Wednesday, May 17, 2017

♥fantasy pt.2♥

*a bird lands on jack's shoulder*
*jack does something*
lily: ur so clever jAck

guess what i have not finished my fantasy story yet lmao but are we even surprised though i finish all my shit like 3 years after they're assigned so wooooo lets see how i do // i also wrote this like two weeks after it was assigned so i dont even know if this is what i'm correctly supposed to do or not but lets see how this turns out or if i even get any points for this 

anyways

Legend (1985) by Ridley Scott, an early fantasy movie consisting of a troll with a uncomfortably well edited voice, a jungle boy that is familiar to Tarzan, a horny fairy, and a princess who makes the worst decisions despite the obvious consequences. Yes, an angsty introduction indeed. Since its a fantasy movie and one of the earlier ones, it might be riddled with cliches and/or strange occurrences in the story.  That might not be all that bad though, following the recipe is never an error in itself. The beginning doesn't give us much context to why Jack The Jungle Boy is in the jungle in the first place, but it was probably done to just move on with the story. It continues with the two being happy, then suddenly Jack wants to show his little girlfriend the most sacred of all creatures in the forest, the Unicorn. To sum it up, Lilli doesn't listen to Jack and ends up touching the unicorn, a band of evil trolls (one of them being mentioned in the introduction) at the same time comes and shoots a poison dart at the mare. This "indirectly" scares the unicorn away and making Jack think that Lilli touching the horse was what caused the eternal winter. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the death of one of the unicorns resulted in the loss of magic and purity in the forest. Lilli runs away, Jack then needs to embark on a journey to clean up the mess stirred on by Lilli with several other fantasy creatures such as the fairy, more goblins and dwarves, and an elf. A classic fantasy movie.



♥♥the martian chronicles♥♥


The Martian Chronicles, the riveting science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. This author is famous for his vivid storytelling that he uses to develop the experiences of his characters and plot. The novel follows many fragmented short stories that stretch across many years; telling of telepathy, space exploration, bee guns, and most importantly, martians.

The novel is overall pretty great. But the flaws include the inconsistent story line and lack of variety for resolution. There's like 16 short stories, one about this alien woman and her asshole husband who has a gun that shoots bees and abuses her. And then it skips to colonizers from Earth in their flying tin can who get thrown into an insane asylum and the whole crew is killed like out of nowhere, what the hell.

Adding to that, most of the conflict is resolved through violence. Colonizers? Shoot em' with the bee gun. Let's also not try to reason with beings that we don't know. Literally everything in this book ends with something violent and explosive. There's this alien who can shape shift and it tries to turn into everyone, and then he bursts into dusts. There's no plan C, no E on this scan tron.

The writing style I'll say is not bad. I can imagine the desolate planet of Mars and the struggles that the many life forms that have colonized and would like to colonize the planet have been through.

In conclusion, I am bitter.




Thursday, April 27, 2017

♥♥fantasy♥♥

i was just attacked for my opinion of harry potter

Fantasy, the age old genre of magic and the supernatural forces. This tells stories of epic adventures with extravagant creatures and characters. This is a favorite of many and will probably never get old since there are still many elements to be accurately and deeply explored. 

I am a fan of stories like Percy Jackson (ok i was obsessed with this shit like i wrote fan fiction about this story omg like the worst kind of thing that anyone can write) I have come to reform myself into a more cultured person that likes more than the whole elves and trolls and sword stuff. Fantasy is a beloved genre since it lets you escape your more boring life and escape into this grand saga. Gods and goddesses, undines and wood nymphs, centaurs and unicorns; all are things that I love.

I know that I just said how much of a fan that I was of this stuff, but in reality, I don't really lean towards fantasy things in today's media. Sure, the occasional good fantasy movie comes out. The Huntsman: Winter's War is the most recent one that I can think of. And yes, that movie came out last year. That's how long its been since I've watched a decent fantasy movie.

Games on the other hand; that's a different story. League of Legends (I don't even play that anymore but it was worth putting on the list) Overwatch (More sci-fi than fantasy, but there are still elements of fantasy mixed into there. Such as necromancy, sentient robots, ect.) and Smite (This is also a game that I don't play anymore, but still is downloaded onto my laptop. It has it's moments and mechanical fun, along with it's fantasy element of gods, goddesses, and mythical creatures arriving on a virtual battlefield to duke it out with their many arrays of abilities that allude to specific points and traits that appeared in their mythology.)


Tuesday, April 25, 2017

♥♥mrs.frisby and the rats of nimh♥♥

rats: the musical

as a disclaimer i really didnt want this book about rodents // i wanted the lion the witch and the wardrobe like its cool and i kind of sort of already know what thats about and i already like the story // this group of people pushed past me so they could snatch the book and my edges along with it //

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the "fantasy" novel about a ~rat~ mother's struggle to save her sick son. Because of course we want to read about single mother rodent struggles!!

The book isn't really in the realm for fantasy, more general or science fiction. Genetically modified rats and their whole organization trying to experiment with them?? I would expect this book to be labeled along with the likes of Divergent. Okay, not even that since this was made in like The Stone Age, maybe more Charlotte's Web section or something.

The flashbacks make it confusing to keep up with where the story is, are we in the lab or what????


