Sprung has already made up his mind.
One four or so hour film would have been ideal (since we knew Jackson was going to stretch it. I wasn't too agitated by the 2 film thing that was originally announced (assuming it was going to be 5-6 hours) but this is just ridiculous.
Gatsby is highly functional as introductory literature. FSF is a decent enough writer to use several important writing techniques and tricks but a shitty enough writer that they're incredibly shallow and apparent, while still managing to be decent enough outside of said techniques to give it some level of class (partially because it grandfathered in and partially because it pulled a sizable bait and switch). It's the sort of thing that belongs in entry level to moderate literature courses simply because anyone with a density below "black hole" can spot things like the metaphor involving the green light or the billboard. Which gives a good diving board to analysis of more complex concepts. Probably not something that belongs in a high school level course (since by then anyone should have the idea that "sometimes something is more than what it is" should be old hat by then, especially in our current media glutton culture), but it has its place. Or you can go the "writer is clearly writing about himself" route and note that the entire subtext of Gatsby might as well be "Zelda, I realize I'm a racist asshole who's fucking everyone in a five mile radius (including Hemingway apparently) but you're no prize either. And that's why we're meant to be together and are a far better match than you and that social ladder climber you're fucking who cannot possibly have with you what I do. PS: I hope he dies". Which is an incredibly blatant example of an author writing "what they know" and putting experiences into their work, whether they realize it or not. ("So, how about those Germans?" -JRR Tolkien)*school literature discussion*
Twain is also a good introduction to intermediate satire, but it's incredibly dated and is often skimmed over so that people can talk about race relations and whether or not saying "nigger" in school is PC. Shakespeare suffers a similar fate in academia. Honestly you'd get a similar result from plopping some people down in front of some late night television but that's probably not something you'd get away with so Twain it is.
There's better stuff out there, but as stepping stones into better work, they're pretty decent. Unfortunately a lot of people don't go beyond that stuff and it perpetuates the idea that the only good books were written 50+ years ago and are all about a bunch of shit that's no longer overly relevant.
This post brought to you by that exact moment when you get into a conversation about the moral implications of the plot of Monte Cristo and it becomes apparent that the other person has only seen that terrible movie from a few years ago.I have enjoyed some Dumas and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I wouldn't call them favourites, but it was bearable. I actually have a really nice Count of Monte Cristo set lying around somewhere. Unsure what edition, I'd have to find it.![]()
Last edited by Raype; 7th-July-2013 at 12:38.
1984, kthx.![]()
Btw Ray, Cartagra and Kara no Shoujo 2 English versions announced yesterday by Mangagamer. Good shit.
Coffeeeeeeee![]()
It's been years since I've done either.
What are some of your favourite books Raype?
I totally dig "Hop on Pop" and "There's a monster at the end of this book".
Because, after all, isn't there a little monster in all of us that we're struggling in vain to flee from?![]()
School relevant Orwell.
Always the choice of champions.
Not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, yay more IG stuff. On the other, wasn't too big on some of MG's translation choices in the past. KnS1 wasn't overly terrible because it was translated by some guy who then sold it to MG. And even then it was a bit spotty at times. If this is being done in-house, well, I remember Edelweiss. There's a reason MG has been sticking to nukage.
Oh, they're that bad? Although, now that you mention it... I did read KnS1 in English and it was acceptable, I guess, but all the honorifics irked me, and there were indeed a few dodgy lines.
I translated a couple of KnS2 scenes on my Youtube channel, once the Eng version comes out I might do a comparison for the lulz.![]()
Oh hai my idiot former best friend from high school, who fought and squirmed to get into AP lit. class senior year because she was tired of everyone being smarter than she was, and then couldn't figure out why she was failing when she refused to read any of the books.
At least in that class, we got a list every quarter or so of five-ish books that we could choose from to read. One time one of the choices was The Little Prince. Score.![]()
So I don't know how many of you are near a half price books, but they are running their tiered coupon promo again. Today is the best day and even though it says one per customer per day, unless you run into someone anal or something they will usually let you keep using it (within reason I'm guessing, it probably doesn't hurt that I'm amicable and charming).
http://hpb.com/
Having worked in a retail place that runs tiered coupons, it's less hassle in the long run not to fuss with people who want to keep it. Especially when there are multiple registers in each area of the store BUT THEEEEEY LET ME KEEP IT OVER THERE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS BRAND IS EXCLUDED. WAH WAH WAH.
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When they started out, they had a guy who was russian and spoke some japanese and english as their sole translator. He was native in neither English nor Japanese. He heavily used one of those text translator tools.
I'm not making this up.
They got "better", but even now their translation level is well below most fan translation groups. The difference being that fan groups don't charge money. KnS had a couple issues and shows obvious signs of being translated by a fan (hello useless honorifics!) but it was just a handful of guys doing it in their spare time who later figured "people are making money by selling fan translations, we might as well do that". When you realize that initially they weren't being paid it makes any issues considerably more forgivable (not unlike subbed anime). But Mangagamer, a company that charges actual real money (and loads of it at that, we aren't talking steam sale prices here), comes off like the terrible speedsub version of it.
Also, whoever does their editing needs to be shot. But then again, they hired a bunch of random people online and frequently paid them shit wages and gave them crazy schedules which often resulted in them shipping a half finished/proofread project to make a deadline, so there's loads of management issues to get around too.
Last I checked the guy who did KnS was being snubbed by MG pretty hard and seemingly vanished into the aether. He did do a Cartagra TL that was never released (he did this before KnS1 IIRC) but part of that was MG refusing to release something so old and IG feeling it wasn't going to make money anyway. If he's back for KnS2 it could be passable, but I find it unlikely. And switching from one translator to another (particularly one who is unlikely to be good, as most of the actually good fan translators threw their stock in with JAST) is bound to introduce further issues.
The Count of Monte Cristo is all about revenge being totally justified and the idea that you should take what's yours by any means necessary.
Also, Romeo and Juliet is about gang violence in SoCal.
1984 has a happy ending.
Also, Gatbsy is totally a heroic figure and there's this awesome subplot about alcoholism. Which is funny because a guy survives a goddamn war and what lands him in the loony bin is a few too many scotches. When he rarely ever is shown drinking. And-
Oh hell.![]()
Also, this friend sounds fun.
I'm guessing by now she has 2-3 kids and looks terrible?