Seguramente el fenómeno en que se ha convertido Crepúsculo (Twilight) y lo que ya se espera como una larga lista de secuelas, alimentará muchos debates como estos. Las comunidades de fans de ambas historias ya se  alistan para lo que se prevé como la controversia de fin de año.  Así  que como toda buena plática de café, hay que empezar con una pregunta disparadora: ¿es mejor Harry Potter que Crepúsculo?

La respuesta – como casi cualquiera que tenga que ver con estos temas- es relativa. A los fans de uno y otro lado les parece que no hay nada comparable – de hecho: ¡por eso son fans!- mientras que para los detractores  de cada uno, son la peor porquería que han visto o leído.

Pero afortunadamente, todo debate supera la barrera ideológica y subjetiva gracias a los datos duros.  Y en esos términos, hoy por hoy  ambos fenómenos se pueden medir desde dos diferentes ámbitos: los libros y las películas.

En el caso de los libros, Harry Potter se anota un tanto. En la lista británica de los 100 libros que definen la década, el número uno se lo lleva el último libro de la Saga de Rowling: Harry Potter y las reliquias de la muerte (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). El segundo lugar es para el libro de Barack Obama,Los sueños de mi padre ( Dreams from my father); y en tercero El Código Da Vinci de Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code).

Crepúsculo ( Twilight) no aparece en la lista hasta por ahí del número 32. Y en realidad de esta lista podríamos decir muchas cosas, ya que efectivamente no se trata de una evaluación literaria sino mercadológica.  Y la manera más lógica de intepretar el dato, es diciendo que  Harry Potter vendió más en su último libro que lo que lleva vendido Crepúsculo. ¿Pudiera ser entonces sólo cuestión de tiempo?

Pero en el caso del cine y la taquilla el triunfo se lo lleva Crepúsculo, empatando con ello la competencia. Luna Nueva ( New Moon)  establece un nuevo récord de apertura a la medianoche, con 26,27 millones dólares de 3.514 salas de cine sólo en Estados Unidos. Ello supera los estrenos de Harry Potter y el príncipe mestizo ($ 22,2 millones) y The Dark Knight ($ 18,4 millones).

Es claro que el enemigo a vencer no es ya Harry Potter sino Batman: un fenómeno de taquilla inusual y sorpendente. Y aquí tampoco el asunto tiene que ver con cuál película es mejor, porque no se basa en críticas cinematográficas, sino en dinero recaudado.

La pregunta que sugiere toda esta comparación es: ¿porqué se vende más un libro que una película? o a la inversa: ¿porqué un libro medianamente vendido se vuelve una adaptación cinematográfica tan exitosa?

Pero antes de responder eso hay que cerrar diciendo  que  Rowling tiene una mejor técnica literaria que Meyer. Es mejor escritora por decirlo así. Pero Meyer tiene muy bien medida su audiencia y es claro que la apuesta es hacia el cine, porque los adolescentes de ahora son más visuales.  Y no hay que olvidar que J.K Rowling está en la lista de las mujeres más ricas del mundo…. ¿Cómo ven entonces? ¿Empate técnico?

Con información de Superherohype y Sciwi

AN OPEN LETTER TO STEPHANIE MEYER

Dear Mrs. Stephanie Meyer,

Congratulations to all the success you’ve amassed, you’re a legend to all the teenagers worldwide, although in the process you’ve also managed to offend the I.Q. of all the important movie/book critics with all your literary efforts. H.L. Mencken’s assertion that “no one ever went broke by underestimating the taste of the American public,” the opening weekend take of $140 million for The Twilight Saga: New Moon is that evidence. It is a landmark movie that proves three things, 1.Bella “totally” loves Edward, 2.Edward is “totally” so HOT, 3.Anybody can “totally” write better than a Stephanie Meyer. I’m 100% sure the third didn’t go around as a mass-text message while screaming in the darkness of the movie theatre.

I’ve just rented Twilight dvd and seen New Moon sequel in the theatre (in just about the same day) out of curiosity about the mass hysteria, I also read the two original children books where the movie was adapted from (Twilight and New Moon) just about the same week. I believe I would enjoy it more if I were an 8-year-old girl who don’t read books other than Cosmopolitan magazine. Your movies and your books that I have seen so far have no sense, no logic, no integrity, no reasoning, no wit or any sign of intelligence (Werewolves-don’t-have-penis-they-have-torn-out-jeans-in-the-cold-winter-of-Forks-Washington-logic), they are purely a teenage girl’s wet dreams and a tween’s Edward “teen porn” fantasy casted and played to perfection by Robert Pattinson, maybe the shallowest characters created since “Spice Girls the movie”, and what makes it worst, is that every young adult in the world will try to emulate the senseless temper tantrums your characters Bella, Jacob and Edward have been juggling throughout the film. The best review I’ve read so far is with Christopher Orr of The New Republic

The Tone Poem: ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon
A landmark cinematic event in 280 words, or one for every $500, 000 of weekend box office:

Senior year. How’d you get so old so fast?

Oh, good. Cullen’s here.

I’m 109.

Maybe I shouldn’t be dating such an old man.

Bella.

Jacob.

Hello, biceps.

I’m just filling out.

The Volturi are a very old, very powerful family.

Don’t hate the truck.

Ow, paper cut.

Jasper hasn’t been away from human blood as long as the rest of us.

I love you.

Love you.

You just don’t belong in my world, Bella.

You don’t want me. That changes things. A lot.

Goodbye.

October.

November.

December.

The absence of him is everywhere I look.

That’s it. You’re going to Jacksonville to live with your mother.

Jake, you’re, like, buff. How’d that happen?

You’re sort of beautiful.

Like, five hikers have been killed by some bear. But they can’t find the bear.

What, I can’t hold your hand?

Jake, your dad says you have mono. He won’t let me visit.

You cut your hair off? And got a tattoo?

Look, Bella. We can’t be friends anymore.

Things are bad again.

Dad, I saw them in the woods. They’re not bears.

Guess the wolf’s out of the bag.

C’mon in, Bella. We won’t bite.

You’re not the first monsters I’ve met.

It’s not a lifestyle choice, Bella.

Wait, there’s a vampire.

Bella, what’s that awful wet-dog smell?

Don’t. Get. Me. Upset.

Bella, Edward’s going to the Volturi. He wants to die, too.

What a happy surprise. Bella is alive after all. Isn’t that wonderful?

She knows too much. She’s a liability.

Goodbye, my young friends.

Bella, do not ever do that to me again. Ever.

It would be nice not to want to kill you all the time.

Marry me.

