Favorie Text

Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynn Jones is one of my favorite fairytale books. It fits into the fantasy genre as it is all about wizards, kings, and magic spells. This book also has an element of comedy because it begins as a spoof on the laws of fairytales. One of the laws of fairy tales is that the eldest of three siblings will never find her fortune because it is always the youngest that will have a successful and charmed life. However this story fights against the nature of fairytales. It balances between convention and invention, by having predictable things like witches, wizards, castles, and demons, but also is inventive by having castles that walk, a wizard who plays computer games, and a girl who has cursed herself to be an old woman. It is a surprising sort of book, but nothing that wouldn't be acceptable in the fantasy genre.

The next big thing

I realized that publishers like to do the same thing that the merchants of cool do. When Twilight became popular it seemed like all the publishers were trying to pop out vampire books. They wanted to get on the gravy train. None of them got as much notice as Twilight did, because they didn't market those books as well as Twilight was marketed. Because of Twilight a lot of people became interested in Vampire books, so I suppose the publishers new what they were doing, but none of those books had as strong an affect on readers as Twilight did.

Dutch Courage by the Spill Canvas

In a previous post I quoted a line from the song "Dutch Courage".

" Paranoia is haunting you,
and all these dirty looks well they are right on cue.
Your full up to the brim with that he said, she said trash
You exist behind your keyboard and then your gone in a flash.

.

refrain:

Ten bucks says you don't have it in you
To conquer fear and quit believing what they tell you to
You are careening shamelessly into oblivion
Where you will live alone with your chemicals and gin.

.

I am utterly disgusted with the path you trek

As inebriated as you can get off your latest pay check

I am at a loss for words here

I hate to break this to you but being a coward is not a legitimate career

.

+refrain+

.

We were born and raised the same way so what gives you the right to say

At least I'm not a liar, At least I'm not a cheat

At least I don't care what these damn mindless people think of me"

-Spill Canvas

I really like the refrain of the song. It is a bet that the person its directed (lets call him Fred) at won't be able to face what he fears. It is also a challenge to Fred to straighten up. I think the speaker (lets call him Joe) is concerned for Fred. It seems like they used to be friends but Fred was discouraged by the harshness of the world, and has turned to drugs to drown out the pain. Joe is disgusted by Fred's method of coping and is blunt with him. I also get the impression that the Joe does cares about Fred though he is very critical of Fred's lifestyle. Though all of these words belong to Joe, I think that the line "We were born and raised the same way, so what gives you a right to say" belongs to Fred. This line is a protest to what Joe has been telling Fred. Fred is being defensive of his dependence on drugs and alcohol. I want to attatch the last two lines to Fred as well, but the last line wouldn't make sense with Joes oppinion that Fred needs to " quit believing what they tell [him] to"

Sula

Sula written by Toni Morrison illustrates the myth of returning to the olden golden days. The inhabitants of the Bottom are not very caring of one another. I thought they were cruel to each other. People die and they get no sympathy and affairs are common. Sula is a character who feels not guilt for anything she does because she doesn't have a sense of good or bad. The town hates Sula, not because she has been sleeping around with their husbands, but because she has been with white men, which is really low. They call her the devil woman. The women of the town decides they need to restore their own good, so they ban together in their common hatred of Sula and try to be better neighbors, wives, and mothers.
It is not a happy book, but it does revolve around the idea that their society has degraded and they want to fix it. I think it seems like a foil to the 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' myth also, because the town raises itself by targeting one individual and pushing away from them. Do you think that could be possible?

The Cute Japanese Girl Ideal

*Warning: Watch commercial first or the joke will be spoiled*

The commercial for Ajinamoto Stadium

The guy in this commercial is moving to a new town filled with beautiful girls. They are baby faced manicured and trimmed. They wear stylish clothes, carry cute handbags, and sport childish cellphone charms. The word for the ideal girl is "kawaii" (which is used for all things cute). This cuteness extends to the high pitch of their voices. The boy is quite surprised by how deep the girls' voices are. Its creepy to hear a man voice coming out of the body of a petite schoolgirl. When he knocks down a girl who squeals in a normal girls voice the camera cuts to scene of the two in bed and you find out that he formed a relationship with the girl because her voice was girly, even though she is not stylish or cute like the other girls. We find out that all of those girls are avid fans of the university sports team and have mens voices due to all their cheering. And then we see the words 'shout all you like'. This commercial has the mixed standards of cuteness and school spirit. Support and fandom is also important in Japan. This commercial encourages the youth to be supportive of sports without worrying about looking silly.

Visuals Signs: Book Covers

Book covers are just as important to attracting a reader, as the summary on the back. The first thing that attracts a reader is the cover. I pick up a lot of books because I like the cover. Covers hint at what the book is about. They are also pretty clear about what genre the book belongs to. The covers usually warn me away from genres I don't like. For example romance novels have a man in a woman, usually in a ridiculous pose, with wind blowing in their faces and bronzed skin, revealed by their lack of clothing. Its usually the men who get their shirts taken off on these covers. Eye candy for the middleaged woman, whose love life isn't quite that exciting.

Generic Fantasy books have covers with combinations of mythical beasts, medieval clothing, swords and sparkly magic items. Not every book falls into the solid idea of the genre and their covers usually reflect that.

Mystery books tend to have vague images of streetlights, doors, keys, and other random objects that show up in the mystery. It easy to tell if the mystery revolves around murder because the publishers can't help but add a splash of blood to the cover.

The covers that make me laugh are the older sci-fi space books. All of the technology is really jaggedy like the insides of a computer; and everyone wearse spandexy uniforms in vibrant colors. Recently we portray technolgy as clean cut, like the style of the ipod. Its like Eva vs. Wallee.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the publishers make it easy for us to see what we're looking for. They have mad marketing skills. (or they could just have a thing for cheesy cover art)