Media Review #7 - Step Brothers

For this blog, I chose the film "Step Brothers" which I found absolutely hilarious. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures and directed by Adam McKay. Adam McKay has done many movies of this type such as "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby". Both of those films starred the humorous Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell stars in this movie as well, with John C. Reilly. Both do very well to make the film a laugh, and an enjoyable experience. The genre of the film is Comedy and it definitely lives up to it's brand.

"Step Brothers" is a story of two men, Brennan Huff and Dale Doback are unemployed and who live with their parents. The movie goes through their eventual climb to success, but not without major laughs at their expense. Brennan is thirty nine years old and Dale is forty. One day, by chance their parents meet and soon after get married. Thus, Brennan and Dale find themselves step-brothers. Of course, they immediately hate each other and play pranks on each other constantly. That is, until one day Brennan's younger, very successful jerk of a brother comes to visit and Dale punches him in the face. Soon after Brennan finds he has alot in common with Dale and they become best friends.

My favorite scene in the entire is the ending scene in which Dr. Doback urges his sons to follow their dreams and they get on stage. Brennan then breaks into a karaoke version of "Por Ti Volare" accompanied by Dale on the drums. The music is actually amazing, even though its used for comedic effect. The song fits the scene perfectly, as a montage of the plot line being resolved and falling into place is shown as Brennan sings. I personally liked how despite being funny, the scene still manages to be rather touching as the two "losers" become something and their dream is realized. Something the director could have worked on at the end of this scene would be to maybe allow John C. Riley to drag on the drum solo just a little bit longer. Other then that, I didn't see anything else with room for improvement in this scene.

"Step Brothers" is truly a hilarious film, although for older audiences definitely. It's obviously not for everyone, but most should find lots of laughs in this comedy.

Independent Reading #6 (Black History Month Edition) - Shake Hands With The Devil

In tribute to black history month, I read a powerful novel Shake Hands With The Devil : The Failure Of Humanity In Rwanda. The novel is a first hand account of the horrors and failure of mankind to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the struggle of Romeo Dallaire to find hope, peace, and reconciliation within himself.

What worked well in the book I thought, was the fact that it did not focus entirely on just the helplessness of Dallaire and his men. It also went through their successes in helping people or the few happy moments they had. For example, when Dallaire and his men went to a bar and Romeo started dancing surprising the soldiers with their commander's casualness. Another of these moments was when Brent and Troute rescued a pregnant woman, her husband and her baby from a mob of hutus dead set on killing them.

The book is relative to Black History, because it involves the most famous (and perhaps most devastating) genocide in Africa to date. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda had an estimated eight hundred thousand to one million casualties. It also depicts issues like race because the UN was not helpless to stop the genocide, they just failed to. The french soldiers sent in to aid the victims, only actually evacuated all foreigners visiting the land. Dallaire thinks that this would be different if the world erased all of it's prejudice. To take a line from Hotel Rwanda, "You're black. Your not even a n*****. You're an African." - Colonel Oliver.

One of two truly outstanding passages from the book was:

"He was about three years old, dressed in a filthy, torn T-shirt, the ragged remnants of underwear, little more than a loincloth, drooping from under his distended belly. He was caked in dirt, his hair white and matted with dust, and he was enveloped in a cloud of flies, which were greedily attacking the open sores that covered him." P. 2

I liked this passage because it shows how vividly Dallaire remembers things. This happened a long time before the book. His capacity to describe things is incredible as well. The way it evokes an ache in one's heart to view the poverty of these children is a true "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" scenario. Passages like these are the kind that really make you wonder about poverty, hunger, and disease that are running rampant in Africa.

The other passage that was really good, also from the same page is:

"...but to me this child had the face of an angel and eyes of pure innocence. I had seen so many children hacked to pieces that this small, whole, bewildered boy was a vision of hope." P. 2

The excerpt made me think of the victims of the genocide. The Hutus gave no mercy and slaughtered man, woman, and child alike. The majority of the casualties were all innocent civilians. They were completely innocent, and yet the rage of the Hutus was directed upon them. In fact, Hutus who opposed the genocide were also killed. It is touching that a small boy instills hope in a hardened soldier who has been seeing many innocents much like the boy getting killed every day.

Shake Hand With The Devil  was a truly eye-opening and informative novel exploring the extremes of human nature.

