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Recommended Reads and See's, as of 12/6/08
Saturday, December 6th, 2008 08:44 pmIn books:
Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris: From the blurbs on the back of the cover and the page or two I read in the bookstore, I thought this book would be literary kin to The Office, a scathing send-up of modern office/work life, one that I could read and think, Ha! While I may hate my job, at least others have it worse than me! A toast to schadenfreude! Imagine my dismay when the satire hit way too close to home, namely, my current work situation and the pervasive anxious malaise I was stewing in. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the book--in fact, while I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny the way the blurbs had claimed, I still read it in about three days flat, desperate to know what was happening to the characters. Ferris nails his depiction of office politics and the spreading of gossip among co-workers, and his characters are vividly portrayed. However, coming across passages like the following were like eerie little paragraphs of deja vu:
"Some days felt longer than other days. Some days felt like two whole days. Unfortunately those days were never the weekend days. Our Saturdays and Sundays passed in half the time of a normal workday. In other words, some weeks it felt like we had worked ten straight days and only had one day off. We could hardly complain. Time was being added to our lives. But then it wasn't easy to rejoice, exactly, realizing that time just wasn't moving fast enough. We had any number of clocks surrounding us, and everyone one of them at one time or another exhibited a lively sense of humor. We found ourselves wanting to hurry time along, which was not in the long run good for our health. Everybody was trapped in this contradiction but nobody ever dared articulate it. They just said, 'Can you believe it's only three-fifteen?'"
In sum: I'll stick to The Office for my schadenfreude, but I am glad that I read this novel. Were I not in the work situation I am now, I would have likely found it much funnier.
Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist: Having seen the movie, I was excited to read the book, and very curious how the adaptation measured against the original work. I am happy to the report that the film's adaptation is very skillful and judicious, and often large chunks of dialogue are taken right off the page. However, what's been left out of the screenplay is, for the most part, left out for good reason. In a book, you're free to have as many (disturbing) subplots as you like--the number of pages is your only barrier. However, in a movie, you've only got x minutes to tell the entire story. I can tell that the screenwriter carefully picked the story apart and took only the most important plot arcs for the movie.
Writing-wise, the book flows along wonderfully, engaging and creepy all at once, and even with the knowledge of what's coming at the end, I'm still involved and invested in the characters. Subplot-wise, I could have done with a little less of the Lolita-esque scene at the beginning, but am intrigued with a minor character who didn't make it into the film and wondering how he will fit into the master plot.
The only thing the film managed to do better than the book was to show just how cold the setting is. I know where Sweden is, geographically, and what its climate is like, but my Southern California brain often has trouble processing winter and picturing it properly. The movie was perfect for this, huge swathes of white, and characters' shoes crunching through the newly fallen snow. Still highly recommending both, although those who are bothered by loli and shota should skip the book and head straight to the movie.
In manga:
Nightmare Inspector, Vol. 4: I'm glad I stuck with this series for this long--something about this fourth volume finally clicked with me. This volume has some of the most disturbing dreams yet, including my favorite about a woman who dreams about the letters she writes to lover, places in bottles, and throws into the sea. In her dream, the bottles all float back to her, but instead of letters, they're filled with body parts--the parts that make up her missing lover. Cryptic hints about the characters' pasts abound in this volume, but I'm less interested in them and more interested in the nightmare landscapes of the ordinary people who come to the Silver Star Cafe. Definitely looking forward to the next volume!
On DVD:
Torchwood, Season 2: Damn good fun to watch, with all sorts of bizarre plot twists and turns and one truly bizarre episode that was like... a spectacularly horrific Mary Sue fanfic. I would swear that the writers of this show have gone trolling on the internet when drunk, looking for scary self-insert fics, mocking them, and then turning them into this particular episode. Still, lots of fun to watch and yell at the TV about.
Mushi-shi: I DON'T WANT THIS SERIES TO END! I don't want to write up the entry where I recommend it to all and sundry because that will mean that is over and there is no more coming. It's just wonderful; every episode is a stand-alone story (although there are a few common characters besides the hero) that weaves Japanese folklore, superstition, and urban legends together. Sometimes the results are poignant and moving, sometimes they're truly frightening (the eye episode, early on... *shudders*), but every time, they're surprising and well-told. ARGH. WHY MUST IT END?! *ahem*
Wanted: At the beginning of this movie, I turned to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yebisu9 and said, "I bet you a Coke that the value of human life in this movie will be 50 cents." He said 45. We were both wrong; the answer was 1 penny. Make of that what you will. Not a total waste of time, but dangerously near to one.
Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris: From the blurbs on the back of the cover and the page or two I read in the bookstore, I thought this book would be literary kin to The Office, a scathing send-up of modern office/work life, one that I could read and think, Ha! While I may hate my job, at least others have it worse than me! A toast to schadenfreude! Imagine my dismay when the satire hit way too close to home, namely, my current work situation and the pervasive anxious malaise I was stewing in. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the book--in fact, while I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny the way the blurbs had claimed, I still read it in about three days flat, desperate to know what was happening to the characters. Ferris nails his depiction of office politics and the spreading of gossip among co-workers, and his characters are vividly portrayed. However, coming across passages like the following were like eerie little paragraphs of deja vu:
"Some days felt longer than other days. Some days felt like two whole days. Unfortunately those days were never the weekend days. Our Saturdays and Sundays passed in half the time of a normal workday. In other words, some weeks it felt like we had worked ten straight days and only had one day off. We could hardly complain. Time was being added to our lives. But then it wasn't easy to rejoice, exactly, realizing that time just wasn't moving fast enough. We had any number of clocks surrounding us, and everyone one of them at one time or another exhibited a lively sense of humor. We found ourselves wanting to hurry time along, which was not in the long run good for our health. Everybody was trapped in this contradiction but nobody ever dared articulate it. They just said, 'Can you believe it's only three-fifteen?'"
In sum: I'll stick to The Office for my schadenfreude, but I am glad that I read this novel. Were I not in the work situation I am now, I would have likely found it much funnier.
Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist: Having seen the movie, I was excited to read the book, and very curious how the adaptation measured against the original work. I am happy to the report that the film's adaptation is very skillful and judicious, and often large chunks of dialogue are taken right off the page. However, what's been left out of the screenplay is, for the most part, left out for good reason. In a book, you're free to have as many (disturbing) subplots as you like--the number of pages is your only barrier. However, in a movie, you've only got x minutes to tell the entire story. I can tell that the screenwriter carefully picked the story apart and took only the most important plot arcs for the movie.
Writing-wise, the book flows along wonderfully, engaging and creepy all at once, and even with the knowledge of what's coming at the end, I'm still involved and invested in the characters. Subplot-wise, I could have done with a little less of the Lolita-esque scene at the beginning, but am intrigued with a minor character who didn't make it into the film and wondering how he will fit into the master plot.
The only thing the film managed to do better than the book was to show just how cold the setting is. I know where Sweden is, geographically, and what its climate is like, but my Southern California brain often has trouble processing winter and picturing it properly. The movie was perfect for this, huge swathes of white, and characters' shoes crunching through the newly fallen snow. Still highly recommending both, although those who are bothered by loli and shota should skip the book and head straight to the movie.
In manga:
Nightmare Inspector, Vol. 4: I'm glad I stuck with this series for this long--something about this fourth volume finally clicked with me. This volume has some of the most disturbing dreams yet, including my favorite about a woman who dreams about the letters she writes to lover, places in bottles, and throws into the sea. In her dream, the bottles all float back to her, but instead of letters, they're filled with body parts--the parts that make up her missing lover. Cryptic hints about the characters' pasts abound in this volume, but I'm less interested in them and more interested in the nightmare landscapes of the ordinary people who come to the Silver Star Cafe. Definitely looking forward to the next volume!
On DVD:
Torchwood, Season 2: Damn good fun to watch, with all sorts of bizarre plot twists and turns and one truly bizarre episode that was like... a spectacularly horrific Mary Sue fanfic. I would swear that the writers of this show have gone trolling on the internet when drunk, looking for scary self-insert fics, mocking them, and then turning them into this particular episode. Still, lots of fun to watch and yell at the TV about.
Mushi-shi: I DON'T WANT THIS SERIES TO END! I don't want to write up the entry where I recommend it to all and sundry because that will mean that is over and there is no more coming. It's just wonderful; every episode is a stand-alone story (although there are a few common characters besides the hero) that weaves Japanese folklore, superstition, and urban legends together. Sometimes the results are poignant and moving, sometimes they're truly frightening (the eye episode, early on... *shudders*), but every time, they're surprising and well-told. ARGH. WHY MUST IT END?! *ahem*
Wanted: At the beginning of this movie, I turned to
yebisu9 and said, "I bet you a Coke that the value of human life in this movie will be 50 cents." He said 45. We were both wrong; the answer was 1 penny. Make of that what you will. Not a total waste of time, but dangerously near to one.
