2019-05-07 - Christina's Questions (contd...)
 ---------------------------------------------

(To be fair, there are a lot of questions)

- What is you favourite film adaptation of a book?

Without a doubt, Denis Villeneuve's _Arrival_. This film
has everything for a discerning sf/f fan: the direction is
astonishingly good; the cinematography is incredible; the central
performance by Amy Adams brings everything together in a powerful
combination; the story "Story of Your Life" is far more depressing
than this movie, which manages to bend space, time and sorrow into
one scintillating package. Its probably one of my favourite movies.

- What books have you read the most times?

Iain M. Banks _Culture_ series, most particularly _Use of Weapons_,
_Excession_ and _The Player of Games_. Primarily because for a
long stretch I couldn't afford new books, didn't have access to an
ereader or the internet, and my local library had a very limited
selection of science fiction and fantasy. I *did* have these books
though, and would return to them time after time, each time finding
more meaning and inspiration in the words.

- What fictional world or novel's setting would you like to live
in?

Annares, _The Dispossessed_, Ursula K. LeGuin. For reason expounded
upon in this series of posts before, and on my blog. If I wanted
an easier life, then I'd choose the Culture, if I wanted more
excitement, then the Seven-Hive world of Ada Palmer's _Terra
Ignota_, albeit I'd not be living on the world depicted, but rather
in one of the worlds discussed - the Utopian Mars Colony.

- What are your favourite classic books?

George Orwell's _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ and Yevgeny Zamatyan's
_We_. Both books portray the human character under attack, but
Zamatyan's -- despite being much the bleaker book -- ends on a far
more positive note than 1984. Its always puzzled me how little
the book is known these days. 1984 is just sublime, I can still
remember the first time I read it, and how much of an impact it
had. I haven't reread it in many years, and would be interested in
how it fares against more modern dystopian-themed literature.

I'll try and complete the last three of Christina's Questions in my
next post.