Nothing Last Forever: Conections

A text to text conection I can make for the book is I can compare it to the book First Blood by David Morrele. The main conection is that in the book First Blood, the main charecter John Rambo is a vietnam vet on his way home when he stops in a small town and the sherrif pushes him to far and he goes on a one man war. Now that I explained First Blood the conection is  they are both in the wrong place at the wrong time and they end up becoming a one man army, becuase Rambo has to fight the military and the police while Joe Leland the main charecter in Nothing Last Forever has to fight gun toting terrorist that take over a building that he happens to be in so he also has to become a one man army like Rambo in First Blood. Another connection I can make is to the book 58 Minutes and based on a plot summary it is about this guy who is also a cop is trapped in an airport that terrorist take over and his daughter is on one of the planes that has to land at the airport, so this connect in the fact that it is the same story but in an air port and in fact is the basis for the sequel to Die Hard witch is what they turned Nothing Last Forever into.


A text to self conection I can make is that in the book Joe Leeland is portayed and not wantig to get into a fight but can when thrown into the situation were he has to rescue his family. This connects to me because I am very reluctant to get into any sort of fight until someone messes with my firends or family because otherwise I am pretty non violent and I don't go looking to start a fight but sometimes things just happen, that I just get thrown into because I care for my frineds and family and don't like when they get hurt mentally or physically. Another conection I can make is that in the book Joe is antisocial while he is at the party and doesn't really talk to anyone but his daughter. The connection is that in reall life I am very shy and I really meet most of my friends becuase they are friends with someone else I know so I don't go out and go to parties to meet new people at all so I consider myself antisocial, and also I don't really talk to peole unless I know them.

Nothing Last Forever: Comparing the book to the movie Die Hard 1

The book Nothing Last Forever was written by Roderick Thorp and it was given good reviews by critics as  a follow up the novel The Detective, and after a while the 80's action movie was getting popular. Well the reason I put emphasis on that is that the writer of the movie intended this to be a sequel to the movie Commando but the star Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't interested in the project so it was rewritten to be more like the book and to be an original film. They change the main characters name from Joe Leland to John Mclane, and the villains are now robbers instead of terrorist as to make them less darker. They also change the name of the company from Klaxon to Nakatomi and it is a more straight forward action movie were as the book is more of a thriller and also a lot of the details and the time period are changed to match the time. The two are relatively close with almost all the action sequences staying the same, and a lot of the terrorist die in the same way in each and a few are extended upon in the movie. The big difference besides his name in the main protagonist is that Joe is a world war 2 veteran and John is a young cop who is more loose cannon and it also forgets the movie they the made the Detective into but they are connected technically so they are as of writing 6 Die Hard movies but most people forget the Detective.

Also the movie is a little more comedic as John Mclane cracks jokes at the antagonist throughout all the story but in the book it is a lot more serious as the stakes are higher because Joe can't do all the acrobatics that John does so it makes it more tense in a gun fight were Joe does get and isn't invincible as John is portrayed as. Also they are both rescuing different people were John rescues his wife and Joe is rescuing his Daughter so they change that aspect of the book, and to close I think the book is a little more realistic but there are still some goofy moments for a 56 year old to be doing and in the movie it does make more sense to make him younger because Frank Sinatra played him in the Detective and when they were casting this movie he was about 90 so he couldn't do the part but it said in the contract for the Detective that he had to be offered the sequel if it ever got made so I think it is smart to make him younger so I do think the changes they made were very necessary     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fahrenheit 451: Symbols that represent chareters

The symbol that best represent the main charecter Montag is a book, the main reason being that the whole story arch of his charecter so far is his job is to burn books and also he hides books becuase he wants to learn from them, and think differently then the other people he knows. The symbol that best represents his wife Mildred is an insane asylum because she is off her rocker when it comes to just accepting things as the norm and trying to commit suicide and not even remembering it, and that she thiinks a virtual family can replace a realone and that all the things she lives with are considered normal. The symbol that represents Captain Beatty is a firefighters hat because he himself is the captain of the firemen and he also enjoys starting the fires very much and takes his job very serious and thinks that this is the way things should be with burning books. The symbol that represents Claurice would be a peace sign because she is free spirited and almost hippy like with the way she acts compared to society. She also is different on the level that she doesn't like what normal is in the society they live in so she is quite rebellious in the eyes of most people in the society. A symbol that can represent most of the other charecters is a brainless zombie because everyoone in this society act as if the stuff they do is normal when really they act more like people getting from point A to point B without ever saying a word or even really having their own opinion on any thing. Because they don't question anything, and then Montag meets Claurice and he starts to question why he burns the books and why society is the way it is.

