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ladybug_archiveI seem to have lost half my audience on the Perry Mason fic. I'm not sure if it's because they think I killed poor Mr. Burger off or if they don't like the teeny-tiny references to the present day.
Perry Mason is a fandom that I definitely think could adapt to any era. Every time something's been done with it, it's taken place in the present day of whenever it was put out. (The movies, the thirties. The original TV show, the fifties/sixties. The other TV show, the seventies.) Of course, I'm writing for the original TV show; I just chose to poke it into the here and now. Nevertheless, I wasn't actually going to reference the present day unless it really had to come up. Well, as it turned out, it was pretty much unavoidable a couple of times in chapter three. But I think the references are very natural and don't distract from what's happening.
If the lost reviewers do think I killed off Mr. Burger, I wish they'd give chapter three a try! On the other hand, maybe they just haven't gotten to it yet by sheer coincidence. In any case, I replied to one agonized reviewer and tried to hint that the tides turned in chapter three.
Speaking of legal/law fandoms, I have learned that there is a new series of Phoenix Wright manga that actually is like the games, following cases and such instead of just compiling a bunch of silly, fan-made stories like the so-called "Official Casebooks" do. I can't seem to find out much more about the case-based manga, such as whether my other favorite prosecutor Miles Edgeworth is in it, but surely he would be. Only volume 1 has been released in America so far, although volume 2 is supposed to come later this month, I think. I stuck volume 1 into my Amazon shopping cart with two other things. Come morning, when money processes in my bank account, I can finally make a purchase. I really shouldn't get the manga too, but I don't think I can resist. From the sound of it, it's exactly what I thought and hoped in vain that the "Official Casebooks" would be like before I saw them and heard about them from other fans. I've browsed through the Casebooks a few times in stores, but haven't ever really known what to make of them (or of their price). Their price has come down, but I still don't know what to make of them. I'd rather get this other manga series.
Borders had a pretty book with artwork from the games. Even with 25% off, it was still too much. I think I'll be able to go again next Monday, when the prices will be even better, but I suppose by then the book will be gone. That's one problem with going out of business sales. By the time the prices get really good on most things, there's not much good stuff left.
Oh, I remember what I wanted to talk about in the morning. I actually saw a Circus Boy episode that rather irritated me. I've been watching since June and it's the first one that I've felt really bombed.
It involved Tim Champion, the circus's owner, trying to marry his childhood sweetheart. It was the standard variety of "he can't marry her after all because something else, in this case the circus, is still his real true love" plot. That was not what bothered me (even though that plot is kind of lame and wearing out its welcome), so please don't think that it is.
What bothered me was that he sold the circus to these guys who then went back on their word and tried to have most of the circus people fired in order to bring in their own people. Tim was angry because they'd promised his people could stay on, and they're his friends and he didn't want to see them turned out in the cold with nowhere to go. So he found out right before the wedding and wanted to go see about making those creeps hold to their deal. And his fiancee decided that because he wouldn't leave the circus problems alone after selling it, the circus was still his first love and she wouldn't marry him then.
Um. So basically she's saying that he shouldn't have been worried about his friends? That because he sold the circus their welfare shouldn't concern him any more and they shouldn't be considered his friends anymore and he should have just let them get unfairly fired or feel forced to quit? That's terrible! Even if the writers didn't intend for that message to come across, it really did. I wasn't sure whether I was more disgusted by the girl's attitude or by the writers putting that in in the first place.
Perry Mason is a fandom that I definitely think could adapt to any era. Every time something's been done with it, it's taken place in the present day of whenever it was put out. (The movies, the thirties. The original TV show, the fifties/sixties. The other TV show, the seventies.) Of course, I'm writing for the original TV show; I just chose to poke it into the here and now. Nevertheless, I wasn't actually going to reference the present day unless it really had to come up. Well, as it turned out, it was pretty much unavoidable a couple of times in chapter three. But I think the references are very natural and don't distract from what's happening.
If the lost reviewers do think I killed off Mr. Burger, I wish they'd give chapter three a try! On the other hand, maybe they just haven't gotten to it yet by sheer coincidence. In any case, I replied to one agonized reviewer and tried to hint that the tides turned in chapter three.
Speaking of legal/law fandoms, I have learned that there is a new series of Phoenix Wright manga that actually is like the games, following cases and such instead of just compiling a bunch of silly, fan-made stories like the so-called "Official Casebooks" do. I can't seem to find out much more about the case-based manga, such as whether my other favorite prosecutor Miles Edgeworth is in it, but surely he would be. Only volume 1 has been released in America so far, although volume 2 is supposed to come later this month, I think. I stuck volume 1 into my Amazon shopping cart with two other things. Come morning, when money processes in my bank account, I can finally make a purchase. I really shouldn't get the manga too, but I don't think I can resist. From the sound of it, it's exactly what I thought and hoped in vain that the "Official Casebooks" would be like before I saw them and heard about them from other fans. I've browsed through the Casebooks a few times in stores, but haven't ever really known what to make of them (or of their price). Their price has come down, but I still don't know what to make of them. I'd rather get this other manga series.
Borders had a pretty book with artwork from the games. Even with 25% off, it was still too much. I think I'll be able to go again next Monday, when the prices will be even better, but I suppose by then the book will be gone. That's one problem with going out of business sales. By the time the prices get really good on most things, there's not much good stuff left.
