Another letter to you.

Stuck

The world is probably made of roses and hello:

Good Evening. 

I was planning to do another book review this week but studies have got in the way as I don't want to fall behind, which I thought deserved a small update. I have two weeks until my CW TMA is due in and three weeks until my Lit one is due in. 

Lit.

So I finished Joyce's Dubliners which was, so far, overall the most enjoyable. I think that's because it's the closest to our time, being the 20th century and all, so it's easier to grasp what's going on, aside from the Irish Movement thing, which I know a small amount of information. Small being something to do with potatoes and independence. Anywho, since, I've looked at New York poems and prose, specifically (who I remember) Langston Hughes. I chose to skip Metropolis and not include it as an option for my TMA because:

a) It's a film, harder to pinpoint references

b) Studied it at A level film

c) Silent film and tired me

So far I like the poems and think I know which ones I will pick to reference the city, as well as a minimum of one short story from Dubliners. I haven't started any planning or actually finished the studying for the essay but I will. After I finish

CW.

I'm getting so into this life writing. But only because I am planning on writing a piece of fictionalised autobiography for my TMA? Writers prerogative and all so I won't be spilling my plans on what that is until after. I've actually done some of the exercises this week, like write about an object. Some I haven't bothered with. But yeah all good. 

Other life.

As you can see in the pictures I got a belated birthday present of the Hyrule Hystoria, the history of all things Zelda. One of the best presents I have ever received. Secondly books! Just started reading The Fault in our Stars and already like it more than Green's other book, Looking for Alaska. I lent Shiver to one of my friends and she agrees on it's awesomeness. If you're a fan of twilight etc this is so much better. Also got E.E.Cummings poetry. Read a few online and have really started getting into poetry since I had to write my own, so thought I would buy some more. Work is work. Planning on moving back to London after my travels. Blah Blah.

Time to read.

LB

Book Review: Looking for Alaska - John Green

*Warning this post may contain spoilers!*

I first heard about this book through the wonderful universe that is Tumblr. I follow a lot of literary blogs and there were extracts from this book that made me really want to read it. So in the last couple of weeks I bought it and read it in a day or two. I can read really really fast. I have spent about 15 hours over the last 3 days reading The Hunger Games trilogy, which I will also review soon.

The Briefest of Brief Summaries

Anyways. I had a lot of high hopes for this book, it seemed to contain all that I could hope for. Teen angst, unrequited love and a sense of hopelessness. 

The book is written from the view of Miles Hatler, an unpopular teenager who decides that he wants to go to boarding school, the same as his father, to seek something more then his current life. Once there he actually makes friends and meets a girl where the rest of his story follows. 

The Good

1. I think the book is very consistently written. As in, the standard is kept throughout and there are no parts where I was like, well he was obviously tired when he wrote this. I think it's hard to explain but it usually occurs in books as part of a series where the author decides there will only be so many books but the ending shouldn't necessarily be there. 

2. Aside from some things, the book was very believable and didn't stray too much from reality.

3. Honestly, I can't think of a third.

The Bad

1. The major twist in the middle of the book is too sudden, in my opinion, it happens without much of an explanation and the events that occur afterwards just don't seem to go. It's all too dramatic without there being any actual drama. 

2. The parts that weren't believable were the level of pranks that happened in the school. And also Alaska's character was too much. Too loud. Too everything. I didn't like the character at all. The dialogue she said was also unbelievable. I think at one point she says 'I'd kiss you if I didn't love my boyfriend so much' or something along those lines. Like seriously?

3. Nothing happened. There was no profound storyline. I was not swept away with sadness like I had hoped for. 

Overall

I was totally let down by this book, I was expecting it to be really good and that I would get emotionally attached to the characters that I would breakdown when the book finished. I've also heard good things about Green's other book, The Fault in our Stars, which I put off buying just because this wasn't what I expected. But I have since ordered it and will be reading it soon. I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone because I didn't enjoy it but I'm stubborn and can't not finish a book. 

2/5 

Sorry John Green! I hope I like your other book(s) better.

LB

Moleskine Monday

A spider diagram or mind map of the different branches of life writing. The word at the bottom is Bildungsroman, a German word, an example of this kind of book is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

LB

Haze

Do not plagiarise. It is not fun (:

Study Update

Update smupdate.

I haven't posted anything for a whole week as I have been busy actually keeping up with my uni work. Crazy times. 

Despite my initial reservations about life writing, (autobiography/biography) I have found doing the activities interesting. The chapter at the moment is memory, and it's weird the first memories that come to mind when you have to suddenly think of one. Also looked at different methods of writing, associative and narrative and the pros and cons these have to the readers understanding. Also, as stupid as it sounds, this blog is a piece of autobiography, which is weird to think. Some people I've told about this (but not shown. No no no!) ask if it's like an online diary. Which is really isn't. I started it out to write articles and reviews of stuff, which I did want to include more journalism stuff, but so far with all my uni work and work work, I haven't had any time to start proper research for anything I want to write about. Conclave being the most recent example. And the thing with news is, you have to write something pretty quick otherwise it's just boring and no one cares. 

