2 in 1 Showcase Episode 277: The 2012 Holiday Movie Preview

 

Delayed a few days by technical difficulties, the Showcase is back! This week, Blake and Erin talk about the big Disney/Lucasfilm news before diving into the big movie releases of November and December. James Bond returns! Peter Jackson takes us back to Middle-Earth! Lincoln rises from the grave or something! And lest we forget: Cirque de Soleil! All this and more in the annual Holiday Movie Preview special! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!

Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.

Episode 277: The 2012 Holiday Movie Preview

Why writing stinks

I hate writing.

This confession will be astonishing to most people, as the sole overriding desire of my entire life, the one constant from about the time I was ten years old until today, is a burning desire to be a writer. This, of course, requires me to write. But as anybody who has ever tried to do it will tell you, writing isn’t easy. Many people (who have never written a complete paragraph and think it’s perfectly acceptable to use “U” when you mean “YOU”) assume that it’s a terribly simple process that any Tom, Dick, or Harriet could accomplish if only they had the time in their ever-so-busy schedules to sit down and do it, because really, you’re just making stuff up. How hard could that be?

The truth is, when someone says they want to be “a writer,” what we really mean is we want to have written something. Because that’s a great feeling. Looking down at a story that feels complete, that feels finished, that draws a little praise and (if you’re extremely lucky) a little money is a feeling that doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve ever experienced. And the act of coming up with an idea, similarly, is wonderful. When a good one hits you like a bolt from the blue, or when a thought that’s been mucking about in your head for a long time finally breaks free and takes a life of its own, it comes with an intense feeling of power. You’ve become a creator of worlds, and that’s awesome.

Everything in between those two stages sucks the big one.

Those moments when you stare at the blank page, trying to figure out where to go next (or even worse, where to go first). You don’t know this story well enough, you don’t know these characters, you don’t know this place. You’re not black/a woman/short/Methodist/a six-tentacled alien from Grimbullax XII… how can you possibly get across in your writing of what it’s like to be any of those people? You’re conjuring it all up and it’s all horribly inauthentic and nobody will ever want to read it and you wish you could just lie down behind the sofa and die before anybody calls you out on it.

Then there are those times when you begin to realize you’re a worthless hack. Okay, this sounds pretty good, but didn’t they do that same joke on an episode of Seinfeld once? This concept is brilliant, but c’mon, Isaac Asimov must have written virtually the same thing. These are the times when you’re certain, at any moment, the Literature Police are going to break down your door with a battering ram and someone will point at you and scream, “HIM! THAT’S HIM! EVERYTHING HE’S EVER WRITTEN WAS ALREADY DONE BY SHAKESPEARE AND EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS AND J.R.R. TOLKIEN AND THE SIMPSONS! GET HIM!” And you will calmly hold up your wrists and allow them to cart you away.

These feelings are awful, most of all, because you know on some level that they’re justified. Every creator in the world is influenced by their experiences — either by what they’ve lived through, which makes you question how you can convey the feeling of being marooned on a desert island since you’ve never done it yourself for any extended period of time, or what media they have consumed, which means that every book you have ever read and every movie you have ever watched is in your subconscious somewhere, and it may well crawl out onto the page without you even realizing it.

Several years ago, a friend of mine read an early draft of a story that eventually turned into Lost in Silver. Upon finishing, she asked me if I’d been reading a lot of C.S. Lewis lately. I had no idea what she was talking about, until she directed me to the penultimate book in the Chronicles of Narnia, The Magician’s Nephew, where Lewis described a “Woods Between Worlds” that sounded a hell of a lot like my description of Evertime. Not having read that book in about 15 years at that point, I rushed out and found a copy, read it, and immediately began bashing my head against the wall. Clearly, although virtually everything else about the story had leaked through my brain like a sieve, the Woods stayed there and, lacking context, my brain started to adapt it to the story I was trying to tell. T.S. Eliot once said that “mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal.” Eliot forgot to mention that theft is sometimes like robbing a bank in your sleep, waking up surrounded by piles of money, and deciding you must have won the lottery.

