"I like it better when they say 'it's bigger on the inside'"

[shah_of_blah]

1. I had this epiphany today about Mockingjay.  It's probably not anywhere near as brilliant as I thought it was.  It's also very short and vague but I will lj-cut it anyway for those of you who (like me) consider feelings to be spoilers.  The last quarter of the book felt like a montage.  Like Suzanne Collins was listening to that song from Team America...er, well, not exactly but still.  Like we were just getting kinda disjointed glimpses of everything instead of actually seeing the progression.  And you know that the morphling part would be a montage in the movie.  See, I told you it was brief and not-really-significant.

2. I went to see Going the Distance (don't mock me) and it's a sign of just how obsessed I am that I was reminded of Kara and Lee.  Drew Barrymore's character said that she thought people could only be truly content if they married their best friend.  And I was like "yes, that is why they would have been amazing if they had ever gotten their act together!"  Also it's not news, but pilots have infiltrated all aspects of my life.

3. I am still watching Farscape season 2, but very, very slowly.

4. So my birthday was a few days ago (thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!), and my friend gave me this absolutely amazing hand-crafted gift.  This is the same friend who turned my door into the TARDIS last semester. 

In order: Martha, Donna, Ten, Jack, Rose, and Mickey.
 

 The places are (clockwise from the top left corner) WWII London, Parallel Earth, The Library, London - Present Day, TARDIS, Manhattan - 1930, Satellite 5, Planet of the Ood, and New New York.


The people, the places, and the weapons.


That "Deceased" sign makes me sad every time I look at it, but this is a Ten-era game.


The weapons: Weeping Angel, Scarecrow, Dalek, Cyberman, sonic screwdriver, and Toclafane.


Rose, Mickey, and Captain Jack.  Mickey's a little short, but oh well.


Martha, The Doctor, and Donna.  The Doctor is supposed to be running but he melted a little and now he can't balance very well.


He may need to lean on one arm all the time, but at least he's got red Converse.

Comments

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

What a lovely gift! Your friends are awesome!

Re: Mockingjay (which I've yet to post my thoughts on because I'm still sort of digesting it) - I see what you're saying though. I assume you mean after the explosion? Like Collins felt the need to speed up time to save us all our sanity since the war was technically over and the climax of the story had passed. She probably could have gone a little deeper with everything there but I feel like she didn't want to drag it out. She made her point, she kept her story only from Katniss' point of view so she could only tell us what Katniss saw, and if the girl was all drugged up, it would be all montage. But I did get confused (and I kept waiting for her to go "not real" and confuse me!!!)

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

I expounded on my Mockingjay thoughts in a previous post, but this "montage" thing is related to my general issue, which is mostly that the pacing felt off and a lot of things that should have been emotional (for me) left me feeling like...well, like I had just seen them in a montage. The post-explosion section is the most extreme example of this, I think, and it's not just the drugged-out bit but the "moving towards happiness" bit. It just went by really, really fast and I wish Collins had let us linger.

[cattm.livejournal.com]

Wow, that game is awesome! What a great gift.

About Mockingjay (which I just finished, so this is the first I'm posting about it): I don't know that song from Team America, but I agree with the disjointed glimpses. I liked that feature, and I liked the fact that Katniss, while a very important figure for the resistance, was not the person who single-handedly won the war, and did not escape unscathed. I think that's one of my favorite parts of the book, that it had all kinds of grey shades - District 13 turned out to not be the completely "good guys", that Collins raised the question if the end justifies the means (Gale's and Beetee's weapons for instance), and the fact that there are no winners in a war.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

The song is just called "Montage" and you don't really need to know anything else about it (although it's hilarious). I actually didn't like the montage feel of it though. I mean, I liked that she wasn't actually leading the war and I liked that it was so full of shades of grey and genuine trauma, but I thought that a lot of events felt really distant, either because Katniss wasn't there or she wasn't coherent or just because they happened too fast. Sometimes I think that was deliberate (like with Finnick, since they were in the middle of a battlefield) but either way I couldn't get as emotionally sucked in as I had with the first two books. So I still liked it...but with reservations.

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

What a lovely gift! (and happy belated b-day, by the way, hope you had a wonderful day!).

As for Mockingjay, I just received it via Amazon and... I dunno, I couldn't help myself and I have been reading spoilers here and there and frankly, I have the feeling that I am not going to like it. But we'll see.

Drew Barrymore's character said that she thought people could only be truly content if they married their best friend.

Heee, that exactly what I think (the BFF-who-turn-into-something-more is one of my favorite kinks). And I totally understand you about drawing parallels between K/L and... anything, really. I do it all the time, heh.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Well, a few of my flisters said they thought Mockingjay was the best of the trilogy...so you might be pleasantly surprised! And while I was disappointed by the book, I think I still liked it. Or most of it anyway. I'm still a bit undecided. I'd like to know what you think once you've read it. :)

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Cosette, I ADORED Mockingjay although I think it's very dark and people go to very bad places. But I also thought it was "realistic" in a good way, and I wished BSG had gone that route somehow. (Not the specifics, but the general feelings I had at the end, which were of satisfaction and sadness combined.)

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

Hee. I know you loved it –I read your review (well, just bits because of the spoilers). I know this last book it’s kinda bleak and, frankly, I appreciate it when a story this dark (especially given the YA label) doesn’t have the typical happy ending –as you were saying, it’s realistic, in a way. But I can help myself, I am worried about Katniss story arc (and well, some of my weird vibes about this book might have to do with the fact that the Katniss/Gale shipper in me is not exactly happy, heh –just kidding). But hey, I need to read it first, as soon as I finish it I will let you know what I think.

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Wow! Your friends are amazing. And happy belated birthday! Hope cake was achieved. :-)

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yes, they are amazing. :) And we gorged ourselves on not one but two cakes!

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

And we gorged ourselves on not one but two cakes!
Excellent. :-)

[rdave1.livejournal.com]

Lovely gift! Happy belated Birthday!

Drew Barrymore's character said that she thought people could only be truly content if they married their best friend. And I was like "yes, that is why they would have been amazing if they had ever gotten their act together!"

YES!!!!

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Oh pilots, still holding sway over my heart...