Clash of the Titans

I watched Clash of the Titans, against my better judgement.

Oh, it was wretched. They took Greek mythology -- no, just some assorted stories -- no, just the approximate names of some people in assorted stories loosely related to Greek mythology. I haven't seen the first movie (of which this is a remake), but the only justification for this abomination of a film is that the first movie was actually just residual scarring left on film strips by cosmic radiation. The story goes nowhere and everywhere, grabbing bits and pieces I recognized from other thrilling summer blockbusters (a kraken? battling giant CG beasts in the desert?) and amalgamating them in one enormous, mind-meltingly-terrible transgression against the very concept of "plot."

Don't see this movie.


This post's theme word: bowdlerize, "to remove or change parts (of a book, play, movie, etc.) considered objectionable." As in, "Lila's bowdlerized Clash of the Titans was 10 seconds long and consisted entirely of shots of the ocean."

Hugo nominees 2010

Yet again I attempt to read and consider (and maybe blog some thoughts about) the Hugo nominees. This year's another doozie of a great-looking list.

Best novel:

• Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
• The City & The City, China Miéville
• Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson
• Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente
• Wake, Robert J. Sawyer
• The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi

Best novella:

• “Act One”, Nancy Kress
• The God Engines, John Scalzi
• “Palimpsest”, Charles Stross
• Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow
• “Vishnu at the Cat Circus”, Ian McDonald
• The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker

Best novelette:

• “Eros, Philia, Agape”, Rachel Swirsky
• The Island”, Peter Watts
• “It Takes Two”, Nicola Griffith
• “One of Our Bastards is Missing”, Paul Cornell
• “Overtime”, Charles Stross
• “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”, Eugie Foster

Best short story:

• “The Bride of Frankenstein”, Mike Resnick
• “Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh
• “The Moment”, Lawrence M. Schoen
• “Non-Zero Probabilities”, N.K. Jemisin
• “Spar”, Kij Johnson

This post's theme word is losel, "one that is worthless." I hope this list contains no losels... though it will probably contain losers, unless there is an n-way tie in every category.