Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
18 November 2011
Trying Hard
Well, yesterday's Hipster Lord of the Rings find had me laughing, so I thought I'd track down something related to Harry Potter next. Surely, I thought, there must be a Tumblr site dedicated to Hipster Harry Potter. However, to my great disappointment, no such Tumblr truly existed. A Google search for "hipster harry potter" brought up some funny stuff, but nothing concentrated in one cool blog/site. I tried "emo harry potter" next, and again, there was not a dedicated space on the web for that particular niche of humor. I don't know why all the internet people are falling down on the job like this, but at any rate, here's one of the best memes that's been going around lately: Hipster Sirius Black.
06 October 2011
The Adventure Continues
Note: I wrote this at Christmas time, when I was with my family and we were watching Lord of the Rings, as we are wont to do. Somehow, this never got posted. I have no idea why. Maybe I wanted to edit it, or expand on some of the ideas. If so, I've forgotten now what I planned to do, so I'll just post it and if I have additional thoughts, I'll post with follow-up.
The LOTR film odyssey has proceeded apace through The Two Towers. I find a bit less faithfulness to the book in this adaptation, and it never fails to bother me. My father agrees with me that Jackson's most disappointing departure is a sheer misfire, a true detriment to the film version of this story: the total ruination of the character of Faramir.
In the book, Faramir is possibly the most truly and essentially noble character, not least because he is given many reasons and many opportunities to be less than noble and he rises above them all. Frodo is the central character of the story and Aragorn the standard epic hero born to greatness, and they offer many nuances to the trilogy. Like Sam (the courageous and noble everyman, or rather, everyhobbit), however, Faramir is relatable and provides lessons on rising above adversity and consciously choosing good over evil. Tolkien's view and his created world are essentially medieval, and a reverence for the code of chivalry and the feudal system is absolutely implicit in his writing. A titled but not royal character, Faramir represents every aspect of the ideal knight: a natural leader who inspires courage and faithfulness in followers both human and animal; a skilled administrator and commander; a great but humble warrior; a loyal subject; a devoted son and brother; a brilliant and disciplined scholar and student; a gentleman with consideration and respect for women and for people (and hobbits) that others might consider lesser and unworthy of regard. He is one of the few individuals who is able to resist the lure of the Ring, this being all the more remarkable because his own brother falls prey to that weakness. He is secure enough and wise enough that he accepts his father's injustice toward him and partiality toward Boromir, and dedicates himself to the service of Gondor. And he ends up marrying a strong woman whose fame and courage may exceed even his own, and he admires rather than resents her abilities.
In the movie, Faramir is unfortunately shown as a weakling who cannot resist the Ring, and he is rather whiny and petty, to boot. Ultimately, he makes the right choice after a series of wrong choices, but the damage to his character's integrity is substantial. I guess we just have to return to reading the books to enjoy the true essence of the greatest Captain of Gondor.
The LOTR film odyssey has proceeded apace through The Two Towers. I find a bit less faithfulness to the book in this adaptation, and it never fails to bother me. My father agrees with me that Jackson's most disappointing departure is a sheer misfire, a true detriment to the film version of this story: the total ruination of the character of Faramir.
In the book, Faramir is possibly the most truly and essentially noble character, not least because he is given many reasons and many opportunities to be less than noble and he rises above them all. Frodo is the central character of the story and Aragorn the standard epic hero born to greatness, and they offer many nuances to the trilogy. Like Sam (the courageous and noble everyman, or rather, everyhobbit), however, Faramir is relatable and provides lessons on rising above adversity and consciously choosing good over evil. Tolkien's view and his created world are essentially medieval, and a reverence for the code of chivalry and the feudal system is absolutely implicit in his writing. A titled but not royal character, Faramir represents every aspect of the ideal knight: a natural leader who inspires courage and faithfulness in followers both human and animal; a skilled administrator and commander; a great but humble warrior; a loyal subject; a devoted son and brother; a brilliant and disciplined scholar and student; a gentleman with consideration and respect for women and for people (and hobbits) that others might consider lesser and unworthy of regard. He is one of the few individuals who is able to resist the lure of the Ring, this being all the more remarkable because his own brother falls prey to that weakness. He is secure enough and wise enough that he accepts his father's injustice toward him and partiality toward Boromir, and dedicates himself to the service of Gondor. And he ends up marrying a strong woman whose fame and courage may exceed even his own, and he admires rather than resents her abilities.
