place the taste of space

"Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters [book]

2008-04-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

FINGERSMITH by Sarah Waters

Gosh, it's been a long time since I last came across a book I could not put down. This engaging novel reads like a part-mystery, part-coming-of-age story that turns out to be somewhat convoluted romance about half-way through. Oh, and the plot is very much Greek tragedy. Set in Victorian England with a memorable cast of characters, the writing reminds me a bit of Margaret Atwood meets Jeanette Winterson.

It was first recommended to me by my English teacher in Year 12, and I think I glanced over it once in the bookstore, but for some reason it didn't engage me. Am very glad I gave it another go, though. There be madhouse, which takes me back to my Extended Essay in English for the IB. Normally I don't like switching character POVs, but Powers does it to good effect, and the twisty plot kind of requires it. I enjoyed Maude a bit more than Susan, perhaps because I could identify with her situation.

Highly recommend this, and I hear that Powers' other books are excellent also.

"Nim's Island" [movie]

2008-04-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

NIM'S ISLAND
Directors: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin
Writers: Joseph Kwong, Paula Mazur, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin
Production Company: Film Farm, Walden Media

Things that made Mars happy:

The animation at the beginning and end were excellent. Sort of like Monty Python's Gillianimation, but for kids.
Gerard Butler was funny and ruggedly dashing. Even if he was only an imaginary figure.
The stork.
Pro-environment agenda FTW!

Things that made Mars hide:

The 9375802349 times Nim reiterates her need to protect the island.
Australians running away from flying lizards, and mistaking them for dragons. I mean, have you seen the kinds of critters you get Down Under?
Bad Guys a la Caricatures

Thing is, I wonder if the points I dislike about the movie are more because of me being an old cynical gecko watching a movie for kids. I did enjoy a good portion of it; Jodie Foster was very amusing and Abigail Breslin was sweet. I loved the animals, and the story-like format at the beginning was brilliant. But yeah, looks like Peter Pan won't be coming by anymore.

That said, I also don't think that a movie/TV show/book should be dumbed down just because the target audience is children and families.

Recommended for: Light, casual viewing and semi-cheap laughs.
Warning: Watch out for the cheeze. It'll dribble all over you.

"Candide" by Voltaire [book]

2008-03-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

CANDIDE by Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)
Translation by Burton Raffel, Yale University Press

One of the most distinctively unique pieces of literature I've ever read, this French satirical novella is a response out of the Enlightenment period to the indoctrination of the people by the church and state, and particularly to Leibnizian Optimism. The central character is continuously disillusioned by the hardships and obstacles he experiences, and sets out trying to prove the philosophy of the world being the "best of all possible things" by finding one person who's life story supports it. The style is partly picaresque, after the popular romance and adventure stories in European culture, which Voltaire's satire also addresses by reversing the normal archetypes and highlighting the unrealistic and superficial nature of the characters based on them.

A thought-provoking and memorable book, and quite short, though full of action. The narrative seems to consist almost purely of cause and consequence. At first, the reader may be taken aback by the swift changes in scene and circumstance, hardly allowing time for thought (which may have been the author's intention), but the prose soon transcends the details in a blur of half-remembered names. The ending feels like there's a morale in there somewhere, but is rather open-ended in what exactly the message of this morale could be.

Torchwood Season Two Premiere in....

2008-01-16T11:49:00.001-08:00

Um. One hour?

The forums have quietened down, except for the faithful core who ~~are inseparable from the internet anyway~~ will linger to the very last minute. There is a feeling that I might liken to a pre-game tension, if I actually watched games. Even those of us who are not in the UK are a bit subdued, by which I mean that we are very quietly doing the internet equivalent of bouncing off walls in each other's blogs and online journals.

Pretty soon, the fandom will go quiet. And though we who are left to twiddle our thumbs in wait may grumble and throw envious looks, the British fans have truly waited a painfully long time for this day, so we don't begrudge them the chance to see it first. Much.

The ride begins again tonight!

"The Wee Free Men" by Terry Pratchett [book]

2008-01-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

THE WEE FREE MEN
by Terry Pratchett

The wonderful thing about Terry Pratchett is that even when he writes a book intended for young readers, he doesn't patronize with simplified vocabulary or formulaic plots. The Discworld came into being as a parody of conventional fantasy literature, and this carries right into the story of nine-year-old Tiffany.

After all, fairy tales are just another form of fantasy.

From the start, I was enchanted by Tiffany Aching. An exceedingly sensible girl who has a way with cheese, Tiffany deals with a monster that jumps out at her from a stream by going at it with her mother's frying pan. She wants to know why the handsome prince and beautiful princess in the stories are what it says they are. She is able to identify a witch on sight, though perhaps the talking toad was a bit of a clue. Above all, she wants to find Granny Aching.

Great read, had me in tears the first time, and now I reread it at least once every year. It's also where I first came across the word "susurrus". There's also a cameo by certain characters from the main Discworld novels. Fits in best with the Witches' storyline, but the character of Tiffany reminds me a lot of Susan from the Death storyline. Highly recommended to readers of all ages, and especially to fans of Pratchett's other works.

2K8, or so my countrymen call it

2008-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hello 2008! You look a mighty lot like 2007, but it's only been a week. How time marches on. Friends of mine will be finishing their final stint at university in the coming months, at least in the undergraduate level.

On the other hand, the start of the second season of Torchwood next week has hyped up branches of the Doctor Who Forum and LiveJournal communities to an almost amusing degree. But those are fandom matters, which I have resolved to try and keep out of this blog, at least.

Speaking of which... I still haven't decided what to do with this blog. Certainly not something that needs constant updating.

