Errata
So, those of you with first edition hardbacks of DRAGONHAVEN, here’s what you print out and slip somewhere between the pages.* And I encourage you to print off extras and go slide them into library copies. And even bookshop copies if you think you can get away with it. And of course supposing any bookshops are still carrying the hardback, which they probably aren’t.
Remember that I needed to do this as tersely and tactfully as possible, so the poor bats do look a little pinched and crowded: but resetting lines this late in a book’s career costs money and anguish. The anguish, however, is permanent. I will be hitting myself in the head with a hammer** over the lack of bats for decades. As I wailed and moaned a few days ago, I don’t know how they fell out in the first place and that I didn’t notice. And that nobody else noticed either. Till I started getting comments from ordinary book-buying and -borrowing readers out there in reader land. Sigh. At least the paperback has given me the excuse to ask for changes, and–did I tell you this?–my hardback editor has said to send her the corrections, if they reprint DRAGON in hardcover again–which they have done once already, hurrah–they’ll put them in. Bless her. Which is also to point out that, contrary to popular rumour and urban myth, not all publishers are goblins, bogeypersons, and thieves. Some are, true.*** Some aren’t.†
The middle of page 30, the paragraph beginning ‘There’s other weird stuff’. If you cut ‘that is’ to leave ‘something a lot more like mutant hair’ in the second line that gives a bit of extra space, and the last line is only a half line so the line-reset wallahs should be able to do the job without breaking anything.
So here is the change: ‘And they fly, which makes them the only nonbat nonbird that can take off and land and flap and soar like a bird, with none of that cheating stuff that “flying” squirrels or “flying” fish do. So maybe they’re birds. (They’re sure not bats.) Although the third pair of limbs is still problematic.’
Most of the way down p 319, here’s the other surreptitious insertion of bats: 7th line up from the bottom: ‘Dragons’ wings flap like birds’ or bats’ wings flap–like the biggest bird (or bat) out of your worst nightmare’s wings flap.’ I think that’ll just fit, but if they need more space they can take out ‘among other things’ in the third line. (I probably won’t know if they needed to till my paperback copies arrive and I look it up; publishing schedules tend to be a bit absolute, and resetting lines isn’t normal behaviour for the paperback edition of a pre-existing hardback).
I’m a card-carrying member of the Bat Conservation Trust! If this gets out they’ll probably ride me out of town on a rail!††
* * *
* You could even write it in. When, where, and who by was it decided that books are too delicate and/or sacred to be written in? I grew up believing that a fingerprint or a dog-eared page was a life-sentence felony. I don’t remember now when I lost this straitjacket taboo but I suspect it was after I started reading nonfiction for pleasure and especially after I started finding myself using peculiar little snatches of my reading in my stories.^ It was a source of some distress, at first, to think that I couldn’t just read.^^ But then I steadied down and got used to the idea that when you’re a writer, EVERYTHING is material.^^^ And I really like my written-in books. They’re like comfortable chairs I can curl up in rather than severe upright professorial chairs you have to sit straight and keep both feet flat on the floor in+. Also I have half a chance of finding something again when I know I wrote something in the margin next to it. I still don’t do it much to fiction, although I’ll draw a star next to something I particularly liked. (Or an exclamation mark against something I think particularly dumb or ridiculous.) And I’m very careful of illustrated or beautiful books: I certainly don’t colour in my E H Shepherd or Edward Ardizzone line drawings, and I only handle my Edmund Dulacs at all with carefully washed hands and an absence of rioting hellhounds.
^ This started with BEAUTY. I’d just been reading about making charcoal.
^^ Remember I wrote BEAUTY when I was twenty-four, so still relatively young and still relatively recently escaped forever from formal schooling. Yes, I did make it through college to my BA, but it took two tries.
^^^ Secretly I’d known this all along. But I wasn’t ready to admit it. Those jokes about the cold-blooded exploitations performed by an author in pursuit of a story . . . are not entirely jokes.
+ Although I am more or less incapable of sitting upright in a chair and keeping both feet flat on the floor.
** So, what’s the consensus on Dr Horrible? [very small semi-spoiler alert] I was kind of nonplussed by ep 3. The careering speed of the change of tone gave me whiplash, I think^, and even before the “£$%&^{[# I kind of thought Captain Hammer’s song had gone on too long. But I really enjoyed the !”£$%^&*~ and especially the @?+88=*, and I’ll be looking for the DVD not least because it’ll be sure to have extra bits.
