Accents in Game of Thrones

Long piece from Gawker about the actors' accents in the Game of Thrones series on HBO.

I do find it a little strange that people adopt British-style accents for fantasy series and movies.  I *think* I would accept others, although I would need to actually see a fantasy television series (not urban fantasy, which totally could take place in contemporary America) with American accents in order to properly judge.  (Don't forget, you all, that GRRM is, himself, an American...though we also have a proud tradition of expressly forbidding the granting of titles of nobility in this country, and the British still do have a monarchy, a House of Lords, etc.)

I, like the author of the linked-to piece, am not particularly convinced by Peter Dinklage's accent, though I think he is an excellent fit to play Tyrion (not only because of his stature, but because I think he captures the character and his struggles and his attitude pretty well -- the buildup to what I know is coming in books 4 and 5 is believable).

But in general, I can listen to a British accent and have no freaking idea where in the country the person is from.  (I wonder if it is the same for people from other English-speaking countries coming to the US and trying to differentiate regional accents?  I suppose it is.  I once heard a native Mandarin speaker admit that she couldn't tell a British accent from a US Southern one, though she also said the British man was easier to understand when he spoke.  Go figure.)

Anyway, the analysis at Gawker is pretty in depth, if you watch the show or you're into that kind of thing.

P.S. I already have a post tag called "British accents," so I may have talked about this before.  Oh well, that would've been a long time ago.

Glad It's Not So Cutthroat with Books and Dog Toys

5 Despicable Things People Do for Good Online Reviews from cracked.com

Makes me glad to write reviews for stuff I've bought myself (for the most part), for chump change (in the scope of things...a dog toy costs a hell of a lot less than a hotel room).  And makes me think twice about EVER writing a review for a restaurant (even one I like) or anything travel related (well, reviewing travel stuff would imply I had traveled, which I don't have the money to do...).

It's not just pressure from stores and product makers.  I once ordered a product from an Amazon marketplace seller.  The product worked, which was great, but the packaging was simply awful.  I was honestly surprised the product DID work after the box got smashed like it did in transit (because the only thing protecting it was a Tyvek envelope).  Well, I decided I just wouldn't leave seller feedback.  Except the seller kept pressuring me to leave feedback.  So,  I left 3 stars.  The product did work, but it took much longer to get to me than it was supposed to, and there was the box issue -- both of which I mentioned in the feedback.  The seller came after me with a sob story about how it would hurt his sales to get less than 4 or 5 stars, and blah, blah, blah.  I just ignored him, though I was tempted to change the feedback to 1 star.  (Assuming that was allowed at the time -- I don't even know.)

At any rate, my point was that I felt pressure then.  I ignored it, and the issue went away.  The most recent time I dealt with a marketplace seller, there was an error with my order but the seller was super responsive to my e-mails and fixed the issue ASAP.  So don't let the first experience I described, put you off marketplace sellers all together.  They do have some good points.  Just check the feedback before purchase.

I see that I've gone off on a tangent.  But I don't want to quote liberally from the article I linked to, because you should really visit the site where it's hosted and read it there, if you're interested.  Bonus profanity in the linked-to piece (since this blog post is absent any profanity from me -- hey, it happens on occasion).

I'd add #6 to Cracked's list, though: "send advance review copies to Harriet Klausner."

Do You Not Realize How Unoriginal This Sounds?

Another day, another press release.

First paragraph of the synopsis begins:

"War has broken out in the Seven Kingdoms."

Second paragraph of the synopsis begins:

"Meanwhile, now that dragon magic has returned..."

Copy much?  Are you writing a novel or a book report on A Song of Ice and Fire?

The Amazon review looks real.  Perhaps too generous, at three stars, but real. 

Not a good sign when your "about the author" section has a grammar error: "While his stories were always for personal enjoyment and those of his friends and relatives"  ("Those?"  Really?)

On to the Look Inside:

• "they cut a wide birth"
• a character could easily tell abnormally large humanoids were giants
• "many of who didn't get along"
• random line breaks in the middle of sentences
• no indentations at the beginnings of paragraphs (solid wall of text is hard to read, yo)
• lots and lots of telling instead of showing
• a lack of understanding of how to use speaker attributions (you don't say: "'Please send for my brother.'  He ordered."  -- first off, if you say "please," it's not an order; second, well, do you really need me to tell you what's wrong with the punctuation? if you do, you shouldn't be writing a BOOK)
• something is "genetically bred" into someone (WTF?)

That's only the first couple of pages.  I can't take any more of this.  It needs so much work.  My first draft was better.

What I've Been Reading

Cozy mysteries.

There's a reason.  And I'm not likely to change from being a fantasy fan to a mystery fan, anytime soon.

I will say, picking up a mystery or two is fun every now and then.  Cozies are a little too cute to be my everyday reading.  People who are terribly unqualified are super eager to be crimesolvers, and oddly unaffected by the untimely deaths of people they know.  The books are a bit formulaic, as well.

But, they're not long, I have someone willing to lend them to me in Kindle format so I don't have to pay for them, and I have done far too little non-fantasy reading these past couple of years.

And as for why I'm reading these?  Well, let's just say that pretty soon, there will be a new cozy mystery series on Amazon (free, in the comments to HK reviews) called "Harriet's Reviewing Circle Mysteries."

Bathtub Reading

Took my Kindle in the bathtub for the first time today.  Worked out fine.  Two pieces of advice, for those who might be interested:

1. Gallon-sized plastic freezer bag.  Seal it up tight, and you're good to go.
2. Don't do it when you're tired.  Those freezer bags might be water resistant, but total immersion in the bath might not be such a good thing.

I read a whole book today (not fantasy).  Haven't been able to say that in awhile.  I do, in fact, still like reading!  And I can, in fact, enjoy other genres (and sometimes even silence my inner critic).

Letting Out My Inner Bitch

Read my lovely response on page 1 of the comments, then move on to page 2.

Seems to me that someone who got downvoted a lot, doesn't have a lot of reading comprehension.  Which is no wonder since she defends this practice, and I quote: "Once you've learned how to review a book quickly, it isn't all that hard to spend half an hour and get an accurate sense of it."

Or an inaccurate sense of it, in the HK case.

At any rate, I like how Ms. E. Etc. says my remark wasn't "an impassioned appeal to reason and logic."  No.  No, it wasn't.  That was the whole point.  She didn't respond to reason and logic so I ceased using it with her.  (At least I succeeded in wasting some of her time, typing that long, rambling response to me.)

Anyway, feel free to read the comments for yourself.  Chances are, if you are reading this, you already know my opinion of Harriet Klausner.

Blogging is an Exercise in Stubbornness

No, seriously.  I haven't had anything useful to say for a good long while.  But I keep posting something every day anyway.  And for some reason, people still visit.  Don't know why or who or how many.  Stats are all different, depending on where you look.

I used to have a week's worth of posts lined up in advance.  No more.  Now I fly by the seat of my pants.  And I'm not as happy with a lot of my more recent efforts.  Too hasty, too hurried, not particularly interesting or informative (in my opinion -- though I am my own worst critic).

I need to start doing that again -- lining posts up in advance.  I can use my down time at work (which I don't happen to have any of, this week -- have been busy for three days straight, though I honestly prefer that as I need to remain useful to remain employed).

Anyway, pretty much just talking to myself at this point.