Independent Reading #5 - Obama's Inauguration Speech

Recently, Barack Obama has been inaugurated officially as the 44th President of the United States of America. As all the presidents have before him, he gave an inaugural address. Approximately 19 minutes long, it was short as most are. Although it was short Obama made it seem longer because of his power. He is an amazing and well established orator. Obama's words in my opinion, ensnare those who hear them and transfix them with fascination. This speech in particular was not as upbeat or lively as his previous ones, but each word was said with a steadfast determination. He makes a connection with the American people in his first few lines, and maintains that connection, while firing off his objectives. He is careful, however. Obama leaves his objectives to general things and does not clearly outline changes that will take place.

In his adress Obama promises many things, but the big ones are all there. He has promised to fix the waning economy of the USA, claiming it the fault of the greedy and careless. Obama promises to reshape America from it's economic slump with the help of the citizens. He promises to lower the cost of healthcare, while increasing the quality of its service. Promises about the roads and electronic  grids have been made. In addition he has promised to put science back in its right place and allow it to develop technology like it should. Another would be his promise to use forms of energy that would protect the environment (water power, solar power etc.) rather than hurting it with fossil fuels. He promises to re-vamp the expectations of schools and universities in the states, and make them "meet the demands of a new age".

In my opinion, Obama wants nothing but good for America. He wants to relight the now dwindling star of the shining superpower. It is important to understand that everything he might choose to do, is with America's best interests at heart. One of Obama's greatest wishes is to correct the American economy and pull it out of recession. This is not very easily achieved, but many said the same thing about America electing a black president.

Independent Reading #4 - The Retreat

The Retreat is a novel by David Bergen that deals with alot of the harshness that occurs to native americans. Examples would be alienation, or forced assimilation (like the Residential Schools). Another example, which is actually used in the first chapter of the book, is when policeman would take native americans and drop them in the middle of nowhere to find their way back home. Some of the natives would die from exposure in the colder parts of Canada. 

The novel shows alot of the injustice that occurs to the native people. That's something that I thought worked very well, in the sense that it really evokes pondering of whether the world is really as just as we once thought. For example, Hart who takes Raymond and drops him off on an Island because he doesn't like the fact that he is involved with his niece "Fishing for white girls is dangerous," (P. 21). Another was the death of Raymond. He really didn't do anything yet he was put in jail, taken to trial etc. Then, he probably though he was only going to get arrested when he saw Vernon. Shortly afterwards he got shot in the throat by Hart, while in the presence of Vernon and the Doctor. Hart was probably never charged for anything, and the whole ordeal definitely got covered up.

Two passages I really liked from the book were:

"The light on her hairs made them appear more golden than they actually were. Her feet were resting on the dash and her legs were bent and they were at the level of her eyes and the light that fell across her arm and partially across her chest also fell onto her legs. And so she was warmed by the light that came the sun." P. 250 - 251

The reason I liked the passage was because about a paragraph before, Raymond was really cold to Lizzy. She really just wanted to help, and in a sort of objective tone he flat out said he didn't need her help. In the passage, it's almost like the sun is consoling her by providing the warmth she seeks/lost from Raymond. Its symbolic in the sense that it shows that Lizzy and Raymond are getting distant from each other, and Lizzy later in the book says that she never actually knew Raymond.

The other passage I enjoyed was in the last paragraph of the novel:

"And he saw Raymond wearing his jeans, his shoes, his shirt. No animosity this time, just the consolation of becoming each other. The long summer day rose and fell and the light seeped from the sky and darkness came, and to keep back the darkness they built a fire, their shadows indistinct against the wall of night that looked down on them." P. 320

I liked it because throughout the book there was a struggle of the two brothers to find out their true identity. I thought the line "just the consolation of becoming each other" was especially significant because of Raymond's wish to become like Nelson. The darkness I believe represents the general population into which they are being assimilated into. The fire is their fight back against the "darkness" and an attempt to keep their roots. Their shadows being indistinct is what I think means that they have already been assimilated and the fire is the only thing they have left from their own culture.

A question I would like to ask David Bergen is what inspired him with the idea of writing a book about Native Americans. Another would be: Were any of the characters based off real life people, or yourself? My final question for him would be if the identity crisis was something him or one of his acquaintances experienced before.

All in all, The Retreat is an intriguing novel and I would most definitely recommend it to other readers. 

Independent Reading #3 - Letter to the Author : Brisingr

Dear Christopher Paolini,

I loved Brisingr, the third book in your series. It is superior to your first two books in the sense that it shows your growing maturity as an author. Although it does leave the readers wishing for more closure, I'm sure the fourth book will fill in those holes. I was just hoping I could share my favorite passages/quotes from your book with you.

