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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2015 21:02:10 GMT
One of the many, many things about this forum that I love... the eclectic...who would have "thunk" and no judgementalism about it. Kindred spirits here and there...
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Post by questa on Mar 28, 2015 22:31:17 GMT
Looking at it all, Western culture starts early with fantasy stories...Cinderella, where the pumpkin becomes a coach and vermin the horses and driver etc or Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass...classic fantasy.
I am surprised no-one has mentioned Ursula Le Guin, an American who won many awards for her fantasy and sci-fi works.
I love the he quirky humour of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. I remember Adams saying in an interview that he knew our society was doomed when he picked up a matchbook and found instructions printed on it on how to light a match. From there to telephone hygienists and the Restaurant at the End of the World was just a small step.
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Post by htmb on Mar 28, 2015 22:40:35 GMT
I read LeGuin's "Wizard of Earthsea" as a requirement for a course taken in graduate school. I still remember much of it, which means it made an impression on me at the time. I don't normally gravitate to fantasy, and rarely read fiction these days, but I have read Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and all the Harry Potter books.
Because we will be visiting Harry Potter Studios this summer, I'll probably read much of the series again (if I can make it through the first two books).
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Post by questa on Mar 29, 2015 2:26:25 GMT
I am still musing on Fantasy and its effect on cultures. Maybe Deyana and Anshjain97 can help me here.
Hindu culture has 2 great epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata which are full of great characters...Gods and demons and everything in between. The many sub-stories are part of the lives of everybody. In Bali nearly all the street names and businesses carry the names of the main protagonists. If you don't know anything of these stories you can't understand the moral standards the local people try to live up to.
The Bhagavad-Gita is the main book for teaching how mankind should live, but it is a small part of the long saga.
These massive fantasies are told down the ages, marvellous...should I say Fantastic stories.
I wonder how much influence they have on the people today?
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 29, 2015 4:07:33 GMT
Ahem, ahem ~ Questa, you must see this. Cheery, I am going to use your post to make up a reading list. When I was in my early 20s I devoured science fiction & fantasy. I don't read it as much now, but am always on the lookout for good stuff. I adore Octavia Butler, particularly the Xenogenesis trilogy. Harry Harrison's West of Eden series is another with a fully realized world.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 6:10:56 GMT
I was a big fan of Ursula LeGuin in my youth. However, I totally drifted away from the swords-and-sorcery genre over the years, mostly because of the swords and all of the other constant fights. It's one of the things that drives me crazy in modern superhero and other science fiction movies. Besides the fact that they are ridiculous in the first place (superhero or resurrection of giant lizard), they have all of this incredible technology -- laser beams, powerful rockets, giant bombs -- but rather than using it, they are always in hand-to-hand combat. The last Star Trek movie irked me tremendously with (who was it?) Chris Pine and Benedict Cumberbatch duking it out on top of a spaceship. Give me a break...!
A few months ago, since the books are still lying around my dwelling 50 years later, I reread A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I remember loving all 12 (?) of those books when I was 10 years old, but it was a real ordeal making it all the way to the end this time.
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Post by questa on Mar 29, 2015 8:51:28 GMT
Oh Bixa! It looks fabulous. I only had time to view the trailer, but will watch the lot when I have time to enjoy it. I recognised King Rama, Sita, Hanoman the white Monkey King and others. I know the story they are doing so am looking forward to see their version. When my kids were small, I used to tell them the stories at bed-time. Each epic has hundreds of stories which are linked into the main flow so I never ran out of material. Of course I carefully chose the suitable ones.
There was a brilliant movie that ran for over six and a half hours and had an international cast that was being shown in the late eighties. It was about part of Mahabharata. I will check with Google for details.
Thanks, Bixa for this referral.
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Post by questa on Mar 29, 2015 9:07:02 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 31, 2015 16:06:58 GMT
That is fascinating, Questa! I never knew most of it before, but will be on the lookout for the movie now. Thanks! For those of you with Kindle apps, there is an app called "Kindle deal of the Day". It has a daily bargain offering of science fiction/fantasy. For instance, this was today's selection: www.amazon.com/Kingdoms-Wall-Robert-Silverberg-ebook/dp/B00J90F3BS/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8There's a similar app called Book Gorilla which gives you up to 50 choices per day & lets you set your preferences. Obviously there will be lots of duds, but also the occasional gold nugget.
