science fiction double feature

Today I have subjected myself to one of the most wrongheaded double-features ever: the remake of Freaky Friday (Lindsey Lohan, perkiness and Hot-Topic) and Monster (a scary Charlize Theron, crudity, rape and sadness). Actually, I left Monster paused at the halfway point. I don't know if I want to even finish watching it. It's just so. Fucking. Depressing.

Also, I have people just like those characters living at the end of my street should I wish to see that lifecycle in action.

I should probably watch Cowboy Bebop instead.

ETA: And, you know, I'm interested in seeing Vanity Fair, but I'm kind of perplexed by the way it's being marketed, i.e., as if the Becky Sharp character is some sort of feminist heroine. It's been a dozen years or so since I read the book, and I did love Miss Sharp, but it was technically loving to hate her, as she was so utterly vile, heinous and grasping in her social ambition. I suppose that's a form of plucky girl power if one considers the social milieu of the era, but I'm not convinced. Also, I don't remember a romance, per se. I remember romantic conniving--but overall it never really seemed like a romantic story to me.

So. Vanity Fair. Am I remembering it entirely wrong?

yet more beta musings

Apparently, rhiannonhero and I are very simpatico today, as I came over from Word to post this screed and discovered that she was also thinking about beta reading here.

So, I mentioned this before, but it bears mentioning again: I have had a really fortunate experience with both betaing and being betaed. I have a thicker skin than I ever would have suspected, or perhaps I just went into the fanfic writing process with a good understanding of what my role really is, and what the beta can do for me. My examples are based on the experiences of friends and acquaintances, on reading the beta-hostile author's notes for what almost always turn out to be terrible stories, and from the red pencil yearnings I often feel while reading a story that could have been really good.

~~~

( I know he's not a Mary Sue because he's a boy. So there! )