Saga Sucker

Saga: not necessarily the medieval Norse life histories in prose naratives, but rather the chronicling of lives of a particular social group told in a long and leisurely narrative. Yes, I freely admit that I am a sucker for sagas. Now, you don't need to tell me, but I am perfectly aware that many people out there (especially enginerds) consider sagas to have a different sort of sucking action in terms of horribleness (ahem, "This sucks!" -- which is funny because you could also say, "This blows!" and mean the same thing). I am not one of these... well, they're kind of sheep, in a way, following what everyone else thinks and sadly not always seeing one for Themselves. Anyway, to put things into perspective: many, many television series are sagas by definition. Just think about the content and longevity of some of your favourites.

Okay okay, the thing is, I also happen to have a thing for historical romances.

gasp!

It's funny how when most people hear these two words together, you can just feel the collective recoil from the world. I find that the general assumption made right after this reaction (approximately 2.4 milliseconds later) is that the Liker must therefore be interested Only in this Taboo Genre. Ewwww! Now folks, please keep an open mind here because I'm going to tell you something that may free you from the anti-saga sheep of the world: I happen to like all sorts of other genres. (mini-gasp!) Action. Adventure. Comedy. Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Animated. Whatever! I may not be too picky overall but I am perfectly aware of what I like. So don't put ideas into your head.

Hmm, is it more geeky or girly to like these 19-century type novels or movies? Considering the fact that I am, in fact, a girl, it is perhaps not too inappropriate for me to appreciate a good piece of olde script. I am more inclined to think it's geeky because of this, but perhaps I'm a little biased.

Actually, it's kind of funny looking back on some of the movies I've watched with my parents over the years. My dad and I loved watching Schwartzenegger movies with lots of things blowing up and all the gadgets and whizzing around and the intrigue and the rrrraaaawwwrrrr...! But another night my mum and I would just as easily become engrossed in the latest Jane Austen fifteen-part mini-series and we'd be all weepy and saying "I can't believe that scoundrel!" about the character we've seen a hundred times in at least three other versions of the same story...

The funny thing is, neither of my parents can stand watching the other type of movie. I'm not sure where my tastes came from but I like to think I got the best of both worlds. (Again, I may be a little biased.)

Anyway, as a parting gift on these musings, here's a bit of a twist for the uninitiated (or disenthused), courtesy of an admirably open-minded guy I know: Yes, in the end, the girl always gets the guy and off they go into the sunset, yadda yadda yadda. Just keep in mind -- the guy always gets the girl.