Susan Hated Literature

Author: Margo Lanagan
ISBN: 0575077816 DDC: 823.914
A Once Upon A Time reading challenge read.
See also: Margo Lanagan’s blog ; LibraryThing ; Scooter Chronicles ; The Merchant Princes ; The Genre Files ; Emerald City ; Infinity Plus ;

We all went down to the tar-pit, with mats to spread our weight.

This was an impulse purchase; my reason being the cover. It grabbed my eye and passed my usual “read a random sentence or two” test. So I bought it. And I am glad to say that I loved it. It is a collection of short stories, many told in the first person, and as usual with short stories there are some I loved and some I thought were merely okay. None were bad though.

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Dir: Sam Raimi
Writ: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, & Alvin Sargent. Based on the comic by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko

• Tobey Maguire … Spider-Man/Peter Parker
• Kirsten Dunst … Mary Jane Watson
• James Franco … New Goblin/Harry Osborn
• Thomas Haden Church … Sandman/Flint Marko
• Topher Grace … Venom/Eddie Brock
• Bryce Dallas Howard … Gwen Stacy
• James Cromwell … Captain Stacy
• Bruce Campbell … Maître d’

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first two spiderman films; I enjoyed them but didn’t LOVE them. They were good, solid entertainment. Two was probably a little better, though I may feel that way because I recently rewatched it when it was shown on the telly a few weeks ago. This one isn’t so good. It is too long. There are too many characters. And worst of all, unlike the second, it has no heart to it.

It felt stop-start, as though they had too many characters and story-lines and couldn’t figure out to make then all work together properly, nothing seemed to fit.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Spiderman, or of Peter Parker for that matter, and in this film I just couldn’t care less what happened him. James Franco was more interesting as Harry. There was nothing to grip the viewer, and while the special effects were excellent you really need a good story to hang them on. This was all pretty curtains and no foundation.

And the cocky version of Peter Parker? That was just weird and stupid. Yes at first it was a little entertaining to see him strut, but after 2 seconds it became creepyfing, and disturbing. And the dancing! wtf!

There is nothing hideous and terrible about the film. You’ll watch, you’ll be entertained and maybe a little bored, I do recall checking my watch and thinking with a sinking heart that there was still an hour to go, but it picked up a little, so I wasn’t eyeing the exit all the way through. Totally worthy of a meh. Too many storyiideas with not enough development

I also took issue with the amount of time Parker wandered about in his Spidey outfit, only with the mask off. Either he has a secret identity or he doesn’t. Half the city should know who he really is if he has as little care as that.

IMDb | I.P. | SSD | Billie Doux | Joe Blade| Thu Tu’s blog

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So, she tagged me with the 8 random things meme:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Hmm, isn’t my whole blog a collection of random things? Still, I’ll get onto it.

1. I’m currently listening to Calexico’s Minas de Cobre, but no doubt by the time I’ve finished this post there’ll be another song playing. I don’t know what, as I have it on random.
2. Despite just filling a bag with clothes to throw away my wardrobe is still as full as it was before I started. I believe that there is some clothes inflater monkey living in there who puff them out to take over all available space. However he doesn’t do the reverse and shrink them down. This is a problem.
3. I need to buy some shoes. But I’m très picky when shopping and don’t actually like many shoes. This is why I often end up wearing the same shoes over and over and over again.
4. I was positive that I was going to win the Euromillions lottery this weekend. Trouble is, I was far too busy deciding what to by with my 50 million that I walked straight past the shop and didn’t buy a ticket. Damnations.
5. Every American tv show or book set in high school makes me wonder are they really that bad? I mean I know that there were cliques and what not in my secondary school, but never to that extent, and the whole “popular girls” of the school? Never really happened.
6. It takes me around 30 minutes to walk to work.
7. A whole lot of pedestrians in Dublin don’t seem to realise that cars can kill you if you get hit by one, and that saving 5 seconds really won’t make much difference to your life. This annoys me.
8. I have a growing collection of plastic bottles. All empty, or half-empty, water bottles. I think I’ll have to cull the herd today before they start to breed.

I should now tag 8 people, but I’m not going to, if anyone wants to they can join in. Now, on to our weekly associations meme with Luna Nina:

1. Film ::
2. Dragon ::
3. Hunger ::
4. Plucked ::
5. Dissolving ::
6. Executive ::
7. Ridiculous::
8. Mist ::
9. Minority ::
10. Map ::

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