The legacy

Passing on a legacy... From grandmother to granddaughter, father to son, aunt to nephew, or sister to sister, we all have legacies handed around within our families.  Tomorrow, I attempt to pass on a legacy to my sister and cousin.  The legacy of Cobber Nation.

I am bringing my sister and cousin to a college tour at the school I can now call myself an alumni of, Concordia College.  When I went for my first college visit, I went with my dad over MEA weekend and spent the night with a student, Gabriella, and her boyfriend Andrew along with a prospie (short for prospective student).  We played ultimate frisbee and watched The Italian Job, and I loved it.  The reception I received from them was so wonderful, and I wasn't even a student but I felt so welcome and accepted.  My dad tried to convince me to do an overnight at other schools to get the full experience, but it didn't happen.  I came back in June for summer orientation (which is happening this week but not tomorrow) and loved it even more.  Now I am taking the girls in hopes that they will follow in my footsteps and choose to follow Kernel Cobb in their college journeys.

It might get interesting, because I know half of what the tour guides will say.  This is the highest point on campus and this is the lowest, both man made.  This is the Korn Krib, it's like a convenient store. The Maize has the best fries ever!  These are the statues of Ole and Lena, and that one is Chocolate Man.

But they won't hear about the theater ghost Al who ruins the plays if you don't include him in the program, or Dolly who threw herself from the window of Old Main.  They won't hear about the secret tunnels that run from building to building (a fact confirmed by my professor) and the alleged rape that kept them from being used as shortcuts in the winter.  They won't hear about how they tried to nickname the cafeteria as ACDC, or the ducks that live on campus in the spring and fall (the original couple was named Lunch and Dinner, their new friends from this past year are Breakfast and Snack).  Or the squirrels, those crazy squirrels. 

Personally I am excited to tour the new business school.  I entered it twice, once looking for the new skyway entrance and another time searching for a professor's office.  We had Bill Gates (yea that one) come for the awesome opening ceremony (unfortunately I worked the lunch shift during the ceremony and had many of my student workers missing... Grumble...) and it has become a big deal, but I didn't have the opportunity to learn much about it.

Perhaps my story will convince the girls to chose Concordia, my brand new alma mater.  Perhaps they will join in the Ludefisk chant at homecoming, bring their boyfriends under the bell tower, and spend their days studying at the Carl B.  I hope the girls love the school as much as I do.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys...

What is so compelling about bad boys?  In the recent film Star Trek: Into Darkness, I fell in love with John Harrowman, also known as the infamous Khan.  It might have had something to do with my huge fan crush on Benedict Cumberbatch, but it seems as though critics all over went raving mad over his role in the film as well.  An exceptional actor in his own right, Cumberbatch had audiences completely captivated with the intense skill and emotion.  More and more frequently, fangirls all over the world are falling for the villains of films and villains alike.  I, too, am guilty of this, swooning over Cumberbatch as Khan, and becoming more interested in villains Raistlin Majere and Artemis Entreri than their heroic counterparts in the respective sagas of Hickman and Weiss' DragonLance and R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms.  But why? You ask.  Why are the bad guys so good? 

Because there are only so many factors that can go into a hero's journey and motivation.  Vladimir Propp, a Russian Formalist, studied over a hundred Russian folk tales and determined 31 plot elements that occur during those tales.  According to him and other folklorists, every plot development in a tale is a variation on those 31 elements.  As an English student, I used Propp's techniques to analyze myths and folklore, and found that most fiction tales follow the same plot as well.  While the entire list can be found on Vladmir Propp's Wikipedia page, it is often summarized as follows:

• There is a lack or desire
• The Hero leaves home
• The Hero encounters some obstacles
• The Hero receives magical aid
• The Hero fills the desire or lack
• The Hero returns home

 Lets test it.  James Kirk wanted to be a Starfleet Pilot and they must catch an escaped villain (desire: pilot.  lack: escaped villain).  They leave the planet, and journey to the planet of the Klingons (obstacle).  Khan helps them defeat the Klingons (arguable magical ((at least unexpected)) aid), and agrees to return with them (filled lack).  They attempt to return home when one of Kirks superiors tries to destroy them, and the cycle begins again.