Nothing Last Forever: The best thing about my book

The best thing about my book so far is the amount of character development that the author includes. To go into detail the main character Joe Leland is the archetypal war hero that is called into action one last time. But the way he is described is much deeper and how his emotions are depicted in the random event he gets thrown into when terrorist take over a building. As far as I have read the character is tragic as a divorced, father, and an ex cop, that is trying to rekindle his relationship with his daughter who he is visiting for Christmas. He is also depicted as the rough and tough grizzled veteran that is at the end of his road, and he just wants to unwind and spend time with his family but is all shattered when the terrorist raid the building. Then on the opposite end of the spectrum we have the villains. The terrorist leader is Anton Gruber and he is a German radical terrorist who is described as dark and villainess, but they also add a sympathetic level when you here that the company he is taking over just made a shady business deal that could put a whole unspecified Asian country in hot water. They also talk about how the characters dark and does kill people and you do lose any form of remorse for this guy when he is ruthlessly killing people left and right just to prove a point and they don't give him any other reason except that they made a shady business deal, so they also make him sound dumb from Joes point of view when really in the grand scheme of things he is smart enough to know how to take over a building without the police knowing until a body is thrown out of a window onto a police car. To get off that point the character development is the one thing that stands out the most because without the steps the author takes to make Joe a likeable character that you make him more easy to care for when he has to try and rescue his daughter and the rest of the hostages, and you know how that he might not make it out alive and you root for him the hole the way through. They also talk about how the author makes you dislike the terrorist so much that when they go down you cheer and when they get someone you feel bad, and it gives you the get them feeling. 

Nothing Last Forever: Setting

The main setting of Nothing Last Forever is the 40-story office headquarters of the Klaxon Oil Corporation in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. It is met to take place in the 1979 when the book was written and they describe LA as being pristine, clean, and a big place that is full of skum, and they talk about how the city is from the view of tourist in a first person view from the eyes of the main charecter Joe Leland who is there visiting his daughter at the Klazon Oil Corporation were she works at. Then the building is described as being a tall high rise building that is closterphobic because it is unfinished at the moment the book takes place so there are alot of construction cooridoors and equipment liying around that Joe and the Terrorist that take over the building have to navigate. Also in the building there are these vents that Joe Leland has to navigate that are given the feeling of being very dark cold and hard to move through due to their size. There is also the roof of the building that is described as being dark and dangerous as they are many obstacles on it and is the set peice for the first main action sequence between Leland and the Terrorist as they fight with very little cover on the roof so Leland does get a couple scratches and nicks but nothing seroiuos yet. Also you have the parking lot outside were the only cop on the outside that knows what is going on is sitting there under a street lamp in the dead od night on Christmas Eve. There is another thing about the setting and that is the time frame, all the events of the book take place on Christmas Eve and into really early Christmas morning as described in a prologue and even though it is December it is described as being very hot and humid due to the fact that it is Los Angeles and it is never that cold there. Also based just on the cover it looks like the the building is one fire so now Joe has to run through and fight terrorist in a burning building that is also an oil company so it adds a little more stress that parts of the building are on fire and that he also walks around in bare feet so that also adds the element because there is a bunch of broken glass around the building. So overall the setting I gathered from the cover of the book and the first 35 pages is that it will contribute alot to the story becasue Joe is all alone up there.

Final Blogger Reflection

Click here to read my best blog post.

