FEB Review: Zorro

February review for the Eclectic Reader's Book Challenge 2013: Zorro: A Novel by Isabel Allende. Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden, 2005.

Zorro: A Novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende reimagines the youth of Diego de la Vega, the boy who would become El Zorro. She takes a well-known figure with a lot of baggage--from Johnston McCulley's first pulp novels in the 1920's to Antonio Banderas's film incarnation in 1998, the figure of Zorro has definitely been played out--and does something new with him. By stripping the masked crusader of his amalgamated trappings, she returns him to human form and asks the most important question we can ask of ourselves or of any larger-than-life figure: how did he get to be this way? Diego is a boy of two worlds, born of a Spanish conquistador and a Shoshone warrior, destined to spend his life bouncing back and forth between these two most fundamental parts of himself. Aided by his "milk-brother" Bernardo, he finds his way through Native American vision quests, journeys across the ocean, and aristocratic Spanish society.

Allende is a wonderful crafter of relationships--they are my favorite part of her stories. With a magical means of description characteristic of many Latin American writers, Allende's every line speaks not only of the wide overarching qualities of the character, but also of the day-to-day, the magic in the ordinary. For example, Allende's idea behind the mask is that Diego de la Vega has been unfortunately blessed with large ears and the mask serves as a way to strip that embarrassment from his world--in addition to hiding his face and becoming something else. The smallest details come to light in the most beautiful ways in this novel, with Allende as the master of all.

Zorro is a novel about the creation of an identity, and, as with most identities, it doesn't start with the eponymous hero. Instead, the narrator takes us back to the foundation of that hero: namely, his parents. From the very first page, the narrator is a large part of the story and makes no effort to separate herself, but it is not until the very last chapter that she reveals herself to the reader. The idea of placing this story within the frame of a personal recounting lends no air of mystery to this mysterious figure of Zorro. On the contrary, it breaks him down and makes him human, getting at the kernel of Truth with a capital "T" that Allende seems to be trying to find with her tale.

"Zorro is not a magical character. He is not like Superman, Spiderman, or so many other fantastic action heroes. He is a human being, a man who loves life, who is willing to take risks to defend the underdog, and who is brave, funny, and romantic. Maybe his appeal is that we can all become Zorro given the right circumstances. We can all have courage and live life to its fullest. Just give us a mask, a cape, and a sword!" -Isabel Allende, in her About the Book interview at the end of Zorro.

Oscars 2013

Last night was the 2013 Academy Awards Ceremony and I enjoyed it in my friend's living room, surrounded by a group of friends so feminist and theater-crazy that if host Seth MacFarlane put a single toe out of line--which he did many a time, let's be honest--he was going down.

Jennifer Lawrence won for Best Actress and tripped on her way up the stairs to receive her award (and I want to be her best friend). I'm so proud of her for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. The other actresses did phenomenal jobs as well, but that movie spoke to me more than just on a political level or any other. It was about life and being fucked up and how every day is tough for every single person in their own way, no matter what, and I love that. Also, JLaw's character, Tiffany, had a really beautiful speech that made me very happy:

"There will always be a part of me that is dirty and sloppy. But I like that. Just like all the other parts of myself. Can you say the same?"

SHE IS TWENTY-TWO YEARS OLD. WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE.

Not only for that reason, this year was great for Oscars. There was the youngest-ever Oscar nominee for Best Actress in Quevenzhané Wallis (9 years old) for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and the oldest-ever nominee for Best Actress in Emmanuelle Riva (85 years old) for Amour. The story of Bin Laden's assassination was told, and the person behind it was a woman--screw your stupid "women are obsessed with things" joke, Seth MacFarlane--and while I haven't yet seen Zero Dark Thirty, I'm sure Jessica Chastain was phenomenal in it, because she's a badass. Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews won for Brave, Pixar's first animated feature to have a FEMALE in the hero's role. Quentin Tarantino won for Best Original Screenplay, and in his acceptance speech said that it was the "year of the writers." I hope so. I could really use some Tarantino mojo right about now.

