Dearly Devoted Rubie

The first time I read the comic of V for Vendetta was about 3 or 4 years ago, a friend of mine handed it over to me in jpg. I read it and then lost it, I guess I had to format my Windows computer or something of the such. It was later made into a great movie by the Wachowski Brothers.

Some comic purists my think that is a bad movie, in fact it is a rather close adaptation made for the screen with great visuals and performances. It became one of my favorite movies (and comics) because it has a lot of the elements I like from readings like 1984.

Some weeks ago, I saw V for Vendetta a couple of times in HBO and after looking for my digital comic, I decided to order a hardcopy on Amazon, which arrived today. It's a great format, all the comics in one single pulp paper book. Along with Freaks of the Heartland and 28 Days Later: the aftermath, is now on the shelf of my most treasured comics.

Nunca se sabe cuándo se va a aparecer Pelé en la mesa de junto. Me gustaría más coleccionar autógrafos de cantantes, pero sigo escuchando música a escondidas.

El domingo pasado nos sucedió un milagro.

Éste Que Ves - Xavier Velasco

Instructions:
Find the nearest book.
Turn to page 123.
Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
Name the book and the author, and tag three more folks.

I tag: Amaya, Manatito and Violetisha.

Take trust, love, 40 students and put them on an island so they can kill each other until there's only one survivor. That's the main objective of Battle Royale.

BR is a dystopian novel written by Japanese author Koushun Takami made into a film that starts with the following

At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted the school. The adults lost confidence, and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act AKA: The BR Act...

Students are tricked into a road trip and taken to a school on an isolated, evacuated island, wearing metal collars around their necks. After being briefed about the Battle Royale program, the students are issued survival packs, along with a random weapon or a tool so they can kill each other until there's only one left, and sent out the island one by one. I'll gladly sign up for fun!

I liked it very much! The film is very much like a live action anime, with flashbacks and all. A trivia comment: Chiaki Kuriyama, who played Gogo in Kill Bill is featured on the film version of the novel ^.^

The last of the books that I should have read in high school and didn't (and later regretted not doing so because it became one of my favorite books) is George Orwell's "Animal Farm". I have a PDF copy of it and recently got it on audiobook. In 2003 a special edition containing both Animal Farm and 1984 was published. ¿Por qué nadie me informa de esas cosas?

It tells the story of Soviet totalitarianism after the Russian revolution of 1917 in a fable sort of way. After a speech by Old Major (the oldest pig in the farm), the animals kick out Mr. Jones and the rest of the humans from Manor Farm and start running it by themselves, with the pigs in power. After the rebellion, the animals organize and write a series of commandments that along the book are being modified to fit the needs of the pigs. Boxer, representing the working class is the hardest working animal and his motto is "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right".

In the end, the pigs end up becoming like humans by exploiting their fellow animals thus submitting the farm to even worse conditions than when Mr. Jones ran the farm. That's the story of revolution in my country: they fought to overthrow a dictator only to be governed by the same people for seven decades.

Like 1984, this book contains several references to characters and history events, particularly Leon Trotsky and Stalin, although it was published in 1945 (before 1984 was). Every animal has a reason to be in the book because they represent the working, middle and high classes, the church, the government and even the secret police of the USSR of the time.

It's a nice, easy reading. If you get the connections it can teach you a lot about history. También nos enseña lo que no debemos de hacer después de la revolución. The next book de esta onda in my list is Fahrenheit 451.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which

There's much to say about this book. My dad gave it to me about 11 years ago and I read it from a 1971 Spanish edition, years later I got a PDF copy from another OC member and about a month ago I downloaded an audio version from the Torrent. This version helped me to learn how to make my own audiobooks from several MP3's.

Nineteen Eighty-Four or 1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell. The book is about Winston Smith and his attempt to rebel against the totalitarian state in which he lives. V for Vendetta and Equilibrium are movies closely based on this book, from the concept of omnipresent Big Brother (watching everyone through the telescreens), the torture scenes in Room 101 (whose number is depicted in several other movies, like The Matrix), where your worst fears reside, and the totalitarian state per-se. Although the book has no happy ending.

The moral of the book seems to be that you can't trust anyone because the rebellion Winston and his girl Julia join is actually a trap from The Party to catch thought criminals and in the end, Winston betrays Julia in order to save himself and ends up loving Big Brother. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends.

Orwell's prediction of the future (in 1948) is that:

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face ...for ever.

I wouldn't say it is an easy book to read, specially when Orwell explains the whole sociopolitical structure of the world through Goldstein's book, but it is definetly a must. Orwell's "1984" along with Huxley's "Brave New World" and Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" are the quintessential trilogy in dystopian fiction. I'll see about Fahrenheit 451 later.

Today, eleven years ago as well, my grandmother passed away and in that time I didn't resent it much, but as I grew up I realized how much I miss and need her. She's become the most beloved of my dead and my eyes still grow damp to remember her. Rest in peace...