Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
I used to get a bit miffed whenever I heard people say that films, and especially film adaptations, stunt people’s imagination. The argument went: if you read a book, you imagine what people look and sound like, but then you watch the movie of the book and your imagination gets fixed: Alan Grant looks like Sam Neill, Annie Wilkes is the spitting image of Kathy Bates, Michael Corleone could easily be mistaken for a young Al Pacino. No more freedom of the imagination, no more imagination: you read the lines, and you see and hear the actor who made the role famous on the big screen.
Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
A dark and stirring refrain swells up from the silence, musically suggesting something both epic and haunted. And then a brilliant voice is heard saying the following:
“Long Years Ago, in the Second Age of Middle Earth, the Elven smiths of Eregion forged Rings of Great Power...”
Continue readingWelcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
Fans can be the worst – and the best. On the one hand, fans can be gatekeepers, they can be reactionary and bring out the worst in a franchise. On the other, fans can be welcoming and giving and creative. Last week, Melanie wrote about the joy to be found in fan translations. This week, I’m asking you to indulge me in a trip down Memory Lane, to my own experiences writing fanfic.
Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
Sam’s post on Hitchcock’s odd movie out, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, reminded me not only of the delights of watching a sniping couple, but also of that very specific joy that blooms when you consume something completely different and it rocks.
Continue readingRemember those last few seasons of Game of Thrones, and especially the finale? How a series that started strong took a dive once it moved past the plot written by its original author, George R. R. Martin, and, to many of its critics, became not just mediocre but outright bad in its home stretch, turning complex, nuanced characters into caricatures of themselves?
I enjoyed Game of Thrones in its first few seasons yet also found its last third disappointing, but for me, that disappointment was rather abstract. I didn’t take the series’ nosedive personally. Sure, I would have preferred for it to remain good, but I didn’t end up hate-watching the final few seasons, I just disengaged and got what fun there was to be had out of the spectacle and the nonsensical plot developments, at arms’ length.
Sadly, this didn’t work for me with The Handmaid’s Tale.
Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
Speaking of sci-fi novels: You guys, I did it! I binge read all the novels of Lois McMaster Bujold’s space opera, the Vorkosigan Saga, in about three weeks. All 17 of them.
Continue readingJoin us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
This week, Alan wrote about his childhood love for Greg Bear’s novel Blood Music – which makes for a great Six Damn Fine Degrees post, but sadly, it makes the whole issue of finding a trailer difficult, since Bear’s writings had never been turned into films or TV series. However, YouTube does have a reading of the original short story that Bear expanded into the novel, so if you need one hour of audio while you’re cooking or doing the dishes, why not check this out?
Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
Last week, Sam talked about the classic novels that were an essential part of an English curriculum, and I can well remember something similar from my school days. Those books that were seen as being the official, proper and right things for developing minds to read. However, they were not the only books out there. Alongside the worthy classics, there were popular reads that nonetheless bore the taint of scholarly respect. No teacher would be too angry with you if you were reading an Agatha Christie.
Continue readingWelcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!
University reading lists as the one described in Matt’s latest post (and dare I mention I was one of his students to be on the receiving end of that particular list) can be a double-edged sword: There is a certain mechanical quality about ticking off titles one wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for personal reading, for sure. Yet gently forced exposure to such literature – if pre-selected well – can produce unexpected pleasures and open up new worlds and avenues for further reading. Starting out my English studies in the early 2000s as a slightly disoriented reader in the wide world of literature, the English department list (when diligently dealt with) certainly kept me busy, and struggling, for a while.
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A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 