city of bones | Michelle Proulx

Posts Tagged With: city of bones

When is “bad” too bad?

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

This post was inspired by a book review I read for City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. For those of you who haven’t read it, Jace is the bad-boy love interest who kicks ass, takes names, and is occasionally prone to fits of extreme melodrama. In the review, the reviewer explained that they could barely get through the book because of how much they hated Jace. They thought he was rude, controlling, and a terrible match for the protagonist. I, on the other hand, think he’s delightfully witty and — while at times in need of a sharp whack to the head — an all-around decent guy.

This brings to mind one of my favourite quotes from my mother: Different people are different.

It always baffles me that people can hate something I hold so dear. Thus, I posit this question: When is “bad” too bad?

The problem with this question is that everyone has a different definition of where “too bad” falls on the badness spectrum. I, for example, have a very high tolerance for some “bad” acts, and a low tolerance for others. I love reading about bad boys who have horrible, twisted, sordid pasts … so long as they’ve reformed and are trying to make amends. One of my favourite characters of all time is Anakin Skywalker — who, if you recall, did terrible things ranging from killing his own master to slaughtering dozens of Jedi younglings. And possibly causing his wife to kill herself? I never really understood that sub plot. Anyway, I’m totally cool with his various evil actions because I tend to forgive bad boys in books as long as they eventually seek redemption.

Others have a slightly lower tolerance for badness. I have a friend who, whenever a main character does something even remotely unkind, will get frustrated, say “That’s not pleasant”, and search for something else to read or watch.

What do you think? What’s that tipping point for you, where you say, “Okay, this character is now irredeemable to me”?

“BAD” ACTIVITY TIME!

List these characters in order of “badness”: (explanations are welcome and encouraged)

Severus Snape (Harry Potter)
Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)
Gollum (Lord of the Rings)
Christian Grey (50 Shades)
Edward Cullen (Twilight)
President Snow (Hunger Games)

Unrelated video of the day:

Prepare to have your mind boggled by the insanity.

Unrelated image of the day:

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/severus-snape/forum/post/68241/title/countdown-6000-fans

Categories: Writing | Tags: anakin skywalker, bad boy, books, city of bones, russia, snape, star wars, writing | 20 Comments

3D Food Printers? Super hot guy cast in City of Bones? Sign me up!

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

The title of this post might have clued you in to the fact that today’s topic has nothing to do with writing, or self-publishing, or any of that good stuff. Instead, I will share with you a super-cool new technology I found out about, as well as several pictures of Godfrey Gao (aka the super hot actor cast as Magnus Bane in the upcoming City of Bones movie). Oh, and at the end, I will reveal undeniable (read: ridiculous) proof that God exists.

To begin: 3D Food Printers? Really?

First off, I will direct you to this website. What you will find there is a series of machines which are essentially food printers. I didn’t know such a thing was possible, at least, not outside of sci-fi movies. Clearly I was wrong.

Digital Chocolatier Prototype

The Digital Chocolatier is a prototype for a machine that allows users to quickly design, assemble and taste different chocolate candies. This machine is composed of three primary elements: a carousel of ingredients, a thermoelectric deposition cup and a user interface. Through a graphical user interface, users can select and combine the ingredients housed in the different carousel containers to create customized candies. The carousel rotates to extrude these ingredients into the thermoelectric cup that rapidly cools and hardens the chocolate, making it ready for consumption. The interface also makes it possible to save and rate favorite recipes for later use.

That’s … insanely awesome.

Yes, yes it is. And here’s an example of what it can make:

Mouth … watering …

They also have a few machines that can make actual meals. I would feel safe buying the Chocolatier, because you can’t really go wrong with chocolate, but once you start printing out lasagna, I just don’t know how good it could realistically taste. And I wonder how they’d get the texture right, if they’re squirting the ingredients out of tubes?

Still, interesting food for thought.

Hot guy time

If you haven’t read Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, and you have any interest in YA fiction, you should definitely check it out. It’s a fantastic read, and there are currently 4 sequels and 2 prequels, so the fun never ends. Except when you run out of books, and then the fun does end.

Anyway, one of the characters in the book is Magnus Bane — aka the High Warlock of Brooklyn. He is possibly the coolest character in the book, and he now has an actor portraying him live on the silver screen: Godfrey Gao.

Here’s another one:

He seems to have some trouble smiling. There’s got to be a smiling picture somewhere … aha! Victory.

I think I’m so enchanted with this gentleman because he’s kind of how I pictured one of the characters in my novel to look (Varrin). Although my mental image of Varrin is constantly shifting, so I might have a completely different opinion in a few months. Regardless, if I could get Godfrey Gao to star in the movie adaptation of my novel, I would probably die of happiness.

And now for something completely different …

Image creds (in order of appearance): http://web.media.mit.edu/~marcelo/cornucopia/, http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2011/04/godfrey-gao-vancouvers-louis-vuitton-model/, http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/godfrey-gao?before=1342735719, http://superadrianme.com/2012/07/01/godfrey-gao-launches-sk-ii-men-in-singapore/, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2906770/posts?page=5