The hero must always travel in this journey.  He must always fill the lack or desire.  Sometimes you have to stretch to find out what that motivation is, but it is always there.  For Harry Potter its a lack of friendship and a desire to be wanted.  It masks itself with a desire to learn magic, and later a desire to destroy Voldemort and save the wizarding world.  It could be Babe the pig, or the Cat and the Hat where the kids lack enjoyment.  Whoever it is, the hero cannot deviate from that path with much ease at all.

The villain needs to follow no such plan.  His motivation doesn't need to be lack (although it often is - Syndrome in The Incredibles had a lack of superpowers, ect.)  What does the Joker lack?  What does Moriarty lack?  Where do their morals come from, if they have morals at all?  Where does their motivation come from?  How did they become the person presented to us?  Why is Sauron evil?  Who knows?  The ability to explore the past of the villains, rather than being fed the same heroic mold, allows the audience to latch on to the backstory of the characters and see in them something we are not allowed to see in the best of heroes.

Of course, maybe it doesn't hurt when they are incredibly good looking.

When you have eliminated the impossible...

whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

The world has been enamored with Sherlock Holmes for over a hundred years.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories are some of the most commonly adapted in the world, with current representations including the American television show Elementary (which I have not watched), the BBC show Sherlock (which I love with my whole being) and recent film adaptions staring Robert Downey Jr. (which are impossible not to enjoy).  The most popular tale among these adaptations is Hound of the Baskervilles, where Sherlock, in a model often followed by Scooby-Doo, reveals the supposed supernatural hound to be a mere man using malicious means to attempt to gain wealth. 

In the past year, I have undergone the journey of reading many of the Sherlock Holmes tales.  While I have not yet read the novels, only reading the collections of short stories so far, it is easy to understand why this consulting detective and his trusted friend are some of the most popular characters in fiction.  Watson shows what we want to be - smart, loyal, unfailing - while Holmes takes mankind's dream of knowledge and intelligence and shows us both ends of the spectrum - the aloof, remote, addicted, pretentious arse who uses his knowledge time and time again to bring justice and protection to the streets of Britain.  I might compare him to the likes of Tony Stark - "genius billionaire playboy philanthropist" who spends two and a half films worrying about himself and thinking about his friends and companions only after their lives have been endangered.

In Short, I love Sherlock Holmes.  There is some crazy, impossible-to-define feature about him that keeps drawing readers to him, even after a century.  I will continue to spend time in the future trying to pinpoint the elusive trait which makes him so compelling, but now, a week late, I feel I must leave this post to continue a new line of thought.

Minnesota Reading Corps

I didn't have time to read a book this week, sadly, because I have been working 2nd shift and as such have taken to sleeping in much later than is my norm.  Unfortunately, that means I do not have a book review to post like last week, something I hope to rectify by my post next Thursday.  So, instead, I thought I would talk a little more about me.

I am in the interview process right now for an Americorps branch, Minnesota Reading Corps.  If I am offered the position, I will be tutoring K-3 students at an elementary school near my house.  The position is a  volunteer position, so the stipend is small, but as a recent graduate I am able to live at my parent's house, eat their food, and manage on their health insurance, and my loan payments don't start until halfway through the service, where it will be easy to defer one of my three loans until I am finished in July.  Best yet, they pay 5,000 dollars towards my student loans at the end of the 11 month service.

When I had my first interview, I was very concerned, and was not sure if this was what I wanted to do.
 I talked with a tutor in another local school who has very well enjoyed her service.  But why would I choose a year of tutoring over a career in my field right now?  There are a few reasons that drove me to choose this path.

