Tweets for Today
- 18:36 Got home from MarsCon. Very buzzed-happy… and very sleepy. We’re going to play some WoW to wind down. #
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Brain in the high-tech gutter
Really. The model on the new Microsoft Mactopia page looks like she wants to charge me $2.95 a minute for something, and it ain’t tech support. Are they diversifying now that Bill’s leaving?
Rough night last night. Starr was quite ill with food poisoning all day and night, and I was way overdue on laundry even without the upcoming con to consider. Did get three loads done, including the kilt, and I think she mostly forgave me for my unskilled nursing attempts. We had no trouble conking out when bedtime rolled around. I swear, at this point I’m considering afternoon naps for the weekend.
Speaking of MarsCon, a preliminary schedule‘s up. At least I hope it’s preliminary. Not only is everything I wish to attend scheduled directly against something else I wish to attend, but there is one timeslot where it appears the webcomics guests will need to be in two places at once.
Tonight: more laundry, packing, and cleaning out the car.
Martian Con Machines
I had every intention of heading over to the MarsCon Badge Assembly Party last night, but the world caught up with me and I ended up insensate on the couch for most of the evening, with both knees screaming of inflammation. It was something like a milder version of the saying “A sucking chest wound is life’s way of telling you to slow down a bit.”
If I don’t take it a bit easy this week, there will be little point in going at all; MarsCon is not the sort of SF convention where one wants to hit their energy limits at 9:30pm. I’m still kind of annoyed with myself for conking out at 1:30 at New Year’s.
Happily, I found geckoman and big_danny_t at the concert on Sunday, and learned that Gecko is chairing next year. He has some great plans for the con – I hope that even a few of them work out.
In unrelated trivia, I heard this morning about a funeral parlour which is making plans to warm the building with the waste heat produced by the crematorium. I was immediately reminded of the Fremen of Dune, who are driven to such severe water-conservation necessities that they extract the water from their dead to return to the public supply. I can’t seem to decide whether the parlour’s plan is logical or nauseating. (I suppose neither reaction is exclusive.)
Tweets for Today
- 08:32 New pantz fit well. Thank goodness. #
- 10:36 We’re back to being busy again here on the base. I’m strangely relieved. #
- 11:28 I’ve just realized that my opinion on fictional ‘canon’ has completely changed since I was a teenage fan. #
- 12:31 Flurries! #
- 21:33 Someone today tried to insist that there were a billion people in Times Square on NYE. I smiled politely and moved on. #
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Canon gets in the way
Star Trek fans know that, no matter how much time we spend patching the holes with our beer-and-pretzels skull sessions, that the stories of our beloved characters don’t always match up. This has been a problem since the 1970s, when authorized novels were published that flatly contradicted each other. This wouldn’t have been a problem if some of them hadn’t been quite good.
Eventually, Authorities were appointed to patch some of the holes by releasing official documentation; but sooner or later, an Authority would banish a beloved tale to the dustbin. This would happen, the fans would solemnly acknowledge the proclamation, then accept or ignore it as desired in their own private versions.
As time passed, new Authorities would come from the ranks of the fen. New screened, televised, and printed stories would appear, and the new Authorities would take the opportunity to work their own patches in, or negate older ones of which they disapproved. And the fen would take what they liked, and ignore what they didn’t, and spend more beer-and-pretzels evenings arguing uselessly if entertainingly about the merits of individual patches.
Eventually, as any specific fan grew old enough they’d be more likely to decide that a good story is a good story, and if they don’t all match up, well, in some ways that’s even more fun. (See the works of Douglas Adams for a shining example.) And that may be because they have realized that, if you don’t worry about canon too much, you get more stories. And if only 10% (or less) of the stories out there are any good, we’re going to need a lot of them to get our fix.
So, authors, get back to writing that fanfic! There’s a tiny chance that one day, you might be in the position of writing an Authorized sequel… and at least when the day comes, perhaps your experience will give you something interesting to say, and practice dealing with the flame wars to follow 🙂
Tweets for Today
- 22:49 Knight Industries Three Thousand: tinyurl.com/2uojke – errr, no. Sorry, guys. #
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I Know I Am Wasting My Time
With the released news that Peter Jackson will once again be working on “The Hobbit”, the “OMG Jackson got Lord of the Rings ALL WRONG!!!” people have come back out of the woodwork.
Of course, in fandom, the concept “I would have liked if Jackson had done x differently” is the same as “He completely screwed it up, he ruined the books for me forever, I had to burn my copies afterwards!” This is crap. If you want to see LotR completely screwed up, Ralph Bakshi can help there. Jackson didn’t even come close.
Y’know, I would have liked it if the last “Pirates of the Carribean” movie had done some things differently. I still had a good time in the theater, and felt like my cash was not ill-spent. I’ll probably go see number four when it inevitably gets made. There’s a difference here.
I still say the same thing to these flamers: a whiny blog post doesn’t cut it. Write your script, get the budget, assemble the creative team, hire actors, film your work, get it edited and scored, and get it distributed, and gather widespread critical acclaim. Winning 13 Academy Awards is not necessary, though it won’t hurt anything. Once you’ve done that, I’ll allow that yes indeed, you might be able to make a better LotR than Peter Jackson.
And I’ll gleefully read all the posts from all the fans letting the world know that yes, you too have completely screwed up The Lord of the Rings.