The first passage is this:

"Because, I have thought of something you have not Vermûnd. You wish us to leave you and your clan alone? Then I propose to the clanmeet that we do as Vermûnd wishes. If Vermûnd had acted opon his own and not as a grimstborith(clan leader), he would be banished for his offenses upon pain of death. Therefore, let us treat the clan as we would treat the person; let us banish Az Sweldn rak Anhûin from our hearts and minds..." - Orik (p. 500)

This passage was great in demonstrating how quickly Orik formulates a plan to counter an opponent's move. In the passage Orik turns Vermûnd's words against him, and Vermûnd who was smug in his promises of war in the case of retaliation, started to go pale with nervousness. The significance is great, as the "Az Sweldn rak Anhûin" were a problem unsolved from the second book. In a few sentences used as punishment for an assasination attempt Orik has solved that problem.

The second quote was:

"Does it matter Shadeslayer? A god is a god, regardless where he comes from." - Wounded Man (P.352).

A god is a god, regardless where he comes from. I don't know if you intended the line to interpreted this way, but this makes me think of all the wars in the world. Many of them have to do with the differences in cultures between the warring nations. If these countries respected each others respective god(s), what would be the need for these wars? A good example of this scenario would be the Crusades (First to Ninth), starting in 1095 ending in 1272. These all occurred because the Christians could not stand Muslims in their "Holy Land" of Jerusalem. Now if this thought of a god being a god no matter who believes in him, maybe these wars would not even be necessary. They could have simply come to an agreement of some sort, as the land has the same sort of significance for both religions.

The final passage is:

"...called the Eldunarí, which means the 'heart of hearts'...Also a dragon can disgorge their Eldunarí while they are still alive. By this means, a dragon's body and conscious can exist separately and yet still be linked." - Glaedr (P. 628)

This passage was great, as this "Eldunarí" is like a soul. The fact that the dragons can pass their conscious into this "heart of hearts" and live after their physical body has decayed. This was a well written and well veiled reference to the belief that people have souls that live on long after they have died. Otherwise it would be extremely difficult to lose a loved one, if you believed that there was nothing for them after this life. This concept is also cool when you look at it through the perspective of the book. A dragon releases its Eldunarí, and this results in it being alive after death. It does not perform any organic activities, but is able to interact with others and share its vast knowledge.

Those three passages/quotes are ones that I definitely enjoyed, and stood out amongst the others in your novel. Brisingr was an excellent book, and I am looking forward greatly to the final book in your series.

Sincerely,

Rudro Chakrabarti

Independent Reading #2 - Crime Fiction Novel: Void Moon

For this assignment, I read "Void Moon" by Michael Connelly. It was a thrilling crime novel, with a large body count. Skillfully written, the book will entrap the reader until the very end. The novel is about a casino heist that goes wrong for Cassie Black. Cassie is out of jail on parole after serving six years. The owner of the casino Cleopatra, Vincent Demaldi has now set a ruthless Vegas private investigator called Jack Karch on her trail. Karch is merciless, killing all who knew about the operation after extorting information from them. The book is great in that it has many major plot twists, and is an exciting read.

Identifying the distinction between the criminal and the detective is tricky in this novel. It could be argued that Karch is also a criminal, as he commits far more felonies in his investigation then Cassie has in her entire life. Karch is described as a man with pale skin, jet black hair and grey eyes. He is the son of a magician and performs many gags, which is perhaps the lightest part of his personality. He is also completely cold blooded, killing without mercy and practiced ease. Jack is nicknamed "Jack of Spades", not just because of his inclusion in a magic trick that his father performed involving the playing card. It is also because he keeps a shovel in his trunk to bury bodies in the desert. Karch is very perceptive and cunning, making him very good at his job. Not only that, but he has a constantly calculating mind. He is able to improvise quickly, and retains information easily. It is said in the novel that the people that he kills in the duration of the novel are not the first. Karch is clearly psychotic, as at one point Vincent mentions that he helped his father bury his murdered mother's body at a young age. Karch is a perfect antagonist for this thrilling and fast paced crime novel.

