Song of Ice & Fire: Book 5

While I have not yet had time to read George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire I have enjoyed watching the the fan reactions to the long delay between books. After (I believe) a 7 year gap between the last book and the announcement of the release date of the newest book. Apparently there were some plans to split up the newest book for retail release, but the publisher has decided against, at least for the hardcover book, not to pursue that option.

More American Gods Stuff

Neil Gaiman is everywhere now! Gaiman harnessed the power of the internet to limit the field of candidates to record the audiobook of American Gods. I think that this is a really interesting phenomenon and I actually really like it. It is a unique way for authors to interact with their fans. In a time when authors are expected to have more fan interaction than ever before, this is an great way for fans to have a positive two-way interaction with the creative properties they love. My favorite choice, Veronica Giguere, unfortunately did not make it to the final selection.

Hunger Games Movie

Last week, John mentioned The Hunger Games as a series that he would recommend to everyone. Listening to the Sword and Laser podcast I learned that there is a Hunger Games movie in production. There doesn't appear to be any big name talent in the movie, but nonetheless I will almost certainly see the movie.

Ender's Game Movie

Wow! Apparently they are developing a Ender's Game live action movie. Ender's Game had been optioned earlier in the Oughts, but there were creative differences between Card and the director. However, now it is on the schedule to be filmed yet again, this time by the director of Wolverine: Origins.

HBO Options American Gods

It seems that with the success of both The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, HBO is diving headlong into the fantasy genre. After a single episode they signed GoT for a second season and they have now optioned Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Wow!

While I have not yet read it, I have heard good things. Guess I have another book on my summer reading list.

Two more Podcast Audio Books

Reviewing my podcasts, I came across two more podcast audiobooks that you guys might be interested in. The first is the Secret World Chronicles by Mercedes Lackey and Denis Lee, read by Veronica Giguere. It is a set in a world in which super-heros are real, corporatized and nationalized, and besieged by alien nazis from a different dimension... yeah its weird. Nonetheless, it is an awesome fantasy romp, by one of the biggest names in the genre, that is already four audio books long and available for free!

The other title is another audiobook by Jeremy Robinson: Beneath. A science fiction adventure with dark currents, this is a good transition book between Andy's two classes. Highly recommended.

Kronos

Recently I have been listening to podcasted audiobooks offered through itunes. One of the best that I have found so far is Kronos an audiobook by Jeremy Robinson. A fantastic tale about a sea monster from the ages, it is a fast paced listen that is a extraordinary value for its price: FREE! I just thought I would share this find.

Under the Dome: A Retrospective View

Stephen King's Under the Dome is a lengthy novel well worth the number of trees needed to print it. The concept of an inverse abduction is interesting and well presented. The premise had a lot going for it and King did not abuse it. While the choice of a small town being trapped was an interesting one, it worked to build the tensions to the boiling point at a low heat rather than throwing the audience straight into the flames. The characters were rich and diverse with Big Jim Rennie a clear favorite as the self interested antagonist. Overall, the town dynamics felt authentic, if slightly out of place geographically. The only characterization flaw was that some of the characters came off as slightly less than 3 dimensional, relying on a specific trait to give them personality. The clever use of conflict and unexpected elimination of characters (that likely characterize a King novel, I am unfamiliar with any of his other works) serves to mask that slight tendency well. The biggest weakness of the book was the ending, which wrapped up questions that probably would have been better unanswered.

The book was a lot of fun, despite taking a sizable investment of time.

Heart Shaped Box: A Retrospective View

Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box was my favorite book this semester. It is dark fantasy at its best, melding together the Fantasy and Horror genres perfectly. Its ghastly real wold subject matter allows it to appeal to a broader audience than some of the other books that we read this semester, but the fantastic elements really shone. The characters of the novel were vivid, coloring their surroundings and generating a almost film-like tone. The blending of magic traditions was an interesting way to bring the broader world in which the story took place to live.

The action, the metaphors, and the fast pacing of the plot served to make this novel extremely readable and worth discussing.

Pretty Monsters: A retrospective view

Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters was a whimsical anthology of short stories that defied expectations. Rather than just talk about the book as a whole, I feel it is better to review a few of my favorites.

The Wrong Grave was a fun adventuresome romp with characters that were easy to relate with. Its ending was somewhat unexpected and decidedly clever.

The Wizards of Perfil: One of my favorite stories of the book, it has a vague Grimm's Tales feel and was very satisfying.

Magic for Beginners: Absolutely my favorite story in the collection. The meta structure of the story was unusual and the story felt stylistically distinct.

The Surfer: Definitely my least favorite of the stories. The Surfer takes a swing at mild science fantasy and misses just by a little.

Overall, the anthology was one of the best books this semester.

The Shadow Year: A retrospective view

The Shadow Year was another novel that I felt fell short of its intended purpose. Having not read To Kill a Mockingbird, I have no attachment to the sort of narration that the author used in this work. I understand, after hearing Andy discuss the origins of the novel, that the work was partially autobiographical with fantastic elements thrown in, but that is exactly what they feel like: thrown in. The plot meanders with no sense of urgency, no sense of building suspense, and leads to an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.

The Little Stranger: A retrospective view

Having reached the end of the course, I would say that this was the weakest of the novels we read this semester. That is not because its writing style was lackluster; indeed, the novel drips with authenticity of the period and atmosphere. Nor is it because of the low level of supernatural elements, though I must confess this threw me a little. No, the reason I so heartily disliked this book is because there doesn't seem to be nearly enough plot to support a 500+ page volume. The details dragged out the book far longer than necessary, causing an incautious reader to miss crucial details. I know I had to reread several pages as a result of unintended skimming.

Overall, I like the idea of the haunted house sub-genre. However, after reading The Haunting of Hill House, The Little Stranger came up woefully short.

Shadow of the Torturer

Recently I stumbled upon a forum discussing the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe. From the discussion it sounded like something right up this class's alley. The series appears to be about guild oriented world rife with darkness and warped characters. However, based on the thread, there are a number of clues indicating that it is set not in a fantasy past as might be supposed upon first glance, but rather that it is set in the far future. It appears that the civilization forgot the technology that made it great and went into severe decline, to stabilize at a much lower level

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had read it...

Class Quotes

I've made a few amusing notes in my notebook, and I thought I'd share them with y'all...

"some ghost giving people hugs" (--"For the Blood is the Life")

"My wife is snorting with derision." --Andy

"metafurs" --Andy

"Of course they could be both alien AND a metaphor, though..." (--"Family")

"...then he got slammed with the wall of crazy." (--"Stone Animals")

"Luke is a flibbertigibbet." --Andy

theory = "something shiny" --something Andy was saying, maybe he didn't say this exactly...

"The rain in Spain..."
"...stays mainly EVERYWHERE."
--post-The Orphanage and Pan's Labyrinth

"He can't see it because he's not a fairy princess!" --Mary Grace, on the captain in Pan's Labyrinth

"I was like, I'm reading a book, and he was like, you're an idiot." --Matt Meng, introducing "Monster"

"I would like to hang out with him. If he was full." --Matt Meng, on the monster from "Monster"

"Their parents might as well have not existed because they have absolutely no control over their kids."
"That's true in a lot of households."
--about The Shadow Year

"They can spray-tan you--I'm sure they can spray-pale you." --Bailey ("It's called MAKEUP!")

"It's like the opposite of an alien abduction." [Under the Dome]

"...So people could've died waiting for that last book." --Jordan (on King's Dark Tower series)

Ah, the end of the semester...

Hey everybody! So this is what it has come to, is it? We are nearing the end, and our time together runs short... But enough of that! Time for blogging!

Last week, Andy or somebody made a joke about a "recommended reading list" that I took to heart and decided to put in this post. The majority (all, maybe?) would be classified as sci-fi as opposed to fantasy, but there's a good overlap in the audience so you'll probably like them anyway. So without further ado, here is a short list of books I think you should read over the summer (or whenever):

- Daemon by Daniel Suarez - An awesome near-future story about how technology is and will become more integrated into our lives. Basically MMORPG's enter reality in a way, and the results are really cool. There is a very real likelihood you'll come away from this saying "I wish the world was really like that." This is my number one recommendation. If you read any of these here, pick up Daemon and it's sequel Freedom(tm).

- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Classified as "young adult" but enjoyable by all, The Hunger Games and its two sequels are set in a distopian future where a bloodsport involving children is once again the name of the game. So if you liked Battle Royale or like rooting for a charismatic and relate-able underdog or like a fantasy/scifi romp with some serious character building and more then check this out.

- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - If you weren't in Andy's class last Fall, then you should really check this one out. It was on the syllabus for a reason. The reason? Being really good. It was to the sci-fi class what The Graveyard Book was to this one: meant for a younger audience but with adult level depth (and awesomeness). Plus, you can get it online for free. Just google it.

