Why Is The Book Always Better Than The Movie?

Good, good, *pukes*

       This is something that is always mentioned when a movie's based on a book. "Meh, the book was better." There's a whole myrriad of movies out there based on books. The Hannibal series. A Clockwork Orange. Battle Royale. The Harry Potter series. Why, then, does it usually hold true that the book's better?

           A lot of it has to do with description. In a book you can fit millions of details that you wouldn't usually see in a movie, like what a character was thinking or how it was related to another situation, character, or object in the same book (or in another book in the same series, once we're at it). Also, a book can be extended to such a length that a moviemaker could only dream of. There's no way you could make a movie out of a three hundred page book without ommiting some details, let alone a full movie. 

Unless you're Kubrick. You can make sure there's more details in the movie.

          And yet, that's not the most important factor. In a book, you can let your imagination run wild. You can imagine things happening in magnitudes that the films simply can't capture (read a book after watching its film, and indeed, you will be forced to view the book as the director viewed it). That also means that when you watch the film, it will be very different as to what you imagined. A good example of this is for the Hunger Games movie, when Rue's actress was cast, many people were enraged because they imagined Rue as a small, white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Of course, many fans overlooked the fact that Rue and the dude that played Thresh were described with dark skin. 

I wouldn't complain to his face, though, that guy's big.

          Another thing is that simply, the way that the film is interpreted will simply be too different as to what you imagined. The Neverending Story? The movies were horrible to look at, they were simply too different. Hell, it was separated in three parts and in one movie there's a redhead and in the next movie the same character's portrayed by a blonde-haired kid. Also Atreyu had greenish skin in the book and he's just a dark-skinned boy in the movie. 

Pictured: Not Green

          Of course, there are a few films better than the books. Many liked The Godfather more than its novel, or the Shining. A Clockwork Orange is another example. And yet, many movies simply can't reach the level of emotion and imagination that you put forward when it comes to reading, and that's a bit of the reason as to why the book will, if not always, most of the time be better than the movie.

Indeed, the movie was awesome.

Awesome Artists: Zdzisław Beksiński

Get ready for some tragedy.

         Beksinsky is a Polish painter and photographer, and damn, did he have a hard time. Having been born, he spent all of his youth in the midst of war, and he began painting fantastic realism in his first phase of art. His second phase was more abstract. 

Well, I mean, that's a nice tone right there. Avant-garde gothic?

         What makes him so special, though? Well, first of all, it seemed his family had a curse, as everybody died early due to sickness or suicide. He was eventually killed with 17 knife wounds. At first he painted decaying models and people in sexual positions, but then, his art took an even darker turn. He began painting corpses and his vision of hell, using his own nightmares as an inspiration.  

That's... dark...

None of his paintings were ever named. 

Oh...

Beksinski hated his paintings.

So he was troubled.

Jeff Bliss Teaches A Lesson: Duncanville High School

        So today a friend sent me an interesting video. In Duncanville High School, a student stood up to a teacher and criticized her style for simply showing up for the paycheck and simply passing out worksheets instead of having a discussion with the students and getting them interested. "You want kids to come in your class, you want them to get excited for this? You gotta come in here, you gotta make them excited."

          Now, Jeff Bliss looks like the chillest guy you could ever meet, but in fact, he's a teacher's son and he says he discovered the value of education when he dropped out of high school for a year, because he realized that he wouldn't take any sort of step into his future. Is this justified, though? Does the guy have a point?

I wonder...

          Yes. He does. In Mexico this is a topic of debate, because teachers are protesting; the government has passed a few reforms that require them to be tested in order to confirm their capacity. In my coutry, we have a popular saying: El que nada debe, nada teme. Let me translate: He who owes nothing fears nothing. Many teachers, as Jeff had mentioned, just show up for the paycheck and indeed, there's word of many who just sit there and do nothing all day.

