Here we go again!
1. A glamorous American couple rent a villa in the South of France, while their lives unravel due to the accidental kidnapping of 'Sandy Claws.'
2. Two noble friends get caught up in a tragic royal murder-revenge plot, end up being executed, and now free the souls of the soon-to-be-deceased as 'reapers.'
3. Marco Polo regales Kubla Khan with many different stories about the same location: the Texas-Mexico border in the 1950s.
4. After their cruise ship is capsized by a rogue wave, a boy and his aunt's slave escape on a raft and float towards freedom.
5. After the evil queen tries to have her killed, a beautiful princess runs into the woods, only to discover herself trapped in the middle of an airborne toxic event.
Scroll down for solutions!
1. Tender Is the Nightmare before Christmas (From F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night 1934, and Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas 1993)
2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Like Me (from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 1966, and Bryan Fuller's tv show Dead Like Me 2003-4)
3. Invisible Cities of the Plain (from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities 1972, and Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plain 1998)
4. The Poseidon Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1884)
5. Snow White Noise (from the European fairy tale Snow White, and Don DeLillo's White Noise 1985)
Friday, June 5, 2015
Thursday, June 4, 2015
What I'm Reading/Watching
The Signet Classic paperback on Voltaire: I had already read Candide, but this collection includes a couple novellas (Zadig and Ingenuous) and thirteen short stories. Some were very topical, dealing with specific Jesuits and Jansenists and their feuds, while others were more broadly philosophical and always witty and insightful.
The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics by John Pollack: Pollack, winner of the 1995 world pun championships, has a brief (154 pages, not counting bibliography, acknowledgments, etc.) account of the history, popularity, and neurolinguistics behind puns. Very accessible, but at times a bit disorganized, it's a fun read on the subject. Its original research is limited to asking questions of comedians, writers, linguists, and and neuroscientists, so it's really more of a summation of existing research.
Ended up seeing Lucy (2014) on DVD. Holy crap was that movie stupid. The whole 10% of the brain thing would be okay if Besson didn't try to make the movie seem profound by having characters ponder the meaning of being human his liberal use of nature footage. Then there's the problem of having an action movie where the main character can manipulate matter and no one else can. There's never any sense of real danger for Lucy. That said, I can see this having a cult following. It has a couple big names (Scarlett Johannson and Morgan Freeman), the plot is laughably stupid, and it has some pretty cool visual effects.
The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics by John Pollack: Pollack, winner of the 1995 world pun championships, has a brief (154 pages, not counting bibliography, acknowledgments, etc.) account of the history, popularity, and neurolinguistics behind puns. Very accessible, but at times a bit disorganized, it's a fun read on the subject. Its original research is limited to asking questions of comedians, writers, linguists, and and neuroscientists, so it's really more of a summation of existing research.
Ended up seeing Lucy (2014) on DVD. Holy crap was that movie stupid. The whole 10% of the brain thing would be okay if Besson didn't try to make the movie seem profound by having characters ponder the meaning of being human his liberal use of nature footage. Then there's the problem of having an action movie where the main character can manipulate matter and no one else can. There's never any sense of real danger for Lucy. That said, I can see this having a cult following. It has a couple big names (Scarlett Johannson and Morgan Freeman), the plot is laughably stupid, and it has some pretty cool visual effects.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Vonnegut's Novels: A Personal Ranking
I'm a pretty big Vonnegut fan, and I felt I might as well get around to ranking all 14 of his novels. So here goes.
No surprise here. Slaughterhouse-Five combines Vonnegut's direct style, unconventional techniques, and personal tragedy into a masterpiece.
The autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, avant-garde abstract painter first seen in Breakfast of Champions. While I know it's almost counter-intuitive to complain about lack of agency in a Vonnegut protagonist, the protagonists in this and the last four novels on this list seem to be almost completely apathetic to their own lives. Even Billy Pilgrim, who believed everything he did was predetermined, spent time trying to convince people of that fact.
1. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE (1969)
No surprise here. Slaughterhouse-Five combines Vonnegut's direct style, unconventional techniques, and personal tragedy into a masterpiece.
2. BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS (1973)
Despite Vonnegut himself giving this novel a C grade (in Palm Sunday), it is here that Vonnegut takes his technical experimentation to its greatest heights.
Despite Vonnegut himself giving this novel a C grade (in Palm Sunday), it is here that Vonnegut takes his technical experimentation to its greatest heights.
3. MOTHER NIGHT (1961)
The memoir of Howard Campbell Jr., an American dramatist in Germany during the outbreak of WWII, he is asked by the Nazis to be a propagandist, and U.S. asks him to take the position so he could transmit encoded messages. The novel deals with Campbell's guilt and his attempts to justify personal neutrality in a morally disastrous world.