In the movie, Faramir is unfortunately shown as a weakling who cannot resist the Ring, and he is rather whiny and petty, to boot. Ultimately, he makes the right choice after a series of wrong choices, but the damage to his character's integrity is substantial. I guess we just have to return to reading the books to enjoy the true essence of the greatest Captain of Gondor.
29 December 2010
The Road to Adventure
Every few years, my family will watch through the trilogy of the films of The Lord of the Rings. We're watching Fellowship of the Ring right now. We all prefer the books to the movies, but it's still fun to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the epic brought to life before our eyes. I'm known for the litany of complaints that I lodge against these films and Peter Jackson, but there are also a few ideas/moments that I really like and think were represented well by the films.
Vistas: The gorgeous scenery of New Zealand is a more-than-credible stand-in for Middle Earth. This is equally true of rolling green hills, rugged mountains, and ancient-looking forests.
Bad-Asser than Thou Part 1: Aragorn singlehandedly takes on five Nazgul on Weathertop.
Bad-Asser than Thou Part 2: Christopher Lee as Saruman. Because he's CHRISTOPHER LEE. As SARUMAN. (I wish the world had the chance to see him as Gandalf, per Tolkien's own desire, but he has gift to create Saruman as someone deeper and more real than a plotting comic-book villain, which is how some other actor might have portrayed him.)
Bad-Asser than Thou Part 3: Sam slowly coming into his own as a humble hero, particularly in the scene of the skirmish in Moria, when he starts whacking orcs with his frying pan.
Music: Occasionally repetitious, but undeniably beautiful and atmospheric.
Supporting Performances: Not all are of the same caliber, but a few do stand out. The aforementioned Lee as Saruman, Ian McKellen as Gandalf (though that is more of a lead than supporting role), the unfairly (in this case) maligned Orlando Bloom as a Flynn-esque Legolas, and, particularly key to the Fellowship book/film, Sean Bean as the conflicted but ultimately repentant and redeemed Boromir.
Bonus Wonderful Moment: The Little Bug, observing a battle with trolls and orcs, exclaimed, "Bad monsters, go to time out!" Time out, of course, is the most terrible punishment he can imagine.
Vistas: The gorgeous scenery of New Zealand is a more-than-credible stand-in for Middle Earth. This is equally true of rolling green hills, rugged mountains, and ancient-looking forests.
Bad-Asser than Thou Part 1: Aragorn singlehandedly takes on five Nazgul on Weathertop.
Bad-Asser than Thou Part 2: Christopher Lee as Saruman. Because he's CHRISTOPHER LEE. As SARUMAN. (I wish the world had the chance to see him as Gandalf, per Tolkien's own desire, but he has gift to create Saruman as someone deeper and more real than a plotting comic-book villain, which is how some other actor might have portrayed him.)
Bad-Asser than Thou Part 3: Sam slowly coming into his own as a humble hero, particularly in the scene of the skirmish in Moria, when he starts whacking orcs with his frying pan.
Music: Occasionally repetitious, but undeniably beautiful and atmospheric.
Supporting Performances: Not all are of the same caliber, but a few do stand out. The aforementioned Lee as Saruman, Ian McKellen as Gandalf (though that is more of a lead than supporting role), the unfairly (in this case) maligned Orlando Bloom as a Flynn-esque Legolas, and, particularly key to the Fellowship book/film, Sean Bean as the conflicted but ultimately repentant and redeemed Boromir.
Bonus Wonderful Moment: The Little Bug, observing a battle with trolls and orcs, exclaimed, "Bad monsters, go to time out!" Time out, of course, is the most terrible punishment he can imagine.
