Linus Van Pelt, please specify what you’re spoiling. I think you just ruined a tremendous short story for me, one I’ve been meaning to read.
Priceguy, if I spoiled the story for you, I am sorry. The reason that I used the spoiler tag was that I was following the format used by terrifel and ISiddiqui, not because I was afraid of spoiling a famous 125 year old story, any more than I would have been afraid of an offhand comment referencing Romeo and Juliet that mentions the fact that… …they both kill themselves at the end Surely there must be some statute of limitations on spoilers.
That being said, I really do regret any pleasure that I may have taken from your reading of the story.
Fair enough. Somehow I’ve failed to know very much about the story and I’ve so far (inadvertently) avoided reading it, but after hearing so many people sing its praise in another thread, I’ve been meaning to. Now, I can sort of guess the ending.
Well, it’s my fault for being an uneducated barbarian.
Considering that it’s stated in sixth line of the play, and then mentioned again in the eighth, ninth, and eleventh lines, I don’t think you have to worry too much about giving it away. 
Darn it Achernar, I forgot about the prologue. I knew I should have used Hamlet instead, but I couldn’t remember for sure who the one guy alive at the end was.
(Old, sort of lame, Shakespeare joke:
Q: How can you tell the difference between Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies?
A: At the end of the tragedies, everyone dies. At the end of the comedies, everyone gets married).
Sorry about the extended hijack.
?
Yeah, Orson Scott Card. Well, if you are into frighteningly adult and genius children. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will ever be made into a movie - too thought provoking.
As for the prequels, I agree with the opinion that it’s just a bunch of expensive movies, so get over it. Of course, at the end of Attack of the Clones I was ticked. Happy ending!? How can it have a sweet, romantic ending like that when you know that everyone is just going to get %#$ in the end?
Frankly, I don’t care much to watch any Star Wars after the original movie, and I prefer the original version of that movie.
Empire was a better film, but I didn’t care for where the story began to go during Empire, so I don’t care to watch it.
Take it up with Kasdan; it was his claim. I just read it in the L.A. Times.
Oh, and of course the prequels didn’t ruin the original trilogy. They’re just movies. And it’s not like the originals were such masterworks. Lucas’s talent was always in the universe he created and not in the actual plotting. I enjoyed Eps. I & II. But then, I don’t treat Star Wars as as some sort of holy writ.
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
mimes choking motion with thumb and forefinger
I don’t get it… Everyone seems to be talking as if there’s more than one version of Star Wars. There is only one version, dammit! Stop getting confused by cheap ripoff fanfic movies! Just because some spoiled fans [sub]like George Lucas[/sub] think that Greedo shot first, doesn’t change the fact that in the One and Only Version of Star Wars, Han shot in cold blood.
It was a pre-emptive strike, though I read on a fanboard that Darth Chirac opposed it!
I think age and appreciation of some of the finer points of story-telling and film-making have diminished my appreciation of Star Wars more than the prequels. Star Trek V was god awful, but I can still watch Star Trek II quite happily. Just because the crap-fests in the Star Wars franchise were set chronologically before the gems doesn’t diminish the gems.
And Lucas can release all the crap-tastic, super-revised, now-with-75%-more-Hutt versions of the original as he wants. But when he claims some special ownership over the first movie and wants to never sell DVDs of the 75%-less-Hutt versions, that’s just stupid. Once you put your art in the public realm, it’s as much the public’s as it is yours. Obviously the creator can choose to not sell DVDs, but I imagine Lucas sitting around with little greedy Lucas on one shoulder saying “sell the original on DVD!” and little selfish Lucas on the other saying “No, make them all watch the Extra Special Lucas Is Cool Edition!”
[off-topic]
GarniGal, take a look at this.
[/off-topic]
I beg to differ. In order to make the Wiggin children (and Bean) into super-geniuses, Orson Scott Card basically had to dumb down everybody else. This trend becomes painfully obvious in Speaker for the Dead, when it completely eludes the xenologers for decades that maybe, just maybe,
The Piggies’ reproductive cycle might require the males to die
… considering there are species ON EARTH that work the same way.
:
: What’s wrong with Qui-Gon’s existence?
As for why… Hmm. A challenge! Perhaps it’s the purloined letter principle? Plus who says Vader was particularly looking for Luke, or even knew about him at the times it was important? And how much DID Anakin know Beru and Lars, really? I didn’t see Phantom Menace, so I wouldn’t know…
The prequels haven’t ruined anything for me. They suck, but I choose to treat the prequels as mindless entertainment and the original trilogy as something special.
“Go to the Dagobah system, Luke. There, you will be trained by Yoda, the Jedi master who instructed me.”
– Obi-Wan Kenobi’s ghost, The Empire Strikes Back
And then, in The Phantom Menace, they go back and show Obi-Wan Kenobi as being the apprentice of this Qui-Gon Jinn person. Hmph!
…and in Clones, they reveal that Yoda instructs all Jedi children. Problem fixed.
By the way, StarWars.com officially revealed tonight that…no, this is a big one; you might not want to highlight…
Chewbacca is appearing in Episode III.
I warned you. You HAD to highlight it, didn’t you?
You know…you probably are right. Every time Episode I or II (or III) is on USA I will probably end up watching them.
I guess the real test will be in 5 years when the boxed set is released.