The post about movies

Everyone should see at least one Hayao Miyazaki movie.

If anime’s not really your cup of tea, you’ll still like his movies.  Although I suppose its technically anime (provided we are defining anime as an animated feature made in Japan), it bears little resemblance to the stereotypical anime offerings of blue hair, crazy poses, ridiculous situations, weirdly proportioned people etc.  Instead they are engrossing movies with realistic characters, great plot, and all around excellent movies.  (that is not to say that stereotypical anime can’t be excellent, its just that if you dislike these things in anime, they tend to hamper your ability to enjoy more universally liked things)

Movies would be very strange without music, and in HM movies the soundtracks are particularly excellent.  Listen to this piece from Princess Mononoke:

Not only is it beautiful, it’s appropriately creepy as well.  The composer, Joe Hisaishi, also makes good use of silences (e.g. fight sequences).  I love his use of piano, a somewhat underused instrument in movie soundtracks, I think.

I am always impressed that, when most studios are moving to CGI Hayao Miyazaki still hand draws his films (of course, with a team of animators, but the lack of CGI!).  And I must say, although I enjoyed Wall-E, I do miss traditional animation.  Animation which, in Miyazaki’s films, are detailed and a pleasure to look at, such as this image from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

The portrayal of female characters is no less excellent.  Often the hero of the film, they tend to be independent, confident (or become so along the way) young women who, through their own abilities, reach a happy conclusion.  Nausicaa (in the picture above) is such a one.  Although she does have a love interest, he’s a secondary character who has very little bearing on her ultimate fate.

The female main characters also tend to collect an odd assortment of non-human friends along the way, such as: a giant baby that has since been magicked into a mouse, an animate scarecrow (no talking, but does a lot of hopping) and a monster called No Face.

Chihiro (Spirited Away) and her odd friends: three bouncing heads turned into a fly, a giant baby who is now a mouse, and No Face.

There are a billion other little quirks which set Mr. Miyazaki’s movies apart.  Environmentalist themes for one.  From the blatently obvious Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, to the more subtle (i.e., not a central plot point) Spirited Away.  Miyazaki has been exploring man’s relationship with nature before it was really a huge world worry.

I have to mention The Cute as well.  Mei and the Totoros in My Neighbour Totoro, the soot-balls in Spirited Away, Ponyo’s cry of ‘HAAAAAAM!’ whenever that delicious meat is served, they are all amazingly adorable.

But perhaps, despite all this some might worry that the plots might be a little too weird, that they lack the cultural understanding to really love the movies.  I mean just what are Kodamas?

#1: Kodamas are adorable, #2: They appear in Princess Mononoke

I agree, at first these movies do seem a little odd.  I didn’t watch Spirited Away at first because the plot sounded too strange, and I like anime.  Yet, that doesn’t seem to matter.  Perhaps because the translations make allowances for a Western Audience (side note: the dubs for Miyazaki movies are all excellent.  Definitely not your usual tragically-abridged-plus-annoying-voices fare), or perhaps because the core stories tend to be so universal, the lack of cultural understanding doesn’t seem to matter.  In fact I like that the environment is so radically different than anything I’m used to.  It’s much more interesting

Take Howl’s Moving Castle.  As you may know, it was first a book by Diana Wynne Jones (and an excellent one at that).  The book and movie differ substantially, and it’s neither suffers for it.  I find that, after I read a book so many times, it loses a bit of its charm.  I still love it, but I don’t enjoy reading it quite so much as I used to even if it is a favourite.  The difference between the two was thus refreshing, as it is probably the closest I’ll ever get to experiencing the same story twice for the first time.

Above all, I love the general feel of these movies.  Although there is a good deal of action in most of them, the pacing is fairly slow.  Often, there may be a fair bit going on and then you find yourself watching the characters ride a train, looking at the water, and doing nothing really.  The whole movie Whisper of the Heart is entirely these sorts of scenes with little action (no surprise, since it is slice of life genre).  By movie standards, not much happens.  This translates into movies which are just so peaceful.  I am often not on the edge of my seat, and it’s rather lovely.

