(no subject)

[skygiants]

Last time I wandered over towards the Ys in the children's room at the library, I was intending to pick up one of Laurence Yep's Newbery-award-winning novels. Then, out of curiosity, I picked up and flipped over the first one of his Chinatown mysteries, The Case of the Goblin Pearls and read the following words:

What if your aunt thought she was still the famous action heroine Tiger Lil and decided to catch the thieves? What else could you do but become her sidekick?

WHAT ELSE INDEED! Yes, that's right: in this book, a shy twelve-year-old and her wisecracking movie star great-aunt FIGHT CRIME! Also injustice and racism in Hollywood! I am 100% charmed and I need to read every other mystery Laurence Yep wrote in the series, because so many warm fuzzies!

It is true that Yep is not so much a subtle writer - there are a lot of hit-you-over-the-head-with-a-message-here moments - but the message-ness is pretty well balanced with ~wacky disguise hijinks~ and madcap chase scenes and a formerly awkward group of kids bonding over how totally awesome Great-Aunt Lil is in her 50s action movies. She hits people with her purse and leaps rooftops in a single bound! <333333 How, how I wish these movies had actually existed!

My favorite part, however, is totally the bit where Aunt Lil is talking to a cop after some impromptu-justice hijinks, and he eyes her darkly and says something along the lines of "We don't tolerate vigilantes in San Francisco anymore," because what this basically means is that AUNT LIL IS BATMAN and now forever in my heart San Francisco's main costumed vigilante is going to be a wisecracking sixty-something Chinese-American film star with a genius for publicity. *_* WHY HAS NOBODY MADE THIS COMIC YET.

Comments

[nextian.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD I don't even want to read this book, I just want to watch this award-winning series of action films. YES. YES IT IS. I FEEL PROTECTED ALREADY. WAIT WAIT WAIT *changes icon*

[agonistes]

...

DO WANT *STARRY EYES*

[skygiants]

ME TOO. (Also apparently they are META action films in which Aunt Lil BREAKS THE FOURTH WALL before she performs her spectacular feats! The fact that they are not real PAINS MY SOUL.)

ICON IS PERFECT. *_*

[skygiants]

SO MUCH ADORABLE. I was sitting on the subway beaming like a loon as I read, so filled with warm fuzzies was I!

[nextian.livejournal.com]

AS IS YOURS. WHO IS CHA SONG JOO?

Why do I have four icons of inappropriately gorgeous people shooting things

[nextian.livejournal.com]

ALSO. WAIT. WHAT. "ANYMORE"? AT WHAT POINT IN THE HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO DID THEY TOLERATE VIGILANTES? WAS EMPEROR NORTON SECRETLY A SUPERHERO FIRST? DID WILLIAM T SHERMAN SWING FROM BELLTOWERS? INQUIRING MINDS ARE HAVING A HEART ATTACK

[skygiants]

Cha Song Joo is one of the heroines of Capital Scandal, the korean drama that hooked me on kdrama forever in large part because she is COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF BADASS. She is the most famous courtesan in Seoul, but that is only a cover for her SECRET IDENTITY as LEADER OF HER REVOLUTIONARY CELL who rides around on her motorcycle assasinating members of the colonial government! And then in her spare time she goes swing dancing and plays gleeful games with her friends' love lives! I AM IN LOVE WITH HER.

[skygiants]

YES. ALL OF THIS, YES. (WHY ELSE DID WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST BUILD A CASTLE ALONG THE 1 IF NOT TO SERVE AS THEIR SUITABLY ISOLATED HEADQUARTERS!!!)

[newredshoes]

THEY CALLED HIM "SPIDEY" SHERMAN BACK AT WEST POINT, BEFORE SETTLING ON THE SLIGHTLY LESS GLAMOROUS "CUMP."

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

WAS EMPEROR NORTON SECRETLY A SUPERHERO FIRST?

I wouldn't put it past him--but I think he worked better as Mission Control and funding.

We know that all of the locals respected him and even supported him...

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

THUR'S NO LAW IN SAN FRANCISCO

DID YOU FORGET

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

p.s. I bet they wore capes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Vigilance_Movement)!

[nextian.livejournal.com]

... Holy shit, I want one of those medallions. Did you see who critiqued their activities? Mr. "What POW Code"! WHAT IS THIS GIFT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME.

[skygiants]

*_*

THEY SO, SO DID!!!!

[nextian.livejournal.com]

"September 24, 1855 (http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist/chron4.html)
The preserved heads of Joaquin Murieta and Three-Fingered Jack" were sold at auction today for $36 to satisfy a judgement."

[skygiants]

Isabel Allende wrote a book about that!

[mercuriazs.livejournal.com]

There is nothing about that that does not sound amazing.

[skygiants]

It is so adorable! I am not even a huge comics person and I desperately want it to be a comic. (And for Tiger Lil to give Batman a good talking-to about how to take care of one's twelve-year-old sidekicks.)