Game of Thrones: Dreams for Season 3

Game of Thrones: Dreams for Season 3

Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk

I am in love with Game of Thrones, my DVR is full of all the available season so far, I read up to book 3 so far cause I like to watch the show and read the book within close proximity to each other. After watching season one and two with my friends to prepare for season three I look back at the challenges interpreting a book to film can present.

                Season one and two were very well made and the casting choices so far have been phenomenal, well my personal preference might start to get in here  I felt that Melisandra could have been a little more exotic, and so far Game of Thrones only has one black guy and he’s a pirate. I wish in the last seasons I could have seen a better ineraction of Sansa and the Hound to show their very “intense” relationship and the hidden side to the Hound that many don’t see. Daenerys I wished we got to see her develop more of a character that she is rather than the other forces pushing her forward that the series is doing to her. In the novel Daenerys has this internal struggle between trying to find a way to recover her birthright and trying to stand all on her own for the first time. The series rather uses certain situations that causes her to behave in a cause and reaction but doesn’t spend the time to build up her internal struggles that eats away at her

                Enough looking to the past and to view toward the future with 3 episodes deep into Season 3 of Game of Thrones in the time line we are in book three Storm of Swords in the series a Song of Ice and Fire. I want to see Same Slay a White Walker, Jon and Ingrid finally just get it over with. More Dire wolves , enough said; Arya Stark need to be to be more confident and bring back her spirit , so far Kristin Steward from the Twilight series is doing a better job. I’m happy that the CGI  artists at HBO are doing a better job of making the Dragons look much fiercer than the small dogs that they were last season. I cannot wait to see how they finish this season with a huge spoiler right here The Red wedding where there’s a huge massacre of main characters will be portrayed will be fantastic.

Colin N.

Gods Behaving Badly

Be ready and read because Gods Behaving Badly is coming to a theather by you. So while we wait for a trailer the novel Gods Behaving Badly to premier why not get a poorly written review by me. Greek mythology is a fantastic topic and I love the stories behind each god, between their constant meddling in mortal affairs and the high amount of sex what’s not to love about it.  Then if that suites your fancy then I recommend reading Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Philips. What a fantastic read, there a nice appearance of the pretty much the main Gods of   Olympus but they got displaced from their high mountain and are bumming around in London sharing a Flat.

So its basically the jersey shore is you know with Gods. Apollo like the guy who prime was being the high school football star and he’s trying to cope with not being in the spotlight. Artemis is that girl that exercise all the makes even the most athletic of people feel fat. Aphrodite is well…um… she’s special and bit of a not a nice word. Seeing how I am falling head over heels for three out of the twelve that make an appearance Philips really did her research. Philips made seamless transitions into references and used material to spin both the contemporary living of modern London and the historical background of the Gods from ancient Greece very well it’s had a really good flow to it. The Mortals involved in the book tend to be the rather oblivious bystanders to the Gods and its great fun to watch them squirm. I would recommend this book its you’re a fan of Greek mythology , looking for a light and funny read , and wonder what your favorite gods are up to. Fun fact Christopher Walken is playing Zuess, which is many levels of awesome.

                Colin N.

Carrie III

“They’re all gonna laugh at you”

I guess 3^rd time is the charm. The acclaimed novel from Stephan King, Carrie is going to be remade into a movie, again. The novel published in 1974 was King’s first one.

Sissy Spacek in 1976 Carrie

The story Carrie is about an outcast high school girl who is tormented by her peers and her overly religious mother. In one particular scene Carrie gets her first menstruation and believes she is hemorrhaging and dying. Instead of the girls in the locker rooms helping her, they decide to humiliate her. As punishment for the girls who ridiculed her, they are not allowed to go to the senior Prom. Carrie discovers that she has an unusual gift, telepathy; she can make objects move without touching them. One of the girls feels remorse for Carrie and asks her boyfriend to assort Carrie to prom. The other girls feel no remorse and plot against Carrie. They plot to make her Prom Queen and humiliate her by pouring pig’s blood over her. They succeed, but Carrie unleashed the rage inside of her. Carrie used her telepathy to wreak havoc on all who made fun of her. Carrie destroys everything and everyone insight, and finally herself.  

It was first remade in 1976, starring Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. It became extremely popular. It holds some truth to the novel. Stephen King acknowledged the film was better than his book.

