to be literate or if we didn't have mass printing and public libraries). Hm, maybe the people who own the books just B.S. their answers, gambling that the questioner hasn't read the book(s).

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I adore Luhrman's 'Romeo and Juliet', because I really enjoy the new setting, and the way it both works with and contradicts the language (there's a scene, for instance, where someone shouts "hand me my longsword" while reaching for a rifle). And I'm crazy for the actor's interpretation of Mercutio. I much prefer it to the more famous 60s version, because the 60s one seems to focus on a "love story" interpretation of the play while Luhrman's goes more for "destructive passions", and I prefer the latter.

I can see how it would be a status symbol, though the pretentiousness of it still annoys me. It's less about being able to afford the books now than about being of the class or culture that would choose to do so; the same sort of thing that makes people claim "War and Peace" or "Moby Dick" as their favorite book, regardless of whether they've even read it.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

I thought Luhrman was pretty creative with that: there's this scene where Juliet grabs a gun that has "Dagger" embossed on the side. I also loved how Mercutio's Queen Mab monologue became something about drugs, and how it felt like it was always about that.

The class thing makes sense. I suppose that also means that when I was 15 I had more class and culture, because I liked "Moby Dick" for being Deep and Profound, but currently I'm not sure I'd have the patience for long-winded rambling. ::amused::