Super Hero Fantasy

The idea of being a super hero never really occurred to me growing up.  I think it is a common misconception that every kid dreams of being a super hero.  I mean, look at Batman, what kid honestly wants to be a lonely old man who's only enjoyment in life is dressing up like a bat and fighting crime.  And who expects no reward in the end for his heroic acts.  No kid wants all that responsibility, heck, most heroes hate the responsibility given to them, except for Iron Man.  No, i believe every kid wants to have super powers, like super speed or flight.  But they don't want the responsibility that comes with super speed and flight.  Sure the idea of saving a baby from a burning building always comes to mind when imagining one has super powers, but imagining one has to save every baby from every burning building they can manage because of some sense of heroic duty never comes to mind.  No kid dreams of being awoken at 3 in the morning to stop a mugging every night, because people can't learn to not go down the one alley that muggers frequent.  Kid's dream of having super powers so they can do what they want with them, all i ever wanted the ability to fly for was so i could go anywhere in the world, not so i could stop someone from jumping off of a bridge.  Sure, doing so would get me the key to the city and a smooch from the pretty lady mayor, but only the first time.  After the twentieth, i'd think people were doing it just to meet me, and as flattering as that is, i'd prefer to just run into them at wawa.  I believe kids just want super powers like adults want power, something that gives them an advantage over other people.  the only difference between the two is kids are more creative with the types of powers.  (Disclaimer: Iron Man is the exception to everything i have just said.)

Game of Thrones and Hitchhiker's

I would like to thank Mrs. Healey for that one time she scheduled a reading day on a day different from A day.  Because she did so, i forgot my book, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" (the reason it's taking me so long to read is because i really want to take in all the information, ya know?), and had to pick one off of one of the shelves.  This is when i stumbled across Game of Thrones, which is a book i've heard marvelous things about.  I remember hearing my friends talk about the t.v. show, and wishing i could understand what they were discussing.  I decided this was my chance to become invested in the universe created by G.R.R.M and opened to the first page.  The bell rang by the time i had read the prologue, but i was immediately invested.  Two weeks later, i had watched both seasons of the show, and was hotly anticipating the third (March 31st, mark your calendars).  I was able to return to the book every A day and read one to two chapters before the bell rudely interrupted me.  But now ive decided to hold off on reading the series until it is finished being written.  Then i will go to the nearest library (if those still exist), and burn through the series faster than i did Harry Potter.  For now, my conquest on the Hitchhiker's series will continue, and if you are wondering how that's going (and i know you are), yeah, its pretty good.  I am getting to the point in Restaurant where all of the confusing little bits are about to be neatly wrapped up into one big joke, and i am looking forward to it.  I admire how little Zaphod cares about his part in the larger scope of things, and i admire even more how Douglass Adams turns that apathy into his key role in the universe.  Maybe i'll finish the book tonight, but probably not, because i have one more blog post to type and im about four days late.

Just Some Ramblings

It seems to me that the only time art translates between mediums well is when the translation is from a book to a movie..  Take into account the Godfather, Jaws, No Country for Old Men, (the list could fill this entire blog).  This translation makes sense, a book paints a picture in your head, some rich person believes their picture to be the right one, and a movie is made based on that persons own personal take on the story.  The reason this transition works so well, is because books that have movies based on them usually have vast amounts of detail put into their stories.  So much detail that if the director were to put all that detail into the film, it would be N times as long which cannot happen.  This is because the average viewer can only sit for so long before becoming bored of whatever is in front of them, no matter how interesting the material.  With books this isn't a problem, as you can put them down and do something else, but watching a movie is done in one sitting.  Thus, the director chooses the details that spoke to him/her/it, and turns them into a movie.  Which is the reason for the phrase, "the book is always better than the movie", because the book feels more invested in the world than the movie itself, because the movie only represents parts of the book.  This doesn't work so well the other way around, you don't hear much of books based on movies sweeping the nation.  The movie doesn't have enough extra detail to it for a proper book to be made.  There are many books made based on the star wars movie, do i know the name of any, or care to figure it out, not at all, because what attracted me to star wars were the original movies.  The books made based on these movies are full of details from the mind of the author, and their thoughts alone.  This makes them incapable of capturing the feeling the director put into the movie, as they don.t have the directors thoughts.  Also, movies are made to be visually pleasing, and to show you a world you thought only existed in books.  To put that world back into a book would be wrong.  Also, books require imagination, and a lot of people lack that.