In the Beginning

For more years than we'd like to count, my sister (Buggy) and I (Cates) have wasted far too many hours whining, raving, ranting, and screaming with joy over the various books, movies, TV shows, plays, and sketchy internet ads that we encounter. After a particularly trying week of disastrous dialogue, pointless plots, and cardboard characters, we decided we needed an outlet for our inner monologues and so made the highly questionable decision to unleash our minds into the world. Small children and pregnant women be warned.

What will (hopefully) follow will be our clever (hah,) and keen (as if,) observations about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--in fantasy, of course. In particular, we'll have lots of stuff about teen and children's literature and movies. What you need to know about us:

1. We love all things C.S Lewis, although we wish the man had fleshed out his writing a bit more. Also, anyone who thinks the purpose of The Chronicles of Narnia is to convert children (or anyone) to Christianity has either A. never read them, OR B. never read another fantasy novel.

2. Similar to item 1, anyone who thinks that the purpose of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is to convert children to atheism has either A. never read them, OR B. never read another fantasy novel.

3. While we also love J.R.R Tolkien, we see Lord of the Rings et al as a brief peek into his inner mythology rather than cohesive, contained works like the Chronicles of Narnia.

4. J.K. Rowling is a frighteningly brilliant woman. If she is, as someone once said, "The dumb person's idea of what intelligence looks like," then we proudly stand with the dumb people.

5. While we have some serious problems with Stephenie Meyer's writing and storytelling, we have much more serious problems with the people who lambast and derail Twilight without ever having read it or seen it. One promise we will make right now: We will never criticize something we haven't read, seen, or heard.

6. According to us, Animorphs may have been the most brilliant children's series in the latter part of the 20th century. K.A Applegate is a for-the-most-part undiscovered genius.

7. Disney Pixar is fantastic, but its forerunner, the Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, is a genius.

If any of those statements resonates with you, or if you wildly disagree with everything we've written, then we think you'll enjoy this blog. Future movies, books, tv shows, etc. that will likely be covered in this blog include: Blue Bloods, Ouran High School Host Club, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Uglies, Death Note, House MD, Bones, Alice in Wonderland, Queen's Thief, Vampire Academy, Thursday Next, Toy Story, Tamora Pierce, Broadway, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as all the series and books mentioned above....and anything else that pops into our heads. Buggy has an affinity for bad anime and angsty teen novels, while I have an affinity for Disney Channel and reality TV, so those will undoubtedly make (horrifying) appearances too.

Fare thee well, fellow foragers of fiction.