Little Talks

We seem to be living in a time of increasing hopelessness. We are sitting in our homes watching as the world faces more and more problems every day, while we feel helpless to do anything about it when we can't even go places and do things to support ourselves financially and emotionally. A worldwide pandemic has temporarily shut down economies and continues to claim lives dat after day. Riots and protests over issues of racism are at an all-time high. Political climates everywhere are full of turmoil and uncertainty. Fear over government control in the wake of global catastrophe is only adding to the issue. Wildfires are raging yet again, causing apocalyptical red skies. Every day we see dissension and debates online, or hear about global crises that need immediate attention. Where is the hope? Socio-political issues seem to be growing into bigger discussions than ever before. Maybe, now that we have little going on in our lives, we have suddenly discovered that we have more time t...

 I almost hate to admit it, but I've had moments over the past few months when the social justice messages flooding all of my web pages and social media started to feel like too much and I just wanted to shut it all out for a while. Maybe you've had an experience like that too. It's okay to feel weighed down or overwhelmed by all of it: the injustice, the opposing arguments, the lack of a clear and easy solution for all of the world's ills. It's a lot to take in. The Message Is Important, Therefore We Must Speak It In spite of our discussion exhaustion, the message of equality is so important. There is a reason that these discussions have been going on for decades – centuries, even. Of course, the discourse seems more prevalent now than ever. Perhaps it is because we have all been given a new platform through social media that simply could not be had before. Now, people who could never make their views known to the masses have a way to share their thoughts with comm...

Billie Eilish just released her official tour video " NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY " and – wow! – there is a lot to unpack. I don't often discuss this sort of pop culture news, but she has me thinking that maybe I should. This video packed as much punch as any literary prize-winning story, if not more. In the video, the pop star sheds her baggy attire while she addresses her haters and, more specifically, body-shamers. Billie Eilish is notorious for wearing over-sized clothing that hides her figure. She has said that she does this so that no one can use her size or appearance against her because they can't actually see what her body looks like. But the narration in the video makes it clear that she still experiences judgement all the time, not just for how she looks, but for what she wears and how she acts. Why? Because she is in the limelight? Yes, that does amplify the attention she gets, and provide a platform for critics to call her out on a more public scale. But there ...

From the moment that Thor enters the scene in the first Avengers movie , there is one question that continually arises, slowly gaining traction until it all comes to a head phase 3's Civil War (which will be discussed in a subsequent post). We see it in the mistrust between Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the members of the Avengers team. It plays out in covert government operations and secretive weapon-building programs as much as it does in the need-to-know style of operations frequently undertaken by our heroes. As any great Spider-man fan knows, "with great power comes great responsibility." But what happens when no one trusts the powerful people to be appropriately responsible in their actions? The question at the root of Hydra's subterfuge and the plot to use S.H.I.E.L.D. technology for murderous purposes is essentially the same as the one that spawned Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's comicbook masterpiece , and it is this: "Who watches the Watchmen?" If t...

The Greatest Showman  was one of the greatest movies of the last few years. The catchy tunes, the exploration of the human condition, and the message of self-love were enough to propel the movie to a spot of lasting fame and notoriety among fans and the entertainment industry alike. Besides, it had a pretty solid cast of familiar faces and a few breakout performers. It was fascinating to hear, as the movie quickly gained traction, that this was a story which Hugh Jackman had hoped to tell for a long time. I wondered while watching it what had so intrigued him about P.T. Barnum that he wanted to immortalize the man on screen—why did he want to tell Barnum's life story? Something special It is clear from this film that Barnum was unique. His mind worked in such a different way than the rest of the people around him. While the movie depicts this through his particular brand of imagination and inventive thinking as a child leading to an illustrious career, in reality he was a tr...

The story of Frankenstein is one that has been told and retold so many times and in so many ways. When I heard the title of this particular rendition, I was interested by the fact that this more than any other acknowledges that the story is more about the character of Victor than it ever was about the monster. If you know the original novel, then you know that the story is about a young man whose mother passes away just before he moves to university. Having always been interested with alchemy, science, and the occult, Victor dives into his obsessions and, fed by his depression, he seeks a way to overcome death (but by creating life rather than undoing death). His life is subsequently ruined by his own actions and inability to cope with his mother's death when he creates a monster that despises him for giving it life and leaving it to fend for itself. Thus when I heard about Victor Frankenstein , I thought the movie might explore more of the main character's emotional develo...

