Digimon
I know some people probably never got it or didn't like it. I wasn't one of them. In fact, I have a digivice from Tamers and a Wargreymon that is puny but fully pose-able. I love them and I'm bummed I never took advantage of when Digimon was still big and bought more stuff. Just 'cause I'm a nerd.
I liked Digimon for a number of reasons. It did what Pokemon couldn't (but trust me, Pokemon is another thing that will be listed here). In Digimon, your partner, 'cause you only had one that was tailored to fit YOU, was small and cute, but they could become huge and BA. So that made Digimon awesome, but something that fully engaged me as a kid (and still today), was the fact that these were kids.
Kids were capable of saving the world and ONLY kids. The stories were deep. The characters were believable. They struggled and triumphed. They banded together and vanquished darkness and evil. I was touched by them and their depth. I cry at the end of Adventure because the eight Digidestined have to say goodbye to their partners after such a long time of being bound together. Their adventures continue - thank goodness - but even with that knowledge I wind up bawling my eyes out at the last episode of Adventure.
It definitely didn't hurt that I love teams.
Teams unite a wonderful element to any story. It's why (I think), I have teams in my books. You can take a bunch of crazy personalities and have the audience ask, "Okay. How is this gonna work?"
So yeah, I love Digimon. I think more people need to love it too.
Narnia
google.com
First off, I love Lewis. I think his mind is fascinating and I love everything that he's written. I can't wait till I have time (and money), to read all of his essays. But Narnia has always held a special place in my heart. Probably because I remember my dad reading me The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was little.
The thought of being able to be whisked away to a magical land of talking beasts, kings and queens, magic, and beauty through something as common as a wardrobe made me the kid that hid in closets in the hopes of finding a door into Narnia. I wanted to go and ride a flying horse and talk with Aslan and have tea with Mr. Tumnus, even though to this day I hate tea.
On top of all of that, it's still famous. It's still a book kids read. It's still around and it's still relevant. I can only hope that when I'm published, my books have that kind of staying power. I mean, here we are, over fifty years (FIFTY YEARS), after Narnia first graced the world and it's still a best seller. It's still something that flies off bookshelves. It's still on summer reading lists.
That's wonderful to see. Because sometimes I look at the movies and books coming out today and shake my head. Then I remember - Narnia is still around. There's hope yet.
Disney
I feel sorry for people who haven't seen Disney movies. I know that it isn't like they're gonna die or anything, but there is true magic to a Disney movie. Some of them are greater than others. For instance, The Lion King (my favorite!), is better than Pocahontas. Despite everyone thinking the opposite when they were being worked on, The Lion King is better all around. I think the music is better, the acting is better, the animation is better, the story is better...Everything is better.
But that's only one faction of Disney magic. There are great movies, but behind the movies are the parks. I know a lot of people hate Disney because of all the marketing ploys they use. Their classic movies are only available once every 7 years, where they come out with yet more behind the scenes stuff, new scenes never before aired, new music, new this, new that. People hate that Disney does this, which makes their movies constantly more and more valuable as the years go on and harder to come by.
It's irritating, yes, but it's smart. Myself (and I'm sure many other people), will gladly be thankful for when their favorite movies become available. To me, it makes the movie that much more cherished. It's irritating I had to go without watching The Lion King for 7 years because we happened to get a DVD player right after it went back in the Vault, but what did I do? I anxiously awaited when it would come out on Diamond edition. And now I own it. I'm a happy camper.
Anyway, back to the parks...
The parks turn you into a two year old child. I didn't really take this into account until we went back to Florida a few years ago and as we entered the Magic Kingdom, my mom started bouncing in her seat and said, "We're almost there!"
You walk down Main Street U.S.A. and you want to start singing. You go on a ride and despite the wait, you're thrilled to be there. You watch a show and you're caught up in it all. You see the castle and everything is okay. It doesn't matter what's going wrong in your life, because you're in Disney World. And that's a wonderful thing.
Sometimes we need happy breaks from reality. And I think Disney, on many scales, perfects that ability. Sometimes they get it wrong, but sometimes they get it dead right.
I'm a bit of a strange one as someone who likes both Pokemon and Digimon. I like them both for similar reasons. In Pokemon you get to, at eleven years old, head on off and work toward becoming something great. To know that somewhere in some world, kids my age (at the time), could go off and have these epic adventures. They could travel the world and learn new things and make friends and train their Pokemon to become the best there were.
Now before you flip out, violence is wrong. There's no really good reason to resort to it. However, I never viewed Pokemon as violence. And it's not because they were cute fuzzy things fighting and not people. It was because the fighting wasn't for death or for an outlet or because someone was frustrated. Pokemon battles were solely for a trainer to display their skill in raising and training their team. If a trainer failed, their Pokemon didn't die, they were just wounded and a quick trip to a hospital would get them right back into shape. It seems too good to be true; hence why it's a game and not real life.