Anybody out there read the right gossip sites? Is he going to go on with it?
^ But a friend suspects it’s really a dream sequence, which would also explain &^010(!” and ##?>%<$, and would leave ep 4 wide open.
*** I could tell you stories . . . but I’m not going to. As I keep saying, this is a family blog. Well, mostly.
† Some read this blog. Ahem.
†† Hmmm. I think I’m in the wrong country for forced rail-riding. Not to mention the wrong century. Good.
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Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.
*****Dr. Horrible spoilers — DO NOT READ if you don’t want minor but very hinty spoilers!!!*****
It was very watch out what you wish for, wasn’t it? My first reaction was “omg how could you?” but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense in a heartbreaking way. There’s foreshadowing all the way through in the way they behave (the conversation with Penny when he’s torn between talking to her and controlling the van), and the things they say. So, I thought it worked, but the sap in me still thinks all cute boys should be happy by the end of the story, not…you know. And the last clip with Billy blogging instead of Dr. Horrible was perfect. *sigh!*
*******END SPOILERS*********
I have been saving myself for the paperback edition of DRAGONHAVEN so it will fit next to the other McKinley books on my shelves. I like when they all line up evenly. (Alas, a couple of them are slightly taller than the others, but I’ll *probably* be okay with that as long as I can get them on the same shelf. Probably. :P)
Although I am more or less incapable of sitting upright in a chair and keeping both feet flat on the floor.
Hey, me too! Although here, feet on the floor are pretty much an open invitation for awake-ferrets to crawl up and join you, and they don’t always crawl up the *outside* of your trousers… Eee, tickly! (And scratchy.)
Well, see above. I dunno.
Wear tighter trousers. :)
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Years of bad back problems (now kept in abeyance by fourteen years of Pilates classes, a lot of summer swimming and various alternative treatments) mean that the only way I can reliably sit in a chair and work (and then be able to get out of the chair and walk away) is straight back two feet on the floor. I envy the rest of you.
LOVE those corrections. They sound exactly like Jake.
Don’t hit yourself with hammers (I’ll tell your husband! [insert menacing look here]).
Good. :)
Yeah, yeah, he’s trying to take the hammer away from me. . . .
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******* You could even write it in.
I still find it almost impossible to write in fiction books, but can easily manage it in non fiction, probably ’cause otherwise I lost so many interesting bits to use for assignments/essays/etc. My fiction books get much more beat up tho, as they fall off the bed/into the bath water from my fingers as I fall asleep, or even get dog food stains/pony saliva/etc stains from being taken everywhere. I think my most tattered books are yours by far :)
Oh good. :)
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I’m a card-carrying member of the Bat Conservation Trust!
Rah! One of the best gifts I ever got was when my buddy Evan got me a membership in Bat Conservation International. I’ve renewed it every year since… because let’s face it, bats are awesome. What kinds do you have around where you live, is Hampshire bat country? Here it’s mostly little brown myotis, they swoop up and down the canal corridor and reduce our mosquito population considerably (thank god.)
And. jmeadows–thank god I am not the only person who frets about oversized books on my shelves! :) I actually made the guy at Borders look in his computer today to see if the new William Gibson novel was coming out in mass market size pb, because the only one on the shelf is Even Larger than standard trade size. (the answer was “no.” So now i have yet another book that will be forever isolated from its cyberpunky brethren on my compact shelf…. WTF, publishers??)
Pipistrelles, I think (sp?). Little ones with funny faces, anyway. And yes, this is definitely bat country. When you’re *in* the country they swoop around a lot. We have severe population decline however.
And yes, book size is a b*st*rd. With illustrated books there’s some excuse–when they’re jerking around ordinary text reading books, NO.
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Pipistrelles. I’ve always loved that name. It sounds so like tiny little bats…and also a fun south wind. The kind that sweeps in fits and starts, making leaves dance about. A nice, childlike breeze of laughter.
Librarian Confessions: When I was a lowly undergrad, I took a general History of Theater class and decided that for my final paper I would read Le Malade imaginaire in the original. I checked it out from the college library and took it home only to find that it was heavily censored. It was a 1905 edition which was designed for classroom use, so they’d taken out every reference to enemas and indigestion in the entire play. Since most of the title character’s imaginary maladies involve one or both of these things, that was a lot of play.
