The Last Boy in the Library

Tonight, at the library at which my Printz book club meets, our awesome YA librarian and some others arranged a "Zombie Night" and a "Vampire Night." Next week comes Nosferatu (1922), but this time we watched The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price. It was a very interesting movie, although the "zombies" were apparently vampires with qualities of both monsters. When I first saw the 2007 film I Am Legend (a remake: both of these, as well as the 1971 film The Omega Man, are based on a novel by Richard Matheson), I also thought that the vampires were zombies. It was interesting that vampirism was here a biological infection rather than a demonic curse. More scifi than magic here.

And darn, I need to read Mr. Matheson's book! I believe he also wrote the short story "Mobius," which I did read. Mind blown right there, with the twist at the end of said short story.

In any case, I'd like to thank the librarians and whomever else needs thanking, for I had a very good time.

On the topic of librar-related things, I checked out several things today, mostly graphic novels this time. This includes a couple of Batman things (my first time! - go ahead and shoot me) and the fourth volume of Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN series.

Life is currently good. Oh, and as for the post's title, I was one of the last people to leave after the official closing times. Librarians and I love to chat.

Meeting Cassandra Clare, etc.

First of all, I got over my cowardice concerning meeting writers I've not actually read by meeting Cassandra Clare. She was a super cool person, even discounting the fact that she is friends with Holly Black, and I most definitely plan to read The City of Bones. Cassie spoke to the audience about travel, writing, fictional incest, and many other things. Apparently creative writing classes in college frown upon fantasy and sci-fi, which, while disappointing, I found hardly surprising. People don't consider it serious writing, which I find odd, and would find odd even if those genres were not my own (which they are, with a dose of horror, of course).

Speaking of the three genres, I recently began the fourth Dark Tower novel by Stephen King: Wizard and Glass. The witch Rhea is creepy and fascinating, and I still love Blaine the Mono, as well as the reference made to The Stand. I seriously think this is one of the best epics out there. I also - FINALLY - watched the Season Two finale of Doctor Who. Very sad, but I'm eager to start "The Runaway Bride" (Season Three) as soon as I can.

Winter holiday (not me, but the literal season) is drawing nearer; I look forward to getting a good deal of reading and writing done then. I ought to be visiting my grandparents, which we have done often but skipped last year. I really need to submit something to a magazine soon.... I ought to stop moving from story to story and polish one up to ship off. I've been drawing and sketching lately, but I have yet to learn guitar, or even continue piano for that matter. I'll figure it out - I tend to do that.

Love,

Lewis M. Winter

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Indeed, this is a rather famous novel. Like Orwell's Animal Farm, I should have read it in my freshman year, but the county school system is awful and due to a scheduling mishap (which they did nothing to fix), I was placed in average English I instead of Honors. However, I have now read both of them on my own time.

For those of you who do not know, Mr. Bradbury's novel is set in a dystopian future in which reading books has become illegal. Guy Montag, a fire-starting fireman who burns books, meets a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan, with whom he speaks of books and becomes interested in them. He begins to stash books secretly and is eventually caught. I won't give away too much.

What threw me off about this is that it was very unclear what happened to Clarisse: did she die? Did she escape? The author never really explained that. Other than that sort of issue, it was a wonderful book, and scarily prophetic. It was published in, I believe, 1953, and while we do not have book-burning laws, people are turning to slop without reading or other stimulation. A great number of humans sit on their asses and watch the telly but do not read great books such as Fahrenheit 451. It worries me.

Final grade: B

Book Review: The Giver by Lois Lowry

I should have read this for eighth grade, but shall we say complications arose and I did not. Most of my friends seem to have read it. I read Number the Stars by Lowry a year or two back and it was decent, but I prefer this. I saw Ms. Lowry at the bookstore once but did not meet her; she seemed nice, though.

So I listened to the audio book - four discs, narrated by Ron Rifkin. It's about a Utopian society which doesn't seem so bad until further along, but there's a lot of spoiler traps here. Let's just say the protagonist, Jonas, is selected to be the new Receiver, onto whom the Giver bestows memories. He finds out that the world has sort of stopped, that they are no longer moving forward due to fearful contentment. And that the authorities do awful things and lie about them to please people. (Personally I'd rather be upset and knowledgeable than ignorant and happy, dependably.)

I didn't agree with what Jonas does at the end (literally runs away - I'd have him rebel), so that's minus a star. I know there are some "companion" books, so maybe I'll look at them. They are Gathering Blue and Messenger, the latter of which I also have as an audio file. I did rather enjoy this book. Took me long enough.

Final grade: B

Movie Review: Super 8 (2011)

I've seen this movie twice now. It's not my first J.J. Abrams film - I think that might have been Star Trek (2009), but I think it's the best yet. Plus, Steven Spielberg is the main producer, so that ought to say something. The plot of this movie is not entirely clear until you actually see it: I don't want to give to much away. But I shall say this:

A group of middle-school students in 1979 are making a film by railroad tracks with a super 8 camera when a massive train crash occurs. In the panicked confusion, they leave the camera rolling and catch something on it. The train, shall we say, was not empty. And a bunch of scary sci-fi things happen.

Very touching movie, funny, sad, and above all, it had the feel to it of an older movie, like a classic. I really can't think of anything wrong with Super 8, but I wouldn't recommend it to young children due to some very loud and intense parts. But it was great.

Final grade: A

TV Review: Doctor Who: Season One (2005)

Yes, I'm still a newbie to this, but I loved this first epic, mind-bending season. Not sure which episode was my favorite, but maybe "Dalek." Those Daleks are just awesome. I enjoyed watching the world end, meeting Charles Dickens (Charlie Boy), the Slitheen, and those gargoyle-esque monsters which appeared in a paradox. Captain Jack Harkness was brilliant. Eccleston (and Tennant) are great actors; I should like to see their movies sometime.

Now on a critical scale: I found the idea of living plastic a bit odd, and was not sure where the display dummies got laser guns. It was a bit silly for a trashcan to belch after eating Mickey. Oh, and it seemed to happen too often in the beginning that they'd try to help an alien that turned out to be hostile.

Other than those things, I loved this season and look forward to the next. Started a spin-off earlier called Torchwood and it also seems good. BBC has some really cool programs, fromMonty Python's Flying Circus to Sherlock to the Whoverse. I have yet to see their versions of Narnia and Hitchhiker's Guide, but I hear the latter is good--better than the 2005 movie, which I heard sucked. BBC Narnia I know nothing of.

So a B to this season, almost an A.

Good-bye,

Lewis