Okay, if you've ever been into Harry Potter, even if you've, like me, pretty much lost all interest by now, you have to watch The Harry Potter musical parody.

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I just saw the Swedish movie Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in) at the theatre. Read the book by John Ajvide Lindquist almost two years ago and really loved it, so I've been a bit anxious about the adaption ever since I heard they were making one. But I think it lived up to the expectations. I'm going to borrow a synops for the movie from this site:

( put under spoiler-tags just in case, though not more spoilery than anything you might read on the back of the film )

( thoughts within, warning for spoilers )

I watched Atonement tonight. According to my sister, it had gotten shining reviews in all but one of our big newspapers. The one that left the bad review said the first part of the movie was excellent, but thought it got downhill from the part in Dunquerque, getting sentimental, melodramatic and losing all the fine subtleties of the first part of the movie. Unfortunately, I'm kind of inclined to agree.

( spoilers for the book and the movie, don't read if you're unfamiliar with the story but plan to read or watch it )

So, I'm desperately grabbing the last minute chance to post a little fic before knowing how it all ends. I was inspired while rereading HBP about two weeks ago. There was a funny turn of phrase when Harry tells the others about the details of Dumbledore's death:
"-and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him-"
Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth, and Ron groaned. Luna's mouth trembled.

Well, this is really my last chance to read in things between the lines that's not supposed to be there, isn't it? So I had to take it.



( Luna gen fic )

So, I read this post the other day, about stories where "your heart doesn't follow the narrative" (that's kind of a neat way of putting it!), and it made me think about whether I had any such stories of my own.

The first that sprang to mind were a couple of stories by H.C. Andersen, especially The Story About a Mother, only I think in those, my heart pretty much does follow the narrative. The story is about a mother who chases after Death, when he comes into her house and takes her baby. She makes all kinds of bargains and sacrifices, giving away her black hair and her eyes, so that she can follow him, and when she gets to his garden, where the "life-flowers" grow, she threatens him to tear two who aren't fully bloomed yet, if he doesn't give her baby back. Death shows her the life her kid would have had, which is one of misery and unhappiness, as well as the two lives she threatened to end, which are rich and meaningful, and she sees his point and surrenders. She gets her eyes back, but her black hair is forever exchanged to white. I always loved this story, but kind of wanted to know what happened to the mother after that. Was she able to move on, to start anew, or did she return home to await Death herself? :( It did seem like a sad note to end it with, saying her hair remained white ever after, as if she had suddenly become old after the experience, which might have been the point.

But then, after letting go of H.C. Andersen, I remembered some Swedish books (a trilogy by Selma Lagerlöf) that I read as a teenager, and where things really went in a bit of a different direction. ( I figured I'd write about it here, rather than as a reply to the post in question, since it will probably be long, and I kind of doubt many non-Swedes have read any of these books. )

Happy belated Birthday, guza!

Happy Birthday, sistermagpie!

I made some "Nurse Betty"-icons the other day. This is one of my all times favourite films, because it's one of those movies I can watch over and over and never get tired of. I'd say it was the perfect "romantic comedy for singles" if it weren't for the fact that I generally hate films that are labeled "romantic comedies" and wouldn't want that label associated with a movie I love. ( spoilers )

Happy Birthday lizardlaugh!

I read a rant/discussion about HP, which actually inspired me to write some ( meta on my own )

Happy Birthday, kukume!

I watched The Merchant of Venice on DVD today. I've seen it down the video-store before, but wasn't sure about it, seen I hadn't even heard they'd made a movie out of it, which can sometimes be a bad sign. Still, Al Pacino as Shylock seemed very promising indeed, so I took the risk. And it turned out to be possibly the best adaption I've seen, of a Shakespeare play.

( Jessica )

( Antonio and homoeroticism )

( Pacino, anti-semitism )

Thinking about the whole theme "rejection as a motive", also made me think of characters who aren't villains, or at least not main villains, like Draco. Something I read on the "But why did you *start* liking Draco?"-thread at FAP, recently, made me realise just how much Harry's initial rejection of Draco, has to do with why I like him so much. ( different reactions to rejection in HP )

So, sistermagpie was talking about the most common motives for supervillains in fiction, and it made me think of The Merchant in Venice. One motive for supervillains that always catch my interest, is love (or lack thereof), and all the things that may come out of it -rejection, revenge, loneliness, envy/jealousy, suffering, to name a few. Shylock fits into the archetype of villains that became evil because they didn't get the love/respect/friendship/acceptance they once must have been craving for. He may not be as obvious a "villain who got mad from luuurrve or lack thereof" as, say The Phantom of the Opera, or the priest in The Hunchback in Notre Dame, but it is rather clear from his famous monologue, that he is bitter over not having gotten at least acceptance and respect from Antonio and society at large.

