Back in December when we were reflecting on all the Star Wars-related materials the Library has, I briefly touched on the majestic music of John Williams. Today I want to talk about another artist who was first introduced to me via Star Wars–Drew Struzan.
If that name doesn’t ring a bell, what about names like Indiana Jones, John Rambo or Harry Potter? Now there’s probably so much bell-ringing in your ears you should make an appointment with an audiologist. You might not recognize Drew Struzan’s name, but you’ve certainly seen his work, whether it’s in the form of an album cover, a book jacket or one of his over-150 movie posters.
For more on Struzan beyond the art, I highly recommend the 2013 documentary Drew: The Man Behind the Poster. It reveals a placid, taciturn family man, like the sweet grandfather everyone wants. While the details of his early life are fascinating, hearing him talk about his work is the most interesting aspect of the documentary. Regarding movie posters, he says how important it is for a poster to not only sell the movie’s premise but also evoke the feeling or emotion of the movie. In a world where most movie posters consist of awful photoshopped giant heads, Struzan’s work has a classiness to it that harkens back to a golden age of cinema, when the multiplex was a portal to another world of imagination and wonder. Often imitated, but seldom replicated, you can look at a movie poster by Struzan and know exactly what kind of movie you’re going to see.
If you’re a fan of Steven Spielberg or Star Wars (read: everyone), or if you just like good art, you should check him out.
Are you looking for a way to recognize Women’s History Month this March? Are you seeking an environment to discuss books, politics, culture, and so much more with thousands of people from around the world? What about challenging your reading list for 2016?
Everyone knows Watson from her role as Hermione in Harry Potter, but more recently, Watson became a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for women’s equality.
If you haven’t watched Emma’s speech introducing the HeForShe campaign for equality, see the video below.
As part of her work with the UN, Watson started an online book club in January called “Our Shared Shelf.” Within the first month, the group’s membership surpassed 100,000. Right now the number stands at 120,947.
What makes this book club so special? Watson’s fame draws large and diverse groups of readers from around the world into a discussion about gender, equality, politics, culture and more. Some discussion topics include “Books and Censorship,” “Fighting Domestic Violence” and “Feminism for All.” Other discussions focus on the books themselves, planning in person meet-ups around the globe, and pay-it forward schemes to pass along copies of books for those who need them. I love checking up on the group and reading through the conversations posted, occasionally sharing my own thoughts.
The first title was My Life on the Road by longtime activist Gloria Steinem. This memoir acknowledges the rich history of women’s rights activists (like Steinem and many others), who worked tirelessly for so many years to advance women’s rights in the United States. While highlighting some of the key moments in the Women’s Lib movement, Steinem also focuses her book on traveling and the important friendships she made throughout her journey.
Our Shared Shelf celebrated Black History Month in February with The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Even though I read this book a few years ago, I decided to re-read with a fresh perspective and hear what so many other group members had to say. For anyone who hasn’t had a chance to read this powerful novel, I highly recommend reading the book or watching the movie adaptation (starring Oprah Winfrey). There’s even a Broadway musical based on the book!
March’s selection honors another American author and feminist, bell hooks in All About Love: New Visions. A meditation on love in modern society, hooks explores the ways men and women have been conditioned by their culture to express and receive love. Hooks emphasizes our need to love more respectfully, selflessly, and honestly. I’m very excited to start reading this month’s book!
If I’ve caught your interest, reserve a copy of All About Love: New Visions, and if you want to keep up on what Emma Watson is reading, head on over to Goodreads and read some of the conversations going on right now! In the ever-flowing dialogue about equality, each voice makes a difference. Share yours in the comments!
This is how I learned of Alan Rickman’s passing: I checked Facebook while eating breakfast, and immediately saw that my sister had written, “First David Bowie, and now Alan Rickman?… Please tell me that this is a hoax.”
“Not him,” I thought. “Maybe it actually is a hoax?” I didn’t have to scroll far to see that it wasn’t. When my husband came into the room, I didn’t have words, so I just pointed at the headline. He paused a moment and said, “I guess we’ll never have another Galaxy Quest.” Not that anyone really expected a sequel, but the point is, Rickman can’t be replaced. No one else has that distinctive, resonant voice. No one else has those perfect facial expressions.
Alan Rickman in 2011. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen; used under a Creative Commons license – click through for source.
Daniel Radcliffe, who starred with him in the Harry Potter movies, described him as “kind, generous, self-deprecating and funny.” He must have been a wonderful person, but he excelled at playing characters with a flair for being arch, put-upon or dour, i.e. the perfect voice for Marvin in the 2005 film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. When you need a robot with a brain the size of a planet, who’s constantly depressed (and not afraid to let everyone know it), who better to turn to than Alan Rickman?
