Alphaville. No, Not the Band

Alphaville was an interesting movie. For starters I watched it in French and got some needed French practice.  This was an interesting Sci-fi film because it took French “detective noir,” stories and went in an interesting direction. Had I been younger and more ignorant while watching this film I would’ve just assumed it was a spy film, (which, at the heart it is,) with no real allusions to Sci-fi.
What I thought was cool about this film and with a lot of sci-fi films in general are the gadgets that they use. Sometimes these gadgets become a reality. For example the way Alpha 60 communicates with Lenny Caution throughout the film is very reminiscent of how a cell phone works. This film was also made roughly 30 years before cell phones really started becoming a thing.
This is one of the earliest “computers running the show,” movies that I have seen and it felt very Orwellian to me. The idea of Big Brother has been replaced with Alpha 60, a computer manifested by the great Professor von Braun. Another parallel between these two stories is the constant modification of the language. This idea always crept me out and makes total sense in a perpetual dictatorship. Cutting words that evoke a feeling of love, sadness, or happiness really dehumanizes the people of Alphaville turning them into drones of the computer.
I also really like the fusion of the private-eye ant-hero story colliding with sci-fi. You don’t see this kind of fusion very often and I would actually love to see someone remake this film with a huge box-office budget. I would go see it in a heartbeat.
Alphaville was all right. As an enthusiast I’m glad I watched it. It has a good story and many interesting elements. Some movies, some books, some games age like wine. This aged like milk (Not the story, just the cinematography was hard for me to watch.)  It deserves a Peter Jackson remake. I’d like that.

The Brother From Another Planet

The Brother From Another Planet, is an interesting movie. I watched it about a week ago and I still can’t decide if I like it or not. I think it’s a good movie, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t know if I would go out and evangelize it to all my nerdy compadres. I will get into the elements that I liked about this story in a bit, but first I’d like to talk briefly on the one thing I didn’t like that kind of put a damper on things. I found the story hard to comprehend. I kept getting a little confused at what was going on and why things were progressing the way they did. This is due to the way it was filmed and the way that the story move forward. It felt very fragmented.
What redeemed the movie for me was a slue of different things.  For starters I LOVE ME SOME low budget films. (Really, I do.) And this was apparently low budget.  Also, this movie is hilarious. It has a great cast. All the characters have their own whip crack-dynamism about them and are all very engaging. Which leads me to another reason why I should like this movie. The main character, The Brother.
The Brother is a unique character because throughout the film he doesn’t talk. This is great because it adds that sense of alienation that is needed in the story. A new person in a new land.  In addition, it is hard to engage the audience without talking. It’s cutting off a means of communication. All his communication must be done through body language and Joe Morton does a great job at just that.  He is a really convincing black alien.
Lastly, I’d like to briefly touch on the men in black. The villains of the story. I thought these two guys were interesting because I grew up in an era where the men in black were the good guys out to defend humanity. In this story the men in black are aliens’ out to recapture a slave. This to me was unique.
The weirdest part for me was to see the Twin Towers. I grew up in New York City. I was born there and plan to move right back after college. I was 9 when they fell and now I’m 21. It’s just weird to see them.  –This last part was so far divorced from what I was talking about, it’s just important to me and I felt the need to through it in.

I wish I could Jaunte to class at 8:29 everyday.

As the semester has progressed, I have found it harder and harder to continue reading the novels assigned for homework due to the fact that I’m up till almost 4:00A.M. everyday slaving away behind a computer screen. There are two novels that I plan on reading regardless of how much work I have.  One of them is Orxy and Crake, I’ve wanted to read that novel for a while and finally have an excuse to do so. The other was The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester. Which I finished about two weeks ago and finally have time to blog about. (Sorry for the delay, Mr. Steiling.) I’ve wanted to read this story because it’s basically the Count of Monte Cristo goes to space and I’m a huge fan of that story. However, it needs to be unique. It needs to have it’s own special elements that make it stand out as a story worth reading. Otherwise why not just read the original by Alexandre Dumas? Let me explain what makes The Stars My Destination stand out among the crowd.
The novel is set in the future and a new form of transpiration has been discovered. It’s called Jaunting and it is basically teleportation. There are some limitations to how and where you can jaunte. These boundaries make it all the more interesting, especially in the main character Gully Foyle. In addition to the cool idea of Jaunting it’s interesting to see how it evolves throughout the course of the book. (What I’m about to say is a spoiler and my opinion so if you haven’t read the novel yet you may want to come back and reread this post later.) The man on fire. That is Gully. That is Gully after he found a way in the future to travel through space and time but that is also jaunting. What I am trying to say is that Jaunting became a character. It evolved from an idea, to a mode, to a character and hey, that’s really cool.
I could talk about this novel for hours. The idea of inter-solar system war is believable and how I think space travel will naturally go. (Think about our own human history and you can see parallels that would make sense for this to happen.)  The story is old but at the same time fresh and engaging. I haven’t enjoyed everything I’ve read this semester. But hey, I’ve enjoyed most of it! (Night Circus was meh.) But this novel and A Wild Sheep Chase are my two favorites so far. Up next Orxy and Crake.

It’s Like Watching Generic Fantasy Spin in a Toilet. I love it!

