“I’ve resigned myself to the fact that movie renditions of books will never be good. They’re shorter and it’s a price that must be paid. However, I am a big fan of the feeling or tone of a book, [...]]]> Caitlin! Her comment on Tolkien & Beyond: The Pitfalls of Movie Adaptations was a great response!

“I’ve resigned myself to the fact that movie renditions of books will never be good. They’re shorter and it’s a price that must be paid. However, I am a big fan of the feeling or tone of a book, and a movie has no excuse for capturing that feeling. For example, the fourth Harry Potter movie felt NOTHING like the book. It was an awkward teen soap opera with cheap jokes instead of the daring drama and tension (and house elves) there were in the book. None of it felt right. On the other hand, I think the first, third, and fifth movies really captured the essence of Hogwarts and relationships and personalities really well and realistically. I must sound obsessed, but that’s okay. This website seems to be a haven for unapologetic fans for the written word.

And I would love to see an Artemis Fowl movie series. The characters are so fiery and fun, but for some reason I don’t think it would translate well to film. Alas. Nevertheless I may continue to cast it within the confines of my own mind. :]

Oh! And on the subject of Pride and Prejudice movie adaptations, I’m sorry but I’m a purist. Keira Knightly just doesn’t quite cut it and Jennifer Ehle has epitomized Elizabeth’s image in my head forever. No one can do better than a young Colin Firth either. So partly from fantastic casting, and partly from having six hours to maximize storyline, A&E wins. And I think a lot of that is owing that they had so much time. Perhaps more movie adaptations should look into A&E, Masterpiece Theatre (for classics), and HBO to do extended series instead of brief two hours snippets in order to ensure quality and satisfaction.”

She wins a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls! Congrats, Caitlin!

- Alyssa Krueger

Ursula K. Le Guin was first published in the 1960s, and ever since then, she has been a big name in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres, winning various awards, from the Gandalf Grand Master Award to Hugo and Nebula awards. Her novels are known for their explorations of feminist, psychological, and sociological themes – [...]]]>

Ursula K. Le Guin was first published in the 1960s, and ever since then, she has been a big name in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres, winning various awards, from the Gandalf Grand Master Award to Hugo and Nebula awards. Her novels are known for their explorations of feminist, psychological, and sociological themes – one of her best-known novels is The Left Hand of Darkness, which is part of Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle. The books in the Hainish Cycle show a future galactic society which is held together by the Ekumen, which are basically the cultural anthropologists of the future. The Left Hand of Darkness is considered one of Le Guin’s feminist novels – the society being observed in the novel is a “neuter” society. There are no “sexes” in this society; the only time people are separated by gender is when they need to reproduce, and each person is randomly assigned a gender. They could be male one time, and female another time. This allows Le Guin to explore how gender roles really affect our society when compared to the possibility of a society with no gender roles except when necessary.

I haven’t read The Left Hand of Darkness yet, but I have read The Telling, another of the books in the Hainish Cycle, and now I want to read all of Le Guin’s novels! In The Telling, Sutty is a Terran – someone born on Terra, which is the futuristic Earth – who becomes an Ekumen and travels to the planet Aka. Aka is a planet ruled by a government which has wiped out its entire history in order to wipe out the “barbaristic” religions of old. The new government enforces science above all, and persecutes anyone who follows the old traditions or even uses words from the old language. Everything relating at all to their old society is banned, but Sutty is sent by her superior to a rural town, with the objective of finding and recording any old traditions she can. She is working against the very government that welcomed her into their society, and she puts everyone she questions about the old religion at risk.

What I love about Le Guin’s writing is how she draws me in as a reader. I began to feel everything that Sutty felt, first her detachment from everything around her, and then the reviving, through her search for forbidden traditions, of the soul that she lost. And I love that Le Guin makes it a little easier for readers to see modern problems from a more objective point of view. By taking our issues and putting them in the context of a fictional society, she puts us into the point of view of an outsider and forces us to see the truth outside of our own prejudices.

I had never gotten around to reading Le Guin’s stories before, but now that I’ve read The Telling, I want to read them all!

- Alyssa Krueger

Photo: Ursula K. Le Guin

Photo: Fantastic Fiction

Actress Rachel True got a dose of inspiration from Meghan McCain’s now-infamous Twitpic while reading Feminista.

Photo: The Feminista Files

– Whitney Teal

Christina’s favorites…

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

“Give me anything in this whole fu*king world that is exactly what it looks like. Flash.” Chuck Palahniuk is [...]]]> SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

Christina’s favorites…

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

“Give me anything in this whole fu*king world that is exactly what it looks like. Flash.” Chuck Palahniuk is one of my all time favorite authors; I am strangely attracted to dark comedies where nothing is as it seems at first glance and nothing is as it should be. Invisible Monsters definitely fits this description. This freak show features a horribly disfigured fashion model, a transsexual who is one operation away from becoming a “real woman” and a two-faced pedophile police officer. Together, they embark on a road trip through the U.S. …let the fun begin!”

• Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure by Colleen Kinder

“I have to hide this book on my bookshelf because otherwise I end up flipping through the pages and daydreaming of adventures in faraway places, rather than doing anything I am actually supposed to be doing. Consisting of practical advice, organization and program resources and inspirational stories from others, it’s the perfect book to read if you just graduated from college, are not going straight on to a professional job or grad school and everybody in your life is asking ‘So, what are you doing now?’”

• Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

“‘I want to see the worst.’ If you thought Catcher in the Rye was depressing, then you must have never read Less Than Zero. The novel follows Clay, the young protagonist, as he returns home from college to L.A. for the winter holidays. All his rich and spoiled friends and former classmates are on drugs, having lots of risky sex and generally up to no good. As the days drag on, Clay is faced with several decisions about getting back together with his girlfriend, rekindling old friendships and continuing his education. Even though I am not as wealthy as Clay and his friends, I experienced many similar thoughts, feelings and situations upon returning home from school.”

..and her current reads:

• Secrets of the Model Dorm by Amanda Kerlin and Phil Oh

“Drama, drama, drama! Basically, this book is America’s Next Top Model in literary form. I am more than slightly embarrassed to be listing this book as one of my current reads, but it is a welcome escape from the monotony that has become my life as of late.”

• On the Road by Jack Kerouac

“Okay, so I admit it… I lost this book in the midst of cleaning my room. I started reading it when I began planning my escape to London. I loved the endless adventure that the group of friends experienced and it made me long for simpler times (before I was born) when our country (and the world, for that matter) seemed like a less dangerous place.”

• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

“Being a huge Vonnegut fan, it may seem odd that I have not read this particular book yet, but I was too lazy to request it at the library (their copy was always checked out) and too broke to pay more than a few dollars for it. Finally, I had a bit of luck finding it at Half Price Books.”

Christina is a twenty-something grad school hopeful (she wants to study public health and psychology) who obsesses over her growing hair, daydreaming about far-off places, rediscovering her sewing machine and pomegranates. She can be found at Last.fm.

– Whitney Teal

Tell us in this Uptown Literati Survey! Answer any or all of the questions, then leave other remarks in the comments section.

How often do [...]]]> How do you really feel?!

Tell us in this Uptown Literati Survey! Answer any or all of the questions, then leave other remarks in the comments section.

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2009Time: 1:00-2:00pmLocation: B. Dalton2021 14th St. NWWashington, D.C