Cliches or genre savy...

[kippurbird]

You know, if I'm reading a book summary for something, I shouldn't end up going "of course" and rolling my eyes at the end of every plot point.

This is in regards to "I am number four". My mom and I had been seeing posters for this movie all over the place. At first I thought it would be like the Prisoner.

"Who is number one?"

"You are number six."

You know, like that.

Nope.

I checked the wikipedia article and gosh darnit wouldn't you know it:

"Of course you need to go to high school and live a Normal Life when you've discovered that evil people are hunting you down and are now able to kill you."

"Of course the girl you've known for all of a semester is your true love and you'll never forget her."

"Of course you get special magic/alien powers."

"Of course you're one of the last of your kind."

Blah, blah, blah.

Comments

[dergerm.livejournal.com]

It looks terrible. Just terrible.

I will watch it twice.

[foxypope.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me started on I am Number Four.

Published? 2010.
Movie rights bought? 2009.

I don't know how often this happens, but that reeks to me. Actually, the first time I freaking heard of this book was in the movie theaters FOR THE MOVIE, and thinking "Wow, Twilight for boys." The entire thing is just a marketing ploy for the YA paranormal romance trend.

I actually downloaded the book. It's pretty bad. Definitely sporkable. If you won't I will wink wink nudge nudge.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Oh. I am definitely thinking about doing this book now. And yeah, I saw that publish- movie rights thing and thought it must be some sort of typo on wikipedia's part.

It just didn't sound right.

[kjtaylor.livejournal.com]

Never heard of it. Maybe they're not going to release it over here.

Hi, I'm back from Sydney and I got another tattoo while I was there! http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h140/Opifex_the_Singer/IMG_0205.jpg

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

It just got published over here, so who knows. It looks like they're trying to do a movie/book thing at the same time. Or something.

Either way, much eye rolling ensued.

I saw the tattoo! It's really nice. I love the stylization of it.

[kjtaylor.livejournal.com]

I guess we'll see. But frankly I'd be more interested in a sporking of this than of yet another Twilight mocking. That series has been done to death.

I reckon this tattoo is the best of the lot. The guy who put it on me did all the shading himself after I suggested it. I should put up the original drawing it was based on for comparison.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't really want to do another Twilight. This one looks a lot more interesting in an "Oh god did he really write that?" sort of way.

I could never get a tattoo. I like them, they're neat and all, but I could never get one myself. Partially religious reasons and partially the 'what if I don't like it x- years down the line 'and respect for Holocaust survivors who were forced to get the numbers. But that's just me.

Yours does, as said, look awesome. And it would be interesting to see the two compared.

[ravenswept.livejournal.com]

The thing was co-ghost written by a college student and the guy who wrote the liarography A Million Little Pieces. He started a writer farm to pay college English majors to write stories for him, for $200 dollars upfront and a some 70-30 split on any take, no rights to the work, they either have to use a pysedonuym or he gets first billing, and he doesn't even come up with the ideas, they propose ideas to him and he gets to fiddle with them however he wants, if he even decides to take them on. It became a movie quickly because he also partners with someone to quickly buy/sell the movie rights for any of "his" books.

Four was the first book written by his farming. Luckily it's also the only actual success, so hopefull this movie will bomb and he'll go away.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Well, I feel trashier knowing that. Just by reading it.

Still stupid book.

[ravenswept.livejournal.com]

Oh, it gets trashier (http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/69474/).

And yes, very stupid book. Getting a stupid movie.

[foxypope.livejournal.com]

*shudders* That's frightening. This book is really cancerous, isn't it? The more I discover about it the more I want to vomit.

[ravenswept.livejournal.com]

I'd say Frey is the cancer.

[foxypope.livejournal.com]

That's more along what I meant. All the comparisons to Hemingway and Henry Miller made me too sick to finish the article, TBH. What is with bad writers comparing themselves to greats?!

[kevias.livejournal.com]

They probably want to think that they have class. Somehow, if they read greats and think about greats and talk about greats that will make them great too because they spend so much time in such great company.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

... I feel the need for a shower now.

Honestly, that sounds like the shitty ass deals that comic book writers got in the fifties, like the guys who created Superman. They got like 200 dollars and no rights or anything.

That just sent up red flags all over the place. As soon as I see things like not getting rights to the property I create? Yeah, no. Sorry. No deal.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

I'm betting the only people who agree to that kind of deal either don't know how good the rights are (depending on how it does financially but still...) or they don't think they're any good at writing, don't actually want to be writers, and are simply looking for money right now. In other words, nothing that is created by this "factory" is going to be any good... u_u;

Actually, why the fuck isn't this guy just writing movie scripts to submit? Oh, wait, I forgot. He's looking for as much money as possible. Revolutionary my ass, everything I read in that article (I confess I couldn't get past the first page) reeks of "I want money." Everyone wants to get paid for what they love doing and everyone wants money but the vibe I'm getting off this guy is Money-grubbing.

What I don't get is why he didn't just go and write a self-help book. I guess because of the stink he raised by embellishing(? I never paid attention to A Million Little Pieces or the hubbub around it so I'm not sure if it was all lies or just exaggerated.) Though from what I understand, Trudeau still made some money off the books he got published... And hell, True Crime authors sell reasonably well too. There's a lot of avenues he could 've gone down but self-help would've been the least research and the most gain if it did well. :P

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

EDIT: Sorry, rethought my point.

They might have the desire to be writers... but they are misinformed as to what it will involve or what kind of commitment is needed.
They might think their work is alright... but they don't have the patience or the fortitude to go through the usual process.

Mostly, I think it's about the money. This guy sells them on the idea that they can get published and make tons, and so they fall for it.

Frankly, I don't know if Frey believes his own bullshit. He sounds like he's trying too hard to be a 'bad boy', and after reading about his supposed autobiography, that seems to be exactly the issue there, too.

And writing a self help book would mean he'd have to spend even a second contemplating helping people. This guy?

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

True but it still comes down to naivete involving the first part. I do think your second idea is probably more accurate than what I initially suggested.

And I agree, Frey is trying to make himself sound more "hardcore" than he really is. I don't think he does believe his own bullshit. I think he knows it's bullshit but figures as long as it makes him money, he might as well try to improve his image and make money? But I could be wrong. XD