In the recent AFL Grand Final, a player dropped a mark. And the commentator announced "he's dropped the easiest of marks." It's been bugging me ever since.
This is the Grand Final. The Big Dance. The culmination of a gruelling pre-season, a winter's worth of Home and Away games and an incredible month of finals football. The entire year has been preparing for this game, and the chance to win a flag is something all players have dreamt of for decades. Every kick, every mark, every handball will contribute to the outcome of the game, will decide if you'll leave elated or heartbroken. With all that pressure, nothing is easy. I probably couldn't have tied up my bootlaces without losing my breakfast.
People say writing is easy. People say art is easy. People say writing blogs is easy. I think that saying something is easy is easy.
We don't know the struggles other people are going through. We don't know how much they sacrificed and how much they struggled, getting through University, getting their work to a place that they're happy with, how scared they might be of sharing their work, let alone submitting it for fear of rejection or criticism. Some people even struggle to get out of bed.
For me, even deciding to start writing was a hard one. For twenty years I've been an avid reader, losing myself in the works of some of the greatest authors. Like Le Guin whose words flow like poetry, simple and beautiful, yet cutting to the core of the deep questions. Like Donaldson and Herbert, who built incredibly vivid worlds, inhabiting them with wondrous species with their own rich histories, mythologies, creeds and customs. Like Dick and Burgess whose intellect, linguistic skills, creativity and imagination are out if this world. How could I even try, with the benchmark so impossibly high? How could I hope to write anything comparable to the works of those incredible gifted people? I couldn't, so I didn't.
What I write is nothing like that of my literary idols. I always wanted it to be, though. I always wanted my writing to be as eloquent, as powerful, as funny and as beautiful as theirs. But it isn't. It's the story if my life, to some extent. I've always wanted to be better-looking, to be stronger, to be better at sport, at art, at languages. I never even liked my own name as a kid. But as I've grown up I've started to appreciate myself more. I even chose to keep Austin as my pen-name, when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to use something else. And I've accepted that even though my writing isn't awe-inspiring like that of my heroes, that doesn't mean it's not good enough.
Thanks for reading,
Austin P. Sheehan.
Showing posts with label Donaldson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donaldson. Show all posts
Monday, 1 October 2018
Saturday, 7 July 2018
The Twenty Best Books I Read in 2017 (Part 2 - The Top 10)
In my first blog Evidently I'm Going to Regret This I mentioned reading 52 books in 2017 as part of the Popsugar Reading Challenge. In a year where I also wrote an 80,000 word novel while working full-time, by my standards that's a bit of an achievement.
Anyway I thought I could share with the world the twenty books I enjoyed the most from last year, and started last week with Part One. So without further ado, here are four more books I rated as 4 out of 5,
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND - Endō (1964).
Wow. This is a really sad yet beautiful novel. A salesman (Yoshioka) seduces then abandons Mitsu, a sweet and honest village girl, who he considered beneath him. It's set in post-war Japan, and the characters are strong and thoughtfully put together, and you get a really good insight into life in Tokyo in those days. Throughout the novel you get the story from both character's perspectives, and see how the betrayal of Mitsu effects both their lives as the years pass. I really loved this book, and if any that I gave a 4 to probably should have been a five, this is the one.
THE LITTLE PRINCE - Saint-Exupéry (1943).
What can one say about The Little Prince? One of the sweetest stories ever, adorably illustrated, and full of heart. It's one of those children's books that contains profound meaning and insight that can stay with someone all of their lives.
ANNA KARENINA - Tolstoy (1877).
This novel, a literary classic, is approaching it's 150th birthday. I'm not a history fanatic by any means, but I really appreciate books like this which are basically time capsules from the time they were written (mind you, Verne's 'Around the World in Eighty Days was also written in the 1870's, which I also read last year, has aged so badly it was a struggle to read). The Russia that Tolstoy so vividly described was swept away in the 1917 Revolution, and there are too few accounts of what life was like in those days. It's about Countess Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, who, despite being married, is seduced by Count Alexei Vronsky. It's about Princess Ekaterina "Kitty" Shcherbatskaya, who was counting on an engagement to Vronsky. It's about Konstantin "Kostya" Dmitrievich Lëvin, a friend of Anna's husband and a suitor to Princess Shcherbatskaya. It's a wonderfully detailed and complex novel, which I highly recommend.
