The Edge of the World

Some day I’m going to write something about the edge of the world.  Actually, I’ll probably write several somethings about the edge of the world.  It’s such a philosophically ripe concept.  I mean, you can think of it as an ending, but by definition an ending implies that there was a beginning at some point, somewhere along the way, and if you look at it from another point of view, all endings beg new beginnings.  And that brings up the question:  what kind of a beginning starts at the end of the world?

What I’m seeing in my mind, is basically a cliff edge, but at the top there’s grass and trees and animals and people, of course, but down in the bottom it’s all fog and mist and no one can see what’s below for miles and miles.  It’s like an ocean of fog, and they call it the edge of the world.  Well, the story idea I’ve got in mind starts with the main character jumping off the edge of the world.  Not sure why she jumps yet.  I’m torn between having it be forced, like she’s running away from something, and having it be a choice, like she wants to see what’s out there.  Another idea would be starting with having her attempt to kill herself, but I’m nervous about writing that kind of thing, because it’s very intense in a lot of ways and I want to be able to do that subject the justice and seriousness it deserves.

So, anyway, that’s the idea so far.  Not sure if it’ll ever turn into anything, but I needed a topic to blog about this week, and this was all I had.  Hopefully it was worth your time. 

A Brief Review of Clash of the Titans by a Classicist

My husband and I saw Clash of the Titans this evening in 2-D and liked it just fine.  I had to pretend I knew nothing about Greek Mythology for two hours in order to enjoy it, but I expected that.  I think it would have been better if they had just given the characters different names and tweaked the costumes and place names a bit.  It would have freed the plot up a little more (not that they seemed to care much what the original plots were in the original mythology anyway.)  The special effects were fantastic, of course, and I think it would be worth spending the extra couple of dollars to see it in 3-D if you’re into that kind of thing, but I did not feel like the 2-D experience was lacking because it was in 2-D.  I did feel like it leaned toward the cliché, the expected, and deus ex machina types of things, but I also expected that (this is a story based on Olympian Mythology – you just can’t tell that kind of story without some sort of deus ex machina creeping into it at least a little).

The thing that really made the movie for me was one scene in the  middle (and I won’t tell you exactly what it was because I do not want to spoil it for you) that refers to the older Clash of the Titans movie from 1981 that wowed the world with the equivalent of 3-D CG at the time, which was claymation.  When this reference scene came up in the newer movie, I laughed out loud for at least a minute or two straight.  That one scene was worth the entire two hours and all eleven dollars.

My recommendation is this:  Watch the old one first, and then go see the new one.