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Blog has moved

Hey everyone!

I know it's been quiet over here. Life does that sometimes. But I have decided to move this blog over to http://imaginaryviolets.tumblr.com/  

This way I can specifically do more than just books, but open it up to general science fiction, fantasy, comics and gaming. I'll still post books like before, but it's expanded and needed a blog I could access on a regular basis. 

Hope to see you over there!

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They just released today the first trailer for Ender's Game! I don't know about any of you, but I say it's about damn time this movie came out. They've been trying to make it work for years. And now we finally are going to see it. 

The trick will be whether or not they'll mess it all up. But I'm rather hopeful. What about you guys? 

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(via the remainder of the story by ~ekhoz on deviantART)

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“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.” 

-To Kill a Mockingbird

Happy Birthday, Harper Lee!!

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An apology to rival all apologies

Hello everyone, 

Thank you to those who were willing to stick with me. I'm so sorry I went completely AWOL for a while there. I promise that I will be getting back on the train. 

Here's the thing. Life got beyond insane. There were good insane things such as grad school decisions and traveling out of state. There were bad things such as a friend of the family's death. And there were generic everyday things such as two jobs eating all of my time. 

But the decisions have been made and I'm dropping one of the two jobs. So I should be able to come back.

Despite all of this, I did read. So I've got some fun things coming up for your dashboard in the near future. Some Philip K. Dick, Charlotte Brontë, Fitzgerald, Gaiman, and more!

I also was suddenly impulsive with my hair and made the decision to cut it all off like Claudia Donovan's. It was on a whim and after the decision came to me I said, "quick! To the salon before I change my mind!" And it was done. It's the shortest I've ever had my hair. So lately the freaking out stages started to set in. Anyway, that means a new icon. Still me, new face. :)

Thank you again for being so patient with me. You won't regret it. 

Much love sent your way. 

- A

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I have updated the date for Neverwhere (BBC Radio 4) series onto the Cumberbatch google calendar. The revised start time for all 6 episodes are:

Episode 1: 16 March, 2:30 PM London time (find your local time here).

Episode 2: 18 March, 6:30...

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The amazing Neil Gaiman is coming out with his next adult novel in June. If you pre-order the novel at Porter Square Books at this link they will be signed. The books are about $26.00. 

That's a decent deal, guys. 

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old books by SAKYOKER on Flickr.

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Book&Film: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Yesterday was the DVD release of the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, an adaptation of the book of the same name. I honestly don't think I have seen a better adaptation in my life. This is another one where I don't understand why it wasn't nominated for best adaptation in the writing category at the very least. Of course, when the screenplay was written by the original writer, Stephen Chbosky, as well as directed by him, there was no way this could have gone wrong. 

OK, even after I write that I know that the film could have still gone wrong somewhere. But it didn't. If anything, there were some aspects to the film that I liked better. It was as if Chbosky took the book a step further. Seeing Sam and Patrick in person and interacting with Charlie was stunning. Even Mary Elizabeth, a character I disliked in the novel, was amazing in the film version. Also, I think the homecoming dance scene was one of the best things ever. All in all, the cast was perfect, it captured the most iconic lines in writing perfectly, and it even tastefully handled the ending. The narration for the letters wasn't at all cheap. The soundtrack was great. Even if they changed the "tunnel song" from Fleetwood Mac to Bowie, it seemed like the Bowie song fit better in that situation. 

The novel is in epistolary style and hits on serious topics such as love and abuse both physical and emotional. The writing is open and raw. Chbosky didn't hold back on anything. He let Charlie release everything he thought on paper, and the film does a fantastic job at transposing the words to the screen.  True the novel has been banned, but when has a banned book ever not been worth a person's time? If anything, they're usually the books that are must-reads. They're only banned because sometimes the truth is hard to face.

So if you haven't read the novel, you need to get on that as soon as possible. Log off your Tumblr and shut down your computer. Go to your library or bookstore and find that novel. It's short and written in letters, so it'd honestly take you only a day to read. If you have read the novel and haven't checked out the film version, you should also log off your Tumblr, shut down your computer and go to your local movie rental place. This film is just as beautiful and amazing as the novel is.

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paris

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In Defense of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I know that there is a lot of support around the Tumblr-sphere for The Bell Jar, but I chose to write this small piece in part because of the anniversary of Plath's death and in part because I've seen some bad reviews of the novel recently. True, stereotypically The Bell Jar was seen as the "loner chick's" book in high school. Which, I believe, is a description that couldn't be further away from what the book is. But the reviews online where readers have called this book Plath's "self-pity party" are even more off base.  

The Bell Jar is many things, but it is not a self-pity party. Plath used her life experiences to make this book. She forced herself to go through painful events and put her descent into mental illness on display. It can even be seen as a way for Plath to perhaps examine how she got to where she was at the moment she wrote the novel. Sadly, it was published after her death.

