Mythic Fiction

I tried picking up Anansi boys but it didn't catch my interest and after mention American Gods in class I decided to try that one out instead which I liked alot more. I'm still a little hooked with Pullmans dark Materials so it was hard for me to focus on a new story. From what I read from this though I did like. I love mythology and I really like his idea of making media and internet gods, because in a way they are gods to us. We live every day by them and rely on them. I also really like Giamans play on words with his names. How Mr. Wednesday is a play off the god Oden ( I think thats the gods name ) and how Shadow is basically the shadow of a man after being jailed and after his wife was so betraying.

I also really like that Gaiman didn't cop out and use all gods and goddesses we all knew, such as Zeus or Posideon. He really went out of his way to research and find quirkier and more interesting gods. Everytime a new character would arise I'd also put the story down and research that god so I could know about that and see what I may expect out of the character or how he plays with their personalities. And I also like that he didn't stick with just one type of mythology. Most stories will center around one, but he pulled from Norse and Greek and Hindu and basically anything that people believed in were real no matter what heritage.

He really is the master of mythic fiction I had no idea he made worked on many book and movies that I love. I'm a huge fan of Mirrormask, Stardust, Coraline, the Polar Express, etc. Especially after watching his interview in class it makes me want to explore his other work because he does a really good job of walking that fine line of reality vs fantasy where you wonder what in the story was real. And his work has a totally different feel, I've never seen a movie like Mirrormask before.

I think finishing American Gods will be first on my list once I'm done with Pullman.

Pullmans Dark Materials

This book is completely up my alley! I am enjoying it immensly. I actually got the trilogy as audio from a friend of mine and at first I was a little weary about not really sitting down to read the book but the version he gave me has a different actor for each character so it's almost like listening to a play which I really enjoy.
I had seen the movie for this as well and judged it on that which turned me away from reading the book because I really wasn't very intrigued with the movie. Now though my attitude has completely changed. I love how the author pokes at religion. I personally went to Catholic school when I was younger and have always had an open mind to everyone's beliefs ( which they frowned upon greatly and I didn't last there long ) so I'm always interested to read things that have a strong religious point of view, no matter what it is.
The idea of the Daemons is great ( which I'm guessing is suppose to be an ironic name, considering it's the people's souls and consciounce and yet is similiar to the word "demon" which the church veiws as something evil ). The debate on souls existing is so interesting and having them manifested beside you as a companion is really a cool way of thinking about it. Being able to know someone by looking at them basically. An ability most of us wish we had. And I think using animals as opposed to just a more human-like figure makes it even more interesting because I think people would interperate each animal differently. Some people may interperate a cat daemon as a person who is curious while another may see it as someone who is cool and collected.
I like the little story growing between Lyra and Roger and I'm sure further down the series will grow more. My absolute favorite type of novels are ones that have a little bit of an underlying love story, and where you can watch the characters grow together. This is what attracted me to this and the Harry Potter series and why I had more trouble staying focused with the Hobbit. I think we as people just enjoy the stories we can relate to the most. I've known my boyfriend since I was four so having that growing connection from someone that starts as innocent friendship when you're young then developes into an awkward puberty, then to something more is something I find I like to read much more about. To me it's more dimensional then just some handsome guy and a pretty girl that are conveniently placed in a situation in which you already know they will end up together ( cough cough TWILIGHT ).
I also just love the world Pullman created all together. It's close enough to ours that we can relate but there are enough differences that we know it isn't our world. And they way they speak about Dust and how the Church is weird about is reminds me of how people today will tell weird stories of ghosts or something weird and almost magical happening to them and most religions see that as against God in some ways. I just see alot of parellels which I enjoy.
So I definately plan on finishing these three by spring break. I may save the last one for the plane ride home. My friend has his other works on audio as well so I'm sure I will be moving onto those the moment I finish up these

The Hobbit

This was one of those books I always knew about and always wanted to get the chance to read but never got around to it. Honestly I didnt get past the third chapter it has been a rough few weeks for PrePro. The first chapter was just kind of describing the life of a hobbit which I suppose was needed when this book was first published but now that I've seen Lord of the Rings and know the basics of a Hobbit from other Fantasy movies and stories, I found it kind of boring. It picked up a little when they started to go into the myth of the Ring and the Hobbits mission, because I'll admit that's something I never really understood that well in the movies. I feel like they brushed over it more then the book. It may just be my bad memory though it's been a while since I watched the first Lord of the Rings.
What I really like about this though which is what I think makes the difference between a fantasy novel that's a best seller and one that doesn't go far; When the author makes an entirely new world and commits to it's rules completely. There are diferent races with their own rules and laws and languages and even if they are things we already have heard about and seen in different fantasy stories it's getting in deph with the things like that which make us more interested. We want to know how creatures like that would live. How they would function with each other. How we can relate, if at all to them.
I do like the books playfulness, and it's a little humorous at times. I really didn't get far enough into it to be able to judge the characters very much I probably know more about them from the movies. It's not too hard of a read and I think if i found the time I would sit down and commit to it. But as before it continues to slip through my schedule so I'm hoping to get around to atleast finishing the first one.

J-Horror

I wasn't able to read this week because I was down with the flu and a fever up until Monday night and had alot to catch up on in PrePro after that. I did however dive into the J horror a little by renting the movie Pulse, since that was on the movie list for this week, and didn't want to be completely out of the loop this week. It's interesting because I have seen and heard of so many horror movies but I didn't know about this one, and it seems fairly new and likeable. I definately caught the familiarities with other J horror movies, such as the classic "The Grudge," and ring and all of that. They all have this eerie bluish tint to it that makes you feel completely cold down to your soul. As any other horror movie it's a bunch of college kids being stupid. I wasn't entirely a fan of this. I mean yes it entertained, I mean I stayed awake, but I don't think I'd rent it again. It was very predictable, as most horror movies are these days, which I understand had become impossible to overcome. I liked the effects though, ( me being a CA major tends to notice those ). The way they all seemed to get this vainy, ashy black rash that ate at their body.

What I've noticed about most Japanese work, not just in their horror section but even in fantasy, when they make a good verse evil type of story the evil in it is always some sort of blackness. Some blackened blobish thing that isn't even like an evil kind of person, or an evil kind of animal, but is just plain the manifestation of evil made into a physical form . For example the director Hiya Miyazaki always has these evil black blobs in his film

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I posted the link above as an example. In that film the black blob is taking over the main characters body, like a virus, the same way it happens in Pulse. I know the Japanese culture has strong beliefs in balance and that no one is purely evil, so maybe that's why they need to make evil this black, infecting thing, that doesn't actually come from people but instead infects them and takes them over.

I also noticed another common familiarity with Japenese work is that there is never the feeling of hopelessness, and everything always has a chance. Towards the end there's always a suggestion that whatever was evil is still around, and it's never completely killed off. In American culture I feel like we have a distinct good and evil and in our stories we kill it and it's gone and the world is once again a happy place. But in the Japanese work the evil is manipulated or sent away or changed in someway but never completely destroyed. It follows more of this circle of life and doesn't cease to exist but merely changes.

These are just things I've noticed from the films I've seen, I'm not sure the books are the same, perhaps things have been altered for Hollywood? Either way there's still differences, and I feel for most people you either love the J horror type of story or you hate them. There's no real middle ground, it either leaves a taste in ur mouth to ponder over for a little or leaves you feeling unsatisifed. I personally am usually in the first category, just with this movie I leaned towards the second.