DC Versus MARVEL: DC Movies

I've been meaning to write up my reviews of the Marvel and DC movies that have come out in the last year or so. I'll be talking about two movies for each company; Batman Versus Superman and The Killing Joke for DC and Civil War and Age of Apocalypse for Marvel. In this post, I'll be talking DC and why these movies were not as good as they should have been.

  So, let's start with Batman versus Superman. I will admit my bias against this version of Superman right away. I wasn't in love with him in the Man of Steel and nothing changed in this movie. He was, quite frankly, boring. He was a cardboard character that they tried to make interesting, but failed. Far more interesting was Affleck's Batman.

   Affleck surprised me with how good he was as Bruce Wayne and Batman. It was just disappointing that this version of Batman was so unbelievable. The story made Batman do things that Batman just wouldn't do. The fact that the narrative had Batman branding criminals was absurd. The best part of Batman's character is how he skirts the line between enough violence and too much. In my opinion, branding criminals with his bat symbol was way over the line. I couldn't see any incarnation of Batman doing that and it really took me out of the story.

  What can I say about the story? It was kind of a mess. You had an overly emotional Batman, because really he cares, but much more about people close to him and the Wayne employees can't have been that close to him and an unlikable Superman. It doesn't take that much to see why Bruce Wayne blames him and questions his intentions. The story tries to push Superman into going after Batman also by having Clark Kent try to investigate the mysterious vigilante. Honestly though, it falls flat and didn't really seem to build the same momentum that they gave to Batman.

Then there was Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman. Lex Luthor contributed a genetically engineered monster, Doomsday and a lame kidnapping to the already muddy plot. Luthor arranges for Superman to have to fight Batman to save his mother Martha. While Batman has that weird vision of a dark future where Superman tears out his heart to motivate him in the fight, along with that weird future Flash (at least I think it's Flash) that warns him that Lois Lane must not die (oh yeah and maybe form the Justice League too). All this comes together in the fight at the end of the movie. The title fight between Superman and Batman was fairly decent, though it did go on too long. But the end? That was ridiculous. Because their mothers share a common name that snaps Bruce out of his rage and makes them both instantly decide to trust each other and fight Lex instead? It felt weak and would have broken the movie, had it been a better movie to begin with.

When we finally get to the end and the fight with Doomsday, the duo gets to add their third with the appearance of Wonder Woman. We had previously seen Diana Prince in the movie and if you were like me you were watching every minute of her screen time trying to piece together what backstory they were going to use. She was a breath of fresh air in this testosterone fueled disaster. She effortlessly stole every scene she was in and might have been able to save the movie if the script wasn't so God-awful. In the final battle, she gets to come out; bad ass rock music blaring, confidence in every step, to try and save the boys from the big bad monster.  Ultimately, it is Superman who sacrifices his life to stop Doomsday and Bruce and Diana are left to mourn him and start looking for the members of what will become the Justice League.

Moving over to the Killing Joke animated movie; I must say I was disappointed with the story and execution. Now, I have not read the original graphic novel that this was based on, which was probably good as nothing was coloring how I enjoyed the movie. Or didn't enjoy the movie as the case may be. I will state that the voice acting was fantastic and it was lovely to have Mark Hamil back as the Joker along with the rest of the gang from the animated series. The Joker's origin story was also very good. I liked how he fell in with the criminals and one bad day led him to becoming the Joker. It was a good foil for Batman's one bad day making him into the hero while Joker's turned him into a monster. They are of course, uncomfortably similar in many ways. And that point was made nicely in this movie. However it didn't start out that way.

The beginning is so terrible I nearly turned it off. The heavy handed obsession Barbara has with the criminal at the start and the fact that she doesn't listen to Bruce, felt really contrived. And the crush that leads to sex and then Barbara hanging up the cape was just not done well at all. First, Batman would not sleep with any of his proteges (even though they try to make Barbara and Bruce a thing in Batman Beyond, it was never in the original comic canon.) Second, they certainly would not have done it the way it was portrayed in the movie (basically post fight sex on a roof top). Batman has more respect for Batgirl than that. At least I have always thought so. It seems far out of character for him and a disservice to her to put them in a basically one-sided one time romance. Thirdly, it felt completely separate and tacked on to the rest of the movie, mostly because it was. The one had nothing to do with the other.