Angela Bettis in 2002 Carrie

Carrie was remade again in a TV movie in 2002, starry Angela Bettis as Carrie. What was different from this movie to the first one was that the newer adaptation has scenes of Carrie’s childhood, which was in the novel. The 2002 film created a different ending where Carrie was meant to live.

Chloe Grace Mortez in 2013 Carrie

The newest remake is set for Halloween time this year. Starring the trailblazing young actress Chloë Grace Mortez. Entertainment Weekly also reported that the film is going to be a “more faithful adaptation” of the book. Personally, I think Mortez is way too pretty, the production team should have drabbed that girl up. Carrie is supposed to be an ugly girl. I am very excited to see how this adaptation will play out. If you are a Stephan King fan then I suggest you check out the previous movies and go see Carrie in theaters October 18.

Danielle D.

The Host: Book-to-Movie Review

            The Host is one of Stephenie Meyer’s better written novels. Not only is the 600+ page novel better written, but the story itself gives a more thorough and in depth look at this fictional world. I personally think it is better written and a better story than the Twilight series. Unlike Twilight, this is not a saga. The Host is a one novel story. It takes place in a futuristic world where an alien race called “Souls” has invaded earth. They survive by inserting themselves into the bodies of humans, taking over control of the body. However, the humans are able to survive within their own bodies and resist the Souls due to the human’s powerful will and memories. In the past, the Souls has coexisted with the beings of the other worlds they have invaded, but the humans are more violent than those other beings and therefore the Souls have decided to completely take over. The Souls are taking over the earth to restore peace and balance to it. They believe that their actions are not wrong or murderous, because their intentions are about helping make the world a better place. The humans view this as a form of genocide. A small group of humans have been able to survive being possessed by these aliens and are hiding out and fighting back. The story follows human Melanie and the soul possessing her named Wanderer as the two fall in love, Melanie with Jared and Wanderer with Ian.

             The books were rather successful and the movie has had an okay reception grossing about $20 million domestically, but they are not as popular as the Twilight Saga. I went to see the movie on Friday, April 5, 2013. I thought the movie was well cast with capable actors. Unlike the Twilight cast, the cast of The Host were very capable actors and were not as cold as some of the actors in Twilight were. Although this story gets compared to Twilight, there is not much that is similar. The only similarities are that both are fantasy stories, both are written by the same author and both have very good looking young actors. Other than that the quality of the stories as well as the plots, are not similar at all. I think The Host was much better written, and the story was much more interesting because it had more depth to it. However there were some differences in the book and the movie.

             I do agree though with most fans, that the concept of the book works better in novel format than in movie format. The first major difference is the explanation of what has happened to the human race. Meyer did a good job of giving a thorough explanation of what has happened and who the “Souls” are but the movie flies by that and gives a very surface explanation of it. The other difference is that the love story between Melanie and Jared is told through flashback as Wanderer is accessing Melanie’s memories. Wanderer is given an option about how to deal with Melanie’s resistance in the movie, but she is not given any options in the book. In the movie, the character development in the story is rushed, as is the progression of the story. However, we do get to see movie action of what the male characters are doing, instead of just getting this information from Wanderer or Melanie, we see it happening. Also, the relationship between Wanderer and Melanie is rushed. They very quickly turn from being enemies to becoming best friends. Overall there are many differences between the movies and the books, which is normal for many books-to-movie adaptations. Since I do not want to give any of the story away; anyone looking for more information about the differences can visit: http://thatwasnotinthebook.com/diff/the-host/0#diffPage. I have not used any of the information provided from their website since I did not want to spoil the movie or the book for you.

            Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. There are many things I missed about the books, such as how in depth the books were, but I love being able to visual stories I have read. I think the movie was well cast and the main actors in the movie are all capable actors and actresses. I think anyone looking for a good love story with a side of action should go see this movie. Saoirse Ronan is reason enough to go see it. Overall, I think the movie was great and did a pretty good job of portraying such a complex concept as having two people in one body. However, there could have been improvements to the movie. There was a lot of time spent on just visual aspects of the movie, and there were many explanations, character developments and relationships left out of the movie, which gave substance to the book. Although the movie was well made and well cast, I do not think it was that good. Therefore I generously give this movie a 3.5/5 for the cast alone. However, I do recommend people go see it. It is entertaining after all. 

~ Sarina T

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used in this blog post. The views and opinions in this post do not reflect the opinions of the other two bloggers.