UPDATE - Eclectic Reader Challenge

This is where I'll update my list for the 2013 Eclectic Reader Challenge! Here's my March pick, y'all.
JAN--Made into a movie: The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
FEB--Translated Fiction: Zorro by Isabel Allende
MAR--Romantic Suspense: Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein
APR--
MAY--
JUN--
JUL--
AUG--
SEPT--
OCT--
NOV--
DEC--

Categories

Translated fiction

Historical mystery

Romantic suspense

Made into a movie

New Adult

Urban Fantasy

Dystopian

Memoir

LGBT

Action Adventure

Humour

Published in 2013

Do one thing every day that scares you

So today, I did something that scared me. I had a phone interview with Three Corpse Circus LLC for a Sponsorship Coordinator position. I had homework, to watch these shorts from their previous festivals and---oh. I should mention that Three Corpse Circus is a horror film festival that a group of friends started a few years back. For the hour leading up to the interview, I freaked. I asked myself what the hell I was doing looking at a position for a HORROR film festival. This, coming from the girl who had to be tied to a chair to watch Goosebumps as a kid. (Literally. My friends did that to me.) From the girl who was terrified to even go door-to-door selling Girl Scout cookies to my own neighbors.

When 3:00 rolled around, I was terrified of picking up the phone. The little girl in my head told me to turn the ringer off and bury myself under the covers until something else happened and I could pretend to forget about what an asshat I was. But I took a deep breath. Waited for the phone to vibrate three times. Answered. Chris was very cool, with a disarming voice and even more disarming questions. I feel like it went really well. I did an off-the-cuff pitch and talked about my thoughts on the horror genre and I asked him about his favorite horror movie. (I had questions for the interviewer! I never do that!)

I had asked myself what the hell I was doing applying to this sort of job, and the more I wrote about it the more I was convinced that it could be good for me. I did a good job selling myself during the interview, I'm proud to say. If I were to get this job, I would be pushing my boundaries. It's something I've never thought of myself doing, and that kind of excites me, especially in this strange transition part of my life. I'll get a phone call on Tuesday morning to let me know if I've passed to the next round of interviews, so there isn't going to be much of a wait for me here, but in the mean time, whether I get the job or not, I'll just be satisfied with the fact that I answered that phone and got excited about something new.

Review: Wreck-It Ralph

SUMMARY: Wreck-It Ralph is the antagonist in Fix-It Felix Jr., an arcade game that serves as the launching-point for this wonderfully innovative animated film. Ralph longs to be as Good as his opponent, and even joins a Bad-Guy Support Group to try to work through his feelings of inadequacy--their mantra incorporates repeated use of the words Good and Bad, stretching the meanings to fit this new perspective of the-bad-guy-as-normal. Some of the peons in Ralph's game challenge him to win a Hero's Medal--then and only then will they treat him like a Hero (like Felix), but they know it will never happen. Ralph surprises them by going off-track and disappearing into another game, begging the question of whether his stubbornness will cost all the residents their world?

PRE-VIEWING: I am ridiculously excited for this movie. I love films that play with perspective like this, forcing a character who is typically not thought of as protagonist material into the spotlight. I love that Ralph exists in a universe not entirely composed of his own game, but where his game is like a tree branch or a country within a greater, more expansive universe. I'm interested to see how it will end, to see whether Ralph will return, empowered, to his own game or if he will make his own way in the world. It will be interesting to see what kind of message is shown. [written prior to viewing]

POST-VIEWING: Wreck-It Ralph is an animated movie with the mind of a video game. There are so many aspects to this fun film that are clearly delivered as Cupid's arrow to the heart of an old-school gamer: for example, the characters move like they would in their own games, in their own animations, even though the tech for this movie far surpasses that of Super Mario Bros. Early on, the rules of this universe are established, most of them running contrary to what Ralph, as a character, is capable of doing on his own--he steals cherries from Pac-Man and tries desperately to hide them from Surge Protector, the game security patrolman who guards the checkpoints between games and Game Central Station.