Oh, I remember what I wanted to talk about in the morning. I actually saw a Circus Boy episode that rather irritated me. I've been watching since June and it's the first one that I've felt really bombed.
It involved Tim Champion, the circus's owner, trying to marry his childhood sweetheart. It was the standard variety of "he can't marry her after all because something else, in this case the circus, is still his real true love" plot. That was not what bothered me (even though that plot is kind of lame and wearing out its welcome), so please don't think that it is.
What bothered me was that he sold the circus to these guys who then went back on their word and tried to have most of the circus people fired in order to bring in their own people. Tim was angry because they'd promised his people could stay on, and they're his friends and he didn't want to see them turned out in the cold with nowhere to go. So he found out right before the wedding and wanted to go see about making those creeps hold to their deal. And his fiancee decided that because he wouldn't leave the circus problems alone after selling it, the circus was still his first love and she wouldn't marry him then.
Um. So basically she's saying that he shouldn't have been worried about his friends? That because he sold the circus their welfare shouldn't concern him any more and they shouldn't be considered his friends anymore and he should have just let them get unfairly fired or feel forced to quit? That's terrible! Even if the writers didn't intend for that message to come across, it really did. I wasn't sure whether I was more disgusted by the girl's attitude or by the writers putting that in in the first place.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 08:41 am (UTC)I guess if it's not a flat-out period piece, like Daniel Boone, I just don't see a problem with something taking place in the present-day. It helps me relate to it better and it makes me happy to think of the characters being alive and well and having their adventures in the here and now.
(Haha, well, you've been reading my Kolchak fics, and those are present-day too.)
Yeah, I definitely agree that the girl was being selfish. But I'm not sure that was really brought out well in the writing. To me, the way it came off made it look more like Tim was in the wrong and the girl was unselfishly giving him up because the circus was still his first love.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 12:56 pm (UTC)That's very interesting. So in spite of you running around trying to figure out if certain things were used/said/whatever in a certain time period (as you mentioned a message or two up that you do), you relate to them better in the past. I'm probably strange in my own way, too; I find it extremely difficult to even write period pieces because I get so depressed thinking that the characters would be dead and gone now. It's nice to think of them as being immortal since they're fictional, though! I try to think in those terms too, but I then tend to start thinking of them in real-time terms anyway.
Yeah, I agree that the circus made him happier. This time I wasn't so much analyzing him as I was analyzing the writers' way of bringing out whatever it was they were trying to. I think under the circumstances he was totally justified in wanting to go back to the circus, even with the wedding upon them. I mean, I don't know how he could settle down and enjoy the ceremony when he knew he'd sold his circus to crooks and they were kicking out all of his friends. And I just don't think the writers brought that point out very well, since the only other character's reaction they really showed was the girl's and she didn't seem to think he should be worrying about his friends if he was going to marry her. I think they should have brought out a counterpoint to her point-of-view, instead of just trying to make it look like it was as cut-and-dried as the circus making him happier. Since the circumstances were so complex, I feel they should have taken that into consideration more. They probably just wanted a quick way out of the problem and didn't really stop to think about how they were presenting it.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 06:20 pm (UTC)That's very possible. I was watching a couple more Have Gun-Will Travel episodes (this time to see William Talman), and I found that both of them were far too short, things were not properly explained, and they ended rather abruptly.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 01:41 pm (UTC)I usually do the put-the-non-period-piece-in-the-present-day move, as well, and I've generally had good luck with that, as well. Someone commented on my mermaid fic that even though I had Kolchak on a cell phone, she thought it didn't look too out of place, and had pictured him in a phone booth anyway. And she was also grateful that I had Carl in the middle of the action and making contacts rather than looking up stuff on the web.
And yay Amazon purchases!
And bleh, that is terrible of that girl/writers. How shallow!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 02:01 pm (UTC)That's neat! It's nice when people are cool about it. And yes, Kolchak should always be in the middle of the action. I had him do a Web search in the Lovecraftian fic, but mainly because he and I were both at a loss.
I'm very eager to finally be able to get them! The bank opens in thirty minutes. It might take close to thirty more to fully process the money.
It really did come off looking terrible! The writers probably just wanted a quick way out of the problem and didn't care how it might sound.
It's interesting, how they want to do plotlines with characters falling in love, etc., but then never have things work out because they want the characters to stay single. I'm all for them staying single, that's for sure. I think sometimes they probably only bring in girls so people won't think the characters are gay. LOL. That actually is something I read in one of my Andy Griffith Show books as to why they felt Andy Taylor needed a love interest.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 02:34 pm (UTC)**nods** Yeah, but that didn't seem too out of place, either--he does sometimes go to the library...
Okay, good luck!
Bleh.
Huh. Wow, I never would've guessed that for Andy. Weird. **shrugs** The irony is, of course, that even if there are love interest characters for that reason, the slashers will do what they want anyway...
no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 02:42 pm (UTC)True!
LOL. Yes. Of course, back in the day, the slashers were still hiding in their closets. I don't think they started emerging with their fanon ideas and fanfics until the latter part of the 1960s.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-09 03:29 pm (UTC)Sounds about accurate to me...