As for the rest of the movie, I felt a bit let down after all the hype surrounding this and enjoyed previous Batman animated movies more. This was a straight-forward story with little in the way of plot twists. I found the origin of the Joker interesting and got what they were going for by saying Joker and Batman were not so different. I was unimpressed by the torture of Gordon, and not really clear why Joker was doing it at the time. Maybe I just not was super invested in James Gordon's character, it didn't really shock me or anything. Not like when I saw the Batman Beyond movie Return of the Joker. They didn't even have to go into the torture there, just hint at it and let the watcher's own mind fill in the blanks. That was so much more effective on me and I was so horrified at what had happened to Robin in that one. This just felt barely threatening, and no where nearly as brutal and twisted as I expected it to be to earn the R rating it received. And maybe the end joke between Batman and Joker was more impactful in the comic book, but it seemed to lack something here. In the end, there have been better animated DC movies and this one just did not live up to the hype.

In the end, both DC movies lacked a certain something that makes the Marvel one much more watchable. Oh yeah, that would be fun and maybe some optimism. DC has always been about the dark and broody, but you need a little levity among all the gloom or else why are the characters even fighting. And maybe directors that want to actually make a movie with the iconic characters intact rather than try to change them in stupid ways (Zack Snyder I'm looking at you). Although Marvel has its own failings, the movies very rarely fail to tell an entertaining story.

Tune in for part 2 of the DC versus Marvel reviews: The Marvel Movies.

Just a Test

Testing

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The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Kid's Book Tubby and the Lantern

Review of Artful by Peter David

  As always there will be spoilers, so if you don't want any please don't read the review.

 I recently read the kindle version of Artful by Peter David. I've always liked his books, especially his Star Trek novels, so I knew this would be well written and entertaining. The book is written in the style of the original Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and the reader should have read that novel before reading this one. There are many references back to the original Dickens novel and it would be a shame to miss them. The main difference between Dickens novel and David's humorous continuation is the addition of vampires.
  The basic premise is the story of the Artful Dodger after the end of Oliver Twist. Now, at the end of Oliver Twist it is implied that the Dodger is sent off to Australia, which was a prison colony at the time. In Artful, he avoids that fate and stays in England. The reader also discovers that Fagin, who was hung in the original novel, survives his fate also. This is due to the fact that he is a vampire.  Dodger meets up with several interesting characters including; the future queen of England, Van Helsing, Mr. Fang (a magistrate and vampire), and several lesser-known but important government officials.
  Mr. Fang and his vampires have a plan to rule England by turning the royal family into vampires. As the young princess has sneaked out to explore the city around her, the vampires close in to grab her and change her into one of them. All that stands between the vampires' plans of ruling England is the Artful Dodger.
  I enjoyed this book a lot. The writing was smart and entertaining. The characters were well-developed and likable. The plot was smart and tense enough to keep you turning pages the whole way through. If you liked books like Pride and Prejudice and zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire hunter this is similar to that kind of blending of old literature and humor. I would recommend it.

Changes and reviews

So, I'm changing this blog once again. I think I'm going to focus on reviews and opinion pieces and less on poetry and fiction. I'm going to do my best to commit to a post a week and hope I can manage more. This week's review is going to be on movies. There will be spoilers, so if you don't want that please skip the reviews.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
I rented this a little bit ago and found it to be as good as the others in the series. The new productions of the Planet of the Apes movies have been really well done and surprisingly thought provoking. The third movie in the series, Dawn shows the aftermath of the second movie and fast-forwards through a brief record of the Simian Flu that has killed off a significant portion of the human race. It then picks up with the ape society who have been living in a forest in California with no contact with humans in years.Of course, this can't last and a group of humans find themselves running in to the apes.
 Things slowly fall apart from there. Although Caesar and a few of the humans try to keep the piece, it is not possible. One of Caesar's closet friends, Koba, betrays his ideals and arranges the escalating situation to paint the humans as the aggressors. Koba leads the apes against the humans, starting the violence that will eventually lead to the society in the first Planet of the Apes movies.
 The effects are incredible and the story line is solid. You really feel for the apes and the humans both. The humans are try to stay alive in a world without most of the basics of society. The apes haven't forgot the experiments that the humans subjected them to and some are not willing  to have the humans live anywhere near them. The inevitable fight at the end was fraught with emotion on all sides. And I enjoyed the quieter story lines between Caesar and his son and the human family interacting with the apes. On the whole, a well-balanced movie and worth watching.

