I vill suck your blooooood...
Jun. 4th, 2006 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieNote to self: Reading vampire books late at night? Not a good idea. Not a good idea at all.
I'm 150 pages into Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which is a bit like The Da Vinci Code would be if it had well-written prose and interesting characters who are more than just ciphers to move the plot along, were about Dracula and the history thereof, and were generally not crap. (I don't dislike it because it's popular, I dislike it because it's bad.) It's very good so far, and I hope the following five hundred pages won't disappoint.
However, vampires, when well-written, are just about the only horror genre trope that can genuinely scare me. So, in addition to Kostova really knowing how to reel out tension, this book is really quite creepifying. I think it goes back to childhood. Remember that series of "Scary Stories" books (Scary Stories 1-3)? The ones with the really quite spooky illustrations that were basically just urban legends retold? Mostly I just thought they were kind of disgusting, but one of them did actually get to me. It's the one where there's a girl on a lonesome farm in the middle of nowhere (naturally), who has to face various vampires, whose glowing red eyes she can see at night through her window, coming towards her. I think her two brothers, and probably various farm animals, fall victim to the vampires (who are randomly showing up from a cemetary nearby, or something like that) before she does herself. Anyway, we used to live on a fairly busy road, and out my window at night, I could see the brakelights of passing cars, which, to my eight-year-old mind, looked exactly like glowing red vampire eyes. The fact that they were inevitably going away from me didn't really help things much.
So, yes, vampires, not so much. But the book is still really good.
(Actually, the whole "go into a bathroom, turn off the lights, chant Bloody Mary/Mary Worth x amount of times, spin around a few times, and then look to see her escaping the mirror to scratch your eyes out" always kind of freaked me out as well. Remind me again why this is a popular sleepover game?)
*
Which Doctor (from Doctor Who) Are You?
You are the eighth Doctor! Friendly and warm, you are the most human of all the Doctors. Your sense of style is a bit old-fashioned. You have a bit of trouble figuring out exactly who you are at first, but no worries. Eventually you'll find your way.
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How am I not surprised that I'm Eight? *giggle*
I'm 150 pages into Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which is a bit like The Da Vinci Code would be if it had well-written prose and interesting characters who are more than just ciphers to move the plot along, were about Dracula and the history thereof, and were generally not crap. (I don't dislike it because it's popular, I dislike it because it's bad.) It's very good so far, and I hope the following five hundred pages won't disappoint.
However, vampires, when well-written, are just about the only horror genre trope that can genuinely scare me. So, in addition to Kostova really knowing how to reel out tension, this book is really quite creepifying. I think it goes back to childhood. Remember that series of "Scary Stories" books (Scary Stories 1-3)? The ones with the really quite spooky illustrations that were basically just urban legends retold? Mostly I just thought they were kind of disgusting, but one of them did actually get to me. It's the one where there's a girl on a lonesome farm in the middle of nowhere (naturally), who has to face various vampires, whose glowing red eyes she can see at night through her window, coming towards her. I think her two brothers, and probably various farm animals, fall victim to the vampires (who are randomly showing up from a cemetary nearby, or something like that) before she does herself. Anyway, we used to live on a fairly busy road, and out my window at night, I could see the brakelights of passing cars, which, to my eight-year-old mind, looked exactly like glowing red vampire eyes. The fact that they were inevitably going away from me didn't really help things much.
So, yes, vampires, not so much. But the book is still really good.
(Actually, the whole "go into a bathroom, turn off the lights, chant Bloody Mary/Mary Worth x amount of times, spin around a few times, and then look to see her escaping the mirror to scratch your eyes out" always kind of freaked me out as well. Remind me again why this is a popular sleepover game?)
*
Which Doctor (from Doctor Who) Are You?
You are the eighth Doctor! Friendly and warm, you are the most human of all the Doctors. Your sense of style is a bit old-fashioned. You have a bit of trouble figuring out exactly who you are at first, but no worries. Eventually you'll find your way.
