thebitterguy

That's my problem, you see. I'm unfamiliar with the canon.

I don't know about the back history of this thing, whether this thing is Tolkien's Middle Earth, Fleming's James Bond, or Doyle's Holmes. So if I see a media iteration, I'll assume that's it. Even if I know there's gaping bloody holes in it, I'm fine as long as that's behind the scenes (or at least out of my eyesight).*

I'm usually not familiar with the genre (any genre), even if I love it. No, seriously, I'm a huge fan of Godzilla and other Kaiju, but the US Remake makes up an unacceptable percentage of my viewing history. Most of my knowledge comes from a magazine article that included an illustration of Big G done by John Severin (IIRC). I love the concept of giant monsters, and remember enough that I know that any Godzilla movie with a baby Godzilla is likely to suck. But I don't know the canon.

I'm married to a Trekkie, but my exposure was mostly through CKWS' Saturday afternoon broadcasts which, and I am serious, seemed to consist almost entirely of reruns of Devil in the Dark**. I read a scattering of the novels (which tended to be about the quality of... Well, Star Trek novels). My first consistent exposure to the franchise was TNG, which I still recognized as being off.

Dr. Who? Look, that just scares me. The Canon on that sucker consists of 40 years of TV, much of it only preserved by monastic scribes while society fell around them.

Marvel Comics of the '80s? Sure, I am familiar with that Canon. Champions? I'm familiar with that Canon, mostly by luck. D&D? Canonical by assimilation. Star Wars? Religiously, up until Zahn's atrocious trilogy, which was easy enough (he said sardonically, drinking a hot chocolate while his lightsaber opened with a snap hiss). But then I schismed.

But mostly? I'm not familiar with the Canon.

That's freeing. I can look at something and not go "But that isn't right". I can judge things on their own merits, as much as I'm able to. Experiencing without the depth of history is a valid experience, just as much as approaching it with a bibliographic knowledge of which side of the aluminum foil was used for the Cybermen costume in which specific episode.

So I don't mind that I am unfamiliar with the canon.

* I suspect this is the same reason people can enjoy the LXG film.

** To this day I cannot recall having seen City on the Edge of Forever in full. Or Amok Time. I'm pretty sure I saw the Gangster one. And the Nazi one. And the Jesus one. And the one with the rabbit and Kirk getting beat up by a drunken Irishman.

Well, Abe Vigoda's still alive as of half an hour ago, but Starlog is no more.

Starlog was one of my favourite periodicals in my youth. It, along with Ah! Caramelo!s were two things I always sought out at the corner shop where we'd wait for the feeder bus to take us home. It brought me constant joy to read Starlog, reading about books and tv shows and movies and comics (and occasional games).

There were always interesting articles to be found, too. They'd print interviews with scriptwriters and FX people in addition to performers and directors. They even published, with disturbing regularity, episode guides for all your favourite shows. I remember they did a Trek one written in character. Scotty had one that went "I dinnae remember a thing, Captain, I was droonk".

Good times. I haven't picked up an issue in decades (and that could, of course, explain much) , but I still have fond memories of it.

Since Cynra is a fan of Cats (Shut up I love her) I decided that I'd get her a copy of Elliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats for our anniversary. And a copy of Dr. Horrible.

So I find a very nice copy of the book and order it on Amazon. I've got it in my shopping cart, where it's been for a while, and I go to finalize the order tonight.

Only now, it's sold out. Feh.

I'll have to look for another one, I guess. Chapters doesn't seem to have the same edition.

So I went book shopping with Cynra on Saturday in order to validate our parking (If you buy $25 of books you save $8 on parking. To some people, that might not make sense), and I picked up a book of essays by Ray Bradbury and Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear.

Bear's name gets bandied (I love that word, btw. Bandied, bandied, bandied) about during discussions of new genre authors, so I thought I'd get something of hers. I consider this a noble action on my part since Hammered, one of her SF books (about a Canadian, even!) just didn't get my crank turning. I left it to read a cheesy TSR paperback, although I never finished F.R.E.E.Lancers either.

The strange bit was I had a great deal of difficulty figuring out which book to buy. The Promethean Age books seemed interesting (covering urban fantasy in modern and Elizabethan times) but I could not for the life of me figure out which one to buy first. When I was a kid, books in series had numbers on them! And they let us keep track of which one was which! And we LIKED it!

I also remembered that I'd gotten a short story compilation of hers when I was out East for Thanksgiving too. So I'll make my way to that when I finish this one.

"Han's dick? This big"


So, today I got Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher's first non-fiction work of memoir. It seems to be kinda big print and wide margins, so I'm glad I got it out of the library.

Anyway, it appears she's taken the show on the road, so that might make for an interesting night out. Apparently shows will soon be announced on her website, and she'll be blogging on there as well.

I did not know that she'd gotten ECT. Interesting. I had a friend who had discussed getting that as well once.

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock holmes or Hugh Laurie as Gregory House.

[Poll #1297324]

Anyone out there read House of Leaves? After a recent RPG.net thread inspired by a recent XKCD, I'm interested in the book, but I'd like to get some verification as to what people think of it.

Quick summaries: Reading Old Man's War at work. Good book. I totally called a few thingies.

Saw Incredible Hulk tonight. Enjoyable little film. Didn't work as well as Iron Man, but the final fight was better.

Got the final Y trade today. Fucker of an ending, there.

Not dead. Blocked at work. Feh.

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Now playing: Jill Sobule - I Kissed a Girl
http://foxytunes.com/artist/jill+sobule/track/i+kissed+a+girl

When I was visiting uniquecrash5 for Cheese Weasel day he loaned me a copy of Altered Carbon, a noir SF novel about body swapping, dysfunctional marriages and functional immortality.

The story follows an ex UN Envoy (i.e. shock trooper), Takeshi Kovacs, as he gets involved in investigating a suicide.

Of course, in this setting, the human consciousness can be backed up, so he's hired to investigate the suicide by the perpetrator/victim.

It's an interesting book. The narrator/protagonist comes across as just a little too competent, and the plot gets a bit too convoluted, but overall it's enjoyable if you're willing to invest into the story. And flip back a few times.

There were enough references to previously undisclosed facts that I kept wondering if this might be the second or third book in a series, but it is indeed the first. The story is definitely hard-boiled, with pheromone spewing femme fatales and cybered up mob torpedoes threatening our hero at every opportunity.

It does make me want to go back to the Chandler & Hammett books I have from my university English courses.

Oddly enough, I don't think it ever explains what the title alludes to, even though it mentions it on several occasions.

The 20th century's defining sci-fi epic was a byproduct of collaboration between two geniuses with wildly divergent worldviews.

Nice article. I want to read The Lost Worlds of 2001 now.