What I Love about Going Postal (Part 3)
Oct. 13th, 2007 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinAs we get closer to the end, the density of notes increases. This part takes us to the climax of the character arc by way of excessive quotations!
The theory of 'prayer sausages' ... it makes so much sense. Crocodiles love sausages ... that ought to be a slogan for something.
AND LU-TZE. Win. Haha. No one notices the sweeper...
Anoia, Goddess of Things That Stick In Drawers. I wonder if the Sumerians, with their over-three-thousand gods, managed to hit on that one.
- Side note here: judging by my very narrow scope of the Internet World it sounds like Anoianism is catching on, at least in jest. The new Scientology? Or will we see people write 'Anoian' on census forms the way they famously did with Jedi? Hey, a girl can dream...
'Bloody Gilt ... arson around.' Not quite what Marcus Brigstocke would call a 'massive pun' but it certainly has its own gravity well on the rubber sheet of the punniverse.
The affair with the bank in Sto Lat is mentioned in happy passing well before we learn of its significance. Therefore we remember it at the same time Moist does when its significance actually turns up, and because we sided with him before we share in the reversal. Emotional involvement, yay.
All we need now is for the gods to smile on us.
Hmm. I think they'll smile a little broader outside.
The conversation between Vetinari and Moist re: Albert Spangler. Good gravy, what fantastic subtext. It's subtext all the way. The whole conversation is in what isn't said. Moist may read letters that aren't there, and the dark clerks may see the numbers that aren't there or are there twice or are going the wrong way, but Mr Pratchett writes the conversations that never happen in a way that's clear as day.
The discourse on Hope, that greatest of all treasures, found on pg 260 of the UK edition (a few pages into Chapter 11 for you Yanks) basically how 'It Could Be You!' is one of humanity's weak points. Brilliant.
Dr Lawn ... it's a cameo party around here.
Groat's sapient wig that got out of the cupboard ...
... You know, there is SO MUCH in this book. It's just ... full. It seems like there was a lot of development put into it that, possibly, didn't pay off as expected when subsequent drafts took a different turn, perhaps; like an oxbow lake. Mr Tiddles, Stanley being raised by peas, Mr Groat's wig, Moist's backstory, Tower 181, Mr Pony, and on and on, all sound like they had a lot of thought put into them, or at least they don't feel like throwaway gags. I wonder how long this book had been brewing, and if it's all going to pay off at some point. It seems like there's more established in this one book than in the first books of the Watch and Witches series, which have sort of grown organically through the years. The Moist 'series' has, more or less, exploded.
Mr Pony and his very righteous indignation
'Do you want it fast or cheap or good, gentlemen? The way things are going I can only give you one out of the three.' Closely related to the craftsman's mantra of 'fast, cheap, or good; you can only have two out of three' but more desperate.
Which leads to one of my favourite passages of all time, which I shall quote in its entirety outside of the cut because it is that important. (oh, and I snipped out one line to make it more universal.)
Gilt's body language during Pony's time before the board, leaning back with his eyes closed (but not in a sleepy way).
Gilt's business talk, all improvised. He really is good. The great thing about it is that he's been adequately established, up till now, so as to make us believe this really could be extemporaneous, it doesn't sound like the author is putting words in his mouth. Apparently this is what he was composing while lying back with his eyes closed half-listening to Mr Pony.
... they were riding a tiger. ... It wasn't a case of not being able to get off. They could get off. That was not the problem. The problem was that the tiger knew where they lived.
And then it occurred to one or two of the board that the jovial 'my friends' in the mouth of Reacher Gilt ... was beginning, in its harmonics and overtones, to sound just like the word 'pal' in the mouth of a man in an alley who was offering cosmetic surgery with a broken bottle in exchange for not being given any money.
Igor's cousin's hamster
People writing desperate letters to Moist and the fact that it hurts.
'You're the man who can tap the gods for a wad of wonga!' That line makes me think she should be voiced by Sue Perkins. At least I think it's Sue Perkins I hear in my head ...
Gilt loves the Post Office, and blesses its 'little cotton socks.'
The debunking of corporatese, specifically 'synergistically,' to be regretted,' and 'about people.'
