Zulehan
The New Architect
Do not think I have a favorite book series... yet, at least. I may get into more of the Dune series by the late Frank Herbert, since I very much liked the first novel, and think that there is plenty more good reading to be had. As for favorite books, since I narrowed it down to three all-time favorites, I thought it best to add a recent read that I like:
Joyce Carol Oates' Marya: A Life, about a rural American girl who grows up to become one of the intellectual elites. The story feels a bit disjointed at times and is not really about a girl looking for her mother as the description misleadingly says. Instead, it is simply a coming-of-age novel that is more on the slow-churning and melancholic side. But what I find interesting about this novel is how the author describes Marya a certain way, but there are hints that the author is wrong, or not telling the whole truth.
For instance, there is a scene where she describes Marya as scared and uninvolved when a car that her male friend was working on falls because the jack fails, yet her internal dialog suggests she might have actually been pleased by what happened (perhaps revenge for a previous scene that might have been construed as rape), and meant for it to happen. Along those lines, Marya insists to herself that she did not even touch the jack, but after several repetitions of this, she allows that she might have touched it.
Finally, I believe one reviewer at Amazon was right about the novel getting overly philosophical toward the end: it certainly felt less imagist and more abstract toward the end, though the sense of intimacy/simple-portrait feel of the novel was briefly recovered for the final scene... which I will not spoil, but which has to do with Marya finding something that she wanted, and trying to make sense of it even while holding it in her hands.
As for favorite movie series... cannot say there is one, except maybe Harry Potter, which I found to be a pleasant marathon watch when I had plenty of boring days. And I have been meaning to re-watch Lord of the Rings because I am in a 'questing' mood after playing Dark Souls and watching those Hobbit movies. More recently, though, those Hunger Games movies are kinda fun, and I have high hopes for the final two.
Now for favorite movies. Oh, my. Since I described quite a few earlier, I think it best to add a recent film I watched and liked: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. For a movie with a dominantly simian cast, every second was compelling. Imagine the first twenty minutes of the new Godzilla, where every moment with Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) was an award-winning, gut-punching, 'feels train,' and make it the whole movie instead.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes paints both its simian and human characters, its 'heroes' and its 'villains,' with a careful and sympathetic brush, so that you cannot help but understand the motivations of all, and care for all, the characters. This is very much a character driven movie which infuses the short action sequences with such power that they seem longer than they actually are.
Moreover, the writer and director deal deftly with issues of politics, race, leadership, cooperation, war, and more. This is very much a humanistic movie that remains very relevant to present day society, and injects fresh new content to the old Planet of the Apes franchise. Very much looking forward to the sequel.
Thank you for the questions!
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Heh.