The reason I think my charecters blog post is the best is because it was the one that I think met the rubric requirments the most. To start off with I showed how the main charecter Doctor Frankenstein and the monster developed over the story by talking about things like "The characters of this book are developed in a tragic manner with our two main characters being the misunderstood monster and the semi insane doctor." Then I talked about how each of the two charecters are depicted through out the story as there was really no villain or hero and this was explained by saying "The way the monster is characterized is through the description of his look, being made up of a lot of different people's body parts and then being reanimated and treated as a scary mindless being with no feelings" and also "Then we have Dr. Victor Frankenstein a who is characterized as the guy that got what he worked his whole life for but when he gets it, he ends up not liking it, and in fact comes back to haunt you. Also almost everything in this guy's life goes wrong with the death of his mother at an early age to when his own creation the monster kills his brother and then he goes into a rage state were he doesn't care if he lives or dies ". I also pose the question to people that talks about the charecters in the story and also a little bit of the theme and that is " It brings up the question of who's more powerful the creator or the creation. and I didn't really give a definitive answer to the question because there isn't one and it is really more of an opinion question that you have to form on your own and see for your self, but I personally think that in just the case of the book that the creation is more powerful becasue he influences all of the doctors life once he is created. Overall the charecters post was the one that I think I also put the most though into because it is one of the major theme of the book Frankenstein is centered around is there a bad guy and is there good guy or is jsut humans misunderstanding a monster.

Some goals I have for my self next trimester is to one read more books and that is because over the course of one trimester I only read one book but that was because one I am kind of a slow reader and two the book I was gonna read didn't come till November. Another goal I have in readiing is to read a non fiction book because I haven't read one in a long time and I think it would be interesting to read something that isn't all made up and in a fantasy land of sorts. My goal in writing is to one one finsh the horror anthology screenplay I have been working on since July because I just started working on the second story and would like to start actually filming it by the end of the school year. Another goal I have for writing is to write something else that isn't horror because most of the stories that I write are about horror and I think it would be fun to something like science fiction or comedy becasue I have only written one comedy and it was really fun to write and I haven't ever wrote anything that you can call science fiction unless you count this horor story that I started but never really finshed. Some improvements I could make are to read and write a bit more because normally I only sit down to read when I have spare time and I only write for maybe an hour a week or so depending on my schedule so I would like to improve on doing more of those things. Also I want to start to read faster then I do now becuase at the moment I am slow reading on anything except comics and those are mostly pictures anyway.

Nothing Last Forever: Links and Displays

To explain why there is a  trailer below for Die Hard is that Die Hard is the film adaption of the book Nothing Last Forever and , and the books precursor The Detective was also made into a movie, but had nothing to do with Die Hard in any way at all so they are separate series, in my eyes. There are also posters for the covers of each and I like the movie version better poster wise because it tells just enough without a lot of detail. Here is an article by the New York Daily News that talks about how the book was just rereleased and that the movie and book have a lot of differences, so click this to view this article. Article 1. The Picture of the man is a picture of the books author Roderick Thorp who stated that his inspiration for the book was that he fell asleep watching The Towering Inferno, and then imagined a guy being chased by terrorist through building. The Second article is from Hollywood Reporter talking about how the book is getting reprinted after 20 years, and that there are also some similarities between the 2. Article 2

Frankenstein: I Frankenstein trailer reaction

First off the trailer is below if you want to see it for yourself and make your own opinion. The first thing I want to say is that it looks almost like a semi sequel to the book, like if the monster decided not to kill itself and it's a what if situation. The monster looks more close to how it is described in the book and it seems they are building on the mythology of the Frankenstein universe, and they seem to have an army of Frankenstein's. It also seems they are adding different types of monsters into the story for the monster to fight. This version also takes place in modern day so you have that aspect to add to it that could be kind of cool, with car's and modern weapons for the characters to use. One complaint I can point out right away though is that and this is nitpicky but they are calling the monster Frankenstein, and that isn't the monsters name, it is just the monster nothing else. Also I think they might have humanized the monster a little too much for my taste, and it makes him less scary in my opinion. So I think the trailer looks interesting and I will definitely go and see the movie if not for the fact that it is the unofficial sequel to the book, I also question how they are going to explain how the monster didn't freeze to death on an ice raft. So yeah the trailer is below and no the movie isn't fake like I thought it was when I first saw this trailer because I think it kind of looks like it is in the same vain of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, were it takes itself a little to serious, when at the end of the day  it is Frankenstein in modern days that's also an unofficial sequel to the book, so yeah that's my opinion on the trailer now let's hear your in the comments below.

