(no subject)

[skygiants]

The Lost Library exchange just wrapped up -- that's the metafictional one where you write a bit of a book or play or movie that's implied or stated to exist in another book or movie -- and it was, unsurprisingly, delightful.

I chucked two works into the fray, one straight-up unfinished script --

Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter (Draft 2, With Comments)

What has occurred to bring me to this pass?
For on my life, I cannot make it out.

[PERHAPS BECAUSE THE RELEVANT SCENES ARE MISSING FROM THIS PLAY, WILL]

-- and one semi-scholarly compilation, including some script excerpts and a few production reviews.

The Great Fire Lord

CASTING NOTES

FIRELORD SOZIN: Heroic leading man type. Strong, well-muscled, must look good shirtless.

AVATAR ROKU: Attractively sinister type. Small goatee, pencil moustache, fantastic hair.

DRAGONS: At least three actors per dragon. No skimping!

And, in exchange, I received another delightful rediscovered bit of the literary corpus of the Ember Island Players!

The Legend of the Blue Spirit

The BLUE SPIRIT enters stage left. He glides through the fortress like a ghost, kicking, punching, and slicing through the guards. He leaves the last one standing, and places his blades against the guard’s throat.

Honestly, I hope this exchange runs for long enough to build a whole Ember Island Players library. So much hilarious revisionist A:tLA history, so little time!

There's a bunch of other charming works in the archive, which I highly recommend checking out, but I'm just gonna toss out a few more recs:

I Saw The Best Minds Of My Generation Destroyed By Sven Hjerson

Of all the crashing bores our civilization has produced, the contemporary detective fan must surely be one of the crashingest. In the four months since my review of Mrs. Oliver's previous book appeared in The New Mercury, I have been bombarded by letters upbraiding me for my reading habits. I am informed, usually in hostile and abusive terms that by skipping the boilerplate scenes of fingerprint dusting etc., I have “denied myself a fuller understanding of the unique pleasures” of this supposed masterpiece, that Sven Hjerson, Mrs. Oliver's bony and windburned immigrant sleuth, is Finnish rather than Swedish, and further that I am guilty of “slander” by characterizing Mrs. Oliver's productions as a kind of cheap dope substitute for the semi-literate.

One noble reviewer takes on the works of the great mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver. Ariadne Oliver wins. Does anyone remember that time the dude from the Guardian's liveblog of the world's longest tennis match became a chronicle of one man's journey to the other side of madness? If you liked that, read this.

The Jealous Lover, Or, In Death Not Divided

(By Anne C. Shirley)

Special thanks to Diana Barry and Matthew Cuthbert for their inspiration and encouragement, and to Miss Stacy for being so awfully understanding in letting us write what we wanted for this composition.

Warning: very tragical, don't like don't read!

ALL THE VELVETY DEEP PURPLE EYES A HUMAN BEING COULD POSSIBLY DESIRE.

A Pony Of My Own (Epiloque)

Magic-users should also know never to use a spell to make a pony do what they want to do. You wouldn’t like it if someone used a spell on you to make you do something, would you? Neither does a pony.

Important notes on pet care, from the world of the Chrestomanci Chronicles. If I ever have a child, and anyone ever purchases that child a magical pony, I would want them to read this very informational work.

On Doorways, Glass, And My Good Wife

So now I may set forth with perfect surety that, contra the rude commonality, it is a thing impossible for my wife to have called forth a fairy servant on her own account, much less so brave and famous a fellow as she is said to have kept company with, that creature sometimes called Red Jem, or else the Man of Teeth.

I'm gonna go back and reread this once I've reread Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel for the first time in ten years (coming soon, to a booklog near you!) but this chronicle of the end of a rather unhealthy marriage stands QUITE WELL on its own.

Comments

[sovay]

At least three actors per dragon. No skimping!

+1.

[skygiants]

The special effects are a high priority.

[sovay]

The special effects are a high priority.

I am also very fond of "Yes, of course I mean Ta Min, the woman we both love."

So is the carrot spirit a regular member of the company or a talented non-actor?

[skygiants]

While originally brought onto the cast specifically for Da Ren's vision of this production, I suspect the carrot spirit has now got the bug for acting and will be appearing frequently around the Republic City theater scene going forward (at least until it makes the crossover to movers, where it becomes a popular recurring villain in the children's serial "The Adventures of Avatar Yangchen and Friends.")

[sovay]

(at least until it makes the crossover to movers, where it becomes a popular recurring villain in the children's serial "The Adventures of Avatar Yangchen and Friends.")

I should have recognized it! That endearing trait of looking sympathetically crestfallen when defeated, wilting slightly around the greenery. You always wanted to give it a cup of tea to cheer up with, except that it would just perk up and start plotting again.

[lizbee]

I am wholly in favour of revisionist AtLA history, Ember Island Players style. Especially if we go into LoK era, and the silent film adaptation of The Boy in the Iceberg becomes that universe's Birth of a Nation.

[skygiants]

So much potential! So much deep personal and cultural embarrassment for ninety-year-old Zuko.

(innerbrat was trying to talk me into doing Ember Island Players take on the story of Hama, but I did not feel up to the task. I want SOMEONE to do it, though.)

[lizbee]

I think there's plenty of embarrassment to go around. I like the idea of Varrick filming a "traditional" version of the play, with Bolin as Toph. (Lin and Su try very, very hard to stop this going ahead, but then Toph gives it her blessing, so they have to put up with it.)

[skygiants]

oh my god *__*

But how does Opal feel about her boyfriend gaining fame and fortune for playing her grandmother??

(And do they give Huan artistic control over the production?)

[lizbee]

Opal recognises that this is the best possible way for Bolin to win Toph's favour, and despite all evidence to the contrary, is sure Lin and Su will eventually forgive him.

[hebethen]

Clearly the carrot spirit is a nod to the mysticization of Air Nomads in the popular consciousness of the Empire-era Fire Nation -- the "positive" stereotype preferred by countercultural intellectuals of the time, in which the Nomads were so spiritual as to transcend/fall short of humanity, thus ultimately justifying the genocide as returning the physical world to "ordinary people" and "allowing" the hyperspiritual Air Nomads to permanently "return" to the Spirit World.

[skygiants]

Da Ren would never tell you that you've understood her vision, because to do so would be to remove from you the possibility for independent analysis of the symbolic resonance of her production, but you'd nonetheless get a nod of approval for this clarification of a key factor in contemporary political discourse.

[kore]

Oh, these look great!

[skygiants]

I hope you enjoy! :)