Letters

Quote of the Month: "Je voudrais juste dire, que Vin Diesel est un merveilleux acteur. Il joue son rôle a la perfection si, il y a la moindre chance qu'il puisse être informé de ce message, vous lui dirai que je suis littéralement tombée en amour avec lui et que j'attends la venue de PITCH BLACK 2 avec impatience." -- 11th Hour reader Tania, proving that Vin Diesel speaks the international language of lust

Well, this is normally the section where we'd print the sixty or so angry letters from Roswell fans unable to contain their shock at that strange notion of "freedom of opinion", but frankly, our spell checker just can't handle the strain. Plus, haven't we been there, done that, already? Instead, check out what our readers had to say about issue seventeen -- Fehr, Behr and error-free.

At Least Someone Loves Us

I found my way here from the Mecca of Roswell online, somehow stumbled into "The Carter Conundrum" and after reading that, decided if I'm gonna do this I better do it right. So I have spent the past three weeks immersed in your archives starting with issue one. I took my time reading anything and everything I thought might hold my interest and became interested in a number of new things in the process. To my horror today I finally caught up to issue 17. No longer do I have an endless vat of witty and intelligent articles, insightful commentary, humorous and honest reviews, and all manner of wonderful things to hold my attention in my often dull job. I love Roswell, I love that you don't like it and I really enjoy reading your reviews (admittedly accurate at times) of it which never cease to amuse me. To comment specifically on everything I've read would take roughly 17 pages of thoughts and comments of approval and dissension which isn't a lot of fun for anyone. Suffice it to say that I'm very glad you're here to amuse, challenge and enlighten me.
-- Annie X. Jackson

I'm currently trying to think of an amusing way of saying that your magazine is utterly fantastic. This, in the time honoured tradition of all fan emails, is of course virtually impossible. Your Neil Gaiman article... *gasp*... your witty and insightful reviews... *flibber*... your pure hearted demands for good story from a world where popular papers triumph mediocrity. If you were a fine wine, experts would say, "I especially recommend 'The 11th Hour' vintage, it has a fine unbroken run from bottle one to seventeen. Yes, the taste is *glug glug* exquisite." And then they would add, "Agh, I am choking." So far I have managed to agree with every review you have written so far. Well done. I salute you.
-- Pete

I've been reading your magazine for a few months now and want to say what a good job you are doing. Reading the popular printed science fiction and horror magazines is often disappointing. The articles do not usually have any depth, they just spout off the same facts and short blurbs found in every other magazine. In contrast, your articles are interesting. They don't retread the material from other sources, and show some thought being put into them. I haven't seen anything as good as "Don't Be So Dark" in any printed magazine.
I've also found I can trust your reviews. For the movies I've seen, I have almost always agreed with your assessments. While the "Drool Factor" is lost on me, the "Strong Chick Factor" is a cool touch.
It is also nice to hear when a movie/book/whatever sucks. Too many articles and reviews try to make anything sound good, regardless of actual quality. For a recent example, I was intrigued by reading the articles on Blair Witch 2 in Fangoria and Wicked. They made the movie sound interesting. After reading your review, I plan to stay far away.
Finally, I want to thank you for mentioning American Psycho in some of the articles. I normally stay away from slasher films, so I initially ignored this. After reading the review and "Don't Be So Dark" article, I decided I needed to see the film. It turned out to be one of the best movies I've seen this year. I've forced a few friends to watch the movie, and they loved it too. We would have missed a terrific film without you.
-- Robert Devereux

I've been a genre fan ever since my mother sought to contain my hellion brothers and I by sitting us in front of endless episodes of Dr Who and made Jules Verne books our bedtime stories. It is definitely a relief to have stumbled upon The 11th Hour, and to read scathingly funny reviews of my favourite television shows and movies, and to be notified in advance of any upcoming shirtless Spike moments (we're about five months behind the times in Australia). So, on the behalf of my sanity, thank you, and keep up the good work.
-- Jak Scanlon

