“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats (4/5)
"The Second Coming"
William Butler Yeats
A copy of this poem can be found at: http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html
"The Second Coming" is a poem by William Butler Yeats. It was released in 1920 through his The Dial. It was one of the poems we read in ENGL 110.
Watchmen (2009) (4/5)
Last night, I went to see the movie Watchmen based on the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore (the novel is available on Amazon.ca). Also in attendance were Evan N (the organizer), Jon P, Yuliya ?, Michael L, Ian R, and two people I was never introduced to (they came late).
The movie opens up with the death of the Comedian, one of the masked vigilantes of the storyline and a past member of the Watchmen. This is probably the biggest event to trigger a panic in Rorschach, who then spreads the word to the other masked heroes (Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Ozymandias, Dr. Manhatten, etc). However, throughout the plot, there are also numerous subplots that occur throughout the movie. One important part of the movie is that the setting takes place during the time of the Cold War (thus, much of the storyline is wrapped around history). There is also many subplots based around the characters (romance and other relationships).
The special effects were numerous and pretty good. There was sufficient action and an impressive amount of gore (as to be expected from the director of 300). The characters were well developed and everything tied together nicely. The end also worked really well for the movie (although, had they cut out the actual ending sequence, and left it with the one just prior, I definitely would have liked the movie a lot less).
The main critique I had of the movie was this: the porn could have been replaced by some additional plot. There were some scenes from the book that I would have liked to have seen incorporated a bit more into the movie; I personally consider those of greater importance than keeping the sex scene (although after reading many other reviews on the movie, it is quite obvious that the sex scenes pleased several viewers of the movie).
Nonetheless, the pros are obviously in greater number and value than the cons. That being said, I enjoyed the movie. I recommend this movie to fans of action, comic books, or interesting ideas. I give the movie 4 out of 5 stars.
“The Prince of Tennis” (Vol. 3) by Takeshi Konomi (4/5)
The Prince of Tennis (Vol. 3)
Takeshi Konomi
ISBN-13 978-1-59116-437-1
ISBN-10 1-59116-437-0
A lot happens in this volume of Prince of Tennis. A few of the sub-plots (and foreshadowing) are used to open up the volume. Mr. Sasabe, the father of Sasabe (who Echizen plays in volume 1), plays a match with Echizen to open up the manga. Inui is also shown coaching the team at the beginning of the novel as preparation for the District Preliminaries. Rikkaidai (the Japanese champion school)'s Akaya Kirihara shows up to a practice accidentally after missing his transfer on the bus. And then Momoshiro and Echizen are seen going to play street tennis, which drives them to play as Seigaku's Doubles 2 Team in the District Preliminaries against Gyokurin's Izumi and Fukawa (which is a large portion of this volume). Another important part of this volume is that Fudoumine is introduced into the plot.
A lot happens in this volume and the plot begins moving in this manga. Thus, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
“Pale Fire” by Vladimir Nabokov (4/5)
Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov
ISBN 0-679-72342-0
Pale Fire is a fictional novel by Vladimir Nabokov. It is written like a textbook composed of four parts: an introduction for the text, a poem, a commentary on the poem, and an index for the text.
The text itself is entirely based on the poem (named "Pale Fire"). "Pale Fire" is a 999 line poem (supposedly unfinished) written by John Shade. He was killed just prior to finishing his poem according to Charles Kinbote. Charles Kinbote is the writer of the introduction, commentary, and index. He is the neighbour of Shade and, like Shade, is a professor at Wordsmith University. Kinbote witnessed Shade's murder by the third main character of Pale Fire: Gradus.
One last important thing to note, John Shade wrote "Pale Fire" mostly as his story prior, during, and after the suicide of his daughter Hazel Shade (who killed herself due to her appearance). Kinbote, however, appears to (at least, judging by the entirety of his text) believe that the poem is written based on his own homeland (a country named Zembla). And thus, a major aspect of the novel is to determine what is true and what is untrue. It is also a good lesson in "Never trust the narrator".
The plot itself is very amusing (in an absurd sort of way). Also amusing is the patterns, riddles, and absurdities that occur in the book. The amount of these is immense. To briefly name a few... the commentary goes in circles between lines 47-48 and 62, 80 and 275 and 434, and 270 and 993-995 (to name a few; this happens in the Index as well). In the note to line 584, Kinbote refers to a non-existant portion of the commentary. Absurd portions exist throughout (eg. "damn that music", "as our shadows still walk without us", "the lost glove is happy"). And there are random dirty symbolisms all over the place (eg. "smooth column").
The characters in the novel are very well developed, and the writing style is fairly easy to read (ignoring the absurd aspects). All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. I've read it several times already, and everytime I discover new things. It's quite a remarkable, well-thought-out, and well-written novel. I'll probably end up reading it at least once every couple of years to see what else I can pick up. For a rating, I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Timebridge
Archives
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
Blogroll