For me, a lot of the draw to Pokemon was the thought of awesome creatures duking it out to see which was stronger (which tended to be the case - it was the Pokemon wanting to prove themselves, not the trainer forcing the Pokemon to do something), and the idea of exploring the world with a bunch of these creatures as your friends and protectors. If you got into a scrap and someone did try to harm you, you could just whip out a Charizard and poof, problem gone!
And I've always been a Mewtwo fan. I know a lot of people thought he was boring or moody or irritating, but I found him fascinating. The idea of him being so powerful but slowly learning to become humane was awesome. And his back story was so heartbreaking that only fueled my desire to call him my favorite Pokemon. Although Charizard is pretty BA.
Pokemon
google.com
I'm a bit of a strange one as someone who likes both Pokemon and Digimon. I like them both for similar reasons. In Pokemon you get to, at eleven years old, head on off and work toward becoming something great. To know that somewhere in some world, kids my age (at the time), could go off and have these epic adventures. They could travel the world and learn new things and make friends and train their Pokemon to become the best there were.
Now before you flip out, violence is wrong. There's no really good reason to resort to it. However, I never viewed Pokemon as violence. And it's not because they were cute fuzzy things fighting and not people. It was because the fighting wasn't for death or for an outlet or because someone was frustrated. Pokemon battles were solely for a trainer to display their skill in raising and training their team. If a trainer failed, their Pokemon didn't die, they were just wounded and a quick trip to a hospital would get them right back into shape. It seems too good to be true; hence why it's a game and not real life.
For me, a lot of the draw to Pokemon was the thought of awesome creatures duking it out to see which was stronger (which tended to be the case - it was the Pokemon wanting to prove themselves, not the trainer forcing the Pokemon to do something), and the idea of exploring the world with a bunch of these creatures as your friends and protectors. If you got into a scrap and someone did try to harm you, you could just whip out a Charizard and poof, problem gone!
And I've always been a Mewtwo fan. I know a lot of people thought he was boring or moody or irritating, but I found him fascinating. The idea of him being so powerful but slowly learning to become humane was awesome. And his back story was so heartbreaking that only fueled my desire to call him my favorite Pokemon. Although Charizard is pretty BA.
Middle Earth
I love Tolkien.
As a writer, I've been doing some reading related to Tolkien and Lewis' lives and how they interwove. One of my favorite books I've come across is a collection of Tolkien's letters he wrote to other people. They're wonderfully detailed and in his own words - which you notice right away. Anyway, throughout this book, you constantly see the depth of Middle Earth popping up in his letters to friends and family members.
The absolute weight of Middle Earth as a world is utterly incomprehensible. To know that someone thought this all up and had it all in his head is astounding. Especially considering that when Tolkien started out with The Hobbit, he had absolutely no intention of revisiting Middle Earth. In fact, he thought that he had used up all of the good story-telling in The Hobbit. He thought there was nothing else to be found in Middle Earth.
Looking at the grand masterpiece that is Lord of the Rings and the Middle Earth Universe, it's shocking to know that Tolkien thought there was nothing more to explore. It makes young readers and writers hopeful that maybe their world will be similar. Not the same mind you, but similar. Writing fantasy is hard, and I don't dare to attempt Tolkien's depth. But if my world became something massive and sweeping and far grander than I had thought, then that would be awesome.
There are few people who had the ability to not only envision a great story but to tell it in a masterful fashion. Tolkien is definitely someone who inspires me to be the best writer that I can be. It's hard and I'm constantly second-guessing myself, but if he could do it, then maybe I could too.
As a writer, I've been doing some reading related to Tolkien and Lewis' lives and how they interwove. One of my favorite books I've come across is a collection of Tolkien's letters he wrote to other people. They're wonderfully detailed and in his own words - which you notice right away. Anyway, throughout this book, you constantly see the depth of Middle Earth popping up in his letters to friends and family members.
The absolute weight of Middle Earth as a world is utterly incomprehensible. To know that someone thought this all up and had it all in his head is astounding. Especially considering that when Tolkien started out with The Hobbit, he had absolutely no intention of revisiting Middle Earth. In fact, he thought that he had used up all of the good story-telling in The Hobbit. He thought there was nothing else to be found in Middle Earth.
Looking at the grand masterpiece that is Lord of the Rings and the Middle Earth Universe, it's shocking to know that Tolkien thought there was nothing more to explore. It makes young readers and writers hopeful that maybe their world will be similar. Not the same mind you, but similar. Writing fantasy is hard, and I don't dare to attempt Tolkien's depth. But if my world became something massive and sweeping and far grander than I had thought, then that would be awesome.
