Neil Gaiman's imaginary world -- a few notes

I was not really into fantasy fictions. I love sci-fi, but pure fantasies? Not so much. Thanks to Jennifer’s book club, I was recently introduced to two of Neil Gaiman’s short fantasies, two among the best, of course, since every single one of his work is on the list of bestsellers. And I absolutely love them.

I had heard a lot about the writer. A couple of (I mean nearly 10) years ago the Science Fiction World magazine used an entire column to introduce him and his then new work The Graveyard Book. I even remember that he has a Chinese blog which I followed for a few months. He seemed like a fine guy who has a warm and relaxing smile on his profile picture. I tried to search for the book in school libraries and local bookstores, but I had no luck with that. Soon I forgot about the whole thing to focus on my college entrance exam and other stuff.

It was in 2008 or 2009 that I watched the Stardust movie, which I absolutely adored, and that’s when the name of the author, on whose novel this movie was based, rang a bell. I recollected my long overdue reading list, but it was not until the March of 2012 that I actually started reading his books. Call me a procrastinator LOL.

Now I’ve read two of Neil Gaiman’s short fictions, Stardust and The Graveyard Book. Every book I read makes me take a step forward to fall in love with him — I was kidding — his writing style. The way he depicts things is so smooth and effortless that sometimes I felt as if he was telling the story orally. Yet he pictures every scene so vividly that before I know it I was immersed into his imaginary world. The light of the star glittering, the whuthering of winds blowing through the woods, the reflection of moonlight bouncing around on the man Jack’s knife … and the mist of fog covering the graveyard, all and much more of these scenes are so real that they seem touchable within the range of the reaching-out of a hand.

I particularly love the scene at the beginning of Stardust where Tristan’s parents met and fell in love. My second favorite is where Tristan and Yvaine got on Captain Shakespeare’s flying boat. I like the way the movie scripted the boat part, btw, which made the Captain character much funnier (and I love him!). The ending of the book was a little disappointing though, since I thought after all they have been through Tristan would have figured out what he wanted,  but he still went back to Victoria, and it was only after he found out she’s marrying another man that he came to Yvaine. Well well, please don’t blame me for wanting a perfect ending for a romance story! I still enjoy the whole book very much.

My favorite chapter of The Graveyard Book is the last one where Nobody grew up and could no longer see or hear his parents and old friends of the graveyard and decided to embrace the new life awaiting. It was such a sad moment when a grown child has to leave his home, and when he comes back in years, “it will still be a place, but it won’t be home any longer.” That almost made me burst into tears. True we will always be connected to the place we call home, and be missed by the loved ones who will love you back at any price, but sooner or later we have to accept that we cannot always share a life together… Luckily we are all courageous enough to lead the lives on our own.

The next of Neil Gaiman’s book on my list would be… hmm, American Gods. It was said to be the “best and most ambitious of Neil Gaiman’s novels yet”, and yes, I’m looking forward to it.

Edward Scissorhands

Although I had heard about it millions of times, and had millions of chances to see it, I didn’t watch the movie until two days ago. It was a great one; I’m glad I didn’t watch it before, because if I did, it would be nothing but another love story to me. Sad as it is, of course, which makes it different from other love fairytales, it worth far more than tears and fantasies from teenagers who are either deprived of love or craving for it. What I value most about this movie is how the roles in the movie symbolize different classes of people in the real world, and how they deal with relationships to others.

The women living in that town (except for Peg) are the most common species; they exist everywhere in the world, each has their own little life, who are contented with their daily routine but become bored day by day. They seem to care about their neighbors, but all they really care about is their gossips. They form the greatest part of the population which is necessary for the society.

Peg is one of those kind and loving people with principles. They know what they want from life and don’t give up their dreams no matter what. They know how to behave in front of their children, so they always set up good models for them. In fact, that’s probably the way themselves were raised. They are outgoing and well-educated.

Bill, Peg’s husband, Kim and Kevin’s father, is a good mentor. He represents those who give us guidance at certain points of life. Which can be our parents, teachers, or friends.

Edward is a kid with a golden heart. His heavenly species are like angels who accidentally broke their wings and fell to the earthly world. They do everything they can for the good of other people. They have tremendous power but they seldom use it against other people. However, they get hurt easily if they are mistreated. They call all their power to revenge. They don’t know how to communicate with the rest of the world in a “normal” way because they believe in all or none. This species is proved not adapted to the world; they are about to extinguish.

The movie exaggerated, of course. No one will welcome a person home if he dresses up like Edward. It’s a fable. So what is Edward and Kim’s love story doing in this movie? From my perspective, it is the bait the director used to lure his audience into the theatre. All the directors are cheaters, you know. And all the plays are traps. The audience are hostages and only a few of them see what’s under the cover.

Believe in Jane

Jane Zhang has just released her new album, Believe in Jane. Before that, she left H. Brothers and joined Universal Music Group. This album witnessed Jane becoming more and more competent in performing her music. Also, after 4 years trying to find the music that fits her, she finally found her style. This album is not perfect, but huge progress has been made since the previous one. How can one not like her? She's gifted, eager to learn, and she is making progress with every album she released. Way to go, Jane!

US captain rescued & a real-life Runway 08

Three snipers killed three pirates simultaneously and the captain was rescued. Sounds like a movie! For the first time I know this name: US Navy SEALs, the special operation force of the US Navy. The news reminded me of a TV series that was screened on almost all the TV channels when I was in junior high. The Women Special Duties Unit. They are different, though, since the US Navy SEALs attaches to the army and the special duties units are under the ministry of what, the police? Anyway, the TV station also interviewed a team of SEALs soldiers that were being trained and the story was presented after the news. Well, that looked a little familiar~

When I was 11 or 12 years old, I read the novella Runway 08 from an old Translations magazine published in the 80s. After the captain and the co-pilot of a passenger airliner passed out because of food poisoning, a passenger, who had less than 30 hours' experience of flying single-engine fighters duing the war, took control of the plane and landed it safely at Vancouver airport. A well-experienced captain at the ground control station gave him instructions through the radio. At last, the hero saved near 100 people. The novel was written to be gripping--it was originally a TV series script and was re-written into a novella by its author. It is the most breath-taking story I've ever read, and the storyline was copied in one of the Detective Conan movies. Today, Apr 13, 2009, the same story was staged in south Florida, in real life. A passenger successfully landed a two-engine King Air aircraft after the pilot had a heart attack and died. There were six people on the aircraft and the passenger who landed it holds a license for single-engine planes. I was like, "what??" when I watched the news on an elliptical trainer at Lyon Center. Those novelists are what, prophets???

Vista is eating up my C drive

Microsoft releases updates for Vista so quickly that my 40G C drive was soon crammed with system programs. So I forbade automatic update for a while. Three days ago, Sean, my housemate, knocked on my door and told me that I probably got certain spywares on my computer, which allowed hundreds of open ports on it and caused lagging in our house's internet. It sounds formidable... So I turned on the updates again. Following that, within one day, my C drive turned red again. I've no idea what I can do... Should I install a linux system on my computer?? Or go back to XP???

My very first post!

Well, I was working on my paper and was accidentally directed to this site from google. I always wanted an English blog where I can practise my English writing, so, here I am! 

I live in LA and is about to start my third year here. I've totally fallen in love with this place~~

You're also most welcomed to visit my space on Windows Live: http://pirateship1985.spaces.live.com/, which is mostly in Chinese, and the title means "Kitty's Priateship". It has been 4 years since I created that one, so there's a lot to read. Hope you'll like it! I mean, if you read Chinese :p

Come often and enjoy!