An Abundance of Katherines by John Green *AP (also contains a lot of spoilers from The Phantom of the Opera)

I have now just started to read some young adult fiction. I picked up An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. I have only just started, but so far I am enjoying it. I had an epiphany at the beginning of the book actually. I realised that a beginning of anything is either really boring or really confusing. Obviously, I don't mean for books alone, but plays, shows, movies, etc also fall in this category. An Abundance of Katherines was no exception. I found the first chapter a dreadful bore. As I kept reading though, I found the main character funnier and more relatable. I'm really excited to continue reading this book. I have a feeling that the ending will be happy. I love happy endings, even when there is some sadness mixed in. I mean, I saw the Phantom of the Opera on broadway last month, and Christine ends up with Raoul because of the goodness of the Phantom. Of course I was routing for Raoul and Christine, but the Phantom enchanted me with his music and I could hardly bare his sadness as he released Christine to be with Raoul. The ending was bittersweet. I can deal with bittersweet. My problem is when you have these people and everything is awesome (and I'm not talking an action book here) and everyone is picking daisies and then a main character dies. What? I mean if there's gun-slinging across the board at least one of the main characters is bound to die, but when you live in the suburbs with nothing but lame things to do with lame people, you can't turn you're dumb story around by killing the main character suddenly. I suppose it all depends on the book though. If there is a good reason to kill off the character and I believe it, I like it. I guess it is more about perception than the actual book. For instance, I stopped reading Atonement because I heard it was sad in the end. I think partly I just disliked the book and partly I was expecting it to end happily. And so I got bored and moved on. I guess books are really a gamble. You have to be exact so as not to lose your readers. I hope that An Abundance of Katherines continues to make me smile, otherwise it will end up in the back of my mind like its fellow companion Atonement. 

Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum *AP

When I was in around fourth or fifth grade, I learned about Michael Jackson in music class. We listened to "Thriller" and learned about a man named Vincent Price. Apparently Vincent Price was a well-known horror actor. Thus, our music teacher forced us to watch a film called The Pit and the Pendulum. It was amazing. And horrifyingly scary. In the tradition of me, I decided that I would read the Poe story and re watch the movie in book form. That was a lie. Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" is absolutely nothing like the movie. Though, it too is amazing in a completely different sort of way. I think it is easier to connect with the movie because it has a family aspect to the story. It has feelings that most of us can relate to. Whereas in the story, the character is in Spain, ready to die in the inquisition. I admire the story character for his calmness. He faced death with a clear mind and got out of it. I guess the movie character did that too, but the man in the movie was not locked in a cold dungeon for hours, he did not keep getting drugged secretly, and he did not have to face a pit so unknowingly. The man in the movie saw the torture center from the torturer himself, whilst the man in the book was literally left in the dark. The book character could have died several times just by walking around. Had the narrator not fallen with his head in the pit, he would have walked right into it. In the movie, the man was taken into the pit, locked up, forced to be in the pendulum, and then I'm pretty sure he used the rats like in the book and somehow knocked the bad guy into the pit after he was free. Don't quote me on that though. Anyway the man in the book was smart enough to use the rats even though he was about to die, and then he refused to commit suicide into the pit when there was no other way of escaping the closing walls. Thank goodness the French man came to save him. All in all, I thought both the story and the movie were good, but they are good in different ways. They contrast from each other so much that I barely even relate them to each other now that I've read the story. 

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe *AP

To begin, I love this story. It's great. Now onto my thoughts. So obviously we know that the narrator is mad, if not by his insane behavior, then by his constant insisting of the opposite. What I wish to talk about is the comedy and the psychological. Poe did a great job with comedy in this story. Of course the whole tale is rather frightening, but the narrator is so odd and horrible that he's actually amusing. Just the reasons he gives for his sanity are funny in themselves. He claims he cannot be mad if he is so ingenious. An example would be "And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. OH, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in!" This quote actually reminds me of Holden Caulfield. Holden constantly reasons with himself about things that are either ridiculous or unimportant. In the case of this narrator, he makes such a big deal out of thrusting his head in, proving that he is so smart, which is funny. Why would anyone care how he thrust his head in? They don't. This is comedy. The narrator continues on and on to talk of how smart and cunning he is. As the story proceeds, he falls deeper and deeper into madness. Which creates a scarier story, but if you look past that fact, it also makes for a more ridiculous and comedic character. Now I'm going to switch to a more psychological aspect. I know that I've called this man mad , but the truth is he probably is not. The narrator obviously has a psychological problem. That doesn't make him a crazy freak. It means he needs help. Help that was not given in those days without condescension. I almost pity the killer. He thinks he is perfectly fine while the world thinks he is insane. For all we know, this whole story could be a lie. None of the events could have happened. When you are dealing with a disturbed narrator, you cannot trust a thing you read. Is there really an old man? If so did he really get killed? Did police really come? Is this man just having a panic attack due to an unhealthy mental state? All questions that can never be answered. Perhaps not even by Poe himself. It gives you something to think about.