Ultimately, I kept most of that original Evertime concept, after doing what writers have been doing ever since there was a second one: I rationalized the hell out of it. It was, after all, only a small part of the grand Narnia mythos, while it was a vital part of the story I was trying to tell. And I couldn’t come up with a way to accomplish the same thing that I liked nearly as much. And it wasn’t exactly the same, it was my take on the idea. And part of the main theme of the Evertime stories is that there are enough worlds in creation for everything ever imagined to co-exist, so naturally there will be elements that seem derivative of classic creations. And they’re never going to get around to making that book into a movie anyway.

All writers do this. We have to. Because when the brain creates it needs building blocks, and it gets those blocks from every bit of information you’ve ever fed into it. Every writer is influenced by every other writer whose work they have ever experienced. And this is true whether you’re blatantly copying somebody else by moving Kevin Costner to another planet and turning the Indians blue or whether you’re intentionally throwing away every element that made vampires threatening, entertaining, or interesting to read about and replacing all that with sparkle paint. In both cases — and in every case in between — you’re still reacting to an earlier work. It’s impossible to escape.

So the hard thing about writing, you see, is trying to think of something to say that hasn’t been said before. And when you realize that’s impossible, trying to think of a way to say it that hasn’t been done.

It’s just not easy.

But if you honestly want to be a writer, you eventually shove all that crap out of your brain, sit down in front of the computer, and start hitting keys until you’ve got something that may be worth showing to someone.

Which, if you’ll excuse me, is really what I should be doing right now.

What I’m Reading in 2012

Annually, I keep a running tally of all the books, graphic novels, and short stories I read. This list includes re-reads, as well as audiobooks I listen to over the course of the year, but I don’t include individual short stories if I read all of them as part of a collection. In related news, I really overthink the hell out of this stuff. And should the book be something I review online, I’ll provide a link so you can see my thoughts.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, here’s what I’ve read thus far in 2012:

