The voice actress for Chihiro from Spirited Away also did Lilo for Lilo and Stitch.
I was re-watching Spirited Away and just discovered this. Mind-blowing, man.
MADE WITH DISGUST (and academic thoughts)
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Misery - Stephen King
Unlike a lot of avid readers, I have no qualms with seeing a movie before I read the book. In fact, I find that doing this helps me enjoy both works more than if I read the book and then see the movie. I mean, the book and the movie are two different things. They're the same (basic) story as interpreted by two different people (the author and the movie director respectively).
Anyways, Misery is supposed to be one of the greatest horror/psychological thriller movies ever as well as one of the best Stephen King novel-movie adaptations ever (trumped only by The Shawshank Redemption). So when I saw it on YouTube, I naturally had to watch it.
The basic premise of Misery is that author Paul Sheldon wrecks his car in a blizzard, and is taken into the care of Annie Wilkes, his self-proclaimed number one fan. Paul is famous for his novels about a character named Misery, the namesake of the movie and Stephen King novel. Annie loves the Misery books. However, once she finds that Paul is not only writing a new, non-Misery novel but has also killed off Misery, she flies into a rage, and insists that Paul bring Misery back to life in his next book. Paul spends the next couple of weeks (or months) in Annie's care, never quite knowing if she'll greet him with a smile or a sledgehammer. He tries to escape several times, but does he ever succeed? You'll have to read/watch and see.
I thought the movie was really good. Kathy Bates really does a fantastic Annie Wilkes, but James Caan as Paul Sheldon was also quite good. I hear that the novel is even more horrific than the movie, so I'll have to pick it up some time.
Anyways, Misery is supposed to be one of the greatest horror/psychological thriller movies ever as well as one of the best Stephen King novel-movie adaptations ever (trumped only by The Shawshank Redemption). So when I saw it on YouTube, I naturally had to watch it.
The basic premise of Misery is that author Paul Sheldon wrecks his car in a blizzard, and is taken into the care of Annie Wilkes, his self-proclaimed number one fan. Paul is famous for his novels about a character named Misery, the namesake of the movie and Stephen King novel. Annie loves the Misery books. However, once she finds that Paul is not only writing a new, non-Misery novel but has also killed off Misery, she flies into a rage, and insists that Paul bring Misery back to life in his next book. Paul spends the next couple of weeks (or months) in Annie's care, never quite knowing if she'll greet him with a smile or a sledgehammer. He tries to escape several times, but does he ever succeed? You'll have to read/watch and see.
I thought the movie was really good. Kathy Bates really does a fantastic Annie Wilkes, but James Caan as Paul Sheldon was also quite good. I hear that the novel is even more horrific than the movie, so I'll have to pick it up some time.
The Silver Crown - Robert C. O'Brien
So, my blog has been largely neglected for the past forever. Hence, I've decided to post something new.
I bought The Silver Crown a couple of years ago for two reasons: 1.) Robert C. O'Brien also wrote Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (which actually has a really fantastic movie adaptation, in my opinion), and 2.) the book was selling for $2.99. And since then, it's become one of those special books that I read time and time again whenever I find myself in a car hurtling through the Hoosier countryside or on a plane skimming through piles of cumulus clouds (hope you enjoyed that sudden bit poetic writing there).
Anyways, The Silver Crown sort of marks my transition from mystery novels to adventure stories. The story follows a girl, Ellen, who receives a silver crown on the day of her tenth birthday. This, she believes, proves that she is a queen. So she leaves her house and goes to a local park to hold court. Suddenly, she hears sirens in the distance. As it turns out, her house has burned to the ground, and no one made it out. Ellen resolves that she must go to her nearest relative, Aunt Sarah. But to get there, she must travel to Lexington, Kentucky. Along the way, she meets a host of villainous characters who try to take her crown, though why they would want to do that, Ellen does not know. She also meets some friends: a clever boy named Otto, the kindly old Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Carver, a man living in the woods alone. Without giving away too much of the plot, the story circles around Ellen, the crown, and the evil forces trying to take her crown.
While The Silver Crown is aimed at 8-12 year-olds, I still find the plot pretty engaging. There's no deeper meaning. There aren't layers upon layers of symbols and extended, social metaphors. It's just the age old battle between good and evil. It's a quick read. It's an easy read. I think I picked it up recently because I've been reading a lot of pretty heavy material, and I needed something that wouldn't make me dive deeper. Just an adventure, nothing else. I mean, I guess there's some degree of character development, but it's not like I need extensive thinking to comprehend basic character development.
