Um is there a list anywhere online of the confirmed or denied shows/books?
Yep! They’re both on my site under the Suggestions tab.
July 2012
So, obviously this is for waaaaay in the future since you have so much other stuff to do, but if ever you finally finish climbing over the Everest of stuff you're going to read/watch, do you think you'd be interested in Feed by Mira Grant? It has a pretty high level of you-are-not-prepared-ness to it, and it's got great worldbuilding and George(ia) is awesome.
IT’S NOT WAY IN THE FUTURE
IT’S THE NEXT SERIES I AM DOING ON MARK READS AFTER THE SANDMAN
APPARENTLY I’M NOT PREPARED.
Have you ever read the Chronicles of Narnia? If not, would you consider making it a future Mark Reads project? I would love to hear your take on it both as a fantasy series and a religious allegory. Especially since Philip Pullman wrote His Dark Materials in response to it.
I have! As a kid, I read the first four books in the order they came out, missed the fifth and six books, then read the last one and HATED IT. I still hate it.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the first two, especially that first one. It’s good! The Christian metaphors and themes don’t bother me at all. I think it’s a fantastic fantasy series, and I’m glad I had it as a kid. But I don’t particularly like C.S. Lewis at all anymore, and the day I read Mere Christianity was the day I felt personally betrayed by the man. I really don’t like his views on nearly anything, so it was kind of disappointing to me.
But I still think about the books fondly, for the most part!
What do you hope to be doing 10 years from now? (In your free time from being President of Butts, of course.)
lord emperor of butts, duh
in all seriousness: i hope to have published my YA trilogy by then and be a millionaire writer and have gone to europe and taken a road trip to Cedar Point with my boyfriend and Sara because GOD I LOVE THAT PLACE and have gone to where my birth parents were from (Jalisco, Mexico) and ridden my bike across the United States and high fived eight seals
those are some pretty good goals i think
mark...did edward and caden do it?
i don’t fucking know AND IT’S NOT FAIR. damn it.
June 2012
can I just say your face is adorable and so is your voice?
yes. yes, you may say that as much as you like
Hi Mark! I know you've been up to a lot of stuff, what with the two tours and the LifeCycle ride and such, but I was just curious if you had any plans for another tour?
Oh gosh, I would LOVE TO. I have two con appearances this summer – Ascendio next month, LeakyCon in August – and booking flights was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. Like, $1500 for both. SADFACES ABOUND. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been making so many Mark Reads videos and promoting that so heavily.
I mean, I depleted my life savings doing the last tour. It was 100% worth it, but I need to be a little more comfortable before I head out again. I’m hoping both my con appearances bring me more readers and hopefully some more book buyers as well! Any of that stuff helps me a great deal.
But yes, I am nowhere NEAR done touring. THERE ARE SO MANY PLACES I HAVEN’T GONE. Texas, the south, lots of the midwest, UK/EUROPE OH MY GOD.
I promise I’ll do my best to make it happen, and y’all will know when I’m going out on the road again. :)
have you been reading methods of rationality? it's my all-time favorite fan fic. and if you like it, it'll make me so happy, because I like you, and when someone I like likes what I like, it's the best feeling
I am actually going to read some more of it tonight! GET OUT OF MY HEAD, CHARLES.
so this happened last night
Darn, can’t reblog. Does this work? i114.photobucket.com/al…
Here’s the image:
this is easily the best reply i have ever received in the whole universe
bravo
I just want to tell you that I love you forever and I want you to keep doing Mark Reads and Mark Watches forever and ever, so that decades from now when my grandchildren turn 17 and are allowed to hear the word "fuck" freely, I will sit them down on the couch and tell them I'm about to initiate them into adulthood just as I did their parents, and I will introduce them to the words of Mark Oshiro and they shall read and know true joy. And what it looks like when one types exclusively in caps.
bless you. bless you forever. also i love that you have an age for them where you’ll be like, “it is time to introduce you to the glorious world o the word FUCK.”
you are perfect.
Should I watch Six Feet Under? I'm completely unspoiled and I was wondering if it was good enough?
OH MY GOD YES
YES
YES
YES
HOLY FUCK, IT’S SUCH AN AMAZING SHOW. OH MY GOD I LOVE IT DEARLY.
How do you think Hush would have gone if the Gentlemen had been after butts instead of hearts?
I can’t.
You just destroyed me with this ask.
I am a puddle of laughter and tears.
Well played.
“Because when Kony 2012 came out, that was a big deal. But when Inuit children are starving because white people took over their country in epic acts of colonialism and to fix the problem white people might have to acknowledge their privilege to find a solution; well then no one wants to get their hands dirty.”
—littleojibwe (via sweetcalamity)
I just thought i'd drop in and let you know that i got the results for my university degree today and it didn't suffer one bit as a result of me deciding to spend four days straight reading MRHP the week my dissertation needed to be written and handed in. Thank you for the procrastination, i couldn't have done it without you.
FUCK
YES
procrastinators of the world, UNITE
wombats attack with their butts, you should totally go for a wombat. #bashing haters with booty
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIFE CHANGED!!!!!!!!
