Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I finally got around to seeing "Star Trek: Into Darkness" in the theater yesterday and was pretty well satisfied, though it definitely covered some familiar ST:TOS and original series movies territory. Still, it mixed the familiar elements around in some truly interesting and entertaining ways. And I'm fond enough of ALL the new Enterprise officers (including the more mobile Christopher Pike) AND their relationships (yes, I dig the Spock/Uhura, among other things) that I'll be happy to spend further time in their company, on repeated viewings of this film.

All told, I can honestly recommend this film, though my first impression is that I don't think it's going to change anyone's life or open any new fields of philosophical debate.

Now, if you haven't yet seen it and want to, please stop reading here.

If you HAVE seen it already, then ON TO THE DETAILED COMMENTS!

First, let's talk about some of the familiar elements:

( Terra Cognita: Here there be SERIOUS and UNREPENTANT S.P.O.I.L.E.R.S... )

And then there's the stuff that's definitely unique to this particular alternate universe version of Kirk, Spock, and the others:

( The Somewhat Undiscovered Country: Here Lie More SPOILERS Galore! )

And I have to say that I love the fact that because of -- or more often, it seems, IN SPITE OF -- her romantic relationship with Spock, this version of Uhura has become an essential part of the core group dynamics, as well as someone who's just as likely to beam down or rush in to save the day as Kirk, Spock, or McCoy.

In TOS, the central emotional dynamic was the dyad of Kirk-Spock or the triad of Kirk-Spock-McCoy, in most cases, with Scotty sometimes thrown in to make a fourth for Bridge as the need arose.

But in this new iteration, we get a powerful new version of the Kirk-Spock, and a neat twist on the old Kirk-Spock-McCoy dynamic, but we also get a few moments of Spock/Uhura and a good deal more of Kirk-Uhura-Spock (which can involve Kirk and Uhura briefly bonding over the difficulty of relating to Spock, at times, or Spock and Kirk bonding over the difficulty of backing Uhura's play without being over-protective and having to face her wrath), and even some pretty high-quality Kirk-Spock-Uhura-McCoy. I like that! :)

Plus, there's just something about Zachary Quinto's 'baby-face' version of young Spock that makes me want to pat (or pinch) his cheek at times! So adorable!

All in all, I found a lot more to love in this movie than I'd expected, after hearing some of the reviews.

It seems like ever since I started keeping my laptop next to my bed (it's been over a year now) I've grown terribly lazy (and cheap) in my reading habits, reading (and often re-reading and even re-re-reading) fanfics online instead of actual books by even favorite authors.

I even read the latest Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan-verse novel Captain Vorpatril's Alliance in a free electronic copy last September, thanks to missmurchison . . . and lost a lot of sleep, being unable to put down the laptop until morning's light, when I was just ten pages short of the ending and couldn't keep my eyes open a second longer!

But yesterday I became reacquainted with "my old self", in a sense, by spending all day and all night reading two novels by new-to-me (but probably not to anybody else!) author Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal . . . in super-cheap, used, library-surplus editions shipped to me from England, courtesy of Amazon, of course. :)

( How fanfic based on movies I didn't really enjoy got me interested in the books (possible spoilers) )

I haven't decided whether to go back and read the first Lecter novel, Red Dragon, yet (it was included in one volume with Silence of the Lambs in the old hardcover library edition I bought, and I read the first 60+ pages of Dragon before deciding that I'd prefer to dive right into Silence with the less damaged Clarice Starling as the protagonist, instead of Will Graham). And from some things I've heard/read in the fanfic, it sounds as though Hannibal Rising might be too much of a credibility stretch (plus, no Starling, of course, so . . . ).

Anyone out there have an opinion to offer? Am I missing out on some essential "Lecter-ness" if I never get around to reading the other novels?

********************************

( Selected fanfic recommendations, mostly Starling/Lecter of some kind )

Somehow I missed beatrice_otter's July 19th post recommending a wonderful, humorous, very well-done short fanfic set in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan universe.

In case any of you LMB fans on my f-list also missed that rec and that story, be sure to check out The Maiden of the Lake, Feminist Icon? A Critique, By Olivia Koudelka.

( Read more... )

If you're a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls and haven't already seen this, check out beatrice_otter's short, slice of life fic Separate Callings, describing Ista's situation at the end of Paladin from her daughter Iselle's royal perspective.

I just finished reading the long-awaited final chapters of VogonGuard's BtVS/Miles Vorkosigan crossover story, The Vor Slayer over on Twisting the Hellmouth, and I am so big with the Ivan-love right now!

There are plenty of typos in the story (especially in the final five chapters, all of which were posted within the first week of this new year), but I enjoyed the resolution so much (not to mention the many Miles-isms along the way) that I'm in no mood to quibble.

If you're a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, starting with Shards of Honor (and yes, Countess Cordelia is still very much alive and kicking in this story, as are a middle-aged Miles and his cousin Ivan Vorpatril) as well as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", I'd strongly recommend checking out this story, in which Miles' daughter Helen is called as a Slayer in Barrayar's hour of need (when it doesn't hurt to have the military might of Aunt Elli Quinn's Dendarii on speed-dial, just in case).

The story is actually an authorized sequel to another author's one-shot, DonSample's With a Star, in which Miles and Ekaterin visit the Sunnydale Lagoon on Earth and Miles starts to wonder about the names on a memorial obelisk. That one's definitely worth a look-see, even if you're not sure you're up for 15 chapters worth of BtVS/Vorkosigan crossover with The Vor Slayer right now.

Part 1 (covering the journey to and the first two days of WriterCon) can be found here

And the saga continues . . .

( Day, the Third )

( 'Evil in Our Midst' )

( Remains of the Day )

So, to anyone I might have spoken with on Sunday night, if I returned an inappropriate or nonsensical reply to you please believe that it was not through inattention or inebriation. I was simply unable to correctly fill in the 70% of your words that were lost in the background clutter of other conversations all around us. (That's probably another reason why parties, and especially parties with music, tend to put me on edge, since focusing on one voice among all the other voices and sounds becomes so much more difficult, and I hate appearing foolish.)

( Goin' South )

( not so outrageous fortune at Chez Murchison )

For instance (and I hope I'm safe in assuming that nobody needs mild spoiler warnings for the movie at this point?), I hadn't previously noted how much the character of the new James T. Kirk resembles Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan, at times. I got a very Illyan-Miles kind of vibe from that final look between Pike and Kirk near the end, making me think, "Be careful what you dare this young man to do, for he may exceed your expectations to a terrifying degree." Plus, there's that whole bluffing (mostly) your way from academy misfit to commander of a starship in a few short days -- using gall, startling competence, and sheer force of personality -- that Miles and New-Jim both seem to share.

Or maybe that's just me?

Wednesday was spent driving ten and a half hours straight (with two brief stops for gas, one of which included a side-trip to pick up fast food for the road), in order to get back to TN while there was still a bit of daylight left -- just long enough for me to nip around back and pick all those ripe and over-ripe tomatoes (cherry, yellow pear, and my first ripe Mr. Stripey) and raspberries (red, and a few gold) which had accumulated in my absence. I have my priorities, after all, and during August fresh raspberries and home-grown tomatoes seem to rank pretty high, for some reason.

[Okay, that's MOST of the post I wrote this afternoon and which LJ promptly ate. I think the original version was more eloquent, or maybe even more coherent, but this is what I could piece together tonight.]