I found the full text online and penciled in all the missing lines. At the time I wasn’t sure if I was going to be a librarian, but I’d already been a shelver for 6 years and thus had spent a lot of time erasing pencil marks from library books, so I was well aware of the seriousness of my transgression.
When I confessed to this (the first time) in a librarian LJ group a few years ago, I was berated by a fellow member for defacing library materials–and what’s more, old library materials. (The only reason it was so old was that I was the first student since 1905 weird enough to read French when it wasn’t required, so they hadn’t bothered to get a newer copy; it was not rare or valuable.) Hmmm…pencil marks in a book…CENSORSHIP. Which one is worse? I think Molière would have something to say on the matter.
I’m going to have to post this one. . . .
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1-I’m still trying to figure out Dr Horrible III. It certainly plays like the backstory of how the evil Dr. Horrible got to be the person he is today (whenever “today” is in the future). Yes, Captain Hammer’s song seemed a bit long. Yes, there is a strong feeling of whiplash.
2-Dragonhaven edits–While adding these, I noticed something I had forgotten. You might want to pass on to you printer/binder that in my first impression copy the spine has broken at the folio break between pages 188 and 189. I can assure that the book has NOT be mistreated. My husband is the VP of production in a publishing company and a collector of “collectible” books. We treat books with loving care. Has anyone else reported this problem with their copies?
****So, what’s the consensus on Dr Horrible?****
ANOTHER SPOILER: Overall, I thought it was weak and agree with your friend, based on the last sequence; it came across as the daydream of someone who wants power but can’t imagine himself actually succeeding in getting it. (Like, say, the 97-pound weakling who buys the Charles Atlas course and *still* can’t do anything about the sand kicked in his face.) But I liked the cowboys singing Bad Horse’s letter–the Thoroughbred of Sin was a good idea.
****When, where, and who by was it decided that books are too delicate and/or sacred to be written in? I grew up believing that a fingerprint or a dog-eared page was a life-sentence felony.****
If you were like me and did most of your childhood reading with library books, that would account for it. Library books ARE sacred.
Glory, yes. See above, or somewhere. Library books are ABSOLUTELY sacred.
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Re Dr Horrible — As far as I know it only has 3 parts to it. Haven’t heard anything about a sequel or Part 4.
[spoilers]
What a bleak ending. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I thought the first two acts were funny and awesome, but act 3 was the most interesting. Possibly it’s too short a format for Whedon to set up expectations so that he can knock them down (although, at this point, giving any couple a happy ending might be the most surprising thing of all).
I’m not sure if Whedon is going along with the “status quo” by having Penny be an agency-less woman who ends up dead dead dead (after having sex with the not!hero, no less) or if he’s making a point with this somehow by deliberately not developing Penny further, even in the same way Capt Hammer was. She didn’t have a purpose, except for her role in Dr Horrible’s ultimate transformation, something explicitly mentioned by one of the newspaper articles that didn’t even bother to get her name. Which makes me think Whedon wrote her this way for a reason and not just because. . .well, I don’t know. I also don’t know how successful this story is at conveying any of that, if that’s even what Whedon meant to do; after all, Penny’s lack of agency isn’t made as obvious as Hammer’s toolishness.
[/spoiler]
Am I missing the meaning of ‘agency’? She’s not a nothing–she’s the one out there helping the homeless, collecting signatures, etc. She’s the only one of the three of them who’s actually ENGAGED with the REAL WORLD. And see what happens to her. True, Captain Hammer makes her homeless home happen by being Captain Hammer but . . . pause to deconstruct tediously the interface between real world and fantasy/imaginary/heroic world . . . *I* think there’s a strong argument that it’s not her having sex with the villain that dooms her but the fact that she allows herself to be drawn into the unreal world, away from her mission in reality. I LIKE that she wasn’t the average kick ass heroine. Mind you if Thingummy from Farscape–soldier girl–sorry, it’s been years since I watched it–knocked on my door and invited me out for coffee I’d leave a little friction burn in the floor on my way out. But I like the idea that’s not the only way to be an active, attractive woman.
And, heavens, I never for a moment thought there’d be any kind of happy romantic ending. ***Joss Whedon***????? But there’s a lot of space between the technicolour sunset and what he did do.
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I wasn’t expecting a happy ending either (only saying that if Whedon were to have a HEA/no one dying in one of his stories, it would likely shock long-time viewers), but neither was I expecting Penny to die and, mostly, for her role to be so secondary, I guess. It just seems to me that she only exists in the show to be one of the reasons for Dr Horrible’s transformation, which is perhaps the point, being that it’s Dr Horrible’s origin story (not unlike how other hero/villain stories tend to work).
