So over the course of the last week or so, I’ve watched:
– Mary Reilly – 1996 – film starring John Malkovitch as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and Julia Roberts as his housemaid. Also Glenn Close is in it. There are some movies which, it turns out, are perfect for watching in a feverish drowse, and this is one of them. It might even be pretty good whilst sober, IDK. I also read the book, which was improved on by the adaptation.
– Con Air – 1997 – a film not directed by Michael Bay, which suffers from it. (I wasn’t quite out of my mind enough to watch this all the way through, but Nicholas Cage’s fake southern accent was kind of hilarious.)
– Mission: Impossible (the one with the actress who got horribly miscast as Jessica in the new Dune movie), whichever that is, it’s pretty bad. There were motorcycles in it, I believe.
– Top Gun: Maverick (again)
– Some episode of Xena: Warrior Princess (did this show just get completely memoryholed? Does no one remember that there was a Strong Female Character TM who was extremely popular and OP? It seems like more people debating the First Strong Female Lead Character Ever TM should be a bit more respectful.) I mean, it’s….completely cheesy and without lasting value, but! this show is absolutely amazing. When you’re also too lightheaded to drive.
Ayiyiyiyiyiyi.
And read:
– Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik wrote a pretty great fantasy fiction, mostly by not allowing the romance tropes to overtake the intrigue and action. But leaning harder into the pure, high fantasy-epic tropes would have been nice regardless.
– Tales from the White Hart – Arthur C. Clarke chronicles the yarns of fictional raconteur Harry Purvis at the eponymous London pub, in an adorably ’50s cozy-scifi way.
– The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas. Hell, it turns out, is finding that your premier paperback copy is actually abridged and Project Gutenberg insists on not providing a better alternative. Like Dracula, it would be kind of awesome to see an actual adaptation of this book….because I don’t think it’s ever actually been done.
Riders of Skaith 
MI: Motorcycles was MI:2 But I’m not sure about the female character. I think Lady Jessica was in MI: Fallout? After a bit they all kind of blur together.
And sorry to hear you found out that dirty secret about your copy of Count. That’s always a hard thing to come to grips with. My condolences….
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Rebecca Ferguson? That would be MI-5? Rogue Nation?
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Right! That’s the one. I always forget there is one between Ghost Protocol and Fallout…
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Sounds familiar…
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Fortunately, the Library Genesis came to my aid. Yo ho, yo ho…
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Aye, Cap’n!
I must admit, I actually did like the abridged version better than the original upon first read.
I haven’t had the courage to try again to see which I still like better.
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….DUDE.
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The original is twice as long. He wrote a LOT of fluff….
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It’s not fluff, scubber!
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Total fluff. Not even Dickens is as wordy…
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Haven’t read dickens so won’t argue there.
But some of my favorite bits are Albert’s posse just hanging around, being snide and/or witty.
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Oh, I wasn’t trying to say you shouldn’t like the full novel, just that it was puffed up. And the abridged version does cut out certain parts of the storyline so the ending doesn’t make as much sense.
No Dickens? No interest or something else?
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The full novel might be verbosely written–everyone does tend to declaim at length–but it’s very structurally sound and balanced.
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“Ayiyiyiyiyiyi.”
Dang it, I was so disappointed as a child that all my attempts to imitate Xena’s war cry ended in failure. I still can’t imitate it. I want to, even now. It sounds so COOL!!!!
And yes, a little respect with regard to OP Strong Female CharactersTM would be excellent. :sigh: Xena was *fun,* darn it….
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XD
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Are you crazy? If there were already Strong Female Characters(tm) or Black Action Leads or Strong Black Female Action Lead Characters(tm) before present year, what would their be for the rising generation to pioneer?
I mean, it’s kind of hilarious: they’ve been taught over and over to go out and change the world, but the only things they’ve been taught to value are the changes their teachers already made. So they just pretend to do those over again.
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And doing them poorly, which is where everyone *ELSE* has the problem. GRH.
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Well, obviously; courageous and brilliant pioneers like them *always* receive persecution from the wicked and ignorant.
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