I’ll leave you with a list of his movies (which I’ve seen, which is most of them), sort of in order of preference, but to be honest this list would probably be ordered differently had I made it yesterday, the day before and yet again the month before:

• Princess Mononoke (English script written by Neil Gaiman, so you know it’s good)
• Spirited Away (a bit of a deeper story than it first appears *link*)
• Ponyo
• The Cat Returns (Ok, so not actually a Hayao Miyazaki movie, but still Studio Ghibli)
• Howl’s Moving Castle
• My Neighbour Totoro (possibly a deeper story than you may think.  Warning: clicking the following link will forever change your view of this movie.  It will no longer be simply cute and joyful, but slightly horrifying and disturbing as well *link*)
• Whisper of the Heart
• Porco Rosso
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• Laputa: Castle in the Sky

These are a few of my favourite books

I am deliberately not fulfilling the purpose of this essay.  If you’ve read my second essay, you’ll know I had a not so positive experience with liking, or rather definitely not liking, certain ‘classics.’  As such I find myself a tad unwilling to suggest that everyone should read a book based on my own, highly subjective, opinion.  Luckily, the description of the topic indicates that I can instead write about books I “can’t stop talking about.”

With that in mind I went to my bookshelf and chose some books which I have read and re-read countless times.  They aren’t so much deep or sophisticated books so much as books that I devoured the first time, went back to for seconds, then thirds, and casually nibble at when I’m bored.

Quick note: The Harry Potter books, Lord of the Rings and Terry Pratchett’s Books all deserve to be here.  I excluded these because I figured you’d already know enough about the first two, and I find it very difficult to choose just one of Terry Pratchett’s books.

Reader Beware: [very minor] spoilers ahead.  There will be further warnings.

Title: Flipped
Author: Wendelin Van Draanen
Age I was when I first read it: 13

At first glance, the plot of this book is underwhelming.  Bryce and Juli meet at the age of seven when he moves into her neighbourhood.  For her, it’s the start of a years-long crush, for him it’s the beginning of “six years of strategic avoidance and social discomfort.”

What I really love about this story is the way it’s told.  It’s literally a he said/she said book; events are related first by Bryce and then re-told by Juli.  As expected, they often interpret events in completely different ways.  What makes this book work so well is Juli and Bryce.  They are relatable, sympathetic, and perhaps most importantly, are voiced realistically and distinct from one another.  It’s an elegant demonstration of how one can completely misinterpret someone’s actions and character despite ‘knowing’ them.  Hence the title of the book: as Bryce begins to realize that Juli might actually be pretty cool, she starts to wonder whether his pretty boy face hides a rotten interior.

To this day, this book has one of my favourite endings ever, both in plot and actual writing.  I won’t spoil it though, so go read it if you want to know!

Title: Airborn Trilogy (Airborn, Skybreaker, Starclimber)
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Age I first read it: 14

Pirates! Airships! Romance that Defies Class Distinctions!  Need I say more?  Ok, I will.  Space Travel! Lost Treasure! Being Stranded on an Uninhabited Island!

These books are set in some Victorian-esque period but with differences (hello, steampunk).  In this world there exists the mango-scented element Hydrium, which has all the lift of hydrogen and none of the explosiveness.  This convenient property allows balloon airships to dominate the skies.  The heroine of the books, Kate de Vries, is rich, pretty, intelligent, and extremely stubborn.  In short: a believable and likable character.  But it’s really the hero and narrator, Matt Cruse, that steals the show.  In Airborn, he is the youngest crew member and cabin boy of the airship Aurora.  He’s honest, hard-working, quick-thinking and a wee bit prone to jealousy.  To be honest I like him so much I kind of wish he were real.  So I could date him.  Possibly marry him.  And maybe even have his babies.  That sort of thing.  Alas, it is not to be, for he lives in the fictional world and I in this thing called reality.  (Jasper Fforde, this is where you come in!)

Action-y books such as these work best when the writing doesn’t get in the way of the action.  That is generally the case with Kenneth Oppel, but when you do notice the writing, it’s because it’s really good.  Especially the endings.  The man knows how to end a book.  If his books were a present, and the final words a ribbon, that package would sport a very fine bow, a very fine bow indeed.

Title: Howl’s Moving Castle
Author: Diana Wynne Jones (RIP)
Age I first read it: not sure…high school sometime…maybe 15?

This book is the only book I have ever read that I wanted to read all over again immediately after I finished it.  But I didn’t.  I waited as long as I could so that the book could retain that first-read charm for as long as possible.  I lasted a month.