It was surprising to me that Whedon didn’t turn expectations on their head — eg, Penny is the blonde in the alley who ends up dead — though I like the idea that it’s not just a “be careful what you wish for”, but also that everyone is unable to get themselves out of their roles, which is why I think it’s bleak, not so much due to the lack of HEA or romantic coupledom.
Well the thing I had slightly against FIREFLY (but then it got so bounced around and messed up over here that by the time it came out on DVD I was permanently confused) is that it didn’t subvert its cliches ENOUGH. But I’m still very glad Whedon exists. And when I’m FAMOUS I’ll invite him to dinner. :)
I loved Firefly because I loved Mal and Simon and Zoe (and the rest of the crew + Serenity herself, but those three in particular), but, yeah, not a perfect show either.
And when I’m FAMOUS I’ll invite him to dinner. :)
And then blog about it! :D
And then blog about it! :D
******* You bet! In fact I’d probably have to WARN him as part of the invite! :)
Bleak? I didn’t think so at all–everyone got what they wanted! :) She got a homeless shelter, he got into the League of Evil, and Captain Hammer still has an adoring fan base and is free to bag more girls (once he’s out of therapy, of course…) It’s all one of those “be careful what you wish for” stories… I liked the ending quite a bit!
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I thought Captain Hammer as a snivelling therapy client was kind of boring. I thought he was more interesting as a borderline sociopath. :) But . . . *I’m* assuming Joss *is* planning to go on with it, and if so he’ll have plenty of surprises planned.
Yes, the one thing I thought was a jarring note was Captain Hammer’s “owie owie, so this is pain!!” and then running off crying and needing therapy; it’s a standard trope for a bully who’s just been bullied, but it wasn’t all that funny and it didn’t play well. Could have gotten the same result with a sightly different approach, I think.
We assumed Joss was planning to go on with Firefly/Serenity, too… :( But I’ll be thrilled if this does go further. I want a Bad Horse t-shirt.
Mind you if Thingummy from Farscape
As opposed to Thingummy from Thingummy and Bob? :) Now THAT’s digging deep into my childhood book memories… But I do take your point there–and it’s one thing I generally like about Whedon, he can write women who are all sorts of heroes in all sorts of ways. One of the things I enjoyed so much about Firefly–Inara and Kaylee were every bit as kick-ass in their own ways as Zoe.
Well, he didn’t go on with Firefly because they wouldn’t give him the money, yes? Presumably part of the plan about previewing Doc Hor’s blog is to rouse up his fan base toward looking popular enough to GET THE MONEY.
Oh, I SO want a Bad Horse t shirt. :)
FOX cancelled Firefly, and I don’t think Serenity was enough of a hit, though I believe it did make back what it cost to make at least, for Universal to greenlight a sequel. (There are 2 sets of 3 issue comic books, though, that Whedon has penned since then about the time between the show and the movie.)
According to this – http://www.drhorrible.com/plan.html – no one who was part of this production has been paid yet (or perhaps not very much), so making money is probably something it would have to do unless everyone involved decided to donate their time and effort or something.
Plus, there’s still DOLLHOUSE. . . (how long until that’s cancelled? FOX + Whedon + Minear + Dushku = 5 or 6 cancelled shows between them, I think.)
Sigh. Nothing good is ever easy, is it? And I keep thinking, oh, but **Whedon**!
That was the case with the tv show; I don’t know as how it was clear with the film that one was all we’d get… but it’s become apparent that that’s the case. (Just as well, I don’t want a Firefly without a Wash. :( I had a long rant on that topic here…
So it’s decided; my co-worker Sarah is going to be Dr. Horrible for Halloween, and I am going to be Captain Hammer. Because I can totally rock the Nathan Fillion hair. But I better start working out NOW for the arms… :)
I like ‘evil velvet’. :) Cheez, woman, how many blogs do you HAVE?
But I better start working out NOW for the arms… :)
******* Bell ringing and hellhounds. Works like a charm. Post photos. :)
I have four, since you asked. :) All serving different purposes for my brain… but Cautionary Tale is the main one.
Off topic, bread
Robin,
I’d be very interested in seing what you – and anyone else – have come up with in bread making. The reason I offered to do a 101, is that I’m in the middle of organzing my own baking notes in preparation for moving to Vista.
