Percy Jackson: The Motion Picture

Wikipedia has some answers.  This series has great potential for movies, as do most books in this genre.  It’s a no-brainer or studio heads as there is already a solid fanbase.  Teachers and Librarians can also be recruited to have kids see the movie since it will hopefully get them to read, which is a good thing.  I’m looking forward to February 12, 2010.

Wait, February 12, 2010?  That’s less than a year away!  Wow, and with no cast yet.  That seems to me to be a bit of a problem, especially with the effects shots this flick is going to need to really pull itself off.  It may be a young people’s movie, but that’s no reason to skimp.  Chris Columbus (of Sorcerer’s Stone and Home Alone) is at the helm, so I think it will be pulled off fairly well.

However, I wonder how it will do as a movie series.  Hopefully the Lightning Thief will do well enough to spawn a sequel, and hopefully they don’t do a mashup up the first few books.  Formulas in movies usually work pretty well – look at the many, many James Bond movies.  This has a short list of possible films, too, with a beginning and end.  So that’s good.

I’m pretty excited to see it.  That may not come through, but I am.  I enjoy the books, despite their formulaic plots, and love to see print characters come to life.  Here’s to 2010.

 

DEAR: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Stop, drop, roll yourself to a copy of this book.  You need to read it right now.  I’ll wait.

Waiting.
You didn’t actually read it yet, did you?  Liar.

It is something that escapes my mind quite often, but Sherman Alexie is one of my favorite writers.  The “Diary” is his first Young Adult book, which is to say “Book for all ages over 11.”  Everyone should read this book, Let me tell you.

It is about a young man named Arnold Spirit, Jr and his adjustment to a white school.  He is fed up with the Reservation school and realizes that if he is to be successful, he needs to go to a better school.  He goes.  He is successful.  That’s really not about it.

Alexie has always been a great resource to learn about Indian life.  He doesn’t tell us about dancing and ceremonies, rather, he tells us about life.  What you actually feel like when you are an American Indian.  The sense of lost hope.  The cultural identity being thrown out the window.  How much it can really suck.  But also, how amazing it can be – at the best of times.

Arnold gets through his days by drawing cartoons.  It’s hard not to compare this book to “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”  “Wimpy” is just a fun romp with no seriousness or lessons learned, though.  “Indian” has lessons a-plenty for those willing to read them.  Don’t give up.  Take chances.  Have hope.  Grab life by the balls whenever you can.

And Arnold succeeds.  The story is semi-autobiographical of Alexie’s own youth.  He did some of these things.  Arnold becomes a star basketball player, he finds a hot sometime-girlfriend, he makes real, true friends with the people around him.  And people around him die.  He is blunt and forward about it and we see what life on a reservation is really like.

He also captures what is like for anyone, anywhere to grow up.  Arthur faces challenges he shouldn’t have to, but so do a lot of people.  Our challenges are generally nowhere near Arthur’s, but we face them and can learn from Arthur’s stoic attitude.  He doesn’t run away from difficult decisions.  He makes them.

It is sad to think that this book will probably be banned in some towns.  There’s some fairly “inappropriate” stuff in here.  You know.  Things adolescents actually need help dealing with.  Thank God for Librarians.  Did you know that most Librarians are extremely opposed to taking books off the shelf?  But that’s another post.

 

DEAR Time: Sherlock Holmes

I have been reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes lately.  A large tome containing all of the short stories and the four novels.  Prior to this, I read through a collection of twelve Holmes-related business, including a short story with characters similar to Holmes and Watson.  It was very interesting.

The first Holmes book was “A Study in Scarlet,” and it is fun to read.  As is the next entry, “Sign of Four.”  There are several bits in each that are shockingly horrific from a modern standpoint.  These stories are over a hundred years old, and they seem to have aged a bit.  Examples such as Holmes’ addiction to cocaine and the appearance of a pygmy native from India.

And I wondered, as I read, how well Sherlock is holding up.  Is he being read at all in schools these days?  Is he still as famous as he once was?  As I grew up, everyone knew who Sherlock Holmes was.  Knew with astonishing accuracy.  People unaware of the current president seemed to know.

And low and behold, not one but two movies are being made involving Sherlock.  One is a comedy to star Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell.  The other is a Guy Ritchie project with Robert Downey, Jr.  Which is a pretty crazy thing to think about.  I suppose he can still live up to modern day thinking.  If we forget about the pygmies, that is.

 

The Words: Merle’s Door

Ted Kerasote had a dog and his name was Merle.  And he wrote a book about that dog.  Not just about that particular dog, but other dogs, wolves, elk, and the people he lives with in Wyoming.  And this book made me cry, oh yes it did.

Kerasote gives mostly chronological anecdotes of Merle’s life, interspersed with bits about what is actually good for dogs.  Training wise, that is.  He talks about the intelligence and personality Merle develops being allowed lots of free-roaming time.  The door in the title is an actual doggie door with which Merle receives something few dogs get – total freedom.

Merle and Kerasote do not share the popularized “Alpha -Beta” relationship – which has been found to be seriously missing crucial portions.  Instead, they share the leadership role.  Kerasote respects Merle as he would a human.  The way Merle acts, it’s hard not to acknowledge that dogs certainly can be considered people.

What an excellent read.  I have not cried due to a book since “Where the Red Fern Grows” in fourth grade.  Fittingly, also a book about people-like dogs.  Dogs are great people.  I love my dogs.

