I started the summer off with some light reading. I reread the Twilight series. I read the books before I saw the Twilight movie and since then, when i think of Bella, i see Kristen. My crush on Kristen Stewart inspired a rereading of the series with her replacing the previously cast Bella in my mind.It's always a sad time when a movie character replaces the one you had invented on your own when reading the book for the first time, but in this instance I didnt mind so much. I get butterflies in my stomach when Kristen nervously bites her bottom lip so i threw that image in quite often while I read.
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Next I finished The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I had read the novel in highschool and im not sure what inspired me to revisit it, but Im glad I did. It was fun to spend some time in the "roaring" twenties with Nick, Jay, and Daisy. Part of the reading experience for me is relating to the story and its characters, and in The Great Gatsby I find myself drawn to N
ick. He is a quiet observer who knows each character intimately simply because he cares enough to watch and pay attention. He is the confidant and friend that isnt always in the limelight, he shys away from it actually, but is always there to catch the stars when they fall.Ive made it a new habit to watch any movies I can find that were made based on the books I read. I found a 1974 version of The Great Gatsby starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow that was just great. I appreciate it when a movie stays as true as it can to the book and this one did a fine job. It did lose a little bit of the magic and heart that the novel houses, but Daisys character, Mia Farrow, made up for any losses. On a side note, it was hard to get over the idea of her being the same actress in Rosemarys Baby, such a creepy movie. I was half expecting some supernatural devil spawn to spring out of a corner of the screen to attack her.
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The next book I ventured to read was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. From the beginning of 
the work this instintantly became one of my favorites. I followed the life and adventures of an endearing young protagonist named Pip. In a classic Dickens-style heartwarming tale of a rise from rags to riches, I was right along Pips side, falling in love with the heartless Estella, becoming a gentleman and gaining a hope of someday winning her affection, and having my heart broken. This novel is a masterpiece and one I energetically reccomend to others.I found quite a few film versions of Great Expectations and was excited to watch them all. I started with the most recent, a modern adap
tation made sometime in the 90's starring Ethan Hawke and Gweneth Paltrow, and was so dissatisfied that I almost didnt finish. It strayed so far from the storyline that it lost all of the power of its messsage and heart. Dickens must have been turnng in his grave upon the latters release, pulling out whatever hair he had left. My favorite version of the movie however was made in 1946 and, of course, it stayed true to the storyline and dialogue of the book. The acting was somewhat dry, but the message was as emotionally potent as ever.________________________________________________
A Clockwork Orange was my next read. What a mindfull that was. I dont reccomend this one to the faint of heart as the subject matter is entirely saturated with violence and an evil minded narrator. It was a lot of fun to read because it was written in semi-old english with a lot of made-up vocabulary words that the author used in proxy of many common ones. The narrator Alex speaks in "nadsat" which is the common slang of the teenagers of the future.
An example:"to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood."
meaning "to kick some old man in an alley and watch him swim in his own blood"
Fun right?
I have a thing for utopian or anti-utopian novels (such as Brave New World, 1984, The Giver) and this one threw me off being dystopian. Depicting a future not even trying to be perfect but simply housing chaos and disorder. The trick to the novel was that amidst all of this "ultra-violence" and mayhem that would normally be read or observed with unease, through the narrators nonchal
ant and hopelessly guiltless view, many of the most vulgar scenes are underlined with a sense of humor that make the reader question their moral scruples. Alex is a gang leader that commits horrid crimes, is eventuall inprisoned, and introced to a new technique that will supposedly cure him of his michevious ways. Agency is a common moral dillema towards the end of the novel as well as the nature of man.The movie Clockwork Orange, fittingly made in the 1970s with its crazy set design and fanciful and futuristic feel was every bit as obscene and unsettling as the novel. I would only reccomend the movie to serious buffs or fans of the book. __________________________________________________
This has been a long post, but I only have one more book to catch up on. Just tonight I finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. What an unusual gem this was. The book (and not to mention almost every character within its pages) had relatively no reediming qualities. What a sloppy mess of tangled love stories it turned out to be; if you can even call them
love stories. I loved this book for that very reason though. Heathclif is now one of my favorite literary fiends. The story revlolves around Heathclif and his love for Cathy, who marrys another and dies. The rest of the novel painfully describes how he proceeds to ruin every single life within his power to corrupt. He skillyfully remains soulless until the end, never repenting and caring for no one but his departed love. I was impressed with his ability to feel absolutely no compassion for anyone, as most stories include some kind of a reformation or at least a transformation in the slightest of the protagonist, but Heathcliff, like the ancient walls of Wuthering Heights themselves, remained unmoved until the end. Probably the most insane and untraditional love story I have ever encountered, with only the slightest residue of a silver lining, I gladly count this novel as another one of my favorites.So far the movies I have found are a Masterpiece Theatre's production made in 2009 that is 3 hours long. The story was very distorted and the characters were far too likeable to ever reccomend this production of the classic. I have yet to watch the 1939 version, but I can already assume I will like it better.
Says Heathclif upon Cathys death,
"I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"
