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Randomness: markers, eyeball-licking, and dull Catholic priests
Because I know more people read LJ on Monday morning than the weekend, I'm just going to renew my plea for anyone around here who reads Japanese well enough to translate it who'd be willing to get art in exchange for translating a few pages from a book on marker techniques - the bonus being that it's about Kazuya Minekura.
That out of the way,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yhlee mentioned a bit about pacing in TV shows, and this is from my comment to her reprinted here because I'm not sure I know if anyone on the friendslist has seen Boogiepop Phantom, and I highly recommend it.
The novel is interesting, but the anime's better. I've seen the live-action movie, too, which is a low-budget affair whose most memorable point can be summed up in three words: eyeball-licking scene.
And in other news from the literary world: is there out there an action/suspense novel starring a Catholic priest that does not, in fact, involve him breaking his vows of chastity at any point? Not that I've read many action/suspense novels starring Catholic priests over the course of my life, but it seems that it's never a question if if he's going to do it, but when. This weekend I finished Steve Berry's The Third Secret, which according to its press is an amazing tour-de-force of suspense and Vatican insider knowledge. What it really is, is dull. And involves a priest who breaks his vows of chastity, but that's OK because the Virgin Mary says it's OK. No, really. The plot revolves around the death of a pope and the behind-the-scenes scheming of a cookie-cutter sociopath to get elected pope, while Our Hero, suffering the ubiquitous crisis of faith, is sent on mysterious errands that are involved with the Third Secret of Fatima. Which was released in 2000, by the way and you can read it online, but that's not a problem, because there was really a third page to the text that contains an earth-shattering revelation. Which is that priests don't have to be celibate, that women should be allowed into the priesthood, that gay marriage is OK, and that women are in control of their own bodies and reproductive issues.
I was really hoping for something more exciting, involving, perhaps, hellfire and brimstone, or the end of the world, or Armageddon, at the very least. Especially after a red herring being set up about the prophecies of Malachy and how the last pope before the end of the world would call himself Peter, once our dull sociopath achieved the papacy and named himself Peter II.
I only kept reading to find out what the rest of the Third Secret of Fatima was, and once I found out I felt seriously cheated, after having slogged my way through the rest of the thing to get there. This book can just bite Mello's fabulous ass.
Is anyone else as tickled as I am that you can access many texts in the Vatican Secret Archives on CD?
That out of the way,
yhlee mentioned a bit about pacing in TV shows, and this is from my comment to her reprinted here because I'm not sure I know if anyone on the friendslist has seen Boogiepop Phantom, and I highly recommend it.Not the same as hour-long episodes, but the anime of Boogiepop Phantom plays long and hard with pacing and revelation. It starts with an episode focused on one character, then spirals out and out, looking at other characters in this area, sometimes a little backwards in time, somtimes a little forwards in time, sometimes jumping madly around. You'll often see the events of previous or future episodes playing out in the background, and sometimes you'll get the punchline of a scene in one episode and two episodes later, get the lead-in to it. You have to watch carefully and piece together not only the story, but the chronology.
I've just read the translation of the novel it was based on, Boogiepop and Others, which does this a bit, but not as much: it's easier to follow.
The novel is interesting, but the anime's better. I've seen the live-action movie, too, which is a low-budget affair whose most memorable point can be summed up in three words: eyeball-licking scene.
And in other news from the literary world: is there out there an action/suspense novel starring a Catholic priest that does not, in fact, involve him breaking his vows of chastity at any point? Not that I've read many action/suspense novels starring Catholic priests over the course of my life, but it seems that it's never a question if if he's going to do it, but when. This weekend I finished Steve Berry's The Third Secret, which according to its press is an amazing tour-de-force of suspense and Vatican insider knowledge. What it really is, is dull. And involves a priest who breaks his vows of chastity, but that's OK because the Virgin Mary says it's OK. No, really. The plot revolves around the death of a pope and the behind-the-scenes scheming of a cookie-cutter sociopath to get elected pope, while Our Hero, suffering the ubiquitous crisis of faith, is sent on mysterious errands that are involved with the Third Secret of Fatima. Which was released in 2000, by the way and you can read it online, but that's not a problem, because there was really a third page to the text that contains an earth-shattering revelation. Which is that priests don't have to be celibate, that women should be allowed into the priesthood, that gay marriage is OK, and that women are in control of their own bodies and reproductive issues.
I was really hoping for something more exciting, involving, perhaps, hellfire and brimstone, or the end of the world, or Armageddon, at the very least. Especially after a red herring being set up about the prophecies of Malachy and how the last pope before the end of the world would call himself Peter, once our dull sociopath achieved the papacy and named himself Peter II.
I only kept reading to find out what the rest of the Third Secret of Fatima was, and once I found out I felt seriously cheated, after having slogged my way through the rest of the thing to get there. This book can just bite Mello's fabulous ass.
Is anyone else as tickled as I am that you can access many texts in the Vatican Secret Archives on CD?
no subject
no subject
Also, how would you like to do us all a huge favor and translate this: "Kenren Taishou no nyoubouyaku da sou da ga, kimi ga soko made ano otoko ni kodawaru riyuu wa [fufu], yahari dan'na no shita ga ichiban kokochi yoi to iu koto ka?"
The fufu is a laugh, "Kenren Taisho" is "General Kenren," and the guy who says this gets punched out immediately thereafter by the person he's addressing.
Context at the bottom of the post, and also end of comments here: http://oyceter.livejournal.com/414822.html
no subject
My immediate translation is: "You are apparently General Kenren's right-hand man, but isn't the reason you have been concerned with him that - ahaha - the most comfortable place really is under one's master?"
That's a little imprecise, and if you have the kanji I can get a native speaker's opinion when my kareshi joins me here in a couple of days, but dan'na is both "husband" and "master" or "boss" in the same way as today's goshujin is; as a result, I translated it as master because this would, I think, be perfectly acceptable innuendo in English too, ostensibly of hierarchy but actually of something a little slashier.
But. That's an imprecise translation. I've never heard of nyoubouyaku, and would very much like to see the kanji of it before committing myself to anything.
no subject
no subject
Er, I hope that comes out... I basically typed "nyoubouyaku" in here.
If you can't see, the "nyou" is the kanji for woman (onna), the "bou" is the kanji for house (in Chinese, seems to have a different definition in Japanese) and the "yaku" means role.