Off to see the Wizard

Off to see the Wizard

The Great and Powerful Oz

To start off spring break on a good note be and my fellow Blogger Dani and I went to go see The Great and Powerful Oz. The worst thing about going to a movie on a Wednesday at 2pm is that it is empty, we were the only people there to see it in 3D, which made for an interesting experience. So the movie was staring James Franco as OZ, Mila Kunis as Thedora, Rachel Weisz as the evil Evanora, Michelle Williams as the good witch Glinda seem to be a nice formula for a Wizard of Oz spin off movie. The movie was a mixture of new and the old, subtle hints to the original movie while giving the movie its own tone. Unlike the original Wizard of Oz the lack of musical numbers is made up for well-timed heartfelt moments and a good sense of humor. While they gave some subtle hints to the origins of other original cast of the Wizard of Oz I felt that the tin man was missing from the rest of the film. The introduction of other themes and unfinished plot holes were aplenty, what happened to the cowardly lion, was he a friend of Glinda? What about the porcelain girl’s town and family that was destroyed by the Evil witches and that she and went through the five stages of grief very fast, she should write a book on grieving.

The visual design of Oz was breathe taking and they pulled out all the stops to make it not only feel like you were returning or visiting Oz for the first time all the while adding a distinct feel to the world of Oz. There were time that the 3D was overwhelming, I never quite understood why people enjoy having CGI spears being thrown at their face, and it does take away from the experience during the more action intense scenes. While there was a lot of talk about magic, there was very little use of magic between all the witches and I was left wanting more from the final confrontation. Besides my complaints I felt that the CGI and the backgrounds worked in smoothly and was a great re-imagination of the world of Oz.

Colin N.

Original... Guess Again!

Some favorite cult classics teen movies and like Clueless, Mean Girls, The Lion King, She’s the Man, “O,” and 10 Things I Hate About You are based on books, highly accredited books too.

The late 90s movie, Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd was based off of Jane Austen’s Emma. The similarities of Mr. Weston / Miss Taylor romance that is promoted by Cher the “Emma.” The movie ends with their wedding. Harriet Smith is Tai, Mr. Elton is Elton, and there are more counterparts. The portrait of Harriet Smith is the photograph Cher took of Tai that winds up in Elton's locker.

Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan was based off a non-fiction book called The Queen Bees and the Wannabes. The movie was made to try to stop high school girls from fighting with other high school girls. The book focuses on how girls should survive cliques, boyfriends, and bullying. All of the characters are original.

The Lion King was based off of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Simba, Hamlet, the son of the King Musafa, King Hamlet, goes into exile when his jealous uncle, Scar, Claudius tricks him into believing that he was responsible for his father's death. This is similar to Claudius killing King Hamlet and becoming the King.  

She’s the Man, starring Amanda Bines and Channing Tatum is based off of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Viola pretends to be her brother Sebastian. Duke is in love with Oliva. Viola falls in love with Duke while pretending to be Sebastian. The same plot and names as character in Twelfth Night.

“O,” starring Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, and Josh Hartnett is based on William Shakespeare’s Othello. The names give it away; Desi-Desdemona, Owen- Othello who is African-American; just like the Moor of Venice is dark skinned. Iago is Josh Hartnett’s character Hugo who destroys Owen by the same plot as Othello. Owen chokes Desi to death, similar as Othello smothers Desdemona with a pillow.

10 Things I Hate About You, starring Julia Stiles and the late Heath Ledger is based off of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The “shrew” refers to Katherine, and her anti-social ways. The father Kat and Bianca of restricts Bianca from dating without Kat dating as well. Cameron tries to find Kat a date so that he could date Bianca, which is similar to the plot of the play.

Is your mind blown?

Danielle D.

Winter is Coming: Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere

                                                             *Spoiler Alert* 

            

             The “Game of Thrones” season 3 premiere was this Sunday. The episode picked up with the aftermath the battle of Blackwater Bay. The episode starts off with Samwell being chased by white walkers. He reunited with the Night’s Watch and informs them that he did not send out the ravens for help. They have to walk back to the wall so that they can warn everyone else in the Seven Kingdoms. We then see John Snow being led by wildings to meet the King up North. The Commander of the Night’s Watch had asked John to gain the trust of the wildings to track their movement. John does so successfully. While in the wildings camp, the audience and John Snow encounter Giants. This is the first time giants have been seen in the show.

