So I was listening to 'Viva la Vida" by Cold Play...I love that song. Mostly because it reminds me that no one will remain in power forever!! I think that is one of my favorite things about Fantasy literature...
Like in Eragon, the whole point of the story is for a young man to come into his own and overthrow the tyranical king. As a rule I am ticked that these books that were supposed to be a trilogy are now a quartet, but I am picky...
Harry Potter (here it comes, I warned you...) is about the hero overthrowing the supervillian, Lord Voldemort.
I think what I like about these books, and numerous others, is that they are, in a sense, true. The overwhelming, selfish, tyranical ruler can not stay ruler. It is quite impossible. There are enough people who are either selfish or selfless that cannot allow a ruler like that to remain. I never like "1984". Mostly because it doesn't makes sense to me. It is impossible to crush someones will who refuses to be crushed. If a government falls apart, it will be in Anarchy, not dictatorship or "communism" that the country will fall into. (I put communism in quotations because China and the former USSR were basically dictorships under the guise of communism...don't deny it, because it is true!!)
The Human race has a lot more gumption than many so called modern "realist" authors give credit (like Zadie Smith, Orson Wells, etc...). Those authors (at least to me...) tend to dwell on the many faults of mankind, instead of their persistent virtues in spite of faults. Man cannot exists with out some kind of virtue. It is just impossible. I hate movies that are complete doomsday, where everything is doomed to failure and the end of the world without any hope.
People would say I am an escapist reader, or that I choose to ignore the 'realities' of life. No. I just choose to dwell on realities that don't make me depressed. I know that mankind has many faults and I know (from first hand knowledge) how horrible they can be. But I choose not to emerse myself in them. Mostly because I have too vivid of an imagination....
Fantasy isn't an escape from reality. It is a way to learn to deal with reality. The reader relates personally to Frodo's journey into Mordor and feels every one of his trials and the eventual joy when the ring is destroyed. In that readers own life, they have their own Mordors and rings to bear, reading about how Frodo survived and was able to complete his task helps the reader with their own problems. And anyways, if it was true escapism, it would be a book about fluffy bunnies that have no character development. What is the fun in THAT?
The argument is that people become obsessed with these books and never emerge back to their real lives. Fantasy literature has got to be the least of the things that causes this obsession. Video games, on-line reality games like Second-life, and online chat rooms takes a person away from reality far more literally than any book would. You can actually learn things from Fantasy literature, but I doubt that much is learned from playing mindless video/online games..
Sorry, I got a bit on a soapbox. Let me know what you think!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Can I say HILARIOUS???
So the author, Seth Grahame-Smith basically took Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and added a sub-plot of Zombies that the Bennet sisters are trained to defeat.
If you have ever read (especially if you have read it a million times) "Pride and Prejudice" this will leave you rolling on the floor in laughter.
Mr. Bennet was worried about the lives of his daughters during the time of this horrible plauge (aka Zombies) so he sent his daughters to China to learn to fight and defend themselves from the 'unmentionables'. But this dampens considerably the Bennet girls chance of marriage.
I think what Seth Grahame-Smith did was take the original story and whenever it started to get a little boring, added a zombie attack. I laugh until I cry when I read this book!!
If you like spoofs, you will definitely enjoy this one. Please go read it! MWA HA HA HA!!
So the author, Seth Grahame-Smith basically took Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and added a sub-plot of Zombies that the Bennet sisters are trained to defeat.
If you have ever read (especially if you have read it a million times) "Pride and Prejudice" this will leave you rolling on the floor in laughter.
Mr. Bennet was worried about the lives of his daughters during the time of this horrible plauge (aka Zombies) so he sent his daughters to China to learn to fight and defend themselves from the 'unmentionables'. But this dampens considerably the Bennet girls chance of marriage.
I think what Seth Grahame-Smith did was take the original story and whenever it started to get a little boring, added a zombie attack. I laugh until I cry when I read this book!!
If you like spoofs, you will definitely enjoy this one. Please go read it! MWA HA HA HA!!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman
Okay, first things first. I'm Christian. So naturally I shouldn't be a huge fan of these books, right? Because of the whole killing god thing, but actually that isn't why I don't like these books. I don't like them because they are a soap-box for atheism and it gets boring...
The first book is pretty interesting, has a suitable villain and a good story line, interesting setting in an alternative universe. But the second book dives right into the weird. Most fantasy books are slightly weird, but this is a bit too much for me. Pullman brings in the "real world" (I hate that term...) suddenly, then is having characters cross back and forth between, for the lack of a better word, dimensions. They have some kind of a goal, but it is never very clear what, and the bad guy turns out not to necissarily be bad, just possesive, and the good guy turns out to be a power-hungry crazy guy! (I'm talking about her father..)