Frankenstein: Theme and Summary

The theme of the story Frankenstein is that the pursuit of new knowledge isn't always he best idea all the time. This is prevalent through the story because at the beginning he waste half his life trying to find a way to bring a corpse back to life and he regrets that later on when he realizes he is alone and should go and find a wife. Then when he finally creates the monster he is excited at first but then grows scared of it when it starts destroying his lab, so he regrets making the monster then when his friend shows up he thinks that he is ill when he sees him, and this is when he starts to think that making this thing was a bad idea. This theme is really shown when the monster escapes and kills his the doctors brother, and he then wants to kill the monster, but at the same time protect his wife. Everything then comes to a boiling point when the monster kills his wife and the doctor wishes he could have killed the monster when had the chance but didn't. This changes him because he goes from being the guy that has hope and is always seeing the good in things to a dark former shadow of himself regretting ever even bringing this thing to life, as his only goal in life now live or die is to kill the thing, and exact revenge against the monster for killing all the people, but then kind of realizes that if he dies then the monster has no reason to carry on either as he wants revenge too, so he decides that it is his time and dies in his sleep causing the monster to commit suicide. So in the end the pursuit of knowledge ended in tragedy on all ends as everyone dies at the end, and there is no happy ending, to this story just it ended. A summary of the story is that Dr. Victor Frankenstein from a young age was fascinated with science and after a series of sad events happens he ends up becoming a scientific doctor and reads books and does research on the science of corpse reanimation. Then he is able to bring the monster to life, but he afraid of what the thing can do so he locks it up in a room were the monster eventually escapes. Fast forward a bit and the doctor has found his brother was murdered by some unknown being and he knows it's the monster so he kind of goes on the hunt till the monster confronts him and ask him to make a bride for him but after the doctor realizes that he could have whole army, he stops and destroys causing the monster to kill all the people he cares for. Then this leads him to tracking down the monster in the north pole and dyeing before he could stop it , and the monster floats a way on an ice raft killing him self.
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Frankenstein: Book Vs. Movie Setting

The setting of the book and movie are both in Europe and that is were the similarities pretty much end because everything else is changed. The setting for the movie is in the eastern European country village full of villagers that seem completely oblivious to what is going on with the murders till the end with their angry mob tactic of burning the monster in a windmill. Then there is the location of the lab, in the movie the lab is located in a castle that evokes a real eerie gothic horror setting, that makes the doctor look like he has more rescores then a normal person. Also it make s the reanimation of the monster more animated with lightning and screaming along with all of the chains and coils, that add a science fiction element to the story. Along with the setting of the ending changing from the north pole to a windmill, were the monster is destroyed at the end, but in the movie the doctor lives. Then we have the book witch ditches the village for  city like setting, were the villagers don't ever acknowledge the monster even existing. Also the lab is moved from the gothic castle to the apartment that the doctor is living in, and the reanimation sequence is barley described as he doesn't have all the electrical stuff he had in the movie. Also the prologue and epilogue witch aren't in the movie so there is no North Pole is included, and it makes the monster's death more powerful if it is a direct result of the doctors death were as in the movie the doctor is thrown from the windmill and lives though. The setting I prefer is the movie's because I think the whole gothic horror thing they do in the movie is a lot more scarier, and when the monster is getting reanimated, I think it was done better with the more animated feeling with all the technology and lightning going off as the doctor is screaming and laughing, and the wind mill scene makes you more sympathetic as the monster is chased up the mountain to the windmill were he makes his final stand throwing the doctor off, as the monster burns to death.

