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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is having an interesting effect on me. Besides inspiring me to write epic fanfic again.
Why, exactly, was it necessary to dumb down the LXG team? Explain this one to me? Now, don't get me wrong, I loved the movie to bits. There's just something about the concept of a superhero... or maybe I mean superantihero... team comprised of the likes of the Invisible Man (or at least an invisible man, since they couldn't get the rights for the movie), Capt. Nemo, Tom Sawyer, Allen Quatermain, Mina Harker, Jeckyll/Hyde, and Dorian Gray. I think the ones that make me go squee the most are Dorian Gray and Allen Quatermain, who are some of the more obscure ones.
But... gyah! The dumbity! Was it really necessary to give the villain such an asinine plot? Was it truely necessary to have the opponant for every supernatural creature? Couldn't they just have left it with each League member finding their own personal niche to fill in the team and leave it at that? What the hell? And why did they have to alter the legends so that it's obvious? Couldn't a little makeup have sufficed for Hyde? Did they have to turn him into the Incredible Hulk too?
What worries me even now is the debate I had with Bri earlier tonight. On why they had to dumb it down... it ended up with me going, yes, I realize they have to do that so people will understand that. But why does this not upset and frustrate and anger you?
It frustrates me. It frustrates me beyond telling that people these days have to have these wonderful classics.. that aren't even that long! It's not like it's a Dickensian weapon of thick paged description here! They're short, beautifully written, wonderful books... and people just don't read them! Do people even read anymore? Ugh. Given a lot of fanfic, I'd almost say not. It's just... oh my god. We are growing dumber and sadder and fatter and more brainless as a race. Or maybe just as a country... please Goddess tell me this is just an American phenomenon so I can move to France and live happily ever after.
It scares me too. Am I just being an intellectual snob here? Or was the world never as intelligent as I hoped? I feel like a freak whenever thoughts like this go on too long... A freak who grew up on Poe and Wilde and Eliot. Who never knew what it was like not to have and know how to use a computer (although, my dear boyfriend, you'll have to explain to me what computers have to do with classic literature). Who had to explain her elementary school math project involving base conversion to her teachers and judges. Who went around in third grade wtih the complete works of Tolkien sticking out of her backpack. I read Dorien Gray and Stephen King's It as a child, and Dorien Gray scarred me more than King ever did. I used to memorize random Poe poems.. not just The Raven... and sing them to myself. I used to listen to Tom Lehrer, watch Shakespeare and the ballet and Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. I grew up on Pirates of Penzance, not Cutthroat Island. I never saw Smokey and the Bandit. My mother sang Spanish lullabies to me, I grew up knowing folk songs from the Andes, I went to England when I was eleven and got on better with the hotel staff in Copenhagen than...
I feel like such a freak now. Like I'm on some sort of Planet Victorian England or something. Like I should be wearing corsets and bustles and fiches and hats. And taking hansoms and carrieges. Or something. Because I read Oscar Wilde as a kid.
What is wrong with me?
Why, exactly, was it necessary to dumb down the LXG team? Explain this one to me? Now, don't get me wrong, I loved the movie to bits. There's just something about the concept of a superhero... or maybe I mean superantihero... team comprised of the likes of the Invisible Man (or at least an invisible man, since they couldn't get the rights for the movie), Capt. Nemo, Tom Sawyer, Allen Quatermain, Mina Harker, Jeckyll/Hyde, and Dorian Gray. I think the ones that make me go squee the most are Dorian Gray and Allen Quatermain, who are some of the more obscure ones.
But... gyah! The dumbity! Was it really necessary to give the villain such an asinine plot? Was it truely necessary to have the opponant for every supernatural creature? Couldn't they just have left it with each League member finding their own personal niche to fill in the team and leave it at that? What the hell? And why did they have to alter the legends so that it's obvious? Couldn't a little makeup have sufficed for Hyde? Did they have to turn him into the Incredible Hulk too?
What worries me even now is the debate I had with Bri earlier tonight. On why they had to dumb it down... it ended up with me going, yes, I realize they have to do that so people will understand that. But why does this not upset and frustrate and anger you?
It frustrates me. It frustrates me beyond telling that people these days have to have these wonderful classics.. that aren't even that long! It's not like it's a Dickensian weapon of thick paged description here! They're short, beautifully written, wonderful books... and people just don't read them! Do people even read anymore? Ugh. Given a lot of fanfic, I'd almost say not. It's just... oh my god. We are growing dumber and sadder and fatter and more brainless as a race. Or maybe just as a country... please Goddess tell me this is just an American phenomenon so I can move to France and live happily ever after.
It scares me too. Am I just being an intellectual snob here? Or was the world never as intelligent as I hoped? I feel like a freak whenever thoughts like this go on too long... A freak who grew up on Poe and Wilde and Eliot. Who never knew what it was like not to have and know how to use a computer (although, my dear boyfriend, you'll have to explain to me what computers have to do with classic literature). Who had to explain her elementary school math project involving base conversion to her teachers and judges. Who went around in third grade wtih the complete works of Tolkien sticking out of her backpack. I read Dorien Gray and Stephen King's It as a child, and Dorien Gray scarred me more than King ever did. I used to memorize random Poe poems.. not just The Raven... and sing them to myself. I used to listen to Tom Lehrer, watch Shakespeare and the ballet and Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. I grew up on Pirates of Penzance, not Cutthroat Island. I never saw Smokey and the Bandit. My mother sang Spanish lullabies to me, I grew up knowing folk songs from the Andes, I went to England when I was eleven and got on better with the hotel staff in Copenhagen than...
I feel like such a freak now. Like I'm on some sort of Planet Victorian England or something. Like I should be wearing corsets and bustles and fiches and hats. And taking hansoms and carrieges. Or something. Because I read Oscar Wilde as a kid.
What is wrong with me?
