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The deeper I get into this series the more impressed I am with the film adaptation. Almost every book I’ve read so far has at least a line lifted from it in the film, you can tell it was a labor of love on the part of the filmmakers.screaden posted:Took a little break from reading these but finished up Ionian Mission the other day. Probably my least favourite of them so far, it really just felt oddly paced to me, like there is a lot of meandering until the last quarter? the last fifth even where it felt like the main meat of the story got crammed in, and it ends so abruptly, so much so I had to double check to make sure my copy wasn't missing some pages or something. It felt weirdly unfinished to me. Anyway I still enjoyed it because even the worst day O'Brian'ing is miles ahead of most other writers. You’re about where I am but I really loved Ionian Mission, I agree that it’s meandering through. I guess I just don’t mind it getting a little meandering if it’s because OBrian is showing us slices of life at sea. That ending action was great too.
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Jun 6, 2023 17:40
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Kei Technical posted:Stephen's gooniness, like his ugliness, is heavily self-reported, and I think an omniscient narrator could draw a very interesting portrait. Bettany did a yoemanlike job portraying him but didn't explore this at all Yeah I generally don’t get extremely hung up on the cast’s physical appearance, though Stephen is probably the most different looking in the movie from my mind’s eye. I really like Bettany’s performance as Jack’s particular friend but yeah there’s not a lot of room to explore Stephen too deeply. They made the decision to focus on life aboard an age of sail warship and Jack and Stephen being buds, which are the two strongest (imo) elements of the novels. They don’t go ashore so there’s no room for spycraft or Austeny romance or bad business decisions but there’s nothing in the adaptation to negate those elements and there’s even a few easter eggs referencing them. With regards to Bonden’s casting I never pictured him as hulking. Maybe I’m forgetting a description of him to the contrary but I pictured him and pretty much anyone else on crew as having lean muscles unless specifically described differently. You don’t get sick gains from eating weevily biscuits and portable soup. The fact that Jack stays fat is one of his heroic properties. edit: Re: Huggybear I understand being bummed things are cut out from an adaptation of a novel but the point of a film adaptation isn’t to transliterate the book to the screen in the most accurate way possible. There’s a lot of bad movies out there that adhere to the source material really closely (like The Road). Drunkboxer fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Jun 8, 2023 |
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Jun 8, 2023 11:58
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How much of the idea that it’s rude to ask about someone’s life, even when it’s seemingly frivolous questions between friends, in social interactions taken from actual regency era society? I haven’t really been able to tell how much of this is based on historical ideas of propriety, how much of it is based on Stephen’s specific character as an intelligence agent, or how much is just coming from O’Brian’s own desire to hide his past. I’ve only read through The Wine Dark Sea so far for context.
Drunkboxer fucked around with this message at 12:38 on Dec 5, 2023 |
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Dec 4, 2023 16:17
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It just seems so annoying to be limited to anecdotes and riddles during conversation. Asking someone about themselves is a handy crutch to keep a conversation going. skasion posted:
That’s in Wine-Dark Sea, it’s what started me wondering about this. That and the part in Clarissa Oakes where she says she doesn’t like being asked questions about herself because it’s hard to keep all her stories straight (or something to that effect, I can’t find the quote now). That’s the bit that had me wondering how much of it is O’Brian talking through his characters.
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Dec 6, 2023 21:08
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Next you’ll be criticizing his very becoming buttercup-yellow braid.
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Dec 27, 2023 16:51
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Lobscouse & Spotted Dog is a fun reading little cookbook. It’s worth picking up just for Patrick O'Brian’s forward where he kind of veers away from talking about the book to lamenting the lack of pudding in america.
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Jan 13, 2024 02:29
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I’m reading The Yellow Admiral right now and I wish Stephen would just challenge Mrs Williams to a duel and get it over with. I’m sick of all that vile lickpenny shrew’s scheming.
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Feb 1, 2024 17:02
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Sax Solo posted:I know in my soul she did something reckless and stupid in the carriage ride that caused the accident; or, failing that, said something so awful that Diana chose murder-suicide. Mulaney Power Move posted:The way I always imagined it was she running her mouth and nagging and pissed Diana off so she drove recklessly, which Diana has done in the past when nagged. I definitely wasn’t expecting these The Hundred Days spoilers when I posted that lol. I wasn’t expecting Bondon either, it’s just so casually dropped into the middle of a sentence too.
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May 1, 2024 11:46
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