- World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks - Certainly the most unique book on this short list, World War Z is written as a collection of stories complied after the Zombie War has occurred. A must for anyone into zombie stories/movies.

- The Walking Dead - OK, not really reading. There is a graphic novel (or a lot of them), but I haven't had the chance to read any so I can't really recommend it. What I am recommending though, is the TV show. The first season aired last fall and is already out on DVD. This show has some serious production value, and the next season will be starting this fall. Again, if you like zombies, this is a must watch show.

Well that is the list as I can think of it now. Check some of these out, and enjoy them!



Also, Jordan, I have found something for you (stumbleupon is a beautiful thing, no?)

27 Amazing Graphic Novels For Readers New To The Genre

Not sure if you still need anything for that graphic novel class, but this is a hell of a list to get you started. It reminded me of some I've read but had forgotten (Maus, 30 Days of Night, etc.), and there are at least a couple on there I'd like to check out for the hell of it. Anyway, I hope this helps!

Henry Jenkins and Fan Culture

Hey y'all--

So last class when I was talking about my Kelly Link paper idea and how she utilizes TV in "Magic for Beginners," Andy mentioned this guy named Henry Jenkins whose writings might be useful to me.

I found his blog and have linked in the title. I'll have to check it out later, but I think he's pretty awesome already from what I've seen. (Then, I dream of making books writing critically about Japanese manga and other pop culture, and my thesis is on anime conventions, so.) I just wanted to link to him in case anyone else was interested. :)

It's Andy Day!

Guidos get ghosted

Hello everyone! I hope that lack of nonsense of the blog means that everyone is just as busy as I am right now! I just had a few points:

1. Thanks for all the help with my topic discussion thingy last week! It really helped me with my directional stuff.... so I figured that I would go ahead and ask... any more helpful mentions, etc. for my paper? I'm doing the technology in fantasy thing, esp. in Heart Shaped Box, and I'm thinking of going with a "it makes it scarier" sort of angle (because I know that made HSB scarier for me).

2. To go along with Jennifer's post, take Andy's sci-fi class if you haven't already! It's a lot of fun and pretty interesting to look at the genre in general.

Now, here is a clip of my favorite "paranormal investigators" on Ghost Adventures! (or as I like to call it: "Guidos Get Ghosted") Enjoy!! (and notice how they always manage to draw attention to their muscles "look at my arm dude" for goosebumps haha)

Out of curiosity...

Is anyone else planning on taking this class in the fall?

Mozart's Requiem, Dark and Fantastic

Performance TODAY, link is in the title.

Please consider coming out to Moody at 7:30 p.m. to hear Mozart's Requiem, one of the most widely-known, haunting choral compositions.

The thing about this requiem is it seems vastly different from others I've heard. Others are full of sadness and, always in the end, hope. Here, too, there is hope--but only after movements of sheer terror and anger. Truthfully, this requiem feels as dark and fantastic as some of the novels we've read--"Libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu! Libera eas de ore leonis!" That is, "Save the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and from the deep pit. Deliver them from the mouth of the lion!"

When singing this Mozart piece--his last work, left unfinished at his death and wrapped up by one of his pupils--we hear bits of odd chords and minor keys, things that feel like "gypsy music," for lack of a better term. Listen to the haunting melody of "Lacrymosa." We are told to sing with anger, as in "Dies Irae"--"Day of Wrath." We are told to sing with terror, as in "Rex Tremendae" ("King of tremendous majesty, who freely saves the worthy--save me!"). We sing with pleading and with all the hurt and confusion that we feel through Mozart's music. In the end, we ask for eternal rest and a place with the holy saints, "for You are merciful"--even on the last note, in the last phrase, when we have seemed to calm and be reassured, we remind God that He is merciful with something that is still a kind of frightened hope.

"Mozart was very angry with death," our director has told us. The School of Music chose specifically that we perform this work on Good Friday. I feel it fitting. On Good Friday we are sorrowful, repentant, perhaps fearful, perhaps a bit angry--on Good Friday is confusion, but all may resolve on Easter Sunday. Begging your pardon if you're not religious or Christian, but music is very religious to me, and that's how I see it.

And so, again, I hope you'll come hear us play and sing tonight. Major works of music have ways of being life-changing. It has happened to me before with the Brahms Requiem. I'm not sure what Mozart will bring tonight, but I know it's been stuck in my head all week. It's something that has the potential to stay with you. And hopefully we will sing well enough to leave you with a sense of awe for--something. For anything.

Game of Thrones renewed

"After just one episode, hit-hungry HBO has renewed “Game of Thrones” for a second season.

That’s because, the pay-cable network indicated in its announcement, the first episode grossed 4.2 million viewers over multiple plays, and TV critics gave the show a lot of thumbs up."

So, seems like we will get to see book 2 played out at the least. I am super excited from this news!

Also, if you haven't seen it yet and like fantasy, go watch it!!

Paper 2 ideas

I'm having alot of trouble this time around thinking of a good topic for this paper. I kinda wanted to do something about The Graveyard Book, but seeing as quite a few other people in class will be and I don't even have a starting point, I figure I'd just go with something else. I've also been considering working with some of Kelly Link's work or maybe the The Shadow Year, but I haven't been able to think of a thesis for either of these as of yet. I've been a huge Simpsons fan for years, and that part of me really wants to do some sort of comparison between Under the Dome and The Simpsons Movie, but I don't have a clear thesis for that yet either. Anyone have any thoughts?

Unlikely Protagonists

Ok so I've been sorta struggling to come up with a paper topic this time around but I have one that I think would be good I'm just not sure if there is enough info and I can't find the common thread so hopefully y'all can help. My idea is to examine unlikely protagonists in some of the works we have read as well as some outside works. I was thinking of using Bod and his ghost family from Graveyard book, Jude the death metal rocker from Heart Shaped Box, and going outside the class for Dexter the a serial killer who only targets other killers. I know there's many more works that do this (Casper the friendly ghost, Shrek, etc) but I don't want to bring in too many. My worry is that I cant find the common thread that turns these characters that would normally be bad into lovable protagonists in each work. Any help would be appreciated! I'll try to help y'all out too! Thanks!

Paper 2 Ideas

I feel like writing out my ideas might help me put them in order. I have two(ish) ideas that I'm considering for this paper.

One actually was originally Jordan's idea (but I asked for permission). I loved the connection she made between Yeats's poem "The Stolen Child" and "The Graveyard Book." I'm not sure there is enough here to do a whol paper, but I was thinking maybe I could write about the presence of folk lore in fantasy. I'm not sure that I can really find much background information on this, but it seems like it could be fun. Any suggestions about other works I could use?

I really like my other idea, but I haven't had any luck finding sources to help my argument. I also haven't managed to put it into words, so this might be a little choppy. I want to use "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Heart-shaped Box" to discuss the negation of stereotypes in fantasy. I would argue that Buffy is the typical "dumb blonde", but is also a great strategist and saves the world constantly. I think Hill did a great job of presenting a "goth" metal singer and girlfriend who actually realize they are afraid of death even though the embrace it in their daily images. Like I said, I really love this, but I don't know if I can find any supporting information. Any clues on where to look?

And if neither of these work, I guess I could do my boring idea of discussing the scientific plausibility of the Dome, but that would be basically a science paper and I doubt anyone wants to read that.

Thanks for your help!

A Kelly Link Paper?

Hey y'all--I wanted to apologize in advance for the fact that I will miss perhaps the first hour of class tomorrow. Because the University Chorus, University Singers, and Huxford Symphony Orchestra are putting on the Mozart Requiem this Friday at 7:30 p.m. (free and open to the public; you should all come)--and because I am in University Chorus--I have to be at a special combined rehearsal from 2:00-3:45 (and then make the trek from Moody). I'm sorry that I'm going to have to miss some people's paper discussions.

But to give a quick intro to what I'm going to talk about in class, I want to do a paper on Kelly Link. I want to talk about ambiguity and endings and why I think her writing style is so awesome, focusing on "Stone Animals" and "Magic for Beginners." (Really I wanted to just do "Magic for Beginners," but I don't think I'll have enough so I was going to bring in "Stone Animals" since I had some ideas about it previously.) Right now my thesis is a bit nonexistent and my ideas are nebulous, so I'll be open to any suggestions. I'll explain more in class, but I'll leave you with that for now.

P.S.: I always imagine I'm seeing ghosts out of the corners of my eyes--you know, just outside my line of vision--whenever I'm blogging for this class at night. It's kind of creepy.

Also the other night I had this odd experience--I was getting ready for bed and I walked out into the hallway and turned the hall light on. I don't even remember what I did out there, but when I got back to my room I really thought I turned it off. Then I closed the door to my room and went about my business. About twenty minutes later, I looked over and realized the hall light was on.