Frankenstein: Tone and Mood



The tone of the book Frankenstein is mostly a tragic tone because through out the book our main characters have sad experiences.  For an example we have our main protagonist Dr. Frankenstein, who has a lot of people he cares for die because he let his monster escape. My evidence to back this up is when the doctors bride is murdered on the night of their wedding, here is the quote to back it up. "I escaped from them to the room where lay the body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so worthy". (Shelly 242) This shows that he feels a sadness for the death of his wife, and that the one person he tries to protect is killed leaving him no will to live. The mood of the book Frankenstein is a dark mood, because it has a gothic horror feeling. To add to that there a lot of scares and death here, with the fact that just about all the main characters die and the monster goes on a killing spree before he dies. Here is quote to support this," My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine. " (Shelly 256).  This shows the doctors anguish over what he has done and what he has created with the monster that he created when all his loved ones end up dead or severely injured. So overall the tone and mood come together and form the gothic horror tragedy that the book comes out to be in the end, but to tell the truth this books scares don't age well at all so don't look to be running out of the room screaming when you read this book, but it is scary enough that I wouldn't read it to some little kid who is like 5, maybe just the movie for him or Groovy Goolies the cartoon.

 

Frankenstein: Analysis

What the book Frankenstein says is that who should be more powerful the creation or the creator, and that is the message of the story and that is the main conflict too. The reason being that the doctor is deciding weather or not he wants to allow his creation to live, but as a murderer, and an outcast from society, or kill his creation, that has tried to kill him and killed alot of other people that he cares about. The decision is eventually made for the doctor when everyone he really cares for is killed by the monster leading him to beleive that he needs to put the monster down and no one else can do it but him, becuase he knows what it is cappable of. But in the end this message is shown to be true when the doctor dies of a sickness in the North Pole, and when the monster finds the body he cries then floats out on an ice raft to kill himself. In the end I would say in regards to the message that in the case of just this book, I would infer the creator is more powerful because he creates the monster, and is the main cause of the monsters murderous rampage, and the cause of the monsters sadness that leads to the monsters death. My evidence here is that at the end these line can prove my point, “I am malicious because I am miserable. You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?  (Shelley 173) This how s the monster is starting to question why he should care for human when they don't care for him.  The next quote will prove that the monster is more powerful by telling the doctor if I can't have love I will have to cause fear, here is the quote, "The human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear." (Shelley 173). So in the end all of these quotes were said by the monster, and these words are what drive the doctor to hunt the monster down.

Book vs. Movie # 3 the endings, SPOILERS!

The endings I am going to compare are the books ending and the Universal movies endings because they are quite different, with different messages and meanings and even different. The ending I will first touch on is the books witch and again SPOILER, Dr. Victor Frankenstein's wife is murdered, and then the doctor tracks him down, and he ends up at the north pole were our story began as a prologue. When he gets there he tells the sailors that find him the whole story and that is how the book is presented, and then afterwards the monster shows up on the boat but the doctor is dead so the monster gets really sad and then goes off on an ice raft and it is presumed that the monster dies. The message and meaning here to me is that when you get what you want in life it could lead to consequences, your not really wanting and that maybe your better off with what you had before. The movie ends with the Doctor Frankenstein getting captured by the monster and chased by peasants to a wind mill and the doctor is thrown off the wind mill and survives the fall but the windmill is burned down  by the angry mob of villagers, and then the doctor is recovering in his castle as his pregnant wife lay by his side as her father toast to the child. This ending seems to be more happy and gives the story more potential for a sequel and has the message that the monster should be accepted not destroyed based on his looks by the villagers, were as the doctor wanting revenge for the death of his friends and also there are more characters that survive the movie then the book by the end. So for witch one I like better, I would have to say the movie because on the screen I find things more powerful then when it is read on the page in my opinion, but I also do like the books ending with it being more realistic and ending on the sadder note with the more tragic characters.
                                                                                    

Frankenstein, Charecters

The characters of this book are developed in a tragic manner with our two main characters being the misunderstood monster and the semi insane doctor. The way the monster is characterized is through the description of his look, being made up of a lot of different people's body parts and then being reanimated and treated as a scary mindless being with no feelings. But then later on they use the monsters emotions to characterize him when he develops a voice after he escapes and picks it up from the people he crosses paths with. He then goes down an angry path of rage, that leads to him hiding in the north pole and later killing himself after the death of his creator.Then we have Dr. Victor Frankenstein a who is characterized as the guy that got what he worked his whole life for but when he gets it, he ends up not liking it, and in fact comes back to haunt you. Also almost everything in this guy's life goes wrong with the death of his mother at an early age to when his own creation the monster kills his brother and then he goes into a rage state were he doesn't care if he lives or dies as long as he put's a stop to the monster from harming anyone else but in the end the person he was protecting the most his wife is murdered by the monster. This leads to him feeling a loss for any meaning in life, and he almost becomes emotionless in his pursuit of the monster as he tracks it down to the north pole, and is never able to kill his creation but instead is killed and it ends the book on the monster drifting along on an ice raft ready to die, and the book ends with the two main characters being dead along with all their friends and that leaves it on a tragic note, and it  brings up the question of who's more powerful the creator or the creation.