In my Lit module I'm reading James Joyces' Dubliners, which is a book of short stories about people in Dublin starting with children and going through different stages of life. Once again I find it hard to fully understand what is completely going on, as I find you need to learn so much about the context to get the references the characters are making. In some of the stories they refer to the Irish Movement? And although I've made some notes on the context, I still don't really know if this is something I should know more about for my assignment. I'm actually really enjoying this book, despite my complete lack of understanding, because the stories are so short, some are about five pages long, it stops me getting bored and I can make notes of each story before starting the next and have a nice break from reading. 

Apart from uni work I have not done a whole lot else aside from work. I go out a lot for food I've noticed and I really don't get how I can afford to half the time. It was mothers day last Sunday and I made roast beef for the first time, I must say, it was amazing. The beef was cooked but pink in the middle and the potatoes were amazing. Today is St Patricks day and would have been my Grandads 90th birthday, as is the tradition in the whole, we all drink whisky and Guinness. 

I've actually written down post ideas so there are no excuses, I hope I do at least two more this week. I'm going to have a bath now finish the last story of Joyces' 'The Dead'. (Which incidentally is fifty pages long...)

LB

Oz: The Great and Powerful; A Review

*Warning this may contain spoilers, but I really tried not to!*       

     

Yesterday I went to see Oz: The Great and Powerful, something I've been waiting for since I heard heard about it. I'm a massive fan of The Wizard of Oz and Return to Oz, even though as a child I really didn't understand why it wasn't the same girl...

Anyways, the director is Sam someone? Who did one of the Tobey Maguire Spiderman films, I think. But applause should really go to the writers and animators. Unless they're not called animators now, CGI-ers doesn't sound right. This film is basically the prequel to The Wizard of Oz from Disney, where we see Oz, a carnival magician get sucked up a tornado (get it, get it?) into the wonderful land of Oz, where he learns of the prophecy that a great wizard will come and save the land. This film explains the back story of the characters, explicitly with Theodora, Oz, Glinda and also other characters, but not-so-subtly.

The Good

I think I really really loved this film as it paid such a good homage to the originals, it wasn't too much and where it was cheesy, like the skipping, it wasn't bad cheese. 

My love for James Franco, I hope, didn't blind me to his charm as Oz. I have so much respect for James Franco as an academic, (I won't get into it, just google) and it was nice to see him in a recent film. I also liked that everyone playing their characters really well, as opposed to when actors just do the same roles over and over again, or changing the character role to fit the actor. But the fact that Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, the entire cast seemed to have given it 100% made the film a lot more enjoyable. It was nice to see Mila Kunis in particular because I think she's a really good actress, but was starting to be typecast.

Last good point would be the storyline that incorporated the old films and showed the audience how it all began. There were quite a few moments when I laughed possibly a bit too loud. I will definitely be looking at whoever did the screenplay. Oh and some of the camera angles reminded me of game-esque movements, like when Oz and Theodora are running, it really got my attention.

The Bad

The only downside which I thought was there was way too much CGI, it looked really good, but at times as a bit too much. I didn't see the film in 3D, as I'm not a fan, but I read a review, somewhere, saying that it is worth it. So perhaps this is why it seemed to much? I don't know. And also, you can always see where the 3D is meant to be in 2D films, and it still looks good. 

Evanora, Rachel Weisz, could have had a bit more, umph, behind her. I get that her character was very villianess and evil but not angry evil? Got better as the film went on. 

The Ugly

You'll see!

4/5 from me. Definitely considering to go and see it again in 3D.

LB

Daily Haiku

An iambic pentameter

This poem was written by me and therefore any copying or claiming this work to be yours is plagiarism. So don't please. (:

Daily Haiku

Daily Haiku

Unintentional leave.

Hi guys.

I haven't been on here in so long, sorry! I have been so busy with my last poetry TMA, which I got the mark back today, and now I'm trying to write an essay about colonialism representation in The Sign of Four and The Beach of Falesa. YAWN.

I'm pretty annoyed actually, that once again I seem to be doing a history essay when I'm studying English Literature and I'm not the only one who has noticed. I got a second on my poetry TMA, which I am so so happy about as my tutor kind of slated my short story, granted I completed it in three days, but I had this weird feeling that she had some kind of thing against me but she liked my poems and said she could see I put in a lot of hard work. Which I did. I will be posting the poems later on, I want to write them up so they look a bit better and maybe actually do my introduction.

My hair is not looking purple...

I wish I could say that I've done loads of exciting things, but I really haven't. My hair is purple ish, with brighter purple ends. I've struggled to be able to capture this in a photo, although I did take photos of me dyeing my hair, again, post will be up soon.

Haiku update: It has been almost impossible to write one everyday recently and I'm really annoyed with myself but after doing the poetry module I've gone off them a lot, just as you can't get a lot in them and also I found myself repeating the subject matter a lot, which is fine for individual poems, but when you see them all together in my moleskine, it looks boring and I don't want people to get bored of them. There's not a lot I can do to find inspiration at the moment as I am doing so much of the same thing and I'd like to try to give general poetry writing a go.