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I don't know what it is about my Brit Lit class that just utterly kills me, but it does. I remember having a horrible time writing my first paper, and I have been this time, too. It's due Wednesday at 5pm. My original goal was to have it done to turn in today during discussion, but that didn't happen. Then, my goal was to turn it in tomorrow during lecture. But I don't think that's going to happen, either. Tonight I have a complete draft and a solid(ish) thesis, but now I'd prefer to be able to edit it tomorrow.
My part-time job in the town where my parents live was working in a retail store. And I'll be returning there the day after Thanksgiving....for one day only! But I called them to find out what my hours are...since I haven't worked since January, they didn't want me early in the morning (ie, no waking up at 4am for me, SWEET). BUT, they put me down for working 11am to 8:30pm! Grrr.....I get a 1-hour break, but whatever. My employers expect that I will use this hour to go and shop in the store. Instead, I will run across the street and read manga in large, plushie chairs. Working the day after Thanksgiving isn't all that bad. It's the only day of the year our store ever schedules enough people, and they usually give us free Subway sandwiches and cookies. WHICH IS COOL WITH ME!
Still, I'm bringing Antoine home with me for the holiday, and he will need something to do. Poor Antoine, :( Let us pity him, and the possibility that he might have to spend all 9.5 hours with my family.
Beowulf
First of all, seeing this was fun, because I went with my friends Gretchen, Jaci, Jaci's boyfriend Tim, and Sandy. Also, it was fun BECAUSE WE SAW IT IN 3D. The entire movie was in 3D! It was so awesome.
I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would. I feel like the animation looked better in the movie than it did in the preview. People's skin had very fine hairs on it, like on the outside of Beowulf's nose. Extremely detailed. Animation of the horses was very weak, and the fabrics on people's bodies was weird. But overall, the animation was quite beautiful.
The feel of the Anglo-Saxons was totally awesome - burping, drinking, sexing, and above all - bragging like no tomorrow.
I did like that Gaiman/Avary stuck with the interpretation that the merry-making of Hrothgar and his men caused physical anguish in Grendel - this is the only explanation that is given in the original source for his attacking the mead hall, so it was nice that his motivation was explained that way. I'm not too sure as to why Grendel spoke Old English, and nobody else did. Is it supposed to mean that Hrothgar, etc. were modernizing, while Grendel was trying to force them to regress? I'm not sure. Maybe it was just a nod to the source material, and didn't have anything to do with his being an antagonist.
As much as I liked the incredibly creepy moment when the carnage left by Grendel's Mother was seen, it sits kind of oddly with me. In the original text, I'm fairly certain that Grendel's Mother takes out exactly one of Hrothgar's dudes - as was expected by "blood-debt" at the time. Her son was killed, and she extracted the proper payment. Beowulf seeking her out and killing her anyway was kind of a dick move. Anyway, I guess they made her kill more people in order to be more dramatic. Her entire plot didn't seem all that interesting to me. There are scholars who postulate that Grendel's Mother is actually Hrothgar's sister, and that Grendel is the product of her incestuous union with her brother. This is why Grendel attacks Hrothgar's mead hall in the first place - because he thinks he has a rightful claim to the throne. It's also why Grendel and his mother have to live in exile. It ties up some loose ends from the source material. And I think I would have preferred to see that version, than the sexed-up one that was used in the movie. I think that in the text, Beowulf fights her underwater, and that's the end of it.
I understand that Beowulf married Wealtheow in the film version so that all of the characters could stay in one place (in the original, Beowulf returns to his own kingdom, and the dragon he fights in the end is A Random Dragon), and it's easier storytelling for a movie. What I don't understand, at all, is the purpose of Beowulf's Mistress. I don't think she added anything at all to the narrative.
And speaking of Wealtheow, I find it interesting that she was given such a prominent role in the film. In the text, she is Hrothgar's wife, the queen, who fills people's cups with ale and mead, and tells Beowulf not to let her sons get killed. And that's it. In Beowulf, Grendel's Mother is the only female character with any sort of power or agency. In the beginning of the movie, I thought that they were just giving us facial shots and body language shots of her horror about sleeping with Hrothgar, etc. to prove a point about how horrific Beowulf's world was for women. Instead, they didn't do that. When she said to Hrothgar, "How can I lie with you, knowing that you laid with HER?" I thought they were going to go for the Grendel's Mother-is-Hrothgar's-sister route, and have Wealtheow have been her childhood friend, or something. I feel like that would have been more interesting. I feel like lots of different narrative routes would have been more interesting. Really, I expected more from Neil Gaiman. Oh, well. :(
I will be so glad when this paper is done. Never mind that I have three more to work on....
