Sunday, August 5, 2012

John Green's old school

I was looking through old Vlogbrother videos and happened to find this video by John Green about the school where his book Looking for Alaska is located. It's awesome and I wanted to share it.



It's pretty awesome to actually see the location John had in mind when writing that book.

There was also another video about the same book which addresses the concerns about some people who wanted to ban it from a high school. This was actually my first introduction to the book a while before I got around to reading it.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Conversations in books

As I mentioned recently, I'm revisiting Tamora Pierce's books about Tortall. I'm also thoroughly geeking out over them, even taping maps onto my bedroom door.

Her first book, Song of the Lioness: Alanna is not quite the same as Pierce's later books. But I couldn't explain how. I finally figured it out, at least partially.

Even though there's plenty of action, Pierce spends more time on actual conversations in later books. Of course there's still plenty of description in later books. Especially when it comes to introducing new characters. Her writing evolves through the quartet, and by the start of her next quartet (Immortals) it's what I remember and fell in love with.

It just seems that the more complete conversation adds depth.

Daine

I just introduced a new topic I want to explore, the "it ain't real syndrome" in relation to magic. But what I didn't expect, was to find that it applies to a mage in one of my favorite books. Of course I am referring to Daine from Tamora Pierce's The Immortals quartet.

Daine has magic with animals, but in the beginning she insists that it's just a knack. She has to be convinced that it's really magic.

Then, in book two...

SPOILER

It turns out that Daine can shape shift. Except that she didn't realize that she could, and when she starts turning part way into animals she doesn't handle it very well. She thinks she's going mad, and comes up with the following typical solution:

"If I ignore these ears, they'll go away,  or my mind will let go of them, or whatever. Maybe if I sleep, I'll wake up normal again" (134).

Of course she does wake up her normal self. Only to partially shape shift again later. :)

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