( the heart as a symbol of love )

Ah, I have a lot more to say about "rejected" fictional characters, but it was getting so long, and straying off topic, that I think I'd better make it another post.

Yay, finally the portal-site works for me again, so that I conveniantly can check if it's someone's birthday, whenever I decide to update. In that spirit:

Belated Happy Birthday to bloodyrose82 and early Birthday-wishes to helkamaria!

I watched a very good movie last weekend, by the Dardenne brothers, original title "L'enfant". It was described as "social realistic", which I think is fitting, and the reviews also said that it had a very documentary feeling, what with not having any film music. And I hadn't actually realised that it didn't, until I read that, which I think is pretty awesome. I noticed it at the very end, when the credits started rolling, and I thought it a bit odd that there was no music to accompany it, but I hadn't noticed it during the film at all!

Seeing as this was a movie about people lowest down in society, I remembered I have seen quite a few French movies about working-class or social outcasts, so I was wondering if it was a specific tradition in French film, but then I found out the movie was Belgique, and I think "La Promesse" -one of the other movies I was thinking about- was too, so maybe I'm just barking up the wrong tree.

Anyway, I think what I liked best about this film, was how it handled the main character, Bruno. ( cut for spoilers for L'enfant, and the Brasilian movie Central do Brasil )

Phew, that was long. Now on to something completely different. Some HP-content, perhaps, to keep some lj-consistency. ;-) I think it would be a shame not to use my poll-option, so geeky and passe as this may be, I'm going to ask you guys to sort me:

Poll #654261 Sorting-poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

Which house would you sort me to?

And finally, you cannot miss this priceless story about the creepy roomate with over-sized pupils!

helkamaria's latest post, where she argues that it's hard to seperate Harry from his hero-status, got me thinking about a few things, and since I've been bad about updating my own LJ lately, especially with HP-stuff, I thought I ought to make a post about those things, rather than satisfying with a one-on-one conversation.

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Belated birthday wishes for zooey_glass04!

So kattahj has an interesting discussion about male attractiveness being more optional than female in TV shows like Buffy and Angel here. ( Read more... )

Though we got plenty of Draco in HBP, we still know almost nothing about the other Slytherins, especially the other Slytherins who aren't part of Draco's gang. So this part of the JKR interview made me happy:

( cut for length )

And here we go again.

Why is it that whenever someone expresses a fear or a hope for the upcoming books, or makes a statement like "if it ends like this or this, I will probably like the books, as a whole, less than I will if this and that happens, instead", they get accused of "thinking JKR should cater to them"?

I'll say this once, and hopefully I'll never have to repeat it ever again (whoa, am I optimistic, or what?): No one thinks JKR should cater to them. No one doubts that it is JKR's books and that she will write whatever she wants. Honestly. However, this does not stop invested readers from having certain wishes and/or fears for the story. After all, why should it? And if said fears come true, and said wishes don't, then yes, chances are said fans will be disappointed. Deal with it, fandom! It's not your books either, stop taking it so damn personally if not every single person likes them. Stop acting like this fandom is some creepy cult where we worship JKR like a God, and treat the HP books like they are The Bible, because some of us are seriously freaked out by that kind of fanatism. And please stop demanding that the rest of the fandom should cater to your own tastes and preferences. That's a lost battle anyway. Some of us will :gasp: not even agree with you about the characters/ships/story/whatever, if God JKR comes knocking on our door with a sledgehammer, shouting "Agree with XY fan's take on HP, damnit!" at the top of her lungs.

There seems to be something seriously wrong with my Internet-connection and computer, too. It will throw me off the Internet all of a sudden, without my doing anything, and then it will just as suddenly put me back on. And today, I haven't managed to turn my computer off despite several attempts; not even pressing the power button works, which is extremely weird.

