My sister and I just watched Mean Girls on my laptop. I have no idea how we managed to do it, as I usually have the most extraordinary bad luck with finding movies on the Internet to watch. It was my second time seeing that movie; the people who showed it to me first were my future roommates and excellent friends M and M- they're both M's, oddly enough- I'll have to come up with witty nicknames for them later, so that we don't have the same problem that I would have with my three J's, who are the Beast, the Beauty, and the Prodigy, respectively.
But anyway, we were watching Mean Girls. It was the Beauty's first time seeing the movie, and I wanted to show her the movie because pretty much everyone has seen that movie, except me until a few months ago, and there are a lot of quotes/inside jokes in that movie that the Beauty didn't get and I wanted her to get because they're just really funny. I mean, I know it was probably not the best movie choice for Sunday, but it was funny and definitely worth it, because the Beauty now likes the movie and I was reminded that I like it too. It was fun, because the Beauty and I don't do things together often enough, partially because I have a job and partially because she sleeps a lot. I mean, we are usually in the same room at any given moment, as we share a bedroom, but usually each of us is doing her own thing, Writing. Singing. Blogging. Reading. That sort of thing. The kind of thing one would prefer to do alone.
Watching Mean Girls was fun, but once I was done, I was reminded that there are movies and books and T.V. shows and things that I just like SO MUCH BETTER than Mean Girls. My family is familiar with most of these things, as are M and M; it's a good thing, because I'm going to live with them next year and there will be much obsessing and nerding about going on and they will understand my inside jokes and so will my family, most of the time.
So here is a list- not in Top Ten format, I'm afraid, but that's because I don't have just ten. I have a lot. And counting them up and putting them in reverse order is too much work. They have no particular order; I typed them as I thought of them. (Yes, I am very lazy today. It's a Sunday.)
Books (because they were my first love and they shall be my faithful companions forever):
All works by Jane Austen
All works by Charlotte Bronte
All works by Lucy Maud Montgomery
All works by Louisa May Alcott
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
All works by John Green
All works by Tamora Pierce
Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Host by Stephanie Meyer (but not Twilight, please note)
A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, and House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Shadow series by Orson Scott Card
The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and sequels by Douglas Adams
Sorcery and Cecelia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
The Eragon series by Christopher Paolini
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
Once Upon a Marigold and Twice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris
Movies
Pride and Prejudice, either 2005 Focus Features or classic Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle
Jane Eyre, either 4-hour Timothy Dalton or 2011 Focus Features
Sense and Sensibility, Masterpiece Theatre/BBC 2008 version
Mansfield Park, version with Billie Piper as Fanny
Persuasion, classic version with Ciaran Hinds
Penelope
The Princess Bride
Harry Potter movies
LOTR movies
Hunger Games
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Howl's Moving Castle
A Wrinkle in Time
The Seeker
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea (but not that awful third movie, because they completely screwed it up and it sucks)
Little Women (starring Winona Ryder as Jo)
Hook
Finding Neverland
Peter Pan (starring Jeremy Sumpter as Peter, which was a very good call on the part of the casting directors, because he's perfect)
Sherlock Holmes and SH Game of Shadows
Star Trek (the newer, I really did like that movie)
Where Eagles Dare
Avatar (yes, with the blue people)
Tron: Legacy
The Avengers
Captain America: The First Avenger
Tangled
Hoodwinked
Ratatouille
Flushed Away
Despicable Me
T.V. Shows
Doctor Who
Sherlock
Avatar: Last Airbender (haven't seen Korra, don't ask)
The Big Bang Theory (but only sometimes, and only for the snarky comebacks and the erratic behavior of Sheldon Cooper)
House (but only the first two and a half seasons or so)
Criminal Minds (select episodes)
NCIS (select episodes)
That's what I like; although it must be noted that I've read many more books and seen many more movies, but I have seen very few other T.V. shows and I therefore have little basis of judgment on T.V. shows. Suffice it to say that in general, British television is better than American television, and I like those first two on my TV list completely and without reservation.
I like all of these things a touch better than I do other things, and although I don't obsess about them all the time (just a few of them), I do like to think about them every now and then. For example, how would Sense and Sensibility translate to real life? Would there be a problem with Mr. Dashwood's life insurance, or did he just leave all of his money to John? If Elinor is still artsy and Marianne is still musical, are they classical artists and musicians, or is Elinor a bohemian outcast who wants to move to her own studio apartment in New York and is Marianne a punk-rock singer with her own band? What is the little sister, Margaret, like? Is she the pestilential thirteen-year-old or is she a little more mature than that? Is Willoughby the town stud/heartbreaker? Why is he such a creeper to begin with? Is there a modern way to have thirty-five-year-old Colonel Brandon crushing on sixteen-year-old Marianne and have it NOT be creepy? What would make modern Edward Ferrars a nice person; that is to say, why wouldn't he just cheat on Lucy with Elinor? Neither of them would ever know. If I move that novel, one of my favorites, to the modern days, there are just so many questions that need to be answered, so many ideas that pop into mind. And it's not just S&S; everything is subject to my whims. I have this idea for a story where it's the Little Mermaid meets high school, but instead of being a mermaid, she's homeschooled all of her life and she wants to try to go to public school. Or something. I'll figure it out as I write it.
I guess these sorts of questions are the reason I chose to be an English major- they EXPECT you to ask these kinds of questions and then write ten-page papers on your findings. It's a lot of fun. I can read something, and then I can chatter about it extensively on a Word document, double-space, MLA and bingo, I get to turn it in. It's a free pass for obsession. And since I would have done that anyway, I now have an ironclad excuse for it. A spoonful of jam if ever I tasted one.
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