I recently watched the two part mini-series, The Colour of Magic. This series is based off of Terry Pratchett’s comic novel by the same name. Let me just start off by saying as an aspiring art director, I want to shake the hands of whoever designed the sets. They were amazeballs. The production designer must have gone above and beyond the call of duty. It was obviously a low budget production with mid 80s special effects but that just added to the charm. What I liked most about this mini-series:  The story, strong characters, and media crossing potential.
- The story.  This was one of the more unique stories I have learned about in this course because it isn’t unique at all.  Imagine all your run of the mill fantasy archetypes. Dragons, swords stuck in the ground, evil bad guys. Now imagine all of them with the most hilarious and awesome spins and viola! You have The Colour of Magic. It takes tried and true stories and motifs and makes them fresh again. Which isn’t nearly as easy as one might assume.
- Strong characters. I think character development in this story plays a very important role for not just the main characters, but a lot of the supporting roles go through many dynamic and obvious changes. This is most apparent at the Unseen University (Which in itself is paradoxical. Wizards –The pinnacle of intelligence and their barbaric hierarchy system.)  After you watch it you’ll understand what I mean. I don’t want to give anything away here. Teehee.
-Media crossing potential. The two points I stated above blew me away but I also believe that this story has great media crossing potential. What I mean by that is it wont only appeal to TV driven story goers, but also gamers and readers. For starters, it was already based off of a great comic novel so it has that appeal to readers. Also, in 2009 a game came out by the name of Trine. Trine is a puzzle game with an over-the-top fantasy setting. I couldn’t help but see parallels between the two even though they tell completely different stories in completely different mediums.  
To end this blog post I’ll leave you with something short and sweet. The Colour of Magic is awesome. It’s on Netflix, (for now.) Go watch it.

Quentin Coldwater. Wataguy.

The Magicians

The Magicians was a good read. It took fantasy like Harry Potter, Narnia and others of the genre and tossed them together in a blender. What I liked most about the story was the existential nature of Magic.

            The story follows a unique protagonist. Quentin Coldwater, who is a depressed and social spacious teenager. This was an interesting take on the hero as the closest book I’ve read to The Magicians is the Harry Potter series. I guess I’m just used to the “glass half full,” type of heroes.  Quentin however is anything but that. He is more real, more relatable.  Even the spark of magic disappears and becomes monotony as training becomes laborious.

            He is never satisfied. That is why I love him so much as a character. This constant search for more power manifests itself as depression, as sullenness. You see this a lot in the real world as well. For example when I was a boy I remember my brother doing a kick-flip on a skateboard. I couldn’t and I was jealous. I’d try and try and try for hours every day and couldn’t do it. Eventually I got so upset I picked up the skateboard and slammed it onto the pavement, shattering the tip. The point is, I feel your pain, Quentin.

            Quentin grows as a character throughout the story. All characters in all stories do, but I think it’s pretty forefront in this novel.  Even in the first few chapters you start to see a transition of character. His unrequited love for Julia transforms into a ember of what it once was. His contacts change, his mind changes and his attitude changes.

            This story can be seen as the last ‘coming of age,’ story. It’s a great story about transitioning from the last shell of child life into adulthood, even if it’s in Fillory. 

Night Circus isn’t so black and white, in fact it’s grey.

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was a breath of fresh air. Its interesting and contemporary take on what good vs. evil really is was enjoyable to read. When you think fantasy novel. You think of a young hero embarking on or having an epic quest thrust upon them. They overcome some great evil and the world is tossed back into normality thanks to their interference. It’s not a great piece of literature, nor is it groundbreaking. It’s just a pretty interesting book.

When first starting this book I thought to myself, “A love story with magicians? How droll,” but as I slothed through the pages I found myself intrigued with many aspects of the novel.  Primarily, I found the vagueness of good vs evil interesting. I think that contemporary issues often force their way into works of art, either knowingly or subtly.

For the past 11 years, America has been on a war against terrorism. The solider who shoots a woman and child on the suspicion of being terrorists is just as much to blame as the man strapped to the bomb. But are either of them really to blame? The solider was following orders. The bomber, brainwashed. These two wars America has been in have had very cloudy depictions of what is good and what is evil.

In the story, two young magicians, bound by a magically force, serve as proxies for an ageless feud between two magicians. Even the two puppeteers aren’t all that evil.  I must admit that I haven’t finished the novel yet. I plan to go back to it after the course is over. There are books I am more excited about reading for my speculative literature class. 

-Jack

The Hobbit, Real Talk

The Hobbit is a quintessential fantasy novel by the great J.R.R Tolkien. Its episodic storytelling style makes it a great coffee table book for any fantasy enthusiast.  Tonight’s blog post will be a little different. It isn’t about The Hobbit; it’s about how this book in particular affected my life as a reader.

            Let’s dive in shall we? I have dyslexia. To this day I still can't spell my way out of a paper bag. I attribute all my spelling success to the red squiggles that help keep me in check. You would be horrified at the amount of red squiggles on the screen right now. I’ll fix those in a bit. Regardless, I love reading. (I read about 1 book every week and a half.) When I was a kid I vehemently despised reading.  This book flipped my perspective.

            As a child, I had a tutor who would come on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours. I’d scatter like a spotted cockroach every time I heard the ominous ring of the doorbell. After 5 or so minutes of fruitless struggling, I’d be seated in the kitchen with her and we would crack open a book. One day she looked at me with a sly grin,

            “Jack, I have a new book for today’s lesson that I think you’ll enjoy,” she says.

I grunt.  Reading fun? How could reading ever be fun? I think. She reaches into her worn leather purse and pulls out a book. This book was stained with use.  Its pages were worn and flimsy. The book had been smashed, bent, mangled, spilled on and yet it still functioned.  Intrigued by its aesthetics, I took a peak at the book laid before me. The Hobbit, was written across the cover.

            As soon as we started reading it together I was enchanted. I have always been a gamer and this was the perfect book for a young geek. When we finished the novel I became obsessed with Lord of the Rings.  It had such a huge impact on me that during my senior year of high school I wrote a 40-page paper about the allegorical themes surrounding Tolkien’s universe.

            I couldn’t be more grateful, it opened the door to R.A Salvatore, Stephen King, Greg Keyes, and a whole spectrum of other great writers.  Cheers!!! :)

-Jack