Starting with the easy, usual choices- books. Movies are good, too, though dear RC is doing a stellar job with those in her blog, because your life isn't interesting. Yes, what just passed before your eyes was a not-so-subtle pimp of her blog. Because a healthy regimen of sarcasm is good for the intellectual soul, don't you know?

So we'll start with books. Maybe food? Not necessarily recipes, but new dishes or eating establishments, perhaps the odd kitchen experiment. Poetry? Interesting geography? What about umbrellas?

We'll go with the books and see what follows on from there. I also want to try completing the 50 books challenge over at LJ (which involves, of course, reading 50 books, in the space of 1 year) so this'll be ~~hitting~~ humanely accosting two birds with one stone. First up will be a reread... Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett.

One Month Later...

2007-11-29T23:43:00.000-08:00

I am back.

If you're wondering what NANOWRIMO is, I made an earlier post about it that has more information. Alternatively, feel free to visit the official website -- http://www.nanowrimo.org

What it really means though, is this:
30 days of living, breathing, eating, prodding, twisting, and hallucinating a work of original fiction. Friends being put on hold in favor of another hour on the keyboard. Family members spewing on about misplaced priorities. Copious amounts of caffeine. Writing on anything within reach that stands still long enough. Walking around with a mad, sleep-deprived gleam in the eyes while muttering dialogue.

Ah, sheer bliss.

This year, I hit 50,117 words on day 28. Took a little longer than last year, but still pretty good for somebody who had never before gone beyond the 10k mark on a piece of original fiction.

And now it's back to the real world.

I really need to figure out what to put on this blog.

California Wildfires '07

2007-10-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

(photo courtesy of Kevin Labianco @ Flickr)

Southern California is burning. The causes for most of the fires are still officially 'unknown', what got the party really going was a combination of dry foliage and heat (drought conditions) and strong hot winds from Santa Ana.

Look at where the wildfires are.

It has been confirmed that the Santiago Fire in Orange County (the closest one, incidentally, to yours truly) was caused by arson. CNN.com has an article about it here.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been visiting the residential areas affected by the fires, joined today by President Bush on a tour of a Rancho Bernardo neighbourhood. It seems that the federal government have learned from Hurricane Katrina, when turtles with full bellies could have outraced them to the stadium full of marooned people in New Orleans.

Detailed and regular reports of the wildfires can be found on Sign on San Diego Wildfires Blog.

Civilian death toll: 8
Firefighters injured: 40
Estimate of area that burned: 3,200 square km
No. of people evacuated: somewhere between 500,000 - 1,000,000

As for those of us further to the north but still close enough to get the by-products of a thousands of acres of woods going up in flames, here were my observations on Monday:

"The air smelled like ashes. Above, the sun shone orange-yellow, not unlike the middle bulb on a stoplight. Dryness and tiny debris made the throat burn and eyes sting. Walking in the open air left skin feeling like dust."

California is officially a "major disaster area". My uni is on Red Flag Alert, so no outdoor sports. But things seem to have calmed down a little. Or rather, we've gotten used to a sky that looks like it's made of dirty cotton balls, a glowy orange ball for a sun, and a feeling of surprise whenever we encounter a pocket of air that doesn't smell of smoke.

When all this dies down, the firefighters in this state should get one great big THANK YOU.

NaNoWriMo 2007: One Week 'Till It Starts!

2007-10-25T11:13:00.001-07:00

What is NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo stands for 'National Novel Writing Month', and is best described thus:
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. (From the official website: http://www.nanowrimo.org)

It happens every year during the month of November. Winning means reaching that 50,000 word count before the stroke of midnight on November 30. There are no joining fees, or any actual prizes, just the satisfaction of having completed a novella.

It's totally worth it. And I should know, because:

::GRINS::

So there's one week left before NaNoWriMo 2007 starts! Chris Baty, the founder, recommends this as being the best time to start any preparations. From last year's experience, I'd say that at the very least, this week should be used to find all those pockets of spare time in one's daily routine that can be used for writing.

CHECKLIST
+ suitable music for writing - orchestral and mood
+ helpful quotations and poems
+ locate my reference books
+ check coffee supply
+ warm socks
+ more pens (but stay away from new notebooks at bookstore)
+ be nice to the iPod
+ come up with title

The Forums
You can find me over at the NaNo forums as 'looking4mars' :D I usually start off lurking in the "NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul" board (the "NaNoisms" thread is particularly helpful if you feel your sanity slipping away to frolic with your plot bunnies). Then as I get more involved in the writing I would join in at "Word Wars, Prompts & Sprints" (the sprints are excellent for short bursts of frenzied writing). On particularly productive days I'd peek in at "This is Going Better than I'd Hoped", but these are rare occasions. The 'Genre Lounges' are great for asking specific questions. And there are the milestone threads (20,000 words, 30,000 words, and so on) which aren't up yet but will be when it all starts- posting in them as you pass each milestone is just immensely satisfying :-)

Anyway, the more the merrier, so if you feel like giving this a go, please go to http://www.nanowrimo.org and JOIN! There were over 50,000 writers last time, and the numbers tend to go up every year. Or, if you've done it before and already have an account there ~~which I know for a fact a couple of you do, hint hint~~, why not give it a try this year?

I'm definitely doing original fiction this year, using some ideas from last year (before I switched to fanfiction) and this summer's failed attempt at ScriptFrenzy. Will post more details closer to the date.

Starting with a Sonnet

2007-10-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Deciding how to start off one's shiny new blog is always a difficult task. And I should know, since the number of blogs I currently have is getting somewhat ridiculous. But I like to think that one should always start as one intends to go on.

In this case, with a sonnet.

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rime;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
’Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.
- Sonnet LV, William Shakespeare