Take this quiz!
Quizilla |
Join
| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code
How am I not surprised that I'm Eight? *giggle*
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 02:14 pm (UTC)Surprise/Innocence: The classic two-parter where Buffy's vampire boyfriend Angel goes bad. One of the best examples of the metaphors the show was so brilliant at employing.
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: One of the funniest and most fun eps IMHO...a love spell gone wrong.
Once More With Feeling: The in/famous Buffy musical. Personally I think it's brilliant. If you're a Sondheim fan at all, I'd especially recommend it...Joss has commented on the Sondheim influence and it shows. The songs are fantastically layered...often fluffy on the surface but most of the lyrics have a double meaning, a bittersweet undertone.
Of course all of these play even better in context, I'd say...Buffy was an inspiration for the new Who, actually, in so far as how it would build character and story arcs often subtly through the season, and things would pull together towards the end. And the musical especially...that one, while still standing alone as a story, takes about four or five different plotlines involving each of he major characters, stories that have been building through the season up to that point, and spins them all off in a different direction.
Forever Knight: Heh. But gah...I do hate those nihilistic finales! One reason I don't know if I'll ever bring myself to really watching Space: Above & Beyond, despite the love I know some Scapers have for it...
no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 07:16 pm (UTC)Ooooh, the S:AAB finale is painful. The show is really good, though; the New BSG is extremely reminiscent of it, in my mind.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-08 06:10 pm (UTC)You also might want to try getting into Buffy sort of backwards, through Angel. Buffy is the high school show, Angel is 20-somethings in the city. It's also got a very cool noir vibe going on. I'd recommend you trying out that show with an epi called 'Waiting in the Wings', which focuses on a haunted ballet...gorgeous stuff, written by Joss himself. And Summer Glau stars as the ballerina, it's how Joss found her.
New BSG and S:AAB? From what little I've seen so far of Space, that makes sense...
no subject
Date: 2006-06-10 03:31 am (UTC)If you like Space at all, I think you'll very much enjoy BSG. It's so well-written and well-acted. (Well, less son in S2 than in S1. But.)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 03:30 pm (UTC)S:A & B: Okies, good to know. Have to admit when I saw the pilot it wasn't doing a lot for me, but... a) pilots are often like that and b) I was watching it in a room full of Scapers in a very MiSTy mood!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 11:26 pm (UTC)Did you see the BSG mini? If so, the series is much better. Like, by orders of magnitude. If you saw the first episode of S1, "33," then...hmmm. There's less hope for you, let's say. ;) (Personally, I think it's the most birlliant first episode of anything ever, and probably one of the best of S1 as well.)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 03:59 am (UTC)BSG: Oh, no, I was talking about the pilot for Space: Above & Beyond not grabbing me. I'm a full blown BSGer these days! *g* Jodie tried to hook us at Talia's birthday party, and showed us "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" and "Colonial Day", which out of context did nothing for me. And I'd tried watching the BSG mini before that, and got about an hour in and it hadn't done anything for me. So as much as I wanted to like BSG, I thought it wasn't going to work. But then, right before we left Tal's, Krissy showed us the most *amazing* BSG music video to the tune of 'Proud' by Heather Small...if you've never seen it I'll have to show you the link...and that vid gave me all the feeling I'd wanted to get from BSG and was missing. So...yeah, I ended up getting hooked after all, and now I've seen all of both seasons and can't wait for S3. *g*
You're right, btw..."33" is insanely brilliant. All though my favorite eps of S1...and the series as a whole...are still 'Act of Contrition' and 'You Can't Go Home Again'. That story had absolutely everything I wanted from BSG...angst and redemption, psychology, shippiness, family ("If it was you, we'd never leave..." *kills* me...I mist up just thinking about how EJO delivers that line!), and kick-butt starfighter combat. *g*
Rambleramble.