Nueva pila

Como suele pasar de forma constante y para nada sorpren-
dente, mi pila de libros por leer se ha regenerado casi espontáneamente mientras leía The Pillars of the Earth, esa gran novela que me regaló nuestro querido Blogueador Oficial del Reino Halagan. No sólo eso, sino que esta encarnación en particular resulta bastante variada: un libro en español de Carlos Ruiz Zafón; Las metamorfosis de Ovidio del que, como bien indica el marcapáginas, llevo leída la cuarta parte (la leí en junio antes de visitar España); un libro de historias cortas del famoso Neil Gaiman; la siguiente entrega de las aventuras de Kinsey Millhone, esa gran detective privada; el primer libro de la ubicua trilogía Millennium del difunto Stieg Larsson (trilogía que al parecer iba a constar de diez libros, probablemente planeados desde el 77 pese a que sólo se haya encontrado el manuscrito inacabado del cuarto y sinopsis de lo que hubieran sido el quinto y sexto); Kushiel's Dart, l primer libro de una serie de fantasía que unos amigos vienen recomendándome desde hace meses; y The Wheel of Darkness, otra aventura más del extraño agente del FBI Pendergast. Todavía no sé en qué orden me los leeré, pero parece que está claro qué páginas van a tenerme entretenido durante los próximos dos meses. Con algo de suerte, sólo tendré cosas buenas que decir de todos ellos.

Unputdownable

I was starting to feel I was the only person on the planet who still hadn't read the The Pillars of the Earth. Fortunately, my dear friend Halagan saw to it and gave me the book for my birthday, assuring me I would love it. And boy was he right.

This novel by Ken Follett has everything that makes a story great. The characters are terribly compelling, and their everchanging fortunes made me both giddy with relief and mad with anger. The good guys are very good, and the bad guys are horrible human beings. The two most notorious villains, Waleran Bigod and William Hamleigh, are so despicable, so vile, so absolutely evil that I was near apoplectic every time they got away with murder. But the extremely likeable good guys, Phillip, Tom, Jack, Ellen, and Aliena, are too good to lower themselves to their level and fight them on their own terms. I understand that, but they have to put up with so much that I found myself about to scream at them to go hire and assassin to get rid of those abominable creatures. (And I should include the invidious Alfred in this group too.) I was so angry Waleran and William wouldn't leave them alone it was hard to remember these characters were not real people. That, of course, didn't stop me from cheering when things went their way, or when they managed to foil Waleran's or William's schemes. My copy of the book is 975 pages long, and I read them all with bated breath. And had there been a thousand pages more, I would have devoured them with equal enthusiasm. These were not characters: these were people struggling to make a living, chasing their dreams and fighting for them. To say that I found them and their misadventures compelling would be a gross understatement.

So what's in this book? Well, there's love and hate, romance and violence, dreams and nightmares, good and evil, laughter and tears, blood and sweat, lust and melancholy, truth and lies, honor and treachery. The question should be what is not in this formidable novel. I think by now you will have gathered I consider this book a masterpiece, and it's a shame it took me twenty years to get to read it. If you haven't read it yet (and now that I have, there must be few people left), stop reading whatever you're currently enjoying and buy a copy of The Pillars of the Earth: it will blow your mind.

You Say Prawn, I Say Shrimp

District 9 was the second movie I saw last Saturday (immediately after Ponyo), the third movie I saw that weekend (I saw The Time Traveler's Wife the night before), and the ninth movie I saw at The Rave over the last three weeks (but the movie madness is now officially over). And I liked it.

I had been anticipating this movie since producer Peter Jackson, director Neill Blomkamp, and main actor Sharlto Copley showed us some exclusive footage at the San Diego Comic Con on July 24th, and maybe that is why I was a little bit disappointed with the film. It was a good movie, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I guess it wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. Once again (and this is something we've discussed in the past), the expectations you have when going to see a movie actually affected how much I enjoyed it.

The acting was very good, and the movie, even though it is a sci-fi story, felt real. This was Sharlto Copley's first movie as an actor, and the fact that the movie is shot in a documentary style and that the actors were encouraged to adlib most of the dialogue really help to turn this film into a close-to-real experience. Copley in particular does a terrific job as the beleaguered main character, and he made me root for him the entire time. I was really, really impressed by his performance.

The special effects were great, and the Prawns (the aliens) looked really cool. And what about that mecha straight out of a manga? Now that's what cool robots look like, not the crappy designs certain movie about robots that transform boasts.