The one thing I was struck most by was the innovation of having an arcade be like a world in itself, with the power strip as Grand Central Station, and characters able to move back and forth through the cords between their game and a centralized location--when the arcade is closed, of course. This cerebral imagining of what life is like inside a video game is reminiscent of Tron, a 1982 film about a coder who gets sucked inside a computer, and The Great Good Thing, a 2002 novel about a book character who breaks all the rules and looks up at the Reader instead of playing her part.
This film is full of references, both to other video games and pop culture itself: at one point, Ralph angrily asks another character "what are you hiding in this candy-coated heart of darkness?!" The film is the definition of intertextuality, bringing all these disparate elements together, but it is not done in a way that detracts from the simplicity and soul of the movie.

At its barest, Wreck-It Ralph is truly a coming of age tale, even though the character is nearly 30 years old by his own admission. Ralph moves from his game to two others, chasing after something he thinks he wants, only to realize that he can be ok with himself as he was. The element that really clinched this arc, however, is Fix-It Felix, who follows Ralph in order to stop his game from being Unplugged forever. Felix too comes to an understanding, but it is one that Ralph has lived with his entire existence.

Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Dir. Rich Moore. Disney Animation Studios. John C Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Mindy Kaling.

Excitement

The other day, a friend at work made a comment that sort of took me by surprise.

"I haven't really ever seen you excited," he said.

"Naw, I'm just really tired lately," I replied.

But I realized something. I really haven't been excited about anything in a while. I'm stuck in a sort of holding pattern, I guess. I graduated early and have been spending this semester working as a barista and beefing up my writing portfolio. Except...that not much writing is going on. I'm watching a lot of TV, sleeping a lot, not working out as much as I used to...I don't know what's happening, but I know that it's something I need to break.

Why haven't I found anything to be excited by lately? Why am I afraid to go anywhere?

Good God, Lemon.

Thoughts on 30 Rock and the end of an era

I just watched the series finale of 30 Rock tonight. And I need to write about it. I'm not going to worry about spoilers, because this isn't technically a review, it's just my thoughts. So if you haven't seen the show all the way through and you're planning on it, I'd recommend just skipping off and doing something else with your precious internet time. (Haha, like people read this >.<) So here it goes.

I started watching 30 Rock all the way through this past summer. I'd seen an episode or two before here and there, and friends I knew were in love with it, but I just didn't start it, for some reason. I don't really know why, other than the fact that I was watching other things and I never really thought about it. But this last summer I'd been thinking a lot about what I wanted to do with myself and focusing a lot on finding strong women role models and figuring out what they've done to make themselves who they are, and Tina Fey struck my fancy. Plus she was a strong woman WRITER on a show where she played a character of a woman WRITER, creator of her own TV show. Something I would love to do.

So I started watching. I was hooked from the beginning, and it was a whirlwind. And now I am finished.

What am I to do now? I have watched Liz Lemon fight her way through seven years of the TV industry, bouncing from relationship to relationship, from problem to problem, and always coming out on top--even if it takes her a few tries. I want to be that, I want to be her, but I can't seem to find my way to start. But the thing I think that will help me the most from this show is something that Jack said in their last encounter during the series finale. "I called you up for one meeting. And you just kept coming up here." Liz Lemon taught me to be persistent. That I can do whatever I want to do, as long as I pester someone long enough for them to give me my chance to shine. She taught me that it's okay to be weird and make up words, that I don't have to sell out and show my boobs to make it--rather that I can wear my dorky glasses and make a beeline for the shrimp.

