Everybody Lies

It's one of the first things you learn about Gregory House- he has no faith in anyone's humanity, least of all his own. I finally got around to watching the series finale of House today. I'd been putting it off because I had a feeling that it was going to be emotional (it was) and because I didn't want a series that I enjoyed so thoroughly to be over.

*Spoilers.*


I'd heard rumors that there was talk of killing off the character in the final episode. In fact, Hugh Laurie himself said it in a recent interview I heard on NPR. With the revelation that Wilson was dying too, this seemed even more possible.

Who is Sherlock without Watson? We've never known. It's possible that he doesn't even exist. We know who Watson THINKS Holmes is, but maybe Holmes needs Watson to exist at all. For example, together House and Wilson are a mostly complete person. But separately? House can't exist without Wilson.

Thus, I was not terribly surprised when it did appear, in the final episode, that House was dead. I guessed the twist though, as I often do. In true Holmesian style, he makes a miraculous, Reichenbach Falls return. This was the point at which I began to take issue with the direction of the finale. At the funeral, everyone whose life House has touched speaks of what they've learned from him. Wilson begins to rant, but is interrupted by the ringing of his own phone. Cue House's return, except Wilson is the only one who knows.

The end is a montage of all the characters over the years settling into life without House and they all seem to have exactly what they need. House and Wilson ride off into the wilderness on motorcycles, content to live Wilson's last days to the fullest.

It was, to quote House's final line, the last word spoken in the series, "boring."

A neatly wrapped and tied up happy ending is inappropriate for a show as dark and real as House. I wanted House to be dead. Really, truly dead. Everyone would have ended the same way anyway, getting what they needed with his death. Perhaps not Wilson, but I think it would have been more poignant if House really couldn't have faced a life without his best friend and took the easy way out.  It certainly would have been more in character.

Yes, he proved that he really did care about Wilson and could be a good friend, and yes he did manipulate absolutely everyone one final time, but he didn't NEED to. It was always clear how much he cared, despite him being a selfish sociopath/asshole. And as far as manipulative plots go, this was one of the more shallow ones. There are generally more layers.

And what happens to House? Wilson will die, definitely. Are we supposed to think House rides off alone after that? And does...what? Lives life to the fullest because he's already dead? How boring.

Finally, is it wrong that I want a completely flawed character? Not a tragic hero, which House is too, but an anti-hero. One with no redeeming qualities, but still a hero, not a villain. The equal and opposite character to Atticus Finch. Can you name one?

I'm still thinking.

So Much for Mondays

Quick post, just to get back in the habit since I need to leave for work in a few minutes.

- CampNaNo is incredibly hard this month. I'm dangerously close to the point of too-far-behind-to-catch-up
-This is partly because I'm having terrible writer's block
-And partly because it is more important that I look for a new job so we can get out of Philadelphia this summer

-We're thinking about Baltimore, or maybe Boston.
-Back to upstate New York would be ideal for the boy, but not for me

-If you've got contacts in any of those places or info about writerly jobs, let me know.
        -I'd love you forever if you helped me out.

-I'm also trying to finish some "so long, co-workers, it's been fun-ish" presents. Here's a sneak peak at one. Sweater for the owner's baby.

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2012

A blog in pictures:

Murals

This is another attempt at the short post I tried to write yesterday. But my camera wasn't cooperating. I should be knitting or writing, so I'll leave you with just a few pictures of a mural I found in Baltimore this weekend.

Creativity and Productivity

I've been trying to stash-bust like crazy, so I can justify a trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

This was a skein that I bought at Rhinebeck in the fall, and under the yellow lights of a semi-dark barn, I liked the colors I whole lot better. When I got it home and took it out under natural light, I realized that it was entirely too pink for my taste. Thus, it will be a gift for someone.

It reminds me of wine coolers, so I'm calling it the Wine Cooler Cowl. The pattern is called Chi-Town Crochet Cowl and can be found on Ravelry.

And as it was a rather large skein, I also made a hat. Which will also be a gift for someone. (Though not the same someone. This is a colorway that one person could definitely wear too much of)

And now I am off to work on my scriptfrenzy script.

Oh, what?

You're right. I DID say that I wasn't writing a script this round.

Turns out my characters are a little more demanding than I originally thought. I'd still like to finish Letters... but that seems to be taking a back seat to my script.

But hey, I'll take whatever burst of creativity and productivity comes my way.

I Should Be Writing

I realize that it's a day late, but, Happy Scriptfrenzy everyone!

I'm not writing a script this round. (Well, I might.) My plan for this month is to finish existing projects. 50,000ish more words, or as many needed until it's finished, on Letters to Myself.

I'm also thinking of resurrecting a very old screenplay and reworking it. By that I mean, keeping the basic plot and scrapping most of the lines.

In other news, Ben took me to see The Hunger Games last night. I was pleasantly surprised. Other than the nauseating cinematography, it was fairly well adapted. I'm still less than enthusiastic about Woody as Haymitch, but he wasn't as awful as I expected him to be.

Lenny Kravitz surprised me as Cinna, too.

And now, before I go write something...anything, since I haven't started yet... I leave you with a pre-blocking teaser picture of my next 12 in 2012 project.

Off to Frenzy now. Good luck to everyone writing this month! May the pages be ever in your favor.

Sock Mania

I FINISHED MY FIRST SOCK EVER!!

I'm a little excited. Here it is as the beginning of the weekend, on my foot.

No, it's not a giant freak baby of a sock. Well, it is, but not because I messed up the gauge. It's because it's for Ben, not for me, and he has significantly larger feet than I do.

Here it is at the end of the weekend, on his foot:

Fits perfectly. I was a little amazed, and very excited.

Finally finishing this sock made me feel like a knitting superstar. It made me feel like "hey, I can make a sock. A fucking SOCK. I can do anything!"

I'm still feeling pretty good about things that I can accomplish, and I plan to do lots of plotting and writing this afternoon/evening. I'm also considering resurrecting an old screenplay and polishing it. And by polishing, I mean keeping most of the basic plot and scrapping most of the lines.

In the meantime, I have a new sock on the needles already- also for Ben.

Yes. I am aware that that is not the same colorway as the first one, and therefore, likely not its mate. It's not. I'll get to the other green one, I swear, but you see... there's this long story about how I don't have enough yarn left, and while I did manage to find the yarn label, it was yarn that I bought on sale at Loop because they weren't going to carry it anymore. The actual yarn company is out of Montana, and while they do have a website, they only sell wholesale. Which means that I have to find  a retailer that carries it. I may have to hop a bus to the city to do this. That of course doesn't make me cry, but it does mean that the second sock may take another six months, just like the first one did.

In the meantime, I'll content myself with the sock yarn that I do have.
And I'm sure I'll have more soon. Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is coming up in May, don't you know. Who wants to go?