15 December 2010
Bookish Meme
This has been making the rounds of the internet, and while I find the particular selection of books suspiciously fad-tastic (It includes entries such as The Time-Traveler's Wife and The Da Vinci Code, but nothing by, say, Jules Verne or even Mark Twain, for crying out loud?), it will do for now, as I don't want to spend a lot of time hunting down "the perfect 100-book list on the internet", or (heaven forbid) developing my own list. Also, I have good reason to believe the copy editor was snoozing on the job, since there are oddities such as #33 on the list being The Chronicles of Narnia, whereas #36 is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is PART OF The Chronicles of Narnia. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.
Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On the Road – Jack Kerouak
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
27 November 2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pictures
So I mentioned previously that I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 over the weekend. A fun time was had by all. The ladies got together for a picture. Jill was wearing a Prisoner of Azkaban shirt and I was sporting my Ravenclaw pride. [Hey, we can't all be Gryffindors, and some of us prefer it that way.]
However, Bill got to wear a Gryffindor scarf because he IS a Gryffindor. I'm not sure what is the deal with his t-shirt, though.
There were some people in costume, even though it wasn't opening night. We saw a likely Dolores Umbridge talking with someone we thought might be Bellatrix Lestrange.
And there was a possible Hagrid walking around with a guy in a black coat whose face was also painted black. Not sure about either of those, and unfortunately, my picture of them is not good at all. There were actually some pretty good costumes at the theater but I just wasn't fast enough with my camera to capture them.
However, Bill got to wear a Gryffindor scarf because he IS a Gryffindor. I'm not sure what is the deal with his t-shirt, though.
There were some people in costume, even though it wasn't opening night. We saw a likely Dolores Umbridge talking with someone we thought might be Bellatrix Lestrange.
And there was a possible Hagrid walking around with a guy in a black coat whose face was also painted black. Not sure about either of those, and unfortunately, my picture of them is not good at all. There were actually some pretty good costumes at the theater but I just wasn't fast enough with my camera to capture them.
08 November 2010
Which Harry Potter Character Are You?
The Potter-related question of today is, which character would you be?
Clearly, I am Hermione Granger. I first watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in a Talbot class, and by circumstance, my older brother was also in the class. Hermione is quite a little girl in that film, and is a Muggle-born witch whose first trip to Hogwarts is also her first experience ever in the magical world. She tries to make up for her insecurities by being a perfectionist and an insufferable know-it-all. When she first came on the scene, my brother leaned over to me and hissed, "Hey, Deb, THAT'S YOU!" I guess he would know. But one of the great pleasures of the Harry Potter books (and to a lesser degree, the films) is the experience of seeing Hermione grow through both the horrors of encountering ultimate evil (though her cool head gives her ability to handle the frights, I think) and the even-more-terrifying trials of adolescence (not to mention occasional forays into social justice, teen romance, and organized rebellion) into a self-possessed young lady who kind of does know it all but puts her formidable brain to work in service of loyalty and the greater good. I hope I could do even half as well in my own life.
Photo courtesy of emma-watson-pictures.blogspot.com
Clearly, I am Hermione Granger. I first watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in a Talbot class, and by circumstance, my older brother was also in the class. Hermione is quite a little girl in that film, and is a Muggle-born witch whose first trip to Hogwarts is also her first experience ever in the magical world. She tries to make up for her insecurities by being a perfectionist and an insufferable know-it-all. When she first came on the scene, my brother leaned over to me and hissed, "Hey, Deb, THAT'S YOU!" I guess he would know. But one of the great pleasures of the Harry Potter books (and to a lesser degree, the films) is the experience of seeing Hermione grow through both the horrors of encountering ultimate evil (though her cool head gives her ability to handle the frights, I think) and the even-more-terrifying trials of adolescence (not to mention occasional forays into social justice, teen romance, and organized rebellion) into a self-possessed young lady who kind of does know it all but puts her formidable brain to work in service of loyalty and the greater good. I hope I could do even half as well in my own life.
Photo courtesy of emma-watson-pictures.blogspot.com
03 November 2010
Expecto Patronum!