            In the battle between King Joffrey and Stannis Baratheon’s army, Baratheon’s army was devastated with a loss. In the battle Tyrion Lannister was injured with his face sliced open. He survives but is placed in a small cell. He is paranoid since the man who attacked him was a soldier for his sister, Queen Cercei. His father, Tywin did not visit him while he was injured. Tyrion goes to visit his father later on in the episode to ask for his inheritance, but his father refuses it saying he does not want his successor to be an imp and a liar.

            We also get word of Ser Davos and Stannis Baratheon. Davos survives the Greek fire and manages to find his way to Dragonstone, where Stannis has fled. Davos gets word that the Red Woman and Stannis have been burning people who disagree with them. He tries to talk some sense into Stannis, but both Stannis and the Red Woman blame Davos for the loss. The Red Woman, who controls fire, claims that had she been at the battle she would have stopped the Greek fire. However, Davos had convinced Stannis to leave her behind. Davos tries to kill the Red Woman and he is sent to a prison cell by Stannis’s orders.

            Back with the other rebellion, we see Robb Stark and his army. They come upon the bodies of their dead soldiers, many of whom were sons of Robb commanders. Robb blames his mother for their deaths, since she betrayed them by releasing their prisoner Jaime Lannister in order to save her daughters. However, she does not get her daughter’s back. Instead we see Sansa, still captive at King’s Landing. Lord Baelish promises both Sansa and Lady Catherine Stark to reunite them. However he is a dishonest person and he lies about knowing where Arya Stark is. In actuality Arya has already escaped and is making her way back to her mother and brothers up north. Sansa is in a particularly bad situation since King Joffrey has decided to marry Lady Margaery Tyrell instead. Lady Margaery seems like a good woman. She visits an orphanage in Fleabottom and gives them money for food, clothing and shelter. She also wishes to do more charity work in King’s Landing. Joffrey is impressed by her, but Queen Cercei seems annoyed.

            Daenerys has managed to find a ship and is sailing for Astapor where she will purchase the Unsullied. They are slave soldiers who fear no death. Her dragons are growing but she still needs time and resources to plan her attack on King’s Landing. In Astapor she wonders if she should purchase the Unsullied or not since she sees them as barbaric and brutal. She is attacked by a warlock but is saved by Barristan Selmy. He has traveled to find her and swears his allegiance to her. He wishes to help her become Queen. 

                                                       *Spoiler Alert Ends*

            We do not see Arya Stark or Bran Stark in this episode. In the preview for the next episode, we see Margaery questioning Sansa about Joffrey. Bran and Osha are seen in a forest and they are approached by a man whose face we do not see. John and the wildlings get word that the Crows have been killed and have not made it to the Wall. We also see Arya by attacked by outlaws. Although the premiere was much anticipated, it was a little dull. I was not as action packed as fans are used to. Instead it was like the calm after the storm. However I did enjoy the episode and many people did as well considering 6.7 million viewers tuned in to break records for the show, considering it aired on Easter Sunday against “the Walking Dead” season finale. “Game of Thrones” has not been renewed yet for a fourth season, but viewers should expect to hear more news on that in the coming weeks.  

             

              The show has been one of the most anticipated and successful series for HBO. Many people are fans of the books, the television show or both. Although the show does not follow the books exactly, the characters and most of the storyline are the same. The books are written by George R.R. Martin, and they are set in a fictional world about seven kingdoms and the games people play to rule the iron throne. In the books and the show there is war, sex, and magic. There are dragons, white walkers, warlocks, witches and Faceless Men. Martin is currently working on the last two novels of the series. He is not sure when he is going to be finishing the novels, but hopes to do so before the television show catches up to the books. Martin has released a preview of the second to last book, The Winds of Winter, from the perspective of Arianne Martell and another sample from the perspective of Theon Greyjoy. As of October 2012, Martin had already written 400 pages of the book. He expects that both The Winds of Winter and the final installment A Dream of Spring will be over 1500 pages each. Martin has also confirmed some of the characters that will return to give their Point of View for The Winds of Winter. Of those characters, we will be seeing the return of Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Barrister Selmy, Theon Greyjoy, Aeron Greyjoy and Victorian Greyjoy. 

~Sarina T

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used in this blog post. The views and opinions in this post do not reflect the opinions of the other two bloggers.