THE TWI-HARDS

And of course Ms Stephanie Meyer, all the 90% of film and book critics are bitter old people who just hates everything you do and you just dont give a fuck about that, the millions of screaming girls all over the world “The Twi-hards” are the only critics that matter$$$. That dream you had that inspired you to write TWILIGHT is shared by all the hormonal teens (age 4 to 44) in the face of the earth, if your mission is to want them to fuck Edward Cullen, then mission accomplished.

STEPHANIE MEYER VS ANNE RICE/ STEPHANIE MEYER VS J.K. ROWLING

I am an aspiring writer, and working on a few novels of my own, now I’m itching to write a vampire novel because of you, I am maybe the biggest fan of Anne Rice, I’ve read Interview with the Vampire hundreds of times and even seen the movie the same amount and it never made me want to write one, because I am a little intimidated by how much research, intelligence, passion and courage Anne Rice have- to write an exquisite novel like Interview and Lestat (among others). I’m not a fan of J.K. Rowling, I’ve seen a Harry Potter movie once and read the book that go with it once out of curiosity, but I have to say she is a very creative and intelligent writer and picked up a lot of vocabularies reading her book, I also realized that the dialogues in the Harry Potter movies are not laughable and “children book-like” like your two Twilight films. Then you came along and shown me that it is possible, the sky is the limit, anybody can write, and just hire an editor to clean out and organize the mess they scribbled somewhere and create a multimillion franchise like yours. Thank you for giving hope to millions of writers all over the world with very limited vocabularies and creativity, hope that it is possible to be a financially successful writer and popular with the age group 18 and below, or the people who have the IQ level of a toddler. With so less effort, you are a living proof that it is possible to be a successful writer, if success means money and fame and not the respect and validation of other writers like you.

JEALOUSY

Your fanatic followers will think that I am bitter and a “hater”, in fact I am jealous of you Mrs. Stephanie Meyer and you are changing my life unlike any other authors whose works I have read before. Now I am attempting to write a vampire book for children and that will be my new mission as a writer, because now I firmly believe if you can do it, I can do so much better than you. Thank you Mrs. Meyer.

Sincerely,
NAVO

With all of the recent Twilight hype, I thought I’d use today’s post to talk about why Harry Potter is eleventy billion times more awesome than Twilight. There are similarities between the two series; they both feature teenagers newly immersed in supernatural worlds, both are written by female authors, and both are widely popular. But that’s about where the similarities end. Harry Potter is, in my opinion, an incredibly rich series with ties to many classic works, ranging from Greek and Roman mythology to Jane Austen. Twilight reads like a 13-year-old’s diary and has ties to, well, nothing. Stephenie Meyer pretty much ignored every piece of vampire fiction that came before her (see: vampires sparkling in the sunlight, etc.). But I’m not here to gripe about Twilight, I’m supposed to be talking about how awesome Harry Potter is.

Harry Potter is a coming-of-age tale about an orphaned boy wizard, Harry Potter (obvs), and his ongoing battle against the evil Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort kills Harry’s parents, and attempts to kill him, when he just a baby, but somehow Harry survives. Harry is raised by his Muggle (that means non-magical, for those of you who weren’t aware) aunt and uncle, and is unaware about what happened to him as a baby, until his eleventh birthday when he receives his admission to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At Hogwarts, Harry meets his two best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and the series follows their time at Hogwarts and their many run-ins with Lord Voldemort.

Harry Potter also features one of my favorite literary characters ever, Ron Weasley (you thought I was going to say Hermione, didn’t you?). Ron is perennially living in the shadow of his brothers and his best friend. Which is pretty much my life. While he may not be the best student, or the most famous, Ron is totally hilarious and is always making jokes in tense and awkward situations. Again, my life. And he’s totally inept at matters of the heart. Which, unsurprisingly, is a trait I also happen to share. Basically what I’m trying to say is, if I were a dude and a wizard and not real I’d be Ron Weasley.

Twilight has no Ron Weasley, though. Or a Harry or Hermione, for that matter. Twilight is basically four books of bad weather, Edward sparkling, and Bella being emo. Also, if you can bear reading until the fourth book, there’s a wonderful scene involving demon spawn biting its way out of Bella’s uterus. Ah, the miracle of childbirth! Sadly, Harry Potter has no demon spawn, but the rest of the series more than makes up for it. Also, the Harry Potter movies are way better than the Twilight ones. I’ll take Alan Rickman (yummy) and Helena Bonham-Carter over Peter Facinelli and Elizabeth Reaser any day.

I’ve just started reading The Vagrants by Li Yiyun. In an early scene, a young girl Nini wanders up to a notice of the imminent execution of a counter-revolutionary. She cannot read it, because her parents believe education is wasted on a girl with disabilities. Their contempt also means that she goes hungry. But she can smell that the notice is stuck to the wall with flour paste, so she scrapes it off and eats it. As someone who has never known hunger, I found this tremendously affecting.

Hunger – the practicalities of the children’s vagrancy – is what made the final book in the Harry Potter series stand out for me as well. I found most of it entertaining enough, but it wasn’t until then that it had even a hundredth of the gravitas it claimed for itself.

As I continue to make my way through Fred Clark’s analysis of Left Behind, I note that although the series likewise purports to deal with an epic battle between good and evil, the first two books don’t appear to contain even a single moment of similar human significance.

The seven-book set of Harry Potter books autographed by author J.K. Rowling are seen at the National Braille Press in Boston, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)

I read all the Harry Potter books, I went to all the Harry Potter movies and next I will visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Here I have compiled some things that I hope to find in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter during spring break 2010.

The Wesley Home

Harry Potter’s second home the Wesley’s house.  Mr. and Mrs. Wesley treat him as their own child.  I would feel as if I were in a dream touring through the multiple floor wizard home, which features altered muggle’s gadgets.  My fascination with wizarding items is comparable to Mr. Wesley’s fascination with muggel gadgets.   A rollercoaster through the house would be perfect.  They could shape the coaster vehicles like the flying car.

A 3D model of Hogwarts Castle just imagine the ride you could experience within.

Hogwart’s Castle

Rumors on the internet say Hogwarts Castle is going to be a roller coaster. A few must have rooms that are crucial for me to have the best experience.

• The dining hall where the choir is singing and the sorting hat displayed
• Living quarters, starting first with Gryffindor and moving to Slytherin house
• The forbidden floor where I can see the fluffy the three-headed dog, play a little chess and move on to see the mirror which displays all your desires
• Then to Professor Dumbledore’s office
• Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom
• The basement where Potter fought one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes
• Lastly the Room of Requierment

The Three Broomsticks

The Three Broomsticks a popular hangout for Potter, Granger and Wesley is where I will first experience a non-alcoholic butterbeer. This local hangout will definitely be in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park.  Universal Studios is keeping a lot of attractions secret about the park, but the Three Broomsticks is one attraction they are promoting.  The pub’s menu will consist of tasty treats such as Irish coffee, beer or ale, and shepherd’s pie.