THE CHILDREN OF MEN - James (1992).
This is a dystopian novel, similar to that of Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' as both are set in the near future under totalitarian governments after massive infertility epidemics. The people of James' world have about given up on the survival of humanity, as no cure to the epidemic has been found, and no child has been born for over 20 years. The protagonist is contacted by a local resistance group, who have become aware of some of the crimes the government has been hiding. It's a really clever story, but does lack the intensity of the 2006 movie adaptation.
Ok. Now are the books that I rates as 5 out of 5. With the previous fourteen, I've pretty much listed them in the order I read them, but the following five I am going to list in order of my preference.
#6 THE REAL STORY - Donaldson (1991).
I gave this book 5 out of 5 because it is the absolute best set-up story for a series I have ever read. Is 'The Real Story' (Book one of 'The Gap Cycle') we are introduced to Captain Angus Thermopyle, an absolute brute of a space-pirate, the lowest of the low, who is the sole crew of his ship, Bright Beauty. Nick Succorso is the opposite of Angus, a clean, handsome, and seemingly honourable captain of Captain's Fancy. And appearing with Angus at one of the scummiest bars on Com-Mine Station is ensign Morn Hyland, a beautiful young woman who works for the United Mining Companies Police. From the outset everyone know's something's up, and everyone has a plan for getting what they want. Donaldson has put this together so cleverly, every chapter there's a new critical piece of information that's revealed, or a new perspective that's provided that changes everything. If you like sci-fi, read it. But be warned, It's not for the squeamish.
#5 DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? - Dick (1968).
Oh, the humanity! That's what it comes down to, for me. It's probably no secret to you that Philip Kindred Dick is one of my favourite authors. What he does so well is write the stories of regular people; people with issues at work, people with not-so perfect relationships, people with drug issues, and put them in mind-bending sci-fi settings. So he wrote a lot about what it means to be human, and that doesn't change whether it's a story set in the 60's, or on a post-apocalyptic Earth, or on Ganymede, or on 'The World Jones Made'. And here he's writing about a bounty hunter trying to eliminate androids that are so well made that he has to determine their humanity, in a world where real animals are almost extinct and imitations are everywhere. He's writing about 'specials' - people impacted by the radiation and their humanity. Where does one draw the line? And by the way, I prefer the book.
#4 A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA - Le Guin (1968).
From a book that has amazing movie adaptions to a book whose adaptions completely suck. I did mention my love of the Earthsea cycle in this earlier blog Books and Movies that I Love. It's often overlooked, but the protagonist is a Person of Colour, who through trials and struggles becomes the greatest Archmage of the islands. It's amazing because Le Guin's magic system and dragons are the best that I've read, and the prose is so deep, simple and profound that I have no words. It's a simple story, but it stays with you. It's quite simply perfect.
# 3 A SCANNER DARKLY - Dick (1977).
Yes. I know. Philip K. Dick again. A Scanner Darkly is a semi-autobiographical book, focusing on the lives of a group of drug users, with the protagonist (Robert Arctor) an undercover narcotics officer, who is given the job of spying on himself. The police are trying to discover the source of the deadly Substance D, Arctor's drug of choice. Over time, the drug starts to impact on Arctor, and he becomes more and more unstable, and is forced to go to a rehab clinic. Was he a pawn in the hands of the police, who knew his addiction and impossible task would lead him there? Was it worth it? Do the ends ever justify the means? At the end, Dick dedicates this book to the friends he had lost or who were permanently damaged due to the drugs they took, which I found really touching.
#2 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - Burgess (1962).
Another book mentioned in this Blog, A Clockwork Orange is one of my all-time favourites. Why it's so great is the creative use of language, the devotchkas, the tolchocks, the droogs, and all the ultra-violence. Very horrorshow. The author created a new language 'Nadsat' which is borrows heavily from Russian for this novel, and while it may take a while to get used to, there's usually enough context provided to understand the words. So as a reader and someone interested in languages, I just love it. It's so creative and brilliant and just gets in your head like nothing else. But Burgess' linguistic skills aside, the novel itself, the story it tells, is just great. Put simply, the message from this book is that children will always rebel. No matter what the schools or parents or police do, the kids will always do their own things, and discover who they are in their own way. But they will not stay miscreants and hooligans forever, they will grow up and grow out of the madness of their teenage years.
