The Ear, The Eye and The Arm

"The Ear, the Eye and the Arm," by Nancy Farmer, is a sci-fi novel set in Zimbabwe, 2194. Although a strange choice for setting, it's in no doubt a very clever and intentional choice by the author. When most people think about futuristic cities, they about think huge, densely populated, urban jungles. In the future, not only is Zimbabwe modern, but its size, mass and importance is comparable to any colossal place on Earth. The story follows the children of one of the most important people in all of Zimbabwe, General Matsika. Living a sheltered life, the children one day decide to be adventurous and explore the bustling city of Harare. The children are able to convince their parents to let them go, and set out for their journey into the unknown. Unfortunately, they go through a period of time where the get kidnapped, escape to an old village, get kidnapped again, escape, and get kind of kidnapped again. Through her book, the author is comparing this new city-way of life to the ways of old Africa, and how people want to live in the past, because they deny the problems of the present.

The city of Harare is modern, high tech, yet deals with the problems that most cities deal with: crime. A problem for all the citizens, gang activity is ever so prevalent. It's an urban jungle. Some people can deal with it, but others can not. Set a side to keep the ways and traditions of the old Africa, many people created a state that is the complete opposite of Harare. People who live there are completely isolated and kept away from modern society. It's as if one took a time machine 200 years in the past. People live in huts, and there isn't a trace of modern ways anywhere: no medicine, no filtered water, and definitely no modern medical practices. With all of this tradition and almost ancient heritage, there is a negative. While Harare has crime, there is very little disease, plenty of food, water and modern medical practices. When the children find refugee here, there is a bit of a culture shock. At first they are amazed, and too feel that they have taken a time machine, but all of the realizations kick in. While trying to live in the past is nice on the outside, what actually occurs is completely different. While the present is difficult to handle some times, there are many advantages too. When trying to live in the past, not only are you denying the future, but you are also disadvantaged to those discoveries found in the present.

The message of this book is very accessible, because many people including myself have had these thoughts. It's easy for one to say that they would rather live in the past, because deep down they know that living in the present is a struggle. Life isn't supposed to be easy. If it were, we wouldn't appreciate how easy it was. Pain and suffering teaches us how to appreciate what's good and what's bad. We need that scale, because it balances life. I realized that while reading the book, and it influenced me to think differently.

Romeo & Juliet: THE MOVIE

This is the film adaption of William Shakespear's, "Romeo and Juliet," by Baz Luhrman. The film takes place in the modern era, but the actors speak in verse, just like in the original version. The film follows the story of Romeo, who falls in love with Juliet. Unfortunately, she is a member of a rival house.

Although I appreciate how the film tries to replicate the language of the original version, it falls short in terms of being believable. While talking in verse seems like a good artistic choice, it ends of leaving the characters seeming dry and scripted. While I like the director of photography's choice of color tone, the film troubles me when there are random speed ramps when panning the camera. This choice almost makes the film seem comedic, and like a Disney movie.  On the brighter side, there are many good things that I like about this movie. I   like how the film uses almost angelic color tones when Romeo is talking, but uses harsh and striking blues when a villain is talking. It's interesting how the film uses the television as vehicle for bringing news and information to the masses in the movie.

In conclusion, there are many negatives to this film, but there are also some positives. The film isn't perfect, but I like how Baz Luhrman managed to reinvent such an old and well known text. Out of all the movies I've ever seen, this is one of the more off beat ones. (2001 Space Odyssey and The Tree of Life) The cinematography was very unique, and so was the film over all. The acting wasn't terrific, but the superb directing definitely made up for that. I'd give the film a 7/10

"The Girl Who Played With Fire," Final Thoughts

"The Girl Who Played With Fire," by Stieg Larsson is the sequel to, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." The first book is an introduction to Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomskvist, and the mystery of Harriet Vanger. On the other hand, the sequel explains the events and issues that resulted in Lisbeth being the way she is. It elaborates on what occurrences led to Lisbeth acting so violent towards others, yet it explains why she is so introverted.

As a child, Lisbeth regularly watched her mother being brutally abused by her disgraced father, who has entered and exited Lisbeth's life as often as she would beat someone up or get kicked out of school. There's a direct link to Lisbeth's troubles as an adult, and to her suffering as an adolescent. The actions of Lisbeth's childhood are in no doubt the cause of her shortcomings-leaving Lisbeth with a nonexistence father, a now dead mother, and a sister who is ashamed of her.  Lisbeth become so enraged by her father's abusive ways, that she firebombed his car as he was pulling out of the driveway.  Her father survived, but it forever affect Lisbeth for the rest of her life.