In addition, to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Orlando is creating another attraction called the Great Orlando Wheel.  Check it out in the video.

Hogwart’s Castle Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

The book series and now two films can boast impressive numbers. But, can they brag about creativity or intelligence? No.  There are countless stories of vampires. Boy is vampire, girl is not, they fall in love. Uh-oh. It’s a gothic rendition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet… With sharper teeth, of course.

The Twilight series, penned by Stephenie Meyer, was originally geared towards the young adolescent crowd. Those who were in between short chapter books and true literature could find a cozy spot in the pages of Bella and Edward. The writing is simple, and entertaining.

Simple and entertaining has now become a thriving empire. Not only does Twilight put young teens in frenzy, but also adults. Devoted readers put the book before sleep, school and normal activities. Now, the town of Forks, where Twilight is placed, is being run over by readers. Sure, the story may be intriguing. But with writing that lacks intelligence, how much can a reader truly gain from the plot?

As someone who finds true pleasure in reading a well-written and constructed book with fantastic characters and a thrilling plot, I find nothing in Twilight. To me it is dry, and frustrating. There is nothing left to the reader’s imagination. Everything is spelled out precisely. Which, when looking in to who the novel was meant for, is not surprising.

What happened to everyone’s deep admiration for J.K. Rowling’s lovable Harry Potter? A young, awkward and charming boy cursed with a lightening bolt on his forehead and magical powers. The Harry Potter series was filled with imagination. A book of deep characters, self-created creatures and magical spells; is a creative person’s dream. J.K. Rowling’s writing is pleasing, and suitable for both teens and adults. Her words create a fantasy most wish they could experience; Harry Potter has everything.

One might argue that at least Twilight is getting young people to read since Harry Potter has finished. That fact is something good to hear. Still, however, to be such a trend is unbelievable. If Twilight must be anything more than a drearily written book, why has it not become a stepping-stone in to more acceptable literature? Dracula for Twilight fans? Anyone?

Sangue novo

A estreante Stephenie Meyer conquista o público adolescente ao misturar dilemas jovens com vampirismo

Rodrigo Turrer

29/04/2008 – 20:57 – Atualizado em 20/05/2008 – 16:49

Quando o britânico J.R.R. Tolkien publicou seu O Hobbit, em 1937, deu início não apenas à série de O Senhor dos Anéis – o segundo livro em inglês mais vendido na História, logo atrás da Bíblia –, como também desencadeou uma febre de aficionados por magia e universos fantásticos que o furacão editorial Harry Potter só fez amplificar desde que chegou às livrarias, em 1997.

A nova saga que arregimenta uma horda maior de fãs a cada dia é Crepúsculo (Intrínseca, 416 páginas, R$ 39,90), da americana Stephenie Meyer, de 34 anos. Primeiro livro dela, começo de uma trilogia traduzida para mais de 20 idiomas que vendeu milhões de cópias pelo mundo, Crepúsculo tinha dois fã-clubes um ano antes de ser lançado no Brasil.

“Achei importante debater com outros fãs”, diz a estudante Laís Scrivani, de 19 anos. Ela criou um dos fã-clubes, que tem mais de 20 mil acessos diários e integrantes fervorosos, como a estudante do ensino médio Larissa Huayck Lobo, de 15 anos. “Meus amigos e minha família nem sabem do que trata o livro, então é bom conversar com quem conhece”, diz.

Crepúsculo narra a história da jovem Bella Swan, uma garota de 17 anos, filha de pais separados, que se muda para a chuvosa e monótona Fork, o último lugar em que um adolescente gostaria de viver. Enquanto tenta se habituar à nova vida com um pai quase desconhecido e se adaptar à rotina provinciana e aos constrangimentos da pouca amabilidade dos colegas de escola, conhece Edward Cullen, um fascinante garoto que guarda um segredo: não envelhece desde 1918, quando se tornou vampiro. Os dois, claro, se apaixonam perdidamente.

Como se a condição sobrenatural do rapaz não fosse empecilho suficiente, a família dele passa a caçar Bella graças ao apetitoso aroma de seu sangue, nunca antes sentido por aquelas bandas. Esse cruzamento de Romeu e Julieta com Drácula soa como uma versão adolescente de Anne Rice, outra escritora que explorou com sucesso o mundo dos vampiros. Rice largou o tema – trocou Drácula por Jesus. Melhor para Meyer: mais pescoços se curvarão para ler seus livros.

Eles são idolatrados

Escritores canonizados pelo público e cultuados com fã-clubes

J.R.R. TOLKIEN

Com a saga O SENHOR DOS ANÉIS, Tolkien iniciou a era de aficionados por magia e universos fantásticos, e ganhou leitores fanáticos pelo mundo

J.K. ROWLING
Um dos maiores sucessos editoriais da História,HARRY POTTER causou frenesi entre os fãs, que a cada lançamento se engalfinhavam para garantir o livro

ANNE RICE
A autora de ENTREVISTA COM O VAMPIRO e suas continuações recriou o universo dos sugadores de sangue. Depois largou seus fãs à própria sorte

PAULO COELHO
Verdadeiro fenômeno editorial no Brasil, o autor de O ALQUIMISTA arrebanhou fãs até no exterior, que mantêm sites para discutir sua obra

http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Revista/Epoca/0,,EMI3265-15220,00-SANGUE+NOVO.html

]]> http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/cant-trust-anyone-then/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:11:25 +0000 bookwitch http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/cant-trust-anyone-then/

Not only does it seem that we can’t trust reviewers not to bore us or give too much away, but they want a little extra money for their trouble. (I can tell you that my halo feels really heavy today.) From the same source as the $25 payment for reviews I gather that we can’t expect ’staff picks’ labels in bookshops to be genuine, either.

Or maybe we can. Replies coming in suggested it works both ways. Some say that of course we can’t think that individual staff members read and recommend books in shops, and others say that in their experience it’s all genuine.

I’m rarely in the big chain shops, but had some time in a Borders not too long ago. Forget why, but I spent time waiting for whatever, by looking over the teen books section, and seeing what they recommended. Good enough selection, but disappointed by the very predictable ‘recommendations.’ So maybe they were head office recommendations. Or maybe it was just staff not reading anything terribly exciting or different.

I’m not saying they mustn’t read, like or recommend Harry Potter or Twilight, but it’s just that little bit too obvious. I’d love it if they read some more unknown titles and told shoppers about them, enticing people away from the commonest purchases.