There are few people who had the ability to not only envision a great story but to tell it in a masterful fashion. Tolkien is definitely someone who inspires me to be the best writer that I can be. It's hard and I'm constantly second-guessing myself, but if he could do it, then maybe I could too.
Reasoning with Vampires
I know a lot of people don't like the girl, Dana, who runs this website. I think she's hysterical.
A year ago, one of my very good friends (and fellow writer), introduced this website to me after hearing me rant about my problems with the Twilight books. I looked it up immediately after talking with her and then spent four hours giggling in Houghton's campus center as I read through the hundreds of posts. So, you might be thinking, why does a website devoted to ripping apart a book inspire you?
I'm glad you asked.
In all honesty, I've learned a lot from this site. Granted, I already knew full well that Twilight was an awful series, and I would have loved nothing more than to never see it again after finishing it. (I'm the kind of reader that doesn't criticize something until I've read all of the books within a saga or series. I suffered, so the rest of the world doesn't have to). But aside from seeing, very blatantly, the proof to my stance on the Twilight series and it's psychological, emotional, characterial (I made up a word), and story-arical problems, I've learned to avoid a lot of things.
I went back over my story and re-evaluated my characters. Was I making a character meant to be heroic a whiny individual? Was I making a love interest a stalker? Was I making a world complicated just to tie it into a bow at the end? Could I make my story better, just by looking objectively at it?
Not to mention the dozens of things that I've learned about grammar and word choice (I pay a ton closer attention to how often I use words in a chapter, let alone a book now), and comma use and the difference between a semi-colon and a colon. Seriously, this blog, despite the language (I'm not a huge fan of cursing, just because I find it unimaginative and morally wrong as a Christian, but anyway), this blog makes me laugh every time she updates. If I had a Tumblr, I would follow this immediately.
Yugioh Abridged
Why does an internet phenomenon that makes fun of a horrible TV show inspire me?
Because one day, I want to make fun of my own books.
I'm not even kidding. One day, when they're all written and before they're published (maybe), I want to take a look at my books, find as many ways to make it ridiculous as possible, have my antagonist say, "Protagonist!" to address my heroine, and frolic along through my series and shove all five books into something short. I want to be someone who can laugh at what I've created, because I think those are the best kind of people. I love laughing and I love laughing at ridiculous things.
So, I watch Yugioh Abridged because it's hilarious, but also because I hope that maybe I can be that funny when I go to abridge my own series. If that's possible.
The Muppets
I think my friend Eric put it best by once saying, "I wanna be able to say, 'I was in a room full of Muppets and we were all laughing and singing'." I'm sure some people don't get the Muppets. I'm sure some people don't understand why they're so much fun.
And I'm sure someone looked at Jim Henson and said, "You're crazy," when he told them about his idea to use puppets to tell stories and put on shows.
But why do I love the Muppets? Because they're encouragement, hope, teamwork, loyalty, friendship, laughter, talent, faith, and happiness all wrapped into one concept. Kermit is the one who holds everyone together and keeps them building new dreams. Gonzo is the resident 'weirdo' that strives to be the best at whatever he can do, regardless of what others think. Fozzy wants to be influential and entertaining and will do the best job that he can do, but will easily fall at the slightest bad review. Rowlf will play piano and sing a sad song before delivering witty puns. Miss Piggy, despite her shortcomings, knows what love is and goes for it, even if it means that she has to fight to make it recognized. And Animal just wants to play the drums without being criticized.
To me, the Muppets aren't any one thing. They're a bunch of things together. They're a dream made real because one man thought it was doable. And to me, they're a way to know that someone might think it's crazy and might think that it won't work, but in the end, it's your persistence, perseverance and faith that can lead you to where you never thought you'd be.
Stargate
google.com
A lot of sci-fi fans don't like Stargate. I can understand that one show can't be right for everyone. That's asking far too much. It's inevitable that someone won't like a show, movie or book. It's just the way the world works.
However, I love these two shows. Not Universe. I thought that was absolutely awful. I'm talking about my original Friday night line-up in high school and into the first couple years of college. I love Stargate because it was an adventure where mythology was explained, planets were explored, cultures were discovered and ordinary people became world-savers.
It was entertaining and it makes me laugh. Stargate makes me cry and I'm fully invested in the characters. I like their back stories and I like where they go as characters. I like the heights they reach after the lows they've experienced. I appreciate the fact that you can tell the actors had fun when they came to work. The stories explored here weren't necessarily about any one thing, but about a myriad of themes and dilemmas brought to life.
And it's for those reasons that regardless of how many times I've watched a season, episode or moment, I will still get sucked right back into the world of Stargate and enjoy every moment of it. Few TV shows for me entice me to keep watching regardless of what happens. This is the only one I can think of that, over the years of TV show after TV show, I still come back to this, rewatch a few episodes, and say, "I love this show."
It has staying power. And it inspires me to tell stories with that same kind of heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment