![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zelda_queenZeldaQueen: And...just this last little bit! Aside from that "Muggle-Bye" thing, which serves little purpose. Woot!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Character Glossary/ Author Information
We then get the character glossary, which is completely useless since none of these characters hang around long enough to be the least bit likable or memorable. Still, Stouffer drops some extra information, so let's see what we get.
Apparently the cardinal Carmine is "a basket weaver". How a bird can weave baskets with no hands or fingers is beyond me.
According to this thing, Lady Catherine is "[b]eautiful blonder", even though the picture Stouffer drew clearly shows that she has brown hair. For God's sake, Stouffer, can't you keep your own continuity straight?
We're told specifically who the "undesirables"/ Have-Nots that became Muggles were. Let's take a look... "conscientious objectors, sick and diseased, physically challeneged, elderly, blind, deaf, savants, dwarfs, earning disabled, the Have Nots" And they all became Muggles through genetic mutations, which is kind of full of unfortunate implications about the genetic makeup of said groups. Well, nothing like potentially offending your readers, eh?
And...it seems that Muggle pregnancies are fourteen months long, with babies being between twelve and fourteen inches and weighing one and a half to two pounds. I have no idea why this merits it's own entry (under "Muggle Baby"), but there you have it.
Under Patch's entry, it says that he is "a thrill seeker", which kind of contradicts when Stouffer specifically says that he isn't a thrill seeker and only does whatever he's dared to do out of boredom. Is anyone surprised?
Okay, remember Chops? Well, you probably don't, but he was one of Zyn's Nevils, the one who chewed gum. You might recall that his real name was Peter and no one called him that? Well "Peter" gets its own entry here. And all it says is "See Chops". Hilariously, the entry for Chops ends with "See Peter", even though nothing is under that entry!
It says that Pitter is the daughter of "Winkle, Keeper of the Bees". That's good to know.
Good gravy! I think Rah has the longest and most detailed entry of anyone here! Blatant author favoritism, ahoy! Oh, and in case any of you cared what Rah looked like?
"Richly tanned skin, long slender fingers, short groomed nails, walks confidently, muscular, violet blue eyes, 6' 2'' tall, weighs 175 lbs., soft spoken, compassionate, very intelligent, hard working, respected by Muggles, wears a tan leather smoke with braided leather and beaded belt, leather thong sandals weath beaded straps wrapped up to his knees, braied silk bracelet, gold medallion, small drawstring pouch around his hips..."
ZeldaQueen: You know, Stouffer, YOU COULD ALWAYS TELL US THIS STUFF IN THE ACTUAL STORY!!!
Okay, so Stouffer gives us an entry on "Spooners" and just directs us back to Naddie and Neddie. But that entry doesn't actually explain what Spooners of the Deep are either! Darn it Stouffer, you actually had a second chance to make a little more sense and you blew it! What's wrong with you?
Walter is described as "the butler and friend of Lady Catherine". So that's what they're calling it now...
And poor Zyn? This is his entire entry. "ZYN, twin brother of Rah, leader of the Nevils, insecure and jealous of his brother, he leave Aura for Dezra (see Rah)" What the hell? She doesn't even give a physical description of how screwed up he was! Is he so uncharacterized as a person that he can only be defined by the Almighty Rah? Zyn, I'm so sorry, it's not your fault the author doesn't like you!
And now for info on the author! Hooray!
Well, it seems that Nancy's middle name is also "Kathleen". Very interesting. So of course, she also continues to address herself as "N. K. Stouffer". I'm sure this is totally original and not trying to cash in on anything, nope.
First thing she goes on about is how she created the "real" Muggles (with a trademark) and the Larry and Lilly books in the 1980s. She explains how "[l]ike most writers, she draws on personal experience for her inspiration and ideas. For example, it was the playful manner her son as a toddler used to pinch her cheeks before kissing them and say he just 'kissed her muggie' that led her to coin Muggles as the name of the mythical characters in her books". Look Stouffer, we know that you're annoyed over this Muggles thing! Will you shut up about it? This is really getting annoying!
What the - ? Stouffer's also a resident of Pennsylvania? She says she grew up in Hershey PA and began writing and illustrating in elementary school. Erm dearie? Everyone writes and draws in elementary school. Kind of standard fare, really. She also says that she and her grandfather used to go for walks in the woods and he'd tell her about the plant and animal life, which lent itself to her stories. Pity he didn't tell her about basic human biology.
Stouffer kindly reminds us about her two books of poetry and screenplay, none of which she actually names. She also apparently has made children's toys and dolls, which I read in an article where basically stuff like Muggle kitchen magnets. Because those are the sorts of things you want staring at you while you fix a bowl of spaghetti.
She tells us that she grew up with learning disabilities and this apparently led her "to conduct research about the connection between ultra violet light and color as it relates to learning and reading disabilities". Why? ...Because?
She now lives in a small town in PA, specifically Camp Hill. So she's on the other side of the state from me. I feel a lot better now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Onward to: Final Thoughts
Back to: Chapter Fifteen: The Lantern Lights
Back to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Character Glossary/ Author Information
We then get the character glossary, which is completely useless since none of these characters hang around long enough to be the least bit likable or memorable. Still, Stouffer drops some extra information, so let's see what we get.
Apparently the cardinal Carmine is "a basket weaver". How a bird can weave baskets with no hands or fingers is beyond me.
According to this thing, Lady Catherine is "[b]eautiful blonder", even though the picture Stouffer drew clearly shows that she has brown hair. For God's sake, Stouffer, can't you keep your own continuity straight?
We're told specifically who the "undesirables"/ Have-Nots that became Muggles were. Let's take a look... "conscientious objectors, sick and diseased, physically challeneged, elderly, blind, deaf, savants, dwarfs, earning disabled, the Have Nots" And they all became Muggles through genetic mutations, which is kind of full of unfortunate implications about the genetic makeup of said groups. Well, nothing like potentially offending your readers, eh?
And...it seems that Muggle pregnancies are fourteen months long, with babies being between twelve and fourteen inches and weighing one and a half to two pounds. I have no idea why this merits it's own entry (under "Muggle Baby"), but there you have it.
Under Patch's entry, it says that he is "a thrill seeker", which kind of contradicts when Stouffer specifically says that he isn't a thrill seeker and only does whatever he's dared to do out of boredom. Is anyone surprised?
Okay, remember Chops? Well, you probably don't, but he was one of Zyn's Nevils, the one who chewed gum. You might recall that his real name was Peter and no one called him that? Well "Peter" gets its own entry here. And all it says is "See Chops". Hilariously, the entry for Chops ends with "See Peter", even though nothing is under that entry!
It says that Pitter is the daughter of "Winkle, Keeper of the Bees". That's good to know.
Good gravy! I think Rah has the longest and most detailed entry of anyone here! Blatant author favoritism, ahoy! Oh, and in case any of you cared what Rah looked like?
"Richly tanned skin, long slender fingers, short groomed nails, walks confidently, muscular, violet blue eyes, 6' 2'' tall, weighs 175 lbs., soft spoken, compassionate, very intelligent, hard working, respected by Muggles, wears a tan leather smoke with braided leather and beaded belt, leather thong sandals weath beaded straps wrapped up to his knees, braied silk bracelet, gold medallion, small drawstring pouch around his hips..."
ZeldaQueen: You know, Stouffer, YOU COULD ALWAYS TELL US THIS STUFF IN THE ACTUAL STORY!!!
Okay, so Stouffer gives us an entry on "Spooners" and just directs us back to Naddie and Neddie. But that entry doesn't actually explain what Spooners of the Deep are either! Darn it Stouffer, you actually had a second chance to make a little more sense and you blew it! What's wrong with you?
Walter is described as "the butler and friend of Lady Catherine". So that's what they're calling it now...
And poor Zyn? This is his entire entry. "ZYN, twin brother of Rah, leader of the Nevils, insecure and jealous of his brother, he leave Aura for Dezra (see Rah)" What the hell? She doesn't even give a physical description of how screwed up he was! Is he so uncharacterized as a person that he can only be defined by the Almighty Rah? Zyn, I'm so sorry, it's not your fault the author doesn't like you!
And now for info on the author! Hooray!
Well, it seems that Nancy's middle name is also "Kathleen". Very interesting. So of course, she also continues to address herself as "N. K. Stouffer". I'm sure this is totally original and not trying to cash in on anything, nope.
First thing she goes on about is how she created the "real" Muggles (with a trademark) and the Larry and Lilly books in the 1980s. She explains how "[l]ike most writers, she draws on personal experience for her inspiration and ideas. For example, it was the playful manner her son as a toddler used to pinch her cheeks before kissing them and say he just 'kissed her muggie' that led her to coin Muggles as the name of the mythical characters in her books". Look Stouffer, we know that you're annoyed over this Muggles thing! Will you shut up about it? This is really getting annoying!
What the - ? Stouffer's also a resident of Pennsylvania? She says she grew up in Hershey PA and began writing and illustrating in elementary school. Erm dearie? Everyone writes and draws in elementary school. Kind of standard fare, really. She also says that she and her grandfather used to go for walks in the woods and he'd tell her about the plant and animal life, which lent itself to her stories. Pity he didn't tell her about basic human biology.
Stouffer kindly reminds us about her two books of poetry and screenplay, none of which she actually names. She also apparently has made children's toys and dolls, which I read in an article where basically stuff like Muggle kitchen magnets. Because those are the sorts of things you want staring at you while you fix a bowl of spaghetti.
She tells us that she grew up with learning disabilities and this apparently led her "to conduct research about the connection between ultra violet light and color as it relates to learning and reading disabilities". Why? ...Because?
She now lives in a small town in PA, specifically Camp Hill. So she's on the other side of the state from me. I feel a lot better now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Onward to: Final Thoughts
Back to: Chapter Fifteen: The Lantern Lights
Back to: Table of Contents
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 06:27 pm (UTC)Huzzah!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 06:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 08:46 pm (UTC)Facing death by starvation, the health of the Nevils began to fail. They became gaunt and paled further, untill they were almost living skeletons. With their health, their spirits also fell. Fear and suspicion ran rife as their end was drawing near and, to their disgust, found themselves entertaining dark thoughts untill they were afarid to even sleep.
Only Zyn retained any sembelance of intelligent thought, even as he sat and stared out to the abandoned food and the mainland every waking second, not even speaking to the rest of the Nevils. The group became resentful of the one they thought had brought this curse upon them. They plotted and planned their ovn vengance, fear of the deceptive strength Zyn still posessed preventing them from discussing or acting on their thoughts.
Many weeks of imprisonment passed. The situation becoming more and more desperate as the Nevils grew too weak to even suck moisture from the cave wall. Zyn still sat and stared over the water and many of the Nevils were still afraid. However, Chop, who had resigned himself to his fate, lost his fear and began to speak after days of scilence.
"This is all your fault, you know." he said, his voice raspy and dry.
The other Nevils turned their heads to look at him. Zyn did not move.
"Hey, Chop..." began Patch, obviously trying to diffuse a very dangerous situation.
"I'm not talking to any of you" he said, "and anyway, it's not like I'm the only one thinking it."
He turned back to Zyn, who still had not moved.
"I know I'm not the only one regretting following Zyn. Life with him has been one disaster after another and now we're gonna die on some stinking rock in the middle of nowhere. Look at us! We don't even look like Muggles anymore! We don't even look alive! We should never have let him convince us to betray our families..."
Zyn cut him off.
"We never betrayed them."
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 08:46 pm (UTC)"We never betrayed them, because they were never our people. We were never part of their perfect life. We didn't fit, didn't match up to their perfect life. We were never meant to be Muggles and they knew that. Why do you think they never tried to stop us? They were glad to see us gone because it meant that their village was perfect again. The perfect Muggle village."
He gestured vaugely to the piles of food a few feet away;
"Even my brother is one of them, even if he dosen't look it. They love him because he picks fruit out of the trees for them when they can't be bothered to fetch a ladder, because he chases away the greeblies so they don't have to get up. He's too stupid to realise what he is to them, but he thinks he is a perfect little Muggle. Too stupid to know how worthless his 'kindness' is."
The Nevils were stunned into further silence, mulling over what Zyn had just said, but before they could think of anything else to say, Zyn continued.
"Anyway, I'm tired" he sighed as he began to move his stiff joints, trying to stand.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Chop rasped.
"Where does it look like I'm doing? I'm going outside" Zyn replied.
"But the monsters..." Chop trailed off, unwilling to finish his sentence.
By this time Zyn had stood up and had taken a slow step towards the mouth of the cave.
"The way I see it, we either die slowly in here doing nothing, or we die quickly out there doing something. Either way," he turned and flashed a familiar grin over his shoulder "something gets fed today."
The Nevils watched as Zyn staggered to the cave enterance and into the light and saw him freeze as he met the monsters. They waited, half hoping that Zyn would be torn to pieces, and watched their leader. They could see Zyn, still frozen outside, and became puzzled at the lack of a bloody end. This feeling grew when Zyn waved one then both of his hands towards the creature. Their puzzlement became morbid panic when Zyn crouched down to touch the monsters.
They flinced when Zyn fell to the ground and started twitching, sure that this was the end, that the monsters were taking their fill of Zyn's still living body. However, instead of screaming, Zyn was making a strange hacking sound. The Nevils were bewildered at first, untill they realised that Zyn was laughing.
He remained outside the cave laughing for a few minutes, before he screamed at the sky;
"Oh, I have been so stupid!"
He turned back to the Nevils and beckoned them towards himself.
"We were so stupid, honestly, you'll laugh so hard! Come on, come outside"!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 08:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 10:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-06 07:05 am (UTC)Thank you <3
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 10:38 pm (UTC)Here's what I think the entry for Zyn should have been:
"Zyn: twin brother of Rah, leader of the Nevils. Pale skin, green eyes, formerly muscular, underweight because of severe depression and malnutrition brought on by years of neglect by Rah and the Muggles, hair that was originally reddish-grey ("rusty metal") but then magically and inexplicably turned strawberry-blonde. Frustrated, unhappy, depressed, angry, isolated, prone to lashing out, unfairly neglected and ignored by the Muggles, is the only active and ambitious person around. Is in desperate need of a better story, better characterization, and a hug."
As a last-minute sidenote, whatever happened to the worry stone? It was supposed to remind Zyn that he was still loved, but he only took one glance at it by the end and then that was it. Whatever happened to that storyline?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-05 10:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-04 10:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-05 04:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-13 03:43 am (UTC)She tells us that she grew up with learning disabilities and this apparently led her "to conduct research about the connection between ultra violet light and color as it relates to learning and reading disabilities". Why? ...Because?
You'd think that if Stouffer had done scientific research about light, she'd know better than to portray (for instance) "clouds of radiation" that block sunlight but not moonlight.
Googling "nancy stouffer" + "ultraviolet light" turns up nothing relevant. I would not be surprised if, like her children's poetry books and dolls, said research exists only in her imagination.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-13 01:50 pm (UTC)