Just in case you read my pointless ramblings via an aggregator, or otherwise don’t follow the comments, there’s been an interesting development in regards to yesterday’s entry on the new Flash Gordon series. I’ve been contacted by Andrea, the webmaster for EricJohnsonWeb.com, who informs me that the head shot of Eric I saw is seven years out of date. She directed me to this more recent photo, and, based on it, I’ve got to admit that I was wrong. A little older now, Mr. Johnson has definitely acquired what I would consider the proper “Flash Gordon look” since that Smallville shot was taken. So this latest incarnation of Alex Raymond’s legendary adventure story has that much going for it at least.
Interestingly, I failed to notice yesterday that Eric has, in fact, done some work I have some passing familiarity with, namely the Work and the Glory films. If you haven’t heard of these, don’t feel bad. I doubt that many people outside of Utah have.
The Work and the Glory movies — there are three of them — are based on a series of historical novels written for the Mormon market. The books, which chronicle one family’s interactions with Joseph Smith and the early Mormon Church, are immensely popular in these parts, a local phenomenon akin to the Harry Potter series in that its fans read and re-read the books to the point of disintegration. (The Girlfriend’s parents are such fans.) I have no authority to say this, but I would hazard a guess that they are probably the most popular Mormon fiction ever written, based on the number of copies I see being read on the train and in public places. (And yes, Mormon fiction is a distinct, if extremely niche, genre; as you can probably imagine, it’s huge in Utah.)
The movie adaptations were financed by Utah’s own gazillionaire, Larry Miller — you may remember him from that Brokeback Mountain imbroglio a year or so back — and, although I never saw them myself, the trailers made them look like the prettiest entries in the “LDS cinema” genre thus far.
Our friend Eric played Joshua Steed, who I believe is the bad brother in the protagonist family (the other brother, of course, converts to the new religion and wins the girl).
None of which really has anything to do with anything. I just found it interesting…
I could, if I had any actual desire to do so, set you straight on the machinations of the Steed family in the W&TG. But, I’m not gonna. I may be the only one of the predominant religion to think that these books are tripe.
They are taken far too seriously for my taste and this is probably the crux my frustration with them.
True story. While I was working at Deseret Book (blah) a lady came in asking when the next book in The Work and the Glory series would be released. I told her a date of some 9 months off and she just about cried. Which bugged me. Even hack writing takes a certain amount of time and the previous entry was just released 2 months earlier. She asked me if I could wait that long and I told her that, in fact, I could as I had stopped reading the series after the second book, when I realized it wasn’t going to get any better. She just stopped, looked at me and said “How can you be a member of the Church and not think these are great?” and then stormed out of the store.
People bug but sometimes not nearly as bad as poor writing.
By the way, the second oldest son was the one who joined the church, at least at the beginning, not the eldest. Although he may have joined later. As mentioned earlier I didn’t finish the books.
While I’m on the subject I may as well lose friends over this one, too. Eragon is a crap book. Just ’cause you’re 15 doesn’t give you license to steal every good plot point from every good fantasy novel you ever read, tie it together with really very poor writing, and get a book and movie deal out of it. GRRRRRRR
As I actually pay attention to what you have written, my clarification is not needed as you had the correct information. But, just to add insult to injury, the younger brother also stole his older brothers girlfriend. Betcha didn’t see that one comin’ didja.
Well, no wonder Joshua went all evil-ly and everything. That sucks when your bro steals your girl.
Obviously, I’ve not read the series but it sounds to me like your anecdotal customer had the same problem a lot of Utahns do: she couldn’t see the forest through the trees of her faith. In other words, her thinking was that just because Joseph Smith was in the book and the book has a pro-Mormon message, it must be a good book. And that, of course, is nonsense thinking. A book must stand or fall on its merits, regardless of what it’s about.
For example, even I must admit that there have been a lot of sucky novels published under the Star Wars brand. Anything by Kevin J. Anderson, for example, just sucks, even if he did come up with a somewhat reasonable explanation for that whole “Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs” thing.
I think that the LDS reading public sometimes gets so excited that someone actually wrote something For Them that they ignore the bad quality or excessive melodrama of the writing. But then, some of them wouldn’t know good writing if it bit them on the bum. This is, after all, the same reading public that often thinks Orson Scott Card can’t POSSIBLY be a good Mormon because he has the audacity to write main characters that swear, are gay, have extramarital relations, and all sorts of Horrible Things. Because, of course, if you write about a character doing something, you’ve as good as condoned the behavior. 😛
This, coming from the LDS art student who had the temerity to go to a university where they don’t make the Figure Drawing models wear speedos (i.e. not BYU). The horror! (Seriously, I’m convinced my first boyfriend broke up with me because I saw naked people in my figure drawing class.)
But I digress… I have completely strayed from the original topic of your post, which is, of course, Flash Gordon. I think the more recent photo looks a LOT more like Flash, and I think my faith in the casting is restored. 🙂 (I don’t admit it to Steve, but I liked the old campy Flash with the football star… “I love you, Flash! but…”)
Gasp! Naked people in an art class! Shocking! 😉
I love “football Flash,” too, as well as the classic old serials, and also the original Alex Raymond comics (which, oddly enough, the Buster Crabbe serials were quite faithful to, at least as much as was possible for the limitations of budget and FX technology they were working under). But I’m willing to give the new show a try. I think Flash is one of those characters like Zorro or the Lone Ranger who can be dusted off and revived every generation or so. As long as they don’t stray too far from Raymond’s template, I’m cool with it…