I love how every single exchange between Moist and Gilt is nothing but pleasantries, delivered in such a masterfully duplicitous way as to mislead observers, but with absolutely no doubt as to their intentions. It's a bitter war fought with the politest words but in actions undoubtedly vicious. It's all showing, not telling – the telling contradicts the showing at every turn – and demonstrates the strength of one vs the other.
'"Murdering conniving bastard son of a weasel" was acceptable.'
He's trying the penetrating gaze, Moist thought. But we know how to deal with that, don't we? We let it pass right through.
Regarding the appreciation of stamps: 'I've got a couple of rather crusty handkerchiefs in my pocket ... Do you think people might want to buy them at two hundred times what they cost?'
Stanley's list of cabbage products, and the relentless way in which he delivers it
Eight to one odds on (and Moist's reaction, of course)
I wonder if it's like this for mountain climbers, he thought. You climb bigger and bigger mountains and you know that one day one of them is going to be just that little bit too steep. But you go on doing it, because it's so-o good when you breathe the air up there. And you know you'll die falling.
The Tump Tower – even though I am ashamed, every time I read of it, at how long it took me to catch onto that. I believe it was the third time through the book. I am choosing to blame my lack of exposure to television which is practically a virtue, haha!
The 'cut' (for want of a literary term) on page 291 (UK) between Gilt and Mr Pony discussing plans and Moist telling Adora Belle he doesn't have one. I know he's done this in several other books but that doesn't stop me loving it.
Moist's confession to Adora Belle, filled with all the vertigo of a Big Moment, the sort of Big Moment that depends entirely on one's doing something. A strange combination of voluntary and involuntary there.
She quite liked the bit where he was hanged, and made him repeat it.
'Do we embrace divertingly?' ... There was a pregnant pause. It gave birth to a lot of little pauses, each one more deeply embarrassing than its parent. That line just keeps on getting better all the way to the end.
The scene before Moist meets the Gnu, when he's up on the roof with all the silently blinking clacks towers ... it's so eerily beautiful, and carries such a sense of holding of breath. This would be the Miyazaki scene of the movie, especially when the Gnu come toward him silhouetted by the blinking lights.
I love the Smoking Gnu. I love that all their names start with A, that one is 'mad,' one is 'sane,' and the other is 'undecided,' but they are all clearly well around the bend. I love how they don't get along, and I wonder what they were like when John was among them (though they probably didn't call themselves 'The JAAA'). I love that they pretend to be pigeon fanciers, and I love the way they stumble through pulling the wool over Mr Groat's eyes which wouldn't fool anyone but Mr Groat, and especially not the readers. I love how they hack the clacks. They are semaphore hackers, how brilliant is that? I love that their name is cracker slang, and I love their name even more after installing Abiword and Audacity from the 'real' GNU and discovering that they are actually quite good programs. I like to think of Mad Al and Sane Alex arguing over a laptop in a dovecot while writing them. Presumably Undecided Adrian was off visiting family at the time, or maybe he's just absent because I still don't know what he looks like. ... Clearly I am insane. Moving on.
And then the whole conversation where they try pulling the wool over Moist's eyes, and you can hear them trying to keep up with him, until it reaches:
'Bats are mammals.'
I think part of the reason I love that line is that I hear it in the voice of Fetcher from Chicken Run, even though Sane Alex, who says it, would never sound like that.
'Are you insane as well as mad?'
You did what you were told or you didn't get paid and if things went wrong it wasn't your problem. ... No one cared about you, and everyone at headquarters was an idiot. It wasn't your fault; no one listened to you. Headquarters had even started an Employee of the Month scheme to show how much they cared. That was how much they didn't care. Dadgum, that hits the nail on the head.
Upon the arrival of The Plan, whilst shaving: Moist stared into his own eyes, and what flickered in the depths. And, oh dear, he has a cut. So sharp you'll cut yourself, it says in the chapter heading. Literally.
Golms are Made of p0o
...It was good to see the fine old traditions of idiot bigotry handed down, in a no-good-at-all kind of way. I know this is the second sentence with almost the exact same gag in it but they both make me laugh and I couldn't decide...