Lisbeth is the way she is, because of her childhood. That's nothing new.  It's the destructive way of how it affected her that is so troubling. This reminds me of kindergarden, when the teacher told us that we should think before we speak. It's not that we should think before we speak, but that we need to realize how our actions affect our consequences. There is no greater example of that saying than in this book.

Salvador Dali=Awesomeness

"Sleep," by Salvador Dali is a surreal painting from 1937.  I think the painting tries to explain how some people in the world choose to block out the problems of society by choosing to ignore them...thus becoming completely oblivious to life itself.

In the center of the painting, there is a large pseudo-human face that is suspended by U-shaped wooden poles. The area around the face seems to be a frozen waste land with a castle in the background. I think that the purpose of the proximity between the castle and the face was to show how the castle is a center of people and realization, while around the face is basically nothing...meaning that the face is possibly isolated from life. The wooden sticks suspending the face are an example of how society is trying to break the face's isolation, by supporting it instead of letting it fall into complete separation.

When Salvador Dali painted this image 75 years ago, I think that he had the intention of explaining his possible struggles with being anti-social. Sometimes at night I look into the stars and think that I'm just a tiny little thing in a vast universe of a trillions. I think of space and the Earth and think that it's just one planet in a myriad of solar systems.  This painting explains that in reality,  people try to block out that realization; they think that the only thing in life that matters is themselves. I think that's what the picture's trying to demonstrate.

And The All-Star Mentor Is...

The All-Star Mentor is Alex Casimir. Go give him some love at <http://fsab2011.blogspot.com/2011/12/jack-gantos-mistakes-into-sucess.html>

I chose Alex as my All-Star mentor, because I think that his blog post exemplifies what a blogpost should look like. Alex does a great job of getting his message across, and his also does it very well. I don't think that Alex's blogposts are perfect, but I can tell that he puts a lot of hard work into them. This is the reason why I chose his as my All-Star Mentor. 

The Girl Who Played With Fire...and other things.

The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson so far seems to continue the same themes and issues as the first book in the series. The subjects of sadism, rape, and all of those other morbid topics appear to be just as prevalent in the first book as the second. I feel that the first book heavily concentrated on the issues focusing around the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, while the second book seems to focus more on the personal life of Lisbeth Salander's and how her life translates to the real world.

In the first book we learned that Salander is an introverted, wild, and just plain weird person, however, we never really learned or understood why she was this way. We know that she was put in a foster home when she was younger, but we don't know why. I only know that this time period in her life is called "All the evil." I'm not sure of what this exactly means, but I can speculate that she was probably abused as a child since it's a very sensitive topic. If Salander was abused as a child, it seems to have affected her greatly: she's a loner, and doesn't trust anyone. It's as if being abused lost all of Salander's hope in society; that's why she's probably the way she is now. It's like she has Post Dramatic Stress Disorder and whenever anyone asks her about her personal life, she shuts up. To compensate for her short comings, she becomes a sex addict. My only reasoning behind is that it gives her a sense dominance that was possibly taken away from her when she was younger.

In conclusion, I've come across the idea that these books weren't just written to be entertaining. It's pretty clear to me that this book and the other books alike were written with a specific agenda in mind. It's obvious to me that these books were written to bring awareness to a serious issue that our society faces today: human rights. It's about how powerful people take advantage of vulnerable people, such as prostitutes or illegal immigrants, and exploit them unjustly and immorally. This is true in all of society, and it's an excellent point that Stieg Larsson makes.

RAPE (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," by Stieg Larsson is starting to get to a point where I can't put the book  down. It has action, violence, suspense, and just about everything else you can imagine. The investigation of Harriet Vanger is in full sale, and Bloomkvist is enlisting the help of Salander to help with research.

What I found the most interesting was the fact before each chapter, the page said that in Sweden, 13% of women were sexually abused by their boyfriend.  I think that this is one of the themes of the book, since Lisbeth Salander struggled was personally affected by this. To expand, my first idea of the book was how big business was taking advantage of the middle class; it seems that the issue now is how people take  advantage of other people for personal gain.

It first started with someone deliberately giving incorrect info to Mikael Bloomkvist; it's continuing with Lisbeth getting raped by her guardian/trustee that was appointed by the government; Now it's proceeding with  Mikael dealing with the murder of Harriet Vanger.  This book is no doubt crazy, however, it is extremely entertaining and thought provoking. Beneath the captivating story line, there's something deeper, more meaningful in this book than that.