#1 ALONE IN BERLIN - Fallada (1947).
This is not a fun read. It was one of the first anti-Nazi novel to be published by a German after World War II. 'Alone in Berlin' (or 'Every Man Dies Alone') tells the story of a middle aged working-class husband and wife who, after receiving word that their son had died serving their country, join the resistance. This is based on a true story, the couple wrote messages denouncing Hitler and the Reich, (“Hitler’s war is the worker’s death” for example) and dropped them throughout Berlin. They knew this was a capital crime, and should they be caught, would be executed. So it's the story of ordinary heroes against impossible odds. But it's also the story of the ordinary Berliner during the war years, the menacing and dangerous times they faced, especially those who disagreed with Hitler's policies and just wanted the war to end. And that's one of the reasons that I've given this book the Number 1 position, because my mother's family were Berliners, and they hated Hitler. It gave me an insight into what they endured, and then - after surviving the war and Nazi rule, they suddenly found themselves citizens of The Soviet DDR (German Democratic Republic).
So that's my list. Go ahead and let me know your favourite books that you read last year. One of the telling things is that very few recent books made the top 20 - 'The King's Justice' and 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' - so one may ask, out of the 52 novels I read last year, what else was published since 2010? I read 'The Long Earth' (Pratchett & Baxter) 3 Stars. 'Here I Am' (Safran Foer) 2 Stars - absolutely awful. 'The Lords of Salem' (Zombie) 3 Stars. 'The Martian' (Weir) 3 Stars - good, funny, engaging but zero character development. 'Ready Player One' (Cline) 2 Stars. I guess for what's left of 2018 I'm going to try to read a lot more recent books! A already have 'Children of Blood and Bone' 'The Fifth Season' and 'The Astonishing Colour of After' on by TBR pile, feel free to suggest any other recent must-reads!
#6 THE REAL STORY - Donaldson (1991).
I gave this book 5 out of 5 because it is the absolute best set-up story for a series I have ever read. Is 'The Real Story' (Book one of 'The Gap Cycle') we are introduced to Captain Angus Thermopyle, an absolute brute of a space-pirate, the lowest of the low, who is the sole crew of his ship, Bright Beauty. Nick Succorso is the opposite of Angus, a clean, handsome, and seemingly honourable captain of Captain's Fancy. And appearing with Angus at one of the scummiest bars on Com-Mine Station is ensign Morn Hyland, a beautiful young woman who works for the United Mining Companies Police. From the outset everyone know's something's up, and everyone has a plan for getting what they want. Donaldson has put this together so cleverly, every chapter there's a new critical piece of information that's revealed, or a new perspective that's provided that changes everything. If you like sci-fi, read it. But be warned, It's not for the squeamish.
#5 DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? - Dick (1968).
Oh, the humanity! That's what it comes down to, for me. It's probably no secret to you that Philip Kindred Dick is one of my favourite authors. What he does so well is write the stories of regular people; people with issues at work, people with not-so perfect relationships, people with drug issues, and put them in mind-bending sci-fi settings. So he wrote a lot about what it means to be human, and that doesn't change whether it's a story set in the 60's, or on a post-apocalyptic Earth, or on Ganymede, or on 'The World Jones Made'. And here he's writing about a bounty hunter trying to eliminate androids that are so well made that he has to determine their humanity, in a world where real animals are almost extinct and imitations are everywhere. He's writing about 'specials' - people impacted by the radiation and their humanity. Where does one draw the line? And by the way, I prefer the book.
#4 A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA - Le Guin (1968).
From a book that has amazing movie adaptions to a book whose adaptions completely suck. I did mention my love of the Earthsea cycle in this earlier blog Books and Movies that I Love. It's often overlooked, but the protagonist is a Person of Colour, who through trials and struggles becomes the greatest Archmage of the islands. It's amazing because Le Guin's magic system and dragons are the best that I've read, and the prose is so deep, simple and profound that I have no words. It's a simple story, but it stays with you. It's quite simply perfect.