Writer's Digest POD: Day Three

Day three's prompt was a message poem.

UNKNOWN

The letter was old;
paper yellowed and creased
like my grandmother's hands,
worked and reworked
year after year.

Abandoned by its envelope,
lost some time ago,
set adrift in the box
of old family photos
waiting to belong.
If we could only determine
pedigree.

Many attempts had been made
to decipher dates or names.
But the words hid too well
leaving few clues
of authorship.

My darling S--
Sarah? Stephanie?
Samuel? Sean?

Without you
no light
Days dark
endless
see you
be together
Happy
Love
Yours,
T--
Tessa? Tracey?
Trevor? Thomas?

The message remains unsolvable
though perfectly clear.
S and T are caught
forever
anonymously -- in love.

Poem A Day: Day Two

The prompt for today was Voyages. I didn't really get to the voyage in the poem; it was more about the leaving than the journey. But I guess that is part of the voyage too.

LAST VOYAGE

The time came for departure
and one by one
goodbyes were said.
There were smiles and well wishes,
but also tears.

The sky was the kind of blue-gray
you only ever saw in watercolor paintings.
The streaky, uncertain color
blended almost out of existence;
signifying the dampness of the air
too light to be rain
too heavy to be mist.
Atmosphere muddled with emotion.

Finally the voyagers must away to their ship.
They can tarry no longer.
They must catch the tide, the wind,
the sea.
The lines are cast
and sails unfurled.
The waves beckon them west.
To new places and adventures;
to wonders unseen.
To quiet morns and moonlit nights
And hours of joy between.

National Poetry Month: Day One

This year I'm participating in Writer's Digest's Poem A Day for National Poetry Month. That is exactly what it sounds like; writing a poem a day. I'm sharing them on the Writer's Digest Blog; Poetic Asides and here. So day one's poem is The Morning. The prompt for today was beginnings.

The Morning

Sunlight slants through half-closed blinds.
Pale light, barely there,
struggling past the clouds.
It creeps across the carpet;
an ugly green, she insisted
was jade.

The light climbs slowly
up her arm,
flickering over freckles.
And gaining intensity as it
reaches her shoulder.

Muffled protests precede
a great wave of motion.
Turning away from the window,
she pulls cast off covers
over tangled hair;
and hides from the cheery sun.

Her clock tic, tic, ticks
marking minutes until her alarm
will yank her from slumber.
But right now she hoards
every second of sleep.

The sun doesn't care
for her dreams.
It shines all the brighter
sending tendrils to the far corners
of her room.
Illuminating "robin egg blue"
walls
and a white dress
waiting to be worn.

Writing Prompt: Most Vivid Dream

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The writing prompt for today comes from this website: http://www.carrieelle.com/2013/01/writing-prompts.html. She writes, "Describe your most vivid dream." The most vivid dream that I can remember was when I was about eight or nine. It was not a happy dream, but I guess that makes sense. I think you do tend to remember things that frighten you more than happy things. When your adrenaline is high, your senses are heightened and everything is in clear focused detail. I had this dream right before we left for a trip to Colorado.

My brother's soccer team was playing in a tournament out in Colorado Springs. We were driving out there early so we could stop along the way and vacation. My parents were big on the driving family vacation. Every summer we piled into the car and spent a week or two in some location or locations having fun together. Most of the time it revolved around my older brother's soccer tournaments. The trip out to Colorado would be the farthest West we had ever gone.

The dream began innocently enough. I was with my parents and brother on a bus full of the other boys  on Derek's team and their parents. We were driving up a mountain, nothing too strange about that since we were in Colorado. All the kids were excited and talking over each other, making it really noisy. I was looking out the window and the scenery reminded me of the Sound of Music. The bus driver was talking, but I couldn't really hear or understand him. We finally arrived at the top of the mountain and everyone piled out. There was some sort of wooden building and lots of signs. The boys were all running around and yelling, like boys do. My mother called me over and she was standing near the edge looking over the side of the peak. I walked up to her and followed her gaze, looking down. It was a very high mountain and a long way down. And then it happen; one minute I was looking over the edge, then next I was falling over it. In the dream, I fell forward over the edge, but then turned somehow in midair and was looking back up at the mountain as I fell. I could feel the wind rushing by me and the cool air and the incredible speed. I woke up before I hit the ground.

