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It's not the principles that kill you in the end, it's the books. - Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter

What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence. - Wittgenstein

Never express yourself more clearly than you think. - Niels Bohr

A labyrinthian man never looks for the truth, but only for his Ariadne. - Nietzsche

What else do you do with dark and sinister forces but play with them? - Deadlock, Khronicles of Khaos

There are three things that are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third. - Valmiki, the Ramayana

If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language and you're dumb and blind. - Salman Rushdie

Even the oldest stories are new to somebody. - Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones

Perhaps Kafka laughed when he told stories... because one isn't always equal to oneself. - Primo Levi

When you set out for Ithaca, ask that your way be long. - Constantine Cavafy

"You can't do that", she said. "You can't have 'fairy tales' without 'fair'! And stuff you find out by determining what words are inside other words is never wrong. Now drink more tea." - Hitherby Dragons
page summary
tags
razor edges
reflections, predictable transformations, and barrier properties
mirrorshard
Neil Gaiman says: There's a trailer for the other Beowulf movie -- Beowulf and Grendel -- up at http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/, which rather lowered my expectations for the movie as I realised that they've made Grendel just a Big Hairy Guy whose father was killed by Hrothgar and now seeks revenge.

This seems to be pretty fashionable at the moment - look what they did to Troy. Stripped out all the mythological elements entirely. I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or not - I generally approve of deglamourizing legends in favour of gritty realism, getting back in the mud and the rain and the field, where the hero doesn't always have time to shave or keep his platemail shiny. Probably a reaction to a lot of low-end and RPG-derived fantasy when I was young.

It could be that anything with gods and monsters in is viewed as kid's stuff these days, but it also seems rather a shame to reduce all the the odd, mysterious elements (and that's what the RPG influence did, more than anything - it took the mystery away) to just-this-guy-and-the-weather.

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mirrorshard
mirrorshard
Burton, Depp, and Elfman. It's amazing how neatly they fit into the traditional trinity.

potential spoilers )

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mirrorshard
From [info]reuss

Recommend to me:

1. a movie
2. a book
3. a musical artist, song, or album
4. a LiveJournal user not on my friends list
5. what I should have for dinner
6. a website
7. a quote

Then put this in your LiveJournal and I'll do the same for you.

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mirrorshard
This film was made by a lot of people who absolutely loved superhero comics. Not the storyline, that's very much a product of the last year or few, but the graphic style and iconography are absolutely unmistakable. (I'm even led to conclude that they were very much Marvel fans rather than DC fans). The soundtrack seemed spot on, too.

spoilers )

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