Movie reviews to come too

[petronia]

Two Worlds, by Eildon Rhymer [Dark Is Rising series, PG13 thus far]

marici suggests this in sesame_seed's comments as an antidote to the apparent travesty that is the movie trailer (which I haven't watched; I think I'll go ahead and spare myself the pain, if no one minds XD).

When I was of tender years, I had a Thing for Bran Davies. I was reading (or more likely re-reading) the series at precisely the age at which one first starts to notice boys etc., and I have a theory that whatever you see/watch/read in those pre-teen years you fixate on, like a baby duck. Pretty much every quirk or kink I have is traceable to something I read or watched at age 10-11. The above story is Will/Bran, so it's kind of like discovering that the guy you had a crush on in the sixth grade and his bff from back then are, like, totally doing it. Or what I imagine it'd feel like, anyway; very little chance I'll find out for real. XD

In any case they're not totally doing it. It's good old-fashioned UST- and dew-drenched shounen-ai set in Oxford, which is probably the best mode to adopt if one is going to do something like write Susan Cooper romance fic (even if I don't believe, when you get down to it, that Will Stanton of all people would mope so much**). The story is complete and being posted in daily installments. The author claims an eventual R rating but I'll believe it when I see it.


** I say this but then the question naturally becomes, how would you characterize him? I have a very vague memory that Chrissie actually asked me to write Dark Is Rising fic at one point, and I was like, uhhhhh in what sense.

Comments

[nekokoban]

I -- I think I'd characterize Will as old but not old, which seems to be what Cooper's going for with all the Old Ones in general (am currently nearing the end of a reread of The Dark is Rising to comfort self after seeing that trailer >_____>). He's still got flashes of being whatever age he actually is, but it's all sort of weighed down and more deliberate than anything else. I could see him being melancholy now and then, and maybe wistful, but not MOPE -- he seems good at finding things to be happy/grateful for, like it balances the unhappy things.

I say this without having read the fic, but that's how I'd characterize him from the beginning. I need to reread the rest of the series first, tho'.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I guess I figured he was self-sufficient by virtue of being an Old One? He didn't angst about being set apart in the books, which he very well could have, so that was the impression I got. But yeah, the whole thing pretty much makes me just want to re-read the books too, which I should. XD

[nekokoban]

As I recall, he had wistfulness about it -- the scene in the church, where his brother is just short of realizing something Big And Signifigant is going on, he's got this deep old sadness. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but he mentioned there was a certain melancholy inherent to being an Old One, and seeing yourself apart from your friends and loved ones -- but nothing beyond the usual angst and grief that you see with any group of immortals. And it's not even his physical age, since he is sort of aged by everything he learns, so -- nah, I don't think he angsts beyond wistfulness.

I need to get copies of everything after the first one; my old ones are half a country away. T_T

[meril.livejournal.com]

Completely off the topic, but as I don't have email here: did you see this (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241182.html)?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw it just now. ^^; Not much to say except we'll see what happens, I guess.

[meril.livejournal.com]

I probably do have something to say about DiR fic, as well. I read them where I was more inclined to find the mythological references than fixate on any of the characters. There's so much out there that I can't read fic about for this reason (reading for metadata rather than plot or character.)

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

man, there's some days I'm really happy not to work for livejournal.

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

WTF, they've made a movie? Why? When?

You know, I had been thinking that I was sadly deprived of stuff in the wider world being as I've been absorbed with untangling the state before the Wars. But... eh, I'd have been happier ignorant. (Because now I'm going to read reviews and spoilers to see how this is different from the book. Bah, I should learn to be uncurious. I mean, Susan Cooper's series was my object of adoration when I was young. Even if, like Lloyd Alexander's The High King, I took the ending as a personal affront at the time.

... The Gray King was totally my favorite. Even if I have a strange, not accurate memory, of reading the series out of order starting with that one. Because I didn't read them out of order. Maybe it was the disorientation of the amnesia/fever sequence?)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Everyone I know thinks the movie is going to be terrible. XD I'll stick to The Golden Compass, I reckon.

Whereas I did read the series out of order, probably starting with The Grey King at that. XD;

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

The mere existance of the film... I was happier being ignorant. XD (I mean, that way I don't have to take the "ah, but the book was so much better!" stance at all. 'Cause: no film. Hence: no uncomfortable feelings I'm being elitist! It's win-win. XD)

It's not a bad place to start, The Grey King. XD With the amnesia plot and all. (Although, I suspect it's a very different feeling, to be reading with "when will he remember?!?!" as opposed to "I wonder what is going on!")

You were in Ithaca when there was the Corner Book Store, right? I feel like it was tachiyomi-ing there that I first read The Grey King, whereas I know that I got The Dark is Rising as the first one of the series I owned. So, hm. Still unsure as to the order and all. XD

[vonbrigthi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Will always struck me as having a genuinely affable personality, though later a little more distant due to being an Old One and all. But no real angst because he's got such a long view of life/history thanks to the Book of Grymereiawhatever. Hm, and re: imprinting, my favourite characters were Will and Merriman, so. DX Well okay, I also liked Cadfall and the big draft horse at the beginning. And the Rider... aw crap.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Whereas I imprinted on the "Good King Wenceslas" scene in DiR at a tender age, although it's not just that scene--the entire book is made of pedagogical m/m, why does no one else see this. Hawkin, the jilted ex? Never liked Bran because he threatened the OTP haha, I kid, I kid. Sort of. Not really. Cannot and will not read Will/Bran or vice versa to this day, and nobody writes Merriman/Will, so.

Seconding nekokoban above re: Will as sadly wistful on occasion, just enough to be aesthetically pleasing A+.

I do suggest avoiding the trailer if you can.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I actually read the series in the wrong order. XD; I think I read, like, The Grey King -> Greenwitch -> Silver on the Tree when I was a kid, because that was what my library had, and then some years later read The Dark Is Rising and Over Sea, Under Stone. Didn't even realize I was missing books ahaha. Merriman/Will would never have occurred to me, but then neither did Bran/Will until my friends started going on about it a couple of years ago (if anything the books hinted at Bran/Jane). Yokei na mono sore wa. All three stuck as archetypes in the hindbrain, though, plaguing me to this day in other incarnations. XD

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

The books were totally Bran/Jane. But then the ending killed most Will pairings, did it not?

Actually, I ran across a Merriman/Will fic once. Was not duly impressed, but I suspect it's still on the internets somewhere.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Or fills them with angst, yeah. XD When I read these it hadn't yet occurred to me that disagreeing with the course set by the author was an option. Then again... I still don't know, about the forgetting. Me being me I know I'd choose to remember, if I had the choice, but I can't say with certainty that I'd be better off. Even from the POV of upholding principle. ^^;

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading any Dark Is Rising fanfic when I noticed how many of them were "... And now they remember! :D" Because, no. XD I may have taken the erasure of magic from the world as offensive, but neither did I want to rewrite the endings.

I just... decided to end the series earlier, until I fine-tuned my sense of angst/wistfulness/whatever. XD (Age 15-6 or so, I think? That's when I reread Silver on the Tree and The High King. Maybe it was the Borges OD what changed me, I dunno.)

I'd have rather remembered myself, too. But, you know, from an Eliade-an standpoint, it doesn't quite work. Myths, okay, but what do we make of the people who were alive during Odysseus' journeys and saw the passing of the heroic age? Do they try to convince their children that the world was once really this way?

I'm not being clear. But I have spicy pork, from a recipe I finally reconstructed, so. XD

[blueandflawless.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you posted this link; it's exactly the antidote I needed to the horror of the trailer. Thank you!