I bought this book instead of borrowing.  Sam actually used part of her Christmas present to buy it for me a long time ago.  I have been reading it for a while.  After weeping through most of the final chapter, I set the book aside and gave Grendel a big hug.  He didn’t know why.

He laid down afterwords, sighed, and farted.

Which is what dogs do.

 

Ramblings of a Genius or What to Read?

Well, it’s that time in my life again. I am having trouble finding something to read. I am currently looking at some books, but not really reading them. After blazing through the Percy Jackson books – new one in May! – and a few others, it just hasn’t been rolling.

I read Be Cool by Elmore Leonard a week or so ago and really enjoyed it. A month ago, actually. Elmore Leonard was first brought to my attention about a year ago by a guy who described him as a “guilty pleasure.” I really find Leonard to be a very good writer, though. He doesn’t waste language. Why then, don’t I read more of his work? Meh. I don’t know.

I am looking at Gulliver’s Travels, another book about talking to kids, The Portable MFA, a book on nature crafts, and a few others. I read the first book in the Underland chronicles. It was a bit boring but a kid at Skyline assures me they get more exciting. I’m on a non-fiction kick I think. So I should probably get a good non-fiction book. But what to get? I find it harder to get a good non-fiction. Perhaps Nickel and Dimed will be a good choice. Can you believe I haven’t read it yet?

In other news, writing is continuing. Not a lot. I am happy that I’ve kept up with the April poetry. Unfortunately, most of the poems are written around 11:30 when I say to myself: “Shit! I haven’t written my poem today!” So, we’ll see what happens.

Later this week (I hope) I’ll post a Ded Jimmy poem with illy-strations. “Cthulu” is a poem about Ded Jimmy’s pet. Named “Cthulu.” I enjoy this stuff because it’s fun. Which is what writing should be.

Speaking of the fun of writing and Elmore Leonard: He has published a book called Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing or something like that. It’s a pretty good breakdown of ten good guidelines for writing. The ones people break all the time.

I have been a bit active on Critique Circle, a website for critiquing, and it is not as good as it could be. I haven’t really been earning respect, though. I need to be on their more, I suppose. I keep getting critiques that are good – but the same as my college classes. On the other side of the coin, I haven’t really submitted a rough draft for anything. So that’s that.

Which leads me to Elmore’s rules. People break ‘em all the time. And not in a good way. Writers are so full of language, it’s crazy. Writers need to be more efficient with language – myself included.

I have some thoughts on movies.  But I think I’ll do another post for that.

 

Terry Pratchett

I am a big fan of Terry Pratchett, the Discworld series exclusively. I’ve never had a chance to read his other writing, unfortunately. The Discworld is a big place, though, so I haven’t been wanting for material to read. I might be soon.

Mr. Pratchett has a form of Alzheimer’s. It was a bit of a shock to me when I read it. I was surprised at my reaction, too – but I guess it might be normal. I was quite a bit sad. His writing is very entertaining but also enlightening in the way it makes you think about things. Not in a serious way, but very good nonetheless.

There is a website to help raise funding for Alzheimer’s now in which he matches the donations made. This is a good thing. http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/

So, that’s that for the day I think. If you like fantasy, I bet you would like visiting the Discworld. It’s a very fun place.

 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Read this book. You will laugh. If you don’t, you have no sense of humor.

That’s all the review it needs.

 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

My reading thus far has brought me to The Titan’s Curse, book three in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I am heartily enjoying it.

It has been a while since I really saw that I am not a fan of “grown-up” literature. I dig the young adult stuff far more. It is usually more imaginative and the characters seem better designed. I think this is due to there being a lot more competition in the market, so you have to be damn good. I do still read the grown-up stuff, but generally only if it is humorous.

Percy Jackson is no doubt comparable to Harry Potter. At a certain age, after weird things happen to him, he finds out he is the son of an Olympian God. It is all set in present day and the Gods are in the USA – the center of Western Civilization having moved here from Greece. Mount Olympus is above the Empire State building and Hades is beneath LA. It’s all very well thought out and reads somewhat like a pop culture epic – if Greek Gods are pop culture. I find myself trying to figure out what is being shown in the book from mythology. And it is fun.

As a creative writing major having read very literary things, the prose makes me cringe somewhat. But the story is very well thought out. Unfortunately, that’s because it’s very Potter-esque. Of course, there’s a finite number of stories to tell – its how you tell them that’s important. I think Anansi would agree.

The series features troubled youth Percy adventuring to save himself and his friends from angry elder gods trying to destroy earth. Good and Evil are well defined, but we see both in the characters – and that’s good. In the second book, The Sea of Monsters, one of the main characters discovers her fatal flaw and informs Percy all heroes have one. It’s not content to just sit back and have our heroes explore unscathed. The danger is real and people turn bad, get injured, and I will not be surprised when someone dies.

More importantly, it is fun to read. It is told in classic first-person-adolescent narrative, meaning we hear all sort of sarcastic reviews on what the protagonist is watching. We will often hear that we can’t believe the smell of people’s feet in this POV. It works quite well. Percy is well thought out, as is the other main character, Annabeth. Clarisse, daughter of Ares, is a bit too cookie-cutter bully girl for me, but like I said, I am having fun.

If you like Greek Mythology, you’ll get a big kick out of this. Since it’s for youth, one can blaze through the books in about a week. If you just enjoy fantasy, also a good quick read. Buy it for that reading niece or nephew – the first two books are in paperback now.