First of all, in NaBloPoMo news, I'd like to point out that I posted my review of Repo! on Nov 2, but since I began the post on Nov 1, my blog thinks it should put that date on it, and I'm too lazy to change it right now.
Second of all, I'm shamelessly copying Jennie with today's post. She is celebrating 30 days of Harry Potter over on her blog, and wonders what everybody's Patronus would be.
This is a tough question for some of us. Harry's, of course, is a stag, reflecting, among other things, his strong spiritual relationship with his father. Hermione's Patronus, curiously enough, is an otter, which seems unusually playful for a young person of her serious and scholarly temperament. I could not easily discern what my own Patronus would be, so I had to take myself mentally into Hogwarts and imagine casting the spell. "Expecto Patronum!" I had been hoping for an owl, but sensed that since birds are rather rare among Patroni (Dumbledore's phoenix--if one even considers a phoenix to be a type of bird--and Cho Chang's swan being the only ones mentioned, I believe), I would end up with a furry creature, and probably not even a large and intimidating one. Sure enough, what came out was none other than a cat! Not quite an ordinary domestic cat, but rather a Pallas' cat. Cute and fluffy but can probably inflict some damage. Good enough!
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
What about you, dear readers? Find the Room of Requirement, cast the spell, and let us know in the comments how you fared.
Second of all, I'm shamelessly copying Jennie with today's post. She is celebrating 30 days of Harry Potter over on her blog, and wonders what everybody's Patronus would be.
This is a tough question for some of us. Harry's, of course, is a stag, reflecting, among other things, his strong spiritual relationship with his father. Hermione's Patronus, curiously enough, is an otter, which seems unusually playful for a young person of her serious and scholarly temperament. I could not easily discern what my own Patronus would be, so I had to take myself mentally into Hogwarts and imagine casting the spell. "Expecto Patronum!" I had been hoping for an owl, but sensed that since birds are rather rare among Patroni (Dumbledore's phoenix--if one even considers a phoenix to be a type of bird--and Cho Chang's swan being the only ones mentioned, I believe), I would end up with a furry creature, and probably not even a large and intimidating one. Sure enough, what came out was none other than a cat! Not quite an ordinary domestic cat, but rather a Pallas' cat. Cute and fluffy but can probably inflict some damage. Good enough!
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
What about you, dear readers? Find the Room of Requirement, cast the spell, and let us know in the comments how you fared.
09 December 2009
Seriously?!
Seen at Barnes & Noble:
You really expect me to believe this book was written by an individual with the name of "Rosetta Stone"?
You really expect me to believe this book was written by an individual with the name of "Rosetta Stone"?
23 October 2009
20 December 2007
Finally!
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, nearly five months after almost everyone else on the planet finished reading it. But no matter: I did read it, and it was pretty decent. I discovered that I had correctly predicted several key plot points related to the ending, which makes me wonder whether it was just really obvious to everybody or I happen to think the way J.K. Rowling does.
Now on to find my next reading project.
Now on to find my next reading project.
21 July 2007
I'm just wild...
... about Harry.
And yes, I've seen so many articles using that line, but oh, well.
Anyway, it is true. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released to the world in two hours, and has already presold more copies than any other book ever written. No, I didn't order a copy. No, I don't know when I'll be able to get my hands on a copy. I just know that if anyone spoils it for me, that person will not be my friend. Ever.
[As a side note, I found it extremely disturbing that when I searched for "Daniel Radcliffe" on Google images, in order to put a pic in this post, the first several images that popped up were naked pictures from his role in Equus. Eek!]
And yes, I've seen so many articles using that line, but oh, well.
Anyway, it is true. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released to the world in two hours, and has already presold more copies than any other book ever written. No, I didn't order a copy. No, I don't know when I'll be able to get my hands on a copy. I just know that if anyone spoils it for me, that person will not be my friend. Ever.
[As a side note, I found it extremely disturbing that when I searched for "Daniel Radcliffe" on Google images, in order to put a pic in this post, the first several images that popped up were naked pictures from his role in Equus. Eek!]
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