There are two things I love most about DWJ books: the characters and the magic.  Magic in her books is not of the Harry Potter wand and spell variety.  It’s a little of the symbols and incantations type, but mostly its just unpredictable and a bit incomprehensible.  It’s not consistent from person to person or book to book, and she rarely bothers to totally explain it. (In her book Fire and Hemlock I still don’t understand the ending.  I’m pretty sure it was a happy ending, but as to how they got there…Interestingly enough, this has no bearing on my enjoyment of the book: it was excellent and I plan to read it again someday).  *minor spoiler (the text is white, so highlight if you want to read it)* For instance, Sophie’s magical ability in this book is channeled through verbal encouragement.  Only Sophie’s brand of encouragement isn’t gentle, it’s more abrupt and forceful.  It’s kind of like good-natured bullying, if that makes any sense. *spoiler over*

Which brings us to Sophie.  The story starts rolling when she accidentally offends the Witch of the Waste, who then turns Sophie into a 90-year-old woman.  As a young woman Sophie is timid and shy.  As an old woman she’s cranky, opinionated, stubborn and just generally awesome.  A perfect match to Howl, who is irresponsible, lazy, immature and a wuss.  Add to that a sarcastic fire demon, parallel worlds, and castle that actually does move, and you’ve got a recipe for a delightful book.

And that’s it.  I probably could have written much, much more about each of these books.  But I won’t.  Read them yourself!  Or, you know, don’t.  Whatever strikes your fancy, floats your boat etc.

NB: I’ve noticed in the past few months that I rarely use similes or metaphors in my writing.  If you feel there is an excess of imagery in this post, it is because I am experimenting with them at the moment.

“Eustace Clarence Scrubb, or as we like to call him: Useless Clarence Scrubb”

I used to think I was the only one who did this.

I almost always smell a book before reading it.  Old books, new books, shiny-paged books: you can tell them apart by their scent.  Really old books contain more than just that familiar old book smell though; the fungi that grow on such books are likely a source of hallucinogens.  So crazy old academics?  Maybe they’ve just spent a little too much time in the library.

I’m not entirely sure where I first heard the above (the link is just from a quick google search to make sure I hadn’t made the fact up).  When I first began thinking about writing this essay, I realized I wasn’t sure exactly what I would define as ‘useless’ knowledge.  Isn’t all knowledge valuable in some way?  Isn’t it always useful?  After all, the fact above is interesting and affords me some sense of pleasure in knowing and relating the information.  This is still a use, if not a particularly great one.  Therein lies the key to my dilemma.

According to certain youtube sources one can define knowledge as either informational or educational.  The former is a collection of facts that may give you an understanding of a very small aspect of some broader subject.  While it would take a lifetime and more to understand any subject completely, educational – or ‘useful’ – knowledge provides the context for that information such that one can comprehend a the subject complexly.  Maybe this is obvious to you, but at first it wasn’t to me.

For instance, my recent obsession with Korean dramas means that I know (roughly) how to say ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I love you’ in Korean, but lacking an understanding of pronunciation, grammar or any other vocabulary I can’t actually use that knowledge to speak to a Korean.  It’s useless in a real-world setting.

Korean dramas fulfill my desire for cheesy romance founded on extremely unlikely yet hilarious (and sometimes, ok pretty much always, really angsty) plotlines.

As I said before, useless knowledge often offers hints to the whole.  I know that the word ‘evil’ used to mean ‘uppity’ and ‘nice’ meant ‘mean’.  If I knew nothing else about historical linguistics, I would understand from this fact that language changes over time.  I wouldn’t understand how it changes, why it changes, or why this is significant, but perhaps simply being interested in this fact would prompt me to seek out its background.  Even if it doesn’t, I know more about language than I did before.

I was in Tech I this past semester.  I loved it.  Especially the Newton project.  A lot of the things I learned about Newton during the project would be categorized as useless knowledge.  It’s not really important to know that he and Hooke disliked each other, or that he was not very nice to Leibnitz.  But Newton seems less like a historical figure and more like an actual person to me now.  Consequently, his discoveries and work hold more interest (for me).

I think the danger of informational knowledge is that you may begin to think you understand something totally when you really only know a very little bit about that subject.  The internet is rife with examples of such people.  And, in writing this essay, I think I’m beginning understand the idea that the more you know the less you actually know…maybe.

NB: The name of this post is a quotation from some children I know.  It has to do with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  It doesn’t totally make sense for this post, but I don’t really care.

I understand everything.

I don’t know if I really understand this topic better than others, but I think that I find it more interesting than some people.  I certainly do it more than a lot of people.  And really, I understand this particular essay as an opportunity to write about something I’ve often thought about and, yes, have written essays about in my head when I’ve been bored.

This year I probably baked more bread than I bought.  Although I was already somewhat experienced in bread-baking, I didn’t really start to love it until this year.  I found I did some of my best thinking while kneading a loaf of bread.  But the best part by far is the science behind it.  I’m more of an artsy Arts and Science student, so my understanding isn’t really that technical; even though I know the basic idea behind what’s happening, it still always seems a little bit like magic.

