Sunday, August 25, 2013

GOVERNMENT: Gang Leader for a Day

Sudhir Venkatesh is a first-year Sociology graduate student who hopes to impress his professors by interviewing the residents of the Robert Taylor housing projects, one of the largest and most poverty-stricken projects in Chicago. What he finds is a mini-society of drug dealers, prostitutes, government workers, and families just trying to survive. JT, the leader of the gang that runs Robert Taylor, takes a strange liking to Venkatesh and, over about a decade, gives him an unprecedented look into the workings of his gang and the influence they have on the projects they "protect."

I really enjoyed finding more about this aspect of society, but the way it was presented wasn't the best. At times, I felt like Venkatesh wanted to be writing a nonfiction book, and at times I felt like he wanted to write a fiction book. It went back and forth from telling, not showing to showing, not telling. I feel like I would have liked it more if it was all anecdotes or all exposition on what he learned and how things worked, but it went back and forth. In addition, I felt like for how long he spent with these people, he was not able to convey them in a way that made me care about them at all.

GOVERNMENT: I chose this book for government because I was very interested in learning about the inner workings of a gang. It is fascinating to me how such an unrespected life requires such intelligence. If you look at a lot of the people who run these things, they have amazing business and political skills. It was very interesting to get  a look into the inner structure and life of the gang. They had a whole hierarchy with a pay grade system, rules and laws, a trial system, and a multitude of roles for the various jobs the members need to fulfill.

Goodreads rating: 3 stars
Recommended: Yes, if you're interested in learning about an aspect of society that is totally foreign to most people, but don't expect an exceptionally well-written or compelling read.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

BOOK INTO MOVIE: The Da Vinci Code

I think everyone knows the story of The Da Vinci Code, but I will give a quick refresher. Robert Langdon is a Harvard symbologist who has been called upon to help uncover the truth behind the death of the elderly curator of the Lourve. What he uncovers, though, is the shocking truth of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the secret the Christian Church has been hiding for centuries.

I thought this book was amazing. What this book, and Angels and Demons before it, does really well is teaching you something while you read a fun, action-packed story. Though the characters aren't particularly interesting or complicated, I don't think that matters much. In my personal opinion, a good writer excels at two out of three points: story, characters, and writing style. Dan Brown excels and story and writing style, so that's all I need (not to say his writing is particularly brilliant, but for the type of story he writes it is perfectly suited).

I really loved learning about the idea of Mary Magdalene as Jesus' wife and the massive amount of evidence to support it. I also enjoyed reading about the conscious decision to devalue the role of women in the church and it's history. And, as always, the hidden meaning behind symbols and their history. I LOVE LEARNING! Lol, sorry Raeann--had to channel you! :) And I really loved how this novel tied itself up, all fitting together perfectly.

THE MOVIE As with the book, this was a fun, light watch. Though it followed the book very closely, I was pretty disappointed (though not surprised) by the fact they didn't go into nearly as much as the cover-up of the church, their reasoning behind it, and the evidence (real or imagined, it was pretty cool and convincing). Although I realize it's probably due to time constraints, as with most cutting when translating from book to movie, it's probably more to do with the controversial subject (The Golden Compass, anyone?). Though all in all it followed the book very well in major plot points and it was entertaining. And I've seen this movie before I read the book awhile ago, and I remember not having any issues following it when I hadn't read the book--so props for that.

All in all, it was a good translation. Looking forward to Inferno (which I haven't read yet, but I will before the movie comes out..)!

Goodreads rating: 5 stars
Recommendation: Highly! Fun read, don't expect something literary, because you won't get it, but you will get an entertaining read!

Books into Movies: Not into "Out of Africa"

I should preface this by saying I was unable to finish the book OR the movie.

The book: This book did have some interesting tales. It was written as a series of mini-stories within the larger tale of "how I owned a giant coffee farm in Kenya". The colonialist nonsense I was able to deal with it and roll with the "ok, uncool but that was the context at the time" but my main issue was I just didn't find it very interesting! I think this book had potential, great material to work with, it just didn't come together for me. That may be due to the time this was written and that it is adapted from her journal. Anyway, I bailed about halfway through. There are just too many cool books out there!

The movie: The movie was VERY loosely based on the book. I made it about twenty minutes in. The movie also has some interesting material to work with but it's totally NOT from the book, at least the first twenty minutes. I mean this was MERYL FRIGGING STREEP and I couldn't keep my attention. Meryl even had an accent going. And Robert Redford is dead sexy. The colonialism crap was a bit thicker in the movie, harder to ignore/keep in context. This would be a good movie to watch to illustrate the ideas and problems of colonial depictions actually. But I was just not interested.

Recommendation: Don't read/watch.