If you had to be a furry, what kind of furry would you be? I'm betting buttbear.
like the mental image you just put in my head was horrific, dude.
my god i hate you so much right now
also i’m pretty sure i’d be a direwolf to get extra nerd points
Hi Mark! I've been a fan since MRHP and I just wanted to express my extreme joy that you're covering my favorite thing in the known universe, Princess Tutu, which I have loved since I was thirteen. No seriously, I will climb mountains and scream my love for this fucking show. I really hope you enjoy and I can't wait to see your reviews! Also, I sent you this once before, so I'm sorry if you're reading it again unnecessarily.
I must have missed it the first time, as I’ve not seen this message before. Thank you for following along for soooooo long! I am quite excited for Princess Tutu as well. :)
Do you ever think the abundance of anthropomorphic talking animals in Disney is the reason there are so many furries in our generation? They say fetishes and kinks develop starting as young as age 3!
mother of god
My boyfriend, unlike other reasonable folks, refuses to agree that 'butt tyrant' is a funny phrase. Could this be because he IS the butt tyrant? I have my suspicions.
good lord he’s been found out
beware. for real. CLOSET BUTT TYRANT
Hi Mark! I was wondering if you still had Lost reviews up anywhere? I've been feeling extremely nostalgic for that show lately (GOD), and I vaguely recall you doing reviews for it at some point?
Oh no, I don’t anymore! I had my original Buzznet profile deleted early this year because I hated knowing it was up and that the company was STILL making money off of me for all the work I did that was underpaid and underappreciated.
If it is any consolation, I am thinking of a way to do a spoiler-rific re-watch of all of LOST for Mark Watches. I adore that show, flaws and all, and would love to write about all of it.
I was wondering about your policy towards warnings. I feel that your spoiler rules tend to err on the side of unpreparedness, since that's what makes this experience so unique. However, do you have friends warn you about potentially triggering issues before you watch a particular episode or read a chapter?
Hmmm, no, not really! I’m personally okay with that. I have very few triggers, and the very few times I’ve been triggered by something for Mark Reads/Mark Watches, I have put in the review that I’m uncomfortable writing about it. I think I’ve only done it twice? So I’m okay if there are things coming up in a project that might trigger me, and it helps that I write a week in advance in case I need time to get back in a better headspace. The only exception to that is “Maelstrom” from the third season of Battlestar Galactica. That triggered me so badly I couldn’t write about it for weeks.
Thanks for the fascinating question! I appreciate it.
Have you read Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy?
Nope, but the series is on my Confirmed list for Mark Reads!
Hey Mark! Have you ever watched the vlogger Ill Doctrine's videos? Between his exceedingly eloquent rants about racial issues and your complete schooling of racist trolls, I (a pretty privileged white girl) have learned so much about race in the past several months. Keep being awesome and I wish you all the butts!
oh god JAY SMOOTH IS MY HERO. I believe I’ve reblogged his videos here many times before. I adore him.
Hi, just checked in to say I love you and your sites. Also, I just saw somebody mentioning a webseries and I wondered if you've ever heard of/considered watching/already seen Marble Hornets? It's quite decent, it's an amateur production, and it's unfinished as of yet, but you said you love things that terrify the crap out of you. It might be good be fun, maybe not even officially for Mark Watches. Unless you've already seen it, and this is me just rambling and rambling, I'ma stop now.
Thank you! I have seen quite a few episodes of it before, maybe ten or so. It’s neat!
Esoterica: Remember this day. →
karnythia.tumblr.com
the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. Our great country, is truly, sadly, and irreversibly headed in a downward spiral.
I hope all you fuckers are healthy and if…
L O L
WHAT IF SNAPE SHOWED UP IN THE SECOND TO LAST BOOK/EPISODE OF EVERYTHING AND KILLED OFF A FAN FAVE?!
HAHAHA OH MY GOD.
Snape killed Lyra!
Snape killed Laura Roslin!
Snape killed Toph!
Snape killed Lincoln Lee!
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.
You've mentioned that you did Mark Reads Twilight because your job made you. Did they also force you to do Mark Reads HP, or did you choose to do that?
That was my choice, actually! Well, continuing Mark Reads on Buzznet wasn’t. I was basically told by the Powers That Be (not to be confused with the same Powers on Angel) that because I got so much traffic that I couldn’t stop. So I chose something that I also knew nothing about but was told I would enjoy.
But yeah, that context re: Mark Reads Twilight really explains my hatred a lot. It’s basically me having a nervous breakdown in book form. Seriously, I actually had to take a break from work once I finished Breaking Dawn because it was such a horrible experience for me.
Have you considered reading the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini for Mark Reads? Also, I'm reading LOTR over the summer, and reading them along with your chapter reviews make them that much greater :)
I think a few people have suggested it, but one of my close friends told me it’s basically LOTR all over again. I dunno, I’m not against reading it, but I’d like to explore stuff that thematically is different from what I’ve done on the site.
dear mark: i really love your websites and your tumblr (i watched along while you were watching avatar and it was both the most joyful experience ever and also the hardest experience ever because HOW DO YOU KEEP FROM MAINLINING EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE OMG??) and your opinions are great and you are great. idk this ask is probably a little ridiculous, but 1) i am normally too shy to say anything (anon + red wine is helping) and 2) it made my l i f e the day that you followed me back. hearts!!