What little experience I have from the local indie bookshop is that the shop likes to steer ’shelf talkers,’ both as to which books should have them and what they should say and how. I used to feel this defeated the purpose of using customers, and in particular child readers, recommending something they had loved. ‘You can only love and recommend what we want.’

Do you find they assist you picking books to buy? Would you like to put up a shelf talker where you shop?

This is what Zach Tarvin has to say about the following letter he wrote to J. K. Rowling: 

I think the only thing I can think of to say about the JK Rowling letter is that I’d always been a fan of the books. They certainly helped me open up in school. In July of 2007, I was going through my seventh surgery just as the seventh book was about to be released. I wrote the bulk of this letter one night in late April 2008, thought there was more that wasn’t fully unlocked, then finished and sent it when I was home for the summer.

The day after Thanksgiving, last year, I received a letter from Arthur A. Levine Books (the imprint at Scholastic responsible for Harry Potter) that said they’d received a copy of my letter, and were touched. They invited me to apply for a summer internship with them via Scholastic’s Summer Internship Program. Unfortunately, the program was cancelled for summer 2009, due to the economy.
Dear Jo (if I may),

            I wrote to you once, at a very socially awkward age near the release of book five, but I think I actually have something meaningful to say this time.  More than anything, I wish to say a very heartfelt thank you because if there are any books I can resolutely say changed my life, they were the Harry Potter books and the Bible. 

            To start, I have to include that I was born just over twenty years ago with what’s called a craniofacial anomaly—born without part of the frontal bone in my forehead.  Eighteen years ago this June I had reconstructive surgery to artificially replace this bone, but the swelling was extreme and the muscle that would normally have operated my eyebrows snapped.  By the time it was done, in addition to a permanent scar that runs from the tip of my ears across my forehead (rather like a bizarre pair of headphones), I would also have to have surgery to implant a sling to make my eyelids function as a normal person’s would.  Until a sixth surgery in the summer of 1999 they were without a fold at all, and still can only be opened even with the artificial fold only by lifting my eyebrows and activating the artificial sling.

            We’ll just say that I’m more than familiar with the types of stares and snide remarks Harry encountered throughout the series—I endured similar from as early as I could remember.  Not everyone was horrible to me as a kid, but there was a very “scar head” attitude about things.  Always having to sidestep the question “What happened to your eye?” question and not being able to give an answer.  As I got older, it got harder.  After hitting my head on a playpark piece one of my slings came out.  And then, worst of all, just before I hit puberty the decision was made that the original work done to my skull needed touched up—to fill in the then nonexistent bridge to my nose, recessed temples for structure.  It was done the summer before I transitioned to the most soul shattering event in the American education system—junior high school.

            In four years, beginning in 1998 I had two surgeries—the aforementioned “touch up” and almost a year later an operation to make the sling that works my eyelids more permanent (ten years now—knock on wood).  It wasn’t until I was ten or eleven that I knew the reason I was put through all of this—what my deformity was called.  It had never been a hindrance to me, I accepted it, but when my peers and I were entering our teenage years…well, it felt a bit like Order of the Phoenix for me. 

            Throughout my childhood, most memorably the year before and the year I was told by my mother what was, essentially my story, I had been creating stories in my mind to be lived out on the playground or on paper as a method of escape.  Literature and Language Arts were always my favorite classes.  My mother bought me the first three Potter books in late 1999, and though I somewhat timidly will admit that I didn’t read them right away, when I started them in the summer of 2000 I raced through them—loving each one.

            In October 2000, I decided to put the story that had been playing around in my head for two years to paper, handwriting over a hundred pages before the month was out.  It was therapy, a personal narrative about what it would be like if I were the equivalent of a Merlinified King Arthur.  On a personal level, this was important to me because the main character had a craniofacial anomaly.  I am not sure that I would have ever committed to telling the story without the influence of Harry Potter.  Finally there was a character with which I wholeheartedly identified.  In fact I was told by almost everyone in my school that I looked like the Harry on the cover of the American Goblet of Fire.  Clearly we are not entirely alike—maybe only linked by a simple little scar.  But your books, your characters, helped me immensely at a very confusing time and continued to help me share understanding.  As I got into high school, particularly in the first two years, I was ridiculed to hellish extent, in the face of everything I tried to explain.  It got to a point where I felt genuinely alone, utterly, completely hopeless.

            After enough torment in high school I confided in a teacher who was able to resolve the situation by sitting myself and what would equate to a then Draco Malfoy, I explained my entire story in detail.  I told him the full truth, including the tid-bit I had only recently discovered from my mother—most children born as I was with a craniofacial anomaly and pouching of the brain are severely mentally handicapped.  The sit-down left us both shaken, I think him more than myself, but I was not convinced anything would change.  But I kept reminding myself of the Quibbler article.  And things did change over the rest of that year.

            Surgically though, my journey was not over.  Though my overall appearance was relatively normal, I was left with a chronic underbite that as I grew made it increasingly more difficult to chew.  By the end of my first year of college in 2007, I was barely able to eat chicken without cutting it into tiny bits first.  July 18^th I underwent massive surgery to remove the excess bone from my lower jaw and to receive cheek implants (for my cheekbones were fairly weak) to support it all.  The resulting surgery left me unable to chew for nearly three months.  But, more importantly, I was afraid I would miss the launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 

            I’ve taken a lot of flak for being a college student who loves Potter, and I still refuse to let it bother me.  I had waited patiently since February—reserved my copy and all.  I had not missed a midnight launch since my local bookstore started them with Order of the Phoenix—and I attended that the night before departing for Europe as a student ambassador.  The conclusion of the series meant as much to me, sentimentally and symbolically, as the completion of what would be my seventh and final planned surgery.  It was the seventh surgery, in the seventh month, seven years since I had been genuinely hooked on Harry Potter, and the seventh book was due out shortly after. 

            And even though I had only been discharged nine hours before, I was there at midnight.  I was doped up on several different painkillers, leaning on my mother for support, but I made it and was damn proud of it.  I had to listen to my audiobook to prevent my proper copy being ruined from the drool (my face was swollen to about triple the normal size), but I had it.

            There was nothing more I could have wanted than to have the medical transformation chapter of my life close with the aide of the closing chapter of Harry’s story at my side while I healed.  Funnily enough, the themes of a mother’s love and sacrifice really hit home for me—mine was having to find all these non-solid meals for me, and often having to take a towel to my face because I had no feeling in it, and couldn’t tell it was covered in applesauce, custard, etc. These books helped me be more open, more myself, able to share the story of what happened to me, and raise awareness against judging someone for being different.