Movie Vs. Book # 2 Sequels

The way I am going to compare the two this time is through the way they dealt with sequels, but I will go into more detail later. The main difference is that in the movie's they divided the book up into two parts, the first Frankenstein movie and Bride Of Frankenstein, were as in the book they are mixed together into the same plot line. Another difference that is big is that the book has had no sequels while the movies moved off the source material for the 3rd movie Son Of Frankenstein, and they were creating their own stories. Also we have to talk about the Hammer horror films which were remakes of the Universal Horror movies, and one of these happened to be Frankenstein but they had to call it Curse of Frankenstein for copyright reason's and this one was the middle of the road were it creates some new things for the movie but also uses some thing's from the book. This movie was then followed by 6 sequels that have no connection to the book in anyway shape or form except that they all have the monster. So when it comes to capitalizing on the original the book was never given a sequel because it really didn't have any potential for a sequel and in the case of the book that is the right way to go because the first book so far is good. The way they are the same is that Bride and the original Frankenstein were all in the first book, and also for Bride they decided to stick a little closer to the second half of the story witch is what Bride of Frankenstein is based off of. So overall I think both sides made the right choice because really the book and all of the movies are two different beast that are good and bad in their own ways. For reference here are photos of the posters for 4 movies, The original Universal Frankenstein and Bride Of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein and Curse Of Frankenstein.

 

Frankenstein: Reading Skills

One of my prediction's for the story is that the monster will kill some of the people close to Victor Frankenstein like his Brother and possibly his girlfriend, could both be future victims of the monster if he doesn't stop the monster in time. Another prediction I am going to make is that Victor is going to do something to make the monster mad and want to hurt him, and his friends. One of the questions I have about the book is will they have a book end like they had for the prologue to show what happens after the events of the story that the doctor tells. Another question I have is why would the doctor bring loved one to see a monster that he doesn't know what it would do if it came in contact with other people, like maybe it would murder some one or if you leave it then isn't there a chance he could escape harm other people. A text to world connection I can make is that in the book, there is a monster with no name and really you could compare that to the big hacking fiasco when Anonymous a faceless a hacker group brought the PlayStation Network to it's knees.  A text to text connection I can make is the monster and Dracula, because both of them are monsters famous in the gothic horror genre, and they both have people hunting them with Van Helsing hunting Dracula and Victor Frankenstein hunting the monster. A text to self connection I can make is to the monster because he is this monster misunderstood by society and was more sympathetic then people gave him for, and a while back in the 6th grade I had bad self esteem issues, and also I got made fun of and beat up a lot in the 6th grade at first then when I see these people in the 7th grade they were like wait I beat you up well sorry, and one of the kid's is even a friend of mine now, because he realized I wasn't that bad to hangout with and even apologized to me.

Frankenstein: The Movie Vs. Book # 1 The monster

In this post I am going to look at the differences between the Universal Frankenstein monster and the monster described in the book so first I am going to talk about the one in the book. The monster in the book is described more man looking with just a face sewn together and all the body parts are sewn together, and it looks a lot more human and realistic, so this is what they describe in the book. The monster in the Universal movie is more zombie like and is more monster looking with the green skin, and flat head, and they sort of made the monster a little less creepy and murderous the and left a lot of things about the monster out. When I compare the two I think they are two different characters but with the Universal one they made it less creepy and a little less smarter but also made the monster more sympathetic that we kind of rooted for him because they made him more sympathetic, and Boris Karloff gives a great performance as the monster and he really added the sadness to the monster . Then I look at the creature in the book, he is more creepier and he actually kills a lot more people then in the movie, and we want the doctor to catch and kill his own creation to stop it from harming anyone else , also he is more realistically described with normal skin all sewn together and the facial features he has. If I had to pick one I would pick Karloff's version of the monster because I like to feel a little sympathy for the character rather then always have him being a vicious killer not to say I don't like the monster in the book, it is a good creepy character that could genuinely creep me out. The images below are from the Universal one and the Movie that stuck really close to the book appearance wise, and is the closest thing I could find.     