Tuesday, March 21, 2017

♥the martian chronicles 3/21♥

it is i, the frenchiest fry

Setting is one of the foundations of a good story, it can be a regular school or the deepest pit of hell, anything will go if you can develop it enough and intrigue a reader. In The Martian Chronicles, the story takes place in a future where Earth is desolated and mankind is forced to flee to other planets. In this case, the red planet named after the Roman god of war, Mars.

The example that I will be using (not because i'm behind hahaha) is from one of the very first stories that is featured, "Ylla." I'm not keen on the pronunciation of this word; Illa? Yeela? Ailla? This story/chapter follows an alien woman named Ylla and her husband. Ylla is having visions of shining lights of a spaceship that melts away snow and ice. Her husband thinks that the idea of travelers from "The Third Planet" is absurd and disregards her. On another night, Ylla dreams a similar dream where Nathaniel York comes down from the ship and is infatuated with her, offering to whisk her away. Yll, her husband, seems to be jealous of his wife's interest in this strange traveler and plans to thwart them, even though Ylla repeated time after time that it was merely a dream. Later that day, a ray of light comes down from the sky and Yll decides to go hunting, telling Ylla to stay in the house because a doctor is coming to see her about her visions. 2 shots ring out, it is suggested that they were from Yll and were used to eliminate Nathaniel York and his companion.

"The flame birds waited, like a bed of coals, glowing on the cool smooth sands. The whit canopy ballooned on the night wind, flapping softly, tied by a thousand green ribbons to the birds. Ylla laid herself back in the canopy and, at a word from her husband, the bired leaped, burning, toward the dark sky. The ribbons tautened, the canopy lifted. The sand slid whining under; the blue hills drifted by, leaving their home behind, the raining pillars, the caged flowers, the singing books, the whispering floor creeks. She did not look at her husband. She heard him crying out to the birds as they rose higher, like ten thousand hot sparkles, so many red-yellow fireworks in the heavens, tugging the canopy like a flower petal, burning through the wind."

The scene follows a vivid description of a canopy across a sky led by Yll's command and glowing birds. It is developed by showing that life on Mars is from from our own. The setting is important in this book because Mars is so specific and unique. When you think The Red Planet you think heat and sun, the bird things that Yll commands are fiery and fly into the air to raise the canopy.




Friday, March 17, 2017

♥♥the martian chronicles featuring ray bradbury♥♥

○ fkn aliens bro○

(a response to https://tylermillerwrites.com/2016/09/14/how-ray-bradburys-the-martian-chronicles-changed-science-fiction-and-literature/)

The Martian Chronicles is great. It's science fiction, a Ray Bradbury novel, a saga of exploring the cosmos, and most importantly, a story all about death. Lots of it in fact. The article above praises Bradbury for his unique take on the genre with a focus that isn't centered on quantum physics and wormholes, but more on the fall of a species and their struggles. It gave the reader insight on Brabury's process while writing the novel and breaking away from the status quo of science fiction. The book is interesting in it's concept. Humans "invade" Mars and eventually kill off the aliens inhabiting the planet. It seems ironic to me in a way. Most media involving martians involves the extraterrestrials coming to Earth and taking the planet by storm, a role reversal. The article also makes the reader think about what The Martian Chronicles is really about, whether it's simply a fantasy or a metaphor about human history or future. The Earthlings coming to Mars and colonizing it is reminiscent (also stated by the article) of European exploration for the New World. It isn't very much of a stretch anyways. I mean, colonizing? Infecting a group with all sorts of illnesses? Wanting to take land from someone else? Hmm.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

♥♥Dandelion Wine♥♥

dandelion wine is gr8

Dandelion Wine is a novel written by Ray Bradbury, an author known for many works in fiction. This particular novel is set in Green Town, Illinois, 1928. It follows a sort of "alter ego" based on Ray Bradbury himself, Douglas Spaulding. Douglas sees the world with an optimistic and naive outlook on the world. Summers for children is usually just sweating, air conditioned rooms, video games, and sticky hands from melting ice cream. Ray Bradbury truly captures being a simple kid again in the summer of 1928 through evocative language and vivid story telling.

Dandelion Wine's stronger traits include its language, imagery. Ray Bradbury is a very unique writer in terms of being able to do these things and format it into a story. Dandelion Wine also amazingly includes an interesting cast of characters to enjoy, from a lurking and menacing murderer, to a seemingly enchanted woman. Another thing that can be enjoyed is the book's philosophy on life and death and being a human. Someone in the beginning of the book, Douglas comes to an epiphany that he is really here, living on Earth. Heart beating, lungs expanding and contracting, lying in the flowing grass.

Like anything in this world, Dandelion Wine has its flaws. They include; lack of strong plot line, some one dimensional characters, and a story that becomes a little confusing at times. The book jumps from character to character, scene to scene in a matter of pages. It becomes difficult to truly commit yourself to be invested in it.

Remember that this is simply opinion and can be trivialized by others. Maybe this is kind of biased because this book was written in like, 1950, and I'm a teen who just needs action all the time. It also isn't really something I would pick up at the library, not like the 50 Young Adult books in one aisle that are pretty much follow the same archetypes and story.