When we drove up Pikes Peak in a loaded school bus a few days later, I did not go anywhere near the edge.

Gen Con and Peter Davison the Fifth Doctor

Once every couple of years we make the trek up to Indy for Gen Con. That's at least four hours there and another four hours back; sometimes all in one day if people can't schedule to be off work. Now Gen Con is a pretty cool convention and has tons of things to do, but you had better come prepared to spend money. Most events cost money, on top of the $50 per day that you spend to get into the convention. However, if you are not there to play in every tournament you can get off without breaking the bank. If you are like me and my friends, then you spend most of your time in the exhibition hall. That's where the selling is going on. Companies from all over bring their best games to Gen Con. one of the nicest things that they do is let people demo the games right there. Mostly the brand new stuff and the very popular. It's really cool to test something like that before you shell over the $50-$75 for the game.

Aside from the games on sale, you will find sci-fi, fantasy, and anime dealers there with their wares. Collectibles, dvds, cds, costumes, and more are all on sale for your buying pleasure. It's a rare person that makes it through all the booths without buying something. I never make it. This year I was lucky enough to find several gifts that are stored away for Christmas. I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets Christmas shopping done at the con.

Gen Con also boasts media and insider guests of honor. This year the big names for the media were Peter Davison (the fifth doctor) and Walter Koenig (Star Trek). I will admit that the draw for me was Davison. I love Doctor Who and Peter Davison was one of my favorite doctors. I actually stood in line and got an autograph and picture with him. It was very exciting. The only problem was I was too shy to really talk to him at all. Besides he had a pretty long line of people waiting for their turn. I decided I would use this post to say some of the things I wanted to say to him.

A lot of people are kind of indifferent to Davison's doctor which I think is a real shame. To me he was one of the most memorable doctors. He's often ranked under Tom Baker with fans, but I liked him just as much and maybe even a little better. He was a slightly more serious Doctor, despite the celery on his lapel. While Baker talked his way out of situations by confusing his enemies and then out-thinking them; Davison often talked his way out of situations with honesty and heart. He was the best Doctor at being really good. I always felt like his Doctor really cared about and looked after his companions. He seemed like such a dad, always trying his best to keep tabs on the companions and keep them out of harm's way. He was very human and relatable. He was less crazy and funny than Tom Baker and that's what worked really well for him. I liked him because he was so different from Baker.

He has had a very nice career before and after Doctor Who. The two other shows he is probably best known for are All Things Great and Small and lately Law & Order: UK. Having spent just a few moments in his presence; he seemed to be a genuine, nice guy. Someone who really is thankful that he has played the roles he has and still has fans who want to come out and see him. He was unfailingly polite to everyone and was kind and smiled throughout his signing session. I was so thankful that I had a chance to see him in person. It was an absolute pleasure.

Gamer Girl

I'm starting this blog back up because I'm trying to practice my writing. I haven't been very active in the writing world lately. I've been doing some freelance editing and I've come to realize that I miss writing. I'm going to try and post once or twice a week and see how that goes. I  may increase if I get properly motivated.I bought some writing prompt books for my kindle and I'm going to be using some of those I think. But today I'm going to start with something that's been on my mind recently; gaming.

I am a gamer girl. I'm not sure when that happened exactly. I was not really one when I was younger. I was a book girl. I never went anywhere without a book. I brought books to school, books in the car, books on trips, and books to read during commercials in front of the TV. I was never without a good book. Now, it's not that I stopped reading, I still have full bookshelves, but video games have taken over more of my free time. When I have a few free hours in an evening, I go and play my Xbox rather than sit down with a good book.

I played games in grade school, but it was mostly board games with the family. I was always very competitive. There were not a whole lot out there yet for video games. My family did not invest in a video game system like Atari or Nintendo. We had computers. In fact we had one of the first home computers, the Commodore 64. It was mostly for my Dad, but my brother and I both had a couple of games for it. As the computers progressed, so did our systems. My Dad tried to keep up with the latest technology that we could afford. However, even when I finally had my own computer, I still didn't have too many games. I used it mostly for school. My brother used his mostly for games. And it was Derek that bought the first game system, a Super Nintendo. I didn't really get to play that much, because it was his. Even so, we both still played computer games more often than games for the Super Nintendo.