Then it starts to be this whole soap box about how Christianity isn't true and organized religion is just a conspiracy theory to gain power and control over people. So in the end of the third book, their is basically another 'War in Heaven', this time with the renegade angels winning...I'm confused just trying to write a description!!! So he is against Christianity, but he uses Christian motifs throughout the whole book to prove how Christianity isn't true? Including 'killing' God?
I think Pullman is trying to use Milton's idea in Paradise Lost of Satan being the true hero of the Fall, but he uses too many ideas that contridict each other. It isn't really a children's novel, it is an academic essay encouched in what looks like a children's novel.
I can also see that Pullman is trying to go against the genre of the Hero Cycle, which usually includes a definate goal, a definate enemy, and a definate higher being (kinda like Dumbledore in Harry Potter, or Gandalf in Lord of the Rings..). Pullman pretends like it is going that way, then pulls the rug out from under the reader, which just adds to the confusion. Instead his characters have to relie on their own ingenuity and figure out what must be done, even though the main characters are 11-12 year old children. It is unrealistic, and too far-fetched for the genre these books seem to be.
These books are interesting to read, mostly because of the spin Pullman takes and the academic arguments that are involved. But they aren't children's books. Far from it, in my view. There is a lot of ethical, religious, and moral debate in these books that can be difficult to understand in the best of times. Some portions of this book I have to read like a textbook, not a novel, to follow the plot at all.
Now, I don't like these books because they are confusing, contradictory, and not what they profess to be. Not because the author is atheist and trying to convince others to be atheist. No matter what an author does, he/she can not change the readers mind about what they already believe. And if I were going to be convinced that there was no God, these books would not prove it. They aren't logical enough and too contradictory to do prove anything other than an interesting twist on High Fantasy, one that I don't think works very well. I commend Pullman for what he is trying to do, but I don't think he succeeds.
"His Dark Materials" are not evil books, as the rumor has been going around the Christian Community. They take an interesting spin on High Fantasy, atheism being a part of that spin, because most High Fantasy (its true!!) has a strain of Christianity in them. Read them, they are very interesting, but I only bought them so I could write a paper about how I didn't like them.
The first book is pretty interesting, has a suitable villain and a good story line, interesting setting in an alternative universe. But the second book dives right into the weird. Most fantasy books are slightly weird, but this is a bit too much for me. Pullman brings in the "real world" (I hate that term...) suddenly, then is having characters cross back and forth between, for the lack of a better word, dimensions. They have some kind of a goal, but it is never very clear what, and the bad guy turns out not to necissarily be bad, just possesive, and the good guy turns out to be a power-hungry crazy guy! (I'm talking about her father..)
Then it starts to be this whole soap box about how Christianity isn't true and organized religion is just a conspiracy theory to gain power and control over people. So in the end of the third book, their is basically another 'War in Heaven', this time with the renegade angels winning...I'm confused just trying to write a description!!! So he is against Christianity, but he uses Christian motifs throughout the whole book to prove how Christianity isn't true? Including 'killing' God?
I think Pullman is trying to use Milton's idea in Paradise Lost of Satan being the true hero of the Fall, but he uses too many ideas that contridict each other. It isn't really a children's novel, it is an academic essay encouched in what looks like a children's novel.
I can also see that Pullman is trying to go against the genre of the Hero Cycle, which usually includes a definate goal, a definate enemy, and a definate higher being (kinda like Dumbledore in Harry Potter, or Gandalf in Lord of the Rings..). Pullman pretends like it is going that way, then pulls the rug out from under the reader, which just adds to the confusion. Instead his characters have to relie on their own ingenuity and figure out what must be done, even though the main characters are 11-12 year old children. It is unrealistic, and too far-fetched for the genre these books seem to be.
These books are interesting to read, mostly because of the spin Pullman takes and the academic arguments that are involved. But they aren't children's books. Far from it, in my view. There is a lot of ethical, religious, and moral debate in these books that can be difficult to understand in the best of times. Some portions of this book I have to read like a textbook, not a novel, to follow the plot at all.
Now, I don't like these books because they are confusing, contradictory, and not what they profess to be. Not because the author is atheist and trying to convince others to be atheist. No matter what an author does, he/she can not change the readers mind about what they already believe. And if I were going to be convinced that there was no God, these books would not prove it. They aren't logical enough and too contradictory to do prove anything other than an interesting twist on High Fantasy, one that I don't think works very well. I commend Pullman for what he is trying to do, but I don't think he succeeds.
"His Dark Materials" are not evil books, as the rumor has been going around the Christian Community. They take an interesting spin on High Fantasy, atheism being a part of that spin, because most High Fantasy (its true!!) has a strain of Christianity in them. Read them, they are very interesting, but I only bought them so I could write a paper about how I didn't like them.
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