Anyways, if you want to read something to the tune of what you might've read ten years ago, I highly recommend The Silver Crown. It's a great break from reading really excellent, deep books. It knows what it is (an adventure), and it does a great job immersing you in its own little world.
I bought The Silver Crown a couple of years ago for two reasons: 1.) Robert C. O'Brien also wrote Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (which actually has a really fantastic movie adaptation, in my opinion), and 2.) the book was selling for $2.99. And since then, it's become one of those special books that I read time and time again whenever I find myself in a car hurtling through the Hoosier countryside or on a plane skimming through piles of cumulus clouds (hope you enjoyed that sudden bit poetic writing there).
Anyways, The Silver Crown sort of marks my transition from mystery novels to adventure stories. The story follows a girl, Ellen, who receives a silver crown on the day of her tenth birthday. This, she believes, proves that she is a queen. So she leaves her house and goes to a local park to hold court. Suddenly, she hears sirens in the distance. As it turns out, her house has burned to the ground, and no one made it out. Ellen resolves that she must go to her nearest relative, Aunt Sarah. But to get there, she must travel to Lexington, Kentucky. Along the way, she meets a host of villainous characters who try to take her crown, though why they would want to do that, Ellen does not know. She also meets some friends: a clever boy named Otto, the kindly old Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Carver, a man living in the woods alone. Without giving away too much of the plot, the story circles around Ellen, the crown, and the evil forces trying to take her crown.
While The Silver Crown is aimed at 8-12 year-olds, I still find the plot pretty engaging. There's no deeper meaning. There aren't layers upon layers of symbols and extended, social metaphors. It's just the age old battle between good and evil. It's a quick read. It's an easy read. I think I picked it up recently because I've been reading a lot of pretty heavy material, and I needed something that wouldn't make me dive deeper. Just an adventure, nothing else. I mean, I guess there's some degree of character development, but it's not like I need extensive thinking to comprehend basic character development.
Anyways, if you want to read something to the tune of what you might've read ten years ago, I highly recommend The Silver Crown. It's a great break from reading really excellent, deep books. It knows what it is (an adventure), and it does a great job immersing you in its own little world.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Practice Diction Analysis
J.D. Salinger masters the voice of his protagonist, Holden Caulfield, in the first page of his novel Catcher in the Rye, using direct, colloquial, and bluntly offensive diction. Holden starts by saying that while he knows the reader would like to know about his background, he is not going to provide any information on his origins. His gruff, devil-may-care attitude exudes from the page, as he says he can’t be bothered with “all that David Copperfield kind of crap.” Holden’s trademark sense of superiority reverberates within the passage. While Holden’s language is neither profound nor particularly beautiful, it is representative of how a disenchanted teenager speaks. Holden complains that he won’t give his “whole goddam autobiography” and that his prother is far away from “this crummy place.” He has no objection to cursing, a sign of rebellion against the norm through language. Salinger breathes life into Holden by rambling and cussing, providing literature’s favorite teenage antihero with an identifiably meandering and rude voice.
[Side note: If you've never read Catcher, I highly recommend it. People tend to either love it or hate it. I love it. I think it's possibly the best thing I read last year, so if you have time for a great American classic, you should give it a read.]
Snaps for Etymology
Did anyone pick up on the Legally Blonde reference? I hope so because that was a little embarrassing considering that 1.) I can quote proficiently from a chick flick romcom, and 2.) this particular chick flick romcom happens to be a sequel (and not a particularly good one).
Anyways, so I went to a college interview today. Yep. I got to talk with a very nice lady from Smith College, so that was fun. And one of the questions she asked me was "Have you read any good books lately?" And honestly, given my reading record these past couple of years, I probably wouldn't have been able to give a particularly good answer had I not taken Etymology. I mean, it's not like I haven't read anything in recent years, but I had a whole pile of books I could talk about because of our 100/150 page a week assignment. Very helpful. For the record, we talked about Norwegian Wood, Battle Royale, Columbine, A Long Way Gone, and And Then There Were None. A pretty wide spread, if I do say so myself. I honestly don't get that. "If I do say so myself." Of course you say so; you just said it. But anyways. Moving on to the assignment (finally).
