reading

have now read 50/200 pages of Studying Plays
as per usual, would have been more useful had I read it earlier
very frustrating
I seem to have read all the fiddly books while wishing for a framework and only now discovered the skeleton books, which of course leave me wishing for some nice meaty fiddly theory.
but it do keep applying the stuff to texts, so is plenty readable.
mostly is using A Doll's House as an example, so is also readable without going to read new plays.

It keeps reminding me I should probably read some Shakespeare. You know, at some point. Since the last time I bothered I was half my present age.

... time happens in quite large segments. weird.


my new pen shaped liquid ink highlighters make blobs at the end of every single word. this is sub optimal, to say the least. the regular pen shape also gives me regular finger aches. Methinks I should break out the other sorts, which are nice chunky rectangles.
Or maybe do some typing. But my computer is being a cranky and I can't be bothered to figure out why.

(no subject)

Am reading Border Princes.
Why does anyone think we want to read this?
I mean as Marty Stu character insert AU fanfic goes it isn't egregiously bad. It has a plot and the sex scenes thus far fade to black. It's just... making someone new the star of the show? Works in a 40 minute funny Buffy episode, but gets really really annoying trying to read it novel length. Or, actually, got plenty annoying enough by page 42, but I've run out of things to read.

I don't think the author is as clever as the author thinks they are.

And I really don't want to see everyone interacting with newbie in his Paragon 'verse, it's such bollocks it doesn't tell us anything about them.



on the plus side a new book just arrived in the post.


and it isn't currently snowing. which is yaay. because two days with no chocolate is obviously too many.

... I really need to stop expanding laterally like I am, but I also would quite like to eat much chocolate. these things are unmixy. is very unfair.



also, headaches+sleep should = no more headache, not just a headache that kind of sulks and lurks around the edges.

(no subject)

Got my marks back from Intro Lit:

69 for essay 1; 69 for presentation; 66 for essay 2, making 67.8 for the module overall.

70% would be First Class
60-69% is Upper Second.

so I did pretty well.


the difference between 'trying very hard' and 'handed in unproofread thing written in 48 hours' is all of 3%.
Could be considered to take the pressure off, but is also oddly demotivating.


Now I just have to remember to be brave and go pick the things up from the office when we go back to college.

... it shouldn't involve brave, but it involves a closed door and a room I don't usually go in, and for reasons unknown I *suck* at that.

(no subject)

You know, I really don't like Owen
yet I keep reading fanfic that leaves me wanting to write fanfic in defense of him
... some of the stuff out there is really viciously out of character, imho.
I mean Owen is a bastard, but he's not an empty bastard. He'll put himself in harm's way to do whatever he's convinced himself is right. Yeah, I was cheering Ianto on, but yeah, Owen had a point too, and if he was serious about it being duty that's his motive? That would explain why Jack even hired him. And make it really more difficult to totally hate him.
He's a bastard on a personal level, he's out of his depth once he's out of his field, but he's not empty spite. He's actually quite complex.

... not that it wouldn't give me a happy to write him some hurt, but there's ways and ways.



Also it's more fun when everyone's being in character because then they're snarky and sparky and pushing back whenever someone pushes and it's interesting.



Now if I can only find something to like about Gwen I'll have a complete set...

Torchwood: Border Princes

Border Princes was exactly what I thought it was from the first 42 pages
Marty Stu fanfic with no redeeming features
your basic Superstar setup with a auto-reset ending.

He was everyone's best mate, the lover that Gwen really deserved, the person who thought up all the cool names for everything (so that's what he ate from Ianto! no fair!), secretly a prince, with super powers, and he had odd colored eyes. Basically if this wasn't a deliberate ironic use of the checklist it's deeply deeply sad.

It seems to have entirely missed the point of it being a Torchwood novel - it is not in fact about Torchwood. The newbie has sucked all the individuality out of the others so they only exist in his orbit. We learn nothing about them, absolutely bugger all, for they react solely to him. Ianto exists for about five lines. Most of them are mind controlled most of the time. And it isn't like any of it is a surprise.

Somebody just sat down and invented some cooler than thou character and his world, and then got paid money for it. And then *I* paid money for it, which is the part I'm slightly bitter about.

The sad part is there were some really interesting things happening around the edges. If they'd happened to Team Torchwood there could have been a bloody good story in there. The Amok, the recurring church, the Serial G, those are all solid plots. But they only existed to put Marty Stu in danger, and that's just deeply pathetic.