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Post by questa on Mar 31, 2015 21:51:20 GMT
Fascinating is right, Bixa. Peter Brooks staged the play in Adelaide for our Festival of Arts one year. It was the whole shebang as described in the link. Staged in a quarry, it was the all night version with 2 intermissions when Indian food was served to the audience. My friends who saw it said it was a life-changing experience for them. I saw it as the 3 part TV series which had been cut down to six and a half hours. I would grab any chance to see it again.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2015 5:52:59 GMT
Peter Brooks' theatre is right at the end of my street and while I have seen some of his productions there, I have missed a lot more than I have seen. However, I did see the very first production that he staged there after moving to Paris -- Timon of Athens. It was noteworthy at the time for being one of Shakespeare's least staged plays. The theatre has been left in a delightful state of ruin after being abandoned in 1950, so it adds to the charm of anything staged there. Naturally, it completely respects the fire code now, but about the only concession made to spectators is to have provided cushions to sit on. i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq228/kerouac2/dailylife/011-7.jpg
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Post by questa on Apr 2, 2015 7:14:52 GMT
I would love to see any photos you have of it...it screams "Character"
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Post by questa on Apr 5, 2015 7:26:56 GMT
what sort of fantasy/sci-fi stories would you write?... Assuming here that we all are good writers. I would like to make a female, sensible, Sherlock Holmes, middle aged character who could talk with animals. Doctor Doolittle style, question them as witnesses etc. No-one knows she can do this except the nice police chief who has to find the proof for what the animals have said. It would be a fairly light storyline, minimal violence...sort of Miss Marple meets New Tricks..
Anyone else want to have a go?
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 5, 2015 10:15:35 GMT
I've moved away from fantasy type stuff in recent years though I don't mind watching a film or two but reading it is a different matter. A book I'd write would be science fiction regarding the survival of a crash landed family ill prepared on a foreign world. Modern day Swiss Family Robinson but with a harder edge.
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Post by questa on Apr 5, 2015 13:32:41 GMT
I'd read it...have you ever seen the play/movie called "The Admirable Crichton" by J M Barrie?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 5, 2015 17:49:27 GMT
Excellent....I loved that movie but I haven't read the book Questa
I have tried to write a fantasy novel many times but I just don't have the skill or the originality. I did get a fair way into one and may still go back to it one day...
There are no new stories tho....it's so easy to follow the well trodden path of known tried and tested patterns. I don't read fantasy and Sciene Fiction indiscriminately...it's still down to the quality of the writing.
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Post by deyana on Apr 24, 2015 2:21:18 GMT
I am still musing on Fantasy and its effect on cultures. Maybe Deyana and Anshjain97 can help me here. Hindu culture has 2 great epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata which are full of great characters...Gods and demons and everything in between. The many sub-stories are part of the lives of everybody. In Bali nearly all the street names and businesses carry the names of the main protagonists. If you don't know anything of these stories you can't understand the moral standards the local people try to live up to. The Bhagavad-Gita is the main book for teaching how mankind should live, but it is a small part of the long saga. These massive fantasies are told down the ages, marvellous...should I say Fantastic stories. I wonder how much influence they have on the people today? I'm no expert on Indian Literature, questa. But I do remember as a small child adults telling us stories made up and then handed down through many generations. I used to be spellbound. It's a shame that these stories are probably on the way out if not already lost. I found them fascinating - a window to another world. Something very unWestern - and a with a kind of magic of their own.
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Post by questa on Apr 24, 2015 2:41:18 GMT
Sums it up perfectly...and the stories are spreading wider, not diminishing. I just wish that Indian film makers would tell the tales rather than they get 'Disney-ized' in other countries.
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Post by deyana on Apr 24, 2015 2:59:21 GMT
You probably know more about this than me, questa. I've been far removed from these stories for way too many years.
The Indian film Industry leaves a lot to be desired. The potential is there, but not the motivation is seems. They could do a lot better.
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Post by questa on Apr 24, 2015 3:52:40 GMT
Living in Bali I picked up on many of the sub stories in the main line of Narrative. Peter Brooks's film version is terrific and although he had to compress the story to 6 1/2 hours it is complete in itself. larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xeno.mahabsynop.htmBest thing I could find to tell the stories.
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Post by deyana on Apr 24, 2015 19:57:02 GMT
That's a very good link, questa. Thanks for looking that up. Bali must hold some amazing memories for you.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 22, 2015 3:59:50 GMT
Well, I don't know what this says about me, but I just read (devoured, really) an entire book & didn't know until afterward that it's considered YA. No matter, I was hooked from the first page -- excellent dystopian fiction & great adventure: Ship Breaker <-- click
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Post by Don Cuevas on May 23, 2015 0:58:55 GMT
It's a very vicious, ugly reptile?
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Post by onlyMark on May 23, 2015 9:04:59 GMT
Probably has a face only a mother could love.
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Post by Don Cuevas on May 23, 2015 14:32:49 GMT
My whole waking existence is a kind of fantasy, and so, I've never been attracted to reading fantasy fiction, except when I was a teenager.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 22, 2018 21:20:25 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 21, 2018 8:44:48 GMT
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