'I told them we were courting ... The tears of joy and hope in my mother's eyes were a sight to see.' This one is amusingly close to home.
Sane Alex's horned helmet, and the logic behind it
Moist's nimbleness with the book and Mr Pony at the contest – Gods, I'm good at this...
Gilt's unwitting referral to Groat's 'attack,' and how Moist takes that as permission to be merciless.
We've said it all, and the nice lady from the newspaper thinks we're good chums or, at least, just business rivals being stiffly polite to each other. Let's spoil the mood.
Moist looked into a pair of milky blue eyes were as innocent as a child's, particularly a child who is trying hard to look innocent.
Moist's proposal – so unexpected and off-the-cuff for what you'd think would be a moment with a lot more gravitas, and yet it's so in keeping with his character. Also, the response: 'Not yet.' What a perfect reply. It almost makes me wish someone would be foolish enough to propose to me just so I could use it. I don't know how I'd follow it up, though ... bolting from the room would probably be inadvisable.
He made a noise like an owl. Since Moist was no ornithologist, he did this by saying 'woo woo.'
And, of course, the subsequent menagerie shrieks of the magic owls ... that would be a fun 'throw it all in the bin' day at the sound effects department.
'This man,' said Sane Alex, pointing an accusing wrench, 'this man is mad!' You know, it's sentences written like that that have such a clear sense of timing that radio play directors are somehow oblivious to. Perhaps because they only see the script and not the original with interrupting narration that shows where the pause should go?
Adrian falling off the tower and the owl trying to stick a dead mouse in his ear but not wanting to get in the way
The establishment of the omniscope and its primary use (as a shaving mirror) using cosmology. There is a whole lot of nothing to look at and they trim their beards staring into the dark heart of the universe, sort of thing.
I LOVE THIS GAG:
Archchancellor Ridcully thumped the side of the thing with his hand, causing it to rock. 'It's still not working, Mr Stibbons!' he bellowed. 'Here's that damn enormous fiery eye again!'
I LOVE IT.
I have always intended to draw a picture of this but I love the gag so much that I fear, if I put it on my website, I will spoil it for the unwary traveller. Such is my respect for the gag.
The fact chapter 14 is called 'Deliverance.'
In the bedlam of the reading of the message: 'Oh, please sue the University!' Ridcully bellowed, 'We've got a pond full of people who tried to sue the University –' Ridcully would, of course, be voiced by Brian Blessed. I am sure that's who Terry Pratchett had in mind. :)
Stowley's 'amnesia' ... a man who believed in laying down the groundwork as soon as possible. But not right from the outset. I love how we don't even get any stage direction for him, just his dialogue, and we can always tell it's him. That makes his sudden and incredibly profound 'amnesia' (whereupon he forgets what a hand is, for example) all the funnier.
Okay, listen closely. This ... this is probably my favourite part of the whole book. This is the part for which there is a half-page-long sort of rising crescendo not of music but of that spirit that would create music if I were a composer, culminating in the Line of Lines which I LOVE. I shall set it in a font size befitting my love for it.
Some jobs needed a good honest hammer. Others needed a twisty corkscrew.
With any luck, he could believe that, if he really tried.
YES!! YES!!! CHARACTER ARC! WE HAVE CHARACTER ARC!! AHAHAHAHA!!! Take THAT unsuspecting reader and also Moist himself!! It's beautiful! It's succinct! It's perfect! it is the perfect way to phrase it, and even the line break adds to the perfection by putting in just the right timing and sense of gravitas – just enough! Not too much! Not enough to sound corny or melodramatic but a quiet little statement that is only slightly different than a thousand statements before but so significant. Just that tiny little turn in the character but it means so much; it means even more because it's so subtle. If he'd become a thoroughly upright citizen who renounced his life of crime and was committed to the straight and narrow, that would just be too much and I, for one, just wouldn't care. But this! Sigh. I love it.
<< Part 2 - Part 4 >>
The theory of 'prayer sausages' ... it makes so much sense. Crocodiles love sausages ... that ought to be a slogan for something.
AND LU-TZE. Win. Haha. No one notices the sweeper...
Anoia, Goddess of Things That Stick In Drawers. I wonder if the Sumerians, with their over-three-thousand gods, managed to hit on that one.