You know, I’ve gotten so used to the format of Mark Does Stuff that when I can read a book straight through or when I can just go to the next episode, IT FEELS REALLY WEIRD. So it’s just habit at this point!
Anyway, THANK YOU! Drink more red wine for me!
Do you watch any web series? Like The Guild or Husbands? I didn't see either on your suggestions page so my apologies if you've been asked this a million times already.
I don’t think anyone has ever asked me this! I don’t really watch any web series, but that’s solely because of a lack of free time. I just added The Guild to my Netflix queue so I could watch it one of these days!
Does it ever seem overwhelming to basically have your life scheduled (in terms of running your sites, for reading/watching/reviewing) for basically an indefinite amount of time? Or do you ever look at your 'confirmed' list and think "holy crap I am going to be WRITING UNTIL I AM LIKE 90?" Or is it comforting knowing you basically have work for as long as people will support what you're doing? (Which is awesome and will be for a long time, I hope!)
Hmmm. I guess I don’t really think of it that way! Someone on tour did calculate that at my current pace, I’ll be 57 when I finish the Suggestions lists on both sites. If anything, I’m just so unbelievably flattered that anyone reads my stuff that I’m just happy that I’ll be busy for a long, long time. I really love doing Mark Does Stuff, and I have no plans of stopping. :)
Do you think that J K Rowling should have stated in the books that Dumbledore was gay? I know there were hints with the Grindelwald stuff, but do you think she should have explicitly mentioned it?
Probably, but I came into the series so late that to me it seemed unbelievably obvious that Dumbledore was gay. So I’m like THE WORST PERSON to ask this.
So I'm pretty pumped about you reviewing Cowboy Bebop! You said before that you don't know anything about it except that it's an anime. Do you know what genre it is? Have you seen any pictures or anything? Or are you going into this completely unprepared?
I seriously know NOTHING about it. No images, no themes, no genres, no character names, NOTHING. I am quite excited.
Do you ever feel beholden to do projects in a certain order because of pressure from the commentariat? Not in a bad way, because your commenters/fanbase are great! Heck, I am one of them. But I'm curious as to how much commenter pressure weighs on your decisions about what to do next.
It’s definitely helped me figure out what to do next! I wouldn’t have done Buffy/Angel at the end of last year if I hadn’t endured a straight year of people BEGGING me to do it. At the same time, if I’m overloaded with requests for the same thing, it can turn me off of wanting to do it. I suppose it’s a fine line between the two!
What are your feelings about Pride celebrations? Also I want you to know that American Gods ruined me last night and it's all your fault. Thanks.
Wait no that is Neil Gaiman’s fault, not mine. HE DID THAT TO US.
Pride is weird. Sometimes I like it and I have even attended events associated with pride this year that were awesome. Generally, though, it’s just not my thing.
Hey, I just looked through the master schedule you had posted here. Do you have any sort of estimate as to when you're going to watch Veronica Mars? It's definitely raises a lot of good topics for discussion. Is it just kinda in the unknown future of 2013/14?
I mean this sort of goes for everything not written down on the schedule: if it’s not there, then I have no clue as to when I’ll get to it. I don’t have a secret list hoarded somewhere with a master schedule or anything. So I honestly don’t know when I’ll get to it! I suppose it’ll happen at least a year from now, but I haven’t figured anything out beyond what’s on the schedule.
The majority of your Mark Reads projects fall into the realm of fantasy/sci fi. Is that your favorite genre, or do most of the books that people want you to read just happen to be in that category? Is there any genre you have no interest in exploring?
It’s just sort of how it happened! I do enjoy it a lot, but most of my favorite books have no sci-fi or fantasy elements in them. One day, I’d love to explore non-fiction. :)
Have you ever played the Mass Effect series? You love scifi and you play video games...if you haven't, you need to, because holy awesome scifi batman. Also, there are some nice butt shots throughout the series. I'm just sayin'.
BUTTS. I’m just barely starting Mass Effect. My roommate played all three in a matter of weeks, and it looked awesome, so I started the first one a couple weeks ago. I’m hoping to have more time to play it tonight!
Don't know if you've ever gotten this question before, but who are your top 10 fav characters from LOST and why???
ten characters??? are you assigning me homework or something???
I love Juliet and John Locke the most. Ooooh, and Richard Alpert a great deal, too. They all got such wonderfully complex characterizations, and I have endless sad feels about John Locke and Juliet the most.
So your various reviews have let me piece together your prefect babies from LOST, but who is your least favourite?
I don’t really care about Jack that much!
I'm so excited that you're going to be at LeakyCon again! I was so excited last year for your panel, but I was stuck on a line and missed it. :(
I AM VERY VERY EXCITED FOR LEAKYCON THIS YEAR!
