whipfinish
whipfinish t1_j2c6xfn wrote
Reply to Does Don Winslow introduce endless female characters just to write explicitly about their bodies and sex lives? by hammnbubbly
I think I know some of the Cartel characters you are referring to. Totally agree. I was listening to it on a long dull night drive and I had to turn it off. Boring empty highway was preferable to another interchangeable set of meat puppets.
I think he does this to other sets of characters too, not just women (though women are the most egregious). He just doesn't know when to quit. Taken one at a time, his characters are good, but they come in squads and platoons. Then you devote all this energy to booking them in and they don't do anything. I want my characters to move forward and do things. But he just can't stop tangenting them and establishing every freaking little detail. Don, if you're listening--you're wearing us out. Six characters, one para of backstory. Spinning out interesting characters isn't enough. If you want to give us a new one, you have to kill one of the old ones.
whipfinish t1_j29u4uh wrote
If you're going to read the play cold, and read all parts, it can be frustrating. They are not plays--they're scripts, documents not intended for reading. Reading is fine if that's what you want or have, but scripts are made for actors. If you want to become conversant with Shakespeare, it's perfectly fine to do it with film--that's what they are intended to do. I helped inflict a generation of script-reading on high school students, and I came to believe that it's a waste of time unless your reading is part of a process of presentation. If you want to grasp Shostakovich you don't curl up with the score. If you want to enjoy architecture, you don't study blueprints.
If you really want to read them, I recommend that you begin with comedies, and bookend your reading with good film. I recommend Much Ado and this stage-filmed production:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2651158/
(Some big chunks of this are on YouTube This one is by the Old Globe, a filmed version of a stage performance complete with groundlings in the rain, music and dancing, and a good bit of relating to the audience.
Twelfth Night is my next favorite.
These are stage pros and cadence and energy makes meaning. It's remarkable (in this production especially) how important non-spoken elements are. The intense physical interplay is a feature of comedy most of all.
whipfinish t1_j1nhk08 wrote
Again, the Power of the Preposition is demonstrated upon us.
whipfinish t1_j1n2s4k wrote
Reply to TIL about Saturnalia - a Roman Holiday held between 17 - 23 December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere. by TurboBennett
And perhaps a tad bit of group sex.
whipfinish t1_j0lk7d0 wrote
Reply to Is the handmaid's tale poorly written? by Singto_
I seriously doubt it. Atwood is a very precise stylist, but she is also innovative. What makes you think it might be badly written?
whipfinish t1_iyd2c7w wrote
Reply to TIL: Dogs don't have digestive enzymes in their saliva, nor can they chew side to side. Their jaws only allow for up-and-down movement because their diet doesn’t need as much chewing as ours does. by theotherbogart
A nice way of saying my Springer can hoik down a whole hot Chicken Cordon Bleu then jump up to grab another one from the counter before I can cover the ten feet from where I'm setting the table.
whipfinish t1_iuswinr wrote
Reply to comment by SpottedPineapple86 in TIL that one third of sea level rise is from thermal expansion (not melting ice) by on_surfaces
Antarctica is the highest continent on earth. Over half of that ice is more than 50 meters above current sea level, and it will be lifted even higher as the ice load is reduced during large-scale melting. The Greenland ice sheet creates almost no ice shelves and nearly all of its ice is over 50 meters above sea level.
The ice is not yet in the water.
whipfinish t1_ius7lp5 wrote
Reply to comment by SpottedPineapple86 in TIL that one third of sea level rise is from thermal expansion (not melting ice) by on_surfaces
Most ice in question is not yet in the water.
whipfinish t1_j2cb731 wrote
Reply to [a farewell to arms] forgive my ignorance but what the hell does henry’s role as a soldier even consist of?(rant) by Massacre-_-lover
Here let me patiently explain to you why the novel is actually...nah, fuck it. You're right, bro. Bad book. Hemingway deserves to be blown up while eating macaroni.