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http://dreamingsofawanderersmind.blogspot.com/2012/03/spring-rain.html

Dune: Lord of the Rings in Space

       Dune by Frank Herbert is the epitome of sci-fi and fantasy. This book brings together aspects of unity, brotherly love, family ties, competition, survival, good and evil and love. From top to bottom and beginning to end, this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat as unpredictable turns in the plot make the story more like a puzzle than a timeline.  Frank Herbert is the Tolkien of Scifi, where Tolkien excels through the grandeur of his environment, Herbert generates that feeling of actually being in his world. Reading Dune, one can taste the spice-laden air, walk the sands as one of the Fremen, and breathe the hot, acrid air of Arrakis. A paragon of an accomplishment in the world of fiction, a true testament to the creativity of man. Herbert is a veritable Titan with a pen, and his work shall long be remembered as a tribute to unparalleled imagination and the power of the written word.

Excercise #3- Book Reviews

• Curve Ball
• A Million Suns: An Across the universe novel
• BZRK

 Parts of a review:
- An intro which outlines the general topic, indicates what the book's demographic is,  and places the book in its field.
-An outline of the content in the book(short Summary)
-A highlight of a particularly interesting part of the book which the reviewer evaluates and uses to argue it's theme.
-Closer- continuing to evaluate the book, indicating how it meets the reader's literary needs, recommending whether one should purchase the book or not, justifying the claims made previously in the review.

Note #1

(Tithonus)

...Man comes and tills the earth and lies beneath
 And after many a summer dies the swan.
 Me only cruel immortality Consumes:
I wither slowly in thine arms,
 Here at the quiet limit of the world.

    - - Alfred Lord Tennyson

     In Tithonus , Alfred Lord Tennyson paints a bleak portrait of a solitary being who walks the earth after the light of humanity has long been extinguished. Tennyson's darkly musical flow conveys the loneliness of Tithonus, while accentuating the melancholia of his surroundings. Tithonus' lamenting about his regrettable past serves as a cometary on the voracious nature of humanity's desire for immortality and the regrettable fact that when offered the possibility of having anything in the world, man's ultimate fear--the fear of death-- is, so easily, able to overcome him and cloud his mind. When Aurora offers Tithonus anything he should want, he rashly chooses eternal life on earth. Upsetting the god, Tithonus is damned to age forever and to forever carry the onus of his deeds "at the limit of the world".

Excercise 2

In this scene of Stardust, Gaiman utilizes a bold, pedantic style language along with lyrical description to evoke a sense of monumental immaculateness which surrounds the town. (Weakness #6)

Even as the the main character, Roberta, is grounded till September 8, 1972, she writes a "cruddy book of her cruddy life."  (3)

"Once upon a cruddy time on a cruddy street on the side of a cruddy hill..." the repetitive use of cruddy creates a negative feel for the place she is describing. "...which bubbles up very weird smells that evil genie themselves up through the cruddy dark rain..."(5)

Good Post: 99 bottles

Excercise 1

         The Mud Below is a dusty, mellifluous abstraction of the phenomena known as bull riding. Author Anne Proulx's work accentuates the gritty eccentricities of that generically backward town. The alternation of slow and fast wording gives the feel of a fast cutting action montage, akin to work of Micheal Bay, and the image of "the back of bull 82N" creates the momentary effect of a macro, close up shot where everything save branding "82N" out of focus. She begins another paragraph with the interjection by Rito of some obviously insightful observation of the bull, though it appears to be gibberish to the uninformed ear. This draws the focus out to encompass the protagonist and his surroundings and the aforementioned cycle begins again.

The Children of Húrin

        Everyone is familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien's  The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and anyone who has read these can sense the passion he has for fantasy. Tolkien spent most of his life writing, rewriting, reorganizing and tinkering with the vast mythology of Middle Earth and the tip of the iceberg is The Simarillion, a collection of epic history, primarily dealing with the fate of the Noldor (a group of elves). In The Simarillion there is a summarized version of the tale of a great hero named Húrin and his kinsman. J.R.R. Tolkien's son Christopher Tolkien published the unabridged version in 2007. In The Children of Húrin, Tolkien departs from the typical fantasy structure where "the truth will out" and good will always conquer evil. This story is tragedy. In The Children of Húrin, Tolkien follows Húrin's son, Túrin, and does a great job of drawing the reader in so they become emotionally invested in the characters and then everyone dies. However, rather than being disappointed, Tolkien ends the story in a way that leaves you thinking that every thing is as it should be.

Anthology: Theme Statement

               I considered several topics for my anthology, I thought Winter would be a good choice because it is my favorite season, but I have never been able to describe why I like Winter so much. Rather than read or write about winter I'd rather experience it. I also thought about doing fear or dreams, but went further and decided to explore the things that people fear and dream about most. So, the theme I intend to focus on is Mortality vs. Immortality.
             Because mortality is a popular topic in literature, I've found lots of texts to use for this anthology. Some examples are T.S. Elliot's Whispers of Immortality, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and almost every other scifi/fantasy writer incorperate immortality as a motif in thier writings, the band Alphaville is largley known for their song Forever Young, and the list goes on. Odds are that if you gave somone three wishes, one would be that they live forever.

Reading Requirements

• Finish a book every other week.
• Read at least 2000 pages over the quarter
• Read while falling at 125 mph