NaDruWriNi 2018: Lighting the Lights

[the_siobhan]

Honest to Murgatroyd the reason I can't watch The Walking Dead even though everybody tells me how great the show is, is because of weird anachronisms like people driving. It's nine seasons in people. The gas has all gone off. Ravens have eaten all the walkers. They should be well int the rebuilding part of the story. Childbirth and appendicitis are the big nasties now.

Of course since I've never actually watched the show I might be talking out my ass here.

This isn't to criticise TWD, but more to say that my taste in television is often dictated by what I can ignore. I can watch a show A and there can be a metric assload of scenes where the writers just kind of handwave over logic and for some reason I'll be ok with that. But then for some reason I try to watch show B and my brain will fixate on something minor and say THAT'S NOT RIGHT and I just can't get past it. Another example, the show Outlander. Everybody identifies the main character as English from her accent, but in 1700 English people didn't sound like that. It shouldn't matter, but for some reason my brain fixes on it and it completely kills my suspension of disbelief.

Oddly, I'm more tolerant of bad writing when I'm reading it rather than watching it. As you have probably gathered if you've ever read any of the reviews I've posted, I can talk about how terrible a book is and still admit I finished it.

On teh other tentacle is writers who infodump all over you and explain every little thing. I can't think of any examples of that in TV right now - I guess lens flares are just more interesting in a visual medium - but I have read so many writers who do that. Ever read any Arthur Hailey or James Michener? They spend years researching their books. And you can tell.

Unlike me, who is going to spend years using research to put off writing my book, and then never actually use any of it. (This is only mostly a joke.)

I htink we're out of vodka.

Comments

[armiphlage]

Very good point about the gas. I suppose they could still be driving diesel vehicles, but those are mostly just construction equipment and school buses in the US.

Apparently the US is bringing back gasoline school buses again, but that started after the start of the zombie apocalypse.

https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/gasoline-school-buses-back-in-service-harrison-county-first-on/article_bc70976e-9cdc-591f-a523-cf92175b8dd9.html

[sabotabby]

They could run on ethanol, but that's a terrible idea, because if you can grow crops, you should be growing crops for food.

I didn't get that far into TWD because it was boring and I wanted all the characters to die, but IIRC there was a horse in the first episode? We'd probably see more of that, and bicycles and/or rickshaws, but I doubt there is because the latter aren't as cool and macho.

[runcible]

The thing with TWD which finally turned me off to it was being repeatedly, bluntly, and without any sort of subtlety, beaten over the head with the "MAN IS THE REAL MONSTER, PRETTY COOL WE'RE SAYING THIS AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF REAL MONSTERS, AMIRITE?"

Like, I get it? We ARE monsters, after awhile I'm like... y'all got anything else? Could we explore some other themes afforded in a post-apocalypse setting? It's why I love the apocalypse as a narrative device in movies, but not a years-long TV show... I get bored of the same grimdark shit if you're not moving an overall narrative forward).

[jo]

I get what you're saying about TWD, but you're also assuming that because the series has been on for 9 years (9 seasons), 9 years have passed on the show. I don't think that's the case. There's never been any mention of how much time has gone by since the outbreak that I recall, and since they're in Georgia, there aren't any seasons to help measure time passage. For all we know, maybe only a couple of years have actually gone by.

It's like people who complain about how quickly characters travel from place to place in Game of Thrones -- based on the assumption that because the episodes are one week apart, one week has gone by in the show as well. For all we know, maybe it was a few months in the show.

[the_siobhan]

It may not be nine years, but based on the ages of the kid character in the photos I've seen it's not two either.

[armiphlage]

Horses also get eaten by zombies, so bikes are probably for the best.

I read a post-apocolyptic book, "Northern Tier", set centuries after civilization collapsed. Couriers carried mail, pharmaceuticals, and other lightweight, high-value items across the continent by bicycle. The low grades and relative flatness of the ruined Trans Canada highway allowed them to cross in a month. If you don't mind increased weight, blacksmiths and leatherworkers can make everything needed for a functioning bicycle.

[the_siobhan]

What about the tires? Wouldn't you need access to some kind of rubber?

[evening_tsar]

Hmmm. . .

It's funny what I'm willing to forgive and what I'm not. I can't watch modern Hollywood movies any more, out of sheer irritation, yet can watch old creature features 'till the cows come home.

I think it has something to do with internal logic and internal consistency. I can forgive almost anything as long as it works within the world the writer has created. It doesn't matter if it doesn't work in the real world or not. But if it can't even work in the fantasy world, then all bets are off.

[armiphlage]

In the book, there was some trading for rubber tubes, which were prized. Historically silk has been used for some racing bicycle tubes, and goldbeater's cloth (treated sheep or whale intestines).