            Jo, I never stopped writing—not once.  It was always the same overall plot, first as one book, then as a trilogy, and now as a series of four books.  The characters were transplanted form middle school, to high school, and now to college as I have.  But more importantly, what you and the series have done for me is shown me the ways in which a writer can make a positive difference.  The ways in which these books have personally affected me are one thing, but the way you’ve campaigned for multiple sclerosis (which claimed my maternal grandmother) has inspired me for years—driven me to tell this story, and others in the hopes that one day, even if I am long dead, someone takes away a similar message as I have with Harry Potter.  I am currently seeking a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in creative writing with the hopes of becoming an editor as I continue writing in my career—the dream being as I stated above.  As for the previously mentioned book? Almost eight years later I have a good outline sketched out, and hope to have the first volume finished by the end of the year. 

            I cannot imagine where I’d be right now, were it not for Harry Potter, I really can’t.  I want to be a writer, and if I can’t support myself on that alone, I want to edit as well.  If a book I write, or a book my press picks up, can do for someone else, what your work has done for me, I will die a happy man.  I’ve started on the path to this, recently I’ve been made Co-Editor-in-Chief of my university’s undergraduate literary journal, and Technical Editor of our international literary journal Mid-American Review.  I am at a complete loss to even describe how absolutely grateful I am at the opportunity, and how it came about.  Because if there was ever something I read that made me decide, this is what I want to do, I want to write, I want to edit, it was the Harry Potter books.  And though some may label it an odd obsession (and I really don’t care if they do), whenever I think back on what got me through some of both the hardest and the best times of my life, it will be inextricably linked with Harry Potter.

            I believe the story is the greatest single unit for fostering understanding and growth, it’s why we tell our kids stories (and I can assure you, if I have children, Harry Potter will be on their shelf as soon as they’re old enough).  Your personal story, and the story you have created have had a tremendous effect on me, and so I say again, thank you, thank you a thousand times over, for both your time in reading this letter and sharing Harry with the world.

Sincerely,

Zach Tarvin

P.S.  Amazing speech at Harvard, the Plutarch and Seneca quotes have gone on my Facebook…

It was a bizarre, magical request that apparently even cash-strapped Harvard University couldnt refuse. Its a combination of dodge ball, soccer and track, Rush said about the once-fictitious game, introduced to the world through J.K.

Rowlings Harry Potter [website] novels.

Source:
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1212981

I’m a big Harry Potter Fan.  I didn’t start reading these books until recently.  I figured by the time the fifth movie came out that it was time to join the rest of the population. Little did I know what a guilty pleasure these books are.  The further I get in this series the more I’m aghast at just how huge J.K. Rowling’s imagination is.  

My favorite Character (I’m reading The Half Blood Prince currently) is Sirius Black.  I didn’t think it was possible to have a crush on a fictional story book character…it is.  (If you haven’t read the Potter books, stop reading this blog and go to the Library.  –Spoiler Alert) Sirius is a wrongly accused felon, escaped convict, member of the rebel organization Order of the Phoenix, general outlaw, and Harry’s Godfather.  Sirius is misunderstood, bruding, and the way Gary Oldman portrays him in the movies is just wonderful.

So here is a spin on a recipe straightout of my grandmother’s kitchen.  Black Out Cake was big in the 1950’s.  Traditionally this is a multi layered chocolate cake, covered in chocolate frosting with layers of chocolate pudding in between.  The signature mark of a Black Out Cake is the chocolate cake crumbs crushed against the sides of the cake.  I looked around, improvised and decided to just take license with the amount of chocolate in this recipe as I wanted this not to be just a Black out Cake, but a Sirius (seriously) blackout Cake.

Sirius Black (Out) Cake:

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup of milk

2 1/4 flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 unsalted butter

1/4 shortening

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 bar bittersweet chocolate (ghiradelli is what I used.)

The bittersweet chocolate was not originally in this recipe.  Melt in a double boiler or like I did, place it in a oven safe bowl and pop it into your preheating oven (350 degrees).  It only takes a few minutes to start melting.  Take it out and stir and you’ll find you don’t have to have it completely melted in the oven, stirring it will finish the melting process. Remember its very easy to burn chocolate!!  Let the bitter sweet chocolate cool, but not harden.

Sift your dry ingredients: flour, soda, powder, salt.  Set aside.

Whisk together milk and cocoa.  The mixture will become a thick mousse like consistency.  Set aside.

Cocoa and Milk

Combine butter and sugar until FLUFFY.  Trust me you’ll want to stop beating this at the crumbly stage, but mix until its legitamately FLUFFY.  Add one egg at a time, beating well after each egg.  Now add dry ingredients and milk ingredients alternating.  

By the way this is the classic process in making homemade spongey cake:  

1. Beat butter and sugar till fluffy.

2. Add one egg at a time

3. Alternate flour mix and milk, starting and ending with flour.  

Alright we are almost done.  Fold in the bittersweet chocolate, remember it shouldn’t be hot and it should still be a liquid consistency. 

Grease with butter or shortening then dust with thin layer of flour

Pour batter into two 8″ or 9″ round pans.  (butter and flour the pans) And cook for apprx 30 minutes.  The addition of the bittersweet chocolate makes this cake more like a brownie and more likely to dry out so make sure not to overcook.

Filling:

2/3 c white sugar

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 c milk (2%)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate OR 3 oz 100% cocoa ghiradelli chocolate. (Siriusly take license with the chocolate!)

Combine everything over low heat.  Increase heat  to medium, whisking constantly until pudding is boiling.  Remove from heat.  Place in a bowl with plastic wrap against surface of pudding so it doesn’t form a skin (eww pudding skin!).  Refridgerate until cool.

Make chocolate butter cream icing. (Ingredients: butter and /or shortening, vanilla extract, water, Unsweetened cocoa powder, powdered sugar.)There is a video with it if you forget how. Click Butter Cream on the side bar.

You’ll also want to make Ganache.  Ganache is semisweet chocolate and heavy cream.  I used 16oz. chocolate and 8oz. of cream, melted and whisked over low heat.  You can do a 1:1 ratio.  Ganache can be heated and used as a syrup, cooled slightly and piped, or spread like a frosting.  Its pretty awesome in terms of versatility.

OKAY.  So when your cake is cool slice each layer in half (horizontally).  Now you will have a 4 layer cake.  You could go as far as 3 times if your cake is thick enough. Pipe a ring of frosting around the bottom layer and fill in with pudding.  Stack the next layer and repeat.  Now frost the cake with butter cream and refrigerate.  Once the cake has “crusted” meaning you can touch the icing with your hand and it doesn’t stick, instead it is smooth and hard–has a layer of crust– you are ready to cover with ganache.