- Side note here: judging by my very narrow scope of the Internet World it sounds like Anoianism is catching on, at least in jest. The new Scientology? Or will we see people write 'Anoian' on census forms the way they famously did with Jedi? Hey, a girl can dream...
'Bloody Gilt ... arson around.' Not quite what Marcus Brigstocke would call a 'massive pun' but it certainly has its own gravity well on the rubber sheet of the punniverse.
The affair with the bank in Sto Lat is mentioned in happy passing well before we learn of its significance. Therefore we remember it at the same time Moist does when its significance actually turns up, and because we sided with him before we share in the reversal. Emotional involvement, yay.
All we need now is for the gods to smile on us.
Hmm. I think they'll smile a little broader outside.
The conversation between Vetinari and Moist re: Albert Spangler. Good gravy, what fantastic subtext. It's subtext all the way. The whole conversation is in what isn't said. Moist may read letters that aren't there, and the dark clerks may see the numbers that aren't there or are there twice or are going the wrong way, but Mr Pratchett writes the conversations that never happen in a way that's clear as day.
The discourse on Hope, that greatest of all treasures, found on pg 260 of the UK edition (a few pages into Chapter 11 for you Yanks) basically how 'It Could Be You!' is one of humanity's weak points. Brilliant.
Dr Lawn ... it's a cameo party around here.
Groat's sapient wig that got out of the cupboard ...
... You know, there is SO MUCH in this book. It's just ... full. It seems like there was a lot of development put into it that, possibly, didn't pay off as expected when subsequent drafts took a different turn, perhaps; like an oxbow lake. Mr Tiddles, Stanley being raised by peas, Mr Groat's wig, Moist's backstory, Tower 181, Mr Pony, and on and on, all sound like they had a lot of thought put into them, or at least they don't feel like throwaway gags. I wonder how long this book had been brewing, and if it's all going to pay off at some point. It seems like there's more established in this one book than in the first books of the Watch and Witches series, which have sort of grown organically through the years. The Moist 'series' has, more or less, exploded.
Mr Pony and his very righteous indignation
'Do you want it fast or cheap or good, gentlemen? The way things are going I can only give you one out of the three.' Closely related to the craftsman's mantra of 'fast, cheap, or good; you can only have two out of three' but more desperate.
Which leads to one of my favourite passages of all time, which I shall quote in its entirety outside of the cut because it is that important. (oh, and I snipped out one line to make it more universal.)
Yep, engraved on my office door in gold, someday ... it's too late to send it to Eisner, haha. Though to be fair, everyone in animation polishes chairs with their arses all day. ;) Just in different ways. I've got to say, it makes a HUGE difference to work with craftsmen rather than the 'It's not just good, it's good enough!' crowd.Craftsmen: D'you know what that means? It means men with some pride, who get fed up and leave when they're told to do skimpy work in a rush, no matter what you pay them. But you don't care, because if they don't polish a chair with their arse all day you think a man who's done a seven-year apprenticeship is the same as some twerp who can't be trusted to hold a hammer by the right end.'
Gilt's body language during Pony's time before the board, leaning back with his eyes closed (but not in a sleepy way).
Gilt's business talk, all improvised. He really is good. The great thing about it is that he's been adequately established, up till now, so as to make us believe this really could be extemporaneous, it doesn't sound like the author is putting words in his mouth. Apparently this is what he was composing while lying back with his eyes closed half-listening to Mr Pony.
... they were riding a tiger. ... It wasn't a case of not being able to get off. They could get off. That was not the problem. The problem was that the tiger knew where they lived.
And then it occurred to one or two of the board that the jovial 'my friends' in the mouth of Reacher Gilt ... was beginning, in its harmonics and overtones, to sound just like the word 'pal' in the mouth of a man in an alley who was offering cosmetic surgery with a broken bottle in exchange for not being given any money.
Igor's cousin's hamster
People writing desperate letters to Moist and the fact that it hurts.
'You're the man who can tap the gods for a wad of wonga!' That line makes me think she should be voiced by Sue Perkins. At least I think it's Sue Perkins I hear in my head ...
Gilt loves the Post Office, and blesses its 'little cotton socks.'