Oh, feh. One of these days. . . . If I weren’t always running like mad to stay half an inch ahead of the ravening Time Monster.
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Jasper Fforde puts corrections to his books on his website, and encourages you to write the corrections right in the book. I always do. :)
Oh. Wow. That was…still brilliant, but yes, tone whiplash. As has already been stated, it made total sense and all, but…but… so stark. So poignant. So Billy alone. Ironically, my cousin and I had just had a verrrrrryyyy long discussion about JW and his tendency toward the thing he did. That in many ways he’s all about that (there was a major rant from my side of the couch on the treatment of Wash in Serenity–it involved much railing and emphatic hand gestures), which I’ll accept, but nonetheless. Ouch.
I’m one of those evil publishing minions currently in the midst of an attempt to move to a different fortress of evil (there are several in the area). And I’m not the least offended when you decry the ridiculousness of many of the industry’s practices. Most of the time I agree. After all, I self-identify as a writer more than a person of publishing, so I have some of the same complaints. Carry on.
If there are several in the area, you almost have to be in Manhattan? And I used to work on the other side of the desk to make ends meet too. :) And if you WERE offended when I decry the ridiculousness of many of the industry’s practises . . . you would need a humour transplant. Some of my best friends are publishers, etc.
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I’m actually in the midwest. Smaller publishing houses (mostly religious), but still a fair number of them.
As much as I’d love to work for one of the big guys, honestly, I think I’d die in NYC. I know there are neighborhoods and there’s that one big park (heh) and thriving life and theater, etc., etc., etc. But I neeeeeeeed trees. Lots of them. And grass. And sky. And perferably a nearby large body of water. And a backyard for my someday dog(s). Oh, yes, and the ability to not be hemmed in by people.
So New England would work. New York City, not so much.
Well, Boston then. :)
Not on the shelves? Oh ye of little faith! All the Barnes and Nobles in my store’s sales band should still have a copy. It was actually designated for an endcap display last month. I have to infer that you’re still selling so well across the board that you’ve made it to the point where they’re disinclined to remove the hardcover from the shelf until ~two months before the paperback comes out. Admittedly Dragon didn’t sell as much as I expected it to– but nothing did. Americans labor under the delusion that, when the economy tanks, books are a good area in which to economize.
But you really are selling. If you can’t tell that by the size of your royalties then someone somewhere is doing something dodgy with the account books. When I take The Hero and the Crown out of the Newbery bay and display it on a Teen fantasy endcap, the books take wings to themselves in the manner of your beloved bats and alight on the customers’ shoulders, to sweetly beguile their way out the door. Those books /want/ to be read. You can tell just by handling them.
Well I wish there were more out there like you! Where (more or less) are you? A hardback still on bookshop shelves almost a year later . . . be still my heart. :)
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It is kind of a big deal, isn’t it? The book industry has quite a fast product turnover rate.
My store is just north of Cincinnati, Ohio, in a city called West Chester. I’m modelled for Dragonhaven, too. If I sell that copy, they’ll send me another– at least until the Mass Market comes out. (Speaking of which, what gorgeous cover art!) And I’m not even in one of those really high volume stores. You must have won a Buyer’s heart somewhere along the line. :-)
It is kind of a big deal, isn’t it?
******** Yes it IS.
You must have won a Buyer’s heart somewhere along the line.
******** I HOpe so! and that it STAYS won! :)
“So, what’s the consensus on Dr Horrible? [very small semi-spoiler alert] I was kind of nonplussed by ep 3. The careering speed of the change of tone gave me whiplash, I think^”
Indeed, I was taken very much by surprise, although I suppose I shouldn’t have been, given Whedon’s tendency towards the darker side of things. A friend who watched it commented this morning to me that although it was a surprise, it only made sense in that “making of a supervillian” kind of way…”first, you must destroy everything you love” she says, and I agree, it hangs together from that perspective. As jmeadows mentioned, the fact that Billy blogs at the end does leave one to wonder about the cute, laundry-toting, shy guy now effectively trapped inside Dr. Horrible, and I am betting that we DO see more of this.
Thanks for sharing this, BTW (!), I wouldn’t have noticed it otherwise, and I really enjoyed it!
Off to try to practice Titanic music, despite “with my freeze ray…” running through my head!
Smiles,
JM in KC
**ARen’t** you the person with the sheet music computer programme? Didn’t you see my query a few nights back? If you are, WHAT PROGRAMME ARE YOU USING?
