500 Days of Summer

Was kind of a letdown. I was hoping it would be much better than that. I love both Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, but the movie just fell flat, I thought. Maybe I've just seen too many of those "interesting girl" movies to even appreciate one that doesn't follow formula. It was ok, just not nearly as good as I was expecting it to be. Perhaps there's a lesson in there somewhere.

Also...

Added a good deal of content to the right side of this blog. Don't know if anyone actually looks at this stuff, but maybe one day, haha.

Simplification

Lately I'm trying to cull my interests down. I'm learning that I need to focus on fewer things in order to maximize my experiences with each of them.

This is much tougher than it seems ;\

The Great and Secret Show

Title: The Great and Secret Show

Author: Clive Barker

Published: 1989

Pages: 658

Rating: 5/5

Picked up this book in my new favorite used book store (unfortunately in Seattle), because I've always wanted to read Clive Barker and I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Started to read it in the airport on my way home, and man, does this book kick ass.

The main idea builds from Carl Jung's collective unconscious theory; Barker paints it as a sea called Quiddity that we visit three times in our lives, in dreams. Once on the night we are born, once the night we first lie next to the person we will love the most, and once on the night before we are to die. I was pretty much hooked from right there.

Anyway, this concept is explored through a plot that casts good against evil in an epic showdown and leaves room for character transformations aplenty. And keeps the reader guessing, which I appreciated. The plot is better than most, by far. I've read better, but not often.

Beyond the story craftsmanship, Barker is an incredible writer. His words consistently bear the ring of truth and his characters are both believable and sympathetic. They develop in arcs that lend generously to the intrigue of The Great and Secret Show. I particularly loved the dichotomy (and balance) between Fletcher and The Jaff, but I'll leave it for you to discover what all that's about.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the occult, the otherworldly, the supernatural. Also, just so you're not surprised by this, as I was: this is the first book of a trilogy. It is readable as a standalone novel, however, as is the second installment. The third book has not yet been written, though Barker apparently speaks about it often.

A couple of quotes I enjoyed enough to write down:

"She no longer had to keep her cynicism polished; no longer had to divide her imaginings from moment to moment into the real (solid, sensible) and the fanciful (vaporous, valueless). If (when) she got back to her typewriter she'd begin these tongue-in-cheek screenplays over from the top, telling them with faith in the tale, not because every fantasy was absolutely true but because no reality ever was."

"It had been as claustrophobic as she'd anticipated, but at midnight on Christmas Eve, walking on Fifth Avenue, a forgotten feeling had sucked all the breath from her, and brought her to tears in an instant: that once she had believed. That belief had come from inside, out. Not taught, not bullied, just there. The first tears that had come were gratitude for the bliss of knowing belief again; their sisters, sadness that it passed as quickly as it had come, like a spirit moving through her and away."

"The moon had risen behind him, the color of a shark's underbelly. It lit the ruined walls, and the skin of his arms and hands, with its sickly light, making him long for a mirror in which to study his face. Surely he'd be able to see the bones beneath the meat; the skull gleaming the way his teeth gleamed when he smiled. After all, wasn't that what a smile said? Hello world, this is the way I'll look when the wet parts are rotted."

Go forth. Read and enjoy. And come talk to me about it!

Airframe

Title: Airframe

Author: Michael Crichton

Published: 1996

Pages: 448

Rating: 3/5

This book kept me quite entertained on a flight to Seattle (which was, in retrospect, not the best idea, haha). Pretty standard Crichton thriller: rapid page-turning, short chapters, lots of tension. Great entertainment reading.

However, I really didn't think it was anything special. It certainly wasn't up to par with Jurassic Park, Prey, or Rising Sun. I'd say it compared most closely to Disclosure, but it wasn't quite as good.

On the other hand, Crichton's "issue du jour" for this novel was spot-on. It really attacks the media for shooting first and asking questions later, and that is definitely something worth exploring. I think maybe one of the biggest problems that this novel had was that this entire plot line was developed entirely too late; it only started around the midpoint of the text. There was, perhaps, a lack of focus, as much of the novel detailed an airline disaster and the investigation thereof. Some of this segment seemed like filler.

Anyway, only a few Crichton books left for me, really. And shame of all shames, the guy died. Damnit.

Whacky animation

How cool is this? Haha, I love it.

Fieldwork

Title: Fieldwork

Author: Mischa Berlinski

Published: 2007

Pages: 356

Rating: 4/5

This was a pretty bitchin' novel about anthropologists and missionaries, set against the background of tribal life in Thailand. It is written in the first person; Berlinski himself is the speaker, though he is not the protagonist. What was cool about this book was that it showed how anthropologists and missionaries are more or less doing the same work, though working toward entirely different goals. While anthropologists want to preserve and even immortalize native cultures, missionaries want to alter them.

Now, if you know me, you know that I wholly disagree with even the idea of missionaries, as I believe they are control freaks trying to dominate those weaker than themselves. The fact that they do this almost entirely without realizing how evil they are does not excuse their abhorrent behavior, in my opinion. But I'll get off my soapbox for now.

I read this book over several months, so I got to enjoy it slowly. Marielle picked it out as something we could read together, showing a talent for selecting books that I will probably enjoy. Marielle knows me well? Nothing new there, haha.

Anyway, I'd especially recommend this to anyone interested in anthropology, though it is an enjoyable casual read as well. Berlinski's descriptions of the natural world as it appears in Thailand are top notch, and the man has a way with words to boot. For a first novel, a very strong showing, I should say.