An Amateur’s guide to Sleep No More

An Amateur’s guide to Sleep No More

Sleep no More/ Facbook

I’m considered myself the adventurous type, one of my goals in life is to try new things. If your one of those types of people well then I have some good news.  For my friend’s birthday we and a few friends went to go see The McKittrick Hotel production of Macbeth under the name “Sleep no More”. Soon as you walk into the hotel you are swept up back in time to the 1920’s. On a side note they are get really funny about you having your cell phones out. They want to have some level of mystery and you cannot take pictures with your phone. The lobby in in style of a bar, where you can enjoy drinks before the show, I would recommend talk to the staff and find out what they recommend you would be surprised how outgoing they are. When they call you up to enter the Hotel you enter in a small room before an elevator where you receive your mask, this is where the journey starts so get your act together I’ve seen them kick people out who were to rowdy or loud .

Once on the elevator they hit different floors and let people out in groups, if you went with a party have a place to meet afterwards because you’re going to lose them throughout the show. The Hotel is roughly six floors each fully furnished with different scenes from Macbeth. Be careful then entire complex has dark lighting and it’s easy to walk into a door (because I did it and it’s not fun). The actors are the only ones not wearing masks and the goal is to follow them around, each actor offers a different experiences and while you may follow one remember other member of the audience may be watching another actor. What is great and also an annoyance is that for me I want to see all of it, the problem is that there is so much going on that it is almost physically impossible to be everywhere at once. A great thing about Sleep No More is that as an audience member the actors interact with you. Through what I’m calling one on one they will pull you out of the crowd and have private dialog with just you, usually leaving you with a small trinket, I highly recommend trying to get one of these experiences.

After the play is over and you shuffle your way out of the Hotel back into the lobby take some time talk to the people who you spent the evening with after all 3 hours just passed with them. The lobby still has live music playing, great drinks, when I went my friends have been there a few times already and were surprised about how much I got to see and we talked about our different experiences while at our stay at the hotel. This is a fun, bizarre, exhilarating, insanely fun experiences that I recommend everyone try.
Colin N.

A summary and review of the Perks of being a Wallflower

Spoiler Alert!

When I first read The Perks of Being a Wallflower in 8^th grade I was immediately captured by its text. I had just finished Go Ask Alice. I soon learned that reading diary format was my favorite in literature, it felt real to me and I was more able to lose myself in the writings.

            When I read it for the first time my age was appropriate for the age of the main character Charlie. He was a freshman in high school. I would not necessarily say that the book’s content was appropriate for an 8^th grader, but for a mature student, like myself, it is an incredible read.

           The books starts out like Holden Caulfield’s writing in The Catcher in the Rye, another one of my favorite books, the character Charlie is looking for a friend to confide in so he starts this diary of his freshman year in high school, the reader learns there is some mystery to the character. We the readers learn in the second page that his best friend committed suicide. Charlie has just come back from an institution and he is getting ready for his first day of high school.

            He has no friends and he can’t even count on his sister to sit with him at lunch. He makes a friend on his first day of school, his English teacher. His teacher gives him some highly recognizable books to read during the school year. 

           While he was attending a school football game, he met Patrick and Sam his soon to be best friends who are also seniors. They take him under their wing and show him the other side of high school, parties, sex, drugs, rock’ n’ roll, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

            He dates Mary Elizabeth, Sam’s friend, but Charlie always pined for Sam. The friends had a falling out when Charlie was asked to ‘kiss the prettiest girl in the room’ during Truth or Dare; instead of kissing his girlfriend Mary Elizabeth, he kisses Sam. The group of friends doesn’t talk to Charlie for a while.

          Patrick’s lover was the quarterback of the football team also a closet gay. Patrick and Brad got into a fight during lunch; it was basically the football team against Patrick. Charlie stepped in, blacked out, but beat the whole team unknowingly. The group of friends and Charlie became friends again after the incident. 

            When it was time for the seniors to graduate Charlie said goodbye to his best friends. He finally earned Sam’s love in return, he also reveled to Sam something that has always troubled him. Thought the book Charlie always wrote about his favorite aunt Helen. He wrote about the night she died, he blamed himself, and referred to things she did.

            After Charlie said goodbye to his friends he had a panic and went to his dark place again. He ended up back in an institution. The thing that had been troubling him for so many years had been reveled to him and his parents. He ends the diary writing that tomorrow is his sophomore year and that all is well.