At the time I was texting my boyfriend good night--but I ended up sending a text that said, "I think my hall light just turned on by itself." Knowing what a scaredy-cat I am and how I can psych myself out (especially at night), he let me spend the night at his dorm (he pretended to be all gentlemanly by giving me the bed, except the bed kind of sucked and the couch was probably more comfortable, haha). By the time I'd made it over there and was falling asleep, I had pretty much convinced myself that I'd just forgotten to turn off the hall light before I shut my door, but a part of me still thinks I turned it off. (And no one else was home. I'm absolutely positive.)

This coupled with the fact that I'm likely to imagine shadowy things moving just outside my line of vision as I writ about this... yeek. I hope I sleep tonight. T_T

Doggies :-)

I've been meaning to make this blog post for a week now. I really meant to after class last week because I had already e-mailed Andy about it...but I went and ate at Hokkaido with Jordan instead. And ahem...Andy has yet to e-mail me back...cough.

Ok so I know two things. I love animals and I loved Heart-Shaped Box. So I want to base my paper around that. I was fascinated and intrigued by Jude's dogs and their abilities to defend him from the ghost of Craddock. I also have heard various "tales" about animal and their heightened sense of the supernatural. I did a little preliminary research and found a few studies involving animals and the paranormal, including a BBC documentary mini series on Supernatural: Unseen Abilities of Animals.

So I have these minimal sources and a slight idea of what I want to write about, yet I need to go deeper to figure out how I'm going to form a thesis. I suppose I want to analyze and investigate animals true abilities to sense and fend off the supernatural better than we humans can. Does anybody have any other ideas of where I can find useful sources? I'm finding a lot of blogger discussion boards, but only a handful of solid sources to help me form some sort of conclusion. I really like this topic and think it will make a great paper, I just need to develop it more strongly.

Hope you guys have some ideas to help me, and I hope I can help you.

Zero to Hero

Hey guys! Just wanted to get some thoughts on my paper topic. I've decided to expand upon the idea I had in class about Bod being equal with an ancient hero, my thought being Hercules. My main points are that they both usually have some enemies who stand in their way throughout their epic story, Bod's being Jack and Hercules' being Hera. They both travel from the normal world into the supernatural/mysterious world. Bod has supernatural powers, much like Hercules' strength, while he lives in the The separate graveyards are symbolic of the separate levels of the underworld. I'm not sure if I want to use Hercules specifically or just to leave it open and show how this is an ancient epic without tying it to any specific ancient mythological figure, because Bod's story has elements of many different myths intertwined. Any observations or thoughts as to him being like a specific god/hero/mythological being?

Another thought of mine was to equate Bod to Octavian (later known as Emperor Augustus) Bod's family were killed, much like Caesar was killed. Jack would be equal to Brutus and his conspirators, the other Jacks. They are both adopted. We even have the ghost of a Pompeius, could this be Gnaeus Pompeius, frenemy of Caesar? Bod could be Octavian and at the end he goes out into the world, having broken ties with Caesar and becomes Augustus, all on his own.

Thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Paper topic- Death and all his (or her) friends

So pertaining to The Graveyard Book in particular (and any other works you guys want to suggest from class!) I want to do something with the ways that Death and Hell are depicted in modern fiction. How have authors' and filmmakers'/TV producers' representation of these age-old icons changed from the classic Greek or Biblical depictions? What sort of environment has The Underworld turned into for us and what sort of creatures reside there? What sorts can travel between our world and Hell and how? Has perdition become a place for monsters to live and thrive, instead of merely the final destination for rotten souls? I'll probably incorporate the TV show 'Supernatural' somehow because it deals with this A LOT. I don't know exactly what angle I'm going to take, so I need your guys' and Andy's help. Send me your thoughts, suggestions, anything, yo. Thanks!

Renaissance Festival

Evening everyone. How are we all doing today? Good? Great.

Want to guess how I spent my weekend (well, part of it anyway)? At the good ol' Georgia Renaissance Festival, of course! My girlfriend and I spent all day Sunday wandering among the shops and shows of the Festival as we have every spring/summer for a while now (forgot the camera, so no pictures. Sad, I know.). It's quite the past-time, getting dressed up in costume to go see some of the best, most entertaining off-color comedy around and eating food on a stick. Everything is on a stick at the Renaissance Festival! Even the people would be if they let them use pointy lances in the joust... Anyway, I thought this would be a topic of potential interest in a fantasy-oriented class (especially with things like the Game of Thrones coming out and all).

So has anyone else been to the Festival? Or any other festivals? Any interest in going to one? Link's in the title if you're interested!

Procrastination

I didn't realize how much I used this class to procrastinate in my others. Write that 5 pager for AC 210? Nah, I gotta read The Heart-Shaped Box. Do my aplia for econ? Nope, not when I have 1000+ pages of Under the Dome to tackle. But now that we're done reading I have no excuse to not do my hw and it's driving me crazy. At least if I read for this class it was for a legitimate reason. If I was to pick up a random novel right now though, I would get lost in a story that has no relevance to my grade. Anyone else have this problem?

Game of Thrones (TV series)

So, I just finished watching the first episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. I am so impressed by their work. It is super meticulous and it is VERY accurate to the book. I am totally in love with it, and would highly recommend to anyone and everyone to get HBO, even if its just for this series.

Another nice thing, its an hour episode. I don't mean 37 minutes plus commercials, I mean no commercials and 1 hour of true programming. Epic win.

Go watch it and then subscribe to HBO!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So I'm going to be starting grad school at Notre Dame this fall, right? They have these on-campus grad apartments that look like the best option for me (so I don't have to drive in the snow!!), and I need to look around on the website and sign up for housing.

The Notre Dame housing website proclaims, "Welcome to your Home Under the Dome!"

UNDER THE DOME?! O_O

(Haha.)

This is the ND dome:

It's like the administrative building. Like Rose at UA.

Close-up: Mary! (Well. Obviously.)

Just found it amusing...

Meg

One more thing...

I meant to mention this in class, but completely forgot about it. I felt that King's constant Pop Culture references made the characters more real. For instance, toward the end when someone says that noone thought Dr. Haskell was Dr. House, I laughed at this and completely understood what they meant. I'm not sure if anyone else felt this way, but I loved it. I think this is one of the nice things about reading stories written recently rather than in the 1800s. I feel like I can relate more to novels now, especially with things like references to shows and people I know. Also, I'm sorry that my posts keep being giant paragraphs rather than broken up. For some reason either my computer or this blog has decided that when I press the Enter button, it's a suggestion rather than a command...Fantastic. Any clues how to fix this?

Over excessive

I did manage to finish the book, and I feel a lot of it was overly excessive. Especially the deaths, specifically at the beginning. This book could lose the majority of the first 100 pages because the deaths had little tie ins later.

Anyone else feel a lot of the book was overly excessive.

Under the Dome Ending

So at this point I'm going to assume that everyone has either finished the book or is prepared to smile and nod when the ending is talked about. What are your thoughts on the ending? I'm somewhat torn by it. On one hand it seems like a bit of a cop out where King has this good idea of a dome that traps everyone and then he focuses on the interactions of the people trapped and gets to the end and just kind of throws something together. On the other hand I can see "leatherheads" as being almost like scientists that are studying what sort of shenanigans people would get themselves into if they believed they were cut off from the world and in a hopeless situation. This explanation makes it a better read for me and makes it easier for me to look at the book as not only a great story but also a commentary on the lengths some people (Big Jim) will go for power over others.

Dome

Wow, I actually got this finished on time, I wasn't sure I would. I got through most of it over the weekend just because I never really found a good point I wanted to stop at. I did like the book, but felt there was just a bit too much death. I lost count of how many characters were introduced, and then promptly killed less than ten pages later. King would introduce a character, tell you just enough about them for you to like them just a bit, and then BAM, they're dead. And then of course there's how everything went in the final chapter. I read it a couple days ago, but I still haven't been able to really decide whether I think that it's a good ending or whether all that destruction was unnecessary.

Also glad at least one dog survived this thing, I hate how authors always have to kill off the dogs.

Pretty Cool!

As we spoke about at the end of the semester ther are quite a bit of similarities between King's Under the Dome and The Simpsons Movie. In their current 22nd season they also made connections to the book that I thought was funny, seeing as how there was somewhat of an online controversy about what came first and if any ideas were stolen. The Simpsons tend to bring forward controversies in their episode, so I don't see why they wouldn't poke fun at one surrounding them.

In episode 6, "The Fool Monty," Mr. Burns is ridden of his memory and is actually nice for once, but towards the end of the episode he turns back into his old, evil, self. His idea is to put the town under a huge dome, saying he "got the idea from a Stephen King novel." Here are the screenshots:








I think that's pretty neat!

As for the novel itself, I loved it! Despite its length it kept me involved and excited. The incineration of people reminded me of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. I think that was one of the scariest things for me. Being trapped and having no where to run from toxic fumes and a gigantic firestorm!!! I'd say this was better than The Simpsons Movie, because it's darker and I tend to like the dark side of things (duh! I'm in this class), plus there are aliens involved, and nothing can beat Aliens.