1. A Tale of Sand (2011), Jim Henson & Jerry Juhl, B+*
2. Who’s Who: The Resurrection of the Doctor, Martin Beland and the Staff of The Guardian (2011), B-
3. Age of Bronze Vol. 3: Betrayal (2008), Part One, Eric Shanower, A-*
4. Locke and Key Vol. 4: Keys to the Kingdom (2011), Joe Hill, A
5. Hogfather (1996), Terry Pratchett, B+
6. Scream Deconstructed (2011), Scott Kessinger, A-
7. In the Peanut Gallery With Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2011), Rob Weiner (Ed.), B
8. Eats, Shoots and Leaves (2003), Lynne Truss, A
9. My Seinfeld Year (2012), Fred Stoller, B
10. Employee of the Month and Other Big Deals (2011), Mary Jo Pehl, B-
11. A Princess of Mars (1917) Edgar Rice Burroughs, A
12. Countdown: A Newsflesh Novella (2011), Mira Grant, A-
13. Sloppy Seconds (2012), Tucker Max, B
14. Killing Mr. Griffin (1978), Lois Duncan, B
15. The Crucible (1952), Arthur Miller, A•
16. Hilarity Ensues (2012), Tucker Max, B+
17. All-Star Superman (2008), Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely, A+*
18. Ruby of Ragnoor (2012), Brad Guitar, B+*
19. What If? Classic Vol. 3 (2005), Gary Friedrich, Don Glut, Marv Wolfman, Steven Grant, Peter Gillis & Tom DeFalco, B*
20. Atomic Robo Vol. 1: Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne (2008), Brian Clevinger, A-*
21. Atomic Robo Vol. 2: Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War (2009), Brian Clevinger, A-*
22. Atomic Robo Vol. 3: Atomic Robo and the Shadow From Beyond Time (2009′ Brian Clevinger, A*
23. The Gods of Mars (1918), Edgar Rice Burroughs, B+
24. Sum: 40 Tales From the Afterlives (2009), David Eagleman, A-
25. The Nightly News (2007), Jonathan Hickman, A*
26. John Carter: A Princess of Mars (2011), Roger Langridge & Felipe Andrade, B-*
27. Warlord of Mars (1919), Edgar Rice Burroughs, A-
28. The Princess Bride: 30th Anniversary Edition (2003), William Goldman, A
29. Raise Your Glass,: Stuck in the Twilight Saga (2012), Keith Helinski, B
30. Clue: The Musical (1993), Peter DePietro, B•
31. How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months (2011), John Locke, C
32. Forrest Gump (1986), Winston Groom, B
33. The Reporter (2012), Scott Sigler & Mur Lafferty, B+
34. Tales From Development Hell (2012), David Hughes, B+
35. Lamb (2002), Christopher Moore, A
36. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1997), J.K. Rowling, A-
37. Buy the RV, We Start Tomorrow: The AV Club’s Guide to Breaking Bad (2010), Donna Murray & Neal Goldman, B
38. Coffee: It’s What’s For Dinner (2011), Dave Kellet, A*
39. Sacre Bleu (2012), Christopher Moore, B
40. Pax Romana (2007), Jonathan Hickman, B-*
41. Paradox (2012), Christos Gage, B- *
42. Avengers Forever (1999), Kurt Busiek, A*
43. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), J.K. Rowling, B+
44. Transhuman (2008), Jonathan Hickman, A-*
45. The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012), Stephen King, B+
46. Atomic Robo Vol. 4: Atomic Robo and Other Strangeness (2010), Scott Wegener, A*
47. Atomic Robo Vol. 5: Atomic Robo and the Flying Fists of Science (2011), Scott Wegener, A-*
48. Misery Loves Sherman (2012), Chris Eliopoulos, B*
49. The Atlantis Chronicles (1990), Peter David, A*
50. Aquaman: Time and Tide (1996), Peter David, B+*
51. Pantheon (1999), Bill Willingham, A-*
52. Atomic Robo Vol. 6: Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X (2012), Scott Wegener, A+*
53. Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2010), Kurt Busiek & Roger Stern, A-*
54. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), J.K. Rowling, A-
55. “They’re Made Out of Meat” (1991), Terry Bisson, B
56. Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? (2012), Brian Cronin, B+
57. The Comic Book History of Comics (2012), Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey, A-*
58. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2010), Seth Graham-Smith, B+
59. Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile (2002), Bill Willingham, A-*
60. JLA Vol. 1: New World Order (1997), Grant Morrision, A-*
61. Star Trek: The Next Generation-Ghosts (2010), Zander Cannon, B*
62. Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage (1993), David Michelinie, J.M. DeMatties, Tom DeFalco, B+*
63. The Hollywood Walk of Shame (1993), Bruce Nash & Allan Zullo, C+
64. The All-Pro (2011), Scott Sigler, B+^
65. Our Valued Customers (2012), Tim Chamberlain, B*
66. Batman: Earth One (2012), Geoff Johns, A*
67. The Infinity Gauntlet (1993), Jim Starlin, A+*
68. F in Exams (2011), Richard Benson, A-
69. F For Effort (2012), Richard Benson, B
70. Blackout (2012), Mira Grant, B+
71. The Monolith (2012), Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, A*
72. Locke and Key Vol. 5: Clockworks (2012), Joe Hill, A*
73. Classic G.I. Joe Vol. 1 (2009), Larry Hama, B-*
74. What If? Classic Vol. 4 (2007), Bill Mantlo, Don Glut, Peter Gillis, Steve Skeates, Tony Isabella, Mike W. Barr, Steven Grant, Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio, B*
75. Firestarter (1981), Stephen King, B+
76. “Don’t Tell Jack” (2001), Neil Gaiman, A-
77. Rising Stars Compendium (2004), J. Michael Straczynski, A*
78. Fahrenheit 451 (1951), Ray Bradbury, A+
79. Morning Glories Vol. 1: For a Better Future (2011), Nick Spencer, A
80. Fool Moon (2001), Jim Butcher, B
81. The Maze Runner (2009), James Dashner, B+
82. The Scorch Trials (2010), James Dashner, B
83. The Death Cure (2011), James Dashner, B
84. Action Philosophers (2009), Fred Van Lente, B+*
85. Fraggle Rock Vol. 1 (2010), B*
86. License to Pawn: Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold and Silver (2011), Rick Harrison, B-
87. The MVP (2012), Scott Sigler, A-
88. Showgirls, Teen Wolves and Astronomy Zombies (2009), Michael Adams, B+
89. Upside Down: A Vampire Tale (2012) Jess Smart Smiley, B*
90. Trick ‘r Treat (2009), Marc Andreyko, B*
91. Madman 20th Anniversary Monster (2012), Mike Allred, B*
92. Texts From Dog (2012), October Jones, B
93. The Complete Omaha the Cat Dancer Vol. 1 (2005), Kate Worley & Reed Waller, B*
94. Superman: Earth One Vol. 2 (2012), J. Michael Straczynski & Shane Davis, A*
95. Tremors of the Buried Moon (2011), J.C. Rogers, B*
96. The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West Vol. 1 (2012), Tom Hutchinson, B+*
97. Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking (2012), Charles M. Schulz, A-*
98. Archie Classics Series Vol. 1: Christmas Classics (2011), B
99. Marvel Zombies (2006), Robert Kirkman, B+*
100. Marvel Zombies 2 (2008), Robert Kirkman, A*
101. Marvel Zombies 3 (2009), Fred Van Lente, B-*
102. Marvel Zombies 4 (2009), Fred Van Lente, C*
103. Marvel Zombies Return (2009), B+*
*-Denotes graphic novel or comic strip collection
•-Denotes stage play
^-Denotes audiobook
“”-Denotes short story

