Kitsch, Trash, and Other Adventures

Ares: “I can't believe you have these mortals convinced that you're this 'Kevin Sorbo' character.”
Hercules: “Some people just aren't ready for the truth.”
-Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

Writers’ Group was yesterday and I ended up having to butt in and referee a few times. See, we now have a couple of people writing historical fiction and a couple of people who are history buffs. Put the two together, and you get tangents of a history lecture kind of nature. Me: “I’ve got to interrupt, guys, we have to keep going.” When there are half a dozen pieces to critique in one meeting, and one person (in a group of thirteen) wants to blather on for fifteen minutes with their comments, it just doesn’t work.

In related news, two of our new members submitted for the first time yesterday. One, our youngest member (18ish?) who’s a bit of a punk (in a good way) turned in a short story. I’m infinitely curious, given his critiques on others’ work, what his own will be like. His’ll be the first piece I critique. The other guy, an Australian, is one who I just don’t care for because he’s rather a bit pompous and tends to neglect doing critiques-he did about half for yesterday’s meeting and fewer for the one or two meetings before that which he attended. So, we’ll see if he gets his ass in gear now that we’re critiquing his stuff. If not, I’m going to have to ask Jayne if we can prevent him submitting. Technically, two non-critiquing months in a row and you can’t submit until you catch-up. I also have no idea what to expect from his writing, though I’m leaning on the side that I won’t be impressed.

Book Review: I, the Divine, by Rabih Alameddine. This one was a great find for an English major. It’s an experiment where the whole novel is a series of “first” chapters. The idea is that the narrator, Sarah, is attempting to write her memoir, but can’t get past figuring out how to start it. The book itself is pretty good. More than that, the experimental quality is wonderful. Like a short-story cycle, there are so many ways to look at how each section works that I can easily see myself writing an essay about the novel or including it in my masters’ thesis. Hey, that’s an idea. I think I might do that, actually.

TV Review: Cleopatra 2525. I love Gina Torres, but no. I watched one and a half episodes and it hurt to much to go any further.

TV Review: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I remember watching this on TV, and figured I’d revisit it. Right now I just finished episode three of the official series. It’s a bit messy at the beginning thanks to the transition from TV movies to TV series, but I can forgive it. After all, it’s fun kitschy stuff and provides lots of comedy, both intentional and incidental. I mean, come on. Would the real Hercules have taken time out of his journeys to keep his hair so perfectly styled? I think not.