I was sitting in the Wash Room a few days ago, diligently reading my copy of Little Women. Upon realizing exactly what book I was reading, a guy sitting near me exclaimed:
“Oh! I hate that book! My mother made me read it when I was seven and I couldn’t stand it!”
So this proves three things.
1) While it is possible that a father giving his daughter Little Women will result in a positive experience for her, the reverse is not true. Boys just don’t seem to enjoy this book, even if …

And the results…
ACTOR: Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) (yay, my long shot won!)
ACTRESS: Helen Mirren
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Hudson
ANIMATED FILM: Happy Feet (Ha! Take that, Cars! Reserving judgment until I manage to see both.) (Robyn may be right.)

ART DIRECTION: Pan’s Labyrinth (Hooray!)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Pan’s Labyrinth (Huzzah!)
DOCUMENTARY: An Inconvenient Truth
FOREIGN FILM: The Lives of Others (sniffle)
ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP: Pan’s Labyrinth (!)
ORIGINAL SCORE: Babel
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Departed
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Little Miss Sunshine
BEST ANIMATED SHORT: The Danish Poet
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: West Bank Story (I’d like to see this–it …

Why is it that nobody watches the Academy Awards anymore? Even my MOST film-obsessed friends have responded to the suggestion with a disdainful look or roll of the eyes. Granted, it’s not the most reliable source of film judgment, but it’s fun to watch! (Not all the red carpet stuff. That’s boring.) But for years now, I’ve had a tradition of watching the Academy Awards. It’s always interesting to see which clips they pick for each nominee, watch the host crack bad jokes, and root for films you want to …

Another thing that I thought would make an interesting class discussion is the question of the creative commons license. Nokuthula Mazibuko published her book under this license, which basically gives permission for anyone else to add to it as long as it’s not offensive in some way. She explained that her reason for doing this is that it’s not just a story that can be told by one person–many people are involved with stories, and they should be allowed (and encouraged) to add to this. Also coming into play is …

I’m copy/pasting a reaction I wrote for another class on this, because I think it ties in well:
Having attended both the film screening on Wednesday and the reading on Thursday, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Nokuthula Mazibuko’s work. What I was expecting for both was very different from what it ended up being, at least for me. I thought that the film would be centered on the violence and injustice of apartheid and the specific student protests that ended tragically. However, the compilation of interviews and photographs …

After giving it a full class session and five minutes of thought, I’ve decided to say that all four girls are essential to the novel. Not because this is necessarily what I believe, but because I’m stubborn and contrary. On the whole, a rather excellent reason for doing something, in my opinion.
Youngest to oldest. (Saving best for last, obviously. Can you tell I’m an older sibling?)
Amy: Every family needs a whiny, misguided, pretentious, but occasionally adorable little girl. But she represents more than pure entertainment value. Jo is altogether too …

First, quizzes! We can settle this “who do you identify with the most” question with a truly ungodly number of internet quizzes!!! (WARNING: some of these are ridiculously bad and/or horribly spelled.)
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
You can even comment with all 15 of your results! Really, you can ;)
Come on, you know you want to… especially you, Dr. Campbell.

I first read Little Women when I was seven. (Given to me, surprisingly, by my dad. But he’s a feminist. So that makes sense.) I was so fond of it at the time that my parents bought me the book on tape (with a full cast!) for my eighth birthday. I spent a whole summer listening to it over and over and over.
I’d forgotten most of it until I picked up the book again yesterday. Suddenly, I was remembering exact passages and dialogue. Apparently I still have huge chunks of …

Because I just couldn’t stay away from Hammett…
Length of sentences in the first paragraph of each chapter:
The Body in China Street: 14, 12, 21
The Hat Trick: 33, 27, 19
The Cyclone Shot: 20, 11, 8, 6, 40
The Dog House: 20 (dialogue)
The Hospital: 9 (dialogue)
The Observer: 12, 14 (dialogue)
The Henchmen: 11, 9, 14, 49, 19
The Kiss-Off: 49, 32
The Heels: 35 (dialogue)
The Shattered Key: 4, 13, 12, 6, 6
I also decided to look at Hammett’s initial descriptions of each character. (Do whatever you like with this data. It’s too early in the morning …

I have decided, possibly foolishly, to analyze text patterns found in The Glass Key. The idea was raised that a pattern should be explored not only in a single paragraph of text, but across the whole novel. I chose to do this because:
1. I have no life.
2. I’m sick, and therefore have no desire for a life, despite it being Friday night.
3. Hammett is my substitute for a life.
4. I feel a little guilty about being so far behind on blog posts last week.
5. This numbered list is ending now.
I …