–Updated August 5, 2012

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 244: Holiday Movie Preview 2011

With Thanksgiving coming upon us, Blake and Erin talk about this year’s slate of Holiday movie releases! They delve into all of the big releases, lots of the little ones, and gush profusely over the Muppets! In the picks, it’s Animal Man #3 and Peanuts #0. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!

Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.

Episode 244: Holiday Movie Preview 2011

Everything But Imaginary #344: The Best Selling Comic Of the Year

A book that stands a real chance of being the best-selling comic of the year was released this week, friends, but comic book fans aren’t paying much attention. In fact, a lot of us are actively blanching away. It’s time to face the facts and, more importantly, try to figure out what we can learn from this dreaded volume…

Everything But Imaginary #344: The Best Selling Comic of the Year

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 159: Viva Las Vegas

Back in Vegas together, Blake and Erin get together for this week’s episode of the Showcase! The happy couple reviews a pair of new movies, including The Wolfman and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, visit a trio of Vegas-area comic shops, and answer your questions about what there is to do in Vegas if you’re a geek like us! In the picks, Erin liked the novel Star Wars: Death Troopers and Blake gives a thumbs-up to Batgirl #7. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 159: Viva Las Vegas
Inside This Episode:

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 143: Trick or Tangent

Halloween is over, but the boys have one last treat for you — our Trick-or-Tangent episode! This week, you steer the course of the show, as the guys answer your e-mails. Artist chatter, the state of the Shazam! family, spacefaring with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and even a letter in support of Twilight. Plus, Blake asks (okay, begs) your help in supporting his latest creative enterprise. In the picks this week, Kenny chooses the Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga graphic novel, and Blake is happy about the return of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@Comixtreme.com!

Episode 143: Trick or Tangent
Inside This Episode:

The Crappy Sequel Article Relocation Program

A few months ago, while sitting in the movie theater waiting for a screening to begin, I was watching the trailers pretty intently. I love movie trailers. A good trailer can take a movie I was only mildly interested in, or not interested in at all, and make me really excited over it. On the other hand, a bad trailer (and here I am thinking of Sherlock Holmes) can take a film I was anticipating eagerly and make me dread seeing it, as clearly the person directing the film has never actually read one of the books the character appeared in. A European trailer, however, can theoretically cheer me up and convince me that the trailer I saw before was dumbed down and amped up on the assumption (correct) that most American moviegoers wouldn’t want to see an accurate portrayal of the greatest literary detective of all time.

