Little Talks

[Warning: Spoilers] The Island of Dr. Moreau, written by H. G. Wells, is a story told by a man named Prendick who is shipwrecked. Long story short, Prendick is rescued by a passing ship. Montgomery, a medical man, befriends him and brings him back to health. But Montgomery and his men are somewhat suspicious. They are taking a bunch of animals to an almost deserted island. Prendick gets dumped on the island with them. There he meets Dr. Moreau, a man with an infamous reputation. As Prendick spends more time on the island, the pained sounds of the puma in Moreau's lab and the suspicious men and creatures on the island start to put him on edge. Prendick soon realizes that most of the inhabitants of the island, besides the rabbits and the two men, are not natural. He takes refuge in a city of Beast Folk, all different mixtures of animals given a more human form. In time he sees that some of the Beast Folk are less civilized. Some have reverted to animalistic habits. But Moreau an...

Hello! If you have visited this blog before, then you may notice that it has been revamped! That's right, Little Talks has a new look. I thought about doing this several times in the last year, but was never entirely satisfied with the changes. However, some new templates have become available and I think that this one is pretty neat. But I would love to hear your thoughts. I'm going to post a poll (hopefully I can still make that work here) and I would love to have your input on the new look. I was finding the old colours too intense for my taste and the background was just totally random. Can't find what you're looking for anymore? The sidebars are gone now. I know that might take some getting used to. Try clicking the little menu icon in the top left corner. There you will find a some information about me, a list of all my blog posts, some tools for translating or following the blog, and some links that I've shared. Well there were so many things I wanted to ...

I have been in England for over 2 months now, and I realize that perhaps the greatest thing that God has been challenging me and teaching me to do - something that He has been trying to get across to me for quite some time - is that I need to pray more. When you don't know anyone, when you are removed from the community you've grown up in, the community you've lived in your whole life, it can be quite lonely sometimes. By that, of course I sometimes mean that empty feeling of having no one to turn to. But what I really mean is that you don't have people to talk to. I'm not much of a talker, but I have definitely spoken less in the last 2 months than ever. Normally I come home to my family and we chat about our days or whatever we want. I can't do that now. So who do I talk to? Well, thankfully, there is still social media to keep me in contact with my loved ones. However I turn to God a lot more now. I have developed a daily routine that includes prayer times at...

[Warning: contains spoilers] Compared to its predecessor, The Huntsman: Winter's War was a let-down. There was nothing, besides the reappearance of a couple of characters, that actually made this movie feel like it was part of the story of the first. It had none of the fever dream, drug-induced hallucination feel of the first one. Admittedly, I found that off-putting at first, but I walked away from the movie feeling like some part of the story was left resonating in the back of my skull. Every time I watch it I appreciate it more. The raw, mystical use of light and dark powers beyond our understanding as the audience makes  Snow White and the Huntsman feel like old folklore; it's as though that film is truer to the original tale than any other retelling I have seen or heard. Of course, it is not in the least what the original tale was, but it feels like it should be. I was disappointed first to learn that Kristen Stewart was not going to be in the seque...

It appears I have let this week slip by without a single blog, after telling myself that I'd post at least once per week (aside from Sundays). It's hard when I see my list of things to write about and yet feel only discomfort at the thought of taking the time to write out a whole post for whatever movie or book I want to discuss next. I think sometimes my brain doesn't want to have to think critically, especially not about things that I read or watched quite some time ago (and even more so if I did not particularly like the film, book, or whatever). But I know that to improve my writing skills, to keep the creative side of my brain active, I must continue to make myself sit down and write. Growing up, I wrote because I could not longer keep all of the ideas in my head. I wrote because inspiration struck, then passion overcame me, and finally I critically began to shape my ideas and focus all of my imagination into the narrative. Somewhere along life's journey, my inspi...

In honour of Ed Sheeran's new album being released this week, I thought I'd share what might be my favourite lyrics from X. (Seriously, though, every song that man writes is brilliant!) I was part of a discussion a few weeks back - not for the first time - about how all music seems to be about love, relationships, and sex. This is true, save for a few marvelous examples. And I heard someone say that more artists should write songs that aren't about love, but about journeys, like Ed Sheeran does. And I agreed with that. I still do, but I realized later that a lot of Ed's music does still focus on relationships. I might argue that his music feels very real and deep, but that doesn't change the content. So why does so much of our music - and all of our entertainment, in fact - contain so much about love? To put it simply, I think that love is the strongest emotion we can experience as human beings. Whether we are feeling the joy or pain that comes as a consequence o...

I'm going to review this one as though you haven't seen it. As it is a TV series, I think that this is sensible, and much easier than trying to summarize the whole thing. This series may seem like a bit of a deviation for me. If you know the kind of TV shows I usually watch, you'd know that police procedurals, detective shows, and British mysteries make up the majority of my television interests, along with a healthy dose of comedy, fantasy, and historical pieces. I have begun to watch more horror movies thanks to my sister, but that's never really been my thing. So why Dead of Summer you ask? Well, there are several reasons. First, I kept seeing the ads...and they were very vague, but very intriguing. Second, my sister loves horror movies and thought that a horror show for young adults was perfect! Third, and most important, I saw that the creators were the same men who made Once Upon a Time (and also Lost ) so I knew it had to be good. Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kits...

Today is one of my favourite days: World Book Day! I love it, not because I do anything special, but because it celebrates books and literacy! Although, now that I think about it, I would totally love to throw a book-themed party for World Book Day sometime. There could be lots of cute fandom-inspired quotations and art for decorations, snacks based on foods in some of my favourite books, a cake that looks like a stack of books.... I may have to do this sometime. The unfortunate thing about today is that I didn't know it was World Book Day until a few hours ago. Sadly, I have not even opened a book today. I will read my Bible tonight, like I always do, but that is likely going to be the extent of it. Ironically, I am celebrating World Book Day by watching the TV shows I have missed this week. After several days in London, my brain is just not up to the challenge of diving into a new book right now. Yesterday I finished a collection of short stories titled Once Upon a Curse and I ...