Muppet Video of the Week - July 26 2017

Amazon Warriors: Episode Five - A Room With a View by E.M. Forster (Part Two)

Part Two of A Room With a View, in which Brynn complains endlessly about Cecil (and Ava enables). Also, a naked man in a bowler hat. Come and have a bathe?

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From Amazon.com:

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In common with much of his other writing, this work by the eminent English novelist and essayist E. M. Forster (1879–1970) displays an unusually perceptive view of British society in the early 20th century. Written in 1908, A Room with a View is a social comedy set in Florence, Italy, and Surrey, England. Its heroine, Lucy Honeychurch, struggling against straitlaced Victorian attitudes of arrogance, narrow-mindedness and snobbery, falls in love-while on holiday in Italy-with the socially unsuitable George Emerson. 

Caught up in a claustrophobic world of pretentiousness and rigidity, Lucy ultimately rejects her fiancé, Cecil Vyse, and chooses, instead, to wed her true love, the young man whose sense of freedom and lack of artificiality became apparent to her in the Italian pensione where they first met. This classic exploration of passion, human nature and social convention is reprinted here complete and unabridged.

TRANSCRIPT:

Ava: Well, obviously, I love this book. It's one of my favorites, and it's really close to the hearts of everyone in my family, so I'm very biased. But what I did notice while reading this book is that I think that my early writing was actually really heavily influenced by George. And I was trying to think why, and [pause] I was thinking – as I mentioned earlier, I have struggled with depression, and maybe I thought a man like George would get me, since he had the same feelings. Or maybe I was jealous of George's openness, because [pause] it's hard to be open about those things, especially in that time period, so I guess I felt some envy for how George could talk about his problems. But it really made me rethink, uh, my own writing. 

Brynn: Well, I really enjoyed the book, um, I didn't have the benefit of reading a paper copy at first like you did, so there was a part – parts that were a bit confusing to me, but as a whole, I thought the book was wonderful, um, and it was just really cool to read Lucy's story. 

A: So next up are star reviews. What did you give this book on editing? 

B: Editing, probably a four-point-five, just because some bits were a bit confusing to me. There were some issues with the Kindle editing that I did not count as part of this four-point-five review, just to make that clear, um, because I can't blame the author for stuff the Kindle editor did. 

A: Yeah, these are transcribed by volunteers. 

B: Yeah, so, um, just want to be clear that I didn't dock anything off for that, but there was some bits where I was kind of a little confused on who was talking, and again, maybe if I'd read a paper copy it would've been better, but [pause] to me, like, there was one part where you just kind of had to assume Mrs. Honeychurch was there, even though it was never mentioned, and so – it was just little nitpicky things that made me drop it to a four-point-five rating. 

A: I gave it a five out of five. You know, I didn't see any misspellings, or anything like that. The only things that might be a little bit weird to read are products of their time. You know, this book is written in third person omniscient and a lot of books these days aren't written that way. But I'm not going to take off points for [pause] um, a style of writing, um, because that's not really editing. What did you give this for plot? 

B: Plot was a five out of five. Um, you know, it moves very clearly from start to finish. Again, um, I was kind of bummed that you don't get anything on Rome, but that's just, like, an opinion thing, not a count against the story thing, just cause it would have been really interesting to read their adventures in Rome. Um, and [pause] missing out on the bit of Rome didn't effect the story at all, because you pick up on things that happened as the book goes on. Um, so it was a very clear, good plot, five out of five [laughs]. 

A: I gave it a five out of five, too. Um, I agree with everything you said, but I refuse to believe that Cecil had any kind of adventures in Rome [laughs]. 

B: I mean, he might have found his way to a library or something [laughs]. 

A: [laughs] 

B: Not – though I don't know how much Italian he knows [laughs]. 

A: [laughs] so what did you give this one on characterization? 

B: Uh, characterization, I mean, that would be a five out of five. Everybody has good personality, I mean [pause] you can – you can – everyone has character, you know [laughs]. Like, even minor characters like Mr. Eager or Mrs. Honeychurch, uh, you can get a good idea of how they are as a person. So five out of five there. 

A: Yeah, I gave it a five out of five, everyone was really fleshed out. How did you rate this one on dialogue? 

B: Dialogue, I went back down to a four-point-five there, simply because, like I said before, um, the dialogue was really well done, but there were some bits that were confusing on who was talking, and I had a little bit of trouble with that [pause], and again, I mean it is an older book, so [pause] that is the way things were written, but a bit of it was just really confusing to me, so I – I didn't want to count it against it too much, so I went with that four-point-five. 

A: I guess I'd give this one like a four out of five or a five out of five. The only thing I didn't like about the dialogue is that sometimes there weren't dialogue tags, so I kept finding myself scrolling back up and looking to see who was talking. 

B: So four-point-five [laughs]. 

A: [laughs] Yeah, so [pause] again, it's sort of a product of its time, maybe, I don't know, but then again, it's also 2017 and I can say what I want [laughs]. 

B: Yeah. So, like I said, I mean its – if it's confusing I feel like it should be docked ever so slightly, but – but it doesn't take away from it too much, you know? 

A: Yeah. Both of us gave this one above a four-and-a-half out of five, and we're not – we're not fooling around with quarter points [laughs]. 

B: We both gave it a five out of five. 

A: Yeah, five out of five from both of us. 

B: [laughs] It was very good, I enjoyed it, and I would like to see the movie. 

A: Yeah, I looked it up on Netflix, and it's not on Netflix, um – 

B: Amazon, maybe? 

A: Yeah, yeah, I think it's like three ninety-nine 

B: Oh, no, I want Prime [laughs]. 

A: [laughs] 

B: We'll figure it out, even if we get it from the library or something. 

A: Yeah. 

B: But, um, we might have to do a special episode of that at some point. 

A: Yeah, that's be really, really fun. 

B: [laughs] All right, so, um, let's see, your favorite part of the book. 

A: It's totally come and have a bathe. 

B: That was the greatest scene, and that's also my favorite part. 

A: [laughs] 

B: And I really want to, like – it's so ridiculously written, I – I think the scene is probably wonderful in the movie. 

A: Yeah, it's so funny. 

B: So, we both agree on the same favorite part, what's your least favorite? 

A: I think it was the second kiss, because she says no, and he still kisses her, so that's pretty creepy. You know, we've been acting like it's very romantic, but that's a creepy part. 

B: Yeah. My least favorite -- I think I've said like three times in this – is probably just that time jump, as far as Rome goes. And it is partly because of the way it was edited for Kindle, and partly just because they're like "okay, we're gonna go on this adventure, and then all of a sudden you're back in England [laughs]. So it just kind of builds you up to be excited about what adventures they're having in Rome, and then you don't get to see them at all, you know, and that just kind of bummed me a little. And it didn't – it didn't detract from the story at all [pause] but I was just bummed that we didn't get to see any of that [laughs]. 

A: Yeah. 

B: All right, so do you have anything else you want to add? 

A: Nope, that's it for me. 

B: Thank you for listening to Amazon Warriors. You can find us on Twitter @thebookwarriors, and you can email us at warriors (at) superfuntimes (dot) net. Next episode we'll be discussing Under a Black Sky by Inger Wolf.