# 3 A SCANNER DARKLY - Dick (1977).
Yes. I know. Philip K. Dick again. A Scanner Darkly is a semi-autobiographical book, focusing on the lives of a group of drug users, with the protagonist (Robert Arctor) an undercover narcotics officer, who is given the job of spying on himself. The police are trying to discover the source of the deadly Substance D, Arctor's drug of choice. Over time, the drug starts to impact on Arctor, and he becomes more and more unstable, and is forced to go to a rehab clinic. Was he a pawn in the hands of the police, who knew his addiction and impossible task would lead him there? Was it worth it? Do the ends ever justify the means? At the end, Dick dedicates this book to the friends he had lost or who were permanently damaged due to the drugs they took, which I found really touching.
#2 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - Burgess (1962).
Another book mentioned in this Blog, A Clockwork Orange is one of my all-time favourites. Why it's so great is the creative use of language, the devotchkas, the tolchocks, the droogs, and all the ultra-violence. Very horrorshow. The author created a new language 'Nadsat' which is borrows heavily from Russian for this novel, and while it may take a while to get used to, there's usually enough context provided to understand the words. So as a reader and someone interested in languages, I just love it. It's so creative and brilliant and just gets in your head like nothing else. But Burgess' linguistic skills aside, the novel itself, the story it tells, is just great. Put simply, the message from this book is that children will always rebel. No matter what the schools or parents or police do, the kids will always do their own things, and discover who they are in their own way. But they will not stay miscreants and hooligans forever, they will grow up and grow out of the madness of their teenage years.
#1 ALONE IN BERLIN - Fallada (1947).
This is not a fun read. It was one of the first anti-Nazi novel to be published by a German after World War II. 'Alone in Berlin' (or 'Every Man Dies Alone') tells the story of a middle aged working-class husband and wife who, after receiving word that their son had died serving their country, join the resistance. This is based on a true story, the couple wrote messages denouncing Hitler and the Reich, (“Hitler’s war is the worker’s death” for example) and dropped them throughout Berlin. They knew this was a capital crime, and should they be caught, would be executed. So it's the story of ordinary heroes against impossible odds. But it's also the story of the ordinary Berliner during the war years, the menacing and dangerous times they faced, especially those who disagreed with Hitler's policies and just wanted the war to end. And that's one of the reasons that I've given this book the Number 1 position, because my mother's family were Berliners, and they hated Hitler. It gave me an insight into what they endured, and then - after surviving the war and Nazi rule, they suddenly found themselves citizens of The Soviet DDR (German Democratic Republic).
So that's my list. Go ahead and let me know your favourite books that you read last year. One of the telling things is that very few recent books made the top 20 - 'The King's Justice' and 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' - so one may ask, out of the 52 novels I read last year, what else was published since 2010? I read 'The Long Earth' (Pratchett & Baxter) 3 Stars. 'Here I Am' (Safran Foer) 2 Stars - absolutely awful. 'The Lords of Salem' (Zombie) 3 Stars. 'The Martian' (Weir) 3 Stars - good, funny, engaging but zero character development. 'Ready Player One' (Cline) 2 Stars. I guess for what's left of 2018 I'm going to try to read a lot more recent books! A already have 'Children of Blood and Bone' 'The Fifth Season' and 'The Astonishing Colour of After' on by TBR pile, feel free to suggest any other recent must-reads!
Sunday, 1 July 2018
The 20 Best Books I Read in 2017 (Part One).
In my first blog Evidently I'm Going to Regret This I said that I'd read 52 books in 2017 as part of the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I honestly surprised myself by reaching that goal.
Anyway now's as good a time as any to share my favourite books from last year. I say 'from last year' but honestly I read more books that are 10 to 50 years old than books read the year they're published. Anyway, here are ten of the books I gave 4 stars to (in the order that I read them).
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - Lindqvist (2004).