The memoir of Howard Campbell Jr., an American dramatist in Germany during the outbreak of WWII, he is asked by the Nazis to be a propagandist, and U.S. asks him to take the position so he could transmit encoded messages. The novel deals with Campbell's guilt and his attempts to justify personal neutrality in a morally disastrous world.
4. CAT'S CRADLE (1963)
A parable for the Mutually Assured Destruction, Cat's Cradle lampoons mankind's self-destructive nature, as well as inventing Bokononism. Is it any surprise this novel was accepted as a Master's thesis in Anthropology?
A parable for the Mutually Assured Destruction, Cat's Cradle lampoons mankind's self-destructive nature, as well as inventing Bokononism. Is it any surprise this novel was accepted as a Master's thesis in Anthropology?
5. THE SIRENS OF TITAN (1959)
Part space opera, part investigation into the nature of free will, The Sirens of Titan is one of the great works of the Golden Age of sci-fi.
Part space opera, part investigation into the nature of free will, The Sirens of Titan is one of the great works of the Golden Age of sci-fi.
6. GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER (1965)
Eliot Rosewater is the rich heir of a rich and politically connected family. But the town that bears his family's name is a slum. This novel asks a question that's only becoming more and more relevant as our economy becomes more and more automated and digitized: What do we do with people our economy doesn't need?
Eliot Rosewater is the rich heir of a rich and politically connected family. But the town that bears his family's name is a slum. This novel asks a question that's only becoming more and more relevant as our economy becomes more and more automated and digitized: What do we do with people our economy doesn't need?
7. TIMEQUAKE (1997)
Vonnegut's last novel describes a timequake: time jumps backwards and everyone, though conscious of the future, is forced to relive the past on autopilot. Meanwhile, Kurt Vonnegut is writing Timequake.
8. GALÁPAGOS (1985)
A disease has wiped out mankind's ability to reproduce. The only people who aren't affected are a group of tourists stranded in the Galápagos Islands. But, as natural selection takes it course, what exactly constitutes 'human' is about to change.
9. PLAYER PIANO (1952)
Vonnegut's first novel, briefly published under the title Utopia-14, Player Piano presents a dystopian future where almost all jobs are handled by machines. Similar to God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, it asks just what our society will do to those it no longer needs, and what, exactly, is the end goal of capitalism?
10. BLUEBEARD (1987)
The autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, avant-garde abstract painter first seen in Breakfast of Champions. While I know it's almost counter-intuitive to complain about lack of agency in a Vonnegut protagonist, the protagonists in this and the last four novels on this list seem to be almost completely apathetic to their own lives. Even Billy Pilgrim, who believed everything he did was predetermined, spent time trying to convince people of that fact.
11. HOCUS POCUS (1990)
Eugene Debs Hartke is a teacher and Vietnam vet at a private school for wealthy but educationally challenged youngsters. The novel takes the form of hundreds of scraps of paper written on while Hartke awaits trial for helping perpetrate a jailbreak at the nearby penitentiary.
12. SLAPSTICK (1976)
Slapstick seems like Vonnegut took every SF premise that was floating around in his mind and tied them all together in one novel. There are plenty of individual passages and ideas I like, but the novel as a whole seemed aimless.
13. DEADEYE DICK (1982)
Rudy Waltz accidentally shoots a neighbor as a kid, leading to a lifelong trauma. The entire novel is Rudy flashing back and forth from his present to scenes throughout his life (or, rather, the lives of people around him. Waltz seems more of a documentarian than a character) and hinting at the complete destruction of Midland City.
Rudy Waltz accidentally shoots a neighbor as a kid, leading to a lifelong trauma. The entire novel is Rudy flashing back and forth from his present to scenes throughout his life (or, rather, the lives of people around him. Waltz seems more of a documentarian than a character) and hinting at the complete destruction of Midland City.
14. JAILBIRD (1979)
To me, Jailbird's protagonist, Walter Starbuck, was a ghost. After serving many years as a minor accessory in the Watergate scandal and released from minimum security prison, and finds himself in the middle of a mega-corporation conspiracy. The parts of this novel that deal with the Red Scare are good, but come few and far between. Overall, I just couldn't get myself to care about what was going on when the protagonist clearly didn't.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
2015 Commencement Speeches
Monday, June 1, 2015
2014: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Author:
John Green (1977- ) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana but grew up in Orlando, Florida and Birmingham, Alabama. He double-majored in English and Religious Studies at Kenyon College, graduating in 2000. After graduating, he worked as a chaplain at a children's hospital, then began working for Booklist and was a frequent contributor to NPR's All Things Considered. In 2005, Green published his first novel, Looking for Alaska. In 2006 he married Sarah Urist and published his second novel, An Abundance of Katherines. In 2007, John and his brother Hank Green started vlogging under the name Vlogbrothers. They now have over two million subscribers on youtube. He wrote Paper Towns (2008) and co-wrote Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2009) with David Levithan. His most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was published in 2012 and was adapted to film in 2014. John Green lives in Indianapolis with his wife and two children.