Its best to assemble this cake on a cardboard cake circle that is the exact same size– so an 8″ circle for an 8″ cake.  This will allow you to move the cake around, pour Ganache over it without messing up the board or plate you will ultimately display the cake on.  If by this point your ganache has hardened, reheat in the microwave, or over low heat or by placing in a bath of warm water.  Mix to assure that all the ganache is melted and smooth.

Place a tall sturdy cup on a large cookie sheet.  Place cake on top of cup.   You can now pour the ganache over the cake– be generous and just DUMP it!  push ganache toward the side with a long metal spatula.  Excess will drip onto cookie sheet, and you can reuse this extra on other cakes later.  Once cake is covered make one smooth pulling motion across the top of the cake to assure that the layer of ganache is even– this will also give you a smooth top.

Like I said Ganache can also be piped.  I added some black food coloring to my leftover ganache and placed in a piping bag and just swirled it all over the cake.  I was trying to imitate all the cool prison tattoos Sirius has.  I thought this was a bit cooler than crumbing the side.

Ela quer o seu filho
Com o livro Crepúsculo e o vampiro Edward, a escritora Stephenie Meyer pode desbancar o bruxo Harry Potter, de J. K. Rowling

Por NATÁLIA RANGEL

Há pouco mais de cinco anos, a jovem dona-de-casa Stephenie Meyer, mãe de três filhos, casada com um pastor mórmon e moradora da pequena cidade de Cave Creek, no Estado americano do Arizona, jamais imaginaria seduzir jovens em todo o mundo com uma fantasiosa história de amor entre uma adolescente e um vampiro. Tampouco vislumbrou que as tramas românticas forjadas em sua imaginação e materializadas em três livros (Crepúsculo, Lua nova e Eclipse) ficariam 143 semanas na lista de best-sellers do jornal The New York Times, com seis milhões de exemplares vendidos em diversos países – sendo que quatro milhões referem- se apenas às vendas nos últimos 12 meses. Pois foi o que aconteceu. O vertiginoso sucesso de Crepúsculo, que conta a relação amorosa entre o morto-vivo Edward Cullen, com 17 anos desde 1918, e sua amada e humana Isabella Swan (chamada de Bella), ambos colegas no terceiro ano do ensino médio na chuvosa cidade de Forks, conquistou uma legião de fãs. E foi além: acaba de render à escritora, de 34 anos, um lugar entre as 100 personalidades mundiais mais influentes, eleitas pela revista Time. Ela aparece ao lado de nomes como Hillary Clinton, George Clooney e Dalai Lama. Quais são os seus superpoderes?

Stephenie leva uma vida pacata, é religiosa, segue os ditames mórmons e uma de suas poucas rebeldias é o gosto por Pepsi Diet – a igreja desaconselha o consumo de substâncias que tenham cafeína. Até aí, ela não está investida de nenhum truque mágico. Os seus poderes especiais, na verdade, ganham vida graças a uma mente extremamente criativa, voltada à ficção, que monta adoráveis e sedutores vampiros – todos do bem. São seres evoluídos que mudam a dieta (só bebem sangue de animais) para resistir, a duras penas, à sede que têm de sangue humano e assim conseguem viver pacificamente em sociedade. O carisma de seus personagens junto aos adolescentes é comparado ao fascínio exercido pelo bruxo Harry Potter, da escritora inglesa J. K. Rowling, e há quem aposte que a saga dos jovens vampiros reúna qualidades suficientes para desbancá-lo de sua liderança isolada nesse filão editorial. Isso já ocorreu no ano passado quando Eclipse, seu terceiro livro, chegou às lojas quase ao mesmo tempo que a última aventura de Harry Potter.

FENÔMENO A autora Stephenie Meyer (à dir.), uma dona-de-casa mórmon, escreveu três livros e já vendeu seis milhões de exemplares em todo o mundo

No cinema, a trajetória dos vampiros já é semelhante à do aprendiz de mágico nascido na Inglaterra: o primeiro livro, Crepúsculo (que chega ao Brasil pela editora Intrínseca, 390 págs., R$ 39,90), virou filme e estreará em dezembro nos EUA. À semelhança das obras de J. K. Rowling, o quarto livro de Stephenie, Breaking down, previsto para agosto, está recebendo tratamento vip com esquema de vendas a partir de meia-noite nas grandes livrarias. A popularidade desses novos personagens já inspirou nomes de bandas de rock, centenas de comunidades de sites de relacionamento e seus nomes aparecem impressos em camisetas. Antes mesmo de suas histórias serem editadas aqui, elas já podiam ser lidas em sites da internet devidamente traduzidas pelos fãs.

É certo que há muito marketing promovendo a nova escritora e seus personagens carismáticos, e nem poderia ou deveria ser diferente. Mas é um fato que a vampiromania foi crescendo até explodir no último ano – e vale lembrar que boa parte da propaganda começou boca a boca, leitor com leitor, adolescente com adolescente. Alguns trechos do primeiro romance se tornaram cults como o momento em que Bella descobre que o lindo garoto por quem está encantada é mesmo um vampiro: “De três coisas eu estava convicta. Primeira, Edward era um vampiro. Segunda, havia uma parte dele – e eu não sabia que poder esta parte teria – que tinha sede do meu sangue. E terceira, eu estava incondicional e irrevogavelmente apaixonada por ele”. A paixão compartilhada por ambos é sempre contida, paira sobre Bella a ameaça do vampirismo de Edward. Se ele ultrapassar o sinal, ela estará morta.

O filme Crepúsculo estréia em dezembro nos EUA, com Robert Pattinson e kristen Stewart (à frente) como Edward e bella

Nas cenas românticas, nunca fica claro se ele deseja ter relações sexuais com Bella ou apenas se alimentar do seu sangue, mordendo- lhe a jugular. Num trecho, ela diz: “Eu podia sentir seu hálito frio em meu pescoço, sentir seu nariz deslizando por meu queixo, inspirando (…)”. E ele sussurra: “Só porque estou resistindo ao vinho, não quer dizer que não possa apreciar o buquê. Você tem um aroma floral, de lavanda ou frésia. É de dar água na boca”. Essa tensão permeia todo o romance e não é diferente dos dilemas humanos que envolvem uma paixão proibida. A autora afirmou em entrevista que foi pressionada a incluir cenas mais explícitas de sexo em seus livros, mas resistiu. Mesmo que algumas passagens sejam sensuais e com insinuações eróticas, os personagens nunca vão além de castos beijos e carinhos no rosto e pescoço – embora demonstrem o tempo todo desejar muito mais do que isso. Nada mais humano, e é justamente com essa humanização dos vampiros que Stephenie parece ter seduzido irrevogavelmente os seus jovens leitores. Os mesmos que J. K. Rowling brindou apenas com o cândido beijo travado entre Harry Potter e Cho Chang.