While the bread rises, the yeast feeds on the sugars in the dough and releases carbon dioxide as waste.  By kneading the dough, one develops the glutens; which is to say that the protein structure of the bread is altered.  The proteins join together and lengthen the dough, creating an elastic dough which expands to contain the carbon dioxide rather than allowing it escape.  Thus bread is made of yeast-burps (or farts, and I can’t believe I was brave enough to ‘publish’ that).

To get to that point, there is some voodoo involved.  Rarely do recipes give an exact flour amount, rather they give a range of something like 3-4 cups (for a single-loaf recipe).  Cup measurements are often eschewed in the professional baking world, since weight measurements are more consistently the same.  Thus three cups may be enough one day, and another day four may be necessary.  Temperature and humidity can also affect the amount of flour needed.  Other inexact terminology such as ‘lukewarm water’ may be used, but now recipes will often provide a temperature.  I think 110 degrees F is appropriate although I don’t know for sure, I usually feel it with my index finger.

Rising time of the dough is less dependent on the baker, and more on the ingredients and atmosphere.  Heat and sugar encourage yeast growth, while salt and fat inhibit rising.  The more intense bread bakers say that slow-rise breads are superior to quick rise.  Slow risen-breads are often made using a colder temperature at rise, and/or a pre-ferment such as a poolish.  Depending on your preference, forcing the yeast to work at a slower pace either changes or enhances the flavour of the final product.  Think sourdough: a classic pre-ferment which has a distinctly different flavour from other breads.  Myself, I like to make slow rise breads for the challenge, but I’m not always patient enough to commit to the multiple-day process.

Earlier this year, I attempted to bake sourdough bread for the second time in my life.  The first wasn’t a total failure, nor a complete success.  Still, of all the breads that I have made, sourdough is probably the coolest.  Essentially a starter of flour and water is used to catch wild yeast in the air.  For about a week one feeds the starter more flour and water so the yeast colony grows large enough to be made into bread.  It’s like having a pet.  It’s also like growing bacteria in petrie dishes.  Something my 9-year-old self found very intriguing.  The most fascinating thing about this process is that in different regions of the world there are different kinds of wild yeast living in the air.  This means that depending on where the starter is made, the taste will vary accordingly.  So San Francisco sourdough is really only the true thing if it was made in San Francisco.

I could go on and on about the different types of bread and methods of making it, and the pros and cons of each.  But I won’t.  I will say (write?) that despite its imprecise ingredient list, bread is not that difficult to make successfully.  Certainly, beginners should start simple, such as with this recipe from Betty Crocker, but most new skill sets must be learnt from the bottom up.  And in this case, I have to say the reward of fresh, warm bread from the oven really outweighs any hard work or failure along the way.

Essay the Second

I had a difficult time thinking of a topic.  There are plenty of things I don’t understand and am not smart enough to understand, but I either didn’t want to write an essay on that topic, or in writing about it I lost the desire to finish the essay.  The only topic I actually liked all the way to the end is more of a something-I-used-to-not-understand-but-during-the-past-year-began-to-understand sort of topic.  So that’s what this is about, something I used to not understand, and didn’t want to understand, but am now beginning to appreciate.

I don’t read as much as I used to.  I wish I did, but TV all too often pulls me away from books.  When I do read, I tend to gravitate toward the Young Adult genre.  I also read children’s fiction, some non-fiction (Bill Bryson’s non-travel books, travel books, food-related travel books) and the occasional adult novel.  Notably missing from my list of favourite genres are classics*.

When I was about 12, I decided I should begin reading Literature**.  I was smart in comparison to my classmates, and as such felt I had to live up to that image.  I began with Oliver Twist, because in my mind Dickens was THE classic author.  It took me the whole summer to read the book and I hated every minute of it, but I persevered and finished the book.  The same thing happened again and again whether I read the book for ‘pleasure’ or for school.

I often thought that critical evaluation of novels was extremely pretentious.  Half the meaning gleaned from the works was, in my opinion, complete nonsense since it seemed to go way beyond the author’s intent.  Until this past year.  It was Lit that changed my mind.  Through the lectures and writing the essays, I found that critical evaluation of Literature is valuable, even if the interpretation of the reader is not exactly what the author intended.  Because I’m being lazy, watch this excellent video, since its exactly what I planned to say.