Oh My Lord

Just wanted to tell you that I enjoyed Caroline Ziemkiewicz's article "The Horror, The Hobbits". She couldn't have been more right. I'm so tired to hear the so-called hardcore fans complaining about how the movies will not be faithful enough to the books. It seems to me that those fans are so concerned about their own interpretation being the right one that they forget about a simple fact : this literature is about imagination. It's about escaping into a world that allows you to create -- or at least interpret -- some of its parameters. It's the essence of fiction -- otherwise you get pamphlets, dictionaries or essays. And I think that if Lord of the Rings has been so widely appreciated since its first publication, it's precisely because those books allow the reader to discover an entire universe AND yet wander freely in it.
I think that a great many Tolkien fans should stop taking LOTR as their own. And I agree that the main risk is not that Peter Jackson could take some liberty here and there -- God! we're talking about art, not dogma! -- but that the movies could have been handled with only the money in mind, by people who didn't really care about the chance they have.
-- Marie-Claude Lapalme

Thank you so much for a reasoned, well thought out article. I have been a rabid fan of Tolkein for well over 30 years, but I am not going to make any decisions on the movies until I see them (although I WAS disappointed to see Bombadil dissed again! AND I thought Rutger Hauer would have made an awesome Theoden!). I know that no one can ever make a movie of the vision I see in my head when I read any book, so to expect Jackson to make LOTR "perfect" for them is ridiculous! He can only make the movie HE sees, so that means any version will be (hopefully) good but flawed. If he only gets the spirit of the movie right, I will be pleased. If his vision of the movie is close to mine, I will be thrilled. But lets see if it is a good movie, first! Give the man a chance.
-- Tina

I would like to thank you for a thought-provoking article, that both intrigued me into thinking a little more about the movie, and allowed me to "give some breathing room" to some half-formed opinions I had about those doing the production/directing. I enjoyed the article.
-- Ed Eccles

New Enterprise

I wanted to thank you for posting the article by Gabriel Koerner. I anticipated Trekkies as a Documentary, until I realized that it would be marketed as a comedy. As the article shows, there is often very strong, and very serious motivations for people who become involved with subjects to the point of obsession. (And the subject certainly varies, as does the societal judgments of those motivations and obsessions. Sports fans are not ridiculed nearly to the extent of geeks.)
I honestly think that Trekkies would have been a much better documentary if the background information he gave us in the article had been the type of information the film had exposed. That far from being just "freaks" to be laughed at, fans are people with definite reasons for their obsession. And that for many, the obsession is a passing phase, which leads, if not to a better ability to communicate with people stuck in the general reality, then at least to better personal understanding.
-- Raven Dunn

Gaiman-y Goodness

Thank you so much for this wonderful look at one of my favorite writers, Neil Gaiman. I feel as if I was there, waiting impatiently for him to continue with the story. Great job! Now I'm all excited for the next novel.
-- Carolyn

Chicks Kick Ass... But You Knew That Already

May I say, first of all, I adore this web magazine. If you ever do go to a monetary subscription system, I would be willing to plunk down cold, hard cash for the truly excellent work you and the rest of the staff do. Congratulations on a superb paper.
I really enjoyed you article on comic book heroines; most of what was there, I'd never heard of before, and I appreciate the information. Now, I realize you don't have much money, and I'm not going to yell and scream because they weren't included, but it you ever do happen to have a few bucks to spare, pick up a copy of Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise. No spandex, no superpowers, no paranormal activities. Just two normal females (almost always fully clothed and normal-sized) and their lives. Past issues are in trade paperbacks. I just thought I'd pass along a recommendation. Thank you again for a beautiful, wonderful web-magazine.
-- Marci DeLeon

Thanks to everyone who wrote in; although we can't publish every letter we do read all of them and greatly appreciate your input. Responses to this issue can be sent to letters@the11thhour.com.