From the start, I am not a fan of Vampires. But I'd seen the movies (and probably don't need to say that the original is better than the remake) and really enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give it a go. and it was great. Really dark and creepy, almost Lolita levels of creepy, basically. What was great about it was how it was not the usual vampire story. The protagonist was a boy in Sweden who was bullied at school and befriends a young girl in their apartment complex. Who turns out to be a vampire. There is a lot of killings and brutality, and at the centre of it all are these sweet kids who help each other out of nothing but friendship. It's tense, it gritty, it's written really well.
THE COLLECTOR - Fowles (1963).
This was a really clever book set in England about a socially awkward clerk who comes into a large sum of money and his plans to win the affections of Miranda, a middle-class Art student he has long admired. He eventually convinces himself to kidnap her, and win her affection by being nothing but a gentleman to her. But he didn't think his plan through, nor count on the intelligence and desperation of his prey. The second part of the novel is told from Miranda's POV and is entirely compelling. It it well written, it gives one the chills, and leaves you breathless. Highly recommended.
MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN - Riggs (2011).
Miss Peregrine's is a really fun YA novel, where Jacob finds there might be some truth to his grandfather's crazy stories shortly after his disturbing death. When he has an opportunity to go to a place that was special to his grandfather with his dad, he jumps at the chance, and starts putting together pieces to a mystery lost in time.
It's a different take on the standard YA fantasy, it's engaging, and feels quite familiar all the way through. Meeting the 'Peculiar' children (and Miss Peregrine, of course) is a delight, however the further you go, the darker and scarier it gets.
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK - Lindsay (1967).
The very first few pages absolutely transported me to my youth, growing up in country Victoria, the sights, the sounds, the scents are exactly as Lindsay described. This novel actually featured in a recent blog post of mine, Books and Movies that I Love. Basically Picnic at Hanging Rock is a superb mystery full of eerie events, curious characters and sinister undertones.
LAVINIA - Le Guin (2008).
Ursula K. Le Guin, one of my all-time favourite authors, wrote Lavinia in 2008. It is an unusual book in a sense, as the titular character is a character in Virgil's Aeneid. A significant character, too - the wife of the hero Aeneas, yet in the Aeneid she was not given a line. Le Guin gave her a voice, and made her real - but not only that, but brought her family and community of Laurentum to life, and describe's not only Lavinia's conflict with her family marvellously, but also the war between Laurentum and her neighbours and the invading Trojans, lead by Aeneas.
RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA - Clarke (1973).
This was a childhood favourite of mine, I am not ashamed to admit. The imagination that Clarke had, the skills to bring such wonders to life, absolutely phenomenal. Anyway, Rendezvous With Rama tells the classic sci-fi story of first contact with alien intelligence. An unidentified object - a massive cylinder - enteres out Solar System and slows down, and a crew of astronauts is dispatched to investigate it. The tale of the crew and their exploration of the cylinder is so clever, and the ending is just so perfect, that I can't say a bad word about it.
PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER - Suskind (1985).
Another novel that I had read after seeing the movie. This is an original story though, in that it tells the tale of a man whose sense of smell is so powerful that his perspective of the world is unique. He becomes a perfumer, one who creates perfumes, and becomes obsessed with capturing all the scents and creating perfumes to make people see him as angelic or god-like. Unfortunately, some of the scents he must capture and use he can only obtain my murder. The whole thing is very clever and really well-written.
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY - Adams (1979).
I have to say that I used this book for the 'about an immigrant or refugee' prompt. I don't think there's much for me to say about this one. There's no dispute it's hilarious and an absolute sci-fi comedy classic.
THE KING'S JUSTICE - Donaldson (2016).
This was a very interesting fantasy story. A man rides into a town in the Kingdom attempting to solve a disturbing murder, which soon turn into a series of murders. The characters are great, the story is captivating and complex with many twists and turns, and Donaldson has created another amazing fantasy world with a brilliant system of magic.
MARTIAN TIME-SLIP - Dick (1964).
I have to say Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite authors. I have read most of his 44 novels and 120 short stories, and this is one of the ones that I think is the most under-rated. What Dick does so well is really get right into the day-to-day life and concerns of the average person in whatever insane world he comes up with. In Martian Time-Slip, the protagonist Bohlen is a repairman on a struggling colony on Mars. His relationship with his wife is on a downward spiral, his employer is taking advantage of him, but what can he do? Just get through as best he can and try keep his schizophrenic episodes at bay. When Bohlen's path crosses with Arnie Kott's, the leader of the Water Worker's Union, his life gets turned upside down. The most outstanding yet terrifying part of this book is Dick's description of what Manfred Steiner, an autistic child who becomes one of Arnie Kott's many pawns perceives.