The Book:
Length: 313 pages
Subject/Genre: Teen issues/YA Romance
The Fault in Our Stars is narrated by Hazel, a 16 year old girl with thyroid cancer that spread to her lungs. At a youth cancer support group, she meets Augustus Waters, a 17 year old boy who lost a leg to osteosarcoma, but will probably remain healthy. Hazel has a terminal diagnosis, though an experimental medication has bought her some (but no one knows how much) time. Their budding (and inherently doomed) relationship is the focus of the novel.
Green uses the protagonists' cancer to amplify the typical teenage experience: angst over the future, the feeling that no one really understands you, obsession with mortality, etc. He avoids being overly cloying or preachy, which he could have easily resorted to.
I rarely read YA. This isn't meant as a condemnation of the genre, just a general lack of interest. So while this novel wasn't my cup of tea, I'm happy to say it wasn't an unpleasant experience. Before now, my limited experience with YA has mostly been of the shitty variety, where the author, either due to lack of talent or disregard for his/her audience, publishes what looks like a rough first draft. I'm happy to say that Green doesn't do this. While I don't find the novel particularly profound, I'm happy to say that its well-written, not only moreso than other YA I've read, but moreso than some of the adult fiction previously reviewed here (cough Valley of the Dolls cough The Da Vinci Code cough).
Despite being published in 2012, The Fault in Our Stars didn't become the #1 annual bestseller until 2014, which is when the movie adaptation was released.
Bestsellers of 2014:
Print:
1. The Fault in Our Stars (trade paperback) by John Green
2. The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth
4. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
5. Killing Patton by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (non-fiction)
6. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
8. The Fault in Our Stars (movie tie-in) by John Green
9. The Fault in Our Stars (hardcover) by John Green
10. Frozen by Victoria Saxon
Kindle:
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth
4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
5. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
6. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
7. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
8. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
9. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
10. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (non-fiction)
Also Published in 2014:
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
What If? by Randall Munroe
The Martian by Andy Weir
Sources:
"Biographical Questions." JohnGreenBooks. John Green Books, n.d. Web.
Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books, 2012. Print.
"John Green." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Literature Resource Center. Web.
John Green (1977- ) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana but grew up in Orlando, Florida and Birmingham, Alabama. He double-majored in English and Religious Studies at Kenyon College, graduating in 2000. After graduating, he worked as a chaplain at a children's hospital, then began working for Booklist and was a frequent contributor to NPR's All Things Considered. In 2005, Green published his first novel, Looking for Alaska. In 2006 he married Sarah Urist and published his second novel, An Abundance of Katherines. In 2007, John and his brother Hank Green started vlogging under the name Vlogbrothers. They now have over two million subscribers on youtube. He wrote Paper Towns (2008) and co-wrote Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2009) with David Levithan. His most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was published in 2012 and was adapted to film in 2014. John Green lives in Indianapolis with his wife and two children.
The Book:
Length: 313 pages
Subject/Genre: Teen issues/YA Romance
The Fault in Our Stars is narrated by Hazel, a 16 year old girl with thyroid cancer that spread to her lungs. At a youth cancer support group, she meets Augustus Waters, a 17 year old boy who lost a leg to osteosarcoma, but will probably remain healthy. Hazel has a terminal diagnosis, though an experimental medication has bought her some (but no one knows how much) time. Their budding (and inherently doomed) relationship is the focus of the novel.
Green uses the protagonists' cancer to amplify the typical teenage experience: angst over the future, the feeling that no one really understands you, obsession with mortality, etc. He avoids being overly cloying or preachy, which he could have easily resorted to.
I rarely read YA. This isn't meant as a condemnation of the genre, just a general lack of interest. So while this novel wasn't my cup of tea, I'm happy to say it wasn't an unpleasant experience. Before now, my limited experience with YA has mostly been of the shitty variety, where the author, either due to lack of talent or disregard for his/her audience, publishes what looks like a rough first draft. I'm happy to say that Green doesn't do this. While I don't find the novel particularly profound, I'm happy to say that its well-written, not only moreso than other YA I've read, but moreso than some of the adult fiction previously reviewed here (cough Valley of the Dolls cough The Da Vinci Code cough).
Despite being published in 2012, The Fault in Our Stars didn't become the #1 annual bestseller until 2014, which is when the movie adaptation was released.