I would tell you more about the movie, but that would reveal key plot points the trailer, for once, doesn't give away, so I think I'm going to stop typing now. But if you're looking for a movie that combines action, sci-fi, good filmmaking, and packs a message and a reflection on classic topics such as racism, segregation, government control, and the influence of big corporations, District 9 is the movie to watch. Who said that summer movies are by definition brainless fun and should therefore not be expected to be intelligent? It's movies like District 9 that make crap like Transformers 2 even more insulting and unforgivable.

Tiny Little Fish

Ponyo is only the third movie by Hayao Miyazaki I've seen in my life, and even though I liked it, it would come in last after Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service. However, Ponyo is pure Miyazaki, with fun, interesting characters and a whimsical story you never quite know what to expect of.

Ponyo tells the story of a fish that wants to become human, and even though this sounds like The Little Mermaid, this movie is quite different from the Hans Christian Andersen tale. I think my favorite part was how everyone just took this in stride. They would meet Ponyo, who used to be a fish, and they would just say "Right on," and continue as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. And from there, things just keep getting stranger.

Just like in Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service, there are children in the movie, loving parents, old people, and strange characters living in this hand-drawn world of crayon colors and deceivingly simple designs. It is a pretty movie to watch, and even though it was quite entertaining and awfully cute, the fact that it seemed to be geared toward a really young audience made me enjoy it less than I did Castle or Service. Still, Ponyo is a fun time at the movies, and if you are a Miyazaki fan you should definitely check it out. But maybe on DVD.

Timeless Love

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger was my favorite book of 2007, and I had been eagerly anticipating the movie version of that great story. After several delays and changes of dates, it finally opened last Friday, so I went to The Rave for the seventh time in the last three weeks.

The movie stars Eric Bana as the time traveler and Rachel McAdams as his wife, and they both do a great job of bringing Henry and Clare to the screen. As it's usually the case, the book goes into more detail and is more poignant: the sweetness is sweeter and the bitterness is darker and more disturbing. Still, the screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin is true to the spirit of the book, and therefore the minor changes and omissions are forgivable.

The Time Traveler's Wife is romantic and bitter, sweet and dark, uplifting and heartrending, and I had a great time at the movies. As opposed to the book, which topped my Best of list in 2007, the movie version will not finish first in 2009, but it is highly recommendable, and I hope you guys give it a chance. So do yourself a favor, read the novel, and then go see the movie. I have a feeling I'll be getting it on DVD in the future.

Atrapados en el ascensor

Aquí tenéis una foto de algo que espero os resulte tan curioso como a mí. Como os conté reciente-
mente, durante mi visita a la Convención del comic de San Diego me alojé en un Holiday Inn cercano. Dado que mi habitación estaba en el noveno piso, no quedaba más remedio que coger el ascensor para subir y bajar, y los botones de la foto que acompañan esta entrada pertenecen al panel de control del mismo. Nada más entrar en el ascensor por primera vez me di cuenta de que el aparato tenía un botón que no había visto nunca: "earthquake", o "terremoto", en la lengua de Cervantes. ¿Para qué sirve este en teoría obvio botón? ¿Para avisar de un terremoto? Sinceramente, si hay un terremoto no creo que nadie tenga que darle al botón para que el personal del hotel se aperciba. Podría aventurar que tal vez el botón fuera para llamar a los bomberos en vez de alertar al conserje, pero entonces ¿por qué hay justo al lado un botón cuya función es claramente llamar a los bomberos? Si a esto añadimos los dos botones inferiores que podéis ver en la foto del panel completo, botones de alarma y telefonillo respectivamente, la cosa empieza a complicarse. ¿Qué botón hay que apretar en según qué emergencia? ¿Cuándo hay que llamar a los bomberos? ¿Quién responde si aprietas el botón del intercomunicador? ¿Quién viene a socorrerte si le das a la alarma tradicional? Y, por supuesto, ¿quién es responsable de rescatarte si le das al botón de terremoto? ¿O acaso dicho botón sirve para causarlos? Hmmm… De todas formas, creo que me alegro de que nada se torciera mientras usaba el ascensor. Con tanta opción, hubiera acabado atrapado y sin rescate.

SDCC Media

Since I talked a lot about this year's San Diego Comic Con but didn't really show you any pictures (I didn't take any) or videos (same), I thought this might be a neat way to complement the aforementioned entries. G4TV has lots of clips of coverage from the show (the 48 Hours with Olivia Munn at Comic Con series is very entertaining), and if you want to see pictures of statues, booths, artists, and people in costumes, you could do worse than checking out these pages (one, two, three, and four) at the 11 O'Clock Comics forum. Enjoy!