1. Pay for schooling (duh!).  The payment at the end is approximately 13% of my loan debt, which is about a year's worth of my loan payment, and when placed in combination with payments I will be making during my service, I will be in a very good place to pay those bills off, able to complete my payments early or lower them altogether. 
2. Working with kids.  I worked with children in a school setting before when I worked for America Reads during my freshman and sophomore years of college.  I left the program when I was dealing with a number of personal issues, and eventually found a position with more hours and higher pay at Dining Services, but I missed those early days of working with the kids.
3. Help the community.  While the Reading Corps requires 1720 hours over the year of service, there are only so many school hours that encompass that time.  Required to fill my hours, I will be able to volunteer at the food shelf, library, Community Ed, even Vacation Bible School to fill my hours.  I will be able to touch more lives than just the children, and the requirement to be active in my community is one which will help me not only reach my hours, but help motivate me to reach my personal goals as well.
4. Build career skills.  One of the things I'm missing right now in my job search is experience.  Administrative, writing, grant writing, newsletter writing, public relations... Do you get the picture?  While my college career prepared me academically, only in the last year did I take it seriously to gather experience, and as such I have a few gaps to fill.  I hope that I would be able to dabble in a few of these things through my service with the school district, helping with writing, editing, and publishing things while meeting needs within the district.
5. Freelance.  There is nothing that says I cannot freelance during my time with the Reading Corps!  By finding outside jobs, I can build my portfolio and gain a little more money towards paying off my school bills and saving for a wedding.

 I feel like this service position will be good for me and my current needs, and I am so excited to be able to work in such a powerful way in my community.  Hopefully I get the call for the second interview soon!

Why ruin the book with the movie?

The latest craze is making film adaptations of books.  While these book adaptations have been going on forever, with adaptations of Dracula and Sherlock Holmes at the very turn of the century, more and more frequently the fodder for these films has been young adult literature and fantasy films.  Advanced technology and CGI has made it easier to shoot these films with their fantastic sequences, and as these movies gain popularity, more authors try to piggyback on their success, creating an unending cycle.  The book I previously reviewed, Divergent, is one such work, creating a dystopian universe to follow the success of The Hunger Games, and film producers, with the same idea in mind, jumped on and began producing the series.

In order for a book-to-movie adaptation to be successful and popular, a fair number of criteria must be met. 

• It needs to appeal to its original audience, those very first readers, as well as people who have not yet read the book.  Better yet, it should inspire people to read that original book.  It cannot be just a fan project, made by fans for fans.  Even the Harry Potter books could not have succeeded if they did not appeal to the parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters of those fans who read the book the first time.
• It has to please the fans. That is so hard to do, because each reader creates their own vision of what their world looks like.  I envision a character as blonde with blue eyes, my sister sees him as redheaded with glasses, and the film picks a short brunette with a crooked nose.  
• It has to be new.  Only so many boy wizard movies can ever be published after Harry Potter, unless they are reboots.  Each thematic idea can only be replicated so many times, and film audiences know that as they look for something new.
• It has to be very selective in what it includes and leaves out.  I think Lord of the Rings did a wonderful job of making those choices, but they left out a scene with important character development at the end of the novel, the Scouring of the Shire.  Personally it was an issue for me, but through trimming the thousand page novel into 3 films, The Lord of the Rings made many of the right choices in what to cut, what to change, and what to add to make the films widely appealing.

So go ahead, make your movies out of the books.  Just know that the fans are out there, watching and waiting.  Your next hit won't be as big as the last one, because audiences get bored and the fans will judge you fiercely.  But as long as there's money to be made, and someone to watch it, the red carpet will keep rolling

Divergent

Divergent (2011), Veronica Roth - Book 1 of the Divergent series.  Movie release - 2014

I don't know why I am so drawn to young adult fiction.  With my English Literature major, I have fallen in love with Shakespeare, Dickens, and Hemingway, but some of my favorite book series are still Harry Potter and Pendragon Adventures by D.J. MacHale.  While I have no love for Twilight and books likes it, which disguise poor writing and poor life choices under a highly emotional and volatile romance (which, I cannot deny, I fell for at first), many young adult fiction works are engaging reads which address issues happening in the lives of the young readers.

An increasingly popular genre,  especially after the release of the popular Hunger Games trilogy, is distopian fiction.  Veronica Roth has attempted to follow in the footsteps with her Divergent series. The first book, of the same name, follows a young girl Beatrice as she goes through the 'coming of age' ceremony called the Choosing Ceremony, where each 16 year old child is made to choose which 'faction' of society they will join.  The factions are based upon those traits one values most, such as bravery, selflessness, or honesty.  Beatrice has trouble choosing between factions, and a test administrator secretly whispers that she is a Divergent, one who surpasses the bounds of the factions. Beatrice leaves her home faction, Abnegation, in favor of the strong, fearless division called Dauntless. Upon her arrival, she and the other 'initiates' are subjected to intensive training and testing, where the newly nicknamed Tris makes some new friends, some enemies, falls in love, and begins to see the cracks in the society she lives in.  As she struggles with her new identity, love, and making the right choices, her resistance makes her a target for those who would pit the factions against each other.