I read the novel when I was in high school but I don't think I understood it as well as I did when I re-read it last summer. I spent two days at the office reading a poor web version and found myself seeing past the surface messages I got when I was younger. The imagery Plath crafts perfectly gets to the heart of serious, life-threatening depression.

Fifty years ago today, Sylvia Plath took her own life. I won't deny her novel is dated in some aspects. The pop culture references are very 1950s, as well as some of the language. But, that doesn't mean the novel should be put away. If you haven't been in some form of depression, it is hard to understand what exactly Plath is talking about. But, I believe, she manages to convey the complete alienation from society.  If read with this in mind, The Bell Jar is still poignant and relevant to many today.

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"Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences." 

-The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, who died on this day in 1963

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Happy Birthday, Jules Verne!

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Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is getting another makeover. A new book, Longbourn by Jo Baker, tells the story of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the help. It will follow a love story between a footman and a housemaid on the backdrop of the classic story. 

More information can be found here. 

This is an idea that could easily be applied to most classic novels. Any of Austen's books or even the Brontës or Dickens. Could you imagine Jane Eyre  told completely from the point of view of the help, rather than just Jane Eyre? 

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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

I read Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski a few years back. It's an amazing book and I would highly recommend it. I had bought House of Leaves soon after but unfortunately did not get to it until now. I opened it again late last year as you can see here. But thesis stuff got in the way and I was unable to read it again until now. So for the past four days I just plowed through this monster. And it really is that. A monster. 

House of Leaves focuses on two parallel stories. First a recluse named Zampanó writes about a film called The Navidson Record about a mysterious house. The house grows and even gets a new hallway in the middle of the night. This addition cannot be seen on the outside of the house. Inside the new hallway is a labyrinth with many corridors and walls that move. A great hall with a grand staircase that takes days to descend. And a growl that threatens. After Zampanó dies, Johnny Truant takes the trunk full of notes and writings back to his place and starts to go through them. He does research, but finds that the film never existed. The books in the footnotes didn't exist. Famous people quotes on the film didn't exist. But yet the story of The Navidson Record soon does to Johnny what we can assume it did to Zampanó. It begins to slowly tear at him until there is nothing left.

While the book is interesting, it is also like a long nightmare. A friend of mine and I both agree that it is the most terrifying book we've ever read. I found the structure of the book and the story of The Navidson Record interests me the most. I'd read the explorations into the labyrinth and all I wanted to do was yell at them to get out, but just continued to read through it as the place eats at the explorers. Sometimes literally.

The structure starts off relatively normal. You read along with Johnny as he first experiences the pages. With two different typefaces showing the two different stories. But soon the structure begins to change with the course of the story. 

These pages made me nervous the first time I glanced at the book, but honestly they are really easy to figure out. The structure makes sense with the story. There is a part where characters ascend the staircase and the text spirals up. Or another where the text is squished into a few lines while Navidson is squished into a small corridor. Things get jumbled in the Truant story as well as his mind deteriorates. 

At the end of the book are appendixes. Some are referenced to be read before other parts in the book. Others are there to be looked at after. The Whalestoe Letters, for example, are a series of one-sided letters from Johnny's mom to him. They talk about her time in the mental institution. These letters show that the memories Johnny has are often different than his mother's. Johnny is already an unreliable narrator and these letter further shows how mentally unstable he is even before The Navidson Record gets to him. Danielewski also published them as a standalone companion piece to House of Leaves. Also in the appendixes is an index of words. If you want to know how many times the word 'house' or 'for' is used, it has it here with the page numbers marked next to it. 

House of Leaves was originally not a published book, but something that was passed around on the Internet. It seems as if it was crossing the bridge between cybertext and ergodic lit. The Internet text inspired art and other things to be made, which are also included in the appendix of the book. There is also a part when Johnny goes to a bar and a band plays a song called "The 5&1/2 Minute Hallway." They talk about the book on the Internet and how it has affected people. The song actually exists, not made by a random fan but by Danielewski's sister whose musician name is Poe. While Danielewski was making the book his sister made a companion album for it. This wouldn't be the last time music was made along with a book. Biffy Clyro made an album after Only Revolutions was released. You can find the song "The 5&1/2 Minute Hallway" by Poe here.

The book is a literary statement that pushes the boundaries of structure and plot. If you're in the mood for a literary Mount Everest to tackle, go read House of Leaves. But be forewarned, there are going to be times when you just want to stop and take a break from reading, but don't give up. Completing the book would be worth it. It's one of those books that says with you long after the last page is read.

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"An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."

-Charles Dickens, who was born on this day in 1812

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is to be turned into a film with Sophie Nelisse as Liesel. More here. 

You can read my post on The Book Thief here.