Karch tracks down Cassie through many steps. The first was finding the cameras in the victims room, and then searching room 2015 to find the discarded Ace of Hearts. The next key part was determining the inside-man in the case, by watching the surveillance tapes. Also, he gained knowledge of Cassie's movements. Then he traced Paltz through the bumper sticker on the van that Cassie left in. After extracting her name and related information from Jersey Paltz, he killed him and started tracking Leo. He finds some things at Leo's house after killing him, such as a cellphone with Cassie's number on the recently dialed list and two fabricated passports. Using this number he tracks her to the Porsche dealership where she works. He pretends to be a customer interested in purchasing a Carrera. Karch then reveals himself during the test drive, pulling a gun on Cassie and taking the car into a secluded area. Here he drills her about the money, to no success. Cassie evades him, but he obtains her drivers license and finds out where she lives. Before stopping by her home, he goes back to the dealership and kills the owner Ray and a woman from the finance department. When Karch breaks into Cassie's house, he discovers that Max Freeling and her had a child. This is further proven to him when he interrogates Cassie's parole officer Thelma Kibble. He then abducts this child, which then leads to the final confrontation. At this point, there is no longer a hunt for Cassie as she is going to appear at the Cleopatra.

One passage which I found interesting was this one: "Oh, I'm here. I'm just thinking to myself how ironic this is. I mean, I think it's irony–I never was very good in English class. Is it ironic when somebody whose plan it was to abduct a child complains about that very same child being snatched by somebody else first? Is that irony?" - P. 368 Here Karch is playing on Cassie's own plan to take her daughter back and go to Tahiti. It really strikes a chord with her when he says this to her, and causes her to realize what she has been planning is wrong. The next passage is: "'Hey we got a void moon rising tonight,' he said out loud. 'Ten-ten till midnight.' He thought maybe there was something valid to all of this. After all, he knew the night was going to be bad luck for somebody. " - P. 383 + 384. This was interesting as it conveyed a sense of foreshadowing, telling the reader that someone was going to have bad luck. Although the catch is it does not specify who. The final interesting passage is: "As they went through the bedroom Cassie glanced back into the room. In the bullet-fractured mirror she caught a disjointed image from the television. It was Porky Pig doffing his hat. He said, 'Th-th-th-that's all, folks.'" - P.433 The passage tells the reader that the climax of the novel has ended, and that the tension that was building up from the start has finally been released. It is also funny how Connelly uses a cartoon to signify this.

All in all, Void Moon is a thrilling novel. It is fast-paced, and the bodies pile up quickly. Also the plot twists will keep the reader on their toes. I would highly reccomend the novel to older teens and adults (because of many swears and adult elements).

Independent Reading #1: All-in

For this assignment I read "All-in" by Pete Hautman, an excellent book for  those who like poker. All-in is a novel about a seventeen year-old poker genius named Denn Doyle, who is ridiculously lucky. He is technically not legally allowed to gamble, but with immense talent to read people's tells he makes himself alot of money. At one point he won a nightclub off a texas hold em player called Artie Kingston. Unfortunately Denn's magic seems to be running out and he's starting to go broke. Eventually, some players with a personal grudge bring Denn down all the way taking his last sixteen thousand dollars. They do so with the help of Denn's ex-girlfriend, an poker dealer called Cattie. Now with only a few dollars to his name Denn needs a miracle to come back on top. At this point the story sort of splits, following both Denn and Cattie intertwining their paths every now and then. Denn's only chance now is to rake together ten thousand dollars to enter in a high-stakes million dollar tournament at Artie's new casino. His fortunes resting upon this single game, Denn finds himself facing off against Artie in the finals.

I find that the novel is very fast paced and Pete Hautman certainly researched the subject rather well. The entire novel is narrated by Jimbo, a friend of Denn. Otherwise, the story is third person like when the story switches over to Cattie or Denn. The dialect in the novel is convincing, just as I'd expect of Las Vegas poker sharks. The vocabulary was spectacular, ranging from poker terminology to excellent synonyms for most generic words. The characters were intriguing and well written. The back stabbing Cattie was particularly interesting as when she was asked by Denn for her motivation for ruining him she simply replies that she enjoys destroying people around her. Jimbo himself is a strange one, as he is a friend of Denn yet he does not back Denn for the game at Artie's casino when asked for a loan.

Finally, I would say that this part of the novel seems significant to me. When Denn is in a really bad place, and at the bottom he considers killing himself by jumping off the Hoover Dam. After losing his earnings going towards the ten thousand dollar buy in later in the book in a game of black jack, he is finally broke. This excerpt from the book from right after he becomes fully broke, I find interesting in relation to that: "He got in his car and started it and looked at the gas gauge. He didn't even have enough gas to make it to the Hoover Dam." - (P.127). As suicide by jumping of the Hoover Dam was mentioned earlier in the novel, I found this rather funny. Denn does not even have enough gas to take himself to the dam and kill himself. This is significant because he ends up getting the money from Cattie, shortly after getting out of his car and walking to her apartment.

All-In is an excellent book, which might not be for everyone but is still interesting and a great read.