Below is a list I’ve compiled of times Rickman played a supporting role and still managed to steal the show—every single time.
Remember when he called off Christmas? Remember when he refused to say that stupid line one more time, but then said it anyway (of course)? Remember when he revealed the truth about his past to Harry?
What are we going to do without him? I guess we’ll have to obsessively watch his movies over and over. Here are a few to get you started, if you want to join me. There are plenty more, so feel free to mention your favorites in the comments.
Eleventh Stack brings Banned Books Week 2015 to a close with a guest post from Carl, who works at our West End location. We hope you enjoy his philosophical ruminations about censorship and intellectual freedom. Our regularly-scheduled monthly recap will return next week.
I’ve never been entirely clear as to why a book is banned. Particularly in this country, where the political culture is based on rebellion and allotments of freedom, it seems paradoxical. The champions of liberty gag an individual’s artistic expression while withholding that material from the community. The process is autocratic and reeks of distrust. Rather than acknowledging the complexity of life, banning a book assumes life to be a simple, black and white process. In other words, it is a denial of truth.
Literature and stories challenge readers to reexamine themselves while exploring and developing points of view previously unknown. Even the most nefarious text offers a glimpse into new ways of being and knowing for a reader. But exposure does not necessarily entail acceptance. A reader must question the work. The human intellect then serves as our bulwark against stupid. I’ve read plenty of text that I found banal and dry, oh such a bore! I’ve read text that is morally reprehensible, at least to my Catholic upbringing. Each time I’ve come away a better person. I’ve learned how to develop arguments against what I find disagreeable. Rather than throwing a tantrum and begging for salvation, I’ve developed my soul, or my intrinsic nature – those qualities that make me who I am, how I learn and choose to be.
Throughout history, publications challenging the status quo and/or “normal” ideas of propriety have been burned, desecrated or otherwise removed from view by figures of authority. Whether this is due to a ruler wanting a fresh intellectual start for the culture, as it happened in Qin China c. 200 B.C.; or because the publication was deemed a threat to society, much the way certain parents freaked out over imaginative representations of witchcraft in Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone like it was 1692; such reactions, when successful, do indelible harm to intellectual freedom, creativity and individuality.
Not to mention the sad cases of books being lost in a major disaster or to the slow ravages of time. Though items like those were not banned in any official sense, their destruction bans enlightenment. Legends of rivers running black with ink dot history. Whether these stories report full on destruction of a library, or represent a general brain-drain, the moral stays the same – the removal and/or destruction of books (and art work generally) forces thinkers to reinvent the wheel and desolates the cultural landscape.
There is no such thing as a bad book. Certainly it could be written poorly, but in such a case there is something to be learned from the author – how not to write. But what of the ravings of a racist lunatic as seen in Mein Kampf? What can be gained from that exposure? I wouldn’t know. I haven’t read it. But I’m happy that I have the choice to do so. Literature is a window to historical truth. It allows us to climb into the minds of persons no longer alive, but who, for better or worse, impacted our world. As much as we may want to vaporize aspects or persons from the historic record, doing so obscures truth and hampers humanity’s ability to grapple with change in a knowledgeable, peaceful and complex way.
I spent more time picking out a filter than I did reading that day.
Ortberg reimagines books as text message conversations between the characters and sometimes with authors as well. An excerpt can be found here. She injects every iteration with humor while still managing to convey the gist of the plots. Her texts from Hamlet make him come across as a petulant teenager instead of a man in his thirties. The Lorax doesn’t only speak for the trees, but also for tampons. Scarlett O’Hara tries unsuccessfully to sext. Hermione Granger tries to explain what science and math are to Ron Weasley while simultaneously warning him that credit cards are not, in fact, magic. Sherlock Holmes ecstatically texts John Watson with his latest discovery—there’s cocaine you can smoke!
Probably one of my favorite parts is the texts of Edgar Allan Poe. He’s texting that he might not be able to make it out; he can’t leave his house because a bird keeps looking at him. Then he hears bells that won’t stop ringing. Then because there’s a heart under the floor that won’t stop beating. There’s also a one-eyed cat that’s calling him a murderer. Of course these are the plots of some of Poe’s best-known stories, but the way Ortberg reinterprets it is something akin to near-incomprehensible texts from your drunken friend.
It’s a quick and funny read that made me want to track down some the original stories she spoofed, like “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Daisy Miller and The Sun Also Rises. I want to see for myself just how bizarre these characters and stories are. I’m sure there’s a comment to be made about the brevity of texting and our ever-shortening attention spans, but I’m not about to make it; I’m too distracted looking up videos of people doing pushups.
