我要飞Faye

F-list! I need your opinions on something!

In wandering the web, I found a fun fact - I thought I was alone in needing a reread to fall in love with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. But no! I discovered that someone else was commenting about the same thing. In her case, it was because she thought the POV character was rather self-absorbed and it took her a while to get over that hurdle.

For me, it was the circumstances under which I read Pride and Prejudice. We were supposed to read Pride and Prejudice for a book review, and due to shenanigans regarding reading arrangements, I ended up with only 2 weeks to finish the whole book. I didn't think it was a problem because I could speed read. But I had forgotten one major thing - Jane Austen wrote in the language of a different era, like damned Shakespeare.

So I got mired in the language until I was just so frustrated at having to muck my way through that I couldn't enjoy the story anymore. Only until I got to the end where the plot managed to lift itself above the language (or I got used to reading it) did I look up and go, "That was fun! I wanna go again! WHEEEEEEEE."

So what about the f-list? Did you need to reread your Jane Austen in order to fall in love with her stories? Tell me!

Today I watched Brave with the usual gang of old classmates, and it's kind of an amazing movie for what is covered.

I had actually heard a lot about the movie since its production, since people on DW kept posting stills and talking about the story. It was a surprising story about a mother and her daughter. It was touted as a feminist movie.

( And guess what, it actually is )

In conclusion - can we have more princesses like Merida please?

Who?
Lietenant Uhura is the chief communications officer on the USS Enterprise from the series Star Trek. She's also a BAMF, holds her own on a male-dominated bridge and is generally awesome all around.


What makes her so awesome?
Admittedly, the Uhura I'm familiar with is the movie version, so the squee is based on that. =)

- She owns her intro scene
Major props to the movie guys on this one. Her scene starts in the movie with her moving her way through the bar, and we can tell she's in her element. She moves easily through the crowd, whether it's by dodging people, or by a friendly smile and greeting. She's surrounded by people she identifies with - people from Starfleet.

Then she orders her drinks and we know she's popular, if that's the size of the crowd she's hanging out with. And has a pretty good memory - she easily rattles off the list, and makes additions of her own.

And then, and only then, we meet Jim Kirk. We don't need Jim Kirk to get to know Uhura - she can make her entrances on her own.

- She's smart
The movie has Uhura talking about intercepting Klingon transmissions - while in her underwear admittedly, but Hollywood aside - given that Klingons are the big bads of the universe at this particular moment, she shows she not only knows Klingon but is able to decrypt what are essentially wartime transmissions for fun. I don't want to come across her when she's at her work.

By the way, the work of a communication officer? Is REALLY HARD. I had the benefit of doing a NASA simulation on a class trip, and I was the communications officer during that simulation. Although we had a team of four, the sheer volume of messages meant that we were never free. (And I was told off for typing up messages during the landing sequence - but I had a backlog!) And when we were hit by various failures in the space shuttle, we had to prioritise messages, as well as ensure that everyone had the info they needed to tackle whatever crisis was facing them.

Which makes me think that Uhura is really smart to both qualify and hold her position as chief communications officer. Not to mention she's on the Enterprise with Kirk, where everyday could be emergency day. =)

- She's not afraid to show what she knows
This is a personal thing - I myself am pretty shy so I admire those who speak up about themselves. Uhura definitely does that, with the confidence of one who knows that she deserves to be heard too. She's not afraid to tell Kirk she's not interested and that her drink is on her. She's not afraid to tell Spock that she deserves her place on the Enterprise. And she's not afraid to upstage her own chief communications officer (who probably outranks her in title and experience) because she DOES know all three dialects of Romulan and is more qualified for the job than her then-boss.

This extends to personal relationships too - she's not afraid to tell Spock that he can tell her what he needs from her to ease his sorrow - and to respect him when he says what he needs is for everyone, including her, to continue performing admirably. =)


Where do I find fic on dw???
A Visit to the Previous Generation by helens78
Uhura and Spock visit Uhura's grandmother. I thought this was a lovely take on several aspects: Uhura from the 2009 movie and how she could develop further, the Uhuras from the 2009 movie and TOS, and of course Nichelle Nichols. =)

Lager, Never Even Regal by asimaiyat
Uhura knows exactly what she wants, including her drinks, the company she keeps and which award events to walk out on

And Uhura is so awesome that she even has her own comm: awesomeuhura. Includes fic and other stuff.