Puppy Love

This is my darling puppy girl, Daisy.

She lives at home with my family in Louisiana, so I miss her a lot while I'm away at school. :( Hello, my name is Meg, and I think of dogs as people. (Haha.) I have this voice my mom and close friends refer to as "the puppy voice"--my regular voice but an octave higher--that I immediately start using whenever someone mentions a dog. Also, whenever I am around a dog I behave somewhat in the way described in this xkcd comic, titled "Cat Proximity"--substitute "Dog" for "Cat" and imagine the little man as me.

Now, I am not usually a big fan of Stephen King. He's just very grotesque in his writing. I don't want to hear about all that blood and guts, all the gory details--I just don't. But seeing as I have no choice, I would say that I don't think Under the Dome was too bad. I was cringing, but there was a lot of other stuff going on, so it was okay.

But what really closed the book for me--what really made me happy--was not even necessarily the lifting of the Dome. Instead, it was the scene, on the next to last page at the bottom--starting with "Horace had seen her." Just looking over it again now makes my heart happy. In the end, woman is reunited with puppy dog, and all is well. Which brings me to my main point--I am extremely critical of books depending on how they treat dogs.

Part of me thinks that dogs have a special part in horror/dark fantastic/what-have-you books because they can play the roles of protectors--like the German shepherds in Heart-Shaped Box or, my favorite hero-dog of this novel, Audi (*sniff sniff*), who served her people and protected her children very well. I was, in the end, pleased with both Heart-Shaped Box and this book because the author didn't forget about the dog. 

--And believe me, "forgetting about the dog" does happen. One that sticks out in my mind, a book I love except for this detail--The Great Gatsby. There's a puppy at the apartment, and after they have their mint juleps and leave there's a big commotion and the book spirals to the end. But we never hear about the dog again. --Perhaps it's not literarily relevant, whatever, but to me, the dog is always relevant. I always want to know.

Some of the strongest emotions I feel in books are centered around dogs. When they put Gip down in The Little Stranger--and this is no joke--I had to stop reading and go cry and hug my dog (sweet Daisy, if you'll recall) before I could continue reading. I was afraid from the moment the guardian-dogs were introduced in Heart-Shaped Box because I knew they were going to die. And in Under the Dome, I tried to hurry through the part where the mob shot the German shepherd (I forget his name, poor puppy); I knew that something was going to happen to Audi; and for a while I forgot about Horace but whenever he was mentioned again I worried for him as the book progressed until the final sweet end. I don't feel the same emotions about other animals, be they horses or cats or whatever pets people happen to have.

So, hey--I may be the crazy dog lady (haha). But I am always particularly attentive to the canine protagonists of a story, and I appreciate when they get a happy ending.

And one more thing before I go--a sweet puppy girl sitting in the sunshine, falling asleep.

Aaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwww.

What I learned from King

So, I finished "Under the Dome" this morning at 1:30 am... If you haven't finished the book, you might not want to read this post if you don't want things ruined. This is the first book that I've read since Harry Potter that I just couldn't put down. I loved this book, at least until the last 200 pages... It only took me a week to read it because I could only read it in short burst, all together though I'm pretty sure I knocked it out in about 12 hours just because I was eager to see what was next. Outside of the foreshadowing thing that everyone has mentioned, I this was an awesome book. I was attached to the characters all the way through. When I was about 200 pages in, I thought I could see an ending about to occur, but obviously it didn't. I could not imagine how he was going to end and who was going to survive. I guess this is what caused my impatience and fast reading. I have not read any other King books, but I'm curious about one thing. I quickly learned (about the time Brenda or Sammy died or even Duke) to not pick favorite characters, because as soon as I started favoring one, it's like King knew it and then just had to kill them in some horrible way. Is this how King works or is it just for this book? I know he kills off people, but it's like he wanted to be attached to a certain character before killing them. I guess this makes the story that much better. I definitely hated Rennie more and more for each death. I guess you could call the whole children playing with ants a message? I thought it was a clever way to point out how horrible humans can be. The whole alien children thing was pretty cool, though I had that ruined before even starting the book. One last thing, what did you guys think about the ghosts attaching Rennie? I was pretty sure he was going to make it out. Those few short pages scared the crap out of me. I can't imagine reading a whole book like that, so I'll probably avoid any of King's ghost stories.

Under The Dome... SIMBA??

So, I have to say that upon reading the end of Under The Dome I had a tune nagging at the back of my head, and it wasn't until I reread the super mushy last sentence that BAM it hit me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea4uc_1VGSE

Oh yes, please watch this and tell me that it is not the ending of Under the Dome: the rain stops (dome lifts) Simba nudges his sexy lil Nala (Julia), Cox nudges him forward and was his little adviser the whole time (Rafiki) and roars into the newly restored world. Yes, the music resonated on the back of my mind while reading the entire ending. Too perfect!
On another note, I would say that I expected King to spring for the "and then Barbie shuddered his last breath" (only in a few sections before this, pointing out that it would be the last something or another he ever did...) I really did expect them all to die and then the dome lifts. But hey, guess ol' Kingy is goin softy on us after 1000 pages.
I would say I liked the book, excluding the excessive foreshadowing. As aforementioned, I got awfully tired of reading 'it would be the last time/thing/etc he she ever did/said/etc' I thought it was better when people just surprised you and died or something (the 'later he would regret it' got pretty old too). Anybody else get this vibe? I think all the foreshadowing could have been left out for a much better read.
Other than that, it really didn't feel like an overwhelming read.
LION KING RULES! (and Barbie shall forever be Simba to me now).

I like big books and I can not lie

Alright everyone, lets talk about books. Big books. I mean, BIG books. Like Under the Dome, for example. Why are they so long? Why, in this world of successful multi-book series do some authors choose to instead opt for the single, massive tome?

Now, maybe some of them aren't easily split up and should be left as a single volume (Under the Dome may be in this category), but they certainly can't all be this way. I mean, some would absolutely benifit from the split (the last Harry Potter book, perhaps?). So, in short, this isn't a comment on Under the Dome in particular, but on massive books a a whole. They are so large that they become intimidating (come on, you know you weren't looking forward to any book this long), so why do you think some authors choose to take this route? Are there some stories that just have to be told in one go?

Feelings so far

Ok, granted im only 109 pages in (I do plan on entirely finishing the book by class) and have only been reading for about two hours intermittently. The number of deaths in this book is starting to get utterly depressing and almost funny because its so surreal. Not that the deaths are funny because they are terrible and making my progress slow, but its just so unlikely that so many people are dying in such a short time period and I feel a lot of the deaths are entirely unnecessary and its almost CSI like in the sense of "Ok guys, whats a different way we can kill someone this time". Each death just makes me go, are you kidding me?

Additionally, the amount of damage people are receiving confuses me. People slamming into the wall, dome, thing makes sense. But birds? Birds hit windows all the time at flying speed and dont die. Why do they all die hitting the dome? Additionally, people hitting the wall and getting bloody noses. Unless they were practically running, I dont imagine such things happening. I mean, we have all had accidental run ins with walls, trees, door, etc (atleast I know I have) and have never gotten a bloody nose (except the one time I broke my nose). *shrug*

I will likely have more opinions once I get further in the book tomorrow.

AKA Ants under a magnifying glass

I was the most excited to read Steven King this entire semester because I had never read anything by him and I now had an excuse. My excitement was more than deserved. Gosh yall I LOVED this book. From page one I was hooked. I loved the way it was written and was so impressed that he could write something over 1000 pages long that didn't feel like it was edited correctly. It didn't seem long when I was reading it. I thought Under the Dome was clever, funny, and a rare example of when an author lives up to all the hype.

Really my only complaint with the novel is in line with katy's. I want to know what happens to the survivors at the end.

My question pertains to King's writing in general because I've never read him before. Are his other novels similar to this? Or are they mainly scary? Does anyone have any suggestions as to other stories worth reading?

Mixed feelings

So I miraculously finished Under the Dome on Saturday, and with time to spare. I'm completely torn on how I feel about the book. And I shall explain...

The beginning was rough for me. Bailey and Jordan, though, didn't struggle with it like I did. So maybe it's just me. But I felt like the way King presented all the little stories at the beginning made them appear to be irrelevant to the entirety of the story. I kept thinking "I don't care about what happened to all these unimportant characters, let's get on with figuring out why the dome is there and how to get rid of it". Of course I should have known King had a method to his madness. If he didn't, he couldn't have gotten all those movie deals. Of course all the little stories became important throughout the book. Even so, the first 300 pages took me 2 weeks to read and I plowed through the last 700 in one week.

So the middle got me hooked. I was totally wrapped up in it and did not want to put it down. I was thankful for that, since this was the longest book I've ever read (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix comes in second at about 870 pages-ish) I fell in love with the characters, even Rennie who was a complete douchebag. Pardon my French. I really cared about what was happening to Barbie and his "Friends". So I quickly got the bitter taste of the beginning out of my mouth, especially when everything started to come together.