Have you read Ortberg’s book? If you could text any author or fictional character, who would it be and why? Sound off in the comments below!
As it turns out, there are quite a few movie adaptations of great books coming out this month. So, if reading a book is too much of a commitment for you, maybe you can catch its movie adaptation instead.
When Gillian Flynn’s novel first came out, we couldn’t keep it on our shelves. Actually, we still can’t. When I heard that David Fincher (Zodiac, The Social Network) was directing an adaptation, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Am I ever glad I did. The titular girl disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary and her husband is the primary suspect. What follows is a story so full of twists and turns that I’d advise you hold onto something while you’re reading it. The novel is four hundred and nineteen pages, but that didn’t stop me from gobbling it up in three days. I could have done it in two if I hadn’t had to go to work.
Early rumors suggested that Fincher and Flynn changed the ending, but recent reviews say the ending remains faithful to the book. I guess I’ll find out for myself this weekend.
Just the other day I was thinking about how totally awesome it is when children’s books are adapted into eighty-minute movies and how they’re almost never ever awful in every single way (That’s sarcasm, Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis for your versions of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Polar Express, respectively).
Sadly, no amount of The Black Keys, Of Monsters and Men and CGI kangaroos presented in the trailer makes me want to see this movie. I’m fully aware that I’m not the target audience, but Pixar has proven for years that family films can be intelligent and still appeal to children and adults alike. Despite being published in 1972, Judith Viorst’s book about a child having a bad day is timeless. Adding in a subplot about the father getting a job at a “game design firm” run by smug millennials and injecting current Internet slang (“hashtag blessed”) are unnecessary and come across as pandering in the worst way. And, yes, I already hate myself for typing that quote. Can you ever forgive me, Noah Webster?
“Forsooth, nay. I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.”
I talked about this book and its big screen adaptation last month. Since then, a second trailer has been released that gives us a better look at some of the characters. Similar to the trailers for Gone Girl, it looks like certain scenes were literally ripped right from the book. Adam Sandler’s performance looks subdued, subtle even. That’s never a bad thing.
I haven’t read this book, but I have actually had a small desire to read at least one of Nicholas Sparks’ novels. Judging from the trailer, this looks like it’s in the same romantic style of all the other Sparks adaptations and it looks like James Marsden might finally get the girl in this one (see his previous failures in the X-Men film series, Enchanted, Superman Returns and The Notebook—another Sparks adaptation. Why do you hate James Marsden, Hollywood?)
This movie knows what it’s about and knows its target audience. If you like that kind of thing, you’ll probably enjoy this. I say step outside your comfort zone and go see Men, Women & Children. Or Gone Girl again.
A mother walks out on her family one day. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, seemingly unaffected by her mother’s departure, continues on with her life. In her dreams, however, the girl dreams of her mother, crying for help. Soon, she can’t ignore her dreams any longer.
This is another book I haven’t read, but I have it on my list. What first piqued my interest in this film is the director, Greg Araki. I have a complicated relationship with Araki’s films. On the one hand, we have films like The Doom Generation, a meandering mess of a movie and Smiley Face, a film just a little too dumb to be funny. On the other hand, we have Mysterious Skin. An adaptation of Scott Heim’s novel of the same name, it remains one of the most disturbing and depressing films I’ve ever seen. I absolutely loved it. It’s probably one of my top twenty favorite films. That said, I have absolutely no desire to watch it again. After I saw it, I literally felt sick. I can’t remember ever having such a visceral reaction to a film before it.
I feel like Araki deserves the benefit of doubt from me on this one. While I may not love all of his films, he does capture teen angst and despair quite well. Plus, there is some beautiful imagery in the trailer and Araki has assembled a pretty knockout cast including up-and-coming It-girl Shailene Woodley, Eva Green and Thomas Jane
I finished reading Joe Hill’s novel about a month ago and really enjoyed it. It was the most twisty-turny book I’ve read since Gone Girl.
The trailer for the movie looks promising, depending on the version you watch. I’ll admit that summarizing the tone of the book is difficult, which explains why there are different trailers. The book is funny, spooky, unsettling and heartbreaking, sometimes all in one page. I’m worried that the movie might ignore some of the more nuanced aspects of the story. If it turns out to be a straight-up horror movie, it will be a huge missed opportunity. A balance between Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow and American Psycho would be a near-perfect combination. I’m still interested in seeing it though, mostly because I’m probably one of the only people in the universe who doesn’t see Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter; I only watched those movies for the first time last year. His American accent is on point. Not since Hugh Laurie’s turn as Dr. Gregory House have I heard such a convincing American accent from a Britt.
I’ll probably see it as a prelude to my Halloween activities. Maybe I’ll see some of you there.