Book Recomendation: First Blood By. David Morrele

The book I am going to recommend is the book First Blood, this book happens to be my favorite book I have ever read. The reason being that the book just so masterfully puts you into the shoes of two characters, John Rambo, and Sherriff Tessil. The way this is shown is that for every action Rambo takes, they show how it effects the sheriff and how he responds, and it really makes you question who you should root for, the Vietnam veteran who was pushed to far or the sheriff protecting his sense of pride, and his deputies. It really paints a picture of how there is no real bad guy or good guy but really just two men fighting to survive on both fronts and it is left up to the reader to decide who is the good guy or bad guy. The plot of the book is very simple but it is executed so well that it makes you wish that there were more story, so the book starts out with our main character John Rambo wondering through this town and because he is a Vietnam vet, he is picked on by the sheriff and eventually arrested for no good reason. This then pushes Rambo to the point that he just snaps and starts a one man war, were we switch point of views during every chapter between Rambo and the Sherriff. Midway through the book they call in Rambo's old colonel, Colonel Trautman who helps and try and find him and the rest of the book is a chase thriller. Now this book was published before the movie First Blood, and I really like that movie too but I do like the but the book is better because the author makes it to were you don't know who to root for, were as in the movie they clearly want you to root for Rambo. I might be biased because this is my favorite book of all time but I am going to give this movie 5/5 stars for it's superb story telling and it 's masterful use of scenery and emotion to show what the character is going through. Over all I would recommend that anyone who is a fan of the movie or just wants to read a chase thriller then this book is for you and I recommend you pick it up.

Article 2

The article here is from The New York times talking about the book written Roseanne Montillo, and the book they discuss is called The Lady and Her Monsters. It is about how Mary Shelly's Frankenstein can be related to other experiments that were conducted in real life and, also it talks about how when she was writing the book it describes her thought process. The article goes into detail about the people in the book that the author discusses, and it also goes into detail about her history and how science and philosophy influenced her book. Also it talks about how Mary Shelly is the daughter of  Mary Woolencraft, an enlightened thinker who was a champion for women's rights back in the enlightenment era, and it goes into some details about the books plot points. It also talks about the scientist of the time and the grave robbing that occurred with some of the experiments that they would conduct.  The link to the article is right here it will take you to the New York Times website. The Article

Mary Shellys Frankenstein the 1994 movie trailer

Mary Shellys Frankenstien the movie was released in 1994 by Tristar as a made for tv movie adaption. While I don't think it as good as the universal Frankenstein it does actually stick closer to the book then the other movie and it is a liitle scarier then the other movie. Also this one has a more accurate depiction of how the monster was depicted in the book as more of man then just a green monster. The movie does what it sets out to do whitch is make an adaptation faithul to the book, but really the movie isn't really that good either because when they adapted the book they take some of the slow creepy scene in the book and turn it into a fast action scene you would see in the likes of Van Helsing. Over all I would say you rent the movie for the faithul adaption factor but it really isn't worth paying more then two bucks for to see it. Here is a trailer for the movie to see if you are interested. Click the hyper link and the video will play in full screen.

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History lesson/ Blog 2

History Lesson: The book Frankenstein was published in 1818 for the first time anonymously by Mary Shelly in limited run of 500 copies of each volume. It wasn't till the second publication that Mary Shelly's name was put on the cover and acknowledges her as the author of the book after heavily editing the book to make it have more action. She got the idea from a dream she had were she had to write the best horror story she could and she came up with the idea that a man creates something and it grows destroys him. The book is one of the earliest known examples of science fiction even though I consider it more of a horror novel with a couple science fiction elements. There is also a common misconception that the name of the monster is Frankenstein, but no it is only referred to as the monster in both the book and the movie. Also \the book it self is now in the public domain  but not the movie and the reason being is that the copy right on the movie is from 1931 and Universal renewed it some time in the past but it extended the copyright till 2026to make it copyrighted for another 25 years or so after the in initial 70 your allowed when you copyright it, but the book it self has become public domain because it was made before 1923 and anything before is automatically in the public domain. So that is how I am going to end this update on what I have learned from background research.