Now I'm not going to give away the end because I know this is one you all will be reading until 3 pm Wednesday, but I was not happy with it. I was expecting a big surprise at the end, but I really saw it coming. For those of you that were unfortunate enough to read River of Gods, it was a "It's a boltzman!" ending. Plus there wasn't much closure. It just kinda ended and you have no idea what happened to the survivors.

I think it was a really well written book, but I'm not as pleased as I'd like to be. Maybe our discussion Wednesday will pull me to support it a little more.

Casper at it again...

Ok so my resident ghost, Casper, made his biggest move so far. My roomate, Justin, asked if I had gone in his car to get something because when he went outside his windows and sunroof were open. When I replied no, we called our third roomate in and he said he didn't do it either. This set us to pondering how it could have happened and the only thing we could come up with was either Casper had done it, or someone had come into our locked house, grabbed my roomates keys, opened his sunroof and windows, and brought his keys back inside, all without taking anything out of our house or his car (his iPod was sitting in the front seat). We know it wasn't Justin because he hadn't driven anywhere that day (it was around 11am) and the windows weren't down overnight because it stormed that night and the inside of the car was bone dry. Anyone have any other ideas on how this couldve happened?

A few more points

So, I realized I have been a little MIA on the blog lately (I'm sorry Andy, my life has been crazy lately balancing 2 internships and teachers that love to schedule everything on the same day, and I am super absentminded sometimes...) Anyway, I wanted to make a few more points about our last 3 books:

1st, quick last point on the Graveyard Book: We didn't really dwell on it in class, but Gaiman also wrote Coraline, which was made into a movie a couple of years ago, which I saw on a date (we were attempting to be silly, and nothing good was out I believe), and was awkwardly in the popcorn the whole time because it was really creepy! I was thinking that Gaiman is sort of like the Tim Burton of writing in that his stories are sometimes for children, but usually have this really creepy underlying adult element to them. Thoughts?

Next, The Shadow Year. I did not like this book. I would say better than the Little Stranger (crap.) but, there was still that there-is-nothing-going-on-HELP feeling to reading it. I will say the scariest part is that Mr. White only preyed on the weak, and Jim says that is why he is after their mother. It seems he was wrong about our protagonist, however, because Mr. White assumed he was a weak little boy that got beat up and whatnot, but ultimately, he defeats him and proves that oftentimes strength is not judged merely on an individual basis. Did everyone catch this whole preys on the weak thing with Mr. White?

Lastly, Heart-Shaped box. I LOVED this one. It was the pace that really sucked me in and I truly found it impossible to stop reading. What I loved about it is that it moved like an "action-novel": fast paced, and seat-gripping. I'm a Dan Brown fan, and he always leaves you on a ledge or something at the end of every chapter and makes you want to keep reading. I felt like Joe Hill was the Dan Brown of the Horror world, and the combination was simply amazing, and made the book a highly satisfying read. Also, he didn't leave any annoying loose ends, which I really can't stand. Did anyone else get this action vibe?

Before I leave you all, I will share some pics of Mr. Big, since he got brought up in class today (and I will keep in close in the highly unlikely chance he can save me from ghosts):

Now, go out and adopt your own loveable lardball at the Adopt-A-Thon Katy was talking about!

A play on rocker stereotype

This was raised in class and it only came to me as I was walking back from class. (typical after the thought thought, oh well, here goes).

We mentioned how maybe it was justice of some sort due to the life style of the rocker. However, I do not feel that is entirely accurate because we would not think of it as justice for the heirs or heiresses who live hard in the same way. For instance, if the events of Heart-Shaped Box happened to say, Paris Hilton, who bought the suit because she thought it would be funny or whatever. We would likely be more sympathetic despite the fact she is a multi-millionaire who lives a very very over-the-top life. As such, I feel that HSB is more of a play directly to the rocker-life style for being a rocker, not because of the over-the-top manner of it.

Feel free to critique away! :)

The Shadow Year

For me at least, this book was definitely the scariest book we read all semester, I unintentionally got through it in one sitting, mostly because I couldn't find anywhere in the book that I considered a good stopping point, if anything was resolved at some point, it seemed like two more things were brought up. But what made this scary for me was the fact that it was so real and possible, except for the ghost bit, the idea of a murderer stalking the helpless, is just entirely too possible, and too often actually happens.

As for the whole ghost bit, I just hated it. As I said what really worked for me about this story was that it was real, and the ghost simply did not belong in it at all. I think this book would have been better without throwing in that little supernatural element. I know the whole Botch town thing could also be supernatural, but I really saw that as more of a Rain Man kinda thing, rather than psychic abilities.

Age, Ghosts and Ice Cream

I actually enjoyed both of the books we read for this week. I'll admit, I did enjoy "Heart-shaped Box" more, but I still liked the other.

I really enjoyed Joe Hill's writing style. He's my first glimpse into the King family, so I can't really compare him to his dad past the few pages I've read of "Under the Dome." One difference though seems to be that Joe Hill can appreciate a happy ending, or at least one that doesn't require the death of every character. This book definitely creeped me out. One of the things that scares me the most in horror movies is when a character turns around and sees someone who wasn't there before. I think an interesting thing that hasn't been mentioned yet but was about other stories such as "The Little Stranger" is the age difference between the characters. I know this culture Hill describes is different from mine, but it still bothered me. I can't imagine dating someone who is my grandparent's age. I'm curious though if this age difference bothered anyone less than the one in "The Little Stranger." Hill seemed to point it out more than Waters did.

Unlike others who have already posted, I actually enjoyed "The Shadow Year." I thought it was an easy read and super creepy. I actually had a difficult time reading this when I was by myself because I would expect someone to be outside my window. I agree with whoever it was who said this book was creepy because the scary things were real, like the serial killer and the creeper. I'll admit, there were some large holes in the book. I felt like Ford began certain plot points and just didn't finish them, i.e. the ghost. The ghost seemed like he should have been a more important character, but he didn't show up until halfway through the book and then just disappears. Also, the ice cream man didn't seem to make sense. He was there at the beginning, mentioned in the middle and then there at the end. I assume there's some deeper meaning to his character, though I'm not aware of it.

Also, could someone please explain what happens in the last sentence of "The Shadow Year"? I have no clue and it's bothered me since I read it.

On another note, I'm 200 pages into "Under the Dome" and am thoroughly enjoying it.

Those Neighborhood Kids

Alright, I'm going to jump right in--this is my issue with The Shadow Year: it's not To Kill a Mockingbird. What I say from here on out is with the disclaimer that I am aware I am probably being completely unfair to the author and definitely forcing a standard upon a book that was probably intended to be a different kind of book in the first place.

To get on task--I suppose it's an unfortunate way to think of things. I will explain: there is something endearing and children's lit-like to have a story about "the neighborhood kids." When it's children's lit, the neighborhood kids are usually narrated at the age they are portrayed, while I think in more grownup works the perspective shifts to an older narrator who is looking back on the time of being a neighborhood kid. Now, this is me making broad generalizations without very many examples, but I can come up with a few:

In children's books, the Trixie Belden mystery series (one of the Stratmeyer Syndicate-like mystery series with ghostwriters... though I don't think Trixie is affiliated with the same publishing group, or wasn't at first. She's like a more realistic Nancy Drew). The Marvin Redpost books by Louis Sachar. The Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Park. Most of these happen almost equally at school and in the neighborhood, but neighborhood life and adventures are just as important. The narrators are either third-person removed from the children while being on a child's level or, in the case of Junie B., narrated by the child herself.

Then there are the kind of retrospective neighborhood kid works, for older audiences. I think of The Shadow Year as part of this category--the narrator sounds too adult for the self he speaks of. Falling also into this category, unfortunately for Mr. Ford, is my mother's favorite novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

In high school I would read To Kill a Mockingbird every October, holding off on finishing until Halloween because it is the last day of the book. I can quote book and movie--for the movie is truly excellent, and Gregory Peck is Atticus--word-for-word in places, and my mother and I reference it frequently. I have what I suppose I would call an obsession.

But getting back to my "classifications"--clearly, Scout narrates as an adult, looking back over her childhood and her "neighborhood kid" adventures. She notes the times when she was particularly naive with a kind of sad sweetness, knowing now the lessons her younger self would come to learn. The narrator of The Shadow Year, though--I didn't feel a connection to him like I felt with Scout. It was immediately obvious to me that there was something off about the way he talked about himself--I spent a few paragraphs wondering if he was just a very precocious child before realizing he was looking back--but it didn't seem well done. This is because, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout's tone is effortless and evidently contrasting. There are key phrases that clue the reader in to who this narrator is and the fact that she speaks to us years later, but even then I can tell a marked difference between young Scout and narrator Scout. The narrator of The Shadow Year? He's just not as good.