The debunking of corporatese, specifically 'synergistically,' to be regretted,' and 'about people.'
I love how every single exchange between Moist and Gilt is nothing but pleasantries, delivered in such a masterfully duplicitous way as to mislead observers, but with absolutely no doubt as to their intentions. It's a bitter war fought with the politest words but in actions undoubtedly vicious. It's all showing, not telling – the telling contradicts the showing at every turn – and demonstrates the strength of one vs the other.
'"Murdering conniving bastard son of a weasel" was acceptable.'
He's trying the penetrating gaze, Moist thought. But we know how to deal with that, don't we? We let it pass right through.
Regarding the appreciation of stamps: 'I've got a couple of rather crusty handkerchiefs in my pocket ... Do you think people might want to buy them at two hundred times what they cost?'
Stanley's list of cabbage products, and the relentless way in which he delivers it
Eight to one odds on (and Moist's reaction, of course)
I wonder if it's like this for mountain climbers, he thought. You climb bigger and bigger mountains and you know that one day one of them is going to be just that little bit too steep. But you go on doing it, because it's so-o good when you breathe the air up there. And you know you'll die falling.
The Tump Tower – even though I am ashamed, every time I read of it, at how long it took me to catch onto that. I believe it was the third time through the book. I am choosing to blame my lack of exposure to television which is practically a virtue, haha!
The 'cut' (for want of a literary term) on page 291 (UK) between Gilt and Mr Pony discussing plans and Moist telling Adora Belle he doesn't have one. I know he's done this in several other books but that doesn't stop me loving it.
Moist's confession to Adora Belle, filled with all the vertigo of a Big Moment, the sort of Big Moment that depends entirely on one's doing something. A strange combination of voluntary and involuntary there.
She quite liked the bit where he was hanged, and made him repeat it.
'Do we embrace divertingly?' ... There was a pregnant pause. It gave birth to a lot of little pauses, each one more deeply embarrassing than its parent. That line just keeps on getting better all the way to the end.
The scene before Moist meets the Gnu, when he's up on the roof with all the silently blinking clacks towers ... it's so eerily beautiful, and carries such a sense of holding of breath. This would be the Miyazaki scene of the movie, especially when the Gnu come toward him silhouetted by the blinking lights.
I love the Smoking Gnu. I love that all their names start with A, that one is 'mad,' one is 'sane,' and the other is 'undecided,' but they are all clearly well around the bend. I love how they don't get along, and I wonder what they were like when John was among them (though they probably didn't call themselves 'The JAAA'). I love that they pretend to be pigeon fanciers, and I love the way they stumble through pulling the wool over Mr Groat's eyes which wouldn't fool anyone but Mr Groat, and especially not the readers. I love how they hack the clacks. They are semaphore hackers, how brilliant is that? I love that their name is cracker slang, and I love their name even more after installing Abiword and Audacity from the 'real' GNU and discovering that they are actually quite good programs. I like to think of Mad Al and Sane Alex arguing over a laptop in a dovecot while writing them. Presumably Undecided Adrian was off visiting family at the time, or maybe he's just absent because I still don't know what he looks like. ... Clearly I am insane. Moving on.
And then the whole conversation where they try pulling the wool over Moist's eyes, and you can hear them trying to keep up with him, until it reaches:
'Bats are mammals.'
I think part of the reason I love that line is that I hear it in the voice of Fetcher from Chicken Run, even though Sane Alex, who says it, would never sound like that.
'Are you insane as well as mad?'
You did what you were told or you didn't get paid and if things went wrong it wasn't your problem. ... No one cared about you, and everyone at headquarters was an idiot. It wasn't your fault; no one listened to you. Headquarters had even started an Employee of the Month scheme to show how much they cared. That was how much they didn't care. Dadgum, that hits the nail on the head.
Upon the arrival of The Plan, whilst shaving: Moist stared into his own eyes, and what flickered in the depths. And, oh dear, he has a cut. So sharp you'll cut yourself, it says in the chapter heading. Literally.
Golms are Made of p0o
...It was good to see the fine old traditions of idiot bigotry handed down, in a no-good-at-all kind of way. I know this is the second sentence with almost the exact same gag in it but they both make me laugh and I couldn't decide...