Anyway, since I'm still online right now, I might as well take the opportunity to update. :-)

There has been a lot of talk lately, about liking and disliking certain characters. Now, I've never been able to understand why certain people in almost any fandom will take it like a personal insult if someone else likes the character they hate, or dislikes the character they love. It's like some people overidentify so much with a character, that if you say you dislike the character, they think you say you dislike them. And if you say you like a character they hate, they take that to mean that you either are exactly like that character and/or you always condone their behavior (the word "Apologist" gets thrown around on anyone even if they never make excuses for the bad behavior of the character in question, merely offer up possible explanations), or they think that you would also fangirl that horrible real person who, in one way or another, made their lives hell. Those are the only ways I can think of to explain the irrational fits some people throw when you make it clear you don't share their opinions of certain characters.

Of course, there are times when I find this perfectly understandable. Like, for instance, if someone says "I hate Molly because she's a stay-at-home mom, and I have no respect for stay-at-home moms in any shape or form", then it's quite natural to be offended by that statement, especially if you're a stay-at-home mom yourself, because the person isn't only saying they hate Molly, they are saying they hate all stay-at-home moms in real life, too. But what I don't get is when people just get furious over the fact that people hate/love other characters then they do. I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
The fact that you like or dislike certain characters, ships, or even books, movies or authors, says nothing about you as a person. It's your reasons for liking or disliking said characters, ships, books or movies, that do.

( So, let's talk about those reasons, because that's something I always find interesting. )

Tell me about your reasons for liking or/and disliking, a character.

So FINALLY there seems to be no problem with my Internet-connection anymore. I don't know what changed -the fact that I sorted out the cords who had all wired around each other, or the fact that I vacuumed up a spider who was starting to build a nest at my adaption, but whatever it was, it worked. This past week has been pure TORTURE. I don't know how many comments got lost when I tried to post them, I wasn't able to access my emails, and the downloading seemed to take at least twice as long as usual.

( TV Shows, spoiler warnings for Angel up 'til 517 )

Speaking of my sister, we actually had an HP-discussion the other day, an occurrence that is becoming more and more rare. My sister bemoaned the fact that the things she was most interested in in the upcoming books were a) sidetrack issues and b) questions that are likely not going to be answered until the last book. And it made me realise that I kind of feel the same way.

( what I'm still interested in )

Anyone who likes Ron, Luna, Draco or Pansy as much as I do, and who hasn't read adela711's totally awesome R/L fic Love is... acknowledgement yet, should totally run off and do just that.
This fic has it all:
- bumbling, awkward teenage romance (a desire for which was what led me into this fandom years ago)
- perfectly IC!Ron whom I just want to hug to pieces
- a Luna who is Luna-like, yet not over the top
- IC!Draco/Slytherins
- no H/Hr (Thank you, Adela!)
- a showdown between Hermione/Pansy, surrounded by three awkward boys
- a Pansy who can think up her own insults rather than parroting Draco
- a Draco parroting Hermione's "ignore them"-theme, which just makes my little D/Hr-shipper heart skip a little ;-)
- hinty rather than overly mushy

There has been quite a few interesting discussions on my flist the past week or so, that I've had a little hard time to keep up with. ( so I'll just beat a dead horse in here instead )

Happy Birthday fujurpreux!

I feel like I've been kind of neglectful to my flist lately, I'll make it up to you soon, I swear.

Anyway, I'm trying to convert my sister to my latest fandom, Veronica Mars. Considering my latest fandoms, BtVS, HP and LotR are all due to her, I think it's only fair that I'd get her into something I like for once, so that I can be the one who chuckles all knowingly when when my sister tells me her latest impressions, instead of the other way around. So I keep talking about how she must watch this show on occasion, and today she asked me "so tell me what's so special about this "Veronica Mars" you keep talking about. I tried to explain, but I suspect I did a quite poor job of it, because she ended up saying "Huh. So it's kind of like Nancy Drew?" Well, actually I wouldn't know, because I've always been to prejudiced against Nancy Drew to ever read a single book, but something tells me it's kind of different. Anyway, I was wondering if any fellow VM-fans who might read this could help me out here, and explain to my sister what exactly it is that makes this show so worth watching, that she should be dying to get an opportunity? One thing though, I'm leaving this post open for my sister to read, so please, no major spoilers!

Lastly, ( the movie meme )

I just have to get a few things said. Eh, or rather one.

( Veronica Mars, spoilers up til and includeing ep 18 )