Derek finally bought a Playstation 2 and we both spent more time playing on that system. By then I was out of high school and in my first year of college. In college I didn't really have time for games. But I did meet a few people that pulled me into gaming; video and tabletop. I spent a summer playing D&D with a group of friends. We played at David's house and he was as much into video games as he was into D&D. He had every gaming system I had ever heard of; plus several I didn't know even existed. We tried them all. He even gave me his old Xbox when her upgraded to the Xbox 360. It wasn't too long before I was playing more games than I had ever played before. After college, I even upgraded myself to the Xbox 360. I can  now spend several hours playing games. And, though occasionally I think I may be losing some of my literature chops, it hasn't stopped me from questing through Skyrim or beating up bad guys as Batman. I suppose as an escape, video games offer something unique. You can immerse yourself in a good book and feel for the characters and the world of the book. In a video game, you don't have to be emotionally invested in the characters to go out and kill things or find treasure. You can follow a storyline, or just beat people up, or play a sport, and you can succeed or fail on your own merit. That's a level of control that you can't really get from a book.

Morganville Vampires

This blog was going to be about classic literature, but I found that I'm not that much of a masochist. I couldn't face weeks of classic literature, so I'll be just talking about what I'm currently reading or watching on tv or dvd. Today it's the Morganville Vampire series that I'm reading.

If you're a vampire fan and haven't started this series yet, you're missing out. This series by Rachel Caine takes place in a small town in Texas. There's a college campus and some other small businesses, but not much else in the town. Well, except for the vampires. The main character Claire is a young freshman at the college and discovers the vampire fairly early in the first book. She's a likable character that grows and develops throughout the series, gaining both the vampires' attention and a boyfriend.

The series is categorized as young adult and there is a bit of romance, so if that puts you off avoid the series. The vampires are wonderful in this series. They established this town years ago and run it much like the mob. They own many of the businesses and almost all the families that know about vampires are under the protection of a vampire. Anyone not under protection is fair game to the vampires, and you can never leave the town if you know about the vampires.

The books follow Claire, Shane, Eve, and Michael as they try to survive the town. They go through many changes and difficulties, but manage to stay together throughout the series. The close friendship between the four keep them going through some pretty horrific times. The bonds between the characters really keeps the reader hooked and anxious for more.

The latest book in the series is Ghost Town. In this book Claire is helping the scientist vampire Myrnin restore the town's computer system. This system is what keeps people in Morganville and erases their memories if they try to leave. It's very important to get this working again, because news of the vampires' presence can't be leaked out of the town. That would mean exposure for the vampires and death for the humans talking about the vampires.

The series walks a fine line with the vampires. On one hand they are the blood-drinking fiends from legend; on the other they are delightfully human too. Most of the vampires are much more then mindless violent beasts. They have human emotions and plots and plans. They are just as intriguing as the main foursome, and are at times villains or heroes.

The Morganville Vampire series begins with Glass House, where the reader is first introduced to the characters and town through the eyes of Claire. There are nine books in the series so far and more yet to come. You can find more information about this series at this website http://www.rachelcaine.com/Rachel_Caine_-_writer/Morganville.html . Check it out.

Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place review

I finished Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place tonight. It is just how I remembered it; a very angry book. She is angry over everything; the British, the tourists, the corruption of the government, everything. It is a hard book to read, especially as a white North American (or European) the ones she most mad at. I don't think I really got anything new out of it this read through. I mean, I understand why it's taught in the post-colonialism literature classes. It is the definition of post-colonialism. She describes the fact that she has no culture, no voice to speak with that is her own. Everything she uses is from the British, the colonizers. She wonders briefly what her life would be like if there had been no British colony. Her ancestors were the slaves brought to the island to work in the sugar fields. She then laments her people for not being able to build on what had been established after the British finally leave and Antigua gains independence. She clearly states the problems that plague many former colonies. So, it is a good book to read to understand the mindset of the people living in the former colonies of Britain. Of course, every colony is a bit different, but I think the book gives a good general description of how it mostly goes when the colonizers leave.