'I told them we were courting ... The tears of joy and hope in my mother's eyes were a sight to see.' This one is amusingly close to home.
Sane Alex's horned helmet, and the logic behind it
Moist's nimbleness with the book and Mr Pony at the contest – Gods, I'm good at this...
Gilt's unwitting referral to Groat's 'attack,' and how Moist takes that as permission to be merciless.
We've said it all, and the nice lady from the newspaper thinks we're good chums or, at least, just business rivals being stiffly polite to each other. Let's spoil the mood.
Moist looked into a pair of milky blue eyes were as innocent as a child's, particularly a child who is trying hard to look innocent.
Moist's proposal – so unexpected and off-the-cuff for what you'd think would be a moment with a lot more gravitas, and yet it's so in keeping with his character. Also, the response: 'Not yet.' What a perfect reply. It almost makes me wish someone would be foolish enough to propose to me just so I could use it. I don't know how I'd follow it up, though ... bolting from the room would probably be inadvisable.
He made a noise like an owl. Since Moist was no ornithologist, he did this by saying 'woo woo.'
And, of course, the subsequent menagerie shrieks of the magic owls ... that would be a fun 'throw it all in the bin' day at the sound effects department.
'This man,' said Sane Alex, pointing an accusing wrench, 'this man is mad!' You know, it's sentences written like that that have such a clear sense of timing that radio play directors are somehow oblivious to. Perhaps because they only see the script and not the original with interrupting narration that shows where the pause should go?
Adrian falling off the tower and the owl trying to stick a dead mouse in his ear but not wanting to get in the way
The establishment of the omniscope and its primary use (as a shaving mirror) using cosmology. There is a whole lot of nothing to look at and they trim their beards staring into the dark heart of the universe, sort of thing.
I LOVE THIS GAG:
Archchancellor Ridcully thumped the side of the thing with his hand, causing it to rock. 'It's still not working, Mr Stibbons!' he bellowed. 'Here's that damn enormous fiery eye again!'
I LOVE IT.
I have always intended to draw a picture of this but I love the gag so much that I fear, if I put it on my website, I will spoil it for the unwary traveller. Such is my respect for the gag.
The fact chapter 14 is called 'Deliverance.'
In the bedlam of the reading of the message: 'Oh, please sue the University!' Ridcully bellowed, 'We've got a pond full of people who tried to sue the University –' Ridcully would, of course, be voiced by Brian Blessed. I am sure that's who Terry Pratchett had in mind. :)
Stowley's 'amnesia' ... a man who believed in laying down the groundwork as soon as possible. But not right from the outset. I love how we don't even get any stage direction for him, just his dialogue, and we can always tell it's him. That makes his sudden and incredibly profound 'amnesia' (whereupon he forgets what a hand is, for example) all the funnier.
Okay, listen closely. This ... this is probably my favourite part of the whole book. This is the part for which there is a half-page-long sort of rising crescendo not of music but of that spirit that would create music if I were a composer, culminating in the Line of Lines which I LOVE. I shall set it in a font size befitting my love for it.
Some jobs needed a good honest hammer. Others needed a twisty corkscrew.
With any luck, he could believe that, if he really tried.
YES!! YES!!! CHARACTER ARC! WE HAVE CHARACTER ARC!! AHAHAHAHA!!! Take THAT unsuspecting reader and also Moist himself!! It's beautiful! It's succinct! It's perfect! it is the perfect way to phrase it, and even the line break adds to the perfection by putting in just the right timing and sense of gravitas – just enough! Not too much! Not enough to sound corny or melodramatic but a quiet little statement that is only slightly different than a thousand statements before but so significant. Just that tiny little turn in the character but it means so much; it means even more because it's so subtle. If he'd become a thoroughly upright citizen who renounced his life of crime and was committed to the straight and narrow, that would just be too much and I, for one, just wouldn't care. But this! Sigh. I love it.
