Okay, so this isn't about a book. It's about my love affair with Kenneth Branagh. The only reason I like my Shakespeare class is that I get to watch a LOT of movies with him in it. I love all his different interpretations of Shakespeare's movies. If you haven't seen it yet, you MUST watch the version of Love's Labour's Lost that he did. It's a 1930's style musical. You can't get much better than that (aka, I rented on a Friday night and made Andy watch it with me).
So the next time you're looking for a good movie, go get a Branagh Shakespeare production. But Bonnie, don't rent Henry V because the war scene at the end is very bloody and awful and I know that you'll hate it. It's a great movie, just very bloody and violent.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
My Antonia and Moby-Dick
It's amazing how sludging through one book can make you so grateful for another book. I distinctly remember HATING My Antonia when I read it in high school. We just read it in my American Novel class though, and I loved it. I don't know if I've just matured enough to enjoy it and understand it or what, but I think it might have something to do with the fact that I had to sludge through Moby-Dick right before that.
After reading chapters upon chapters of descriptions of whales and the anatomy of whales, the pages of description about the prairie seemed like a breeze.
However, I did come up with some interesting thoughts for both books. Since My Antonia is freshest in my mind I'll do that one right now. For all the bad things about Willa Cather, she brings me back home. Her story is set in a small town in Nebraska at the end of the 19th century. I think part of the reason I liked it this time, is that I identify with the narrator. He's left Nebraska and is living in New York and suddenly he's very fond of Nebraska. That's how I am with Kansas. I wasn't necessarily a huge fan of it while I lived there, but since moving to Utah I've started to realize all of the absolutely amazing things about Kansas. At the same time, much like the narrator, I'm scared to go back. Because every time I go back, it's not the same Kansas that I've remembered.
On Saturday I was cleaning my room and found my English Portfolio from high school (a really big folder with every English paper/project I did through all four years) and was reading the paper I wrote for My Antonia. I'm not surprised that I got a B on it because I wrote about how Cather is writing about the inability of marriage to provide a meaningful relationship. When you look at most of the marriages that Jim sees in his childhood and youth that might be true, but his grandparents have an excellent marriage and so does Antonia at the end of the book. So basically my entire point was false. I don't know how on earth I even managed to get a B on that... oh well. I'm almost tempted to completely revise it and turn it in for a paper I need to write for my American Novel class.
After reading chapters upon chapters of descriptions of whales and the anatomy of whales, the pages of description about the prairie seemed like a breeze.
However, I did come up with some interesting thoughts for both books. Since My Antonia is freshest in my mind I'll do that one right now. For all the bad things about Willa Cather, she brings me back home. Her story is set in a small town in Nebraska at the end of the 19th century. I think part of the reason I liked it this time, is that I identify with the narrator. He's left Nebraska and is living in New York and suddenly he's very fond of Nebraska. That's how I am with Kansas. I wasn't necessarily a huge fan of it while I lived there, but since moving to Utah I've started to realize all of the absolutely amazing things about Kansas. At the same time, much like the narrator, I'm scared to go back. Because every time I go back, it's not the same Kansas that I've remembered.
On Saturday I was cleaning my room and found my English Portfolio from high school (a really big folder with every English paper/project I did through all four years) and was reading the paper I wrote for My Antonia. I'm not surprised that I got a B on it because I wrote about how Cather is writing about the inability of marriage to provide a meaningful relationship. When you look at most of the marriages that Jim sees in his childhood and youth that might be true, but his grandparents have an excellent marriage and so does Antonia at the end of the book. So basically my entire point was false. I don't know how on earth I even managed to get a B on that... oh well. I'm almost tempted to completely revise it and turn it in for a paper I need to write for my American Novel class.
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