           How can one expect their children to get a good education like that? I've been fortunate enough to be in some extremely good schools, and our teachers do indeed engage us in interesting ways, but the same cannot be said for many other places. I am indeed glad that our government is making sure to have more competent teachers, and as for the United States, their educational system is praised by many other countries, but hopefully, Jeff's stand will help people realize that there's always room to improve, and indeed, I've much rather learn with sticks and stones but be fully engaged than to simply read worksheets with no explanation at all. Why go to school to do something you could do as well, or even better, at home?

I mean, ther are a few people more productive without bad teachers.

          Now, Jeff, bro, you have this blogger's full support, so if you read this, know you are fighting the good fight, for indeed, you say that it's the future of your country. It's also the future of my country and many others, and the world has to wake up and do something about it. And what if they don't believe at first? Nordic countries invest the most in education and right now they've got the best quality of life one could even wish for. I hope, and indeed, one could think Jeff does too, to find a day when the whole world reaches that quality. 

Meanwhile, check out his interview. You go, man.

Book Review: The Great Gatsby

          Well, I've been stocking up on books, thanks to the kindle, so i've been reading a bit, we'll have quite a bit of book reviews this summer. For now, I want to speak of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. First of all, what's it about? What's it like? Many people don't even know the first thing about the novel, for which I'm here to gladly help. 

        It takes place during the Roaring Twenties, 1925, precisely, which is about the peak of America's economic growth to that point. To make a long story short, Gatsby is about Nick Carraway, who had just graduated from Yale and had fought in WWI. Nick moves next door to a mysterious millionaire named Jay Gatsby, who holds grandiloquent parties frequently. Gatsby falls in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy, who lives across the bay in front of Gatsby's house. Unfortunately, Daisy's married, and so comes unleashed one of the best dramas I've had the pleasure to read. 

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

           Just what makes this such a great book, though? I mean, there's not much to fit in it, now, is there? You could read it in a day if you lazily flipped the pages. And indeed, there's not much content, but the one that's present is rich in context from the Jazz era. Post WWI ideals, colored suits, jazz music, champagne, reckless spending, all this and more is present in The Great Gatsby. 

         What I loved most was Gatsby himself. I won't spoil, but indeed, Jay is quite the embodiment of the American Dream of starting over again and accumulating wealth. Why did he want to start over, though? Well, that's up to you readers to find out, and of course, once you read it, you tell me whether it's worth the hype high school teachers tend to show when speaking about the book. I say it does. 

5: Benefits Of Reading

         Time and time again, people ask themselves why the hell should they read. Isn't it a waste of time? I mean, what can you learn from fiction? Non-fiction's still good, at least you get to learn something from real life, right? Even though it's boring? Right?

           Well, fret not, dear reader, for it turns out that reading does indeed have benefits, and it will give them to you throughout many aspects of your life, for example:

5: You Get Smarter

           Yes, this sounds obvious, but think about it for a moment. When you read, your mind has to be alert all the time, lest you want to miss something. Also, since your brain's active while you read, as you get older, you do indeed reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's, which tends to strike the elder. As you can infer, they're too tired to do anything, which makes it harder for them to do activities that stimulates their minds. 

Then go ahead and grab a book.

4: You Lose Weight

            Now, don't think this replaces exercise, but you're going to burn more calories reading than watching television, that's a no-brainer. Now, how many? Say you're at 150 pounds, you're going to burn something like forty calories an hour. Like I said, it's not that much, but it's a cool, hidden benefit you've got there. 

Combine them and you get twice the benefit!
(I actually do this some weekends)

3: Increased Vocabulary

           This one can come from reading fiction. Good writers tend to use an eloquent language, and fiction authors aren't the exception to the norm. That doesn't mean you should go ahead and read Shakespeare, which is difficult if you're starting and uses a lot of words that aren't even used anymore. Start slow and build your way up, and you'll notice that you'll be a better speaker in a while. 

Vow to vacate the organ before your visage to verbalize like V! 