So that's the first ten books of my top twenty.
Next week I'll summarise the top ten, and share which six books I gave 5 star reviews to.
Please comment on whether you agree or disagree with my reviews, or the best books that you read last year!
Monday, 28 May 2018
Just some Book and Movies that I Freaking Love. No Big Deal.
Hello, thanks for tuning in.
My last blog post was about some of my Unpopular Opinions so to balance the scale, here is a bit of a list of books and movies that I really love.
Let's start with books. I'm a writer, this is in some weird kind of way a writing blog, so I expect some of my readers will also be writers. So what are my all time desert island top five favourite books?
THE EARTHSEA CYCLE by Ursula Le Guin. It's just a masterpiece, no question. The words flow like poetry off the page, so simple yet so deep and profound. Le Guin's magic system and dragons are the best that I've read, especially how the magic, legends and dragons of Earthsea are so interconnected. Another reason this series resonates with me is that I read it soon after learning about Taoism, and the Earthsea cycle is certainly rooted in the Taoist message, living in balance with nature and with ourselves.
Even though A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is not Anthony Burgess' best book (in my opinion Earthly Powers is) it is certainly one of my favourites. The main drawcard is the Nadsat language Burgess created (or at least borrowed from the Russian tongue). Here's an example "I do not wish to describe, brothers, what other horrible veshches I was like forced to viddy that afternoon. The like minds of this Dr. Brodsky and Dr. Branom and the others in white coats, and remember there was this devotchka twiddling with the knobs and watching the meters, they must have been more cally and filthy than any prestoopnick in the Staja itself." The linguistic style of this whole novel is amazing, and as a writer and lover of languages, it absolutely fascinates me. But the other reason this book is so great and enduring is the message that the kids will always rebel. No-one can stop this, it is an enduring aspect of our society.
I've already mentioned one fantasy series, but absolutely must include THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT by Stephen Donaldson. This is the ultimate anti-hero story, and as far as taking the reader on an emotional journey and exploring the depths of human frailty, this Epic Fantasy series stands head and shoulders above everything else. Because of the sheer unlikeability of the protagonist and the crimes he commits, I get that a lot of people struggle with this book. And that's OK. A lot of the supporting characters more than make up for the cruelty of the protagonist. I'm not going to say that I identify with Thomas Covenant, but flawed characters, characters that fail and characters seeking redemption are so much more interesting and relatable than the 'perfect hero' - the Supermans, the Harry Potters, the Sparhawks.
I have two choices left. I need to include something by P. K. Dick, but what? So many to choose from. I guess it has to be V.A.L.I.S - the greatest example of a literary mindfuck I've ever read. I chose this one because it's just so weird. It's based on Dick's own experience of a psychotic episode, and is a bizarre story of fragmented realities and worlds breaking down, with a strong spiritual understanding. There really is nothing else quite like it.
Okay. The last book. It's PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK by Joan Lindsay. It's a rare book that can transport you somewhere, and this book, with Lindsay's vivid descriptions of the Australian bush; the sights, sounds and smells that she captures so well takes my back home every time. So there's that, but it's also a superb mystery full of eerie events, curious characters and sinister undertones. Like Kenneth Cook's 'Wake in Fright' this book talks about the danger and darkness at the heart of Australia which will not be tamed. Cook portrayed that darkness in the souls of the Australians themselves, but this mystery questions whether the darkness perhaps comes from the deep depths of the country itself.
Honourable mentions go to A SCANNER DARKLY (Dick), OBERNEWTYN (Carmody), THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (Le Guin), STEPPENWOLF (Hesse), ALONE IN BERLIN (Fallada) and AMERICAN GODS (Gaiman).
Movies. Here are my top five.
