a book and a movie
Jun. 21st, 2020 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraEmpire of Sand, Tasha Suri. Suri is up for the Astounding; this is the first half of a duology, with the second book telling a mostly-separate story about a different protagonist. I wasn't into it; the beginning felt kind of by-the-numbers and most of the rest felt like not that much was happening. I think the central relationship was meant to be bearing a lot of story load but I just never cared. If I wanted to be generous, I would say that I thought it was shooting for some of the same kinds of story beats as you might find in the Kushiel trilogy, only without the eroticism, intrigue, action, or nifty alternate history/mythology, which now that I say it doesn't sound very generous. Well, when have I ever been known for generosity in my book commentary. :/ We only got an excerpt in the packet; I'd be happy to synopsize the rest for anyone who's curious.
Onward. Some cute gags, and nice callbacks - it's amazing how you can turn a string of disconnected moments into a coherent story by just using the same elements repeatedly in slightly different ways or contexts! Good job Pixar! Didn't love the ending, though. Spoilers: We all know I mostly care about the moms in these things, right? I liked that the mom got to be genuinely badass and not just a comedy stereotype, but while we the audience might be able to see that, there's no acknowledgement of it from anyone in the movie. The young protag on the quest to meet his dead dad has the climactic revelation that all the things he thought he wanted from a dad, he's actually gotten from his annoying big brother. Did his mom ever play catch with him, or goof around, or have a heart to heart? Who the fuck knows, we certainly don't get any heartwarming flashbacks about her. Her parenting is entirely taken for granted, by the protag, by his brother, and even by the dead dad, who uses his brief moment with the big brother to acknowledge the big brother's role in raising the protag but not to say anything like "I knew I was leaving you boys in good hands with your mom". And, you know, to some extent this is maybe what you're shooting for as a parent - parenting that's so rock solid that it's just the background, because your kid has never doubted you'd be there for them - but this movie was written *by* adults, even if *for* children, and I expect adults to be able to see past that kid perspective. Except it was written by men, perhaps men who never quite made it as far as realizing that their moms were people too. Alas. (The best movie to ever really get this right was this terrible random 90s comedy "Rookie of the Year", where the kid *does* have the climactic realization that he has learned his Valuable Life And Sports Lessons TM from his mom. Rookie of the Year was also written by a man, but apparently a man who thought moms could be actual emotional-arc-relevant characters!)
Onward. Some cute gags, and nice callbacks - it's amazing how you can turn a string of disconnected moments into a coherent story by just using the same elements repeatedly in slightly different ways or contexts! Good job Pixar! Didn't love the ending, though. Spoilers: We all know I mostly care about the moms in these things, right? I liked that the mom got to be genuinely badass and not just a comedy stereotype, but while we the audience might be able to see that, there's no acknowledgement of it from anyone in the movie. The young protag on the quest to meet his dead dad has the climactic revelation that all the things he thought he wanted from a dad, he's actually gotten from his annoying big brother. Did his mom ever play catch with him, or goof around, or have a heart to heart? Who the fuck knows, we certainly don't get any heartwarming flashbacks about her. Her parenting is entirely taken for granted, by the protag, by his brother, and even by the dead dad, who uses his brief moment with the big brother to acknowledge the big brother's role in raising the protag but not to say anything like "I knew I was leaving you boys in good hands with your mom". And, you know, to some extent this is maybe what you're shooting for as a parent - parenting that's so rock solid that it's just the background, because your kid has never doubted you'd be there for them - but this movie was written *by* adults, even if *for* children, and I expect adults to be able to see past that kid perspective. Except it was written by men, perhaps men who never quite made it as far as realizing that their moms were people too. Alas. (The best movie to ever really get this right was this terrible random 90s comedy "Rookie of the Year", where the kid *does* have the climactic realization that he has learned his Valuable Life And Sports Lessons TM from his mom. Rookie of the Year was also written by a man, but apparently a man who thought moms could be actual emotional-arc-relevant characters!)