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Oh yes, the third Dr. Horrible caught me unawares, too. Not that Joss is unknown for such acts, but it seemed harsh and made the whole endeavor feel a bit more . . . slapdash?
I just hope it makes enough money to justify follow-ups!
Good on you for the bat additions! I will print this post out and slip it among the pages; I cannot write in your books!
Yes–it’s not just being surprised, surprised is cool, and it’s not it turning dark, dark is cool. I just found it kind of gears-grinding. And I found the pacing peculiar. But hey. Perfect is *boring.* :)
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*minor spoilage follows*
Given the massive response to Dr. Horrible (breaking teh interwebs and all that), I’d be really surprised if Joss didn’t continue on with another episode. I did think that this last part was sort of jolting with the tragedy and all, but the songs were great. My favourite song by far is the one at the very beginning of Part II with the layers between Penny and Billy.
And yes, the DVD is supposed to be chock-full of delightful bits — including singing commentary apparently, so singing about singing…since Joss is involved, it will have to be great. : )
You really need to come to Austin – I can get together a group of fans to take you to the congress bridge to watch the bats fly out. Consider it a bribe for doing a reading?
Uh huh. Now let’s talk travelling expenses. :)
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**Beware, there are a few spoilery things ahead!**
I loved Dr. Horrible. I’ve seen all three episodes multiple times, and have tunes thoroughly stuck in my head… Yesterday, a friend and I broke into an impromptu duet of “On the Rise”.
I really don’t think it’s a dream sequence, it’s just him blogging the whole thing at the end… and you see his costume shift to black as a signifier that he’s more ‘evil’ than in earlier blog appearances. Or maybe just depressed.
I do really doubt they’re going to make more. I’d love it if they did, but I think this was supposed to be just a quick and fun project during the writer’s strike (so, maybe if SAG ends up striking, we’ll get something else cool?).
I am definitely going to be getting the DVD. I just wish I could hit ComiCon and see what they’re doing live there.
Also, Harris looks good in his supervillian outfit.
Lastly, a couple livejournal commentary-things on it:
A different ending, for the people that didn’t like how they did this one: http://amaliedageek.livejournal.com/279788.html
And a somewhat more serious breakdown of the entire show: http://karjack.livejournal.com/656327.html
I don’t think it’s really a dream sequence either, but I do wonder how many layers of Dr Horrible’s fantasy we’re looking through, which was really my friend’s point. . . . I’d've said it was set up to go on with but what do I know? :)
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I like this take on it: http://toysdream.livejournal.com/46217.html. Also this one: http://resolute.livejournal.com/513300.html (‘ware spoilers. also mentions Astonishing X-Men.)
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The first one gives me 404 page not found. The second one . . . golly. I’m not much of a lit crit person–I burnt out of that in college–I think stories (and story tellers) lose a lot of their liveness as soon as you start pinning them to pieces of white card and putting labels on them. I’m also most emphatically not a Sartre person: my reaction to Nausea was ‘oh dooooo get over yourself’. Having said all that I think I mostly agree with what people are saying here with the large caveat that I don’t actually terribly much care where Whedon is coming from *if he tells good stories.* The stories are what’s important. I have my doubts about ep 3 of Doc Hor but it’s still a good story from a story teller I want more stories from.
Whoops. I seem to have added an extra period at the end of the first link, which is why it isn’t working: http://toysdream.livejournal.com/46217.html — hopefully that will work; it’s also not as dense a review/reaction post.
The stories are what’s important.
Yes, definitely.
I have my doubts about ep 3 of Doc Hor but it’s still a good story from a story teller I want more stories from.
Yeah. I’m still sort of waffling between ‘omg! brilliant’ and a bit disappointed in Penny, but I’m also not sure if I’m supposed to feel that way about Penny…
(When Pepper Potts (Iron Man) is the most proactive female character I’ve seen this year, there might just be something lacking in superhero stories. And I love Iron Man to pieces, but still.)
I generally very much like the stories Whedon tells; Dr Horrible is not really an exception to this, even with my reaction to Penny.
I like ‘fun filled cavalcade of whining’. Yes. I didn’t make it to the end of ANGEL and BUFFY fanatic that I am it did get a bit relentlessly morbid for me. Come on, lighten up, where are the *jokes*? I’m not a real pessimist, I guess.
I seem to be the only person who liked Penny however. . . .
