We haven't done a good job finding the next Twilight
You know, it is precisely goals like that which lead to the saturation of teen-aimed literature with the worst kind of pandering tripe and the degradation of cinema to nothing but a chain of execrable high-budget "high-concept" cash grabs. I know that being angry at stupid things is generally not worth it, but the whole corporate mechanism that peddles this stuff and the mindset that drives it legitimately infuriates me. It is a blight upon modern media.
It isn't nothing but cash-grabs and franchises, but cinema is more reliant on that than ever.
You know what cash-grab bugs me? Despicable Me 2. It pains me to worry that that franchise is gonna end up like Ice Age...
Also, that mindset's similar to the mindset that made so many crappy licensed cartoons in the '80s: kids/the public won't watch anything that wasn't pre-sold to them...
It isn't nothing but cash-grabs and franchises, but cinema is more reliant on that than ever.
You know what cash-grab bugs me? Despicable Me 2. It pains me to worry that that franchise is gonna end up like Ice Age...
Also, that mindset's similar to the mindset that made so many crappy licensed cartoons in the '80s: kids/the public won't watch anything that wasn't pre-sold to them...
I may be exaggerating, but the studio system is running itself into the ground with this sort of quick-cash franchising nonsense.
I hope that it goes up in flames. We haven't had a catastrophic rebirth of a major industry in a while.
The studio system nowadays is suspiciously similar to the studio system of the mid-1960s. It's only a matter of time before another New Hollywood pops up.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
Also: do these high-budget movies actually turn profits? They can make a lot of revenue, but that's not profit...
Though some of them do feed merchandising machines (e.g. the Marvel Cinematic Universe, movies about Batman or Superman) but not something like Pacific Rim, which people were doomsaying as a big bomb well in advance of its release (a big bomb anticipated by the nerd set who still likes it, though)...
The studio system nowadays is suspiciously similar to the studio system of the mid-1960s. It's only a matter of time before another New Hollywood pops up.
More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
You can buy a Touhou game for the same price as a movie ticket. The former is endless hours of fun and challenge and maybe a teensy bit of frustration. The latter is two hours of your life that you will never get back, and you will probably spend them facepalming at how terrible 99% of the movies you see are.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
^^^ But at least we might have a decade or so of wide-release films by interesting nobodies and semi-established auteurs that, y'know, don't suck.
Sometimes I wonder if I should watch independent movies more often
Also, if I should start an animation studio for real, because aside from Disney, Hollywood seems to view animated movies as vessels for selling things to children (DreamWorks Animation being run by Jeffrey Katzenberg - a former Disney executive obsessed with replicating their marketing machine - hasn't helped, because they seem to form the template for most of Hollywood's animation efforts these days. Also, you know that Universal's going to milk Despicable Me because people love the Minions).
Y'know I don't think I've ever completely read a romance novel.
I remember one time, when I was a kid, one of my mom's friends left one just lying around, so I picked it up out of curiosity...within a few sentences I knew this was something I wasn't supposed to be reading.
I have many more issues with the culture that surrounds how "Young Adult" fiction is written, published and marketed than I do with the content of Twilight, although the latter is part and parcel to the context of the former in some ways.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
how much you enjoy KLK is directly related to how much you enjoy 1. really good animation 2. ludicrous over-the-topness and 3. girls in very skimpy clothes. I know 3. is right out, so weigh 1 and 2.
how much you enjoy KLK is directly related to how much you enjoy 1. really good animation 2. ludicrous over-the-topness and 3. girls in very skimpy clothes. I know 3. is right out, so weigh 1 and 2.
I'm not sure how "right out" number 3 is, even. IIRC Naney has expressed some appreciation of the female form in the past.
Whenever someone mentions a Manic Pixie Dream Girl my first thought is Haruko Haruhara, although it has occurred today that she may not be the best example of that.
i am entirely indifferent to anime fanservice unless it starts getting in the way of other things, in which case i dislike it immensely.
well I mean
for most of the episode our protagonist dresses rather normally but then suddenly.
A lot of people have had a problem with the show on those grounds (which is a topic I'm sort of sick of talking about, so I'll just leave you to draw your own conclusions).
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
It's been a while since I made any gay jokes about Naney
I should do that again sometime
Also nobody ever makes queer jokes at my expense besides myself, for some reason
i'd be interested to read your thoughts on YA fiction if you're willing to post them, Sredni.
I used to rant about this a lot over on TVT—nrjxll and I made for an interesting tag-team—but by this point I'm a little out of practice at explaining myself, so this might take awhile...
It is only fairly recently that "young adult" and "middle-grade" fiction have been set aside as separate marketing categories from children's and adult literature. From a pure marketing perspective, this makes sense: Certain age brackets gravitate towards certain kinds of stories, organising books that way simplifies some things, and so forth. But I do not think that this is good for either writers or readers.
In particular, the treatment of "Young Adult fiction" as if it were a genre is highly problematic for me. By treating all fiction for teenagers, regardless of genre, as if it were one single genre because it is simpler to market it that way, you elide differences and insult your readers. The trend chasing in the wake of successes like Twilight and The Hunger Games have only agitated this, I think: Ultra-specific trend genres like "teen dystopian romance" are singled out while the rest is treated as a homogenous mass.
What is even more insidious is how this is drilled into the heads of young writers. Certain types of plots are favoured above others because they are genre conventions of an artificial genre. A protagonist in a novel written for a teenage readership must not be too young or too old, for example, for fear of "alienating readers;" one must be very careful about how one writes about sexuality, but a total dearth of romance is prudish and unrealistic; and so on. It is not unlike the instruction sheet they give you to write a Harlequin romance.
Comments
...although I don't play Touhou games either
James basically took her characters, changed their names, and made a profit selling bondage porn about them
Meyer is a Mormon and really not into that kind of thing
but when she was asked about it she was just like, 'they're successful books, so good for her'
i thought that was nice
i liked how chill she was about the whole thing
maybe more troubling since it was marketed to younger audiences, but even then, it's aimed at teens, not children
Wild Mountain Thyme by Rosamunde Pilcher
i liked that book
I remember one time, when I was a kid, one of my mom's friends left one just lying around, so I picked it up out of curiosity...within a few sentences I knew this was something I wasn't supposed to be reading.
This is what happens when I try to have fun. I should've learned by now that good things are forbidden to me.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
so I am not surprised
heh heh
technology is just really stupid
it tries so hard to get it right and it always does its best
we should be patient and understanding
for most of the episode our protagonist dresses rather normally but then suddenly.
A lot of people have had a problem with the show on those grounds (which is a topic I'm sort of sick of talking about, so I'll just leave you to draw your own conclusions).
can't stop laughing