Just bought Mythago Wood from Kino on a whim today, and as usual, eyes practically glued to the book till I was done. (note: glued eyes not indicator of quality as happenes with every fiction book. Opposite effect observed with non-fiction.) (Sorry LSB, will still finish stuff on time.)
I've realised I'm no good at reviews, mostly because I seldom emerge from any book with any coherent thought, more of vague impressions and feelings. Mythago Wood is dark and scary and rather intense, not the type of book you'd like to finish reading at 2am, with nobody around to talk to. There're certain books & films that you finish with a certain... warped sense of reality, usually in a 'time is out of joint' and slightly unpleasant way. Which testifies to the superbness of the work, btw. Perhaps the word I'm looking for is 'haunting'... yet 'haunting' does not adequately convey the very small but primal core of fear created by this book. It's more like waking from a nightmare and being momentarily unable to differentiate dream from reality, disoriented and half-certain that the scary but wondrous creatures of the dark are about to pounce. (In a magical way. Full of mythology, adventure and strange, frightening things that lurk just a step beyond human knowledge.)
So I've put on the music, and pilfered some ham & cheese (yay ham & cheese! all hail marketing day, when there's still ham & cheese in the house!) from the fridge, poured myself a cup of rose tea, and am now waiting for the sense of normalcy to return. Anyway, excellent book, highly recommended.
Also, I have a feeling my mood last night was rather affected by a partial reading of Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. Suggest LSB read his copy when he has the time.
(Yes, I communicate with LSB via my blog. It's rather strange and almost exhibitionist, but I can't be bothered to sms/email/MSN, and I don't think he'd appreciate me calling with a book recommendation at this time.)
(Also, I think that for a few moments after reading a book, my writing style mimics the author's. The 1st 2 paragraphs of this blog entry are very... Mythago Wood. It's slightly scary to think of myself as an unconscious writer's chameleon, it's almost as if I'm living out the 'atmosphere' of the book. Hmmm ok I'm frightening myself.)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Pretty Stories
There's this really charming article on BBC, and I can see why it captured the imaginations of so many treasure hunters. The 'treasure' is really pretty too...
The last 2 movies I watched were pretty good - Up and District 9. Of the 2, I liked District 9 better, because while Up was more touching (for me), it is likely one of those movies whose impact disappears the 2nd time you watch.
DISTRICT 9 SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!
District 9, on the other hand... The mark of a good movie is how realistic it is. The situations don't have to be realistic, the characters don't have to be realistic, but the movie has to be realistic. District 9 is a movie about aliens, and yet stays so contemporary and relevant and real... It was so realistic that on several occasions way before the movie ended, I genuinely thought the protagonist was going to die. (yeah, I know) True, there are caricatures in the movie, like a criminal boss who eats aliens as part of some black magic (??) rituals. But then again, I recall the reports of albinos being killed and eaten because eating them is supposed to give you some sort of powers. The movie was cheeky in many instances, for example, the Nigerians & the whole cat food scam. But there is a bitter core of reality even in these instances. It is, in all, a very depressing movie. In this movie, the heroism of individuals does not actually have any uplifting effect, not for me anyway. The whole movie is too darn depressing because the worst parts of it are real, and the best parts... we can only hope.
Another mark of a good movie (or a really bad trailer), the movie was better than the trailer. See the very innovative website for the movie, supposedly run by the bad guy (MNU) - http://www.d-9.com/. Their marketing techniques are very interesting... See also the blog by a 'non-human dissident' at http://mnuspreadslies.com/, and more information on the movie & marketing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9.
The last 2 movies I watched were pretty good - Up and District 9. Of the 2, I liked District 9 better, because while Up was more touching (for me), it is likely one of those movies whose impact disappears the 2nd time you watch.
DISTRICT 9 SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!
District 9, on the other hand... The mark of a good movie is how realistic it is. The situations don't have to be realistic, the characters don't have to be realistic, but the movie has to be realistic. District 9 is a movie about aliens, and yet stays so contemporary and relevant and real... It was so realistic that on several occasions way before the movie ended, I genuinely thought the protagonist was going to die. (yeah, I know) True, there are caricatures in the movie, like a criminal boss who eats aliens as part of some black magic (??) rituals. But then again, I recall the reports of albinos being killed and eaten because eating them is supposed to give you some sort of powers. The movie was cheeky in many instances, for example, the Nigerians & the whole cat food scam. But there is a bitter core of reality even in these instances. It is, in all, a very depressing movie. In this movie, the heroism of individuals does not actually have any uplifting effect, not for me anyway. The whole movie is too darn depressing because the worst parts of it are real, and the best parts... we can only hope.
Another mark of a good movie (or a really bad trailer), the movie was better than the trailer. See the very innovative website for the movie, supposedly run by the bad guy (MNU) - http://www.d-9.com/. Their marketing techniques are very interesting... See also the blog by a 'non-human dissident' at http://mnuspreadslies.com/, and more information on the movie & marketing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9.
Is cute cockroach!
I saw a cute cockroach for the 1st time in my life! I was walking up the stairs to my house when I suddenly saw a big fat cockroach on the stairs, so I did a mini-gasp/scream. And then the cockroach was so frightened that it jumped up! And it accidentally landed on its back, so it had to flip itself back up. Then for some reason, the cockroach headed menacingly down the stairs towards me (cockroaches are aggressive...) and I was terrified until it... accidentally slipped off the stairs and fell 1 floor down with some slightly panicked fluttering...... So cute (but in a scary way)!!!!!! I still don't like cockroaches though...
I seem to have adjusted to non-working life surprisingly quickly. I had expected at least a few more days of waking up at 7am and feeling strange that I'm not working. Instead I'm already sleeping at 5am and waking at noon. It's as if I'd never started work at all... (maybe this is my natural state)
I seem to have adjusted to non-working life surprisingly quickly. I had expected at least a few more days of waking up at 7am and feeling strange that I'm not working. Instead I'm already sleeping at 5am and waking at noon. It's as if I'd never started work at all... (maybe this is my natural state)
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