Blog 22 Freestyle- Book v.s. movie

 “Have you read__?”, “No but I watched the movie!”  I am going to go out on a limb and say it is not the same thing at all.  Apples and Oranges.  It’s like reading the Cliff notes and not reading the book.   A movie, no matter how well done can never do justice to the book.

  THE BOOK IS ALWAYS BETTER!

  Film is an incredible and versatile media, and amazing things can be done with it but I have yet to see it do full justice to the written word combined the power of human imagination.  

 This is not to say that they shouldn’t make movies of books, or that we shouldn’t watch them.  I am not advocating literature snobbery.  All I am saying is that watching the movie does not equal reading the book.  If you really have no intention of reading the book, watch the movie, by all means.  You will then have an overview idea of the contents of the book, but do not make the mistake of thinking you now know what is inside the book.  If you enjoyed the movie, I would highly recommend you read the book though, it will be much better, trust me! 

  I personally enjoy movies made from books, sometimes I read the book first, and sometimes I read the book after the movie.  I usually enjoy the movie more if I haven’t yet read the book because I spend less time crying “Wha?? That wasn’t how it went!”, but often I have read the book long before the movie so I try to accept the limitations and license of the media and enjoy it as it is. 

 So, readers, if you enjoyed “The Hunger Games”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Bridge to Terabithia” or even “The Little Mermaid”  movies, go out and find the book and give it a try! You’ll be glad you did.

Blog 20 Quote response, Othello 2

Othello: “Now do I see ‘tis true. Look here, Iago, All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.  ‘Tis gone.  Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell! Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy freight, For ‘tis of aspics tongues.” (Shakespear, 459-465)

With these chilling words Othello is throwing away the love he felt for Desdemona and accepting hatred.  He says that he is full of poisonous snakes.  There is a song by Rich Mullins called “We Are Not as Strong as We Think We Are” that has these words;

 “We are frail we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are” (Mullins, 1996)

This part of the play reminds me of that song.  Othello is sinking further into his jealous rage and his strong love is being replaced by an equally strong hate.

Cited:

“We are Not as Strong as We Think We Are” By Rich Mullins, July 30, 1996

Blog 21 Scene Response You Tube Othello

My overall impression of the three clips was the Laurence Fishburne was a better production.  The outside scenes had great lighting and lent themselves well to the story.  I felt the costumes and props were more believable.  In Shakespeare times the play would have been much simpler, but in modern times and with the things that can be accomplished with film I think that the Fishburne version did the best job of taking advantage of the technology.  I felt that Fishburne also delivered his lines better.  Anthony Hopkins came across to me as over-acting and Willard White as under-acting.  I thought the Iago character in the Hopkins version was brilliant though!  He captured how I imagine Iago perfectly.   Having a white man play Othello was also a difficulty for me, as I view Othello’s skin color as pivotal to the plot. Overall I think that the Fishburne version would be the easiest to watch for the uninitiated because his acting makes the dialogue easier to understand.  The other versions often had lines delivered so rapidly that if I had not read the play I would have been completely lost.

I will probably purchase the Fishburne film to add to my Shakespeare film collection.

Blog 19 Freestyle-Audio Books

Whenever I go anywhere it is a long drive.  Church on Sunday: 35 miles, 45 minutes to an hour, shopping once or twice a month at least 100 miles and a couple hours of drive time, one way.  To say I live rurally is the understatement of the year.  I like it, occasionally it is a little frustrating but you learn to adjust your lifestyle and tell yourself that you never liked eating takeout anyway!  With all this windshield time I have discovered audiobooks.  I always thought audiobooks were the lazy way to read, but now I have discovered it is a good way to maximize drive time.  When the kids are in the car we listen to books like Lord of the Rings, and when it is just me I swing between novels and books about politics and social issues.  In the privacy of my car I can shout about the stupidity of bureaucracy or have an aha moment about my personal journey.  I have learned that I have some specific preferences in audiobooks.  One is that I hate abridged books.  I don’t know who chooses what to remove to shorten these books but they get on my nerves in much the same way that readers digest condensed books do.  It just makes the book seem lacking, and, with fiction, the plot becomes disjointed and character development suffers.  It is worse than making a good book into a movie!  Now I realize that I am probably in the minority but I feel like the book suffers from abridgement. I view books as a completed work of art and hacking it up a crime.   I enjoy a good narrator and a poor one can totally ruin the experience for me.  I like dramatized versions occasionally but usually just a good reader is the best.  .  I wish I could figure out how to get my textbooks on audio, I would be able to use drive time to accomplish long reading assignments.    Overall I have become a big fan of audiobooks and have found myself using them more and more.  I now can be found listening on my Mp3 player as I clean, work in the garden, or exercise.  I would encourage others to consider audiobooks as a way to squeeze in more reading and learning into their busy lives.

Blog 18 Quote-Response, Othello 1

 “Iago [aside]: He takes her by the palm. Ay, well said, whisper.  With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly a Cassio.  Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship.  You say true; ‘tis so indeed.  If such tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenantry , it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft, which again you are most apt to play the sir in.” (Shakespeare , 164-169)

Here we see Iago’s virulent hatred of Cassio.  He is so cruelly mocking of Cassio’s mannerisms.  He sees them as a way to get Cassio demoted.  I like Iago’s character because he is so sneaky and corrupt.  No misunderstood villain here, he is pure evil and uses manipulation and duplicity to get his goals accomplished.