And all my comparisons go that way. How I feel about the characters. Of course I worried for the characters in The Shadow Year and did some cringing and glancing out my window--but the thrill was different from the sweet, sad pangs delivered in a certain other book by our University of Alabama alumna Nelle Harper Lee. In a weird way, The Shadow Year didn't feel like just a thriller or just a ghost story, but like a popular novel that wanted to be literature. It felt forced. Or it felt like it hadn't been done entirely, or like it had been done and can't be improved on regardless.

I don't know what kind of book The Shadow Year is intended to be. And fantastic stories that are just there to be fantastic stories are fine. I have no problem with that. I suppose that my main problem was that this book just seemed neither here nor there. Like it wanted to be two different things--well, more like it wanted to try to mix them, but that somewhere it fell short. When trying to play up the fear or the fantastic, the narrative quality it was able to establish worked less. And when trying to play up that narrative quality, the supernatural element felt like an afterthought. To me, it just didn't work.

And those are my snobby, "literary" feelings about this book which we all purchased and which the author is making good money off of. As I have yet to be published in any profitable way I would like to conclude that my criticisms, while extant, are probably invalid, unfair, and dumb (they are really dumb, for real).

Meg

Where do you find books in Latin?

Yall like to read. You wouldn't be in this class if you didn't. So...I need some help. My roommate is taking Latin and it's her birthday. I'm trying to find Jane Austen's novels in Latin but I haven't had any luck and I know it has to be because I don't know how to search for it. Any suggestions?

I wish I could be in class but I have WGI finals for the university in Dayton tomorrow so I won't get to hear the discussion on one of the most interesting stories we've read thus far: The Heart-Shaped Box. I was expecting this to be a novel overflowing with every cliche horror detail because I was expecting Steven King's son to be trying to prove he was just as good as his daddy. I assumed Joe Hill would try far too hard and the story would fall flat. What they say of those who make assumptions rings true in my case because this story was beyond incredible. I was completely hooked. I thought the plot was original and the execution was impeccable. I can't even really explain why I loved this story so much because there's just too much! i love that the main characters are rough around the edges. I love that I couldn't see what was coming in most cases. I love the new interpretations on ghosts (or new to me at least) with the black scribbles over the dead's eyes. I love the pace of this story. I love it all. He is an author I will definitely read again.

I'm happy, however, to miss the discussion on The Shadow Year. This was SO HARD for me to read. I had to offer myself rewards to finish it. Just get to page 50 and you can go eat some chocolate. Just get to page 60 and you can take a nap. Just get to page 61 and you can go see a movie. The one thing this book did wonderfully was scaring the crap out of me. It wasn't the supernatural elements that got me (in fact I might not even classify this story as supernatural because the ghost was so... not unimportant to the plot but rather secondary to the main action?). What had me scared to go to sleep at night was how REAL this story could have been. Serial killers are real. Someone who kills people is real. I can't talk my way around it like I could a ghost. Man, that creepy killer could have been outside my window watching me sleep!! Planning how he was gonna slowly kill me! No thank you! I wanna see them take away Cam's Heisman and Auburn's fake national championship before I die! ....Anyhow.... This novel scared me more than anything else we have read because I can see it happening anywhere. We've talked before about people being the monsters. The Shadow Year is exhibit A.

Oh! And what kind of ending was that in The Shadow Year?! At least Mary had a good life...

The Sandman Won

Alright Gaiman, you win. I have the first collection of Sandman comics (Preludes and Nocturnes), and I swore I wouldn't read it until I was finished with the readings for this class. But we all break promises, right? I sat down Sunday night with Under The Dome, and then put it right down and picked up The Sandman. Next thing I know, some time has passed and I am immersed in this wonderful little slice of the DC comic universe that I had never experienced. The next thought: why don't I own more of these? Sadly, Barnes and Noble doesn't have #2, so it should be in the mail now. I'm always skeptical of the "groundbreaking/award winning/whatever story" because they don't always do it for me. But this... This got it right for me (and everyone else, I guess). I loved it, and it deserves every accolade ever thrown its way. Great job, Gaiman. I look forward to reading the rest of the series (and the rest of you should check it out too).

Making a post before I forget...

The reading for this coming class split me down the middle. My least favorite of the semester and my favorite of the semester for the same class. I did not get to go anywhere for spring break, so I devoted pretty much all of my free time to reading for this class.

The Shadow Year was just stupid to me. The kids were just irritating characters for one thing. I could not enjoy reading about those particular children and their escapades trying to solve this case. I wanted to reach into their books and slap their parents for not paying more attention to their children and what they're doing. And in the end, it wasn't all that scary/supernatural/fantastic/uncanny or any other word we've used to describe the stories this semester. Sure the boys made friends with a teenage ghost, but he wasn't a ghost that interested me at all. The story reminded me of the book/movie The Lovely Bones in a way (the sister of the girl who was killed figured out the neighbor was the one that did it and broke into his house to try and find evidence, etc.) The Lovely Bones was WAY more entertaining. But really. Kids need to not stick their noses in that kind of stuff. Parents: please find better things to entertain your children with so they don't go out hunting for mass murderers in the neighborhood.

Heart-Shaped Box on the other hand freaked me out so bad I thought I was seeing the ghost in the house I was cat sitting in. I made a post about it earlier this semester just because it got me so wound up. It's a very different ghost story, and it got into my head. I loved the little connections the author made like with Jude's mother always getting candy in heart shaped boxes from his dad then he gets the suit of this ghost in a heart shaped box years later. And the fact that EVERY character was from the south: Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, even Tennessee. Plus, the story connected in every way. It gave enough background for you to understand his relationship with Florida, how it ended, then how he met Georgia. It explained his strained relationship with his father and the family that Florida had lived in and why she ran away from it. After that, the book had closure. Not only did the ending of the major action fall into place perfectly, but also it followed up with a sort of epilogue. Now sometimes epilogues do nothing for the story, but this one did. It wrapped it all up and even though the whole book had you freaked out and on the edge of your seat, it ended with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Now I don't know about you, but I haven't gone through as many emotions from a book I had to read for school than I did with this one. I loved it and I think I'm going to have to write my paper on it, thought I have no idea what the topic would be...

In other news...I'm 625 pages in Under the Dome. I may finish it yet :-)

A little more Gaiman

I was just jumping around on the internet when I stumbled on a little more Gaiman info. "Neverwhere," which is about an Underground London, very similar to Bod's graveyard, was a TV series in 1996! I have no clue how good this was, but I'm definitely going to check in on it. Also, for anyone who isn't quite ready to delve into the truly crazy world of Gaiman's writing, I highly suggest you read "Good Omens." It's an easy and hilarious read. I added a link in the title to a picture of Gaiman's Death from Sandman. The man on the left is Dream, or the Sandman. He looks a LOT like Gaiman, though I've never really looked much into it.

Coming of Age

So, I have to say this was one of the best read's we have had this semester. I also really liked the very unusual plot of this story. It was a pretty typical coming of age story as far as plot events go, but by having the typical horrific elements actually being the protagonists was very refreshing twist on the coming-of-age genre. All in all it reminds me a little of Casper.

And then once you call it a coming of age story, there are little ironies thrown all around, like the simplest/most blatant one being the fact its focus on the graveyard and the dead, which usually reflect the end of life, where as coming of age stories reflect the beginning of life.

In sum, all and all, it was a very excellent story that I greatly enjoyed.

Graveyard book

Just wanted to say I loved this book. Anyone have recommendations for more of his stuff? I totally agree with the prequel highlighting the Honour Guard; I would love to know more about Silas especially. I loved the way he made the dead into the protagonists as opposed to pretty much every other story in which the dead are the scary antagonists. One question I was left pondering was what were the Sleer guarding in the tomb under the hill? I know it was a cup, a knife, and an apparently priceless brooch, but I want to know more about their significance and where they came from.

Graveyard book

I definitely loved this book, a very fast and enjoyable read. Shauna already brought this up in her post, but I really like the idea of the ghosts and witches and other beings in the graveyard being the "good guys" who keep Bod safe, while almost all the living people he encounters are enemies of his.

But I have to say it seemed like it wrapped everything up in the end slightly more quickly than I would have liked, not so fast that it ruined the story or anything like that, it was still a good ending, it just felt a little bit quick to me. Really I just would have like for this book to be abit longer, just about anything in this book could be expanded even further to be even more interesting. Overall, a great book.

Anxiously awaiting for class

I think today's class discussion is going to be great. For once I'm certain everybody loved the book we read this week and we'll have plenty to talk about. The Graveyard Book is probably my second favorite so far this semester. So I want to pose some questions before class:

What do the illustrations add (or possibly take away) to (from) the story? Sometimes with illustrations or even movies I get irritated because I would rather form my own images for books that I read. But I think the sketches for this book were perfect. Not too much, not too little. They were simple enough to not detract from the images in my head, and happened to perfectly match what I had pictured.