Please welcome our newest writer, Natalie, to the Eleventh Stack blog team. You can read Natalie’s bio–and the bios of the other team contributors–on the About Us page.
We’re all adults here–well, you are, at least–so I thought this would be a great forum to discuss a very important adult topic: children’s fiction! Specifically, having fun as an adult reading children’s fantasy fiction. Look, before you roll your eyes and close your browser, let me explain where I’m going with this. If you’re between a certain age–let’s say, older than nineteen and still breathing–you lived through the Harry Potter craze as it was happening. Those books got everyone reading them, not just the kiddos.
To a certain extent the HP series introduced a whole new generation of adults to childrens fantasy. By the release of the fourth book I was a college student and addicted to the series. I spent those years working in an independent toy and book store, so not only did I end up reading the books as they were being released, but I also got to read many new children’s fantasy books…books that I would have never given a second look when I was a kid. But then again, I am a firm believer that these books just didn’t exist for readers like me when I was a kid. My friends read a lot of books about baby sitters, silly crime-solving teenagers, and horses: a lot of horses. What is it with the horses? But books about adventures and living in worlds completely different from ours, they just didn’t seem to exist (or at least I wasn’t being introduced to them).
This all means that I have the need to spend many a night reading books meant for ten year olds. Over the years it has gone from me hiding the cover art while commuting on the metro to sitting in the dining room while my family is asleep and my dishwasher is running. And that is why I am here at Eleventh Stack today, to tell you about my latest obsession. I have two words for you: Skullduggery Pleasant. This series, like HP, comes from across the pond, but this time it is Ireland, the cradle of magic. While it focuses on sorcerers and saving the world, Derek Landy, the author, assumes his readers are a little more quick-witted than J.K. ever allowed for.
This series is so much fun to read that on many occasions I have stayed up until 3 a.m.* It feels silly to become so addicted to a fictional, flawed hero; but as I read on the old super-reliable internet, therapists say there is nothing wrong with becoming fixated on fictional heroes…because everyone needs a stable presence in their life. For me it just so happens that my stable presence is a 400-year-old dead sorcerer skeleton detective. So if you are looking for a fun book to read, and you don’t mind looking silly at the coffee shop reading a book with a fireball-throwing skeleton and Children’s Fiction sticker on it, then join me on the Skullduggery train. Later we can talk about watching our kids’ cartoons after they have left the room.
–Natalie
*I have a four-year-old. Staying up to 4 a.m. is the dumbest thing a parent of a four-year-old can do because it guarantees that said four-year-old will wake up at 7 a.m. ready to PLAY. So sorry to disappoint Mr. Landy, but quick-witted I am not.
I am in the midst of reading through the Harry Potterseries for the first time, and I am loving it! Nothing earth-shattering there, I know. I started reading the series a couple of years ago when the Order of the Phoenixcame out in theaters, but I only read the first book before getting distracted by other titles and moving away from it. The release of the first part of the Deathly Hallowsmovie prompted me to come back, and I have since blown through The Chamber of Secretsand Prisoner of Azkaban. Next up, Goblet of Fire.
As evidenced by their monstrous circulation numbers here at CLP, the Harry Potter books and DVDs are constantly being discovered and re-discovered by new and returning readers. Take the aforementioned Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, for example. Randomly checking just one copy here at the Main library, I see that it has been checked out 46 times, and renewed 22 times. That compares quite favorably to a random copy of Thomas Friedman’s bestseller, The World Is Flat, which has circulated 48 times and been renewed 14 times.
These gaudy circulation numbers ensure that Harry Potter will remain a mainstay of the library’s most checked out items list. I know I can’t wait to introduce my nephew (a 2nd grader) to the books. He’s seen the movies, but the books offer so much more, IMHO.
While motoring through Ms. Rowling’s wonderfully crafted world of magic and mayhem, I’ve also looked around to see what else this particular corner of the Young Adult fantasy genre has to offer. I checked out Rick Riordan’s Lightning Thief, and while it is not up to Rowling’s high level of quality, it is still pretty solid, and nicely realizes a fantasy world where the Greek gods exist alongside modern humanity. Once I’ve finished the Harry Potter series I intend to give Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books a look.
All three of these series dovetail nicely into Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files books, which feature a more adult application of the whole “modern magic” sub-genre of fantasy. I’ve written about these stories before on this blog.
I am happy to discuss the aspects of the Potter series that I have read so far, but I have been able to assiduously avoid spoilers to this point, so please, don’t tell me who lives or dies at the end! I relish finding it all out on my own.
The first title was 
Our Shared Shelf celebrated Black History Month in February with 
March’s selection honors another American author and feminist, 
Eleventh Stack 