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'Twas the night before Noël...
The blanket is FINISHED! *falls over* If I were to calculate the time it took me to make, that's 180 squares that took on average 45 minutes each to knit, so that's already 135 hours, plus the time to sew them together (too frackin' long!), plus crocheting the border -- let's just call it an even 160 hours. And that's most likely being generous! Still, I'm quite proud of it. I've been "testing" it the past few nights, piling it on top of my own blanket, and it's pretty warm. I'm sure B2 & Girl will be glad to have a little less to pay on their heating bill. After all, Montreal is chilly this time of year.
I went out again this afternoon on a recon mission, to scope out the nearby shopping plazas in preparation for my big January shopping spree. Saw lots of nice things, and couldn't resist buying a cute blue capelet-thingy. Come on, for 20$, how could I not?
In the spirit of the season, here's something full of holiday spirit, which I watched back in October. For some reason, it never crossed my mind to save it for now!
Hogfather
First of all, I love Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and I adore the character of Death. Since he pops up in almost every book (quite possibly every single one), that's a good thing. However, I've managed to only ever read one novel about Death specifically, and that was Soul Music*. I remember that experience quite clearly, because a certain passage (I believe it was the one where they're trying to come up with a better-sounding name than "The Band with Rocks In," but it may have been something else) made me laugh so hard that my parents actually came up to my room to ask me why I was howling, at which point I tried to read them the passage, only I was still laughing so hard I couldn't speak. You know how when you read something out loud while attempting to keep a straight face, your jaw starts aching because you're trying not to grin yet trying to enunciate properly at the same time, and facial muscles weren't, apparently, designed to do that? Yeah, it happens to me on occasion. Ahem.
Anyway, as much as I love Death, I wasn't convinced that he could be convincingly translated to film. After all, how could one render eye sockets that contain the cold darkness of space and the distant glimmer of stars? How on earth could anyone be expected to produce THAT VOICE? Those were my main preoccupations going in, since I had no idea what the story was about. And honestly, I needn't have worried. While Death was not exactly as I'd imagined, being on screen and so one step removed, he was close enough to the essence of the character that after the first ten minutes, I was sold. As a creation, I would compare him to Gandalf: there's something so fundamentally familiar about them both, though perhaps Death isn't quite the archetype Gandalf is, that you'd recognise them anywhere, no matter the slight variations. This is one reason I was very glad that Pratchett's Death was featured in Good Omens -- not that I don't like Gaiman's version of same, but I don't think she would have translated as well to a prose format.
Overall, I can't say that I was disappointed by Hogfather, except for the casting of the wizards of the Unseen University, who were entirely too thin! What happened to "mountains of flesh" topped by pointy hats, hmm? Apart from their weight, they were exactly as I'd imagined them, and I was glad to see Hex play a role as well. The other characters were delightfully cast, and I always love British productions for the sheer variety of faces they use (I'm weary of American productions in which everyone is at least conventionally, blandly attractive). The costumes, especially the guards' at the Tooth Fairy's castle, were great. I also liked the black and white effects used in Death's home.
The one thing that didn't translate well to film was the core of the book. The story is about belief, about how all sorts of little beliefs in silly things allow us to believe in the greater things, and I'm sure that in the novel, there's a poignant passage that explains just that. Indeed, those passages are, to me, the heart of each Discworld book, and the reason that I keep going back to them, even more than the humour: Pratchett's belief in humanity itself, in its contradictions, its good, its not-so-good, and all its ridiculous glory. Compare that to Douglas Adams, who also wrote funny books, but with a decidedly more cynical bent -- the ending to Mostly Harmless greatly upset me. At any rate, I'd like to get ahold of the book Hogfather at some point, to see whether it corresponds to my impressions. While I don't think it will turn out to be among my favourite Discworld stories, I don't doubt it will be entertaining. It's Pratchett, after all.
Final verdict: 7.5/10
* I've read all** the Rincewind books except for the first one, oddly enough; I've read all the Witches books, as well as the Watch books, and the random ones that don't really fit into any of those categories, such as Small Gods, which is still my favourite of all the Discworld novels.