<< Part 2 - Part 4 >>
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 05:02 pm (UTC)like a trifle. Onions are gross.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 01:30 pm (UTC)Sorry for the capslock,but it was THAT good!!!
no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 03:53 pm (UTC)But the book is awesome, yes. Very much. ^^
no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 05:03 pm (UTC)AGH. i missed so many gags!!!!!!!
no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 05:54 pm (UTC)I agree, I think Going Postal is one of his best!
no subject
Date: 2007-10-14 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 07:26 am (UTC)Though... I can just see it now ... I get on the staff as prop design cleanup person #3 and am the tiny little voice peeping up from the end of the long hall of cubicles saying 'No! No! You're doing this all wrong! You don't get the point of this scene!' that no one seems to hear ...
no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 06:38 pm (UTC)I liked your comments here, especially regarding the way corporations treat employees and try to make money by cutting costs till they ruin the product. That was a big reason why I like GP- so, so much true about that.
The Miyazaki reference was very cool.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 06:42 pm (UTC)And thereby me! :D I promise I wouldn't charge much salary, being paid mostly in adrenaline and glee.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 11:01 pm (UTC)You should be paid more than in adrenaline and glee, though, judging by your GP artwork and your ideas about how certain scenes would look on film. It would probably turn out veddy nice, though I imagine there would be some discussions about accents of certain characters, or lack therof. :=)
no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 02:11 am (UTC)And, also, lawyers.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 02:34 am (UTC)I suppose you refer to the copyright issue.
Hm.
Well, who knows. Write to Terry Pratchett :)
Graphic Novels and Persepolis
Date: 2007-10-16 04:21 pm (UTC)A Graphic novel about "Going Postal" seems quite intriguing, legal issues aside (see above post about the necessity of being super rich to buy legal rights and secure Terry Pratchett to help with the writing). I think it could adapt well in that format, especially if one could use some breaking the fourth wall like Marvel Comics sometimes does in their more satirical comics. I also would think it cool to see a Discworld artwork anything done by women. Guy artists seem to dominate the field, though there are a growing number of graphic novels done by female artists.
But, as you say, they do take a long, long time. I think that is why I consider graphic novels a work of art. Just adapting the book plot to fit a graphic novel is a challenge and an art form in itself- it is what makes people like Neil Gaiman geniuses. I doodle out ideas for my own graphic novel with little comic strips, and the work in setting up the script, then the panels, the drawings and the lettering is incredibly hard. Then there is the coloring, shadows, etc. that is so beyond what I can do. Some of the colorations and shadows that cartoonists and comic artists do really blows me away in its beauty. I have never been lucky enough to take an art class, and it shows in my work... one of those things I intend to do when I have more time* (ha ha ha). But I spend about 30 minutes or so each night drawing as a kind of therapy.
By the way, have either of you heard anything about the film adaptation of Persepolis? It is supposed to be coming out as an animated movie this fall (probably with English subtitles). It looks quite interesting- I hope it keeps the spirit of the graphic novel in the film.
*in my next life?
Re: Graphic Novels and Persepolis
Date: 2007-10-16 04:30 pm (UTC)Re: Graphic Novels and Persepolis
Date: 2007-10-16 07:32 pm (UTC)Re: Graphic Novels and Persepolis
Date: 2007-10-16 07:57 pm (UTC)Come to think of it, the ones I do like, I like solely for the illustrations because I usually can't read what's written on account of it being in another language (grr wretched European monopoly on good comic art.)
With the exception of Mignola. MIGNOLA FOR KING. LONG LIVE MIGNOLA.
... of .... comics ...
Re: Graphic Novels and Persepolis
Date: 2007-10-16 10:05 pm (UTC)True about graphic novels and comics from the European continent. Those are some of the best for the impact of the art and the refreshingly unusual stories. I have been enjoying some of Joann Sfar's stuff that came to our library translated to English.
Re: Graphic Novels and Persepolis
Date: 2007-10-16 04:36 pm (UTC)Re: Graphic Novels and Persepolis
Date: 2007-10-16 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 10:58 pm (UTC)Live Action Movie
Animated Movie (CG or traditional? I'd say traditional)
Graphic Novel
Illustrated Edition (ala The Last Hero?)
I'd say frankly all of them have the potential to be brilliant, if placed in the right hands. (Mine? Although I only have the qualifications to handle the last two.)
no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 07:16 am (UTC)