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Love, Death and the Emperor's New Clothes
Feb. 22nd, 2020 08:10 pmMy latest review for Fringe Guru is up:
http://london.fringeguru.com/reviews/vault-2020/how-we-love
I also finished a book this week - Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan, though I can't say I enjoyed it that much. It's ostensibly about a young man moving to the city to find his fortune in the world of organised crime. The first person point of view was difficult to relate to at the start, since the protagonist idolises a sadistic tyrant and glorifies criminal activity. The City is unnamed and clearly not a real one, so the occasional real-world references felt very jarring. The main plot takes a very long time to get going - there's a lot of exposition and chat without much action, and the fantasy elements when they appear are very unexpected. I started liking the main character after he befriended a woman who lived in the same hotel. But then things took a very brutal turn that left me totally unsympathetic towards him and really wondering what I was meant to be taking away from this book. It got very weird towards the end - reasonably interesting, but not enough to make me what to read the other books set in this world.
And, this afternoon, I went to see Parasite at the cinema. Afterwards, I looked up some reviews: "a miracle of a film", "an arthouse masterpiece", "absolute genius". Um, was I in the wrong movie? I was glad I had a voucher for a free ticket because I really didn't like it at all. No, that's not entirely fair. I quite enjoyed the first half - it made me laugh a couple of times, and the setup of the long con was interesting and clever. But then it turned into a kind of much bloodier version of Home Alone and I didn't understand the point at all. Given all the critical acclaim and Oscars success, I guess I must be majorly missing something, and I assume there are many layers that went entirely over my head. The only message I got from it was: it's probably better to try and make money in legitimate ways than to shaft people who've done nothing wrong and to take advantage of people who are prepared to give you a chance? *shrug*
http://london.fringeguru.com/reviews/vault-2020/how-we-love
I also finished a book this week - Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan, though I can't say I enjoyed it that much. It's ostensibly about a young man moving to the city to find his fortune in the world of organised crime. The first person point of view was difficult to relate to at the start, since the protagonist idolises a sadistic tyrant and glorifies criminal activity. The City is unnamed and clearly not a real one, so the occasional real-world references felt very jarring. The main plot takes a very long time to get going - there's a lot of exposition and chat without much action, and the fantasy elements when they appear are very unexpected. I started liking the main character after he befriended a woman who lived in the same hotel. But then things took a very brutal turn that left me totally unsympathetic towards him and really wondering what I was meant to be taking away from this book. It got very weird towards the end - reasonably interesting, but not enough to make me what to read the other books set in this world.
And, this afternoon, I went to see Parasite at the cinema. Afterwards, I looked up some reviews: "a miracle of a film", "an arthouse masterpiece", "absolute genius". Um, was I in the wrong movie? I was glad I had a voucher for a free ticket because I really didn't like it at all. No, that's not entirely fair. I quite enjoyed the first half - it made me laugh a couple of times, and the setup of the long con was interesting and clever. But then it turned into a kind of much bloodier version of Home Alone and I didn't understand the point at all. Given all the critical acclaim and Oscars success, I guess I must be majorly missing something, and I assume there are many layers that went entirely over my head. The only message I got from it was: it's probably better to try and make money in legitimate ways than to shaft people who've done nothing wrong and to take advantage of people who are prepared to give you a chance? *shrug*