I seem to be the only person who liked Penny however. . . .
I liked Penny. She was active in ways the boys weren’t. In fact, *because* she was active and trying to help the homeless, she ended up approaching Dr Horrible instead of him being active and finally getting around to talking to her. And her action set everything else in motion — meeting Captain Hammer, getting the building for the homeless, and the ceremony at the end.
WELL YES. This has been more or less my point. She’s the only one who’s really ENGAGED WITH THE REAL WORLD. Who’s trying to do something REAL. Instead of mooning around in boy daydreams of world dominion etc.
WELL YES. This has been more or less my point. She’s the only one who’s really ENGAGED WITH THE REAL WORLD. Who’s trying to do something REAL. Instead of mooning around in boy daydreams of world dominion etc.
*nodnod* Yes. And that’s why I like her, too. :)
I started writing in my books at uni. Eventually it came down to whether I wanted a splutter of yellow post-it notes poking out the tops of every book I was using, or whether I wanted discreet pencilled notes in the margins. Since I’m a bit nutty about how my books look on my shelf, the latter won.
I just picked up a copy of the Rubaiyat with Dulac’s illustrations…it had been on my to-be-read list for a long time, but the Dulac illustrations are finally motivating me to read it. I keep my Dulac, Nielsen, and Rackham books together, and I definitely don’t write in any of those!
Bats!
I love bats. There’s a family living in the wall of my apartment in fact. It’s great evening entertainment sit on the balcony drinking wine and watch them drop down from under the eves and fly away. On nights of the full moon when the moon light reflecting against our white house attracts moths I go out and watch the bats hunting.
When my hard cover addition of Dragon Haven arrives I’ll write those in. Thanks
We had bats at the old house. Don’t see them much now, in town.
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In the National Gardens – one of the very few parks in Athens – there is an outdoor cinema, a true oasis for summer viewing of light entertainment. As you sit in the dark, the bats swoop around in front of the screen catching the insects attracted by the light.
Not to mention that JW and his crazy crew are planning to perform some of those extra bits in song (of course!) Evil Genius at work indeed.
I’ve had to satisfy my need for MORE Joss with season 3 of Buffy. It was TOO HOT here to do anything else this weekend ayway!
I have an important caveat for writing in books: Not in the fiction library books. Never in pen in the nonfiction books. I currently have a stack of dry nonfiction from the library that I’m using in my thesis. These had to have pencil markings so I knew what snippets I wanted to use as possible quotes. “The Shadow of the Wind” that I just checked out, however, does NOT need annotations. I already knew the limping man showed up ten pages earlier, THANK YOU.
My own paperbacks are highlighted to next week and back. I still have too much reverence for the hardcovers. Also, paperbacks are cheaper.
DR HORRIBLE SPOILERY ALERT
******
I liked the ending. Her singing came close to giving me diabetes. Plus, it makes him more evil.
I loved the credits at the end: “Bad Horse provided by…”
Oh heavens! Never in library books–or ANYone else’s books. Just your own.
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And oh my goodness have you seen this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-495789/Adorable-baby-bats–honestly–snuggled-wool-animal-shelter.html
If there’s anything more charming than baby Flying Foxes I don’t know what it is.
AWWWWWW. Most of the common bats–well, most common UK bats anyway–are those weird kinds with the enormous ears and the radar noses.
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“Most of the common bats–well, most common UK bats anyway–are those weird kinds with the enormous ears and the radar noses.”
I think you said you had Pipistrelles at the old house?
http://www.arkive.org/species/ARK/mammals/Pipistrellus_pipistrellus_and_Pipistrellus_pygmaeus/more_moving_images.html
Funny little things, aren’t they. We’ve got these and also (we think) Daubenton’s, quartering the lawn and over the pond now and most fine evenings this time of year. I applaud every mosquito eaten…
I’m pretty sure this is the closest I’ll ever come to seeing my dog as a puppy, since she was full grown when I adopted her. Off to check YouTube now…
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I am a cow, I know . . . but that should be LYING, you know . . . moooo. She’s very cute, do you know what she is? Several things, probably, but do you know what they are?
Oh! I couldn’t think where I’d made a laying/lying error until I clicked my own picture again. Fixed!
She was a stray, but there are many guesses as to her heritage…Cairn? Scottie? (I think she looks more like a Schnauzer there, but the groomers were going for Scottie.) On the other side of the family, fennec fox or Pharaoh hound? (She does have a high waist and a deep chest which you can’t see in the pictures, but I don’t seriously think there’s any sighthound in there. Something had to contribute those ears, though!)