[Warning: contains some spoilers] It's been over a year since I actually finished reading this book (yes, I am very behind on all of the things I wanted to write about), but in all that time I have never managed to come up with something clear to say about the novel. The main reason for this, I believe, is that the book is so conceptual in nature; while there is a narrative, the bulk of the book is taken up with internal monologues and interrogation discussions surrounding ideas about the morality and contradictory nature of the Soviet Union's actions. In an interesting coincidence, however, I find myself sitting down to write this after having recently gone through a personal experience that has helped me to look at this book in a somewhat new light. See, someone thought it would be funny to convince me that something was a joke when, in actuality, everything they were telling me was true. While I had originally questioned the truth of their claims, I became convinced th...

[This post contains spoilers for anyone who has not seen this movie—read at your own risk. You have been warned.] While Thor: Ragnarok  may stand out as the favourite installment to date in the Asgardian god's story because of it's bright visuals, strong comedic writing, and better character development, we might also consider the important lesson it has for us regarding starting over. The story places its main focus on the development of the title character as he finally comes to accept his role and responsibility, but what this narrative is really about is a people struggling to survive the secrets of their past. Knowing that they are potentially facing their end, these people are fighting for a future, and one that is free of evil, death, and destruction. Their hope for a prosperous future, for a better life, for a new start, is something that I think we can all relate with. Few of us can probably say that our misdeeds have ever caused the damage that Asgard experience...

[Warning: this post contains spoilers for the movie] It may be said that private detective Hercule Poirot's quirks and OCD tendencies are a part of the character's charms. Yet, in this story of murder and mystery, they are symbolic of so much more. Poirot's proclivities From the first moments of Murder on the Orient Express , there are a few things that are clearly established about the famed fictional Belgian detective. First, that Poirot is extremely particular. As he continually measures and inspects the eggs he is brought for his breakfast, it is evident that Poirot has a tendency toward balance in his life. More than that, though, he is more detail-oriented than the average person. Who else would be so specific about the similarity of their eggs that they would require exact measurements to be sure? On top of that, he then goes on to solve the case of a missing relic with no clues aside from a crack in a wall (coupled with his awareness of the suspects' ...

Finding your place in the world (or, adolescence) The teenage years can be stressful, awkward, and enlightening. It is during this crucial epoch in our lives that we begin to gain a fuller awareness of the world around us; our eyes are opened to the truth of the human condition, to the realities of social injustice and environmental concerns. As we move from childhood to adulthood, we come to realize—if we haven't already—that things aren't always fair, and we life won't always go the way we want it to. At the same time, we are aware of the growing pressures and responsibilities being placed on us as we make more decisions for ourselves and prepare to step up and take our place in the world. And it can be awkward, when we still feel like children, to try to understand who we are and what we are doing with our lives. It is in this integral stage of life that we meet the protagonist of our story, Jake. Though we don't see a lot of his day-to-day life, we get the fe...

It's been a long time since I've regularly been on this blog, so I'm going to try to get back to that. I'm starting today with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. There will be spoilers for this and future MCU movies, so please read at your own risk. The problem with fathers The second installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy  series was, if I'm being honest, full of a lot of cliches. Honestly, the whole idea of the Guardians and thier backstories is built on the idea that family is not about blood relations. That theme runs through a lot of the GOTG storylines, when I look back on it all now. For example: Thanos, despite being an adopted father to Gamora and Nebula, is their "legal" parent, I suppose (the quotations are there because he did sort of kidnap them, despite the fact that he raised them and they seemed to remain relatively loyal for most of their lives). However, neither of the girls is happy having him as a father; they are not really comfor...

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book  takes the ideas of The Jungle Book  and relocates them to a modern English graveyard. Like Rudyard Kipling's classic, the story centers on a young boy whose family is killed when he is only a baby, and he is rescued and adopted by an unusual group of beings - but instead of wolves, Gaiman's young Bod (short for Nobody) is taken in by the ghosts in the graveyard. Each chapter then recounts an incident from a moment in the boy's life, as he gradually gets older and learns what it means to be a man while growing up outside of the human realm. Neil Gaiman interestingly seems to have tapped into an theme which Andy Serkis' Mowgli  movie also finds in the story of The Jungle Book : the dangers of the human world. The greatest danger to young Bod throughout his childhood is the human world that exists outside the graveyard and occasionally invades his home. His family was murdered by a man who continues to be a threat to his existence,...