The book consists of four small parts with an illustrated page between each of them. The first part may be the hardest to read. It deals with the tourist and specifically targets the North Americans and Europeans. She actually sort of attacks the reader, by writing this part in second person point of view. She uses 'you' in the first part, I think, to elicit a response from the readers. Perhaps to somehow hold us accountable for the tragedies of colonialism and slavery. I really disliked the first part and nearly put the whole book down and walked away. I am not one of these generalized 'yous' she speaks of and I was really angry at her for casting me in this role. This is probably the effect she is going for; and if so, bravo she achieves it quickly. I hated it, but continued to the next part.

The next part is her attack on Britain. Okay, this is a valid grievance, but she is so bitter about everything British that I found it hard to get through again. What the British did was awful, no arguments there. But it's done and over and you can't really change the past. You can be as angry as you want, but will that really change anything? Maybe I just can not truly understand where she's coming from, because I've not been in her situation. However, the entire book really becomes one long rant on all the evils of the island and I can't connect with that thought-process. Perhaps, if she had written it like a novel, with a strong main character I could follow and love, who goes through these post-colonial changes, maybe then I could understand. Ranting does me no good. I am not you, I am not angry at these people.

After she attacks the British, she moves on to her own government. Antigua's government is pretty corrupt; which she links directly to the British colonizers. She claims that the British of the island taught her people how to behave corruptly. There is some truth in that, no denying. She really hammers the point home that nothing gets done on the island without someone profiting from it. She's disappointed that the government of the independent Antigua is really no better than when the British were running things. It may even be worse; and she can't stand that fact.

She does conclude with a small bit of admiration for the beauty of the island, but that doesn't save the book. On the back of the book, the description states, "Her language soars above her anger and her outrage". No it doesn't. I don't think it ever gets above the anger. There was barely any spot without anger and outrage in it. Again, that is obviously the point. It's a book designed to generate anger. Maybe she hopes this will make people think about these situations, or maybe she is just mad and wants everyone to know.

Anyway, her anger and such toward the British made me decide that the next author will be a Brit. Charles Dickens I think, you can't get much more British than him. Until then.

Note: If you wanted to leave a comment and found you couldn't, I have reconfigured the blog and now anyone can leave comments.

Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place

First, one quick afterward to The Outsiders. For those who don't know it was made into a fantastic movie in the 80s directed by Francis Ford Coppola. There was also a brief tv series in the 90s. Here's a link to the tv series episodes. The quality is not the best, but the series isn't available on dvd. http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m60/SammyC09/The%20Outsiders%20TV%20Show/?action=view&current=One.flv Okay, now on to the next author, Jamaica Kincaid.

Jamaica Kincaid was born in 1949 as Elaine Potter Richardson on the island of Antigua. She lived with her stepfather, a carpenter, and her mother until 1965 when she was sent to Westchester, New York to work as an au pair. In Antigua, she completed her secondary education under the British system due to Antigua's status as a British colony until 1967. She went on to study photography at the New York School for Social Research after leaving the family for which she worked, and also attended Franconia College in New Hampshire for a year. Her first writing experience involved a series of articles for Ingenue magazine. In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid because her family disapproved of her writing. Through her writing, she befriended George W.S. Trow, a writer for the New Yorker, who began writing "Talk of the Town" pieces about her. As a result, Kincaid met the editor of the magazine, William Shawn, who offered her a job. Kincaid later married Shawn's son, Allen, a composer and Bennington College professor, and they now have two children.

Jamaica Kincaid is a writer I have a hard time with because she is so angry in her work. I can't relate to the anger of a post colonial society, because I did not grow up in one. She is so bitter toward everything English and angry at her fellows for not being better off Independent. Antigua became self-governing in 1967, but did not achieve the status of an independent nation within the Commonwealth until 1981.

Within the structure of the British educational system imposed upon Antiguans, Kincaid grew to "detest everything about England, except the literature" (Vorda 79). She felt first-hand the negative effects of British colonialism as the colonists attempted to turn Antigua "into England" and the natives "into English" without regard for the native culture or homeland (Kincaid 24). The effects of colonialism serve as the major theme for A Small Place in which Kincaid expresses her anger both at the colonists and at the Antiguans for failing to fully achieve their independence. She feels that Antiguans failed to adopt the positive aspects of colonialism, for instance a good educational system which might help the population to better their lives. This inability to promote the importance of education and hope for the future is symbolized in the failure to rebuild Antigua's only library, St. John's, which was "damaged in the earthquake of 1974" and years later, still carries the sign "REPAIRS ARE PENDING" (Kincaid 9)

This information comes from this website http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Kincaid.html. It has more relevant info if you're interested.

