(no subject)

Once when there were no rivers on the earth, the Jade Dragon was in charge of clouds. She decided when and where the clouds would rain upon the land and when they would stop. She was very proud of her power and of the reverence the people of earth paid her. Jade Dragon had four dragon children: Pearl, Yellow, Long, and Black. They were large and strong and good and kind. They helped Jade Dragon with her work and whenever they flew in the sky she was overwhelmed with love and pride.

However, one day, as Jade Dragon ended the rain and moved the clouds away from the land, she overheard some villagers’ conversation.

“Ah, thank goodness the rain is gone,” one man said.

--The beginning of the story-within-a-story The Story Of Fruitless Mountain in Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin

I really really like this book so far. There's a lot of reasons. One of them is that Minli is a really nice character. She's hardworking, she thinks of others, and is smart enough to know when to ask for help, in-between doing clever tricks of her own to help out her parents.

But my favourite part is the stories-within-the-story that her father, Ba tells. That's the start of one, that explains the origin of the Fruitless Mountain, the mountain that overlooks Minli and her parents' home. Ba has told her these stories her whole life. The Jade Dragon, tales of Magistrate Tiger, and The Man In The Moon. Whenever one of these crops up, the story stops to tell you the tale.

They're lovely and I'm so glad the author decided to do them.

I've been distracted with guests this weekend, so I haven't had a chance to finish the book yet. Hopefully I'll be able to get some reading done after me and my friend Ann watch 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea together, since I've been watching more movies lately.

Movies I've watched lately:

• Countless Mst3k episodes, most notably: Hercules vs the Moon Men (Hercules was oddly hot), Eegah, and The Wild Wild world of Batwoman (which was more terrible than I was ready to deal with)
• The Baby-Sitters Club Movie (which was a piece of my childhood that after horrifying me with how old I'd gotten, reminded me so much of watching my classmates pick fights over the weirdest damn things when I was a kid)
• Aladdin. (Great movie, but you know what would have made it excellent? Robin Williams not doing a ton of pop culture references)
• And finally, The Black Cauldron. (Disney's 'it never happened!' child. Featured: Suicide, bleeding hero, non-American-accented hero, zombies, pig-care. I need to reread the books now that I'm older than six. They were a little confusing at that age. Also, death to Gurgi.)

Anyway, that's what I've been up to, media consumption wise. Carry on.

(no subject)

I saw 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea! The old Disney one. While there were horrifying moments: Those poor sea turtles! And the scene with the natives that I am pretty sure is revisited in Pirates of the Caribbean 2!

While there were horrifying moments, I really really liked it. It was fun! I liked the writing, and now I want to read the book.

Thing I didn't expect, but probably should have considering its time period and the lack of anything womanly except for strumpets (I think that's what they were meant to be) at the beginning of the movie, is that it was a real sausage fest with Professor Arronax and Captain Nemo acting out an insane, poorly socialized (on Nemo's part) romance.

What I'm saying is the past tends to be pretty gay. I don't know what's with that, but there you go.

I sort of want Arronax/Nemo fic. May see if I still do after I read the book.

SPEAKING OF NEMO. While I'm not a fan of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for a whole bunch of reasons, what I liked in it a lot was their Nemo. I really liked his character design/what he got up to. And Mina. I liked Mina. I really want to see a version of the League that's not trying its best to be Adult, if only because I like reading stories where characters aren't introduced by raping their way through a bunch of schoolgirls.

Anyway, that's my thoughts.

Carry on.