The first thing you need to know about Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency  is that it doesn't really make sense unless you're familiar with the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. That may seem odd, but I promise you that knowing this famous Romantic writer is crucial to the mystery being investigated by the title character, and the author includes many other more subtle nods to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner . The next thing you need to know is that Douglas Adams' writing style is nothing short of bizarre. However, he uses science fiction, mystery, and horror elements in the most uniquely comedic ways. His narrative voice is fantastically whimsical, and he somehow manages to approach all topics--from the mundane to downright gruesome--from a whole new perspective. Never could I have imagined what it would be like to see this world without having prior contextual knowledge upon which to build my understandings, yet somehow Douglas Adams manages to do exactly th...

When I say "just," I am speaking in regards to when I saw the episode, and not when it was released. Season 3 of Daredevil  came out last October, but I only caught up to that point in the Marvel Netflix series last week. But there was a particular moment in episode 11, "Reunion," that I couldn't help but gawk at: Wilson Fisk's press conference. For anyone who needs context (and yes, this will be a spoiler if you haven't seen it), Fisk, the ultimate baddie in the Daredevil  series, is freed from his imprisonment when his conviction is overturned, and his first big move is to hold a press conference. It may be worth noting here that he is only perceived to be innocent because he was able to blackmail the jury. Anyways, he gathers the press outside of the hotel in which the FBI have been keeping him under close watch, and he tells everyone that he is truly innocent, and that Daredevil is the real criminal. I do wonder, sometimes, how he expects people to...

[Warning: this post contains spoilers] I made a rather sad discovery while reading Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  (a title which, by the way, tends to get shortened, but that is what the book is actually called). I realized that some of these classic horror stories have become so ingrained in our culture that we already know them too well to get the full effect of the story. Take the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, for instance. We've all come across it in numerous forms. The double itself is a very common trope, true. But I can think of at least three cartoons that I watched as a child that adapted this story. Most of you would likely be more familiar with the Looney Tunes  episodes (and, yes, there are a couple), but Arthur  and Veggie Tales  have also done their own takes on this story. The names of the character and his alter ego have even become so commonly associated with the idea of a split personality that it...

After reading Watchmen  by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in my pop lit class, I understood why this comic series, though I had never heard of it, was a total classic. It has so much substance to it. And the visual medium was entirely necessary to make the points that this graphic novel makes. Without the illustrations, the story could never have this kind of depth to it. The novel poses this most interesting question: what if superheroes really did exist in our world? But what if most of them were more like Batman: ordinary people who use their talents to go about in disguise and help the helpless? Yet, in some sense, they admit that this could never happen in our own world, and so there are subtle changes (which become more obvious as the story progresses) which prove that these events are happening in an alternate timeline. The addition of overly vibrant and somewhat unusual colours plays into the fictional atmosphere of the whole thing. At the same time, they use the para...

[This is a piece I wrote at work, but as these events are no longer current and I doubt that this post will get through the publishing process anytime soon, I've decided to share it here.] No pun intended. On October 7, journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing after going to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. On October 9, President (can’t believe that’s his title) Trump responded to allegations that the Saudi Arabian government is responsible. Here is his statement to the Associated Press : “I think we have to find out what happened first. Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned.” And I think, in part, he’s right! It’s not that straightforward For starters, I think the Kavanaugh comment was intentionally inflammatory and totally out of line. Knowing the cultural temperature at the moment with the #MeToo movement, a...

[Warning: spoilers ahead...although, frankly, you might read this and realize that this film is not what you would have expected. As always, read at your own risk.] The Witch  is not exactly a horror movie in the classic sense. It is, however, a great example of Gothic horror, which is why I was assigned this film for a class on--you guessed it--Gothic horror. Why is not traditional? Well, there aren't a lot of jump scares or gory moments (although it does have a few moments that come close). There also really isn't a whole lot that happens throughout the span of the movie, other than the slow unraveling of a family in crisis. Unlike Final Destination  or The Shining , our characters don't spend a lot of time investigating or running from the supernatural things that plague them. Also, they speak as one would expect early Puritan settlers to speak. Side note: I love Ralph Ineson, but between his deep voice and the Old English dialect (much of which is taken directly...