** When I say all, in this case, I mean all the books that had been published up until 2001, which is when I stopped going to the Ottawa Public Library.***
*** I like asterisks. I also like Asterix, but that's neither here nor there.
I went out again this afternoon on a recon mission, to scope out the nearby shopping plazas in preparation for my big January shopping spree. Saw lots of nice things, and couldn't resist buying a cute blue capelet-thingy. Come on, for 20$, how could I not?
In the spirit of the season, here's something full of holiday spirit, which I watched back in October. For some reason, it never crossed my mind to save it for now!
Hogfather
First of all, I love Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and I adore the character of Death. Since he pops up in almost every book (quite possibly every single one), that's a good thing. However, I've managed to only ever read one novel about Death specifically, and that was Soul Music*. I remember that experience quite clearly, because a certain passage (I believe it was the one where they're trying to come up with a better-sounding name than "The Band with Rocks In," but it may have been something else) made me laugh so hard that my parents actually came up to my room to ask me why I was howling, at which point I tried to read them the passage, only I was still laughing so hard I couldn't speak. You know how when you read something out loud while attempting to keep a straight face, your jaw starts aching because you're trying not to grin yet trying to enunciate properly at the same time, and facial muscles weren't, apparently, designed to do that? Yeah, it happens to me on occasion. Ahem.
Anyway, as much as I love Death, I wasn't convinced that he could be convincingly translated to film. After all, how could one render eye sockets that contain the cold darkness of space and the distant glimmer of stars? How on earth could anyone be expected to produce THAT VOICE? Those were my main preoccupations going in, since I had no idea what the story was about. And honestly, I needn't have worried. While Death was not exactly as I'd imagined, being on screen and so one step removed, he was close enough to the essence of the character that after the first ten minutes, I was sold. As a creation, I would compare him to Gandalf: there's something so fundamentally familiar about them both, though perhaps Death isn't quite the archetype Gandalf is, that you'd recognise them anywhere, no matter the slight variations. This is one reason I was very glad that Pratchett's Death was featured in Good Omens -- not that I don't like Gaiman's version of same, but I don't think she would have translated as well to a prose format.
Overall, I can't say that I was disappointed by Hogfather, except for the casting of the wizards of the Unseen University, who were entirely too thin! What happened to "mountains of flesh" topped by pointy hats, hmm? Apart from their weight, they were exactly as I'd imagined them, and I was glad to see Hex play a role as well. The other characters were delightfully cast, and I always love British productions for the sheer variety of faces they use (I'm weary of American productions in which everyone is at least conventionally, blandly attractive). The costumes, especially the guards' at the Tooth Fairy's castle, were great. I also liked the black and white effects used in Death's home.
The one thing that didn't translate well to film was the core of the book. The story is about belief, about how all sorts of little beliefs in silly things allow us to believe in the greater things, and I'm sure that in the novel, there's a poignant passage that explains just that. Indeed, those passages are, to me, the heart of each Discworld book, and the reason that I keep going back to them, even more than the humour: Pratchett's belief in humanity itself, in its contradictions, its good, its not-so-good, and all its ridiculous glory. Compare that to Douglas Adams, who also wrote funny books, but with a decidedly more cynical bent -- the ending to Mostly Harmless greatly upset me. At any rate, I'd like to get ahold of the book Hogfather at some point, to see whether it corresponds to my impressions. While I don't think it will turn out to be among my favourite Discworld stories, I don't doubt it will be entertaining. It's Pratchett, after all.
Final verdict: 7.5/10
* I've read all** the Rincewind books except for the first one, oddly enough; I've read all the Witches books, as well as the Watch books, and the random ones that don't really fit into any of those categories, such as Small Gods, which is still my favourite of all the Discworld novels.
** When I say all, in this case, I mean all the books that had been published up until 2001, which is when I stopped going to the Ottawa Public Library.***
*** I like asterisks. I also like Asterix, but that's neither here nor there.