Note to Self: Things You Must Blog About
* Clamp School Detectives manga
* Tokyo Babylon manga
* Cantarella manga (OMG AMAZING)
Current Music: Red Fraction - MELL (Black Lagoon opening)
My part-time job in the town where my parents live was working in a retail store. And I'll be returning there the day after Thanksgiving....for one day only! But I called them to find out what my hours are...since I haven't worked since January, they didn't want me early in the morning (ie, no waking up at 4am for me, SWEET). BUT, they put me down for working 11am to 8:30pm! Grrr.....I get a 1-hour break, but whatever. My employers expect that I will use this hour to go and shop in the store. Instead, I will run across the street and read manga in large, plushie chairs. Working the day after Thanksgiving isn't all that bad. It's the only day of the year our store ever schedules enough people, and they usually give us free Subway sandwiches and cookies. WHICH IS COOL WITH ME!
Still, I'm bringing Antoine home with me for the holiday, and he will need something to do. Poor Antoine, :( Let us pity him, and the possibility that he might have to spend all 9.5 hours with my family.
Beowulf
First of all, seeing this was fun, because I went with my friends Gretchen, Jaci, Jaci's boyfriend Tim, and Sandy. Also, it was fun BECAUSE WE SAW IT IN 3D. The entire movie was in 3D! It was so awesome.
I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would. I feel like the animation looked better in the movie than it did in the preview. People's skin had very fine hairs on it, like on the outside of Beowulf's nose. Extremely detailed. Animation of the horses was very weak, and the fabrics on people's bodies was weird. But overall, the animation was quite beautiful.
The feel of the Anglo-Saxons was totally awesome - burping, drinking, sexing, and above all - bragging like no tomorrow.
I did like that Gaiman/Avary stuck with the interpretation that the merry-making of Hrothgar and his men caused physical anguish in Grendel - this is the only explanation that is given in the original source for his attacking the mead hall, so it was nice that his motivation was explained that way. I'm not too sure as to why Grendel spoke Old English, and nobody else did. Is it supposed to mean that Hrothgar, etc. were modernizing, while Grendel was trying to force them to regress? I'm not sure. Maybe it was just a nod to the source material, and didn't have anything to do with his being an antagonist.
As much as I liked the incredibly creepy moment when the carnage left by Grendel's Mother was seen, it sits kind of oddly with me. In the original text, I'm fairly certain that Grendel's Mother takes out exactly one of Hrothgar's dudes - as was expected by "blood-debt" at the time. Her son was killed, and she extracted the proper payment. Beowulf seeking her out and killing her anyway was kind of a dick move. Anyway, I guess they made her kill more people in order to be more dramatic. Her entire plot didn't seem all that interesting to me. There are scholars who postulate that Grendel's Mother is actually Hrothgar's sister, and that Grendel is the product of her incestuous union with her brother. This is why Grendel attacks Hrothgar's mead hall in the first place - because he thinks he has a rightful claim to the throne. It's also why Grendel and his mother have to live in exile. It ties up some loose ends from the source material. And I think I would have preferred to see that version, than the sexed-up one that was used in the movie. I think that in the text, Beowulf fights her underwater, and that's the end of it.
I understand that Beowulf married Wealtheow in the film version so that all of the characters could stay in one place (in the original, Beowulf returns to his own kingdom, and the dragon he fights in the end is A Random Dragon), and it's easier storytelling for a movie. What I don't understand, at all, is the purpose of Beowulf's Mistress. I don't think she added anything at all to the narrative.
And speaking of Wealtheow, I find it interesting that she was given such a prominent role in the film. In the text, she is Hrothgar's wife, the queen, who fills people's cups with ale and mead, and tells Beowulf not to let her sons get killed. And that's it. In Beowulf, Grendel's Mother is the only female character with any sort of power or agency. In the beginning of the movie, I thought that they were just giving us facial shots and body language shots of her horror about sleeping with Hrothgar, etc. to prove a point about how horrific Beowulf's world was for women. Instead, they didn't do that. When she said to Hrothgar, "How can I lie with you, knowing that you laid with HER?" I thought they were going to go for the Grendel's Mother-is-Hrothgar's-sister route, and have Wealtheow have been her childhood friend, or something. I feel like that would have been more interesting. I feel like lots of different narrative routes would have been more interesting. Really, I expected more from Neil Gaiman. Oh, well. :(
I will be so glad when this paper is done. Never mind that I have three more to work on....
Note to Self: Things You Must Blog About
* Clamp School Detectives manga
* Tokyo Babylon manga
* Cantarella manga (OMG AMAZING)
Current Music: Red Fraction - MELL (Black Lagoon opening)