L'Odyssee de Cartier

Do you know what's sad? L'Odyssee de Cartier. Seriously, I love designer stuff. I'd like to think I can afford all of it even though I know I cannot. I would kill for a Cartier watch or bracelet. Cartier has decided to make a little mini movie. This movie is not horrible. It's actually kind of cool with a cute panther (leopards and panthers are the same so just know that I'm right) going on a journey searching for a place after the diamonds that he was once encrusted in fell off, and he becomes real. Honestly, I felt like something was off from the beginning though all I did was keep watching the cute panther. Suddenly, at the end, it hit me. At the end of this little movie, the panther ends up in Paris and walks into a woman's house. This woman is wearing the pendant that was once the panther. The panther, then, just walks up to the woman, she pets him, and they walk off together. The reason this movie was so off putting is because it is about a panther. A panther is a wild animal. A panther should not be walking up to a woman with a bracelet and love her. The poor cats who played this panther had to have been taken from their homes and trained not to be themselves. That panther should not cuddle the woman; that panther should bite the woman's hand off. I know that panthers are not super endangered, but still. Those poor animals were taken from their homes and forced to love humans and for what? A lousy commercial for diamonds that 1 person out of 100 can afford. The commercial was not necessary and neither was the panther poaching. That is all I have to say. **Note I'm sure the panthers were not poached, I don't know how many people can actually afford Cartier. I said these things for emphasis... DISCLAIMERS woo

Atonement *AP

I actually quit reading Atonement before I finished. The reason for this is probably partially because someone told me the ending was sad and partially because the only reason I wanted to read it was so that I could see the ever lovely James McAvoy on the screen in the Oscar winning film. I've been so caught up in doing things that I love right now that it's been hard for me to find a book that could be fulfilling. Anyway, as far as Atonement goes, I thought that it was well done from where I stopped reading. Yet again I have picked a book with multiple points of view. This time I really realised how much I could dig in and get to the reason for perspective. I really felt that all the characters had truly separate yet intertwining lives. Briony caused Robbie to go to get arrested for having a romantic encounter with her sister Cecelia (at least that's where the trouble starts). They all have different tales and sorrows. Briony's, of course, is her absolute knowledge that she knows Robbie has raped her cousin since she had seen him "attacking" Cecelia earlier that same night. While in her perspective, you could see her side of things EVEN THOUGH SHE SUCKS. Then we have Robbie. Robbie has just realised that he is attracted to Cecelia and has been for many years. He decides to act on this whimsical state of passion by writing Cecelia a civil letter apologising for a wrong that had occured earlier that day. Unfortunately, Robbie sent the incorrect letter to Cecelia which Briony read which started the entire event. We then see Robbie's perspective of Cecelia, of World War I, and of Briony. We feel his hatred, his love, his despair, and his pain. While Robbie is at war, for example, he speaks of how he and Cecelia have drifted apart throughout the long process of the war and of their separation. He also speaks of his hatred toward Briony, but makes it very clear that for Cecelia, he would do anything. As for Cecelia' s point of view, the same incident happens and yet we see that she dislikes Robbie even more than Robbie dislikes her at first. When she gets the letter, all of this changes. She realises that she has loved Robbie for quite a long time as well, and at this point, the two sneak into the library where they begin to "wrestle". Briony walks in, sees Robbie attacking Cecelia and is not surprised after seeing his letter. Then Briony's cousin is raped by someone, Briony claims it is Robbie, Robbie is sent to jail and is forced to fight in the war, though he is completely innocent, and we know all of this through bits and pieces of different lives being pieced together like a puzzle. While some feelings are mutual, we get to see others' thoughts and how they lead into peoples' actions. It is quite an interesting thing, and Atonement pulls it off quite well.