Anyways, so I went to a college interview today. Yep. I got to talk with a very nice lady from Smith College, so that was fun. And one of the questions she asked me was "Have you read any good books lately?" And honestly, given my reading record these past couple of years, I probably wouldn't have been able to give a particularly good answer had I not taken Etymology. I mean, it's not like I haven't read anything in recent years, but I had a whole pile of books I could talk about because of our 100/150 page a week assignment. Very helpful. For the record, we talked about Norwegian Wood, Battle Royale, Columbine, A Long Way Gone, and And Then There Were None. A pretty wide spread, if I do say so myself. I honestly don't get that. "If I do say so myself." Of course you say so; you just said it. But anyways. Moving on to the assignment (finally).
Buddha's Hand?
Random post before I put up my paragraph.
So I, for whatever reason, remembered something about this plant called Buddha's hand. And it's a fruit, but it's yellow and segmented into little knotted, gnarly poles that are supposedly Buddha's "fingers." I, again, have no idea why I thought of this, but I think it's a pretty cool fruit, albeit a little creepy. I really want to try one. It's number two on my "Fruits I Want To Eat" List (number one is starfruit and number three is dragon fruit).
So I, for whatever reason, remembered something about this plant called Buddha's hand. And it's a fruit, but it's yellow and segmented into little knotted, gnarly poles that are supposedly Buddha's "fingers." I, again, have no idea why I thought of this, but I think it's a pretty cool fruit, albeit a little creepy. I really want to try one. It's number two on my "Fruits I Want To Eat" List (number one is starfruit and number three is dragon fruit).
Doesn't this look like some creature from the deep? Yeah, I thought so.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Currently,
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
This week: 170 pages
Last week: 163 pages
Semester total: 1297 pages
Favorite quotes from other people's blog posts (in no particular order, of course)
"In a passage from Cherry Adair's "Out of Sight," she uses blunt vulgarity, noisy and straight-forwardness to get her point across." - Twilight
"The stylistics of Meg Cabot's Shadowland prominently feature straightforward, conversational word choice and a devil-may-care tone for the reader." - Look Up... (Now!)
"Dessen’s raw low- key language precisely augments the conflicting feelings and tragic events of her story." - The Blog of Epic Proportions
I really like the post from Twilight because the writer uses some pretty strong language. Though the ending to the paragraph is a little trite, the rest of the paragraph stands strong. I love that the writer says the author uses "blunt vulgarity," though the rest of the sentence needs some restructuring for the sake of parallelism. Overall, it's a really good post, though it could use some fine-tuning.
I just love that the writer of Look Up... (Now!) describes the author's tone as "devil-may-care." I just love it. So. Much. The rest of the paragraph is also very solid, using a fair balance of left and right analysis. But really, I was won over by the "devil-may-care" tone. What a great word.
The Blog of Epic Proportions also had a really strong style mapping paragraph. I love using the word "raw" to describe language. It's just really powerful and to-the-point. "Augments" is another great word, as is "conflicting." There's some really good language here, so I, naturally, really like it.
This week: 170 pages
Last week: 163 pages
Semester total: 1297 pages
Favorite quotes from other people's blog posts (in no particular order, of course)
"In a passage from Cherry Adair's "Out of Sight," she uses blunt vulgarity, noisy and straight-forwardness to get her point across." - Twilight
"The stylistics of Meg Cabot's Shadowland prominently feature straightforward, conversational word choice and a devil-may-care tone for the reader." - Look Up... (Now!)
"Dessen’s raw low- key language precisely augments the conflicting feelings and tragic events of her story." - The Blog of Epic Proportions
I really like the post from Twilight because the writer uses some pretty strong language. Though the ending to the paragraph is a little trite, the rest of the paragraph stands strong. I love that the writer says the author uses "blunt vulgarity," though the rest of the sentence needs some restructuring for the sake of parallelism. Overall, it's a really good post, though it could use some fine-tuning.
I just love that the writer of Look Up... (Now!) describes the author's tone as "devil-may-care." I just love it. So. Much. The rest of the paragraph is also very solid, using a fair balance of left and right analysis. But really, I was won over by the "devil-may-care" tone. What a great word.
The Blog of Epic Proportions also had a really strong style mapping paragraph. I love using the word "raw" to describe language. It's just really powerful and to-the-point. "Augments" is another great word, as is "conflicting." There's some really good language here, so I, naturally, really like it.
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