So I read this book in a single evening.  Not because it was short, but because I was truly engaged in the story.  The characters are strong, believable, and grow through the book's 486 pages.  They worry about making friends, finding love, and fitting in.  They deal with separation, fears, suicide, and bullying, much like we all do in schools today.  The story progresses smoothly, with no gaping plot holes or omissions.  All told, I really did enjoy this book.  There are things I would change, things as small as a character's age and as large as deaths (see my rant below, but only if you haven't read the book for don't care for spoilers).  While the book does deal moderately with sexuality, it does so much more appropriately than other "teen" books **coughcoughtwilightcough**.  If I, as a collegiate scholar of literature, was able to stay focused and engaged in the story so as to read nearly 500 pages in a single  day, then I have to give props to Veronica Roth on a book well done!

Oh, and apparently it's going to be a movie?  I'll discuss my thoughts on film adaptations later

Photo from divergent.wikia.com

****SPOILERS****

Here is my rant,  I have a 'thing' with character deaths.  They have to be meaningful, or leave them out.  Yes, this story ends in a battle, and people die.  The battle itself is meaningful - it is the crux of the novel, the turning point for the series, the culmination of plot and character development.  The first death of the novel is meaningful - a young, confused boy who suffered the bullies, got rejected by a friend, became one of the oppressors, and couldn't handle the pressure.  His death makes the characters think, makes them resolute, makes them confused. His death is important.  But in the last 75 pages or so,  Roth kills both of Tris' parents.  One parent, especially her mother, would be significant.  But the second is overkill.  If you don't want her parents cluttering the story, don't put them in!  Single parent family, or orphan, and the loss of one strikes just as hard.  A surviving parent can provide motivation, teaching... The 'kill everyone she loves to prove a point' is overdone.  Make that point without violence of two parental deaths.

And so we begin!

As a recent college graduate looking for work in my field, I decided to begin a blog to maintain my writing skills as well as create a writing portfolio.  The lovely Sarah, my college roommate from Senior year at Concordia College, has agreed to serve as my accountability buddy as we look to put out job applications, build our career portfolios, and give ourselves time to figure out our vocations.

I live in the Greater Twin Cities area of Minnesota.  I am engaged, but living at home for the moment with my parents, sister, and puppy Joe.  I am a fairly liberal Lutheran who loves Sherlock, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings and NCIS.  I graduated Concordia College with degrees in English Literature and Classical Studies and a minor in Religion.  My original plan was to go into editing or publication, but currently I am uncertain of my path in life.  I'm a college grad - what else did you expect?  Currently I am working retail and direct sales while looking for a more "career" job and just trying to adjust to a life outside of school.

My goal with this blog is to explore my passions while working on my writing and critical thinking skills, and I hope to do that by making "reviews", book reviews, movie reviews, television, products, etc.  Ideally I will post book reviews on Monday and other reviews on Thursday.  With that, I suppose its time to begin!

Last night, I began watching the show "Brain Games" on National Geographic.  The show seeks to be both entertaining and informative, and the first two episodes I watched courtesy of my fiance's DVR did exactly that.  With topics such as Vision and Time, the creators of the show have combined their "brain games" with insight from experts who vary from researchers to illusionists.  While the games may not be so fascinating to those who choose not to participate, it is remarkable how well their examples work, even through the television.  For example, to explain peripheral vision,  the show enlisted three volunteers to choose some cheerleaders while staring at an X on the screen.   We giggled as the volunteers chose men wearing wigs to join their team, because so little information about details can be gathered from their peripheral vision.  Then they asked the audience to do the same.  I chose the male the first time, and the female the second, while my fiance chose the female the first time and declared "They're both dudes!" on the second go.  The games hey chose to use worked surprisingly well over the television, but it wasn't solely about the optical illusion.  The show was both humorous and educational, and I look forward to watching more episodes soon.