This is not to say that I’ve suddenly discovered that I like classics.  Sure there are a few that I do like, but I still find them generally boring to read.  I’m slightly ashamed to admit it, but I’d sooner read Twilight than, say, Great Expectations.  The book may be awful, but it’s still entertaining, if only for its ridiculousness (I will never get over the fact that the vampires sparkle.  Really Stephanie Meyer?  Really?!).  What is different is that I now understand the value of critical reading. Since this is a method I have more often found applied to the study of classics than other genres, it means I have also also found meaning in reading classics.  I guess all that’s left to say is: well played Browning, well played.

*A broad category, I guess, but you know what I mean right?
**For those that aren’t Terry Pratchett fans, I’m talking about sophisticated novels that instantly confer 100 smarty-pants points on anybody who reads them.

Who I am: Awesome McAwesomePants

Yeah, that’s right.  I think I’m awesome.  Actually, no.  This essay was difficult to write precisely because I don’t think I’m that great (at least, I don’t think I’m particularly great at writing or singing, but I do like to think I’m intelligent, in an average sort of way).  Luckily, I woke up with some sort of gastrointestinal bug yesterday, so I had a perfect reason to procrastinate even more on writing this thing.  But I’ve finally finished it, because I said I’d write all of these essays.

When I think about who I am, or who any person is, I think of personality.  Specifically personality tests.  I like personality tests.  The most sophisticated personality test (holy repeated phrase Batman!) I ever took was the Myers-Briggs.  For those who don’t know, the Myers-Briggs is as serious as personality tests get.  In order to have an ‘accurate’ solution, it has to be administered and marked by a trained individual.  Your personality designation is a set of four letters, each of which is one of two possibilities for a total of 16 possible personality types.  I’m sorry if that description confused you, wikipedia can explain it more fully.

What am I? INTJ, which in its long form is: introverted, intuitive, thinking and judging. I’m not going to describe the meaning of each aspect in detail, but broadly INTJs are big picture thinkers – planners – for whom logic is much more important than emotions in decision-making.  They live inside their heads.  They are also fairly confident in their personal abilities, yet fully aware of where their limits lie.  INTJs often seem reserved and aloof to others because they are very private people.  Hence why writing this essay is such a painful exercise for me.

Mr. Darcy: likely an INTJ as well.

This description of me is fairly accurate.  But here’s the thing: personality tests really only measure how a person will act in a certain situation.  Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article on this once, where he essentially said that personality is fluid.  Our personalities change with our surroundings and are influenced by whom (who?) we are interacting with.  Gladwell quotes one psychologist, Timothy D. Wilson, who explains this difficulty as a disconnect between our concept of self and our unconscious self.  The unconscious aspect of personality is laid down in childhood by genetics and setting (good ol’ nature and nurture), and makes itself known in snap decisions, while calculated behaviours are a manifestation of our concept of self.  So the description of an INTJ only tells you how I understand myself.

While my concept of self may tell you a lot about who I am, it won’t allow you to confidently predict my actions.  Tests like the Myers-Briggs assume that people are one-dimensional, that they are either one thing or another.  But this is obviously not true.  I am categorized as a judging personality because I like to plan my day/month and derive a sense of comfort from that.  But I am partially a perceiver as well, because I like to delay decisions and leave my options open (which is totally my reasoning behind choosing artsci).  Perhaps on the day of the test I was in more of a judging mood, or perhaps I’ve changed since then.  All I know is, no one can be defined so simply.

I often find incorrect results more interesting than correct results.  They are hilarious, fascinating and sometimes downright puzzling.  What would you think of me if the only things you knew were that my best celebrity matches were David Schwimmer, Topher Grace and David Hasselhoff?  Add to that the knowledge that the movie I am best suited to be in is apparently Fight Club and you get an interesting, but likely inaccurate, idea of who I am.

My soulmate?

So I guess my answer to the question who am I? is that it depends.  If you keep reading my essays, you’ll get to know my blog self.  Since I’ve never had a blog before, I suppose I’ll be getting to know my blog self as well.  A self who apparently has much difficulty ending essays, so just pretend I wrote something witty and insightful to wrap this thing up.

Hello world!

Or rather, hello to the two of you that are reading this.  So this blog is part of the Essay-a-Week challenge which you can learn more about from A Bookful Blockhead.  This is, for me at least, a way to keep myself occupied over the summer.  I can’t promise amazing stuff, although I do promise to complete each essay.  After this is over I may do something else with this blog, but we’ll see.  Until then, if you are for some reason interested in what I’m writing (or others, links to their blogs on the right)…good for you I guess?

And yes, for all you observant people out there, I do double space after the period.  It’s a habit I’m too lazy to break.