VAMPIROS FAMOSOS

Drácula (1992), dirigido por Francis Ford Coppola e protagonizado por Gary Oldman, baseia-se em livro de 1897 do escritor irlandês Bram Stoker

O filme Entrevista com o vampiro (1994), de Neil Jordan, é adaptado do romance de Anne Rice, e o personagem Lestat é interpretado por Tom Cruise

Criação do escritor e produtor de tevê Joss Whedon, o vampiro Angelus ficou conhecido pelo seriado de tevê Buffy, a caçavampiros (1997)

http://www.terra.com.br/istoe/edicoes/2010/artigo88149-1.htm

and going to see new moon tonight.

And yes, I am sacrificing sleep to go see a bad movie. Why? Because I already sacrificed 3 weeks reading the (first three) books.

Did I like them? Honestly no. They were easy to read, but they entirely lacked substance. I resent authors like Meyer and Rowling for exactly this reason. I know I could do better, but what’s the chance anything I write being read, let alone one hundredth as popular. To be perfectly juvenile it’s not fair. 

Maybe I sound pretentious in saying I could do better, but it doesn’t change anything. Writing with substance isn’t read, unless Oprah happens to pick it up.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m extremely insecure about my writing as of this moment, especially considering the declining quality of these blog posts and my utter lack of readers. I haven’t had time to work on it, you see.

I know, excuses excuses, but I can’t be expected to maintain a 3.59 GPA , let alone bring it up, while following a dream. A dream which more and more is looking like a whim.

Now I’m depressed. Why do these blogs always depress me? Fail.

There is a debate going on in literary and teen circles over which series is better: Harry Potter or Twilight. Given New Moon’s imminent release, the debate, which has risen and faded over the past couple years, has reached another peak.

These two articles in The Buffalo News express both sides of the debate well. In summary, Harry Potter is better because J.K. Rowling planned the series, it’s complex and intricate, and created a fervent love for reading among children that no series had ever encountered. On the other hand, Twilight appeals to the romantic side of teenage girls, is also a phenomenon in its own right, and “romance, action and the classic battle of good vs. evil.” There is also the argument that the two series should not even be compared, because Harry Potter was seven books as opposed to Twilight’s four — a full 1,600 more pages.

Personally, having read all seven HP books as well as all 4 Twilight books, I’m inclined to fall on the Harry side of this debate. While I recognize the phenomenon that is Twilight, Harry Potter was a cultural shift in the book and publishing industry. Every fantasy series since has tried to achieve the magic (no pun intended) that Harry and Hogwarts did back in 1999. Twilight, on the other hand, is a very niche-friendly series (have you seen a teenage guy enjoy the books? I rest my case) that presents a weak heroine and a demanding, controlling vampire as her love interest. Personally, I don’t see how Edward Cullen could ever trump Harry Potter.

But what do you think?

Shakespear had a way with words that was fed by the mind but spoken through the heart. His talent is hard to come by and few have mastered the art of story telling like Shakespear.

But like every rule, there is an exception. Author’s like J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer have produced the best fantasy novels I’ve read – but only 1 author for me can get a spark when it comes to telling real human tales.

Perhaps by now the title has given my favorite author away, but for those who haven’t read his work, he is Nicholas Sparks. You might remember him better if I mention the film adaptation of his novel The Notebook. But far from the Hollywood hype, his tales are those of great human sacrifice and getting back up when the fall seems to have been too high. Sparks is not perfect, there can be some exaggerations in his mode of story telling. But when you pick up his book and flip through the pages you forget where you are and you are absorbed into his world. Flaws are forgotten and the essence of the story is felt. For me, Nicholas Sparks has done what he has set out to do. To tell a tale and keep the reader enthralled.

Every author has his own technique, that special touch to make a story great. For those who love to write I suggest you visit this site:

www.ejournals.ph/index.php/PIJP

Find the article on Speech Acts and Poetry. The article is informative and suitable for all you writers out there.

Have a good one y’all!

Kanye West Heads 2010’s Official Celebrity Dead Pool

By Dagrolord Del Oro- Special to Baron Munchausen’s Beat

1. Kanye West – Nobody’s lobbied harder.  Kill it before it grows.

2. Octomom – 8 embryo enterprise?  Monstrous.

3. Dr. Phil – Shot through the heart. And you’re to blame.You give love a bad name.

4. Michael Jackson -  Once is not enough.

5. Stephenie Meyer – Creator of Twilight.

6. Lady Gaga – Capital crimes of fashion.

7. Madonna – Frightening kids with those Cryptkeeper hands.

8. Jose Canseco – Mourners will think how lifelike Jose looks in his size 48 rat jacket.

9. Jim Cramer – Much ado about nothing.

10. J.K. Rowling  – For making us go back and re-read that chapter where Ron Weasley stole Dumbledore’s magic gerbils.

11. Sarah Palin – You don’t have to go gently into that good night Sarah, but you do have to go.

13. Fidel Castro – Just to include at least one like really old person.

14. Paris Hilton – Neuro-trash.

15. Amy Winehouse – Makes Paris Hilton seem on good behavior.

16. Mickey Rourke – Stop teasing us, already.

17. Mary-Kate Olsen – If only to stop her photo mill.

18. John Travolta – Parenting?  Not so much.

19. Joaquin Phoenix – Hiatus calling itself ‘Quit’.

20. Oprah – Two words- 1. Doctor.  2. Phil.

21. Victoria Beckham – C-word’s Folly.

22. Johnny Depp – Publicist leaked one ginormous gratuity too many.

23. Isiah Washington – Might want to avoid that ‘Bash’ he just invited you to.

24. Simon Cowell – Let’s see that self-loathing redirected back where it belongs.

25. Michael Phelps – Swim goggles, yes.  Microphones, no.

This place is a prison and these people aren’t your friends

Inhaling thrills through $20 bills and the tumblers are drained

And then flooded again and again. – The Postal Service,

Man, there has been something insane going on within the confinement of my brain. I’ve been flat ass broke for a couple months here; with few breaks of money in between, but still. I guess maybe I am irresponsible about money. But honestly, in the bottom on my heart, I don’t think I’m being dealt a fair card in this situation.

To help my mental state a little bit more, I’ve been keeping to myself much more and thinking. Thinking about life; about plans; about how when I wake in the morning, I wish I had fresh squeezed orange juice; about how I wish my friends would help me out a little bit more; about how stupid I am for relying on my father; etc. etc. etc.

The more I sit by my lonesome and ponder everyday mysteries, the more I can feel my sanity being sucked out of my soul and throw into oblivion by an invisible Dementor. Since I’m watching myself type all of this down, I feel as though I may be losing more of my mind than originally thought; seeing as though I just used a noun that exists only in a fantasy-based novel by J.K. Rowling.

