Happy things

[oyceter]

I saw both Tangled and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 this weekend.

Tangled is much more of a Disney princess movie than the trailers had me believing, complete with Alan Mencken songs (!!). I was glad to see Rapunzel getting much more of a role than I thought she would, given early talk about adding Flynn Rider specifically to appeal to the male audience, and she gets to whack a few people around and not be saved, although she's not hugely active either. Minus points for privileging the standard biological nuclear family and demonizing older women and making them pathologically long for youth and beauty.

Happy thing 1: Before watching Tangled, my friends and I got cordoned off by survey takers who asked us to watch certain trailers and respond. Mine was some legal thriller starring Matthew McConnaghey (sp) about some guy accused of rape and murder.

SURVEY GUY: So how likely is it that you would see this movie in theaters?
ME: None.
SG: How come?
ME: Too many white guys. Too much violence against women. Not enough female roles or speaking roles for people of color.
SG: ...

I am hoping I seriously skew his statistics, although the pessimistic part of me doubts it.

Harry Potter has some lovely atmosphere and still a bit too much teenage emo for me, although they cut it down drastically from the books. Also, I really did not need to see that much of Harry and Hermione naked.

Happy thing 2: Going to a Kearney Street Workshop reading with troisroyaumes, loving both the authors, and thinking of quite a few people in my dwircle who would also enjoy the authors! Barbara Jane Reyes' Diwata has Filipin@ folklore, aswang, and mermaids and water, and Shailja Patel did a wonderful reading on textbook editing, Kenyan genocide, being brown and Hindu in Kenya, and so much more. I especially loved the mix of languages in their works and being able to hear them read as they should sound, and everything in their works about the things we're taught and the things we're taught to not know, the way history writes itself in personal memory, and how we write ourselves into histories that have written us out.

Comments

[vito_excalibur]

Not just naked! Naked Poser versions of Harry and Hermione AAAAGH MY EYES!

[oyceter]

I KNOW! I was cringing in the theater and going "TMI! TMI!!!"

[cofax7]

INDEED.

[yeloson]

OH! I wish I knew those were the folks at KSW. I've seen both Reyes and Patel do spoken word performances a few times in the past and that would have been neat.

[oyceter]

Oh man! I'm sorry I didn't remember the names when I was telling you! They were super awesome (also, there were free cookies).

[lovepeaceohana]

Really? I thought that scene was ... kinna hot.

loling forever at your conversation with Survey Guy. I hope you skew his statistics, too. :3

[oyceter]

Ahaha, a lot of it was my reaction of "OMG I am looking at naked teenagers who are way younger than me and have been reading about their adventures back when they were 11, I feel SO SKEEVY!"

[inkstone]

Diwata has Filipin@ folklore, aswang, and mermaids and water

!!!

[troisroyaumes]

We were totally whispering to each other during the reading, "OMG inkstone would love this!" XD

[inkstone]

I am SO predictable. XD

[nojojojo]

::snickers at your survey skewage:: How much you wanna bet SG jotted down that you were "sexist" and "racist"?

There was nakedness in HP? ::blank:: Did I just blot that from my memory or something? I remember the scene with the multiple Harrys, in which many of them were taking off shirts, but that's not naked... Was there something else? I did go to the bathroom at one point.

[thomasyan]

I also couldn't remember the scene when I first read this post, but now I think I remember: Remember Ron getting taunted with visions by the locket?

[oyceter]

That's the one! I'm still so startled to see all the actors so grown up; seeing them embracing naked was TMI for me!

[oyceter]

Haha, I know! I got to see him taking some of the notes, so I know he did write down "Too many white guys" and "violence against women," but now I wish I had just stood there and been like, "No, no, I'm in no hurry, write down all of it!"

The nakedness was just in Ron's vision when he was trying to destroy the locket, but there was Harry and Hermione naked and making out!

[thomasyan]

If this happens to you again, see if you can get him to write down, "The Bechdel Test: Learn it. Love it."?

[glass_icarus]

Ahahaha, your response to Survey Guy! \o/ :D

Also oooh, I remember seeing Diwata come up on... some sort of reclist, I don't remember. Will have to track that down!

[oyceter]

I need to get it! I sadly have spent too much on books already this month, so I didn't get it there, but it is definitely going on the wishlist with Migritudes (Patel's work).

[colorblue]

and Shailja Patel did a wonderful reading on textbook editing, Kenyan genocide, being brown and Hindu in Kenya, and so much more.

!! I want to know what she SAID. *hunts down her stuff*

[oyceter]

Ahaha, good job self, what with the not putting the title of Shailja Patel's book in the post! /o\ Anyway, it is called Migritudes, and she says it's the first of four parts (mother, father, teacher, guest).

It's just... gah! So much stuff in the little bits that she read out, and I left thinking, "Must read!" and "Must learn more about Kenya and non-white non-African POC there!"

[(Anonymous)]

You might want to check out Shannon Hale's graphic novel "Rapunzel's Revenge." The scenes in the "Tangled" trailer (I haven't seen the movie) of Rapunzel using her hair as a weapon and means of (self) transportation reminded me of Hale's pseudo-Old West version, in which Rapunzel escapes from her giant redwood-ish hollow tree prison (instead of a stone tower) by using her braided hair as a lasso, and sort of whips people with it when they try to attack or capture her. The "prince" in this version is a Latino/Indian trickster named Jack who Rapunzel runs into while trying to get back to her original home and reunite with her real (peasant) mother. They have various entertaining adventures along the way, with Jack mostly acting as Rapunzel's sidekick, and wind up overthrowing the witch (who's been ruling the entire area as an oppressive landlord, not just obsessing over youth and beauty) and restoring the ecosystem that the witch has been distorting for her own profit.

Marfisa

[oyceter]

Oh, that sounds really cool! I haven't read Hale since Goose Girl, though I was interested in Book of...[can't remember] way back when as well.

[sanguinity]

Ah, for a day when such comments would *not* skew his sample!

[oyceter]

I know! One can only wish...