            The movie takes all the important and best scenes from the book and weaves it together to form the movie. It was written and directed by Stephen Chbosky. I was most excited to find out that the movie kept the parts about Charlie’s aunt Helen. I thought the content of molestation would be too sensitive for some viewers so much that the moviemakers would have left those parts out, but they didn’t. The scenes depicted in the movie were exactly like how they were depicted in the book. This is probably because they same person wrote and directed the story. I don’t think the movie leaves the same impression that the reader has during the book. It is one of those stories that a person just has to read not watch in order to grasp the full story.

The only disconnection from the book to movie that I thought was the fact that the character talked about cassette tapes and Olive Garden. The book was set in the 80s-90s era; they didn’t talk about Olive Garden. It is unclear what time period the movie was set in because the mentioned Olive Garden and had cassette tapes. Those two ideas are not both in the same era.

I would recommend both the film and movie. The movie follows the book very well, but the book captures your soul. However, they both make you feel infinite.

Danielle D.

Book-to-Movie Review: The Hobbit

Movie- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Part- Part 1 of 3 Book 
Based on- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Prequel to Lord of the Rings Saga Rating- 4/5 

            J.R.R. Tolkien has become a beloved writer who has provided us with the Lord of the Rings Saga. The LOTR movies, three in total, were released from 2001 to 2003. The franchise was very successful grossing close to three billion dollars worldwide. Although the books were first received with mixed reviews, Tolkien’s works are considered literary masterpieces. Tolkien wrote many books on the mythical land of Middle Earth. The making of the Hobbit was the next move for this internationally successful franchise.

            J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my favorite authors and people. His works are not only well written but there are hardly any gaps and holes in his plot and writing. He also does a very good job in describing this magical world to his readers. What many fantasy novelists fail to do is relay the information and history needed for the reader to understand the worlds they have created. Tolkien does a wonderful job of explaining his world so that there is not much ambiguity left. I first heard about Tolkien in high school. When everybody read Lord of the Flies, I got to skip over that and instead I read the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I instantly fell in love with the books and the characters. Being a fantasy reading fanatic, I was hooked. So naturally, I found out about the movie as soon as it was announced for production. I waited five years for the movie to be made and released, from the day I found out to the day it came out. When it finally came out, I went to see it. 

Click Read More for Review on the Hobbit

Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey has gained a lot of attention nowadays. The raunchy pornography material depicted in the novels draws the attention. There is rumored to have a movie coming out portraying the first book or the series. To add to the rumor mill the thoughts of what actors will be playing the characters is always discussed. But what is not discussed is the quality of the writing in the books by E.L James.

The raunchy writings are not disturbing then are written in a tasteful manner. The depictions are somewhat easy to visualize. It is by all means an adult novel, but I would not go as far as banning it from libraries.

The series was made for Twilight fans. Some of the similarities can make a Twilight fan say “Come On!” The story is based in Washington state, come on. The main character is a pale dark-haired pretty girl, not a beautiful girl, come on. There is something mysterious about the male lead too that the main character has to figure out, come on.

The one big problem with this series is the horrible dialogue. No one in the real world would ever talk like the way the characters do in the novels. It just doesn’t seem real and it breaks the readers commitment to the writing. The dialogue takes away from the scenes depicted in the books. For example in Fifty Shades of Grey, the main characters are talking to each other about what the presence of Mr. Grey does to her. Grey starts “What’s not fair,” Anastasia replies “How you disarm people, women, me” “do I disarm you” “All the time” “It’s just looks, Anastasia” “No, Christian its more than that” “ You disarm me totally, Miss Steele. Your innocence. It cuts through all the crap.”

No one would really talk like this saying you disarm me, it just seems forced and fake.

Also in this book Grey lays out a contract for Steele to abide by, the contract is six pages long of just totally faked rules that seem so far-fetched from the S and M community.

During the novel the two characters email each other by the emails are like text messages and they don’t make sense. For example in Fifty Shades Darker Anastasia Steele, the main character emails Mr. Grey about a bar she is going to. She titles the email: You’ll fit right in, she dates and times it June 10 2011, 17:36 to Christian Grey and it says, “We are going to a bar called Fifty’s… the rich seam of humor that I could mine from this is endless…I look forward to seeing you there, Mr. Grey… A. X.” He replies back like a text message subject: Hazards, dates and times it June 10 2011, 17:38 to Anastasia Steele and it says, “Mining is a very, very dangerous occupation” signed Christian Grey CEO, Grey Enterprise Holdings, Inc.