The movie was a financial success, with a $48 million opening weekend. Oddly enough, Fox's Bollywood studios have announced their plans to produce a Hindi remake.
I just realized that this is my last recommendation after over two years of doing this (and the post goes live on my birthday, no less). Anyway, if you like YA and/or Romance, you'll most likely enjoy The Fault in Our Stars. If you're not into either of those genres, it's still an okay read, though you'll likely remain ambivalent.
Bestsellers of 2014:
Print:
1. The Fault in Our Stars (trade paperback) by John Green
2. The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth
4. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
5. Killing Patton by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (non-fiction)
6. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
8. The Fault in Our Stars (movie tie-in) by John Green
9. The Fault in Our Stars (hardcover) by John Green
10. Frozen by Victoria Saxon
Kindle:
1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth
4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
5. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
6. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
7. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
8. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
9. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
10. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (non-fiction)
Also Published in 2014:
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
What If? by Randall Munroe
The Martian by Andy Weir
Sources:
"Biographical Questions." JohnGreenBooks. John Green Books, n.d. Web.
Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books, 2012. Print.
"John Green." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Literature Resource Center. Web.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
What I'm reading/watching
I didn't get a chance to post last week, as I was in New York and didn't have wifi when I had expected to.
I finished Anton & Wilson's The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which was absolutely hilarious. The beginning is pretty rough, but once it picks up steam it's a page turner. It's also so clearly a product of the mid-70s, and transmits the counter-culture of that time fantastically.
Tom Stoppard's radio play Artist Descending a Staircase (1972) which was later performed as a play. It has some great passages about modern art and I like the palindromic structure (think Cloud Atlas), although I still prefer the other Stoppard plays I've read (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Arcadia).
I saw Fury Road, which was an excellent action movie. The stunt work was fantastic, the over-the-top seventies B-flick aesthetics were great, it was quite simply everything an action movie should be.
I also saw Pitch Perfect 2 which was fun but forgettable. None of the character development or emotional connection that made the original popular were here. There was a lot of product placement, which was a bit distracting, but there were a lot of very funny cameos, culminating with David Cross as the world's biggest a cappella fan, throwing a private a cappella battle including one group called the Tone Hangers (including Reggie Watts, Jason Jones, Joe Lo Truglio, and John Hodgman) and the Green Bay Packers (including several actual members of the Green Bay Packers). The winner gets a $42,000 gift certificate to Dave & Busters (cf. product placement).
I also saw a performance of Hand to God at the Booth Theater. The play, by Robert Askins, takes place in Texas "where the city meets the country" and centers on a teenager whose hand puppet is the possessed by the devil (or maybe he's just a bit touched in the head). It's funny and weird, the cast was fantastic, and this is the second broadway show I've seen that features graphic puppet sex (although the first I've seen in it's original broadway run).
I finished Anton & Wilson's The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which was absolutely hilarious. The beginning is pretty rough, but once it picks up steam it's a page turner. It's also so clearly a product of the mid-70s, and transmits the counter-culture of that time fantastically.
Tom Stoppard's radio play Artist Descending a Staircase (1972) which was later performed as a play. It has some great passages about modern art and I like the palindromic structure (think Cloud Atlas), although I still prefer the other Stoppard plays I've read (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Arcadia).
I saw Fury Road, which was an excellent action movie. The stunt work was fantastic, the over-the-top seventies B-flick aesthetics were great, it was quite simply everything an action movie should be.
I also saw Pitch Perfect 2 which was fun but forgettable. None of the character development or emotional connection that made the original popular were here. There was a lot of product placement, which was a bit distracting, but there were a lot of very funny cameos, culminating with David Cross as the world's biggest a cappella fan, throwing a private a cappella battle including one group called the Tone Hangers (including Reggie Watts, Jason Jones, Joe Lo Truglio, and John Hodgman) and the Green Bay Packers (including several actual members of the Green Bay Packers). The winner gets a $42,000 gift certificate to Dave & Busters (cf. product placement).
I also saw a performance of Hand to God at the Booth Theater. The play, by Robert Askins, takes place in Texas "where the city meets the country" and centers on a teenager whose hand puppet is the possessed by the devil (or maybe he's just a bit touched in the head). It's funny and weird, the cast was fantastic, and this is the second broadway show I've seen that features graphic puppet sex (although the first I've seen in it's original broadway run).
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Norman Mailer debates Marshall McCluhan on the nature of art and the electronic world (1968)
Another great online find, from the 1960s Canadian show The Summer Way. It's one of those debates that's oddly prescient, as some of the philosophical underpinnings of our society and culture are dissected nearly two generations ago.
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