Someone recommended me the Percy Jackson series recently. It does look fun.
Big stop just to renew your license to companion. Can I use companion as a verb?
Wash ,'Ariel'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Polter-Cow - Apr 08, 2009 8:34:18 am PDT #8766 of 28414
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Fay - Apr 08, 2009 8:36:05 am PDT #8767 of 28414
"Fuck Western ideologically-motivated gender identification!" Sulu gasped, and came.
I remember rather liking Branagh's Hamlet, although, yes, it is a mighty ego-trip. But lots of things to like about it. Just....probably easier to cope with if it were a mini-series.
Meanwhile, on a related note, I've just read The Dead Fathers Club, which is narrated by an 11 year old boy whose father has just died, and whose uncle is cozying up to his mother, and who then sees the ghost of his father popping up clamouring for vengeance...
I enjoyed it a lot, in no small part for the prose - which, God help me, is wholly sans apostrophes or commas, but is, nevertheless, crammed with very sharp observations and original turns of phrase, and does a terrific job of evoking the world through the eyes of a kid.
I'm a little more iffy on the various Hamlet parallels. There were times when I just wasn't sure why he wasn't going the whole hog - but it's definitely worth a look, imho.
sj - Apr 08, 2009 10:48:46 am PDT #8768 of 28414
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
I really liked Branagh's Hamlet, but I had just taken two classes on Shakespeare. Still, I can see the need to cut things for a live performance. However, if you are studying it as literature, I don't think anything should be skipped.
Ouise - Apr 08, 2009 10:53:35 am PDT #8769 of 28414
Socks are a running theme throughout the series. They are used as symbols of freedom, redemption and love.
The second book I'm positive had been translated from either Norwegian or Swedish. The main characters were a brother and sister who stumble into some kind of dastardly plot to steal something. I don't remember the nefarious intentions offhand, but what stuck in my head was that they used Morse code to communicate when one of them was tied up to the pipes in a basement by the bad guy.
Aghh! This is so familiar, I know that I read this book. I'm coming up completely blank on any details beyond your description. Frustrating!
Kat - Apr 08, 2009 10:56:10 am PDT #8770 of 28414
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
The whole bible, for reals? I mean, I did read it, but it didn't lend itself to the sort of absorption I associate with a high school lit class. Massive chunks of it went in and then right out.
Don't know yet. I might assign chunks to various people and have them work together to present the stories.
The ish is that many of my kids miss allusions all the time and just a sort of general knowledge should help. Like one should know the difference between Noah and Jonah. Or who Lot was. Or even Job. Moreover, they should have a working knowledge of the Lazarus story, along with something about John the Baptist, at least for what we read.
Kathy A - Apr 08, 2009 11:10:42 am PDT #8771 of 28414
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
My sophomore lit teacher in hs had us read Billy Budd, and she spent weeks going over every single allusion in it. If we knew the allusion ahead of time, all the better; otherwise, she was going to make sure we knew it afterward. Since it was a Catholic college-prep high school, we did know a lot of the Bible references beforehand.
Calli - Apr 08, 2009 11:14:48 am PDT #8772 of 28414
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
I think that Branagh's Hamlet works a lot better on DVD. You can take a break between acts, which helps. I saw it in the theater, an (now closed) artsy theater with less than cushy seating. When I rented it I just made an afternoon of it, and it was pretty good. I still don't think I've seen anything I'd call the definitive performance of Hamlet,though. Branagh's Henry V (with bonus bits of IV) made me go, "There. That's the Henry V I wanted to see and didn't know it."
§ ita § - Apr 08, 2009 11:19:09 am PDT #8773 of 28414
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
The ish is that many of my kids miss allusions all the time and just a sort of general knowledge should help
Sounds like they need bible stories more than the bible itself. There's a lot left over, and it's the sort of stuff that can put one off the whole work.
Kathy A - Apr 08, 2009 11:24:26 am PDT #8774 of 28414
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
Branagh's Henry V (with bonus bits of IV) made me go, "There. That's the Henry V I wanted to see and didn't know it."
ITA. It really is a great adaptation, with excellent casting--Branagh, Jacobi, Brian Blessed (love him as Exeter!!), Paul Scofield, Thompson, and Robert Stephens, father of Toby, husband of Maggie Smith, recently re-emerged from the bottom of the bottle he spent the '60s and '70s in and just nailing the part of Pistol.
DavidS - Apr 08, 2009 12:08:51 pm PDT #8775 of 28414
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
The second book I'm positive had been translated from either Norwegian or Swedish. The main characters were a brother and sister who stumble into some kind of dastardly plot to steal something. I don't remember the nefarious intentions offhand, but what stuck in my head was that they used Morse code to communicate when one of them was tied up to the pipes in a basement by the bad guy.
Aghh! This is so familiar, I know that I read this book. I'm coming up completely blank on any details beyond your description. Frustrating!
Was it Number the Stars by Lois Lowry?