It is a little annoying to read these emails that are supposed to be two minutes apart. They just take up the page.

Danielle

The Rise of Series and Sagas

            Lately, all you see on bookshelves and movie theaters are sequels, trilogies, and series. It seems as though the world doesn't want the normal one part story anymore, and sagas have been on the rise. Whether these sagas are Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Twilight or the Hunger Games, these multiple part stories are not only popular but very profitable for the authors of these books. Take J.K Rowling for example. Not only is Harry Potter one of the most famous franchises in the world, but J.K Rowling is the first author to make a billion dollars off of books, which were eventually made into movies. The movies and promotional deals got her the billion, but the books got her the movies and deals in the first place. 

            So why do we as fans enjoy series and sagas? To be honest, I don't necessarily like sagas. I have read the Twilight Series and the Lord of the Rings, polar opposites in quality and plot, and both of them left me upset. It is not that I do not love reading, but sagas are both annoyingly suspenseful and extremely sad. I'm not a big fan of the cliffhanger. When I see a television show, I hate when they cut to commercial right before revealing the big surprise at the end. It just gets me angry. That is what a saga does to me. Once I finish the first book I have to read the second one and I get sucked into the vortex. Sometimes I want to shake the authors and just tell them to get to the point. I can’t spend another sleepless night wondering what happened to Frodo and Sam at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring and even when the story ends I’m still upset. (*spoiler alert*) Like what happened to Frodo and Bilbo when they went into the West. What does the West look like, and how did they live out their lives? (*end of spoiler*) It forces the reader into a fit of anxiety because we become so invested in these characters that we need to know everything about them and we need to know it right away before our journey with them is over.

            When it comes to the extremely sad part of why I don’t like sagas, it has to do with being with these characters for three or more books and having to say goodbye to them all of a sudden, never hearing anything more of them ever again. When I’m reading a one part story, my journey with those characters is short lived. But, if we are talking about a book like Harry Potter, where most of us spent a span of 10 years reading these books, we have more time to get invested in these characters. We form relationships with them, one sided relationships but relationships. They become a part of our lives, and all of a sudden, with the flip of the last page and the period at the end of the last sentence, we lose them. They are no longer a part of our lives, and the journey we took with them long gone. The books become documents of our lives together. We are no longer experiencing life with them, the words become like old journals we look through for memories and nostalgia. We are no longer living in those books, but instead they become old records we flip through for a reminder.

            I was not a big fan of the Twilight Saga. The books, in my opinion, could have been better written. Yet, when I read the last page of Breaking Dawn, I cried. And I was not a devoted fan. I cried because the journey was over. I was never going to hear anything more from Bella and Edward. That upset me. I had spent four books listening to Bella go on about how perfect Edward was, and I had to see her act like a fool in love and a damsel in distress at the same time. She annoyed me, her actions were that of a hormonal irrational teenage girl, and since I did not want boys to stereo type all girls as being that crazed while in love, I kind of resented her. Honestly, she could have been a stronger role model for girls. Still, even though she bothered me and even though her transformation from human to vampire was a little ridiculous, I cried when her story was done. I missed her, and part of me was enraged about not knowing what would happen to Bella and Edward.

            Yet regardless of the annoying cliffhangers, the extremely long plots and the bittersweet endings, readers love sagas. Almost all of the popular fantasy series I know have been turned into movies or television shows. Maybe it is because these stories become such a huge part of our lives that we love them. We get to have stories like Harry Potter that become a part of our lives for ten years. If you ask any Potterhead, those ten or so years were the best years of their lives. Getting lost into a magical world is wonderful, and getting lost into a magical world for years at a time is even better. My father once told me that fantasy novels and movies were pointless because they deluded people from reality. I told my father that the reality was that anyone could find magic in the world; they just had to be willing to look for it. In a way that is what fantasy books do for people. They open up the possibility that this world is so much more than what it seems. They open up the possibility that the impossible can be possible and that magic came be found in this world, even if it is found in the pages of a really good book. 
~Sarina T

P.S. I would love to hear from any of you. What do you think makes Series and Sagas so popular?


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used in this blog post. The views and opinions in this post do not reflect the opinions of the other two bloggers. They are just views and opinions that everyone is entitled to and they are not facts.