Or maybe former girlfriends. She is the one proposing. posted by figurant at 2:30 PM on September 25, 2012
I was in Toronto for a few days, and the dim sum place I tried to go to was closed. I wandered for half an hour looking for brunch and eventually settled for some bleh diner.
Half an hour later, I lurched back outside, and right across the street was Sneaky Dee's, which apparently has brunch. Grar. posted by gurple at 2:39 PM on September 25, 2012
Also, fights with former boyfriends.
Or maybe former girlfriends. She is the one proposing.
Clearly it should be six former girlfriends and one former boyfriend. posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:49 PM on September 25, 2012 [3 favorites]
"Hey, coins! Cool." posted by grubi at 2:55 PM on September 25, 2012
THE STUPID PUBLIC LIBRARY HAS TERRIBLE HOURS IT IS ALWAYS STRANDING PEOPLE OUTSIDE
this made me cry posted by bicyclefish at 3:01 PM on September 25, 2012
This was very sweet. level up posted by arcticseal at 5:39 PM on September 25, 2012
I wish I could take a Scott Pilgrimage, even just to stay at Casa Loma... posted by vaghjar at 6:55 PM on September 25, 2012
huh, I'd never really been aware that it featured real places in Toronto. Also, I liked his ring! posted by jacalata at 11:29 PM on September 25, 2012
Scott Pilgrim was notable not only for featuring real Toronto places, but for featuring real Toronto attitudes. It's like I knew all the characters in real life. posted by sixohsix at 6:23 AM on September 26, 2012
This was originally posted to reddit. The poster said she tried to get his friends to come and be fake ex-boyfriends for him to fight, but it didn't work out. posted by nooneyouknow at 7:24 AM on September 26, 2012
Scott Pilgrim was notable not only for featuring real Toronto places, but for featuring real Toronto attitudes. It's like I knew all the characters in real life.
I haven't read the comic, but my SO says that in the comic there is a minor character with my first name, who looks like I did c2000. I've never met the artist/author, to my knowledge, but I know people who know him and it's possible we met at some large event. So, I have to wonder...and I'd be flattered if the character were a nicer character.
But yeah, the character types and attitudes totally are true to a certain Toronto sub-culture c2000-2002. My SO loves the books partly because they're the closest thing that he's ever read to literature about a place and time we (or people we know) have lived. posted by jb at 9:08 AM on September 26, 2012
jb, if you're talking about Julie Powers, O'Malley claims that she was based on someone he knew at the time, but the character's awful-bitch personality was entirely imagined. So I'm just going to assume that he might've just thought you had hair and glasses that would be fun to draw. posted by Strange Interlude at 10:02 AM on September 26, 2012
I feel weird saying it online, but yeah, she does have hair and glasses like the ones I did at the time. BUT I don't think that I have ever met O'Malley -- he got to know some friends of mine after I moved out of Toronto for several years (and I only recently moved back). So I'm thinking maybe I just had common hair/glasses. posted by jb at 10:06 AM on September 26, 2012
I'm sure, sure that the Julie Powers thing is just a coincidence. I just looked it up, and according to O'Malley's own website, Powers was originally drawn without glasses.
But it made reading the books a little eerie, especially as her personality (a prickly, poisonously sycophantic social butterfly) is pretty much the opposite of jb's. She really does look like a caricature of a young jb.
I don't actually think any of the Torontonians I knew circa 2000-2002 were direct inspirations on the books, but there are specific people I know/knew in Toronto around that time who seemed to fit each character. As I turned the pages and new characters were introduced, I mentally connected them to these people. At some point I was like "hey, if this character is this person, and that one is that person, then logically the love interest must be this other person." Then Ramona Flowers showed up in the book, and I had to put it down for a while because she looked and acted exactly like who I expected her to be.
It's not just that Scott Pilgrim crystallizes a time and place, it's that it crystallizes such a specific time and a specific place that I thought very few people were ever a part of. Yet it has a universality of emotion. Maybe that's the trick to the recognition.
Incidentally, the movie, while not the greatest thing ever, manages to keep the Toronto vibe far better than would be expected. posted by sixohsix at 12:35 PM on September 26, 2012
Those rings are incredible! posted by Theta States at 8:34 AM on October 4, 2012
Oh hi sixohsix. posted by 256 at 1:33 PM on October 9, 2012
« Older "The Justice Department estimates that more than 2... | "The Mexican drug cartels are ... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by grubi at 1:31 PM on September 25, 2012