But I digress. On this particular occasion, a film for a new car chase movie raced across the screen: Fast and Furious. The trailer was remarkably stupid, mindless, and the sort of thing that the average moviegoer eats like M&Ms. I was sure it’d be a hit. Still, something nagged me about the title… “Fast and Furious,” I said to myself. “Fast and Furious… why does that sound so…”

Then it hit me. This wasn’t really a new movie at all, was it?

Oh no. This was simply the fourth film in a series, following the brilliant and award-winning motion pictures The Fast and the Furious,  the Shakespeare-inspired 2 Fast 2 Furious, and the globally-conscious The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. But for this latest installment, the filmmakers were trying something different in the naming convention. Although they hadn’t gone for the obvious (The Fast and the Furious 2) in the previous installments, they did go with two of the other predominant sequel-naming conventions. For the second installment, they simply worked added number into the title, a technique pioneered by the landmark films D2: The Mighty Ducks or Beethoven’s 2nd. For the third movie, they eschewed numbers entirely in favor of a subtitle, as we have seen with such films as X-Men: The Last Stand or Land Before Time: The Kids Who Saw the First Movie Are Showing the Sequels to THEIR Kids Now.

But this… this new innovation in name-changing for the fourth film left me astonished. No number. No subtitle. Nothing added at all. No! Instead, the producers of The Fast and the Furious decided to eliminate the definite article “THE” from the title anywhere it appeared! Fast and Furious! So fast, so furious, no articles needed.

I walked away from this trailer with a hole in my gut, something bothering me terribly. If they cut out those two “THE”s… where did the “THE”s go?

Months later, sitting in another movie, watching another set of trailers, I would have my answer.

The Final Destination, a motion picture about a group of hot teenagers who narrowly escape death only to find that Death Itself is stalking them in an orgy of blood and death, is winding its way to a theater near me this August. “But wait,” I said to myself. “THE Final Destination? It sounds familiar, but…”

Of course, this too was the fourth film in a series. In 2000, we were graced to the original Final Destination, and in 2003, the inspired title Final Destination 2 took movie theaters by storm. In 2006, select theaters played host to Final Destination 3-D, a film so remarkable that they handed out special sunglasses before the screening so the audience could handle it. But now, in 2009, we watch as the fourth installment in the series abandons its numerical title convention and instead rescues one of the “THE”s abandoned by Fast and Furious. Truly, this was a great humanitarian gesture on their part.

But the wiser among you have already noticed the problem here. The Final Destination only rescues one of the orphaned “THE”s left by the renaming of the previous film. There’s still another “THE” out there — lost, cold, and alone, seeking a home in the title of another crappy sequel. Fortunately, my friends, we live in a society where crappy sequels are not just expected, they are inevitable. If that poor, lost “THE” is still seeking a home, may I propose one of the following film franchises rescue it before it falls in with a bad crowd and we find it trying to get in to one of those “art” films or something with Nicolas Cage. That, friends, is why I have founded the Crappy Sequel Article Relocation Program — because our articles are too precious to waste. Just imagine how that lost article would look with one of these handsome motion pictures:

If these, or any other crappy sequels to crappy movies are willing to reach out and give a home to this wayward, abandoned article, call the Crappy Sequel Article Relocation Prograp (CSARP) right now. The article you save could eventually be your own.

Everything But Imaginary #296: Giving It All Away

The “New Media” has made hits out of Scott Sigler‘s Infected, Joss Whedon‘s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and Dave Kellett‘s Sheldon. Why can’t it do the same thing for comic books? This week, we look for ways to make the New Media save our favorite artform. PLUS: This week’s favorite-Batman #686, part one of Neil Gaiman‘s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

Everything But Imaginary #296: Giving It All Away
Inside This Column:

No One Agrees With Me About “Twilight”

Okay, how about something a little more light-hearted? After this week, I think we can use an old-fashioned rant.

Nobody agrees with me about Twilight.

The book or the movie.

