Posts by Cecelia
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Oops - posted twice - went out and attacked plants and twisted my ankle. Revenge of the something or others.
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Craig, I nearly gave up after about 50 pages too but went back to it after reading another more congenial book. It gripped me okay. But I don't think the author laid down the pathway for the killer in such a way that everything clicked into place when the reader discovered who he was. And without giving the show away, I can say that there was an antipodean link which was sooo corny I groaned.
Now this is all in my snobby English teacher opinion. My son actually said "They're (the 3 books) rubbish" but as entertaining thrillers they're compelling. The literary Geiger counter tells me that GWDT doesn't measure up to good modern literary standards and as an example of its genre does not encourage me to read any more stories of this type.
But I have to factor a certain prejudice and personal snobbery into this. I'm not necessarily a good judge because I have such preconceived ideas. I went to see Avatar today and actually quite enjoyed it but was picking it to bits in my mind as I viewed. There was a corny line from Michelle Roderique to a US General (?) "You're not the only one with a gun, bitch."
And indeed I did enjoy some of the domestic detail and minutiae of GWDT.
Enough. I'm raving. Time to get back into the garden and attack the agapanthus instead of innocent books and films.
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I've just had an argument with my son about Dragon Tattoo. I quite enjoyed it but found the plot twists unconvincing. He maintains that I'm not looking at it as a genre book; I can't compare it to my favourite novels etc. No, it's not my genre and I certainly won't be reading the 2nd and 3rd books.
Film sounds better than the book!?? -
I love The Little Stranger too. I have feasted on Sarah Waters since The LS: Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet and Affinity. Someone said she is a great storyteller and I think that's true. I have to say, though, I am uneasy with her endings. Too happy or too sad.
Have just finished The Anthologist, my Xmas book. It had a twee writing style but overall it thrilled and inspired me to read poetry - even to try to write it! It's in defence of rhyme in poetry. In the course of the novel the writer quotes a number of rhyming lines from Dryden to Ludacris and they are soooo good.
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Avatar looks like a must-see but going back to adaptations from novels. In "In My Father's Den", Brad McGann reinvented the book IMHO and made it better. A literal adaptation would not have worked - he had the imagination to modernise it and use those aspects of cinema which DO render an adaptation worthwhile: acting, music, cinematography etc
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My gripe isn't that we make a lot of superhero movies or Tolkien adaptations, it's how pedestrian they are - it's a perverse fantasy realism which I hope will die soon.
I find this very interesting. What do you call "true" insightful realism? Is it something like" high modality"? A dimly remembered term for an interesting concept where South Park can be more realistic than Saving Private Ryan??
What do you think of Peter Jackson as a director?
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That's a fantastic link - I was born in Whakatane - we would NEVER have considered the real pronunciation back in the 50s but now it's common it seems perfectly natural (while I still struggle with Toepaw)
Love your biblical quote too - raining down hell sounds as if the mayor thinks the town is HIS.
And while we're on this, how can he call the Geographic Board PC????? I mean, they're the experts - not him. Is he a global warming denier too??
Sun is coming out her in WHangarei so I'm off this damn computer for the rest of the day...
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I'm malicious enough to hope the mayor of Whanganui has apoplexy every time her hears RNZ and TVNZ pronounce the town Farnganui.
BUT is it right to do so? Isn't the h meant to be silent in that part of the world? (While we up here in Whangarei do the F thing. We haven't been here long but we already talk of going home to Fangers.)
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Going back to Shakespeare ...
He is no longer compulsory in Year 12. Teachers can teach a play instead of a novel but not as well as. I mean in terms of what is tested in the NCEA exams.
In Year 13 there is an achievement standard dedicated to Shakespeare with a prescribed list of plays. Teachers might spend 6 or 7 weeks studying it but in my experience many students will withdraw from it or not sit it in the finals. Why? It's too hard or they have enough credits anyway.
I've taught Lear to both year 12 and 13 and it IS possible to have fun with it as well as to gain some meaning. The eye motif!! The imaginary fall down the cliff. The eye gouging. The words. "Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again" ; "Why should a horse, a dog, a rat have life, and thou no life at all?"; "Now, gods, stand up for bastards!"
Sends shivers down my spine just to type that out. Poor Cordelia.
But every year I taught Lear as well as another play to another level (R and J or Macbeth for example) I would get a bit depressed or obsessed. Lear on top of another Shakespeare gripped me so strongly that my head was full of it. So maybe it is too much for the littl'uns.
Should we give up teaching Shakespeare to the whole class?
I'm sort of retired now but if I went back I'd think about seriously.
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A great post - one I needed because I've been feeling sad about Witi Ihimaera: "Big Brother Little Sister"; "The Makutu on Mrs Jones". Not keen on his novels ...Same as my feeling about Patricia Grace I'm afraid to say.
I've just bought Fiona Farrell's "Limestone" for a friend for Xmas. (I'm going to read it first.)
Please give us your best books of 2009 and slip in something about the Man Booker shortlist if you can. I love J M Coetzee and Sarah Waters. Polar opposites but true to their own style.