Moving On

Ben: Holy shit, INSOMNIA is 700 pages of tiny font

I wonder if David Bowie based his song on the Dartower series

Ben: Way to spoil your own story in the foreword, stephen king

Me: Whaaaaat

Ben: Was the short story entitled FOURTEEN-OH-EIGHT the inspiration for the john cusack movie of the same name

Me: Yes.

Me: Stephen King spoiled 1408?

Ben: No he spoiled L.T.'S THEORY OF PETS

Ben: So

Ben: the eponymous short story of EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL was pretty good.

Ben: I enjoyed it.

Ben: A good read.

Ben: Two thumbs up, I suppose.

Ben: Also does that have something to do with the first story from HEARTS IN ATLANTIS?

Me: We require more in-depth analysis.

Ben: I forget what the old man does.

Ben: What his job is.

Me: I don't think.

Ben: Dammit.

Ben: So in HIA

Ben: the old man

Ben: from the first story

Ben: was a "thing."

Ben: What is that thing?

Me: Breaker.

Ben: That's it.

Ben: Does that make him a tranny?

Me: Whaaaat.

Ben: In EVERYTHING'S ETC.

Ben: The people with supernatural powers

Ben: are all called "trannies."

 Me:  Is that what they're called?

Me: I don't remember.

Ben:  Yes.

Ben: It is.

Ben: They work for the Trans Corporation.

Ben: Hence

Ben: repeatedly

Ben: referred to as "Trannies."

Ben: Yes, it seemed weird.

Ben: It was a good story though.

Ben: The pacing was good.

Ben: He did not do too much of that thing he does where he tells you what is happening in like twenty pages.

Ben: He also did not engage in any fierce misogyny so bonus.

Me:  Plus he dumped those coins down a storm drain.

Ben: And the supernatural bullshit was kept to the minimum necessary to support the premise.

Me: Stephen King got that idea in the shower.

Ben: Had an interesting and quirky main character.
  
Ben: Exposition came at just the right times.

Ben: So, a good story.

Ben: Okay so wait.

Ben: In this book

Ben: there were two stories I needed to read.

Ben: Which was they?

Me: The one about Roland fighting Super Mutants and the eponymous story.

Ben: Aha.

Ben: So it does have something to do with something.

Ben: Vaguely, perhaps.

Ben: I knew it!

Ben: Trannies abound.

Me: It's like [VIETNAM] all over again.

Ben: Q&A.

Ben: Queers and [VIETNAM].

Me: ROFL 

Ben: Also you can't put the acronym "[VIETNAM]" on the blog.

Me: Shit.

Ben: You will have to think of wholly plausible substitutes.

Me: I will call it [IRAQ].

Me: Shit, now that will read "I will call it [VIETNAM]."

Ben: Fuck!!!

Me: It's like a snake fucking itself in the ass.

Ben: I think you mean: the mouth?

Me: How are the rest of the stories in that book?

Me: I've only read those two and the one that was a ripoff of that Alfred Hitchcock episode except with a handjob.

Ben: Haha.

Ben: I have forgotten if the ones preceding the Dartower vampire story were any good.

Ben: The ones after it seem to be pretty okay to good.

Me: 1408?

Ben: I have barely begun that one.

Ben: Fortunately I have forgotten how the movie ended.

Ben: Also

Ben: I don't know if the movie was really based on the plot of the story at all.

Me: Is the main character a writer?   

Ben: Ummmm.

Ben: Are you even listening to yourself?

Me: LOL how foolish.

Ben: I have noticed some distinct new themes in these latter stories.

Ben: 1) Dogs are so stupid, fuck dogs

Ben: 2) Quitting smoking

Ben: 3) Authors (j/k this is not a new theme)

Ben: 4) Divorce

Me: This is a marked change from his earlier writings such as The Stand, in which the dog was so smart it had its own pov section.

Ben: In the foreword King claims to have chosen the order of these stories at random

Ben: which seems hard to believe since like there are four stories in a row that are about divorced authors who have quit smoking.

Me: 14 dark tales of domestic unrest!

Ben: 14 tales of nicotine withdrawl and sheer loneliness after that bitch done took my money and left with nary a word!

Me: How long until you get to INSOMNIA, based on the movie by Christopher Nolan?

Ben: Holy shit, is this really the book that inspired the movie?

Ben: Good thing I have also forgotten how that one ends.

Ben: All I remember is the part where Al Capone is chasing Robin Williams across some logs.

No One Cares That You've Seen a Japanese Movie: 'Battle Royale' vs. 'The Hunger Games'

Everyone needs to STFU about Battle Royale. Pretty sure the Japanese didn't invent the idea of sending kids to an island to kill each other. 

 

The significant difference between Battle Royale and The Hungry Games isn't the plot, it's the themes. The plots are very similar, but both stories approach the subject matter from different perspectives with different goals. In Battle Royale, the kids all know each other because they're all from the same class in school. The story poses the question: if you had to, could you kill your friends? In the book and manga (not so much the movie), almost every character is fleshed out and developed enough for the reader to appreciate the different ways they respond to the situation and to feel an emotional response when they're inevitably killed off.

The Hungry Games is more of a commentary on Americans' preoccupation with reality TV and violence as entertainment, as well as an ethnocentric disinterest in violence and poverty in foreign countries. The Hungry Games is about a possible future where all of those things converge in a society based around children from impoverished regions killing each other for entertainment value. In Battle Royale, the killings aren't televised (except in the English translation of the manga, because the translator thought it would be cool even though it makes no sense in the story) because what's happening to the rest of the country doesn't matter, whereas in The Hungry Games, the whole point is that this depraved bloodsport forms the bedrock of their society. Most of the kids don't know each other, because their interaction isn't the point. Only a handful of the participants are given any development, and most of the violence is described with a detached, clinical tone. We don't feel bad when most of the characters die because the television audience watching at home doesn't feel bad. They're watching specifically for the gore. It's a broader story than Battle Royale, in which the stakes are much more personal.

tl;dr: Everything has already been done and there are no wholly original stories left. Except Twilight. I really like Twilight.

Something About Vampires

Me: Did you finish that book yet?

Ben: I finished the one story that you wanted me to read.

Ben: Something about vampires. 

Me: Is that your official review?  

Ben: Um, maybe?  

Me: What about the one about the guy pouring coins down a storm drain?  

Ben: It sort of felt entirely marginal.

Ben: I am not to that one yet!!   

Me: It's the story of how Roland's horse died.

Ben: The vampire one is, yes. 

Me: Yes. 

Ben: What are we discussing?

Me: And the only girl he ever loved after Susan.

Ben: Was that horse.

Me: I think it was a donkey.

Ben: I think you are a donkey.  

Me: :(  

Ben: Do you want some aloe vera