2: You Write Better

         Yes, this comes as a result of getting smarter and getting a better vocabulary. But there's also something else. You notice how sentences are structured in such a way that ends up enhancing what you put on paper. It's like school; books give you the tools and you learn how to use them. 

1: You Read Better

               This one's the most awesome, for it increases the other benefits, but also lets you explore the world that literature encompasses, which is vast. I swear I know a bunch of people who get into reading clubs, reading a book or two a year, and a while later they're at a book a month, then a week. And with time, you get extremely good at it. I had a teacher who read at least one book a day. Add that up to her years and that's thousands of books. Imagine the knowledge that's contained in her mind. 

*click to enlarge*

So, go ahead, pick up a book, it may be gruelling now, but you'll thank me later. 

Atheist Bloggers Arrested In Bangladesh?!?

     All right. It's the day after April Fools' Day, so that means that this can't be a joke. If you've read me before, you know how I like to get straight to the point. I'm an atheist, and although there's not really an official organization for all atheists, I bet I'm not the only one that feels enraged when hearing that three bloggers in Bangladesh were arrested for defaming Muhammad and Islam. 

I wonder who's that guy that was censured.

      Don't get me wrong, I don't usually rant about religion because there's no point in beating a dead horse. And get this straight. I don't like it. At all. So when I hear about somebody being executed or arrested for being of a different religion, or non-religious at all, I can't help but getting enraged to the point where I almost get ulcers. 

Pictured: Anger

      First of all, a country with laws based on religion is flawed. Yeah, you shouldn't kill without reason, it's in every law system in the world. It's in quite a few religious textbooks (though not all, shamefully), and yet, do countries have that law because of religion? All right, let's say some do, but let's look at why that law would be there. Life has to be respected, and to kill is a crime against humanity. Period. The only context in which it's right to kill a man is if you're about to be killed yourself by that same man. 

Self defense, bitch.

      So, law systems with religion based rules have a flaw, and a deadly one at that. Anybody not in that religion can be considered a heretic and can be hurt or eliminated with even primitive means. Arrested. Stoned. Buried alive. Whipped. There's many methods, and all of them share a common thing, unwarranted violence. Hear me out. 

A wise man said to make as few enemies as possible. This helps a bit.

      Did that Jew you know actually kill a prophet or steal money? No. Don't do anything to him. Did that Christian attack homosexuals in a non-verbal way? No? Don't do anything to him. Did that Muslim blow up a building? No? Don't do anything to him. Did that Scientologist record your conversation? No. Try to reason with him, please, but don't do anything with him. Does that atheist live a life without morality and have no respect for life or virtues? No? Did he talk wrong about your god? Yes? Well, then don't be a person with a weak mind, take it as a test to your faith or something, but don't do anything to him. Every religion contradicts another and nobody can agree on anything so if you kill one heretic you might as well kill them all (Note: I do not condone murder in any way and do not even believe a heretic can exist). 

        So, what am I talking about here? Tolerance? No, that's a nasty word. That's putting up with something. As my history teacher said, why not legitimize? I hold for a fact that those are your beliefs and for such I will not harm you. I hold for a fact that you're in love with those of your same sex, and for such, I will not do you any harm. I hold for a fact that you're not ready to have that baby, and for that I may even hate you or not, but I will not do you any harm. 

 I mean, just look at this. The deputy commisioner of Dhaka police Molla Nazrul Islam said:

"They have hurt religious feelings of the people by writing against different religions and their prophets and founders including the Prophet Mohammed."

        Excuse me, but that is weak. Shamefully weak. That's the mentality of a child running to their mother. "Mommy, mommy, he called me the "S" word!" Stupid? Sissy? What you did is both. If you can't put up with a man questioning your beliefs, then that makes me seriously question your ability to put up with more difficult matters. Unless you're locking them up for protection, please, think about it, let them go. They've done no harm to anybody. So, if anybody that's in charge of something, or at least has some infuence in Bangladesh reads this, come on.  Hear out my cry for their peace and freedom and just try it, try to help those three men.