tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156215.post1783165091392599657..comments2023-10-02T01:57:31.854+13:00Comments on multi-dimensional: Getting under my skinhixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587761743163619803noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156215.post-58981332689546184932010-10-19T12:44:07.366+13:002010-10-19T12:44:07.366+13:00Awesome post... it is interesting how different th...Awesome post... it is interesting how different things stick with you... and with really good stories, how what you take away can be different, because of when you see it... so seeing it again is like a whole different story! <br /><br />For me, in terms of recent TV... BSG too, but it was Starbuck/Cara that got to me... her drive to succeed combined with self-sabotage (both professionally and in her personal life) struck a chord!<br /><br />'Torchwood' Children of Earth... Captain Jack's isolation and being forced into a dreadful decision that traded the life of a person he loved for the future of the world (when I kicked my children's father out, I believed he was likely to kill himself, either deliberately, or through lack of self-care... obviously the scale is less grand, but it still resonated)<br /><br />Probably 'The Wire'... watched too recently to know whether it will stick... but the way all the characters felt real, the good and bad in all of them (so you couldn't just say... oh, he's a drug dealer he's evil, he's a cop he's good... and how some people were "redeemed" and others died or failed, and it felt random... not about how good or bad they were, and the way the whole cycle kept on going with new players...<br /><br />And longer ago, 'A Very Peculiar Practice'... the logical conclusion of user-pays education :-) <br /><br />I can't pick a single movie... maybe 'Land and Freedom'? How sectarian differences and bigotry and mistrust undermined a beautiful social(ist) experiment, and allowed fascism to triumph in Spain. But ask me another day, and it'll be 'My Life as a Dog' or 'Monsoon Wedding' or random Shakespeare (oh yeah... Richard II with Ian McKellen)... <br /><br />Too many books to list and it would change depending on the day:-)<br /><br />There are also some songs and poems that have stayed with me for years and sometimes pop into my head when I need them... 'What if God ain't Watching' (AniDiFranco), 'Get out the map' (Indigo Girls), 'Stand' (REM), "Why does the sun shine" (TMBG... via Jenni driving to megaroleplaying before I went away) 'If' (Rudyard Kipling), 'maggie and milly and molly and may' (ee cumming), 'Ozymadius'(Shelley)...Karenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12632748869171277199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156215.post-46194803384908997942010-10-19T12:43:26.313+13:002010-10-19T12:43:26.313+13:00Sort of realised I never got round to answering th...Sort of realised I never got round to answering the main question of your post despite my long rambling comment.<br /><br />For me it's usually the conflict between a character's past and their future. People who are haunted by the past - either what they can't escape or what they don't know or understand about it. It can lead them to seek out redemption, revenge or the investigation of some dark secret. The burden of the past has immense weight and immediacy for the character but it can result in many different actions or different stories. It's pretty much at the heart of most books and films that have really drawn me.Debbie Cowenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07345631448431031295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156215.post-30943549413437657792010-10-19T11:06:36.182+13:002010-10-19T11:06:36.182+13:00Marooned is really worth tracking down, Xan. It...Marooned is really worth tracking down, Xan. It's by Vernor Vinge, and it's the (superior) sequel to The Peace War.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07353851485311051567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156215.post-44028703838060849712010-10-19T10:44:38.861+13:002010-10-19T10:44:38.861+13:00I found this interesting, I also enjoy the first B...I found this interesting, I also enjoy the first Bourne movie a lot more than the sequels.<br /><br />For Battlestar Galactica, I really love the first five or six episodes of the first season where it is all a big struggle for survival and the stakes are huge. Unfortunately for me, the show only goes downhill from there until it becomes almost unwatchable by season 4.<br /><br />I will have to try and track down Marooned in Realtime.Xanomonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09500220547317769205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156215.post-45836174741391123552010-10-19T08:29:37.565+13:002010-10-19T08:29:37.565+13:00Really interesting post. Maybe I should watch Bour...Really interesting post. Maybe I should watch Bourne Identity again. I may have been too hard on it. I recall it being more of a 'big dumb fun' movie than the complex character film you describe. Possibly it's because I really liked the TV mini-series when I was younger and found movie simplified for the sake of slickness and exhilirating car chases. I think it may also have been the first post Team America film I saw with Matt Damon so part of my brain was chanting 'MATT DAMON' whenever he came on screen for the first movie of the film. :-)<br /><br />The Usual Suspects is probably my all-time favourite film. I dream about writing something with that much tension, suspense and great characters. I love the way the story unfolds, the way the characters shift between seeming good/bad without ever changing. It's more that the motives for their actions change as more information is revealed or the reliability of the info is thrown into question. <br /><br />While the central mystery and the infamous twist are brilliantly plotted and timed, it's actually the subtle twists in characters and the way you can care about them, fear for them and then find them frightening that make the film for me.Debbie Cowenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07345631448431031295noreply@blogger.com