Pharoah x terrier sounds likely. She has a very intriguing face.
(Thank you for taking the ‘lying’ in good part! I know that language evolves and I use a lot of cheap slang myself and while I enjoyed Eats, Shoots and Leaves I kind of think she needs to get a life, but lying/laying is one of my pet peeves . . . )
Well, I can tell you of one time when I bought a used book and the pencil-notes nearly drove me insane. It must have been used by a translator and the idiotic stupid idiot (sorry about the lack of creativity, but the thought of it still makes me angry!) had obviously taken out ALL OF THE FUN STUFF! It was a copy of Captain Marryat’s “Peter Simple” and the silly lackwit had abbreviated away all that could be called gratuitous comedy – all the best stuff, in my humble opinion, so I got a rubber and erased all of it! If I have ruined a historic document, so be it! (I think I got it fairly cheaply, so probably not – but still!)
I always write my full name and date of acquisition into my books, though (and not in pencil, either).
Oh, and I don’t read in my bath – not since I dropped “The Pickwick Papers” into it! (It was saved but is slightly swollen on one side – but the feeling of horror!)
I admit I hate OTHER people’s notes in the margins, and pretty much won’t buy anything anyone ELSE has written in. Although in my defense this is usually because I think what they’ve written is DUMB. :) If I ever picked up the ex-book of a bright one, I’d probably buy it. :)
I read cheap paperbacks in the bath! If they fall in they fall in! :)
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I suddenly remembered a school-trip to Strindbeg’s old home that now is a museum – it seems he made notes in his books and I admit I felt very curious to see them; I wondered if he had any books I might have read and what he might have written. Of course the books were behind glass. (By the way, having only read one Strindberg novel in my life – years ago -I don’t think I can claim to be a die-hard Strindberg-fan, but I thought it might be fun…)
I tend to think that what anyone you’re interested in wrote in the margins of their books *would* be interesting.
Dr. Horrible—Oh, I hope it’s a dream sequence that just happened to mirror the irony of the first chapter on a much larger scale. Of course I’m always hoping that things like that are dream sequences and then they turn out not to be.
And who knew Firefly’s Mel could sing? Impressive!
Joss Whedan is a genius.
Well . . . sort of sing. None of these people should quit the day job to concentrate on singing. I’m afraid I had the same reaction to the famous singing BUFFY episode. (Which is one of the reasons the idea of *me* singing is so ludicrous. But I’m a FOLK SINGER. LOL! So that makes it okay. :))
I also don’t really believe it is a dream sequence. But I think the emphasis on its being Doc Hor’s *blog* may mean that the point of view can change rather dramatically.
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Neill Patrick Harris has been on Broadway. So I think it’s too late to tell him not to quit the day job ;-)
As for the rest, they are at least decent and then there is technology to bring it up a notch. The Buffy cast was not cast to be in a musical, so I give them much more leeway, but Giles and Spike had both been successful paid musicians previously as well.
I place more value on performances being sung emotively than technically correct. I guess that makes me a folk singer too. It sure explains why I dropped out of the “opera singer major” in university. I’ve never felt that defining good music should be left to long-dead rich stuffy Europeans. There are so many sounds the human voice can make, it seems a shame to limit them down to a few acceptable ones. I hated the atonal section of music theory for the same reason…it mostly turned into an intellectual exercise instead of a mode of communication/communion. I’m not saying the classical training didn’t make me a better singer, but it isn’t what I’m about.
‘rich’?
It depends on the technical and the emotive. There are some fabulous and rivetting ‘folk singers’ who can hardly carry the tune they’re hacking at and it doesn’t matter; and there are people like Leonard Cohen who has about three notes available but don’t he just make the most of ‘em; and then . . . well, I love opera. What I don’t have much use for is weedy and tremulous, which I felt there was a bit much of in Doc Horror. Not so much Harris, but both Penny and Hammer.
“Please use the Comments RSS feed if you can as we are exceeding our Web host’s hourly email send rate. When this happens, email is discarded. ”
I just discovered a solution for this problem. There is an external company at SendMeRSS.com that will send RSS feeds to your email for anyone who signs up. You could stop doing any of the emailing of follow-up comments and leave it to them and avoid overloading your web host.
Um. Would you please send this to Blogmom? I don’t ‘do’ anything except post and answer comments.