Article 1

The Article linked below is an article written for the Chicago Tribune talking about the life of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein and it goes to a little detail about her life and other such things, about her and her family. It talks about how tradgic her life was and that she had so many people around her die within close succession of each other. It also talks about these letters that linked her knowing alot about politics and being very informed on the issues of her time, they even talk about how she was not a fan of Charles Dickens. It also talks about her critisism of the Americans and that she was heavily into the feminist ideas, because her mother was Mary Woolencraft an enlightend thinker and a champion for womens rights and stuff along those lines. They also talk about the book, Letters Of Mary Woolencraft Shelly, were all the letters that revealed all this sruff about her and more. The article link is to the right click it and it will take you to the Chicago Tribune. Read The Article

Cover of the book

Cover and explanation of the edition I have: The version of Frankenstein I have is an updated version that includes a history of Frankenstein and it's Author Marry Shelley at the beginning of the book, and at the end there is an index explaining the terms and filmography of Frankenstein. Also it shows that the majority of this book does take place in the snowy mountains of Geneva. The person on the cover is either Dr. Frankenstein or the monster, it is left to your own interpretation of what you think it is. The cover of the book makes it actually look quite eery, like what am I getting myself into when I read this book with this person on the cover looking relatively close death stumbling through amountain area.

Frankenstein Blog 1

Blog Update: 9/4/2013: The Book I am currently reading is Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. So far I have read the two chapters, so I can't say much about the book but so far is pretty good. The book starts out with this guy who's name is only R. Walton writing letters to his sister about how he is exploring the world. Then he meets up with this guy that he ends taking care of because when he found the guy he was half frozen and sick so while caring for him on the ship, starts to develop a friend ship with the guy. This is as far as I have gotten so far but it sounds pretty interesting and it is kind of slow but, I like the slow build up of horror, then it all comes to a breaking point, is what I like to read in my horror novels. Another thing that I want to point out that I pointed out in the last blog that none of the stuff in this prologue is actually in the 1931 movie. That is all I have to say about the book for now but I will have more to say about it in the near future.

Frankenstein 1931 trailer

 

This Trailer is for the 1931 film adaption and while it is not the first film adaption, the first movie was made in 1910 by the Thomas Edison film studio. Also there is supposedly one before that but it is considered to be a lost film, but back to the 1931 film. Well it wasn't the closest adaption of the book there is, because they do leave out the prologue pretty much and a couple other things I have noticed. I would still check it out if I were you though because I personally really like this movie a whole lot, and it is pretty funny and sad if you watch it today. There is also a trailer for the 1994 Frankenstein movie that I will post later on and that movie is not as good as this one but I will talk more about that later in greater detail. So just click the hyperlink and it will bring a full screen video up.

 

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Summer reading post

Theme:

 

The theme of the book I read over the summer, City Of Thieves, By. David Benioff is going to be that, when put in a deadly situation people need to do whatever it takes to survive. This isn't as apparent at the beginning because the main character has never really been put into a survival situation yet. But then as he has to go in this journey with someone else he learns that it is do or die during war times. Throughout the story the main character get in more and worse setting till finally he ends up having to kill this German general, but up to that point the first big encounter he has he runs while the other guy does the fighting, and then over the story he takes more and more risk to save his friends and himself. The chapter I am going to summarize is 23 when to win the freedom of his friends the main character plays the a game of chess with a German general, who keeps changing the rules till the main character snaps and shoves a knife in the general. 

 

 

Article Review

The article from the New York Times reviews the book and they give it a positive review. They go into detail on what the book is about but they don't spoil alot. They also go into disscussion on the authors past work The 25th Hour.

 

 

Video:

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