I'm looking forward to reading this short book again to see if I can get past the anger and hear what she is trying to say. Or if anger is all she is trying to express. We'll see.

Outsiders

The opening of the novel introduces the reader to the narrator of the book, Ponyboy Curtis. He is fourteen, his parents died eight months ago and he is living with his two older brothers. The book is written entirely in first person point of view, so the reader is always in Pony's head and sees the world through his eyes.
The first event in the book is Pony walking home from the movies and getting jumped by some Socs. This immediately establishes the main conflict of the book; the fighting between the Socs and the Greasers. Pony is quickly rescued by the gang; Two-Bit, Johnny, Dally, Steve, and Pony's brothers Sodapop and Darry. But Darry yells at him for not using his head. This establishes the secondary conflict; the family conflict. Darry and Pony argue frequently, because they just don't understand each other and poor Soda is often in the middle playing peacekeeper.
Later that night; Pony, Johnny, Dally, and Two-bit wind up at the drive-in movies. Pony and Johnny ingratiate themselves with a couple of higher class girls, which will lead to the events in the next part of the story. The girls, of course, have boyfriends that they ditched because the boys were being dumb and drinking. When they go to take the girls home, the boyfriends come along and almost start a fight. These girls are important because Cherry and Pony seem to connect straight away. They find they can talk about their respective groups and learn a bit about how the other half lives. Of course, talking to the girls upset their boyfriends and when Johnny and Pony are out by themselves, the Socs find and jump them.
Johnny and Pony had fallen asleep out in the vacant lot by their houses, by the time Pony wakes up and makes it home, it's way past midnight. Pony and Darry get into a huge shouting fight and Darry hits Pony, sending him running out into the night. Pony finds Johnny and they go to a nearby park to cool off. Pony had just about decided to go home when the Socs pull in looking for the boys that picked up their girls. Side note: Madras shirts are checked patterned shirt of various colors. I had to look it up.
It's been established that Johnny had been beaten and frightened by these four or five Socs before and now carries a switchblade. When one of the Socs starts to drown Pony in the fountain, Johnny stabs the Soc with his knife and kills him. The other Socs run away. Johnny and Pony go to Dally who tells them about a place to hideout. The spend a week in the abandoned church until Dally comes to update them on what the police and gangs are doing. Johnny has decided to turn himself in rather than run for the rest of his life, also sparing Pony a life on the run estranged from his brothers. However, when they get back to the church to get their stuff, it's on fire.
This is the plot device used to get the gang all back together, while providing some extra drama. I mean, really, where did this school group come from and why were they up there to begin with. And then there's missing kids to find inside the church, because naturally when an adult says don't go in there; that's the first thing they're going to do. So the greasers save the kids and are injured and rushed to the hospital.
Here is where the story gets emotionally rough. Because I loved Johnny, he and Pony were my favorite characters. Rationally, I know that Johnny almost had to have something like this happen to him. He would've gone to jail for killing that Soc, because the Socs and their families had all the power. Jail probably would've killed Johnny. So the back injury was a way out of that, but it was also a prison sentence itself. It would've trapped him at home with no way to leave when his parents fought. And his father is an abusive asshole; so he would've probably killed Johnny sometime. So as much as I cried and felt bad; dying was really the only way out for Johnny. It might have been the only way out for Dally too. Dally had been getting wilder and more dangerous throughout the book and when Johnny died he just snaps. He obviously wanted to die; he'd been around cops often enough to know that if he pulled a gun, even an unloaded one, they'd shoot him. And then there's poor Ponyboy who kind of shuts off his feelings for awhile to cope with all the tragedy.
Throughout the novel the two conflicts keeping growing until they come to a head and then only seem to kind of resolve. The tensions between the Socs and Greasers ignites when Johnny kills the Soc. And then climaxes with the rumble where the Greasers win and make the Socs leave the East side. The family conflict explodes with Darry hitting Pony and Pony running away. When Pony comes home and sees how upset Darry was, he realizes that everything Darry yelled at him about was because he was worried about him. They come to a better understanding, even though they still fight. Soda even explodes at them about being put in the middle of the fighting, and the other two swear they will not fight as much. Of course, both the Socs laying off the Greasers and Darry and Pony taking it easy, are only temperary truces that won't last forever. However, for Ponyboy at the end of the book, they'll have to be enough.