What was with the Jacks of All Trades? They were so concerned about this kid ruining them, that they actually caused their own downfall by going after him. Sure, this means the prophecy they heard was true, but it wouldn't have been if they hadn't pursued him. Plus they're just an odd concept in general. I was kinda freaked out by the man Jack from the beginning, but when I found out it was basically a cult of men named Jack I couldn't help but wonder where the heck Neil Gaiman got that idea.

I think that's about it for this morning...I'm excited to see how everybody feels about it in class this afternoon. Now off to shower and attempt to read some of Under the Dome before classes :-)

I ❤ Graveyards!

I have to say that The Graveyard Book just might be my favorite book this semester. I love how this book is for people of all ages, and how a graveyard is the safe place. In today's world we normally fear graveyards and think about ghosts haunting them, zombies rising, or vampires lurking. I've always felt safe at graveyards, and peaceful there. My mom and I will sometimes go to the graveyard down the road from where we live and walk around in the afternoons/ night looking at tombstones, flowers, and remembering loved ones, so to have a graveyard as a place of safety made me feel not so weird. I easily connected to Bod, and felt as though I were leaving my home when he left in the end. I've never read any of Gaiman's stuff before now, (though an obsessed friend of mine has begged me to for years) but I think I might just start. How do you guys feel about graveyards?

On The Graveyard Book

My dear classmates--I am currently on a grad school visit to Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and will not be in class tomorrow (because I will still be here). And so I thought I would share my thoughts on The Graveyard Book...

As Children's Lit

This was probably the most interesting aspect to me. I'm in a children's literature class right now, and of course we study a lot of works that push the limits. (E.g. Dr. Seuss: A central idea in his works is pushing the limits and wanting people to question the ways of society etc.) I felt that The Graveyard Book had a very children's-lit vibe to it, what with the large print and the flowy illustrations. Of course I know that illustrations does not automatically mean children's lit--I do read manga, after all--but the tone that Gaiman takes and, I suppose, just the way Bod goes about doing things felt like it was designed for a younger audience.

And yet it pushes the limits in interesting ways in that it is a story that is very much about death. We wouldn't think, right off the bat, that death is a very common thing to discuss with young kids--though nursery rhymes used to be very dark, the darkest ones don't tend to be used anymore, and there's a certain kind of expectation in mainstream children's lit. Gaiman's Bod is a bit questionable, maybe--he gets the bad guys, but like Scarlett questions, does that make him a good guy if the final Jack is as good as dead? Etc. It just raises interesting questions.

As a Hybrid

Considering my idea of Gaiman's work is that it appeals to both children and adults equally, when you look at The Graveyard Book as a book for older readers, the illustration aspect is certainly interesting. Because we, as older readers, recognize that the topic is not exactly the most... children's-y. (Yes, that's a word.) We have illustrations, but all of very gaunt, severe kinds of people, all kind of dark and reminiscent (to me) of Chinese ink drawings with swirls and shades of black and gray... Really it was delightful, though I tried to read over the illustrated pages extra fast when I was in public places so no one would see me reading a picture book and give me funny looks.

See what I mean?

As a Ghost Story

Ha ha. The Graveyard Book kind of amuses me when I think of it "as a ghost story" because a better way to put it would be to think of it "as a people story." Because, when you talk of a ghost story, usually you have a cast of living, breathing humans who encounter a ghost; but in this case you have a cast of ghosts who encounter a human. It is set up as if ghosts are the norm and people are strange rather than the other, commoner way around--and I find it delightful. Delightful in style, in how it turns norms upside down, etc... I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Speaking of Gaiman...

Do any of you like Doctor Who? I know Andy does, and we watched a couple episodes in last semester's Sci-fi class...

Gaiman has written an episode, titled "The Doctor's Wife," to be aired as the fourth episode in the upcoming sixth series of the show. There's a link to a tiny bit more information in the post title, but I don't think much more is known right now. Still. Pretty exciting!

The Graveyard Book

Hi fantasy f(r)iends!

So I've recently returned from Europe, with many exciting tales and pictures to show you guys when I get the time to put them up.
But first off, I want to say that I loved The Graveyard Book! I think others have expressed similar feelings. It was definitely one of the most entertaining and easy reads we've had so far this semester. I really really really want Gaiman to write a prequel of sorts and delve a little deeper into Silas and the Honor Guard, am I right?

In fact, I tweeted this to Neil Gaiman, in a silly hope that I might catch his attention and add to the praise he's no doubt gotten from many other fans. And whattaya know, he tweeted me back! I had seen that he was doing a discussion with a class somewhere, and joked that he should do one with OUR class, and he asked if Andy was still blogging everything. So, I sent him the link to our blog. Careful what you say-- you never know who's lurking in our Graveyard of posts. If you'd like to tweet him your thoughts as well, I linked his account in the post title.

So, what did you all think of the book? (As if you'd say you hated it now that I let you know this, right? but really, be honest, please.)

It actually got pulled into my mind yet again today, as we were discussing a piece of literature in my English class written by Irish poet William B. Yeats. The poem is called "The Stolen Child," and it's all about a young boy who was stolen away by faeries, tempted into going with him and becoming one of them, in a sense. He is still technically human, but gains some of their powers and becomes essentially immortal. But later in the poem, he longs for the human life he never really knew. Pretty familiar sounding, no? Here's a LINK to the poem, if you're interested, as well as a SONG VERSION of it by the Irish group, The Waterboys.

I wonder if Gaiman has read this? Probably. It's pretty famous. Maybe it influenced his idea for Bod and The Graveyard Book? The only major differences are that the boy in the poem is replaced in his home by a faerie pretending to be a boy.
Thoughts? Ideas? Random bits of useless information? I welcome all of it.

Where do you read?

Alright everyone, I've got an important question for all of you. Where is it that you read (especially the books for this class)? Most of the time I do my reading in bed before I go to sleep at night as a way to wind down (not a great way to read any particularly exciting books, however), but this time I mixed it up a bit. I read a significant portion of The Graveyard Book in an actual graveyard. I sat on a bench set up in one of the family plots in Evergreen Cemetery (the one behind the stadium) and just went for it. I have to say that it really added something to the experience. The right setting, you know? Helps with the visualization.

So do any of you read in a particularly special place? Do you mix it up for the story you are reading?

Good God, it took him long enough!

I don't know how interested yall are in the Inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini but it was something I picked up many years ago (Eragon was published around 2002-2003 when I was 12). I love dragons and magic and really enjoy this series. I think he gets better with each novel and after Brisingr came out I was more than a little impatient for his FINAL installment. Dadgum it, it feels like it's taken forever! 3 YEARS!!! But he recently announced that the final book, Inheritance, is coming out November 8. Is anyone else excited? Yall, I have been checking his site religiously hoping I'd get a release date. It's beyond pathetic.

Two Amazing Authors

Since we will be talking about Neil Gaiman in class tomorrow, I thought I'd bring up what I think is awesome news. A British company has decided to make a TV series out of Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's "Good Omens"! The link about the article is in the title. Gaiman mentioned this on his journal last week. Of course, it will be overly British, I'm sure, but so was the book. I think the inclusion of a former Monty Python writer will lead to a very interesting show. On a sadder note, when I was looking for Gaiman's journal entry, I saw what he had posted on Sunday. He wrote a long, beautiful goodbye to a friend and great writer, Dianna Wynne Jones. I have never read as much of her writing as I would like, but what I have read, I have enjoyed. She seems to have had a large impact on Gaiman's life. I know he and the fantasy world will miss her.

Game of Thrones

I can't sleep so I'm watching all the HBO on demand stuff about the upcoming series Game of Thrones. If you aren't familiar with the title, it is the title of George R. R. Martin's first book in his series "A Song of Ice and Fire" and will be based on the series. To my delight and dismay, the series is still unfinished after four books. This series got me back into reading after a while off so that plus the fact that it is probably the best series I have read makes these books some of my most favorite. In fact, I am thinking of re reading the first book before the series comes on and hopefully will if I find the time. Needless to say, I am pumped for this series to come on HBO and I wanted to see if anyone else was?

Antarctica

So I saw the movie Whiteout recently and it got me thinking about a great setting for a ghost story. If you haven't seen it, it's about a series of murders in Antarctica and a female US Marshal, a very good looking one, who is trying to catch the killer before winter, and 6 months of night, comes. The movie was just alright, but it made me think about the fact that someone could write an awesome ghost story with 6 months of no sun to work with.

Am I a little strange for liking The Little Stranger?

I really kind of liked this novel, unlike everyone else. I think part of it might have to do with the fact that I'm a HUGE Sarah Waters fan. I've read Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith, and The Night Watch many, many times. I was excited going into this book, because of who wrote it and maybe that made a difference of opinion. I'm kind of used to her writing style, so I didn't necessarily find it to be too detailed (then again I like Tolkien and he can spend 3 pages describing a biscuit.) Unlike Pretty Monsters I was satisfied with the cliffhanger, because I was given enough information to conclude an ending for myself. I personally thought Faraday was "you" because he seemed to be obsessed with the house since his childhood, and when Caroline calls off the engagement he kind of snaps.