Firstly though, does anyone else remember when DVDs came out? I told myself that I'd only ever buy a movie on DVD if it was one that you'd want to keep watching over and over again. And the first DVD I brought was BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. Cameron Diaz, John Cusack, and John Malkovich were all amazing in this mind-blowing Spike Jonze film. Cusack's character finds some tunnel in his office building taking him briefly inside John Malkovich's head. There's love, there's betrayal, and some truly surreal moments (including a monkey's flashback to it's own childhood) and a lot of really funny moments.
I love Sci-Fi. And I love Horror. So it's not going to be a surprise that EVENT HORIZON is next. Sam Neil joins the crew of the Lewis and Clark after the beacon of the experimental ship he helped design, the 'Event Horizon' reappears in the solar system after disappearing for a long period. They board the ship and soon find the crew is dead. Where had the ship been? What happened to it? And (of course) what had it brought back? There's a lot of psychology in this story as well, which I really appreciste. The acting is good, the characters are good, and when it gets dark, it gets REALLY dark. Certainly worthy of a remake.
Next, NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND. While I prefer anti-hero stories, Miyazaki's hero, Nausicaa, is just so perfect. A anime sci-fi post - apocalyptic movie with humanity on the brink of survival, who could ask for more? This movie was created with such love that we can still feel it, some 30 years later. It still gives me all the feels.
So far, the films I have listed have definitely shown my age. So this underappreciated film is a modern masterpiece, and in my mind the best movie of the last decade. I am talking about CABIN IN THE WOODS, the genre-defying horror-comedy produced by Joss Whedon (and frankly the best thing he's been involved in since Firefly). It is hilarious, it is scary, it is deviously clever and frankly a work of genius.
Another all-time favourite is STARDUST, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. A beautiful, captivating story about a young man who promises to bring back a fallen star to win the heart of a young woman. Only problem is, the star fell on the other side of The Wall, where the rules are a bit different. It's magical and full of brilliant acting, of course everyone points out Robert De Niro, Claire Daines and Sienna Miller (who were great) but the actors who really stole the show for me were Mark Heap and Julian Rhind-Tutt. All things considered, there are only two grievances one can have with this movie; Ricky Gervais and how the ending is a bit different to the novel. Don't tell anyone, but I prefer this ending!
Honourable mentions go to RED STATE, GALAXY QUEST, ZOOLANDER, DOGMA, and EDGE OF TOMORROW.
So that's it for me now. I'm off to write some dystopian stories. If you want to comment on any of my choices or leave your own top-five lists, go right ahead!
Stay Awesome!
My last blog post was about some of my Unpopular Opinions so to balance the scale, here is a bit of a list of books and movies that I really love.
Let's start with books. I'm a writer, this is in some weird kind of way a writing blog, so I expect some of my readers will also be writers. So what are my all time desert island top five favourite books?
THE EARTHSEA CYCLE by Ursula Le Guin. It's just a masterpiece, no question. The words flow like poetry off the page, so simple yet so deep and profound. Le Guin's magic system and dragons are the best that I've read, especially how the magic, legends and dragons of Earthsea are so interconnected. Another reason this series resonates with me is that I read it soon after learning about Taoism, and the Earthsea cycle is certainly rooted in the Taoist message, living in balance with nature and with ourselves.
Even though A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is not Anthony Burgess' best book (in my opinion Earthly Powers is) it is certainly one of my favourites. The main drawcard is the Nadsat language Burgess created (or at least borrowed from the Russian tongue). Here's an example "I do not wish to describe, brothers, what other horrible veshches I was like forced to viddy that afternoon. The like minds of this Dr. Brodsky and Dr. Branom and the others in white coats, and remember there was this devotchka twiddling with the knobs and watching the meters, they must have been more cally and filthy than any prestoopnick in the Staja itself." The linguistic style of this whole novel is amazing, and as a writer and lover of languages, it absolutely fascinates me. But the other reason this book is so great and enduring is the message that the kids will always rebel. No-one can stop this, it is an enduring aspect of our society.