Day 2: Beginning Notes

Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was sixteen when she started writing her first novel. The Outsiders was published in 1967 by Viking. The Outsiders received a lot of attention and gained her almost instant fame. After a three year battle with writer's block, she finally started writing a new story. And in 1970, she got married. That Was Then, This is Now was published the following year.

Rumble Fish was published in 1975 and was the book Hinton was most proud of as literature. Four years later, Tex was published in 1979. Tex would be the last book S.E. Hinton published for nine years.

Four years after Tex was released, quite a few major events took place in S.E. Hinton's life. In March of 1983, the movie The Outsiders was released. The following August, Nicholas David,her son, was born. Two months later the movie Rumble Fish was released.

In 1985 the movie version of That Was Then, This Is Now was released. Three years later S.E. Hinton became the first person to receive the YASD/SLJ Author Achievement Award. Taming The Star Runner was released in October of that year. It was the first book that S.E. Hinton had published that wasn't in first person.

In 1995, Big David, Little David was published. It was written for children around the kindergarten age. The Puppy Sister, also published that year, was a fantasy book written for Elementary school level children.

Her latest two books are Hawks Harbor, her first non-teen or kid book, and Tim's Stories, a collection of stories with intertwining characters.

The Outsiders is set in 1965 Tulsa, Oklahoma; although neither of those fact are stated explicitly in the novel. It is the coming of age story of Ponyboy Curtis who is fourteen when the novel begins. He is a greaser, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. Someone without much money who runs around with a gang and fights with the Socs, the rich kids. Sometime before the novel starts, Ponyboy's parent are killed in a car accident and he and his brothers are left alone. Darry, the oldest at 20, is raising Sodapop, who's sixteen, and Pony. Soda has dropped out of school and started working to help Darry with the bills.

There is an underlining fear that the two youngest brothers' could be taken away by the state if there's too much trouble, so the brothers' are careful to stay out of the worst of the trouble in the neighborhood. Of course, trouble finds Ponyboy and that's most of the plot of the book.

Ponyboy is not like the other greasers. He is very smart and sensitive. Great things are expected of him and Darry puts a lot of pressure on Pony to do well in school so he can go to college. Darry gave up his college dreams to raise his brothers and he wants Pony to get the chance he had to forfeit. This means Pony has to do his best to get a scholarship, because they couldn't afford it otherwise. The rich/poor dichotomy is very evident in the novel. The gap between the haves and have nots is large and the social antagonizing is displayed throughout the book. Pony is about the only character to realize that things are rough all over, that people have problems no matter where they are, that there isn't too much difference between soc and greaser.

The novel also deals with some tough issues. There's the social lines that can't really be crossed. There's the violence, Pony is jumped in the first pages of the book and makes reference to the fact that Johnny had been jumped really bad awhile ago. Then there's the fight at the fountain and the shooting. Then running away from family and police. Child abuse, underage pregnancy, dropouts, skipped classes, robbery, jail are all topics that come up in the novel. It's no wonder that teachers love to use this as a reading assignment there's so much touched on in such a small book.

This book has probably stayed on the classics list for two main reasons. Teens can relate to the characters and themes; and Teachers can teach the book and add a multitude of topics to their discussions that can be related to the novel.

Tomorrow, I start really reading the book. So expect in depth summaries and criticism. Until then, adieu.

Project : Books called Literature

Week One. Day One.
This is a blog for literature lovers and students of the written word. The goal of this project is to read one (or more if I get on a roll) literature book per week for six months. I'll read the book over the course of the week and write a brief summary, then an in depth review/critique of the book. One goal is to discover what makes a book a classic. Why are some books read over and over in literature classes and others never read at all? I plan on reading and reviewing both well known books and ones that are not read as often. The first book is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Almost every junior high school student in America has to read this book. Why is it considered a classic? We'll find out.