pride and prejudice and zombies

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

So starts the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. And I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it... though I was a little skeptical when I first started. The novel written by Jane Austen is taken and skewed by Seth Grahame-Smith. I think I liked it because it takes the already feisty Elizabeth Bennet and allows her to become a fighter and ruthless zombie slayer. This violence is, at times, turned towards those around her. Especially when she feels like she is being personally attacked. When proposed to by Mr. Darcy, instead of fighting him with words she litteraly fights him. "One of her kicks foundit markd and Darcy was sent into the mantlelpiece with such force as to shatter its edge." She is not a poor meek female... but a warrior that shouldn't be irritated.

I would definitely recommend reading this one. But beware, if you don't already enjoy Jane Austen novels, or find them hard to be engaged with, this might be slightly challenging to read.

Give it a try! What do you think?!

i just don't get it...

so darrell and i just finished watching new moon. you know, that one movie with the vampires ("emo love vampires" as darrell would call them) and wolves? i really don't understand the hype. really. from what i gather all the movies is about two love struck teenagers who are unable to carry on complete conversations, constantly glower and each other and look like they are in pain whenever they are around each other. mix that in with a girl who doesn't open her mouth when she speaks, a boy who is abnormally pale with horrible bags under his eyes and greasy hair, an unbelievably built sixteen year old and some "monsters" and you pretty much have the story.

i just don't "get it". you know, the "craze."

what is it about the books and the movies that are making girls swoon? one of my professors last year gave an interview to one of the newspapers here in utah and said “Different cultures and periods re-invent the vampires they need,” said Brian McCuskey, an associate professor of English and specialist in 19th-century British literature at Utah State University in Logan. “Monsters are an embodiment of our desires and anxieties, they shift. ...Vampires are constantly reinvented.” (you can read the whole article here... do it its really good he is an amazing professor) i think he might be right in one sense... but i think that what is really happening is that young girls are craving something that they can't have and edward is just that. something they all want but can't have. imagining him is flirting with a danger they never have to face in real life.

i guess i just don't buy into it.

mean while i suppose i will just go along with it and wonder what the next craze will be... maybe a new story about frankenstein.... who knows?

FINALLY!!!!

So I am very pleased to announce that I have finally finished Anna Karenina!!! I finished it last night now that I have had a chance to think about it I think I have come up with a conclusion about what I think it means.

If you haven't read the book, it follows the lives of three different people. The first is Dolly and Stiva and she has only just found out that he has been having an affair. The second is about Stiva's sister Anna and her husband Alexei. Anna, after being quite taken with a young officer, Vronsky, realizes that she is no longer in love with her husband and in fact finds him quite repulsive. The third is the story about Levin who is a content farmer who falls in love with Kitty, who is in love with Vronsky.

Well, Stiva and Dolly somehow figure everything out and stay together, but are miserable together. Anna has an affair with Vronsky and leaves her husband and her son in the search of happiness, but in the end realizes that she will never be happy and throw herself under a train. Kitty and Levin eventually get married and have a child and Levin finds faith in a God he never believed in and becomes content with the world.

Obviously this is a very watered down version of the whole book, which is roughly 800 pages long but those three stories seemed to show to me one crucial thought. Its only when we have to fight for what we want to stay true to it, we can truely be happy. Stiva looked for happiness and satisfaction outside of his marriage and ended up miserable. Anna abandoned everything she had for something she thought she wanted and also ended up miserable and taking her own life. Only Kitty and Levin, who though they had their disagreements, worked together to solve them and were the only two that ended up happy.

I'm sure there was much more that could be pulled from the book but I really liked it and I'm proud that I have finally finished it!