A dear friend of mine just recently had a lovely smoke-out early in the morning with my other friend and myself. He was describing how he enjoyed how ‘normal’ we both were to him; and how much he liked us versus the people he had deeming ‘not normal.’ Most people who I’ve told this story to were slightly appalled and thought I would of taken offense to this statement. However, what most people don’t seem to understand is; I’m a tad bit crazy in my head.. I guess I can be the only one who knows this for absolute positive, but then again, if anyone else lived in my head for as long as I’ve lived in mine, they’d believe they were crazy too. Being referred to as ‘normal’ made me feel like other people might not see actually how crazy I really am. Like maybe I’m tricking all these people around me into believing I’m ‘normal,’ whatever that means. I suppose I just felt a little dash of pride, forgive me.

Today I encountered a nice young man who seemed to be moving in an extremely peculiar way. I just assumed he was moving awkwardly to Andrew Gorny’s guitar playing. Awhile went by and I didn’t notice anymore, but he seemed to notice me more. He began speaking very slowly, then very quickly. Once or twice, he moved his head around closer to my ear, like he thought I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Eventually, I learned he had just eaten five mushrooms four hours prior to our meeting. He mentioned that it was his first time tripping and how insanely high he felt. I thought he may be trying to figure out what was reality, when he picked up his bag, said his goodbyes, and traipsed off into the downtown streets of Portland. The only real response I could come up with was to just slightly smile and nod my head knowingly. I imagine I’ve appeared that way to strangers before. I faintly remember several trips in public, feeling nothing but euphoria.

• Ahh, how the days drag on without you, love. I miss you like I miss walking next to the ocean. When I touch your face, look into your eyes; I see the clouds blowing and I can almost hear the waves beating against the barrier between my mind and yours.

Quite personally, forever is unconceivable.

It’s more dangerous when every second could be your last.

November 11, 2009 – 05:01am

I guess this is the end.

Possibly the end of you and me,

Possibly just the end altogether.

Regardless – I’m done with this scene, boy.

Here we come, future.

Why do weekends always seem to go by so fast? I am convinced that there is some scientific explanation behind this phenomenon… Perhaps a project for later? Or maybe because it’s only 3 – days, hmm..

Título: Harry Potter e a Câmara dos Segredos 
Autor: J. K. Rowling
Género: Fantasia
Tamanho: 263
Formato: Pdf

Segundo livro da saga do atrapalhado aprendiz de feiticeiro. Desta vez, terríveis perigos rondam a Escola de Magia e Feitiçaria de Hogwarts. Harry e o seu amigo Ron terão de enfrentar tenebrosos monstros e, o pior de tudo, a encarnação nada amigável do seu principal inimigo: Lord Voldemort.

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Building as an Actor?  (Hjersman) 

Copyright  ©  Peter Hjersman 2009 

     Movies often use buildings as the setting.  Some settings are beneficial and most are horrible.  The traditional haunted house…on a hill…in a storm is a static participant, like a mountain with caves.  The building itself is a means to an end but not a participant.  Walls, floors, ceiling, doors are props that allow actions to occur about and through them.  Most the interior scenes would not work in an unobstructed desert. 

     A recent example is in the Harry Potter books (1997 book by J. K. Rowling .  The stairways in the living area–move about–seemingly of their own volition and without any contribution to the plot.  The movies accent this sidelight (2001 script by Steve Kloves .  These movements do give us a characterization of the building but only as a sidelight, not as a participatory character.  The ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft’ is more than a static prop, but not a full participant. 

     What if…the stairways sensed the walker and turned in the direction they are going?  The swinging stairs could alter a pursuit, making capture easier or more difficult.  What if a secret hallway door opened when a basement was being sought? 

     The House Next Door (1978 book by Anne Rivers Siddons ; 2006 script by Suzette Couture uses the house itself as the evil antagonist.  Even the architect was used and has no idea what happened.  Did he “go down with the ship”?  He was fascinated by the building and moved in after previous occupants were buried.  The house itself kills occupants by dredging up fear from within and using it to their demise.  Speculation on the cause centers on the site.  Perhaps this was a sacred or burial site for the local nation of native dwellers.  Maybe a meteor or other source of strong electro-magnetic energy caused the disruption.  Perhaps the Feng-shui, the geomancy, indicates the site was not meant to support a human residence.  If…the site thirsts for blood, then a slaughter house or a crematorium might benefit on that land.  Does the micro-ecosystem of that site have a specific purpose? 

     What if…the architect returned determined to resolve the negative energy, found the reason, resolved, and provided a house that evolved to a home with multiple positive benefits? 

     In Thir13en Ghosts  (1960; Robb White; 2001 script by Richard D’Ovidio), the building was constructed for a specific evil purpose.  The building is a participant in the antagonist’s scheme, an assistant.  Walls, doors move and shuttle the occupants to certain places. 

     What if…the energy was reversed, adding some Charlie Chaplin with a bed that dumps the sleeper into the day when it is time to get up?  The walls shift, opening the bath and closet, then the kitchen and so on.  Moving walls and stairs are capable of benefiting our day. 

     Why are buildings not used as protagonists?  Many objects considered inanimate are used, such as brooms, beds, and other house items.  In a plot, what is the difference between a flying plate and the kitchen used for airspace?  Can’t they both move about?  Are we so close to the comfort, protection, hideaway we project onto our buildings that we cannot see them as giving other benefits?  Is a building, a home, more than a “shelter”? 

     Walls and ceilings could expand when the occupant wants to create and then cozy down when comfort is needed.  What if…a front door only allowed friendly people to enter?  Does a stone wall provide the same security as a wood-frame gypsum-board wall? 

     One guest from Europe said he feels insecure inside our hollow walls.  He grew up in and around stone and brick buildings.  Our buildings seem light and fragile.  He knew of the movement of California land from earthquakes, but his feelings stood.  If a building design came from the land, came from deep within, similar to the resource mentioned by writers , would this building evoke and exude higher life energies?  We all know what it feels like to be treated as a nothing, an invisible inconsequential emptiness, yet we treat buildings this way.  Farmers who only plant one crop delete the soil of prime ingredients.  Those who listen to the land know to alter crops to revitalize the soil they use as stewards of the land. 

     What if…we consider buildings as partners, like land to the farmer, resources to the writers?  If we become stewards of our buildings, would we find resources that gave us benefits?  If we listen…to the land, to our inner resources, to our buildings….  Then, we would have lives and movies with buildings that benefit the occupants, empower them to treasures within, and enhance their lives.  Buildings can be good guys—and gals. 

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