I've already mentioned one fantasy series, but absolutely must include THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT by Stephen Donaldson. This is the ultimate anti-hero story, and as far as taking the reader on an emotional journey and exploring the depths of human frailty, this Epic Fantasy series stands head and shoulders above everything else. Because of the sheer unlikeability of the protagonist and the crimes he commits, I get that a lot of people struggle with this book. And that's OK. A lot of the supporting characters more than make up for the cruelty of the protagonist. I'm not going to say that I identify with Thomas Covenant, but flawed characters, characters that fail and characters seeking redemption are so much more interesting and relatable than the 'perfect hero' - the Supermans, the Harry Potters, the Sparhawks.
I have two choices left. I need to include something by P. K. Dick, but what? So many to choose from. I guess it has to be V.A.L.I.S - the greatest example of a literary mindfuck I've ever read. I chose this one because it's just so weird. It's based on Dick's own experience of a psychotic episode, and is a bizarre story of fragmented realities and worlds breaking down, with a strong spiritual understanding. There really is nothing else quite like it.
Okay. The last book. It's PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK by Joan Lindsay. It's a rare book that can transport you somewhere, and this book, with Lindsay's vivid descriptions of the Australian bush; the sights, sounds and smells that she captures so well takes my back home every time. So there's that, but it's also a superb mystery full of eerie events, curious characters and sinister undertones. Like Kenneth Cook's 'Wake in Fright' this book talks about the danger and darkness at the heart of Australia which will not be tamed. Cook portrayed that darkness in the souls of the Australians themselves, but this mystery questions whether the darkness perhaps comes from the deep depths of the country itself.
Honourable mentions go to A SCANNER DARKLY (Dick), OBERNEWTYN (Carmody), THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (Le Guin), STEPPENWOLF (Hesse), ALONE IN BERLIN (Fallada) and AMERICAN GODS (Gaiman).
Movies. Here are my top five.
Firstly though, does anyone else remember when DVDs came out? I told myself that I'd only ever buy a movie on DVD if it was one that you'd want to keep watching over and over again. And the first DVD I brought was BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. Cameron Diaz, John Cusack, and John Malkovich were all amazing in this mind-blowing Spike Jonze film. Cusack's character finds some tunnel in his office building taking him briefly inside John Malkovich's head. There's love, there's betrayal, and some truly surreal moments (including a monkey's flashback to it's own childhood) and a lot of really funny moments.
I love Sci-Fi. And I love Horror. So it's not going to be a surprise that EVENT HORIZON is next. Sam Neil joins the crew of the Lewis and Clark after the beacon of the experimental ship he helped design, the 'Event Horizon' reappears in the solar system after disappearing for a long period. They board the ship and soon find the crew is dead. Where had the ship been? What happened to it? And (of course) what had it brought back? There's a lot of psychology in this story as well, which I really appreciste. The acting is good, the characters are good, and when it gets dark, it gets REALLY dark. Certainly worthy of a remake.
Next, NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND. While I prefer anti-hero stories, Miyazaki's hero, Nausicaa, is just so perfect. A anime sci-fi post - apocalyptic movie with humanity on the brink of survival, who could ask for more? This movie was created with such love that we can still feel it, some 30 years later. It still gives me all the feels.
So far, the films I have listed have definitely shown my age. So this underappreciated film is a modern masterpiece, and in my mind the best movie of the last decade. I am talking about CABIN IN THE WOODS, the genre-defying horror-comedy produced by Joss Whedon (and frankly the best thing he's been involved in since Firefly). It is hilarious, it is scary, it is deviously clever and frankly a work of genius.
Another all-time favourite is STARDUST, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. A beautiful, captivating story about a young man who promises to bring back a fallen star to win the heart of a young woman. Only problem is, the star fell on the other side of The Wall, where the rules are a bit different. It's magical and full of brilliant acting, of course everyone points out Robert De Niro, Claire Daines and Sienna Miller (who were great) but the actors who really stole the show for me were Mark Heap and Julian Rhind-Tutt. All things considered, there are only two grievances one can have with this movie; Ricky Gervais and how the ending is a bit different to the novel. Don't tell anyone, but I prefer this ending!
Honourable mentions go to RED STATE, GALAXY QUEST, ZOOLANDER, DOGMA, and EDGE OF TOMORROW.
So that's it for me now. I'm off to write some dystopian stories. If you want to comment on any of my choices or leave your own top-five lists, go right ahead!
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