I also found this really cool interview with Sarah Waters about The Little Stranger.

The Little Stanger

I don't want to beat a dead horse but like pretty much everyone else has mentioned I really did not enjoy this book. My reasons have all already been highlighted (length, too much pointless detail, boring, etc) but I think that these things cannot be separated from the book. I think the extravagant attention to detail goes hand in hand with the story and, although much of it isn't central to the story, I think the story needs most everything in it. To me, the writing style almost mirrored Hundreds Hall in that it was huge and filled with many things not central to the families needs, hence why they sold so much off so easily, but that opulence was what made It the home of a wealthy family. Did anyone else get this feeling?

I also didn't like the way the book ended. I understand it and I know some people appreciate mystery but I definitely don't! I wanted to know who "You!" was although, like the mother, I attributed everything to the eldest daughter that died of diphtheria (right disease?). Do you think that leaving a story open ended makes a book better or worse?

I found the fact that fire was involved in Roderick's descent into madness was interesting because I always think of fire as a symbol of knowledge or illumination although I know that it can be very destructive as well. I do think that you could interpret it as either and perhaps Roderick became aware of the ghost which triggered his mental breakdown. Thoughts?

Overall I'm very excited to move onto the next book in our class if only to be done with this one haha

Go, go little strangers!

Did anyone else get the sense that this book was older than it really is? I mean, the historical setting probably (nay, certainly) contributes to that fact, but I didn't really feel like this was a modern horror story. It was published in 2009, right in the midst of Twilight-movie fever and the perpetual recreation of old horror classics (or ideas stolen from Japan) with lots of jump scenes and gore. Now, I admit that I'm not very up to date on horror literature, with little more than a few King and Lovecraft stories from years ago under my belt. Most of my horror exposure comes from the lovely moving-pictures of the cinema, but this story still could have had "1960 or earlier" on the copyright page, and, for the most part, I wouldn't have been surprised. This is an oldschool ghost story, the way Haunting of Hill House is. It doesn't feel like what I expect today's dark fantasy to feel like, and maybe that is why it has been so well received (if not by the class, at least by critics). Did anyone else get this sense?

And I will say that I didn't outright dislike this one the same way others have. That is not to say that I loved it either (I just finished the Graveyard Book, so it is up against some stiff competition). I think I was just a little let down by my expectations of modern dark stories, which seem to have more humor, more violence, or more darkness than The Little Stranger had.

The good things?

So, we all have mentioned what we've seen as the short comings. But is there much good in this book?

It is very similar to a lot of our other stories, like Haunting of Hill House and such where it makes you think and ask "Is this real, or is it due to crazy people?".

You cannot say it lacks for detail, which I feel sometimes does lead to being a negative...

I am impressed that Waters can switch genres and still make a decent story (I sadly cant say a good story, but Ill give her decent), as this was her first ghost story if what I read on her was correct.

What else was good in this book?

The Little Stranger

I, like several others, found this to be SO DULL. The monotonous detail was reminiscent of the Once and Future King to me. I remember reading that novel and thinking how could you turn King Arthur into a complete bore? The answer is one of the problems in The Little Strangers: there is far too much pointless detail. For such a potentially good novel, this really killed it for me. I had to skip certain parts because I just could not handle anymore.

My complaints are the same as the others: too much detail, lack of action, the characters were hard to like. I doubt I can add anything new to the discussion. It reminded me slightly of The Haunting of Hill House in that there could be debate over whether the house was haunted or it was a mental issue. Thoughts? I tend to agree more with the house being haunted mainly because I needed the supernatural element to get me through the novel. I could pretend I was interested.

I know I mention Harry Potter too often so I apologize for this next reference. Because I was so bored with this book, I started to think of the Ayreses as the Gaunt family (Slytherin's last living relatives and Voldemort's mom's family). The upper class falling is how I related it. What happens when those with money lose it. Also the brother (Morfin) was crazy much like Roderick was, Voldemort's mom (Merope) was ugly and couldn't find love (I realize Caroline did to a degree but go with me here) similar to Caroline and the father (Marvlo) just couldn't let go of what had been, of former grandeur like Mrs. Ayres. There stories are NOT the same, I realize, but I had to make the story interesting for myself in order to make it through.

Unimpressed

So it's not that I necessarily disliked The Little Stranger. I actually thought it was well-written and enjoyable to read. However, the plot line left me wanting. I was thoroughly unimpressed. Normally I like books with a lot of detail. It's actually one of my biggest problems with Neil Gaiman. His stories don't have enough detail for me. The Little Stranger has the opposite problem. There is simply too much going on with nothing actually happening, if that makes any sense. Every tiny little thing is explained in so much detail that, at times, the book became too monotonous for me to read.

I am also not a fan of stories where the supernatural part is so insignificant or easily explained that even a hardcore ghost fan like me has trouble believing that there was anything supernatural going on to begin with. Of course, that's personal preference, but I really like it when the horror jumps out at me. That's why I enjoy the genre. Without an obvious ghost, or whatever, its just a creepy old house. Nothing special. I like to read to escape the real world and this book did not do that for me.

Other than that, I don't really have much to say about it.

The Little Stranger

So I would just like to point out how appropriate the title of this book is: The Little STRANGER, because we have NO clue what the hell is going on almost the entire time. There were very few moments of clarity, the rest of the time we have to endure Dr. Pretentious drone on: "Ohhhh poor poor me, my parents are oh so poor, I'm a hick country doctor and everyone else has more moneyyyyyyy I have a man crush on Dr. Seely..." blah blah BLAH. I swear I wanted to bang my head against the wall for all the "my sad little bachelor apartment above my sad little surgery" references. Seriously. Every. Freaking. Chapter. For at least two pages. I understand that Waters was trying to create a story through a narrator not in the direct actions, but she really needed to work on not picking such a stick in the mud to narrate. Or cut down his WAY overly wordy descriptions of EVERYTHING.
I just couldn't get past this over narration to dwell on our "uncanny" events. However, I would also think that with a boring, over-narrating narrator we could have gotten some more juicy action, but the most insignificant and least attention grabbing things would happen. I pictured our story line as one big flat line rather than having rising actions and falling actions. It was one flat line tilted slighting upward, with no real satisfaction or true feeling of building actions.
Plus I found it to be far too predictable. I knew that Susan was our "little stranger" very early into the book, and it was far too obvious that Roderick and Mrs. Ayres would lose their minds, and that Caroline wouldn't get married and take her own life.
I know that was some hard-core bashing, but I found this book to be majorly disappointing.

The Little Stranger

Okay, so except for the fact that this book had about 300 more pages than necessary, I actually enjoyed it. When I wasn't reading a chapter long description, I thought it was a well written easy read.

It took me a while to figure out what was odd about this book. I finally realized that though it is a ghost story, it's not a ghost story from the perspective of those suffering. Every story we heard was from the other characters, not from the doctor. I don't think the doctor every actually sees anything, which allows him to keep up with the idea of mental illness. I thought this was a really clevel way to revamp the traditional gothic ghost story. I imagine it would have been filled with more action if we had heard the story from the family, but this narration allowed me to think more about how the family sounded to outsiders. I thought it was fun to see how the family's reputation changed even with just the doctor as they experienced these phenomena. Any thoughts on the author's choice of narrator?

I think Meg posted about the doctor's love for Caroline bothering her. I also found it weird and unsettling. However, I thought about the thing Caroline says to the doctor at the beginning about the house pulling you in and taking your time. I feel that the more time the doctor spent at the house, the more attached he became. If you were to say something supernatural actually occurred, then I guess you could say the house made the doctor love Caroline in a way to pull him further into the estate. Maybe this is a survival instinct that the house has developed. It pulls in people and money however possible. I think the doctor's sudden change from describing Caroline's ugliness to speaking about her lovingly could be used as proof for this idea of the house being alive.

I can easily see how this could have all been in the family's head, but the supernatural also seems at fault. Either argument can hold ground I think, however, I just can't decide who or what the ghost was. I do like the thought that it was the house itself similar to "Hill House". Maybe the house began to take care of itself when the world around it began to change. I guess it could have been the mother's dead child, but I cannot understand why the child would want everyone dead instead of just attaching the mother. The theory that ghosts are something projected by a person is pretty cool too. Maybe the ghost was the hatred the mother had for losing her money, status and friends. Thoughts?

Fear in real life

So for spring break this year I went down to visit a friend of mine in Miami, was a fun trip except for a few moments, except for a few moments. One of which was getting lost in a particularly bad area of downtown Miami, the kind of area where there are bullet holes in the building walls, we found our way out just fine, but while we were down there I was genuinely afraid something very bad would happen.

Anyone else have any moments in their life where they were genuinely afraid for their life?