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cahnSo I read Orson Scott Card's weekly "Reviews Everything" column every week. I enjoy it a lot, especially when he starts ranting. (My favorite was the week he ranted about a) how "words mean what they mean here and now" -- his point is that it's okay if you call a piece of food a fajita, even if a Mexican person would be really puzzled by it. Then he turns right around-- in the very same essay!-- and b) is disturbed when Americans in Italian restaurants-- American Italian restaurants, mind you-- mispronounce "bruschetta." Awesome stuff.)
I've noticed that what I like is a subset of what he likes. A couple of times he's recommended books that I thought were worth reading (The Carpet Makers, Megan Whalen Turner). He also highly recommends books I think ar absolutely terrible (Elantris, which has paper-flat two-dimensional characters, and Crown of Stars, which has a rocking plot (which I did enjoy) and characters who aren't hateful *coughpayattentionGeorgeRRMartin*, but little else).
A lot of times his ire seems to be raised (understandably, as he's Mormon and all) by books/movies that make fun of families or put down family values (e.g., premarital sex). So when I watched Sweet Home Alabama, the basic setup of which that a girl LIES to her fiance and covers up essentially her whole past, including that she, by being with him, is technically CHEATING on, um, a man that she is in fact married to -- anyway, when I watched this, I was sure that Card'd hate it.
Nope. He loved it. "Sweet Home Alabama keeps you laughing so much you don't ever really notice you're being taught important and truthful lessons about how to live your life." What, the lesson of bigamy? Oh, it talks about how smalltown life is sooooo cool and the big city is not all it's cracked up to be. Um. The main character is completely self-absorbed, and she does things that just make my teeth stand on edge because of their pure meanness (I still can't get over the part where she is trying to marry some guy without having told him a WORD about anything about her life, and where he seems to be more-or-less okay wit this), and she never really suffers any consequences. The small-town characters he loves so much are to me two-dimensional caricatures of Nice Old Home Folks: aw shucks, they sure look all unsophisticated and all on the outside, but look, so warm-hearted on the inside! Ugh. After watching this I was SO glad I had moved to California!
I'm watching Steel Magnolias right now for the first time (I'm about halfway through), which is what prompted this particular rant. (Card also liked Steel Magnolias, though it's due to another online recommendation that I'm watching it.) Steel Magnolias is brilliant. It really captures the things that I love about where I grew up-- the instant friendliness, the real sense of community, the interrelationships and the way they protect and nurture their own, the generous inclination to help anyone who needs it-- as well as the flip side: the incessant gossip about Everything, the long-lasting feuds, the cattiness that can sometimes come out. And it's never done by bludgeoning you over the head with it-- it's very subtle, sometimes only suggested by a scene or even a throwaway line. It made me miss home, at least a little!
I've noticed that what I like is a subset of what he likes. A couple of times he's recommended books that I thought were worth reading (The Carpet Makers, Megan Whalen Turner). He also highly recommends books I think ar absolutely terrible (Elantris, which has paper-flat two-dimensional characters, and Crown of Stars, which has a rocking plot (which I did enjoy) and characters who aren't hateful *coughpayattentionGeorgeRRMartin*, but little else).
A lot of times his ire seems to be raised (understandably, as he's Mormon and all) by books/movies that make fun of families or put down family values (e.g., premarital sex). So when I watched Sweet Home Alabama, the basic setup of which that a girl LIES to her fiance and covers up essentially her whole past, including that she, by being with him, is technically CHEATING on, um, a man that she is in fact married to -- anyway, when I watched this, I was sure that Card'd hate it.
Nope. He loved it. "Sweet Home Alabama keeps you laughing so much you don't ever really notice you're being taught important and truthful lessons about how to live your life." What, the lesson of bigamy? Oh, it talks about how smalltown life is sooooo cool and the big city is not all it's cracked up to be. Um. The main character is completely self-absorbed, and she does things that just make my teeth stand on edge because of their pure meanness (I still can't get over the part where she is trying to marry some guy without having told him a WORD about anything about her life, and where he seems to be more-or-less okay wit this), and she never really suffers any consequences. The small-town characters he loves so much are to me two-dimensional caricatures of Nice Old Home Folks: aw shucks, they sure look all unsophisticated and all on the outside, but look, so warm-hearted on the inside! Ugh. After watching this I was SO glad I had moved to California!
I'm watching Steel Magnolias right now for the first time (I'm about halfway through), which is what prompted this particular rant. (Card also liked Steel Magnolias, though it's due to another online recommendation that I'm watching it.) Steel Magnolias is brilliant. It really captures the things that I love about where I grew up-- the instant friendliness, the real sense of community, the interrelationships and the way they protect and nurture their own, the generous inclination to help anyone who needs it-- as well as the flip side: the incessant gossip about Everything, the long-lasting feuds, the cattiness that can sometimes come out. And it's never done by bludgeoning you over the head with it-- it's very subtle, sometimes only suggested by a scene or even a throwaway line. It made me miss home, at least a little!