Speaking of making up words, Jack Donaghy. From "innoventing" to Six Sigma, Jack was Lemon's perfect counterpart, the way to continually address the "having it all" conundrum--something they hit hard in the finale episode. The Donaghy-and-Lemon relationship has been touted as one of the best platonic relationships on television, and for me, it's true. Being at a point in my life where I could really use a mentor, I found that relationship far more intriguing than Liz's parade of different but equally attractive and emotionally messed up boyfriends. The way that Jack pushed Liz through all the years, the way he "imparted wisdom" when really he was just an alcoholic with a great voice, as Lemon realizes in the end, is really inspiring to me. The fact that a man with as much going for him as Jack Donaghy still has some stuff to work out is refreshing, and it helps me to remember to allow myself some space for happiness and fun, rather than just the drive to get the job and make the money and be a general paragon of cookie-cutter success.

Review: Primeval (BBC)

REVIEW - BBC's Primeval (2007-2011)
Created by Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges

PLOT SUMMARY: Primeval follows Professor Nick Cutter and his makeshift team as they try to understand and control shimmering "anomalies" that have begun to pop up all across England, rifts in space and time that give passage to creatures from prehistory. It is up to Professor Cutter and his team--which shifts throughout the 5 seasons, leaving only Abby Maitland and Connor Temple constant--to find and control these "creature incursions," hopefully without injury to the creatures themselves. They are scientists, after all, and would rather study first at the risk of being mauled by mutant future Predators.

At first glance, Primeval might seem to be your run-of-the-mill sci-fi dinosaur show, often compared to things like Stargate, but as the show runs on, it comes into itself more fully, exploring the ever-present push and pull between scientific inquiry and morality. It is most prominent in the last season when the Anomaly Research Centre (or the ARC) has been privatized by Philip Burton and his company, a genius businessman and scientist whose agenda is increasingly more secretive and consequently unsettling. While still giving science the headlining events of each episode--it is a sci-fi show, after all--Series 5 uses the progress that Connor is making as one of Phillip's minions to explore and put tension on the relationship between Connor and Abby, and this is one of the things I loved most about the show. The relationship drama isn't front and center as it would be on most any primetime television show in the States. It is not played up to the degree that every misstep in communication is seemingly the end of the world--rather, the missteps in communication between Connor and Abby have to do with trust and the actual (not figurative) end of the world as they know it. The characters themselves are well developed, and their problems seem in tune with the world they live in, rather than whitewashed to fit whichever world the viewer might hail from.

Of all the characters that come and go (or stay, as the case may be for a select few) through these 5 seasons, Connor Temple is my favorite, and he is the one who grew the most. He starts out as the persistent and excitable grad student, dogging Nick Cutter to take a look at his dinosaur research.

From the one member of the team who is never given a gun--EVER--to the man who saves the world, Connor matures in beautiful ways. His wonderful cockney accent is almost an external indicator of his difference from the rest of the crew, his spirit and sharp edges that somehow allows him easier access to our hearts, despite his unfinished nature.
Connor could have easily been played as the tragic hero who never gets the girl and is constantly underestimated by the other members of his team, but the showrunners smartly decided to forgo the simplistic archetype for a more convoluted one.

While any TV show such as this one runs the risk of falling into a tired Monster-of-the-Week, formulaic rut--Primeval does stumble sometimes--it is well-crafted enough to allow its characters to play with the cookie cutter. It is a witty and innovative addition to the ranks of dinosaur shows and time-travel fiction, a fun foray into a new world that could very well teach us something about our own.

February announcements!

Happy February, blogosphere. I have a few announcements, but mostly this is just a bare-faced attempt to get a post out today that I don't have to stab myself in the brain for. I've had some career ponderings and meetings and things that will probably make their way here eventually as well.

Eclectic Reader February Book Selection: Zorro by Isabel Allende, translated from the Spanish my the talented Margaret Sayers Peden. It is my choice for the translated fiction genre for the challenge, and it tells the tale of Zorro from an insider's perspective.

I finished my first major sweater! One with pockets and buttons and a wonderful neckline. It was a little big for me, so I gave it to my mother, who is my lovely model to the left here.

That's all for now, working on finishing up my review of BBC's Primeval for my next TV post. Laters!