Rochellaine

@rochellaine

When you were talking about why musicals should be happy just reminded me of the lyrics in a song from one of the German musicals I listen to: “How can it be that all the rules/ of reason and society/are undone by music’s magic spell?”

I feel though that one of my main reasons for disliking The Sound of Music is that its always…[Read more]

@valtmy I honestly didn’t think you were! I was just agreeing with you.

That’s a really good list. Especially “something to hope for” and “no loners”. Those two things annoy me to no end.

@seekjustice

Noooo please don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t accusing you of trying to be “edgy” with SFI! 😛

I generally only like two kinds of stories: Stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things and stories about extraordinary people doing ordinary things. But there are several things I look out for in stories that usually determine…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Fictional magic is a whole other debate 😛 Though I will say that I grew up reading almost exclusively two types of stories: fantasy novels and missionary stories. As a child I never even thought about the magic in fantasy novels as witchcraft because I knew what real witchcraft was. Having said that, I have given up reading several…[Read more]

@valtmy I agree with you, though the thing I tend to go for is realism, rather than darkness or “edginess”. For me, the thing I love about Les Mis is that it shows the plight of people who still live today, both in my society and societies all over the world.

@rochellaine

I guess maybe my problem with it is that I don’t believe God gives second chances (which I’m sure you believe too, so I’m not trying to insinuate that you don’t)

God makes it very clear that death is it. You have to live with your choices for eternity after that. I think Carousel could have been very interesting if he hadn’t died…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Oh dear. Did I just trigger a rant war? 😛

But why do you think musicals should be happy and fun? I mean, I don’t think you have the same expectations for books, films etc.? Just because there’s singing and dancing doesn’t mean it shouldn’t go for dark and depressing.

For me, I don’t really like dark and depressing stuff across all…[Read more]

@rochellaine

I actually think you’d really like the Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s much lighter than Les Mis or ATOTC, no one dies, its got a sweet romance and the characters are already married so there’s no sappy proposal 😛

After that explanation I am left wondering why you like my writing at all. 😀

Well…I could…but we’d be here all day.

@Rochellaine

Are there any musicals we actually agree on???

I already knew how it ended before I watched it and of course I’d read Liliom, so I might have been projecting too much onto it, but I found it difficult to care at all about Julie or Billy. Why was Billy so deadset against getting a job? And why on earth did Julie just put up with…[Read more]

@rochellaine

I know what your beef is with Phantom but what is your problem with Les Mis and ATOTC? (I assume you are talking about the musicals and not the original books since you wouldn’t be reading @seekjustice‘s books otherwise)

@valtmy

Pretty much nil.

Its certainly an…interesting story. Many of the problems are fixed in Carousel, but its still a musical that makes me a tad uncomfortable. Okay, a little more than a tad.

@seekjustice

What are the chances Hollywood writers would actually do so?

OK, I’ve read the synopsis for Carousel/Liliom and can sort of see why you and @rochellaine have issues with it.

@valtmy I know, how could you? In general though, I think they’re both pretty good book adaptions and Hollywood writers would do well to study them.

@rochellaine

I see 🙂 Well, red roses I think go with the unimaginative proposal. They’re rather boring and over done now 😀

*gallantly refrains from commenting on Carousel*

@rochellaine

My characters are acting however they want. Whether things work out for them, though, is up to me, their author. 😛

Never heard of that one. So your definition of a “horrible story” consists of unlikable characters and depressing storylines?

@seekjustice

Oh right. Forgot about Les Mis and Phantom. How could I? 😛

@valtmy

I haven’t seen Matilda, but I think Les Mis, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Phantom of the Opera are all good book adaptions, though POTO changes a lot of the plot.

@seekjustice

That’s no way to adapt a book into a musical. Though I can’t really think of too many book-to-musical adaptations to give as examples…

Well, there’s Matilda which I watched in London. It was quite good because they actually wrote songs for the scenes instead of just blatantly ripping off the lines.

@valtmy

In my opinion, most of the musical is awkward attempts to stick passages straight from the book to music.

@rochellaine

Were the white carnations for any particular reason? Or did he just like them?

That wasn’t particularly smart of them. I mean, if you stopped singing and actually did something you wouldn’t be in this here fix.

@rochellaine

Well said. That is, in fact, the primary lesson I’ve been trying to pound into my characters’ heads.

@seekjustice

I see. Jane Eyre’s actual speech in the book was very beautiful so seeing the words butchered up like that in the lyrics was just weird so I didn’t have very high hopes that it’ll be a good song.