Re: some spoilers: language and THE DAVINCI CODE

On Tue, Jun 03, 2003 at 05:49:19PM -0400, Sally Caves wrote:
> You really should read The Turkey City Lexicon.  It's on-line; you can
> google it.
I found it.  Amusing - and should be helpful if I ever actually
try my hand at writing fiction.  (So far I'm more of a backdrop developer
and editor).

> In a few years, "lie" and "lay" will have collapsed into
> one another, but we Knights Templar can try to stave off that inevitability
> as long as we humanly can!!!
Heh.

> I'm an SF fiction and fantasy fan myself, and the written fiction for the
> most part far exceeds television and film SF in quality.
For the most part.  With plenty of exceptions.   And plenty of fans of
those exceptions.

Case in point: my wife plays EverQuest.  She's also a fan of fantasy
novels, and has borrowed some character names from such novels,
such as Kettriken after the mountain-born queen in Robin Hobb's
_Assassin's_Apprentice_ series.  And not only does the vast majority
of other players in the game - obviously fans of the genre! - not
get the references, but when she asks them what fantasy novels they
recommend, the universal reply is "Dragonlance novel #blah" . . .
sigh.


> Film seems more conservative.
Yes, both film and TV seem to be conservative by necessity, TV
perhaps moreso.  I thought "Firefly" was an excellent program,
but the viewing public obviously disagreed; it wasn't typical TV
space opera (read: clone of "Star Trek"), so it bombed.

> Hmmm.  I think this is going to raise some debate!  There is a mystical
> quality to the Matrix, with its clues, its codes, its allegories, its race
> to find secrets, that remind me a bit of The DaVinci Code.  But I was
> disappointed with the second part of the Matrix trilogy.  Cool orgy, though!
I don't mind mysticism and mystery and allegory; I mind bad physics. :)
Also could have done without the "kiss him back to life" bit at the end;
it would have made far more sense for him to just have a breakthrough,
say "there is no spoon", and watch the bullets stop affecting him.

> "As you know, Bob, a cryptographer is sort of like one who can solve the
> Jumble in the Newspaper."
Gaaaah.  At least say "Cryptoquotes".  Solving Jumbles can be a useful skill
in the cryptographers toolkit, but it is not anywhere near what they
actually do most of the time.

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> [Our expert] is completely flummoxed by something that is clearly
> backwards writing in English.  It looks "Semitic," he says, incredibly.
Well, see, all he meant was that it was written "backwards", just like
Semitic is. :)   (: .si citimes ekil tsuj ,"sdrawkcab" nettirw saw ti
taht saw tnaem eh lla ,see ,lleW

But since when was Leonardo able to write English in either
direction? :)

> Read it and tell me what you think... off-line.
Your comments aren't really filling me with a burning desire to
read this book, Sally. :)

-Mark

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