Let me explain to you, briefly, my association with Twilight. It began several months ago when my female students (reminder: I teach ninth grade) all started showing up with these thick books with black, glossy covers featuring pictures that were intended to look hauntingly beautiful but really just made me think the camera was a little out-of-focus. They loved these books. They devoured these books. They would sacrifice an entire bushel of live kittens to meet a guy like this “Edward” fella, because he would understand them. (There were a few that seemed enamored of a “Jacob,” but the others looked at them like they were eating the live kittens instead of merely sacrificing them to their dark master, and that would just be odd.) On the other side, the male students were only vaguely aware of the existence of these books, except to comment about how anyone who reads one is a little too jocular in the jugular, if you get my drift. Me? I was just glad the girls were reading something that didn’t have a picture of Johnny Depp on it.

I moved on from my students to my friends. Chase is on the cutting edge of pop culture, so I asked him if he’d ever read the books. He went off on how he was refusing to read them or see the movie because he couldn’t afford to get sucked into another fandom the way he has Harry Potter, Marvel Comics, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lost, Disney, Tropicana Orange Juice, Scotch Tape and probably Boudreaux’s Butt-Paste. Things got stranger when my sister and a minimum of two (2) of my aunts started reading these books and having the same reaction as the girls in my class — they adored these books. Finally, I turned to the true authority on such matters: my girlfriend Erin.

“Go ahead and read it,” she said. “You’ve got to take me to the movie anyway.”

So I did. I read the book. I watched the movie. And in the end, I was left with a resounding feeling of… “Well… that was okay.”

The trouble is, nobody else seems to think the book is “okay.” There are simply polar opposites: either it’s horrible, mindless drivel, or it’s the greatest novel since Shakespeare invented the Internet, or whatever. Nobody wants to hear from someone in the middle ground. As a result, I find myself on the defensive whenever somebody mentions this book, no matter what their opinion is.

Let me give you an example of a typical conversation between me and a Twilight lover:

TWILIGHT LOVER (TL): Omigod, isn’t Twilight the greatest book ever written?

ME: Eh… not really.

TL: What? How could you say that?

ME: Because I’ve read a lot of better books. The main characters are really kind of cardboard. Edward and Bella have very little development. Everyone is drawn to him because he’s a vampire, all the boys are in love with her because of whatever freaky thing she has going on… it’s too easy. There’s no drama in their relationship. Bam! They’re perfect for each other! Let’s all fall in love with them as a couple.

TL: But–

ME: And the climax of the book is terrible. You spend five hundred pages waiting to see the vampires cut loose and really take action, and when it happens, what do we read? The viewpoint character is unconscious and we hear about the whole thing second-hand after she wakes up! You don’t knock out a first-person narrator at the most exciting point of the story!

TL: You–

ME: But the thing that bothers me the most, I guess, is the incompleteness. Stephanie Meyer starts too many plot threads and leaves them dangling. The first book in a series should lay groundwork for the future, but should still feel like it can stand on its own. Even if there had never been a second Harry Potter book or Star Warsmovie, the first installments would have felt like a complete story because you never would have known about all the backstory that got revealed later. Meyer teases too much.

TL: :head explodes:

Then, I turn around and have a conversation with someone who despises the book, which I also think is an overreaction. (For the sake of argument, this is a TWILIGHT DETRACTOR — TD — who has actually read the book and not just someone who hates it because he’s too cool to like it.)

TD: Man, Twilight is the worst book I’ve ever read.

ME: Eh, I’ve read worse.

TD: What? Dude, it sucked.

ME: It had its problems, but it’s not like it didn’t have anything going for it. Meyer did a pretty good job with world-construction, and I’m interested in just what the rules governing the vampires and werewolves are.

TD: Werewolves?

ME: They show up in the later books, I assume. They were telegraphed pretty obviously in the first one (and even more so in the movie).

TD: See? It’s really predictable too!

ME: I’m not disagreeing. But there are other mysteries that work. Alice is a really interesting character, for instance. I want to know more about her and where she came from.

TD: But–

ME: And, credit where credit is due, Meyer does have a knack for description. She really painted her setting very well. Forks feels very realistic, like a town you can actually go to and visit. That’s not a talent every writer has.

TD: :makes incorrect assumption about my sexual orientation:

Either way, I’m in an argument. So I’m just gonna step back and let the people who really care about it duke it out over this one. Me? I’m just not that passionate either way.